Ouhui — Chance Coincidence偶會篇
命，吉凶之主也。自然之道，適偶之數，非有他氣旁物厭勝感動使之然也。
Destiny is the master of good and ill fortune. It is a way that is so of itself and a number that happens to match, and not something that another breath or a thing beside it has pressed down and overcome and stirred and made to be so.
世謂子胥伏劍，屈原自沉，子蘭、宰嚭誣讒，吳、楚之君冤殺之也。偶二子命當絕，子蘭、宰嚭適為讒，而懷王、夫差適信奸也。君適不明，臣適為讒，二子之命偶自不長。二偶三合似若有之，其實自然，非他為也。夏、殷之朝適窮，桀、紂之惡適稔，商、周之數適起，湯、武之德適豐。關龍逢殺，箕子、比干囚死，當桀、紂惡盛之時，亦二子命訖之期也。任伊尹之言，納呂望之議，湯、武且興之會，亦二臣當用之際也。人臣命有吉凶，賢不肖之主與之相逢。文王時當昌，呂望命當貴；高宗治當平，傅說德當遂。非文王、高宗為二臣生，呂望、傅說為兩君出也。君明臣賢，光曜相察；上修下治，度數相得。
The world says that when Zixu fell on his sword and Qu Yuan drowned himself, it was Zilan and Zai Pi who falsely accused and slandered them, and the rulers of Wu and Chu who killed them unjustly. It happened that the destinies of the two men were to be cut off, and Zilan and Zai Pi happened to slander them, and King Huai and Fuchai happened to believe the crooked words. The ruler happened not to be clear-sighted, the minister happened to slander, and the destinies of the two men happened of themselves not to be long. Two things matching and three coming together look as though something were behind them, but in truth they are so of themselves, and nothing else has made them so.
The courts of Xia and Yin happened to come to an end, the wickedness of Jie and Zhou happened to ripen, the fortunes of Shang and Zhou happened to arise, and the virtue of Tang and Wu happened to be full. That Guan Longfeng was killed, and that Jizi and Bigan were imprisoned and died, fell in the time when the wickedness of Jie and Zhou was at its height, and it was also the time when the destinies of these two men came to an end. That the words of Yi Yin were trusted and the counsel of Lü Wang was taken was the moment when Tang and Wu were about to arise, and it was also the moment when these two ministers were to be used.
The destinies of ministers have their good and ill fortune, and worthy and unworthy rulers meet with them. The time of King Wen was to flourish and the destiny of Lü Wang was to be honored; the rule of Gaozong was to be at peace and the virtue of Fu Yue was to be fulfilled. King Wen and Gaozong were not born for the sake of these two ministers, nor did Lü Wang and Fu Yue come forth for the sake of these two rulers. The ruler was clear-sighted and the minister was worthy, and their brightness lit each other; above was cultivated and below was well governed, and the measures and the numbers fitted each other.
顏淵死，子曰「天喪予」。子路死，子曰「天祝予。」孔子自傷之辭，非實然之道也。孔子命不王，二子壽不長也。不王不長，所稟不同，度數并放，適相應也。二龍之祆當效，周歷適櫝；褒姒當喪周國，幽王稟性偶惡。非二龍使歷王發孽，褒姒令幽王愚惑也。遭逢會遇，自相得也。僮謠之語當驗，斗雞之變適生；鵒之占當應，魯昭之惡適成。非僮謠致斗競，鵒招君惡也。期數自至，人行偶合也。堯命當禪舜，丹朱為無道；虞統當傳夏，商均行不軌。非舜、禹當得天下，能使二子惡也；美惡是非，適相逢也。
When Yan Yuan died, Confucius said, "Heaven has cast me away." When Zilu died, Confucius said, "Heaven has cut me off." These are words in which Confucius grieved for himself, not a way that is really so. Confucius' destiny was not to be king, and the years of the two men were not to be long. Not being king and not being long-lived are not the same in what was received, yet the measures and the numbers lay side by side and happened to answer each other.
The monstrous thing of the two dragons was to show itself, and King Li of Zhou happened to open the casket. Bao Si was to bring the state of Zhou to ruin, and the nature King You received happened to be evil. It was not that the two dragons made King Li breed the calamity, nor that Bao Si made King You foolish and besotted. They met and came upon each other and fitted together of themselves. The words of the children's song were to be borne out, and the trouble of the cockfight happened to arise. The omen of the mynah was to be answered, and the wickedness of Duke Zhao of Lu happened to be fulfilled. It was not that the children's song brought on the quarrel, nor that the mynah called up the ruler's wickedness. The time and the number came of themselves, and men's deeds happened to match them.
