Jiangrui — Discoursing on Auspicious Signs講瑞篇

The discussions of the scholars say of themselves that they would know the phoenix and the qilin on sight. Why so? They examine the figures of the phoenix and the qilin. And the text in the Chunqiu on the taking of the qilin says, "It is a roe deer, and it has a horn."

A roe deer that has a horn is the qilin. A bird that is seen and matches the figure of the phoenix is the phoenix. In the flourishing times of the Yellow Emperor, of Yao, of Shun and of Zhou, all of them brought the phoenix down. In the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan a phoenix gathered at Shanglin, and later again on a tree at the east gate of the Changle palace; it was five feet high and its markings were of five colors. Zhou took a qilin, and the qilin was like a roe deer and had a horn. The qilin of Emperor Wu was also like a roe deer and had a horn. If there is a great bird with markings of five colors, and a beast shaped like a roe deer bearing a single horn on its head, then by examining them with pictures and figures and proving them by old times and now, the phoenix and the qilin can be made sure of.

Now the phoenix is the sage among birds, and the qilin is the sage among beasts; the Five Emperors, the Three Kings, Gao Yao and Confucius are the sages among men. The figures of the twelve sages are each unlike the others, and yet men wish to call a roe deer that bears a horn a qilin, and to call whatever matches the figure of the phoenix a phoenix. How can that be? That the hair and color of sage birds and beasts are not the same is like the bones and bodies of the twelve sages not being alike.

The figure of bearing a horn is like bearing the wu (午). Zhuanxu bore the wu, but Yao and Shun surely did not. The qilin that Lu took bore a horn, but a qilin seen afterward need not bear a horn. If a man uses the qilin that Lu took to seek out and know the qilin of the world, he surely cannot know it. Why so? Hair and feather, bone and horn do not agree. And even if they do not agree, a thing that at times looks of the same kind is not surely the true one. Yu Shun had double pupils, and Wang Mang also had double pupils; Duke Wen of Jin had joined ribs, and Zhang Yi also had joined ribs. If one compares by bone and body and the color of the hair, then Wang Mang is Yu Shun and Zhang Yi is Duke Wen of Jin. You Ruo was in Lu, and he was most like Confucius. When Confucius died, the disciples together seated You Ruo and asked him about the affairs of the Way, and You Ruo could not answer. Why was that? His body and shape were of a like kind, but his true nature was not. Now a bird of five colors and a beast with a single horn may at times be of a kind like the phoenix and the qilin, and yet in truth not be true ones; and those who discuss them wish to settle the phoenix and the qilin by bone and body and the color of the hair. They are wrong! Therefore Yan Yuan came near to the sage and was not like Confucius, while You Ruo was common and ordinary and yet resembled the sage. Speaking from this, the true phoenix and qilin may at times be unlike in bone and body, and common and ordinary birds and beasts may be like the true ones in the color of their hair. How then is one to know them?

If the scholars say of themselves that they would know the phoenix and the qilin the moment they saw them, then they say of themselves that they would know a sage the moment they saw him. Gao Yao had the mouth of a horse and Confucius the head of an overturned roof. Suppose a man afterward had knowledge that set him quite apart, and the mouth of a horse and the head of an overturned roof as well: still he could not be called a sage. Why so? The figures of the twelve sages are not the same, and it is hard to light up a later sage by the figure of an earlier one. Their bone patterns are not the same, their surnames and names are not equal, their bodies and shapes differ, and the lands they came out of differ. Though a sage should come again, how is one to know him?

Huan Junshan said to Yang Ziyun, "If in a later age there is a sage again, men will merely know that his talent surpasses their own, and for the most part they will not be able to know whether he is a sage or not a sage." Yang Ziyun said, "Truly so."

Now the sage is hard to know, and even men as fine in knowledge and ability as Huan and Yang still could not know him. The scholars of the world hold a commonplace knowledge and have no discussion of their own, so one may warrant that they will surely see a sage and not know him. And if they cannot know a sage, they cannot know the phoenix and the qilin. When men of the world name the phoenix and the qilin, on what ground do they say that they can know them? When the ages above named the phoenix and the qilin, they had only heard of a bird and a beast that were strange. Their hair and horn had something strange, and they did not fly at random or roam carelessly or strive with the birds and beasts for a full belly, and so men called them the phoenix and the qilin.

