by An Liu
In the time of Shun, Gong Gong stirred up the torrents and [unleashed] floods of water, extending as far as Hollow Mulberry. The Dragon Gate Pass was not yet opened, [and] the Lu Berm had not yet been breached. The Yangzi and the Huai flowed as one; the four seas [became] a boundless expanse of water. The people all climbed hills and mounds and leaped into trees. Shun [thereupon] employed Yu to drain the three rivers and the five lakes [and] to tunnel through Yujue Mountain and make channels for the Chan and Jian rivers. He leveled the land and conducted the waters, leading them to flow into the eastern sea. The flooding waters flowed away, and the nine provinces became dry again. The multitudes were at peace with their natures, and thus they considered Yao and Shun to be sages.
Coming to the time of later generations, there were the emperors Jie and Djou. Jie built the Revolving Palace and the Jade Terrace, [with] porches of ivory and bedsteads of jade. Djou made a forest of meat and a lake of wine; he gathered [for his own use] all the wealth of the world and exhausted in bitterness the labor of the multitudes. He cut open [and extracted the heart of a minister] who remonstrated and ripped open a pregnant woman [to expose her fetus]. [In these ways, Jie and Djou] plundered the world and ill treated the people.
Accordingly, then, Tang employed three hundred war chariots to attack Jie south of Chao and imprisoned him at Xia Terrace. King Wu used three thousand armored warriors to destroy Djou at Muye, [later] executing him at Proclamation Hall. The world became peaceful and orderly, and the people came together harmoniously. Thus Tang and Wu were considered men of surpassing goodness.
From this, one can see that if one is to acquire the reputation of a worthy or a sage, it is necessary to encounter the calamities of a disorderly age. [8/63/8–21]
Nowadays a Perfected Person [who is] born in the midst of a chaotic age, who internalizes Potency, embraces the Way, and is filled with inexhaustible wisdom, [nevertheless must] gag his mouth and stifle his speech. Consequently, there are many [such] who die without ever having spoken, and under Heaven, no one [even] knows to honor this not-speaking. Thus
the Way that can be called the Way is not the enduring Way;
names that can be named are not enduring names.20
[Words] written on bamboo or silk or engraved in metal or stone, so as to be passed down to [later] people, are only the rough equivalents.
The Five Thearchs21 and Three Kings22 had
different affairs
but the same intentions;
different roads
but the same destinations.23
But the scholars of later times know nothing about how to form one body with the Way or how to comprehensively epitomize its Potency. They merely take up the track of things that have already been done. They sit facing one another with a dignified air and talk about it;24 they drum, chant, and express themselves in dance. But [despite] their broad studies and extensive instruction, they still do not avoid being deluded. It is as the Odes says:
“One does not dare to attack a tiger bare-handed;
one does not dare to cross the [Yellow] River without a boat.”
Everyone knows this, but no one knows anything else.25 [8/62/23–8/64/3]
8.7
The thearch embodies the Grand One;
the king emulates yin and yang;
the hegemon follows the four seasons;
the prince uses the six pitch pipes.26
Now the Grand One
encloses and contains Heaven and Earth,
weighs on and crushes the mountains and streams,
retains or emits yin and yang,
stretches out and drags along the four seasons,
knots the net of the eight directional end points,
and weaves the web of the six coordinates.
It renews the dew and universally overflows without partiality; it [causes the] water-flies to fly and wriggling things to move; there is nothing that does not rely on it and its Potency in order to live.
Yin and yang
uphold the harmony of Heaven and Earth and shape the physical forms of the myriad diversities.
[They] retain qi and transform things in order to bring to completion the kinds of the myriad categories.
They stretch out and draw back,
roll up and uncoil.27
They sink into the unfathomable,
end and begin [again] in emptiness and fullness,
revolving in the without-origin.
The four seasons:
spring birth,
summer growth,
autumn harvest,
winter storage.
For obtaining and bestowing, there are times;
for going out and entering, there are measures.
Opening and closing, expanding and contracting, they do not deviate from their [proper] order;
happiness and anger, hardness and pliancy, do not depart from their principles.
The six pitch pipes are
life and death,
reward and punishment,
granting and taking away.
Anything that is otherwise lacks the Way. Therefore
pay heed to the balance beam and weight, the level and the marking cord;28
examine into the light and the heavy.
This is sufficient to govern within the boundaries [of a state]. [8/64/5–11]
Therefore one who embodies the Grand One
discerns the true responses of Heaven and Earth29
and penetrates the regularities of the Way and its Potency.
His comprehensive brilliance bedazzles like the sun and moon;
his essence and spirit penetrate the myriad things.
His motion and rest are in tune with yin and yang;
his happiness and anger harmonize with the four seasons;
his Moral Potency and magnanimity extend to beyond the borderlands;
and his fame and reputation pass down to later generations.
