Mingyi — What Fate Means命義篇
墨家之論，以為人死無命。儒家之議，以為人死有命。言有命者，見子夏言「死生有命，富貴在天。」言無命者，聞歷陽之都一宿沉而為湖；秦將白起坑趙降卒於長平之下，四十萬眾同時皆死；春秋之時，敗績之軍，死者蔽草，尸且萬數；飢饉之歲，餓者滿道，溫氣疫癘，千戶滅門。如必有命，何其秦、齊同也？
The Mohists hold in their discussion that when men die there is no destiny. The Confucians hold in their debate that when men die there is destiny. Those who say there is destiny look to the words of Zixia, "Death and life have their destiny, and wealth and honor rest with Heaven." Those who say there is no destiny have heard that the city of Liyang sank in a single night and became a lake; that the Qin general Bai Qi buried the surrendered soldiers of Zhao below Changping, and four hundred thousand men all died at one time; that in the age of the Spring and Autumn the beaten armies left their dead covering the grass, corpses counted by the ten thousand; that in years of famine the starving filled the roads, and that when the warm vapors brought pestilence a thousand households were wiped out. If there must be destiny, how is it that they all died together, alike?
Interlinear notes 1
何其秦、齊同也
The source text has 何其秦、齊同也; 秦 is taken as an intrusion and only 齊同 ("alike, all together") is rendered. ― translator
言有命者曰：「夫天下之大，人民之眾，一歷陽之都，一長平之坑，同命俱死，未可怪也。命當溺死，故相聚於歷陽；命當壓死，故相積於長平。」「猶高祖初起，相工入丰、沛之邦，多封侯之人矣，未必老少男女俱貴而有相也。卓礫時見，往往皆然。而歷陽之都男女俱沒，長平之坑老少并陷，萬數之中，必有長命未當死之人。遭時衰微，兵革并起，不得終其壽。人命有長短，時有盛衰，衰則疾病，被災蒙禍之驗也。」
Those who say there is destiny say this. "The world is great and the people are many. One city of Liyang, one pit at Changping, and men of one destiny dying together, is nothing to wonder at. Their destiny was to drown, and so they gathered together at Liyang. Their destiny was to be crushed, and so they were heaped up together at Changping."
They say also, "When Gaozu first rose, the readers of faces went into the districts of Feng and Pei, and there were many men there who would be enfeoffed as marquises. Yet it was not that old and young, men and women, were all to be honored and had such features. Outstanding men are seen from time to time, and everywhere it is commonly so. But in the city of Liyang men and women sank alike, and in the pit at Changping old and young were buried side by side. Among tens of thousands there must have been men of long destiny whose time to die had not yet come. They met an age of decline, when weapons and armor rose on every side, and so they could not finish out their years. The destinies of men are long or short, and the times flourish or decline. When the time declines there is sickness, and that is the proof of suffering calamity and meeting disaster."
宋、衛、陳、鄭同日并災，四國之民必有祿盛未當衰之人，然而俱滅，國禍陵之也。故國命勝人命，壽命勝祿命。人有壽夭之相，亦有貧富貴賤之法，俱見於體。故壽命修短皆稟於天，骨法善惡皆見於體。命當夭折，雖稟異行，終不得長；祿當貧賤，雖有善性，終不得遂。項羽且死，顧謂其徒曰：「吾敗乃命，非用兵之過。」此言實也。實者，項羽用兵過於高祖，高祖之起，有天命焉。國命繫於眾星，列宿吉凶，國有禍福；眾星推移，人有盛衰。人之有吉凶，猶歲之有丰耗。命有衰盛，物有貴賤。一歲之中，一貴一賤；一壽之間，一衰一盛。物之貴賤，不在丰耗；人之衰盛，不在賢愚。子夏曰「死生有命，富貴在天」，而不曰「死生在天，富貴有命」者，何則？死生者，無象在天，以性為主，稟得堅強之性，則氣渥厚而體堅強，堅強則壽命長，壽命長則不夭死；稟性軟弱者，氣少泊而性羸窳，羸窳則壽命短，短則蚤死。故言有命，命則性也。至於富貴所稟，猶性所稟之氣，得眾星之精。眾星在天，天有其象。得富貴象則富貴，得貧賤象則貧賤，故曰在天。在天如何？天有百官，有眾星。天施氣，而眾星布精，天所施氣，眾星之氣在其中矣。人稟氣而生，含氣而長，得貴則貴，得賤則賤；貴或秩有高下，富或資有多少，皆星位尊卑小大之所授也。故天有百官，天有眾星，地有萬民，五帝、三王之精。天有王梁、造父，人亦有之，稟受其氣，故巧於御。
Song, Wei, Chen and Zheng were all struck by fire on the same day. Among the people of the four states there must have been men whose emolument was flourishing and whose time to decline had not come, yet all perished together, for the disaster of the state overwhelmed them. Therefore the destiny of a state prevails over the destiny of a man, and the destiny of life prevails over the destiny of emolument.
