"On the childlike heart-mind" (Tongxin Shuo): analysis of philosophical ideas

The article contains a commented translation of the essay On the Childlike Heart-Mind of the Ming philosopher Li Zhi (1527-1602) and presents the analysis of its philosophical ideas, mostly in the spheres of gnoseology and aesthetics. The essay was translated into French in 1979 by Jean-Francois Billeter, into English in 1996 (Stephen Owen) 1999 (Yang Ye) and 2012 (Poline Lee). Up to the present day, no Russian translation of the essay has been published. Author hopes that the translation of the essay On the Childlike Heart-Mind, one of the most famous and important works of Li Zhi, into Russian, will be helpful for further research of Li Zhi’s ideas in Russia. The roots of “childlike heart” can be seen in “infant’s heart”, which was put forward by Mengzi. Mengzi’s meaning of it was “good heart”, a heart given by nature, a heart which complies with the main Confucian values: benevolence, justice, wisdom, and following rituals. As a result of the evolution from the traditional Confucianism to the Neo-Confucianism, “infant’s heart” began to start meaning the heart which complies with the “theory of the principle”. Li Zhi was the ideological opponent of this theory, so he could not use the term “infant’s heart” for his purposes. Instead of that, he had chosen another term, “childlike heart”. Its locus classicus is the canonical historical text Commentary of Zuo ( Zuo zhuan ), and its original meaning was “the heart of immature, worthless person”. Li Zhi kept the opposition between “infant’s heart” and “childlike heart”, but obviously revalued these terms. In Li Zhi’s view, the “childlike heart” is the primeval and genuine heart, the only adequate instrument of cognition based on intuitive and emotional perception of the world. At the same time, the “childlike heart” is necessary for creation of composition remarkable in the way of aesthetics. The philosopher claims that the enemy of the “childlike heart” is “the theory of the principle” ( li xue ), which had a dominating position in the Ming society. Li Zhi considered this theory counterfeit per se and accused it of being the reason of loss of the “childlike heart”. Finally, Li Zhi challenged the authority of the Confucian classics and stated that its authorship and urgency are quite doubtful; moreover, he refused to consider the accordance of the composition with ancient standards as the main aesthetical criteria. Apart from the Confucian tradition, Li Zhi, while writing On the Childlike Heart, obviously got inspired by Taoist and Buddhist teachings. His “childlike heart” is quite similar with “empty heart” of Chan-Buddhism, which is free from any influence of the outer world, of anything “heard and seen”. Concerning Taoists, its fundamental work Tao Te Ching contains the approbation of the childlike mind, moreover, the appreciation of emotional and essential behaviour is also an inherent part of the Taoist thought. Hence, it is possible to say that On the Childlike Heart had accumulated the ideas of all three main Chinese teachings.