Harmony Is Like a Soup

The Duke of Qi came back from a hunt, and Liangqiu Ju rode out to meet him. The duke said: “Only Ju is in harmony with me.” Yanzi answered: “Ju only agrees with you. How can that be harmony?”

Harmony, he said, is like a soup. Water, fire, vinegar, sauce, salt and plums are used to cook fish and meat, and the cook blends them, adding what is lacking and reducing what is too much. It is the same with ruler and minister. When the ruler calls something right that is partly wrong, the minister points out the wrong.

“Ju is not like that. When the ruler says yes, Ju says yes. When the ruler says no, Ju says no. If one seasons water with water, who could eat it?” (Zuo Commentary, Duke Zhao, year 20)

The Mean and Harmony

The first chapter of the Doctrine of the Mean: “Before joy, anger, sorrow and delight arise, there is the mean. When they arise and each meets its due measure, there is harmony. The mean is the great root of the world. Harmony is the universal way of the world. When the mean and harmony are fully realized, heaven and earth are in their proper places, and all things flourish.”

Enmity Ends in Harmony

The Song philosopher Zhang Zai wrote in Correcting Youthful Ignorance (正蒙): “Where there are images, there are pairs. Each pair acts in opposition. Where there is opposition, there is enmity. Enmity must be resolved through harmony.” In the original, the last line is 仇必和而解.

The philosopher Feng Youlan quoted these four lines in the conclusion of his New History of Chinese Philosophy. Marxist dialectics, he wrote, would accept the first three. “But Marxism would not say the fourth… My guess is that it might say: ‘enmity must be fought to the end.'”

The Halls of Harmony

In 1645, the second year of the Shunzhi reign, the three great ceremonial halls of the Forbidden City received the names they still carry. They are the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿), the Hall of Central Harmony (中和殿) and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿).

Harmony at the Olympics

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, three thousand performers representing the disciples of Confucius recited a line from the Analects: “Within the four seas, all men are brothers.”

Then a giant movable-type tray of 897 blocks rose. The blocks moved in waves and ripples, and then formed the character 和, harmony, in three scripts: bronze inscription, small seal and regular script.

Harmonious Society, Harmonized

On October 11, 2006, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party adopted a Decision on Major Issues Concerning the Building of a Socialist Harmonious Society. From 2007, China’s new high-speed trains carried the name Harmony (和谐号).

Chinese internet users found another use for the word. 河蟹, river crab, sounds like 和谐, harmony. It came to stand for blocking and covering up negative news and for controlling speech. Users also call the Harmony trains the River Crab.

Human Harmony

Mencius said: “Favorable timing is not as good as favorable terrain. Favorable terrain is not as good as harmony among people.” In the original: 天时不如地利，地利不如人和.

The Song statesman Fan Zhongyan wrote in his Record of Yueyang Tower: “In the following year, the government ran smoothly and the people lived in harmony (政通人和), and all neglected tasks were taken up again.”

Struggle Is Endless Joy

As a young man, Mao Zedong wrote: “To struggle with heaven is endless joy. To struggle with the earth is endless joy. To struggle with people is endless joy.” Red Guards later recited the lines.

In On Contradiction, written in 1937, Mao called the law of contradiction, the unity of opposites, “the fundamental law of nature and society.” The unity of opposites, he held, is conditional and relative. Struggle is unconditional and absolute.

Harmony Is Most Precious

礼之用，和为贵: “In the practice of the rites, harmony is most precious.” The line is in the first book of the Analects. It is often quoted as Confucius, but the speaker is his disciple Youzi.

The passage continues with a limit: “To know harmony and seek harmony, without regulating it by the rites, will not work either.”

understand-culture
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance (opens in a new tab)
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.