The Unity of Being in Liu Chih

8/13/2019 The Unity of Being in Liu Chih

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The Unity of Being in Liu Chih's "Islamic

Neoconfucianism"

by Sachiko Murata

From the middle of the seventeenth down to the end of the nineteenth century, the school of

In '!rai had a significant resence in the Chinese language# The first $uslim scholar to

e%lain Islamic teachings in Chinese was &ang Taiy(, who ulished his ma)or oo* in +-.#

/e tells us that his ancestor had come to China three hundred years earlier# /e himself was

educated in the traditional Islamic manner, and only when he was old did he egin to learn

classical Chinese# /is intention was to e%lain Islamic teachings to fellow $uslims educated in

the Chinese manner and ignorant of the literatures of their own languages# !s far as we can

tell, u until this time most Islamic learning in China had een transmitted in 0ersian, though

of course the !raic 1ur'an layed the same asic role in China as it did elsewhere#

&ang Taiy( called his ma)or oo* The Real Commentary on the True Teaching2Cheng-chiao

chen-ch'an3# It is a long study of the rinciles of Islam, focusing on metahysics,

cosmology, and ethics# In the Islamic languages, these toics are discussed mainly in the

fields of hilosohy and 4ufism# &e do not *now for certain which 0ersian and !raic oo*s

&ang Taiy( was reading, ut we do *now that the most imortant and ossily the only

oo*s translated into Chinese efore the nineteenth century were Mirsd al-'ibdof Na)m al

5in 678i 2d#9-:+.93, Maqsad-i aqsof '!8i8 al5in Nasafi 2d# ca# ;


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called nsn-i kmil, thus heling oulari8e this eually famous term# Nasafi was not a

follower of In '!rai, ut he does discuss many of his teachings in his oo*s#

!s for '!d al6ahm7n >7mi, he was roaly the single most imortant roagator of In

'!rai's ersective in the 0ersianate world# !ll of his theoretical writings and much of his

oetry e%ound the teachings of In '!rai and his ma)or followers, esecially 1Enawi,

Fargh7ni, >andi, 7sh7ni, and 1aysari# The fact that >7mi is the author of two of the four

Islamic wor*s translated into Chinese certainly suggests that it was difficult to study Islam in

Chinese without eing e%osed to In '!rai#

0roaly the single most imortant $uslim scholar to write in Chinese was Liu Chih, who lived

aout fifty years after &ang Taiy(# It is he who translated the Law'ihof >7mi into Chinese,

and he also is the author of the most influential oo* on Islamic thought in the Chinese

language, T'ien-"ang hsing-li, which he ulished in the year +;


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The first chater of the 6oot Classic descries how the macrocosm and microcosm A that is,

the universe and the human eing A originate from the ne Being and then return to the ne

Being# In other words, it sets down the rincile of what may e called wahdat al-wu%&d,

which is to say that it e%resses the first rincile of Islamic thought, tawhidor the unity of

God, in terms of wu%&d# /owever, Liu Chih mentions only a handful of !raic and 0ersian

words in the whole oo*, and he certainly does not mention wahdat al-wu%&dor any other

term associated secifically with the school of In '!rai# $oreover, we should *ee in mind

that there was nothing new in Neoconfucian thought aout the oneness of eing# The language

of eing had een formulated centuries efore y the early Taoists, and it had ecome

commonlace to refer to the first rincile as Being 2yu3# $oreover, it had always een self

evident to the Chinese that the first rincile is one# To say that the 6eal Being is one would

surrise no one#

The second chater of Liu Chih's 6oot Classic e%lains how the attriutes and characteristics of

the microcosm corresond with those of the microcosm# The third chater e%licates the

stages of human develoment from one seed to full siritual erfection# The fourth chaterdescries asic human virtues and the manner in which the various human tyes ecome

differentiated# The fifth and final chater reresents a summary of everything in the first four

chaters in terms of the original and final unity of all things# $ore secifically, the fifth chater

e%lains how human erfection alone is ale to reestalish all things in the original oneness of

eing#

In the remainder of my aer, I want to offer a few e%amles of Liu Chih's diagrams# I will

also cite a few assages from the oo* in order to give a samle of the te%t that he isillustrating# 6ememer that throughout this discussion, much of what Liu Chih says has

arallels in Neoconfucian te%ts# I will refer riefly to some of the well*nown teachings of In

