Qiangao — Heaven's Reproofs譴告篇

Those who discuss disasters and strange events say that when the rulers of old lost the way in their government, Heaven used disasters and strange events to reprove and warn them. Disasters and strange events are not of one kind, and yet again they take cold and warmth for the proof of them. When the ruler uses punishment out of season it is cold, and when he bestows reward against the season it is warm. That the spirit of Heaven reproves and warns the ruler is like the ruler scolding his servants in anger. Therefore King Zhuang of Chu said, "Heaven sends down no disaster and no strange event. Has Heaven forgotten me!"

Because disasters and strange events are taken for a reproof and a warning, King Zhuang was afraid and thought on it. I say: this is doubtful. Now that a state has disasters and strange events is like a household having strange happenings. If there are disasters and strange events, they say that Heaven reproves the ruler; if there are strange happenings, does Heaven then reprove and warn the household as well? Since the household is now made clear, the inside of a man's body may serve as a likeness too. An illness within the body is like Heaven having disasters and strange events. When the blood and the veins are not in order, illness arises in a man; when the wind and the breath are not in harmony, disasters and strange events arise in the year. They call disasters and strange events Heaven reproving and warning the government of a state; does Heaven then reprove and warn a man with illness as well? Brewing wine in a jar and boiling meat in a cauldron are both done in the hope that their breath and their flavor come out even. When at times they are salt or bitter or sour or flat and do not answer the mouth, it is like a man losing the harmony in his use of medicine.

Now that government has disasters and strange events is like boiling and brewing having a bad flavor. If we truly call disasters and strange events a reproof and a warning from Heaven, then the fault in the boiling and the brewing may be seen as a reproof and a warning too. When the great is divined by the small and the likeness of things and affairs is made clear, that is enough for looking into Heaven. If King Zhuang had known Confucius, his words could be believed. The talent of a lord of a fallen age is like that of the school of turning back a change; his words are not certain to be believed, and so we doubt them.

Now the way of Heaven is so of itself, and it does nothing. If it reproved and warned men, then there would be doing, and it would not be so of itself. The school of Huang and Lao, in discussing the way of Heaven, have got the truth of it. Besides, if Heaven can truly reprove and warn the ruler, it ought to change its breath to wake him. If punishment is used out of season, the breath of punishment is cold, and Heaven ought to make it warm; if reward is bestowed against the season, the breath of reward is warm, and Heaven ought to make it cold. Because it turns his government about and changes its breath, the ruler can wake and know right from wrong. Now instead it goes along with the cold and follows the warm, making cold and making warm to reprove and warn him, and it means thereby to have him change. Besides, Great King (太王) held that Wang Ji could be set up, and so he changed his name to Li. Li means what is fitting.

Taibo woke to it and went to Wu and Yue to gather herbs, and so gave way to Wang Ji. If Great King had not changed the name of Ji but had gone on calling him Ji, would Taibo ever have woken and given way? Now if punishment and reward lose the law and Heaven wishes to mend and change that government, it ought to send a different breath, as Great King changed the name of Ji. Now instead it doubles the same breath to reprove and warn him. When will the ruler ever be able to wake and see the fault in his punishment and reward?

When a player of the se goes wrong in stringing the strings and setting the bridges, so that gong and shang change their sound, his teacher knows it, changes the string and moves the bridge again. Now Heaven seeing the fault in punishment and reward is like the se teacher seeing what is wrong in the strings and the bridges. If it does not change the breath to wake the ruler but instead adds to that breath and thickens his evil, then Heaven has no mind and no will and merely follows the ruler into fault. That is wrong. King Zhou (紂) held drinking that lasted the whole night, and King Wen said morning and evening, "Use this wine for the sacrifice."

