Former Collection 3 (nos. 91–135)前集

If heaven gives me blessing thinly, I thicken my virtue to meet it. If heaven wears out my body, I put my heart at ease to make it up. If heaven blocks my circumstances, I open my Way through and pass beyond. What, then, can even heaven do to me?

The upright scholar has no mind to beg for blessing, so heaven goes to that very place of no-mind and opens up their inmost heart. The crooked person sets their mind on escaping calamity, so heaven goes into that very setting of the mind and takes their soul away. From this it can be seen that the working and power of heaven is most wondrous, and that human cleverness is of no use at all.

If a singing girl follows one husband in her later years, the powder and flowers of a whole life are no hindrance. If a chaste wife loses her guard when her hair is white, the clean hardship of half a life comes to nothing. An old saying goes, "To look at a person, look only at the latter half." That is truly a famous saying.

A commoner who is willing to plant virtue and give kindness is a high minister without a rank. A gentleman who only grasps at power and sells favor becomes in the end a beggar holding office.

Ask what the grace of the ancestors is: it is what this body of mine enjoys. Think how hard it was to pile up. Ask what the blessing of descendants is: it is what this body of mine leaves behind. Think how easily it topples over.

For a noble person to feign goodness is no different from a small person doing wrong to their heart's content. For a noble person to change their integrity falls short of a small person making themselves new.

When someone in the household is at fault, do not storm into anger, and do not lightly let it go. If the matter is hard to speak of, borrow another matter and hint at it quietly. If they do not see it today, wait for tomorrow and remind them again. It should be as a spring wind thaws what is frozen, as a warm air melts the ice. Only that is the pattern for a family.

If this heart can always be seen as whole and round, then the world of itself becomes a world without flaw or regret. If this heart can always be set down wide and level, then in the world of itself there is no treacherous human feeling.

A plain scholar is sure to be suspected by the gaudy. A person of strict bearing is often disliked by the unrestrained. Placed here, the noble person must indeed not change their conduct in the least, and must also not let their sharp edge show.

Living in hard times, the whole body is needle and medicine, and one grinds integrity and spurs conduct without even noticing it. Living in easy times, everything before the eyes is blade and spear, and one melts away the fat and grinds down the bone without even knowing it.

For one born and raised in the thick of wealth and rank, appetite is like a fierce fire and power like a raging flame. Unless they carry some clear, cool savor about them, that flame, if it does not burn others, will surely scorch them in the end.

Let the human heart be wholly true, and frost can be made to fall, a city wall can be made to crumble, metal and stone can be pierced through. As for the false and deluded, the shell of the body is all they have, and the true master in them is already gone. Facing others, their face is hateful. Alone, they are ashamed before their own shadow.

When writing is carried to its utmost, there is no other marvel in it. It is only fitting. When character is carried to its utmost, there is no other rarity in it. It is only what it originally was.

Speaking of illusory traces: to say nothing of merit and fame and wealth and rank, even the limbs and the body are a form only lent for a time. Speaking of the true ground: to say nothing of parents and brothers, all things are one body with me. Only when a person can see through this and know it truly can they take up the burden of the world, and also slip the halter and chain of this world.

Every taste that is brisk in the mouth is a drug that festers the bowels and rots the bone. Stop at five parts and there is no ruin. Every affair that is pleasing to the heart is a go-between that wrecks the body and loses virtue. Stop at five parts and there is no regret.

Do not scold others for small faults. Do not expose what others keep hidden. Do not keep in mind the old wrongs of others. By these three, virtue can be nourished and harm can be kept far off.

A gentleman must not bear themselves lightly. Bear yourself lightly, and things can shake you, and the relish of unhurried steadiness is gone. The mind must not be set down heavily. Set it down heavily, and you are stuck fast in things, and the free and lively working is gone.

Heaven and earth have ten thousand ages, but this body is not gotten twice. A human life is only a hundred years, and this one day passes most easily of all. One fortunate enough to be born into that span must not fail to know the joy of being alive, and must not fail to hold the worry of living in vain.

Resentment comes to light through kindness. So rather than have others think me a person of virtue, it is better to have both the virtue and the resentment forgotten. Enmity is set up through favor. So rather than have others know the favor, it is better to have both the favor and the enmity wiped away.

The sicknesses of old age are all called in during the strong years. The guilt that comes after decline is all committed at the height. So in holding what is full and walking where all is complete, the noble person is all the more watchful.

To sell private favors is not as good as upholding public discussion. To make new acquaintances is not as good as deepening old friendships. To set up a glorious name is not as good as planting hidden virtue. To honor rare integrity is not as good as being careful in ordinary conduct.

Do not lay a hand on fair and upright discussion. Offend it once, and you leave shame behind for ten thousand generations. Do not set foot in the private den of a house of power. Step there once, and the stain is on you for life.

