Caigentan 菜根譚

Caigentan 菜根譚 "Cabbage root talks" is a book on education written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Hong Yingming 洪應明 (1572-1620), courtesy name Zicheng 自誠, style Huanchu Daoren 還初道人, who also wrote the book Xianfo qizong 仙佛奇蹤 "Marvellous traces of Daoist and Buddhist (masters)".

Like the latter, the Caigentan is heavily influenced by Buddhist thinking and was widely circulating among a readership that was also acquainted with Tu Long's 屠隆 (1542-1605) book Shaluoguan qingyan 娑羅館清言. The Caigentan was presented to the throne as a text of admonition towards state officials. The title is derived from a word of the Song-period 宋 (960-1279) master Wang Xinmin 汪信民 (1071-1110), who had said that if a man would be able to chew cabbage stalks (caigen 菜根), he could achieve everything.

The book has a length of 2 juan and includes five chapters written in the style of conversations (yulu 語錄) in rhymed verses. The sources for the Caigentan were written books and popular sayings and proverbs.

The Caigentan stresses self-cultivation and appropriate behaviour in social contexts, the treatment of others, careful planning in one's activities, the "equalisation" of all family members (qijia 齊家), and the administration of a state. This included a certain caution towards others, not to be betrayed, the strength to overcome one's personal desires, and modesty, not to despise others. As a state official, fairness (gong 公) and incorruptibility (lian 廉) were the highest virtues. Forgiveness (shu 恕) and modesty (jian 儉) would lead to harmony at home. If a family member had committed a misdoing, it was neither appropriate to be violent towards him, nor to ignore his fault. Avarice was the greatest sin in life, because those envious of gold would not be content with jade, and those aspiring to the title of duke would refuse being made a marquis – it always entailed insatiability.

The Caigentan is a very descriptive treatise on the most important rules of social conduct. It encompasses the concepts of virtue described by all three great teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. Hong Yingming used different stylistic methods like parables, simplification, or fables with a profound morale.

During the Kangxi reign-period 康熙 (1662-1722), the secretarial academician reader-in waiting (neige shidu xueshi 内閣侍讀學士) Hesu 和素 (1652-1718) translated the Caigentan into Manchurian, and in 1926 the Japanese monk Sōen 宗演 (1859-1919) published a discussion called Sōkontan kōwa 菜根譚講話. The Caigentan was an ubiquitous text and influenced later writings for education like the Zengguang xianwen 增廣賢文.

The best traditional Chinese print was published by Qingrong 清鎔 (1851-1922), a monk of Tianning Monastery 天寧寺 in Changzhou 常州, Jiangsu. In 1989, the Ba-Shu Press 巴蜀書社 published Yuan Tingdong's 袁庭棟 (b. 1940) commented edition of the Caigentan.