by An Liu
Eight
8.1
The reign of Grand Purity1
was harmonious and compliant and thus silent and indifferent;
substantial and true and thus plain and simple;
contained and tranquil, it was not intemperate;
exerting and shifting, it [followed] no precedents.
Inwardly it accorded with the Way;
outwardly it conformed to Rightness.
When stirred into motion, it formed [normative] patterns;
when moving at full speed, it was well matched to things.
Its words were concise and in step with reason;
its actions were simple and in compliance with feelings.
Its heart was harmonious and not feigned;
its [conduct of] affairs was simple and not ostentatious.
That being so,
there was no selecting of [auspicious] times and days,
no divining by trigrams or shell cracking,
no scheming about where to begin,
no discussion of where to end.
When tranquil, it stopped;
when roused, it moved.
It was of one body with Heaven and Earth,2
and one essence with yin and yang.
In its oneness it accorded with the four seasons;
in its brightness it shone as the sun and the moon.
As one with what fashions and transforms us, it was [both] female and male.
That being so,
Heaven overspread it with Potency;
Earth upheld it with Music.
The four seasons did not lose their order;
wind and rain did not descend with violence.
The sun and moon, with purity and clarity, spread their radiance;
the five planets held to their paths and did not fail in their movements.
At that time, the Mysterious Origin came to brightness and shed its brilliance all around.
The phoenix and the qilin arrived;
the milfoil and the tortoise gave omens.
Sweet dew descended.
Bamboo produced abundant shoots;
“flowing yellow”3 emerged [from the ground];
vermilion grass grew.
Contrivances and falsehoods were not harbored in people’s minds.
Coming down to the age of decline,
people delved in mountains for [precious] stones.
They engraved metal and [carved] jade,
pried open oysters and clams [to get pearls],
smelted bronze and iron,
and the myriad things were not nurtured [thereby].
People ripped open pregnant animals and killed young ones, [so] the qilin no longer wandered abroad.
They overturned nests and broke eggs, [so] the phoenix no longer soared.
They bored wood to get fire,
cut timber to build terraces,
burned forests to make fields,
drained marshes to catch fish,
so tortoises and dragons no longer frequented the earth.
[Nevertheless,] the implements of the common people were insufficient,
[while] the hoarded treasures [of the rich] were excessive.
Thus among the myriad things, more often than not,
calamities damaged sprouts and shoots,
and eggs and pregnancies failed to reach fruition.
People piled up earth so as to live on hills,
manured their fields to plant grain,
dug into the earth to make wells for drinking,
channeled streams to improve [their usefulness],
pounded earth into walls to make fortifications,
captured wild animals to domesticate them.
[Thus] yin and yang became twisted and tangled;
The four seasons lost their [proper] order;
thunderclaps caused things to overturn and break;
hailstones fell violently;
noxious vapors [descended and] did not disperse;
and the myriad things suffered premature deaths.
People cleared fields that were overgrown and weedy to consolidate and enclose acreage;
they mowed open lands and thickets so as to grow seedlings and sprouting grain;
and there were innumerable instances of misshapen shoots, unblossoming flowers, and pendant fruit that died [in an untimely way].
So things reached the stage when [people]
built great mansions, houses, and palaces,
with linked rooms and ranks of pillars
with jointed eaves and rafter ends,
all patterned, polished, carved, and graven,
with twisting and trailing caltrop branches,
with hibiscus and lotus,
the five colors vying with one another,
flowing together or standing apart.
All was smoothly contrived with great craft,
bent and contorted and doubled into knots,
minutely fussed over with great pains,
all in accordance with instructions,
so that [even legendary artisans like] Gongshu4 and Wang Er would have found no fault with the chiseling and graving, the carving and scrollwork. Yet [even] this did not suffice to fill the desires of the rulers of men. Thus the pine, the cypress, and the flowering bamboo5 drooped and rotted in the summertime; the Yangzi, the Yellow River, and the Three Streams became exhausted and ceased flowing.
Foreigners’ sheep [flocked] in the meadows;
flying locusts filled the open lands;
Heaven dried up and Earth cracked open;
the phoenix did not descend.
Hook-clawed, bare-toothed, horn-bearing, marauding wild animals became [even] fiercer. The common people had only small reed huts for houses, with nowhere [for travelers] to find lodging; those who died of cold and hunger lay as close together as pillows to mats.
Then it came to pass
that they divided mountains and streams, gorges and valleys, to make territories and boundaries.
They counted the population to divide the masses of people by numbers.
They pounded earth to make walls and dug moats.
They set up military contrivances in defiles and passes to prepare [against attack].
They created insignia for those who managed affairs,
made regulations of clothing and rank,
differentiated between noble and base,
distinguished the worthy from those who were not,
codified [terms of] disapprobation and praise,
instituted rewards and punishments.
