Shuaixing — Guiding One's Nature率性篇
論人之性，定有善有惡。其善者，固自善矣；其惡者，故可教告率勉，以之為善。凡人君父審觀臣子之性，善則養育勸率，無令近惡；近惡則輔保禁防，令漸於惡，善漸於惡，惡化於善，成為性行。召公戒成曰：「今王初服厥命，於戲！若生子罔不在厥初生。」生子謂十五子，初生意於善，終以善；初生意於惡，終以惡。《詩》曰：「彼姝者子，何以與之？」傳言：譬猶練絲，染之藍則青，染之丹則赤。
When one discusses the nature of men, it is settled that there is good in it and there is evil. The good are good of themselves from the start. The evil can be taught and told, led and urged, and so made good. A ruler or a father looks closely at the nature of his subject or his son. If it is good he nurtures it, urges it on and leads it, and lets it come nowhere near evil. If it has come near evil he holds it up and guards it, forbids and blocks it, and does not let it soak in evil. Good soaks into evil and evil is changed into good, and so nature and conduct are formed.
The Duke of Shao warned King Cheng, saying, "Now the king has first taken up his mandate. Ah! It is like bearing a child. There is nothing that does not rest on its first birth." Bearing a child means a child of fifteen. If at his first birth his mind is set on good, he ends in good. If at his first birth his mind is set on evil, he ends in evil. The Shi says, "To that fair one, what shall be given?" It is handed down that he is like boiled silk. Dye it in indigo and it is blue, dye it in cinnabar and it is red.
Interlinear notes 1
近惡則輔保禁防，令漸於惡
The source text has 令漸於惡, without a negative, but the clause speaks of upholding, guarding, forbidding and preventing, so it is read as keeping him from being steeped in evil. ― translator
十五之子其猶絲也，其有所漸化為善惡，猶藍丹之染練絲，使之為青赤也。青赤一成，真色無異。是故揚子哭岐道，墨子哭練絲也。蓋傷離本，不可復變也。人之性，善可變為惡，惡可變為善，猶此類也。逢生麻間，不扶自直；白紗入緇，不（練）〔染〕自黑。彼蓬之性不直，紗之質不黑；麻扶緇染，使之直黑。夫人之性，猶蓬紗也，在所漸染而善惡變矣。
A child of fifteen is like silk. That he soaks and changes and becomes good or evil is like indigo and cinnabar dyeing boiled silk and making it blue or red. Once the blue or the red is made, it is no different from a true color. This is why Yangzi wept at the fork in the road and Mozi wept over boiled silk. They grieved that what leaves its root can never be changed back.
In the nature of man, good can change into evil and evil can change into good, and it is of this same kind. When mugwort grows among hemp it stands straight without being propped. When white silk goes into black water it is black of itself without being dyed. The nature of that mugwort is not straight and the stuff of that silk is not black. The hemp props it and the black water stains it, and so make it straight and black. The nature of man is like the mugwort and the silk. It changes to good or to evil according to what it soaks in.
王良、造父稱為善御，（不）能使不良為良也。如徒能御良，其不良者不能馴服，此則駔工庸師服馴技能，何奇而世稱之？故曰：王良登車，馬不罷駑；堯、舜為政，民無狂愚。傳曰：「堯、舜之民可比屋而封，桀、紂之民可比屋而誅。」斯民也，三代所以直道而行也。
Wang Liang and Zaofu are called good drivers because they could make a poor horse good. If they could drive only good horses and could not tame the poor ones, this would be the taming skill of a horse dealer or an ordinary teacher. What would be strange in it, that the world should praise them? So it is said that when Wang Liang mounts the carriage no horse is worn out or dull, and when Yao and Shun govern the people are not mad or foolish. It is handed down that "the people of Yao and Shun could be enfeoffed house by house, and the people of Jie and Zhou could be put to death house by house." These are the people with whom the Three Dynasties walked the straight way.
