This is a reading from the Shu Jing, or classic of history. It is
traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou (regent, 1042-1036 B.C.), speaking
on behalf of King Cheng (r. 1042/35-1006 B.C.). It is generally accepted as
authentic. As Confucius took the Duke of Zhou as his model of the ideal ruler
this reading was quite important in later Chinese political philosophy.
The king speaks to this effect:- "Do you
clearly make known my great commands in the country of Mei.
When your reverent father, the king Wen, laid the foundations
of our kingdom in the western region, he delivered announcements and cautions to
the princes of the various States, all the high officers, with their assistants,
and the manages of affairs, saying, morning and evening, 'For sacrifices spirits
should be employed.' When Heaven was sending down its favoring decree and laying
the foundations of the eminence of our people, spirits were used only in the
great sacrifices. When Heaven has sent down its terrors, and our people have
thereby been greatly disorganized and lost their virtue, this might also be
invariably traced to their indulgence in spirits; yea, the ruin of States, small
and great, by these terrors, may be traced invariably to their crime in the use
of spirits.
King Wen admonished and instructed the young and all who were
charged with office and in employment, that they should not ordinarily use
spirits. Throughout all his States, he required that they should be drunk only
on occasion of sacrifices, and then that virtue should preside so that there
might be no drunkenness. He said, 'Let my people teach their young men that they
are to love only the productions of the ground, for so will their hearts be
good. Let the youth also harked diligently to the constant lessons of their
fathers. Let them look at virtuous actions whether great or small in the same
light.
Ye people of the land of Mei, if you can employ your limbs,
largely cultivating your millet, and hastening about in the service of your
fathers and elders; and if with your carts and oxen you traffic to a distance,
that you may thereby filially minister to your parents:- then, when your parents
are happy, you may set forth your spirits clear and strong and use them.
Hearken constantly to my instructions, all ye high officers,
ye assistants, and all ye noble chiefs:- when you have largely done your duty in
ministering to your aged and serving your sovereign, you may eat and drink
freely and to satiety. And to speak of greater things:- when you can maintain a
constant watchful examination of yourselves, and your conduct is in accordance
with correct virtue, then may you minister the offerings of sacrifice, and at
the same time engage yourself in festivity. In such case you will indeed be
ministers doing right service to your king, and Heaven likewise will approve of
your great virtue, so that you shall not be forgotten in the royal House."
II. The king says, "Oh Feng, in our western regions, the
princes of States, the managers of affairs, and the youths, who in former days
assisted our ancestor, were able to obey the lessons of king Wen, and indulge in
no excess of spirits; and so it is that I have now received the appointment
which belonged to Yin."
The king says, "Oh Feng, I have heard it said that
formerly the first wise sovereign of Yin manifested a reverential awe of the
bright principles of Heaven, and of the lower people, steadfast in his virtue,
and holding fast his wisdom. From him, Tang the Successful, down to Di Yi the
sovereigns all completed their royal virtues, and revered their chief ministers,
so that their managers of affairs respectfully discharged their helping duties
and dared not to allow themselves in idleness and pleasure ;- how much less
would they dare to indulge in drinking! Moreover, in the exterior domains, the
princes of the States of the Hou, Dian and Wei, with their chiefs; and in
the interior domain, all the various officers, the directors of the several
departments, the inferior officers and employees, and the Heads of the Great
Houses, with the men of honored name living in retirement, al eschewed
indulgence in spirits. Not only did they not dare to indulge in them, but they
had not leisure, being occupied with helping to complete their king's virtue and
make it more distinguished, and helping the king's directors of affairs
reverently to attend to the service of the sovereign.
I have heard it said likewise, that in these times the last
successor of those kings was addicted to drink, so that no charges came from him
brightly before the people, and he was reverently and unchangingly bent on doing
and cherishing what provoked resentment. Greatly abandoned to extraordinary
lewdness and dissipation, sorely grieved and wounded in heart, but he gave
himself wildly up to spirits, not thinking of ceasing, but continuing his
excess, till his mind was frenzied, and he had no fear of death. His crimes
accumulated in the city of Shang, and though the extinction of the dynasty of
Yin was imminent, this gave him no concern, and he wrought not that any
sacrifices of fragrant virtue might ascend to heaven. The rank odor of the
people's resentments, and the drunkenness of his herds of creatures, went loudly
up on high, so that Heaven sent down ruin on Yin and showed no love for Yin,-
because of such excesses. There is not any cruel oppression of Heaven; people
themselves accelerate their guilt, and its punishment."
The king says, "Oh Feng, I have no pleasure in making
you thins long announcement; but the ancients have said. 'Let not men look only
into water, let them look into the glass of other people.' Now that Yin has lost
its appointment, ought we not to look much to it as our glass, and learn how to
secure the repose of our time?
I say to you,- Strenuously warn the worthy ministers of Yin,
and the princes in the Hou, the Dian, the Nan and the Wei domains, and still
more your friends, the great Recorder and the recorder of the Interior."
Translation from Legge The Chinese Classics v. 3 pp. 399-412. I have put proper names in Pinyin.
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