Benjing — The Fundamental Norm本經訓
太清之始也，和順以寂漠，質真而素樸，閒靜而不躁，推移而無故，在內而合乎道，出外而調於義，發動而成于文，行快而便於物。其言略而循理，其行侻而順情，其心愉而不偽，其事素而不飾，是以不擇時日，不占卦兆，不謀所始，不議所終，安則止，激則行，通體於天地，同精於陰陽，一和於四時，明照於日月，與造化者相雌雄。是以天覆以德，地載以樂，四時不失其敘，風雨不降其虐，日月淑清而揚光，五星循軌而不失其行。當此之時，玄元至碭而運照，鳳麟至，著龜兆，甘露下，竹實滿，流黃出，而朱草生，機械詐偽莫藏於心。
At the beginning of the Great Purity there was harmony and compliance, stillness and silence, a substance true and plain, leisure and quiet without haste, a moving and pushing onward with no cause. Within, it accorded with the Way. Going forth, it was matched to what is right. When it stirred into motion it made a pattern, and its going was easy and suited to things. Their words were spare yet followed the principle of things. Their conduct was simple yet followed the feelings of men. Their hearts were glad and without falsehood. Their affairs were plain and without ornament. So they did not choose times and days, they did not divine by hexagrams and omens, they did not plot what they began, they did not debate what they would end. At rest they stopped; when stirred they went. They joined their bodies to Heaven and Earth, they shared their essence with yin and yang, they made themselves one in harmony with the four seasons, they shone bright with the sun and the moon, and with the maker of change they were male and female to each other. So Heaven covered them with its power and Earth bore them up with joy. The four seasons did not lose their order. Wind and rain did not send down their cruelty. The sun and the moon were clear and pure and cast out their light. The five planets followed their tracks and did not lose their course. At that time the dark prime spread to its widest and turned and shone, the phoenix and the qilin came, the milfoil and the tortoise showed their signs, sweet dew came down, the bamboo bore full fruit, flowing yellow came forth, and the vermilion plant grew. Cunning devices and deceit and falsehood were hidden in no one's heart.
逮至衰世，鐫山石，䤿金玉，擿蚌蜃，消銅鐵，而萬物不滋，刳胎殺夭，麒麟不遊，覆巢毀卵，鳳凰不翔，鑽燧取火，構木為台，焚林而田，竭澤而漁。人械不足，畜藏有餘，而萬物不繁兆，萌牙卵胎而不成者，處之太半矣。積壤而丘處，糞田而種穀，掘地而井飲，疏川而為利，築城而為固，拘獸以為畜，則陰陽繆戾，四時失敘，雷霆毀折，雹霰降虐，氛霧霜雪不霽，而萬物燋夭。災榛穢，聚埒畝，芟野菼，長苗秀，草木之句萌、銜華、戴實而死者，不可勝數。乃至夏屋宮駕，縣聯房植，橑簷榱題，雕琢刻鏤，喬枝菱阿，夫容芰荷，五采爭勝，流漫陸離，修掞曲挍，夭矯曾橈，芒繁紛挐，以相交持，公輸、王爾無所錯其剞𠜾削鋸，然猶未能澹人主之欲也。是以松柏箘露夏槁，江、河、三川絕而不流，夷羊在牧，飛蛩滿野，天旱地坼，鳳皇不下，句爪、居牙、戴色、出距之獸，於是鷙矣。民之專室蓬廬，無所歸宿，凍餓饑寒死者，相枕席也。及至分山川溪穀，使有壤界，計人多少眾寡，使有分數，築城掘池，設機械險阻以為備，飾職事，制服等，異貴賤，差賢不肖，經誹譽，行賞罰，則兵革興而分爭生，民之滅抑夭隱，虐殺不辜而刑誅無罪，於是生矣。天地之合和，陰陽之陶化萬物，皆乘人氣者也。
When the age of decline came, they bored into the stone of the mountains, they chipped at metal and jade, they dug out clams and mussels, they melted copper and iron, and the ten thousand things did not increase. They cut open the womb and killed the young, and the qilin no longer roamed. They overturned nests and broke eggs, and the phoenix no longer flew. They drilled the fire stick to take fire, they lashed timber to make terraces, they burned the forest to hunt, they drained the pond to fish. Men's tools were not enough, and what they hoarded and hid was more than enough, yet the ten thousand things did not flourish. Of what sprouted and budded, of what was laid as egg and carried in the womb, more than half never came to term. They heaped up earth and dwelt on mounds, they dunged the fields and sowed grain, they dug the ground and drank from wells, they cut channels in the streams for gain, they built walls for safety, they penned beasts and kept them. Then yin and yang went crooked, the four seasons lost their order, thunder and lightning broke and shattered, hail and sleet came down in cruelty, mist and frost and snow did not clear, and the ten thousand things were scorched and died young. Disaster ran wild in the thickets. They gathered up the ridges and the furrows, they cut the reeds of the wild, they raised the young shoots and made them flower, and the plants and trees that died in the budding, in the holding of blossom, in the bearing of fruit, were beyond counting. Then came great houses and palace halls, hanging and joined chambers, standing pillars, rafters and eaves and ridge ends carved and cut, high branches and water chestnut corners, lotus and caltrop leaves, five colors striving to outdo one another, flowing and spilling and scattered, long and bent and set against each other, curving upward