The Rule of Existence

Human nature is the all-comprehensive substance of the supreme ultimate, and in its essence is indefinable; but within it are innumerable principles which are summed up in four leading comprehensive principles. To these, then, the names love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom are given.

"Heaven in giving birth to the multitudes of the people so ordained it that inherent in every single thing there is its rule of existence.'' This means that at the very time when a particular man is born, heaven has already decreed for him his nature. This nature is simply law; as it is received by man it is called human nature.

For heaven and man are one, the subjective and objective are one law, flowing and permeating in organic union so that there is no separating barrier. Not to realize this means that though living in the universe we are ignorant of the law of that universe's existence: though possessed of the form and countenance of a man, we are ignorant of the very principles which make us to be man.

Moral law is human nature, and human nature is moral law. It is true, these two are one and the same thing; but we need to understand why the term nature is used, and why the term moral law is used.
"Human nature is law." Subjectively it is human nature, objectively it is law.
The principle of life is termed human nature.
Human nature consists of innumerable principles produced by heaven.
Human nature consists of substantive principles: love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom are all included in it.

Human nature is the law of the mind; the feelings are human nature in action; and the mind is the ruler of human nature and feelings.

In the dictum, "The decree of heaven is what is termed human nature," the decree is like a document containing instructions from a superior; human nature is official duty, such as the keeping of records or the settling of accounts, or the work of a district military officer or constable; the mind is the officer himself; the physical element is the disposition shown by the officer, whether lenient or violent; the feelings correspond to his sitting in court and judging cases. The feelings are thus the manifested operations; and human nature is love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom. As to the statement that the decree of heaven and the physical element are bound up together: as soon as the decree of heaven exists, so soon does the physical element exist. They cannot be apart. If one is lacking, then nothing can be produced.

In discussing human nature it is important first of all to know what kind of entity human nature is. Human nature as a matter of fact is formless; it consists of principles implanted in man's mind. Ch'eng Tzu put it well when he said, "Human nature is law." Now if we regard it as law, then surely it is without form or similitude. It is nothing but this single principle. In man love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom are human nature, but what form or shape have they? They are principles only. It is because of such principles that men's manifold deeds are done. It is because of them that we are capable of solicitude, that we can be ashamed of wrong-doing, that we can be courteous, and can distinguish between right and wrong. Take as an illustration the nature of drugs, some have cooling and some heating properties. But in the drug itself you cannot see the shape of these properties: it is only by the result which follows upon taking the drug that you know what its property is; and this constitutes its nature. It is so with love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom. According to Mencius these four principles have their root in the mind. When, for example, he speaks of a solicitous mind, he attributes feeling to the mind.

Shao Yao Fu said, "Human nature is the concrete expression of moral order, and the mind is the enclosure of human nature." This is well said, for moral order in itself is without concrete expression; it finds it in human nature. But if there were no mind where could human nature be? There must be mind to receive human nature and carry it into operation; for the principles contained in human nature are love, righteousness, reverence, and wisdom, and they are real principles. We of the Confucian school regard human nature as real. Buddhists regard it as unreal. To define human nature as the mind, as is done so frequently in these days, is incorrect. It is essential first to understand our terms and then proceed to definition. If we point to that which possesses consciousness as human nature, we are speaking of what is really the mind.

Yesterday evening it was said that human nature consists of the processes of creation and transformation. This is not correct; creation and transformation are material processes, while law, by which creation and transformation proceed, is immaterial.