Men of the world know a sage in the same way. When they hear that a sage is the strange one among men, that his body has strange bones and his knowledge and ability are broad and penetrating, they call him a sage. But as for coming to know him, it is not by a sudden sight or a moment's hearing that they at once name him a sage; they lie down and rise with him and follow him and receive learning from him, and only then do they know him. How is this made clear? Zigong served Confucius one year and said of himself that he surpassed Confucius; in the second year he said of himself that he was the same as Confucius; in the third year he knew of himself that he did not come up to Confucius. In the first year and the second he did not know that Confucius was a sage; only after the third year did he know it. For Zigong to know Confucius, it was settled only in the third year. The scholars of the world have not the talent of Zigong, and they see a sage and do not follow him to learn; they trust to a hurried glance and have not three years of company, and yet they say of themselves that they know a sage. They are wrong! Shaozheng Mao was in Lu, standing level with Confucius. The gate of Confucius filled three times and emptied three times, and only Yan Yuan did not leave; Yan Yuan alone knew that Confucius was a sage. That the disciples left Confucius and went over to Shaozheng Mao means not only that the sagehood of Confucius was hard to know, but that they could not know Shaozheng Mao either. The disciples were all deluded.

Zigong said, "Now Shaozheng Mao is a man of note in Lu. You are carrying on the government; why do you put him first?" Confucius said, "Withdraw, Ci. This is not what you can reach."

Now even one whose talent could know a flatterer, like Zigong, still could not know the sage. That the scholars of the world see a sage and say of themselves that they can know him is wild talk!

Now speaking from their not being able to know a sage, one knows also that they cannot know the phoenix and the qilin. Suppose the phoenix had wings long and broad and the qilin a body tall and great: those who saw them would take them for a great bird and a huge beast, and nothing more. By what would they tell them apart? If they must be told apart by hugeness, then a sage too ought to be known by hugeness. In the time of the Chunqiu there was a bird called the yuanju, and it could not be taken for a phoenix; Changdi came, and he could not be taken for a sage. That being so, the phoenix and the qilin are the same as birds and beasts, and when men of the world see them, by what do they know them? If they know them because there are none in the Middle Kingdom and they have come from beyond the wilds, then it is the same with the myna. The myna is not a bird of the Middle Kingdom. The phoenix and the qilin are not birds and beasts of the Middle Kingdom either. Neither of them is a thing of the Middle Kingdom; on what ground do the scholars call the myna evil and the phoenix and the qilin good?

Someone says, "In the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan a phoenix gathered at Shanglin, and the flocking birds that followed it were counted by the thousand and the ten thousand. Because it is the elder of the many birds and is sagely and divine and has something unlike them, the flocking birds attached themselves and followed it."

If seeing a great bird come down and gather with the flocking birds attached to it means that it is a phoenix, then the phoenix is made sure of and settled. Now the phoenix and the qilin are of one nature: if, when the phoenix appears, the flocking birds follow, then when the qilin appears the many beasts ought to follow too. Look at the qilin of the Chunqiu: it does not say that the many beasts followed it. Emperor Xuan and Emperor Wu both took qilin, and there is no text of many beasts attaching themselves and following. If it be said that the qilin was taken by men and those attached to it scattered, still the phoenix is not taken by men but comes of itself and flies about, so what attaches itself and follows can be seen. The Documents says, "When the Shao was played through nine times on the flutes, the phoenix came and danced."

The Dazhuan says, "The phoenix was in the ranked trees." It does not say that the flocking birds followed. Was what Emperor Xuan brought down of another sort, then?

Someone says, "The recorders of events left it out. In the time of the rulers of Tang and Yu the phoenix truly had followers attached to it. The ages above are long ago and far off, and in the recording of events things were dropped and lost; the text of the classics is not enough to make it sure."