and bending in layers, thick and tangled and holding fast to one another. Gongshu and Wang Er would have had nowhere to set their graving knives and their saws, and even so it could not fill the desire of the ruler. Because of this the pine and the cypress and the junlu withered in summer, the Jiang and the He and the Three Rivers were cut off and did not flow, Yiyang stood in the pasture, flying insects filled the wilds, the sky went dry and the earth cracked open, the phoenix did not come down, and the beasts of hooked claw and jutting tooth, of colored crest and thrusting spur, turned fierce. The people in their huts and reed shelters had nowhere to return and lodge, and those who died of cold and hunger lay pillowed on one another. And when they came to dividing the mountains and rivers and streams and valleys so that there were bounds of soil, to counting the people as many or few so that there were shares and numbers, to building walls and digging moats, to setting up engines and barriers for defense, to dressing up offices and duties, to fixing the ranks of dress, to making noble and base differ, to grading the worthy and the unworthy, to laying out blame and praise as a net, to carrying out reward and punishment, then war and arms arose and division and strife were born, and the destroying and crushing of the people, their early deaths and their hiding away, the cruel killing of the guiltless and the punishing of the innocent, were born from this. The joining and harmony of Heaven and Earth, and the shaping and changing of the ten thousand things by yin and yang, all ride upon the breath of man.
是故上下離心，氣乃上蒸，君臣不和，五穀不為。距日冬至四十六日，天含和而未降，地懷氣而未揚，陰陽儲與，呼吸浸潭，包裹風俗，斟酌萬殊，旁薄眾宜，以相嘔咐醞釀，而成育群生。是故春肅秋榮，冬雷夏霜，皆賊氣之所生。由此觀之，天地宇宙，一人之身也；六合之內，一人之制也。是故明於性者，天地不能脅也；審于符者，怪物不能惑也。故聖人者，由近知遠，而萬殊為一。古之人同氣於天地，與一世而優遊。當此之時，無慶賀之利，刑罰之威，禮義廉恥不設，毀譽仁鄙不立，而萬民莫相侵欺暴虐，猶在於混冥之中。逮至衰世，人眾財寡，事力勞而養不足，於是忿爭生，是以貴仁。仁鄙不齊，比周朋黨，設詐諝，懷機械巧故之心，而性失矣，是以貴義。陰陽之情，莫不有血氣之感，男女群居雜處而無別，是以貴禮。性命之情，淫而相脅，以不得已則不和，是以貴樂。
So when high and low are parted in heart, the breath steams upward. When ruler and minister are not in harmony, the five grains do not ripen. Forty six days out from the winter solstice, Heaven holds harmony within and has not yet sent it down, and Earth carries the breath within and has not yet raised it up. Yin and yang wait and hesitate, they breathe in and out and soak deep, they wrap up the ways of the world, they weigh out the ten thousand differences, they spread broadly over all that is fitting, and warming and brooding and fermenting one another they bring to birth and rear the living kinds. So a stern spring and a blossoming autumn, thunder in winter and frost in summer, are all born of the breath that harms. Seen from this, Heaven and Earth and all space are the body of one man, and what lies within the six directions is the rule of one man. So the man who is clear about his nature cannot be cowed by Heaven and Earth, and the man who has looked closely into the signs cannot be deluded by strange things. Therefore the sage knows the far by the near, and the ten thousand differences become one. The people of old shared the breath of Heaven and Earth and roamed at ease with their age. At that time there was no gain from congratulation and reward, no awe of punishment. Rites and right and modesty and shame were not set up. Blame and praise, kindness and meanness, were not established. Yet the myriad people did not encroach on one another or cheat or use violence, for they were still in the midst of the blended dark. When the age of decline came the people were many and goods were few, toil and labor were hard and the keeping of life was not enough. Then anger and strife were born, and so kindness was honored. Kindness and meanness were not alike. Men formed cliques and factions, they set up deceits and stratagems, they carried in their hearts a mind of devices and clever tricks, and their nature was lost. So what is right was honored. In the disposition of yin and yang there is nothing without the stirring of blood and breath, and men and women dwelt in crowds and mingled without separation. So rites were honored. In the disposition of nature and destiny there was excess and mutual pressing, and what is done unwillingly is not in harmony. So music was honored.
