Six

SURVEYING OBSCURITIES

THE FIRST five chapters of this book established the characteristics of the Way and its primacy in cosmogony and in the cosmological realms of Heaven, Earth, and Time. In chapter 6, “Surveying Obscurities,” the Huainan masters turn to a phenomenon the existence of which they are certain but cannot fully explain. This is “resonance” (ganying ), thought of as a kind of sympathetic vibration in the force field of qi that pervades the cosmos.¹ Resonance acts not only on physical objects but on emotions and intentions as well; thus the actions of humans have clear and predictable effects in the natural world. Impiety, injustice, and bad government lead to human catastrophes and natural disasters, whereas following the Way and instituting good government lead to human happiness and celestial harmony. Thus it is imperative, the chapter maintains, for the ruler to look into the roots of bad and good government, identify himself with the One, and make his actions conform to the Way, so as to lay the foundation for the whole world to be harmonious and tranquil. In the end, however, the means by which resonance operates remain cloaked in obscurity, so the phenomenon can be observed but not fully explained. That perhaps accounts in part for why “Surveying Obscurities” is one of the shortest chapters in the entire Huainanzi, although it is arguably also one of the most important.

The Chapter Title

The title of chapter 6 is “Lanming” , which we translate as “Surveying Obscurities.”² Lan means “to look at, inspect, or perceive something”; it has connotations of seeing something from afar, making a survey, or obtaining an overview rather than getting a minutely detailed look from up close. Ming means “dark, obscure, distant, hard to see”; it has connotations of something obscured from vision by darkness or a miasma. The title well suits the chapter’s content, about which the authors admit, “Even if one has enlightened understanding, it is not possible to [explain why] these things are so” (6.3).

Summary and Key Themes

The chapter begins with two striking images that set the theme for the chapter as a whole.³ A music master is ordered to play sacred music out of its proper context, and his lord is stricken with calamities; a virtuous widow is falsely accused of a crime, and the ruler who authorized her prosecution suffers disasters. When Heaven sends punishments, the authors affirm, there is nowhere one can go to escape from them.

But how does this come about? Admitting that the process is “dark, mysterious, deep, and subtle” (6.2), the authors do not attempt to explain it directly but approach the problem in a roundabout manner. First, they give examples of resonance in the physical world: the burning mirror takes fire from the sun; the “square receptacle” takes water from the moon. These effects occur because they follow the natural propensity of things, but that does not completely explain resonance. It can be understood only by the sage who fully embraces the Way, who himself is like a mirror. Deeply unmoving, he is able to apprehend the transformations of the myriad things. He is as far above the common herd of humankind as dragons are above snakes and eels, or as phoenixes are above sparrows and swallows (6.5).

Are we astonished by the charioteering skills of Wang Liang and Zaofu, whose control of bits and reins was such that their horses galloped with uncanny speed and smoothness? Consider, then, Qian Qie and Da Bing, who had no need of harness and whips and who controlled their horses through the strength of their will alone (6.6). This was not brought about by “reason or thought, or through the exercise of manual skill.” Rather, it was a manifestation of identifying with the One. So, too, were the regimes of the sage-rulers of high antiquity, such as the Yellow Emperor and, even before him and with still greater perfection, Fuxi and Nüwa. Under those worthies, the world spontaneously brought itself to order, responding resonantly to the Potency of the rulers themselves. Nonhuman beings likewise responded to this Potency, so that such auspicious beasts as dragons, phoenixes, and qilins were seen abroad in the land, and normally dangerous animals posed no threat to people. All this was so because the sage-rulers themselves relied on the Way and its Potency rather than on such qualities as wisdom and precedent (6.7).

Conversely, at the time of the tyrant Jie, last king of the Xia dynasty, not only was misrule prevalent throughout the land, but the myriad things also responded resonantly to that misrule: the seasons were out of joint, mountains became deforested, marshes dried up, and animals behaved strangely. People rejected their own kin and officials conspired in cabals; rulers and ministers were estranged. Endless divinations revealed no answers to these problems, which persisted from the Xia down to modern times, and the breakdown of state order led to incessant warfare and corpses piled on roads and in ditches (6.8).

Which model, then, will the rulers of today emulate? The emperors of the Han dynasty sit on the throne in the manner of the Five Thearchs themselves. Will they continue to follow that Way, practicing Humaneness and Rightness? Or will they rely on the counsel of Lord Shang, Shen Buhai, and Han Feizi, employing the expedients of laws and punishments, warfare, and self-aggrandizement? Those methods, the authors assert, are as ephemeral as shoots from the rootstock of a tree or vine, springing up quickly, only to wither and die. Far better to rely on the fundamentals in the manner of Fuxi and Nüwa, who “achieved Empty Nothingness and Pure Unity, and they did not dabble in petty matters.” Just so, the chapter concludes, “begging for fire is not as good as getting a fire starter, and asking for a drink is not as good as boring a well” (6.9).⁴

At the end of the chapter, it is evident that the authors have not given an adequate account of how resonance produces its effects. Even though they have surveyed the topic, it remains obscure. But the chapter does offer arguments concerning resonance that many contemporary readers would have found persuasive.

First, the phenomenon of resonance is real. This can be demonstrated by a well-known and widely accepted (and true) test: “When a person who tunes a se plays [the note] gong, [another] gong string responds” (6.4). Second, extraordinary individuals transcend the boundaries of human knowledge and skill, and their feelings provoke responses that seem to have no physical basis; the charioteering of Qian Qie and Da Bing illustrates this. Thus the phenomenon goes beyond commonplace physical effects. Third, because the sage-rulers of high antiquity (alluded to again and again in the Huainanzi) were such individuals, it is not surprising that their reigns were times of joyful simplicity and extraordinary cosmic harmony. Fourth, in reigns of surpassingly bad rulers, such as the tyrant Jie, the cosmos responded with portents and anomalies such as unseasonable weather and the strange behavior of animals. Finally, one who has the Way of Heaven, who practices non-action (wuwei ) and is thus-of-himself (ziran )is in a resonant relationship with the entire cosmos, just as a string that has not yet begun to be tuned is not limited to resonating with a single note but (potentially) resonates with every other string on the instrument.

Thus the authors demonstrate that the phenomenon of resonance operates most completely in the person of one of the Genuine (zhenren ), and this leads to the essential message for the young monarch-in-training who is the intended reader of the Huainanzi: it is possible for a transcendent ruler to arise in our own time, to bring about (through the resonant response of the cosmos to his own perfected Potency) a new era of sagely government. Charles Le Blanc puts it well: the power of resonance “is based on the persistent affinity and attraction of things that were originally one, but that became scattered when the world began. Through the True Man, it [that is, ganying] recreates the original unity.”⁵

Although the concept of resonance forms the entire focus of this chapter, the term ganying itself does not appear in “Surveying Obscurities” or indeed anywhere in the Huainanzi. Gan means “an influence” or “to influence,” “a stimulus” or “to stimulate,” “to evoke a response.” It appears twice in chapter 6. Ying appears seven times in the chapter, with its usual meaning of “to respond” or “a response”—for example, in 6.3: “The sage is like a mirror, . . . responding but not storing up.” Overall throughout the Huainanzi, ying appears much more frequently (151 times) than gan does (39 times), and the two terms are closely coupled in only a few instances. But these instances conform exactly to the meaning of resonance that one expects from the concept of ganying: “responding to things when stimulated” (gan er ying zhi , 1.10); “when stimulated they respond” (gan er ying , 7.7); “the stimulus impels a response externally” (gan dong ying yu wai , 10.27); “[non-action] does not mean that a stimulus will not produce a response” ([wuwei] fei wei qi gan er bu ying [] , 19.2).

