What we are dyed by

Introduction

The second-to-last week of the half-year brings two short essays: 所染 on how environment shapes a person, and 七患 on the seven dangers to a state. Both are lists, quick to read and slow to think about.

所染, What Dyes Us, begins with a scene. Mozi watches silk being dyed and sighs: "Dyed in blue it turns blue; dyed in yellow it turns yellow. As what it enters changes, so its color changes. Enter five vats and it has five colors. So dyeing cannot be done carelessly."

He carries the image to people. "It is not only silk that is dyed; states are dyed too." Shun was dyed by Xu You and Bo Yang, Yu by Gao Yao and Bo Yi, Tang by Yi Yin and Zhong Hui, King Wu by the Grand Duke and the Duke of Zhou: "these four kings were dyed rightly, and so they ruled the world." Conversely, Jie of Xia was dyed by Gan Xin and Tui Duo, Zhou of Yin by Chong Hou and E Lai, and Kings Li and You of Zhou each by their own bad company: "these four kings were dyed wrongly, and so their states were ruined and they died."

Then feudal lords and ministers, the same pattern: rightly dyed, they flourished; wrongly dyed, they fell. Finally the individual: "It is not only states that are dyed; officers are dyed too. If his friends all love humaneness and righteousness, are honest and careful and respect the law, his household grows daily, his person is daily safer, his name daily more honored." If instead "his friends all love boasting and striving and form cliques," his household shrinks, his person is endangered and his name disgraced.

The argument is plain: who you are is largely decided by who is around you. It does not say you have no choice. On the contrary, it says: choose the vat. "Dyeing cannot be done carelessly" means choosing the vat is your responsibility.

This bears directly on the Community. The chapter, the care pair, the weekly study are all vats. We hope they are good ones, but that too must be tested; a vat cannot vouch for itself.

七患, Seven Calamities, lists seven dangers to a state: walls and moats that cannot be defended while palaces are built; no neighbor who will come to the rescue; the people's strength spent on useless work and wealth given to the incapable; officials who seek only salary, wandering scholars who seek only connections, a ruler who makes laws while ministers dare not remonstrate; a ruler who thinks himself wise and asks no one, thinks himself safe and prepares no defense; the trusted who are disloyal and the loyal who are not trusted; grain not enough to eat, ministers who cannot be used, rewards that bring no joy and punishments that bring no fear. "A state that lives with the seven calamities will lose its altars; a city defended with the seven calamities will fall when the enemy comes."

The second half is about reserves: "If the granaries hold no stored grain, famine cannot be met; if the armories hold no stored weapons, even the righteous cannot punish the unrighteous; if the walls are not kept whole, the city cannot defend itself." "So preparedness is the weight of a state." That line is the lead-in to the defense chapters in the second half of the year.

Read together: 所染 is about what shapes you; 七患 is about what destroys an organization. Both are lists that can be checked item by item.

The three tests

所染 rests mainly on the first test, precedent: Shun, Yu, Tang, Wu; Jie, Zhou, Li, You. Eight cases, four each way. The third test appears at the end in the dyeing of officers: "his household grows daily, his person is daily safer."

七患 is entirely the third test, application: each of the seven situations leads to a stated outcome.

Ask: are 所染's eight precedents just hindsight? Those who ruled, we say were dyed rightly; those who fell, wrongly. How does the argument escape circularity? (Hint: could it have been predicted at the time?)

For families

• Take two glasses of water, drop blue in one and yellow in the other, and let a child dip strips of white paper. Tell "dyed in blue it turns blue."
• Ask a child: who do you spend the most time with? What do they make you like? Do you want to be like that?
• Tell "the granaries hold no stored grain" and ask: is there anything at home we keep "just in case"?

For chapters

• Reading: from 所染, "dyed in blue it turns blue" and "officers are dyed too"; from 七患, the seven items and "preparedness is the weight of a state."
• Debate: focus on changing vats. Each person names what they removed and added in the practice. Then a harder question: is the chapter itself a good vat? Who checks?
• Three-tests review: check the chapter against the seven calamities, item by item. Which have already appeared? Record for the council; it feeds next week's mid-year review.