Zhiqi — Cycles of Order and Disorder治期篇
世謂古人君賢則道德施行，施行則功成治安；人君不肖則道德頓廢，頓廢則功敗治亂。古今論者，莫謂不然。何則？見堯、舜賢聖致太平，桀、紂無道，致亂得誅。如實論之，命期自然，非德化也。
The world says that when a ruler of old was worthy, morality was set forth and carried out, and when it was set forth and carried out, merit was accomplished and the rule was at peace; and that when a ruler was unworthy, morality was suddenly cast aside, and when it was suddenly cast aside, merit failed and the rule fell into disorder. Among those who have discussed it, in old times and now, there is none who says it is not so. Why? Because they see that Yao and Shun were worthy and sagely and brought about the great peace, and that Jie and King Zhou (桀·紂) were without the Way, brought about disorder, and got themselves put to death. If we discuss it by what is real, the decree and its term are so of themselves; they are not the transforming work of virtue.
吏百石以（上）〔下〕，若（升）〔斗〕食以（下）〔上〕，居位治民，為政布教，教行與止，民治與亂，皆有命焉。或才高行潔，居位職廢；或智淺操，治民而立。上古黜陟幽明，考功，據有功而加賞，案無功而施罰。是考命而長祿，非實才而厚能也。論者因考功之法，據效而定賢，則謂民治國安者，賢君之所致；民亂國危者，無道之所為也。故危亂之變至，論者以責人君，歸罪於為政不得其道。人君受以自責，愁神苦思，撼動形體，而危亂之變終不減除。空憤人君人心，使明知之主，虛受之責，世論傳稱，使之然也。
Clerks from a hundred piculs downward and from the peck ration upward, who hold a post and govern the people, who conduct affairs and spread instruction, have a decree in all of it: in whether the instruction is carried out or halts, and in whether the people are ordered or fall into disorder. Some are high in ability and clean in conduct, yet they hold a post and their duties are ruined; some are shallow in knowledge and foul in principle, yet they govern the people and are established. In high antiquity they cast down the dark and raised up the bright, examining merit, and where there was merit they granted reward, and where there was no merit they looked into it and applied punishment. This is to examine the decree and make the salary grow; it is not to make ability weighty by real talent. Those who discuss it, following the method of examining merit, settle who is worthy by the results, and so they say that a people ordered and a state at peace are what a worthy ruler brought about, and that a people in disorder and a state in danger are the doing of one without the Way. Therefore when the change of danger and disorder arrives, those who discuss it lay it upon the ruler and put the guilt on his not having found the Way in conducting affairs. The ruler takes it up and blames himself, grieves his spirit and troubles his thought and shakes his body, yet the change of danger and disorder is in the end not lessened or removed. It is the talk of the world, handed down and repeated, that wears out the ruler's heart for nothing and makes a lord of clear knowledge take up an empty reproach.
夫賢君能治當安之民，不能化當亂之世。良醫能行其針葯，使方術驗者，遇未死之人，得未死之病也；如命窮病困，則雖扁鵲，末如之何。夫命窮病困不可治，猶夫亂民之不可安也。葯氣之愈病，猶教導之安民也，皆有命時，不可令勉力也。公伯寮訴子路於季孫，子服景伯以告孔子。孔子曰：「道之將行也與，命也！道之將廢也與，命也！」
Now a worthy ruler can govern a people that is due to be at peace, but he cannot transform an age that is due to be in disorder. When a good physician plies his needle and his drugs and makes his art prove true, it is that he has met a man who is not yet to die and has got a sickness that is not yet to kill; if the decree is exhausted and the sickness is hard pressed, then even Bian Que can do nothing about it. That a decree exhausted and a sickness hard pressed cannot be cured is like a people in disorder that cannot be brought to peace. That the breath of a drug heals a sickness is like instruction and guidance bringing a people to peace. Both have their decree and their time, and cannot be made to come by force of effort. Gongbo Liao slandered Zilu to Jisun, and Zifu Jingbo told Confucius of it. Confucius said, "That the Way is to be carried out is the decree! That the Way is to be cast aside is the decree!"
由此言之，教之行廢，國之安危，皆在命時，非人力也。
Speaking from this, the carrying out or the casting aside of instruction, and the peace or the danger of a state, all lie in the decree and the time; they are not the strength of men.
