Jiechu — On Exorcism解除篇
世信祭祀，謂祭祀必有福。又然解除，謂解除必去凶。解除初禮，先設祭祀。比夫祭祀，若生人相賓客矣，先為賓客設膳食；已，驅以刃杖。鬼神如有知，必恚（止）〔與〕戰，不肯徑去，若懷恨反而為禍；如無所知，不能為凶，解之無益，不解無損。且人謂鬼神何如狀哉？如謂鬼有形象，形象生人，生人懷恨，必將害人。如無形象，與煙雲同，驅逐雲煙，亦不能除。形既不可知，心亦不可圖，鬼神集止人宅，欲何求乎？如勢欲殺人，當驅逐之時，避人隱匿，驅逐之止，則復還立故處。如不欲殺人，寄托人家，雖不驅逐，亦不為害。貴人之出也，萬民并觀，填街滿巷，爭進在前。士卒驅之，則走而卻，士卒還去，即復其處；士卒立守，終日不離，僅能禁止。何則？欲在於觀，不為壹軀還也。
The world believes in sacrifice and says that sacrifice surely brings blessing. It holds the same of the exorcism and says that the exorcism surely drives ill fortune away. The first rite of the exorcism is to set out a sacrifice. Set beside that sacrifice, it is like living men receiving one another as guests: first they set out food and drink for the guest, and when that is done they drive him off with blade and staff. If ghosts and spirits have knowledge, they will surely be angry and fight, and will not go straight off, but will hold their grudge and turn back and become a disaster. If they know nothing, they cannot become ill fortune, and to exorcise them is no gain and not to exorcise them is no loss. And what shape do men say ghosts and spirits have? If it is said that ghosts have a form, that form is a living man, and when a living man holds a grudge he will surely harm men. If they have no form and are the same as smoke and cloud, then driving off cloud and smoke cannot remove them either. Their shape cannot be known and their mind cannot be reckoned. When ghosts and spirits gather and stay in a man's house, what is it they seek? If their power means to kill men, then at the time of the driving out they would avoid men and hide, and when the driving out stopped they would come back and stand in the old place again. If they do not mean to kill men but lodge and depend on a man's house, then even if they are not driven out they still do no harm. When a great man goes out, the myriad people all watch, filling the streets and crowding the lanes, struggling forward to be in front. When the soldiers drive them they run and fall back, and when the soldiers go away they return at once to their place. Only if the soldiers stand guard and do not leave all day can they barely be stopped. Why is that? Their desire is in the watching, and one driving off does not send them home.
使鬼神與生人同，有欲於宅中，猶萬民有欲於觀也，士卒驅逐，不久立守，則觀者不卻也。然則驅逐鬼者，不極一歲，鬼神不去。今驅逐之，終食之間，則舍之矣。舍之鬼復還來，何以禁之！
Suppose ghosts and spirits were the same as living men and had a desire toward the house, as the myriad people have a desire to watch. Then though the soldiers drive them out, if they do not stand guard for long the watchers do not fall back. So one who drives out ghosts will not make the ghosts go unless he keeps at it for a whole year. Now the driving out is given up within the space of a meal, and once it is given up the ghosts come back again. With what will he stop them!
暴谷於庭，雞雀啄之，主人驅彈則走，縱之則來，不終日立守，雞雀不禁。使鬼神乎，不為驅逐去止；使鬼不神乎，與雞雀等，不常驅逐，不能禁也。虎狼入都，弓弩巡之，雖殺虎狼，不能除虎狼所為來之患。盜賊攻城，官軍擊之，雖卻盜賊，不能滅盜賊所為至之禍。虎狼之來，應政失也；盜賊之至，起世亂也。然則鬼神之集，為命絕也。殺虎狼，卻盜賊，不能使政得世治。然則盛解除，驅鬼神，不能使凶去而命延。
When grain is dried in the courtyard, chickens and sparrows peck at it. The master drives them and flicks at them and they run off; he lets them be and they come. Unless he stands guard all day he cannot stop the chickens and sparrows. If ghosts and spirits are divine, they do not go or stay for any driving. If ghosts are not divine, they are the same as chickens and sparrows, and unless they are driven out constantly they cannot be stopped. When tigers and wolves enter the capital, men patrol with bow and crossbow; but though they kill the tigers and wolves, they cannot remove the trouble that made the tigers and wolves come. When robbers attack a city, the government troops strike them; but though they drive the robbers back, they cannot wipe out the calamity that made the robbers arrive. The coming of tigers and wolves answers a failure of government. The arrival of robbers rises out of the disorder of the age. Then the gathering of ghosts and spirits is because a life is cut off. Killing tigers and wolves and driving robbers back cannot make government sound and the age well ruled. Then making the exorcism great and driving out ghosts and spirits cannot make ill fortune go and a life be lengthened.
