《水镜录》

The Most High Lord Lao (Taishang Laojun) says: Calamity and blessing have no fixed gate; both are brought upon people by themselves. Retribution for good and evil follows as a shadow follows the body. Therefore, between Heaven and Earth there are deities charged with recording faults, who, according to the gravity of the offenses a person commits, reduce that person’s lifespan. When the allotted years diminish, the person grows poor and depleted and constantly meets with worry and misfortune; others come to loathe him, punishments and disasters arrive one after another, auspicious blessings withdraw, and baleful stars send down calamity. When the allotted years are exhausted, the person dies.

The stellar lords of the Three Terraces (Santai) and the Northern Dipper (Beidou), together with other deities, constantly remain above a person’s head, recording that person’s offenses and reducing the lifespan. Within the body there are also the Three Corpse Spirits (Sanshi—spirits spoken of in Daoism that report a person’s faults to the celestial court). On every gengshen day they ascend to the celestial court to make their report; at the end of each month the Stove God does likewise. When a person commits a fault, a major offense deducts one ji (twelve years), and a minor offense deducts one suan (a unit of lifespan). The kinds and degrees of faults number in the hundreds. One who wishes to seek long life must first avoid these faults: what accords with the correct Dao (the Way) should be done, and what does not accord with the correct Dao should be left aside. Do not walk deviant paths, do not do things that weigh on the conscience in secret, and accumulate merit. One should treat all beings with a compassionate heart, be loyal to ruler and parents, filial toward father and mother, and affectionate toward brothers; correct oneself and thereby transform others; pity orphans and widows, respect the elderly and care for the young, and not lightly harm even insects or grasses and trees. One ought to sympathize with the misfortunes of others, rejoice in the good deeds of others, help those in urgent difficulty, and rescue those in peril. Seeing another gain something should be as if one had gained it oneself; seeing another suffer a loss should be as if one had suffered the loss oneself.

Do not expose others’ shortcomings, and do not flaunt one’s own strengths; check evil conduct and make good conduct known. Give much and take little; when insulted, bear no resentment, and when favored, do not grow self-satisfied; bestow kindness without seeking repayment, and once something has been given, do not demand it back. Such a person is a good person, and everyone will respect him. The Dao of Heaven will protect him, blessings and emolument will follow, noxious influences will keep their distance, spirits will guard him, undertakings will readily succeed, and he may also hope to cultivate himself into an immortal.

One who wishes to seek the state of a celestial immortal (tianxian) should accumulate one thousand three hundred good deeds; one who wishes to seek the state of an earthly immortal (dixian) should accumulate three hundred good deeds. Conversely, if one acts unjustly and contrary to principle, takes the doing of evil as a skill, is ruthless in harming others, secretly injures good people, deceives ruler and parents, slights one’s teachers, betrays those one serves, cheats the unknowing, slanders fellow students, practices falsehood, attacks one’s own kin, is obstinate and inhumane, fierce and self-willed, turns right and wrong upside down, and handles affairs unreasonably, then offenses accumulate.

The following acts likewise count as faults: mistreating subordinates in order to claim credit, and flattering superiors so as to suit their wishes; receiving kindness without gratitude, yet nursing resentment without end; slighting the common people and throwing government into disorder; rewarding those who should not be rewarded and punishing the innocent; killing people to seize their wealth, and framing others in order to seize their posts; killing those who have already surrendered, demoting the upright and pushing aside the worthy; bullying the orphaned and weak, abandoning the law in order to take bribes; inverting the crooked and the straight and abusing punishments; committing errors and not correcting them, knowing what is good yet not doing it; having guilt oneself and shifting it onto others; blocking legitimate arts of the Dao, ridiculing and slandering sages and worthies, and encroaching upon persons of De (Virtue/Power).

Shooting flying birds and chasing running beasts, startling hibernating creatures and birds and beasts at rest, filling in burrows and destroying nests, harming young animals not yet born and breaking birds’ eggs—these too are faults. Hoping that others will fail and ruining what others have accomplished; placing others in danger in order to preserve oneself, and harming others so that one may profit; discarding the good and taking the bad, and setting the public aside for private interest; stealing others’ abilities and concealing others’ good deeds; exposing what is ugly in people and divulging their private affairs; depleting others’ property, sowing discord among flesh-and-blood kin, seizing what others cherish, or helping others do evil—these too are faults.

Trading on power to display one’s might and humiliating others in order to prevail; ruining crops and breaking up marriages; growing arrogant because one happens to become wealthy, and feeling no shame because one chances to escape punishment; speaking of others’ kindness as one’s own and shifting faults onto others; passing calamity on to people and trafficking in ill repute, angling for fame while secretly harboring vicious intent; suppressing others’ strengths and covering one’s own shortcomings; using authority to threaten and intimidate, indulging in violence and killing or wounding living beings; cutting cloth and silk without cause, slaughtering livestock against principle, wasting grain and troubling living beings; destroying others’ family property and seizing their goods; breaching dikes and setting fires, endangering the dwellings of the people; throwing regulations into disorder, wrecking others’ undertakings, and damaging others’ implements so that people have nothing to use—all these likewise belong to evil conduct.