是故仁義禮樂者，可以救敗，而非通治之至也。夫仁者，所以救爭也；義者，所以救失也；禮者，所以救淫也；樂者，所以救憂也。神明定於天下，而心反其初；心反其初，而民心善；民心善而天地陰陽從而包之，則財足而人澹矣；貪鄙忿爭不得生焉。由此觀之，則仁義不用矣。道德定于天下而民純樸，則目不營於色，耳不淫於聲，坐俳而歌謠，被發而浮游，雖有毛嬙、西施之色，不知說也。掉羽、武象，不知樂也，淫諝無別，不得生焉。由此觀之，禮樂不用也。是故德衰然後仁生，行沮然後義立，和失然後聲調，禮淫然後容飾。是故知神明然後知道德之不足為也，知道德然後知仁義之不足行也。知仁義然後知禮樂之不足修也。
So kindness and right and rites and music can save what has failed, but they are not the utmost of a government that goes through. Kindness is what saves men from strife. Right is what saves men from loss. Rites are what save men from excess. Music is what saves men from sorrow. When the spirit light is settled over all under Heaven, the heart returns to its beginning. When the heart returns to its beginning, the hearts of the people are good. When the hearts of the people are good, Heaven and Earth and yin and yang follow and wrap them round. Then goods are enough and men are at ease, and greed and meanness and anger and strife cannot be born. Seen from this, kindness and right are not used. When the Way and its power are settled over all under Heaven and the people are pure and plain, then the eye does not busy itself with color and the ear does not run to excess in sound. They sit and play and sing their songs, they let down their hair and drift about. Though there be the beauty of Mao Qiang and Xi Shi, they do not know how to take pleasure in it. The Diaoyu and the Wuxiang they do not know how to enjoy, and excess and deceit and the loss of separation cannot be born. Seen from this, rites and music are not used. So it is only after the power has declined that kindness is born, only after conduct is blocked that right is set up, only after harmony is lost that sounds are tuned, only after rites run to excess that the face is made up. So it is only when a man knows the spirit light that he knows the Way and its power are not enough to do, only when he knows the Way and its power that he knows kindness and right are not enough to carry out, and only when he knows kindness and right that he knows rites and music are not enough to cultivate.
今背其本而求其末，釋其要而索之於詳，未可與言至也。
Now to turn your back on the root and seek the branch tip, to set aside the essential and search for it in the details, with such a man one cannot speak of the utmost.
天地之大，可以矩表識也；星月之行，可以曆推得也；雷震之聲，可以鼓鐘寫也。風雨之變，可以音律知也。是故大可睹者，可得而量也；明可見者，可得而蔽也；聲可聞者，可得而調也；色可察者，可得而別也。夫至大，天地弗能含也；至微，神明弗能領也。及至建律曆，別五色，異清濁，味甘苦，則樸散而為器矣。立仁義，修禮樂，則德遷而為偽矣。及偽之生也，飾智以驚愚，設詐以巧上，天下有能持之者，有能治之者也。昔者蒼頡作書，而天雨粟，鬼夜哭；伯益作井，而龍登玄雲，神棲昆侖；能愈多而德愈薄矣。故周鼎著倕，使銜其指，以明大巧之不可為也。故至人之治也，心與神處，形與性調，靜而體德，動而理通。隨自然之性而緣不得已之化，洞然無為而天下自和，憺然無欲而民自樸，無𧝞祥而民不夭，不忿爭而養足，兼包海內，澤及後世，不知為之誰何。
The greatness of Heaven and Earth can be known by the square and the gnomon. The courses of the stars and the moon can be got by reckoning the calendar. The sound of thunder can be copied by drum and bell. The changes of wind and rain can be known by the pitch pipes. So what is great and can be seen can be measured. What is bright and can be looked at can be screened. What is sound and can be heard can be tuned. What is color and can be examined can be told apart. But the utmost great, Heaven and Earth cannot hold it. The utmost small, the spirit light cannot govern it. When they came to setting up the pitch pipes and the calendar, to separating the five colors, to distinguishing the clear from the muddy, to tasting the sweet and the bitter, then the uncarved block was scattered and became vessels. When they set up kindness and right and cultivated rites and music, then the power shifted and became falsehood. And when falsehood was born, they dressed up their wits to startle the foolish and set up deceits to outwit those above, and so there were those under Heaven who could hold it and those who could govern it. Long ago Cang Jie made writing, and Heaven rained down grain and the ghosts wept in the night. Bo Yi (伯益) made the well, and the dragon climbed to the dark clouds and the spirits roosted on Kunlun. The more able men grew, the thinner their power. So on the cauldrons of Zhou they graved Chui and made him bite his fingers, to show that great skill must not be used. Therefore in the rule of the utmost man the heart dwells with the spirit and the body is matched to the nature. Still, he makes the power his body. Moving, he goes through by the principle of things. He follows the nature that is so of itself and goes along with the change that cannot be helped. Clear and open and doing nothing, he lets all under Heaven be in harmony of itself. Calm and without desire, he lets the people be plain of themselves. He shows no sign of disaster or of good omen, yet the people do not die young. He is not angry and does not strive, yet the keeping of life is enough. He wraps up and holds all within the seas, his favor reaches to later ages, and no one knows who it is that does it.
