Book 13, Part 4
CHAPTER 58
The Mutual Engendering of the Five Phases
Section 58.1
The qi of Heaven and Earth
when combined becomes one,
when divided becomes yin and yang,
when broken up becomes the four seasons,
and when arrayed becomes the Five Phases.
“Phases” mean “conduct.”1 The conduct [of each of the Five Phases] is not identical. Thus they are designated “the Five Phases.” The Five Phases [correspond to] the Five Officials. They engender one another and overcome one another in turn. Thus, in constituting your governance,
if you oppose them, there will be disorder;
if you comply with them, there will be order.
The eastern quarter [corresponds to] Wood. It is the root of agriculture, and [its corresponding office is] the minister of agriculture. The minister of agriculture esteems humaneness. He promotes scholars versed in the classical arts and leads them along the path of the Five Emperors and Three Kings. He
follows their good points
and rectifies their bad points.
Grasping the compass,2 he promotes birth and, with the utmost warming, saturates those below.
He understands the fertility, barrenness, strengths, and weakness of the terrain; establishes affairs; and engenders norms in accordance with what is suitable to the land. The duke of Shao3 exemplifies this. He went into the southern4 fields and oversaw the people as they opened new lands and cultivated the five [i.e., various] kinds of grain. A surplus accumulated; families were able to provide sufficiently for their members; and the granaries and storehouses were filled to capacity. The minister of war verifies [the supply of] grain. The minister of war corresponds to the current dynasty, and the current dynasty corresponds to Fire. Therefore it is said: Wood gives birth to fire.
The southern quarter [corresponds to] Fire, the current dynasty,5 and the minister of war. The minister of war esteems wisdom. He promotes worthy and sagely scholars and understands the patterns of Heaven above so that
before their tangible signs have become evident
and before their tender shoots have been generated,
they already are apparent to him. Thus he alone observes
the incipient tendencies of survival and destruction,
the essentials of gains and losses,
the origins of order and disorder,
preparing against them well in advance. Grasping the balance beam,6 he brings things to maturity. With utmost loyalty, generosity, and humanity, he assists his lord. The Duke of Zhou7 exemplifies this. When King Cheng was young and weak and the Duke of Zhou was the prime minister, he punished Guan Shu and Cai Shu to pacify the world. Only then was the world peaceful and secure. Among the ruler’s officials is the minister of public works. The minister of public works corresponds to Earth. Therefore it is said: Fire gives birth to Earth.
The central region [corresponds to] Earth, the ruler’s administration, and the minister of public works.8 The minister of public works esteems trustworthiness. He
humbles his person and disparages himself,
rises early and retires late,
praising and evaluating remote antiquity to exert the ruler’s mind to clarify successes and losses. He remonstrates with subtle words to promote the ruler’s goodness and restrain his evil, cutting it off at its source and making good his faults. Grasping the marking cord, he orders the four regions with utmost loyalty, generosity, and trustworthiness to serve his ruler. In accordance with righteous principles, he severs his private affections. The Grand Duke exemplifies this.9 Responding to Heaven, he complied with the transformations of the seasons, relied on his awesome martiality to control the powerful and violent, and thereby obtained success. The administrator of the law corresponds to the minister of mobilization. The minister of mobilization corresponds to Metal. Therefore it is said: Earth gives birth to Metal.
The western quarter [corresponds to] Metal, the administrator of the law, and the minister of mobilization. The minister of mobilization esteems righteousness. [Thus]
the ministers [are willing to] die for their ruler;
the commoners [are willing to] die for their fathers;
relatives follow the distinctions between eminent and humble;
and those in positions of authority follow the distinctions between superior and inferior.
Each is willing to die to fulfill their tasks, and no task oversteps the proper bounds. Grasping the [carpenter’s] square, he carries out attacks.
His military actions are not cruel, but he subjugates [the enemies];
his exactions are not cruel, but he obtains what is due.
He [determines what is] righteous and only then acts; he is utterly incorruptible, stern, direct, and resolute. Zixu10 exemplifies this.
