University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Slandering of Days (Chi-jih).

As people trust in the time of the year, so, in their proceedings,
they also place reliance on days. If there be some
sickness, death, or other calamities, in a serious case, they speak
of having offended against the year or a month, in minor ones, of
having neglected a forbidden day. Books on forbidden days enjoy
no less popularity than tracts on the year and the month. Common
people repose implicit confidence in them, and even scholars able
to reason cannot solve the problem. Consequently, when taking
any steps, people do not examine their hearts, but conform to some
days, and unconcerned with their intentions, they expect everything
from time.

Works on time and days exist in great numbers, and a short
inquiry into their general tenor will disclose what they are worth,
and induce those believing in Heaven and time to have some doubt,
and repudiate such ideas.

Happiness and misfortune accompany prosperity and decay,[1777]
alternating and passing away. At all proceedings people will say
that the unlucky must be afraid of their bad luck which will come
to pass, and, concerning the lucky, they pretend that the luck
which they hope for will be realised. When happiness and misfortune
have arrived of their own accord, they attribute them to
former good or bad luck in order to frighten and caution their
hearers. That is the reason why, for many generations, people
have not had any misgivings about the calendar, and why for such
a long time the truth has not dawned upon them.

The calendar for burials prescribes that the nine holes and
depressions of the earth,[1778] as well as odd and even days, and single
and paired months are to be avoided. The day being lucky and
innocuous, oddness and evenness agreeing, and singleness and parity

tallying, there is luck and good fortune. The non-observance of
this calendar, on the other hand, conduces to bad luck and disaster.

Now, burying means concealing the coffin, and shrouding,
concealing the corpse. Shortly after death, the corpse is concealed
in the coffin, and, after a while, the coffin is concealed in a tomb.
What difference is there between a tomb and a coffin, or between
shrouding and burying? In placing the body into the coffin, unlucky
auguries are not avoided, solely in interring it, good luck is sought.

If the grave be made much of, the grave is earth, and the
coffin, wood. In respect to the nature of the Five Elements, wood
and earth resemble each other.[1779] Wood is worked to receive the
corpse, and earth is dug up to inter the coffin. Working and
digging are similar proceedings, and a corpse and a coffin are very
much the same. Should the digging up of earth injure the body
of Earth, then in trenching ditches or tilling a garden, a special day
should be chosen as well. If people are able to make a distinction
between these two things,[1780] I am willing to admit their prohibitions,
but unless they can do so, I am not in a position to accept this
avoidance.

When the day is not injurious, they still require that it be
odd or even, and oddness and evenness being in harmony, they still
demand the singleness or parity of the month. When the day is
odd or even, and the month single or paired, in accordance with
the burial calendar, by combining these dates with lucky auguries,
they always find out some correspondence. How can we explain this?

In the `Spring and Autumn' period sons of Heaven, princes,
and high officers died by hundreds and thousands, but their burial
days were not always conformable to the calendar. It is further
said that an interment could not take place because it rained, and
that it was performed at mid-day on a kêng-yin[1781] day.[1782] Provided
that the Duchess of Lu[1783] died on an odd day, then the burial
might have been on a chi-ch`ou[1784] day, when oddness and evenness
would have been in harmony, and this being the case, the day
would have been propitious.[1785] She could not be buried to avoid

the rain, but if the day was a good one it ought not to have been
rejected barely because of the rain, for rain may have been inconvenient,
but the disregard of odd and even could result in the
most serious calamities and disasters. To seek their convenience
and thereby entail calamities could not have been the intention of
the people of Lu or according to the view of a diligent officer. Now,
they paid no attention to odd and even, and waited for the kêng-yin
day, taking the sunshine on this day for a good presage.[1786]

The Liki states that the Son of Heaven is interred in the
seventh month, the princes of a State in the fifth, the ministers,
great officers, and officers in the third month.[1787] If e. g. the Son of
Heaven expires in the first month he is buried in the seventh, if
he dies in the second he is buried in the eighth.[1788] The same
applies to the princes, ministers, great officers, and officers. According
to the calendar for burials the month of the interment of
the Son of Heaven, and the princes would be either even or uneven
throughout.[1789]

Degenerate ages have great faith in these sorts of laws, and
depraved princes are bent on seeking happiness. The "Spring and
Autumn" time was very degenerate, and that between Duke Yin and
Duke Ai was the worst, yet they did not take any precautions for
the days of interment, because they did not shun bad luck.

Under the reign of King Wên of Chou, laws and institutions
were perfect. The intellect of Confucius was very acute, and the
arguments of the Ch`un-ch`iu were very subtle. If, by neglecting
lucky auguries, people were afflicted, or if, by their heedlessness,
they had incurred misfortune, some few words and some slight
attempts at criticism would not have been out of place. Now we
find nothing of the kind, consequently there exist no fixed rules
for the time of burials.

