Wang ch‘ung lun-hêng philosophical essays Traduits et annotés par Alfred forke

The lucky meet with good omens, whereas the unlucky encounter bad signs. Thus wherever the lucky pass, things are pleasant to them, and wherever they look, they behold felicitous objects. Yet those pleasant things and felicitous objects are not special auguries for the lucky. In a similar manner the unlucky encounter all sorts of hardships on their way. These good and bad things are not the response of Heaven, it is by chance that they fall to the lot of the good and the bad. The lucky and unlucky omens obtained by cutting the tortoise and drawing the milfoil are like the happiness and the unhappiness which we experience. This much we gather from the following instances.

When King Wu of Chou was down-spirited, the Duke of Chou consulted three tortoises, and said that he would meet with _p1.187 success ¹. When the minister of Lu, Chuang Shu ², had got a son, Mu Shu ³, he drew the lots with the help of the Yi-king and encountered the 36th diagram ⁴, which became the 15th ⁵. In regard to the divination with shells the term to meet is used, and the expression to encounter is applied to the drawing of straws. Thus, as a matter of fact, the replies were obtained by mere chance, and were not the outcome of goodness or badness.

The good meet with happiness, and the wicked encounter misfortune. The law of Heaven is spontaneity, it does nothing for the sake of man. The happiness attending the government of a ruler must be judged by the same principle. When a prince chances to be virtuous, it just so happens that there is peace and joy, and that many wonderful and auspicious things appear. Contrariwise, when there happens to be a degenerate ruler, all this is reversed.

There are many people discoursing on divination, but very few who understand its real meaning. Some hold that divination must not be practised by itself, but that circumstances are to be taken into account. The tortoise being cut, and the milfoil grasped, omens and signs appear. Seeing unusual signs, the diviners resort to their imagination : auspicious omens they explain as disastrous, and unlucky signs as auspicious. If in such a case luck and mishap do not become manifest, people say that divination is not to be trusted.

When King Wu of Chou destroyed Chou ⁶, the interpreters put a bad construction upon the omens, and spoke of a great calamity. T‘ai Kung flung the stalks away, and trampled upon the tortoise saying,

— How can dried bones and dead herbs know fate ?

In case the omens and signs obtained by divination do not correspond to happiness and misfortune, there must have been a _p1.188 mistake. When the soothsayers are unable to ascertain fate, it is thrown into confusion, and owing to this confusion T‘ai Kung disparaged divination.

Divination by shells and stalks bears a resemblance to the administration of a wise emperor, and the omens of divination are like the auspicious portents during the reign of such an emperor. These portents are unusual, and the omens are extraordinary and marvellous. It is for this reason that the diviners fall into error, and it is the unusual which blindfolds the emperor’s advisers to such a degree, that in their blindness they declare a peaceful government to be mismanaged, and in their error call bad what is auspicious. Lucky omens a lucky man can fall in with, and, when during a reign auspicious portents are met with, it is a manifestation of the virtue of a wise ruler. When the King of Chou destroyed Chou, he encountered the omens of a bird and a fish, why did his diviners regard these as unlucky omens ? Had King Wu’s elevation not been predestinated, he ought not to have met with portents, when going out. Provided that it was Wu Wang’s fate to rise, the diviners should not have thought it inauspicious. Thus, since the divination for King Wu could not be unlucky, but was declared to be so, this interpretation was erroneous.

When Lu was going to attack Yüeh, the diviners by milfoil gave their verdict to the effect that the tripod had broken its leg. Tse Kung explained this as evil. Why ? Because the tripod had its leg broken, and for moving on one uses the legs. Consequently he considered it unlucky. Confucius, on the other hand, explained it as lucky, saying,

— The people of Yüeh are living on the water ; to reach them one requires boats, not legs.

Therefore he called it lucky. Lu invaded Yüeh, and in fact defeated it.

Because Wu Wang had no fault, when the divining took place, and nevertheless got a bad omen, people think that divination must not be practised by itself, and is but of little service in government. But it serves to show that there are spiritual _p1.189 powers, and that a plan is not merely the production of somebody’s brain ¹.