He punished the guilty
and chastised the unrighteous.
Thus, the populace drew near to him; the border regions grew tranquil; and bandits did not rise up. The villages were free of litigations, and relatives lived in peace. The censor11 corresponds to the minister of justice. The minister of justice corresponds to Water. Therefore it is said: Metal gives birth to Water.
The northern quarter [corresponds to] Water, the censor, and the minister of justice. The minister of justice esteems propriety. Thus
between ruler and minister, there will be proper position;
between young and old, there will be proper hierarchy;
and between the [royal] court and [aristocratic] divans, there will be proper rank.
In the villages and hamlets, age will take precedence. In ascending and descending, there will be polite yielding and prostrations and bows from subordinates to superiors. Movements will be centered and proper. Standing, he bends his body as if playing the chime stones; clasping his hands, it is as if he were holding a drum. Grasping the weight, he collects and stores the myriad things. Utterly pure, incorruptible, and just,
gifts and bribes he will not accept;
requests and pleas he will not heed.
He relies on the law to judge cases and is free from favoritism. Confucius exemplifies this. When he acted as the minister of justice in the state of Lu, his legal decisions always were sincere. He followed the majority opinion, never daring overstep his authority. Thus
those who were sentenced to death did not despise him,
and those who were allowed to live [and yet were punished] did not begrudge him.
The various artisans finished making [the different kinds of] implements at the appropriate time. When the implements were completed, they were given to the minister of agriculture. The minister of agriculture corresponds to the Bureau of Agricultural Lands. The Bureau of Agricultural Lands corresponds to Wood. Therefore it is said: Water gives birth to Wood. [59/61/11–59/62/9]
 
We usually follow Lau, but in Su Yu and Lai Yanyuan’s editions, “The Mutual Engendering of the Five Phases” is chapter 58 and “The Mutual Conquest of the Five Phases” is chapter 59. We believe that this is a better arrangement, as the opening paragraph of “The Mutual Engendering of the Five Phases” functions as an introduction to both essays and thus should ideally precede “The Mutual Conquest of the Five Phases.” We have therefore reversed the order of Lau’s chapters 58 and 59 to follow Su Yu’s edition, although page and line references to the Chinese text still follow Lau’s edition.
  1.  The text defines the term for phase based on a play on words: the character xing 行 has the basic meaning “to move” and thus, by extension, “conduct”; but in the binome wuxing 五行, it means “Five Phases,” the five paradigmatic manifestations of qi.
  2.  Here “compass” refers to an instrument for drawing circles, not a navigational magnetic compass.
  3.  He was an official who served King Wu of the Zhou and held the title of “grand protector.” In return for his meritorious services, he was given Shao as a fief.
  4.  Here “southern” might be a mistake for “eastern.”
  5.  Supplying ye 也 after ben chao 本朝, following Su Yu, CQFLYZ 363.
  6.  The text here reads “square”; Su Yu suggests that the instrument should be the “balance beam.” Accordingly, we have corrected “south” to “balance beam,” “west” to “square,” and “north” to “weight,” as in John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth, trans. and eds., The “Huainanzi”: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 3.6. See also Su Yu, CQFLYZ 364.
  7.  He was the younger brother of King Wu of Zhou, whom he helped in annihilating the Shang and establishing the Zhou dynasty. Later he put down a rebellion of Zhou nobles and then withdrew to his own allocated territory when his ward, King Cheng, came of age. He thus is an exemplar of loyalty and the proper use of military force.
  8.  We follow the emendation of Liu Shipei (Lai, CQFLJZJY 337, note 1).
  9.  The Grand Duke was the former tutor to Kings Wen and Wu, later enfeoffed in Qi.
10.  This is Wu Zixu, a nobleman of Chu; see chapter 7.1. For the Gongyang version of the Wu Zixu story, see Duke Ding 11.4.13–14.
11.  Beginning in the reign of Wang Mang, the official variant designation for the censor (yushi 御史) is zhifa 執法, as defined in Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985), 157.