A man has the features of long life or early death, and he has also the pattern of poverty and wealth, of honor and lowliness, and both are seen in his body. Therefore the length or shortness of his life is all received from Heaven, and the good or ill of his bones is all seen in his body. If his destiny is to be cut off early, then though he received an uncommon conduct he will not in the end be long-lived. If his emolument is to be poor and low, then though he has a good nature he will not in the end come through.
When Xiang Yu was about to die, he looked back and said to his followers, "My defeat is destiny. It is not a fault in my use of troops." These words are true. They are true because Xiang Yu surpassed Gaozu in the use of troops, and yet in the rising of Gaozu there was the destiny of Heaven.
The destiny of a state hangs upon the host of stars. As the constellations are good or ill, the state has disaster or good fortune. As the host of stars shifts and moves, men flourish and decline. That men have good and ill is like the year having plenty and dearth. Destiny has its decline and flourishing, and things have their dearness and cheapness. Within a single year there is one dearness and one cheapness. In the span of a single life there is one decline and one flourishing. The dearness or cheapness of things does not lie in plenty or dearth, and the decline or flourishing of men does not lie in worth or folly.
Zixia said, "Death and life have their destiny, and wealth and honor rest with Heaven." Why did he not say, "Death and life rest with Heaven, and wealth and honor have their destiny"? Death and life have no image (象) in Heaven, and they take the nature for their master. If a man receives a hard and strong nature, his breath is rich and thick and his body is hard and strong. Being hard and strong, his life is long, and his life being long, he does not die young. One who receives a soft and weak nature has little breath and it is thin, and his nature is frail and poor. Being frail and poor, his life is short, and being short, he dies early. Therefore it is said that there is destiny, and destiny is the nature.
As for what is received for wealth and honor, it is like the breath that the nature receives: it gets the essence of the host of stars. The host of stars is in Heaven, and Heaven has their images. He who gets the image of wealth and honor is wealthy and honored, and he who gets the image of poverty and lowliness is poor and low, and therefore it is said that they rest with Heaven. How do they rest with Heaven? Heaven has its hundred offices and it has the host of stars. Heaven sends out breath and the host of stars spreads out essence, and in the breath that Heaven sends out the breath of the host of stars is contained. Man receives breath and is born, he holds breath within him and grows, and if he gets honor he is honored, and if he gets lowliness he is low. That the honored have higher and lower ranks, and the wealthy more and less property, is all granted by the place of the stars, high or low, small or great. So Heaven has its hundred offices, Heaven has its host of stars, and the earth has its myriad people, the essence of the Five Emperors and the Three Kings. Heaven has Wang Liang and Zaofu, and men have them too. They received that breath, and so they are skilled in driving.
