Jiyao — Records of Apparitions紀妖篇

Duke Ling of Wei was about to go to Jin. He came to the bank of the Pu River, and in the night he heard someone playing a new music, and was pleased with it. He sent a man to ask about it, and all his attendants reported that they had heard nothing. He called Shi Juan and told him, "There is one who plays a new music. I sent a man to ask about it, and all my attendants report that they heard nothing. Its manner is like a ghost. Listen to it for me and write it down." Shi Juan said, "I will." So he sat quietly and stroked the zither and wrote it down. The next day he reported, "Your servant has got it, but has not yet made it his own. I ask to stay another night and practice it." Duke Ling said, "Good." So he stayed another night. The next day he had it by heart, and they left and went to Jin. Duke Ping of Jin feasted him on the terrace of Shiyi. When the wine was at its height Duke Ling rose and said, "There is a new music. I ask leave to have it played and shown to you." The duke said, "Good." Then he called Shi Juan and had him sit beside Shi Kuang, and he drew the zither to him and played it. Before it was finished Kuang laid his hand on it and stopped him and said, "This is the music of a fallen state. It may not be played to the end." Duke Ping said, "Where did this come out of?" Shi Kuang said, "This is the lewd music that Shi Yan made. He made the languid music together with King Zhou. When King Wu put King Zhou to death and hung him from the white banner, Shi Yan fled east and came to the Pu River and threw himself in. And so one who hears this music hears it surely on the Pu River. The state of the one who hears this music first is cut away. It may not be played to the end." Duke Ping said, "What I love is music. Let him play it to the end." Shi Juan played it through. Duke Ping said, "What is this music called?" Shi Kuang said, "This is what is called qingshang." The duke said, "Is qingshang indeed the saddest?" Shi Kuang said, "It is not equal to qingzhi." The duke said, "Can qingzhi be heard?" Shi Kuang said, "It cannot. Those who could hear qingzhi in old times were all rulers who had virtue and right. My lord's virtue is now thin, and it is not enough for hearing it." The duke said, "What I love is music. I wish to try to hear it." Shi Kuang could not refuse, and he took the zither and played. At the first playing sixteen black cranes came from the south and gathered on the ridge above the Lang gate; at the second playing they drew up in ranks; at the third they stretched their necks and cried, and spread their wings and danced. The notes met the sounds of gong and shang, and the sound pierced through to Heaven. Duke Ping was greatly delighted, and all who sat there were glad. Duke Ping raised his cup and rose and drank long life to Shi Kuang, and went back to his seat and asked, "Is there no music sadder than qingzhi?" Shi Kuang said, "It is not equal to qingjue." Duke Ping said, "Can qingjue be heard?" Shi Kuang said, "It cannot. Of old the Yellow Emperor gathered the ghosts and spirits on Mount Tai in the west. He rode a chariot of elephants and six black dragons; Bifang kept even with the axle, Chiyou was in front, the Wind Earl went ahead and swept, the Rain Master sprinkled the road, tigers and wolves were before him, ghosts and spirits behind him, insects and snakes lay flat on the ground, and white clouds covered them above. He gathered the ghosts and spirits in a great assembly, and then he made qingjue. My lord's virtue is now thin, and it is not enough for hearing it. If you hear it, I fear there will be ruin." Duke Ping said, "I am old, and what I love is music. I wish to hear it to the end." Shi Kuang could not refuse, and played it. At the first playing clouds rose from the northwest; at the second the wind came, and a great rain followed it, tearing the curtains, breaking the sacrificial vessels, and throwing down the tiles of the gallery, so that those who sat there scattered and ran. Duke Ping was afraid, and lay down in a room of the gallery. The state of Jin was greatly parched, and the land lay red for three years. And Duke Ping's own body fell into a bent sickness.

What does this mean? I say: this is the portent that, if the state of Duke Ling of Wei was not to be cut away, then Duke Ping of Jin was to fall ill, or the state was to suffer drought. Shi Kuang said, "The state of the one who hears this music first is cut away." The two states heard it first.