The calendar of sacrifices has its favourable and inauspicious
presages as well. Thus, a day when bloodshed is to be avoided,[1790]
and when the month is baleful,[1791] always bodes evil. If sacrifices
are offered with animals slaughtered on such days, some catastrophe
will ensue.

Now, sacrificing is feeding the ghosts, and the ghosts are the
essence of dead men.[1792] If they are not, people cannot have seen
them eating and drinking. The service of the dead is analogous
to that of the living, and the worship of ghosts, corresponding to
that of men. Since we behold the living eating and drinking, they
must do the same after they have died and become ghosts. Affection
for other beings, and remembrance of dear relatives are the main
springs of sacrifices. As for the offerings to other spirits, and the
numerous ghosts, although they are not dead men, yet the ritual
of their worship is identical with that of the deceased. As we
never see their shapes, we only think of them in the form of living
men. The living have no fixed days for their eating and drinking,
wherefore then must spirits and ghosts have such days?

In case ghosts and spirits really are conscious and not different
from men, it is unnecessary to select days for sacrifices.[1793] If, however,
they are unconscious, they cannot partake of food and drink,
and though days be selected or shunned, of what use would it be?

In reality, there are no ghosts for the diverse sacrifices, and
the departed do not possess any knowledge. The various sacrifices
are performed in appreciation of great services, to show that virtue
has not been forgotten, and the dead are treated as though they
were alive, for the purpose of avoiding the appearance of ingratitude.
Sacrifices do not bring happiness, and their omission does not entail
calamities. Since sacrifices and the omission thereof neither cause
happiness nor misfortune, how can lucky and unlucky days be of
advantage or harmful?

If bloodshed be avoided, and the baleful days of the month
shunned, because, when animals are slaughtered, blood is spilled, the
living, eating the Six Animals, should likewise take these precautions.
In the many slaughter-houses throughout China, several
thousand animals are killed daily, no distinction being made between

lucky and unlucky ones, but the butchers do not die an untimely
death for that reason. As regards capital punishment, those criminals,
beheaded every month, also count by thousands. When they are
executed in the market-place, no auspicious day is chosen, yet the
judges are not visited with misfortune.

When the meat supply is exhausted, animals are slaughtered,
and when a case is settled, the culprits are decapitated. The decapitation
of convicts, and the slaughter of animals are both bloodshed
indeed. Why do victims, immolated at sacrifices, receive a different
treatment, and why is a calendar established for sacrifices alone?
Why are butchers and judges left out of account? The world
adopts an opinion, without considering analogous cases. It sacrifices,
though there are no ghosts, and believes in things to be
avoided, though they do not exist. Attempting to secure happiness,
by means of these two non-entities, it does not obtain it.

In writings on baths we are informed that, if anybody washes
his head on a tse[1794] day, he becomes lovely, whereas if he does so
on a mao[1795] day, his hair turns white.

A man is liked or disliked according as his features are handsome
or ugly, whereas the black and white colour of his hair depend
upon his age and the number of his years. If a woman as plain
as Mu Mu[1796] were to wash her head on a tse day, would she excite
love thereby? Or if a girl of fifteen were to do the same on a
mao day, would her hair turn white?

Moreover, mu ([OMITTED]) signifies to remove the impurity of the
head, hsi ([OMITTED]) to remove that of the feet, kuan ([OMITTED]) to remove
that of the hands, and yü ([OMITTED]) to remove that of the body. All
these manners of washing aim at cleansing the same body, and
resemble each other. For washing the feet, the hands, and the
body no days are selected, only for washing the head there are
certain days. If the head be deemed the noblest part of the body,
in bathing ([OMITTED]) the face is included and the face belongs to the
head also.[1797] If the hair be considered the noblest, there ought to
be chosen a day for combing the hair as well.

For combing one uses wood[1798] and for washing, water. Water
and wood both belong to the Five Elements. Now, in using wood
one does not shun anything, only in using water certain days are
appointed. Should water be nobler than wood, then whenever
water is used a day should be selected.

Besides, water is less noble than fire;[1799] if different degrees of
nobility must be admitted, then, in all cases when fire is used, a
day ought to be chosen.

Further, provided that a person, washing his head on a tse
day, becomes the object of love, and that, by washing it on a
mao day, his hair turns white, who is the cause of all this? The
nature of tse is water, and of mao, wood.[1800] Water cannot be loved,
and the colour of wood is not white. The animal of tse is the
rat, and that of mao is the hare. The rat cannot be loved, and
the fur of the hare is not white.[1801] Who is it that renders the
person, bathing on a tse day, lovable, and causes the hair of another,
bathing on a mao day, to take the colour of hoar-frost?

Consequently,[1802] bathing days are not lucky or unlucky, and
it is not admissible to establish a special bathing calendar.

