by An Liu
to soar where there are no forms,
to be more expansive than the Four Seas,
to be loftier than Mount Tai,
to be richer than the Yangzi and Yellow rivers,
to penetrate boundlessly,
to shine brilliantly,
so that between Heaven and Earth there would be nothing to deter you. If you possessed the means to inspect and observe [the world like this]—would not that be indescribably great? [20/220/11–16]
20.31
What people know is superficial, yet things change ceaselessly. If previously you did not know something and now you know it, it is not that your [capacity to] know has increased but that there has been an augmentation of inquiry and learning.
Things that are frequently seen become known.
Things that are frequently done become doable.
Thus
if you have suffered calamities, you will take precautions.
If you have endured hardships, you will achieve solutions.
Now if you were to rely on the longevity of a single lifetime to survey
a thousand years’ knowledge
and the theories of past and present,
even if they did not increase [as you were studying them] and their Way and patterns were all plainly apparent, it cannot be said that there is a technique [for doing so]. [20/220/18–20]
If someone wants to know the height of something but is unable [to do so], if you instruct him in the use of the sighting tube86 and the level, he will be pleased.
If someone wants to know the weight of something but cannot, if you teach87 him to employ the weight and balance beam, he will be happy.
If someone wants to know the distance of something but is unable [to do so], if you teach him to use “metal eyes,”88 he will be delighted.
How much more [would a person be pleased] to understand how to respond to all things limitlessly?
To face great hardships and not become fearful,
to see many errors yet not become confused,
to be at ease and self-possessed—
how can such joy as this really be just the happiness derived from a single pleasure?
Now as for the Way,
those that have form are engendered by it; is it not their closest of kin?
Those who eat grain and ingest qi receive them from it; is it not the most gracious of rulers?
Those who possess every kind of wisdom all learn from it; is it not the broadest of teachers?
If an archer shoots many times without hitting the target, if someone then instructs him in how to use an aiming device,89 he will be happy. How much more so if someone instructs him in what gives rise to the aiming device! [20/220/22–26]
20.32
Now there is no one who does not know that study is good for you, but some cannot study because they have been harmed by amusements and pastimes. People all often harm what is useful with what is useless. Thus their knowledge is not broad, and their days are not sufficient.
If you use the power expended to make a man-made lake to plow [instead], then the fields will certainly be open to cultivation.
If you use earth piled up high as mountains to build dikes instead, then the water will certainly be enough for our uses.90
If you use the cost of feeding dogs and horses and swans and geese to nourish scholars instead, then your reputation will certainly be glorious.
If you use the days you might spend shooting and hunting and gambling at liubo to recite the Odes and read the Documents instead, then your understanding and knowledge will certainly be vast.
Thus when we compare failure to study with studying, it is like comparing the deaf and dumb with unimpaired people. [20/220/28–20/221/2]
20.33
As a general rule, those who study
can understand the distinction between the heavenly and the human
and can comprehend the root of order and disorder.
With a calm heart and clear mind to sustain them, observing the ends and beginnings of things, it can be said that their knowledge is all-embracing.
What Heaven creates includes birds, beasts, plants, and trees.
What humankind creates includes rites, ceremonies, regulations, and measures.
By building, people create palaces and rooms;
by fabricating, people create boats and carts.
The roots of the means to create order are Humaneness and Rightness;
the branches of the means to create order are laws and measures.
What people use to serve the living is the root;
what people use to serve the dead is the branches.
Roots and branches constitute a single body. What both of them cherish is a single nature.
One who places the root first and the branches behind is called a Superior Man.
One who uses the branches to harm the root is called a petty man.
The natures of the Superior Man and the petty man are not different; rather, it is a question of their priorities.
What is rich and flourishing about plants and trees is their roots, and what can die is their branches.
According to the nature of animals, the head is big and the tail is small.
If the branches are larger than the root, they will snap.
If the tail is larger than the middle, it will not wag.
Thus,
feed the mouth and the one hundred joints will be plump;
water the roots and the branches and leaves will be beautiful.
It is the nature of Heaven and Earth that things have roots and branches. In nurturing things there are priorities. When it comes to ordering humankind, how can there not be a beginning and an end? Thus Humaneness and Rightness are the root of order. Now if you do not know to try to cultivate the root and strive to order the branches, this amounts to neglecting the root yet watering the branches. [20/221/4–12]
Moreover, the genesis of law was as something to support91 Humaneness and Rightness. Now if you emphasize law and abandon Humaneness and Rightness, this is prizing the hat and shoes yet forgetting the head and feet. Thus Humaneness and Rightness are meant to reinforce the foundation.
If you extend a structure’s length without increasing its thickness, it will collapse;
if you increase a structure’s height without expanding its foundation, it will topple.
Zhao Zheng [Qin Shihuangdi] did not add to his Moral Potency but piled up his eminence, so he was destroyed.
