Biandong — Moving Nature to Change變動篇

Those who discourse on disasters and strange things have already doubted that Heaven uses disasters and strange things to reprove and warn men. They say again, "The coming of disasters and strange things is likely this: the ruler moves Heaven by his government, and Heaven moves the breath to answer him. Liken it to striking a drum with a thing, or knocking a bell with a mallet. The drum is like Heaven, the mallet is like the government, and the sound of the bell and the drum is like Heaven's answer. When the ruler acts below, the breath of Heaven follows man and comes."

The answer is: this too is doubtful. Now Heaven can move things, but how can things move Heaven? Why so? Men and things are bound to Heaven, and Heaven is the master of men and things. Therefore it is said, "Wang Liang whips his horse, and carts and riders fill the fields."

It is not that carts and riders fill the fields and thereupon Wang Liang whips his horse. The breath of Heaven changes above, and men and things answer below. Therefore when Heaven is about to rain, the Shangyang rises and dances, and it is the rain of Heaven that makes it do so.

The Shangyang is a creature that knows the rain. When Heaven is about to rain, it bends up one foot and rises and dances. Therefore when Heaven is about to rain, mole crickets and ants move house, the earthworms of the mound come out, the strings of the lute slacken, and old sickness breaks out. These are the proof that things are moved by Heaven. So when wind is at hand, the insects that nest stir; when rain is at hand, the creatures that live in holes are troubled. It is the breath of wind and rain that works upon insects and creatures. Therefore man's being between Heaven and earth is like fleas and lice being inside a coat, or mole crickets and ants being within the crack of a hole. Can fleas and lice, mole crickets and ants, by going against or along, crosswise or lengthwise, make the breath within the coat or within the crack of the hole change and move? Fleas and lice, mole crickets and ants cannot, and yet man alone is said to be able. This is not to reach through to the principle of things and breath.

Now when the wind comes the branches of a tree move, but the branches of a tree cannot bring the wind. For this reason, at the end of summer the cicada sings and the evening cicada cries; they feel the breath of yin.

When thunder moves the pheasant is startled, and when the hidden creatures are opened the snake comes out; it is the breath of yang that raises them. When night reaches the middle the crane calls, and when dawn is about to break the cock crows. These, though they are not strange things, are the proof that the breath of Heaven moves creatures and that creatures answer the breath of Heaven. One may indeed say instead that cold and warmth work upon the ruler and stir him, and that the ruler, his breath being roused, gives rewards and punishments. But shall we say that rewards and punishments work upon august Heaven and stir it, and that Heaven makes cold and warmth to answer the government? The school of the six feelings and the winds says, "When the wind comes, those who would be robbers feel it and answer it and rise."

It is not that the essential breath of the robber works upon Heaven and makes the wind come. The wind comes and works strangely upon a heart without rule, and the bearing of a robber breaks out. How is this tested? The robber sees a thing and takes it, sees a foe and kills him, and all this lies within the moment of a step and a pause. He need not have had the thought the day before, and yet the wind of Heaven has already come on the day of tanlang and yinzei.

Those who divine dear and cheap by the wind say that when the wind comes from the quarter of wang and xiang things are dear, and when it comes from the ground of qiu and si they are cheap. Now dear and cheap, many and few, are a matter of the peck and the bushel. When the wind comes, the men who buy and sell grain make its price dear or cheap; this is the breath of Heaven moving men and things and working strangely upon them. Therefore the price of grain falls and rises, now dear and now cheap. The book of the Tianguan divines the winds of the four quarters on the morning of the first month: a wind coming from the south means drought, from the north means flood, from the east means pestilence, and from the west means war. That the Grand Historian truly spoke of divining flood and drought and war and pestilence by the wind is because the fortune and misfortune of men and things are governed by Heaven. What makes things to be born is spring; what makes things to die is winter. That they are born in spring and killed in winter is Heaven. Though someone should wish to kill in spring and give birth in winter, things would in the end not die and not be born. Why? Because the birth of things is governed by yang, and the death of things is bound to yin. Therefore blow upon a man with the breath of your mouth and you cannot make him cold; breathe warm upon a man and you cannot make him warm. Send the man who blows cold and breathes warm across winter and against summer, and he will have the trouble of freezing and of heat. The breath of cold and warmth is bound to Heaven and earth and governed by yin and yang. How can the affairs of men and the government of a state move it?

Again, Heaven is the root and man is the tip. Climb a tree and shake its branches, and you cannot move the trunk; cut the trunk, and ten thousand stems wither. The affairs of men are like the branches of a tree, and cold and warmth are like the root and the trunk. To be born from Heaven, to hold the breath of Heaven within, and to take Heaven for master, is like the ears and eyes and hands and feet being bound to the heart. When the heart has something to do, the ears and eyes see and hear and the hands and feet move. To say that Heaven answers man is to say that the heart is worked by the ears and eyes and hands and feet. The streamers hang from a flag, and the streamers are tied to the pole; when the pole goes east the streamers follow and go west. If we truly say that cold and warmth come following punishments, this is to make the breath of Heaven a tied streamer. That the Gou star lies between the Fang lodge and the Xin lodge is a sign that the earth is about to move. The grand diviner of Qi (齊) knew it and said to Duke Jing, "Your servant can move the earth."