Seeing others become eminent and hoping they will be demoted; seeing others wealthy and hoping their family property will be scattered; seeing others beautiful and giving rise to improper desire; owing others money or goods yet hoping they will die. Asking others to handle a matter and, when it does not turn out as wished, cursing and resenting them; seeing others fail and seizing the chance to speak ill of them; mocking those with bodily defects and holding down those with ability; using deviant arts to delude and harm people, or using drugs to kill trees; growing angry at one’s teacher and talking back to father and elder brothers, forcibly demanding, encroaching, and plundering, seeking promotion through fraud, and being unfair in reward and punishment; giving oneself to pleasure, maltreating subordinates, and intimidating others, resenting Heaven and blaming people, reviling wind and rain, stirring up quarrels and lawsuits, and forming factions blindly; heeding wives and concubines while going against the teachings of parents, tiring of the old and craving the new, saying one thing while meaning another, coveting wealth and deceiving superiors, inventing malicious words and slandering the innocent—these too are faults.

Claiming uprightness as a pretext for defaming others, and claiming impartiality as a pretext for reviling the spirits; abandoning the correct Dao and imitating perverse acts, growing distant from kin and intimate with outsiders; calling on Heaven and Earth as witnesses in order to cover base intentions, and borrowing the names of spirits to shield shameful matters; regretting after one has given, and borrowing things without returning them; greedily seeking profit beyond one’s due and pursuing gain by any means; indulging desire to excess, being cruel within while charitable on the surface; insulting people with unclean food and spreading deviant arts to delude the multitude; using short rulers, narrow pecks, light scales, and small sheng measures, adulterating goods and passing them off as genuine, profiting by fraud, oppressing good commoners so that they sink into menial servitude, deceiving the ignorant, and being greedy without satiety; using curses to demand what one calls justice, sinking into drink until one’s conduct is disordered, and contending with one’s own flesh and blood—these too count as faults.

When a man is not loyal and generous, and a woman is not gentle and compliant; when husband and wife are not in harmony, and a wife does not respect her husband; when one constantly boasts and is jealous by nature; when one is heartless toward wife and children and lacking in propriety toward parents-in-law; when one slights the ancestors and disobeys the commands of elders; when one does what brings no benefit and harbors thoughts of an outside attachment; when one curses oneself or others and shows partial favor; when one steps across a well mouth or a stove, tramples food, or leaps over other people; when one harms sons and daughters and causes a fetus to miscarry; when one’s conduct is hidden and improper; when one sings and dances noisily on the hui day and the la day, and at dawn on the first day of each month shouts and gives way to anger; when, facing others, one spits, blows the nose, or urinates; when one chants or weeps while facing a kiln or furnace; when one burns incense over the stove fire or cooks with filthy kindling; when one rises at night with the body exposed; when one carries out punishments on the Eight Nodes (bajie—seasonal junctures valued in Daoism); when one spits at meteors, points at the rainbow, casually points at the sun, moon, and stars, or stares long and directly at the sun and moon; when in spring one sets fires for encirclement hunts; when one faces north and curses viciously; and when without cause one kills turtles or strikes snakes—all these are offenses enumerated in the Jing (scripture/classic).

The deity Siming (who governs a person’s lifespan and destiny) reduces the lifespan according to the gravity of the faults; when the allotted years are exhausted, the person dies. If after death charges remain uncleared, they will further bring disaster upon descendants. For one who forcibly takes others’ property without just cause, the deities reckon that person’s wife, children, and household dependents into the repayment, even causing them gradually to meet with death. If death does not come, then disasters such as flood and fire, thieves, the loss of implements, illness, and disputes of words are used to offset what was gained unrighteously. To kill a person under a false charge is like putting weapons into people’s hands and setting them to slaughter one another. To obtain unrighteous wealth is like quenching thirst with poisoned wine: although the thirst is eased for a moment, in the end one loses one’s life because of it.

Once a good thought arises, even before it is carried into action, auspicious spirits are already in attendance; once an evil thought arises, even before an evil deed is done, baleful spirits are already in attendance. One who has formerly done evil and afterward is able to repent, ceases to do evil, and strives to do good will, after a long time, surely obtain auspicious blessing; this is turning calamity into fortune. Therefore the good person speaks good words, regards good matters, and does good deeds: three good deeds accumulated in a day, and after three years Heaven will surely send down blessing. The wicked person speaks evil words, regards evil matters, and does evil deeds: three evil deeds accumulated in a day, and after three years Heaven will surely send down calamity. Why not strive to practice accordingly?

