by An Liu
The Western Elder snapped her hair ornament;81
the Yellow God sighed and moaned.82
Flying birds folded their wings;
running animals lost their footing.
Mountains were without towering trees;
marshes were without pooling waters.
Foxes and raccoon dogs83 headed for their burrows;
horses and cattle scattered and were lost.
Fields were without standing grain;
roadsides were without cattails or sedge.84
Gold ingots were cracked and missing their corners; jade disks were piled up but had their surface engraving worn off.85
[They] used up86 turtles [for divination] until they had no plastrons left; they set out milfoil stalks and cast them daily. [6/53/10–18]
Coming down to a later era, the seven states set up unrelated clans [of rulers].87 The various lords took control of the laws, each practicing their own customs in different ways. Vertical and horizontal [alliances]88 came between them; raising troops, they locked horns with one another, besieging cities and wantonly slaughtering [their inhabitants]. They overthrew those in high [positions] and endangered the peaceful.
They exhumed burial mounds
and scattered human bones,
enlarged the frames of [war] chariots
and raised high the thick ramparts.
They dispensed with the Way of Warfare,
and easing onto the Road of Death,
they engaged dreaded enemies
and plundered beyond reason.
For every hundred soldiers that advanced, one returned [alive]. [These rulers’] fame and renown flourished in a meretricious way.
All that being so, those who were sound in body and light on their feet were made into armored soldiers and sent a thousand li or more away [to fight], while the household elders and those who were sickly or weak remained, anxious and sad, at home.
Servant battalions and horse wranglers
pushed carts and handed out rations.
The ways and roads were endlessly far;
frost and snow interminably piled up;
their rough woolen tunics were not sufficient.
People were exhausted and chariots fell apart.
Mud and muck reaching to their knees,
they helped drag one another along the way.
Dauntlessly raising their heads on the roads,
their bodies [nevertheless] fell and died.
What is called “annexing states and having [their] land” [really] means fallen corpses by the tens of ten thousands and smashed chariots counted up by the thousands and hundreds, with those wounded by bows or crossbows, spears or glaives, arrows or stones, supporting one another along the roads.
Thus the world reached the point that people used human skulls for pillows, fed on human flesh, made mincemeat of human livers, drank human blood, and [found] these things sweeter than [the flesh of] fattened cattle. [6/53/20–26]
Thus from the Three Dynasties onward, the world was never able to obtain
[a sense of] security in their instinctive responses and their natures
or joy in their habits and customs
or preserve their natural life spans
or avoid dying young in consequence of the tyranny of others. Why was that so? [It was because] the various rulers [used their] strength to attack [one another], and so the world was unable to come together and be as one family. [6/54/1–2]
6.9
Coming down to the present time, the Son of Heaven occupies his position on high,
sustaining [his rule] with the Way and its Potency,
supporting [his rule] with Humaneness and Rightness.
Those nearby augment his knowledge;
those far away embrace his Moral Potency.
He folds his hands and bows, gestures with his finger, and [all within] the Four Seas respectfully submit to him. Spring and autumn, winter and summer, all offer up their goods in tribute to him. The whole world blends together and becomes one; sons and grandsons succeed one another. This was the way the Five Thearchs welcomed the Potency of Heaven. [6/54/4–6]
Now a sage cannot create [an opportune moment of] time. [But] when the [opportune] time comes, he does not miss it. He
promotes those who have ability,
dismisses the initiators of slander or flattery,
puts a stop to clever or argumentative talk,
does away with the laws [requiring punishments of] cutting or amputating,
banishes matters that are vexatious or petty,
avoids any traces of gossip,
shuts the door on cabals and parties.
He
extirpates [conventional] knowledge and ability,
complies with the Supreme Constant,89
sloughs off his limbs and body,
minimizes perception and intelligence,90
greatly penetrates into formless obscurity,
liberates his awareness and releases his spirit.
Completely indifferent, as if lacking ethereal and material souls,91 he causes the myriad things all to return to their own roots, thus in these ways following in the footsteps of Lord Fuxi and reverting to the Way of the Five Thearchs.
