廣弘明集 22.37

22.37

The Grandee said: "If you cite the words of the various philosophers, then Liezi says: 'One who seeks a name will surely be incorruptible, and incorruptibility brings poverty; one who seeks a name will surely yield, and yielding brings baseness.' If that is so, then poverty and baseness are what gentlemen who establish a name strive for and attain; wealth and honor are what greedy and contentious people seek and obtain. How can it be called the reckoning of nature?" The Master said: "This is a one-sided doctrine, not one that is comprehensive in principle. Wealth and honor naturally have greed and contention, yet wealth and honor are not something greed and contention can obtain. Poverty and baseness naturally have incorruptibility and yielding, yet poverty and baseness are not something incorruptibility and yielding desire to invite. There are those who possess wealth and honor without being greedy, and those who suffer poverty and baseness without being incorruptible or yielding. Moreover, Confucius seldom spoke of fate; the Way depends on man to broaden it. Thus the principle of nature and destiny is what former sages dreaded speaking of. How could the retribution of good and evil, and the constancy of the Way of Heaven, be involved here? It is like the warm breeze turning blossoms and the cold gale scattering snow: some fall into cesspools and filth, while others alight atop jade staircases. The wind and gale have no intention regarding thick or thin, yet the blossoms and sleet follow distinct paths of defilement and purity. The Way of Heaven has no intention regarding love or hatred, yet nature and destiny have differing paths of adversity and success. You have heard of Lord Yu waiting to be enfiefed and the enfiefment arriving, or Mother Yan awaiting mourning and the mourning befalling. If, seeing a good person, one immediately says their descendants will surely prosper; or seeing an evil person, immediately says their descendants will surely perish, this is merely like waiting by the tree trunk for the rest of one's life, hoping that the cunning hare will be caught again." Thereupon the Grandee composed his expression and apologized, saying: "One such as myself held to a biased transmission and was blind to the thoroughfare; clung to what was narrow and close at hand and lost sight of the distant and vast. Now, having received your profound words, I am delightfully enlightened: like Shu You whose recumbent corpse suddenly awoke after ten thousand ages, or the heavy drunkard of Zhongshan who abruptly sobered up in less than a thousand mornings. I beg to take these words and engrave them upon my sash." Someone asked: "Master Zhu relied on a fictional discourse to express the depths of his mind; his discussions of emotion and pointing to facts are profound and intriguing. However, examining them against the ancient classics, there is something I have not understood. Human emotions of sorrow, joy, delight, and anger contain the natures of good and evil. When the provisions for reliance and support were insufficient, affairs of contention and plunder arose. When those of equal talent and knowledge could not govern one another, Heaven produced the benevolent and sage, genuinely causing them to shepherd [the people]. Music was created by the sages; rites were instituted by the former kings. The three thousand deportments were used to regulate their actions; the harmony of the five tones was used to guide their minds. Ranks were established to encourage goodness; punishments were suspended to chastise evil. Not a hair's breadth was missed, responding and interacting like an echo. When jade and silk are mentioned, are they not presented by something other than non-action (wuwei)? When drums and bells harmonize, how could it be naturally attuned? The thousand categories filling the eyes are entirely constructed through effort and application; the hundreds of strings strung unevenly all arise from wisdom and thought. You, sir, are a subject of Tang and Wu, a disciple of Zhou and Confucius; coming and going through doors and windows, you have embraced the orthodox moral teaching. Yet you say that good people know goodness cannot be relied upon, evil people know evil cannot be warned against, goodness cannot invite blessings, and calamity cannot requite evil. What kind of unreasonable talk is this? Furthermore, flying birds and creeping insects still know what to seek and what to avoid, how much more so should man, being the most spiritual, be identical with a thing of nature? How could this poem of the High and Deep draw analogies from what is not of the same category? Regarding what my understanding has not reached, I reverently await your clear response." [The Master] replied: "In the past, Lu Ao traveled north and encountered the desolate wastes, grieving that his footprints had not been vast; the River Count looked eastward toward the boundless ocean, only then sighing that the autumn waters were not abundant. You, sir, have become habituated to what is close until it has become second nature; it is not easy to discuss the distant and great with you. Now, you consider bending and stretching, bowing and looking up, to be the doing of thoughts of the mind; carving, chiseling, clipping, and polishing to be the work of body and hands; rites and music to be the creations of sages; and sages to be what is born of heaven and earth. Please allow me to take examples near at hand from the body for you, so that you may extend them far to myriad things. When your ears hear, your eyes see, your feet tread, your hands grasp, and your mind considers—who makes it so? When the body has disease or ailment, cold or heat, it is not self-aware of them. Where do the rise and fall of sorrow, joy, delight, and anger reside? What place has a consciousness that knows of itself where consciousness resides? Has a wise person self-knowledge of where wisdom exists? If consciousness pervaded the body, when the body is injured, consciousness would be torn; if wisdom arose along with affairs, when affairs subsided, wisdom would be extinguished. Truly, consciousness does not know consciousness, and wisdom does not know wisdom. Thereupon, extending what is near to reach what is far, and developing things by analogy, we therefore know that rites and music do not know of themselves whence they were instituted; sages do not know of themselves whence they were born; and the two images (heaven and earth) likewise do not know of themselves whence they were established. Thereupon, distinct shapes and differing thoughts accumulate and fill to overflowing; stillness and motion, union and separation, self-arise and self-extinguish. Of stillness and motion, none recognizes their master; of arising and extinguishing, none understands their root. Thus the principle of nature is manifest! That which is called non-natural is precisely Great Nature; that which is active (youwei) is precisely Great Non-Action (wuwei). You said: 'Heaven produced sages, genuinely causing them to shepherd [the people].' Why, then, in Tang and Yu were sages piled one upon another, augmented by five ministers; and Wen and Wu repeated their brilliance, augmented by ten capable ministers? Could it be that the Way of Heaven cannot maintain unity from beginning to end, or that degenerate ages pass blame onto heaven and earth? Great Shun and Great Yao did not wish to father unworthy sons; how could Longfeng and Bigan have rejoiced in submitting their bodies to execution and dismemberment? Confucius traveled through states, harassed and flustered, and finally said that he would not shrink from holding the whip; Yan Hui, having declared 'While you live, Master, how would I dare to die?', ultimately caused his loving father to request the Master's carriage [for his outer coffin]. Those three sages and three benevolent men could be said to have excelled in taking and leaving! Heaven can cause a severe drought in Donghai, but that is not as good as rectifying the grievance of the filial widow; Earth can cause high city walls to return to moats, but that is not as good as saving Qiliang from death. Therefore, flourishing and withering, death and life, are determined allotments of nature; even sages and the benevolent cannot exempt themselves. Ponder my humble words deeply, and the principle resides clearly within them."