Shangchong — On Grain Insects商蟲篇
變復之家謂蟲食谷者，部吏所致也。貪則侵漁，故蟲食谷。
The school of turning back a change says that when insects eat the grain, it is brought on by the clerks of the division. They are greedy and so they encroach and fish, and therefore the insects eat the grain.
身黑頭赤，則謂武官；頭黑身赤，則謂文官。使加罰於蟲所象類之吏，則蟲滅息不復見矣。夫頭赤則謂武吏，頭黑則謂文吏所致也。時或頭赤身白，頭黑身黃，或頭身皆黃，或頭身皆青，或皆白，若魚肉之蟲，應何官吏？時或白布豪民猾吏被刑乞貸者，威勝於官，取多於吏，其蟲形象何如狀哉？蟲之滅也，皆因風雨。案蟲滅之時，則吏未必伏罰也。陸田之中時有鼠，水田之中時有魚，蝦蟹之類皆為谷害，或時希出而暫為害，或常有而為災，等類眾多，應何官吏？
If the body is black and the head red, they call it a military officer; if the head is black and the body red, they call it a civil officer. And if punishment is laid on the clerk whose kind the insect takes its likeness from, the insects will die out and be seen no more. So a red head is said to be brought on by a military clerk, and a black head by a civil clerk. But at times the head is red and the body white, or the head black and the body yellow, or head and body are both yellow, or both blue, or both white; and grubs such as those of fish and meat, what officer or clerk do they answer? At times there are powerful commoners in white cloth and sly clerks who have taken punishment and begged for pardon, whose weight is greater than an officer's and who take more than a clerk does; what is the shape and likeness of their insect? The dying out of insects always comes by wind and rain. Look at the time when the insects die out: the clerks have not necessarily gone under punishment. In the dry fields there are rats at times, and in the wet fields there are fish at times, and shrimps and crabs and their kind all do harm to the grain; some come out rarely and do harm for a while, and some are always there and make a calamity. Such kinds are many; what officer or clerk do they answer?
魯宣公履畝而稅，應時而有生者，或言若蝗。蝗時至蔽天如雨，集地食物，不擇谷草。察其頭身，象類何吏？變復之家，謂蝗何應？建武三十一年，蝗起太山郡，西南過陳留、河南，遂入夷狄，所集鄉縣以千百數。當時鄉縣之吏未皆履畝，蝗食谷草，連日老極，或蜚徙去，或止枯死。當時鄉縣之吏，未必皆伏罪也。夫蟲食谷，自有止期，猶蠶食桑自有足時也。生出有日，死極有月，期盡變化，不常為蟲。使人君不罪其吏，蟲猶自亡。夫蟲，風氣所生，蒼頡知之，故「凡蟲」為「風」之字，取氣於風，故八日而化，生春夏之物，或食五谷，或食眾草。食五谷，吏受錢穀也，其食他草，受人何物？
Duke Xuan of Lu paced the furrows and taxed by them, and there was something that came to life answering the season, which some say was like the locust. The locust comes at its season and covers the sky like rain, gathers on the ground and eats what is there, choosing neither grain nor grass. Look at its head and its body: what clerk is it the likeness of? What does the school of turning back a change say the locust answers? In the thirty-first year of Jianwu, locusts rose in Taishan commandery, passed southwest through Chenliu and Henan, and went at last among the Yi and the Di; the villages and counties they settled on were counted by hundreds and thousands. At that time the clerks of the villages and counties had not all paced the furrows. The locusts ate the grain and the grass, and day after day grew old and spent, and some flew away and moved on, and some stopped and dried up and died. At that time the clerks of the villages and counties had not all gone under punishment. Now the eating of grain by insects has a term of its own at which it stops, as the eating of mulberry by silkworms has its own time of being full. Their coming to life has its days and their dying out has its months, and when the term is spent they change and do not remain insects. Though the ruler does not punish his clerks, the insects still die away of themselves. Insects are born of the breath of the wind, and Cang Jie knew it, and so he made the character for wind (風) out of "all insects" (凡蟲): they take their breath from the wind, and so in eight days they are changed. They are born as creatures of spring and summer, and some eat the five grains and some eat the many grasses. If eating the five grains is the clerk taking money and grain, what does he take from men when they eat the other grasses?
裸蟲三百，人為之長。由此言之，人亦蟲也。人食蟲所食，蟲亦食人所食，俱為蟲而相食物，何為怪之？設蟲有知，亦將非人曰：「女食天之所生，吾亦食之，謂我為變，不自謂為災。」
Of the three hundred bare creatures, man is the chief. Speaking from this, man too is an insect. Man eats what the insects eat, and the insects eat what man eats; both are creatures, and they eat each other's food, so why is it thought strange? Suppose the insects had knowing: they too would hold men wrong and say, "You eat what Heaven gives life to, and we eat it too; and you call us a strange event, and do not call yourselves a calamity."
