北山錄 5.2.11

5.2.11

[They] are vainly called scholars, yet how do they know how to examine antiquity?) Wear a lotus cap, and one is said to fully embody the style of the Lao Sage; (Causing them to crave life-sustaining grain, how could they esteem purity and voidness? Merely reading the *Zaojing* [Kitchen God Scripture], how could they ever fathom the Dao and virtue?) hold a ringed staff, and one is said to fully embody the Way of the Śākya clan. (Relying merely on a single monastic robe, they pass through a fleeting life; not exerting themselves in advance and cultivation, how do they know to investigate and practice?) Yet people expose their shortcomings and strengths, trusting after a mere glance from the precipice or being disheartened after a mere glance from the precipice. Those disheartened do not necessarily lose their worthiness, and those trusting do not necessarily obtain the right person. (Only humans are difficult to know; knowing oneself is also difficult.) Furthermore, Zhongni [Confucius] gathered the deeds practiced by worthy and wise men over several thousand years to make rites and music; yet were one scholar made to practice them within a single century, he surely could not master them all. (Zhongni was born with heaven-endowed talent in the twenty-second year of Duke Xiang of Lu. At age eighteen he went to the Western Zhou to inquire about rites. He had three thousand disciples, seventy-two of whom were accomplished. In the eleventh year of Duke Ai of Lu, he returned from Wei to Lu, edited the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, expounded the way of the *Changes*, weeded the *Odes* and *Documents*, and established rites and music. Yet when ancient sages and worthies spent their days mastering a single classic, their temples turned white and grey without ever reaching its bounds. Hence it is said: 'Looking up to it, it is ever higher; drilling into it, it is ever firmer.') How much more so when good and bad are not far apart: when one attacks one [side as] right, a wrong follows it as well. Therefore, the Minister of Crime of Chen considered concealing the state's wrongdoing to be partisanship; (The Minister of Crime of Chen asked the Master whether Duke Zhao knew the rites. The Master said: 'He knew the rites.' [The Minister] said: 'The lord took a wife from Wu, who was of the same surname; how could he know the rites?' The Minister of Crime said: 'I have heard that a gentleman is not partisan. Can a gentleman also be partisan?' Regarding the concealment of the state's wrongdoing as right, taking sides with the lord's knowledge of rites was wrong. If not being partisan was right, then publicizing the state's wrongdoing was wrong.) Ji Kangzi considered asking about sleeping in the daytime to be an affront. And being loyal does not necessarily mean being respectful, being respectful does not necessarily mean being filial, and being filial does not necessarily mean being righteous. Now, the sons of Śākya encompass the goodness practiced over a hundred million generations, yet to wish one person in a single lifetime to practice it all is certainly impossible. Consequently, there are those who possess wisdom but lack discipline, (Those who have insightful understanding but lack disciplined conduct.) those who are plain yet devoted to the Way, (Those who are simple and blunt yet pure and straightforward.) those who labor their bodies to shelter other beings, and those who esteem conduct while concentrating solely on themselves. One can only praise what they are capable of and sympathize with what they are not capable of. If not fit to construct a grand mansion, rafters and eaves may still be expected of them; (The *qie* is a rafter; the *lu* is the continuous timber at the end of the rafters.) they need not be discarded. (Although they lack the talent of main pillars and beams, they can still be used for small purposes.) The steed is praised for its virtue, not for its strength; the phoenix is praised for its auspiciousness, not for its ferocity. How could anyone be complete in everything? (Ferocity refers to striking and seizing.) The guest said: "At the time of the tyrannical Zhou, Jing'ai sliced open his own heart; (Ai remonstrated with Emperor Wu of the Zhou, speaking forcefully against the imperial decree. Having failed, he entered the mountains, slashed his flesh all over, hung his intestines on a cassia tree, sliced open his heart, and died. After death, his bones sat upright without collapsing.) Lingyu donned mourning hemp; Huiyuan fled into hiding; (This is Northern Yuan. He fled into mountain forests to avoid the destruction of the Way.) and Pukuang wore the hairpin and tablet. (Kuang was a man from Mei in Fanchuan. Encountering the purge by Emperor Wu of the Zhou and the establishment of the Tongdao Guan, for which three hundred scholars of outstanding talent were selected, Kuang answered the summons, still shaven-headed but wearing a black gauze cap. His judgments flowed like water. When the teaching flourished