Chengxiang — Working Songs成相篇
請成相，世之殃，愚闇愚闇墮賢良。人主無賢，如瞽無相何倀倀！請布基，慎聖人，愚而自專事不治。主忌苟勝，羣臣莫諫必逢災。論臣過，反其施，尊主安國尚賢義。拒諫飾非，愚而上同國必禍。曷謂罷？國多私，比周還主黨與施。遠賢近讒，忠臣蔽塞主埶移。曷謂賢？明君臣，上能尊主下愛民。主誠聽之，天下爲一海內賓。主之孼，讒人達，賢能遁逃國乃蹙。愚以重愚，闇以重闇成爲桀。世之災，妬賢能，飛廉知政任惡來。卑其志意，大其園圃高其臺。武王怒師牧野，紂卒易鄉啓乃下。武王善之，封之於宋立其祖。世之衰，讒人歸，比干見刳箕子累。武王誅之，呂尚招麾殷民懷。世之禍，惡賢士，子胥見殺百里徙。穆公任之，强配五伯六卿施。世之愚，惡大儒，逆斥不通孔子拘。展禽三絀，春申道綴基畢輸。請牧基，賢者思，堯在萬世如見之。讒人罔極，險陂傾側此之疑。基必施，辨賢、罷，文、武之道同伏戲。由之者治，不由者亂何疑爲？凡成相，辨法方，至治之極復後王。復慎、墨、季、惠，百家之說誠不詳。治復一，脩之吉，君子執之心如結。衆人貳之，讒夫棄之形是詰。水至平，端不傾，心術如此象聖人。而有埶，直而用抴必參天。世無王，窮賢良，𣉱人芻豢仁人糟糠。禮樂滅息，聖人隱伏墨術行。治之經，禮與刑，君子以修百姓寧。明德慎罰，國家既治四海平。治之志，後埶富，君子誠之好以待。處之敦固，有深藏之能遠思。思乃精，志之榮，好而壹之神以成。精神相反，一而不貳爲聖人。治之道，美不老，君子由之佼以好。下以教誨子弟，上以事祖考。成相竭，辭不蹙，君子道之順以達。宗其賢良，辨其殃孼。
I call for the Chengxiang (成相). The calamity of the age is that the foolish and the dark cast down the worthy and the good. When a ruler has no worthy men, it is like a blind man with no one to guide him. How he gropes and wanders!
I call for the ground to be spread. Be careful of the sage. When a man is foolish and yet takes everything upon himself, affairs are not put in order. When the ruler is jealous and would win by any shift, so that the host of ministers cannot remonstrate, he is sure to meet calamity.
Weigh the faults of the ministers and turn back their doings. Honor the ruler, make the state secure, and hold worth and rightness high. To shut out remonstrance and dress up what is wrong, to be foolish and side with those above, brings the state to certain disaster.
What is called ruin? It is that the state has much private dealing, that men band together and hem the ruler in and give to their own party. The worthy are kept far off and the slanderers kept near, the loyal minister is shut out and blocked, and the ruler's power moves away.
What is called worth? It is to make ruler and minister clear, above to honor the ruler and below to love the people. If the ruler truly listens to this, all under heaven becomes one and all within the seas come as guests.
The ruler's bane is that slanderers get through, that the worthy and the able flee and hide, and the state shrinks. Fold folly upon folly and darkness upon darkness, and a man becomes a Jie.
The calamity of the age is envy of the worthy and the able. Feilian took charge of the government and Elai was given office. They made his purpose low, they made his parks great and his terraces high. King Wu was angered and brought his army to Muye, and the soldiers of Zhou of Yin turned about, opened the gates and came down. King Wu thought well of him, enfeoffed him in Song, and set up his ancestral line.
The decay of the age is that the slanderers came home. Bigan was cut open and Jizi was bound. King Wu put him to death, Lü Shang waved the banner, and the people of Yin took him to heart.
The disaster of the age is hatred of worthy officers. Zixu was killed and Baili Xi moved away. Duke Mu gave him office, and his strength matched the five hegemons, and the six ministers were set in place.