Writers and chroniclers have collected all sorts of events, as Han Fei Tse for instance, who in his chapter on the embellishment of false doctrines ¹ examines the proofs of those manifestations. There he depreciates divination by shells, stigmatises that by weeds, and condemns the common belief in their usefulness. As a matter of fact, divination can be made use of, yet it happens that the diviners are mistaken in their interpretations. In the chapter Hung fan we read concerning the investigation of doubts that, as regards exceptional portents explained by divination, the son of heaven must be asked, but that sometimes the ministers and officials are also able to offer a solution ². Owing to this inability to give a correct explanation, omens and signs often do not prove true, hence the distrust in the usefulness of divination.

Duke Wên of Chin was at war with the viscount of Ch‘u. He dreamt that he was wrestling with King Ch‘êng ³, who gained the upper hand, and sucked his brains. This was interpreted as inauspicious, but Chiu Fan ⁴ said,

— It is lucky. Your Highness could look up to heaven, while Ch‘u was bending down under the weight of his guilt. Sucking your brains means softening and craving for mercy ⁵.

The battle was fought, and Chin was in fact victorious, as Chiu Fan had prognosticated.

The interpretation of dreams is like the explanation of the signs of the tortoise. The oneirocritics of Chin did not see the purport of the visions, as the diviners of Chou did not understand the nature of the omens of the tortoise-shell. Visions are perfectly true, and omens perfectly correct, but human knowledge is unsufficient, and the reasoning therefore not to the point.

There is still another report, according to which King Wu, when attacking Chou, consulted the tortoise, but the tortoise was deformed ⁶. The diviners regarded this as very unpropitious, but T‘ai _p1.190 Kung said,

— The deformation of the tortoise means bad luck for sacrifices, but victory in war.

King Wu followed his advice, and at length destroyed Chou. If this be really so, this story is like the utterances of Confucius on the diagrams, and Chiu Fan’s interpretation of the dream. Omens and signs are true by any means, if good and bad fortunes do not happen as predicted, it is the fault of the diviners who do not understand their business.

CHAPTER XV

On Death

62. XX, III. Lun-sse

The dead do not become ghosts, have no consciousness, and cannot injure others. How do we know this ? We know it from other beings. Man is a being, and other creatures are likewise beings. When a creature dies, it does not become a ghost, for what reason then must man alone become a ghost, when he expires ? In this world you can separate man from other creatures, but not on the ground that he becomes a ghost. The faculty to become a ghost cannot be a distinctive mark. If, on the other hand, there is no difference between man and other creatures, we have no reason either to suppose that man may become a ghost.

Man lives by the vital fluid. When he dies, this vital fluid is exhausted. It resides in the arteries. At death the pulse stops, and the vital fluid ceases to work ; then the body decays, and turns into earth and clay. By what could it become a ghost ?

Without ears or eyes men have no perceptions. In this respect the deaf and the blind resemble plants and trees. But are men, whose vital fluid is gone, merely as if they had no eyes, or no ears ? No, their decay means complete dissolution.

That which is diffuse and invisible, is called a ghost, or a spirit. When people perceive the shape of a ghost or a spirit, it cannot be the vital fluid of a dead man, because ghost and spirit are only designations for something diffuse and invisible. When a man dies, his spirit ascends to heaven, and his bones return to the earth, therefore they are called Kwei (ghost) which means ‘to return’. A spirit (Shên) is something diffuse and shapeless.

Some say that ghost and spirit are names of activity and passivity. The passive principle opposes things and returns, hence its name Kuei (ghost). The active principle fosters and produces _p1.192 things, and therefore is called Shên (spirit), which means ‘to extend’. This is re-iterated without end. When it finishes, it begins again.

Man lives by the spiritual fluid. When he dies, he again returns this spiritual fluid. Activity and passivity are spoken of as spirit and ghost. When man dies, one speaks likewise of his spirit and his ghost.

The fluid becomes man, just as water turns into ice. The water crystallises to ice, and the fluid coagulates, and forms man. The ice melting becomes water, and man dying becomes spirit again. It is called spirit, just as molten ice resumes the name water. When we have a man before us, we use another name. Hence there are no proofs for the assertion that the dead possess knowledge, or that they can take a form, and injure people.

When men see ghosts, they appear like living men. Just from the fact that they have the shape of living men we can infer that they cannot be the essence of the dead, as will be seen from the following :

Fill a bag with rite, and a sack with millet. The rice in the bag is like the millet in the sack. Full, they look strong, stand upright, and can be seen. Looking at them from afar, people know that they are a bag of rice, and a sack of millet, because their forms correspond to their contents, and thus become perceptible. If the bag has a hole, the rice runs out, and if the sack is damaged, the millet is spilt. Then the bag and the sack collapse, and are no more visible, when looked at from afar.

