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A note on ke wu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

D. C. Lau
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Extract

Ever since the Ta hsüeh was extracted from the Li chi to form part of the ‘Four books’, the term ke wu which appears in the sentence in the opening passage: ‘The furtherance of knowledge lies in ke wu’, has exercised the ingenuity of commentators. I do not propose here to review the vast literature on the subject, but before going on to deal with the meaning of the term a brief look at the two best-known commentaries may prove instructive. Cheng Hsiian £ comments as follows

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 353 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1967

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References

1 Li chi chu shu , 60. la. (All references to the Shih san ching chu shu are to the Ssu Pu Pei yao edition.)

2 loc. cit.

3 This is reaffirmed by the further remark: . Legge, too, ignores this remark and says that ‘ is a consequence of ’ (The Chinese classics, I, second ed., Oxford, 1893, 358).

4 Ssu shu chi chu (SPPY ed.), Ta hsüeh, 2a.

5 There is in fact less difference between the gloss adopted by Chu Hsi and that adopted by Cheng Hsiian than might appear at first sight, for though Cheng chooses ‘to come’, he is taking this in the causative sense. There is little difference between ‘to cause to come’ and ‘to cause to arrive’, particularly when can mean either ‘to arrive here’ or ‘to arrive there’.

6 op. cit., 5a,

7 Legge, loc. cit.

8 He was inclined to take the phrase ke wu as to mean ‘measuring correctly all things’ (loc. cit.)0

9 Shang shu chu shu 13.9b.

10 Karlgren, ‘Glosses on the Book of documents’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm), No. 20, 1948, 261.

11 op cit., 211.

12 Shang shu chu shu, 2.4a.

13 Whether the word kuang should be taken literally or as a loan for ‘extensively’ is not germane to our argument, and I have followed the traditional interpretation. Moreover, it makes little practical difference to the meaning of the passage even if kuang is taken to mean ‘extensively’, for the passage will then have to be taken to be about the virtue of Yao.

14 Kuan tzu, Ssu pu ts'ung k'an ed., 16.3a.

15 Hsün tzu, SPTK ed., 5.14b.

16 Huai nan tzu, SPTK ed., 1.12a.

17 Wen tzu, SPPY ed., 5b.

18 Li chi chu shu, 52.4b.

19 In the above account I have followed Wang Nien-sun See his Kuang ya shu cheng (Wan yu wen k'u ed., p. 14). The same ground is also covered by Wang Yin-chih in his comments on the Chung yung passage in his Ching yi shu wen (Wan yu wen k'u ed., p. 627). The only example I have added is the one from the Hsün tzu.

20 Chuang tzu SPTK ed., 1.14a.

21 op. cit., 10.31b.

22 There are other passages in the Shu ching where the word ke appears to mean ‘wise man’, but I do not propose to discuss them, as our concern is with the term ke wu and not with the Shu ching.

23 Shang shu chu shu, 10.76.

24 Lun heng, SPTK ed., 24.8b.

25 Part of what, according to the Lieh tzu (SPTK ed., 8.3a), was a Chou proverb.

26 The term is to be found, e.g., in chapter 47 of the Hanfei tzu , SPTK ed., 18.5b.