The Imperial Lord of Zitong (the deity who presides over literary fortune and the official success of scholars) says: Those who are intelligent and upright and who follow benevolence and righteousness will of themselves discern clearly what to choose and what to set aside; those who are magnanimous, loyal, and trustworthy and who delight in the Way (Dao) and righteousness ought likewise to remain constant from beginning to end. Therefore, through the resonance of a sincere heart, I gently carry out a teaching without words. All you scholars, please attend to these maxims.

One often hears it said that wealth and rank are arranged by Heaven, and that gain and loss each have their fixed allotment. Those who understand this rest content in the natural course and do not plead without cease; those who do not understand it covet what they insist must be obtained and make requests at every turn. Some hold that when mind and Shen (spirit) communicate, guidance may be received in dreams; others hold that if the offerings are abundant, the divine spirits will descend. They build palaces and storied pavilions, particular about blue-green tiles and soaring eaves; they adorn steps and covered corridors, vaunting the carvings on vermilion railings. All of this is peripheral and secondary, and it loses the root instead.

People do not realize that whether one may advance, when one should withdraw, and the rises and falls, departures and stays of an official career all have their corresponding arrangements. The various offices and agencies of the court each have those who oversee them; they cannot be obtained by private scheming. Yet one must not bind everything rigidly to what is fated, still less abandon, on that account, self-cultivation and the pursuit of learning. Those who cultivate themselves, keep to De (Virtue/Power), and strive to practice it will surely be granted abundant blessings by Heaven; those who turn against the correct Dao and ruin their De will have their blessings taken away by the spirits as well. Principles lodged deep within the order of Heaven are often beyond what human beings can see through. Thus the turns of destiny sometimes secretly accord with a person, and sometimes bring disaster upon them; when a baleful star appears, there are also those who instead meet with good fortune. In the transformations of creation, misfortune and fortune depend upon each other, and the spirits accordingly increase or diminish a person’s blessings. All of you who study ought reverently to follow this instruction.

Do not presume upon Heaven because it is high and far, nor suppose that the divine is hidden and obscure; do not imagine that in the dark you can conceal matters from others, nor that in the open you need not stand in awe. Do not oppress orphans and widows, nor slight the elderly who possess De; do not take wealth gained unrighteously, nor covet women who do not belong to you. Do not treat outsiders generously while estranging your own kin, nor pledge loyalty to those of other surnames while letting your own brothers contend with one another. Do not rely upon your own strengths, nor single out only the shortcomings of others; do not covet ease and pleasure, nor give yourself over to roaming and the hunt. Do not presume upon the fame of your talent, nor lean upon official rank and power. Do not favor the immortal Dao and the Buddhist teaching while neglecting your parents; do not revere ghosts and spirits while slighting your teachers.

If you go against these words I have spoken, you will in the end be unable to escape the punishment of Heaven. Those whose integrity is ordinarily correct may time and again be stranded in the examination halls; those who have always been shrewd may suddenly have their names entered on the list of those who pass the provincial examination. Each such matter has its own causes and conditions; none is a hasty accident. Those in the world who nurse discontent and slander in secret often take these things as their excuse; those who praise to the face and defame behind the back are only deceiving themselves. How could those who preside over the selection of examination candidates indulge private favor at will? Those who administer emolument and rank do not deliberately favor anyone. Among the many scholars, there may be those whom Heaven is examining; those who can at last accomplish a great undertaking—these are the ones I select. The instruction above is to be proclaimed in every place, so that all may know it.

In this year’s selection of talent, judgment is not made by any single standard alone; what matters is choosing those who are truly suitable, so as to answer the expectations of all. In the evaluation, the quiet accumulation of De (Virtue/Power) and filial devotion to one’s parents are regarded as conduct of the highest order, and modesty and even temper in one’s dealings with others should likewise be esteemed as worthy De. Those who study with diligent toil are to be recompensed for their efforts; those of outstanding talent are to be enabled to fulfill their aspirations. The arrogant and negligent can hardly escape elimination, while the frivolous and shallow are, for the time being, to take this as admonition and penalty. Written compositions serve as the basis of examination and determine who is retained or dismissed; the spirits preside over the judgment, so that rewards and the choices of acceptance or rejection may all be impartial. This text should be proclaimed in every locality, so that all may know of it.

If a person does not examine himself, these teachings stand as clear warnings. It is often said that a scholar is not gifted with talent from birth; so long as he studies with diligence, he can accomplish something. To live in poverty is not to be fated to remain poor, for establishing merit and a name can change one’s circumstances. Heaven does not mark out success and failure in advance according to high or low station. What matters is whether one is industrious and applies himself.

Ordinary people should first weigh how their moral conduct and their studies actually stand. Only then will the officials who preside over the examinations judge, on that basis, whether their writings are superior or inferior. One must not say that fate was long ago fixed and that there is therefore no need to study hard; nor may one take the karmic ties of a former life as an excuse for slackening in self-cultivation.