The destiny of Yao was to hand the throne to Shun, and Danzhu was without the Way. The line of Yu (虞) was to pass to Xia, and Shangjun behaved against the rule. It was not that Shun and Yu, being due to gain all under Heaven, were able to make the two sons evil. Beauty and ugliness, right and wrong, happened to meet each other.
火星與昴星出入，昴星低時火星出，昴星見時火星伏，非火之性厭服昴也，時偶不并，度轉乖也。正月建寅，斗魁破申，非寅建使申破也，轉運之衡，偶自應也。父歿而子嗣，姑死而婦代，非子婦（代）〔嗣〕代使父姑終歿也，老少年次自相承也。
The Fire Star (火星) and the Pleiades go in and out, and when the Pleiades are low the Fire Star comes out, and when the Pleiades are seen the Fire Star hides. This is not because the nature of fire presses down the Pleiades and makes them submit, but because their times happen not to run side by side and their measures turn and fall out of line. In the first month the handle is set at yin (寅), and the ladle of the Dipper breaks shen (申). It is not that setting up yin makes shen be broken; the turning balance happens of itself to answer so. When a father dies the son succeeds him, and when a mother-in-law dies the wife takes her place. It is not that the son and the wife, by succeeding and taking their place, make the father and the mother-in-law die; the order of old and young follows on of itself.
世謂秋氣擊殺谷草，谷草不任雕傷而死。此言失實。夫物以春生夏長，秋而熟老，適自枯死，陰氣適盛，與之會遇。何以驗之？物有秋不死者，生性未極也。人生百歲而終，物生一歲而死。死謂陰氣殺之。人終觸何氣而亡？論者猶或謂鬼喪之。夫人終鬼來，物死寒至，皆適遭也。人終見鬼，或見鬼而不死。物死觸寒，或觸寒而不枯。坏屋所壓，崩崖所墜，非屋精崖氣殺此人也。屋老崖沮，命凶之人，遭居適履。月毀於天，螺消於淵。風從虎，雲從龍。同類通氣，性相感動。若夫物事相遭，吉凶同時，偶適相遇，非氣感也。
The world says that the breath of autumn strikes the grain and the grasses dead, and that the grain and the grasses cannot bear to wither and be harmed and so die. These words miss the truth. Things are born in spring and grow in summer, and in autumn they ripen and grow old and happen of themselves to dry up and die, and the breath of yin happens to be at its height and meets with them. How is this proved? There are things that do not die in autumn, and in them the nature they were born with is not yet used up.
A man is born and ends at a hundred years; a thing is born and dies within one year. Its dying is said to be the breath of yin killing it. Then what breath does a man meet with at his end that he perishes? Some who argue even say that ghosts take him away. That a ghost comes when a man ends, and that the cold arrives when a thing dies, are in both cases only a happening to meet. Men see ghosts at their end, yet some see a ghost and do not die. Things meet the cold when they die, yet some meet the cold and do not wither.
Being crushed by a house that falls in, or thrown down by a cliff that gives way, is not the spirit of the house or the breath of the cliff killing the man. The house is old and the cliff crumbles, and a man whose destiny is ill-fated happens to live there and happens to tread there. When the moon wanes in the sky, the snail shrinks in the deep. Wind follows the tiger and clouds follow the dragon. Things of one kind have their breaths in common, and their natures stir each other. But as for things and events meeting each other, with fortune and misfortune at one time, that is a happening to meet, not a stirring of breaths.
殺人者罪至大辟。殺者，罪當重；死者，命當盡也。故害氣下降，囚命先中；聖王德施，厚祿先逢。是故德令降於殿堂，命長之囚出於牢中。天非為囚未當死，使聖王出德令也。聖王適下赦，拘囚適當免死，猶人以夜臥晝起矣。夜月光盡，不可以作，人力亦倦，欲壹休息；晝日光明，人臥亦覺，力亦復足。非天以日作之，以液息之也；作與日相應，息與夜相得也。
For one who kills a man the punishment reaches to death. The killer's guilt is to be heavy, and the dead man's destiny is to be at its end. So when a harmful breath comes down, it is the destiny of prisoners that is struck first, and when a sage king spreads his virtue, it is those with rich emolument who meet it first. And so when an order of grace comes down from the hall, the prisoner whose destiny is long comes out of the jail. It is not that Heaven, because the prisoner was not yet to die, made the sage king send out the order of grace. The sage king happened to send down a pardon, and the prisoner in custody happened to be due to escape death, just as men lie down at night and rise by day. When the moonlight is gone at night, work cannot be done, and men's strength is tired as well and wishes once to rest; when the sun is bright by day, those who lay down awake, and their strength is full again. It is not that Heaven makes them work by the day and rest by the night; working answers to the day and resting fits with the night.