again, he resumed his monkhood.) Who among them was the worthy one?" The host said: "Each of them took responsibility according to his own abilities. Jing'ai, unable to shoulder the burden, took his own life to move the mundane world; although there was no benefit at that moment, it truly made manifest the sovereign's crime. Was that not like remonstrating by corpse, grieving over remorse, or the resentment of embracing sand—was it not a grievance? (Duke Ling of Wei was constantly doting on Mizi Xia. Shi Qiu remonstrated numerous times without success. When about to die, he ordered his family to place his corpse beneath the window, saying: 'The lord will surely attend the mourning. If he asks, say that during his lifetime the Grand Master wished to promote Qu Boyu and dismiss Mizi Xia, but failed, so in death the funeral rites are incomplete.' The lord indeed asked, accepted his plea, and ordered the corpse moved to the hall. Qu Yuan remonstrated with King Huai of Chu without success, whereupon he embraced sand and drowned in the Miluo River. Ai's deed was identical to these.) Lingyu, because the fortune of our teaching encountered the crisis of the one-hundred-and-six, (In the one-hundred-and-six, 4,617 years make one cycle, and 106 years are called the adversity of Yang Nine; this comes from the *Appraisals of Famous Ministers of the Three Kingdoms* in the *Wen Xuan*.) carried a hazel staff and wore unhemmed sackcloth, (Mourning garments as if for deceased parents.) donning mourning when there was no funeral, leaving the state and going into exile for this reason. (In the second year of Jiande, the *guisi* year, the Dharma was destroyed; in the *jiawu* year it flourished; in the *dingyou* year the sovereign died; in the *xinchou* year the state fell.) Huiyuan, possessing the Dharma lineage within himself, retreated from the world to seek preservation; the cycle could not end in stagnation, but would surely be replaced by peace. So long as he himself survived while the Dharma perished, to me it was as if it had not perished. (This was because the teaching flourished and was expounded anew.) Pukuang, shifting with the times through joy and sorrow, rising and sinking, could be a kite reaching the heavens or a fish plumbing the deeps; concealing humiliation and blending his radiance, he secretly watched for rise and fall. Though his outward appearance altered, his spirit could not be subdued. In ancient times when Yin fell, three men had different intentions, yet Zhongni called them all benevolent, did he not?" (Weizi Qi was the elder half-brother of Zhou. He first fled to the Zhou to preserve the ancestral temple. Jizi was Zhou's paternal uncle; imprisoned in the state, he feigned madness. Bigan remonstrated and had his heart cut out. Though their actions differed, they were equally called benevolent.) The guest said: "The myriad virtues return to benevolence, yet the benevolent are never exempt from death. Those who practice wuwei wait for the Yellow River to run clear; (When cultivating practice and hoping for the Way, in what year will it ever be realized?) how could that compare to savoring numinous blossoms, soaking in cloud-fat, and soaring lightly with the divine elixir—at least extending one's years below, or ascending aloft above, escaping the fate of becoming rotten bones in a single coffin? This is truly a fine calculation for long life! Why now do you speak of sitting upright and awaiting transformation?" The host said: "Long life depends on immortal bones; what our teaching calls 'having planted roots of virtue in past lives' is what immortal bones are. Unless one has refined worldly defilements and cultivated the subtle spirit over successive lifetimes, how could one casually rely on withered weeds and scorched stones to transcend the world? Thus, Changsang gradually ascended the stairs of immortality, while Bian Que became famous for saving the world; Zhuang Zhou was transferred to Mount Tongbai: their meritorious cultivation was not yet complete, so they did not ascend to the cloudy heavens, yet they were able to prolong their lifespans. If attaining the stages stems from past learning, why not set one's mind upon the Śākya clan? Huangdi mounted the azure dragon, Liezi rode the wind, and Wang Qiao flew upon his shoes; (Xuan Yuan mounted a dragon and became an immortal at Dinghu. Lie Yukou's riding the wind appears in *Zhuangzi*. Wang Qiao was the magistrate of Ye; he transformed his shoes into wild ducks and rode them.) they possessed immortal bones from past lives. In human beings, this is like the shell to a turtle or the feathers to a crane: it is a longevity endowed by past qi and destiny. Without the shell of a turtle or the feathers of a crane, even if of the same class, none can acquire their ways. (Like the kind of softshell turtles and alligators, or the class of myriad birds.) If one could succeed simply by imitating them, then among Zhongni's disciples and those of virtuous conduct, in life there would be none who were not noble.