《唐太古妙应孙真人福寿论》

After the sage comprehends the Great Dao (the Way), he accords with nature and does not act with deliberate recklessness. The worthy know that deceit invites misfortune and therefore do not practice deception. Those who thoroughly understand the principles of things see clearly the limits of life and do not force what is impossible. People of integrity hold fast to their own convictions and abide in quiet steadfastness. The benevolent firmly uphold humaneness and De (Virtue/Power), remaining upright and cautious. Scholars carefully guard their moral integrity, humble and respectful. Ordinary people, however, remain muddled and ignorant of all this…

Even if a matter is sound in principle, it is of no use unless it is put into practice. The foolish cling stubbornly to their foolish views and do not know to be on guard, while petty people turn away from the proper Dao (the Way) and do evil all day long. Blessing comes from the continual accumulation of good deeds; misfortune comes from the continual accumulation of evil deeds. Ghosts and spirits cannot send down misfortune or bestow blessing out of nothing. People commonly harm their own lives because they have accumulated too much evil.

If the rich and noble, relying on power and influence, lightly seize what does not belong to them, and if the poor and lowly seek, through flattery and theft, gains they ought not to have, both are cases of exceeding one’s proper share. In the unseen there is of itself a record; people simply do not know of it. The Huangting Neijing (Scripture of the Inner Landscape of the Yellow Court, a Daoist classic) says that the human body bears more than ten thousand spirits (Shen). Within the body are the Three Corpses and Nine Worms (Sanshi and Jiuchong)—the bodily spirits and worm-spirits which, in Daoist teaching, record a person’s faults and report them upward—and the Boys of Good and Evil likewise record a person’s good and evil and submit their reports. How much more, then, are there the registers of the underworld. The foolish and ignorant are deficient in mind and Shen, while the sage is full in mind and Shen. Yet a person’s life is not taken away merely on account of one or two faults. Some hold office and noble rank, yet are slighted and slandered, or are suddenly demoted and struck from the registers of name, or even fall suddenly into grave illness. In most cases this is because, in assisting with the affairs of government, they did not keep to the proper Dao. That they failed to keep to the proper Dao and yet did not at once lose their lives is because their remaining lifespan and their blessings and emoluments had not yet been exhausted. That they later turned to the proper Dao and still died is because their allotted span of life had already come to an end.

The poor often live long, because poverty keeps a person constantly hard-pressed and short of the means of life, and that lifespan ought not to be reduced still further. The rich and noble often live short lives, because they enjoy luxury to excess and thereby cut their lifespan short. This is precisely the Dao of Heaven diminishing what has a surplus and supplementing what is insufficient. There are also those who are poor, lowly, and distressed, who suffer hunger and cold, and whose corpses after death lie exposed with no one to bury them. This is the sign of an unsound inner disposition: their De (Virtue/Power) is insufficient, and so they are poor; their hearts are not good, and so they lose their lives. Heaven does not intend to kill them; they themselves bring destruction upon themselves. Such people are not fit to dwell at ease in the human world, or to receive the covering of Heaven, the support of Earth, and the light of the sun and moon.

When office and rank, carriages and horses, or wives and concubines exceed the measure one properly deserves, this is called exceeding one’s proper share through a lack of humaneness. When houses, grain and cloth, or gains from buying and selling exceed the measure one properly deserves, this is called exceeding one’s proper share through a lack of frugality. All these things are recorded by the spirits. Three years, five years, ten years, or twenty years may pass, and retribution may not yet have come; but if one oversteps the measure for too long, the spirits will call one to account, and one will lose one’s life.

Exceeding one’s proper share in office and rank means exhausting every means to scheme for a post, obtaining office by bribery, occupying a high position while one’s De is shallow, or hastening to seek and to steal salary and stipend. To force a claim upon offices and emoluments that do not belong to one may bring disaster, illness, and death. The spirits record these things; people simply do not know it.