Some are scholars in name yet possess not a trace of a scholar’s character. They wear the robes and caps of Confucian students, but this is only a pleasing exterior. They do not revere Heaven and Earth, nor trust in the spirits; they slight their elders and seniors, defy their parents, and spend their days craving ease. They neglect their teachers and pass the time in indulgence. When they fail the examinations, they blame the chief examiner for injustice; no sooner is the list posted than they say those of ordinary ability were chosen only by luck. They are forever fond of blaming others, yet unwilling to reproach themselves. In passing judgment on others, they are in fact presuming to dispute the principle of Heaven.

Some rely on their own insight to suppress the talents of others. They boast of their strengths and single out others’ shortcomings. Trusting that they have read a few books, they look down on the world; knowing only a little of principle, they despise the multitude. Their conduct is not upright, yet they take evasive concealment and greedy pursuit of gain for ability. Their intentions are not pure, yet they take cunning and deceit for skill. They praise and blame without keeping to what is fair; they contend for advantage without regard for what others say. They flatter to one’s face and slander behind one’s back, seeking only to please; their words sound fine, but their hearts have no room for others.

Some appear kindly on the outside, yet in truth they only speak cleverly and say what is pleasant to hear. Inwardly they are harsh, secretly doing harm and plotting against others. They do not choose upright friends, but instead associate with the unrighteous. They are not content with their own households, yet covet women who do not belong to them. They leave their own fields untilled and insist on tilling the fields of others—their faults are already many. To do what brings no benefit, and to damage what is beneficial: what could be more harmful than this?

Among those recommended at the provincial examination, some grow self-satisfied on that account and study no further. Those who go to the provincial capital for the metropolitan examination suppose that rank and fame are already in hand and can be had with ease. The provincial examination is a local examination; the metropolitan examination is held in the capital. Some pride themselves on their talent and bully the weak. They are forever fond of courting the powerful and clinging to connections, yet they boast that they stand as equals with others. On the strength of a few lines of writing they look down on their peers. In the marketplace they seek profit by improper means; when they reach the offices of prefecture and county, they wrangle in lawsuits, devising every means to satisfy private desire. They are neither loyal nor filial, and willingly break the law. They violate propriety, righteousness, and humaneness, acting as they please without regard for the consequences.

They hunt and roam without restraint, sink into gambling and chess until the days are wasted, drink to excess until their minds grow muddled, and flaunt their strength until their moral conduct is ruined. Such people are repeatedly left outside the examination hall—how dare they still hope for glory, wealth, and rank? In ordinary times they have not, over three years, put in the work of bending over their books, yet they suddenly look to pass the examinations in a single morning. At the slightest setback they blame fate; once they have acquired a little ability, they devote themselves to prayer in pursuit of rank and fame. They do not know that the principle and laws of Heaven are hard to escape. What is to be feared is that this will only further bewild people’s minds.

A person’s advance and withdrawal, speech and silence, are all observed by Heaven; a person’s choices of what to pursue and what to relinquish are likewise watched by the spirits. Rank and fame cannot be seized by luck, nor sought by endless calculation. So long as one has moral conduct and achievements worthy of praise, why worry that one cannot accomplish something?

In recent times, among families that have managed their estates for generations, sons and younger kin have repeatedly won conspicuous reputations; whereas among families that have studied for generations and handed down the Confucian vocation, some have instead failed the examinations. This is because the young of families that tend their livelihood study contentedly in their proper station, without showing off or putting on airs, while some young men of scholarly families rely on their pedigree and are often proud and self-satisfied. The spirits select people with impartiality precisely in order to warn the frivolous; the movement of the Way of Heaven likewise rewards the simple and sincere.

If one can awaken to this, one should draw in one’s sharp edges and conduct oneself with restraint. If one wishes to achieve something, one must study with a devoted mind and work hard, do one’s utmost in accumulating virtue and practicing good, and at all times keep a heart of loyalty and filial piety. In this way one can return to the simple and sincere customs of antiquity and change the shallow, frivolous habits of a declining age. When the classics, propriety, and righteousness are handed down in the family, success in the civil examinations may also be hoped for again. Treating others with humility preserves one’s original bearing. Heaven does not fail people; people ought to study with effort. All who are scholars should take this as a warning.

A single moment of awakening can indeed bring the longevity bestowed by Heaven; and to cultivate even one good virtue can all the more plant the root of long life. It is plain, then, that thoughts must not go unexamined, and good virtue must not go uncultivated. All of this should be treated with care.

Laozi said, “My destiny lies in my own hands, not with Heaven.” The Perfected Ziyang (a Daoist practitioner of Neidan, internal alchemy) also said, “Cultivating the Great Medicine may be easy or difficult; the key lies in oneself.” Yet if one merely hands destiny over to the will of Heaven, and does not accumulate good deeds or practice goodness in secret, one will often meet with all manner of obstacles. This much can be believed.

