Shi Bo's Idea that "Harmony Creates Everything"

Shi Bo's Idea that "Harmony Creates Everything"

Shi Bo (dates unknown), a court historian in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, was mainly in charge of drafting documents, conferring titles of nobility, recording historical events, writing historical books, as well as managing the national classic books and astronomical calendars. In The Discourses of the States, Shi Bo's dialogue on the rise and fall of a state with Duke Huan of Zheng (d. 771 BC) reflects his view on Hehe thinking.  

During the reign of King You of Zhou (r. 781-771 BC), the whole country was in political turmoil. Duke Huan of Zheng was in charge of public education. Concerned about the safety of his family and the people in the State of Zheng, he went to seek advice from Shi Bo on large-scale migration. When discussing the question of whether the Zhou Dynasty would collapse, Shi Bo talked about the issues of existence and development from the perspective of harmony, proposing the idea that "harmony creates everything." According to Shi Bo, only in harmony can everything be created. Harmony coordinates and balances different elements so that everything can develop and form a unity. 

Shi Bo's opinion is clearly insightful. First, harmony is different from uniformity. It strikes a dynamic balance among various elements, and functions as the most fundamental and effective way to deal with diversity. Second, harmony does not iron out differences, but is in fact to seek a state of equilibrium between the differences, so that something new can be created. So, the purpose of harmony is to create something new. This theory can also be applied in modern innovation. 

史伯與“和實生物”

史伯是西周末年的史官，主要負責掌管起草文告、策命諸侯、記錄史事、編寫史書，兼管國家典籍、天文歷法等。《國語》記載了鄭桓公和史伯之間的一段對話，充分反映了史伯對于和合的看法。  

周幽王時期，政治混亂，負責教化的鄭桓公考慮到自己家庭和鄭地子民的安全，想作大規模搬遷，便找史伯商量，討教辦法。史伯在回答鄭桓公提出的“周朝會不會敗亡”問題時，從“和”的角度討論了“生”的問題，也就是通常說的“和實生物”“和生”“因和而生”等觀念。在史伯看來，只有和諧才能生成萬物。和就是對不同的東西加以協調平衡、豐富發展而使萬物歸于統一。

從史伯的觀點中，可以看出他對于“和”有非常深刻的理解。首先，和不是同，而是不同事物之間和諧、平衡的動態過程，是不同事物相處最有效、最根本的關系形態。其次，只有和才能產生萬物，因為和并不是要排除事物之間的差異性，而是在差異性中找到一種平衡，這恰恰是產生新事物的前提，所以和的目的是為了生。我們現在講的創新，就可以將其動力歸之于和。