聖主之民如彼，惡主之民如此，竟在化不在性也。聞伯夷之風者，貪夫廉而懦夫有立志；聞柳下惠之風者，薄夫敦而鄙夫寬。徒聞風名，猶或變節，況親接形面相敦告乎！孔門弟子七十之徒，皆任卿相之用，被服聖教，文才雕琢，知能十倍，教訓之功而漸漬之力也。未入孔子之門時，閭巷常庸無奇，其尤甚不率者，唯子路也。世稱子路無恆之庸人，未入孔門時，戴雞佩豚，勇猛無禮，聞誦讀之聲，搖雞奮豚，揚唇吻之音，聒賢聖之耳，惡至甚矣。孔子引而教之，漸漬磨礫，闔導牖進，猛氣消損，驕節屈折，卒能政事，序在四科。斯蓋變性使惡為善之明效也。夫肥沃，土地之本性也。肥而沃者性美，樹稼丰茂。而者性惡，深耕細鋤，厚加糞壤，勉致人功，以助地力，其樹稼與彼肥沃者相似類也。地之高下，亦如此焉。以鍤鑿地，以增下，則其下與高者齊；如復增鍤，則夫下者不徒齊者也，反更為高，而其高者反為下。使人之性有善有惡，彼地有高有下，勉致其教令之善，則將善者同之矣。善以化渥，釀其教令，變更為善。善則且更宜反過於往善，猶下地增加鍤更崇於高地也。賜不受命而貨殖焉，賜本不受天之富命所加，貨財積聚，為世富人者，得貨殖之朮也。夫得其朮，雖不受命，猶自益饒富。性惡之人，益不稟天善性，得聖人之教，志行變化。世稱利劍有千金之价。棠溪、魚腸之屬，龍泉、太阿之輩，其本鋌，山中之恆鐵也。冶工鍛煉，成為利，豈利劍之鍛與煉乃異質哉？工良師巧，煉一數至也。試取東下直一金之劍，更熟鍛煉，足其火，齊其，猶千金之劍也。夫鐵石天然，尚為鍛煉者變易故質，況人含五常之性，賢聖未之熟鍛煉耳，奚患性之不善哉？古貴良醫者，能知篤劇之病所從生起，而以針葯治而已之。如徒知病之名，而坐觀之，何以為奇？夫人有不善，則乃性命之疾也，無其教治，而欲令變更，豈不難哉！
The people of a sage ruler are like that and the people of an evil ruler are like this. In the end it lies in transforming and not in nature. When men heard of the manner of Bo Yi, the greedy became honest and the weak set up a will. When men heard of the manner of Liuxia Hui, the mean became generous and the base became broad. Merely hearing the name of a manner, a man may yet change his bearing. How much more when he meets a man face to face and they urge and tell each other!
The seventy disciples of the school of Confucius were all fit for the use of ministers and chancellors. They were clothed in the teaching of the sage, their gift for letters was carved and polished, and their knowledge and ability became tenfold. This was the merit of teaching and the force of soaking. Before they entered the gate of Confucius they were common men of the lanes with nothing strange in them, and the one among them who most refused to follow was Zilu. The world called Zilu an ordinary man with no constancy. Before he entered the gate of Confucius he wore a cock's comb and hung a boar's tail at his waist, fierce and without manners. When he heard the sound of reading he shook the cock and shook out the boar, and raised the noise of his lips to din in the ears of sages and worthies. His evil was extreme. Confucius drew him in and taught him, soaked him and ground him smooth, opened the way for him and let in the light, until his fierce spirit wore away and his proud bearing was bent, and at last he could handle government and his place was among the four studies (四科). This is a clear proof that nature is changed and evil made good.
Richness and fatness are the root nature of the soil. Land that is rich and fat has a fine nature, and what is planted on it grows thick. Land that is barren has a poor nature, but plow deep and hoe fine, add manure thickly and put in the labor of men to help the strength of the ground, and what is planted on it becomes like the crops of that rich and fat land. The high and the low of the ground are the same. Dig the ground with a spade and raise the low place, and the low comes level with the high. Add more spadework, and the low place is not merely level but grows higher still, and what was high becomes low. If the nature of man has good and evil as that ground has high and low, then put in the labor of good teaching and good command, and he will become like the good. Make his transforming thick with good and brew his teaching and command, and he changes and becomes good. Once good, he ought to pass beyond the good of before, as low ground raised with more spadework rises above high ground.
Ci, that is Zigong, did not accept his destiny and yet increased his goods. From the start Ci had no rich destiny of Heaven laid on him, and he piled up goods and wealth and became a rich man of his age because he had got the art of increasing goods. Whoever gets that art grows rich of himself, even with no destiny. A man of evil nature has not received a good nature from Heaven, but when he gets the teaching of a sage his will and his conduct are changed.
