Preface序

To be born a human being in this world, to live in the Middle Kingdom, to receive the virtue of the three powers (三才) and become the most numinous of the ten thousand things — such a one receives the covering of heaven and the bearing of earth, the shining of sun and moon, the water and soil ruled by the sovereign, the body given by father and mother, and the teaching handed down by the sages.

For one who follows that teaching, reaching the Way comes first. Without wide learning there is no way to broaden knowledge; without making the mind clear there is no way to see one's nature. There are said to be those who know from birth, but in these days they are exceedingly rare. Long ago King Yu of the Xia heard a good word and still bowed down to it. How much more, then, an ordinary person of the world?

The purpose the sages of old left behind, and the classics they left, in a thousand words and ten thousand words teach people only to do good. So they set up the law of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust; they divided the ranks of the noble man and the small man; they marked off the steps of the worthy and the foolish; and they distinguished the difference between good and evil.

The classics hold a great many fine words and good deeds, yet among people today few look at them, practice them, and carry them out. Still worse, students today take learning literary skill as what comes first, and none of them puts learning virtuous conduct first as the root. Even in exhorting the world now, there is much urging to cultivate good causes beyond this world and little urging to do the good deeds one ought to do. Books of the old days such as the Xian wen also circulate through the world.

The noble man thinks it admirable when someone today likes to hear good words, and yet such people do not know the essential sayings of past and present. For this reason people's minds are led astray, and few wish to hear the essential Way that the sages practiced day by day. So they are unwilling to preserve the mind and keep their station, and instead force their way into disorder and act recklessly.

For good and evil, the recompense of calamity and blessing is plain to see. Wealth and honor, poverty and lowness, success and ruin, rising and decline are like a dream. At every hour one must guard against what cannot be foreseen, and morning and evening go as if treading on thin ice. Hold always to one thought that is even and unslanted, and disaster will of itself cease forever. Keep it in the mind, and words and deeds will of themselves look to each other, threaded through without doubt. Then how could what one does go astray and come to error?

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, the year gyeyu (1393), on the day after the full moon of the second month, Fan Liben (範立本), a later student of Wulin, wrote this preface.

Preface to the reprinting of the Mingxin baojian.

I once heard that a mirror can reflect a thing and let nothing of its beauty or ugliness escape. The Yuli zi says, "A bright mirror reflects even the gall, yet it cannot open the face behind the oak-wood blind." Now a book is named after a mirror, and it has the benefit of brightening the mind. If this is not to be called a treasure, what is? Even so, a mirror has the brightness to reflect the gall and still cannot open the face behind the blind. How much less could it brighten the mind! Ah! Only one who understands this saying may be said to know the Way.

Why? A mirror can indeed reflect a form, and principle can further brighten the mind. This is exactly the meaning of the inscription on King Tang's basin. It is said that Tang held the washing of the mind to remove evil to be like the bathing of the body to remove filth, and so he inscribed it on his basin.

Now the book is named Baojian. It gathers the great achievement of all the sages and collects the deep meaning of the many worthies. Its intent lies only in making goodness clear and recovering the beginning, in exhausting principle and fulfilling one's nature, and it has the benefit of daily renewal. Will the brightening of the mind then not grow bright through it?

All my life I have cherished this book, and in the leisure of attending upon the sovereign I opened and read it morning and evening. What pleases me is that the sense set up in its words and phrases mostly puts loyalty and filial duty first. Only, many of the characters in it were corrupted, so I at last corrected them and gathered up what was missing, and, sparing from my salary, I had it cut on blocks to spread it widely, that people might return together to the land of loyalty and filial duty. I trust it will not be without some small help to the teaching of the world.

In the great Ming, in the Jiajing era, in the year gyechuk (1553), on an auspicious day in the first ten days of mid-autumn, Cao Xuan (曹玄) of Shou'an wrote this preface.