夫世亂民逆，國之危殆災害，繫於上天，賢君之德，不能消卻。《詩》道周宣王遭大旱矣。《詩》曰：「周餘黎民，靡有孑遺。」
Now that the age is in disorder and the people rebel, that the state is in danger and there is calamity and harm, hangs upon Heaven above, and the virtue of a worthy ruler cannot make it go away. The Odes tell of King Xuan of Zhou meeting a great drought. The Odes say, "Of the people left in Zhou, there is not one left over."
言無有可遺一人不被害者。宣王賢者，嫌於德微。仁惠盛者，莫過堯、湯，堯遭洪水，湯遭大旱。水旱，災害之甚者也，而二聖逢之，豈二聖政之所致哉？天地歷數當然也。
This says that there was not one who could be left over without being stricken. King Xuan was a worthy man, and there is no suspicion that his virtue was slight. For fullness of benevolence and kindness none surpasses Yao and Tang, yet Yao met the great flood and Tang met the great drought. Flood and drought are the worst of calamities, and the two sages met them. How could this be what the government of the two sages brought about? The reckoning of Heaven and Earth was due to be so.
以堯、湯之水旱，准百王之災害，非德所致，非德所致，則其福佑非德所為也。
If we measure the calamities of the hundred kings by the flood of Yao and the drought of Tang, they are not what virtue brought about; and if they are not what virtue brought about, then their blessing and protection are not what virtue did either.
賢君之治國也，猶慈父之治家。慈父耐平教明令，耐使子孫皆為孝善。
That a worthy ruler governs a state is like a kind father governing a household. A kind father can teach evenly and command clearly, and he can make his sons and grandsons all filial and good.
子孫孝善，是家興也；百姓平安，是國昌也。昌必有衰，興必有廢。興昌非德所能成，然則衰廢非德所能敗也。昌衰興廢，皆天時也。此善惡之實，未言苦樂之效也。家安人樂，富饒財用足也。案富饒者命厚所致，非賢惠所獲也。人皆知富饒居安樂者命祿厚，而不知國安治化行者歷數吉也。故世治非賢聖之功，衰亂非無道之致。國當衰亂，賢聖不能盛；時當治，惡人不能亂。世之治亂，在時不在政；國之安危，在數不在教。賢不賢之君，明不明之政，無能損益。
When sons and grandsons are filial and good, this is a household rising; when the hundred families are level and at peace, this is a state flourishing. What flourishes must have its decline, and what rises must have its fall. Rising and flourishing are not what virtue can accomplish, and if so, declining and falling are not what virtue can spoil. Flourishing and declining, rising and falling, are all the times of Heaven. This is the reality of good and evil; it has not yet spoken of the effects of suffering and joy. That a household is at peace and its people glad is that they are rich and their goods and means are enough. Now riches are brought about by a thick decree; they are not got by worth and kindness. All men know that one who is rich and dwells in peace and joy has a thick decree and salary, yet they do not know that when a state is at peace and rule and transformation are carried out, its reckoning of years is auspicious. Therefore an age of order is not the merit of the worthy and the sagely, and decline and disorder are not what being without the Way brought about. When a state is due to decline and fall into disorder, the worthy and the sagely cannot make it flourish; when the time is due for order, evil men cannot throw it into disorder. The order or disorder of an age lies in the time and not in the government; the peace or danger of a state lies in the number and not in instruction. A ruler worthy or unworthy, a government clear or unclear, can take nothing from it and add nothing to it.
世稱五帝之時，天下太平，家有十年之蓄，人有君子之行。或時不然，世增其美，亦或時政致。何以審之？夫世之所以為亂者，不以賊盜眾多，兵革并起，民棄禮義，負畔其上乎？若此者，由谷食乏絕，不能忍飢寒。夫飢寒并至而能無為非者寡，然則溫飽并至而能不為善者希。傳曰：「倉稟實，民知禮節；衣食足，民知榮辱。」
The world declares that in the time of the Five Emperors all under Heaven was at great peace, that households had ten years' store and men had the conduct of gentlemen. Perhaps it was not so and the world has added to its beauty, and perhaps too the government brought it about. How do we look into it? Now the reason an age is called disordered: is it not that robbers and thieves are many, that weapons and armor rise together, that the people cast away rites and right and turn their backs on those above them and rebel? Things like this come of grain and food being scant and cut off, so that hunger and cold cannot be borne. Now few are those who, when hunger and cold arrive together, can keep from doing wrong; and so rare are those who, when warmth and a full belly arrive together, can keep from doing good. A tradition says, "When the granaries are full, the people know rites and measure; when clothing and food are enough, the people know honor and shame."
