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PART II

CONSUMPTION

BOOK IV. CONSUMPTION

CHAPTER XII

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSUMPTION

I. HUMAN WANTS

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ALL founders of religions turn their attention to God, but Confucius turns his to man. In the "Evolution of Civilization," he says: "Man is the product of the attributes of Heaven and Earth, by the interaction of the dual forces of nature, the union of the animal and intelligent souls, and the finest subtle matter of the five elements." 1 By this statement he means that man is a spiritual being. Again, he says: "Man is the heart and mind of Heaven and Earth, and the visible embodiment of the five elements. He lives in the enjoyment of all flavors, the discriminating of all notes of harmony, and the enrobing of all colors."2 By this passage, Confucius means that man is also a material being. He takes the feelings of man as the basis of his philosophy. Or, as Confucius himself puts it: "The sage cultivates the feelings of man as the fields, so that man regards the sage as the landlord."

Now, what are the feelings of man? According to Confucius, man has seven feelings which are given to him by nature and not by learning, namely, joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, hatred and desire.* The last one, desire or want,

1 Li Ki, bk. vii, p. 380.

Ibid., p. 384.

Ibid., p. 382.

♦ Ibid., p. 379.

is the strongest of all. Confucius says: "For food and drink and sexual pleasure, there is the greatest desire of man; against death and poverty, there is the greatest hatred of man. Thus desire and hatred are the two great ele

ments in the mind of man.” 1

In fact, Confucianism is more human than any other religion. Mankind is the object of its teaching. Human feeling is the field of its work. Since desire is the strongest feeling of man, no matter how spiritual he may be, the economic wants for food, drink and sexual pleasure, are the corner stones of human society. Therefore, human desire is the starting point both of ethics and of economics.

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Kao Tzu, a Confucian living in the time of Mencius, says: The appetite of food and of sex is the nature of man.' Mencius says: "A beautiful woman is what man desires

Wealth is what man desires. . . Political dignity is what man desires." " Of course, Confucius and his followers do not mean that man should be enslaved by his desires. Yet they recognize that the human wants are necessary to man. Therefore, the Confucians, since Confucius, never advocated the doctrine of extinguishing desires until the time of Chou Tun-yi (1568-1614, or 1017-1073 A. D.). The true doctrine of Confucius is not that man should have no desires, but that the fewer he has, the better. The "Details of Rites" says: "Desires should not be indulged; pleasure should not be carried to excess." This is the true teaching of Confucius in regard to human wants. It should be noticed that the theory of Malthus is formulated upon the same basis as that of Confucius. The two postulata made by Malthus are: "First, that food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, that the pas

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1 Li Ki, bk. vii, p. 380.

3 Ibid., p. 344.

2 Classics, vol. ii, p. 397.

Li Ki, bk. i, p. 62.

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sion between the sexes is necessary, and will remain nearly in its present state." These two postulata are similar to those of Confucius. However, Malthus develops from these wants his famous doctrine of population, while Confucius works out a general system of philosophy. This is because Malthus is a specialized economist, while Confucius is a great teacher, in the broadest sense. Taking parts of his general system, however, Confucius, too, shows himself

an economist.

Human wants, however, are progressive and unlimited. Such characteristics are described by Hsun Tzu, as follows: In the nature of man, in his eating, he wants flesh of grassand grain-fed animals; in his dressing, he wants silk of beautiful dye, and embroidery; in his traveling, he wants carriages and horses. Besides these, he wants the riches of accumulated surplus. But, year after year, and generation after generation, man still does not know what "enough" is; this is the characteristic of human nature.2

II. THE DOCTRINE OF RITES

Although Confucius recognizes human wants, and sanctions their gratification, he does not allow the human wants to be uncontrolled. Therefore, he sets forth rules for their regulation, known as rites. This means what is proper, in every way. The scope of this word is too broad; it has no real equivalent in English, except that the word civilization might cover its whole sense. As we are considering the principles of consumption, however, we shall confine ourselves to those rites which are connected with consumption. We shall divide the functions of rites into two heads:

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1 Principle of Population. Ashley's edition, p. 6.

2 Bk. iii.

3 Cf. Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, vol. i, pp. 324-5.

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