by An Liu
Only the sage can leave things aside and return to himself.
Someone who boards a boat and becomes confused, not knowing west from east, will see the Dipper and the Pole Star and become oriented. Nature is likewise a Dipper and a Pole Star for human beings.
If one possesses that by which one can see oneself, then one will not miss the genuine dispositions of things.
If one lacks that by which one can see oneself, then one will be agitated and ensnared.
It is like swimming in Longxi:19 the more you thrash, the deeper you will sink.
Confucius said to Yan Hui, “I serve you by forgetting [you], and you also serve me by forgetting [me]. Although it is so, even though you forget me, there is still something that has not been forgotten that persists.”20 Confucius understood the root of it.
The actions of one who gives free rein to desires and loses his nature have never been correct.
Controlling one’s person [in this way leads to] danger;
controlling a state [in this way leads to] chaos;
leading an army [in this way leads to] destruction.
For this reason, those who have not heard the Way have no means to return to nature.
Thus the sage-kings of antiquity were able to attain it in themselves, and their orders were enacted and their prohibitions were binding. Their names were carried down to later ages, [and] their Potency spread throughout the Four Seas. [11/95/24–11/96/7]
11.6
For this reason, whenever one is about to take up an affair, one must first stabilize one’s intentions and purify one’s spirit.
When the spirit is pure and intentions are stable,
only then can things be aligned.
It is like pressing a seal into clay:
if it is held straight, [the impression] will be straight;
if it is held crookedly, [the impression] will be crooked.
Thus
when Yao chose Shun, he decided simply with his eyes;
when Duke Huan chose Ning Qi, he judged him simply with his ears.
If on this basis one were to give up technique and measurements and rely on one’s ears and eyes, the [resulting] chaos would certainly be great. That the ears and eyes can judge is because one returns to feelings and nature.
If one’s hearing is lost in slander and flattery
and one’s eyes are corrupted by pattern and color,
if one then wants to rectify affairs, it will be difficult.
One who is suffused with grief will cry upon hearing a song;
one suffused with joy will see someone weeping and laugh.
That grief can bring joy
and laughter can bring grief—
being suffused makes it so. For this reason, value emptiness. [11/96/6–12]
When water is agitated, waves rise,
when the qi is disordered, the intellect is confused.
A confused intellect cannot attend to government;
agitated water cannot be used to establish a level.
Thus the sage-king holds to the One without losing it, and the genuine dispositions of the myriad things are discovered, the four barbarians and the nine regions all submit. The One is the supremely noble; it has no match in the world. The sage relies on the matchless; thus the mandate of the people attaches itself [to him]. [11/96/14–16]
One who practices Humaneness must discuss it [in terms of] grief and joy;
one who practices Rightness must explain it [in terms of] grasping and yielding.
If the human eye does not see beyond ten li and one wants to comprehensively reach all people within the [four] seas, grief and joy will not suffice.
If one does not have the amassed wealth of the world and wants to comprehensively supply the myriad people, [material] benefit cannot be enough.
Moreover, pleasure, anger, grief, and joy arise spontaneously from a stimulus. Thus,
a cry issues from the mouth,
tears flow from the eyes—
all burst forth within
and take form externally.
It is like
water flowing downward
or smoke rising upward:
What compels them? Thus,
though one who forces oneself to cry feels pain, he does not grieve;
though one who forces intimacy will laugh, there is no harmony.
Feelings come forth within, and sounds respond externally. Thus,
the jug of food of Xi Fuji was better than the Chuiji jade of Duke Xian of Jin,21
the bound meat-strips of Zhao Xuanmeng were more worthy that the great bell of Earl Zhi.22
Thus [though] ritual may be elaborate, it does not suffice for effecting love, yet a sincere heart can embrace [those at] a great distance. [11/96/18–23]
11.7
Thus,
in caring for his family, Gongxi Hua23 resembled one living among friends.
In caring for his family, Zeng Can resembled one serving an austere lord or a fierce ruler.
[Yet] in terms of caring, they were as one.
The Hu people strike bones together [to seal an oath];
the Yue people make cuts in their arms;
[the people of] the Middle Kingdom smear their mouths with blood.
The origins of all [these customs] are different, but in terms of [establishing] trust, they are as one.
The Three Miao [tribes] bind their heads with hemp;
the Qiang people bind their necks;
the [people of] the Middle Kingdom use hat and hairpin;
the Yue people shear their hair.
In regard to getting dressed, they are as one.
According to the institutes of Thearch Zhuan Xu, if wives did not avoid men on the roads, they would be beaten at a four-way crossroads. Now in the capital, men and women touch shins and rub shoulders in the street. In regard to being customs, they are as one.
Thus the rites of the four Yi [“barbarians”] are not the same, [yet] they all
revere their ruler,
love their kin,
and respect their elder brothers.
The customs of the Xian and Yun are opposite, [yet] they both
are kind to their children
and venerate their elders.
