辯正論 2.9

2.9

The man of penetrating insight said: "When we examine Lord Lao's life in the world, he never abandoned the dust of secular life; his appearance and attire also had nothing peculiar about them. He neither established temples nor gathered disciples. Holding the humble office of Archivist beneath the Pillars, he concealed his dragon-like virtue to cultivate his nature, softened his glare to avoid external perils, and mingled with worldly affairs to preserve his inner life. The foolish saw him and called him foolish; the wise saw him and called him wise. None could recognize him except the Minister of Crime of Lu. Today's Daoist masters do not follow his method; on the contrary, like Zhang Yu, they recklessly recite chapter and verse, merely seeking to enrich their houses in hopes of nourishing their bodies. They abandon the wondrous gate of the Five Thousand [Characters] and practice the foul arts of the three Zhangs. For example, the Maoshan Daoist master Tao, the Recluse, composed the Collective Rites for Offering-Sacrifices in ten fascicles, detailing methods for offering-sacrifices ranging from heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, stars, asterisms, sacred peaks, and waterways, down to pacifying residences, giving thanks at graves, and summoning souls and spirits. It fully displays rare treasures, widely arrays damasks and coloured silks, and abundantly uses steamed fish, dried venison, yellow and white honey pastries, clear wine, mixed fruits, salted fermented beans, oil, rice, and the like. They first present petitions requesting and summoning generals, clerks, and soldiers; the Daoist masters all hold tablets in their hands, address the spirits calling themselves 'subjects', kowtow, and bow twice, seeking grace and begging for blessings—exactly identical to worldly customs. Neither having left household life nor abstaining from evil deeds, they create all kinds of deviant karma. Now, the Purple Subtlety, Supreme Subtlety, and Lesser Subtlety stars are collectively called the Three Officials of the Heavenly Emperor. Examining the former Confucians of antiquity, the Great Emperor of the Heavenly August is the revered spirit of the Purple Subtlety, also named the Treasure of the Shining Soul, which is the central heaven. It is called the Northern Culmen; situated within the Curving Array, it is the master of Heaven and the most revered of all the stars. To the left is the Spirit of Heavenly One, and to the right is the Spirit of Supreme One, serving as the Left and Right Generals, just like the Left and Right Prime Ministers of today. They are principally in charge of attending upon the Heavenly August, to whom human life belongs—the most revered among the revered. According to the Book of Documents and the Rites of Zhou, the state has its own sacrificial rituals, all personally and respectfully performed by the Son of Heaven. The Classic of Filial Piety states that the Duke of Zhou possessed the utmost filial mind, and therefore offered ancestral sacrifices to King Wen in the Bright Hall as the peer of the High Thearch, and performed the suburban sacrifice to Houji as the peer of Heaven. 'Heaven' refers to the heavens of the five directions; 'Thearch' refers to the August High Thearch of Heaven. Ancestors and fathers were sacrificed as peers in the Bright Hall, the Round Mound, and the southern suburb, and so forth. These were originally not deities of the Daoists, nor were they rites performed by Daoist masters. Why then do they today employ Daoist masters for offering-sacrifices? This gravely violates the ritual teachings, and it is deeply to be feared that the heavenly spirits will not partake of what is contrary to ritual. From the end of the Han, when Zhang Ling carried out his conversions through the way of ghosts, there came to be the sacrifices and offerings of Daoist masters; by the time of the Liang and Chen dynasties, they flourished throughout the world. Crude methods are easily assimilated, and habit becomes second nature; nothing under heaven surpasses this in spuriousness and corruption. According to the Rites of Zhou and the 'Single Victim at the Suburban Sacrifice' and similar texts, the state possesses its own ceremonies for sacrificing to Heaven. The jiao is one kind of sacrifice; draining the cup is called jiao. Across the three historical works and the nine philosophical schools, there has never been a Daoist master presenting petitions and performing jiao-sacrifices to avert disaster for the state. In ancient times, when King Wu was critically ill, the Duke of Zhou prayed for his life, erecting an altar and setting