Zhirui — Pointing to Auspicious Signs指瑞篇
儒者說鳳皇、騏為聖王來，以為鳳皇、騏仁聖禽也，思慮深，避害遠，中國有道則來，無道則隱。稱鳳皇、騏之仁知者，欲以褒聖人也，非聖人之德不能致鳳皇、騏。此言妄也。夫鳳皇、騏聖，聖人亦聖。聖人
The scholars say that the phoenix and the qilin come for the sage king. They hold that the phoenix and the qilin are good and sagely creatures, deep in thought and far in shunning harm, so that when the Middle Kingdom has the Way they come, and when it is without the Way they hide. Those who speak of the benevolence and wisdom of the phoenix and the qilin mean by it to praise the sage, saying that without the virtue of a sage one cannot bring the phoenix and the qilin. These words are wild. Now the phoenix and the qilin are sagely, and the sage too is sagely. The sage
憂世，鳳皇、騏亦宜率教；聖人游於世間，鳳皇、騏亦宜與鳥獸會。何故遠去中國，處於邊外，豈聖人濁，鳳皇、騏清哉？何其聖德俱而操不同也！如以聖人者當隱乎，十二聖宜隱；如以聖者當見，鳳、亦宜見。如以仁聖之禽，思慮深，避害遠，則文王拘於里，孔子厄於陳、蔡，非也。文王、孔子，仁聖之人，憂世憫民，不圖利害，故其有仁聖之知，遭拘厄之患。凡人操行能修身正節，不能禁人加非於己。
grieves for the world, and so the phoenix and the qilin ought to carry his teaching as well; the sage roams about within the world, and so the phoenix and the qilin ought to gather with the birds and beasts as well. For what reason do they go far off from the Middle Kingdom and stay beyond the borders? Is the sage muddy and the phoenix and the qilin clear? How is it that their sagely virtue is the same and their conduct is not! If the sagely ought to hide, then the twelve sages ought to hide; if the sagely ought to show themselves, then the phoenix and the qilin ought to show themselves. If they are good and sagely creatures, deep in thought and far in shunning harm, then King Wen's being shut up in Youli and Confucius' straits in Chen and Cai were wrong. King Wen and Confucius were good and sagely men. They grieved for the world and pitied the people and did not plan for gain or loss, and so, having good and sagely wisdom, they met the trouble of confinement and want. In his conduct a man can cultivate himself and keep his integrity straight, but he cannot stop others from laying wrong upon him.
案人操行莫能過聖人，聖人不能自免於厄，而鳳、獨能自全於世，是鳥獸之操，賢於聖人也。且鳥獸之知，不與人通，何以能知國有道與無道也？人同性類，好惡均等，尚不相知；鳥獸與人異性，何能知之？人不能知鳥獸，鳥獸亦不能知人，兩不能相知；鳥獸為愚於人，何以反能知之？儒者咸稱鳳皇之德，欲以表明王之治，反令人有不及鳥獸，論事過情，使實不著。
Look at it: in conduct no man can go beyond the sage, yet the sage cannot free himself from straits, while the phoenix and the qilin alone can keep themselves whole in the world. Then the conduct of birds and beasts is worthier than the sage's. Again, the knowing of birds and beasts does not pass through to men. By what could they know whether a state has the Way or is without it? Men are of one nature and kind, and their likes and dislikes are evenly matched, and still they do not know one another. Birds and beasts differ in nature from men, so how could they know it? Men cannot know birds and beasts, and birds and beasts cannot know men; neither of the two can know the other. Birds and beasts are more foolish than men, so how could they know it instead? The scholars all speak of the virtue of the phoenix, wishing to set forth the rule of a bright king, and instead they make men fall short of birds and beasts. Their discussion of the matter goes past the truth of it and leaves the reality unshown.
且鳳、豈獨為聖王至哉！孝宣皇帝之時，鳳皇五至，騏一至，神雀、黃龍，甘露、醴泉，莫不畢見，故有五鳳、神雀、甘露、黃龍之紀。
And how should the phoenix and the qilin come for the sage king alone! In the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan the phoenix came five times and the qilin came once, and the divine sparrow and the yellow dragon, the sweet dew and the sweet spring, there was not one that did not appear. So there are the reign eras Wufeng, Shenque, Ganlu and Huanglong.
