Ziran — Spontaneity of Nature自然篇

When Heaven and Earth join their breaths, the ten thousand things are born of themselves, just as when husband and wife join their breaths a child is born of itself. In the birth of the ten thousand things, the kinds that hold blood know hunger and know cold: seeing that the five grains can be eaten, they take them and eat them; seeing that silk and hemp can be worn, they take them and wear them. Some explain it by saying that Heaven brings forth the five grains to feed men and brings forth silk and hemp to clothe men. This is to say that Heaven, for the sake of men, becomes one of the company of farmers and silkworm women. It does not fit with being so of itself, and so its meaning is doubtful and cannot be followed. Let us try to discuss it by leaning on the school of the Way.

Heaven spreads its breath everywhere among the ten thousand things. Grain heals hunger and silk and hemp save from cold, and so men eat grain and wear silk and hemp. Now that Heaven does not bring forth the five grains and silk and hemp on purpose, to clothe and feed men, is like its having calamities and changes without wishing to reprove and warn men by them. Things are born of themselves and men clothe and feed themselves with them; the breath changes of itself and men are afraid of it. To discuss it by this account satisfies the heart of man. If the omens of Heaven were done on purpose, where is being so of itself? Where does doing nothing dwell?

How do we know that Heaven is so of itself? By Heaven's having no mouth and eyes. Now what does things is of the sort that has a mouth and eyes. The mouth wants to eat and the eyes want to see; relish and wanting are within and show themselves without, and the mouth and eyes seek them and get them and make them their gain, and this is the doing of wanting. Now there is no wanting of mouth and eyes, and there is nothing sought and looked for among things; what then would it do! How do we know that Heaven has no mouth and eyes? We know it by Earth. Earth takes soil for its body, and soil from the root has no mouth and eyes. Heaven and Earth are husband and wife; if the body of Earth has no mouth and eyes, then we know too that Heaven has no mouth and eyes. If Heaven is a body, it ought to be the same as Earth. If Heaven is breath, breath is like cloud and smoke. How could the sort that is cloud and smoke have a mouth and eyes!

Someone says, "Every sort that moves and goes has doing at the root. It has wants and so it moves, and when it moves there is doing. Now the moving and going of Heaven is like that of man; how can there be no doing?" I answer: the moving and going of Heaven is the spreading of breath. The body moves and the breath comes out, and things are born. It is like a man moving his breath: the body moves and the breath comes out, and a child too is born. Now a man's spreading of breath is not a wish to bear a child; the breath is spread and the child is born of itself. Heaven's moving is not a wish to bear things, yet things are born of themselves, and this is being so of itself. Its spreading of breath is not a wish to make things, yet things make themselves, and this is doing nothing. What is it in Heaven that is so of itself and does nothing? It is breath. It is calm and still and without wanting, doing nothing and having no business, and Lao Dan got it and lived long. Lao Dan received it from Heaven; if Heaven had not this breath, where would Lao Dan have received this nature! That the master should not have had the saying and the disciple alone should speak it has never been. Someone reported to Duke Huan, and the duke said, "Tell it to Zhongfu." Those at his side said, "First Zhongfu, second Zhongfu; being a ruler is easy." Duke Huan said, "Before I got Zhongfu it was hard; now that I have got Zhongfu, how should it not be easy!"

Now Duke Huan got Zhongfu, charged him with affairs and left the government to him, and took no further part in knowing it. If august Heaven, with virtue of the utmost amplitude, gives a king his government and then follows him with reproof and warning, then the virtue of Heaven is not the equal of Duke Huan's, and the principles of a hegemon ruler surpass the Lord on High.

Someone says, "Duke Huan knew that Guan Zhong was worthy and so left it to him; had it not been Guan Zhong, he too would have reproved and warned him. If Heaven met a Yao or a Shun, there would surely be no change of reproof and warning."

I answer: if Heaven can reprove and warn a ruler, then it can also decree a sagely ruler on purpose. It would choose a talent like Yao or Shun, give him the king's decree and charge him with the king's business, and take no further part in knowing it. Now it is not so: it brings forth a middling ruler, and when he loses the Way and casts aside virtue it follows him with reproof and warning. How is it that Heaven does not shrink from the labor! Cao Shen was chancellor of Han, and he drank his fill of wine and sang and made merry and did not attend to governing; when his son remonstrated with him he had him caned two hundred strokes. At that time there was no change of trouble and disorder in all under Heaven. At Huaiyang they cast false coin and the clerks could not stop it; Ji An became governor, and he broke not one furnace and punished not one man, but lay at ease with his pillow high, and yet the government of Huaiyang was clear. Now Cao Shen's being chancellor was like not being chancellor, and Ji An's being governor was like the commandery having no one in it. Yet the court of Han had no trouble and punishment was laid aside in Huaiyang, because Shen's virtue was ample and An's authority was weighty. If we reckon the authority and virtue of Heaven, which is the greater, it or Cao Shen and Ji An? Yet to say that Heaven gives a king his government and follows him with reproof and warning is to say that the virtue of Heaven is not as thick as Cao Shen's and its authority not as weighty as Ji An's. Qu Boyu governed Wei, and Zigong sent a man to ask him, "By what do you govern Wei?" He answered, "I govern it by not governing." Now the governing that does not govern is the way of doing nothing.