One who emulates yin and yang
has Potency comparable to Heaven and Earth
and brilliance like that of the sun and moon;
his essence is as comprehensive as that of ghosts and spirits.
He wears roundness as a hat
and squareness as shoes;30
he embraces the gnomon
and holds fast to the marking cord.
Within, he is able to govern his person;
without, he is able to win people’s minds.
When he promulgates edicts and issues commands, there is no one in the world who does not comply with them.
One who follows the four seasons
is pliant but not fragile,
hard but not brittle,
lenient but not reckless,
demanding but not overbearing.
He is liberal, pliant, responsible, and indulgent in his nourishing the multitudes of creatures; in his Moral Potency he is magnanimous to the simpleminded and forgiving of the deviant; he is devoid of partiality.
One who uses the six pitch pipes
quells disorder and prohibits violence;
advances the meritorious and demotes the unworthy.
He supports the reliable so as to create order;
he drives away the treacherous in order to create peace;
he straightens out the bent in order to create uprightness.
He discerns the Way of prohibitions and pardons, openings and closings. He relies on timeliness and utilizes the power of circumstance in order to win over the hearts of the people.
If a thearch [merely] embodies yin and yang, [his throne] will be usurped.
If a king [merely] models himself on the four seasons, [his territory] will be seized.
If a hegemon [merely] regulates himself by the six standards, he will be disgraced.
If a prince neglects the level and the marking cord, he will be eradicated.
If [a person of] small [standing] carries out great [affairs], the results will be turbulent, insubstantial, and uncongenial.
&n
bsp; If a great [person] carries out petty [matters], the results will be narrow, cramped, and unpleasing.
If honorable and mean do not lose their [proper] embodiments, then the world will be [properly] governed. [8/64/11–21]
8.8
Heaven loves its [own] essence;
Earth loves its [own] properties;
people love their [own] instinctive responses.
Heaven’s essential qualities are the sun, moon, stars, planets, thunder, lightning, wind, and rain.
Earth’s properties are water, fire, metal, wood, and earth.
People’s instinctive responses are thought, forethought, comprehensiveness [of hearing], clarity [of sight], happiness, and anger.
Thus if one
closes the Four Gates [of perception]31
and puts an end to the Five Extravagances,
then one will be immersed in the Way. Therefore
when spirit illumination is stored up in the Formless,
and the Quintessential qi reverts to ultimate genuineness,
then the eyes are clear, but they are not used for seeing;
and the ears are comprehensive, but they are not used for hearing;
the mouth is apt, but it is not used for speaking;
and the heart is orderly and penetrating, but is not used for thinking and planning.
[Under such circumstances,]
there are responsibilities but no intentional action,
harmonious actions but no boastfulness.
There is a true expression of the instinctive responses invoked by [the ruler’s] nature and life circumstances, so that wisdom and precedent are unable to confuse [him].
When the vital essence flows to the eye, vision is clear;
when it is present in the ear, hearing is comprehensive;
when it resides in the mouth, speech is apt;
when it collects in the heart, its feelings are appropriate.
So when one shuts the Four Gates, in the end,
the body suffers no adversity;
the hundred joints have no diseases.
There is neither death nor birth;
neither vacuity nor repletion.
This is what is called the Genuine Person. [8/64/23–28]
8.9
Generally speaking, disorder arises from profligate indolence. The sources of profligate indolence are fivefold:
[erecting] great roof beams and framing timbers;
building palaces and halls;
courtyard buildings, storied towers, and covered walkways;
aviaries and well houses;
with pillars and planks of fruitwood;
all joined together in mutual support;
masterpieces of skillful carpentry;
carved into twists and coils;
overflowingly engraved and carved and polished;
adorned with peculiar patterns and spiraling waves;
[with ornamentation] dripping, floating, billowing, subsiding;
water chestnut and dwarf oak twining and enfolding;
extensive, profuse, disordered, fecund;
cleverly artificial, joined together in apparent confusion;
each [effect] exceeding the last:
Such is profligate indolence based on wood.
The depths of excavated ponds and lakes;
the distance of aligned dikes and embankments;
the flow of diverted [streams] through gorges and valleys;
the straitness of ornamental zigzag channels;
the piling up of stone slabs and the strewing about of stones
in order to make borders and set out stepping-stones;
the placing of barriers and dampers in the furious rapids
so as to stir up the surging waves;
the making of angles and riffles, bends and meanders
to imitate the rivers of [Fan]yu and [Cang]wu;
the augmenting of lotus and water-chestnut plantings
so as to feed turtles and fish,
swans, geese, kingfishers,
fed with leftover rice and sorghum;
dragon boats with prows carved like water birds,
wafted along by the breeze for pure pleasure:
Such is profligate indolence based on water.
High pounded-earth city walls and fortifications,
plantings of trees [as barriers] in passes and defiles;
the impressiveness of lofty belvederes and observation posts;
the immensity of extravagant gardens and walled parks,
the sight of which satisfies every desire and wonder,
the height of lofty gate towers that ascend to the clouds and blue [sky];
great mansions rising tier upon tier,
rivaling the height of Kunlun;
the construction of barrier walls and enclosures,
the making of networks of roads,
the leveling of highlands and filling in of depressions,
the piling up of earth to make mountains,
for the sake of easy passage to great distances;
the straightening of roads through flatlands and hills,
so that [drivers] may ceaselessly gallop and race
without [fear] of stumbles or falls:
Such is profligate indolence based on earth.
Great bells and tripods,
beautiful and heavy implements,
engraved all over with floral and reptilian designs,
all twisting and intertwined,
with recumbent rhinos and crouching tigers,
coiling dragons interlacing together;
blazingly bright and confusingly contrived,
shiningly dazzling, brilliantly glittering,
topsy-turvy, convoluted, luxuriant, tangled,
[with] overall fretwork and written inscriptions,
[with] engraved and polished ornamentation;
cast tin-alloy decorated mirrors,
now dark, now bright,
rubbed minutely, every flaw removed;
frost patterns and deep-cut inlay work,
resembling bamboo matwork, basketry, or netting,
or brocade wrappings, regular or irregular,
the lines numerous but each one distinct:
Such is profligate indolence based on metal.
Frying, boiling, roasting, grilling,
the quest to blend, equalize, and harmonize [flavors],
trying to capture every permutation of sweet and sour in the manner of Jing and Wu;
burning down forests in order to hunt,
stoking kilns with entire logs,
blowing through tuyères and puffing with bellows
in order to melt bronze and iron
that extravagantly flow to harden in the mold,
not considering an entire day sufficient to the task.
The mountains are denuded of towering trees;
the forests are stripped of cudrania and catalpa trees;
tree trunks are baked to make charcoal;
grass is burned to make ash,
[so that] open fields and grasslands are white and bare
and do not yield [vegetation] in season.
Above, the heavens are obscured [by smoke];
below, the fruits of the earth are extinguished:
Such is profligate indolence based on fire.
Of these five, [even] one is sufficient for [a ruler] to lose control of the world. For this reason, in ancient times the making of the Mingtang was such that
below, mud and dampness should not rise up [in the walls];
above, drizzle and fog should not enter into [the building];
and on all four sides, the wind should not come in.
The earthen [walls] were not patterned;
the woodwork was not carved;
the metal fittings were not ornamented.
Clothing [was made] with untrimmed corners and seams;
hats were designed without fancy corners and folds.
The [Ming]
tang was sufficiently large for the movement of [those who] arranged the liturgies;
it was sufficiently quiet and clean for sacrifices to the high gods and for ceremonies [directed at] the spirits and deities.
This was to show forth to the people knowledge, simplicity, and economy. [8/65/1–19]
8.10
Now, sounds, colors, and the five flavors, precious and strange things from distant countries, things that are extraordinary, different, and surprising are enough to cause alterations and changes in the heart and will, to agitate and unsettle one’s essence and spirit, and to stir up the blood and the qi so that it becomes impossible to keep control of them. Now, the ways in which Heaven and Earth bring forth their products do not basically exceed five. The sage adheres to the five modes of conduct,32 and thus his government does not become disordered.
As a general rule, human nature [is such that] when the heart is harmonious and desires are obtained, there is joy.
Joy gives rise to movement;
movement gives rise to stepping about;
stepping about gives rise to agitation;
agitation gives rise to singing;
singing gives rise to dancing.
If there is dancing, [even] animals and birds will jump about.33
Human nature [is such that] when the heart harbors sorrow or mourning, there is grief.
Grief gives rise to lamentation;
lamentation gives rise to aroused feelings;
aroused feelings give rise to anger;
anger gives rise to movement;34
Movement causes the hands and feet to be restless.
Human nature [is such that] when [the heart] harbors [feelings of] being encroached upon or insulted, there is anger.
With anger, the blood becomes replete;
when the blood becomes replete, qi is aroused;
when qi is aroused, anger is manifested externally;
when anger is manifested externally, there is some release of feelings.
Thus,
bells and drums, flutes and panpipes, shields and war hatchets, feather plumes and oxtail banners, all are means to express joy.
Unfinished hempen garments, unbleached headcloths, and mourners’ staffs, and weeping, thrashing about, and restraints [on conduct] all are means to express sorrow.
Weapons and leather [armor], feather plumes and oxtail banners, metal drums, battle-axes and pole-axes, all are means to express anger.
First there must be the inner substance [of the emotion]; then one can make an outward expression of it. [8/65/21–8/66/4]