是故生無號，死無諡，實不聚而名不立，施者不德，受者不讓，德交歸焉。而莫之充忍也。故德之所總，道弗能害也；智之所不知，辯弗能解也。不言之辯，不道之道，若或通焉，謂之天府。取焉而不損，酌焉而不竭，莫知其所由出，是謂瑤光。瑤光者，資糧萬物者也，振困窮，補不足，則名生，興利除害，伐亂禁暴，則功成。世無災害，雖神無所施其德，上下和輯，雖賢無所立其功。昔容成氏之時，道路雁行列處，托嬰兒于巢上，置餘糧於畮首，虎豹可尾，虺蛇可蹍，而不知其所由然。逮至堯之時，十日並出，焦禾稼，殺草木，而民無所食。猰貐、鑿齒、九嬰、大風、封豨、修蛇皆為民害。堯乃使羿誅鑿齒于疇華之野，殺九嬰于凶水之上，繳大風於青丘之澤，上射十日而下殺猰貐，斷修蛇於洞庭，禽封豨于桑林，萬民皆喜，置堯以為天子。於是天下廣狹、險易、遠近，始有道裡。舜之時，共工振滔洪水，以薄空桑，龍門未開，呂梁未發，江、淮通流，四海溟涬，民皆上丘陵，赴樹木。舜乃使禹疏三江五湖，辟開伊闕，導廛澗，平通溝陸，流注東海，鴻水漏，九州幹，萬民皆寧其性，是以稱堯舜以為聖。晚世之時，帝有桀、紂，為旋室、瑤台、象廊、玉床，紂為肉圃、酒池，燎焚天下之財，罷苦萬民之力，刳諫者，剔孕婦，攘天下，虐百姓，於是湯乃以革車三百乘，伐桀于南巢，放之夏台，武王四卒三千，破紂牧野，殺之于宣室，天下甯定，百姓和集。
So he has no title in life and no name after death. Substance is not gathered up and a name is not set up. The one who gives does not count it a kindness, the one who receives does not decline it, and the power returns to both. Yet there is no one who fills himself with it and holds it. So what the power gathers, the Way cannot harm. What wisdom does not know, argument cannot untie. The argument that does not speak, the Way that is not called a way, if a man somehow goes through to them, this is called the storehouse of Heaven. Take from it and it is not lessened, dip from it and it is not drained, and no one knows where it comes out from. This is called Yaoguang. Yaoguang is what supplies the ten thousand things. Relieve the hard pressed and the poor, make up what is lacking, and a name is born. Raise up what is of use and clear away harm, strike the disorderly and forbid the cruel, and merit is made. If the age has no disaster, then even a spirit has nowhere to bestow its power. If high and low are in harmony and gathered, then even a worthy man has nowhere to set up his merit. Long ago in the time of Rongchengshi men stood along the roads in ranks like wild geese, they left their infants on nests, they set their leftover grain at the head of the furrows, they could tread on the tails of tigers and leopards and step on vipers and snakes, and they did not know why this was so. When the time of Yao came, ten suns came out together, they scorched the standing grain and killed the plants and trees, and the people had nothing to eat. Yayu and Zaochi and Jiuying and Dafeng and Fengxi and Xiushe were all a harm to the people. So Yao sent Yi to cut down Zaochi in the wilds of Chouhua, to kill Jiuying on the Xiong River, to take Dafeng with a corded arrow at the marsh of Qingqiu, to shoot the ten suns above and kill Yayu below, to cut Xiushe in two at Dongting, and to take Fengxi alive at Sanglin. The myriad people all rejoiced and set Yao up as Son of Heaven. From then on the wide and the narrow, the hard and the easy, the far and the near of all under Heaven first had their measured roads. In the time of Shun, Gonggong shook the great flood and made it overflow until it pressed upon Kongsang. Longmen was not yet opened and Lüliang was not yet cut. The Jiang and the Huai ran together, the four seas were a vast blur, and the people all climbed the hills and mounds and ran up into the trees. So Shun sent Yu to open the Three Rivers and the Five Lakes, to break open Yique, to lead off the Chan and the Jian, and to level and join the ditches and the dry land and pour them into the Eastern Sea. The great waters drained away, the Nine Provinces went dry, and the myriad people all had their nature made peaceful. For this Yao and Shun are called sages. In the time of the later age there were Jie and Zhou among the rulers. They made the Whirling Chamber and the Jade Terrace, the Ivory Gallery and the Jade Bed. Zhou made a garden of meat and a pool of wine. They burned up the goods of all under Heaven and wore out the strength of the myriad people. They cut open those who remonstrated and split open women with child. They snatched at all under Heaven and were cruel to the hundred families. So Tang, with three hundred leather war chariots, struck Jie at Nanchao and drove him out to Xiatai. And King Wu, with three thousand foot soldiers, broke Zhou at Muye and killed him at Xuanshi. All under Heaven was at peace and settled, and the hundred families were in harmony and gathered.