Grand Astrologer Guo was accomplished in astronomy and the principles of fate, and once received Heaven’s mandate to write a book. Those who later calculated destinies by the stars all took his book as their model. Drawing on the Five Phases (wuxing: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water), the Four Pillars (the heavenly stems and earthly branches of the year, month, day, and hour of birth), and the cycles and limits of the stars, they inferred a person’s wealth, rank, and longevity, or poverty, low station, and illness, together with baleful calamity and early death—often as a mirror shows an image, or as matching tallies fit one another. People of the world seem scarcely able to escape the allotment of fate. Yet on a closer look, the inferences of the books of fate are accurate in many cases and inaccurate in not a few. Why is this? Can it be that, living between Heaven and Earth, some are bound by fate’s allotment while others are not?

Grand Astrologer Guo inquired into the mysterious principle and pursued its finest points, and in his book he set forth the calculations of fate. But he then went on to say, “Accumulating hidden merit can prolong life; a good person can in the end avoid disaster.” He also said, “Meet affairs as conditions arise, do your utmost to practice goodness and to make things easier for others, and even if you encounter a baleful star, there is no need to worry.” He must have come to some realization of this. Otherwise, why would the Perfected Sun Simiao have said, “The length of life need not be spoken of only in terms of fate; the root of cultivation lies in oneself”?

The Perfected of the Taiji (Supreme Ultimate), Xu Laile, once met the Longevity Star of the Southern Dipper and asked about the length of life and about good and ill fortune. The Longevity Star said, “The Dao (the Way) of Heaven rewards good and punishes evil, and the spirits likewise reward good and punish evil. If a person practices goodness with a single mind, then in stillness one accords with the Dao, and in action one corresponds with one’s share of blessing. One can then take hold of one’s own destiny and not be constrained by the spirits who govern baleful forces. Without deliberately seeking long life, one naturally lives long; without deliberately seeking to live, one can still preserve one’s life. If, on the contrary, one destroys the norms, goes against Heaven’s principle, indulges foolish delusion, offends the spirits, abandons benevolence, and harms loyalty and filial piety, then in the open there is punishment by penal law, and in secret there is retribution by ghosts and spirits. If a person does not know the faults accumulated in ordinary days, one may, in the unseen, have one’s span of years cut short and die young.”

Examples of doing good in secret are many. Lord Yu judged cases with impartiality, and his son later became chancellor. Lord Xu accumulated goodness, and his descendants rose one after another to eminence as dukes and marquises. There is no need to recount them one by one here.

In former times there was a bhikshu (a Buddhist practitioner who had left household life) possessed of the six supernatural powers, who lived in the mountain forests with a shami (a young monastic). The bhikshu knew that the shami would die in seven days, and said to him, “Your parents miss you. You may go home for a time and return after eight days.” On the eighth day the shami did indeed return. The bhikshu entered meditative absorption to observe the cause, and found that on the way home the shami had taken off his robe to block standing water, so that the water did not rush into an ants’ nest. Because of this, his life was extended by twelve years.

When Sun Shu’ao was young, he saw a two-headed snake. Fearing that others who saw it would come to harm, he buried the snake. His mother said, “I have heard that Heaven bestows blessing on those who accumulate hidden virtue. You will not die.” Later Sun Shu’ao became lingyin of Chu (the highest executive official of the state of Chu).

There was also Bao Yujun. One night he dreamed that his grandfather said to him, “By fate your years are not long, and you have no son. You should cultivate and accumulate hidden virtue early.” Thereafter Yujun practiced goodness without slackening. Later his grandfather told him again in a dream, “Because you have accumulated hidden virtue, Heaven has extended your life by thirty-six years, and has also granted you five sons and caused them to rise to distinction. In your later years you will moreover hold a place in the grotto-heavens.” Fan Zhongyan once wrote an account of this matter.

Seen in this light, longevity can indeed be gained through a single moment of awakening, and the root of longevity must also be planted by cultivating virtuous conduct.

Someone asked, “How should hidden virtue be cultivated?” The reply was, “Doing good is not limited by wealth or rank, poverty or humble station, nor need one force oneself to do what one cannot. So long as, within the reach of one’s strength, one meets disaster by water or fire, harassment by bandits, hunger, cold, and suffering, lawsuits and penal cases, urgent distress, hardship on the road, or dangerous and difficult obstacles—and even when facing birds in flight, fish in the water, animals, and plants—if one does one’s utmost to find a way to help and to offer convenience, then hidden virtue is without limit, and the blessings received will correspond to the good deeds accumulated.”

The record of Xishan says, “To encounter an eminent person who has attained the Dao, and to obtain the true method, may be said to result from cultivation, yet it is also the recompense of hidden merit accumulated in the past.” This is why I wrote a preface at the end of the book and also composed the Discourse on Extending Life through Hidden Virtue. Recounted by Li Pengfei, the Elder of Purified Heart of Jiuhua.