Someone says, "In the answer of the great peace, the Yellow River (河) put forth its chart and the Luo (洛) put forth its writing. What is not drawn is not finished, and what is not done is not made. Heaven and Earth put them forth, and this is proof of doing. Zhang Liang was wandering on the Si River and met the Yellow Stone Elder, who gave him the book of the Grand Duke. Surely Heaven was helping Han to cut down Qin, and so it commanded a holy stone to become a ghostly writing and give it to a man, and this again is evidence of doing."

I answer: all of this is being so of itself. How could Heaven make a chart and a writing with brush and ink? The way of Heaven is so of itself, and so the chart and the writing were made of themselves. When Tang Shuyu of Jin and Cheng Jiyou of Lu were born, there was writing on their hands, and so the younger was called "Yu" and Ji was called "You." When Zhongzi of Song was born, there was writing on her hand saying that she would be the lady of Lu. In the three of them the letters were made while they were in the mother's womb; and if it is said that Heaven made the letters, then while they were in the mother's womb did Heaven send a spirit to hold awl and brush and ink and carve them on their bodies? The transforming that is so of itself is from the root doubtful and hard to know: outwardly it looks like doing, but inwardly it is truly so of itself. This is why the Grand Historian, in recording the affair of the Yellow Stone, was doubtful and could not make it certain. Zhao Jianzi dreamed that he went up to Heaven and saw a man at the side of the Lord; later he went out and saw a man blocking the road, and it was the one he had seen before in his dream at the Lord's side. They discussed it and took it for a figure of the state of Zhao about to flourish. The Yellow Stone's giving of the book is likewise an image of Han about to rise. That a baleful breath becomes a ghost, and that a ghost takes the shape of a man, is the way of being so of itself; it is not that someone does it.

In the birth of plants and trees the flowers and leaves are green and thick and all have their bends and folds, taking the likeness of pattern and writing. If it is said that Heaven makes letters, does it make the flowers and leaves as well? A man of Song once carved wood into a paper mulberry leaf and took three years to finish it. Liezi said, "If Heaven and Earth took three years to make one leaf, then few among the ten thousand things would have leaves."

By the words of Liezi, the leaves of the ten thousand things are born of themselves. Because they are born of themselves, they can all be made at once. If Heaven did it, its slowness would be like the man of Song carving the paper mulberry leaf. Look at the hair and feathers of birds and beasts; could the colors of that hair and those feathers all be made!

Birds and beasts cannot all be made real. In spring we watch the birth of the ten thousand things, and in autumn we watch their ripening. Do Heaven and Earth do it? The things are so of themselves. If it is said that Heaven and Earth do it, then in doing it they ought to use hands; how could Heaven and Earth get ten million thousand hands to make ten million thousand things at once! That the many things are between Heaven and Earth is like a child being in the mother's womb. The mother holds the child's breath and bears it in ten months; do the nose, the mouth, the ears, the eyes, the hair and the skin, the grain of the hair, the blood vessels, the fat, the joints of the bone, the nails and the teeth come to be of themselves in the womb? Or does the mother make them? Why is it that a thousand or ten thousand wooden figures of men are not called men? Because their noses and mouths and ears and eyes are not so of themselves by nature. Emperor Wu favored Lady Li, and when Lady Li died he longed to see her form. A man of the Way made the lady's form by his arts, and the form was made and went in and out of the palace gate. Emperor Wu was greatly startled and stood up to meet her, and all at once she was seen no more. Surely it was not a truth that was so of itself but the clever and reckless counterfeit of a master of arts, and so it was seen once and then, faint and wavering, scattered and vanished. That a transforming of doing cannot go on for long is like the form of Lady Li not being able to be seen for long. When the school of the Way discusses being so of itself, it does not know how to draw in things and affairs to prove its words and deeds, and so the account of being so of itself has not been believed.