The folly of the age is hatred of the great scholar. They turned him back and drove him off and let him get nowhere, and Confucius was held fast. Zhan Qin was put down three times, the way of Lord Chunshen was cut off, and the ground was wholly lost.
I call for the ground to be tended. When the worthy man thinks on it, Yao, though ten thousand ages away, is as if seen. The slanderers have no limit. Steep and crooked and leaning, they make men doubt this.
The ground must be laid out, and the worthy and the ruined told apart. The way of King Wen and King Wu is one with the way of Fuxi. Follow it and there is order, do not follow it and there is disorder. What is there to doubt?
The whole of the Chengxiang is the telling apart of law and method. The utmost of perfect order is to go back to the later kings. Go back to Shen Dao and Mozi and Jizi (季子) and Huizi, and the sayings of the hundred schools are truly not exact.
Order returns to one, and he who cultivates it has good fortune. The gentleman holds to it, and his heart is as if knotted fast. The many make it two and the slanderer throws it away, and their own shape calls them to account.
Water is utterly level, and its edge does not lean. When the art of the heart is like this, it is the likeness of a sage. Have power besides, and be straight, and use the dragging board, and a man surely makes a third with heaven.
When the age has no king, the worthy and the good are brought to straits. The fierce eat grain-fed meat and the benevolent eat dregs and husks. Ritual and music die away, the sage hides and lies low, and the art of Mozi is practiced.
The warp of order is ritual and punishment. By these the gentleman cultivates himself and the hundred families are at peace. Make virtue clear and be careful with punishment, and the state is already in order and the four seas are level.
The will of order puts power and wealth behind it. The gentleman makes it true in himself, loves it, and waits. He dwells in it thickly and firmly, and only one who has something deeply stored can think far ahead.
Then thought becomes fine and the will comes into flower. Love it and make it one, and by spirit it is completed. When the fine and the spirit turn back upon each other, and a man is one and not two, he becomes a sage.
The way of order is beautiful and does not grow old. The gentleman follows it and is fair and good. Below he teaches his sons and his younger brothers, and above he serves his forebears.
The Chengxiang is done, and the words are not cramped. The gentleman leads it, and so goes along and arrives. Honor the worthy and the good, and tell apart what brings calamity and fault.
請成相，道聖王，堯、舜尚賢身辭讓。許由、善卷，重義輕利行顯明。堯讓賢，以爲民，氾利兼愛德施均。辨治上下，貴賤有等明君臣。堯授能，舜遇時，尚賢推德天下治。雖有聖賢，適不遇世孰知之？堯不德，舜不辭，妻以二女任以事。大人哉舜！南面而立萬物備。舜授禹，以天下，尚得推賢不失序。外不避仇，內不阿親賢者予。禹勞心力，堯有德，干戈不用三苗服。舉舜甽畝，任之天下身休息。得后稷，五穀殖，夔爲樂正鳥獸服。契爲司徒，民知孝弟尊有德。禹有功，抑下鴻，辟除民害逐共工。北決九河，通十二渚疏三江。禹傅土，平天下，躬親爲民行勞苦。得益、皋陶、橫革、直成爲輔。契玄王，生昭明，居于砥石遷于商。十有四世，乃有天乙是成湯。天乙湯，論舉當，身讓卞隨舉牟光。道古賢聖基必張。
I call for the Chengxiang. I will speak of the sage kings. Yao and Shun held the worthy high and yielded their own place. Xu You and Shan Juan made rightness heavy and gain light, and their conduct was clear and bright.
Yao yielded to the worthy, and he did it for the people. He spread benefit wide and loved all alike, and the giving of his virtue was even. He told high and low apart and put them in order. Noble and base had their grades, and ruler and minister were clear.
Yao gave it to the able and Shun met his time. They held the worthy high and pushed virtue forward, and all under heaven was in order. Though a man be sage and worthy, if he happens not to meet his age, who will know him?