The most precious thing in the world is life, and the most tragic thing under Heaven is the killing of living beings. Even a louse, once captured, knows to flee from death; and when rain is about to fall, ants will move their nests in order to survive. Yet people spread nets upon the mountains and cast nets in the water, seizing animals by every kind of method. Sometimes they fish with a curved hook, sometimes they kill with a straight arrow, and by all manner of devices they lay snares and nets. The animals are terrified until their souls seem to scatter, and mothers are parted from their young. Some are shut in cages, as if they had fallen into prison; some are laid upon the knife and the board, as if they were about to suffer cruel torture. A doe, loving her fawn, licks its wounds, her grief tearing her very insides; a gibbon, fearing death, sheds sorrowful tears at the mere shadow of a bow. To rely on one’s own strength in order to oppress the weak can hardly accord with reason or with natural feeling; and how can the heart be at ease when one eats the flesh of other animals to nourish oneself?

Heaven therefore looks down with pity upon all living beings, and the sages and worthies of antiquity likewise practiced humaneness and love. King Tang of Shang once ordered that the nets for catching birds be opened; Zichan, in the Spring and Autumn period, set free the fish in a pond. The Elder Liushui used bags of water to relieve fish that lay stranded and dying in the dry; Shakyamuni gave up his body and cut away his own flesh, suffering in place of a life about to be killed. The Wise One of Tiantai (Zhiyi, the eminent monk of the Tiantai school) dug ponds for the release of living beings; the Great Tree Immortal protected the birds that nested beside him. A Chan master redeemed fish and shrimp so that they might live; a Zhenren (Perfected Person) saved a dragon’s child, and later generations praise his compassion to this day.

It is told that a novice monk saved a single ant, and his own brief lifespan was thereby lengthened; a scholar saved ants, and official honors that had been humble were turned into high success in the examinations. Because he once released a turtle, Mao Bao was able to escape from mortal danger; because Kong Yu released a turtle, he rose from a minor office and was enfeoffed as a marquis. Master Qu set a carp free at Yuancun, and his life was lengthened by twelve years; the Marquis of Sui saved a snake in the land of Qi and afterward received a luminous pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold. Someone rescued a fly that had fallen into the water, and a winemaker’s sentence of death was thereby remitted; someone released a soft-shelled turtle about to go into the pot, and a kitchen maid’s grave illness was cured. Someone redeemed animals from a butcher’s hands, and after Judicial Commissioner Zhang died, his soul and Shen (spirit) ascended to the heavenly realm; someone saved a living being from a fishing boat, and the poison of cinnabar in Li Jingwen’s body was dispelled. Sun Liangsi freed birds caught in bird-nets, and later, when he was buried, flocks of birds came to assist; County Magistrate Pan forbade the capture and killing of living beings in the rivers and lakes, and when he left office the creatures of the water seemed to cry out in grief for him.

These stories further tell that someone saved a rabbit about to be killed as a sacrificial offering, and sweet rain then fell across the Xiangfu region; someone at Caoxi kept watch over the nets that hunters had set, so that the Dao (the Way) of compassion spread to every place. Small birds untied the rings on their feet in order to repay a kindness, and a fox came to the side of a well to impart a skill. There were even gravely wounded animals that were suffered to live and, beside a white-haired elder, heard the teaching of the Jing (scripture); and there were those who, seeking to survive in peril, dreamed of a person dressed in yellow who came to their aid.

Both charitable giving and rescue bring their reward; this is not without foundation. The deeds are recorded in the classics, and they are often what people have seen and heard. May everyone, on seeing a creature that has life, give rise to a compassionate heart, bring out wealth that cannot be relied upon (that is, wealth which in the end cannot be kept for long), and perform acts of practical rescue. If one can save many lives, one accumulates a great store of hidden virtue; even helping a single small insect is equally a good deed. If one does good day by day and accumulates it month by month, the more widely one acts, the deeper one’s blessings and virtue become. When compassion extends throughout the human world, one’s good name can also reach the court of Heaven. In this way one may remove karmic grievances and obstacles, so that the present life receives abundant blessing; and by planting good roots, one lets that beneficent influence continue into lives to come.

If, beyond this, one recites the Buddha’s name and chants the text of the Jing for the beings one has saved, and dedicates the merit to the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, so that they may forever leave the evil paths, then the aspiration one arouses will be still vaster, and the virtue one accumulates still more profound. Acting in this way can help one accomplish the work of the Dao more quickly, and can also enable those who are reborn to ascend to a better grade upon the lotus throne.

People take the eating of meat as a matter of course, and so they kill living beings at will, piling up a great many karmic grievances. Following one another, they gradually turn this into custom, yet never notice what is wrong with it—truly a cause for grief and lament. The delusions people hold on this matter may be summed up in roughly seven points. The first is set out below; the rest may be understood in the same way.

