Mingyu — The Rain Sacrifice Explained明雩篇

The school of turning back a change calls long rain a flooding, and long clear weather a drought. They say that drought answers to overweening yang, and that flooding answers to sinking and drowning. Someone objects and says, "Now within one year there is one rain in ten days and one wind in five. When the rain stays rather long, that is the sign of a flooding; when the clear weather lasts rather long, that is a drought coming on. At the time of a flooding the ruler has not of necessity sunk and drowned in excess, and at the time of a drought he has not of necessity been overweening in yang. The ruler carries on his government the same before and after, and yet now it floods and now it is dry. This is the breath of the season."

Fan Li and Ji Ran said, "When the Grand Year stands in water, there is ruin; in metal, a rich harvest; in wood, hunger; in fire, drought."

Now if this is so, then water and drought, hunger and rich harvest, have the turning of the years. The year meets its turning and the breath fits its age, and the school of turning back a change points at it and gives it a name. The ruler uses their words and seeks out his faults and mends himself. When the clear weather has lasted long it rains of itself, and when the rain has lasted long it clears of itself, and the school of turning back a change then gives the merit a name; the ruler agrees with them, and so trusts their art. Try letting the ruler sit quiet and dwell at ease and not seek out his own faults: Heaven still rains of itself, and the rain still clears of itself. At the season when rain and clearing follow one after another, the ruler does nothing, and yet the school of turning back a change still gives its art a name. This then is to make the breath of yin and yang have man for its master and not be governed by Heaven. Now a man cannot move Heaven by his conduct, and Heaven too does not answer a man according to his conduct. In the Chunqiu, where Lu held the great rain sacrifice, it is the sacrifice that seeks rain in a drought. When the drought is long and it does not rain, they pray and sacrifice and seek blessing, just as a man in sickness sacrifices to the spirits to loose his misfortune. This is turning back a change. The Odes says, "When the moon draws near to Bi, the rain pours down."

The Documents says, "When the moon follows the stars, then there is wind and rain."

If so, then wind and rain follow what the moon draws near to and goes along with. The Fang stars have four marks and three roads, and the going of the sun and the moon passes in and out of the three roads. When the moon comes out to the north there is flooding, and when it comes out to the south there is drought. Some say that coming out to the north brings drought, and to the south flooding. Now look: the moon is the divining sign for all under Heaven, and Fang is the token for the nine provinces. The south and the north of the moon are not for Lu alone. Confucius went out and had Zilu carry rain gear. In a little while the sky did indeed pour with rain. Zilu asked the reason, and Confucius said, "Last evening the moon drew near to Bi."

On a later day the moon drew near to Bi again. Confucius went out, and Zilu asked to carry the rain gear, but Confucius would not have it; and when they went out there was indeed no rain. Zilu asked the reason, and Confucius said, "The other day the moon drew near to its yin side, and so it rained. Last evening the moon drew near to its yang side, and so it does not rain."

Now if this is so, the rain in Lu came of itself from the moon's drawing near; how should it come from government? If it truly came from the decrees of government, then the moon's drawing near to Bi being the sign of rain is shared by all under Heaven. When it rains in Lu, all under Heaven ought to have rain as well. In the time of the six states the governments were not the same, and the rewards and punishments the rulers carried out came at different times. If rain must answer to the decrees of government, would the moon have to draw near to six or seven Bi stars before there were enough?

In the time of Duke Mu of Lu the year was dry. Duke Mu asked Xianzi, "Heaven is dry and it does not rain. I wish to set the shamans out in the sun. How would that be?" Xianzi would not hear of it. "I wish to move the market. How would that be?" He answered, "When the Son of Heaven dies, the market is held in the lanes for seven days; when a duke dies, the market is held in the lanes for five days. To move the market for this, is that not also right?"

Look at Xianzi's words: moving the market gets rain. Look at the writings of the Odes and the Documents: the moon draws near to a star and gets rain. The going of the sun and the moon has its constant measure; would it draw near to the yin side of Bi because the market was moved? Now the moon and Bi are the divining sign for all under Heaven. By moving the market of Lu, how could one shift the moon? The moon's going through Heaven comes round in thirty days. Within one month it passes the Bi stars once, and when it draws near to the yang side it is clear. Suppose the stirring of a moved market could make the moon draw near to the yin side of Bi: would it rain at the very time the market was moved? Now if it is as Xianzi says, it cannot be used.