Earl Zhi did not practice Humaneness and Rightness but strove to expand his territory, so he was lost.
The Discourses of the States says,
“If we do not use a large beam, it cannot bear the weight.
Nothing is so heavy as a country,
and no beam can be compared to Moral Potency.”92
If the ruler of a state has his people behind him, it is like a wall having a foundation and a tree having roots.
If the roots are deep, the tree will be stable;
if the foundation is excellent, then the top [of the wall] will be secure. [20/221/14–18]
20.34
The Way of the Five Thearchs and the Three Kings constitutes the warp and weft of the world and the rules and standards of order. Now Shang Yang’s “Opening and Closing,”93 Shenzi’s “Three Tests,”94 Han Feizi’s “Solitary Indignation,”95 and Zhang Yi’s and Su Qin’s “Horizontal and Vertical” [Alliance System]96 all were selective expediencies, one slice of the arts [of governance]. They are not
the great root of order
or the constant norm of service
that can be heard widely and transmitted through the ages.
[The Chu prime minister] Zinang97 retreated and kept Chu intact, but retreating cannot be taken as a universal principle.
Xian Gao used deceit to preserve Zheng,98 but deceit cannot be taken as a constant principle.
Now the sounds of the “Ya” and “Song”99 all originated as verbal expressions and are rooted in hu
man emotion; thus they serve to establish harmony between ruler and minister and affection between father and son. The music of “Shao” and “Xia”100 penetrates metal and stone and infuses plants and trees.
Now if you appropriate the sounds of remorse and longing and express them with strings and woodwinds, then those who hear these tones will be lustful or sorrowful.
If lustful, they will disorder the distinction between male and female.
If sorrowful, they will stir the qi of remorse and longing.
How can this be called “music/joy”?101
When King [Youmu] of Zhao102 wandered in exile in Fangling, he longed for his home town and wrote the poem “Mountains and Trees.” None who heard it could hold back their tears.
When Jing Ke went west to [try to] stab to death the king of Qin,103 Gao Jianli and Song Yi struck the zhu104 and sang on the banks of the Yi River. Of those who heard this music there were none who did not stare angrily with wide open eyes and with hair standing on end under their caps.
If in response, one were to use sounds of that sort to create music to be brought into the ancestral hall, how could that be the music/joy referred to by the ancients? Thus ceremonial caps and carriages of state105 are things that can be used but not enjoyed. The mixture of flavors in the taigeng106 can be eaten but not savored.
[Instruments of] vermilion [lacquer] and [silk] strings that drip and surge [with emotion], so that for every note there are three sighs: such music can be heard but does not bring happiness.
Thus,
what has no sound sets the standard for what can be heard;
what has no taste sets the standard for what can be tasted.
Lustful sounds are clear to the ear,
and full flavors are pleasing to the mouth,
but these are not to be prized. [20/221/20–30]
Thus,
matters that do not have their basis in the Way and its Potency cannot be taken as models.
Words that do not accord with those of former [sage-]kings cannot be taken as the Way.
Tones [i.e., sung poetry] that are not [grounded in] the verbal expressions of the “Ya” and the “Song” cannot be taken as [proper] music.
Thus one may pick and choose among the sayings of these five masters107 as a means to facilitate persuasions, but they are not the pervading principles of the world. [20/222/1–2]
20.35
When the sage-kings established governance and implemented education, they invariably examined their ends and beginnings. When they publicly posted laws and set up standards, they invariably traced their roots and branches to their source. They did not simply prepare one policy to address one thing at a time and leave it at that.
Seeing the beginnings, they would ponder the outcomes.
Observing the sources, they would know the currents.
Thus,
they implemented [policies] widely without exhausting themselves;
they long endured without defiling themselves.
Now,
water emerges from the mountains but flows into the sea.
Crops are born in the field but are stored in the granaries.
Sages, by seeing where things are born, know where they will end up. Thus,
Shun buried gold deep under the dangerous mountain cliffs to thwart the hearts of those who were covetous and greedy.
Yi Di made wine. Yu drank it and found it tasty, so he exiled Yi Di and forbade wine making so as to prevent dissolute conduct.
Master Yan108 played for Duke Ping the music of the northern border area, but Music Master Kuang said, “This is the [kind of] music that can destroy a state.” [The duke] sighed loudly and forbade it in order to stop the tide of lewdness and disorder.
Thus,
when the people became aware of writing, Potency declined;
when the people became aware of counting, generosity declined.
When the people became aware of bonds and contracts, trustworthiness declined;
when the people became aware of tricks and skills, unself-consciousness109 declined.
When craftiness and deceit hide in your breast,
innocence and purity will not be complete,
and your spirit-engendered Potency will not be intact. [20/222/4–10]
20.36
The se does not make a sound, but each of its twenty-five strings responds to its own [respective] tone.