The first is that one should not take life on one’s birthday. Our parents bore and raised us through every hardship, and the day of our birth is precisely the day our mother endured the ordeal of childbirth. On that day, therefore, one ought to refrain from killing, keep a vegetarian fast (eating neither meat nor fish), and do many good deeds, hoping that parents who have passed away may soon attain deliverance, and that parents still living may enjoy greater blessing and longer life. How can one forget the pain of one’s mother’s labor and instead slaughter living beings? To do so brings trouble upon one’s parents and yields no benefit to oneself.

In former times, even Emperor Taizong of the Tang, exalted as the Son of Heaven, held no banquets or entertainments on his birthday. Nowadays some village elders, having gathered no more than an extra ten hu (a measure of capacity) of grain, find their doors thronged with guests and feast for days on end in celebration—this is wholly improper. Those who on their birthdays offer meals to monks, recite the Jing (scriptures), and perform all manner of good deeds—only such conduct is worthy of praise.

Second, one should not take life in order to celebrate the birth of a child. When people have no children they grieve, and when a child is born they rejoice, yet they never pause to consider that birds and beasts likewise cherish their own young. Can the heart be at ease if, in celebrating the birth of one’s own child, one causes the children of others to die? A newborn infant ought to have blessings accumulated on his behalf, yet people instead kill living beings and create bad karma. This is sheer folly.

There was a hunter who, one night, became dead drunk and mistook his own young son for a water deer. He sharpened his knife and was about to kill him. His wife wept and tried to stop him, but he would not listen; he actually cut open the child’s belly and pulled out the intestines. Afterward he slept peacefully. At daybreak he called for his son, ready to go into the city with him to sell the water deer’s meat. Weeping, his wife said, “What you killed yesterday was our child.” The man was at once overcome with unbearable grief. He collapsed to the ground, and it seemed as if his five viscera had all been torn apart. Alas—though humans and animals differ, the heart that loves its young is the same. How can one kill them?

Third, one should not make a living by killing. For the sake of clothing and food, some people hunt, some fish, and some slaughter cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and other livestock in order to sustain themselves. Yet I have seen that those who do not pursue such livelihoods still have clothes to wear and food to eat; they are not necessarily doomed to freeze or starve. To live by taking life is contrary to the principle of the spirits. Those who hope to prosper and grow rich by killing almost never succeed. Such conduct plants a grave evil cause of hell, and in the next life one suffers evil retribution—nothing is more serious than this. Why not seek some other way to earn a living?

I once saw it with my own eyes: a man who slaughtered sheep, as he lay dying, bleated like a sheep; a man who sold eels, when near death, moved his head in a biting motion like an eel. Both of these things happened in neighboring households; they are not mere hearsay. I urge people of the world: if one truly has no means of livelihood, it is better to beg than to get by through killing and thereby create karmic wrongs of this kind.

Fourth, one should not kill when entertaining guests. With fine weather and beautiful scenery, a virtuous host, and kindly guests, even a meal of vegetables and vegetable broth does not detract from the quiet elegance of the banquet. Why slaughter living beings in great numbers in pursuit of food of the utmost richness and savor? The original text is damaged at this point; the ending continues the earlier admonition about making a living by killing, the gist of which is: do not earn one’s living by taking life and thereby create karmic wrongs.

Fourth, in entertaining guests one should not take life. When fair weather and fine scenery coincide and a worthy, virtuous host invites honored guests, vegetables and vegetable broth may be prepared and will be no less pure, elegant, and pleasing to the taste. Why slaughter living beings in great numbers and insist upon lavish abundance and rich flavors? Throughout the feast, pipes and song never cease, and the guests freely enjoy tables laden with wine and dishes; yet set out upon those tables are the cries of anguish and the bitter wrongs of those who have been slain. Alas, can anyone with a compassionate heart fail to grieve at this? If one knows that the food on the plates comes from creatures that suffered and wailed beside the chopping block, and that people take their extreme pain as their own extreme pleasure, then even with the food before them one could scarcely bring oneself to swallow it. Is this not a cause for sorrow?

Fifth, in sacrificing to the ancestors one should not take life. On the anniversaries of the ancestors’ deaths, and at the tomb offerings of spring and autumn, one ought to refrain from killing, and thereby pray that the ancestors receive blessings in the netherworld. To take life for the sake of sacrifice only adds, to no purpose, to one’s burden of karmic guilt. Even if every kind of precious delicacy is spread across the altar, how can this restore to life the remains lying beneath the Nine Springs so that they may eat? Such a practice brings no benefit and does bring harm; a person of discernment will not do it.