When Dong Zhongshu sought rain he set forth the meaning of the Chunqiu, made an empty place and raised a sacrifice; yet a father does not eat the offering of a son of a branch line, and Heaven does not eat the offering of the lower earth. What spirit the rite of the rain sacrifice of the feudal lords offers to is not known. If it is the spirit of Heaven, then Heaven savors the offering of the king alone, and from the feudal lords and the officers of the present day Heaven does not receive it. If the spirit does not savor and receive, how can the spirit be got? If cloud and rain are breath, with what would the breath of cloud and rain savor and receive? What strikes against the rocks and comes out, gathers an inch at a time, and before a morning is done spreads rain over all under Heaven, is Mount Tai. Mount Tai rains upon all under Heaven, and a small hill rains upon a state and a town.

If so, is what the great rain sacrifice offers to a mountain? Even suppose it truly were, still nothing would be got. How is this shown? Water lies in different streams, and where they stand higher or lower by a tenth or by an inch, unless they are opened they do not flow, and unless they are dug through they do not join. If the ruler were truly to pray and sacrifice beside the water, could he make the water that stands an inch higher flow and join? Now with water that is plain to see, where the difference between them is next to nothing, the ruler may ask it and in the end it cannot be made to move. Still less has rain any shape or sign, and it is hidden deep in the high mountains. When the ruler holds the rain sacrifice, how can he get it?

Now rain and water being between Heaven and earth is like tears and weeping being within a man's body. Someone may bring wine and food and beg before a kindly man, seeking to draw out his weeping, and the kindly man in the end will not shed a tear for him. Now if weeping cannot be drawn out by begging, how can rain be got by seeking? Yongmenzi wept in sorrow, and Lord Mengchang shed tears for it. Su Qin and Zhang Yi pleaded in sorrow down in the pit, and Master Guigu's tears fell and wet his collar. Then perhaps one might make the sound of Yongmen and bring out the pleading of Su and Zhang, and so move Heaven! But Heaven's ears and eyes are high and far, and sound and breath do not reach it. The wife of Qi Liang, again, had already wept in sorrow, and Heaven did not rain; instead the wall fell down. Now if this is so, by what in the end should rain be brought on? With what does the school of the rain sacrifice move Heaven? Now look: when the moon comes out on the northern road and draws near to the yin side of Bi, it is rare that there is no rain. Speaking from this, the northern road is where the Bi stars are. Would the stars of the northern road let their rain down for the sake of a rain sacrifice? When Confucius went out and had Zilu carry rain gear, Lu had not of necessity held a rain sacrifice. Without sacrifice the rain came down full of itself; without seeking it cleared wide of itself. Now if this is so, Heaven's raining and clearing have their own seasons. Within one year rain and clearing follow one after another. When it rains, who is it that sought it? When it clears, who is it that stopped it?

When a ruler hears a petition, and so calms the people and bestows favor, he is not of necessity worthy. Heaven is worthy in the highest degree. If, when the season is not yet the season for rain, it let its rain down wildly because of a false petition and seeking, it would be of the same kind as a ruler who hears petitions. The school of turning back a change does not reason by kinds and test the matter, but sets out its methods and arts in vain and leads the ruler astray. Sometimes the season is not yet for rain, and a worthy ruler seeks it and does not get it; sometimes it is just the season when it rains of itself, and a bad ruler seeks it and happens upon that season. This makes the worthy ruler take empty blame and the bad ruler wear an empty name. The world says that the sage is pure and the worthy man mixed; if he is pure his conduct and his bearing have nothing wrong, and if nothing is wrong his government has no fault. Yet among the sage rulers of the world there is none like Yao and Tang. Yao met with the great flood, and Tang met with the great drought. If this is said to be brought on by government, then Yao and Tang were bad rulers; and if it is not government, then it is the turning of the breath. The turning of the breath has its season; how can it be asked for and sought? Those who argue in the world still speak of the flood of Yao and the drought of Tang. Flood and drought are of the season, and yet they say that the small droughts and floodings are all government. Even suppose that were true, by what would a flooding be brought on? If government truly brought it on, then not to mend what was lost by it but to follow petition and seeking, how could it be turned back? The world truly declares that the flood of Yao and the drought of Tang were the turning of Heaven's breath and were not brought on by government. Now the turning of Heaven's breath is of itself so in its season, and though the rain sacrifice petition and seek, in the end there is no help in it. And yet the world also declares that Tang prayed at Sanglin over five faults and at once got rain in that season. Now if one speaks of the turning of the breath, the saying about Sanglin is put out; and if one declares Sanglin, the argument of the turning of the breath vanishes. What in the end should those who talk and declare in the world go by? What art should truly be used to rescue from flood and drought?

