Threads: Across the Books
How Far Does Love Reach?
How far beyond your own front door does your care actually reach?
Original
Analects 10.17廄焚。子退朝，曰：「傷人乎？」不問馬。Mencius 7A·45君子之於物也，愛之而弗仁；於民也，仁之而弗親。親親而仁民，仁民而愛物。Laozi 5天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗；聖人不仁，以百姓為芻狗。Zhuangzi 17 · Autumn Floods計中國之在海內，不似稊米之在大倉乎？In plain words
The stables burned. Returning from court, Confucius asked, “Was anyone hurt?” He did not ask about the horses.
Toward things, the noble person is caring but not humane; toward the people, humane but not close as to kin. Be close to your kin, and so be humane to the people; be humane to the people, and so care for things.
Heaven and earth are not humane: they treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs. The sage is not humane: he treats the people as straw dogs.
Reckon where China sits within the four seas: is it not like one grain of rice in a great granary?
Key words
- 親親qīn qīnBeing close to your own kin: where love begins.
- 愛物ài wùCaring for creatures and things: not wasting, not harming.
- 芻狗chú gǒuA straw dog used in a rite, then set aside: an image of no favourites.
Reading it step by step
This is the last page of our second theme. We set out from sincerity and passed through being alone, ritual, and rightness and profit. Now: how far can one person's love reach?
An old story first. A man of Chu lost his bow and wouldn't look for it: a man of Chu lost it, a man of Chu will find it. Confucius said: drop “of Chu.” A man lost it; a man will find it. Laozi said: drop “a man” too. It was lost; it will be found. Three sentences, three circles.
First: Confucius asks about people first. When the stables burned, he asked only, “Was anyone hurt?” and not about the horses, though horses were wealth in his day. People stand at the centre, and a person's worth can't be traded for property. Dropping “of Chu” comes from the same heart: love shouldn't stop at borders, accents or creeds, which is why “don't do to others what you wouldn't want” means everyone.
Second: Mencius says love has an order, widening like ripples. “Close to your kin, humane to the people, caring toward things”: three verbs, three circles. This isn't favouritism. It's where you start walking. You practise on those nearest, and that gives you the strength to go far: treat your own elders well, then extend it to the elders of others. If someone fleeing a war left their parents behind and took only the cat, we'd all feel something was wrong. When the order breaks, love loses its root.
Three verbs, three circles: the order is where you start, not where you stop.
Third: Laozi and Zhuangzi drop “a man” as well. “Heaven and earth are not humane; they treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs”: no favourites, the same for all. Zhuangzi's river god, proud of his autumn flood, reaches the sea and learns that his whole country is a grain of rice in a granary. Seen from the Dao, people are one kind of thing among many. Confucians are soft-hearted: they can't bear to see people lost. Daoists look coolly, and widely: they know the human world will always be relative. Don't glue them into halves. The Confucian circles give love a root and a road outward; the Daoist eye keeps those circles from hardening into “us and them.”
the man of Chu
Confucius
Laozi
Not higher and lower: Confucians soft-hearted, Daoists wide-eyed.
Today: caring for an ageing parent is the first circle. Knowing the name of your building's guard, or giving a little after a disaster far away, is the second. Refusing a plastic bag, leaving the stray cat in peace, is the third. Now and then, look up at the night sky, remember the grain of rice, and come back to the small things.
Looking back over this theme: sincerity is the start; care when alone keeps it in the dark; ritual clothes it; rightness puts profit in order; and love walks outward, circle by circle.
Love starts close to home. It doesn't have to stop there.
The work of being human: from truth inside to care for all things.
Love starts close to home. It doesn't have to stop there.
Today's question
Draw three circles: family, the people around you, those farther off and all living things. This week, can you do one small thing for each circle?
Quick check
In the story of the lost bow, what does Laozi mean by dropping “a man” too?
Not coldness but a wider view: heaven and earth play no favourites, and people take their place among all things.
II · The Work of Being Human — Sincerity, being alone, ritual, profit and rightness, how far love reaches
Notes from the Margin
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