| Asking About Shen: |
Language is not able to fully express what is in one's xin, and writings are not able to fully express what one wants to say. How troublesome! Only the sage is able to grasp the meaning of language and the essence of writing. It is like when the shining sun illuminates, or when the rivers cleanse—they are so great that nothing can resist them. For meeting face-to-face, exchanging letters, expressing the xin's desires, or breaking through the barriers between people—there is nothing like language. For summarizing the affairs of all under Heaven, for recording the old and explaining what is far away, for making known the darkness of antiquity and transmitting unclear matters from a thousand miles away, there is nothing like writing. Thus, language is the xin's voice. Writing is the xin's pictures. When voice and pictures take form, they are seen both by the junzi and the small man. The voice and writing, these are what move the feelings of the junzi and the small man. |