是以稱湯、武之賢。由此觀之，有賢聖之名者，必遭亂世之患也。今至人生亂世之中，含德懷道，拘無窮之智，鉗口寢說，遂不言而死者眾矣。然天下莫知貴其不言也。故道可道，非常道；名可名，非常名。著于竹帛，鏤于金石，可傳於人者，其粗也。五帝三王，殊事而同指，異路而同歸。晚世學者，不知道之所一體，德之所總要，取成之跡，相與危坐而說之，鼓歌而舞之，故博學多聞，而不免於惑。詩雲：「不敢暴虎，不敢馮河。人知其一，不知其他。」此之謂也。
For this the worth of Tang and King Wu is praised. Seen from this, those who have the name of worthy and sage must have met the troubles of a disordered age. Now the utmost man is born in the midst of a disordered age. He holds the power within and carries the Way in his breast, he keeps a boundless wisdom shut up, he clamps his mouth and puts his teaching to sleep, and many are those who in the end die without speaking. Yet no one under Heaven knows how to honor their not speaking. So a way that can be called a way is not the constant way, and a name that can be named is not the constant name. What is set down on bamboo and silk, what is cut into metal and stone, what can be handed on to others, is the coarse part of it. The Five Emperors and the Three Kings differed in their affairs but pointed the same way. Their roads were different but they came home to the same place. Learned men of the later age do not know what makes the Way one body, or what gathers up the essentials of its power. They take hold of the traces of what was done, they sit up straight together and explain it, they drum and sing and dance to it, and so for all their wide learning and much hearing they are not free of delusion. The Book of Songs says, "Not daring to seize a tiger barehanded, not daring to wade the He. Men know the one, they do not know the rest." This is what it means.
帝者，體太一；王者，法陰陽；霸者，則四時，君者，用六律。秉太一者，牢籠天地，彈厭山川，含吐陰陽，伸曳四時，紀綱八極，經緯六合，覆露照導，普氾無私；蠉飛蠕動，莫不仰德而生。陰陽者，承天地之和，形萬殊之體，含氣化物，以成埒類，贏縮卷舒，淪於不測，終始虛滿，轉于無原。四時者，春生夏長，秋收冬藏，取予有節，出入有時，開闔張歙，不失其敘，喜怒剛柔，不離其理。六律者，生之與殺也，賞之與罰也，予之與奪也，非此無道也；故謹於權衡準繩，審乎輕重，足以治其境內矣。是故體太一者，明於天地之情，通于道德之倫，聰明耀於日月，精神通於萬物，動靜調於陰陽，喜怒和於四時，德澤施于方外，名聲傳於後世。法陰陽者，德與天地參，明與日月並，精與鬼神總，戴圓履方，抱表懷繩，內能治身，外能得人，發號施令，天下莫不從風。則四時者，柔而不脆，剛而不鞼，寬而不肆，肅而不悖，優柔委從，以養群類，其德含愚而容不肖，無所私愛。用六律者，伐亂禁暴，進賢而退不肖，扶撥以為正，壞險以為平，矯枉以為直，明於禁舍開閉之道，乘時因勢，以服役人心也。帝者體陰陽則侵，王者法四時則削，霸者節六律則辱，君者失準繩則廢。故小而行大，則滔窕而不親；大而行小，則狹隘而不容。貴賤不失其體而天下治矣。天愛其精，地愛其平，人愛其情。天之精，日月星辰雷電風雨也；地之平，水火金木土也；人之情，思慮聰明喜怒也。故閉四關，止五遁，則與道淪。是故神明藏於無形，精神反於至真，則目明而不以視，耳聰而不以聽，心條達而不以思慮，委而弗為，和而弗矜，冥性命之情，而智故不得襍焉。精泄於目，則其視明；在於耳，則其聽聰；留於口，則其言當；集於心，則其慮通。故閉四關則身無患，百節莫苑，莫死莫生，莫虛莫盈，是謂真人。
The emperor (帝) takes the Great One as his body. The king takes yin and yang as his model. The hegemon takes the four seasons as his rule. The lord uses the six pitch pipes. He who grasps the Great One cages Heaven and Earth, presses down the mountains and rivers, holds in and breathes out yin and yang, stretches and draws the four seasons, makes a net of the eight far ends, weaves the six directions as warp and weft, covers and uncovers and shines and leads, spreading everywhere without private favor. Of the things that fly and the things that crawl there is none that does not look up to his power and live. Yin and yang carry on the harmony of Heaven and Earth, they give shape to the bodies of the ten thousand differences, they hold the breath and change things and so make up the kinds, they swell and shrink and roll up and unroll, they sink into what cannot be fathomed, they end and begin, empty and full, and turn about with no source. The four seasons are birth in spring, growth in summer, harvest in autumn, storing in winter. Their taking and giving has its measure, their going out and coming in has its time, their opening and shutting and stretching and drawing in does not lose its order, their joy and anger and hardness and softness do not depart from their principle. The six pitch pipes are giving life and taking it, reward and punishment, giving and taking away. Without these there is no way. So be careful with the scales and the level and the marking line, look closely into the light and the heavy, and it is enough to govern all within your borders. So the man who takes the Great One as his body is clear about the disposition of Heaven and Earth and goes through to the order of the Way and its power. His hearing and sight shine brighter than the sun and the moon, his spirit goes through to the ten thousand things, his moving and his stillness are matched to yin and yang, his joy and anger are in harmony with the four seasons, the favor of his power is spread beyond the borders, and his name and fame are handed down to later ages. The man who takes yin and yang as his model has power that makes a third with Heaven and Earth, brightness that stands beside the sun and the moon, an essence that is gathered with the ghosts and spirits. He wears the round above and treads the square below, he holds the gnomon in his arms and carries the marking line in his breast. Within, he can govern his own body. Without, he can win men. He gives out his orders and sends down his commands, and none under Heaven fails to follow like the wind. The man who takes the four seasons