Yet though a thing is so of itself, it must also wait for the help of doing. To plow and weed with plow and plowshare and to sow the seed in keeping with the spring is what men do; but when the grain has gone into the ground and grows large night and day, men cannot do it. To do it is the road to spoiling it. There was a man of Song who was troubled that his sprouts did not grow, and he went and pulled them up, and the next day they withered and died. Now those who wish to do what is so of itself are of the company of the man of Song.

A question says, "Man is born of Heaven and Earth, and Heaven and Earth do nothing. A man who has received the nature of Heaven ought also to do nothing; why then is there doing?"

I answer: a man of utmost virtue, pure and thick, has received much of the breath of Heaven, and so he can take Heaven for his model and be so of himself and do nothing. One who has received the breath thin and scant does not follow the Way and its virtue and is not like Heaven and Earth, and so he is called unworthy. To be unworthy is to be unlike. Not being like Heaven and Earth and not being of a kind with sages and worthies, he does. Heaven and Earth are the furnace and the transforming power is the workman; the receiving of breath is not one and the same, so how could all be worthy! The pure ones among the worthy are Huang and Lao. Huang is the Yellow Emperor, and Lao is Laozi. The principles of Huang and Lao were that within the body they were calm and still and that their governing did nothing. They made their bodies straight and held themselves in reverence, and the yin and the yang were in harmony of themselves; they had no mind for doing, and things were transformed of themselves; they had no thought of bearing, and things were made of themselves.

The Yi says, "The Yellow Emperor, Yao and Shun let their robes hang down and all under Heaven was governed." To let the robes hang down is to fold the hands and do nothing. Confucius said, "Great was Yao as a ruler! Heaven alone is great, and Yao alone took it for his model." He said again, "Lofty were Shun and Yu in holding all under Heaven! And they took no part in it." The Duke of Zhou said, "The Lord on High led them to ease."

The Lord on High here means Yu Shun. Yu Shun carried on the peace and continued the rule; he charged the worthy and employed the able, held himself in reverence and did nothing, and all under Heaven was governed. Yu Shun carried on the peace of Yao, and Yao took Heaven for his model and acted by it and did not work up merit or seek a name, and the transforming that does nothing was made of itself; and so it is said, "Vast was he, and the people could give him no name."

A man of fifty struck the clod on the road and could not know the virtue of Yao, and surely this is the transforming that is so of itself. The Yi says, "The great man joins his virtue with Heaven and Earth."

The Yellow Emperor, Yao and Shun were great men, and their virtue joined with Heaven and Earth, and so we know that they did nothing. The way of Heaven does nothing, and so it does not set out to bear in the spring, nor to grow things in the summer, nor to ripen them in the autumn, nor to store them in the winter. The breath of yang comes forth of itself and things are born and grow of themselves; the breath of yin rises of itself and things are made and stored of themselves. If you draw from a well and break open a pond and water the garden and the field, things also are born and grow; and when the rain comes pouring, of the stems and leaves and roots of things there is none that is not soaked. If you measure the wetting of a downpour, which is the greater, it or the drawing of a well and the breaking of a pond! Therefore the doing of doing nothing is great. From the root it does not seek merit, and so its merit stands; from the root it does not seek a name, and so its name is made. A rain that comes pouring is great in merit and name, yet Heaven and Earth do not do it: the breath is in harmony and the rain gathers of itself.

The Confucians say that the way of husband and wife takes its model from Heaven and Earth. They know that husband and wife model themselves on Heaven and Earth, but they do not know how to push out the way of husband and wife and discuss by it the nature of Heaven and Earth; they may be called deluded. Now Heaven covers above and Earth lies below; the breath below goes up and the breath above comes down, and the ten thousand things are born of themselves in between. At the time of that birth Heaven need take no further part, just as when a child is in the mother's womb the father cannot know it. Things are born of themselves and the child is made of itself; what part have Heaven and Earth and father and mother in knowing it! It is when the child is born that the way of man has the sense of teaching and admonishing. The way of Heaven does nothing and leaves things to their nature, and so we loose fish into the stream and let beasts go on the mountain, following the wants of their nature and their decree. Why do we not drive the fish to go up the hill or chase the beasts to go into the deep? Because it goes against and twists their nature and loses what is fitting for them. Now the hundred families are of the sort of fish and beasts. The highest virtue governs them as it would cook a small fish, and it holds the same principles as Heaven and Earth. Shang Yang changed the laws of Qin, wishing to work a merit that stood apart, and would not listen to the counsel of Zhao Liang, and so took upon himself the trouble of being torn apart by chariots; his virtue was thin and his wants were many, and ruler and minister hated and resented each other. The school of the Way is thick in virtue: those below suit those above, those above are at ease with those below, and pure and simple they do nothing. What need is there to reprove and warn again? Therefore it is said: the fitness of government is that ruler and minister forget each other in the rule, as fish forget each other in the water, as beasts forget each other in the woods, as men forget each other in the world. Therefore it is called Heaven. Confucius said to Yan Yuan, "My holding you in mind is a forgetting; your holding me in mind is a forgetting too."