While “Surveying Obscurities” must be counted as a key text arguing for the importance of resonance as an operative principle of yin–yang and Five Phases cosmology and attempting to explain how it worked, it would appear that at the time the chapter was written (mid-second century B.C.E.), the term ganying itself had not yet stabilized as a technical term for the phenomenon.

Sources

Because this chapter relies mainly on anecdote and analogy to make its argument for the pervasive reality of resonance, it draws extensively on a fund of mythological, legendary, historical, and other lore that was broadly familiar to all educated people in the early Han. Such figures as Fuxi and Nüwa, the Yellow Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West, the tyrants Jie and Djou, the expert charioteer Zaofu, and the lugubrious musician Yong Menzi all were part of Han China’s common cultural heritage. General references to them are difficult or impossible to trace to specific sources. Much of the content of this chapter shows a broad familiarity with such material but little evidence of direct quotations or borrowing from known sources.

Some passages do have strong parallels to other texts, however, including the Zhuangzi, Lüshi chunqiu, Hanfeizi, and Guanzi. Of these, by far the most important is the Zhuangzi. That is hardly surprising; in the Huainanzi overall, the Zhuangzi is quoted or alluded to far more than any other source, although the quotations are not at all evenly distributed across the book’s twenty-one chapters.⁶ chapter 6, for instance, has more than twenty allusions to the Zhuangzi.⁷ Some are brief and relatively trivial, but others are of central importance to the chapter’s argument and shed light on how the Huainanzi’s authors went about their work.

The key passage in this chapter is also the most dramatic instance of borrowing from an earlier source. The observation that a string tuned to a particular note causes vibrations in an identically tuned string on a nearby instrument is central to the chapter’s argument for the concept of resonance. In chapter 13 of the Lüshi chunqiu, this appears as a simple statement of fact: a gong string resonates with a gong string, a jue string with a jue string. Chapter 24 of the Zhuangzi, like section 6.4 of the Huainanzi, makes the additional—physically impossible but philosophically intriguing—claim that an untuned string resonates with all twenty-five of the musical instrument’s strings (presumably because it represents an underlying unity that still contains all possible tunings). Chapter 24 of the Zhuangzi represents a late stratum of that text, very likely not much (if at all) older than the Huainanzi. The idea of resonating tuned strings thus would seem to date back to the pre-Qin period, whereas the notion of the superior resonance of an untuned string represents the milieu of the early Han.

Other passages in “Surveying Obscurities” show considerable ingenuity in the use of sources. For example, the passage in 6.2 beginning with “mountain clouds are like grassy hummocks” quotes five lines from chapter 13 of the Lüshi chunqiu. A few lines later, the text refers to Fu Yue bestriding the lunar lodges, alluding to chapter 6 of the Zhuangzi; immediately thereafter, it quotes from chapter 21 of the Zhuangzi on maximum yin and maximum yang, capping that quotation with another from chapter 7 of the Zhuangzi about the consequences of having too many males and not enough females. Section 6.2 concludes with a quotation from chapter 2 of the Guanzi and an allusion to chapter 46 of the Laozi. The authors of chapter 6 of the Huainanzi evidently knew these texts and had deft editorial hands in stringing them together to create a novel argument that went beyond the original sources.

One can see a similar process at work in section 6.7, where the passage beginning with “[people] rested in tranquillity” is cobbled together with lines from, successively, chapters 7, 9, and 11 of the Zhuangzi, with the whole passage as strung together from the Zhuangzi seeming to allude to chapter 80 of the Laozi.

A final point about creative allusion pertains to section 6.5, the allegories of the dragons and the mud eels and the phoenixes and the swallows, which strongly echo the allegories of the Kun fish and the Peng bird in the opening paragraphs of chapter 1 of the Zhuangzi. As Le Blanc observed, “The actors (animals) and style are different . . . , but the point of the allegories is, in both works, the same: namely, that petty men are hemmed in by the trivia of their own existence, and cannot understand the grand designs and ambitions of superior men, who have attained the Tao.”⁸

The Chapter in the Context of the Huainanzi as a Whole

Chapter 21’s summary of “Surveying Obscurities” says in part,

 

It begins by

grasping things and deducing their categories,

observing them, taking hold of them,

lifting them up, and arranging them,

and pervasively positing them as categories of similarity,

by which things can be understood as ideas and visualized as forms. . . .

[It] then thereby illuminates

the stimuli of the various categories of things,

the responses of identical qi,

the unions of yin and yang,

and the intricacies of forms and shapes.

It is what leads you to observe and discern in a far-reaching and expansive way. (21.2)

 

Chapter 21’s rationale for including “Surveying Obscurities” in the Huainanzi states:

Had we discussed Heaven, Earth, and the four seasons and not introduced examples and elucidated categories,

you would not recognize the subtleties of the Quintessential qi. (21.3)

 

The phrase “introduced examples and elucidated categories” seems to be the key to the importance of the chapter itself, by arguing through examples and elucidation for the reality and pervasiveness of ganying resonance within categories of yin and yang and the Five Phases and then contending also that resonance operates on a deeper and more mysterious level so as to permit the sage (who conforms to the Way and identifies with the One) to resonate with the entire cosmos. This contention provides the operative principle for the Huainanzi’s political philosophy of sagely rule. Thus the principle propounded in this chapter pervades the entire work.

 

John S. Major

 

1. For an alternative translation and detailed study of chap. 6, including a particular inquiry into the theory of resonance, see Le Blanc 1985; and Le Blanc’s revised translation and chapter introduction (in French) in Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003, 251–87.

2. Ames 1994, 16, translates this title as “Perceiving the Imperceptible”; Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003 render it as “De l’examen des choses obscures.”

3. For a somewhat different view of the organization and arguments of the chapter, see Le Blanc 1985, 191–94.

4. This chapter’s striking description of the world’s devolution from an archaic age of unity, harmony and simplicity (6.7– 6.9) is echoed in chap. 8, which uses the theme of decline from primordial unity as the starting point of an analysis of how sage-rulership might be reinstituted in the present age.