Now, how is it that Qian Qie and Da Bing were able to achieve a reputation for charioteering throughout the world while not using reins or bits and that Fuxi and Nüwa were able to transmit Utmost Potency to later generations while not setting up laws and standards? They achieved Empty Nothingness and Pure Unity, and they did not dabble in petty matters. The Book of Zhou92 says, “If you try to catch cock pheasants and do not get any, adjust [your hunting techniques] to suit their habits.” [6/54/8–14]
Now take, for example, the methods of government [proposed by] Shen [Buhai], Han [Feizi],93 and Shang Yang. They [proposed to]
pluck out the stems [of disorder]
and weed out the roots [of disobedience],
without fully investigating where [those undesirable qualities] came from. How did things get to that point? They
forcibly imposed the five punishments,
employed slicing and amputations,
and turned their backs on the fundamentals of the Way and its Potency while fighting over the point of an awl.94 They mowed the common people95 like hay and exterminated more than half of them. Thus filled with self-admiration, they constantly took themselves as [the model of] government; but this was just like adding fuel to put out a fire or boring holes to stop water [from leaking].
Now shoots may grow from the wooden casing of a well, not leaving room for the bucket; and branches may grow from the wooden casing of a canal, not leaving room for the boats. But not more than three months later, [these growths] will be dead. How is it that this is so? They all are wild growths with no roots of their own. That the Yellow River makes nine bends before it flows into the sea, but its flow is not interrupted by them, is because [the water] is carried [by the flow from] Mount Kunlun. But that floodwaters do not find an outlet but spread out widely to the limits of [one’s] vision, [so that] after ten days or a month of no rain they dry up and turn into a stagnant wetland is because they receive [only] an overflow but have no source [of replenishment].
This may be compared with [the situation of] Yi [the Archer], who requested the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West. Heng E96 stole it [from him] and fled [with it] to the moon. [Yi] was downcast and grief stricken because he had no way to get more of it. Why? Because he did not know where the elixir of immortality came from.
Thus begging for fire is not as good as getting a fire starter, and asking for a drink is not as good as boring a well. [6/54/14–21]
Translated by John S. Major
1. “White Snow” evidently was a work of sacred music. When the Jin ruler Duke Ping ordered his music master to play it outside its proper liturgical context, the misfortunes named here resulted. A much more detailed version of the story appears in Hanfeizi, chap. 10.
2. Duke P
ing of Jin (r. 557–532 B.C.E.).
3. As the Gao You commentary explains, the Commoner Woman (shu nü ) was a virtuous widow, falsely accused by her sister-in-law of murdering her mother-in-law. She cried out to Heaven about the injustice of this, and calamities ensued.
4. Duke Jing of Qi (r. 547–490 B.C.E.).
5. Reading shang as chang , to preserve the parallelism of shangxi () and feiyü , and rejecting the rather contrived argument of commentators that shangxi should be understood to mean “Master of Hemp,” supposedly a lowly office in the Zhou royal administration.
6. Reading li as li .
7. King Wu was the second king of the Zhou dynasty, after his father, King Wen. King Wu (the “martial king”) completed the conquest of Shang, defeating the Shang army at the battle of Muye (in present-day Qi County, Henan Province), ca. 1046 B.C.E.
8. Marquis Yang, ruler of the state of Lingyang , was supposed to have drowned in the Yellow River; his ghost sometimes caused deadly waves to arise. See also 16.139.
9. Duke Luyang was a vassal of the state of Chu, the grandson of King Ping of Chu (r. 528– 516 B.C.E.) and son of Master of Horse Ziqi.
10. These two lines are repeated in 13.9, where they are said to describe the philosophy of Yang Zhu.
11. The Ancestor (zong )—that is, the Way. This phrase recurs in 6.4.
12. The Three Armies, a conventional phrase for the entire armed forces of a kingdom. A version of this anecdote is also found in ZZ 5/13/19–21.
13. Both Heaven and Earth have nine divisions, but each also has an underlying unity.
14. According to Gao You, Yong Menzi lived near the Yong Men gate of the Qi capital of Linze and thus derived his sobriquet. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:640n.18. See also 10.94.