Qi was lavish in sacrifice, and when Yanzi sacrificed in the shrine the pig did not cover the stand. Why? It was not that he hated the thing; there was something he meant to mend and change. When sons and younger brothers are haughty, fathers and elder brothers teach them care and respect; when clerks and people are unruly, the senior officer shows them mildness and obedience. For this reason, when Kangshu and Boqin lost the way of sons and younger brothers, they came before the Duke of Zhou, and their bowing and rising were proud and unruly, and they were seen three times and beaten three times. They went and saw Shangzi, and Shangzi had them look at the qiao tree and the zi tree. When the two men saw the qiao and the zi, their hearts were stirred and they woke, and they knew the rites of father and son and of elder and younger brother. The Duke of Zhou could have gone along and been proud, and Shangzi could have followed and been slack; but they surely laid the rod on them and taught them by having them look at things, hoping that the two men would see something unlike themselves and wake of themselves through what was strange. Now the ruler losing his government is like the two men losing the way. If Heaven does not tell him the way of government to wake him, as the two men were woken by looking at the qiao and the zi, but instead follows the fault of punishment and reward and pays it back with cold and warmth, then Heaven and the ruler are both in the wrong. To have no stirring that wakes the other, and only a breath that follows along, is not the will of august Heaven, nor is it the right way of loving those below and reproving and warning them.

Now things that can cut and sever one another must be of different natures, and things that can hold up and complete one another must be of the same breath. For this reason Li below and Dui above is called Ge. Ge is to mend. Fire and metal are of different breath, and so they can mend each other. If both were fire and both were metal, how could they complete each other? Qu Yuan hated the stench of Chu, and so he spoke words of fragrance and cleanness; the fisherman argued that he should not follow the common world, and so he set out his words about washing and bathing.

Now for one who is mixed with a stench, some teach the smoking of a tunnel and some have him carry a pig. Of these two sayings for taking away a stench, which is right and which is wrong? Where there is nothing that goes unchanged, there is at least a little gain. Now the use of cold and warmth is not punishment and reward, so can it change anything? Ximen Bao was hasty, and he wore soft leather to make himself easy; Dong Anyu was slack, and he wore a bowstring to press himself on. The two worthy men knew that what they wore and bound on were things that would change them, and with them they struck at the short side of their own persons. Heaven is clear above all. Yet when the ruler loses his government, it does not reprove and warn him with another breath to change him, but instead follows his fault and raises up that very breath. Then august Heaven uses its will less carefully than the two worthy men did. King Zhuang of Chu loved hunting, and for his sake Fan Ji ate no flesh of bird or beast; Duke Mu of Qin loved lewd music, and for his sake Queen Huayang would not listen to the sounds of Zheng and Wei (衛). The two ladies held their two lords to be wrong, went against their wishes, and did not go along with their ways. August Heaven does not hold reward and punishment to be wrong, but follows the ruler's bearing and thickens his breath. Then the virtue of august Heaven is not the equal of the worth of these women.

Therefore to remonstrate is to come between: one holds to the good and comes between it and the evil. Not to do so must be called a disorder. King Mu of Zhou gave himself to punishment, and the Fuxing chapter says, "He repaid cruelty with terror." Terror and cruelty are both evil, and to repay evil with evil is the worst disorder of all. Now to lose punishment and be loose with reward is evil. If Heaven does evil again to answer it, then the bearing of august Heaven is the same as King Mu's.

Therefore to refute evil with good and to make the good afraid with evil is the reason of telling men and the way of urging and pressing them toward good. Shun warned Yu, saying, "Do not be haughty like Danzhu!" The Duke of Zhou charged King Cheng, saying, "Do not be like King Zhou of Yin!" "Do not" is a forbidding. Danzhu and King Zhou of Yin were most evil, and so he said "do not" to forbid it. Now how does saying "do not be like him" stand beside saying "be sure to be like him"? Therefore the sages looked closely into the two words "do not" and "be sure". How much less would Heaven be willing to reprove a wrong by doing a wrong, following the fault of a man and adding to his evil? Heaven and man have the same way, and the great man joins his virtue with Heaven. The sage and the worthy turn evil back with good, while august Heaven follows the wrong with evil. How could that be the effect of one and the same way, or the proof of a joined virtue?