雁鵠集於會稽，去避碣石之寒，來遭民田之畢，蹈履民田，啄食草糧。糧盡食索，春雨適作，避熱北去，復之碣石。象耕靈陵，亦如此焉。傳曰：「舜葬蒼梧，象為之耕；禹葬會稽，鳥為之佃。」失事之實，虛妄之言也。丈夫有短壽之相，娶必得早寡之妻；早寡之妻，嫁亦遇夭折之夫也。世曰：「男女早死者，夫賊妻，妻害夫。」非相賊害，命有然也。使火燃，以水沃之，可謂水賊火。火適自滅，水適自覆，兩名各自敗，不為相賊。今男女之早夭，非水沃火之比，適自滅覆之類也。賊父之子，妨兄之弟，與此同召。同宅而處，氣相加凌，羸瘠消單，至於死亡，（何）〔可〕謂相賊。或客死千里之外，兵燒厭溺，氣不相犯，相賊如何？王莽姑（姊）正君許嫁二夫，二夫死，當適趙而王薨。
That wild geese and swans gather at Kuaiji is because they leave to avoid the cold of Jieshi and come and happen upon the time when the people's field work is done, and they tread the people's fields and peck at the grasses and the grain. When the grain is gone and the food is used up, the spring rains happen to fall, and they avoid the heat and go north and return to Jieshi. The elephants that plowed at Lingling are of the same sort. It is handed down that "when Shun was buried at Cangwu, elephants plowed for him, and when Yu was buried at Kuaiji, birds weeded for him." These are words that miss the truth of the matter, empty and false.
If a husband has the look of a short life, he is sure in marrying to get a wife who will be widowed early; and a wife who will be widowed early, when she marries, also meets a husband who will die young. The world says, "When a man and a woman die early, the husband harms the wife and the wife harms the husband." They do not harm each other; their destinies are so. If a fire is burning and water is poured on it, it may be said that the water harmed the fire. If the fire happens to go out of itself and the water happens to spill of itself, then each of the two has failed of itself, and they have not harmed each other. Now the early death of a man and a woman is not to be compared with pouring water on fire; it is of the sort that happens to go out and spill of itself.
The son said to harm his father and the younger brother said to stand in his elder brother's way are called up in the same manner. If they live in one house and their breaths press and overbear each other, so that one grows thin and wasted and dwindles away and comes to death, then it may be said that they harm each other. But some die far off a thousand li away, and some die by weapons or fire or crushing or drowning, where the breaths never touched each other. How is that to be called harming each other? Zhengjun, the aunt of Wang Mang, was promised in marriage to two husbands, and both husbands died, and when she was to be married into Zhao, the king died.
氣未相加，遙賊三家，何其痛也。黃〔次〕公取鄰巫之女，卜謂女相貴，故次公位至丞相。其實不然。次公當貴，行與女會；女亦自尊，故入次公門。偶適然自相遭遇，時也。無祿之人，商而無盈，農而無播，非其性賊貨而命妨谷也。
Their breaths had not yet touched each other, and yet she is said to have harmed three households from afar. What a grievous thing that would be! Huang Cigong married the daughter of a neighboring shaman, and a diviner said that the woman's look was noble, and so Cigong's place reached to prime minister. In truth it was not so. Cigong was to be honored, and on his way he met with the woman; and the woman too was to be exalted of herself, and so she came in at Cigong's gate. They happened to be so and met each other of themselves; this is the times. A man without emolument gets no gain though he trades, and has nothing sown though he farms. It is not that his nature harms goods and his destiny stands in the way of grain.
命貧，居無利之貨；祿惡，殖不滋之谷也。世謂宅有吉凶，徙有歲月。實事則不然。天道難知，假令有命凶之人，當衰之家，治宅遭得不吉之地，移徙適觸歲月之忌。一家犯忌，口以十數，坐而死者，必祿衰命泊之人也。推此以論，仕宦進退遷徙，可復見也。時適當退，君用讒口；時適當起，賢人荐己。故仕且得官也，君子輔善；且失位也，小人毀奇。公伯寮訴子路於季孫，孔子稱命。魯人臧倉讒孟子於平公，孟子言天。道未當行，與讒相遇；天未與己，惡人用口。故孔子稱命，不怨公伯寮；孟子言天，不尤臧倉，誠知時命當自然也。推此以論，人君治道功化，可復言也。命當貴，時適平；期當亂，祿遭衰。治亂成敗之時，與人興衰吉凶適相遭遇。因此論聖賢迭起，猶此類也。
If his destiny is poverty he holds goods that bring no profit, and if his emolument is bad he plants grain that does not grow. The world says that houses have their fortune and misfortune and that moving has its years and months. In fact it is not so. The way of Heaven is hard to know. Suppose a man whose destiny is ill-fated and a household due to decline build a house and happen to get an unlucky piece of ground, and move and happen to touch a forbidden year or month. When one household breaks a taboo, its members number ten or more, and those who die of it are sure to be the ones whose emolument is failing and whose destiny is thin.