15. Lord Mengchang (also known as Tian Wen [ca. 330–ca. 280 B.C.E.]) was a powerful scion of the royal house of Qi. He was renowned as a great patron and statesman; his biography is recounted in detail in Shiji 75.
16. According to Gao You, Bo Juzi was a native of Chu famed for his skill with a dart and line. See Zhang Shuandgi 1997, 1:642n.22.
17. A ren equals eight feet and is thus equivalent to a xun . Eight Han feet would equal about six feet in English measure, hence the translation “fathom” in 6.5. See also 3.31 and 4.1.
18. Reading er as er . Essentially the same statement appears in 3.2. In an earlier translation of chap. 3, I followed commentators who read as “ear ornament” (Major 1993, 65–66). I now believe that the interpretation of “brittle” or “crumbly” (er ) is more convincing. See also the discussion in Le Blanc 1985, 117. It is possible that neither explanation is correct; in any case, the basic notion involved clearly is derived from the concept of resonance in the Five-Phase categories.
19. Commentators’ efforts to elucidate this enigmatic statement are generally unconvincing. Some sort of military divination or prognostication, using ashes to make a drawing on the ground, is evidently involved. For further discussion, see Le Blanc 1985, 117nn.41, 42.
20. The same statement appears in 3.2.
21. Beijue is regarded by commentators as a technical term referring to convex halos appearing on either side of the sun. For a discussion, see Le Blanc 1985, 118.
22. These five lines also appear in LSCQ 13.2. See Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 283–84.
23. For these two quasi-magical implements, see also 3.2.
24. Reading lan as lan , following Wang Niansun. See Lau, HNZ, 50n.8.
25. Reading ji in place of chen , as in ZZ 6/17/7. For the lunar lodges, see app. A. Tail (wei ) and Winnowing Basket (ji ) are the sixth and seventh in the usual sequence of lodges, beginning with Horn (jue ). The legendary Shang-dynasty minister and sage Fu Yue is said to have ascended to Heaven by riding on these constellations.
26. There is a parallel passage in ZZ 21/57/23–24.
27. There is a similar passage in ZZ 7/20/27–28.
28. Rejecting Lau’s (HNZ 6/50/23) proposed emendation of shi to yan . If the emendation were accepted, the lines would have a very different interpretation: “to attract those who are far-off emissaries is of no use; to cherish those who are close by words is of no avail.” These two lines (with yan, not shi) appear in a parallel passage in Guanzi 2.4. See Rickett 1985, 131–32. For an extensive discussion of these two lines, see Le Blanc 1985, 122.
29. Ye xing zhe —that is, one who acts in a concealed and mysterious manner.
30. Laozi 46.
31. Marquis Sui was a vassal of Chu of unknown date. He was given a fabulous pearl by a snake that he had saved from being killed, and the pearl became a renowned heirloom of his lineage.
32. Mr. He , or Bian He , was the discoverer of a marvelous piece of raw jade that went unrecognized by successive Chu monarchs until it was finally acknowledged as a priceless jewel, though not before Bian He himself was brutally punished for attempted fraud. See chap. 14, n. 57; and 16.19 and 16.90. His story is also recounted in Hanfeizi 13.
33. A version of this story appears in LSCQ 25.2. See Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 628.
34. Reading jie as xie . Compare 16.124: “If exposed to the sight of crabs, lacquer will not dry.” According to later Chinese pharmacopeias, a compress of crushed shellfish was used to treat the rash caused by exposure to raw lac sap (the lac tree is related to poison sumac). The enzymes in the shellfish medicine also are capable of preventing lacquer from drying properly, and so it must be kept away from lacquer that is still in the process of being manufactured. We are grateful to Anthony Barbieri-Low (private communication) for this insight.
35. Ou the Smelter , also written , was a renowned swordsmith of Yue who fashioned legendary swords for King Goujian of Yue (r. 496–465 B.C.E.) and King Zhao of Chu (r. 515–489 B.C.E.). Chunjun was one of five precious swords he crafted for the former monarch.