病人困篤，見鬼之至，物猛剛者挺劍操杖，與鬼戰斗，戰斗壹再，錯指受服，知不服必不終也。夫解除所驅逐鬼，與病人所見鬼無以殊也，其驅逐之與戰斗無以異也。病人戰斗，鬼猶不去，宅主解除，鬼神必不離。由此言之，解除宅者，何益於事，信其凶去，不可用也。
When a sick man is worn out and gravely ill and sees a ghost arrive, one whose nature is fierce and hard draws his sword and takes up a staff and fights the ghost. After a round or two of fighting he crooks his fingers and takes its submission, and he knows that if it does not submit he will surely not last. Now the ghosts driven out in the exorcism are no different from the ghosts a sick man sees, and the driving of them is no different from fighting. The sick man fights and still the ghost does not go. The master of the house holds the exorcism and the ghosts and spirits surely do not leave. Speaking from this, what does it profit the matter to hold an exorcism for a house? To believe that its ill fortune goes cannot be relied on.
且夫所除，宅中客鬼也。宅中主神有十二焉，青龍白虎列十二位，龍虎猛神天之正鬼也，飛尸流凶安敢妄集，猶主人猛勇、奸客不敢窺也。有十二神舍之，宅主驅逐，名為去十二神之客，恨十二神之意，安能得吉？如無十二神，則亦無飛尸流凶，無神無凶，解除何補？驅逐何去？
And what is removed is the guest ghost within the house. Within the house there are twelve master spirits, and the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger are ranged over the twelve positions. The dragon and the tiger are fierce spirits, the true ghosts of Heaven. How would flying corpses and roving ill fortune dare gather there so rashly? It is like a master being fierce and brave, so that a crafty guest dares not spy on him. The twelve spirits are lodged there, and when the master of the house drives them out it amounts to removing the guests of the twelve spirits and setting the will of the twelve spirits against him. How can he win good fortune that way? And if there were no twelve spirits, there would be no flying corpses and roving ill fortune either. With no spirits and no ill fortune, what does the exorcism add and what does the driving out remove?
解除之法，緣古逐疫之禮也。昔顓頊氏有子三人，生而皆亡，一居江水為虐鬼，一居若水為魍魎，一居歐隅之間主疫病人。故歲終事畢，驅逐疫鬼，因以送陳、迎新、內吉也。世相仿效，故有解除。夫逐疫之法，亦禮之失也。行堯、舜之德，天下太平，百災消滅，雖不逐疫，疫鬼不往。行桀、紂之行，海內擾亂，百禍并起，雖日逐疫，疫鬼猶來。衰世好信鬼，愚人好求福。周之季世，信鬼修祀。以求福助。愚主心惑，不顧自行，功猶之立，治猶不定。故在人不在鬼，在德之在祀。國期有遠近，人命有長短，如祭祀可以得福，解除可以去凶，則王者可竭天下之財，以興延期之祀；富家翁嫗可求解除之福，以取逾世之壽。案天下人民，夭壽貴賤，皆有祿命，操行吉凶，皆有衰盛。祭祀不為福，福不由祭祀。世信鬼神，故好祭祀，祭祀無鬼神，故通人不務焉。祭祀，厚事鬼神之道也，猶無吉福之驗，況盛力用威，驅逐鬼神，其何利哉！
The method of the exorcism comes down from the old rite of driving out pestilence. Long ago Zhuanxu had three sons, and all of them died at birth. One dwelt in the Jiang River and became a cruel ghost. One dwelt in the Ruo River and became a wangliang. One dwelt among the corners and took charge of the pestilence that sickens men. So when the year ends and the work is finished, men drive out the pestilence ghosts, and by that they send off the old and welcome the new and bring good fortune in. The world copied one another, and so there is the exorcism. Now the method of driving out pestilence is also a failure of