How do we know that the new music was not played by Shi Yan? I say: Shi Yan threw himself into the Pu River, his body rotted in the water, and his essential breath melted away in the mud. How could he play the zither again? Qu Yuan sank himself in the river. Qu Yuan was good at making writings, and Shi Yan was good at playing the zither. If Shi Yan can play the zither, then Qu Yuan can write again. Yang Ziyun made a lament for Qu Yuan; why did Qu Yuan not answer him? While Qu Yuan lived there was nothing in writing that he did not make; that he could not answer Yang Ziyun is because in death he became mud, his hands had already rotted, and he had nothing to write with. If Qu Yuan's hands rotted and he had nothing to write with, then Shi Yan's fingers gave way and he had nothing to play the zither with. Confucius was buried facing the Si River, and the Si River drew back in its course; and the world says that Confucius was divine and could turn back the Si River. Confucius loved to teach, just as Shi Yan loved to play the zither. If Shi Yan can play the zither in the Pu River, why can Confucius not teach beside the Si River?

Jian Zi of Zhao fell ill, and for five days he did not know men. The high officers were all afraid, and they called in Bian Que. Bian Que went in and looked at the illness and came out, and Dong Anyu asked him about it. Bian Que said, "The blood and the vessels are in order. What is there to wonder at? Of old Duke Mu of Qin was once like this, and on the seventh day he woke. On the day he woke he told Gongsun Zhi and Ziyu, 'I went to the place of the Lord on High, and it was very joyful. What kept me so long is that there was something to learn there. The Lord told me that the state of Jin would fall into great disorder, that for five generations it would not be at peace, that after this there would be a hegemon who would die before he was old, and that the hegemon's son would let the men and women of your state be without distinction.' Gongsun Zhi wrote it down and hid it in a box. Then came the disorder of Duke Xian of Jin, and the hegemony of Duke Wen, and Duke Xiang's defeating the army of Qin at Xiao and giving himself up to lewdness on his return. This is what you have heard. Now my lord's illness is the same as that. Before three days are out the illness will surely ease, and when it eases he will surely have words to say."

Two days and a half passed, and Jian Zi woke and told the high officers, "I went to the place of the Lord on High, and it was very joyful. I roamed with all the spirits in Juntian. Broad music was played nine times and the ten thousand dances were danced; it was not like the music of the three dynasties, and its sound moved men's hearts. A bear wanted to seize me, and the Lord commanded me to shoot it, and I hit the bear and the bear died. A brown bear came, and I shot it too and hit the brown bear, and the brown bear died. The Lord was greatly pleased and gave me two caskets, and each had something belonging with it. I saw a boy at the Lord's side, and the Lord put a Di dog in my charge and said, 'When your son is grown, give it to him.' The Lord told me, 'The state of Jin will decline and in seven generations will perish. The Ying clan will greatly defeat the men of Zhou west of Fankui, and yet they will not be able to hold it. Now I shall think of the merit of Yu Shun, and I shall match his descendant, the woman Meng Yao, with your seventh-generation grandson.'"

Dong Anyu took the words and wrote them down and hid them, and he told Jian Zi what Bian Que had said, and Jian Zi gave Bian Que forty thousand mu of fields. On another day Jian Zi went out, and a man was standing in the road; he was driven off and would not go, and when the attendants were about to seize him, the man in the road said, "I have something to lay before my lord." The attendants reported it, and Jian Zi called him and said, "Ah! There is something I have seen; you are the one who was roaming there." The man in the road said, "Send your attendants away; I have something to lay before you." Jian Zi sent the men away. The man in the road said, "On those days when my lord was ill, your servant was at the Lord's side." Jian Zi said, "So it was. Why did you see me?" The man in the road said, "The Lord had my lord shoot a bear and a brown bear, and both died." Jian Zi said, "What is that?" The man in the road said, "The state of Jin will have a great trouble, and my lord will be at the head of it. The Lord had my lord destroy two high ministers, and the bear and the brown bear are their forefathers." Jian Zi said, "The Lord gave me two caskets, and each had something belonging with it. What is that?" The man in the road said, "My lord's son will conquer two states among the Di, and both are of the Zi surname." Jian Zi said, "I saw a boy at the Lord's side, and the Lord put a Di dog in my charge and said, 'When your son is grown, give it to him.' Now what account is there for giving a boy a Di dog?" The man in the road said, "The boy is my lord's son. The Di dog is the forefather of Dai. My lord's son will surely hold Dai. And when it comes to my lord's later heirs, they will change the government and wear Hu dress, and will join two states among the Di to them." Jian Zi asked his surname, and would have taken him in with an office. The man in the road said, "Your servant is a man of the fields; I only bring the Lord's command." And with that he was seen no more.