傳曰：「說命有三，一曰正命，二曰隨命，三曰遭命。」正命，謂本稟之自得吉也。性然骨善，故不假操行以求福而吉自至，故曰正命。
The Zhuan (傳) says, "In speaking of destiny there are three. The first is the upright destiny, the second is the following destiny, the third is the encountered destiny." The upright destiny means that what a man received at the root gets good of itself. His nature is so and his bones are good, and therefore, without borrowing conduct to seek good fortune, good comes to him of itself. That is why it is called the upright destiny.
隨命者，戳力操行而吉福至，縱情施欲而凶禍到，故曰隨命。遭命者，行善得惡，非所冀望，逢遭於外，而得凶禍，故曰遭命。凡人受命，在父母施氣之時，已得吉凶矣。夫性與命異，或性善而命凶，或性惡而命吉。
The following destiny is this. A man puts out his strength in his conduct, and good and blessing arrive. He lets loose his feelings and gives rein to his desires, and ill and disaster come. That is why it is called the following destiny. The encountered destiny is this. A man does good and gets evil. It is not what he hoped for. He meets it from outside and gets ill and disaster. That is why it is called the encountered destiny. In general a man receives his destiny at the time when his father and mother send out their breath, and there he has already got his good or ill. Now the nature and the destiny are different. Sometimes the nature is good and the destiny is ill, and sometimes the nature is evil and the destiny is good.
操行善惡者，性也；禍福吉凶者，命也。或行善而得禍，是性善而命凶；或行惡而得福，是性惡而命吉也。性自有善惡，命自有吉凶。使命吉之人，雖不行善，未必無福；凶命之人，雖勉操行，未必無禍。孟子曰：「求之有道，得之有命。」性善乃能求之，命善乃能得之。性善命凶，求之不能得也。行惡者，禍隨而至。而盜蹠、庄橫行天下，聚党數千，攻奪人物，斷斬人身，無道甚矣，宜遇其禍，乃以壽終。夫如是，隨命之說，安所驗乎？遭命者，行善於內，遭凶於外也。若顏淵、伯牛之徒，如何遭凶？顏淵、伯牛，行善者也，當得隨命，福佑隨至，何故遭凶？顏淵困於學，以才自殺，伯牛空居而遭惡疾。及屈平、伍員之徒，盡忠輔上，竭王臣之節，而楚放其身，吳烹其尸。行善當得隨命之福，乃觸遭命之禍，何哉？言隨命則無遭命，言遭命則無隨命，儒者三命之說，竟何所定？且命在初生，骨表著見。今言隨操行而至，此命在末，不在本也；則富貴貧賤皆在初稟之時，不在長大之後，隨操行而至也。正命者至百而死；隨命者五十而死；遭命者初稟氣時遭凶惡也，謂妊娠之時遭得惡也，或遭雷雨之變，長大夭死：此謂三命。
Conduct that is good or evil is the nature. Disaster and good fortune, good and ill, are the destiny. A man may do good and get disaster, and here the nature is good and the destiny is ill. A man may do evil and get good fortune, and here the nature is evil and the destiny is good. The nature has its own good and evil, and the destiny has its own good and ill. A man whose destiny is good, though he does no good, is not for that reason without good fortune. A man whose destiny is ill, though he strives in his conduct, is not for that reason without disaster.
Mengzi said, "In the seeking there is a way, and in the getting there is destiny." Only a good nature can seek it, and only a good destiny can get it. If the nature is good and the destiny ill, a man seeks and cannot get. For the man who does evil, disaster follows and arrives. Yet Robber Zhi and Zhuang Qiao ranged over the world at will, gathered bands of thousands, struck and seized the goods of men and cut the bodies of men apart. Their lawlessness was extreme, and they ought to have met their disaster, and instead they died at the end of their years. If this is so, where is the doctrine of the following destiny proved?