The axle of a cart does not revolve, but each of its thirty spokes contributes its respective strength to the turning [of the wheel].
Only when [all] strings have their [appropriate] tension and size is it possible to create a tune.110
Only through [appropriately] hard or easy pulling and [appropriate] moving and stopping is it possible for a cart to travel far.
What causes things to sound has no sound.
What enables things to journey a thousand li does not move.
Thus, when high and low
follow different Ways, there is order.
When they follow the same Way, there is disorder.
When those in high position take the Great Way, things go smoothly;
when matters are great but the Way is small, things go badly.
Thus,
trifling pleasures harm Rightness;
trifling cleverness harms the Way;
trifling debates harm order;
unwarranted harshness injures Moral Potency.
Great administration is not precipitous, thus the people are easy to lead.
Supreme government is magnanimous, thus those below do not plunder one another.111
Supreme Moral Potency112 reverts to simplicity; thus the people have no vices. [20/222/12–16]
20.37
Shang Yang, on behalf of [the state of] Qin, established laws of collective responsibility, and the common people hated them.
Wu Qi, on behalf of [the state of] Chu, extended [rules] abolishing ranks and salaries, and meritorious officials rebelled.
Shang Yang’s setting up laws and Wu Qi’s use of military power are things the world approved of. But Shang Yang’s use of laws destroyed Qin. He investigated the traces of knives and brushes [i.e., writings] but did not know the root of government or disorder. Wu Qi’s use of military power weakened Chu. He was familiar with matters of military formations but did not understand the expediency of “fighting from the temple” [i.e., advance planning].113
Duke Xian of Jin attacking the Li [Rong] and taking their princess was not a bad thing [in itself], but Historian Su114 sighed about it when he saw that it would bring disaster to four generations [of the duke’s clan].
King Fuchai of Wu defeated Qi at Ailing and defeated Jin at Huang Chi.115 He did not fail to win victories, yet [Wu] Zishu116 was saddened by them because he foresaw that [his ruler] would certainly be taken prisoner in Yue.
[Gongzi] Xiao Bo117 fled to Ju, and Chong’er118 fled to Cao. They were not unbeleaguered, but Bao Shu[ya] and Maternal Uncle Fan followed and assisted them, knowing they [i.e., their rulers Xiao Bo and Chong’er] would rise to become hegemons.
King Goujian of Yue ensconced himself in Guiji, working on political matters without limit and making plans without rest, knowing that calamity could be turned into good fortune.
Marquis Xiang [of Zhao] won successive victories but had a mournful countenance, fearing that good fortune would become calamity.
Duke Huan of Qi lost the fields of Wenyang but became hegemon.
Earl Zhi seized the land of the three states of Jin but was destroyed.
Sages
perceive good fortune [though hidden] within multiple screens,
perceive bad fortune [though obscured] beyond ninefold curtains. [20/222/18–26]
20.38
The yuantian silkworm119 in one year [can be] harvested twice. It is not that this is not profitable, but the royal laws prohibit it because of the harm it does to the mulberry trees.
Stalks of rice resulting from scattered seeds of the previous year
ripen first, but the farmer weeds them out because he would not, for the sake of this small benefit, harm the great harvest.
With family elders,
different rice is used to feed them;
different utensils are used to prepare food for them.
Children and wives ascend the hall barefoot, kneel, and pour the broth [for the elders]. It is not that [these practices] are without cost, but they are not things on which one can economize because that would injure Rightness.
Awaiting the marriage maker to seal the marriage contract;
exchanging the wedding presents to select a wife;
donning wedding attire to escort the bride home to your relations:
it is not that [these practices] are without annoyances, but they are not things that can be changed because they serve to hinder licentiousness.
[One can] get the people in their residences to watch one another and, when there are crimes, to report on one another. As a method for exposing traitors, this is not without efficacy, but such methods are not practiced as they injure [an atmosphere of] peaceful and harmonious hearts and give rise to hateful and revengeful resentments. Thus with endeavors,
though you bore only one hole, you open up one hundred fissures;
though you plant only one tree, you engender ten thousand leaves.
What you have bored is not enough to be considered useful, but what you have opened up is enough to bring ruin.
What you have planted is not enough to bring a profit, but what you have produced is enough to make a mess.120
The fool is beguiled by petty benefits and forgets their great harm. This cannot be considered exemplary.
Calamus deters fleas and lice, but people do not make mats out of it because it attracts centipedes.121
Foxes catch mice, but they cannot be turned loose in the courtyard because they will seize chickens.
Thus there are some endeavors that
bring small benefit but great harm,
gain something here but lose something there.
Thus in playing chess,
one may capture two pieces yet experience defeat;
one may give up a piece yet win victory. [20/222/28–20/223/9]
20.39
Stealing advantage cannot be practiced;
understanding technique cannot be taken as a model.
Thus Humaneness and Wisdom are the splendid aspects of human talent.