5. Le Blanc 1985, 209.

6. More than half the total appear in just four chapters: 1, 2, 6, and 7. See the chart in Le Blanc 1985, 83.

7. In ascribing passages to “the Zhuangzi,” we do not mean to suggest that the entire Zhuangzi was written by its putative author, Zhuang Zhou, sometime in the late fourth century B.C.E. The Zhuangzi is a layered text, written by several hands over a period of time, so some of its latest portions might be roughly contemporaneous with the Huainanzi. Parallel passages linking the Zhuangzi and the Huainanzi therefore do not in themselves argue for a well-developed theory of ganying resonance in the mid- to late Warring States period. For more on the Zhuangzi as a source for the Huainanzi, see the introduction to chap. 2, esp. n. 1.

Similarly, some material in the Lüshi chunqiu might well date from after the death of Lü Buwei (see the discussion of the LSCQ in the introduction to chap. 5), and the complex textual history of the Hanfeizi has not been sorted out satisfactorily (see our further discussion of the Hanfeizi in the introduction to chap. 12).

8. Le Blanc 1985, 144.

Six

6.1

In ancient times Music Master Kuang played the tune “White Snow,”¹ and because of that, spiritlike creatures descended [from heaven]; wind and rain arrived violently; Duke Ping² became impotent and ill; and the lands of the state of Jin reddened [with drought].

The Commoner Woman³ cried out to Heaven. Thunder and lightning beat down; Duke Jing’s⁴ lookout tower collapsed; his limbs and body were broken and slashed; and floodwaters gushed from the sea.

Now the blind music master and the Commoner Woman

were of a [social] rank as lowly as swaying weeds;⁵

their [political] weight was as light as windblown feathers;

yet

by concentrating their essences and disciplining their intentions,

abandoning their [mundane] responsibilities and storing up spirit [energy],

upward, they penetrated to ninefold Heaven, rousing and putting into action⁶ the utmost essence.

Looking at things from this perspective in regard to the punishments [sent by] Heaven on high: Though one dwells

in a broad wasteland or a dark valley,

at a remote distance or a secluded hideaway,

in a multilayered stone refuge,

or at a frontier barrier or narrow defile,

there is no place where one may escape them. This is clear. [6/49/27–31]

King Wu⁷ carried out a punitive campaign against [the tyrant] Djou. As he crossed [the Yellow River] at Meng Ford, the waves of the marquis of Yang⁸ flowed against the current and smashed into [his army]. In the sudden wind and obscure gloom, men and horses were unable to see one another. Thereupon King Wu grasped a yellow battle-ax in his left hand and raised a white battle flag with his right hand and, with flashing eyes, brandished them, saying, “I am here! Who under Heaven dares to violate my will?” Immediately the winds quieted and the waves ceased.

Duke Luyang⁹ was engaged in a difficult [battle] with Hann. As the battle grew fiercer, the sun began to set. He raised his halberd and waved it, and the sun reversed [its course] for him by three lunar lodges.

Now if you keep intact your nature and guard your authenticity

and do not do damage to your person,¹⁰

[when you] meet with emergencies or are oppressed by difficulties,

your essence will penetrate [upward] to Heaven;

You will be like one who has not yet begun to emerge from his Ancestor¹¹—how can you not succeed?

One for whom death and life are the same territory, who cannot be threatened, such a single brave warrior is the hero of the Three Armies.¹² Such a one simply seeks fame yet is able for the sake of his own desire to ignore death in this manner. How much more so for one who

holds sway over Heaven and Earth,

embraces the myriad things,

befriends creation and transformation,

and cherishes utmost harmony,

who simply finds himself fitted up in human form, who scrutinizes the Nine and penetrates to the One,¹³ thereby knowing the unknown so that his mind has no notion of death! [6/50/1–7]

In ancient times, Yong Menzi¹⁴ used weeping to gain an audience with Lord Mengchang.¹⁵ Having [been received,] he marshaled his phrases and communicated his ideas, laying his hands on his heart and breaking into song. [As he did so,] Lord Mengchang increasingly sobbed and wailed until he choked, and his tears ran down copiously without stopping. [Thus] when Quintessential Sincerity takes form within, outwardly it communicates grief to the hearts of others. [But] the Way of [doing] this cannot be transmitted [to others]. If a commoner who, lacking his ruler’s form, were to imitate [the ruler’s] demeanor, surely he would be laughed at by others. That Bo Juzi¹⁶ could draw a bead on a bird a hundred ren¹⁷ up [in the air], and Zhan He could scare up fish in the midst of a great abyss, was all because they had obtained the Way of Clarity and Purity and the Harmony of Supreme Vastness. [6/50/9–12]

6.2

That things in their [various] categories are mutually responsive is [something] dark, mysterious, deep, and subtle.

Knowledge is not capable of assessing it;

argument is not capable of explaining it.

Thus,

when the east wind arrives, wine turns clear and overflows [its vessels];

when silkworms secrete fragmented silk,¹⁸ the shang string [of a stringed instrument] snaps.

Something has stimulated them.

When a picture is traced out with the ashes of reeds, the moon’s halo has a [corresponding] gap.¹⁹

When the leviathan dies, comets appear.²⁰

Something has moved them.

Thus, when a sage occupies the throne, he embraces the Way and does not speak, and his nurturance reaches to the myriad people. But when ruler and ministers [harbor] distrust in their hearts, back-to-back arcs²¹ appear in the sky. The mutual responses of spirit qi are subtle indeed!

Thus,

mountain clouds are like grassy hummocks;

river clouds are like fish scales;

dryland clouds are like smoky fire;

cataract clouds are like billowing water.

All resemble their forms and evoke responses according to their class.²²

The burning mirror takes fire from the sun;

the square receptacle takes dew from the moon.²³

Of [all the things] between Heaven and Earth, even a skilled astrologer cannot master all their techniques. [Even] a hand [that can hold] minutely tiny and indistinct things cannot grasp²⁴ a beam of light. However, from what is within the palm of one’s hand, one can trace [correlative] categories to beyond the extreme end point [of the cosmos]. [Thus] that one can set up [these implements] and produce water and fire is [a function of] the mutually [responsive] movement of yin and yang of the same qi. That is how Fu Yue bestrode [the lunar lodges] Winnowing Basket and Tail.²⁵ [6/50/14–20]

Thus,

maximum yin is freezing cold;

maximum yang is blazing hot.

The two of them come together and interconnect to bring about harmony, and the myriad things thereby are born.²⁶ If there were lots of males and no females, how indeed would transformation be able to create [anything]?²⁷ This is what is known as

the argument that is not spoken

and the Way that is not [called] “the Way.”

Thus

to attract those who are far-off [i.e., emissaries], one employs non-action;

to cherish those who are close by, one employs non-interference.²⁸

But only one who “walks by night”²⁹ is able to have this [technique]. Thus [he] retires [his] fast horses so they [only] make dung,³⁰ and [his] chariot tracks do not need to extend beyond far-off lands. This is what is called

racing while sitting, bathing on dry land,

darkness at noon, bright light at night,

melting pitch in winter,

making ice in summer. [6/50/22–25]

6.3

One who has the Way of Heaven has

no private motives in what he accepts,

no private motives in what he rejects.

One who is capable has more than enough;

one who is inept has an insufficiency.

One who accords with it prospers;

one who opposes it suffers setbacks.