Now calamities and strange changes are on the whole of two kinds: there is the calamity of government, and there is the change of Wuwang (無妄). The calamity of government can be sought after; and though seeking it cannot get it, still it is the kindness of pity and compassion, the mind of one who cannot do otherwise. A loving father toward his son, and a filial son toward his parent, knows that sickness is not mended by sacrificing to the spirits and that pain is not mended by mixing medicine, and knows further that the sickness certainly cannot be cured and that curing it is no help; yet in the end he will not sit quiet and wait for the breath to be cut off. He still divines with shell and stalk to find what is haunting, and calls the physician and mixes the medicine, because in his pain and his earnestness he hopes there may be some proof of it. Once the man is dead and the breath cut off nothing can be done, and yet he climbs to the ridge of the roof and calls the soul back with a garment, and in his grief and his longing hopes that the dead may wake. The mind of one who holds the rain sacrifice is the mind of a loving father and a filial son. The calamity of Wuwang the hundred people do not understand, and they lay it of necessity upon their lord. One who carries on the government comforts the hope of the people, and so he too must hold the rain sacrifice.

One asks, "The calamity of government and the change of Wuwang: by what are they told apart?"

The answer: when virtue is rich and government is right and calamity comes all the same, that is Wuwang; when virtue wanes and government is lost and the change answers and comes, that is government. Now if it is government, then outside they hold the rain sacrifice and within they mend themselves, to make good what was wanting; if it is Wuwang, then within they keep the old government and outside they keep up the rite of the rain sacrifice, to comfort the hearts of the people. Therefore the breath of Wuwang is harsh upon the age and arrives in its season, and one ought to hold firm and be of one mind, and it is not right to change the government. How is this shown? The Duke of Zhou set forth for King Cheng the words of the Li zheng, saying, "In such a season there are things that come between. From every single word and saying, I think of the men of perfected virtue, and with them I take charge of the people I have received."

The Duke of Zhou's establishment of government may be called right. He knew that things out of the common do not come unless relief is given, and so he charged King Cheng that from every single word and saying his government should have nothing wrong in it and that he should not dare to alter and change. If so, then the change out of the common, the breath of Wuwang, comes in between. The breath of water came between for Yao, and the breath of drought came between for Tang. King Xuan of Zhou for all his worth met with a long drought. In the first year of Jianchu the northern provinces were dry year after year; the oxen died and the people were in want, and they drifted away and came down to a mean estate. A sage ruler was broad and clear above, and the hundred officers shared their charges below: it was a bright season of great peace. There was not the smallest wrong in the government, and yet drought there was, for the breath came in between. The sage ruler knew it, and did not change his government or his conduct, but moved the grain about and gave relief, taking from plenty to help the wasted. His seeing in this was searching and clear, and so what he did to rescue and to run to their aid was fitting. In the time of Duke Wen of Lu the year was greatly dry, and Zang Wenzhong said, "Repair the walls and the ramparts, cut down eating and spare spending, work at thrift and urge the sharing out."

Wenzhong knew that it was not government, and so he only made his preparations ready and did not change the government. The school of turning back a change, when it sees a change, lays it at once upon government; it does not weigh whether the government has anything wrong in it; it sees a strange thing and is afraid and led astray, and alters its bearing and conduct. Changing where it is not right to change, they only take calamity upon themselves!

How is it said that the rain sacrifice must be held? The answer: the Chunqiu has the great rain sacrifice, and in the schools of the tradition, Zuo Qiuming, Gongyang and Guliang, there is no word of blame; so it is clear that the rain sacrifice ought to be held. Zeng Xi, whose name was Dian (點), answering Confucius, spoke his wish: "In late spring, when the spring clothes are made, with five or six capped men and six or seven boys, I would bathe in the Yi, take the air at Wuyu, and come home singing."

Confucius said, "I am with Dian!"

Lu set the rain sacrifice on the bank of the Yi River. Mu (暮) means late, and spring here means the fourth month. "When the spring clothes are made" means that the clothes of the fourth month are made. The capped men and the boys are the musicians of the rain sacrifice.

"Bathing in the Yi" is wading the Yi River, in the likeness of a dragon coming out from the water. In "taking the air at Wuyu," the air (風) means singing.

"Coming home singing" is singing and setting out the food of the sacrifice, that is, singing and chanting and offering the sacrifice. The houses that discuss this saying hold that bathing means bathing in the Yi River and drying the body in the wind. But the fourth month of Zhou is the second month of the true year, and it is still cold; how could one bathe and dry the body in the wind? Speaking from this, they waded the water and did not bathe, and the rain sacrifice is plain.