使鳳、審為聖王見，則孝宣皇帝聖人也；如孝宣帝非聖，則鳳、為賢來也。為賢來，則儒者稱鳳皇、騏，失其實也。鳳皇、騏為堯、舜來，亦為宣帝來矣。夫如是，為聖且賢也。
If the phoenix and the qilin truly show themselves for the sage king, then Emperor Xiaoxuan was a sage; and if Emperor Xiaoxuan was not a sage, then the phoenix and the qilin came for a worthy man. If they come for a worthy man, then the scholars' talk of the phoenix and the qilin loses the truth of it. The phoenix and the qilin came for Yao and Shun, and they came for Emperor Xuan as well. This being so, they come for the sage and for the worthy alike.
儒者說聖太隆，則論鳳、亦過其實。《春秋》曰：「西狩獲死。」人以示孔子，孔子曰：「孰為來哉？孰為來哉？」
The scholars raise the sage too high, and so their discussion of the phoenix and the qilin also goes past the truth of it. The Chunqiu says, "Hunting in the west, they took a dead qilin." A man showed it to Confucius, and Confucius said, "For whom has it come? For whom has it come?"
反袂拭面，泣涕沾襟。儒者說之，以為天以命孔子，孔子不王之聖也。夫為聖王來，孔子自以不王，而時王魯君無感之德，怪其來而不知所為，故曰：「孰為來哉？孰為來哉？」
He turned back his sleeve and wiped his face, and his tears wet his lapel. The scholars explain this and hold that Heaven was laying its charge on Confucius, and that Confucius was a sage who did not become king. Now it had come for a sage king, and Confucius held that he himself was not a king, while the king of that day, the lord of Lu, had no virtue to move it; so he thought its coming strange and did not know what it was for, and therefore said, "For whom has it come? For whom has it come?"
知其不為治平而至，為己道窮而來，望絕心感，故涕泣沾襟。以孔子言「孰為來哉」，知為聖王來也。曰：前孔子之時，世儒已傳此說，孔子聞此說而希見其物也，見之至，怪所為來。實者至，無所為來，常有之物也，行邁魯澤之中，而魯國見其物遭獲之也。孔子見之獲，獲而又死，則自比於，自謂道絕不復行，將為小人所蹊獲也。故孔子見而自泣者，據其見得而死也，非據其本所為來也。然則之至也，自與獸會聚也。其死，人殺之也。使有知，為聖王來，時無聖主，何為來乎？思慮深，避害遠，何故為魯所獲殺乎？夫以時無聖王而至，知不為聖王來也；為魯所獲殺，知其避害不能遠也。聖獸不能自免於難。聖人亦不能自免於禍。禍難之事，聖者所不能避，而云鳳、思慮深，避害遠，妄也。
He knew that it had not arrived because rule was at peace, but had come because his own Way was at its end, and his hope was cut off and his heart was moved, and so his tears wet his lapel. From Confucius saying "For whom has it come," they know that it came for a sage king. I answer: in the time before Confucius the scholars of the world already handed down this saying, and Confucius had heard this saying and had rarely seen the creature; he saw the qilin arrive and thought it strange, and wondered what it had come for. In truth, when the qilin arrives there is nothing it has come for. It is a creature that is always there, and it was walking in the marshes of Lu, and the men of Lu saw the creature and met it and took it. Confucius saw that the qilin was taken, and taken and then dead, and he likened himself to the qilin, holding that his Way was cut off and would be practiced no more, and that he would be trodden down and taken by small men. So when Confucius saw the qilin and wept for himself, it was on the ground of its being seen and taken and dying, not on the ground of what it had first come for. That being so, the qilin's arrival was of itself a gathering with the beasts. Its death was a man's killing of it. If the qilin had knowledge and came for a sage king, there was no sage ruler in that time, so what did it come for? If it is deep in thought and far in shunning harm, for what reason was it taken and killed by Lu? Now from its arriving when there was no sage king, we know it did not come for a sage king; and from its being taken and killed by Lu, we know it cannot be far in shunning harm. A sage beast cannot free itself from trouble. The sage too cannot free himself from misfortune. Matters of misfortune and trouble are what the sage cannot avoid, and to say that the phoenix and the qilin are deep in thought and far in shunning harm is wild.
