Zaohu — Encountering Tigers遭虎篇
變復之家謂虎食人者，功曹為奸所致也。其意以為功曹眾吏之率，虎亦諸禽之雄也。功曹為奸，采漁於吏，故虎食人以象其意。
The school of turning back a change says that when a tiger eats a man, it is brought on by the officer of merit doing what is crooked. Their meaning is that the officer of merit is the head of the many clerks, and the tiger too is the chief of the beasts. The officer of merit does what is crooked and gathers and fishes from the clerks, and so the tiger eats men, taking the likeness of his meaning.
夫虎食人，人亦有殺虎。謂虎食人，功曹受取於吏，如人食虎，吏受於功曹也乎？案世清廉之士，百不能一。居功曹之官，皆有奸心私舊，故可以幸，苞苴賂遺，小大皆有。必謂虎應功曹，是野中之虎常害人也。夫虎出有時，猶龍見有期也。
Now tigers eat men, but men also kill tigers. If the tiger's eating a man is the officer of merit taking from the clerks, is a man's eating a tiger the clerks taking from the officer of merit? Look at the world: of clean and upright gentlemen there is not one in a hundred. Those who hold the office of merit all have crooked hearts and private old ties, and so may hope for luck; bribes and gifts, great and small, are there in every case. If it must be said that the tiger answers the officer of merit, then the tigers in the wild would be harming men always. Now the tiger comes out at its season, as the dragon appears at its term.
陰物以冬見，陽蟲以夏出。出應其氣，氣動其類。參、伐以冬出，心、尾以夏見。參、伐則虎星，心、尾則龍象。象出而物見，氣至而類動，天地之性也。動於林澤之中，遭虎搏噬之時，稟性狂勃，貪明飢餓，觸自來之人，安能不食？人之筋力，羸弱不適，巧便不知，故遇輒死。使孟賁登山，馮婦入林，亦無此害也。
Creatures of yin appear in winter, and insects of yang come out in summer. Their coming out answers their breath, and the breath moves its kind. Shen and Fa come out in winter; Xin and Wei (尾) appear in summer. Shen and Fa are the stars of the tiger; Xin and Wei are the likeness of the dragon. When the likeness comes out the creature appears, and when the breath arrives the kind is moved: this is the nature of Heaven and earth. A man moves about in the woods and the marshes and meets the hour when the tiger strikes and bites. The tiger's given nature is wild and fierce, and it is greedy and starving; it meets a man who comes to it of himself, and how should it not eat him? A man's sinews and strength are thin and weak and not a match for it, and he does not know a nimble way out, and so when he meets one he dies at once. Let Meng Ben climb the mountain and Feng Fu go into the woods, and there would be no such harm.
孔子行魯林中，婦人哭甚哀，使子貢問之：何以哭之哀也？曰：「去年虎食吾夫，今年食吾子，是以哭哀也。」子貢曰：「若此，何不去也？」對曰：「吾善其政之不苛、吏之不暴也。」子貢還報孔子。孔子曰：「弟子識諸！苛政暴吏，甚於虎也。」
Confucius was going through the woods of Lu, and a woman was weeping very bitterly. He sent Zigong to ask her: why do you weep so bitterly? She said, "Last year a tiger ate my husband, and this year it ate my son, and this is why I weep bitterly." Zigong said, "If it is so, why do you not leave?" She answered, "I love it that the government here is not harsh and the clerks are not cruel." Zigong went back and told Confucius. Confucius said, "Mark it, my disciples. Harsh government and cruel clerks are worse than tigers."
夫虎害人，古有之矣。政不苛，吏不暴，德化之，足以卻虎。然而二歲比食二人，林中獸不應善也。為廉不應，奸吏亦不應矣。
Now the harming of men by tigers has been there from of old. If government is not harsh and clerks are not cruel, and men are transformed by virtue, that is enough to drive tigers off. Yet in two years running the tiger ate two people; so the beasts in the woods do not answer goodness. And if they do not answer cleanness of hand, they do not answer crooked clerks either.
或曰：「虎應功曹之奸，所謂不苛政者，非功曹也。婦人，廉吏之部也，雖有善政，安耐化虎？」夫魯無功曹之官，功曹之官，相國是也。魯相者殆非孔、墨，必三家也。為相必無賢操，以不賢居權位，其惡必不廉也。必以相國為奸，令虎食人，是則魯野之虎常食人也。
Someone may say, "The tiger answers the crookedness of the officer of merit; what is called government that is not harsh is not the officer of merit. The woman was in the division of a clean clerk, and though there was good government, how could it transform the tiger?" Now Lu had no office of merit; the office of merit there is the chancellor. The chancellors of Lu were surely not men like Confucius or Mozi, but men of the three houses. Being chancellors, they surely had no worthy conduct; and holding places of power without worth, their evil would surely not be clean-handed. If it must be said that the chancellor was crooked and made the tiger eat men, then the tigers of the wilds of Lu were eating men all the time.