as his rule is soft but not brittle, hard but not to be broken, generous but not loose, stern but not perverse. He is easy and yielding and lets things follow, and so he rears the whole kind of living things. His power holds the foolish and makes room for the unworthy, and he loves no one privately. The man who uses the six pitch pipes strikes the disorderly and forbids the cruel, he brings forward the worthy and puts back the unworthy, he props up the crooked to make it upright, he breaks down the steep to make it level, he straightens the bent to make it true. He is clear about the way of forbidding and releasing, of opening and shutting. He rides the times and goes with the force of things, and so he makes the hearts of men serve him. If the emperor takes yin and yang for his body, he is encroached upon. If the king takes the four seasons for his model, he is cut away. If the hegemon holds himself to the six pitch pipes, he is disgraced. If the lord loses the level and the marking line, he is done away with. So the small that carries out the great spreads too wide and is not close to men, and the great that carries out the small is narrow and cannot hold them. When noble and base do not lose their proper body, all under Heaven is well governed. Heaven cherishes its essence, Earth cherishes its levelness, man cherishes his disposition. The essence of Heaven is the sun and the moon and the stars, thunder and lightning, wind and rain. The levelness of Earth is water and fire and metal and wood and earth. The disposition of man is thought and care, hearing and sight, joy and anger. So shut the four gates and stop the five escapings, and you sink into the Way. Then the spirit light is hidden in what has no shape and the spirit returns to the utmost truth. The eye is clear but does not use itself to look, the ear is sharp but does not use itself to hear, the heart runs through everything but does not use itself to think and plan. He gives himself over and does not act, he is in harmony and does not boast. He is dark to the disposition of nature and destiny, and wits and contrivance cannot mix with it. When the essence leaks into the eyes, the seeing is clear. When it is in the ears, the hearing is sharp. When it stays in the mouth, the words are fitting. When it gathers in the heart, the thought goes through. So shut the four gates and the body has no trouble. The hundred joints do not sicken. There is no dying and no living, no emptying and no filling. This is called the True Man.
凡亂之所由生者，皆在流遁。流遁之所生者五：大構駕，興宮室，延樓棧道，雞棲井幹，檦枺欂櫨，以相支持，木巧之飾，盤紆刻儼，嬴鏤雕琢，詭文回波，淌遊瀷淢，菱杼紾抱，芒繁亂澤，巧偽紛挐，以相摧錯，此遁於木也。鑿汙池之深，肆畛崖之遠，來溪穀之流，飾曲岸之際，積牒旋石，以純修碕，抑淢怒瀨，以揚激波，曲拂邅回，以像湡浯，益樹蓮菱，以食鱉魚，鴻鵠鷫鸘，稻粱饒餘，龍舟鷁首，浮吹以娛，此遁于水也。高築城郭，設樹險阻，崇台榭之隆，侈苑囿之大，以窮要妙之望，魏闕之高，上際青雲，大廈曾加，擬于昆侖，修為牆垣，甬道相連，殘高增下，積土為山，接徑曆遠，直道夷險，終日馳鶩而無跡蹈之患，此遁於土也。大鐘鼎，美重器，華蟲疏鏤，以相繆紾，寢兕伏虎，蟠龍連組，焜昱錯眩，照耀輝煌，偃蹇寥糾，曲成文章，雕琢之飾，鍛錫文鐃，乍晦乍明，抑微滅瑕，霜文沈居，若簟籧篨，纏錦經冘，似數而疏，此遁于金也。煎熬焚炙，調齊和之適，以窮荊、吳甘酸之變，焚林而獵，燒燎大木，鼓橐吹埵，以銷銅鐵，靡流堅鍛，無厭足目，山無峻幹，林無柘梓，燎木以為炭，燔草而為灰，野莽白素，不得其時，上掩天光，下殄地財，此遁於火也。此五者，一足以亡天下矣。
All disorder is born from drifting and running loose. There are five things out of which drifting and running loose are born. Great frames are raised and palace chambers built, galleries are drawn out and plank roads laid, roosting perches and well railings, post heads and bracket blocks hold one another up. The cunning of the woodworker curls and coils and cuts stern shapes, it graves and carves to excess, with strange figures and turning waves, running water and brimming channels, caltrop leaves and shuttle shapes, twisted and tangled, thick and confused, a glittering disorder, clever falsehoods jumbled and jostling and breaking against one another. This is running loose in wood. They dig the foul pool deep and draw out the ridges and banks far, they bring in the flow of the streams and the valleys, they dress the edges of the winding shore, they pile layered stones and set rocks in circles to finish the curving waterside, they hold back the channels and anger the rapids to throw up the crashing waves, they bend and turn the water about to copy the Yu and the Wu, they plant more lotus and caltrop to feed the turtles and the fish. Swan and wild goose and sushuang bird have rice and millet in plenty. Dragon boats with prows carved as the yi bird float while the pipes are blown for their pleasure. This is running loose in water. They build the city walls high and set up steep barriers, they raise the height of terrace and pavilion, they make the parks and hunting grounds extravagantly large to exhaust the view of every rare and lovely thing. The height of the Wei towers touches the blue clouds above, and great halls piled story on story stand comparison with Kunlun. They build long walls and walled roads run into one another, they cut down the high and heap up the low, they pile earth to make mountains, they join the paths and pass over great distances, they