Jiri — Censuring the Choice of Days譏日篇
世俗既信歲時，而又信日。舉事若病死災患，大則謂之犯觸歲月，小則謂之不避日禁。歲月之傳既用，日禁之書亦行。世俗之人，委心信之，辯論之士，亦不能定。是以世人舉事，不考於心而合於日，不參於義而致於時。時日之書，眾多非一，略舉較著，明其是非，使信天時之人，將一疑而倍之。夫禍福隨盛衰而至，代謝而然。舉事曰凶，人畏凶有效；曰吉，人冀吉有驗。禍福自至，則述前之吉凶以相戒懼：此日禁所以累世不疑，惑者所以連年不悟也。
The common world already believes in the Year and the season, and it believes in the day as well. If in taking up an affair there is sickness, death, disaster or trouble, in a great matter they say that the Year and the Month were offended and struck against, and in a small matter they say that the forbidding of the day was not avoided. What is handed down about the Year and the Month is already in use, and the books of the forbidding of days are current too. The men of the common world commit their minds to it and believe it, and even the scholars who argue and discuss cannot settle it. So when the men of the world take up an affair they do not examine it in their minds but fit it to the day, and they do not join it to what is right but bring it to the hour. The books of hours and days are many and not one, so here the plainest of them are briefly taken up and their right and wrong made clear, that the man who believes in the times of Heaven may doubt once and turn away from them. Now ill fortune and good fortune arrive as flourishing and decay arrive, and they come by turns. If it is said that taking up an affair is unlucky, a man fears that the ill will prove true. If it is said to be lucky, he hopes that the good will be borne out. When ill and good fortune come of themselves, men tell over the lucky and unlucky days that went before, and warn and frighten one another. This is why the forbidding of days is not doubted for generations, and why those who are deluded go year after year without waking.
《葬歷》曰：「葬避九空地及日之剛柔、月之奇耦。日吉無害，剛柔相得，奇耦相應，乃為吉良。不合此歷，轉為凶惡。」
The Zang li says, "In burial avoid the ground of the nine voids, and the hard and the soft of the day, and the odd and the even of the month. When the day is lucky and does no harm, when the hard and the soft match each other and the odd and the even answer each other, then it is lucky and good. What does not fit this calendar turns to ill and evil."
夫葬，藏棺也；斂，藏尸也。初死藏尸於棺，少久藏棺於墓。墓與棺何別？斂與葬何異？斂於棺不避凶，葬於墓獨求吉。如以墓為重，夫墓，土也，棺，木也，五行之性，木土鈞也。治木以贏尸，穿土以埋棺，治與穿同事，尸與棺一實也。如以穿土賊地之體，鑿溝耕園，亦宜擇日。世人能異其事，吾將聽其禁；不能異其事，吾不從其諱。日之不害，又求日之剛柔；剛柔既合，又索月之奇耦。夫日之剛柔，月之奇耦，合於《葬歷》，驗之於吉，無不相得。何以明之？春秋之時，天子、諸侯、卿、大夫死以千百數，案其葬日，未必合於歷。
Now burial is the hiding of the coffin, and the laying out is the hiding of the corpse. At first death the corpse is hidden in the coffin, and a little later the coffin is hidden in the grave. What is the difference between the grave and the coffin? What is the difference between the laying out and the burial? In laying out in the coffin the unlucky is not avoided, yet in burying in the grave alone the lucky is sought. If the grave is held the weightier, then the grave is earth and the coffin is wood, and in the nature of the five elements wood and earth are even. Wood is worked to hold the corpse and earth is pierced to bury the coffin, so the working and the piercing are the same affair, and the corpse and the coffin are one and the same thing. If the piercing of earth harms the body of the ground, then in cutting a ditch and plowing a garden the day ought also to be chosen. If the men of the world can make those affairs different, I will listen to their forbidding. If they cannot make those affairs different, I do not follow their taboo. The day does no harm, and still the hard and the soft of the day are sought. The hard and the soft already match, and still the odd and the even of the month are searched out. Now if the hard and the soft of the day and the odd and the even of the month fit the Zang li, and are borne out in what is lucky, then nothing would fail to match. How is this made clear? In the time of the Chunqiu the deaths of the Son of Heaven, the feudal lords, the ministers and the great officers are counted by hundreds and thousands, and when the days of their burial are examined they did not always fit the calendar.