凡含氣之類所甘嗜者，口腹不異。人甘五谷，惡蟲之食；自生天地之間，惡蟲之出。設蟲能言，以此非人，亦無以詰也。夫蟲之在物間也，知者不怪，其食萬物也不謂之災。
What all the kinds that hold breath find sweet is no different in the mouth and the belly. Men find the five grains sweet and hate the insects' eating of them; they are born of themselves between Heaven and earth, and hate the coming out of insects. If insects could speak and held men wrong in this way, there would be nothing to answer them with. That insects are among things, the knowing do not find strange, and their eating of the ten thousand things they do not call a calamity.
甘香渥味之物，蟲生常多，故谷之多蟲者粢也。稻時有蟲，麥與豆無蟲。必以有蟲責主者吏，是其粢鄉部吏常伏罪也。神農、后稷藏種之方，煮馬屎以汁漬種者，令禾不蟲。
In things sweet and fragrant and rich in flavour, insects are always many in the breeding, and so the grain that has the most insects is millet. Rice has insects at times; barley and beans have none. If those who have charge must be held to blame because there are insects, then the clerks of the villages and divisions where millet grows would always be going under punishment. In the way of storing seed of Shennong and Houji, horse dung is boiled and the seed steeped in the liquid, and this keeps the grain free of insects.
如或以馬屎漬種，其鄉部吏鮑焦、陳仲子也。是故后稷、神農之術用，則其鄉吏（何）〔可〕免為奸。何則？蟲無從生，上無以察也。
If a man steeps his seed in horse dung, then the clerks of his village and division are Bao Jiao and Chen Zhongzi. Therefore when the art of Houji and Shennong is used, the clerks of that village can escape being called crooked. Why? Because the insects have nowhere to be born from, and those above have nothing to look into.
蟲食他草，平事不怪，食五谷葉，乃謂之災。桂有蠹，桑有蠍，桂中葯而桑給蠶，其用亦急，與谷無異。蠹蠍不為怪，獨謂蟲為災，不通物類之實，暗於災變之情也。谷蟲曰蠱，蠱若蛾矣。粟米熱生蠱。夫蠱食粟米不謂之災，蟲食苗葉歸之於政。如說蟲之家謂粟輕苗重也。
When insects eat other grasses it is an ordinary matter and not thought strange; when they eat the leaves of the five grains it is called a calamity. The cassia has its borers and the mulberry its caterpillars; the cassia serves for medicine and the mulberry feeds the silkworms, and their use too is pressing and no different from grain. The borer and the caterpillar are not thought strange, and only the insect is called a calamity: this is not to reach the truth of the kinds of things, and to be in the dark about the nature of calamities and strange events. The grain insect is called gu (蠱), and the gu is like a moth. When millet and rice grow hot, the gu is born. The gu eating the millet and the rice is not called a calamity, while the insect eating the shoots and the leaves is laid to government. By the words of the school that discourses on insects, millet is light and the shoot is heavy.
蟲之種類，眾多非一。魚肉腐臭有蟲，醯醬不閉有蟲，飯溫濕有蟲，書卷不舒有蟲，衣襞不懸有蟲，蝸疽螻蝦有蟲。或白或黑，或長或短，大小鴻殺，不相似類，皆風氣所生，并連以死。生不擇日，若生日短促，見而輒滅。變復之家，見其希出，出又食物，則謂之災。災出當有所罪，則依所似類之吏，順而說之。人腹中有三蟲，下地之澤其蟲曰蛭，蛭食人足，三蟲食腸。順說之家，將謂三蟲何似類乎？凡天地之間，陰陽所生，（蛟）〔〕蟯之類，蜫蠕之屬，含氣而生，開口而食。食有甘不，同心等欲，強大食細弱，知慧反頓愚。他物小大連相嚙噬，不謂之災，獨謂蟲食谷物為應政事，失道理之實，不達物氣之性也。
The kinds of insects are many and not one. Fish and meat that rot and stink have insects; vinegar and sauce left unstopped have insects; rice that is warm and damp has insects; a book roll left unopened has insects; clothes folded and not hung have insects; boils and sores, mole crickets and toads have insects. Some are white and some black, some long and some short, big and small and of every size, not alike in kind; yet all are born of the breath of the wind and die one after another together. In being born they do not choose their day, and if the days of their life are short and pressed they are seen and at once gone. The school of turning back a change sees that they come out rarely, and that when they come out they eat things, and so calls it a calamity. A calamity having come out, there must be someone to be blamed, and so they lean on the clerk whose kind it resembles and give their reading to fit. In a man's belly there are three worms, and in the marshes of low ground the worm is called the leech; the leech eats men's feet and the three worms eat the bowels. What will the school that reads things to fit say the three worms resemble? All that yin and yang give birth to between Heaven and earth, the kinds of worm and pinworm and the tribes of crawling and wriggling things, are born holding breath and open their mouths and eat. In eating there is what is sweet and what is not; their hearts are the same and their wants are alike; the strong and big eat the slender and weak, and the clever overturn the dull and stupid. When other creatures, great and small, bite and devour one another in turn, it is not called a calamity; and only the insects' eating of the grain is said to answer the business of government. This loses the truth of the principle and does not reach the nature of things and of breath.