Exceeding one’s proper share with carriages and horses means deliberately forcing the price down when buying a horse, yet demanding that the horse be strong; failing to give it water and fodder at the proper times; whipping and driving it to excess, making it run without pause, and taking no account of whether the road is long or short, perilous or rough. Livestock cannot speak, yet Heaven pities them when their strength is spent and they suffer. To work them in this way is also to exceed one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share with wives and concubines means keeping too many favorites, so that expenditure is naturally enormous and one’s way of life easily turns toward arrogance, luxury, and dissolute pleasure. Gold and silver, pearls and kingfisher ornaments are used without end; fragrant ointments are cast aside at will; fine clothing and adornment are treated lightly, and precious foods are squandered. What others find hard to bear, one oneself finds easy; while others suffer, one seeks amusement and delight. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share with servants means treating good people as persons of low station and turning right and wrong upside down; showing them no sympathetic care when they suffer, and not allowing them to share when there is cause for joy; taking no account of the hardship of their labor in cold and heat, and showing no pity when they are old, ill, weary, or exhausted; whipping and humiliating them at will, without regard for their circumstances. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share in houses means building residences that are excessively spacious, yet paying the craftsmen unfair wages; using unrighteous wealth to construct dwellings without measure, pursuing ornament that is gorgeous and brilliant, exhausting the strength of the craftsmen and wearing down timber and stone, while not knowing how to be content with a plain and simple dwelling. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share in grain and cloth means planting on a large scale and harvesting through bitter toil, so that the farmers bear a heavy burden while the master takes from it a doubled profit, hoarding the grain in great storehouses and keeping it for many years. The grain may fall under the control of thieves or be spoiled by sparrows and rats, while the farmers are thereby reduced to hardship and debt, even sinking into the abyss of interest-bearing obligations. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share in clothing means that, though splendid fabrics are already abundant, one continually cuts and makes new garments, so that chests and cabinets pile up without number, yet nothing is given to the poor and cold; taking no heed of those whose clothes do not cover their bodies and who lack even plain cloth, one lets the garments be eaten by insects and gnawed by rats until at last they rot. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

Exceeding one’s proper share in food and drink means that a single meal must be furnished with every delicacy of mountain and sea, and a single bout of drinking must be accompanied by music and dance. Little of the food is eaten, yet the expense is very great. There are people in the world who cannot even eat their fill of coarse grain, while one oneself throws away rich and fatty foods and lets servants and concubines cast food by the roadside. This too is exceeding one’s proper share, and the spirits will record it.

A generous profit in buying and selling is not in itself exceeding one’s proper share. If, beyond legitimate profit, one encroaches on the interests of others, that is exceeding one’s proper share. Profit that comes unexpectedly is often a sign that calls for vigilance, and a petty person ought not to accept it lightly. To force down the price of goods that are sold and to force up the price of goods that are bought is deception: the other party is foolish, while one oneself becomes a thief. Profit gained by deception invites misfortune; profit gained by lucky chance invites disaster. What one obtains because it is rightly due is auspicious; only what one receives after yielding and declining is true blessing.

A person’s death is not caused wholly by external factors or by illness. It may also come about because one has accumulated too many inhumane acts and done too many things that are not good, and is at last called to account by the spirits. If one can repair one’s faults, repent of one’s offenses, broadly bestow humane kindness, and constantly cherish compassion, then one’s De can reach through to the dark and unseen, and one may perhaps preserve one’s life; yet the misfortunes incurred in the past may still not be entirely avoided. If one does not repent, misfortune will increase day by day and one’s lifespan will shorten day by day. Even if gold, silver, and wealth are heaped until they fill the storehouses, one’s store of blessing may already have been exhausted. Wealth without the Dao and without right principle is held in common by one’s kin: those in higher station are thereby brought into distress, and those in lower station thereby lose their lives. Such wealth, as I regard it, is like floating clouds, and does not deserve to be called true riches.

If a person can practice hidden virtue (Yinde)—good deeds done without seeking that others know of them—and does not deceive others, then the sage will know of it, the worthy will protect one, Heaven will cherish one, the many will rejoice, and ghosts and spirits will also hold one in respect. Such a person possesses wealth without losing it, occupies high station without losing that station, meets with no misfortune, suffers no shortening of lifespan, and can also remain far from the calamities of plunder, flood, and fire, preserving life and living out one’s natural years.