The encountered destiny is to do good within and to meet ill from outside. Men like Yan Yuan and Bo Niu, how did they meet ill? Yan Yuan and Bo Niu did good. They ought to have got the following destiny, with blessing and help arriving after them. For what reason did they meet ill? Yan Yuan was worn out with study and wore himself to death by his own talent, and Bo Niu was sitting quietly at home and met a foul disease. As for men like Qu Ping and Wu Yun, they gave their loyalty to the full in aiding their lords and used up the duty of a king's servant, and Chu cast out the body of the one and Wu boiled the corpse of the other. Doing good, they ought to have got the good fortune of the following destiny, and instead they struck against the disaster of the encountered destiny. How is this? If you speak of the following destiny there is no encountered destiny, and if you speak of the encountered destiny there is no following destiny. What in the end settles the Confucians' doctrine of the three destinies?
Moreover the destiny lies in the first birth, and it shows plainly in the bones and in the outward form. If now it is said to arrive following upon conduct, then this destiny lies in the end and not in the root. But wealth and honor, poverty and lowliness all lie in the time of the first receiving, and not after a man is grown, arriving upon his conduct. The man of the upright destiny reaches a hundred and dies. The man of the following destiny dies at fifty. The man of the encountered destiny met ill and evil at the time when he first received breath. That is to say, in the time of the carrying he met and got evil, or he met the calamity of thunder and rain, and having grown he dies young. These are called the three destinies.
亦有三性：有正，有隨，有遭。正者，稟五常之性也；隨者，隨父母之性；遭者，遭得惡物象之故也。故妊婦食兔，子生缺唇。《月令》曰：「是月也，雷將發聲。」有不戒其容者，生子不備，必有大凶，喑聾跛盲。氣遭胎傷，故受性狂悖。羊舌似我初生之時，聲似豺狼，長大性惡，被禍而死。在母身時，遭受此性，丹朱、商均之類是也。性命在本，故《禮》有胎教之法：子在身時，席不正不坐，割不正不食，非正色目不視，非正聲耳不聽。
There are three natures as well: the upright, the following, and the encountered. The upright is to receive the nature of the five constants. The following is to follow the nature of the father and mother. The encountered is to meet and take on the image of an evil thing. So when a woman who is carrying a child eats hare, the child is born with a split lip. The Yueling says, "In this month the thunder is about to send out its voice. Those who do not take care of their bearing will bear children that are not whole, and there will surely be great ill: the mute, the deaf, the lame, and the blind."
The breath meets harm in the womb, and so the child receives a mad and crooked nature. When Yangshe Siwo was newly born, his voice was like the voice of a jackal and a wolf, and when he grew up his nature was evil, and he suffered disaster and died. While he was in his mother's body he met this nature and received it. Danzhu and Shangjun are of this kind. The nature and the destiny lie in the root, and therefore the Li has a method for teaching in the womb. While the child is in the body, she does not sit if the mat is not straight, she does not eat if the cut is not straight, her eyes do not look on what is not a proper color, and her ears do not listen to what is not a proper sound.
及長，置以賢師良傅，教君臣父子之道，賢不肖在此時矣。受氣時，母不謹慎，心妄慮邪，則子長大，狂悖不善，形體丑惡。素女對黃帝陳五女之法，非徒傷父母之身，乃又賊男女之性。
When the child is grown, worthy teachers and good tutors are set over him to teach the way of ruler and servant, of father and son, and it is at this time that he becomes worthy or unworthy. If at the time of receiving breath the mother is not careful and watchful, if her mind is reckless and her thoughts are crooked, then the child grows up mad and crooked and not good, and his body and form are ugly. When Sunü answered the Yellow Emperor and set out the method of the five women, such things do not only harm the bodies of the father and mother. They injure the nature of the boys and girls as well.
人有命，有祿，有遭遇，有幸偶。命者，貧富貴賤也；祿者，盛衰興廢也。以命當富貴，遭當盛之祿，常安不危；以命當貧賤，遇當衰之祿，則禍殃乃至，常苦不樂。遭者，遭逢非常之變，若成湯囚夏台，文王厄牖里矣。
A man has destiny, he has emolument, he has encounter and meeting, and he has luck and matching. Destiny is poverty and wealth, honor and lowliness. Emolument is flourishing and decline, rising and falling. If a man's destiny is to be wealthy and honored and he meets an emolument that is at its flourishing, he is always at peace and never in danger. If his destiny is to be poor and low and he meets an emolument that is at its decline, then disaster and calamity arrive, and he is always in hardship and without joy. Encounter is to meet a change that is out of the common, as when Cheng Tang was shut up in Xiatai and King Wen suffered at Youli.