Yao did not count it a virtue and Shun did not decline it. He gave him his two daughters to wife and charged him with affairs. Great was Shun! He stood facing south, and the ten thousand things were complete.
Shun gave Yu all under heaven. He held the worthy high and pushed him forward and did not lose the proper order. Outside he did not shun an enemy, inside he did not flatter a kinsman, and he gave it to the worthy.
Yu wearied his heart and his strength, and Yao had virtue. Shield and spear were not used, and the Three Miao submitted. He raised Shun from the furrows and the fields, charged him with all under heaven, and rested his own body.
He got Houji, and the five grains grew. Kui (夔) became master of music, and the birds and the beasts submitted. Xie became minister of instruction, and the people knew filial duty and brotherly respect and honored those who had virtue.
Yu had merit. He pressed down the great flood, cleared away what harmed the people, and drove out Gonggong. In the north he opened the nine rivers, let the twelve islets through, and dredged the three great rivers.
Yu spread out the soil and made all under heaven level. In his own person he took on toil and hardship for the people. He got Yi and Gao Yao and Heng Ge and Zhi Cheng to be his helpers.
Xie was the Dark King (玄王). He begot Zhaoming, dwelt at Zhishi and moved to Shang. In the fourteenth generation there came Tianyi (天乙), and this was Cheng Tang. Tianyi Tang was fitting in the men he weighed and raised. He yielded his own place to Bian Sui and raised up Mou Guang. Speak of the worthy and the sage of old, and the ground is surely spread wide.
願陳辭，世亂惡善不此治。隱諱疾賢，良由姦詐鮮無災。患難哉！阪爲先，聖知不用愚者謀。前車已覆，後未知更何覺時！不覺悟，不知苦，迷惑失指易上下。中不上達，蒙揜耳目塞門戶。門戶塞，大迷惑，悖亂昏莫不終極。是非反易，比周欺上惡正直。正直惡，心無度，邪枉辟囘失道途。己無郵人，我獨自美豈獨無故！不知戒，後必有，恨後遂過不肯悔。讒夫多進，反覆言語生詐態。人之態，不如備，争寵嫉賢利惡忌。妬功毀賢，下斂黨與上蔽匿。上壅蔽，失輔埶，任用讒夫不能制。郭公長父之難，厲王流于彘。周幽、厲，所以敗，不聽規諫忠是害。嗟我何人，獨不遇時當亂世！欲衷對，言不從，恐爲子胥身離凶。進諫不聽，剄而獨鹿棄之江。觀往事，以自戒，治亂是非亦可識。託於成相以喻意。
I wish to set out my words. The age is disordered and hates the good, and so it is not put in order. Men hide and shun and are sick with envy of the worthy, and truly, because of cunning and deceit, few are without calamity.
How full of trouble and hardship it is! The slope comes first. The sage and the wise are not used, and the foolish do the planning. The cart in front has already overturned, and those behind still do not know to change. When will they wake?
They do not wake and know, and they do not know their own bitterness. Dazed and led astray, they lose what they aim at and change high for low. The middle does not reach above, the ears and the eyes are covered, and the gate and the door are blocked.
The gate and the door are blocked and there is great bewilderment. All is perverse and disordered and dark, and there is nothing that does not go to the very end of it. Right and wrong are turned about. Men band together and deceive those above and hate the upright.
The upright is hated. The heart has no measure. Crooked and bent and one-sided and turning back, it loses the road. He has no one to lay his fault upon, and says, "I alone am fine." How should he alone be without cause?
He does not know to take warning, and afterwards it surely comes. He is bitter afterwards and follows his fault and will not repent. The slanderers come forward in numbers, words are turned over and over, and a deceiving manner is born.
A man's manner is not so good as being prepared. They fight for favor and envy the worthy and count it gain to hate and to shun. They are jealous of merit and tear down the worthy. Below they gather their own party, above they cover and hide.