讓生於有餘，爭起於不足。谷足食多，禮義之心生；禮丰義重，平安之基立矣。故飢歲之春，不食親戚，穰歲之秋，召及四鄰。不食親戚，惡行也；召及四鄰，善義也。為善惡之行，不在人質性，在於歲之飢穰。由此言之，禮義之行，在谷足也。案谷成敗，自有年歲。年歲水旱，五谷不成，非政所致，時數然也。必謂水旱政治所致，不能為政者莫過桀、紂，桀、紂之時，宜常水旱。案桀、紂之時，無飢耗之災。災至自有數，或時返在聖君之世。實事者說堯之洪水，湯之大旱，皆有遭遇，非政惡之所致。說百王之害，獨謂為惡之應，此見堯、湯德優，百王劣也。審一足以見百，明惡足以照善。堯、湯証百王，至百王遭變，非政所致，以變見而明禍福。五帝致太平，非德所就明矣。
Yielding is born of having more than enough; strife rises out of not enough. When grain is enough and food is plenty, the heart of rites and right is born; when rites are ample and right is weighty, the ground of peace is laid. Therefore in the spring of a hungry year men do not feed their kin, and in the autumn of an abundant year they call in the four neighbors. Not to feed one's kin is evil conduct; to call in the four neighbors is good and right. The doing of good or evil conduct does not lie in the stuff of a man's nature; it lies in the hunger or the abundance of the year. Speaking from this, the carrying out of rites and right lies in grain being enough. Now the making or the failing of grain has its own years. That in a year of flood or drought the five grains do not ripen is not what government brought about; the time and the number are so. If it must be said that flood and drought are what governing brings about, then none was worse at governing than Jie and King Zhou, and in the time of Jie and King Zhou there ought always to have been flood and drought. Now in the time of Jie and King Zhou there was no calamity of hunger and waste. The arrival of calamity has its own number, and at times it falls instead in the age of a sagely ruler. Those who speak by the facts say that the great flood of Yao and the great drought of Tang were both a meeting by chance, and not what evil government brought about. Of the harms of the hundred kings they say that these alone answer the doing of evil; this is to see Yao and Tang as ample in virtue and the hundred kings as poor. To look into one is enough to see a hundred; to make evil clear is enough to light up the good. Yao and Tang give proof of the hundred kings, and when it comes to the hundred kings meeting a change, it is not what government brought about, and by the showing of a change they make misfortune and blessing clear. That the Five Emperors brought about the great peace is plainly not what virtue accomplished.
人之溫病而死也，先有凶色見於面部。其病遇邪氣也，其病不愈。至於身死，命壽訖也。國之亂亡，與此同驗。有變見於天地，猶人溫病而死，色見於面部也。有水旱之災，猶人遇氣而病也。災禍不除，至於國亡，猶病不愈，至於身死也。論者謂變徵政治，賢人溫病色凶，可謂操行所生乎？謂水旱者無道所致，賢者遭病，可謂無狀所得乎？謂亡者為惡極，賢者身死，可謂罪重乎？夫賢人有被病而早死，惡人有完強而老壽，人之病死，不在操行為惡也。然則國之亂亡，不在政之是非。惡人完強而老壽，非政平安而常存。由此言之，禍變不足以明惡，福瑞不足以表善，明矣。
When a man dies of a fever, an ill color first shows on his face. His sickness is a meeting with a noxious breath, and so his sickness does not heal. That he comes to die in body is his decree and his span being ended. The disorder and ruin of a state are proved in the same way. That a change shows in Heaven and Earth is like a man dying of fever, the color showing on his face. That there is a calamity of flood and drought is like a man meeting a breath and falling sick. That calamity and misfortune are not removed, until the state comes to ruin, is like a sickness not healing until the body comes to death. Those who discuss it say that a change gives proof of the governing. When a worthy man has a fever and his color is ill, can it be said that his principles and conduct gave it birth? If flood and drought are said to be what being without the Way brought about, when a worthy man meets sickness, can it be said that he got it by unseemly doing? If one who is ruined is said to be utmost in evil, when a worthy man dies in body, can it be said that his guilt was heavy? Now there are worthy men who take a sickness and die early, and evil men who are whole and strong and live long into old age; a man's falling sick and dying does not lie in his principles and conduct being evil. If so, the disorder and ruin of a state do not lie in the right and wrong of its government. That an evil man is whole and strong and lives long into old age is not that his governing is level and at peace and so he lasts. Speaking from this, it is plain that misfortune and change are not enough to make evil clear, and that blessing and omens are not enough to show forth the good.