It is like

the pearl of Marquis Sui³¹

or the jade disk of Mr. He:³²

Those who achieved it became rich;

those who lost it became poor.

The standard of [what constitutes] getting or losing is deep, minute, elusive, and obscure. It is hard to use knowledge to discuss it or to explain it by means of debate. How can we know that this is so? Now [the medicinal herb] Earthyellow is sovereign for mending bones, and Sweetgrass is sovereign for healing [injured] flesh. But to take what is good for mending bones and expect it to heal flesh or to take what is good for healing flesh and promote it for mending bones would be like Wangsun Zhuo, who wanted to use a double dose of a medicinal plant used for [curing] partial paralysis in order to revive a man who had been killed in battle—really, one could say that he had lost his senses!³³ Now if one were to accept [that] fire can burn wood and use it to melt metal, that would [follow] the movement of the Way. But if one were to accept [that] lodestone can attract iron and use it to attract tile, that would certainly be difficult. Things certainly cannot be assessed according to their weight [alone]. [6/51/1–6]

Now,

the burning mirror can draw fire [from the sun];

lodestone can draw iron;

crabs spoil lacquer;³⁴

and sunflowers incline to the sun—

[but] even if one has enlightened understanding, it is not possible to [explain why] these things are so. Thus investigations by ear and eye are not adequate to discern the principles of things; discussions employing the mind and its conceptions are not adequate to distinguish true and false. Thus he who uses knowledge as the basis for government will have a hard time holding on to his state. Only he who penetrates to Supreme Harmony and who grasps the responses of the natural will be able to possess it [i.e., his state].

Thus when Mount Yao collapsed, the Boluo River dried up. When Ou the Smelter was born, the sword Chunjun was completed.³⁵ When [the tyrant] Djou acted without the Way, Zuo Qiang was at his side.³⁶ The Grand Duke³⁷ served through two generations; thus King Wu succeeded in establishing [his rule]. Seen from this perspective, the paths of benefit or harm, the gateways of calamity or good fortune, cannot be obtained [just] by seeking them out. [6/51/8–12]

Now,

how the Way compares with Potency

is like how leather compares with rawhide.

From a distance they [seem] close;

close together they [seem] far apart.³⁸

[One who] does not get the Way is like [someone] watching minnows.³⁹

Therefore,

the sage is like a mirror,

neither holding onto nor welcoming [anything],

responding but not storing up.

Thus he can undergo ten thousand transformations without injury.

To [claim to] get it is indeed to lose it;

so is not losing it really to get it? [6/51/14–16]

6.4

Now when a person who tunes a se

plays [the note] gong, [another] gong [string] responds;

when he plucks a jue [string], [another] jue responds.⁴⁰

This is the harmony of notes that are the same. But if [he] tunes one string eccentrically, so that it does not accord with [any] of the five notes and then strikes it, and all twenty-five strings [of the se] respond, this is [a case of] the sounds not yet having begun to differentiate but the ruler of [all] notes having already achieved its form.⁴¹ Thus one who penetrates to Supreme Harmony is as confused as [a person who] is stupified by drink, who wanders about in a sweet daze without knowing where he has come from or where he is going.

Simple and mild, he [descends] the vortex;

simple and stupified, he [reaches] his end.

He is like

one who has not yet begun to emerge from the Ancestor.

This is called the Great Penetration. [6/51/18–21]

6.5

Now a red chi dragon and a green qiu dragon⁴² were roaming around in Ji [Province].⁴³

The sky was blue,

the earth tranquil.

Venomous animals did not make an appearance;

flying birds did not startle them.

Entering a thorny thicket,

they fed on plums and fodder.

Enjoying the taste and savoring the sweetness, they did not stray outside a space of a hundred mou.⁴⁴ So the snakes and swamp eels⁴⁵ took them lightly and thought that they would not be able to tussle with them and win, [whether] in the river or the ocean. But when [the dragons ascended] to the dark clouds in the pale dawn, yin and yang engaged and struggled. [The dragons] descended on the wind, tangled in squalls of rain, rode the billows, and ascended again, awesomely moving Heaven and Earth. The sound of thunder penetrated to the midst of the ocean. [Then] the salamanders⁴⁶ and swamp eels burrowed a hundred ren [fathoms] into the mud; black bears and brown bears crawled away to the crags of hills and mountains; tigers and leopards sheltered in caves and did not dare to roar; gibbons and monkeys tumbled down headfirst and lost their grip on the trees and branches—how much more [affected] were mere snakes and swamp eels?

The soaring aloft of a female and a male phoenix reached [such a state of] Utmost Potency that thunder and lightning did not occur; wind and rain did not arise, the rivers and valleys did not flood; and grasses and trees did not tremble. So the swallows and sparrows mocked them, saying that they were incapable of matching them in squabbling among the roof beams and rafters.⁴⁷ Turning about, [the phoenixes] departed to a height of ten thousand ren, wheeled and soared beyond the four seas, [flew] past the Carved-Out Garden of Kunlun,⁴⁸ drank from the rushing rapids of the Polished Pillar,⁴⁹ flew to and fro over the banks of the Dark Oxbow,⁵⁰ curved around the borders of Ji [Province], lightly cleared [the peak of] Duguang [Mountain], entered with the [setting] sun into Yijie [Valley], washed their wings in the Weak-water [River], and, at dusk, [roosted] in Wind Cave. During this whole time, geese, swans and cranes were, without exception, awestruck and slunk away to hide, sticking their beaks into the riverbank. How much more [affected] were mere swallows and sparrows? This [is a case of] being clear about the traces of small matters but being unable to know the origins of great events. [6/51/23–6/52/5]

6.6

In ancient times, when Wang Liang⁵¹ and Zaofu went driving, [as soon as] they mounted their chariots and took hold of the reins, the horses set themselves in order and wanted to work together.

They obediently paced in step with one another;

[whether] pulling hard or easing off, they were as one.

Their hearts were in tune and their qi harmonious;

their bodies [became] more and more light and coordinated.

They were content to work hard and happy to go forward;

they galloped away as if they would vanish.

They went right and left like [the waving of] a whip;

they circled around like a jade bracelet.

All people of that era considered [Wang Liang and Zaofu] to be superlative [charioteers], but that was because they had not yet seen any [truly] worthy ones. Now consider the charioteering of Qian Qie and Da Bing.⁵² They

considered reins and bits superfluous,

got rid of whips and cast aside goads.

Before the chariot began to move, it was starting on its own.

Before the horses were given the signal, they were walking on their own.

They paced [like the] sun and moved [like the] moon.

They flashed [like the] stars and advanced [like the] dark.

They raced [like] lightning and leaped [like] ghosts.⁵³

Advancing or withdrawing, gathering strength or stretching out,

they did not see the slightest barrier.

Thus,

with no gesturing or pointing,

with no cursing or scolding,

they overtook the wild geese flying to Piled Stone Mountain,

passed the jungle fowl [flying to] Guyu Mountain.

Their galloping was like flying;

their bursts of speed like thread snapping.