make the straight road level out the rough places, so that they gallop all day and have no fear of where their feet may tread. This is running loose in earth. They make the bells and cauldrons great and the heavy vessels beautiful, with flowered creatures pierced and graved and twined into one another, crouching rhinoceros and couching tiger, coiled dragons in linked bands, glittering and dazzling and confusing the eye, shining and blazing bright, arched and towering and knotted, curving into figured patterns. There is the ornament of graving and cutting, of tempered tin and figured gongs, now dark and now bright. They press down the fine flaws and wipe them out. The frosted figures lie sunk in the surface like a mat of woven reeds, brocade wound about and threaded through, seeming close and yet open. This is running loose in metal. They boil and sear and burn and roast, they tune the fitness of their seasonings to exhaust every change of sweet and sour from Jing and from Wu. They burn the forest to hunt, they set great trees alight, they beat the bellows and blow the tuyeres to melt copper and iron, they grind and pour and forge the hard metal, and their eyes are never satisfied. The mountains are left without tall trunks and the woods without mulberry or catalpa. They burn wood to make charcoal and burn grass to make ash. The wild plants are bleached white and do not get their season. Above they blot out the light of Heaven, below they use up the wealth of Earth. This is running loose in fire. Of these five, one alone is enough to lose all under Heaven.
是故古者明堂之制，下之潤濕弗能及，上之霧露弗能入，四方之風弗能襲；土事不文，木工不斫，金器不鏤；衣無隅差之削，冠無觚蠃之理；堂大足以周旋理文，靜潔足以享上帝、禮鬼神，以示民知儉節。夫聲色五味，遠國珍怪，瑰異奇物，足以變心易志，搖盪精神，感動血氣者，不可勝計也。夫天地之生財也，本不過五。聖人節五行，則治不荒。凡人之性，心和欲得則樂，樂斯動，動斯蹈，蹈斯蕩，蕩斯歌，歌斯舞，歌舞節則禽獸跳矣。人之性，心有憂喪則悲，悲則哀，哀斯憤，憤斯怒，怒斯動，動則手足不靜。人之性有侵犯則怒，怒則血充，血充則氣激，氣激則發怒，發怒則有所釋憾矣。故鐘鼓管簫，幹鏚羽旄，所以飾喜也；衰絰苴杖，哭踴有節，所以飾哀也；兵革羽旄，金鼓斧鉞，所以飾怒也。必有其質，乃為之文。古者聖人在上，政教平，仁愛洽，上下同心，君臣輯睦，衣食有餘，家給人足，父慈子孝，兄良弟順，生者不怨，死者不恨，天下和洽，人得其願。
So the rule for the Hall of Light in old times was this. The damp below could not reach it, the mist and dew above could not enter it, the winds of the four quarters could not strike into it. The earthwork was not figured, the woodwork was not chiseled, the metal vessels were not graved. The clothing had no cut corners, the cap had no ridged grain. The hall was large enough to turn about in and carry out the order of its ceremonies, quiet and clean enough to make offering to the High Lord and give rites to the ghosts and spirits, and by it the people were shown to know thrift and measure. Now of sounds and colors and the five tastes, of the rare and strange things of far countries, of great and outlandish and curious objects that are enough to change the heart and alter the will, to shake and toss the spirit and stir the blood and breath, there is no counting the number. Now in the bringing forth of goods by Heaven and Earth there are at root no more than five. When the sage keeps measure in the five agents, his government does not run to waste. It is the nature of all men that when the heart is in harmony and gets what it wants there is joy. Where there is joy there is movement. Where there is movement there is stamping. Where there is stamping there is swaying. Where there is swaying there is song. Where there is song there is dance. When song and dance keep their measure, the birds and the beasts leap along with them. It is the nature of man that when the heart has grief and loss there is sorrow. Where there is sorrow there is mourning. Where there is mourning there is bitterness. Where there is bitterness there is anger. Where there is anger there is movement. And where there is movement, hand and foot are not still. It is the nature of man that when he is encroached upon he is angry. When he is angry the blood fills up. When the blood fills up the breath runs hard. When the breath runs hard anger breaks out. And when anger breaks out there is something on which he looses his grudge. So bell and drum, pipe and flute, shield and axe, feather and oxtail banner are what dress out joy. Mourning robes and hempen band and staff, and weeping and leaping that keep their measure, are what dress out sorrow. Arms and armor, feather and oxtail banner, gong and drum, axe and battle axe, are what dress out anger. There must first be the substance, and only then is the pattern made for it. In old times the sage was above, government and teaching were level, kindness and love reached everywhere, high and low were of one heart, ruler and minister were at peace together, there was more than enough of clothing and food, every house was supplied and every man had his fill, fathers were loving and sons were filial, elder brothers were good and younger brothers obedient, the living did not complain and the dead bore no grudge, all under Heaven was in harmony and content, and men got what they wished for.