Birds in flight form a line;
beasts in the field form groups,
who was there to teach them? [11/97/1–6]
Thus the state of Lu observed the rites of the Confucians and practiced the arts of Confucius. Its territory was stripped away and its name brought low; it was unable to befriend those nearby or attract those far away.
King Goujian24 of Yue shaved his head and tattooed his body; he did not have leather caps or jade belt ornaments; [he lacked] the postures of bowing and bending. Even so he defeated Fuchai at Five Lakes; facing south he was hegemon of the world. All twelve feudal rulers from north of the Si River led the nine Yi [tribes] in paying court [to him].
In the countries of the Hu, Mo, and Xiongnu, [people] leave their limbs unwrapped and their hair unbound; they sit cross-legged and talk back [to their superiors]. Yet their states have not collapsed, and they do not necessarily lack Ritual.
King Zhuang of Chu wore thin lapels on a broad robe,25 [yet] his commands were effective throughout the world, and as a consequence he became hegemon of the Lords of the Land.
Lord Wen of Jin wore clothes of coarse cloth and sheepskin, and he belted his sword with leather, [yet] his might was established within the seas. How can it be that only the rites of Zou and Lu [may be] called Rites? For this reason,
when entering a state, one follows their customs,
when entering a household, one respects their taboos.
If one does not violate a prohibition in entering,
if one does not go forward contrary [to custom],
then even on traveling to the (countries of) the Yi or Di or to the Country of the Naked, or going beyond the farthest limits of chariot tracks, one will have no trouble. [11/97/8–13]
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br /> 11.8
Ritual is the patterning of substance.
Humaneness is the application of kindness.
Thus Rites accord with human feeling and make for them an ordered pattern, and Humaneness bursts forth as a blush that appears in one’s countenance.
When Ritual does not surpass substance
and Humaneness does not surpass [the proper degree of] kindness,
this is the Way of ordering the world.
The three-year mourning period26 forces a person to what he cannot reach; thus he supplements his feelings with pretense.
The three-month observance27 breaks off grief, coercing and hacking at nature.
The Confucians and the Mohists do not [find the] origin [of their doctrines] in the beginnings and ends of human feelings and are committed to practicing mutually opposed systems [for] the five grades of observance.28 Sorrow and grief are contained in feelings; burial and interment correspond to nurturing.29
Do not force people to do what they are incapable of;
do not interrupt what people are able to complete.
When standards and measurements do not deviate from what is proper, there is no source from which slander and flattery can arise.
In antiquity, it was not that they did not know the elaborate rites of ascending and descending, turning and circling, the postures of the “dignified” and “hastening” steps.30 They felt that these wasted the day, burdened the people, and were useless; thus they instituted only those rites that aided substance and expressed one’s intentions.
It was not that they were unable to display bells and drums, array pipes and flutes, brandish shields and axes, hoist plumes and banners. They felt that these wasted wealth and disordered government; [thus] they instituted only music that sufficed to harmonize joy and expound one’s intentions; the tune did not exceed the pleasure [it expressed].
It was not that they were unable to exhaust the state and mislead the people, empty the treasury and waste wealth, sending off the dead with pearls in their mouth, wrapped in scales [of jade], girdled in cotton and bamboo. They felt it impoverished the people, interrupted their work, and was of no aid to dry bones and rotting flesh. Thus burials were sufficient to gather the remains and cover the grave, that is all.
Of old when Shun was buried at Cangwu, stalls were not altered in the marketplace [and] when Yu was buried at Mount Kuaiji, farmers did not move their fields. They were clear about the division between death and life, the mean between expenditure and frugality. Chaotic kingdoms are not this way.
Their words and conduct are at odds;
their feelings and facial expressions are opposed.
Their rituals are binding to the point of oppression;
their music is stirring to the point of license.
They revere death to the point of harming life;
they extend mourning to the point of obstructing work.
For this reason, their customs are corrupting to the age; flattery and slander sprout at court; thus the sage abandons and does not use them. [11/97/15–26]
11.9
Rightness is following the patterns and doing what is appropriate;
Ritual is embodying feelings and establishing a design.
Rightness is appropriateness;
Ritual is embodiment.31
Of old,
the Youhu32 clan acted with Rightness and perished; they understood Rightness but did not understand appropriateness.
Lu instituted Rites and was pared down; they understood Rites but not embodiment.
In the rites of Youyu,33 the altar was made of earth; sacrifices were to the central eaves; the tombs were one mu square; his music34 was the “Pool of Xian,” the “Bearing Clouds,” and the “Nine Harmonies.”35 His clothing gave prominence to yellow.36
The altar of the lords of Xia was made of pine; they sacrificed to the door [god]; their tombs were walled; and their coffins were shrouded.37 Their music was the nine movements38 of the “Pipes of Xia,” the “Six Dance Troops,” the “Six Lines,” and the “Six Blossoms.”39 Their clothes gave prominence to green.