[It was] like riding an arrow or mounting the wind,

like following a cyclone and returning in an instant.

At dawn they started from Fusang

and set with the sun at Luotang.

This was taking something unused and obtaining its usefulness: it was not done by examining things through reason or thought or through the exercise of manual skill. Whenever urgent desires took form in the breasts [of Qian Qie and Da Bing], their quintessential spirits were [already] communicated to the six horses.⁵⁴ This was a case of using non-driving to go driving. [6/52/7–14]

6.7

In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor ruled the world. Li Mu and Taishan Ji assisted him in

regulating the movements of the sun and the moon,

setting in order the qi of yin and yang,

delimiting the measure of the four seasons,

correcting the calculations of the pitch pipes and the calendar.

They

separated men from women,

differentiated female and male [animals],

clarified the high and the low,

ranked the worthy and the mean;

they took steps [to ensure that]

the strong would not oppress the weak;

the many would not oppress the few.

People lived out their allotted life spans and did not suffer early death;

crops ripened in season and were not subject to calamities.

All the officials were upright and not given to partiality.

High and low were in concord and did not find fault.

Laws and commandments were clear and there was no confusion.

Officials assisted the ruler and did not engage in flattery.

Hunters⁵⁵ did not encroach on field boundaries.

Fishers did not struggle over coves.

On the roads, people did not pick up [and keep] things that were dropped [by others]; in the markets, [goods] did not have predetermined prices.

City and town [gates] were not closed.

Towns were without bandits and thieves.

Humble travelers shared their supplies with one another.

[Even] dogs and pigs spat out beans and millet [that they found] on the road.

And no one cherished thoughts of conflict in their hearts. Because of that,

the essence of the sun and moon was bright.

The stars and celestial chronograms⁵⁶ did not deviate from their orbits.

Winds and rain were timely and moderate.

The five grains grew and ripened [as they should].

Tigers and leopards⁵⁷ did not roar wildly.

Raptors did not snatch prey wildly.

Phoenixes soared above the [royal] courtyards.

The qilin wandered in the suburbs.

Green dragons drew the [royal] carriage,

and Flying Yellows⁵⁸ were put away in their stables.

Of the various northern states and the country of Hanging Ears, there were none that did not offer their tribute and skills. And yet this [age of the Yellow Emperor] did not come up to the Way of Lord Fuxi. [6/52/16–22]

Going back to more ancient times,

the four pillars were broken;

the nine provinces were in tatters.

Heaven did not completely cover [the earth];

Earth did not hold up [Heaven] all the way around [its circumference].⁵⁹

Fires blazed out of control and could not be extinguished;

water flooded in great expanses and would not recede.

Ferocious animals ate blameless people;⁶⁰

predatory birds snatched the elderly and the weak.

Thereupon, Nüwa

Smelted together five-colored stones⁶¹ in order to patch up the azure sky,

cut off the legs of the great turtle to set them up as the four pillars,

killed the black dragon⁶² to provide relief for Ji Province,⁶³

and piled up reeds and cinders to stop the surging waters.

The azure sky was patched;

the four pillars were set up;

the surging waters were drained;

the province of Ji was tranquil;

crafty vermin died off;

blameless people [preserved their] lives.

Bearing the square [nine] provinces on [her] back

and embracing Heaven,

[Fuxi and Nüwa⁶⁴ established]

the harmony of spring and the yang of summer,

the slaughtering of autumn and the restraint of winter.⁶⁵

[People] kept their heads squarely on their pillows and slept straight as a marking cord. Whatever obstructed yin and yang, [causing them to be] deeply blocked up and unable to connect,⁶⁶ [Fuxi and Nüwa] thoroughly set in order.

[Whoever] ran counter to qi and [thereby] perverted things;

[whoever] through hoarding provisions harmed the people;

[they] interrupted and stopped them.

At that time, [people]

rested in tranquillity,

woke up with alacrity.

One considered himself a horse;

another considered himself an ox.⁶⁷

Their motions were calm and unhurried;

their gaze was tranquil and uncurious.⁶⁸

In their ignorance, they all got what they needed to know,

but they did not know where it came from.

Aimlessly drifting, they did not know what they were looking for;

zombielike,⁶⁹ they did not know where they were going.⁷⁰

At that time, birds and beasts, noxious vermin and snakes, without exception, sheathed claws and fangs.⁷¹ They stored away their venom and poison, and none of them were disposed to attack or bite.

Examining into these glorious achievements, [we find that]

they reach up to the ninefold Heaven;

they extend down to the Yellow Clods.⁷²

Their fame resounded down through later generations;

their brilliance dazzled successively the myriad things.

[They] mounted their thunder chariot,

with flying long dragons⁷³ as the inner pair

and green qiu dragons as the outer pair.

They grasped their incomparable jade emblems;

their sitting mat was a floriate diagram;

they spread out⁷⁴ clouds like silken threads.

Preceded by white chi dragons,

followed by hurrying snakes,

aimlessly drifting, rambling at random,

leading [a retinue of] ghosts and spirits,

they climbed to ninefold Heaven,

paid court to the [Supreme] Thearch at the Numinous Gate,

silent and reverent they ended [their journey] in the presence of the Great Ancestor.

Even then, they

did not make a great show of their accomplishments,

did not heap praise on their own reputations.

They concealed [within themselves] the Way of the Genuine

and followed the imperatives of Heaven and Earth.

How was this so? [In them] the Way and its Potency achieved the highest penetration, and wisdom and precedent were extinguished. [6/52/24–6/53/8]

6.8

Coming down to the time of [the tyrant] Jie of the Xia [dynasty],

rulers had become benighted and unenlightened.

Their Way was excessive and lacked restraint;

they rejected the pardons and punishments of the Five Thearchs⁷⁵

and rescinded the laws and ordinances of the Three Kings.⁷⁶

As a result,

Utmost Moral Potency was obliterated [rather than] publicly promoted;

the Thearch’s Way was suffocated [rather than being] made to flourish.

Their conduct of affairs offended Azure Heaven;

their issuing of proclamations contravened [the rhythms of] the four seasons.

Spring and autumn recoiled from their [accustomed] harmonies;

Heaven and Earth discarded their Potency.

The rulers of humankind occupied their positions but were uneasy;

great lords concealed their Way and did not speak out.

The multitude of officials took as their standard⁷⁷ the wishes of their superiors and embraced what matched [those wishes]. Flesh and bone drifted apart⁷⁸ and [followed] their own interests. Depraved persons strolled about by threes and twos and hatched secret plots. They interposed themselves between rulers and ministers and fathers and sons, and competed for rewards.

They flattered their rulers and aped their ideas

and caused chaos for the people while carrying out their own affairs.

For this reason,

rulers and ministers became estranged and were not on intimate terms;

bone and flesh drifted apart and were not close.

Well-established [earthen] altars dried out and cracked apart;

[state] banquet pavilions shuddered and collapsed.