且鳳、非生外國也，中國有聖王乃來至也。生於中國，長於山林之間，性廉見希，人不得害也，則謂之思慮深，避害遠矣。生與聖王同時，行與治平相遇，世間謂之聖王之瑞，為聖來矣。剝巢破卵，鳳皇為之不翔；焚林而畋，漉池而漁，龜、龍為之不游。鳳皇，龜、龍之類也，皆生中國，與人相近。巢剝卵破，屏竄不翔，林焚池漉，伏匿不游，無遠去之文，何以知其在外國也！龜、龍、鳳皇，同一類也。希見不害，謂在外國；龜、龍希見，亦在外國矣。
Again, the phoenix and the qilin are not born in foreign lands; the saying is that when the Middle Kingdom has a sage king they come and arrive. If they are born in the Middle Kingdom and grow up among the hills and woods, and their nature is clean and they are rarely seen, so that men cannot harm them, then men call them deep in thought and far in shunning harm. If their birth falls in the same time as a sage king, and their going about meets with rule at peace, the world calls them the omen of a sage king and says they came for the sage. When nests are stripped and eggs are broken, the phoenix will not soar for it; when the woods are burned for the hunt and the ponds are drained for the fish, the tortoise and the dragon will not swim for it. The phoenix is of a kind with the tortoise and the dragon; all are born in the Middle Kingdom and are near to men. When nests are stripped and eggs are broken they draw back and hide and do not soar; when the woods are burned and the ponds are drained they lie low and hide and do not swim. There is no text saying they go far away, so by what do we know that they are in foreign lands! Tortoise, dragon and phoenix are all of one kind. If being rarely seen and unharmed means being in a foreign land, then the tortoise and the dragon are rarely seen too, and so they are in foreign lands as well.
孝宣皇帝之時，鳳皇、騏、黃龍、神雀皆至，其至同時，則其性行相似類，則其生出宜同處矣。龍不生於外國，外國亦有龍。鳳、不生外國，外國亦有鳳、。然則中國亦有，未必外國之鳳、也。人見鳳、希見，則曰在外國；見遇太平，則曰為聖王來。夫鳳皇、騏之至也，猶醴泉之出、朱草之生也。謂鳳皇在外國，聞有道而來，醴泉、朱草何知，而生於太平之時？醴泉、朱草，和氣所生，然則鳳皇、騏，亦和氣所生也。和氣生聖人，聖人生於衰世。物生為瑞，人生為聖，同時俱然，時其長大，相逢遇矣。衰世亦有和氣，和氣時生聖人。聖人生於衰世，衰世亦時有鳳、也。孔子生於周之末世，騏見於魯之西澤。光武皇帝生於成、哀之際，鳳皇集於濟陽之地。聖人聖物，生於（盛）衰世。聖王遭見聖物，猶吉命之人逢吉祥之類也，其實相遇，非相為出也。
In the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan the phoenix, the qilin, the yellow dragon and the divine sparrow all arrived, and their arriving was at the same time; then their natures and their ways are of a like kind, and their birth and coming forth ought to be in the same place. Dragons are not born in foreign lands, yet foreign lands have dragons too. The phoenix and the qilin are not born in foreign lands, yet foreign lands have the phoenix and the qilin too. This being so, the Middle Kingdom has them as well, and they need not be the phoenix and the qilin of a foreign land. Men see that the phoenix and the qilin are rarely seen, and say they are in foreign lands; they see that they meet with great peace, and say they come for the sage king. Now the arrival of the phoenix and the qilin is like the welling up of the sweet spring and the growing of the zhucao. If the phoenix is in a foreign land and hears that the Way is there and comes, what do the sweet spring and the zhucao know, that they should grow in a time of great peace? The sweet spring and the zhucao are born of the harmonious breath; then the phoenix and the qilin are born of the harmonious breath as well. The harmonious breath gives birth to the sage, and the sage is born in an age of decline. When a creature is born it becomes an omen, and when a man is born he becomes a sage; both are so at the same time, and in the time of their growing they meet with each other. An age of decline has the harmonious breath as well, and the harmonious breath at times gives birth to a sage. The sage is born in an age of decline, and so an age of decline at times has the phoenix and the qilin. Confucius was born in the last age of Zhou, and the qilin appeared in the western marsh of Lu. Emperor Guangwu was born about the time of Emperor Cheng and Emperor Ai, and the phoenix gathered in the land of Jiyang. The sage and the sage creature are born in an age of decline. That a sage king meets and sees a sage creature is like a man of lucky fate meeting with things of good fortune: in truth they meet each other, they do not come forth for each other.