水中之毒，不及陵上；陵上之氣，不入水中；各以所近，罹殃取禍。是故漁者不死於山，獵者不溺於淵。好入山林，窮幽測深，涉虎窟寢，虎搏噬之，何以為變？魯公牛哀病化為虎，搏食其兄，同變化者不以為怪。入山林、草澤見害於虎，怪之非也。蝮蛇悍猛，亦能害入。行止澤中，〔害〕於蝮蛇，應何官吏？
The poison in the water does not reach up onto the hill, and the breath on the hill does not go down into the water; each meets calamity and takes harm by what is near it. Therefore the fisherman does not die on the mountain, and the hunter does not drown in the deep. If a man loves to go into the mountains and woods, searching out the hidden and sounding the depths, and crosses the tiger's den and lair, the tiger strikes and bites him; what is there in this to make a strange event? Gongniu Ai of Lu fell ill and changed into a tiger, and struck and ate his own elder brother; and those who were changed along with him did not think it strange. To go into the mountain woods and the grassy marshes and be harmed by a tiger, and to think it strange, is wrong. The viper is fierce and savage, and it too can harm men. If a man walks and halts in the marshes and is harmed by a viper, what officer or clerk does that answer?
蜂蠆害人，入毒氣害人，入水火害人。人為蜂蠆所螫，為毒氣所中，為火所燔，為水所溺，又誰致之者？苟諸禽獸，乃應吏政。行山林中，麋鹿、野豬、牛象、熊罷、豺狼、蠼，皆復殺人。苟謂食人，乃應為變。虱閩虻皆食人，人身強大，故不至死。倉卒之世，谷食之貴，百姓飢餓，自相啖食，厥變甚於虎。變復之家，不處苟政。
Bees and scorpions harm men; going into poisonous air harms men; going into water and fire harms men. When a man is stung by bees and scorpions, struck by poisonous air, burned by fire, drowned in water, who again has brought it on him? If all the birds and beasts truly answer the government of the clerks, then in walking through the mountain woods the elk and the deer, the wild boar, the ox and the elephant, the bear and the great bear, the jackal and the wolf, and the ape can all kill a man too. And if it must be the eating of men that answers a strange event, then lice and mosquitoes and gadflies all eat men; it is only that a man's body is strong and big, and so it does not come to death. In a world of sudden ruin, when grain food is dear and the people are starving, they eat one another, and that strange event is worse than tigers. Yet the school of turning back a change does not lay it to harsh government.
且虎所食，非獨人也，含血之禽，有形之獸，虎皆食之。〔食〕人謂應功曹之奸，食他禽獸應何官吏？夫虎，毛蟲；人，裸蟲。毛蟲飢，食裸蟲，何變之有？四夷之外，大人食小人，虎之與蠻夷，氣性一也。平陸、廣都，虎所不由也；山林、草澤，虎所生出也。必以虎食人應功曹之奸，是則平陸、廣都之縣功曹常為賢，山林、草澤之邑功曹常伏誅也。
Moreover what the tiger eats is not men alone; birds that hold blood and beasts that have shape, the tiger eats them all. If its eating men is said to answer the crookedness of the officer of merit, what officer or clerk does its eating other birds and beasts answer? Now the tiger is a hairy creature and man is a bare creature. A hairy creature is hungry and eats a bare creature; what strange event is there in that? Beyond the four Yi, big men eat little men; the tiger and the Man and the Yi are one in breath and in nature. The level plains and the wide cities are places the tiger does not pass through; the mountain woods and the grassy marshes are the places where the tiger is born and comes out. If it must be that the tiger's eating men answers the crookedness of the officer of merit, then the officers of merit in the counties of the level plains and the wide cities would always be worthy, and the officers of merit in the towns of the mountain woods and the grassy marshes would always be put to death.
夫虎食人於野，應功曹之奸，虎時入邑行於民間，功曹游於閭巷之中乎？實說，虎害人於野不應政，其行都邑，乃為怪。
Now if the tiger's eating men in the wild answers the crookedness of the officer of merit, then when a tiger at times comes into the town and walks among the people, is that the officer of merit strolling in the lanes? To speak the truth of it, the tiger's harming men in the wild does not answer government; its walking in the city is what makes a strange thing.
