北山錄 10.2.4

10.2.4

[...contracting a foul disease and died.) They could not protect the mountains and rivers. When mountains and rivers are not at peace, disasters and calamities arise. Therefore, heaven reverses its normal course, earth brings forth anomalies, people harbor rebellion, and the crops are blighted (mountains collapse and rivers run dry; the stars lose their courses, the earth quakes and mountains rumble, bandits and thieves arise in competition, monsters and prodigies appear, and floods and droughts become pestilential). How could there be grain for sacrificial vessels? Formerly, Jie, Zhou, and King You of Zhou (Jie was Gui of the Xia, who favored Meixi; Zhou was Xin of the Yin, who favored Daji; King You of Zhou favored Baosi; all of them confounded state affairs with female beauty and lost the world), with ponds of wine and forests of meat, devised strange arts and wanton contrivances to please women (Zhou had ponds of wine and forests of meat, dregs piled as hills and dried meats as mounds; he had the punishment of the roasting pillar, cut through the shins of morning-waders, cut open the hearts of worthy men, and ripped open pregnant women). Their cruelty did not yet extend to the spirits and gods, yet mountains still collapsed and rivers shook, stars fell like rain and ghosts wailed. How much more so when the good Way is sheared away and eradicated, so that the myriad spirits have nothing to rely upon—how could singing phoenixes arrive in the suburbs, the jade candle regulate [the seasons] accordingly, and the grand steps [of the stars] be as flat as a whetstone? (In the time of Yao, phoenixes nested in the palace eave-pavilions; the harmony of the four seasons is called the jade candle.) At that time, śramaṇas of eminent attainment such as Huijing and Falin, together with senior Ruists and renowned scholars, layered jade-flower patterns (cui means five-colored patterns; pronounced zi-dui) and harmonized the sounds of metal bells; they attracted them with virtue, strengthened them with righteousness, sharpened their spears and axes, and overturned and blocked up their lairs. There was Li Shizheng, an usher of the Chancellery, who composed the Neide tongming zhengxie lun in three scrolls, citing their perplexities and examining and stripping them down in detail (this text is in the fourteenth fascicle of the Gu hongming ji). Being literary and grounded in evidence, it is the most complete among these works; it is sufficient to assist the true gate and elucidate the profound pinnacle. Later viewers should stop their mouths and plug their deep springs, never again doubting or slandering. It is only because the text is profound and concealed that it is not understood by the shallow and ordinary (in recent times there are also the Gui zheng lun and the Shijiao feixing ji, which are matters of the same sort). Moreover, loyal ministers and filial sons should seek blessings and ward off harm (jiao means to seek) to protect their lord and parents, respectfully offer sacrifices and prayers, and take meticulous care with medicines and minerals. Why must one deliberately pursue them knowing them to be of no benefit? (Just like the First Emperor of Qin loving the Dao or Emperor Wu of Han seeking immortals, or transmuting gold and silver and vainly burning lead and cinnabar—what did they ultimately accomplish?) Or deliberately commit offenses reckoning they will do no harm? The Rites says: "Doubtful matters should not be determined arbitrarily." If, like Cui Hao, one follows one's own whim and decides arbitrarily, thereby bequeathing grief to one's lord and parents (Emperor Taiwu of Wei died of a foul disease, and Cui Hao's corpse was subjected to execution), how can Cui be called loyal or filial? Nowadays there are men of narrow and entangled minds who still wish to approve of Cui; how benighted they are! (Yu means to approve.) When tracking the overturned wagon, who could dare take a second turn? If one maintains that before the Eastern Han there was no Buddha in the world, yet the families and the state were spontaneously peaceful, and thus nowadays we should revert to that past (this is to cite the opponent's challenge), then before Fuxi and Shennong there was no writing, yet the realm followed its natural dispositions (before Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor there was no writing, and the imperial Way governed itself through non-action). With King Ji and Confucius writing gradually multiplied, and people were shackled and fettered (shackles are used to bind the hands and feet) to the point of pestilence and death (cha means minor death; zha means mass death, which refers to contemporary epidemic plagues). When Qin Shi Huang buried them in pits, what crime was that either? (Qin Zheng was the First Emperor. In his