If Confucius were the ruler and Yan Yuan the minister, even then there could be no reproof and warning; how much less if Laozi were the ruler and Wenzi the minister! Laozi and Wenzi are those who are like Heaven and Earth. Strong wine is sweet in taste, and those who drink it are drunk and take no notice of each other. Thin wine is sour and bitter, and guest and host knit their brows. Now to reprove and warn each other is proof of a thin way. To say that Heaven reproves and warns, is this to say that the virtue of Heaven is not the equal of strong wine!

Rites are the thinning of loyalty and good faith and the head of disorder. Men rebuke each other by rites, and so they reprove and warn each other. In the time of the Three Augusts those who sat were at ease and those who walked were unhurried; now they took themselves for horses and now they took themselves for oxen. Pure virtue was carried out and the people were simple, and a heart of cleverness and cunning had not yet taken shape and come to birth. At that time there were no calamities and strange events either, and had there been calamities and strange events they would not have been named reproof and warning. Why? Because the men of that time were foolish and did not know how to set each other straight and blame each other. In a late age, declining and weak, those above and those below called each other wrong, and calamities and strange events came from time to time, and so they made up the words about reproof and warning. Now the Heaven of today is the Heaven of old; it is not that the Heaven of old was thick and the Heaven of today is thin. The words about reproof and warning were born in the present because men measured and compared by their own hearts. Proclamations and oaths did not reach up to the Five Emperors; sworn covenants did not reach up to the Three Kings; the exchange of hostage sons did not reach up to the Five Hegemons. The thinner the virtue, the more good faith declines. When the heart is crooked and men act on it, they break their pledges and turn their backs on their teaching; when teaching and pledge are not carried out, they reprove and warn each other; and when reproof and warning do not mend them, they raise armies and destroy each other. Speaking from this, the words about reproof and warning are the talk of decline and disorder, and to say that Heaven above does it is surely why the thing is to be doubted.

Moreover, all who speak of reproof and warning prove it by the way of man. In the way of man a ruler reproves and warns his minister, and so Heaven above reproves and warns the ruler, and calamities and strange events are called reproof and warning. Now in the way of man a minister also remonstrates with his ruler; and if calamities and strange events are reproof and warning, then a king too ought at times to have the sense of remonstrating with Heaven above. Where is the evidence of it? If it is truly said that the virtue of Heaven is ample and men cannot remonstrate, then an ample virtue ought also to be dark and silent and ought not to reprove and warn. When Lord Wanshi's sons had a fault, he did not speak but faced his table and did not eat, and this is proof of the utmost amplitude. Now even an ample man can keep from speaking; is the virtue of august Heaven great, and yet it is said to reprove and warn! Now Heaven does nothing, and so it does not speak; calamities and changes come when their time arrives, and the breath does them of itself. Now Heaven and Earth cannot do, and they cannot know either. When there is cold in the belly and the belly aches, a man does not order it; the breath does it of itself. Now the space between Heaven and Earth is like the space of a man's back and belly. If it is said that Heaven makes calamities and changes, then of all the sorts of strange and odd events, small or great, thin or thick, are all of them what Heaven does? An ox bears a horse and a peach brings forth a plum; by the words of those who discuss it, does the spirit of Heaven go into the belly of the ox to become a horse, and take up the fruit of the plum and set it among the peaches? Lao said, "The Master said, 'I was not employed, and so I have skills.'" He said again, "I was lowly when young, and so I am able in many mean matters."

Men who are lowly and not used in great matters are as a kind rich in skills. Heaven is honored and noble and high and great; how could it compose calamities and changes to reprove and warn men? And that the flying color of the auspicious and the ill shows on the face is not what a man does; the color comes out of itself. Heaven and Earth are like a man's body, and the changing of the breath is like the flying color. A man cannot make the flying color; how could Heaven and Earth make the changing of the breath! If so, the showing of a change of breath is very likely so of itself. The change shows of itself and the color comes out of itself, and the school of divining and watching speaks from it.

Now the four doubts, cold and warmth, reproof and warning, change and movement, and the calling down of things, have all been discussed. Reproof and warning goes most against the way of Heaven, and so I discuss it again. I discuss it because it is hard to tell apart. The account fits the affairs of men and does not enter into the meaning of the Way; I follow the Way and do not follow affairs, and though this goes against the account of the Confucians, it fits the meaning of Huang and Lao.