Book 17, Part 2

CHAPTER 79

The Origins of Severity and Beneficence

Section 79.1

Heaven possesses

harmony and beneficence,

impartiality and severity,

intentions that correspond to [what is] received,

principles that create governance.

You must not fail to examine this.

Spring is Heaven’s harmony;

summer is Heaven’s beneficence;

autumn is Heaven’s impartiality;

and winter is Heaven’s severity.

Heaven’s sequence is

invariably to be first harmonious and only afterward to be beneficent;

invariably to be first impartial and only afterward to be severe.

From this it can be seen that

if not [first] harmonious, Heaven cannot [then] display the beneficence of favors and rewards;

if not [first] impartial, Heaven cannot then display the severity of penalties and punishments.

One can also see that

beneficence is born from harmony;

severity is born from impartiality.

Without harmony, there can be no beneficence;

without impartiality, there can be no severity.

This is the Way of Heaven. The Perfected view things from this perspective.

Though having what pleases me and makes me happy, I must first harmonize my mind in order to seek what is appropriate. Only then can I bestow gifts and rewards to establish beneficence.

Though having what distresses me and makes me angry, I must first calm my mind to seek what is just. Only then can I implement penalties and punishments to establish severity.

The ability to constantly act in this manner is called Heavenly Virtue. Those who implement Heavenly Virtue are called sages. [79/81/8–13]

Section 79.21

One who would rule others

occupies the position of Utmost Potency

and grasps the positional advantage of life and death,

thereby altering and transforming the people. The people follow their master [just] as the grasses and trees respond to the four seasons.

Happiness and anger correspond to chilling and heating.

Severity and beneficence correspond to winter and summer.

Winter and summer match up to severity and beneficence.

Chilling and heating are the counterparts of happiness and anger.

Happiness and anger have seasons when they ought to issue forth;

chilling and heating have seasons when they ought to emerge.

Their principle is one.

Not being happy when one ought to be happy resembles [the weather’s] not being hot when it ought to be hot.

Not being angry when one ought to be angry resembles [the weather’s] not being cold when it ought to be cold.

Not being beneficent when one ought to be kind resembles [the season’s] not being summer when it ought to be summer.

Not being severe when one ought to be severe resembles [the season’s] not being winter when it ought to be winter.

Happiness, anger, severity, and beneficence must issue forth at the appropriate occasion, just as chilling and heating, winter and summer, must issue forth at the proper time.2 When the display of happiness and anger and the application of severity and beneficence in every case hits the mark, such responses partake of the way in which chilling and heating, winter, and summer do not stray from their proper time. Thus it is said: “The sage is a counterpart to Heaven.” [79/81/14–21]

 

  1.  This marks the beginning of a separate essay, as the argument shifts dramatically at this point. Before this, the essay focused on the four qualities of harmony, beneficence, impartiality, and severity. The author maintains that the severity of punishments and the beneficence of rewards must be applied only after the ruler has tempered his joy or anger by achieving a harmonious and impartial mind. Thus rewards and punishments properly emanate from these affective states and not from the emotive states of joy or anger. In section 79.2, the argument shifts in two distinct ways. First, the four qualities of harmony, beneficence, impartiality, and severity are replaced by a discussion of happiness, anger, beneficence, and severity. Second, the author correlates the proper expression of these qualities with the proper seasonality of heating and chilling, summer and winter. The two sections appear to be at odds with each other because this second part does not try to temper the expression of emotions by recourse to psychological training but instead allows for the full expression of the emotions as long as that expression follows the model provided by the course of nature with its constant changes in the seasons and weather.

  2.  This sentence is followed by forty-two characters (79/81/18–19) that do not belong to this essay. Since the passage is wholly incongruous with the subject matter before and after, we have excluded it from the preceding translation. The passage reads:

Therefore, one must be cautious with respect to the germination of good and evil. How can you verify what is so? In embracing goodness, [the Spring and Autumn] does not disregard the slightest instance of goodness; in rejecting evil, it does not neglect the greatest instance of evil. It avoids but does not conceal; it condemns but does not despise. [Two characters missing.] [It relies on] correct principles to praise and blame.