Chapter 5.1: Impartiality is the Way

 

Heaven and earth are not partial, regarding everything as “straw dogs;”

Wise people are not partial, regarding all people as “straw dogs.”

Few passages of The Way and the Power of Virtue have resulted in more confusion than this one.  In ancient China, the ideal of 仁 (rén) “benevolence” or “humaneness” was a cardinal Confucian virtue.  It represented the ideal way for two people to treat each other.  In Confucianism, “benevolence” was determined by relative relationships.  Thus, how one treated someone else in ideal terms was dependent upon one’s relationship with them and therefore partial, as preferential treatment was given to those with whom one had the closest interpersonal relationships.  As such, the Confucian concept of "benevolence" was a cultural construct.  In contrast, The Way and the Power of Virtue draws upon observations in the natural world to advocate for an alternative – complete impartiality, totally devoid of and distanced from all relative and relational considerations.  Heaven and earth (the natural world) are thus not "benevolent" toward some and not toward others.  Rather, the natural order is impartial, treating all things equally and without preference.

The metaphor used in the text to illustrate this principle is that of a “straw dog” – a ritual offering used as a proxy in ancient rites.  Once the rite was completed and the “straw dog” had served its purpose it was no longer treated as sacred and was discarded.  This is not to say, as a disenchanted Dr. Stephen Strange once did, that we are “just another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe.”  Quite the opposite – “straw dogs” were an essential component of ancient ritual – one that was indispensable and irreplaceable.  Rather than diminishing the stature and status of everyone around us, this passage is actually elevating everyone to an equally sacred status.  Indeed, everyone and everything has inherent worth regardless of whether or not society's rollercoaster of relative relationships recognizes it or not.  Nevertheless, that does not entitle us to partial or preferential treatment.  The natural world doesn’t play favorites and it doesn't give anyone a pass because of prior success or previous performance.  No one gets to "rest on their laurels" as it were.  There are no shortcuts, no backdoors, no inside tracks.  To become sagely or wise men and women, we must likewise avoid playing favorites.  

The Chinese character 仁, which is often translated as “benevolent” or “humane” is both a picto-phonetic character and a compound ideogram comprised of a “person” 亻 on the left (which also provides the sound) and the number “two” 二 on the right.  The idea of this character is the interaction or relationship between two people.  Such interpersonal relationships can often lead to bias, partiality, preferential treatment, favoritism, and nepotism.  These undergird the idea that “it’s not what you know, but who you know” in society that matters.  At the same time, we often not only base our “benevolence” toward others on past relationships, but also on superficial constructs and subjective social stereotypes of beauty and shallow assessments of physical characteristics.  Do we fall into the "beauty trap" and treat the handsome guy or the beautiful girl better than others?  Do we treat people differently when we want something from them?  This is just the sort of partial and preferential treatment that the text is critiquing.  As wise people we give ourselves and everyone else around us a chance regardless of any prior relationship – good or bad.  We practice unmediated action – action unmediated by the baggage of the past and free from expectations for the future, our own or anyone else’s.  This is the impartiality of the Way. ~ DCB