《云宫法语》

All things have their time of decline and decay; only the Dao (the Way) never perishes. Human beings live between Heaven and Earth, and this is precisely where the Dao takes lodging. A person has the mandate of Heaven and also an innate nature. What Heaven confers upon a person is called nature; to follow that innate nature in one’s conduct is called the Dao. Under Heaven there are not two different Daos, and a person’s nature and life do not exist as two separate things either.

The admonition, “The mind of the Dao is subtle; the human mind is perilous; be refined and single-minded; sincerely hold fast to the center,” appears in the words with which the Great Shun cautioned the Great Yu. Sayings concerning the constant nature, the nature formed through later habit, the manifesting of innate nature, and the regulating of nature are found in the maxims of Tang of Shang, Yi Yin, and the Duke of Zhou. When Confucius expounded the Jing (scripture/classic) of the Changes, he said that “each sets aright its nature and life,” which shows that he spoke of nature and life together. Yet Confucius rarely spoke of destiny and of humaneness, and nature together with the Dao of Heaven was rarer still to hear. The learning of nature and life cannot be grasped as an integrated whole except by those who investigate it deeply. Only as Zengzi, Zisi, and Mencius transmitted it in succession did this learning become ever clearer and more fully set forth.

Confucians give priority to nurturing the innate nature and according with it, and take as their essential task the knowing of Heaven’s mandate and the secure establishing of one’s own allotted lot. The highest realm of cultivation is to assist Heaven and Earth in their work of transformation and nourishment, and to stand together with Heaven and Earth. Buddhists and Daoists speak of illuminating the mind and seeing one’s nature, of cultivating life and returning to original truth, of attaining the subtle realm that has form and the empty, quiescent realm that has no form, and ultimately of becoming one with the Dao. The teachings on nature and life in the Buddhist and Daoist traditions ought not to be dismissed either.

In later ages abuses sprang up on every side. Confucians used literary composition to seek office and salary, while followers of Buddhism and Daoism used talk of calamity and good fortune to entice the ignorant and the mediocre. In actual cultivation and practice, very few truly accorded with the correct way of nature and life. Moreover, the Three Bonds and the Five Constants are the root of the great Dao. If the constant principles that Heaven’s mandate and the common people are alike to observe have not yet been fully put into practice, how can one be said to have attained the Dao?

When the sovereign of an enlightened dynasty serves also as teacher of moral transformation, the Confucian Dao is honored and encouraged, and the two traditions of Buddhism and Daoism are not discarded but rather promoted, in the hope that all under Heaven may return to the Dao. In an age of peace and prosperity, every household has talents such as Ji and Xie, and every person possesses worthy virtue such as that of Gao Yao; the highest realm of correct enlightenment in Buddhist and Daoist cultivation is thereby brought into play as well. Thus many discourse on the learning of nature and life, yet they still have not grasped the essential point by which it returns to unity.

Consulting the Jing and their commentaries, I have arranged the relevant materials by category and compiled them together. The Confucian Dao may be attained by rectifying the mind within and making the intentions sincere; the Dao of Buddhism and Daoism may equally be attained in this way. When selfish desires are utterly exhausted, the principle of Heaven circulates of itself. This is the key to not a single thought arising, so that innate nature in its wholeness manifests of itself. Only upon reaching the realm in which one passes from vastness to transformation and nourishment, and from sagehood into Shen (spirit), is it the Dao of which I speak, and only then the learning of nature and life of which I speak.

I have named this collection Dharma Words of the Cloud Palace. “Cloud Palace” and “Yellow Chamber” are expressions in Daoist books for the inner realms of cultivation. “To rest and repose within the Cloud Palace and the Yellow Chamber” is precisely the time of fasting the mind, sitting in stillness, and forgetting external things. If one investigates this Dao to the utmost, then in looking forward and in looking back one can at every moment be thus: looking up, one is not ashamed before Heaven; looking down, one is not abashed before others. How could the learning of nature and life be no more than empty quiescence?

In the autumn of the wuxu year of the Dade era, Wang Kesun of Jishui, courtesy name Jing’an, sobriquet Xuyizi, composed this preface.

Before Heaven and Earth had yet divided, there were four stages: Taiyi (Great Change), Taichu (Great Beginning), Taishi (Great Inception), and Taisu (Great Simplicity). Taiyi is the state in which Qi (vital energy) cannot yet be seen; Taichu is when Qi begins to appear; Taishi is when form begins to take shape; and Taisu is when concrete substance begins to form.