That weapons and armor flourished, and contention and conflicts broke out; that the common people suffered extermination, repression, and disasters; that they were oppressively executed though guiltless, and suffered mutilating punishments though not guilty of crimes, was all due to this. [8/61/6–27]
8.2
The concord and harmony of Heaven and Earth,
the transformations of yin and yang and the myriad things
depend on one qi.6 For this reason, when the hearts of high and low become estranged from each other, qi rises up like a vapor; when ruler and minister are not in harmony, the five grains do not yield [a harvest].
For forty-six days after the winter solstice,7
Heaven withholds its responses and does not yet descend;
Earth harbors its qi and does not yet scatter it abroad.
Yin and yang are stored up together,
exhaling and inhaling as if in deep water.
They embrace and enfold [all] customs,
deliberate on the myriad differences [among things],
set aside what is unsuitable and amass the seemly,
thus together soaking and steeping, brewing and fermenting, they bring to completion the multitude of living things. For this reason,
when things are stunted in spring and flourish in autumn,
when there is thunder in winter and frost in summer,
it all is gen
erated by noxious qi. From this one can see that
Heaven and Earth, space and time, are as the body of a single person,
and everything within the six coordinates are as the shape of a single person.8
For this reason,
one who discerns the natures of things cannot be alarmed by anything in Heaven or Earth;
one who investigates auspicious omens cannot be affected by strange phenomena.
Thus the sage knows the far by means of the near, so that the myriad differentiations become unified. [8/62/1–6]
8.3
The people of antiquity made their qi the same as that of Heaven and Earth; they wandered in an era of unity.9 At that time,
there was no garnering advantage by praise and rewards,
no intimidation by mutilations and punishments.
Ritual and Rightness, purity and modesty, had not yet been established;
slander and flattery, Humaneness and contempt, had not yet been set up;
and the myriad peoples had not yet [begun to] treat one another with fraud and oppression, cruelty and exploitation—it was as if they were still immersed in turbid obscurity.10
Coming down to the era of decline, [it transpired that]
people were abundant, but wealth was scarce;
people labored to the utmost, but their nourishment was insufficient.
Thus competition and strife were born, and Humaneness was valued. The Humane and the petty minded were [, however,] not treated equitably.
Neighbors formed groups,
and friends formed cabals.
They promoted falsehood and deceit,
cherished a spirit of contrivance and artifice,
and lost [their] natural tendencies.
Thus Rightness was valued.
None of [the people’s] feelings associated with yin and yang [i.e., sexual feelings] were free from the stimulation of blood and qi. Men and women [therefore] gathered in places and promiscuously dwelt together without distinction. Thus Ritual was valued.
Instinctive feelings overflowed and were mutually conflicting. They could not stop themselves and therefore were discordant. Thus Music was valued.
Thus, Humaneness, Rightness, Ritual, and Music, though able to save [the world] from ruin, are still not the perfection of comprehensive governance.
Humaneness is able to save people from strife;
Rightness is able to save people from errors;
Ritual is able to save people from lewdness;
Music is able to save people from melancholy.
When spirit illumination is established in the world, then minds revert to their original state.
When minds revert to their original state, then people’s natures become good.
When people’s natures become good, they are followed by Heaven and Earth and by yin and yang.
Wealth then becomes sufficient. When wealth becomes sufficient, the people are respectful; covetousness, petty mindedness, anger, and competition have no occasion to arise. From this one can see that [under these circumstances,] there is no need for Humaneness and Rightness.
When the Way and its Potency are established in the world, then the people become pure and simple. Thus
their eyes are not fixed on beauty;
their ears are not drawn to sounds.
If there were [entertainers] sitting in rows and singing songs or prancing about with their hair hanging loose—
even if they were as alluring as Mao Qiang or Xi Shi, [the audience] would take no pleasure in them;
even if the tunes were “Falling Wings” or “Martial,” they would not find any joy in them.11
Even if the lewdness had no limit, it would come to nothing.
From this one can see that [under these circumstances,] there is no need for Ritual and Music. Thus,
when Potency declines, Humaneness is born;12
when conduct fails, Rightness is established.
When harmony is lost, there are sounds and ditties;
when rituals are decayed, comportment is gaudy.
Thus,
if one understands spirit illumination, then one can understand the inadequacy of the Way and its Potency for effecting things;
if one understands the Way and its Potency, then one can understand the inadequacy of Humaneness and Rightness in putting things into practice;
if one understands Humaneness and Rightness, then one can understand the inadequacy of Ritual and Music in regulating conduct. [8/62/6–19]
8.4
Now,
people who turn their backs on the fundamental but seek it in the peripheral
or who wish to explain the essential but inquire into details,
are not yet able to take part in discourses that reach the utmost. [8/62/19–20]
The size of Heaven and Earth may be known by means of the [carpenter’s] square and the gnomon;
the motions of the stars and the moon can be obtained from the calendar and from investigations;
the sound of thunder can be approximated by means of drums and bells;
the alterations of rain and wind can be known by means of the notes and the pitch pipes.
Thus,
if the size of a thing can be seen, it is possible to gauge its weight;
if the brightness of a thing can be observed, it is possible to know its obscurities;
if the sound of a thing can be heard, it is possible to know its melodies;
if the colors of a thing can be examined, it is possible to distinguish among them.
But as for the limit of vastness, Heaven and Earth cannot contain it;
as for the limit of minuteness, spirit illumination cannot comprehend its fineness.
When the time came that
the pitch pipes and calendar were established,
the five colors were distinguished,
the tonic and flattened [scales] were differentiated,
and sweet and bitter were distinguished as tastes,
then it was that the Unhewn Block was shattered and made into implements.
When Humaneness and Rightness were established
and Ritual and Music were reformed,
then Potency was done away with,
and the meretricious was brought into being.
When the meretricious was born,
fake wisdom was used to startle the ignorant,
and clever deceptions were used to inveigle those in high positions.
Thus in the world there were those who were able to manage things, but there was none who was capable of [true] rule. [8/62/22–27]
8.5
In ancient times,
when Cang Jue invented writing, Heaven rained corn, and demons wept all night.
When Bo Yi13 invented wells, dragons ascended to the dark clouds, and the spirits [fled to] their abode on Kunlun.
As wisdom and ability grew ever more abundant, Potency grew ever more scarce. Thus on the Zhou tripods was cast a depiction of Chui14 biting his fingers, signifying that great ingenuity is [ultimately] unable to accomplish anything.
Therefore the rule of the Perfected Person is like this:
His mind is coextensive with his spirit;
his physical form is in tune with his nature.
When he is still he embodies Potency;
when he acts, he patterns himself on penetration.
He follows his spontaneous nature and aligns himself with inevitable transformations.
He is profoundly non-active, and the world naturally becomes harmonious;
He is tranquilly devoid of desires, and the people naturally become simple.
He does not augur for good omens, so the people do not suffer calamities.
He is not angry or contentious, so food supplies are sufficient.
He unites and binds together all within the [Four] Seas, and the benefits reach to future generations, but none knows who it is who has done this.
While he is alive, he has no cognomen.
When he is dead, he has no posthumous title.
He accumulates no wealth, so his fame is not established.
When bestowing, he does not accumulate Potency, and when receiving, he does not cede it.15 Potency circulates and returns again to its source, and there is none who is not replete with it. So
where Potency is pervasive, the Way cannot be harmed;
what knowledge cannot understand, discrimination cannot explicate.
Wordless discrimination,
the Way of No-Way:
How can penetration get there? It is called Heaven’s Storehouse. One can
take from it without diminishing it,
pour from it without exhausting it.
No one knows from whence it comes. It is called Yaoguang.16 Yaoguang is the wealth and provender of the myriad things. [8/62/27–8/63/6]
8.6
When [the ruler] relieves hardships and supplements insufficiencies, then his fame is born. [When he] upholds the beneficial and eliminates the harmful, [when he] chastises the disorderly and prohibits cruelty, then his merit is established.
When an age is without calamity or harm, even a spirit would find no occasion to display his Potency.
When high and low are [united in] harmonious amity, even a worthy would have no occasion to show forth his merits.
In antiquity, in the time of Rong Cheng,17 people walked along on the roads like geese [in single file] and arranged themselves in rows. They [trustingly] cradled their infants and children in birds’ nests, [and] they put their surplus grain in mounds in the fields [without it being stolen]. They could grasp the tails of tigers and leopards and tread upon cobras and pythons [and come to no harm].18 But they did not understand how it came to be so.
Coming down to the time of Yao, the ten suns [once] came out together. They scorched the standing grain and the sheaves and killed herbs and trees, so that the people had nothing to eat. [Moreover,] Chayu, Nine Gullet, Typhoon, Mound Pig, Chisel Tusk, and Long Snake all were causing the people harm.19 Yao therefore commanded Yi [the Archer] to slaughter Chisel Tusk in the water meadows of Chouhua, to kill Nine Gullet on the banks of the Xiong River, to shoot down Typhoon in the wilds of Greenhill, upward to shoot the ten suns and downward to kill Chayu, to chop Long Snake in two at Dongting Lake, and to capture Mound Pig in Mulberry Forest. The multitudes of people all were happy and established Yao as Son of Heaven. And thus for the first time under Heaven, there were roads and mileposts in the plains and canyons, in [difficult] passes and easy [terrain], far and near.