Word and Action, Knowledge and Practice

It was notable that in ancient Chinese philosophy, there were two questions in the view on knowledge and action, namely the relationships between word and action, knowledge and practice, which had been discussed in early Chinese philosophy.

On the relationships between word and action, philosophers widely believed that word must accord with action. For instance, Confucius said.

Now I hear what one says and see how one acts. (The Analects, Gong Ye Chang) A gentleman views it as a shame when one brags but never acts. (Xian Wen)

Mo Zi said,

One must keep his words and act decidedly. The accordance between word and action is similar to that between tally (Fu) and symbol (Jie). (Mo Zi, Universal Love II)

A ruler must make his word consistent with his action. (Gong Meng)

Xun Zi said, "One who acts in accordance with what he says is a treasure to a state; one who acts but does not say is a talent to a state; one who says but does not act is a citizen to a state; one who says the good but does the evil is a disaster to a state." (Xun Zi, Strategies) As could be seen, ancient Chinese philosophers highly valued the consistency between word and action, and even viewed it as a moral issue. In fact, the consistency between word and action was a traditional moral standard that was called Honesty (Xin), as "Knowledge, Action, Faith, and Honesty" in Confucianism and "One must keep his words and act decidedly" in Mo Zi's view. Besides, the moral standard accorded with the epistemic law, or the unity of morality and wisdom.

Meanwhile, ancient Chinese philosophers observed that the final purpose was to apply the knowledge into practice rather than obtain knowledge. Confucius said, "If a man who has read Classic of Poetry can neither handle state affairs nor answer questions fluently on diplomatic mission, what's the use even if he has read so many books?" (The Analects, Zi Lu) Mo Zi said, "It was unreal words if one only says but does not act." (Mo Zi, Geng Zhu) In the late Warring States Period, Han Zi clarified the issue. He stated with a metaphor of shooting:

To judge the words and action, one must take the real effect as the criterion. One may hit the target with a new arrow. This does not mean that one is good at shooting as the target can be changed. When the target is five-curt in size and a man stands ten-foot away, he may also hit the target in spite that he is not as skillful as Hou Yi and Feng Meng, as the target is unchanged. In this sense, when the target is unchanged, Hou Yi and Feng Meng can display their skill in five feet; when the target is changed, people will consider hitting the target the clumsy tactic. Now, people do not take the real effect as the criterion when they judge words and action. This is in vain though the words and action stand test. (Han Fei Zi, On the Debate among the Schools of Thought)

Later, Wang Chong said, "A man is called sage as he can apply into practice what he has learnt. It is nothing different from a parrot that learns words if he just read, even more than one thousand poems." (Critical Essays, Supreme and Strange) Obviously, ancient Chinese philosophers had fully realized that to apply theory into practice was the real purpose of obtaining knowledge.