'!rai's school that may have insired Liu Chih from the Islamic side#

The 6oot Classic is written in a standard, fourcharacter attern that I reresent in Dnglish y

stan8as# It egins as followsJ

The )ery $eginning has no designation*

the Real Substance has no attachment+

,nly this is Reality-$eing+

olding the ,ne* it contains ten thousand+ ./01234

5iagram + illustrates the nondesignation of the Kery Beginning 2the numers of the diagrams

corresond to their order in Liu Chih's te%t, not the order in which I will discuss them3# The

term "nondesignation" recalls a numer of arallel terms in !raic, esecially l ta'ayyun,

"Nonentification", an e%ression made current y 1Enawi and often used y >7mi# /ence the

first diagram illustrates the fact that wu%&din itself is, in In '!rai's terms, not only


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"nondelimited" 2mutlaq3, ut also "nondelimited y nondelimitation" 2mutlaq 'an al-itlq3# This

is the un*nown Dssence that cannot roerly e designated y any name A and of course, for

the Chinese, to sea* of it in these terms recalls the eginning of the Tao-te Ching, "The name

that can e named is not the name"#

5iagram . can e ta*en as an illustration of the following assage from the 6oot ClassicJ

The ,nly Substance turns and "unctions

and acti5ity begins to emerge+

The Real !rinci(le "lows

and the mandate dis(lays the original trans"ormation+

t root it is knowledge and (ower*

then it is a((ortioned into nature and wisdom0

,ne Reality* a thousand a((ortionments+ ./062/74

The diagram illustrates the reliminary stages wherey the ne 6eality undergoes

transformation in order to ma*e ossile the aearance of the universe, which in Chineseterms is called "heaven, earth, and the ten thousand things"# Notice that, according to the

title, this transformation ta*es lace in the Former /eaven# This is a technical term that is

contrasted with Latter /eaven# The Former /eaven designates the invisile rinciles that give

rise to the visile universe, and the Latter /eaven reresents the situation in the cosmos once

the universe ecomes manifest# In Islamic terms and as understood y Liu Chih, the Former

/eaven reresents what is commonly called the "arc of descent", and the Latter /eaven


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reresents the "arc of ascent"# In Islamic hilosohy, these are commonly called "the rigin

and the 6eturn" 2al-mabda' wa'l-ma'd3#

In '!rai and his followers often discuss the structure of the cosmos in terms of the

e%ression "twoows' length" 2qb qawsayn3# The 1ur'an tells us that when $uhammad

ascended to God during the mi'r%, he reached the oint of "Two ows' length, or nearer" 29=3#

This, y the way, is the only 1uranic verse that Liu Chih cites in the whole te%t of "Islamic

Neoconfucianism"# Li*e the Latin word arcus, the !raic word qawsmeans oth ow and arc

of a circle# Thus, the verse can e read as referring to the two arcs that ma*e u the circle of

e%istence# The first arc is the descending flow of increasing differentiation that rings the

universe into e%istence, and the second is the ascending return toward nondesignation#

/uman eings achieve erfection y ascending on the second arc and reattaching themselves

to the origin# In other words, they achieve erfection y actuali8ing the totality of the circle of

e%istence# ne of the most detailed and systematic theoretical formulations of this )ourney, y

the way, is rovided y 4adr al5in 1Enawi in his oo* Mi"th al-ghayb, "The ey to the

Unseen"# In al'!rai freuently discusses this )ourney, ut not with such clarity of focus#


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By referring to the Former /eaven, Liu Chih is telling us that this diagram deicts the

descending arc of the manifestion of wu%&d# Notice that the uermost circle is laeled