What does this mean? I say: these are all portents. Their prognostics were all as the man in the road said, and so were the things seen before the Lord. The man in the road whom he saw was an uncanny man. Afterward the two high ministers of Jin, the Fan and the Zhonghang, made a rebellion, and Jian Zi attacked them, and Zhonghang Zhaozi and Fan Wenzi were defeated and fled to Qi.

In the beginning Jian Zi had Gubu Ziqing read the faces of his sons, and none was auspicious. When he came to Wuxu, the son of the Di woman, he held him to be noble. Jian Zi talked with him and thought him worthy. Jian Zi told his sons, "I have hidden a precious tally on Mount Chang. The one who finds it first will be rewarded." The sons all went up the mountain, and got nothing. Wuxu came back and said, "I have the tally." Jian Zi asked him, and Wuxu said, "From the top of Mount Chang one looks down on Dai. Dai can be taken." Jian Zi thought him worthy, and so he set aside the heir and made him heir. Jian Zi died and Wuxu took his place, and this was Xiangzi. When Xiangzi had been established, he lured the king of Dai to his death and joined his land to his own.

He also joined the land of the Zhi to his own. Later he took the Rong of Kongtong. Seven generations after Jian Zi came King Wuling, and Wu Guang brought in his daughter Wa Ying Meng Yao. After that King Wuling took Zhongshan and joined the land of the Hu to his own. In the nineteenth year of King Wuling he changed to Hu dress, and the people of the state followed him. All was as those words had said, and there was nothing that was not so. It is plain, then, that portents and auspicious signs appear in tokens, and that none of them are real things. I say: the first signs of good and ill are as if Heaven told them. How do we know that Heaven does not really tell them? By the man in the road having been at the Lord's side. Now those at the side of the Heavenly Lord are all noble spirits. He brought the Lord's command, and so he was Heaven's messenger. The messenger of a ruler of men has his carriage and horsemen complete; that the messenger of the Heavenly Lord should stand in the road alone is not his proper manner. The offices of Heaven are a hundred and twenty, and they are not different from those of the kings of the earth. The kings of the earth have their officers complete, modeled on the offices of Heaven, and take their institutions from them.

If the offices of Heaven and of earth are the same, then their messengers too should be alike. That the offices should be the same and the men different cannot be so.

How do we know that the Lord whom Jian Zi saw was not the real Lord? We know it by the prognostic of dreams. We know that towers and terraces, hills and mounds, are the images of office and rank. When a man dreams of going up a tower or a terrace, or of climbing a hill or a mound, he straightway gets office and rank. Since towers and terraces and hills and mounds are really not office and rank, we know that the Lord whom Jian Zi saw in his dream was not the Heavenly Lord. When a subject dreams that he goes out to his ruler, the ruler has surely not seen him, and has surely given him nothing. Judging by the dream of a subject, we know that the Lord who gave the two caskets and the Di dog was not the Heavenly Lord. If he was not the Heavenly Lord, then his roaming with all the ghosts in Juntian was not Heaven. Shusun Muzi of Lu dreamed that Heaven pressed down on him; if this were truly so, then Heaven had come down to the earth. If it came down to the earth, the towers and terraces would have held it off and it could not have reached him; and if it reached him, the towers and terraces should have been crushed. The towers and terraces were not crushed, and so Heaven did not come down to the earth. If it did not come down to the earth, it could not press down on him. If it could not press down on him, then what pressed down on him was not Heaven, but the image of Heaven. If the Heaven that pressed on Shusun Muzi in his dream was not Heaven, then we know that the Heaven in which Jian Zi of Zhao roamed was not Heaven.