以聖明之德，而有囚厄之變，可謂遭矣。變雖甚大，命善祿盛，變不為害，故稱遭逢之禍。晏子所遭，可謂大矣。直兵指胸，白刃如頸，蹈死亡之地，當劍戟之鋒，執死得生還。
To have the virtue of a sage and to be enlightened, and yet to suffer the change of being shut up and brought low, may well be called encounter. Though the change be very great, if the destiny is good and the emolument flourishing, the change does not become harm, and so it is called a disaster that was met with. What Yanzi met with may well be called great. Straight weapons were pointed at his breast and white blades were at his neck. He trod the ground of death and faced the point of sword and halberd, and holding on to death he got life and came back.
命善祿盛，遭逢之禍，不能害也。歷陽之都，長平之坑，其中必有命善祿盛之人，一宿同填而死。遭逢之禍大，命善祿盛不能卻也。譬猶水火相更也，水盛勝火，火盛勝水。〔遇者〕，遇其主而用也。雖有善命盛祿，不遇知己之主，不得效驗。幸者，謂所遭觸得善惡也。獲罪得脫，幸也。無罪見拘，不幸也。執拘未久，蒙令得出，命善祿盛，夭災之禍不能傷也。偶（也）〔者〕，謂事君也。以道事君，君善其言，遂用其身，偶也。行與主乖，退而遠，不偶也。退遠未久，上官錄召，命善祿盛，不偶之害不能留也。
If the destiny is good and the emolument flourishing, a disaster that is met with cannot harm a man. In the city of Liyang and in the pit at Changping there must have been men whose destiny was good and whose emolument was flourishing, and in a single night they were buried together and died. When the disaster that is met with is great, a good destiny and a flourishing emolument cannot turn it back. It is like water and fire taking their turns with each other. When water is strong it overcomes fire, and when fire is strong it overcomes water.
Meeting is to meet one's ruler and be used. Though a man have a good destiny and a flourishing emolument, if he does not meet a ruler who knows him he gets no proof of his worth. Luck means to meet and strike upon what is good or bad. To be charged with a crime and yet get free is luck. To be seized with no crime is lack of luck. To be held for no long while and then to come out by an order is a good destiny and a flourishing emolument, where the disaster of a sudden calamity cannot harm a man. Matching means the serving of a ruler. To serve the ruler by the way, so that the ruler thinks his words good and in the end uses his person, is matching. When his conduct runs against the ruler, so that he withdraws and is kept at a distance, that is not matching. To be withdrawn and distant for no long while and then to be enrolled and called by a higher office is a good destiny and a flourishing emolument, where the harm of not matching cannot hold a man back.
故夫遭遇幸偶，或與命祿并，或與命離。遭遇幸偶，遂以成完；遭遇不幸偶，遂以敗傷，是與命并者也。中不遂成，善轉為惡，若是與命祿離者也。故人之在世，有吉凶之性命，有盛衰之禍福，重以遭遇幸偶之逢，獲從生死而卒其善惡之行，得其胸中之志，希矣。
Therefore encounter and meeting, luck and matching sometimes go together with destiny and emolument, and sometimes part from them. When encounter and meeting are lucky and matched, so that a man is brought whole to his completion, and when encounter and meeting are unlucky and unmatched, so that he is broken and harmed, these go together with the destiny. When halfway he does not come to his completion, and what was good turns into evil, this is what parts from the destiny and the emolument. So while a man is in the world he has a nature and a destiny that are good or ill, and he has disaster and good fortune that flourish and decline, and over these comes the meeting of encounter and luck and matching. Those who follow through life and death to the end of their good or evil conduct, and get the purpose in their breast, are few.