北山錄 8.2.4

8.2.4

[Duke Jing took fright and cultivated virtue, and Mars accordingly retrograded three lodges;) King Wen granted King Wu three years of life (a year meaning a year of age; King Wu dreamed of the Sovereign on High granting him nine years, and King Wen bestowed on him three of those years, so that he reached ninety-three); Duke Mu of Qin twice pardoned Mengming from death: these show the indeterminacy of fortune and lifespan (the Qin general Mengming attacked Jin twice and met with misfortune upon crossing the river; Duke Mu of Qin pardoned him, and later he burned his boats and marched against Jin, who did not dare emerge; thus he wiped away his former shame and returned). If one takes these principles and examples to examine human affairs, how could one say there is no karma? (These are all matters in which the principle of karma is manifest.) There are those who rely on Double Mystery and take the flight of geese in order, the suckling lamb kneeling, the crow being black and the silver pheasant white, thorns being sharp and the water-chestnut squarish, the orchid fragrant and the marsh-cabbage foul, to be numbers of nature (these are all the positions of external traditions regarding the meaning of nature); how could they derive from karma? A man of twofold emptiness smoothed his lapels and informed them, saying: "It is not so. What the ancient sage [Laozi] calls 'nature' is the Dao. The ultimate Dao is of the same substance with the myriad things; hence he says, 'The myriad things are naturally so' (the myriad things are neither identical with nor separate from the ultimate Dao). He also says: 'One yin and one yang: this is called the Dao' (the Dao is quiescent and without substance; the spiritual has no direction and the *Changes* has no substance; it brings about birth through yin and accomplishes completion through yang, so it is said: 'One yin and one yang is what it is called'). Master Zhuang says: '[The Dao] is in broken tiles, in weeds and tare,' which does not mean that the myriad things lack the principle of causes and conditions (it is because whatever strikes the eye is all the Dao). Those endowed with nature and lifespan take karma and fortune as their causes and conditions (sentient beings all rely on the habituation of past karma as their causes and conditions); what pertains to external things takes qi and numbers as its causes and conditions (insentient things rely on roots and seeds as their cause, and the qi and numbers of yin and yang as their condition). Therefore, the lamb and wild goose are verified by karmic habituation (the goose flock's order and the lamb's kneeling all stem from karmic habituation); the water-chestnut and thorn are sought in water and earth (they avail themselves of water and earth as sovereign conditions). That the crow regurgitates food to its mother and the owl devours its mother is the residual habituation of filial and unfilial conduct in former lives. That the sweet mandarin flourishes in the south while the bitter trifoliate orange thrives in the north is due to changes according to climate and soil (planted south of the Jiang it becomes an orange; planted north of the Jiang it becomes a trifoliate orange). Water moistens downward; fire flames upward; metal conforms and changes; wood bends and straightens; earth receives sowing and reaping. Water is salty; fire is bitter; metal is pungent; wood is sour; earth is sweet. Through the five qi the five substances are formed; they disperse into the five flavors, congeal into the five colors, and flow forth as the five tones. Thereafter they intermingle and blend, becoming hard or soft, strong or faint; what they receive is distinct, and the myriad phenomena arise from this. How does this differ from the meaning of causes and conditions? (The above are all the textual meanings of the 'Great Plan'.) If one further questions the origin of the creation and transformation—how yin and yang are deployed so that breeding and nurturing become so manifold, assigning dark-yellow for different sight and palace-minor tones for distinct hearing—then that would be excessive (if one scrutinizes them one by one, their categories are excessively numerous). The myriad things begin in the Great Ultimate (Taiji); without causes and conditions compounding one another and striking their kinds to form phenomena, they are born without being born (the myriad things fundamentally are unborn; they are born through the conjunction of conditions); they are born from the unborn (the Dao fundamentally has no birth; the myriad things rely on it to be born). Yin and yang have no mind (creating them does not depend on a self; the principle mysteriously responds