The Zuo Commentary of the Chunqiu says, "At the waking of the insects they hold the rain sacrifice." And it says, "When the dragon appears they hold the rain sacrifice. The waking of the insects and the appearing of the dragon." Both are in the second month. In spring, in the second month, they hold the rain sacrifice, and in autumn, in the eighth month, they hold it too. In spring they pray for rain on the grain, and in autumn they pray for the grain to fill out. The Lingxing sacrifice of the present day is the rain sacrifice of autumn. The spring rain sacrifice has fallen away, and the autumn one remains. Therefore the sacrifice to Lingxing is the rain sacrifice held year by year. Confucius said, "I am with Dian!"

To call Dian's words good was to wish by the rain sacrifice to bring yin and yang into tune, and so he was with him. If the rain sacrifice had lost what is right and Dian wished to do it, Confucius ought to have called it wrong and should not have been with him. When Fan Chi followed him on his walk and, being moved by the rain sacrifice, asked about it, he was pricking at Lu for being unable to raise up virtue and holding the rain sacrifice for nothing. Now the rain sacrifice has been there from of old. Therefore the Rites says, "The rain sacrifice is the sacrifice for flood and drought." Thus there is a rite of the rain sacrifice, and thus Confucius did not blame it and Zhongshu set it forth. Now if this is so, the rain sacrifice is a rite of offering. If the rain sacrifice has the warrant of rite, then beating the drum and using a victim at the altar of the soil in a great flood is an old rite as well. It has the warrant of rite and there is nothing wrong in it, and this is the first reason why the rain sacrifice ought to be held. By rite they sacrifice to the altar of the soil of the earth, to repay its merit in giving birth to all things. The land is broad and far and can hardly be sacrificed to piece by piece, and so they set up an altar of the soil to be its place, and serve it with the heart for master. What makes flood and drought is the breath of yin and yang, which fills the six directions and can hardly be sacrificed to throughout; and so they make ready a mound and set out a place and pray and seek with reverence, following the meaning of serving the altar of the soil. This is the way of turning back calamity and change. From the living they reason to the serving of the dead, and from men to the serving of ghosts. Can the fine breath of yin and yang perhaps drink and eat as living men do? And so they offer up the sweet savor and present what is tasty and good, poor as it is, hoping to see it answered and savored. Reasoning from the sacrifice to the altar of the soil, this is the second reason why the rain sacrifice ought to be held. When the breath of the year is in tune and calamity and harm do not arise, they hold the rain sacrifice all the same. The Lingxing sacrifice we now have is a rite of the old days. Still more, when the breath of the year is changed and flood and drought come out of season, the fear of the ruler must be a sharp pain to him. Though the sacrifice to Lingxing is there, they still hold the rain sacrifice again, for fear that what went before was not complete; this is the meaning of the rong and the yi sacrifices. To hope to make good what calamity and change have taken away, and to win the repayment of a rich harvest, is the third.

The heart of rite is earnest, and the mind of music is glad. Earnestness shows the heart by jade and silk, and gladness proves the mind by bell and drum. Petition and prayer at the rain sacrifice are the pure sincerity of the ruler. Pure sincerity lies within, and there is nothing to show it outside. Therefore at the rain sacrifice he spends all his awe and dread, and brings his fine heart in and offers it before the rain sacrifice. This is the meaning of the jade and silk and the bell and drum, and it is the fourth. When a subject earns guilt before his lord, or a son a fault before his father, alongside mending himself he must also beg pardon for his guilt in awe and dread. If drought is brought on by government, it is of the same kind as a subject or a son earning guilt and fault. To mend the government in silence and alter one's bearing and conduct in secret, without showing it outside, does not loose the anger of Heaven. Therefore the rain sacrifice must be held, and this meaning of awe and dread is the fifth. Han set up the office of the learned doctor, and master and disciple rebuked and pressed one another, wishing to reach the depth of the way and to give shape to the reason of right and wrong. Unless a crosswise pressing is put out, no following saying is got; unless a bitter questioning is raised, no sweet answer is heard. Talent is led to bow down and to look up because help is sought of it; a stone is ground and whetted because sharpness is sought of it. To reason from the meaning of the Chunqiu, to seek the saying of the rain sacrifice, to make good the heart of Confucius, to weigh the mind of Zhongshu: but Confucius is gone and Zhongshu is dead. Whom should those who argue in the world ask again? Only such as the followers of Confucius and the party of Zhongshu could say it.