Like Water Flowing Down

We say “it's just my environment.” But does your heart really have no direction of its own?

Original

告子曰：「性猶湍水也，決諸東方則東流，決諸西方則西流。人性之無分於善不善也，猶水之無分於東西也。」孟子曰：「水信無分於東西，無分於上下乎？人性之善也，猶水之就下也。人無有不善，水無有不下。今夫水，搏而躍之，可使過顙；激而行之，可使在山。是豈水之性哉？其勢則然也。人之可使為不善，其性亦猶是也。」

In plain words

Gaozi said: “Human nature is like swirling water. Open a channel to the east and it flows east; open one to the west and it flows west. Human nature has no preference between good and not good, just as water has none between east and west.” Mencius said: “Water truly has no preference between east and west. But has it none between up and down? Human nature tends toward the good as water tends downward. There is no person who does not tend toward the good, no water that does not flow down. Now, strike water and make it leap, and you can send it over your forehead; dam it and force it back, and you can make it climb a hill. But is that the nature of water? It's the force of circumstance. When people can be made to do what is not good, their nature is being bent the same way.”

Key words

湍水tuān shuǐSwirling, rushing water.
就下jiù xiàTo head downward: water's direction.
勢shìOutside force; the pressure of circumstances.

Reading it step by step

Over the past few pages we've seen a demand for goodness in the heart, and four sprouts. But an objection comes at once: then why is there so much wrong in the world? Gaozi is the voice of that objection. Human nature, he says, is like rushing water: it flows wherever you cut a channel. Good or bad depends on circumstances.

First: Gaozi is half right. Surroundings are powerful. Where everyone jumps the queue, you'll want to as well. In a company where everyone works till midnight, leaving on time is hard. Yet surroundings don't settle everything. Think of a daughter-in-law bullied for years by her mother-in-law. When she becomes a mother-in-law herself, she may bully in turn, or, remembering how it felt, be especially kind. The same past, two roads. Mencius doesn't deny the power of circumstance. He only asks back: water doesn't care about east and west, but does it not care about up and down?

Second: "down" is water's direction, and that direction is its nature. This is the key to the whole theme. Many readers see "there is no person who does not tend toward the good" and conclude Mencius thought human nature is already good. But if it were, why compare it to water at all? There is no "down" stored inside water. "Down" is where water goes. In the same way, there is no finished goodness stored in the heart, but there is a leaning toward it. Nature, for Mencius, is a tendency.

Gaozi

rushing water: cut east, it flows east

no direction: it's all environment

Mencius

no east or west, but there is up and downwe lean to good as water runs down

Splashing water up or damming it back is force, not nature.

Third: water splashed over your head is pushed by force, not by its nature. Strike it, dam it, and water will go up. Lift your hand or open the dam, and it heads straight back down. People are the same. Under pressure, temptation or muddled ideas, people do bad things. But when the outside force eases, when a person is honest with themselves, the pull toward good starts running again by itself, like water finding a slope. Later Mencius says the best way to nourish the heart is to want less: fewer hands slapping the water. The Qing emperors named a palace hall after that phrase, the Hall for Nourishing the Heart, with a handsome sign over the door. Whether they wanted any less is another matter.

Think of when you are most tired. Usually it isn't after doing something good. It's after acting against your own heart: saying things you don't mean, smiling when you don't want to. It's like pushing water uphill all day. Sincerity is letting go. Letting go doesn't mean doing whatever you like. It means you stop forcing yourself into a role, and let the heart's own direction show.

Stop pushing, and the water finds its own way.

One line to carry

We lean toward good the way water runs downhill.

Today's question

Where in your life are you pushing water uphill? If you let go, where would it flow?

Quick check

With “no water that does not flow down,” what does Mencius say human nature is?

Next pageThe Trees of Ox MountainPage 13

II · Goodness Is No Fantasy — Human nature leans toward good; sincerity sets it moving

Printable journal pages · Mencius · About

Sister site: 五十策 Fifty Stalks