The previous section has explored spatiality of Liangguan in its ancient context by looking at symbolic meanings of the materiality and the term “que” that named it. I now move to the more fundamental term – guan (观) used by Confucius himself to name the place. I see my exegesis of “guan” as an inquiry into the worldview of good governance embodied in the place. Guan was the keyword by which the ancient once assigned the cultural meanings and function to Liangguan architecture. To situate this word within its own historical context will re-create a cosmological sense of place for Liangguan.
The character guan literally means “look” and “gaze”. In the West, the semantic meanings of “look” can be interpreted as to look at something in the exhibition or scientifically observe something. In respect of “gaze”, it is the act of both seeing and being seen. This refers to how people would modify their behaviors under the belief that they are constantly being watched by others. With such an idea, Walker and Chaplin (1997, p. 97) elaborate that, “the eye, for them, refers to the viewer gazing upon the world, while the gaze refers to the fact that we are all subject to the gazes of others.” And meanings of “gaze” in terms of being viewed are positively elaborated by the ancient Chinese to the level of mass education. So the guan represented a mode of governance through the culture and education, rather than by using law and punishment. This idea could be examined and understood in the exegesis of the guan hexagram in the Book of Changes (《易经》). And apart from the idea of spatial governance, I will elaborate that the guan hexagram provided a philosophical base for constructing the educational meanings of Liangguan space.
In the Book of Changes, there were two parts that constitute the image of the
guan hexagram . The upper part of the hexagram symbolized the Wind and the lower part the Earth (巽上坤下), which gave an image of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. The whole hexagram thus showed the Wind moving above the Earth: this constituted a primitive process of viewing (the guan) inspired by the natural phenomenon, indicating a mode of transformative education. Wang Bi (王弼, 226-249), a Confucian exegete, explained that “as far as the sovereign of Dao (道) is concerned, there is nothing in it more worth viewing than the ancestral temple
sacrifice” (Wang & Lynn, 1994, p. 260). In interpretations of the guan hexagram, a context of the ritual performance as “the ancestral temple sacrifice” was set to fulfill the educational function assigned by the character of the guan. Wang Bi thus further explained that “here, the subject of viewing is rendered in all its dignity and grandeur, so those below who do the viewing are morally transformed” (ibid). That was to say that the ritual performer would lead and allow viewers to submit in the serious context of worshipping to construct their personal and moral meanings and eventually being converted. This image and the whole process of viewing could be interpreted to express the principles of universal humanities and people’s moral conversion in a ritual-based society. To view and to be viewed for transformation was both educational and pedagogical. “In the same way, the former kings made tours of inspection everywhere and established their teachings in conformity with their viewing of the people.” (Wang & Lynn, 1994, p. 261) If the king wanted to know how he had ruled the states, he would have to inspect life circumstances of the people. During the inspection, the king was the subject of viewing meanwhile his own behaviors were to be viewed. The way of governing through education and pedagogy with the self being viewed was the core political mechanism in imperial China. For ancient emperors, it was believed that common people would be morally and ethically transformed by viewing moral exemplars’ actions and speech. In the Book of Changes, Confucius hence interpreted the transformative power of the guan in its relation with numinous Dao.
Viewing the numinous Dao of Heaven, one finds that the four seasons never deviate, and so the sage establishes his teaching on the basis of this numinous Dao, and all under Heaven submit to him. (Wang & Lynn, 1994, p.260.)
观天之神道而四时不忒。圣人以神道设教，而天下服矣。
Confucius as well as the ancient elites believed that to govern through the guan can submit the common folk without using the threats of laws and punishments. This ideal of governing the state was derived from the observation of the numinous course of Heaven. Heaven acts without saying, and fulfills with no action. Heaven performs and four seasons never deviate. The natural phenomena enlightened the sage to avoid using the threats of criminal punishments (the forceful means of intervening on the
common people’s misdeeds) in order to make the common folks behave well. And the sage thus set himself as a moral and ethical exemplar showing to the people, and the people were unconsciously convinced to follow him by viewing. The sage used the
guan mechanism as the means to arouse the common people to the moral and ethicial
conversion. Xiao Tong (萧统, 501-531), a literary scholar, thus explained:
The way the Dao of guan works is to eschew the threat of criminal punishments to make people behave and instead to use Viewing as the means to arouse them to moral transformation. Anything numinous is without the concrete form of existence, so we do not see Heaven making the four seasons behave, and yet the four seasons never deviate. In the same way, we do not see the sage making the common folk behave, and yet the common folk submit their own accord to him. (Wang & Lynn, 1994, p. 260-261)
观之为道，不以刑制使物，而以观感化物者也，神则无形者也。不 见天之使四时，而四時不忒。不见圣人使百姓，而百姓自服也。 Instead of using laws to govern people, the sage could effectively convert people on the right path by allowing them to observe the moral exemplars who were believed to act and speak in accordance with the Heaven. And this process was related to “the cultivation of human bodies” (xiushen, 修身) which was always esteemed as “the foreground of managing the country” (Hsu & Wu, 2015, p.121). This guan idea was thus somewhat expressing as “a particular, historically constituted, way of perceiving and experiencing the world” (Bender, 1999, p.31). Therefore, the guan mechanism could be interpreted as a powerful transformative learning process which indicated “a comprehensive and complex description of how learners construe, validate, and reformulate the meaning of their experience” (Cranton, 1994, p.22). So it could be claimed that an ancient idea of the guan provided a cosmological vision of social governance through education. Following Xiao Tong’s words, appropriate ways to approach the numinous Heaven and to be morally transformed were to observe the natural and continuous courses. And from the perspective of governance, such guan offered the king a route to the Dao of Heaven and there was no need to trouble the rulers by forcefully making something to teach. And good governance thus avoided
the threats of the criminal punishments. In the Book of Changes, there could be found one interesting pedagogy-centered slogan for “converting the ordinary by observing” (Wang & Lynn, 1994, p.261). This morally transformative feeling derived from the
guan hexagram was like the Wind moving above the Earth. Confucius said, “the
Virtue of a gentleman is like the wind, and the Virtue of a petty person is like the grass – when the wind moves over the grass, the grass is sure to bend.” (Slingerland, 2003, p. 134) And in Confucius’ time, Liangguan was thus designed as a ritual and educational place where sage-kings’ decrees of ruling were suspended to be viewed. The opening space in the middle of Liangguan was connected to the hall where the court handled the state affairs and held grand ceremonies. Together with the viewed decrees, Liangguan as an unit of the architecture sitting at the political center of the state thus constantly reminded the dukes or the rulers, and reiterated their beliefs that governing the state had to follow the principle of the guan by setting themselves as the moral exemplar for people to follow instead of using the power of punishments to discipline people.