ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

Plato is more concerned about is how to harmonize the three components
of the psyche into a beautiful order (kosm0santa) orincorporated
whole (synarmÃsanta). With respect to the three parts,
it is in principle that the rational leads to intelligible understanding,
the appetitive to sensual perception, and the spirited to situational
selection. In the case of a moral being, the rational takes the lead,
accommodates the spirited and the appetitive as its allied subjects or
supporters, and thus nourishes the virtue of temperance or self-discipline.
Accordingly he is apt to live a happy life, and become a
qualified guardian of the city as he grows more and more interested
in the community good rather than his self-advantage. This is of
course no easy job. It expects the person to face all the hardships
and embrace the Geist of self-sacrifice, always ready to dedicate himself
to justice and make light of being deprived of personal gains.
Right in the process of rearing such virtues, he must manage to:
“first attain to self-mastery and beautiful order within himself, harmonize
these three principles [of the rational, the appetitive and the spirited],
the notes or intervals of three terms quite literally the lowest,
the highest, and the mean, and all others there may be between them,
and link and bind all three together and make of himself a unit,
self-controlled and in unison, then he should turn to practice if he
finds aught to do either in the getting of wealth or the tendance of the
body or it may be in political action or private business" (Rep. IV,
443d-e).
It is evident of what has been said so far that Professor Wang
utilizes Plato's two basic aspects of his philosophy, the theoretical
wisdom and the practical wisdom. Both are crucial for the Chinese
philosophy and culture, for they can both “guide people in the
journey of life". 8 Plato's allegories, as we have seen, are not merely
morally symbolic, but also philosophically inspiring. More than
that, story-telling and philosophizing are thought to be interwoven
“in a close, sophisticated and dramatic knot". As a good Platonist
Wang can easily discern the importance of the analogy of the internal
principles of the soul with the intervals of the musical scale,
their lings and their bounding together, and also the importance of
the shift from cross-questioning to mythos-telling, thus taking into
due consideration the long and rich pre-Socratic philosophical and
cultural tradition as well as the deep and wide background of the
ancient Greeks, particularly that of Platonism — very appropriate
8 K. Wang, Spirit of Chinese Poetics, Foreign Language Press, Beijing, China
2008, p. 129.
86