"sustance", which is another name for Being# /ere "sustance", however, should not e

understood in the !ristotelian sense, where it is contrasted with "accident"# 6ather,

"sustance" is a standard translation of the Chinese word t'i, which is contrasted with yung,

tyically translated as "function"# The relationshi etween t'iand yung, or sustance and

function, is arallel to that in Islamic thought etween btinand8hir, "inward" and

"outward"# Function manifests the nature of sustance, ut sustance in itself always remains

nonmanifest#

In some diagrams Liu Chih refers to the First 0rincile as Being 2e#g#, 5iagram ++, which is

identical with 5iagram +3, and in others as 4ustance 2e#g#, 5iagram +.3# /e uses different

names ecause the word Being designates the First 0rincile inasmuch as it is nondelimited

and cannot e differentiated from anything else# In contrast, "4ustance" alludes to the First

0rincile inasmuch as it can e differentiated from its own functions# In '!rai often ma*es

the same distinction y using the standard theological terms "Dssence" 2dht3 and "attriutes"2si"t3# 1Enawi and his followers use the theological terminology, ut they also refine the

discussion y using terms li*e "Nonentification" for Dssence and "First Dntification" for God

inasmuch as he ossesses all names and attriutes# They use the e%ressions ahadiyyaand

whidiyyain a similar way#hadiyyadesignates the e%clusive and incomarale unity of the

Dssence, and whidiyyarefers to the inclusive unity of God as First 0rincile, which gives rise

to the universe#


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The second circle from the to in 5iagram . is laelled "function"# Thus, the diagram tells us

that 4ustance, which is Being, has a dual Function, and that is *nowledge and ower# &hen

In '!rai discusses *nowledge and ower, he often does so in the conte%t of the "four illars

of divinity", which are life, *nowledge, desire, and ower# That Liu Chih focuses on two

rimary divine attriutes rather than four has much to do with his Chinese ac*ground# !s he

e%lains in some detail in the te%t, it is this olarity in God that is the root of yin and yang A

two terms that are essential to Chinese cosmological thin*ing#

In the diagram, Function gives rise to !ct# Thus in the first three circles we have a clear

corresondence with the standard theological triad in Islamic theologyJ "Dssence, attriutes,

and acts"# The 5iagram descries !ct in terms of four asic tendencies or attriutesJ

transforming, roducing, granting, and deriving# These terms, which derive from

Neoconfucian cosmology, lay an imortant role later on in the te%t in the e%lanation of the

manner in which the cosmos unfolds#

The fourth circle is named "mandate" 2ming3# This, of course, refers to the "mandate ofheaven", which is much discussed in Chinese thought# The word is also translated as

"destiny"# n the Islamic side, Liu Chih may have in mind qadar, which is commonly

translated as "redestination"# In '!rai and his followers distinguish etween qador the

divine "decree", which is God's desire for the cosmos as an undifferentiated whole, and qadar,

which I would translate as "measuring out" or "determination"# 9adaris the manifestation

within the creatures of the differentiated details that follow on the undifferentiated decree# Liu


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The use of the word "image" 2hsiang3 for the level of yin and yang is esecially interesting# InNeoconfucian thin*ing, all things in the realm of manifestation are images of rinciles# There

are ovious arallels here not only with the 1uranic doctrine of signs 2yt3, ut also with the

school of In '!rai, where the world of imagination lays a central role, and where "image" or

"imagination" 2khayl3 ecomes a designation for everything other than God#

!lthough 5iagrams . and = ertain resectively to the !rc of 5escent and the !rc of !scent,

the relationshi etween the two diagrams is not ovious, ecause oth need to e read from

to down# The fact that 5iagram = in fact deicts the !rc of !scent will only ecome clear

when we reach 5iagram , which integrates the ma)or elements of the two diagrams into a

circle#


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In 5iagrams - and 9, Liu Chih outlines the unfolding of the human eing on the !rc of !scent#