Reasoning from this, advancement and retreat and transfer in office can be seen in the same way. When the time is for a man to retreat, the ruler uses slandering mouths; when the time is for him to rise, a worthy man recommends him. So when a man serves and is about to gain a place, gentlemen help what is good in him, and when he is about to lose his place, small men tear down what is uncommon in him. When Gongbo Liao accused Zilu to Jisun, Confucius spoke of destiny. When Zang Cang of Lu slandered Mencius to Duke Ping, Mencius spoke of Heaven. The Way was not yet to be practiced, and so it met with slander; Heaven had not yet given to them, and so evil men wagged their tongues. Therefore Confucius spoke of destiny and did not resent Gongbo Liao, and Mencius spoke of Heaven and did not blame Zang Cang. They truly knew that the times and destiny are so of themselves.
Reasoning from this, the ruler's way of governing and his merit and his transforming power can also be spoken of. When his destiny is to be honored, the times happen to be at peace; when the age is due to fall into disorder, his emolument meets with decline. The times of order and disorder, of success and failure, happen to meet with men's rising and falling and their fortune and misfortune. Reasoning from this, that sages and worthy men arise in turn is of this same kind.
聖主龍興於倉卒，良輔超拔於際會。世謂韓信、張良輔助漢王，故秦滅漢興，高祖得王。夫高祖命當自王，信、良之輩時當自興，兩相遭遇，若故相求。是故高祖起於丰、沛，丰、沛子弟相多富貴，非天以子弟助高祖也，命相小大適相應也。趙簡子廢太子伯魯，立庶子無恤。無恤遭賢，命亦當君趙也。世謂伯魯不肖，不如無恤；伯魯命當賤，知慮多泯亂也。韓生仕至太傅，世謂賴倪寬。實謂不然。太傅當貴，遭與倪寬遇也。趙武藏於褲中，終日不啼，非或掩其口，閼其聲也；命時當生，睡臥遭出也。故軍功之侯必斬兵死之頭，富家之商必奪貧室之財。削土免侯，罷退令相，罪法明白，祿秩適極。故厲氣所中，必加命短之人；凶歲所著，必飢虛耗之家矣。
A sage ruler rises like a dragon in the midst of sudden troubles, and a good helper leaps up and is drawn out when the moment meets him. The world says that Han Xin and Zhang Liang helped the king of Han, and that therefore Qin fell and Han arose and Gaozu became king. Now Gaozu's destiny was to be king of itself, and the times of men like Han Xin and Zhang Liang were to arise of themselves, and when the two met it was as though they had sought each other on purpose. So when Gaozu rose at Feng and Pei, many of the young men of Feng and Pei had the look of wealth and honor. It was not that Heaven helped Gaozu with those young men; the great and the small of their destined looks happened to answer each other.
Jianzi of Zhao put aside his heir Bolu and set up Wuxu, a son by a secondary wife. Wuxu met with worth, and his destiny too was to be lord of Zhao. The world says that Bolu was unworthy and not the equal of Wuxu, but Bolu's destiny was to be lowly, and so his knowledge and thought were much clouded and confused. That Han Sheng served and reached the office of Grand Tutor, the world says he owed to Ni Kuan. In truth it was not so. The Grand Tutor was to be honored, and he met with Ni Kuan. That Zhao Wu was hidden in the trousers and did not cry all day was not because someone covered his mouth and stopped his voice; his destiny was that he should live at that time, and he fell asleep and lay there and happened to come out.
So one who is made a marquis for merit in war must have cut off the heads of men who died fighting, and the merchant of a rich house must have taken away the goods of a poor house. Having one's land pared away and being removed from a marquisate, and being dismissed and set aside from being a magistrate or a minister, are clear in guilt and in law, and yet emolument and rank happened to be at their end. So a fierce breath strikes and is sure to fall on a man whose destiny is short, and a bad year shows itself and is sure to fall on a household that will be hungry and empty and worn away.