Some say: men also have straight dreams. One sees Jia, and the next day he sees Jia; one dreams he sees the ruler, and the next day he sees the ruler. I say: so it is. Men have straight dreams, but straight dreams too are all images; it is only that the image is straight. How is this made plain? In a straight dream a man dreams he sees Jia and dreams he sees the ruler, and the next day he sees Jia and the ruler; this is straightness. But if you ask Jia and the ruler, Jia and the ruler saw nothing. Since Jia and the ruler saw nothing, the Jia and the ruler seen in the dream were things of like image. And if Jia and the ruler were things of like image, then we know that the Lord whom Jian Zi saw was a thing of like image with the Lord. Moreover, when a man dreams, those who read dreams call it the going of the soul. To dream of seeing the Lord is for the soul to go up to Heaven. Going up to Heaven is like going up a hill. When a man dreams of going up a hill, his feet climb the hill and his hands pull at the trees, and only then can he get up. In going up to Heaven there is nothing to hold to; how can he get up? Heaven is away from man by tens of thousands of li. A man travels a hundred li in a day. When the soul goes together with the body it still cannot be swift; how much less can the soul be quick when it goes alone! If the soul went as the body goes, then Jian Zi's going up to Heaven and coming down again should have taken some years before he woke; yet in seven days he woke. How swift was that term!

Now the soul is the essential breath, and the going of the essential breath is like that of cloud and smoke. Look at the going of cloud and smoke: it cannot be swift. And if the soul went like a flying bird, its going could not be swift. That a man sometimes flies in a dream is his flying by the soul, and that flying cannot be swifter than a bird's. What is swiftest of all in the breath of Heaven and earth is the whirlwind, and the rising of the whirlwind cannot last out one day. If the soul goes like a whirlwind, then its speed does not pass one day's going, and it too cannot reach Heaven. A man's dream of going up to Heaven is the space of one lying down; when he wakes he may still be up in Heaven and not yet have come down. It is as when a man dreams of traveling as far as Luoyang: on waking he would wake from Luoyang. How swift is the flying and racing of the spirit soul! If it is swift, it is surely not in its proper manner. And if it is surely not in its proper manner, then its going up to Heaven was not a real thing. If it was not a real thing, it was a portent or an auspicious sign. Now as for the man who stood in the road, Jian Zi in his illness saw him at the Lord's side, and afterward saw him standing in the road in the likeness of a man and speaking, and there was nothing to tell it from the time when they saw each other at the Lord's side. Speaking from this, it is plain that dreaming in sleep is a token of yin, and waking is a prognostic of yang.

Xiangzi of Zhao had been established. Zhi Bo grew more overbearing, and asked land of Han and of Wei, and Han and Wei gave it to him; he asked land of Zhao, and Zhao did not give it. Zhi Bo grew more angry, and at last he led Han and Wei and attacked Xiangzi of Zhao. Xiangzi was afraid, and fled and held Jinyang. Yuan Guo followed him and fell behind, and coming to the post station of Tuoping he saw three men. From the belt up they could be seen, and from the belt down they could not be seen. They gave Yuan Guo two joints of bamboo, which were not bored through, and said, "Give this to Wuxu of Zhao for us."

When he arrived he told Xiangzi. Xiangzi fasted three days and himself split the bamboo, and there was a writing in red that said, "Wuxu of Zhao, I am the Marquis Shanyang of Mount Huotai, a messenger of Heaven. On the day bingxu of the third month I shall have you destroy the house of Zhi; and you shall sacrifice to me in a hundred towns, and I shall give you the land of the Linhu." Xiangzi bowed twice and received the command of the spirit.