又曰：「雨不克葬，庚寅日中乃葬。」
It says also, "Rain kept them from burying, and on the day gengyin, at midday, they buried."
假令魯小君以剛日死，至葬日己丑，剛柔等矣。剛柔合，善日也。不克葬者，避雨也。如善日，不當以雨之故，廢而不用也。何則？雨不便事耳。不用剛柔，重凶不吉，欲便事而犯凶，非魯人之意，臣子重慎之義也。今廢剛柔，待庚寅日中，以為吉也。《禮》：「天子七月而葬，諸侯五月，卿、大夫、士三月。」
Suppose the lesser lady of Lu died on a hard day, and when the day of burial came it was jichou: then the hard and the soft are matched. The hard and the soft fitting, it is a good day. That they could not bury was because they were avoiding the rain. If it was a good day, they ought not to have set it aside and left it unused because of rain. Why so? Rain is only an inconvenience to the affair. Not to use the hard and the soft makes the ill heavy and not lucky, and to wish to make the affair convenient and so run against the ill was not the intent of the men of Lu, nor the sense in which a subject is grave and careful. Yet they set aside the hard and the soft and waited for midday on the day gengyin, and held it lucky. The Li says, "The Son of Heaven is buried in the seventh month, the feudal lords in the fifth, and the ministers, the great officers and the officers in the third."
假令天子正月崩，七月葬；二月崩，八月葬。諸侯、卿、大夫、士皆然。如驗之《葬歷》，則天子、諸侯葬月常奇常耦也。衰世好信禁，不肖君好求福。春秋之時，可謂衰矣；隱、哀之間，不肖甚矣。然而葬埋之日，不見所諱，無忌之故也。周文之世，法度備具，孔子意密，《春秋》義纖，如廢吉得凶，妄舉觸禍，宜有微文小義貶譏之辭。今不見其義，無《葬歷》法也。
Suppose the Son of Heaven dies in the first month: he is buried in the seventh. He dies in the second month: he is buried in the eighth. It is so for the feudal lords, the ministers, the great officers and the officers alike. If this is tried against the Zang li, then the month of burial for the Son of Heaven and the feudal lords would always be odd or always be even. An age in decay loves to believe in forbidding, and an unworthy ruler loves to seek good fortune. The time of the Chunqiu may be called a time of decay, and between Duke Yin and Duke Ai the unworthiness was deep. Yet in the days of burying and interring nothing shunned is seen, because there was no such taboo. In the age of the refinement of Zhou the laws and measures were fully provided, the intent of Confucius was close, and the sense of the Chunqiu was fine. Had the lucky been set aside and the ill obtained, and had men taken up affairs recklessly and struck against disaster, there ought to be some slight word and small sense that cuts at them and reproaches them. Now that sense is not seen, and so there was no law of the Zang li.