out sacrifices to pray to High Heaven; he did not speak of announcing or petitioning Daoist deities or summoning Daoist masters. If Daoist deities were in Heaven, revered by all the sages, and longevity, premature death, good fortune, and misfortune were determined by them, when the Duke of Zhou performed sacrifices, how would he dare not give them priority? (The 'Metal-Bound Coffer' chapter of the Book of Documents states: 'King Wu was critically ill. The Duke of Zhou erected three altars, and through the Great King, King Ji, and King Wen, he prayed for life to Heaven, saying: "I, Dan, possess much talent and many arts, and can serve the ghosts and spirits." He said that the King could not serve the ghosts and spirits, and if he were not saved, he feared that Heaven's precious mandate would fall to the ground. The Duke returned and placed the text into the metal-bound coffer. The King recovered the next day.' If Daoist ghosts and spirits were truly revered and human lives belonged to them, how would the Duke of Zhou have dared not to pray and petition them first? When examined in detail, their falsity and error become self-evident.) If it is said that they exist, why do the classic books not record them? Confucius said: 'He who offends against Heaven [has none to whom he can pray]'; he did not say 'offends against the Dao'. Examining the preface to the Center Scripture on Explaining the Sections of the Five Thousand Characters, it says that he ordered Xi to abstain from cereals and cut off rice, eating porridge once every three days, using nine thousand superior gold coins, and smearing his lips with the blood of a white horse. A gentleman would say: Since Laozi was benevolent and kind, he should not have slaughtered a horse to make an oath; the Dao is praised for having no desires, so why was he greedy for gold when expounding the scripture? Its first chapter, 'The Treasury of Nirvāṇa', explains: 'A way that can be spoken of, a name that can be named, the mother of the ten thousand things, having desires to observe the bounds, lacking desires to observe the subtleties, emerging together with different names, the gate of all subtleties, deep and abyssal like the ancestor of the ten thousand things.' Its sixth chapter, 'The Treasury of Man', explains: 'The valley spirit, the mysterious female, the root of Heaven and Earth, continuous as though remaining', and so forth. 'The Dao' refers to nirvāṇa; the lord's 'name' refers to the spleen; 'the mother' refers to the cinnabar field. 'Nirvāṇa' is the virtue of Heaven; the residence where its spirit governs is within the human head. Five times a year it descends, descending to the cinnabar field. Laozi addressed Yin, saying: 'The spleen is the central yellow one. The yellow qi wanders and governs in the central palace. The Yellow Spirit is one foot tall, wears the sun on its head and treads on the moon, named the Master of the Golden Tendril. It constantly drinks sweet dew and feeds on the dried meat of the juxu beast. Its spirit is Great White, governing the sun and the moon; the five lights cover it, and the Supreme One seals it. The Azure Dragon carries it, and the Vermilion Bird perches by it. Within it is a Spirit One that cannot be left unthought.' Moreover, the cinnabar field is the mysterious female; leaning against the spine, it governs the lower origin. Within it is a divine qi named the Small Child. Traveling on the One, it descends, reaching the cinnabar field, irrigates the nose upward, and enters nirvāṇa. 'Its subtleties' refers to vacuity and non-existence; 'its bounds' refers to the cinnabar field. 'Different names' refers to the various essences; their names are six: first, semen; second, urine; third, sweat; fourth, blood; fifth, tears and mucus; sixth, saliva. Therefore they are called 'different names'. 'Mysterious and yet more mysterious' refers to the left and right eyes. 'The gate of all subtleties' refers to the fact that when a person dies there is no qi, the qi being cut off at the mouth. 'The Dao is empty, yet in use': 'empty' refers to the One; the body of the Dao's One is constantly surging forth, and in practice it is never overflowing. 'Abyssal' refers to the mouth; the mouth contains the Flowery Pool; swish saliva and swallow it, meaning that when the moisture fills the mouth, in a single movement it moistens the one hundred and twenty viscera. The mouth cannot be filled, like an abyssal spring. 'Like the ancestor of the ten thousand things' refers to the mouth eating and drinking to nurture the ten thousand spirits within the mouth. 'The valley spirit' also refers to the mouth; when the spirit enters the mouth, it brings man to life. 