夫人相樂，無所發貺，故聖人為之作樂以和節之。末世之政，田漁重稅，關市急征，澤梁畢禁，網罟無所布，耒耜無以設，民力竭於徭役，財用殫於會賦，居者無食，行者無糧，老者不養，死者不葬，贅妻鬻子，以給上求，猶弗能澹，愚夫蠢婦皆有流連之心，悽愴之志，乃使始為之撞大鐘，擊鳴鼓，吹竽笙，彈琴瑟，失樂之本矣。古者上求薄而民用給，君施其德，臣盡其忠，父行其慈，子竭其孝，各致其愛而無憾恨其間。夫三年之喪，非強而致之，聽樂不樂，食旨不甘，思慕之心，未能絕也。晚世風流俗敗，嗜欲多，禮義廢，君臣相欺，父子相疑，怨尤充胸，思心盡亡，被衰戴絰，戲笑其中，雖致之三年，失喪之本也。古者天子一畿，諸侯一同，各守其分，不得相侵，有不行王道者，暴虐萬民，爭地侵壤，亂政犯禁，召之不至，令之不行，禁之不止，誨之不變，乃舉兵而伐之，戮其君，易其党，封其墓，類其社，卜其子孫以代之。晚世務廣地侵壤，並兼無已，舉不義之兵，伐無罪之國，殺不辜之民，絕先聖之後，大國出攻，小國城守，驅人之牛馬，傒人之子女，毀人之宗廟，遷人之重寶，血流千里，暴骸滿野，以澹貪主之欲，非兵之所為生也。
Now men delighted in one another and had no way to pour out the gift of it, and so the sage made music for them to bring it into harmony and keep it in measure. The government of the last age lays heavy taxes on the field and the fishery and levies hard at the passes and the markets. The marshes and the weirs are all forbidden, so there is nowhere to spread a net and no way to set a plow. The strength of the people is used up in forced labor and their goods are exhausted in levies. Those who stay at home have no food, those who travel have no provisions. The old are not cared for and the dead are not buried. They pawn their wives and sell their children to supply what is demanded from above, and still it cannot be enough. The simple husbandman and the dull wife all have hearts that would drift away and wills full of misery, and just then they are made to begin striking the great bell, beating the sounding drum, blowing the reed pipe and the mouth organ, plucking the zither and the lute. This is to lose the root of music. In old times what was demanded from above was light and the use of the people was enough. The ruler bestowed his power, the minister gave his loyalty to the full, the father carried out his love, the son exhausted his filial duty. Each brought his love to the full and there was no grudge between them. Now the three years of mourning is not something brought about by force. It is that hearing music one takes no pleasure in it, and eating fine food one finds no sweetness in it, and the heart of longing cannot be cut off. In the later age manners drifted and customs decayed, appetite and desire grew many and rites and right fell away. Ruler and minister deceive each other, father and son suspect each other, grudges fill the breast and the heart of longing is wholly gone. They put on mourning robes and wear the hempen band and sport and laugh in the midst of it, and though they carry it to three years they have lost the root of mourning. In old times the Son of Heaven had one royal domain and each of the lords had one holding. Each kept his own share and none could encroach on another. If there was one who did not walk in the royal way, who was cruel to the myriad people, who fought for land and encroached on soil, who threw the government into disorder and broke what was forbidden, who when summoned did not come, when commanded did not obey, when forbidden did not stop, when taught did not change, then they raised troops and struck him. They killed his ruler and changed his party, they raised a mound over his grave and made offering at his altar of the soil, and they divined for one of his descendants to take his place. In the later age men strive to widen their land and encroach on soil, and they swallow and annex without end. They raise troops that are not righteous and strike at states that have done no wrong, they kill guiltless people and cut off the line of the former sages. The great state goes out to attack, the small state holds its walls. They drive off other men's oxen and horses, they carry off other men's sons and daughters, they tear down other men's ancestral temples, they move away other men's heavy treasures. Blood flows for a thousand li and bared bones fill the wilds, and all to fill out the desire of a greedy ruler. This is not what arms were born for.
故兵者，所以討暴，非所以為暴也；樂者，所以致和，非所以為淫也；喪者，所以盡哀，非所以為偽也。故事親有道矣，而愛為務；朝廷有容矣，而敬為上；處喪有禮矣，而哀為主；用兵有術矣，而義為本。本立而道行，本傷而道廢。
So arms are the means of punishing cruelty and not the means of doing cruelty. Music is the means of bringing harmony and not the means of running to excess. Mourning is the means of making sorrow complete and not the means of acting a falsehood. So in serving one's parents there is a way, but love is the work of it. In the court there is a bearing, but respect comes first. In mourning there are rites, but sorrow is the master of it. In the use of arms there is an art, but right is the root of it. When the root is set up, the way is carried out. When the root is harmed, the way falls away.