Man’s vital fluid resides in the body, as the millet and the rice do in the bag and the sack. At death the body decays, and the vital fluid disperses, just as the millet and the rice escape from the pierced or damaged bag, or sack. When the millet or the rice are gone, the bag and the sack do not take a form again. How then could there be a visible body again, after the vital fluid has been scattered and lost ?

When animals die, their flesh decomposes, but their skin and their hair still remain, and can be worked into a fur, which appears still to have the shape of an animal. Therefore dog thieves will don dog skins. People then do not discover them, because disguised in a dog’s fur-skin, they do not rouse any suspicion.

Now, when a man dies, his skin and hair are destroyed. Provided that his vital force did still exist, how could the spirit _p1.193 again enter the same body, and become visible ? The dead cannot borrow the body of a living man to re-appear, neither can the living borrow the soul of the dead to disappear.

The Six Animals ¹ can only be transformed into a human shape as long as their bodies and their vital fluid are still unimpaired. When they die, their bodies putrefy, and even, if they possess the courage and the audacity of a tiger or a rhinoceros, they can no more be metamorphosed. Niu Ai, duke of Lu ² during an illness could be transformed into a tiger, because he was not yet dead. It happens that a living body is transformed into another living body, but not that a dead body is changed into a living one.

*

From the time, when heaven and earth were set in order, and the reign of the ‘Human Emperors’ ³ downward people died at their allotted time. Of those, who expired in their middle age, or quite young, millions and millions might be counted. The number of the persons actually living would be less than that of those who died. If we suppose that after death a man becomes a ghost, there would be a ghost on every road, and at every step. Should men appear as ghosts after death, then tens of thousands of ghosts ought to be seen. They would fill the halls, throng the courts, and block the streets and alleys, instead of the one or two which are occasionally met with.

If the ghosts seen all looked like dead men, there might be some doubt left that the dead become ghosts, and sometimes even assume human form.

*

The nature of heaven and earth is such, that a new fire can be lighted, but an extinguished fire cannot be set ablaze again. A new man can be born, but a dead one cannot be resurrected. If burnt-out ashes could be kindled again into a blazing fire, I would be very much of opinion that the dead might take a bodily form again. Since, however, an extinguished fire cannot burn again, we are led to the conclusion that the dead cannot become ghosts.

The vital spirits have their original seat in the blood fluid, and this fluid always adheres to the body. If notwithstanding the decay of the body the vital spirits were still extant, they might become ghosts. Now garments are made of silk stuffs and other fabrics. During man’s life-time his blood fluid does not permeate them, nor have they any blood of their own. When the body is destroyed, they share its fate, how could they of themselves reassume the shape of garments. Consequently, if ghosts are seen which bear a resemblance to dresses, they must also be like bodies, and if they are, we know that they cannot be the vital spirits of the dead.

Since the dead cannot become ghosts, they cannot have any consciousness either. We infer this from the fact that before their birth men have no consciousness. Before they are born, they form part of the primogenial fluid, and when they die, they revert to it. This primogenial fluid is vague and diffuse, and the human fluid, a part of it. Anterior to his birth, man is devoid of consciousness, and at his death he returns to this original state of unconsciousness, for how should he be conscious ?

Man is intelligent and sagacious, because he has in himself the fluid of the Five Virtues, which is in him, because the Five _p1.195 Organs ¹ are in his body. As long as the five parts are uninjured, man is bright and clever, but, when they become diseased, his intellect is dimmed and confused, which is tantamount to stupidity and dullness.

After death the five inward parts putrefy, and, when they do so, the five virtues lose their substratum. That which harbours intelligence is destroyed, and that which is called intelligence disappears. The body requires the fluid for its maintenance, and the fluid, the body to become conscious. There is no fire in the world burning quite of itself, how could there be an essence without body, but conscious of itself ?

Man’s death is like sleep, and sleep comes next to a trance ², which resembles death. If a man does not wake up again from a trance, he dies. If he awakes, he returns from death, as though he had been asleep. Thus sleep, a trance, and death are essentially the same. A sleeper cannot know what he did, when he was awake, as a dead man is unaware of his doings during his life-time. People may talk or do anything by the side of a sleeping man, he does not know, and so the dead man has no consciousness of the good or bad actions performed in front of his coffin. When a man is asleep, his vital fluid is still there, and his body intact, and yet he is unconscious. How much more must this be the case with a dead man, whose vital spirit is scattered and gone, and whose body is in a state of decay ?

