What Is Heaven?

Reading it step by step

Last page, Confucians put the reason to be good back in the heart, and Daoists stepped back into the larger Dao. But where does that inner voice come from? And larger than what is the Dao? Both schools run into the same word: Heaven, 天.

The ancients believed that people and all things were born of Heaven, and that the king was king because Heaven had handed him its mandate. Then the kings got worse, and dragged Heaven's name down with them. Was such a Heaven still worth believing in?

First: Confucius' Heaven does not speak, yet it never stops working. When his students panicked at his wish to stop talking, he answered: what does Heaven say? The seasons turn, the hundred things grow. The Doctrine of the Mean closes on the same note: Heaven's workings have “neither sound nor smell.” This Heaven is not nature itself, and not a person. It is the source that keeps nature running and gives people a direction. Unrecognised, Confucius said, “Perhaps Heaven knows me.” Surrounded and in danger, he said Heaven had not yet let his culture perish. Heaven proves itself not by words but by its working, and by being recognised in a human heart.

Second: Xunzi brings Heaven back down to nature. “Heaven's course is constant. It does not survive because of Yao, or perish because of Jie.” The sun doesn't shine longer for a good king, and drought doesn't come on purpose for a bad one. Rather than pray, plough the fields and fill the granaries. It is clear-headed, almost scientific. Xunzi is usually counted a Confucian. One way to read him, though, is that on this word he sided with the Daoists' nature without taking their Dao, so his Heaven became nature and nothing more.

None of the three believes in a Heaven you can bargain with or buy off with offerings. The difference: Confucius keeps a Heaven that knows you, so you have a mission. Xunzi keeps nature and human effort. Laozi keeps the Dao, so everything has somewhere it comes from and somewhere to return.

Today it might look like this. You buy a lucky charm before the exam, and the exam still starts on time in a downpour. Xunzi would say revising is how you meet Heaven with good order. Confucius might add: even unseen, Heaven knows whether you gave it everything. And Laozi: when the exam is over, you are still you, not a results slip.

Heaven says nothing. The question is what you hear.