University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER V.

Phenomenal Changes (Pien t`ung).

Arguing on calamitous events I have already expressed my
doubts as to Heaven reprimanding man by misfortunes.[1] They
say, moreover, that the sovereign, as it were, moves Heaven by
his government, and that Heaven moves the fluid in response.
Beating a drum and striking a bell with a hammer would be an
analogous process. The drum represents Heaven, the hammer the
government, and the sound of the drum or the bell is like Heaven's
response. When man acts below, the heavenly fluid survenes, and
accompanies his actions. I confess that I doubt this also.

Heaven can move things, but how can things move Heaven?
Men and things depend upon Heaven, and Heaven is the master
of men and things. Thus one says that, when Wang Liang[2] whips
the horses, the carriage and the steeds rush over the plain. It is
not said that, when the carriage and the steeds chase over the
plain, Wang Liang subsequently whips the horses. The heavenly
fluid changes above, and men and things respond to it below.
Consequently, when Heaven is about to rain, the shang-yang[3] begins
to dance, and attracts the rain. The "shang-yang" is a creature
which knows the rain. As soon as Heaven is about to rain, it
bends its single leg, and commences to dance.

When Heaven is going to rain, the mole-crickets and ants
leave their abodes, the earth-worms come forth, the chords of
guitars become loose, and chronic diseases more violent. This
shows, how Heaven moves things. When Heaven is about to blow,
the creatures living in nests become restless, and, when it is going
to rain, the insects staying in holes become excited. The fluid of
wind and rain has such an effect upon those creatures. Man takes
the same position between Heaven and Earth as fleas and bugs
between the upper and lower garments, or crickets and ants in
crevices. Can fleas and bugs, crickets and ants, in so far as they

are either rebellious or peaceful, wild or quiet, bring about a change
of the fluid in the crevices? Fleas and bugs, mole-crickets and
ants cannot do this. To pretend that man is able to do so, shows
a misconception of the nature of the fluid of things.

When the wind comes, the boughs of the trees shake, but
these boughs cannot produce the wind. In the same manner at
the end of summer the field crickets chirrup, and the cicadas cry.
They are affected by the Yin fluid. When the thunder rolls, the
pheasants become frightened, and, when the insects awake from
their state of torpidity, the snakes come forth. This is the rising
of the Yang fluid. When it is near mid-night, the cranes scream,
and when at dawn the sun is about to rise, the cocks crow.
Although these be not phenomenal changes, they show at least,
how the heavenly fluid moves things, and how those respond to
the heavenly fluid. One may say that heat and cold influence the
sovereign in such a way, that he cmits a fluid by which he rewards
or punishes, but are we warranted in saying that rewards and
punishments affect high Heaven so, that it causes heat or cold
to respond to the government?

In regard to the Six Passions[4] the expositors of the wind
theory maintain that, when the wind blows, robbers and thieves
set to work under its influence, but the nature of robbers and
thieves cannot move Heaven to send the wind. When the wind
blows, it has a strange influence on perverted minds so, that robbers
and thieves do their deeds. How can we prove that? Robbers
and thieves seeing something, take it away, and beholding an
enemy, kill him. This is an off-hand business, and the work of
a moment, and not premeditated day and night. When the heavenly
afflatus passes, the time of greedy scoundrels and stealthy thieves
has come.

Those who predict dearness and cheapness from the wind,
hold that a wind blowing over residences of kings and ministers
brings dearness, whereas a wind coming from the dwellings of
prisoners, or of the dead, brings cheapness. Dearness and cheapness
refer to the amount of pecks and bushels to be got. When the
wind arrives, the buyers of grain raise or lower the prices, such is
the wonderful influence exercised by the heavenly fluid on men
and things. Thus the price of grain rises, or falls, becomes dear,
or cheap.

In the book on the Celestial Governors[5] it is stated that the
wind blowing from the four quarters is determined on the morning
of New Year's Day. When the wind blows from the south, there
will be droughts; when it blows from the north, inundations.
Coming from the east, it forebodes epidemics, and coming from
the west, war. The Great Annalist is right in saying that water,
dryness, war, and diseases are predetermined from the wind, for
luck and mishap of men and things depend on Heaven.