Duke Jing believed him. To say that a ruler can bring on cold and warmth is like Duke Jing of Qi believing that the grand diviner could move the earth. Now man cannot move the earth, and neither can he move Heaven.

Now cold and warmth are the breath of Heaven. Heaven is the highest and greatest, and man is the lowest and smallest. Why can a punting pole not make a bell sound, and a firefly not boil a cauldron? Because the bell is long and the pole is short, the cauldron is big and the firefly is small. That a slender shape of seven feet should work upon the great breath of august Heaven and leave not so much as a fen or a zhu of proof is certain. The diviners say that when a great general is about to enter a state or a town, if the breath is cold the general will be angry, and if it is warm the general will be glad. Now gladness and anger rise and break out when a matter raises them. But before he has entered the border, before he has seen the clerks and the people, while right and wrong have not yet been looked into and gladness and anger have not yet broken out, the breath of cold or warmth has already come beforehand. If anger and gladness bring on cold and warmth, then the breath ought to come after the anger and the gladness; so in the end it is the breath of cold and warmth that makes the ruler angry or glad.

Someone says, "This is not yet utmost sincerity. When a deed is done with utmost sincerity, as when Zou Yan called on Heaven and frost came down, and the wife of Qi (杞) Liang wept and the wall fell, then how should the breath of Heaven not be moved?"

Now utmost sincerity too is a matter of what the heart and the will love or hate. A fruit lies before a man, one foot from his mouth. His heart wishes to eat it, and though he draws it with the breath of his mouth he cannot take it; only when his hand picks it up and sends it to his mouth does he get it. Now the fruit is small and round and easily rolled and not far from the mouth, and still it cannot be got by wishing for it with utmost sincerity; how much less Heaven, which is high and far from man and whose breath is a vast blue without end or beginning? In the height of summer a man stands facing the wind, and in the depth of winter he sits facing the sun. That in summer he wishes to get cold and in winter to get warmth is utmost sincerity at its limit. Those whose wish is strong will even fan themselves facing the wind, or light a brazier facing the sun; yet Heaven never changes its breath for winter or for summer, and cold and heat have their seasons and are not altered for man. Now when a man wishes for a thing straight out he still cannot bring it on; how much less when he punishes and rewards of himself and has no thought of seeking cold or warmth?

Ten thousand men sighing together cannot move Heaven; how should the mouth of Zou Yan alone bring frost down? How does the state of Zou Yan stand beside Qu Yuan? How does the wrong of being shut up stand beside drowning in a river? How does the sorrow of the Lisao and the Chuci stand beside a single sigh? When Qu Yuan died there was no frost in Chu, and that was the age of King Huai and King Xiang. In the time of King Li and King Wu, Bian He offered up a jade, and they cut off both his feet; he held up the jade and came out weeping, and when his tears were spent he went on with blood. How does the sincerity of Zou Yan stand beside Bian He? How does the wrong of being shut up stand beside having the feet cut off? How does looking up to Heaven and sighing stand beside weeping blood? Now a sigh is surely not equal to weeping, and being shut up does not match having the feet cut off. Reckon the bitterness of the wrong, and Yan is not equal to He; yet at that time no frost was seen in the land of Chu. Li Si and Zhao Gao slandered the crown prince Fusu and killed him, and it reached Meng Tian and Meng Ao as well. At that time they all uttered words of pain and bitterness, the same as the sound of sighing; and further, the disaster came to death, and was no mere shifting of place. Yet on the ground where they died no cold breath arose. Qin buried the soldiers of Zhao in a pit below Changping, four hundred thousand men, and they all went down together at one time. Their crying out at that time was no mere sigh. Though their sincerity did not come up to Zou Yan, the wrong of four hundred thousand men should weigh as much as the pain of one worthy minister, and the crying of men going down into the pit should pass the cry of a man shut up. Yet at that time no frost was seen to fall below Changping. The Fu xing says, "The many who were guiltless told it all round to the Lord of Heaven."

This says that the people of Chiyou suffered wrong and told it all round to Heaven above that they were without guilt. If the crying of a multitude of people could not bring frost, then the words about Zou Yan are likely empty and wild.

The south is the hottest, scorching and roasting until stones crumble, and father and son bathe in the same water. The north is the coldest, the ice freezing hard and the earth splitting, and father and son live in the same cave. Yan lies on the northern border, and in Zou Yan's time the fifth month of Zhou was the third month of the true year. Within Zhongzhou frost and snow fall at times in the first and second months. The northern border is the coldest, and frost coming down in the third month is no strange thing. Likely it was this: on the northern border the third month was still cold, the frost happened to fall of itself, and Yan happened to cry out, so that he met with the frost. It is handed down that "In Yan there is a cold valley where the five grains do not grow."

