Copyright (C) 2011 by Bruce Linnell
Note that an accompanying PDF file correctly displays the English and
Chinese characters.
Guanzi, Number 49 : Study of Inner Cultivation
Translated by Bruce R. Linnell, PhD (2011)
Background—————The "Nei Ye" or "Nei Yeh", variously translated as "Inner Enterprise","Inner Training", "Inner Cultivation", or "Inner Development" (and"Inward" may be substituted for "Inner" in any of the previous), isgenerally considered to have been written around 350-300 BC (afterConfucius, but before the Dao De Jing). Its influence can be seen in manyaspects of Daoism (including the Dao De Jing itself) and in traditionalChinese medicine. It is a brief work (only 1/5 as long as the Dao DeJing), written in short, often rhymed, verses. It has been preserved inthe "Guanzi", a collection of diverse writings that was compiled duringthe third century BC. There is no name given for the author.
While available for millennia, the Nei Ye has just started to receiveserious scholarly attention in the last few decades. It describes how tobuild up and store various spiritual forces such as Qi and "essence"(there is no indication that "essence" refers to reproductive fluids,which appeared later in Chinese thought), and how to control one'sheart/mind. It shows no influence of any school of Chinese religious orphilosophical thought, other than using a few basic Confucian terms. Itdoes have a few concepts in common with the work by Mencius, but as theywere probably both written about the same time it is impossible to tellwho influenced who (or if they were both influenced by something else).
While the Nei Ye has many similarities, including writing style, with theDao De Jing, it also differs significantly in its perspective. Forinstance, there is no social commentary, no political or military advice,nor any explanation of how the universe was created or how it works. Thereis no mention of yin and yang, "non-action" or "non-being", nor does itadvocate a feminine/receptive attitude. It does not criticizeConfucianism, nor does it present the sage as a person with some kind ofbetter understanding of reality. Even the terms Dao and De apparentlydon't mean the same thing in the Nei Ye as they do in the Dao De Jing -for example, both Dao and De are described in some passages as being ableto "arrive" and "settle" in a person.
There are two scholarly books that discuss the Nei Ye at length andprovide complete translations :
W. Allyn Rickett, "Guanzi : Political, Economic, and Philosophical
Essays from Early China", vol. 2, 1985 (revised 1998).
Harold D. Roth, "Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the
Foundations of Taoist Mysticism", 1999.
There is also another very recent translation available on the web, that iscopyright-free as far as I can determine :
Robert Eno, "Guanzi : The Inner Enterprise", 2005
www.indiana.edu/~p374/Neiye.pdf
Translations often differ significantly because there are at least fiveearly manuscripts to draw upon, dating from around 1300 to 1600 AD. Inaddition, Chinese scholars in the last few centuries have made manysuggested modifications to the existing original sources. Attempting toreverse centuries of possible transcription errors, they replaced manysymbols which apparently make no sense with symbols that have a verysimilar shape and/or sound (often to complete a rhyme), and whose meaningseemed more appropriate. To make matters worse, there are no readilyavailable printed copies