然夫蟲之生也，必依溫濕。溫濕之氣，常在春夏。秋冬之氣，寒而干燥，蟲未曾生。若以蟲生罪鄉部吏，是則鄉部吏貪於春夏，廉於秋冬。雖盜蹠之吏以秋冬署，蒙伯夷之舉矣。夫春夏非一，而蟲時生者，溫濕甚也，甚則陰陽不和。陰陽不和，政也，徒當歸於政治，而指謂部吏為奸，失事實矣。何知蟲以溫濕生也？以蠱蟲知之。谷干燥者，蟲不生；溫濕饐餲，蟲生不禁。藏宿麥之種，烈日干暴，投於燥器，則蟲不生。如不干暴，閘喋之蟲，生如雲煙。以蠱閘喋，准況眾蟲，溫濕所生明矣。
Yet the birth of insects must lean on warmth and damp. The breath of warmth and damp is always in spring and summer. The breath of autumn and winter is cold and dry, and insects have never been born in it. If the clerks of the village and the division are to be blamed for the birth of insects, then the clerks of the village and the division are greedy in spring and summer and clean-handed in autumn and winter. Even a clerk like Robber Zhi, if he took office in autumn and winter, would receive the recommendation of Bo Yi. Now spring and summer are not one thing, and the insects are born at certain times because the warmth and the damp are excessive; and when they are excessive, yin and yang are not in harmony. That yin and yang are not in harmony is government, and it should simply be laid to the governing; to point at the clerks of the division and call them crooked loses the truth of the matter. How do we know that insects are born of warmth and damp? We know it by the gu insect. Grain that is dry breeds no insects; when it is warm and damp and turns musty, the insects breed and cannot be kept down. When the seed of the old barley is stored, dried in the fierce sun and put into a dry vessel, the insects are not born. If it is not dried in the sun, the chewing insects are born like cloud and smoke. Measuring the many insects by the gu and the chewing insect, it is clear that warmth and damp give them birth.
《詩》云：「營營青蠅，止於藩。愷悌君子，無信讒言。」
The Odes says, "Buzzing about, the blue flies settle on the fence. Gentle and easy lord, do not believe slandering words."
讒言傷善，青蠅污白，同一禍敗，《詩》以為興。昌邑王夢西階下有積蠅矢，明旦召問郎中龔遂，遂對曰：「蠅者，讒人之象也。夫矢積於階下，王將用讒臣之言也。」
Slandering words harm the good, and the blue fly dirties what is white; they are one and the same harm and ruin, and the Odes took it for its figure. The King of Changyi dreamed that there was a heap of fly dung below the western steps, and the next morning he called in Gong Sui, the gentleman of the palace, and asked him. Sui answered, "The fly is the likeness of a slanderer. The dung heaped below the steps means that the king will use the words of slandering ministers."
由此言之，蠅之為蟲，應人君用讒。何故不謂蠅為災乎？如蠅可以為災，夫蠅歲生世間，人君常用讒乎？
Speaking from this, the fly as an insect answers a ruler's using slander. Why then is the fly not called a calamity? If the fly can be a calamity, flies are born in the world every year; does the ruler use slander all the time?
案蟲害人者莫如蚊虻，蚊虻歲生。如以蚊虻應災，世間常有害人之吏乎？必以食物乃為災，人則物之最貴者也，蚊虻食人，尤當為災。必以暴生害物乃為災，夫歲生而食人，與時出而害物，災孰為甚？人之病疥亦希非常，疥蟲何故不為災？且天將雨，蟻出蚋蜚，為與氣相應也。或時諸蟲之生，自與時氣相應，如何輒歸罪於部吏乎？天道自然，吉凶偶會，非常之蟲適生，貪吏遭署。人察貪吏之操，又見災蟲之生，則謂部吏之所為致也。
Look at the insects that harm men: none is like the mosquito and the gadfly, and mosquitoes and gadflies are born every year. If mosquitoes and gadflies answer a calamity, are there clerks in the world who harm men all the time? If it must be the eating of things that makes a calamity, man is the most honoured of things, and mosquitoes and gadflies eating men should be a calamity all the more. If it must be a sudden birth that harms things that makes a calamity, then between what is born every year and eats men, and what comes out at times and harms things, which calamity is the worse? Scabies too is a rare illness in men and not an ordinary thing; why then is the scabies mite not a calamity? Moreover, when Heaven is about to rain, the ants come out and the gnats fly, because they answer the breath. It may be that the birth of the various insects answers the breath of the season of itself; how then can the blame be thrown at once on the clerks of the division? The way of Heaven is what is so of itself, and the lucky and the ill meet by chance: an uncommon insect happens to be born, and a greedy clerk happens to take office. Men look at the conduct of a greedy clerk, and see besides the birth of a calamitous insect, and then say that what the clerks of the division did has brought it on.