rite. Practice the virtue of Yao and Shun, and the world is at peace and the hundred disasters vanish; though pestilence is not driven out, the pestilence ghosts do not come. Practice the conduct of Jie and King Zhou, and all within the seas is troubled and disordered and the hundred calamities rise together; though pestilence is driven out day after day, the pestilence ghosts still come. A declining age loves to believe in ghosts, and a foolish man loves to seek blessing. In the last age of Zhou men believed in ghosts and kept up sacrifices to seek blessing and help. The foolish rulers were deluded in mind and did not look to their own conduct, so merit still did not stand and rule still was not settled. Therefore it lies in men and not in ghosts, in virtue and not in sacrifice. The term of a state has its distance and its nearness, and the life of a man has its length and its shortness. If sacrifice could win blessing and the exorcism could drive out ill fortune, then a king could exhaust the wealth of the world to raise sacrifices that lengthen his term, and the old man and the old woman of a rich house could seek the blessing of the exorcism and take a life span beyond their age. Look at the people of the world. In dying young and living long, in nobility and in meanness, all have their destiny and emolument, and in the good and ill fortune of their conduct all have their waning and their flourishing. Sacrifice does not make blessing, and blessing does not come by sacrifice. The world believes in ghosts and spirits and therefore loves sacrifice; there are no ghosts and spirits in sacrifice, and therefore the man who sees through it does not trouble with it. Sacrifice is the way of serving ghosts and spirits generously, and even it has no proof of good fortune. How much less profit is there in mustering force and using might to drive ghosts and spirits away!
祭祀之禮，解除之法，眾多非一，且以一事效其非也。夫小祀足以況大祭，一鬼足以卜百神。世間繕治宅舍，鑿地掘土，功成作畢，解謝土神，名曰解土。為土偶人，以像鬼形，令巫祝延以解土神。已祭之後，心快意喜，謂鬼神解謝，殃禍除去。如討論之，乃虛妄也。何以驗之？
The rites of sacrifice and the methods of the exorcism are many and not one, so for now one case is taken to prove them wrong. A small sacrifice is enough to stand for a great one, and one ghost is enough to divine the hundred spirits. In the world, when men repair and set a house in order, boring the ground and digging the earth, and the work is achieved and the task finished, they release and thank the spirit of the earth, and this is called the release of the earth. They make a figure of clay in the likeness of a ghost's form and have the shaman pray, so as to release the spirit of the earth. After the sacrifice their hearts are easy and their minds glad, and they say that the ghosts and spirits have been released and thanked and that calamity and disaster have been removed. If the thing is argued out, it is empty and false. How is this proved?