36. The sycophant Zuo Qiang served as minister to Djou, “bad last ruler” of the Shang dynasty.
37. The Grand Duke (also known as Lü Wang ) was a wise commoner who became counselor to King Wen and assisted in the Zhou conquest of Shang. He was made the first Duke of Qi, and his descendants ruled that state until they were usurped by the Tian clan in 379 B.C.E.
38. This simile of leather and rawhide has prompted several commentarial attempts at explication, most of them improbable. We think the most likely interpretation is the one implied by the translation given here, involving a play on words (close/similar and distant/dissimilar).
39. That is, their attention is distracted in all directions.
40. This statement, apparently well known in third and second centuries B.C.E. China, also appears, inter alia, in Zhuangzi 24 (ZZ 24/69/21–22), Lüshi chunqiu 13.2 (Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 283), and Chunqiu fanlü 57.
41. Compare 3.29, where the “ruler of all notes” (yin zhi jun ) is equated with the fundamental note gong. Here, in contrast, the “ruler of all notes” seems to refer to some quality that lies behind and before music itself—perhaps to be understood as profound silence. Compare also the “ruler of form” (jun xing ), in 16.91 and 17.61.
42. Commentators explain that the chi dragon is hornless and that the qiu dragon has horns.
43. Ji is described in 4.1 as the central province of the known world.
44. Qing mou ; the expression does not make much sense because a qing normally means “one hundred mou.”
45. The shan is generally assumed to be the swamp eel (Monopterus albus), a very aggressive freshwater eel.
46. Emending she to yuan , as proposed by Lau, HNZ 6/51/26. See also Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:664n.17.
47. The text here makes a play on words: yuzhou is used literally in its sense of “roof beams and rafters” (e.g., of a barn, the natural habitat of swallows and sparrows), but it also calls to mind its more usual meaning of “universe” (i.e., the habitat of phoenixes).
48. For the Carved-Out Garden and other magical places in Kunlun, see 4.3.
49. The Polished Pillar was a boulder in the midst of the Yellow River, in Henan Province.
50. Mengsi , probably the same as menggu , the Vale of Obscurity, into which the sun sets and from which the sun rises again. See 3.25.
51. Wang Liang , a grandee of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period, was renowned for his skill as a charioteer.
52. According to Gao You, Qian Qie and Da Bing were the charioteers of the Grand One (Taiyi ) in his guise as a god of the royal cult. Another account says that they were adepts of the Way who mounted the yin and yang using their spirit qi. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:673n.8.
53. Emending teng to hai , following Wang Niansun. See Lau, HNZ, 52n.6.
54. According to tradition, the imperial carriage was drawn by six horses (or six dragons).
55. Tianzhe , could mean “those who work in fields”; tian, however can also mean “to hunt,” and here tianzhe as “hunters” makes a better parallel with “fishers” in the following line.
56. Chen —that is, time-keeping heavenly bodies such as planets and lunar lodges.
57. Reading bao instead of lang (wolf ), following Wang Niansun. See Lau HNZ, 52n.12.
58. Flying Yellows (feihuang ) were special horses, dragonlike or actual dragons, supposedly used to pull the imperial chariot.
59. Di buzhou dai . It is interesting that the mountain in the northwest, where a gap is said to have existed between Heaven and Earth, is called Mount Buzhou. For the myth of the fight between Gong Gong and Zhuan Xu that supposedly caused the disruption of Heaven and Earth described here, see 3.1.
60. Zhuan min conveys the sense of people who are unsophisticated and blameless. Yu Dacheng advocates emending zhuan to jing , understood to mean “pure in spirit.” This seems unnecessary.
61. That is, stones embodying the essence of each of the Five Phases. Compare the five minerals described in the alchemical passage that ends chap. 4.
62. The essence of water, thus responsible for floods.
63. That is, the central regions, the Sinitic world. See 4.1.
64. The subject here is unstated; given the reference in 6/52/22 immediately preceding, it would seem that the rule of Fuxi in addition to Nüwa, or even subsequent to her labors in repairing Heaven and Earth, is implied.
65. For these attributes of the four seasons, see chap. 5, passim.