What does this mean? I say: this was likely the auspicious sign that Xiangzi was to win. The three states attacked Jinyang for more than a year, and led the water of the Fen to flood the city, and the city stood unflooded by three boards. Xiangzi was afraid, and sent his minister Zhang Mengtan to deal privately with Han and Wei, and Han and Wei joined in the plot with him, and in the end, on the day bingxu of the third month, they turned about and destroyed the house of Zhi and divided its land among them. It seems that the breath of portents and auspicious signs took the shape of men and called itself the spirit of Mount Huotai, just as the portent in the court of Xia took the shape of dragons and called itself the two lords of Bao, and the auspicious sign of Jian Zi of Zhao took the shape of a man and called itself the Lord's messenger. How do we know that it was not the spirit of Mount Huotai? I say: a great mountain is a body of the earth, as a man has bones and joints; how should bones and joints get a spirit? If a great mountain had a spirit, it should take the shape of a great mountain. Why? Men say that a ghost is the essence of a dead man, and that its image is like the shape he had alive. Now a great mountain is broad and long and not like a man, and yet its essence and spirit are no different from a man's. If it is no different from a man, then the ghost is like a man. And if the ghost is like a man, it is the breath of portents and auspicious signs.

In the thirty-sixth year of the First Emperor of Qin, Yinghuo held the Heart mansion, and a star fell and became a stone when it reached the earth, and the people cut into that stone, saying, "The First Emperor dies and the land is divided." The First Emperor heard of it and had the censor question them one by one, and none would own to it, and so he took all the households near the stone and put them to death, and then burned the stone. In autumn a messenger was passing by night through Pingshu in Huayin, coming from east of the pass, and a man held out a jade disk and barred the messenger's way and said, "Give this to the lord of Haochi for me." And then he said, "This year the Ancestral Dragon dies." The messenger asked him about it, and with that he was suddenly no longer to be seen, and he had left the jade disk and gone. The messenger brought the jade disk and reported all these words, and the First Emperor was silent a long while and said, "The ghosts of the hills know no more than one year's affairs. As for saying 'Ancestral Dragon,' that is the forefather of men." He had the keeper of the palace store look at the jade disk, and it was the disk he had sunk when he crossed the river on his journey in the twenty-eighth year. In the next year, the thirty-seventh, he dreamed that he fought with the god of the sea, and it was in the shape of a man.

What does this mean? I say: these are all portents that the First Emperor was about to die. The First Emperor dreamed that he fought with the god of the sea, and in his anger he went out on the sea and watched for the god and shot at great fish; from Langya as far as Mount Lao and Mount Cheng none was seen. When he came to Mount Zhifu, on his way back he saw a huge fish and shot one fish dead, and then went along the sea westward to the ford of Pingyuan and fell ill, and came to Shaqiu and died. At the time when the star fell, Yinghuo made the portent, and so the households near the stone cut a writing into that stone as though someone had made them do it, and the writing said "The First Emperor dies" as though someone had taught them. It is like the children's songs of the world, which are not made by the children but drawn out by the breath. In every rising of a portent, either it takes the likeness of a man and is a ghost, or it makes a man take the likeness of a ghost and sends him; in truth the two are one.

Chong'er, the prince of Jin, had lost his state, and lacked food on the road, and begged rice of a plowman, and the plowman held up a clod of earth and gave it to the prince. The prince was angry, and Jiu Fan said, "This is a lucky omen. Heaven is giving you land." Afterward the prince got his state and recovered his land, as Jiu Fan had said. Tian Dan of Qi held the city of Jimo, and wishing to deceive the army of Yan he said that a god of Heaven had come down to help him. One man came forward and said, "Can I be the god?" Tian Dan drew back and ran to him and bowed twice and served him, and in the end he had the word that a god had come down reach the army of Yan. The army of Yan believed that he had a god, and seeing besides the oxen with their markings of five colors, they believed and were afraid, and the army was broken and the soldiers fled. Tian Dan won at last and recovered the land that had been seized. This is a portent of a man taking the likeness of a ghost.