The world says that a sharp sword is worth a thousand gold. The kind of Tangxi and Yuchang and the sort of Longquan and Tai'a were at the start bars of common iron from the hills. The smith forged them and tempered them and made them sharp. How should the forging and tempering of a sharp sword be of another stuff? The workman was good and the master was skilled, and the tempering was done to the full count. Take a sword from the eastern market worth one gold, forge it and temper it over again, give it fire enough and make its quenching even, and it is still a sword worth a thousand gold. Iron and stone are made by Heaven, and even so the one who forges and tempers changes their old stuff. How much more a man, who holds in him the nature of the five constants. It is only that the worthy and the sage have not yet forged and tempered him well. Why grieve that nature is not good?
In old times a good physician was held dear because he could know where a heavy and deadly illness rose from, and could treat it with needle and drug and cure it. If he knew only the name of the illness and sat and watched it, what would be strange in him? When a man has what is not good, it is an illness of his nature and his destiny. To wish it changed with no teaching to treat it, would that not be hard?
天道有真偽。真者固自與天相應，偽者人加知巧，亦與真者無以異也。何以驗之？《禹貢》曰「琳琅」者，此則土地所生，真玉珠也。
In the way of Heaven there is the true and there is the false. The true answers to Heaven of itself. The false has the knowledge and skill of men added to it, yet it is no different from the true. How is this tested? What the Yu gong calls "linlang (琳琅)" is true jade and true pearl, born of the soil.
然而道人消爍五石，作五色之玉，比之真玉，光不殊別，兼魚蚌之珠，與《禹貢》琳皆真玉珠也。然而隨侯以葯作珠，精耀如真，道士之教至，知巧之意加也。陽遂取火於天，五月丙午日中之時，消煉五石，鑄以為器，磨礫生光，仰以向日，則火來至。
Yet the men of the Way melt the five stones and make jade of five colors, and set beside true jade its light is not to be told apart. The pearls of fish and clam as well, together with the lin of the Yu gong, are all true jade and true pearl. Yet the Marquis of Sui made a pearl with drugs, and its fine glow was like the true. The teaching of the Daoist had come to him and the intent of knowledge and skill had been added. With the yangsui (陽遂) fire is taken from Heaven. At noon on the bingwu day of the fifth month the five stones are melted and cast into a vessel, and it is ground and polished until it gives light. Hold it up facing the sun and fire comes.
（比）〔此〕真取火之道也。今妄以刀劍之鉤月，摩拭朗白，仰以向日，亦得火焉。夫鉤月非陽遂也，所以耐取火者，摩拭之所致也。今夫性惡之人，使與性善者同類乎，可率勉之令其為善；使之異類乎，亦可令與道人之所鑄玉、隨侯之所作珠、人之所摩刀劍鉤月焉，教導以學，漸漬以德，亦將日有仁義之操。黃帝與炎帝爭為天子，教熊、羆、貔、虎以戰於阪泉之野，三戰得志，炎帝敗績。堯以天下讓舜，鯀為諸侯，欲得三公，而堯不聽，怒其猛獸，欲以為亂，比獸之角可以為城，舉尾以為旌，奮心盛氣，阻戰為強。夫禽獸與人殊形，猶可命戰，況人同類乎！推此以論，百獸率舞，潭魚出聽，六馬仰秣，不復疑矣。異類以殊為同，同類以鈞為異，所由不在於物，在於人也。凡含血氣者，教之所以異化也。三苗之民，或賢或不肖，堯、舜齊之，恩教加也。
This is the true way of taking fire. Now take at random the hooked moon of a knife or a sword, rub and wipe it bright and white and hold it up facing the sun, and fire is got from it too. The hooked moon is no yangsui, and the reason it can take fire is what the rubbing and wiping brought about. Now if a man of evil nature is of one kind with the man of good nature, he can be led and urged and made good. And if he is of another kind, still he may be like the jade the men of the Way cast, the pearl the Marquis of Sui made, and the hooked moon of knife and sword that men rub. Teach him and lead him with learning and soak him with virtue, and day by day he too will hold to benevolence and rightness.