If Zou Yan blew the pitch pipes and the cold valley grew warm again, then he could make the breath warm, and he could also make the breath cold again. How do we know that Yan did not wish the men of his time to know his wrong, and to show his own sincerity by the breath of Heaven, and so blew the pitch pipes in secret in the prison in the valley of Yan, made the breath cold, and thereupon called on Heaven? If it was not so, for what cause did the frost come down? Fan Ju was slandered by Xu Jia, and Wei Qi (魏齊) beat him and broke his ribs. Zhang Yi traveled in Chu, and the minister of Chu flogged him, and he was beaten until he bled. The Grand Historian set out the manner of the wrongs of these two men. Zou Yan's being shut up is of a kind with Ju and Yi; why then should Zichang have shunned it and said nothing? Look into the biography of Yan, and it does not say that he was shut up and made frost come down. False books and floating talk are like the tale that the crown prince Dan made the sun stand at noon a second time and Heaven rain grain. Speaking from this, that Yan cried out and frost came down is empty! Then that the wife of Qi Liang wept and the wall fell is wild!

Dunmou (頓牟) revolted, and Xiangzi of Zhao led an army and attacked it. When the army came below the wall, the wall of Dunmou fell for more than ten zhang, and Xiangzi struck the gong and drew his men back. Now if the wife of Qi Liang wept and the wall fell, was there anyone weeping in the army of Xiangzi? When Qin was about to perish, the inner side of the capital gate fell; when the house of Huo Guang was about to be ruined, the wall of the mansion fell of itself. Who wept in the palace of Qin, or cried in the house of Huo Guang? Yet the falling of the gate and the ruin of the wall were signs that Qin and Huo would be ruined and lost. Perhaps the state of Qi (杞) was about to crumble, and the wife of Qi Liang happened to weep below the wall, just as the state of Yan happened to be cold and Zou Yan cried out by chance. Matters go by kind and times follow on one another, and those who heard and saw were led astray and took it to be so. Besides, when a wall is old and a rampart rotten there is falling and ruin even so. That the weeping of one woman should bring down a wall of five zhang would be one finger snapping a pillar of three ren. In the time of the Springs and Autumns the mountains changed often. Mountain and wall are of one kind. If weeping can bring down a wall, can it ruin a mountain as well? Nüran put on plain white silk and wept at the Yellow River (河), and the Yellow River flowed through. If we believe that weeping brings a wall down, then this is fitting enough. Consider that Qi Liang followed the army and died and did not come home. His wife went to meet him, and the ruler of Lu offered condolence on the road, but the wife would not receive it; the coffin was brought home, and the ruler of Lu went there and offered condolence. It is not said that she wept below the wall. He followed the army and died in the first place, and one who follows the army and dies is not inside the wall, so for his wife to weep facing the wall was not the place for it. Then that the wife of Qi Liang wept and the wall fell is again empty words.

Following out the kind: that when Jing Ke stabbed at the king of Qin a white rainbow pierced the sun, and that when Master Wei (衛) laid the plan of Changping for Qin Taibai ate into the Mao stars, is again wild talk. Now Yuzi plotted to kill Xiangzi and lay hidden below a bridge, and when Xiangzi came to the bridge his heart was moved. Guan Gao wished to kill Gaozu and hid men within a wall, and when Gaozu came to Boren his heart too was moved.

The two men wished to stab two lords, and the hearts of the two lords were moved. Judged by the reality, it is still said that this was not what the spirits of the two men could work upon. How much more when Jing Ke wished to stab the king of Qin and the heart of the king of Qin was not moved, and yet a white rainbow pierced the sun? Then the white rainbow piercing the sun was a change of Heaven come about of itself, and it was not that the essence of Ke became a rainbow and pierced the sun. That the Gou star lies between the Fang lodge and the Xin lodge is a sign that the earth is about to move. The earth was about to move, and the Gou star answered in Fang and Xin. Now Taibai eating into the Mao stars is like the Gou star lying in Fang and Xin. To say that the counsel of Master Wei at Changping made Taibai eat into the Mao stars is doubtful! The Sui star harmed the Bird and the Wei (尾) lodge, and Zhou and Chu hated it. A blazing breath appeared, and there were fires in Song, Wei (衛), Chen, and Zheng. Consider that at that time Zhou and Chu had done nothing wrong, and Song, Wei, Chen, and Zheng had done no evil. Yet the Sui star first kept to the Wei lodge, and the breath of disaster hung in the sky, and afterward disaster came upon Zhou and Chu, and Song, Wei, Chen, and Zheng all suffered at the same time.

That the Sui star harmed Zhou and Chu was the breath of Heaven bringing disaster on the four states. How do we know that the white rainbow piercing the sun did not bring on the king of Qin, and that Taibai eating into the Mao stars did not make the counsel of Changping arise?