在天之變，日月薄蝕，四十二月日一食，五（十）六月月亦一食，食有常數，不在政治，百變千災，皆同一狀，未必人君政教所致。歲害鳥帑，周、楚有禍；然之氣見，宋、衛、陳、鄭皆災。當此之時，六國政教，未必失誤也。歷陽之都，一夕沈而為湖，當時歷陽長吏，未必誑妄也。成敗繫於天，吉凶制於時。人事未為，天氣已見，非時而何？五谷生地，一丰一耗；谷糶在市，一貴一賤。丰者未必賤，耗者未必貴。丰耗有歲，貴賤有時。時當貴，丰谷价增；時當賤，耗谷直減。
Among the changes that are in Heaven, the eating of the sun and the moon: in forty-two months the sun is eaten once, and in fifty-six months the moon too is eaten once. The eating has its constant number and does not lie in the governing. A hundred changes and a thousand calamities are all of one same shape, and they are not of necessity what a ruler's government and instruction brought about. The Sui star (歲星) harmed Niaonu, and Zhou and Chu had misfortune; the breath of a comet appeared, and Song, Wei (衛), Chen and Zheng all suffered calamity. At that time the government and instruction of the six states had not of necessity gone wrong. The city of Liyang sank in a single evening and became a lake, and the senior officer of Liyang at that time was not of necessity false and reckless. Making and failing hang upon Heaven, and the auspicious and the ill are ruled by the time. The affairs of men have not yet been done and the breath of Heaven has already shown itself. What is this if not the time? The five grains grow in the earth, now abundant, now wasted; the selling of grain is in the market, now dear, now cheap. What is abundant is not of necessity cheap, and what is wasted is not of necessity dear. Abundance and waste have their years, and dear and cheap have their times. When the time is due to be dear, the price of abundant grain goes up; when the time is due to be cheap, the worth of wasted grain comes down.
夫谷之貴賤不在丰耗，猶國之治亂不在善惡。
Now that the dearness or cheapness of grain does not lie in abundance and waste is like the order or disorder of a state not lying in good and evil.
賢君之立，偶在當治之世，德自明於上，民自善於下，世平民安，瑞佑并至，世則謂之賢君所致。無道之君，偶生於當亂之時，世擾俗亂，災害不絕，遂以破國亡身滅嗣，世皆謂之為惡所致。若此，明於善惡之外形，不見禍福之內實也。禍福不在善惡，善惡之証不在禍福。長吏到官，未有所行，政教因前，無所改更。然而盜賊或多或寡，災害或無或有，夫何故哉？長吏秩貴，當階平安以升遷，或命賤不任，當由危亂以貶詘也。以今之長吏，況古之國君，安危存亡，可得論也。
That a worthy ruler is set up falls by chance in an age due to be ordered: his virtue is clear of itself above, the people are good of themselves below, the age is level and the people at peace, and omens and protection arrive together, and so the world says that a worthy ruler brought it about. A ruler without the Way is born by chance in a time due to be disordered: the age is troubled and custom is disordered, calamity and harm do not cease, and at last his state is broken, his body ruined and his line cut off, and so the world all says that his doing of evil brought it about. If it is like this, they are clear about the outward form of good and evil and do not see the inward reality of misfortune and blessing. Misfortune and blessing do not lie in good and evil, and the proof of good and evil does not lie in misfortune and blessing. A senior officer arrives at his post and has done nothing yet, and his government and instruction follow the one before with nothing changed. Yet robbers and thieves are now many and now few, and calamity and harm now absent and now present. What is the reason for it? If a senior officer's salary is to be noble, he is due to mount by way of peace and be moved up; and if his decree is base and he is not equal to it, he is due, by way of danger and disorder, to be cut down and put out. Comparing the senior officers of today with the rulers of states of old, their peace and danger, their surviving and perishing, can be discussed.