The Yellow Emperor fought the Flame Emperor for the place of Son of Heaven. He taught bears and brown bears and pixiu and tigers, and fought in the field of Banquan. In three battles he got his will, and the Flame Emperor was utterly beaten. When Yao would yield the world to Shun, Gun, who was a feudal lord, wished to be made one of the Three Dukes, and Yao would not hear it. He angered his fierce beasts and would raise a revolt with them, and he set the horns of the beasts in a row for a wall and lifted their tails for banners, and stirred up his heart and swelled his spirit and made a stand of battle to seem strong. Birds and beasts are of another shape than man, and still they can be ordered into battle. How much more man, who is of one kind with man! Reasoning from this, that the hundred beasts followed and danced, that the fish of the pool came out to listen, and that six horses looked up from their fodder are no longer to be doubted. Things of another kind become one through their difference, and things of one kind become different through their evenness. What it comes from lies not in the creature but in the man. Whatever holds blood and breath is changed one way or another by teaching. Among the people of the Sanmiao some were worthy and some were not, and Yao and Shun made them even, for grace and teaching had been added.
楚、越之人，處庄、岳之間，經歷歲月，變為舒緩，風俗移也。故曰：齊舒緩，秦慢易，楚促急，燕戇投。以庄、岳言之，四國之民，更相出入，久居單處，性必變易。
When men of Chu and of the state of Yue (越) live between the Zhuang and Yue wards (莊·岳) of the Qi capital and years and months pass over them, they change and become easy and slow, for the custom has moved them. So it is said that Qi is easy and slow, Qin is idle and careless, Chu is quick and pressing, and Yan is dull and blunt. Speaking by the Zhuang and Yue wards, if the people of the four states go in and out among one another and live long apart in one place, their nature must change.
夫性惡者，心比木石。木石猶為人用，況非木石？在君子之跡，庶几可見。有痴狂之疾，歌啼於路，不曉東西，不睹燥濕，不覺疾病，不知飢飽，性已毀傷，不可如何。前無所觀，卻無所畏也。是故王法不廢學校之官，不除獄理之吏，欲令凡眾見禮儀之教。學校勉其前，法禁防其後，使丹朱之志亦將可勉。何以驗之？三軍之士，非能制也；勇將率勉，視死如歸。且闔廬嘗試其士五湖之側，皆加刃於肩，血流至地。句踐亦試其士於寢宮之庭，赴火死者，不可勝數。夫刃火，非人性之所貪也，二主激率，念不顧生。是故軍之法，輕刺血。孟賁勇也，聞軍令懼。是故叔孫通制定禮儀，拔劍爭功之臣，奉禮拜伏，初驕倨而後遜順，教威德，變易性也。不患性惡，患其不服聖教，自遇而以生禍也。
A man of evil nature has a heart to be matched with wood and stone. Even wood and stone are put to use by men. How much more what is not wood and stone! In the tracks of the gentleman it may nearly be seen. A man with the illness of madness sings and weeps in the road, does not know east from west, does not see dry from wet, does not feel sickness and does not know hunger from fullness. His nature is already broken and hurt and nothing can be done. Before him there is nothing he looks to, and behind him nothing he fears.
This is why the law of the king does not do away with the office of the schools and does not remove the clerks who manage the prisons. It would have the multitude see the teaching of rite and right. The schools urge them on in front and law and prohibition block them behind, and so even the will of Danzhu may be urged on. How is this tested? The men of the three armies are not to be held down by force, yet when a brave general leads them and urges them they look on death as going home. Helü once tested his men beside the Five Lakes, and they all set the blade to their shoulders until the blood ran to the ground. Goujian too tested his men in the court of his sleeping palace, and those who ran into the fire and died could not be counted. Blade and fire are not what the nature of man craves, but the two rulers stirred them and led them until they thought no more of their lives. This is why the law of the army makes light of stabbing blood. Meng Ben was brave, and yet when he heard the order of the army he feared.
So when Shusun Tong set rite and right in order, the ministers who had drawn their swords to fight over merit took up the rite and bowed and lay prostrate. At first they were proud and rude, and afterward they were humble and yielding. He taught them with awe and with virtue and changed their nature. Do not grieve that nature is evil. Grieve that men do not submit to the teaching of the sage, and follow their own way, and so bring forth disaster.