夫鳳、之來，與白魚、赤烏之至，無以異也。魚遭自躍，王舟逢之；火偶為烏，王仰見之。非魚聞武王之德而入其舟，烏知周家當起集於王屋也。謂鳳、為聖王來，是謂魚、烏為武王至也。王者受富貴之命，故其動出見吉祥異物，見則謂之瑞。瑞有小大，各以所見，定德薄厚。若夫白魚、赤烏小物，小安之兆也；鳳皇、騏大物，太平之象也。故孔子曰：「鳳鳥不至，河不出圖，吾已矣夫！」
Now the coming of the phoenix and the qilin is in no way different from the arrival of the white fish and the red crow. The fish met them by leaping up of itself, and the king's boat came upon it; the fire chanced to become a crow, and the king looked up and saw it. It was not that the fish heard of King Wu's virtue and entered his boat, or that the crow knew the house of Zhou was to rise and gathered on the king's roof. To say that the phoenix and the qilin come for the sage king is to say that the fish and the crow arrived for King Wu. A king receives the charge of wealth and rank, and so as he moves and goes out he sees strange creatures of good fortune, and when he sees them men call them omens. Omens are small and great, and by what is seen men fix the thinness or thickness of his virtue. The white fish and the red crow are small creatures, the sign of a small peace; the phoenix and the qilin are great creatures, the image of great peace. So Confucius said, "The phoenix does not come and the Yellow River (河) sends forth no chart. It is all over with me!"
不見太平之象，自知不遇太平之時矣。且鳳皇、騏，何以為太平之象？鳳皇、騏，仁聖之禽也，仁聖之物至，天下將為仁聖之行矣。《尚書大傳》曰：「高宗祭成湯之廟，有雉升鼎耳而鳴。高宗問祖乙，祖乙曰：『遠方君子殆有至者。』祖乙見雉有似君子之行，今從外來，則曰遠方君子將有至者矣。」
Not seeing the image of great peace, he knew for himself that he had not met a time of great peace. And by what are the phoenix and the qilin the image of great peace? The phoenix and the qilin are good and sagely creatures, and when a good and sagely creature arrives, the world is about to take up good and sagely deeds. The Shangshu dazhuan says, "Gaozong was sacrificing in the temple of Cheng Tang, and there was a pheasant that climbed onto the ear of the cauldron and cried. Gaozong asked Zu Yi, and Zu Yi said, 'A gentleman of a far country will likely be coming.' Zu Yi saw that the pheasant had something like the ways of a gentleman, and now it had come from outside, and so he said that a gentleman of a far country would be coming."
夫鳳皇、騏猶雉也，其來之象，亦與雉同。孝武皇帝西巡狩，得白一角而五趾，又有木枝出復合於本。武帝議問群臣，謁者終軍曰：「野禽并角，明同本也；眾枝內附，示無外也。如此瑞者，外國宜有降者，（是）若〔是〕應，殆且有解編發、削左衽、襲冠帶而蒙化焉。」其後數月，越地有降者，匈奴名王亦將數千人來降，竟如終軍之言。終軍之言，得瑞應之實矣。推此以況白魚、赤烏，猶此類也。魚，（木）〔水〕精；白者，殷之色也；烏者，孝鳥；赤者，周之應氣也。先得白魚，後得赤烏，殷之統絕，色移在周矣。據魚、烏之見以占武王，則知周之必得天下也。
Now the phoenix and the qilin are like the pheasant, and the image of their coming is the same as the pheasant's. Emperor Xiaowu went on a tour of inspection to the west and got a white qilin with one horn and five toes, and there was also a tree whose branches came out and joined again at the trunk. Emperor Wu took counsel and asked his many officers, and the usher Zhong Jun said, "The bird of the wild has joined its horns, which makes clear that the root is one; the many branches turn inward, which shows that there is no outside. With an omen like this, there ought to be men of foreign lands who submit, and if this is the answering, then likely there will be those who loose their braided hair, cut away the left lapel, and put on cap and sash to come under the teaching." Some months later there were men in the land of Yue who submitted, and a noted king of the Xiongnu too led some thousands of men and came and submitted, and in the end it was as Zhong Jun had said. Zhong Jun's words got the truth of how omens answer. Reckoning the white fish and the red crow by this, they are of the same kind. The fish is the essence of water; white is the color of Yin; the crow is the bird of filial duty; red is the answering breath of Zhou. First the white fish was got, and after it the red crow: the line of Yin was cut off and the color had moved and lay with Zhou. Judging by the appearing of the fish and the crow, one knows that Zhou would surely get the world.
世見武王誅紂，出遇魚、烏，則謂天用魚、烏命使武王誅紂，事相似類，其實非也。春秋之時，鵒來巢，占者以為凶。夫野鳥來巢，魯國之都且為丘墟，昭公之身，且出奔也。
The world sees that King Wu, going out to punish King Zhou, met the fish and the crow, and says that Heaven used the fish and the crow to charge King Wu to punish King Zhou. The matters are alike in kind, but in truth it is not so. In the time of the Chunqiu mynas came and nested, and the diviners held it ill. Now when wild birds come and nest, the capital of Lu is about to become a waste mound, and Duke Zhao himself is about to flee.