祭祀之歷，亦有吉凶。假令血忌月殺之日固凶，以殺牲設祭，必有患禍。夫祭者，供食鬼也；鬼者，死人之精也。若非死人之精，人未嘗見鬼之飲食也。推生事死，推人事鬼，見生人有飲食，死為鬼，當能復飲食，感物思親，故祭祀也。及他神百鬼之祠，雖非死人，其事之禮亦與死人同，蓋以不見其形，但以生人之禮准況之也。生人飲食無日，鬼神何故有日？如鬼神審有知，與人無異，則祭不宜擇日。如無知也，不能飲食，雖擇日避忌，其何補益？實者，百祀無鬼，死人無知。百祀報功，示不忘德。死如事生，示不背亡。祭之無福，不祭無禍。祭與不祭，尚無禍福，況日之吉凶，何能損益？
The calendars of sacrifice also have their lucky and unlucky. Suppose the days of the blood taboo and the month killer are unlucky of themselves, so that killing a victim and setting out a sacrifice on them must bring trouble and disaster. Now sacrifice is the offering of food to the ghosts, and a ghost is the essence of a dead man. If it were not the essence of a dead man, then no one has ever seen a ghost drink and eat. Men reason from the living to serve the dead, and from men to serve the ghosts. Seeing that living men drink and eat, they hold that one who dies and becomes a ghost must be able to drink and eat again, and being moved by things and thinking of their parents they sacrifice. As for the shrines of the other spirits and the hundred ghosts, though these are not dead men the rites of serving them are the same as for dead men, because their shapes are not seen and they are measured and likened only by the rites of living men. Living men have no day for drinking and eating. For what reason do ghosts and spirits have days? If ghosts and spirits truly have knowledge and are no different from men, then in sacrifice the day ought not to be chosen. If they have no knowledge and cannot drink and eat, then though the day be chosen and the taboo avoided, what good does it do? The truth is that in the hundred sacrifices there are no ghosts, and the dead have no knowledge. The hundred sacrifices repay merit and show that virtue is not forgotten. To serve the dead as the living are served shows that the departed are not turned away from. Sacrificing brings no good fortune, and not sacrificing brings no disaster. If sacrificing and not sacrificing bring neither disaster nor good fortune, how much less can the luck or ill of a day take away or add?
如以殺牲見血，避血忌月殺，則生人食六畜亦宜辟之。海內屠肆，六畜死者日數千頭，不擇吉凶，早死者未必屠工也。天下死罪，各月斷囚亦數千人，其刑於市，不擇吉日，受禍者未必獄吏也。肉盡殺牲，獄具斷囚。囚斷牲殺，創血之實，何以異於祭祀之牲？獨為祭祀設歷，不為屠工、獄吏立見，世俗用意不實類也。祭非其鬼，又信非其諱，持二非往求一福，不能得也。
If, because killing a victim shows blood, the blood taboo and the month killer are to be avoided, then living men eating the six domestic animals ought to avoid them too. In the butchers' stalls within the seas the six domestic animals that die number some thousands of head a day, and no choice of lucky or unlucky is made, yet those who die early are not always butchers. Of the capital crimes under Heaven the prisoners cut off month by month number some thousands of men, and when they are punished in the market no lucky day is chosen, yet those who meet disaster are not always the prison clerks. When the meat runs out a victim is killed, and when the case is complete the prisoner is cut off. In the cutting off of a prisoner and the killing of a victim, what in the truth of wound and blood is different from the victim of a sacrifice? Yet a calendar is set out for sacrifice alone, and no such likeness is set up for the butcher and the prison clerk. This is the common world using its mind and not making its kinds real. They sacrifice to what is not their ghost, and they believe in what is not their taboo, and holding two wrongs they go to seek one good fortune, and cannot get it.
《沐書》曰：「子日沐，令人愛之。卯日沐，令人白頭。」
The Mu shu says, "Wash the hair on the day zi, and it makes men love him. Wash the hair on the day mao, and it makes a man's head white."
夫人之所愛憎，在容貌之好丑；頭髪白黑，在年歲之稚老。使丑如嫫母，以子日沐，能得愛乎？使十五女子以卯日沐，能白髪乎？且沐者去首垢也，洗去足垢，盥去手垢，浴去身垢，皆去一形之垢，其實等也。洗盥浴不擇日，而沐獨有日。如以首為最尊，（尊）則浴亦治面，面亦首也。如以髪為最尊，則櫛亦宜擇日。櫛用木，沐用水，水與木，俱五行也。用木不避忌，用水獨擇日。如以水尊於木，則諸用水者宜皆擇日。
Now what men love and hate lies in the beauty or ugliness of the face, and the white or black of the hair lies in the youth or age of the years. If one as ugly as Mo Mu washes her hair on the day zi, can she get love? If a girl of fifteen washes her hair on the day mao, can her hair turn white? Further, washing the hair takes away the dirt of the head, as washing takes away the dirt of the feet, the basin takes away the dirt of the hands, and bathing takes away the dirt of the body. All of them take away the dirt of one body, and in truth they are the same. For washing, for the basin and for bathing no day is chosen, yet washing the hair alone has its day. If the head is held the most honored, then bathing also orders the face, and the face too is the head. If the hair is held the most honored, then combing also ought to have its day chosen. Combing uses wood and washing the hair uses water, and water and wood are both of the five elements. In using wood no taboo is avoided, and in using water alone the day is chosen. If water is held more honored than wood, then all who use water ought to choose the day.
且水不若火尊，如必以尊卑，則用火者宜皆擇日。且使子沐人愛之，卯沐其首白者，誰也？夫子之性，水也；卯，木也。水不可受，木色不白。子之禽鼠，卯之獸兔也。鼠不可愛，兔毛不白。以子日沐，誰使可愛？卯日沐，誰使凝白者？夫如是，沐之日無吉凶，為沐立日歷者，不可用也。
Further, water is not as honored as fire, and if honor and lowness must decide it, then all who use fire ought to choose the day. And who is it that makes washing the hair on the day zi bring love, and washing it on the day mao turn the head white? Now the nature of zi is water, and mao is wood. Water cannot be received, and the color of wood is not white. The creature of zi is the rat, and the beast of mao is the hare. A rat cannot be loved, and the hare's fur is not white. When the hair is washed on the day zi, who makes it lovable? When it is washed on the day mao, who makes it set and turn white? If this is so, there is no luck or ill in the day of washing the hair, and the man who set up a calendar of days for washing the hair cannot be used.
裁衣有書，書有吉凶，凶日制衣則有禍，吉日則有福。夫衣與食俱輔人體，食輔其內，衣衛其外。飲食不擇日，制衣避忌日，豈以衣為於其身重哉？人道所重，莫如食急，故八政一曰食，二曰貨。衣服、貨也。如以加之於形為尊重，在身之物莫大於冠，造冠無禁，裁衣有忌，是於尊者略，卑者詳也。且夫沐去頭垢，冠為首飾；浴除身垢，衣衛體寒。沐有忌，冠無諱；浴無吉凶，衣有利害。俱為一體，共為一身，或善或惡，所諱不均，欲人淺知，不能實也。且衣服不如車馬。
There is a book for cutting cloth, and in the book there is luck and ill, so that clothes made on an unlucky day bring disaster and clothes made on a lucky day bring good fortune. Now clothing and food both help the body of a man: food helps him within and clothing guards him without. In drinking and eating no day is chosen, and in making clothes the days that are shunned are avoided. Is clothing then held the weightier for the body? In the way of man nothing weighty is as urgent as food, and so among the eight policies the first is food and the second is goods. Clothing is goods. If what is put upon the shape is held honored and weighty, then of the things on the body nothing is greater than the cap. Yet in making a cap there is no forbidding, and in cutting clothes there is a taboo. This is to be brief about the honored and detailed about the low. Further, washing the hair takes away the dirt of the head and the cap is the adornment of the head, and bathing removes the dirt of the body and clothing guards the body from cold. Washing the hair has its taboo and the cap has none. Bathing has no luck or ill and clothing has its gain and harm. They are all of one body and together make one person, yet some are good and some are bad, and what is shunned is not even. This looks to the shallow knowledge of men and cannot be made real. Further, clothing is not as much as the chariot and horses.
九錫之禮，一曰車馬，二曰衣服。作車不求良辰，裁衣獨求吉日，俗人所重，失輕重之實也。
In the rite of the nine gifts the first is the chariot and horses and the second is clothing. In making a chariot no good hour is sought, and in cutting clothes alone a lucky day is sought. What the common man holds weighty has lost the truth of light and weighty.