Some say that Emperor Chou of the Liang used foods made of flour in place of the livestock required for sacrifice, and that people therefore mocked him for denying his ancestors the enjoyment of “blood food”—that is, ancestral offerings of the flesh of livestock. Alas, offerings that bear blood are not necessarily precious, nor are vegetables and grain necessarily inferior. What is precious in descendants is that they carefully cultivate themselves and do not ruin the family ways and sacrificial traditions of their ancestors. That is already enough. Why hold that sacrifice must employ livestock? An ancient teaching says that, in performing the Yue sacrifice (the summer sacrifice of antiquity), simpler offerings surpass the slaughter of an ox. The sage likewise admonished that even if one raises livestock with great care, should one in the end kill them for food, this still cannot be counted as filial. Why hold that sacrifice must employ livestock?

Six. One should not take life when praying for blessings and the removal of misfortune. When people fall ill, they slaughter livestock and offer them in sacrifice to the gods, praying for protection, yet they never consider this: in praying to the gods they hope to escape death and preserve their own lives, and then they turn about and kill other lives in order to prolong their own. Such conduct violates the principle of Heaven, and nothing is more serious than this. Only what is upright and impartial is truly divine. Would the gods show partiality to any one person? A lifespan cannot be lengthened by killing, yet the karma created by killing has already been left behind. Sacrifices of every kind that do not accord with the proper Way rest on the same principle.

The Yaoshi Jing (the Medicine Buddha Sutra, a Buddhist scripture) says that if one kills living beings of every kind, reports the matter to the gods, summons ghosts and malign spirits, and prays for blessings in the hope of thereby lengthening one’s years, the wish cannot in the end be fulfilled. Life is not extended by this means, yet the karma of killing has already been created. The same holds for every sacrifice that departs from the proper Way. If, for example, one kills in order to seek a child, wealth, or official rank, then even should a child, money, or office later be obtained, each of these already belonged within that person’s allotted destiny and was not a gift of ghosts or spirits. When a wish happens to be granted, people at once conclude that the deities have manifested their power. The more deeply they believe, the more devoutly they practice, and wrong views blaze ever more fiercely, until they can scarcely be remedied. It is truly lamentable.

Seven. Weddings should not involve the taking of life. In the weddings of the world, from the rites of asking the name and presenting the betrothal gifts—the ceremonial inquiries after the bride’s name, the sending of betrothal presents, and the like—all the way to the completion of the marriage, no one can say how many lives are killed. The union of husband and wife is the beginning of human propagation; to destroy life at the very moment when life begins is contrary to reason from the outset. A wedding is a rite of joy and good auspice, yet to commit a baleful act on an auspicious day—how can this fail to move one to grief?

When people become husband and wife, they always wish that the two may grow old together. Since you hope that husband and wife may remain with each other for a long time, should birds and beasts instead hope to die early? After a daughter is married and leaves home, her natal family does not extinguish its lamps and candles for three days, giving expression to their reluctance to part with her. You regard separation as suffering; do birds and beasts regard separation as joy? From this it may be known that a wedding truly should not involve the taking of life.

As has been said above, these admonitions run quite contrary to ordinary ways of thinking, yet anyone of clear understanding who reads them will surely find them reasonable. If one can give them up entirely, nothing could be better; if that cannot be done, one may still reduce them according to one’s capacity—eating four or five fewer kinds of meat, or abstaining from two or three. Do one less such deed, and one creates one less share of karma; take one less life, and one forms one less bond of grievance.

If for the time being one cannot entirely renounce meat and fish, at least begin by buying meat already prepared, and do not kill living beings with one’s own hands; in this way one can also avoid the greater fault. By continually nurturing a heart of compassion, one can gradually walk a better path. Those who obtain this writing are asked to pass it on to others and to exhort one another. To persuade a single person not to kill is like saving a million lives; if one can persuade ten people, a hundred, or even thousands, myriads, and hundreds of millions, the hidden merit accumulated will be exceedingly vast, and the fruits of goodness will have no end. So long as one is willing to believe and to practice accordingly, one will not be deceived.

Song Advising Against the Killing of Oxen

I urge the people of the world not to eat beef. The ox submits to labor, plows the fields, and toils at its work, yet in the end it is killed in return. Where does the beef you eat come from? How can you bear to slaughter and cook it? Pity this ox; do not say it is merely livestock. Sentient beings revolve through the six paths of rebirth, and among them there may be mutual recompense; who knows whether in a former life it was not one of your own kin?

How can one say it has no feeling at all? At the point of death its whole body trembles; its mouth cannot speak, yet tears flow, as if it were weeping. Its hide is stripped away, its body is cut apart, and still its eyes remain open. Those open eyes are not without cause; it is as if they were watching to see what retribution will come to you in days to come. Can you be sure that in a future life you will not be born a calf?

Consider that we all belong to the same company of sentient beings, yet we kill it out of greed for wealth and indulgence of the appetites of mouth and belly. We think only of how tasty the food is, and do not consider the evil consequences it may bring. With rice one can already satisfy hunger, and vegetables too are enough; there are many foods that please the palate—why must one eat beef? These warnings have already been stated plainly: not eating beef is itself a blessing.