Now there are things that truly were and the recorder of events left out, and there are also things that truly were not and the recorder of events brought into being. If it is so, the text in the books of the scholars is hard to take for fact, and to know the phoenix by looking at what attaches itself and follows does not get at the truth. Moreover, among men there are the flattering and crafty who gather a crowd, and among birds too there are the sly and cunning that follow the flock. In the time of Tang and Yu was the phoenix honest and simple, and in the time of Emperor Xuan sly and cunning? How is it that both have the virtuous conduct of a sage, and yet their bearing in what they do is not alike?

With no birds attached and following it may at times still be a phoenix; with flocking birds attached and following it may at times not be. When a gentleman is in the world he keeps himself by a pure integrity and does not tie himself widely to a following, and in his going out and coming in and in what he does men do not attach themselves to him. The bold and crafty man uses and spends his spirit, and in his going and coming, his advance and retreat, gentlemen and crowds gather like clouds. Now the phoenix is a gentleman; if one must prove the phoenix by the number that follow, then the bold and sly man is the gentleman. The finer the song, the fewer sing with it; the purer a man's conduct and bearing, the rarer those who befriend him. It is so with birds and beasts too: if one must prove the phoenix by what attaches itself and follows, this is to take many voices joining in for a fine tune. The dragon is of a kind to set beside the phoenix. In the time of Emperor Xuan a yellow dragon came out at Xinfeng, and the flocking snakes did not follow it. The divine sparrow and the luan bird are both elders of the many birds, and though their goodness and sagehood do not come up to the phoenix, still the flocking birds that follow them ought to number some tens. Xinling and Mengchang had three thousand guests at their table and were called worthy lords. The Han general Wei Qing (衛青) and the general Huo Qubing had not one guest at the gate, and they too were called famous generals. The Grand Historian said, "Robber Zhi went about at large and gathered a party of several thousand men. Bo Yi and Shu Qi lived hidden on Mount Shouyang."

The bearing of birds and beasts is like that of men. That a man gets a crowd is not enough to tell the worthy. To make the phoenix sure by the birds attached to it and following it, how can that be?

Someone says, "The phoenix and the qilin are omens of great peace. In the season of great peace they appear and come. Yet there are also times when peace is not yet great and they come. When a bird or a beast has strange bones and unlike hair, standing quite apart from the common, that is the one; why can it not be known? The phoenix and the qilin commonly come in a time of great peace, but in the time of the Chunqiu the qilin once came because Confucius was held in suspicion of being made a king. Emperor Guangwu was born at Jiyang, and a phoenix came and gathered there."

Now when Guangwu was first born it was the season of Emperor Cheng and Emperor Ai, when peace was not yet great, and yet a phoenix came. If one holds of oneself that it came because Guangwu had the virtue of a sage, then it is an omen of a sage king's first birth and not an answer to great peace. A fine omen may answer to great peace, or may be for a first birth; the truth of it is hard to know. To prove it by the season of great peace alone, how can that be?

Someone says, "The phoenix and the qilin have a kind in their birth, as the tortoise and the dragon have a kind. A tortoise begets a tortoise and a dragon begets a dragon, and their shape and color and size do not differ from those before them. Seeing the father, one examines the sons and grandsons; why can they not be known?"

Now common things have their kinds, but an omen thing is born without a kind, just as it happens, and so it is called an answer to virtue; the tortoise and the dragon are so as well. Do men see a divine tortoise or a numinous dragon and tell them apart? In the time of King Yuan of Song a fisherman cast his net and got a divine tortoise, and the fisherman did not know that it was divine. The scholars of the world today are of the fisherman's sort. Since a fisherman could not know a divine tortoise, one knows also that the men of the world cannot know a numinous dragon.

A dragon may at times be like a snake, and a snake may at times be like a dragon. Hanzi said, "A horse that is like a deer is worth a thousand in gold."

A good horse is like a deer, and a numinous dragon may at times be like a snake. If they truly had their kinds, their shape and color would not differ. In the time of Wang Mang there was a great bird like a horse, of five colors with dragon markings, that gathered with some tens of flocking birds at Qi county (蘄縣) in the state of Pei. In the time of Emperor Xuan a phoenix gathered on the ground, five feet high, which is the same as the words about the height of a horse's body; its markings were of five colors, which matches in the color of the thing the words about five colors and dragon markings; and the flocking birds were some tens, which is the same as the words about gathering together and attaching and following. If one goes by the body and color of the phoenix in Emperor Xuan's time and the flocking birds attached to it, how does one know that the phoenix is the phoenix and not the bird that Wang Mang brought down? If it was truly Wang Mang who brought it down, then it is no omen. And if it was not a phoenix, why were its body and color and its followers just the same?

Moreover, omen things all rise from the breath of harmony and are born; born among the common kinds, they have a strange and unlike nature, and so they become omens. Therefore the sagehood of the phoenix is like the gathering of the red crows. If the phoenix has a kind, has the red crow a kind as well? Take the fine grain, the sweet spring and the sweet dew. The fine grain grows among the grain, and its ear differs from the ears among the grain, and so it is called fine grain; the sweet spring and the sweet dew come out sweet and good. All of them are spring water and dew that have come forth; it is not that there is a spirit of sweet dew above in Heaven and a kind of sweet spring below in the earth, which pour down and come out only when a sage's rule is just and even. The mingjia and the zhucao also grow in the earth and gather among the many plants, having no constant root; they come out for a while and wither and break in ten days or a month, and so they are called omens. Now the phoenix and the qilin are omens too; how should they have a kind?

Look: Zhou was at great peace, and Yuechang offered a white pheasant. The white pheasant is born short and white in color, that is all; there is no seed of white pheasants. A man of Lu got a roe deer that bore a horn and called it a qilin; that too may at times have been born of a roe deer, and there is no kind of qilin. Speaking from this, the phoenix too may at times be born of a swan or a magpie, and when its hair is strange and its feathers unlike, coming out beyond the flocking birds, men call it a phoenix, that is all. How can it be of a kind apart from the flocking birds? You Ruo said, "The qilin to the running beasts, the phoenix to the flying birds, Mount Tai to the hillocks and mounds, the Yellow River (河) and the sea to the puddles in the road: they are of a kind."

That being so, the phoenix and the qilin are all of one kind with birds and beasts, only strange in body and color; how can they be of another kind? They are of the same kind and yet have something strange, and the strange is what the world does not always have, and what the world does not always have is hard to make sure of. How is one to know them?

Yao begot Danzhu and Shun begot Shangjun. Shangjun and Danzhu were of the kind of Yao and Shun, only strange in bone and nature. Gun begot Yu and Gusou begot Shun. Shun and Yu were the seed of Gun and Gusou, and their knowledge and virtue were different. Sow the grains of the fine grain for a trial, and you cannot get fine grain. In the millet and the panic grain that are seen every day, stalk and ear are odd and strange. Men see Shuliang He and do not know that he is the father of Confucius; they see Boyu and do not know that he is the son of Confucius. The father of Zhang Tang was five feet tall, Tang was eight feet tall, and Tang's grandson was six feet tall. The phoenix of Emperor Xiaoxuan was five feet high; the bird that bore it may at times have been two feet high, and the bird it bore afterward may at times be one foot high. How can there be a constant seed?

Kinds are not constant, and so Zeng Xi begot Shen, whose breath and nature the world had not seen, and Yan Lu brought forth Hui, who stood apart in all times. Among horses there are those that go a thousand li, and they need not be the colts of the qiji; among birds there are the good and sagely, and they need not be the chicks of the phoenix. A stream on a mountain top does not join the rivers and the lakes, and yet there are fish in it, for the essence of water made them of itself; on the foundations of a deserted courtyard and a fallen hall grass grows, for the breath of the earth brought it out of itself. Look at the fish of the mountain stream and the grass on the hall's foundation: they come out with no kind. When an omen's answer comes of itself, Heaven and earth need not have a kind for it.

Now the answer of omens is like calamities and strange changes. An omen answers to good and a calamity answers to evil; though good and evil are opposite, their answering is one. Calamities and strange changes have no seed, and so omen answers have no kind either. The breath of yin and yang is the breath of Heaven and earth; meeting good it becomes harmony, meeting evil it becomes a strange change. How should Heaven and earth carry on a good and an evil government and beget besides a breath of harmony and of strange change? That being so, the coming out of omen answers has, it seems, no kind: it rises by reason of good, and it is born when the breath is in harmony. And it may at times be that the government is even and the breath in harmony and the many things change, as in spring the hawk changes into a dove, and in autumn the dove turns into a hawk, and the sort of snakes and rats become fish and turtles, and the toad becomes a quail, and the sparrow becomes a clam. That things change following the breath cannot be called nothing. A yellow stone became an old man and gave Zhang Liang a book, and when it went away it became a stone again. The scholars know this. It may at times be that in great peace, when the breath is in harmony, a roe deer becomes a qilin and a swan becomes a phoenix. Therefore breath and nature change with the times; how must there be a constant kind? Bao Si was the child of a black turtle, that is, of two dragons. The two ministers of Jin were the offspring of a bear and a brown bear. The sayings about swallowing a swallow's egg, about the coix seed, and about treading in a great footprint, men of the world hold them true; and do they alone say that omens have a constant kind? Reckoning by the fact that things have no seed, discussing by the fact that men have no kind, arguing by the fact that bodies change, the phoenix and the qilin are born with no constant kind, and why then should their shape and color be the same!

Look at the Ruiming chapter of the Liji, which says, "The male is called feng and the female huang. The male's cry is jiji and the female's cry is zuzu." The Odes say, "The wutong has grown, there on the high ridge. The phoenix cries, there in the morning sun. Thick and thick, in harmony and in harmony." The Ruiming and the Odes both speak of the cry of the phoenix. The Ruiming says "jiji, zuzu" and the Odes say "yongyong, jiejie," and these sounds differ. If the sounds are true, then the shapes are not the same. If they are truly unlike and the same, then the Odes and the Rites differ. The world hands down the cry of the phoenix, and therefore one must doubt it.

Look: when Lu took the qilin it said, "It is a roe deer and it has a horn." To say that it is a roe deer means that its color was like a roe deer's. A roe deer's color is constant, as a crow's color is constant. In the time of King Wu fire flowed down and became a crow, and it was said that its color was red. Red is not a crow's color, and so its color was said to be red. If it had been like a roe deer but unlike in color, it ought likewise to have said that its color was white or black. Now as the matter stands the color was the same, and so it said, "It is a roe deer." A roe deer has no horn, and here was something unlike the old, and so it said, "and it has a horn." If it is so, what Lu got was like the shape of a roe deer. In the time of Emperor Wu, on a tour of inspection to the west, a white qilin was taken, with one horn and five toes. The horn may at times have been the same, but the saying of five toes means the feet were not the same. Of the qilin that Lu got it is said that it was a roe deer and its color is not spoken of, because a roe deer has no unlike color. Of Emperor Wu it is said that a white qilin was got: its color being white and not of the roe deer's kind, it does not say that it was a roe deer but says straight out that it was white, its color not being the same. In the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan, Jiuzhen offered a qilin in tribute, shaped like a deer and having two horns.

Emperor Xiaowu spoke of one horn, so they are not the same. The qilin of the Chunqiu was like a roe deer, and Emperor Xuan's words say like a deer. A deer and a roe deer are twice the other in size, so their bodies are not the same.

Now in the time of the Three Kings the color of the hair, the horns and toes, and the height and size of the body were not of a like kind. Pushing from this to reckon what will come out in later ages, it is clear that it will surely not be the same as before! Now the qilin is of the kind of the phoenix, and the qilin is not the same in body and color before and after; and yet men wish to take the phoenix seen in Emperor Xuan's time, five feet high and with markings of five colors, as the standard from before by which to reckon what comes after, and to say that a phoenix that ought to come out again will be the same as that one. They are wrong! The phoenix and the qilin that ought to come out and be seen again will surely not be of a kind like those that came out and were seen in the ages before. And yet the scholars of the world say of themselves that they will see them and at once know them. How can that be?

