10. Justus Lipsius (1547–1606), in his reformation of the Stoic theory of fate, in De Constantia, introduces the role of providence in front of public evils. His theory offers interesting elements of comparison for the common question of evil in history, and the peculiarity of solutions in Europe (transcendence of God outside nature; the necessity of fate and the providential will of God) and China (separation of the moral sphere that depends on man’s will and what is outside his will). I am grateful to one of the anonymous reviewers for the reference. See Sellars. “Stoic Fate in Justus Lipsius’s De Constantia,” 653–674.

11. See Ding Weixiang, “Destiny and Heavenly Ordinances,” 33–37; on Heaven, see also Eno, The Confucian Creation of Heaven. Two brilliant essays, “The Concept of Fate in Mencius,” by Ning Chen (495–520) and “Rational Awareness of the Ultimate in Human Life” by Cui Dahua (309–321), distinguish between the moral nature itself—founded on Heaven and internalized in man, as much as in one’s mission and proper behavior—and destiny.

12. Tang Yijie, “Emotion in Pre-Qin Ruist Moral Theory,” 272. For the main meanings of the term tian, see Fung Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1, 31. Some scholars think that the standard translation of “Heaven” bears misleading connotations (Perkins, “Reproaching Heaven,” vol. 2, 293–312). Tian is ambiguous, for sometimes it signifies “blue sky” and other times “destiny” or “fate” (Cui Dahua, “Rational Awareness of the Ultimate in Human Life,” 309–321, especially 311n2). Brooks identifies five different Heaven categories in the Zuozhuan (“Heaven, Li, and the formation of the Zuozhuan,” 51–61, 88–90). Cui adds that Heaven was “an object to be known or experienced through the accumulation of life experiences and thought” (Cui Dahua, “Rational Awareness of the Ultimate in Human Life,” 313). The ambiguity of the term remains even in Zhu Xi, who uses it in various contexts to refer to the azure sky, to the physical nature of the cosmos, to the ruler or lord [zhuzai 主宰] in the heavens above, and to principle (li 理). Tillman, “Zhu Xi’s Prayers to the Spirit of Confucius,” 489. See also Kim Yung Sik, The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi, 108–111.

13. 天豈曽有耳目以視聴? 只是自我民之視聴，便是天之視聴, Shangshu 商書, Tang Gao 湯誥, 1 (Zhuzi Yulei, 16: 315).

14. Zhuzi Yulei, 1: 4–5.

15. Zhuzi Yulei, 4: 63.

16. Zhuzi Yulei, 79: 2039.