of itself, so it is called 'without mind'). Heaven and Earth have no merit (Laozi says: 'Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat the myriad things as straw dogs'). The Sage does not rule (hence it is said: 'Abandon sageliness and discard wisdom, and great thieves will cease; cast away jade and shatter pearls, and petty thieves will not arise'). Through past and present, no one understands the principle of dreams and illusions; herein it is attained. Thus Old Master [Laozi] says: 'The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; the named is the mother of the myriad things' (the nameless is the root of the wondrous Dao, the origin of Heaven and Earth; the named nurtures the myriad things, hence it is called 'mother'). Master Zhuang says: 'The Great Clod puffs out breath, and its name is wind' (Wen Ruhai says: 'The Great Clod is nature; puffing out breath is the appearance of exhaling qi'). Hence, prior to the Sovereign of Forms, it cannot be conceived as having a beginning. If one further objects that since external things are stimulated by qi to stream into form, on what karma could inner lifespan depend? (The outsider says: if, due to insentient things colliding and striking, the inner lifespan gives rise to love and hate, how could that be karma?) this truly cannot be analogized. External things have no mind; without mind, where would karma be? Inner lifespan harbors feeling; harboring feeling, karma arises. Thus, between a blown tile and a thrown tile, when both hit a person, there is wrath in one case and not in the other. How could there be no distinction in this? (Liu Ling says: 'When a blown tile strikes a person or an empty boat bumps into oneself, even if one has an irritable mind, one does not get angry, because the other has no intention in the striking.') Someone may ask: 'Retribution for good and bad karma must inevitably arrive. Thus the *Changes* says: "A family that accumulates good will surely have an excess of blessings; a family that accumulates evil will surely have an excess of calamities." Why then did Gu-sou father Shun, Shun father Shangjun, and Gun father Yu?' (The stubborn Gu-sou fathered the sage Shun; the sage Shun fathered the unworthy Shangjun; the wicked Gun fathered the sage Yu: what is the meaning of this?) I reply: 'The Sages established their teachings by pointing to heavenly principle, speaking of what is frequent rather than what is rare, and speaking of what is compliant rather than what is contrary (when the Sages point to blessings for the good and calamities for the evil, this is the constant principle of Heaven and Earth; moreover, to speak of it this way complies with nature, for one cannot say that goodness invites evil, as how would that guide living beings?). Thus Duke Liu and King Ji were able to give birth to sage heirs, down to King Wen who made great achievements for the realm of Zhou (from Houji sowing crops, his virtue reached the common people; Duke Liu successively maintained his official duties and did not bend to the Western Rong; down to Jili giving birth to the sage son King Wen, and King Wen giving birth to King Wu, who gained the realm for thirty-seven emperors over eight hundred years, all because of the way accumulating goodness pours out blessings). Fufu He and Zheng Kaofu were able to advance in benevolence and virtue, down to Zhongni [Confucius] who gloriously established the cultural teachings (after Tang, Weizi Qi was enfeoffed in Song; down to Fufu He yielding the throne to Duke Li, he was accordingly granted the surname Kong; down to Zheng Kaofu, who was all the more deferential upon each of three appointments, his house cultivated benevolence and virtue for generations, down to Confucius who encompassed sageliness and multifaceted ability, gloriously displaying the cultural teachings). Therefore, those who examine celestial phenomena to impart the seasons to the people determine their stations and regularize their periods (to determine is to make upright and apply; celestial phenomena refer to the sun, moon, and five planets as the Seven Governings); if they are occasionally agitated, disordered, and change into baleful omens, these are truly anomalies and calamities. If someone further holds that just as a sound cannot substitute for its echo, and a form cannot exchange places with its shadow (to exchange is to trade; a form cannot exchange places with its shadow), how could an ancestor act and his descendants receive the retribution? (Each creates and each receives; they are not shared equally)—then the principle may be explained in detail. Good and evil assist one another according to their kinds, but do not substitute for one another."}