後昭公為季氏所攻，出奔於齊，死不歸魯。賈誼為長沙太傅，服鳥集舍，發書占之，云服鳥入室，主人當去。其後賈誼竟去。野鳥雖殊，其占不異。夫鳳、之來，與野鳥之巢、服鳥之集，無以異也。是鵒之巢，服鳥之集，偶巢適集，占者因其野澤之物，巢集城宮之內，則見魯國且凶，傳（舍）〔主〕人不吉之瑞矣。非鵒、服鳥知二國禍將至而故為之巢集也。王者以天下為家，家人將有吉凶之事，而吉凶之兆豫見於人，知者占之，則知吉凶將至。非吉凶之物有知，故為吉凶之人來也，猶蓍龜之有兆數矣。龜兆蓍數，常有吉凶，吉人卜筮與吉相遇，凶人與凶相逢，非蓍龜神靈知人吉凶，出兆見數以告之也。虛居卜筮，前無過客，猶得吉凶。然則天地之間，常有吉凶，吉凶之物來至，自當與吉凶之人相逢遇矣。或言天使之所為也，夫巨大之天，使細小之物，音語不通，情指不達，何能使物！物亦不為天使，其來神怪，若天使之，則謂天使矣。
Afterward Duke Zhao was attacked by the Ji clan and fled to Qi, and died without returning to Lu. Jia Yi became grand tutor of Changsha, and an owl gathered in his house; he opened a book and divined it, and it said that when an owl enters a room the master must leave. Afterward Jia Yi did leave. Wild birds may differ, but their divining is not different. Now the coming of the phoenix and the qilin is in no way different from a wild bird's nesting or an owl's gathering. Here the myna's nesting and the owl's gathering were a chance nesting and a happening to gather, and the diviners, because creatures of field and marsh nested and gathered inside city and palace, saw in it the omen that Lu was about to meet ill and that the master of the lodging would not be lucky. It was not that the myna and the owl knew the misfortune of the two houses was about to arrive and nested and gathered on purpose. A king takes the world for his house. When the people of a house are about to have matters of good or ill fortune, the signs of good or ill fortune show themselves to men beforehand, and when one who knows divines them, he knows that good or ill fortune is about to arrive. It is not that creatures of good and ill fortune have knowledge and come on purpose for men of good and ill fortune; it is like the milfoil and the tortoise having their signs and their numbers. In the tortoise's signs and the milfoil's numbers there are always good and ill fortune, and when a lucky man divines he meets with the lucky, and an unlucky man meets with the unlucky. It is not that milfoil and tortoise are divine spirits that know a man's good and ill fortune and send out signs and show numbers to tell him of it. Divine in an empty place, with no traveler passing before you, and still you get good or ill fortune. This being so, between Heaven and earth there are always good and ill fortune, and when creatures of good and ill fortune come and arrive, of themselves they meet with men of good and ill fortune. Some say it is what Heaven has sent them to do. Now for the vast great Heaven to send small fine creatures, sound and speech do not pass between them and feeling and intent do not reach across, so how could it send creatures! Nor are creatures sent by Heaven; but their coming is divine and strange, as if Heaven had sent them, and so men say that Heaven sent them.
夏後孔甲畋於首山，天雨晦冥，入於民家，主人方乳。或曰：「後來之子必大貴。」或曰：「不勝之子必有殃。」
Kong Jia of the house of Xia was hunting on Mount Shou when the sky rained and grew dark, and he went into a commoner's house, where the master of the house had just had a child born. Someone said, "A child the ruler has come to will surely be greatly noble." Someone said, "A child that cannot bear it will surely meet disaster."
夫孔甲之入民室也，偶遭雨而蔭庇也，非知民家將生子，而其子必〔吉〕凶，為之至也；既至，人占則有吉凶矣。夫吉凶之物見於王朝，若入民家，猶孔甲遭雨入民室也。孔甲不知其將生子為之故到。謂鳳皇諸瑞有知，應吉而至，誤矣。
Now Kong Jia's entering the commoner's house was his chancing on rain and taking shelter. It was not that he knew the house was about to bear a child, and that the child would surely be lucky or unlucky, and came there for that; once he had come, men divined it and then there was good or ill fortune. Now when creatures of good and ill fortune show themselves at a king's court, or enter a commoner's house, it is like Kong Jia meeting rain and entering a commoner's house. Kong Jia did not know that a child was about to be born and come there for that. To say that the phoenix and the other omens have knowledge and arrive in answer to good fortune is a mistake.