5iagram - descries the unfolding of the seed in the wom# Notice that the si% levels of

develoment in the wom coincide e%actly with the si% stages of develoment in the

macrocosm as deicted in 5iagram =# Thus vital energy 2which is the Kast 4ediment3 is

euivalent to the seed in the wom# Min and yang correlate with the turid and the ure# The

four elements corresond to the four liuids# /eaven and earth corresond to heart and ody#

The &orld of Images A which consists of stone, metal, grass, and trees A correlates with the

differentiation of the organs and faculties# Finally, the living *inds in the macrocosm

corresond with siritual vitality, the last stage of develoment efore irth# 5iscussion of this

sort of develoment in the wom was common in Islamic hilosohy, and among the 4ufi

authors *nown in the Chinese language, Nasafi has a good deal to say aout it#


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5iagram 9 gives us si% stages of human develoment outside the wom, from irth to siritual

erfection# Notice that the discussion now has to do with the various attriutes and ualities

that ecome manifest in successive levels of the ascent toward God# !gain, this discussion

was common among the $uslim hilosohers and was ta*en for granted in much of 4ufi

writing# 6Emi gives us famous e%amles of this "evolution" of the human individual from the

inanimate level to life in God# The asic stages, in Islamic terms, are inanimate, vegetal,

animal, human, angelic, and divine# Liu Chih laels the si%th level "the nature of continuity",y which he means the con)unction of the erfect human eing with the divine rigin, or union

with the First 0rincile# /ere again we meet the air "sustance and function"# The erfect

human eing achieves great sustance and comlete function A that is, the total reali8ation of

human otential#

5iagram sums u the circle of macrocosmic e%istence that results from the comination of

the Former /eaven and the Latter /eaven as illustrated in 5iagrams . through 9# &e see how


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the macrocosm aears from sustance and descends down to the Kast 4ediment, which is

identical with the riginal KitalDnergy# Then the movement turns uward, through yin and

yang, eventually leading to human eings, who alone have the caacity to reestalish a

direct, unmediated lin* with 4ustance itself, that is, with the ne Being# Notice that Liu Chih

deicts the universe in terms of twelve stages# Twelve, of course, is a cosmic numer A the

months of the year, the signs of the 8odiac, the Chinese cycle of years#

5iagram ; illustrates the circle of e%istence in terms of the microcosm rather than the

macrocosm# Thus the original sustance of human eings is the nature of continuity, that is,

union with God# Their root nature is their siritual sustance, and this gives rise to the seeds

that are deosited in the woms# The various stages of descent from God lead to the

aearance of the heart, or the siritual side of the individual, and the ody, the cororeal

side these two, you rememer, corresond with heaven and earth# The diagram then mas

the various stages of microcosmic develoment# nly in the last ascending circle, the "nature

of the siritual", is the human reality fully aarent# Before that, human eings relicate the

various lower levels of creation in their odies and souls#


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! great deal more might e said aout the cosmological relationshis that manifest the ne

Being# But I would e remiss if I did not refer to another central discussion in Liu Chih's oo*,

and that is the role of the rohets and the saints# In the writings of In '!rai and his

followers, it is ovious that siritual erfection cannot e achieved if human eings do not

sumit themselves to guidance# In good Chinese fashion, Liu Chih calls the rohets and

saints "the sages and worthies"# /e devotes a good deal of his oo* to e%laining their cosmic

function and the essential role of guidance in the achievement of human erfection# This is not

the lace to go into detail# Instead we can loo* at a diagram that illustrates in gloal fashion

the corresondences etween the microcosm and the macrocosm and, at the same time,

shows how the sages and worthies lay roles in the very structure of the cosmos# The tye of

thin*ing going on here, y the way, is not unrelated to In '!rai's detailed e%lanation of the

various sorts of ri%l al-ghaybA the men of the unseen world A esecially in Chater ;= of the

:ut&ht#


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n the lefthand side of the diagram, Liu Chih deicts the macrocosm in terms of twelve

descending stages# The first is ku-erh-hsi, that is, !raic kursi, the Footstool, where God

laces his two feet# !ccording to In '!rai, the two feet are mercy, and mercy mi%ed with

wrath# Ne%t come the seven heavens in order A here I give them their Chinese names# In the