Emperor Xiaowu loved the immortals, and Sima Changqing offered up the Daren fu, and thereupon the emperor had a breath that rode above the clouds. Emperor Xiaocheng loved to widen his palaces, and Yang Ziyun sent up the Ganquan song, telling wonderfully of spirits and strange things, as if to say that it was not what the strength of men could make, and that only the strength of ghosts and spirits could finish it. The emperor did not wake, and did not stop doing it. If the fu of Changqing had said that the immortals have no true effect, and the song of Yang Ziyun had said that extravagance does harm, would Xiaowu have had a breath that rode above the clouds, and would Xiaocheng have had a delusion he did not wake from? Then Heaven not reproving and warning the ruler with another breath, but instead following the heart of men and answering the wrong with wrong, is like these two men making a fu and a song and leaving the two emperors deluded and unwoken. Dou Ying and Guan Fu hated the crookedness of their age, and together they drew the line day by day to bring it straight. Hating it so deeply in their hearts, how would they have been willing to follow its wishes? How does Taibo teaching Wu the cap and the sash stand beside following their customs and going naked with them? So Wu came to know rites and right because Taibo mended their customs. Su Wu went in among the Xiongnu and to the end did not fasten his coat on the left. Zhao Tuo (趙佗) went into Nanyue and sat with his legs sprawled and wore a mallet topknot. The court of Han praised Su Wu and reviled Zhao Tuo.

The nature of Zhao Tuo had grown used to the earth and breath of Yue, and he had turned his back on the rule of cap and sash. Lu Jia argued with him, wore the robes of Xia and the proper rites, and told him of what is right; and Zhao Tuo woke and turned his heart toward the inner land. If Lu Jia had put on the clothes of Yue again and talked as the barbarians talk, and had followed their disordered customs, how could he have made him wake and change of himself and follow the rule of Han? The three teachings go against one another, and refinement and plainness are opposites; still, a loss in government is not carried on in reverse. To reprove and warn the ruler's fault while not changing his loss but carrying on his wrong, and to wish thereby to work the teaching of reproof and warning — what if he does not follow it? Guan and Cai usurped and rebelled, and the Duke of Zhou told and taught them two and three times over. In what he told and taught them, would he ever have said that they ought to usurp and rebel?

The way of man is to call the good good and the evil evil, to bestow reward on the good and lay guilt on the evil; and the way of Heaven ought to be the same. When punishment and reward lose the truth, that is evil; and if an evil breath is made to answer it, how can the meaning of hating evil ever be carried out? Han set right the crime of harboring and made the law on joining the fled, because it hated a man following a wrong and making a band with evil men. If a man bound the criminal and took him to the clerk, and left the evil men and lived apart from them, the law of harboring and of joining the fled would be done away with. When Di Ya evened out a flavor, if it was sour he poured water on it, and if it was flat he added salt. Water and fire change and turn each other about, and so the dish has no fault of salt or flat. Now punishment and penalty have lost the truth, and Heaven does not make a different breath to change that fault, but makes cold upon the cold and warm upon the warm. This is like hating the sour and pouring salt on it, and hating the flat and pouring water into it. Speaking from this, is the saying about reproof and warning doubtful, or is it surely to be believed?

Now when firewood heats a cauldron, if the fire is fierce the water is hot, and if the fire is weak the water is cold. Now government is like the fire, and cold and warmth are like the hot and the cold. One may only say that when the ruler makes his government and his reward and punishment miss the middle, he goes against yin and yang and throws them into disorder, so that the breath is not in harmony. Is one then to say that Heaven makes it cold and makes it warm for the ruler, to reprove and warn him? The scholars say further that when the ruler loses his government Heaven makes a strange event; that if he does not mend, it brings disaster on his people; and that if he still does not mend, it then brings disaster on his own person. The strange event first and the disaster after, they say, is the meaning of teaching first and cutting down after. I say: this too is doubtful. If things are planted in summer, they dry up and do not grow. If grain is gathered in autumn, the grain is thrown away and is not stored. Now to make a government and a teaching is like planting things and gathering grain. One may only say that when government misses its season, the breath and the things become a disaster. Is one then to say that Heaven makes a strange event to reprove and warn him, and that when he does not mend it makes a disaster to cut him down and strike him? What the scholars say is the talk of common men. In high summer the breath of yang blazes, and when the breath of yin comes against it, it shoots out fiercely and splits, and it strikes men and things and kills them. To say that Heaven punishes a hidden fault sounds like the truth when one hears it once from outside, but within it is not so. Now to say that disasters and strange events are a reproof and a warning, a cutting down and a striking, is like saying that the thunder killing a man is the punishing of a hidden fault. It is a saying that cannot be granted, and a doctrine that is not so.

