University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXVII.

False Charges against Time (Lan-shih).

When people dig up the earth for the foundation of a building,
the year-star and the moon will swallow something,[1752] and, on the
land which they consume, a case of death occurs. If e. g. the
planet Jupiter is in the sign tse,[1753] the year-star swallows up some
land in the sign yu,[1754] and if the moon in the first month stands in
yin,[1755] it consumes some land in the sign sse.[1756] Some building being
erected on land situated in tse and yin, people living in yu and sse
are swallowed up, and being about to be thus injured, they have
recourse to charms[1757] to counteract these influences, using objects
made of the Five Elements, and hanging up metal, wood, water, and
fire. Should, for example, Jupiter and the moon infest a family in
the west, they would suspend metal,[1758] and should those luminaries
be going to devour a family in the east, this family would suspend
charcoal.[1759] Moreover, they institute sacrifices with a view to averting
the evil, or they feign to change their residence, in order thus to
eschew the calamity. There is unanimity about this, every one
doing like the others. A careful consideration, however, reveals
the utter futility of this mistake. How?

The spirits of Heaven and Earth must have equal minds.
People misconducting themselves are liable to punishments and
penalties. In this respect the spirits cannot have two minds or
different feelings, and their former ideas cannot be opposed to the
later ones. When, in moving their residence, people do not take
heed of the year-star and the moon, both resent this disregard of

their opposition, and are irritated with the delinquents.[1760] Now,
people, doing some building, likewise move the body of the earth, and
their misdemeanour is the same as that committed in moving one's
residence. Therefore, those builders should be swallowed by the year-star,
wherefore then, contrariwise, has the soil of the signs sse and
yu to suffer for their guilt? If the spirits of the year-star and the
moon take exception to the moving, and find fault with building,
how is it that their judgment is so inconsequent?[1761]

Ghosts and spirits call the sinners to account as a district
magistrate reprimands and punishes. The ways in which people
infringe the laws are many. In small cases the penalty is remitted,
and only great viciousness entails capital punishments. But it does
not happen that the innocent suffer. If they are subject to punishment,
without any guilt, the world calls it injustice.

Now, the people of sse and yu have not offended against the
moon or the year-star, yet while in tse they are building houses,
they are eaten without any reason. Thus the year-star would be
cruel to innocent persons.

Just when Jupiter stands in tse, the houses in tse would be
safe, and those in wu[1762] be injured. One must not commence building,
or do any work, but though remaining idle and inactive, one is
nevertheless visited with disasters. In the matter of the swallowing
by the year-star and the moon, as soon as a tse house[1763] begins to
be stirred, sse and yu have hard times.

Jupiter is the spirit of the year and the moon. If its penalties
and ravages are different on various occasions, one cannot expect
Heaven to follow the excentricity of the spirit of the year and the
moon.

As for the spirit of the year-star and the moon, the year-star
in reality is Jupiter. When it has its position on the horizon in
the sign tse, and some edifice is constructed in one of the provinces
of China, say in Yang-chou[1764] in the south-east—according to the view
of Tsou Yen who takes China for one continent only, it would also

be in the south-east:—then the year-star consuming some ground in
the sign yu,[1765] ought to swallow the soil of the Western Ch`iang:[1766]
how could the land in the south-east suffer any damage? In case
Jupiter stays amidst men,[1767] and a house in the west lies in yu, in the
house of the family, erecting some building there, there must likewise
be a yu region, why then does Jupiter not swallow this yu quarter
in the house in question, and injure another family instead?

Besides, who really is it that swallows? If it really be Jupiter
and the moon, these two are attending spirits of Heaven: their eating
and drinking, therefore, must resemble that of Heaven. Heaven does
not eat men, therefore at the suburban sacrifices,[1768] they are not
immolated as victims. If the two stars are not celestial spirits,
they cannot eat men either.

Respecting the food of the numerous spirits between Heaven
and Earth, the Sage says that they must be treated like men. The
dead are to be worshipped after the manner of the living, and
ghosts, as if they were men. Consequently, at the offerings made
to the various spirits all sorts of things are used, but not men.

Tigers and wolves are man devouring brutes; do the spirits
of Jupiter and the moon grow from the essence of tigers and wolves?
In a time of famine, when there is a scarcity of grain and food,
men, out of hunger, devour one another. Are the spirits of Jupiter
and the moon imbued with the fluid of those men-eaters?

If Jupiter and the moon have spirits, the sun must likewise
have a spirit. Jupiter swallows land, and the moon does; why
should the sun not do the same?

A number of days makes up a month, a number of months
forms a season, several seasons, a year, 1,539 years are a t`ung[1769]
period, and 4,617 years a yuan[1770] period.[1771] These are multiplied and
involved numbers, and the names of fractions and full numbers.
How could ghosts and spirits have anything to do with them,

or felicity and misfortune depend on them? If the year and the
month, as full numbers, must have spirits, then the four seasons
would have them, and the t`ung and yuan periods as well.

