These are three brief Neo-Confucian essays on the relationship between humans and the divine.


Against the God of the Wind
[Sung Feng Po]
Of this drought, who is the cause? I know the author: it is the God of the Wind who is to blame. The hills made the clouds to rise, the marshes sent up their vapour. The thunder whipped the chariot, the lightning shook the banner. The rain was promising, ready to fall; but the God of the Wind was angry, and the clouds could not stay still. The Sun Crow in his kindness had pity upon the people. He dimmed his radiance, and sent not his fiery spirit to battle. But you, God of the Wind, instead what did you do?
    For you what else could we have done? We looked for a suitable time, we made ready the materials for the sacrifice. The lamb was full fat, the wine was full sweet. There was food enough for repletion, drink enough for drunkenness. The God of the Wind's anger, what brought it about? The clouds were banked thick, you blew and thinned them. The vapour was ready to condense, you blew and scattered it. You melted the vapour so that it could not transform, you froze the clouds so that they could not shed their rain.
    You, God of the Wind, should you wish to escape this crime, what further have you to say? Heaven above, which sees all things, has records, has laws. I now present my charge and for this crime who shall pay? The sentence of Heaven will fall upon you; when it does there can be no repentance; and God of the Wind, even if you die, what man will mourn for you?

Memorial on the Bone of Buddha [Lun Fo ku piao]
I humbly submit that Buddhism is but one of the religious systems obtaining among the barbarian tribes, that only during the later Han dynasty did it filter into the Middle Kingdom, and that it never existed in the golden age of the past.
    In remote times Huang-ti ruled for a hundred years, and lived to the age of a hundred and ten; Shao Hao ruled for eighty years and lived to the age of a hundred; Chuan Hsu ruled for seventy-nine years and lived to the age of ninety-eight; Emperor Ku ruled for seventy years to the age of a hundred and five; Emperor Yao for ninety-eight years to the age of a hundred and eighteen; while both emperors Shun and Yu lived to be a hundred. During this time the empire was in a state of perfect equilibrium and the people lived to ripe old age in peace and prosperity; but as yet the Middle Kingdom did not know of Buddha. After this T'ang of Yin lived to be a hundred. His grandson T'ai Mou ruled for seventy-five years, and Wu Ting for fifty-nine years; and though the histories do not tell us to what age they lived, it cannot in either case be reckoned at less than a hundred. In the Chou dynasty Wen Wang lived to be ninety-seven, and Wu Wang to be ninety-three, whilst Mu Wang was on the throne for a hundred years. As Buddhism had still not penetrated to the Middle Kingdom, this cannot be attributed to the worship of him.
    It was not until the reign of Ming-ti of Han that Buddhism first appeared. Ming-ti's reign lasted no longer than eighteen years, and after him disturbance followed upon disturbance, and reigns were all short. From the time of the five dynasties, Sung, Ch'i, Liang, Ch'en and Yuan Wei onwards, as the worship of Buddha slowly increased, dynasties became more shortlived. Wu-ti of Liang alone reigned as long as forty-eight years. During his reign he three times consecrated his life to Buddha, made no animal sacrifices in his ancestral temple, and ate but one meal a day of vegetables and fruit. Yet in the end he was driven out by the rebel Hou Ching and died of starvation in T'ai-ch'eng, and his state was immediately destroyed. By worshipping Buddha he looked for prosperity but found only disaster, a sufficient proof that Buddha is not worthy of worship.
    When Kao-tsu succeeded the fallen house of Sui, he determined to eradicate Buddhism. But the ministers of the time were lacking in foresight and ability, they had no real understanding of the way of the ancient kings, nor of the things that are right both for then and now. Thus they were unable to assist the wise resolution of their ruler and save their country from this plague. To my constant regret the attempt stopped short. But you, your majesty, are possessed of a skill in the arts of peace and war, of wisdom and courage the like of which has not been seen for several thousand years. When you first ascended the throne you prohibited recruitment of Buddhist monks and Taoist priests and the foundation of new temples and monasteries; and I firmly believed that the intentions of Kao-tsu would be carried out by your hand, or if this were still impossible, that at least their religions would not be allowed to spread and flourish.
    And now, your majesty, I hear that you have ordered all Buddhist monks to escort a bone of the Buddha from Feng-hsiang and that a pavilion be erected from which you will in person watch its entrance into the Imperial Palace. You have further ordered every Buddhist temple to receive this object with due homage. Stupid as I am, I feel convinced that it is not out of regard for Buddha that you, your majesty, are praying for blessings by doing him this honour; but that you are organising this absurd pantomime for the benefit of the people of the capital and for their gratification in this year of plenty and happiness. For a mind so enlightened as your majesty's could never believe such nonsense. The minds of the common people however are as easy to becloud as they are difficult to enlighten. If they see your majesty acting in this way, they will think that you are wholeheartedly worshipping the Buddha, and will say: "His majesty is a great sage, and even he worships the Buddha with all his heart. Who are we that we should any of us grudge our lives in his service?" They will cauterize the crowns of their heads, burn off their fingers, and in bands of tens or hundreds cast off their clothing and scatter their money and from daylight to darkness follow one another in the cold fear of being too late. Young and old in one mad rush will forsake their trades and callings and, unless you issue some prohibition, will flock round the temples, hacking their arms and mutilating their bodies to do him homage. And the laughter that such unseemly and degenerate behaviour will everywhere provoke will be no light matter.
    The Buddha was born a barbarian; he was unacquainted with the language of the Middle Kingdom, and his dress was of a different cut. His tongue did not speak nor was his body clothed
in the manner prescribed by the kings of old; he knew nothing of the duty of minister to prince  or the relationship of son to father. Were he still alive today, were he to come to court at the bidding of his country, your majesty would give him no greater reception than an interview in the Strangers' Hall, a ceremonial banquet, and the gift of a suit of clothes, after which you would have him sent under guard to the frontier to prevent him from misleading your people. There is then all the less reason now that he has been dead so long for allowing this decayed and rotten bone, this filthy and disgusting relic to enter the Forbidden Palace. "I stand in awe of supernatural beings," said Confucius, "but keep them at a distance." And the feudal lords of olden times when making a visit of condolence even within their own state would still not approach without sending a shaman to precede them and drive away all evil influences with a branch of peach-wood. But now and for no given reason your majesty proposes to view in person the reception of this decayed and disgusting object without even sending ahead the shaman with his peach-wood wand; and to my shame and indignation none of your ministers says that this is wrong, none of your censors has exposed the error.
    I beg that this bone be handed over to the authorities to throw into water or fire, that Buddhism be destroyed root and branch for ever, that the doubts of your people be settled once and for all and their descendants saved from heresy. For if you make it known to your people that the actions of the true sage surpass ten thousand times ten thousand those of ordinary men, with what wondering joy will you be acclaimed! And if the Buddha should indeed possess the power to bring down evil, let all the bane and punishment fall upon my head, and as heaven is my witness I shall not complain.
               In the fullness of my emotion I humbly present this memorial for your attention.
                                                                                           