thirty-fourth year, Erudite Chunyu Yue presented a memorial proposing that the imperial sons and younger brothers be enfiefed as feudal lords. Li Si said: "The scholars do not take the present as their master, but study antiquity to criticize the present age. All chronicles not of Qin are to be burned; all who store the Songs, Documents, and sayings of the hundred schools are to have them burnt entirely. Those who speak in pairs of the Songs and Documents shall be put to death.") If one maintains that the people of the four barbarian tribes, hunting with nets and shooting birds with stringed arrows to eat raw meat (ju is a net for catching hares; yi is shooting birds with an arrow tied with raw silk cord; Confucius used a stringed arrow but did not shoot roosting birds), have no one who gives charity or keeps precepts (the people of the four barbarian tribes treat slaughter as their farming; how could they have matters of giving and precepts?), yet their generations inherit felt yurt tents (qionglu means barbarian tents), then when did the people of the four barbarian tribes ever have the teachings of King Ji and Confucius practicing rituals and righteousness, yet their lines of lords and ministers, fathers and sons, continue uninterrupted? If so, then King Ji and Confucius could also be abolished! (Before the Eastern Han there was no Buddhist Dharma, and before the Eastern Han the state governed itself; the states of the four barbarian tribes have no Ruist teachings, and the states of the four barbarian tribes also govern themselves. If Buddhism could be abolished, then Ruism could also be abolished.) If one maintains that general charity provides for households and satisfies individuals (meaning wide charity to relieve emergencies), so that it need not consist in fasting and precepts, this truly drives people into the mire and ashes (if one gives without observing the fast and precepts, this is to benefit people through killing, stealing, debauchery, and the like). Now, to have a compassionate heart that benefits inferiors while neglecting to cultivate the ancestral temple cannot be called filial (though compassion reaches subordinates, respect does not reach ancestors; how can this be called filial?). To indulge in evil amidst abundant wealth while neglecting incense and lamps cannot be called blessed (such as slaughtering horses to sacrifice to Heaven). To expect people to be secure and stable while lacking both filiality and blessing is like relying on a lopped stump to await shade (nie is the remnant of a felled tree; seeking blessing by killing life is like relying on a leafless tree—how could there be shade?). If one maintains that because the Buddha has neither physical form nor audible voice he cannot be worshipped, then when offering suburban sacrifices to the former kings and former dukes, who has ever seen or heard them, yet still accords them sincere rites? (One has neither seen nor heard the deceased ancestors either; why sacrifice to them?) If one maintains that ghosts and spirits are not real, and the former Ruists merely guided people to be respectful, then why worry that the Buddhist teachings might not be real, so long as they cause people to do good? It is merely that the evil fabricated by slanderers does not fill the ears, so it is insufficient to shock the listener; and when listeners hear evil, it does not delight their hearts, so it is insufficient to accept the slander. Therefore, the listener and the slanderer share equal fault. But in a noisy and turbid age, where there is love, people magnify its beauty; where there is hatred, they exaggerate its faults. Now, Youyu Shi (Emperor Shun) was the ancestor of benevolence and filiality, yet the Ji Tomb text claims that with the coup at Pingyang he took the throne not by abdication (the Ji Tomb texts say that Shun imprisoned Yao at Pingyang to seize his position, and did not receive the abdication; today there is still the City of Yao's Imprisonment). Yi Yin was the paragon of ministers, yet the Ji Tomb text claims that returning from Tong Palace he stabbed [Tai Jia] and restored the Xia regime (Yi Yin was prime minister to Tai Jia. Tai Jia did not follow Yi Yin's instructions, so Yi Yin exiled him to Tong Palace, waiting three years for him to reform his faults, and then restored him to his position, fulfilling the way of a benevolent minister. Nowadays the Ji Tomb texts say that Yi Yin exiled Tai Jia to Tong Palace, and Tai Jia secretly slipped out of a hole, killed Yi Yin, and established himself, which completely contradicts the text of the Shangshu). Where could there ever be an end to disputes over straight and crooked rights and wrongs? Therefore, one must uphold the Canon of Yao and the Books of Yin, and only then can one possess a classic standard. Confucius said: