一意専心 ichii senshin Wholehearted Devotion
The four characters for a mind given to one thing, followed back to a line of the Chinese Guanzi and into English.
Abstract
一意専心, ichii senshin, is Japanese for setting the mind on one thing alone and looking at nothing else [1]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 cites the Chinese Guanzi 管子 for it, and the line is there, in the chapter Nei ye 内業, but the Song print the 四部叢刊 reproduces writes it 一意搏心, with 搏 in the third place, which the commentary printed with it glosses 結聚, to gather and knot together [1][2]. W. Allyn Rickett's English of 1998 reads that character as 專, to concentrate, and 專 is the older form of the 専 the Japanese phrase writes [3][4]. I read 一意専心 as the Guanzi's line written in the sense its readers gave it: one intent, and the whole heart gathered on it.
Overview
The sense. デジタル大辞泉 defines 一意専心 as （副詞的に用いて）わき目もふらず心を一つのことだけに注ぐこと, (used adverbially) pouring the mind into one thing only, without a glance to the side, with the example 「一意専心環境問題に取り組む」, to work single-mindedly on environmental problems [1]. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 (日国) gives ひたすら一つの事に心を集中すること, concentrating the mind wholly on one thing, and the variant 専心一意 [1]. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 gives the same sense [1]. JMdict gives single-mindedly; wholeheartedly; with all one's heart; with one's heart and soul [5]. The sources give one sense, and none marks an older one.
The words. 一意 is one intent: 日国's second sense of it is ( 副詞的に用いて ) ひたすら一つのことに心をそそぐさま。もっぱら, (used adverbially) pouring the heart wholly into one thing; solely, its first instance from a translation of 1870–71, and the 字通 glosses 【一意】 with the single word 専心 [6]. 専心 is the mind given solely: 日国 has 心をひとつの物事に集中すること。他に心を移さないで励むこと。専念, concentrating the mind on one thing; working hard without letting the mind move to anything else, with its first instance, as 日国 gives it, in the 往生要集 of 984–985, 「専心称念」, and it cites the 孟子 [7]. The 字通 quotes the 孟子's line, in Japanese reading: 專心致志せざれば、則ち得ざるなり, without giving the mind solely to it and bending the will on it, one does not get it [7]. So the phrase is two near-synonyms set side by side, one intent and the mind solely, each saying the other's thing. デジタル大辞泉 heads the character 専〔專〕, and the 字通 gives 專 as its 旧字, old form [4]. デジタル大辞泉 and 日国 head the phrase いちいせんしん, ichii senshin, and JMdict gives the same reading [1][5].
The text in English. The Guanzi's line has a scholarly English: Rickett, in 1998, You will focus your power of awareness and concentrate your mind [3]. JMdict's single-mindedly; wholeheartedly is the phrase's English today [5].
The historical record
Late Warring States to Han. The Guanzi, Nei ye. The Guanzi is, in 日国's words, 中国、古代の政治論の書, an ancient Chinese book of political discourse, given to a statesman of the Spring and Autumn period, but in fact 戦国時代末から漢代にかけて、何人もの論文をまとめたもの, a gathering of essays by many hands from the end of the Warring States into the Han [8]. In its chapter Nei ye 内業, the page of the Song print reproduced in the 四部叢刊, 卷第十六, carries the line in its sixth column [2]:
四體既正血氣既靜一意搏心耳目不淫雖遠若近
When the four limbs are set right and the blood and breath are still, make the intent one and gather the heart; ears and eyes do not run to excess, and though far, it is as if near. The third character is 搏, its right side 尃 [2]. The same page opens with the character twice more, 搏氣如神, gather the breath until it is like a spirit, and 能搏乎能一乎, can you gather? can you be one?, and at the first the commentary printed with the text glosses it: 搏謂結聚也, 搏 means to gather and knot together [2]. Its note on this line reads, in part, …體正氣靜意一心搏耳目之用不有淫過…, the body set right and the breath still, the intent one and the heart gathered, the use of ears and eyes has no excess [2]. The Guanzi is the source the dictionary cites for 一意専心, and the line is the one its words come from; the four characters as Japanese writes them are not in it [1][2].
1922. Inagaki Taruho 稲垣足穂. The first instance 日国 gives for 一意専心 is from the novelist Inagaki Taruho, in a work it dates 1922: 「一意専心に究めた〈略〉妖術教の奥義から」, from the secrets of the sorcerers' teaching, mastered single-mindedly …; the 〈略〉, omitted, is the dictionary's [1][9].
1961 and 1978. Two postwar writers. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 quotes two writers. In 1961, a narrator to whom an ingrained feudal upbringing had become hateful, and who, taking the chance that losing a father at twenty gave, それまでとは逆の方向へ一意専心つっぱしった, dashed single-mindedly in the opposite direction from before; in 1978, someone taking up a new post, 一意専心任務に励むつもりだ, I mean to work single-mindedly at the duty [1].
1993 and after. Public speech. The 共同通信 entry says the phrase is often used of aiming at a goal in work or study, and gives two public uses: a sumo wrestler at the ceremony announcing his promotion in 1993, 「一意専心の気持ちを忘れず」, never forgetting the spirit of 一意専心, and a prime minister's eulogy at the state funeral of a former prime minister, recalling the speaker's own time as foreign minister in that cabinet: 「(外交に)一意専心取り組むことができたことを一生の誇りとする」, I count it the pride of a lifetime to have been able to work single-mindedly (at diplomacy) [1].
一意専心 in English
1998. W. Allyn Rickett. Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China, volume two, the Nei ye (his Inner Workings), stanza XI.2, p. 51: The four parts of the body will be in correct order. / Your pulse and breath will become quiet. / You will focus your power of awareness and concentrate your mind. / Your ears and eyes will not be distracted, / And even though things be distant, they will appear as if near at hand [3]. Rickett's note 138, on p. 50, prints the line with the third character in a form written with 扌 and 專 beside it in parentheses, and renders it You will focus (i.e., unify) your power of awareness and concentrate your mind [3]. At the opening of the same stanza, where the character stands twice more, note 135 reads it as 專 and names the scholars behind that reading, Liu Ji, Wang Niansun, Yasui and Guo Moruo [3]. Rickett's first volume names Yasui as Yasui Kō 安井衡, whose commentary of 1864 it counts as one of two first-rate Japanese commentaries on the Guanzi [10]. Focus (i.e., unify) your power of awareness renders 一意, and concentrate your mind renders the third and fourth characters, read as 專心.
Today. JMdict gives single-mindedly; wholeheartedly [5]. The title Takase Studios gives the design, Wholehearted Devotion, renders the sense; word for word the phrase is one intent, the mind solely on it, and the title gives the whole of it in one English word, wholehearted. A rendering should keep that there is one thing and that the mind is given to it, as Rickett's focus … and concentrate does [3].
A reading
The Guanzi's line asks for one intent and a gathered heart, and the commentary printed with it explains the gathering as knotting together [2]. Rickett, with Liu Ji, Wang Niansun, Yasui and Guo Moruo behind the reading, takes the gathering character as 專, which I gloss solely, wholly, and gives the line concentrate your mind [3][10]. The Japanese four characters write that reading into the text: 一意専心 says with 専 what Rickett and the scholars behind that reading took 搏 to mean [1][4]. I read the Japanese form as the line in its readers' sense, not a misquotation of it, and the dictionary as right to cite the Guanzi, so long as no one takes it to say that the Guanzi writes these four characters. The phrase holds two words for one act, one intent and the mind solely; a reader who brushes it is asking the same thing twice, and that doubling is its force. Signed, 典.
Notes
Three characters at the third place. The Song print writes 搏 [2]; JMdict lists a second written form, 一意摶心, which it marks as rarely used [5]; and the Japanese phrase writes 専, whose 旧字, old form, is 專 [1][4]. The 字通 says that 專 shows a thing beaten and packed firm by hand, 手で摶(う)ってうち固める, and that 專 and 摶 are 同声, of one sound [4].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
References
- 「一意専心」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 四字熟語を知る辞典 and 共同通信ニュース用語解説, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%80%E6%84%8F%E5%B0%82%E5%BF%83-433187
- 『管子』, 卷第十六, 内業第四十九, with the commentary under the name of 房玄齡, 四部叢刊, a photographic reprint of the Song print in the 鐵琴銅劍樓 collection (景常熟瞿氏鐵琴銅劍樓藏宋刊本), p. 72, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Sibu_Congkan0346-%E6%88%BF%E7%8E%84%E9%BD%A1-%E7%AE%A1%E5%AD%90-4-3.djvu/72
- W. Allyn Rickett, Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China, volume two, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998, "Nei ye", pp. 50–51, read on the house's shelf.
- 「専」, デジタル大辞泉 and 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B0%82-549217
- JMdict (EDRDG), entry 1161050, 一意専心, at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/word/%E4%B8%80%E6%84%8F%E5%B0%82%E5%BF%83
- 「一意」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%80%E6%84%8F-433184
- 「専心」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B0%82%E5%BF%83-550269
- 「管子」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 日本大百科全書 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%AE%A1%E5%AD%90-48816
- 「稲垣足穂」, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A8%B2%E5%9E%A3%E8%B6%B3%E7%A9%82-15432
- W. Allyn Rickett, Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China, volume one, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1985, Introduction, p. 42, read on the house's shelf.