It is spring that animates things, and winter that causes them
to die. Spring vivifies, winter kills. Should Heaven for any reason
wish spring to kill, and winter to vivify, things would not die or
live at all, why? Because the life of things is governed by the
Yang principle, and their death depends on the Yin.[6]

By blowing air upon a person one cannot make him cold,
nor can one make him warm by breathing upon him. But if a
person who has thus been blown or breathed upon, comes into
winter or summer, he will have the unpleasant sensation of chill
or heat. The cold and hot fluids depend on heaven and earth,
and are governed by the Yin and the Yang. How could human
affairs and government have any influence upon them?

Moreover, Heaven is the root, and man the apex. Climbing
up a tree, we wonder that the branches cannot move the trunk,
but, if the trunk is cut down, all the twigs wither. Human affairs
resemble the branches of a tree, that which gives warmth is like
the root and the trunk.

For those creatures which are born from Heaven and filled
with its fluid Heaven is the master in the same manner as the
ear, the eye, the hand, and the foot are ruled by the heart. When
the heart has that intention, the ear and the eye hear and see,
and the hand and the foot move and act. To maintain that Heaven
responds to man would be like saying that the heart is under the
command of the ear and the eye, the hand and the foot.

Streamers hanging down from flags are attached to the flagstaff.
The flagstaff moving eastward, those streamers follow, and float westward.
If they say that heat and cold follow rewards and punishments,
then the heavenly fluid must be like those streamers.

The fact that the "Hook" star (Mercury) is amidst the
"House" constellation forebodes an earth-quake.[7] The Great Diviner
of Ch`i was cognisant of this, and told Duke Ching[8] that he
could shake the earth, which Duke Ching believed.[9] To say that
a sovereign can cause heat and cold is like Duke Ching's trusting
in the ability of the Great Diviner to shake the earth. Man cannot
move the earth, nor can he move Heaven. Heat and cold are
heavenly fluids. Heaven is very high, man very small. With a
small rod one cannot strike a bell, and with a fire-fly one cannot
heat a cauldron. Why? Because a bell is large, and a rod short,
a cauldron big, and a fire-fly small. If a tiny creature, seven
feet high,[10] would attempt to influence the mighty fluid of great
Heaven, it is evident that it would not have the slightest effect.

When it has been predetermined that a great general is about
to enter a territory, he will be angry, in case the air is cold, and
pleased, if it be warm. Now, joy and anger are called forth by
actions. Previous to his entering the territory, they are not yet
manifest, and do not come forward, before the conduct of the
people and the officials has been inquired into. But the hot or
the cold fluids have been there previously. If joy and anger evoked
heat and cold, those fluids ought to appear later than joy and
anger. Therefore only the hot and the cold fluids evoke the sovereign's
pleasure or wrath.

Some will say `Not so; the greatest sincerity is required. In
one's actions one must be most sincere, as Tsou Yen was, who implored
Heaven, when frost began to fall,[11] or the wife of Ch`i Liang[12]
who by her tears caused the city wall to collapse. How? The
heavenly fluid cannot be moved?'

The greatest sincerity is shown in the likes and dislikes of
the heart. When fruits are hanging before a man's face, no more
than one foot away from his mouth, he may desire to eat them,
and his breath may touch them, yet he does not obtain them

thereby. But, when he takes them in his hand, and conveys them
to his mouth, then he can eat them. Even small fruits which can
easily be moved in a basket, and are not far from the mouth,
cannot be procured merely by a desire, be it ever so strong. How
about Heaven then, which is so high and distant from us, and
whose fluid forms the shapeless empyrean without beginning or end?

During the dog-days, people stand against the wind, and in
the depth of winter, they sit turned towards the sun. In summer,
they are anxious to obtain coolness, and in winter, they would like
to have warmth. These wishes are most sincere. When their
desires reach their climax, they will perhaps stand against the
wind, and simultaneously fan themselves, or turned towards the
sun-shine, light a fire in a stove. Yet Heaven will never change
its fluid for summer or winter's sake. Heat and cold have their
fixed periods, which are never transmuted for man's sake. With
an earnest desire one does not obtain it, how should it be brought
about by rewards and punishments, when the thoughts are not
longing for heat or cold at all?

The sighs of ten thousand people cannot move Heaven, how
should it be possible that the sobs of Tsou Yen alone could cause
the frost to fall? Could the predicament of Tsou Yen be compared
to that of Ch`ü Yuan? Was his unjust imprisonment like jumping
into the river? Were the lamentations of the Li-sao and the Ch`ut`se[13]
nothing more than a sigh?—When Ch`ü Yuan died, there fell
no frost in the State of Ch`u.