Packs of dogs howled and entered deep waters;

pigs gobbled mouthfuls of rushes and bedded down in river coves.⁷⁹

Beauties messed up their hair and blackened their faces, spoiling their appearance.

Those with fine voices filled their mouths with charcoal, kept their [talent] shut away, and did not sing.

Mourners did not [express] the fullness of grief;

hunters did not obtain any joy [from it].⁸⁰

The Western Elder snapped her hair ornament;⁸¹

the Yellow God sighed and moaned.⁸²

Flying birds folded their wings;

running animals lost their footing.

Mountains were without towering trees;

marshes were without pooling waters.

Foxes and raccoon dogs⁸³ headed for their burrows;

horses and cattle scattered and were lost.

Fields were without standing grain;

roadsides were without cattails or sedge.⁸⁴

Gold ingots were cracked and missing their corners; jade disks were piled up but had their surface engraving worn off.⁸⁵

[They] used up⁸⁶ turtles [for divination] until they had no plastrons left; they set out milfoil stalks and cast them daily. [6/53/10–18]

Coming down to a later era, the seven states set up unrelated clans [of rulers].⁸⁷ The various lords took control of the laws, each practicing their own customs in different ways. Vertical and horizontal [alliances]⁸⁸ came between them; raising troops, they locked horns with one another, besieging cities and wantonly slaughtering [their inhabitants]. They overthrew those in high [positions] and endangered the peaceful.

They exhumed burial mounds

and scattered human bones,

enlarged the frames of [war] chariots

and raised high the thick ramparts.

They dispensed with the Way of Warfare,

and easing onto the Road of Death,

they engaged dreaded enemies

and plundered beyond reason.

For every hundred soldiers that advanced, one returned [alive]. [These rulers’] fame and renown flourished in a meretricious way.

All that being so, those who were sound in body and light on their feet were made into armored soldiers and sent a thousand li or more away [to fight], while the household elders and those who were sickly or weak remained, anxious and sad, at home.

Servant battalions and horse wranglers

pushed carts and handed out rations.

The ways and roads were endlessly far;

frost and snow interminably piled up;

their rough woolen tunics were not sufficient.

People were exhausted and chariots fell apart.

Mud and muck reaching to their knees,

they helped drag one another along the way.

Dauntlessly raising their heads on the roads,

their bodies [nevertheless] fell and died.

What is called “annexing states and having [their] land” [really] means fallen corpses by the tens of ten thousands and smashed chariots counted up by the thousands and hundreds, with those wounded by bows or crossbows, spears or glaives, arrows or stones, supporting one another along the roads.

Thus the world reached the point that people used human skulls for pillows, fed on human flesh, made mincemeat of human livers, drank human blood, and [found] these things sweeter than [the flesh of] fattened cattle. [6/53/20–26]

Thus from the Three Dynasties onward, the world was never able to obtain

[a sense of] security in their instinctive responses and their natures

or joy in their habits and customs

or preserve their natural life spans

or avoid dying young in consequence of the tyranny of others. Why was that so? [It was because] the various rulers [used their] strength to attack [one another], and so the world was unable to come together and be as one family. [6/54/1–2]

6.9

Coming down to the present time, the Son of Heaven occupies his position on high,

sustaining [his rule] with the Way and its Potency,

supporting [his rule] with Humaneness and Rightness.

Those nearby augment his knowledge;

those far away embrace his Moral Potency.

He folds his hands and bows, gestures with his finger, and [all within] the Four Seas respectfully submit to him. Spring and autumn, winter and summer, all offer up their goods in tribute to him. The whole world blends together and becomes one; sons and grandsons succeed one another. This was the way the Five Thearchs welcomed the Potency of Heaven. [6/54/4–6]

Now a sage cannot create [an opportune moment of] time. [But] when the [opportune] time comes, he does not miss it. He

promotes those who have ability,

dismisses the initiators of slander or flattery,

puts a stop to clever or argumentative talk,

does away with the laws [requiring punishments of] cutting or amputating,

banishes matters that are vexatious or petty,

avoids any traces of gossip,

shuts the door on cabals and parties.

He

extirpates [conventional] knowledge and ability,

complies with the Supreme Constant,⁸⁹

sloughs off his limbs and body,

minimizes perception and intelligence,⁹⁰

greatly penetrates into formless obscurity,

liberates his awareness and releases his spirit.

Completely indifferent, as if lacking ethereal and material souls,⁹¹ he causes the myriad things all to return to their own roots, thus in these ways following in the footsteps of Lord Fuxi and reverting to the Way of the Five Thearchs.

Now, how is it that Qian Qie and Da Bing were able to achieve a reputation for charioteering throughout the world while not using reins or bits and that Fuxi and Nüwa were able to transmit Utmost Potency to later generations while not setting up laws and standards? They achieved Empty Nothingness and Pure Unity, and they did not dabble in petty matters. The Book of Zhou⁹² says, “If you try to catch cock pheasants and do not get any, adjust [your hunting techniques] to suit their habits.” [6/54/8–14]

Now take, for example, the methods of government [proposed by] Shen [Buhai], Han [Feizi],⁹³ and Shang Yang. They [proposed to]

pluck out the stems [of disorder]

and weed out the roots [of disobedience],

without fully investigating where [those undesirable qualities] came from. How did things get to that point? They

forcibly imposed the five punishments,

employed slicing and amputations,

and turned their backs on the fundamentals of the Way and its Potency while fighting over the point of an awl.⁹⁴ They mowed the common people⁹⁵ like hay and exterminated more than half of them. Thus filled with self-admiration, they constantly took themselves as [the model of] government; but this was just like adding fuel to put out a fire or boring holes to stop water [from leaking].

Now shoots may grow from the wooden casing of a well, not leaving room for the bucket; and branches may grow from the wooden casing of a canal, not leaving room for the boats. But not more than three months later, [these growths] will be dead. How is it that this is so? They all are wild growths with no roots of their own. That the Yellow River makes nine bends before it flows into the sea, but its flow is not interrupted by them, is because [the water] is carried [by the flow from] Mount Kunlun. But that floodwaters do not find an outlet but spread out widely to the limits of [one’s] vision, [so that] after ten days or a month of no rain they dry up and turn into a stagnant wetland is because they receive [only] an overflow but have no source [of replenishment].

This may be compared with [the situation of] Yi [the Archer], who requested the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West. Heng E⁹⁶ stole it [from him] and fled [with it] to the moon. [Yi] was downcast and grief stricken because he had no way to get more of it. Why? Because he did not know where the elixir of immortality came from.

Thus begging for fire is not as good as getting a fire starter, and asking for a drink is not as good as boring a well. [6/54/14–21]

Translated by John S. Major

 

1. “White Snow” evidently was a work of sacred music. When the Jin ruler Duke Ping ordered his music master to play it outside its proper liturgical context, the misfortunes named here resulted. A much more detailed version of the story appears in Hanfeizi, chap. 10.

2. Duke Ping of Jin (r. 557–532 B.C.E.).

3. As the Gao You commentary explains, the Commoner Woman (shu nü ) was a virtuous widow, falsely accused by her sister-in-law of murdering her mother-in-law. She cried out to Heaven about the injustice of this, and calamities ensued.