To bend your intent and make others glad is not as good as standing straight and drawing their dislike. To be praised by others when you have done no good is not as good as being slandered by them when you have done no wrong.

In a trouble among father and elder brother and one's own flesh, be calm, not violent. In a fault among friends and companions, speak plainly and to the point, and do not hesitate and drift.

No leak in small things, no deceiving and hiding in dark places, no slackness on the road at the end: only that is a truly great hero.

A thousand pieces of gold can hardly buy one moment's goodwill, while a single meal may bring gratitude that lasts a lifetime. For love that weighs too heavy turns into enmity, and the thinnest kindness turns into joy.

Hide skill inside clumsiness. Use the dark, and be bright. Lodge the clear within the muddy. Make bending into stretching. This is truly the one gourd that floats you across the world, the three burrows that keep the body hidden.

The look of withering is right there in the midst of full ripeness. The working that brings things forth is right there inside the falling away. So the noble person, dwelling in safety, should hold the mind single and consider trouble, and, placed in upheaval, should make a hundred endurances firm and plan for what is to be accomplished.

One who is startled by wonders and delights in oddities has no far and great understanding. To keep integrity in bitterness and walk alone is not a lasting constancy.

When the fire of anger and the water of desire are boiling up, a person knows clearly and yet clearly offends. Who is the one who knows, and who then is the one who offends? If at this point the thought can be fiercely turned, the evil demon becomes the true lord.

Do not trust to one side and be deceived by the crooked. Do not follow only your own will and be driven by your own temper. Do not use your own strengths to show up the shortcomings of others. Do not let your own clumsiness make you envy what others can do.

The shortcomings of others should be carefully covered over. To expose them and spread them about is to attack a shortcoming with a shortcoming. Where another is stubborn, they should be gently instructed and changed. To grow angry and hate them is to try to cure stubbornness with stubbornness.

When you meet a scholar who is sullen and says nothing, do not hand over your heart. When you see a person who flares up and thinks well of themselves, guard your mouth.

Where the thought is dull and scattered, one must know how to rouse it. When the thought is drawn tight, one must know how to set it down. Otherwise the sickness of muddleheadedness may be cured only for the trouble of restlessness to come in its place.

A clear day and a blue sky turn all at once into swift thunder and flashing lightning. A driving wind and an angry rain turn all at once into a bright moon and an open sky. When has the working of the breath ever clotted and stopped by so much as a hair? When has the great void ever been blocked by so much as a hair? The body of the human heart should be just like this.

Of the work of overcoming self-interest and curbing desire, some say that if it is not known early, the effort does not come easily. Others say that even when it is seen through, it cannot be endured. Now knowing is a bright pearl that lights up the demon, and strength is a sword of wisdom that cuts the demon down. Neither of the two can be spared.

Notice another's deceit, and do not give it shape in words. Take another's insult, and do not let it move your face. In this there is a meaning without end, and a use without end as well.

Adversity that crosses you and want that hems you in are a furnace and hammer for tempering the bold. Bear that tempering, and body and heart both gain. Fail to bear it, and body and heart both take harm.

This body of mine is one small heaven and earth. Let joy and anger go without fault, and liking and disliking keep to a rule, and that is the work of ordering it well. Heaven and earth are one great parent. Let the people be without complaint and all things be without affliction, and that too is the air of deepening harmony.

The saying, "You must not hold a mind to harm others, but you must not be without a mind to guard against them," warns against thinking too loosely. The saying, "Better to be deceived by another than to guess in advance at their deceit," warns against scrutinizing too far. Hold both sayings together, and one is clear-eyed and yet generous.

Do not let the doubt of the crowd block what you alone have seen. Do not follow your own will and throw away what others say. Do not give small favors privately and harm the greater body. Do not borrow public discussion to give vent to private feeling.

If a good person cannot yet be drawn near quickly, do not praise them in advance. The crooked who slander may come of it. If a wicked person cannot yet be easily removed, do not expose them first. It may bring down the calamity of a plot against you.

Integrity like a blue sky and a white sun is raised up in a dark house and a leaking room. Statecraft that turns heaven around and rolls earth over is reeled out from treading as though at a deep water's edge, as though on thin ice.

A father is loving, a son is filial, an elder brother is kind, a younger brother is respectful. Even carried to the utmost, all of it is only what ought to be so, and not a hair's worth of grateful thought should be attached to it. If the one who gives sets themselves up as virtuous and the one who receives holds it as a favor, then they are strangers passing on the road, and it has become a merchant's bargain.

Where there is beauty there must be ugliness to make its pair. If I do not boast of my beauty, who can call me ugly? Where there is cleanness there must be filth to stand against it. If I do not love my cleanness, who can soil me?