This happened during the reign of the Kings Huai and Hsiang.[14]
At the time of the Kings Li and Wu,[15] Pien Ho[16] presented them
with a jade-stone, and had his two feet cut off. Offering his stone
he wept, till his tears ran dry, when he went on weeping blood.
Can the sincerity of Tsou Yen bear a comparison with Pien Ho's
sufferings, or his unjust arrest with the amputation of the feet?
Can the sighs towards heaven be put on a parallel with tears of
blood? Sighs are surely not like tears, nor Tsou Yen's imprisonment

like the cutting of the feet. Considering their grievances Tsou Yen is not
Pien Ho's equal. Yet at that time no frost was seen in the Ch`u country.

Li Sse[17] and Chao Kao[18] caused the death of the crown-prince
Fu Su by their calumnies. Mêng T`ien[19] and Mêng Ao[20] were involved
in his fall. At that time they all gave vent to their pain, which
was like sighing. Their misfortune culminated in death, and was
not limited to unjust banishment. Albeit yet no cold air was produced,
where they died.

Ch`in buried alive 400,000 soldiers of Chao below Ch`ang p`ing,[21]
where they were all thrown into pits at the same time. Their
wails and cries then were more than sighs. Even if their sincerity
was less than that of Tsou Yen, yet the sufferings of 400,000 people
must have been commensurate to the pain of one wise man, and
the cries they uttered, while falling into the pits, must have been
worse than the moans of one fettered prisoner.

In spite of this no hoar-frost was seen falling down below
Ch`ang-p`ing, when the above related event took place.

We read in the "Fu-hsing" chapter:—[22] "The people maltreated
universally complained that they had not failed against the Ruler
of Heaven."[23] This means that Ch`ih Yu's subjects suffering under
his vexations universally complained that they had not sinned
against high Heaven. Since the complaints of a whole populace
could not cause a fall of frost, the story about Tsou Yen is most
likely ficticious also.

In the south it is extremely hot:—the sand burns, stones
crumble into dust, and father and son bathe in the same water.
In the north it is bitterly cold:—water turns into ice, the earth
cracks, and father and son huddle together in the same den. Yen
is situated in the north. Tsou Yen was there in the 5th month of
Chou,[24] which corresponds to the 3d month of the corrected year.

In the central provinces frost, and snow-falls are of frequent occurrence
during the first and the second months. In the northern
region, where it is very cold, frost may fall even during the third
month, and that would not be an extraordinary phenomenon. Perhaps
it was still cold in the north in the third month, and frost
happened to fall, when by chance Tsou Yen gave vent to his feelings,
which just coincided with the frost.

It has been recorded that in Yen there was the "Cold Valley,"
where the five grains did not grow. Tsou Yen blew the flute, and
the "Cold Valley" became warm. Consequently Tsou Yen was able
to make the air warm, and also to make it cold. How do we
know that Tsou Yen did not communicate his grievances to his
contemporaries, and instead manifested his sincerity through the
heavenly fluid? Did he secretly blow the flute in the valley of
Yen, and make the air of the prison cold, imploring Heaven for
that purpose? For otherwise, why did the frost fall?

Fan Sui[25] calumniated by Hsü Chia was most disgracefully treated
by Wei Ch`i, had his back broken, and his ribs doubled up.
Chang Yi[26] while travelling in Ch`u, was arrested by the prime minister
of Ch`u, and beaten, until the blood ran out. The way in which
these two gentlemen were maltreated has been narrated by the
Great Annalist.[27] The imprisonment of Tsou Yen resembles the adventures
of Fan Sui and Chang Yi. Why does Sse Ma Ch`ien omit
to mention this? Since it is not mentioned in Tsou Yen's biography
that during his imprisonment he caused the frost to fall, it must
be an invention, and a random statement like the story of Prince
Tan,[28] who is believed to have ordered the sun to return to the

meridian,[29] and Heaven to rain grain. Thus we may assume that
the story about the frost falling down upon Tsou Yen imploring
Heaven is untrue, and that the report of the wife of Ch`i Liang
causing the city wall to collapse is false.