Proclamation to the Crocodile
[Chi o yu wen]
On the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month of the fourteenth year of Yuan-ho, Han Yu, Governor of Ch'ao-chou, had his officer Ch'in Chi take a sheep and a pig and throw them into the deep waters of Wu creek as food for the crocodile. He then addressed it as follows:
       When in ancient times the former kings possessed the land, they set fire to the mountains and the swamp, and with nets, ropes, fish-spears and knives expelled the reptiles and snakes and evil creatures that did harm to the people, and drove them out beyond the four seas. When there came later kings of lesser power who could not hold so wide an empire, even the land between the Chiang and the Han they wholly abandoned and gave up to the Man and the Yi, to Ch'u and to Yueh: let alone Ch'ao which lies between the five peaks and the sea, some ten thousand li from the capital. Here it was that the crocodiles lurked and bred, and it was truly their rightful place. But now a Son of Heaven has succeeded to the throne of Tang, who is godlike in his wisdom, merciful in peace and fierce in war. All between the four seas and within the six directions is his to hold and to care for, still more the land trod by the footsteps of Yu and near to Yangchou, administered by governors and prefects, whose soil pays tribute and taxes to supply the sacrifices to Heaven and to Earth, to the ancestral altars and to all the deities. The crocodiles and the governor cannot together share this ground.
             The governor has received the command of the Son of Heaven to protect this ground and take charge of its people; but you, crocodile, goggle-eyed, are not content with the deep waters of the creek, but seize your advantage to devour the people and their stock, the bears and boars, stags and deer, to fatten your body and multiply your sons and grandsons. You join issue with the governor and contend with him for the mastery. The governor, though weak and feeble, will not endure to bow his head and humble his heart before a crocodile, nor will he look on timorously and be put to shame before his officers and his people by leading unworthily a borrowed existence in this place. But having received the command of the Son of Heaven to come here as an officer, he cannot but dispute with you, crocodile: and if you have understanding, do you hearken to the governor's words.
               To the south of the province of Ch'ao lies the great sea, and in it there is room for creatures as large as the whale or roc, as small as the shrimp or crab, all to find homes in which to live and feed. Crocodile, if you set out in the morning, by the evening you would be there. Now, crocodile, I will make an agreement with you. Within full three days, you will take your ugly brood and remove southwards to the sea, and so give way before the appointed officer of the Son of Heaven. If within three days you cannot, I will go to five days: if within five days you cannot, I will go to seven. If within seven days you cannot, this shall mean either that finally you have refused to remove, and that though I be governor you will not hear and obey my words; or else that you are stupid and without intellect, and that even when a governor speaks you do not hear and understand.
          Now those who defy the appointed officers of the Son of Heaven, who do not listen to their words and refuse to make way before them, who from stupidity and lack of intellect do harm to the people and to other creatures, all shall be put to death. The governor will then choose skilful officers and men, who shall take strong bows and poisoned arrows and conclude matters with you, crocodile, nor stop until they have slain you utterly. Do not leave repentance until too late.
                                                                                             TRANSLATED BY J. K. RIDEOUT