夫虎，山林之獸，不狎之物也，常在草野之中，不為馴畜，猶人家之有鼠也，伏匿布出，非可常見也。命吉居安，鼠不擾亂；祿衰居危，鼠為殃變。夫虎亦然也：邑縣吉安，長吏無患，虎匿不見；長吏且危，則虎入邑，行於民間。何則？長吏光氣已消，都邑之地與野均也。推此以論，虎所食人，亦命時也。命訖時衰，光氣去身，視肉猶尸也，故虎食之。天道偶會，虎適食人，長吏遭惡，故謂為變應上天矣。
Now the tiger is a beast of the mountain woods, a creature that is not made familiar. It is always in the grass and the wild and is not kept tame, just as there are rats in a man's house, which hide and lie low and then come out, and are not to be seen all the time. When a man's lot is lucky and his dwelling at peace, the rats do not trouble him; when his pay is failing and his dwelling in danger, the rats become a calamity and a strange event. So it is with the tiger. When the town and the county are lucky and at peace and the senior officer has no trouble, the tiger hides and is not seen; when the senior officer is about to be in danger, the tiger comes into the town and walks among the people. Why? Because the light and breath of the senior officer are already gone, and the ground of the city is the same as the wild. Reasoning from this, the man the tiger eats is also a matter of lot and season. When his lot is finished and his season is failing, the light and the breath leave his body, and his flesh looks like a corpse, and so the tiger eats him. The way of Heaven meets it by chance, the tiger happens to eat a man, and the senior officer meets with evil; and so men say it is a strange event answering Heaven above.
古今凶驗，非唯虎也，野物皆然。楚王英宮樓未成，鹿走上階，其後果薨。魯昭公且出，鵒來巢，其後季氏逐昭公，昭公奔齊，遂死不還。賈誼為長沙王傅，鵬鳥集舍，發書占之，曰：「主人將去。」
The ill proofs of old and of today are not the tiger alone; the creatures of the wild are all like this. The palace tower of Ying, king of Chu, was not yet finished when a deer ran up the steps, and afterwards he died indeed. Duke Zhao of Lu was about to go out when a mynah came and nested there, and afterwards the Ji clan drove Duke Zhao out, and he fled to Qi and died there without returning. Jia Yi was tutor to the King of Changsha, and when an owl (鵩鳥) settled in his house he opened a book and divined it, and it said, "The master of the house will go away."
其後遷為梁王傅。懷王好騎，墜馬而薨；賈誼傷之，亦病而死。昌邑王時，夷鴣鳥集宮殿下，王射殺之，以問郎中令龔遂，龔遂對曰：「夷鴣野鳥，入宮，亡之應也。」
Afterwards he was moved to be tutor to the King of Liang. King Huai loved riding, and he fell from a horse and died; Jia Yi grieved for him, and he too fell ill and died. In the time of the King of Changyi a yigu bird settled below the palace hall, and the king shot it dead and asked Gong Sui, the chief of the palace gentlemen, about it. Gong Sui answered, "The yigu is a bird of the wild, and its coming into the palace is the answer of ruin."
其後昌邑王竟亡。盧奴令田光與公孫弘等謀反，其且覺時，狐鳴光舍屋上，光心惡之。其後事覺坐誅。會稽東部都尉禮文伯時，羊伏廳下，其後遷為東萊太守。都尉王子鳳時，麇入府中，其後遷丹陽太守。夫吉凶同占，遷免一驗，俱象空亡，精氣消去也。故人且亡也，野鳥入宅；城且空也，草蟲入邑。等類眾多，行事比肩，略舉較著，以定實驗也。
Afterwards the King of Changyi was ruined in the end. Tian Guang, magistrate of Lunu, plotted revolt with Gongsun Hong and others, and when it was about to come to light a fox cried on the roof of Guang's house, and Guang hated it in his heart. Afterwards the matter came to light, and he was found guilty and put to death. In the time of Li Wenbo, commandant of the eastern division of Kuaiji, a sheep lay down below the hall, and afterwards he was moved to be grand administrator of Donglai. In the time of the commandant Wang Zifeng a roe deer came into the office, and afterwards he was moved to be grand administrator of Danyang. Now the lucky and the ill have one divination, and moving up and being let off are one proof: all of them take the likeness of emptiness and loss, and the essence and the breath are melting away. Therefore when a man is about to die, birds of the wild come into his house; when a city is about to be emptied, insects of the grass come into the town. Such kinds are many and the cases stand shoulder to shoulder; here the plainest are set out in brief, to fix the real proof.