The messenger was passing Huayin, and a man held a jade disk and barred the road, and then left the disk and went. This was an uncanny ghost taking the shape of a man. Now sinking a jade disk in the river is to seek blessing. To give the disk back now is to show that the offering is not taken, and that the blessing cannot be got. The disk was in the likeness of the disk sunk before, and not the thing itself. How is this made plain? By this: when a ghost takes the likeness of a man and is seen, it is not a real man. When men see a ghost, it takes the likeness of a man who is alive; but if you go and ask the man who is alive, he did not see them. It is an uncanny breath like a man. And if the uncanny breath takes the shape of a man, then the things it brings and holds are not real things either. That the Ancestral Dragon dies means the First Emperor. The ancestor is the root of a man, and the dragon is the image of a ruler. If the man and the thing were only likenesses, then the disaster it spoke of was a likeness too.

In the year when the First Emperor of Qin died, the High Emperor of Han was the head of the post station at Sishang, and was taking convicts to Mount Li. Many of the convicts ran away on the road, and so he let go the convicts he was leading, and went on and did not return. He had been drinking, and in the night he was passing through a marsh, and he set one man in front, and the one in front came back and reported, "There is a great snake ahead barring the road. I ask that we turn back."

Gaozu was drunk, and said, "What does a stout man fear on his way!" Then he went forward and drew his sword and struck and cut the snake, and the snake was cut in two. The path was opened, and after going some li he was drunk and lay down. A man behind Gaozu came to the place of the snake, and an old woman was weeping there in the night, and the man said, "Why do you weep, old woman?" The old woman said, "A man has killed my son." The man said, "Why was your son killed?" The old woman said, "My son is the son of the White Emperor. He turned into a snake and barred the path. Now the son of the Red Emperor has cut him down, and so I weep."

The man took the old woman for one speaking uncanny words, and was about to beat her, and with that the old woman was suddenly no longer to be seen. What does this mean? I say: this was the auspicious sign that Gaozu, first rising, would prevail by his might. How is this made plain? By the old woman being suddenly no longer to be seen. If she was not seen she was not a man, and if she was not a man she was a ghostly portent.

Now if the old woman was not a man, we know that the snake he cut was not a snake. She said it was the son of the White Emperor; for what reason would he become a snake and bar the road at night? The snake is called the son of the White Emperor, and Gaozu the son of the Red Emperor; the son of the White Emperor became a snake, and the son of the Red Emperor became a man. The five Emperors are all spirits of Heaven, and their sons become now a snake, now a man. Man and snake are different things, and yet their being sons of Emperors is the same spirit; this is not the way of Heaven. And if the snake was the son of the White Emperor, then the old woman was the consort of the White Emperor! The consort of an Emperor should have her train before and behind complete, and the son of an Emperor should have his officers in full. Here one snake died on the path, and one old woman wept on the road. That he was the son of the White Emperor is plainly not real. Now what is not real is an image, and an image is a portent, and in a portent the things seen are none of them things, and what is not a thing is breath. The snake that Gaozu killed was not a snake. Then the snakes within the town and the snakes outside the town that fought when Duke Li of Zheng was about to enter Zheng were not snakes: Duke Li was about to enter Zheng, and the uncanny breath took the shape of snakes and fought. If the fighting snakes of Zheng were not snakes, then we know that the two dragons in the court of Xia were the image of dragons. And if they were the image of dragons, then we know that the dragons that fought in the time of Zichan of Zheng were not dragons. The way of Heaven is hard to know: say it is not so, and it is a portent; say it is so, and it is a portent as well.