Three days of the moon are po[1772] (the first quarter), eight
days are the crescent,[1773] and fifteen, full-moon.[1774] What difference is
there with a full year or a full moon? If the year and the moon
have spirits, the first quarter and the crescent must have spirits too.

One day is divided into twelve hours. When dawn is during
the yin hour (3-5 a. m.), the sun rises during the mao time (5-7 a. m.).
The twelve moons rest in yin and mao, consequently the yin and
mao times are added to the twelve moons.[1775] The sun receives the
twelve hours and does not swallow land, the moon, however, resting
in the twelve signs, does. Has the sun no spirit in spite of this
addition, whereas the moon has owing to this relation? How is
it that the moon alone, being thus related, consumes land, and
that the sun, although connected with the hours, does not? If the
sun has no spirit, notwithstanding this connexion, it is not proper
to decide the question by a reference to hours, and if the addition
of hours gives spirituality, it is not right that one star should
not eat.

The mouth and the stomach of a spirit must be like those
of man. Being hungry, he eats, and being satiated, he stops. He
does not take a meal each time a building is erected. Provided
that the spirits of Jupiter and the moon eat when there is a building
in course of construction, buildings are few; do the two spirits
suffer hunger then?

During a famine, people quit their homes, which remain desolate
and abandoned. Every building activity ceases. Do the spirits of
the year-star and the moon starve then?

Moreover, fields no less than houses are put in order by men;
the force displayed in these works and the efforts made are identical.
In building a house, the earth is dug up, and wooden beams are
erected, on the field, they cut a ditch and raise dykes. Beams and
dykes are equally raised, and the digging and cutting the ground
are the same. If, in case a house be erected, Jupiter and the moon eat
the ground, but do not do so, when a field is put under cultivation,
are they hungry, when the house is building, and have they no
appetite, when the land is cultivated? How is it possible that under
similar circumstances, and the proceedings being the same, eating
and drinking are different?

Those maintaining the encroachments of the two celestial
bodies, will measure the bulk of the work done and calculate the
distance by steps. If e. g. some construction 3 feet high be built,
the eating would take place within one step, if the height exceed
100 feet, the eating would extend over more than a Li. According
as the work is big or small, the calamity would reach far or near.

Mêng T`ien built the Great Wall for the Ch`in dynasty, the
length of which was half that of the empire.[1776] The misfortune
caused thereby ought to have affected tens of thousands of people,
but while the construction of the Great Wall was going on, the
deaths among the people of Ch`in were comparatively few.

When the Duke of Chou was building Loyang, great works
were carried out. At that time the two stars should have swallowed
lots of land, and the Sage foreseeing this, ought to have moved
from the place thus menaced to a favourable site, because, unless
he avoided a collision, many hardships would have befallen the
people. In the Classics and Records, Sages and Worthies should
have criticized this proceeding. Now, we hear that the people
building Loyang flocked together from the four quarters, but we
are not told that after the work was completed, and everything
finished, many died. Therefore, the statements about the year-star
and the moon are probably baseless and untrue.

Besides, if the two stars really eat, a feeling of hunger in
their mouths and bellies like that of men, must have been the
cause. Now, suppose, in the sse and yu quarters, they employ
charms paralyzing their influences; would they be afraid of a

metal blade, or dread a dead charcoal, and therefore shut their
mouths, not daring to eat? Really, to be afraid there ought to
be some equilibrium of the antagonistic quantities. The Five Elements
overcome one another, but the forces of things must be equally
balanced. If a cupful of water be thrown on the burning mountain
of Ch`in, or if a handful of earth be employed to stop a breach
of the Yellow River, a thousand Li in width, would they master
those elements? The relation of the elements remains the same,
but the dimensions and quantities are not proportionate.

The nature of Heaven and Earth is such, that, as regards
the strength of human beings, a little cannot overpower much, or
a small force vanquish a great one. Let a big army be equipped
with wooden staves only, and a single warrior, armed with a
sword, try conclusions and exert his strength, he is sure to be
killed. Metal, by its nature, subdues wood; if, in this case, wood
gets the better, and metal succumbs, it is due to the great amount
of wood and the small quantity of metal. If metal be heaped up
in mounds, and a charcoal fire approached, to light and burn them,
it is obvious that the metal does not melt. The principles of the
Five Elements are not violated, but there is too much metal and
too little fire, and the disproportion of dimensions and quantities
is too great.

A boy five feet high, fighting with Mêng Pên, could not gain
the victory, not because of his cowardice, but of his inadequate
strength. Wolves, in packs, eat men, and men, crowded together,
eat the wolves. In all contests depending on strength and courage,
very seldom the small overcome the great, and that, in struggles
and competitions, the minority beats the majority is of very rare
occurrence. According to the laws of Heaven, among human beings
the small cannot vanquish the great, and the few do not subdue
the many. How could evil influences be suppressed and averted,
or the calamities, caused by the year-star, be removed by means of
a blade of metal or a charcoal fire?