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

Plants perishing before or after autumn are similar to men whose life either exceeds or falls short of a hundred years. The time before or after autumn corresponds to more or less than a hundred years. Some plants fade already after they have pierced the earth, as men may die soon after their birth. Other plants may pass the autumn without withering just like men whose years may eventually be from one hundred to three hundred.

CHAPTER XXVI

Miracles

15. III, VI. Chi-kuai

« There was no rending and no tearing, thus Hou Chi was born ⁶.

They further state that Yü and Hsieh were born unnaturally, issuing from their mother’s back, and that Hou Chi was born naturally. There was no rending and no tearing, the mother’s body did not suffer, hence the expression : no rending and no tearing. The descendants of those born unnaturally die an unnatural death, while the descendants of those born naturally die naturally. Therefore Chieh and Chou ⁷ were executed, and Nan Wang ⁸ was deprived of his cities. These words seem to be self-consistent, therefore _p1.319 people believe them, and since, in addition, evidence is given to establish their truth, they rely on these utterances.

The Chan-shu ⁹ also relates of the mother of Yao, Ching Tu, that she conceived from a red dragon, when she went out into the country, and gave birth to Yao. From the chronicle of Kao Tsu ¹⁰ we learn that dame Liu was reposing on the banks of a large lake. In her dream she met with a spirit. At that time there was a tempest with thunder and lightning and a great darkness. T‘ai Kung ¹ went near, and perceived a dragon above her. She became enceinte and was delivered of Kao Tsu. These instances of the supernatural action of spirits are not only narrated, but also written down, and all the savants of the day swear by them. A thorough investigation, however, will show their futility.

The statement of the Shiking that there was no rending and no tearing viz. that the mother’s body was not much affected may be true, but the assertion that Yü and Hsieh issued from their mother’s back is irrational. When cicadas are born, they break forth from the back of the larvae. Did Heaven in generating those sages follow the law of the larvæ ?

Hares conceive by licking the pubescence of plants. When the leveret is born, it issues from the mouth of the hare. Since the mother of Yü swallowing the barley and that of Hsieh, who consumed the swallow’s egg, were like hares licking the pubescence, their sons ought likewise to have issued from their mouths, and not from their backs. Consequently the statement about the back is preposterous.

In the world many persons die a sanguinary death by the sword, and it is not necessary that their first ancestor should have had an unnatural birth. When the Ch‘in lost the empire, Yen Yüeh ² beheaded Hu Hai ³, and Hsiang Yü ⁴ executed Tse Ying ⁵. Was the forefather of the Ch‘in, Po Yi ⁶ born unnaturally ? Ergo the thesis of natural and unnatural births based on the ancestors of the Three Dynasties is erroneous.

_p.320 Moreover, pearl-barley is a plant, a swallow’s egg a bird, and a giant’s foot-prints are earth. These three things are bodies, but not a fluid, how could they procreate a man ? With regard to Sages people suppose that they receive the essence of Heaven, which is an exceptionally fine fluid, wherefore their doings are so different from those of the masses. Now the progenitors of the Three Dynasties are born from a plant, a bird, and earth. Could these be regarded as very fine essences ?

Since among the productions of Heaven and Earth man is the noblest, the others are common. Now, if the essence of those common things should be the sperm for the noblest creature, man, how could it be very fine ?

Let us suppose that a pigeon or a sparrow emitted their fluid into a wild goose or a wild swan, it would never produce an egg. Why ? Because a pigeon and a sparrow are too small, compared with a wild goose and a wild swan. Now, the body of a swallow measures but five inches, and the stalk of pearl-barley not more than several feet. How could the two women who swallowed the egg and the grain have begot a creature of seven feet ¹ ?

Supposing that one melts the copper required for a tripod and pours it into the mould of a cash, it is plain that one could not produce a tripod. Now the giant is the Spirit of Heaven, therefore his foot-prints were so big ². The man with the huge foot-prints is like the molten copper for a tripod, and Chiang Yuan’s ³ body like the mould of a cash. Should the giant emit his fluid into Chiang Yuan, her body would be much too small to receive the whole essence, and without this whole essence Hou Chi could not have been born.

If Yao and Kao Tsu were really the sons of dragons, their nature as sons ought to have been similar to that of their dragon fathers. Dragons can ride on the clouds, and Yao and Kao Tsu should have done the same.

All plants growing from earth resemble their own species, but not earth, for they are not produced by earth, which merely nourishes and feeds them. A mother with child is like the earth feeding plants. The mothers of Yao and Kao Tsu received the emissions of the dragons, as earth receives the seeds of plants. Since growing plants are similar to their own species, the two emperors also should have been like dragons.

Some say ⁴ that, when the Hsia dynasty was near its downfall, two dragons fought together in the court, and spat their saliva on the ground. When the dragons had disappeared, their saliva was preserved in a casket, until King Yu of the Chou ⁵ dynasty opened it. Then the saliva of the snakes changed into a black lizard, which slipped into the seraglio, where it had intercourse with a palace girl. The result was the birth of Pao Sse ⁶.

A black lizard belongs to another class than man, how could it become enamoured with a palace girl, and emit its fluid ? The intercourse with the black lizard was vicious, therefore Pao Sse caused disasters, and overthrew the Chou dynasty. When different species recklessly mix together, their offspring becomes unprincipled and mischievous. Now, the mothers of Yao and Kao Tsu had illicit intercourse ¹, why did the two emperors become wise and sage men, and were quite different from Pao Sse ?

They say that Viscount Chien of Chao was sick and for five days did not know anybody. When he awoke, he said,

— I have been to God’s abode. There appeared a brown bear. God bade me shoot it ; I hit the animal, and it died. Then came a spotted bear ; I hit it also, and it died. After the two bears had died, I asked a ghost on the road. The ghost said : ‘The brown and the spotted bears are the forefathers of two ministers of Chin’ ².

Bears are animals, and as such of a different class from man. How should they become of the same class and the ancestors of the two ministers ? The time, when the ancestors of the two ministers, the brown and the spotted bears, killed by Viscount Chien, were doomed to die, was one of luck for the Viscount Chien. He saw them as in a dream. They were empty semblances and must _p1.322 not have been real. Should they really have existed, then perhaps the two bears were first metamorphosed into human beings, before they engendered the two ministers.

Between heaven and earth it does not happen that creatures of a different species mix and couple. Should Heaven have the same law as man, their likes and dislikes would also be similar. Man does not like different species, therefore Heaven would not consort with such either. Although man is created by Heaven, he is like the lice which are produced on man. Man does not love those lice, for what reason then should Heaven desire to beget through man ? Different classes have different natures, and their sentiments and desires do not agree. Heaven and Earth are husband and wife. Heaven emits its fluid into Earth and produces the various things. Man is born by propagation. If Sages are formed of a very fine essence, yet they receive the fluid from their fathers, and are not endowed with a special essence from Heaven.

Should the recipients of a special essence become Sages, Hsieh and Hou Chi are not Sages, and, if it be necessary that all Sages should have received a special fluid, the Twelve Sages ¹ did not all meet this requirement. What fluid did the mothers of Huang Ti, Ti K‘u, Chuan Hsü and Shun receive, and what did the mothers of Wên Wang, Wu Wang, Chou Kung, and Confucius swallow to become pregnant ?

Perhaps the surnames of the Three Dynasties : Sse, Tse, and Chi gave the impetus to the invention of those unfounded and marvellous stories, as the legend of Huang Ti’s ascension to heaven originated from the local name of Ting-hu ². Not only are they irrational, but those names are also misinterpreted. When T’sang Hsieh ³ invented writing, he made the signs agree with the ideas. Chiang Yuan walked into the foot-prints of a giant. ‘Foot-print’ (chi=) means a ‘basis’ (chi=), therefore the surname should be ‘his’ (ch‘i= ) with ‘earth’ (tu=) below, but it is ‘woman’ (nü=) with ‘chin’ (i=) at its aide. This _p1.323 is not the character chi= or chi= nor in accordance with the circumstances ⁴, whence their truth becomes very doubtful.

Judging by the surname Chi of the Chou of those of the Hsia and Yin, we arrive at the conclusion that Tse and Sse have nothing to do with a swallow’s egg or pearl-barley. May be that the mothers of Yü, Hsieh, and Hou Chi were just going to conceive, when they happened to swallow a grain of pearl-barley and a swallow’s egg, or walked upon the foot-prints of a giant. The world is fond of the marvellous, a propensity which has been the same in ancient and modern times. Unless they see wonders, people do not believe that a person possesses extraordinary faculties. Thus they explain surnames according to their preconceived ideas. The world puts implicit faith in these explanations, and they are therefore regarded as true. Sages have repeatedly uttered their doubts, but they could not solve them, and the shallow discussions of the scholars of the day cannot discriminate between right and wrong.

The literati, who approve of all that is old, have put forward those arguments. The Shiking says that there was no rending and no tearing, which means to say that by Hou Chi’s birth the body of his mother was not much affected. From this the literati, perverting the right principles, have derived the story of the unnatural birth of Yü and Hsieh. The fecundation by the dragon and the dream of the meeting with the spirit are of the same nature. The mothers of Yao and Kao Tsu were just about to become enceinte, when they met with a thunder-storm and a dragon carrying clouds and rain along. People seeing these phenomena then told the stories.

A dream that one meets with a dragon is an augury of the birth of a wise son. Is a dream of a meeting with ghosts not like a dream of a rendez-vous with a spirit ? How could it be real ? When the mother had intercourse with the dragon in the wilds, and when the dragon appeared on high, Yao and Kao Tsu perchance received their destiny of wealth and honour, for a dragon is an auspicious animal, and to meet it appearing above is a lucky omen and a sign that fate has been received.

When the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti saw the light in the Chi-yang palace, a phœnix alighted on the ground, and an auspicious grain grew in one room ¹. When Sages are born, and strange birds and auspicious things appear as portents, strange and auspicious _p1.324 things become visible indeed. If, however, we are to regard the children born then as the offspring of those things, should we consider the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti as the essence of the auspicious blade or the fluid of the phœnix ?

According to the chapters on the pedigree of the Emperors ² and the Genealogical Tables of the Three Dynasties ³ Yü was the son of Kun, and Hsieh and Hou Chi were both sons of the Emperor K‘u, their mothers being second wives of K‘u. Yao also was a son of the Emperor K‘u. Why then must the wives of kings and emperors walk into the country ? Although the ancient times are noted for their simplicity, yet there were already certain rules of propriety established. And why did these ladies bathe in the rivers ? ⁴ It follows that the assertion about the Sages receiving a special fluid from Heaven and their mothers becoming pregnant by swallowing something is a fallacy.

As a matter of fact Sages have their prototypes among their ancestors ; being as virtuous as Wên Wang and Wu Wang, they still find their peers. Confucius, playing the flute, knew that he was a descendant of the Yin ⁵, and Hsiang Yü, having double pupils, was cognisant of his being a scion of Shun ⁶. The Five Emperors and Three Rulers had all Huang Ti as their ancestor. He was a Sage, who first received a grand destiny. Therefore all his descendants became emperors and rulers. At their births there were miracles of course, which, if they did not appear in things, became manifest in dreams.

CHAPTER XXVII

Unfounded Assertions

7. II, III. Wu hsing

Some one might object saying,

— True, if a potter uses his stuff to make a vase, this vase, after its completion, lasts, until it breaks, but cannot be formed anew. If, however, a founder casts a plate out of copper, although it be finished, it can be melted again, and be made into a cup or, if that is not possible, into a vessel. Although men, who owe their spirits to heaven, all have a destiny fixing their span, by which their bodies are regulated, they can, if they know the right way and an effective elixir, change their bodies and prolong their lives all the same.