Look: the man of Lu who got the qilin did not dare to name it straight out, but said, "something that is a roe deer and has a horn." At that time there was truly no way to know it. Emperor Wu had the usher Zhong Jun discuss it, and Zhong Jun said, "The wild fowl has joined its horns, which makes clear that all under Heaven are one at the root."

That he did not name it straight out but spoke of a wild fowl means that Zhong Jun too doubted and had no way to make it sure. The knowledge of the scholars of the world today cannot pass that of the man of Lu and of Zhong Jun; when they see a phoenix or a qilin they will surely follow them and doubt whether they are birds and beasts out of the common, and nothing more. How can they make sure that they are the phoenix and the qilin?

Speaking by body and color, they need not be equal; going by many birds and beasts following them, they need not be good; speaking by rareness of sight, there was the coming of the myna; speaking by strangeness of figure, a sage has strange bones and body, and a worthy man too has strange bones. Sage and worthy are both strange, and men have no way to tell them apart. Speaking by worthy and sage: sage birds and sage beasts, like common birds and ordinary beasts, also have what is strange and odd. There are sages and worthy men whose knowledge sets them quite apart and whose bones are nothing unusual; and there are sagely and worthy birds and beasts that are good and kind and clean and pure and have nothing strange in body. In the world there are men rich and noble who are not sages: their bodies have bones that are a sign of wealth and rank but are no proof of sage or worthy. That being so, there are birds too with five colors and beasts with horns that are not good and sagely. If it is so, how does one know that the phoenix and the qilin seen in the ages above were not common birds and beasts? And how does one know that the magpies and roe deer and their sort that are seen now are not the phoenix and the qilin?

In this sage age of the present day, with a ruler like Yao and Shun spreading abroad the Way and its teaching, why should good and sagely creatures not be born? It may at times be that the phoenix and the qilin are mixed in among swans and magpies, roe deer and deer, and men of the world do not know them. Fine jade lay hidden in the stone, and the king of Chu and his prime minister could not know it, and so there was the grief of one who held the jade and wept blood. Now it may at times be that the phoenix and the qilin, with their good and sagely nature, are hidden among common hair and ordinary feathers, with no single horn or five colors to show them, and men of the world do not know them, as the jade was in the stone. By what is it to be made sure? This discussion was drafted in the first years of Yongping, when omens came from time to time, and Emperor Xiaoming spread his kindness and many omens came together. By the season of Yuanhe and Zhanghe, Emperor Xiaozhang made his virtue shine and all under Heaven was in concord; fine omens and strange things answered together at one time, and the phoenix and the qilin came out one after another and were seen again and again, more richly than in the time of the Five Emperors. This chapter was already finished, and so they could not be set down in it.

Someone asks, "The Jiang rui (講瑞) says that the phoenix and the qilin are hard to know and that the omens of the world cannot be told apart. Can the phoenix and the qilin that Emperor Xiaozhang has brought down not be known either?"

The answer: in the record of the five birds, in the four quarters and in the center there are great birds, and when they come out the flocking birds all follow them, and in size and in the color of their hair they are of the phoenix's kind. They are truly hard to know. Therefore the omens of the world cannot be told apart; and how are they to be told apart? By government. The virtue of the king of that day did not come up to the time of Tang and Yu, and his phoenix and qilin were not seen with one's own eyes. And yet the omens of Tang and Yu were surely true ones, because the virtue of Yao was bright. Emperor Xiaoxuan matched Yao and Shun: all under Heaven was at great peace, ten thousand li longed for his teaching, and the way of goodness was spread and carried out; the good among birds and beasts were moved and came, and the size of the omen things, the color of their hair, their feet and wings, were surely not of one kind. Reckoning the many omens by the gains and losses of government and by the brightness or darkness of the ruler, there is none of them that is not true. "A thing may be hard to know and yet easy to understand": is this what that means? Prove it also by the sweet dew. The sweet dew is what the breath of harmony brings forth, and when dew is sweet for no reason, the breath of harmony has already come of itself. When the breath of harmony comes the sweet dew falls, and when virtue is spread abroad the many omens gather. Look: from Yongping down to Zhanghe the sweet dew always fell, and therefore one knows that the many omens are all right, and that the phoenix and the qilin are all true.