There are books for tailors, giving auspicious and inauspicious
times. Dresses, made on an inauspicious day, bring misfortune,
made on a lucky day, they attract happiness.

Clothes as well as food serve to support the human body:
—food supports it within, and clothes protect it from without.
For food and drink no days are chosen,[1803] whereas, in tailoring,
certain days are tabooed. Are clothes of greater importance because
they cover the body? Of things appreciated by humanity there
is none more urgently needed than food. Therefore the first of

the Eight Objects of Government[1804] is food, the second commodities.
Clothes fall under commodities. Should they rank higher, for being
on the body, then nothing, worn on the body, is more important
than the hat.[1805] In manufacturing it, no restrictions are to be observed,
whereas tailoring is beset with prohibitions. The more
valuable object is thus treated with indifference, and much care
is bestowed on the meaner.

Besides, washing removes the impurity of the head, and hats
are used as head-gear; baths take away the dirt from the body,
and clothes protect it from cold. For washing there are prohibitions,
but for hats there are no restrictions; for baths no good or bad
auguries exist, clothes, on the other hand, have good or bad influences.
All these things are alike and refer to the same body,
but some are held to be good, others to be bad, and the taboo
is not the same. Common people, with their shallow knowledge,
cannot grasp the truth.

Moreover, clothes are less valuable than a chariot and horses.
The first of the Nine Gifts of Investiture[1806] are a chariot and horses,
the second, robes of State. Cartwrights do not seek a propitious
time, and tailors alone look out for a lucky day. By their prejudices,
people lose the true estimate of what is important and not.

For commencing the building of a dwelling and the construction
of a house the selection of a day is requisite.

A house covers the human shape, and a dwelling harbours
the human body; how could they be liable to the evil influences
of the year and the moon, that the aforesaid selection becomes
necessary? If the spirits dislike them because they cover and shield
the human body, then for building a carriage, and constructing a
ship, for making a canopy, and manufacturing a hat, a propitious
day ought to be chosen as well. In case the spirits be displeased,

because the earth is moved, and the soil dug up, then,
for making a trench or tilling a garden, a good day should be
appointed also. Provided that the spirit of Earth be molested by
the turning up of the soil, it might well forgive man, for he has
no bad intentions, and merely desires to shelter his body and find
a resting place. The holy mind of a spirit would not be irritated
thereby, and, under this condition, even the omission to select a
day would not have evil consequences. If, however, the spirits
of the soil could not pardon man, and irreasonably hated him, in
view of the vexations caused by his disturbing the earth, of what
avail would be the selection of a propitious day?[1807]

The imperial law forbids murder and the wounding of man.
All murderers and those who have wounded others, are liable to
punishment, and, though they should select a day for transgressing
the law, they would not escape. In default of such a prohibition,
even wilful manslaughter would not be atoned for.

The jurisdiction of a district magistrate is like the sway of
ghosts and spirits, and the crime of throwing up and piercing the
soil, analogous to killing and wounding. For killing and wounding
the selection of days is of no use, wherefore then should there be
those prohibitive rules concerning the construction and the erection
of houses and dwellings?

In studying books the ping[1808] days are eschewed, because they
say that Ts`ang Hsieh[1809] expired on a ping day. The rites prescribe
that on tse and mao[1810] days no music should be made, for the Yin
and Hsia dynasties perished on a tse and a mao day.[1811] If people
study on a ping day, or make music on a tse and mao day, they
are not necessarily visited with misfortune. Out of regard for the
death day of former emperors, and out of sympathy with their
sufferings, people cannot bring themselves to undertake anything.
The system of tabooed days is related to these customs connected
with the ping, tse, and mao days. Although something be shunned
there is no fear of any disaster or calamity.[1812]

A great variety of spirits are referred to in the calendars[1813]
embracing Heaven and Earth, but the Sages do not speak of them,[1814]
the scholars have not mentioned them, and perhaps they are not
real. The laws of Heaven are hard to know, but provided that
spirits exist, then what benefit could be derived from shunning
a day on which they display their activity, or what adversity
could accrue from a non-avoidance? If a king undertakes something
on such and such a day, and the people also choose this day, the
king, on hearing it, would not mete out punishments, for he would
not be angry that his subjects did not shun him. Wherefore then
should the spirits of Heaven alone be so cruel?

The State law inquires whether a thing be permissible or not
according to human ideas, but does not concern itself with prognostics.
Confucius said that one puts up a dwelling after having
taken its forecast.[1815] Regarding the sacrifices of the Ch`un-ch`iu, he
does not allude to the divination of days. The Liki says that
domestic affairs are settled on an even day and outside matters,
on an odd day. Odd and even are observed with regard to inside
and outside matters, but do not refer to good or bad luck, or
indicate happiness and misfortune.