I reply,

— If a founder recasts a finished vessel, he must first liquefy it in fire, before he is able to enlarge or diminish, extend or shorten it. If a man desiring to protract his years, should wish to be like the copper vessel, there must be some sort of a furnace with coal, where the change and the transmutation of his body could take place. The body having been changed, the lifetime might also be extended. How could men, in order to change their bodies, undergo a smelting process like a copper vessel ?

The Li Ki states,

« When the water pours down, one does not offer fish or turtles for food ¹.

Why ? Because, when the _p1.326 rain water rushes down, snakes and reptiles are changed and become fish or turtles. Since they give up their original real nature and are transformed only for a while, the servants take care and dare not offer them to their masters for food. Would men desirous of having their bodies transmuted, be satisfied with a change like that of reptiles and snakes ? Those reptiles which are liable to a change are worse off than those which do not change at all. Before they change, they are not eaten by men, but, when they have been transformed into fish and turtles, men eat them. Being eaten, their long lives are cut short, and that is not what people desire.

Years and months change, and the intrinsic fluid may transform one species into another. Frogs become quails, and sparrows turn into clams. Man longing for bodily transformation would like to resemble quails and crabs. These are in the same plight as fish and turtles. Man fishes for crabs and eats them, when he catches them. Although without a metamorphose of the body, life cannot be lengthened, this result ¹ cannot be aimed at.

Duke Niu Ai of Lu was laid up with a malady for seven days, when he was transformed into a tiger. ² Kun ³ when banished to Mount Yü-shan turned into a moose. Do those who seek transformation desire to become a tiger like Niu Ai, or a moose like Kun ? The life of a tiger or a moose is not longer than the human. In this world the human nature is the noblest of all, therefore the transmutation of a man into a bird or a beast cannot be desirable. It would be a great boon, if an old man could be transformed into a youth, or if at least the white hair could turn black again, the lost teeth grow once more, and the animal forces be strengthened, so that the person could jump about, devoid of all decrepitude. This would be grand indeed ! Where would be the advantage of a transformation, if life were not prolonged thereby ?

If a thing is transformed, its concomitant fluid, as it were, favours the change. Human work may produce new forms, it is not Heaven which transforms things in order to prolong their duration. No more can a transformation be brought about by eating divine herbs or wonderful drugs. A man constantly using cordials can _p1.327 thereby merely strengthen his constitution and add to his years. A sudden transmutation is not caused by the real heavenly fluid or the true nature, with which men are endowed. Heaven and earth do not change, sun and moon are not transformed, and the stars do not disappear. Such is their real nature. As man has received part of their real fluid, his body cannot be transformed either : men do not sometimes become women, or women men. A high mound may be turned into a valley, or a deep ravine into a hill. But then the change keeps pace with human labour, it is a change by labour, not by inherent nature.

At the rise of the Han dynasty, an old man presented Chang Liang ¹ with a book, and then was transformed into a stone. Therefore the essence of a stone was a propitious omen for the rising Han. Similarly the essence of the River ² became a man who gave a jade-badge to the envoy of Ch‘in, which was an unlucky augury, indicating the downfall of Ch‘in ³.

The silkworm feeds on mulberry leaves, when it grows old, it sets to spinning, and becomes a cocoon, and the cocoon again is changed into a moth. The moth has two wings, and in its altered form widely differs from the silkworm. Grubs change into chrysalises, and these turn into crickets. The crickets are born with two wings, and are not of the same type as grubs. A great many of all worms and insects alter their shapes and transform their bodies. Man alone is not metamorphosed, being the recipient of the real heavenly fluid. Born as a child, he grows into a man, and, when he is old, into greybeard. From birth to death there is no metamorphose, for such is his original nature. Creatures which by their nature are not transformed, cannot be induced to do so, whereas those which must pass through a metamorphose, cannot forego it. Now, the length of life of those transformed creatures does not compare favourably with that of non-transformed ones. Nothing would be said, if a man desirous of a metamorphose could thereby prolong his years, but if he only changes his body without increasing his years, he would be merely on a level with crickets. Why should he like this ?