When Tun-mao[30] rebelled, the Viscount Hsiang of Chao[31] led
an army against it to invest it. When his soldiers had arrived
at the foot of the city wall, more than one hundred feet of this
wall of Tun-mao crumbled down. Viscount Hsiang thereupon sheathed
his sword, and went back. If the wife of Ch`i Liang caused the
collapse of the city wall by her tears, was there anybody crying
among Hsiang Tse's men? When Ch`in was about to be extinguished,
a city gate collapsed inside, and when the house of Ho Kuang[32]
was going to ruin, a wall of the palace was demolished of itself.
Who was weeping in the Ch`in palace, or crying in the house of
Ho Kuang? The collapse of the gate, and the demolition of the
wall were signs of the catastrophe awaiting Ch`in and Ho.

Perhaps at the time, when the Ch`i State[33] was about to be
subverted, the wife of Ch`i Liang happened to cry at the foot of the
wall, just as Tsou Yen chanced to cry to Heaven, when it was still very
cold in the Yen State. There was a correspondence of events and
a concordance of time. Eye-witnesses and people who heard about
it, most likely were of this opinion. Moreover, provided that the
city wall was old, and the house-wall, rotten, there must have
been a collapse, and a destruction. If the tears of one woman
could make 50 feet of the wall tumble down, the wall must have
been such, that one might have pushed a beam of 30 feet into it
with one finger.

During the Spring and Autumn period several mountains were
transformed in an extraordinary way. Mountains and walls belong
to the same class. If tears subvert a city wall, can they demolish
a mountain also? If somebody in white mourning like a woman

cries so, that his tears flow like rivers, people generally believe
that a city wall can collapse through these tears, and regard it
as quite the proper thing. But Ch`i Liang died during the campaign,
and did not return. His wife went to meet him. The Prince
of Lu offered his condolence on the road, which his wife did not
accept. When the coffin had arrived in her house, the Prince of
Lu condoled with her again.[34] She did not say a word, and cried
at the foot of the wall. As a matter of fact, her husband had
died in the campaign, therefore he was not in the wall, and, if his
wife cried turned towards the city wall, this was not the right
place. In short, it is again an unfounded assertion that the wife
of Ch`i Liang caused the city wall to tumble down by her tears.[35]

On this principle of sympathetic actions a white halo encircled
the sun, when Ching K`o stabbed the king of Ch`in,[36] and Venus
eclipsed the Pleiades, when the scholar from Wei drew up the stratagem
of Ch`ang-p`ing for Ch`in.[37] This again is an absurdity. When
Yü Tse[38] was planning the murder of Viscount Hsiang, and was lying
under a bridge, Hsiang Tse's heart throbbed, as he approached the
bridge. Kuan Kao[39] intended to murder Kao Tsu, and had concealed
a man in the wall. When Kao Tsu arrived at Po-jen,[40] his heart
also beat high.[41] Those two individuals being about to stab the
two princes, the hearts of the latter palpitated. If we reason in
a proper way, we cannot admit that the princes were affected by
the souls of the two assassins, and should we do so in the case
of the king of Ch`in? When Ching K`o was preparing to stab
him, the king's heart was not moved, but a white halo encircled

the sun. This celestial phenomenon of a white halo encircling the
sun happened of its own accord, and it was not the mind of Ching
K`o which produced it.

Mercury between the constellations of the House and the Heart
denotes an impending earth-quake. When an earth-quake is going
to take place, Mercury corresponds to the House and the Heart. The
offuscation of the Pleiades by Venus is like the position of Mercury
between the House and the Heart. Therefore the assertion that the
design of Ch`ang-p`ing, devised by the scholar from Wei, caused Venus
to eclipse the Pleiades, is very doubtful.

When Jupiter injured the Bird[42] and the Tail stars,[43] Chou and
Ch`u were visited with disasters, and when a feather-like fluid appeared,
Sung, Wei, Chên, and Chêng suffered misfortunes. At that
time, Chou and Ch`u had not done any wrong, nor had Sung, Wei,
Chên, or Chêng committed any wickedness. However, Jupiter first
occupied the place of the Tail star, and the fluid of misfortune, for
a while, descended from heaven, whereupon Chou and Ch`u had their
disasters, and Sung, Wei, Chên, and Chêng suffered likewise at the
same time. Jupiter caused injury to Chou and Ch`u, as the heavenly
fluid did to the four States. Who knows but that the white
halo encircling the sun, caused the attempt on the life of the king
of Ch`in, and that Venus eclipsing the Pleiades, brought about the
stratagem of Ch`ang-p`ing?