'The mysterious female' refers to the nose and the mouth. 'The root of Heaven and Earth' refers to the mouth and nose serving as the gates through which the divine qi exits and enters, acting as the root of life and nurture. The nose neither speaks nor talks; its qi is continuous, serving as the heavenly window, used without exhaustion. Throughout all eighty-one chapters, they are arranged entirely by the Three Primes and the sexagenary cycle; the purports they clarify largely accord with the Scripture of the Yellow Court, all lying in secrets of ingesting qi to nourish the body and sexual practices to retain semen. They are valued by the vulgar, not honoured by the true Dao. They are merely deceitful theories, not genuine practice. To seek immortality by this means is far too wide of the mark! How could indulging in desires instead bring about longevity? Even if they prolong one's years, it is ultimately the root of transgression. (The Yellow Court says: 'Above is the Yellow Court, below is the Primal Beginning; before is the Dark Pass, behind is the Gate of Life. Inhaling and exhaling outside the hut, entering and exiting the cinnabar field. If one can truly practice this, one can attain long life. The person in the Yellow Court wears vermilion clothes; close the gates, shut the bar and female lock with its two doors. The Dark Opening flanks it, lofty and towering; within the cinnabar field, the essence and qi are subtle. The clear water of the Jade Pool nourishes the upper fat; when the spiritual root is firm, one's purpose does not wither. In the Middle Pool is a gentleman clad in red robes, dwelling three inches below horizontally where the spirit resides. Inside and outside oppose each other and double-lock it; the mysterious carbuncle and qi-duct receive the essence-tally. Urgently consolidate your essence to maintain yourself; in the chamber is a gentleman whose garments are entwined. If you can see him, you will not fall ill. Within the square inch, carefully cover and store; the essence and spirit return, turning old age back to vigor. Extend the ruler-length pattern to bind it above; if you can guard it, you will have no distress, inhaling and exhaling at the hut's door to replenish yourself. The son of the Red Spirit stands in the Middle Pool; below is the Long Wall and the city of the Dark Valley. For the essentials of long life, the bedchamber is urgent; constantly visualize the Jade Room to perceive brightness. Always contemplate the Grand Granary, free from hunger and thirst; close the path of your essence, and you can live long. The five phases are uneven yet share the same root and node; the qi of the three and five combine, whose essential root is the One. Embrace the pearl and harbor the jade to harmonize your chamber. The immortals and Daoist masters are not divine spirits; it is brought about by accumulating essence, focusing on harmony and benevolence. When desire and righteousness are mutually attained, open the Gate of Life; if one can constantly practice this, one can attain long life.') In his 'Discourse on Discerning the Dao', King Si of Chen says: 'Now, the books of the immortals and the sayings of the Daoists claim that Fu Yue ascended to become the tail of the Scorpius asterism, while the Year Star descended to become Dongfang Shuo; that King An of Huainan was executed in Huainan, yet they call it attaining the Dao and ascending lightly; that Lady Gouyi died at Yunyang, yet they call it the departure of the corpse with an empty coffin. How extreme is their falsity! Among the rigorous scholars of the restoration there was Huan Junshan, whose writings were largely praised by Liu Zijun. Once, Zijun asked him: "If a person could truly repress desires and close their ears and eyes, could they avoid exhaustion?" At that time, there was an old elm tree in the courtyard; Junshan pointed to it and said to him: "This tree has no feelings or desires to endure, nor ears or eyes to close. Yet it still withers and rots away; for you to say one can avoid exhaustion is not reasonable discourse." Junshan's drawing on the elm tree as an analogy was not correct either. Why? Formerly, when I was Master of Music for Wang Mang, the Records of Music of the Grandees stated: Emperor Wen obtained Master Dou, the musician of Marquis Wen of Wei, who was one hundred and eighty years old and blind in both eyes. The Emperor, marveling at this, asked him: "What practice have you followed?" He replied: "At thirteen I lost my sight; my parents, grieving that I could not attend to ordinary affairs, taught me to play the zither. I know nothing of gymnastics and do not know by what power I gained this long life." Junshan commented on this, saying: "He greatly benefited from losing his sight when young, concentrating entirely on looking inward, with his essence not reflecting outward." First he refuted Zijun by claiming that inner gazing was useless, but in retrospectively discussing Master Dou, he immediately took the lack of outward reflection as proof. I have not seen any definitive conclusion from him. Junshan also said: "Among the fangshi magicians there was Dong Zhongjun, who was imprisoned for a crime. He feigned death for several days, his eyes sunken and maggots emerging; he died and then returned to life, but afterwards he died in the end. That the living must die is understood by gentlemen; what analogy can change this? Even the most divine does not surpass Heaven and Earth, yet they cannot make dormant insects emerge in summer or thunder crash in winter. When the seasons shift, things move; when the qi alters, events correspond. That Zhongjun was able to conceal his breath, corpse his body, rot his flesh, and bring forth maggots—is this not a great anomaly? There were fangshi magicians in the world, all of whom were summoned by our King. Ganling had Gan Shi; Lujiang had Zuo Ci; Yangcheng had Qie Jian. Shi could circulate qi and practice gymnastics; Ci was versed in the arts of the bedchamber; Jian was skilled at abstaining from cereals; all were claimed to be three hundred years old. The reason they were finally gathered in the state of Wei was truly for fear that this sort of person would harbor treachery and deceit to swindle the multitude, and practice baleful anomalies to delude the people; therefore, they were gathered and restrained. Gan Shi was old yet possessed a youthful appearance, so the various magicians all gravitated toward him. However, Shi's words were prolix and sparse in truth, containing quite a few strange statements. Had he encountered First Emperor of Qin or Emperor Wu of Han, he would have been another Xu Shi or Luan Da. Jie and Zhou belonged to different eras yet were equal in wickedness; treacherous men belong to different ages yet are matched in falsehood—is it not just so? Furthermore, the world emptily maintains tales of immortals. Are immortals of the same genus as monkeys and apes, or do worldly humans attain the Dao and transform into immortals? When a pheasant enters the sea, it becomes a clam, and when a swallow enters the sea, it becomes a mussel. When they hover with their wings, darting about, their plumage still recognizes itself; suddenly throwing themselves into divine transformation, their bodies alter, and they instead herd with soft-shelled and sea turtles. Could they still recognize the joy of soaring in forests and nesting in eaves? Yet, being duped by commoners, [rulers] accept deceitful words and believe in dazzling theories, displaying lofty courtesy to summon those who refuse to be subjects, exhausting their property to provide for empty demands, scattering princely ranks to glorify them, and dwelling them in quiet, secluded mansions. Year after year passes, yet ultimately there is not a single confirmation. Some died at Shaqui, or passed away at Wuzha Palace. Though when the time came they executed their persons and exterminated their clans, their chaotic turmoil was enough to make them the laughingstock of the empire. However, regarding the length of life and the strength of physique, each person is endowed differently. Those who nourish it well live out their term; those who toil and perturb it cut it in half; those who wastefully expend it die prematurely. This is what is meant. You may examine it thoroughly.' The Confucian scholar was dazed and did not know how to respond. After a long while, he said: 'Could it really be like this? Could it really be like this? I have heard that the two chapters on the Dao and Virtue have been revered through successive generations; Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Wu of Wei personally practiced them. The Dongxuan Scripture says: "The Five Thousand Characters is the ancestor of the Dao and Virtue, the truest of the true; if one recites it ten thousand times, one's body will fly." Scholars of immortality have remarked: "Spread the wuwei breeze of Old Li, and the people will transform of themselves; uphold the way of love and respect of Kong Qiu, and all under heaven will be filial and kind." Master, your learning is profound and your vision farsighted; your eloquence is like a cascading river. I beg you to expound what you have heard; I would dare to say I am willing to die this very evening.'"