Every man rules something which is placed in dependence on him, even if it is only his own soul, and every man is governed by something which surpasses him, even if it is only his own intellect.

Confucianism divides men into rulers and ruled. From the former it requires a sense of duty and from the latter filial piety. Here we see that the social Law is in no wise detached from the spiritual meaning of the whole tradition; inevitably it has concomitant spiritual elements which concern man as such, that is, man envisaged independently from society.

 

Indeed every man rules or determines something which is placed in some way in dependence on him, even if it is only his own soul, made up of images and desires; and, again, every man is governed or determined by something which in some way surpasses him, even if it is only his own intellect. Thus each man bears in himself the double obligation of duty in relation to the inferior and of piety in relation to the superior, and this double principle is capable of incalculable applications: it includes even inanimate nature in the sense that each thing can have in relation to us, according to the circumstances, the function of being either a celestial principle or a terrestrial substance.

 

Chinese wisdom foresees an application that is first social and secondly personal of the universal pair 'Heaven-Earth' ( Tien-Tz) and thus a conformity with the 'Ineffable' ( Wu-Ming) from which this pair proceeds, the Tao.

 

The point of junction between Confucianism and Taoism is in the virtues. The former envisages their social and human value and the second their intrinsic and spiritual quality. Man is the place where Earth and Heaven meet.

 

Egoism must be extinguished between devotion and duty.

 

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F. Schuon: The Chinese Religions from SPHF

 

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