10608.Ch01.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
© 2006 UC Regents Buy this book University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2006 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tai ping jing. English The scripture on great peace : the Taiping jing and the beginnings of Daoism / [translated by] Barbara Hendrischke. p. cm—(Daoist classics series) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-520-24788-8 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: o-520-24788-4 (cloth : alk. paper). 1. Hendrischke, Barbara, 1940– II. Title. III. Title: Taiping jing and the beginning of Daoism. bl1900.t22552e64 2007 299.5'1482—dc22 2006018986 Manufactured in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10987654321 This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). CONTENTS Preface vii Conventions ix Introduction 1 Translation Section 41. How to Distinguish between Poor and Rich 67 Section 42. One Man and Two Women 95 Section 43. How to Promote the Good and Halt the Wicked 105 Section 44. How to Preserve the Three Essentials 113 Section 45. The Three Needs and the Method of [Dealing with] Auspicious and Ominous Events 121 Section 46. You Must Not Serve the Dead More Than the Living 126 Section 47. How to Verify the Trustworthiness of Texts and Writings 136 Section 48. An Explanation of the Reception and Transmission [of Evil] in Five Situations 141 Section 50. An Explanation of the Master’s Declaration 153 Section 51. The True Contract 170 Section 52. How to Work Hard to Do Good 173 Section 53. How to Distinguish between Root and Branches 180 Section 54. How to Enjoy Giving Life Wins Favor with Heaven 189 Section 55. How to Classify Old Texts and Give a Title to the Book 195 Section 56. How the Nine Groups of Men Disperse Calamities Inherited from Former Kings 206 Section 57. How to Examine What Is True and What Is False Dao 217 Section 58. On the Four Ways of Conduct and on [the Relationship between] Root and Branches 221 Section 59. Big and Small Reproaches 231 Section 60. How Books Illustrate [Rule by] Punishment and [by] Virtue 241 Section 61. On Digging Up Soil and Publishing Books 255 Section 62. Dao is Priceless and Overcomes Yi and Di Barbarians 274 Section 63. O‹cials, Sons, and Disciples of Outstanding Goodness Find Ways for Their Lord, Father, and Master to Become Transcendent 283 Section 64. How to Subdue Others by Means of Dao and Not by Means of Severity 301 Section 65. Threefold Cooperation and Interaction 307 Section 66. On the Need to Study What Is True 326 Appendix: The Composition of the TPJ 343 Bibliography 373 Index 393 section 41 · How to Distinguish between Poor and Rich This section is one of the most practice-oriented in the text.1 It consists of two parts, one analyzing relations of property and the other the lot of women. The first is too short to be a separate section of its own, and there is no other material in the re- ceived text to which it could belong. The second part is linked closely to the fol- lowing section, section 42, an indication that here, at least, the sequence of sections is not haphazard. The first half of the section discusses the stages of wealth and poverty and how they are achieved. I have found no parallel in Han dynasty or earlier material of these diªerent stages. Rhetorical as this account might be, the enumeration of the diªer- ent types of poverty stresses the severity of social conditions and the prevalence of misery. Poverty is depicted as an element of the apocalyptic scenario. Its rapid in- crease is supposed to persuade men that there is an urgent need to change their ways. An almost theological need to tie diªerent levels of being into one unified structure induces the Master to juxtapose men’s poverty with that of the earth. However, heaven’s position is too exalted to allow the idea of celestial poverty. Once the Master has defined the stages of poverty and environmental destruc- tion, as we might understand the expression “earth’s poverty,” he moves toward an analysis of what causes them. He points out that the plight of individual families stems from outside factors. Both poverty and wealth have a cosmic dimension. Since men are children of heaven and earth, they thrive only when their parents thrive. Thus an individual and his family cannot prosper in a community that is in misery. 67 Even the royal house is not exempt from this nexus. Individual wealth is said to be a fake; only a self-su‹cient community can be called wealthy. In line with the Laozi’s image of ideal communal life, wealth is seen as created exclusively by agricultural production. The possession of valuables becomes relevant only when basic neces- sities are in short supply. The prevention of poverty and the achievement of wealth, then, are the same thing, and both are said to result from proper political action. Here the Master as- sembles lines of thought common in quietist political philosophy, for instance in the Huainan zi.2 Impoverishment is the result of poor politics. It came into being when dao was replaced by wen (culture) and by military rule. The Master does not seri- ously pursue these thoughts, referring to them only in passing before he arrives at his own message: a community will be wealthy when its government takes the triad of heaven, earth, and men into proper account. The government must establish a direct relationship between the agricultural producer and the cosmic, natural sources of fertility and growth. This precludes other, more prominent, ancient approaches to the problem: neither individual industriousness nor proper economic policy will create wealth.3 The second half of the section is possibly premodern China’s most outspoken attack on female infanticide. The argument is characteristic of the way the Celes- tial Master sets forth his doctrine. He argues on cosmic rather than on moral grounds. The main evil in infanticide is the distress and resentment it provokes in females. Their protests reach heaven and earth, which react by causing harvest fail- ures. Another evil resulting from it is a shortage of women, which makes it di‹cult for each man to have two wives and thus ensure his progeny. But the problem is too fundamental to be solved by decree. Parents don’t kill girls because they want to. They feel they can’t aªord to bring up children from whom they will get no return. The Master thus suggests that girls should be made more valuable by permitting them to earn their keep, just as boys do. They should be to their husbands what an o‹cial is to his lord. This would enable a daughter to support her own parents in exchange for the trouble they took to raise her. In this situation a wife would be happy and not of “two hearts,” as the Master puts it. She would no longer serve her in- laws at the cost of forsaking her own parents. It is remarkable that the position of the TPJ in this matter is as isolated as it is. Clearly, infant mortality was such that newborn children were in general not yet seen as human beings, so that Confucian arguments for humane behavior were not applicable to them. As a consequence, the Master does not apply moral considera- tions, but rather points to the “resentment” created by such killings and its destabi- 68 · how to distinguish between poor and rich lizing cosmic eªect. The Master’s program for changing the situation amounts to premodern China’s only attempt to allocate to women the full measure of human responsibility. Their filial piety, which to those in the second century c.e. was roughly equivalent to their morality, was to be equated with that of men. ··· (41.29) Step forward, Perfected! You have been coming to study the doctrine (dao) for such a long time. You have really learned it all by now, don’t you think? If you had not again spoken to me, I might have thought so. But as soon as I hear your words, I know it is not so. Now I would like to reach the end but I can’t think of another question. If the Celestial Master would only reveal my shortcomings once again! All right, come here. What do we mean by “rich” and “poor”? Well, those who own a lot are rich and those who own little are poor. What you have said appears to be true but is in fact false. What do you mean? Take someone who often cheats, deceives, flatters, steals, and robs. How could we call him “rich”? Or take a situation where the people in general own a lot while the sovereign owns but little. How could we call him “poor”?4 (41.30) Foolish and stupid as I am, I felt I had to speak up when the Celestial Master set out to instruct me.