When a man has been beaten and hurt by another, he goes to the magistrate, and makes his complaint, because he can talk to people, and is conscious. But, when a person is slain by somebody, the murderer is unknown, his family perhaps not knowing even the place, where his corpse is lying. If under such circumstances the murdered man was conscious, he would assuredly be filled with the greatest wrath against his murderer. He ought to be able to speak into the magistrate’s ear, and give him the name of the miscreant, and, if he were able to go home, and speak to his people, he would inform them, where the body was. But all that he cannot do. That shows that he has no consciousness.

_p1.196 Now-a-days, living persons in a trance will sometimes as mediums speak for those who have died, and diviners, striking black chords, will call down the dead, whose souls then will talk through the diviner’s mouth. All that is brag and wild talk. If it be not mere gossip, then we have a manifestation of the vital fluid of some being.

Some say that the spirit cannot speak. If it cannot speak, it cannot have any knowledge either. Knowledge requires a force, just as speech does.

Anterior to man’s death, his mental faculties and vital spirit are all in order. When he falls sick, he becomes giddy, and his vital spirit is affected. Death is the climax of sickness. If even during a sickness, which is only a small beginning of death, a man feels confused and giddy, how will it be, when the climax is reached ? When the vital spirit is seriously affected, it loses its consciousness, and when it is scattered altogether ?

Human death is like the extinction of fire. When a fire is extinguished, its light does not shine any more, and when man dies, his intellect does not perceive any more. The nature of both is the same. If people nevertheless pretend that the dead have knowledge, they are mistaken. What is the difference between a sick man about to die and a light about to go out ? When a light is extinguished, its radiation is dispersed, and only the candle remains. When man has died, his vital force is gone, and the body alone remains. To assert that a person after death is still conscious is like saying that an extinguished light shines again.

During the chilly winter months the cold air prevails, and water turns into ice. At the approach of spring, the air becomes warm, and the ice melts to water. Man is born in the universe, as ice is produced, so to say. The Yang and the Yin fluids crystallise, and produce man. When his years are completed, and his span of life comes to its end, he dies, and reverts to those fluids. As spring water cannot freeze again, so the soul of a dead man cannot become a body again.

Let us suppose that a jealous husband and a jealous wife are living together. The debauchery and the disreputable conduct of one party is the cause of constant outbursts of anger, fighting, and quarrelling. Now, if the husband dies, the wife will marry again, and if the wife dies, the husband will do the same. If the other knew of it, he would undoubtedly fly into a rage. But husband and wife, when dead, keep perfectly quiet, and give no sound. The other may marry again, they take no heed, and it has no evil consequences. That proves that they are unconscious.

*

_p1.197 Confucius buried his mother at Fang ¹. Subsequently such heavy rain fell, that the tomb at Fang collapsed. When Confucius heard of it, he wept bitterly and said :

— The ancients did not repair graves ².

Therefore he did not repair it. Provided the dead are conscious, they ought to be angry with those who do not keep their tombs in repair. Knowing this, Confucius would have repaired the grave to please the departed soul, but he did not do so. His intelligence as a Sage was of the highest order, but he knew that spirits are unconscious.

When dried bones are lying about in lonely places, it may happen that some mournful cries are heard there. If such a wail is heard at night-time, people believe that it is the voice of a dead man, but they are wrong. When a living man talks, he breathes. His breath is kept in his mouth and his throat. He moves his tongue, opens and shuts his mouth, and thus produces words. It is like playing a flute. When the flute is broken, the air escapes, and does not keep inside, and the hands have nothing to touch. Consequently no sound is produced. The tubes of the flute correspond to the human mouth and throat. The hands touch the holes in the tubes in the same manner, as man moves his tongue. When he is dead, his mouth and throat decay, and the tongue moves no more. How should words be articulated then ? If, while dried bones are lying about, wails and laments are heard, they come from men, for bones cannot produce them.

Others imagine that it is the autumn (which produces these sounds). This statement is not much different from the other that ghosts cry at night. If the autumn air causes these extraordinary moans and wails, it must have some substratum. Because this has happened near the bones of a dead man, people have presumed that these bones are still conscious, and utter these mournful cries in the wilderness. There are thousands and thousands of skeletons bleaching in the grass and in the swamps, therefore we ought to be haunted by their laments at every step.