18/06/2026
HOW THE NOBLE ONE SUCCEEDS
The Yangzi Fayan’s chapter on "Self-Cultivation," states:
Someone asked about ren, yi, li, zhi, and xin.*
Yangzi answered: Ren is your home; yi is the road; li is your clothing; wisdom is a candle; and trustworthiness is your tally.†
Live in your home, follow the road, fix your clothing, brighten (your way with) the candle, and hold your tally.
The noble one stays still, but when they act, they succeed.
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* These are five of the core Confucian values: ren-benevolence; yi-righteousness; li-propriety; zhi-wisdom; xin-trustworthiness.
† The word for tally can also mean: “mark, sign, talisman, seal.” In imperial China, the tally was a symbol of authority or a means of recognition. One significant type of tally consisted of two matching halves. Two people would each have one half of a tally and only when the two halves matched were their identities and mission confirmed. These jade tallies were widely used in feudal enfeoffment, formal diplomatic visits, and military affairs. Oddly, the same word refers to Dàoist talismans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_(tally)
Yángzǐ Fǎyán, 揚子法言 is a Classical Chinese text by the Hàn dynasty writer and poet Yáng Xióng 揚雄 (53 BCE–18 CE)that was completed c. 9 CE. It is a collection of dialogues and aphorisms in which Yáng responds to questions of philosophy, politics, literature, ethics, and scholarship. Thirteen chapters present dialogues between Yáng and an anonymous interlocutor. The answers are terse, authoritative pronouncements that rely more on wit and puns than on logical exposition. The style is deliberately modeled on Confucius's *Analects*.
Art: Travelers among Mountains and Streams 谿山行旅圖
Fan Kuan (active 10th–early 11th century)
Song Dynasty (960–1279)
Hanging scroll, ink and light color on silk
206.3 x 103.3 cm,
National Palace Museum, Taipei
I’ve digitally brightened this painting. I’ve reproduced it not just because it shows travelers, but because this is an important painting to know if you’re interested in Chinese art history. You have to look closely to see the travelers at the bottom.
Fan Zhongzheng (c. 960–c. 1030) was a Chinese landscape painter of the Song dynasty. He was both a Daoist and a Neo-Confucianist.
Travelers among Mountains and Streams, a large hanging scroll, is Fan Kuan's best-known work, possibly his only surviving one, and a seminal painting of the Northern Song school. It establishes an ideal in monumental landscape painting to which later painters were to return time and again for inspiration. The classic Chinese perspective of three planes is evident—near, middle (represented by water and mist), and far. A packhorse train can barely be seen emerging from a wood at the base of a towering precipice. The painting's style encompasses archaic conventions dating back to the Tang dynasty.
Scholars usually describe the grandeur of nature as overwhelming and dwarfing the human figures in the scene. But there's another possible view: that the entire scene shows the life of Dao itself, where human beings are integrated with heaven and earth.