Zhang Liang, the Marquis of Liu, struck at the First Emperor of Qin with an iron mace and by mistake hit the attendant carriage. The First Emperor was greatly angered and sought out Zhang Liang. Zhang Liang changed his surname and his name and hid away at Xiapi, and he used to walk at his ease on the bridge at Xiapi. An old man in a coarse coat came to where Liang was, and dropped his shoe straight down under the bridge, and looked round at Zhang Liang and said, "Boy, go down and fetch the shoe." Liang was startled and would have struck him, but because he was old he forced himself to bear it, and went down and fetched the shoe, and then knelt and offered it to him. The old man took the shoe with his foot and laughed and went off. Liang was greatly astonished. The old man went about a li and came back again and said, "The boy can be taught. Five days from now at daybreak, meet me here." Liang thought it strange, and knelt and said, "I will." Five days later at daybreak Liang went, and the old man was already there before him, and said angrily, "You make an appointment with an old man and come late. Why? Go. Five days from now meet me early." Five days later he went again at cockcrow, and the old man was again there before him, and again said angrily, "Late? Why? Go, and five days from now come early again." Five days later Liang went before the night was half over, and after a while the old man came, and was pleased, and said, "So it should be." He brought out a book in one roll and said, "Read this and you will be the teacher of a king. Thirteen years from now you will see me in Jibei; the yellow stone at the foot of Mount Gucheng is I." Then he went, and said nothing more, and was not seen again. In the morning Liang looked at the book, and it was the Taigong bingfa. Liang thought it strange, and studied and read it.

What does this mean? I say: this was the omen that Gaozu was about to rise and that Zhang Liang would be his help. Liang lived at Xiapi and played the knight-errant, and in the tenth year Chen She and the rest rose, and the Duke of Pei took the land of Xiapi, and Liang followed him, and so became his teacher and general, and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liu. Thirteen years later he followed Gaozu past the border of Jibei, and got the yellow stone at the foot of Mount Gucheng, and took it and kept it as a treasure and sacrificed to it. When the Marquis of Liu died, the yellow stone was buried with him. It seems that the images of good and ill are divine, and the working of Heaven and earth is cunning. To make the old man take the likeness of the yellow stone, and the yellow stone take the likeness of the old man, how divine is that?

I ask: on looking into it, was the yellow stone the old man, and the old man the yellow stone? I say: a stone cannot become an old man, and an old man cannot become a yellow stone. The breath of portents and auspicious signs appeared, and so it was borne out. How is this made plain?

In the time of Duke Ping of Jin a stone spoke at Weiyu. Duke Ping asked Shi Kuang, "For what reason does a stone speak?" He answered, "A stone cannot speak. Something has fastened on it. If it is not that, the people's hearing is askew."

Now if a stone cannot speak the speech of men, then it cannot take the shape of a man either. The stone's speaking is no different from the stone that fell in Dong commandery in the time of the First Emperor, which the people cut into. Cutting makes a writing, and speaking makes words. Words and writing are one in substance. The people cut the writing, and the breath brought out the speech. The people and the breath are one in nature. Now if a stone cannot cut into itself, then it cannot speak either. And if it cannot speak, then it cannot become a man either. The Taigong bingfa was the breath taking the likeness of it. How do we know that it was not real? Since the old man was not a man, we know that the book was not Taigong's book either. If the breath takes the shape of a living man, then it can take the likeness of Taigong's book as well.

I ask: the breath has neither knife nor brush; with what does it make writing? I say: Zhongzi, the wife of Duke Hui of Lu, was born with writing on her palm that said, "She shall be the lady of Lu." Tang Shuyu of Jin had writing on his hand that said "Yu." Chengji You of Lu had writing on his hand that said "You." The writing of these three was the nature being so of itself; the old man's book was the breath forming of itself. The nature being so of itself, and the breath forming of itself, are no different from the children's songs speaking of themselves from the mouth. When children sing, they do not know where they got it, and their mouths speak of themselves. The mouth speaks of itself and the writing forms of itself, and something makes it so. Pushing on from this and looking at how Taigong fished and caught a huge fish, and cut the fish open and got a writing that said "Lü Shang is enfeoffed in Qi," and how King Wu got a white fish with writing under its throat that said "It is given to Fa," it seems that these are not empty. And going on from this to the Hetu and the Luoshu, which speak of shining and decline, of surviving and perishing, and of the meetings of emperors and kings, when one looks into it there is such writing, and all of it is the breath of portents and auspicious signs, the tokens of good and ill.