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Adventures in Philosophy |
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by Hsun Ching
Heaven's way of acting is unchanging. It did not act specially to make Yao [the Sage-Emperor] survive nor to bring Ch'ieh [the arch-criminal] to destruction. Respond to Heaven by governing well, then there will be good fortune: respond to it by governing badly, and then there will be bad fortune. If the basic industries [i.e. those in connection with agriculture] are in a flourishing state and economy is being practiced in public expenditure, Heaven cannot make the country poor; and if the supply of foodstuffs is complete and energy is exercised at the right times, Heaven cannot make the people sick; and if the Right Way is being cultivated, Heaven cannot send down calamities. The fact is that (by themselves) flood and drought cannot cause famine, extremes of cold and hear cannot cause distress, nor malicious spirits bring bad fortune. If, however, the basic industries are neglected, and expenditure is extravagant, then Heaven cannot make the country rich.... The fact is that famine is there before flood and drought, sickness arrives before the rigors of cold and heat.... Observance of the seasons and good government are incompatible; and it is wrong to inveigh against Heaven because its Way is so. Thus it is that only if a man be clear as to the relative spheres of Heaven and man may he be called a man of consummate understanding. To carry to completion by actionless activity [wu wei], to accomplish without trying to, is to be described as Heaven's function. Deep though that function is, great though it is and of vital import, the man of consummate understanding nevertheless does not consider it to any extent, nor does he get additional ability through it, nor does he probe into it. This means that he does not try to complete Heaven. (For) Heaven has its times and seasons, Earth its wealth, and Man his work of making order: a blending into a trinity of powers, as it should be described. Now the man who neglected the condition on which this blending of powers depended, hoping to be the blender himself, would be on the wrong track altogether. The serried ranks of stars follow their courses: the sun and the moon take turns in shining: the four seasons successively take charge: the Yin and Yang make their great transformations: the wind and the rain exercise their all-pervading influence. Thus the myriad creatures come within the scope of this life-giving harmony (of forces) and in every case get the nourishment which brings them to completion. This we call a miraculous work, for we cannot see it going on, although we see the final accomplishment. We call it Heaven's accomplishment, for in every case we know that something has brought completion, although we have no knowledge of this something in its intangibility. The true sage does not try to know Heaven. Heaven's function has been established once for all, its accomplishment brought to completion once for all. Thus man's body was prepared and the spirit of man came to life, and with loving and hating, delight and annoyance, sorrow and joy: that is, the 'Heaven-given emotions' were stored up within. Man has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and limbs, 'the Heaven-given (natural) pipes,' each of them in contact with the others but not able to interchange its aptitude for the others. In the central emptiness dwells the mind [hsin], that is 'the Heaven-given (natural) sovereign,' controller of the five senses. The mind makes the arrangements by which the other species are used to nourish the human species: that is 'Heaven-given (natural) nourishing'; for to protect one's own species is what is called 'happiness,' to go against it is 'calamity.' This is 'the Heaven-given (natural) system of government.' Now to darken man's Heaven-given sovereign, to throw his Heaven-given senses into confusion, to let go his Heaven-given nourishment, to disobey his Heaven-given system of governing, and to do violence to his Heaven-given emotions, this the supreme evil fortune. The sage purifies his Heaven-given sovereign, rectifies his Heaven-given senses, prepares his Heaven-given nourishment [i.e. by attention to agricultural pursuits], protects his Heaven-given government, nourishes his Heaven-given emotions in order to bring to perfection his Heaven-given merit of accomplishment. If this be done, then he knows what he can do and what he cannot do, and with Heaven and Earth discharging their responsibilities the myriad creatures are at man's command.... The high-minded man [chun Tzu] is concerned about the matters in his own sphere and does not hanker after the matters in Heaven's sphere of action; whilst the low-minded man does the reverse. Because the former is so, his affairs daily go forward, and because the latter is so, his affairs daily go backward. There is a single reason for the one going forward and the other going backward. In this lies the difference between the two. If a star falls or a tree groans, the people of the country are all in a panic. The question is, why (this state of panic)? The answer is, for no reason. There is some change in Heaven or in Earth, some Yin and Yang transformation, something which rarely happens in the material sphere. It is right to wonder at it; it is not right to fear it. In every generation there are these occurrences from time to time, eclipses of the sun or the moon, wind and rain at unseasonable times, strange stars appearing in groups. If those in authority are intelligent and their government is equable, then in spite of these occurrences in one generation after another there is no harm done. If they are unintelligent and their government leads in dangerous paths, in spite of there being no such occurrence they are not better off. It follows that 'human omens' are the things to be feared, the scamped ploughing which affects the final crop, the sketchy hoeing which misses the weeds, the foolhardiness in government which saps the confidence of the people. When the fields are overgrown with weeds and the harvest is bad, the price of corn high and the people short of food and their dead bodies found on the roads, these are what I call human omens. When the official orders are stupid ones, when public undertakings are put in hand at the wrong times and the basic industries are not properly organized, these are what I call 'human omens.' If the (sense of) ritual-and-righteousness is not cultivated, if the women's and men's apartments are not kept separate and there is sex license, then father and son are suspicious of each other, rulers and ruled are at cross purposes, tyranny and distress go hand in hand. These I call human omens. They are born of disorder, and when these three kinds come together, peace is dead in that country.... The question is put: What about the special sacrifices for rain and then the rain coming? The answer is that there is nothing to it. It would rain all the same if there were no sacrifices. When people 'save' the sun and moon from being devoured, or when they pray for rain at a time of drought, or when they divine the omens before taking an important decision, these prayers are not to be taken as being answered. They are superfluous embellishments, for that is how enlightened men regard them, although the people generally take them to be signs of the supernatural. (Rather) it is good fortune to see them as embellishments, bad fortune to see them as supernatural.... Which is better, to magnify Heaven and meditate on it or to have your goods properly cared for and systematically controlled; to submit to Heaven and sing its praises or to systematize its commissions and make good use of them; to rely on things multiplying of themselves or to exercise all one's ability in development them? ...
Excerpted from Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times. |
Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Thought, from Confucius to Mao Tse-Tung
The Great Thoughts of China: 3,000 Years of Wisdom That Shaped a Civilization
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