鐔津文集 6.28

6.28

Nature values stillness; therefore, though nature undergoes transformation, it must not change too easily. Emotions suffer from vexation; therefore, though emotions are aroused, they must not emerge too early. Emerging too early harms harmony; changing too easily harms equilibrium. Contravention of equilibrium and harmony leads yin and yang into disorder, diminishing the people's lifespan and causing many blights and plagues among things. For this reason, when the sages brought governance to its height, they employed benevolence to enrich human nature and righteousness to regulate human emotions; this was how yin and yang harmonized and generated all things. Ritual teachings stipulate capping at age twenty because one's spirit is then robust and fit to be used for reflection. They teach marrying at age thirty because one's qi is then replete and capable of sustaining marriage. Therefore, the gentlemen of antiquity observed yin and yang to know the gains and losses of nature and emotions; they observed emotions and nature to know whether the Way of the sages was being practiced. Thereafter, with these gains and losses, they investigated root and branch, working together with the ruler of men to relieve the afflictions of the empire. Although Yi Yin was of commoner status, he still said that if a single common man or woman did not receive the bounty of Yao and Shun, it was as if he himself had pushed them into a ditch. He went to Jie five times and sought Tang five times without being discouraged, so diligently did he take the empire as his own responsibility. Nowadays, the people of the empire, when their hair buns are not yet cut, already deceive one another over profit and harm, and their parents are anxious only that their cunning and trickery do not develop earlier! When barely youths, males already marry and females wed, and if delayed, they elope. Is this not nature changing too easily? Are emotions not emerging too early? How could this fail to cause harm? To wish for the world to tread in equilibrium and harmony under such conditions—how does this differ from aiming one's shafts south when going to the northern barbarians? How could one ever arrive? When I observe yin and yang in disorder, cold, heat, wind, and rain rarely arrive in season, and the planting of the hundred grains never fails to afflict the people; those who die prematurely are often many in the world, while those who are benevolent and long-lived are few. This is precisely the visible effect of the loss of nature and emotions. When people lose their nature and emotions to such an extent, can the Way of the sages be said to have reached its culmination in practice? Policy planners still claim: 'The empire is exceedingly tranquil'—this is merely flattery. Obstinate and clamorous, they refuse to recognize their errors. If they cannot grasp the root to relieve the empire's afflictions on behalf of the ruler of men, why should they be valued in their time? An ancient saying goes: 'At high noon, dry things in the sun; when holding a knife, cut'—this speaks of acting appropriately according to the time. When Yi Yin was initially in poverty and obscurity, did he have the leisure to consider whether he would be suitably employed? Yet Yi Yin acted. Today, people avail themselves of the time suitable for employment and hold the handle of authority that should be used, yet they are unwilling to act—should they not feel ashamed before Yi Yin?