In the rites of the Yin, their altar was made of stone; they sacrificed to the gate; [and] their tombs were planted with pines. Their music was the “Great Melody” and “Morning Dew.”40 Their clothing gave prominence to white.
In the rites of the Zhou, their altar was made of chestnut; they sacrificed to the stove; their tombs were planted with cypress; their music was the “Grand Martiality,” the “Three Elephants,” and the “Beneath the Mulberry.” Their clothing gave prominence to red.41
Their Ritual and Music were contradictory; their clothes and regulations were opposed; yet none lost the affection [appropriate to] kinship and remoteness, the discipline of superior and inferior. Now to seize on one ruler’s methods and statutes while rejecting the customs transmitted from ages [past] is like tuning a se and [then] gluing the bridges in place.42 [11/98/1–9]
Therefore the enlightened ruler clothes himself with rites and propriety [and] girdles himself with discipline and conduct. His clothes suffice
to cover his frame,
to follow the ancient canons,
to accommodate bowing and bending,
to convenience his body and frame,
to ease his movement and steps.
He does not strive for an extraordinary or beautiful appearance or a cornered, diagonal cut.
His belt suffices
to tie a knot and gather the flaps,
to bind tightly and cinch fast.
He feels no urgency that [it be made of] round and square patterned [embroidery].43
Thus he institutes Rites and Rightness; he acts with utmost Moral Potency, but he is not fixated on the Confucians and the Mohists. [11/98/11–13]
11.10
What is called “clarity” does not refer to seeing another, it is seeing oneself, that is all.
What is called “acuity” does not refer to hearing another, it is hearing oneself, that is all.
What is called “attainment” does not refer to understanding another, it is understanding oneself, that is all.
Thus the person is where the Way is lodged; when the person is achieved, the Way is achieved. As for achievement of the Way,
in seeing, it is clarity,
in listening, it is acuity,
in speech, it is impartiality,
in conduct, it is compliance.
Thus the sage shapes and fashions things
the way the carpenter chops, pares, drills, and fastens;
the way the cook slices, cuts, divides, and separates.
Each detail achieves what is appropriate to it, and nothing is broken or harmed. A clumsy artisan is not this way.
Big things become so blocked up that nothing can penetrate them;
small things become so tenuous that nothing can get around them.
He is
agitated in his mind,
shaky in his hands,
and makes things worse.
As for the sage’s chopping and paring things,
he splits them, he halves them,
he separates them, he scatters them.
[Those that are] already dissolute, already lost, he unites again.
Having emerged from their root, they return again to their gateway.
Already carved, already polished, they return again to simplicity.
Merged, they are the Way and its Potency,
separated, they are standards and decorum.
He concentrates44 and penetrates the Mysterious Obscurity;
he disperses and responds without form.
How can even Ritual, Rightness, discipline, and conduct exhaust the source of perfect order? [11/98/15–22]
11.11
Many of those who oversee affairs in the world depart from the source of the Way and its Potency, saying that Ritual and Rightness suffice to order the empire. One cannot discuss techniques with people like them. What is called “Ritual and Righ
tness” is the methods, statutes, ways, and customs of the Five Thearchs and the Three Kings. They are the remnants of a [former] age. Compare them to straw dogs and earthen dragons when they are first fashioned.45
They are patterned with green and yellow,
wrapped with silk and embroidery,
bound with vermilion silk,
clothed in white and black garb.
Grandees wear the peaked cap to send them off and welcome them. Once they have been used, they are buried in the soil and grown over by grass and brambles, that is all. What is there to be valued in them?
Thus in the time of Shun, the Youmiao did not pay tribute. At this, Shun cultivated [good] governance and ceased military [operations]; thus he grasped the shield and battle-ax and danced with them.46
In the time of Yu, there was a great flood in the world. Yu ordered the people to gather earth and wood, forming hills and mounds to lodge [the dead].
When King Wu attacked [the tyrant] Djou, he carried the corpse [of his father] on the march. All within the seas was not yet pacified; thus [the custom] of three years’ mourning began.
Yu encountered the calamity of the flood, the tasks of ditches and embankments; thus those who died in the morning were buried in the evening.
These all are examples of how the sage follows alterations and responds to the times, views the form and effects what is appropriate. Now to cultivate the staff and battle-ax and laugh at the hoe and the spade, or to know of the three-year [mourning period before burial] and reject [burial after only] one day, is [as absurd as] to follow the ox and reject the horse, or to take up the zhi tone but laugh at the yu tone.47 Responding to transformation like this is no different from playing “Beneath the Mulberry” by plucking only one string. [11/98/24–11/99/5]
Now to desire to follow transformation and respond to the times on the basis of the alterations of a single era can be compared to wearing straw in winter and fur in summer.
A single aim cannot be used for a hundred shots;
a single garment cannot last the entire year.
The aim must respond to high and low;
the garment must be appropriate to cold or heat.
For this reason,
in different ages, affairs alter,
when times shift, customs change.
Thus the sage
assesses the age in establishing methods;