&est, the lanets are named for the Gree* gods, each of which is an archetye for numerous

cosmic henomena# In *eeing with the cosmic imagery of Chinese religion A as ovious, for

e%amle, in the Ching A the Chinese names of the five lanets other than sun and moon are

derived from the five elements, and thus the corresondence etween heaven and earth is

lain in the very names of the lanets# The four remaining levels in Liu Chih's diagram deict

the four elements as familiar to Islamic and &estern thought A wind, fire, water, and earth#

n the righthand side, Liu Chih deicts the descending levels of human ossiility# Notice that

he first mentions three sorts of sages# /e roaly has in mind the standard Islamic

classification of the rohets into three sorts A ulu'l-'a8mor "ossessors of steadfastness",

rusulor "messengers", and anbiy'or "rohets"# Then he mentions five more human tyes,

giving us a total of eight human levels# These corresond with the Footstool and the sevenheavens# In other words, they all ertain to the heavenly world# It is the heavenly connection

that differentiates human eings from other earthly creatures#

Below the sages, we first have the "great worthies", that is, the great saints# Then we have

two levels that seem to corresond with lesser saints# Those with *nowledge stand aove

those who are simly ure and uright# Then we have "good eole", who are resumaly the

elievers, and finally "ordinary commoners", who are resumaly the unelievers in all their

variety#

Finally, the four lowest levels, corresonding to the four elements, reresent the various tyesof individual creatures that reare the way for the human ma*eu#

Notice that in this diagram, the higher emraces the lower, ut the lower does not emrace

the higher# This is a asic rincile in cosmological schemes# Thus, for e%amle, stone on the

righthand ottom is the lowest level of individual e%istence in the world, and it is resuosed

in all the other levels# $etal has the ualities of stone, ut it also has something more sutle

that differentiates it from stone# 4o also, at each level, the higher ossesses the ualities of

the lower, ut it also has something else that gives it its sueriority# The "great worthies", for

e%amle, have the ualities of urity, urightness, *nowledge, and something more# Liu Chih

e%lains this in uite a it of detail in various laces#


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To conclude this discussion, let me uote a few words from the final chater of Liu Chih's 6oot

Classic# In it, he descries how the erfect sages reach the stage of continuity and reintegrate

the whole universe into the ne# In this final chater, he has e%lained Being in terms of three

levels of unity# This is illustrated in 5iagram @# The first is called the "6eal ne"# It reresents

the undivided nature of oth sustance and function in the ne Being# The second is the"Numerical ne", and it is the function of the ne 4ustance, a function that gives rise to the

universe# The third level is the "Dmodied ne", which is the function that rings things ac*

to the ne through human erfection# !ll three ones are essentially the same ne Being#H=

Thus we have 5iagram +


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These are the final words of the 6oot ClassicJ

The ;three< ones return to the Root Suchness*

and hea5en and human are undi""erentiatedly trans"ormed+

The things and the return to the Real*and the Real ,ne circles back to the Real+

The things are not mutual obstacles

and the human is not weary with desire+

The subtle meaning o" each is disclosed

and seen here is the Root Suchness+

n the beginning was the Reality-(rinci(le

and now is the Reality-guise+

=hen Reality-being and Reality-guise are seen*

the seed and the "ruit are com(lete+ .3+>/2?14

+# ! version of this aer was originally resented at the twentieth annual symosium of the

4ociety, entitled "The Unity of D%istenceJ In '!rai and /is 4chool" held at &orcester College,

%ford, =- $ay .


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includes a translation of Liu Chih's Chinese version of >7mi's Law'ihalong with a new

translation of the Law'ihitself y &illiam C# Chittic*#

=# For a detailed e%lication of the "three ones", see &ang Taiy('s #reat Learning o" the !ure

and Real, translated in Chinese #leams#
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/islamicneoconfucianism.html#ref3%23ref3http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/islamicneoconfucianism.html#ref3%23ref3

The Unity of Being in Liu Chih

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