Those above are stopped up and covered and lose the power that supports them. They give office to slanderers and cannot keep them in hand. In the trouble of Duke Guo and Zhangfu, King Li was carried off to Zhi (彘).
King You and King Li of Zhou were ruined because they did not listen to upright remonstrance and did harm to the loyal. Ah, what manner of man am I, that I alone have not met my time and have come upon a disordered age?
I would answer with my whole heart, but my words are not followed. I fear I would become a Zixu and my body meet a cruel end. He came forward and remonstrated and was not listened to. His throat was cut, and alone he was thrown into the river.
Look at what has passed and take warning by it, and order and disorder and right and wrong can also be known. I put it in the Chengxiang to make my meaning plain.
請成相，言治方，君論有五約以明。君謹守之，下皆平正國乃昌。臣下職，莫游食，務本節用財無極。事業聽上，莫得相使一民力。守其職，足衣食，厚薄有等明爵服。利往卬上，莫得擅與孰私得？君法明，論有常，表儀既設民知方。進退有律，莫得貴賤孰私王？君法儀，禁不爲，莫不說教名不移。脩之者榮，離之者辱孰它師？刑稱陳，守其銀，下不得用輕私門。罪禍有律，莫得輕重威不分。請牧祺，明有基，主好論議必善謀。五聽修領，莫不理續主執持。聽之經，明其請，參伍明謹施賞刑。顯者必得，隱者復顯民反誠。言有節，稽其實，信、誕以分賞罰必。下不欺上，皆以情言明若日。上通利，隱遠至，觀法不法見不視。耳目既顯，吏敬法令莫敢恣。君教出，行有律，吏謹將之無鈹、滑。下不私請，各以宜舍巧拙。臣謹脩，君制變，公察善思論不亂。以治天下，後世法之成律貫。
I call for the Chengxiang. I will speak of the method of order. The ruler's weighing has five points, and I will make them plain in brief. Let the ruler keep them with care, and all below are level and upright, and the state then flourishes.
The ministers below have their duties. Let none eat while idle. Work at the root and be sparing in use, and goods have no end. Let business be heard from above, let none order another about, and the strength of the people is made one.
Keep to your duty and clothing and food are enough. Thick and thin have their grades, and rank and robe are clear. Benefit goes up and looks to those above, and none may give as he pleases. Who then gets anything for himself?
The ruler's law is clear and his weighing is constant. Once the standard and the model are set up, the people know which way to go. Advance and retreat have their rule, and none may make himself noble or base. Who then plays king for himself?
The ruler's law and bearing forbid what is not to be done, and there is none who is not glad of the teaching, and names do not shift. He who cultivates it has glory and he who leaves it has disgrace. Who would take another master?
Punishments are set out to fit, and their bounds are kept, and those below may not use them lightly for a private house. Crime and disaster have their rule, and none may make them light or heavy, so authority is not divided.
I call for good fortune to be tended. Brightness has its ground. If the ruler loves to weigh and to discuss, his planning is surely good. The five hearings are cultivated and led, and there is nothing not put in order and carried on, for the ruler holds it fast.
The warp of hearing is to make clear what is asked. By threes and by fives, clearly and carefully, reward and punishment are given out. What is shown is surely caught, what is hidden is shown again, and the people come back to truth.
Words have their joints, and one looks into what is solid in them. Divide the trustworthy from the wild, and reward and punishment are certain. Those below do not deceive those above. All speak from what is real, and it is clear as the sun.
Those above are open and benefit flows. What is hidden and far off comes in. They look at the lawful and the unlawful, and see what is not shown to them. The ears and the eyes are now clear, and the clerks respect the law and the orders, and none dares do as he pleases.
The ruler's teaching goes out, and the carrying of it out has a rule. The clerks take it up with care and neither bend it nor muddy it. Those below make no private requests, and each of them, as is fitting, sets aside cleverness and clumsiness.
The minister cultivates himself with care, and the ruler shapes what changes. He examines fairly and thinks well, and his weighing is not disordered. By this he orders all under heaven, and later ages take it for law and make of it a thread of rules.