4. Duke Jing of Qi (r. 547–490 B.C.E.).

5. Reading shang as chang , to preserve the parallelism of shangxi () and feiyü , and rejecting the rather contrived argument of commentators that shangxi should be understood to mean “Master of Hemp,” supposedly a lowly office in the Zhou royal administration.

6. Reading li as li .

7. King Wu was the second king of the Zhou dynasty, after his father, King Wen. King Wu (the “martial king”) completed the conquest of Shang, defeating the Shang army at the battle of Muye (in present-day Qi County, Henan Province), ca. 1046 B.C.E.

8. Marquis Yang, ruler of the state of Lingyang , was supposed to have drowned in the Yellow River; his ghost sometimes caused deadly waves to arise. See also 16.139.

9. Duke Luyang was a vassal of the state of Chu, the grandson of King Ping of Chu (r. 528– 516 B.C.E.) and son of Master of Horse Ziqi.

10. These two lines are repeated in 13.9, where they are said to describe the philosophy of Yang Zhu.

11. The Ancestor (zong )—that is, the Way. This phrase recurs in 6.4.

12. The Three Armies, a conventional phrase for the entire armed forces of a kingdom. A version of this anecdote is also found in ZZ 5/13/19–21.

13. Both Heaven and Earth have nine divisions, but each also has an underlying unity.

14. According to Gao You, Yong Menzi lived near the Yong Men gate of the Qi capital of Linze and thus derived his sobriquet. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:640n.18. See also 10.94.

15. Lord Mengchang (also known as Tian Wen [ca. 330–ca. 280 B.C.E.]) was a powerful scion of the royal house of Qi. He was renowned as a great patron and statesman; his biography is recounted in detail in Shiji 75.

16. According to Gao You, Bo Juzi was a native of Chu famed for his skill with a dart and line. See Zhang Shuandgi 1997, 1:642n.22.

17. A ren equals eight feet and is thus equivalent to a xun . Eight Han feet would equal about six feet in English measure, hence the translation “fathom” in 6.5. See also 3.31 and 4.1.

18. Reading er as er . Essentially the same statement appears in 3.2. In an earlier translation of chap. 3, I followed commentators who read as “ear ornament” (Major 1993, 65–66). I now believe that the interpretation of “brittle” or “crumbly” (er ) is more convincing. See also the discussion in Le Blanc 1985, 117. It is possible that neither explanation is correct; in any case, the basic notion involved clearly is derived from the concept of resonance in the Five-Phase categories.

19. Commentators’ efforts to elucidate this enigmatic statement are generally unconvincing. Some sort of military divination or prognostication, using ashes to make a drawing on the ground, is evidently involved. For further discussion, see Le Blanc 1985, 117nn.41, 42.

20. The same statement appears in 3.2.

21. Beijue is regarded by commentators as a technical term referring to convex halos appearing on either side of the sun. For a discussion, see Le Blanc 1985, 118.

22. These five lines also appear in LSCQ 13.2. See Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 283–84.

23. For these two quasi-magical implements, see also 3.2.

24. Reading lan as lan , following Wang Niansun. See Lau, HNZ, 50n.8.

25. Reading ji in place of chen , as in ZZ 6/17/7. For the lunar lodges, see app. A. Tail (wei ) and Winnowing Basket (ji ) are the sixth and seventh in the usual sequence of lodges, beginning with Horn (jue ). The legendary Shang-dynasty minister and sage Fu Yue is said to have ascended to Heaven by riding on these constellations.

26. There is a parallel passage in ZZ 21/57/23–24.

27. There is a similar passage in ZZ 7/20/27–28.

28. Rejecting Lau’s (HNZ 6/50/23) proposed emendation of shi to yan . If the emendation were accepted, the lines would have a very different interpretation: “to attract those who are far-off emissaries is of no use; to cherish those who are close by words is of no avail.” These two lines (with yan, not shi) appear in a parallel passage in Guanzi 2.4. See Rickett 1985, 131–32. For an extensive discussion of these two lines, see Le Blanc 1985, 122.

29. Ye xing zhe —that is, one who acts in a concealed and mysterious manner.

30. Laozi 46.

31. Marquis Sui was a vassal of Chu of unknown date. He was given a fabulous pearl by a snake that he had saved from being killed, and the pearl became a renowned heirloom of his lineage.

32. Mr. He , or Bian He , was the discoverer of a marvelous piece of raw jade that went unrecognized by successive Chu monarchs until it was finally acknowledged as a priceless jewel, though not before Bian He himself was brutally punished for attempted fraud. See chap. 14, n. 57; and 16.19 and 16.90. His story is also recounted in Hanfeizi 13.

33. A version of this story appears in LSCQ 25.2. See Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 628.

34. Reading jie as xie . Compare 16.124: “If exposed to the sight of crabs, lacquer will not dry.” According to later Chinese pharmacopeias, a compress of crushed shellfish was used to treat the rash caused by exposure to raw lac sap (the lac tree is related to poison sumac). The enzymes in the shellfish medicine also are capable of preventing lacquer from drying properly, and so it must be kept away from lacquer that is still in the process of being manufactured. We are grateful to Anthony Barbieri-Low (private communication) for this insight.

35. Ou the Smelter , also written , was a renowned swordsmith of Yue who fashioned legendary swords for King Goujian of Yue (r. 496–465 B.C.E.) and King Zhao of Chu (r. 515–489 B.C.E.). Chunjun was one of five precious swords he crafted for the former monarch.

36. The sycophant Zuo Qiang served as minister to Djou, “bad last ruler” of the Shang dynasty.

37. The Grand Duke (also known as Lü Wang ) was a wise commoner who became counselor to King Wen and assisted in the Zhou conquest of Shang. He was made the first Duke of Qi, and his descendants ruled that state until they were usurped by the Tian clan in 379 B.C.E.

38. This simile of leather and rawhide has prompted several commentarial attempts at explication, most of them improbable. We think the most likely interpretation is the one implied by the translation given here, involving a play on words (close/similar and distant/dissimilar).

39. That is, their attention is distracted in all directions.

40. This statement, apparently well known in third and second centuries B.C.E. China, also appears, inter alia, in Zhuangzi 24 (ZZ 24/69/21–22), Lüshi chunqiu 13.2 (Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 283), and Chunqiu fanlü 57.

41. Compare 3.29, where the “ruler of all notes” (yin zhi jun ) is equated with the fundamental note gong. Here, in contrast, the “ruler of all notes” seems to refer to some quality that lies behind and before music itself—perhaps to be understood as profound silence. Compare also the “ruler of form” (jun xing ), in 16.91 and 17.61.

42. Commentators explain that the chi dragon is hornless and that the qiu dragon has horns.

43. Ji is described in 4.1 as the central province of the known world.

44. Qing mou ; the expression does not make much sense because a qing normally means “one hundred mou.”

45. The shan is generally assumed to be the swamp eel (Monopterus albus), a very aggressive freshwater eel.

46. Emending she to yuan , as proposed by Lau, HNZ 6/51/26. See also Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:664n.17.