豆麥之種與稻梁殊，然食能去飢。小人君子稟性異類乎？譬諸五谷皆為用，實不異而效殊者，稟氣有厚泊，故性有善惡也。殘則（授）〔受〕（不）仁之氣泊，而怒則稟勇渥也。仁泊則戾而少（愈）〔慈〕，勇渥則猛而無義，而又和氣不足，喜怒失時，計慮輕愚，妄行之人，罪故為惡。人受五常，含五髒，皆具於身。稟之泊少，故其操行不及善人，猶〔酒〕或厚或泊也。非厚與泊殊其釀也，曲孽多少使之然也。是故酒之泊厚，同一曲孽；人之善惡，共一元氣，氣有少多，鼓性有賢愚。
The seed of the bean and the barley differs from rice and millet, yet eating them can drive off hunger. Do the small man and the gentleman receive natures of different kinds? Take the five grains as a likeness. They all serve for use, and their fruit is not different and yet what they bring is different. So the breath received is thick in one and thin in another, and therefore nature has good and evil. The cruel man received the breath of benevolence thinly, and the angry man received bravery thickly. When benevolence is thin a man is harsh and has little love, and when bravery is thick he is fierce and has no rightness. And when his even breath is not enough, joy and anger lose their season, his reckoning is light and foolish, and he becomes a man of reckless deeds who is guilty and does evil on purpose.
Man receives the five constants and holds the five organs, and all of them are complete in his body. What he received was thin and little, and so his conduct does not come up to the good man's, as wine may be strong or weak. It is not that strong and weak are brewed by different ways. The much or the little of the ferment made them so. So the weak and the strong of wine come from one and the same ferment, and the good and the evil of men from one and the same primal breath. The breath has less and more, and so nature has the worthy and the foolish.
西門豹急，佩韋以自緩；董安於緩，帶弦以自促。急之與緩，俱失中和，然而韋弦附身，成為完具之人。能納韋弦之教，補接不足，則豹、安於之名，可得參也。貧劣宅屋不具牆壁宇（達）〔闥〕，人指訾之。如財貨富愈，起屋筑牆，以自蔽鄣，為人具宅，人弗復非。魏之行田百畝，鄴獨二百，西門豹灌以漳水，成為膏腴，則畝收一鍾。夫人之質猶鄴田，道教猶漳水也。患不能化，不患人性之難率也。雒陽城中之道無水，水工激上洛中之水，日夜馳流，水工之功也。由此言之，迫近君子，而仁義之道數加於身，孟母之徙宅，蓋得其驗。人間之水污濁，在野外者清潔，俱為一水，源從天涯，或濁或清，所在之勢使之然也。南越王趙佗，本漢賢人也，化南夷之俗，背畔王制，椎髻箕坐，好之若性。陸賈說以漢德，懼以聖威，蹶然起坐，心覺改悔，奉制稱蕃，其於椎髻箕坐也，惡之若性。前則若彼，後則若此。由此言之，亦在於教，不獨在性也。
Ximen Bao was quick, and he wore a softened hide to slow himself. Dong Anyu was slow, and he wore a bowstring to hurry himself. Quickness and slowness both lose the middle harmony, but with the hide and the string on their bodies they became whole and complete men. Take in the teaching of the hide and the string and patch what is lacking, and a man may stand with the names of Bao and Anyu.
When a poor and shabby house has no wall, no eaves and no gate, men point at it and find fault. When goods grow plentiful and the owner raises the house and builds the wall, screening and shielding himself and holding a house complete in men's eyes, men no longer call it wrong. In Wei the fields were dealt out at a hundred mu, and in Ye alone at two hundred. Ximen Bao led the water of the Zhang over them and made them fat and rich, and each mu yielded a zhong. The stuff of man is like the fields of Ye, and the teaching of the Way is like the water of the Zhang. Grieve that you cannot transform him. Do not grieve that the nature of man is hard to lead.
In the roads inside the city of Luoyang there was no water, and the water workmen drew up the water of the Luo and made it run day and night, and this was the merit of the water workmen. Speaking from this, a man comes close to gentlemen and the way of benevolence and rightness is laid on him again and again. The moving of house by the mother of Mencius got the proof of it. Water where men live is foul and muddy and water out in the open fields is clear and clean, and both are one and the same water. The source comes from the edge of Heaven, and that one is muddy and one is clear is made so by the lay of the place they are in.
Zhao Tuo, king of Nanyue, was at the start a worthy man of Han. He was steeped in the customs of the southern tribes and turned his back on the institutions of the king, and he wore his hair in a mallet knot and sat with his legs sprawled and loved it as if it were his nature. Lu Jia argued with him by the virtue of Han and awed him with the majesty of the sage, and he started up and sat, and in his heart he knew it and repented, and he upheld the institutions and called himself a vassal. And as for the mallet knot and the sprawling seat, he hated them as if that were his nature. Before he was like that, and after he was like this. Speaking from this, it lies in teaching too, and not in nature alone.