夫土地猶人之體也，普天之下皆為一體，頭足相去以萬里數。人民居土上，猶蚤虱著人身也。蚤虱食人，賊人肌膚，猶人鑿地，賊地之體也。蚤虱內知有欲解人之心，相與聚會，解謝於所食之肉旁，人能知之乎？夫人不能知蚤虱之音，猶地不能曉人民之言也。胡、越之人，耳口相類，心意相似，對口交耳而談，尚不相解；況人之與地相似，地之耳口有人相（達）〔遠〕乎？今所解者地乎，則地之耳遠，不能聞也。所解一宅之土，則一宅之土猶人一分之肉也，安能曉之！如所解宅神乎，則此名曰解宅，不名曰解土。禮入宗廟，無所主意，斬尺二寸之木，名之曰主，主心事之，不為人像。今解土之祭，為土偶人，像鬼之形，何能解乎？神荒忽無形，出入無門，故謂之神。今作形象，與禮相違，失神之實，故知其非。象似布藉，不設鬼形，解土之禮，立土偶人；如祭山可為石形，祭門戶可作木人乎？
Now the soil is like the body of a man. All under the whole of Heaven is one body, and head and foot are apart by a reckoning of ten thousand li. The people living on the soil are like fleas and lice clinging to a man's body. When fleas and lice eat a man and injure his skin and flesh, it is like a man boring the ground and injuring the body of the earth. If fleas and lice within them knew that a man had a mind to be released, and gathered together and released and thanked him beside the flesh they had eaten, could the man know it? A man cannot know the sound of fleas and lice, just as the earth cannot understand the speech of the people. The men of Hu and Yue have ears and mouths of like kind and hearts and minds alike, and yet with mouth to mouth and ear to ear they still do not understand each other. How much more when men and the earth are not alike, and the ears and mouth of the earth are far off from men. Now if what is released is the earth, the ears of the earth are far off and cannot hear. If what is released is the soil of one house, the soil of one house is like one part of a man's flesh, and how could it understand! If what is released is the spirit of the house, then this should be named the release of the house and not named the release of the earth. By rite, when men enter the ancestral temple and have nothing on which to fix their minds, they cut a piece of wood one foot two inches long and name it the tablet, and they serve it with their hearts and do not make a likeness of a man. Now in the sacrifice for releasing the earth they make a figure of clay in the likeness of a ghost's form. How can that release anything? A spirit is vague and without form and goes in and out without a door, and for that it is called a spirit. To make a form and likeness goes against the rite and loses the truth of the spirit, and so we know it is wrong. The likeness is like a spread mat, and no ghost's form is set out; yet the rite of releasing the earth sets up a figure of clay. If a mountain is sacrificed to, may a form of stone be made? If gate and door are sacrificed to, may a man of wood be made?
晉中行寅將亡，召其太祝欲加罪焉，曰：「子為我祀，犧牲不肥澤也，且齊戒不敬也，使吾國亡，何也？」
When Zhonghang Yin of Jin was about to fall, he summoned his Grand Invocator, meaning to lay a crime on him, and said, "You sacrifice on my behalf, and the victims are not fat and sleek, and your fasting and cleansing are not reverent, and you have made my state fall. Why is that?"
祝簡對曰：「昔日吾先君中行密子，有車十乘，不憂其薄也，憂德義之不足也。今主君有革車百乘，不憂義之薄也，唯患車之不足也。夫船車飭則賦斂厚，賦斂厚則民謗詛。君苟以祀為有益於國乎？詛亦將為亡矣。一人祝之，一國詛之，一祝不勝萬詛，國亡不亦宜乎？祝其何罪？」
The invocator Jian answered, "In the old days our former lord Zhonghang Mizi had ten chariots, and he did not worry that they were few; he worried that his virtue and his right were not enough. Now my lord has a hundred leather war chariots, and he does not worry that his right is thin; he worries only that his chariots are not enough. When boats and chariots are decked out the levies are heavy, and when the levies are heavy the people slander and curse. Does my lord truly hold that sacrifice profits the state? Then the cursing too will bring it down. One man prays and a whole state curses, and one prayer does not overcome ten thousand curses. Is it not fitting that the state should fall? What crime is there in the invocator?"
中行子乃慚。今世信祭祀，中行子之類也。不修其行而丰其祝，不敬其上而畏其鬼。身死禍至，歸之於祟，謂祟未得；得祟修祀，禍繁不止，歸之於祭，謂祭未敬。夫論解除，解除無益；論祭祀，祭祀無補；論巫祝，巫祝無力。竟在人不在鬼，在德不在祀，明矣哉！
Zhonghang Zi was then ashamed. The world's belief in sacrifice today is of the kind of Zhonghang Zi. Men do not cultivate their conduct but make their prayers rich; they do not revere those above them but fear the ghosts. When their bodies die and calamity arrives they lay it to a curse and say the curse has not been found; and when the curse is found and sacrifices are kept up and calamity still crowds on without stopping, they lay it to the sacrifice and say the sacrifice was not reverent. Argue out the exorcism, and the exorcism is no gain. Argue out sacrifice, and sacrifice adds nothing. Argue out the shamans, and the shamans have no power. In the end it lies in men and not in ghosts, in virtue and not in sacrifice. How clear it is!