Someone says, "Gu Ziyun sent up a writing setting out changes and strange events and making clear the reproof and warning of Heaven. He said that if there were no mending it would come again afterward, and he asked to wear the cangue and wait for the time. Afterward it did come again. If this is not a reproof and a warning, for what reason did it come again? It was the words of Ziyun; and so what came afterward showed that he should mend."

I say: now changes and strange events have signs and omens of their own, and yin and yang, things and breath, have an end and a beginning of their own. To tread on frost and know that hard ice must come is the way of Heaven. Ziyun knew the slight beginnings and knew that it would be so again afterward, and he borrowed the doctrine of turning back a change to bear out his words, and so he asked to wear the cangue and wait for the time. It is like Yanzi of Qi seeing the Gou star between Fang and Xin and knowing that the earth was about to move. If Ziyun had seen the Gou star, he would have said again that Heaven was reproving and warning the government with the Gou star, and that if there were no mending there would be the change of the earth moving. Then Ziyun asking to wear the cangue and wait for the time is like Ziwei asking to lie down beneath the steps of his lord and wait for Yinghuo to shift its place. Because the proof came out as it had to, the words about reproof and warning were believed. What harm to right thinking is there in granting a reproof and a warning? It takes away from the virtue of august Heaven and turns what is so of itself and does nothing into the business of men, and that is why it is hard to listen to. To speak of the reproof and warning of Heaven is to praise the keenness of Heaven's sight, and yet by that keenness it harms and lessens the virtue of Heaven. How do we know that he is deaf? Because his hearing is keen. How do we know that he is blind? Because his sight is clear. How do we know that he is mad? Because his words are fitting. Now when a man's words are fitting and his sight and hearing are clear and keen, the school of the Way calls him mad and blind and deaf. To speak now of the reproof and warning of Heaven is to say that Heaven is mad and blind and deaf.

The Yi says, "The great man joins his virtue with heaven and earth." Therefore Taibo said, "Heaven does not speak; it plants its way in the heart of the worthy."

Now the virtue of the great man is the virtue of Heaven, and the words of the worthy are the words of Heaven. When the great man pricks and the worthy remonstrates, that is the reproof and warning of Heaven; yet they turn the telling back upon disasters and strange events, and so we doubt it. The writings of the Six Classics and the words of the sages speak of Heaven at every turn because they wish to change those who are without the way and to make the foolish afraid. It is to say that my words are not my own heart alone but the will of Heaven as well. Even when they speak of Heaven, they still do it by the heart of man, and they do not mean the blue and blue body above. The school of turning back a change sees them laying words falsely on Heaven, and when disasters and strange events come from time to time it gives birth to the talk of reproof and warning. They prove the old by the present, and they know Heaven by man.

It is said that he received the ending from Wenzu, and it is not said that he received the ending from Heaven. It was the heart of Yao that knew the will of Heaven. Yao gave it to him, and Heaven gave it as well, and the hundred officers and the servants all turned toward Shun. Shun giving it to Yu and Yu handing it on to Qi (啟) were both a proving of the will of Heaven by the heart of man. The "looking back with care" in the Odes and the "shaking wrath" in the Hongfan are both a proving of the will of Heaven by the person of a man. When King Wen and King Wu had died, King Cheng was young and the way of Zhou was not yet made, and the Duke of Zhou held the regency. Was there any teaching of Heaven above at that time? The Duke of Zhou pushed out his own heart and it joined with the will of Heaven. The heart of Heaven above is in the breast of the sage, and when it comes to reproving and warning, it is in the mouth of the sage. To not believe the words of the sage, and instead to hold the breath of disasters and strange events to be so and to search out in it the will of Heaven above — how far off that is! If there is no sage in the age, where shall the words of a sage be got? A worthy man has a talent that comes near to it, and he too is next after the sage.