47. The text here makes a play on words: yuzhou is used literally in its sense of “roof beams and rafters” (e.g., of a barn, the natural habitat of swallows and sparrows), but it also calls to mind its more usual meaning of “universe” (i.e., the habitat of phoenixes).

48. For the Carved-Out Garden and other magical places in Kunlun, see 4.3.

49. The Polished Pillar was a boulder in the midst of the Yellow River, in Henan Province.

50. Mengsi , probably the same as menggu , the Vale of Obscurity, into which the sun sets and from which the sun rises again. See 3.25.

51. Wang Liang , a grandee of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period, was renowned for his skill as a charioteer.

52. According to Gao You, Qian Qie and Da Bing were the charioteers of the Grand One (Taiyi ) in his guise as a god of the royal cult. Another account says that they were adepts of the Way who mounted the yin and yang using their spirit qi. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 1:673n.8.

53. Emending teng to hai , following Wang Niansun. See Lau, HNZ, 52n.6.

54. According to tradition, the imperial carriage was drawn by six horses (or six dragons).

55. Tianzhe , could mean “those who work in fields”; tian, however can also mean “to hunt,” and here tianzhe as “hunters” makes a better parallel with “fishers” in the following line.

56. Chen —that is, time-keeping heavenly bodies such as planets and lunar lodges.

57. Reading bao instead of lang (wolf ), following Wang Niansun. See Lau HNZ, 52n.12.

58. Flying Yellows (feihuang ) were special horses, dragonlike or actual dragons, supposedly used to pull the imperial chariot.

59. Di buzhou dai . It is interesting that the mountain in the northwest, where a gap is said to have existed between Heaven and Earth, is called Mount Buzhou. For the myth of the fight between Gong Gong and Zhuan Xu that supposedly caused the disruption of Heaven and Earth described here, see 3.1.

60. Zhuan min conveys the sense of people who are unsophisticated and blameless. Yu Dacheng advocates emending zhuan to jing , understood to mean “pure in spirit.” This seems unnecessary.

61. That is, stones embodying the essence of each of the Five Phases. Compare the five minerals described in the alchemical passage that ends chap. 4.

62. The essence of water, thus responsible for floods.

63. That is, the central regions, the Sinitic world. See 4.1.

64. The subject here is unstated; given the reference in 6/52/22 immediately preceding, it would seem that the rule of Fuxi in addition to Nüwa, or even subsequent to her labors in repairing Heaven and Earth, is implied.

65. For these attributes of the four seasons, see chap. 5, passim.

66. This sentence does not read very smoothly in the original Chinese and may be defective. Various commentarial suggestions have been made for emendations, none of them very satisfactory.

67. These four lines appear (in slightly different form) in ZZ 7/20/5; the first two are also in ZZ 29/87/24.

68. These two lines also appear in Zhuangzi 9 (ZZ 9/23/27). The state of bovine tranquillity described here is also reminiscent of the peasants depicted in Laozi 80 (LZ 80/27/10–11).

69. A wangliang is a kind of corpse monster, said to feed on the brains of the buried dead.

70. These two lines, with some differences in wording, appear in ZZ 11/28/12.

71. Closely similar lines appear in Hanfeizi 49 and Wenzi 2.

72. Not merely surface soil, but the earth at the floor of the subterranean Yellow Springs, land of the dead.

73. Ying long , conventionally understood to mean a dragon that is able to fly.

74. The first character of this three-character sentence should be a verb, in parallel with the two that come before it and the two that follow. We read huang , “yellow,” as guang , “broad; to spread out,” even though there is no commentarial tradition to suggest this. Yu Yue proposed changing the order of the sentence to lo huang yun , “they made tendrils of yellow clouds.”

75. Lists of the “Five Thearchs” (wu di ) vary; here, presumably, the list would include both Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor, mentioned favorably earlier, possibly also the Divine Farmer, and would probably end with Yao and Shun.

76. Conventionally, Yu the Great, Cheng Tang, and King Wen, supposed founders of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Note, however, that this passage refers specifically to Jie, last king of Xia, so strictly speaking, Cheng Tang and Wen Wang do not fit chronologically.

77. Zhun —that is, a water level.

78. That is, people disregarded kinship ties.

79. The sense of this enigmatic pair of sentences would seem to be that dogs and pigs fled from their usual associations with humans in response to the breakdown of government and morality and to the earthquakes that occurred as a consequence of that breakdown.

80. Ting qi le (or yue) is a complicated phrase. Usually one would take it to mean “hear its (or the) music,” but here it is parallel to the phrase “express the fullness of grief” (jin qi ai ) in the previous line and so must mean “obtain joy (from it).” As usual, the double meaning of le /yue cannot be conveyed in English.

81. That is, Xiwangmu , the “Queen Mother of the West.” See chap. 4, n. 37. She is conventionally depicted wearing a distinctive headdress called a sheng .

82. That is, Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor. His sighing and moaning, like Xiwangmu’s snapping her hair ornament, is presumably a sign of frustration at the parlous state of humanity.

83. For hu and li , see 10.14 and (for li) chap. 1, n. 32.

84. Leaves of both cattails and sedge were used for making raincoats.

85. The implication is that the disks were being used so excessively in divinatory and other rituals that their surface decorations were worn away. This pair of four-character phrases is enigmatic: in particular, bi xi wu luo depends on nonstandard interpretations of xi and luo. The translation given here relies on the commentary of Wang Yinzhi and should be regarded as tentative.

86. Taking qing as qing .

87. According to the Gao You commentary, the seven states referred to here are Qi , Chu , Yan , Zhao , Hann , Wei , and Qin .

88. That is, alliances of northern and southern states versus eastern and western states.

89. Le Blanc 1985, 181, and Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003, 285, translate tai chang as “minister of rites,” one of the chief ministers in the Han government. We think that is too literal and that a philosophical principle rather than a government office is intended here. We suspect that this is an allusion to the “constant Way” (chang dao ) of Laozi 1.

90. This and the previous line appear, with variations, in ZZ 6/19/21, where (through the mouthpiece of Confucius’s disciple Yan Hui) they are part of a passage about achieving “sitting in forgetfulness” (zuo wang ). A longer version appears in ZZ 11/28/16–18, where the speaker is Hung Meng.

91. For the hun and po souls, see also 7.6, 7.7, and 16.1.

92. Presumably the Yi Zhou shu , but this quotation does not appear in the surviving fragments of that work.

93. Han Feizi (also known as Han Fei [d. 233 B.C.E.]) was a scion of the royal house of Hann and a prolific writer on politics and political theory. The text that bears his name, the Hanfeizi, is one of the richest works of early statecraft thinking and a source from which much material in the Huainanzi may have been drawn.

94. That is, disputing over fine points of no importance.

95. Baixing , the “hundred surnames.”

96. Heng E (also known as Chang E) was the wife of Archer Yi. To this day, many Chinese people still speak of her living on the moon.