工伎之書，起宅蓋屋必擇日。夫屋覆人形，宅居人體，何害於歲月而必擇之？如以障蔽人身者神惡之，則夫裝車、治船、著蓋、施帽，亦當擇日。如以動地穿土神惡之，則夫鑿溝耕園亦宜擇日。夫動土擾地神，地神能原人無有惡意，但欲居身自安，則神之聖心，必不忿怒。不忿怒，雖不擇日，猶無禍也。如土地之神不能原人之意，苟惡人動擾之，則雖擇日何益哉？王法禁殺傷人，殺傷人皆伏其罪，雖擇日犯法，終不免罪；如不禁也，雖妄殺傷，終不入法。縣官之法，猶鬼神之制也。穿鑿之過，猶殺傷之罪也。人殺傷不在擇日，繕治室宅何故有忌？
In the books of the crafts, in raising a house and roofing it a day must be chosen. Now the roof covers the shape of a man and the house gives his body its dwelling. What harm do they do to the Year and the Month, that a day must be chosen? If the spirits hate what screens and covers the body of a man, then in fitting a chariot, ordering a boat, putting on a cover and wearing a cap a day ought also to be chosen. If the spirits hate the stirring of the ground and the piercing of earth, then in cutting a ditch and plowing a garden a day ought also to be chosen. Now if, when the earth is stirred and the spirit of the ground is troubled, the spirit of the ground can allow that a man has no evil intent and only wishes to set his body somewhere and be at ease, then the sagely mind of the spirit will surely not be angry. If it is not angry, then though no day be chosen there is still no disaster. And if the spirit of the land cannot allow for a man's intent, and hates it however a man stirs and troubles it, then though a day be chosen, what is the gain? The law of the king forbids killing and wounding a man, and those who kill and wound a man all bow to their guilt. Though a man choose a day and then break the law, in the end he does not escape guilt. And if it were not forbidden, then though he killed and wounded recklessly he would in the end not fall under the law. The law of the district officer is like the rule of the ghosts and spirits, and the fault of piercing is like the guilt of killing and wounding. Since a man's killing and wounding does not lie in the choosing of a day, for what reason is there a taboo in mending and ordering a house?
又學書諱丙日，云倉頡以丙日死也。禮不以子卯舉樂，殷、夏以子卯日亡也。如以丙日書，子卯日舉樂，未必有禍，重先王之亡日，淒愴感動，不忍以舉事也。忌日之法，蓋丙與子卯之類也，殆有所諱，未必有凶禍也。堪輿歷，歷上諸神非一，聖人不言，諸子不傳，殆無其實。天道難知，假令有之，諸神用事之日也，忌之何福？不諱何禍？王者以甲子之日舉事，民亦用之，王者聞之，不刑法也。夫王者不怒民不與己相避，夫神何為獨當責之？
Again, in learning to write the day bing is shunned, and it is said that Cang Jie died on the day bing. The Li does not raise music on the days zi and mao, because the Yin and the Xia fell on the days zi and mao. Writing on the day bing and raising music on the days zi and mao do not always bring disaster. It is that men hold the day of a former king's fall to be weighty, and feeling it bitterly and being stirred they cannot bear to take up affairs. The law of the days that are shunned is likely of the kind of bing and of zi and mao. There is something shunned, but there is not always ill disaster. As for the Kanyu calendar, the many spirits upon that calendar are not one, and the sage did not speak of them and the masters did not hand them down, so it is likely there is no truth in them. The way of Heaven is hard to know. Suppose there were such spirits: these would be the days on which the several spirits take charge of affairs, and what good fortune is there in shunning them, and what disaster in not shunning them? When a king takes up an affair on the day jiazi, the people use that day too, and when the king hears of it he does not punish them by law. Now if a king is not angry that the people do not keep out of his way, why should a spirit alone find fault with them?
王法舉事以人事之可否，不問日之吉凶。孔子曰：「卜其宅兆而安厝之。」《春秋》祭祀不言卜日。《禮》曰：「內事以柔日，外事以剛日。」剛柔以慎內外，不論吉凶以為禍福。
The law of the king takes up an affair by whether the affair of men may be done or not, and does not ask the luck or ill of the day. Confucius said, "Divine for his dwelling place and his grave mound, and lay him there in peace." The Chunqiu does not speak of divining the day for sacrifice. The Li says, "Inner affairs use the soft days and outer affairs use the hard days." The hard and the soft are for taking care of what is inner and what is outer. They are not discussed as lucky or ill and made into disaster and good fortune.