When Qi, form, and substance are all already present but have not yet separated from one another, this state is called Hundun (primordial chaos). Only after Hundun differentiates do Heaven and Earth begin to form.

The Laozi says: “There is a kind of undifferentiated, unitary existence that was already present before Heaven and Earth appeared.” Daoist scriptures call it “Taishang Zhizhen, Wuji Dadao”—the supreme and truly real, boundless Great Dao (the Way). The Duren Jing (Scripture of Salvation) further says: “Above this there is no earlier source; there is only the Dao itself.” The scripture also speaks of “Yuanshi Zuqi” (the ancestral Qi that is the original source of all things).

Zhou Lianxi says, “Wuji er Taiji”—from Wuji (the Limitless) comes Taiji (Supreme Ultimate)—and he also speaks of “the true reality of Wuji.” Kangjie says: “If one discusses Xiantian (the Prior Heaven), originally there was not a single thing.” Master Cheng says: “The realm above the pure and tranquil state at a person’s birth cannot be explained in words; Wuji likewise cannot be spoken of, and it has no concrete form by which it can be named. Once it is uttered, it is already no longer the true Wuji.”

The Yijing (Classic of Changes) says that Taiji (Supreme Ultimate)—the primordial Qi (vital energy) from before Heaven and Earth had separated—gives rise to the two modes of Yin-Yang; the two modes in turn give rise to the four images, and the four images then give rise to the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). Closing the door is called Kun; opening the door is called Qian. One opening and one closing is called change. Qian belongs to Yang, and Kun belongs to Yin. Qian symbolizes Heaven and is called the father; Kun symbolizes Earth and is called the mother. When Yin and Yang unite, the firm and the yielding each take on bodily form, and through this the creative fashioning of all things in Heaven and Earth is made manifest. The alternating movement of Yin and Yang is the Dao (the Way). Hence it is said that when Jing (essence) and Qi gather and condense, the myriad things are formed. Zhou Dunyi said that the Qi of Yin-Yang and of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) blends with marvelous subtlety and congeals into form. The two kinds of Qi respond to one another and transform so as to generate the myriad things, and the myriad things grow and change without end. The Guliang Commentary says that Yin alone or Yang alone cannot bring the myriad things into being; only when Yin and Yang are matched together is this possible. The Huangdi Neijing: Suwen says that Heaven and Earth are the parents of the myriad things, that Yin and Yang are the root of Qi and blood, and that procreation is the root of human relations.

When Yin Qi is within and Yang Qi is without, and gestation holds Yang within Yin, a male is formed; when Yang Qi is without and Yin Qi is within, and gestation holds Yin within Yang, a female is formed. The Jiuzhang Jing says that after a person is conceived, the Three Origins—the three kinds of primordial Qi that constitute the life of the human body—nourish the fetus, and the Nine Qi, nine kinds of Qi, congeal to give it form. By the ninth month, Shen (spirit) and Qi fill the fetus; when Qi is sufficient, it can utter sound, and at the moment of uttering sound spiritual consciousness is already present. The Nine Heavens celebrate this, and so birth takes place. The Prajñā scriptures also mention that a person’s form-body, the tangible body, belongs to “nourishment,” and they list such modes of life as womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformation-born. The Sixth Patriarch explains that the egg-born arise from a nature sunk in delusion, that the womb-born are influenced by habitual tendencies, that the moisture-born follow a deviant nature, and that the transformation-born take form according to their inclination.

Zixia said that he had heard the generative principle of the Changes could be used in discussing the myriad things. Birds, beasts, and insects each have different Yin-Yang affiliations and different endowments of Qi. Ordinary people do not understand these circumstances; only those who thoroughly grasp the principles of things can trace them back to their source.

The number of Heaven is one, the number of Earth is two, and the number of humankind is three; multiplying the three together yields nine, and nine times nine yields eighty-one. Humankind belongs to one class, and the number of the day is ten; hence it is said that a human being is born after ten months of gestation. Yang numbers take the odd numbers, and so the number of the day is ten, that is, the ten heavenly stems from jia to gui. Eight times nine yields seventy-two, and even numbers follow upon odd numbers; the odd numbers are linked to the chen, the twelve temporal divisions, the chen are linked to the months, and the months are linked to the horse; hence it is said that the horse gestates for twelve months. Seven times nine yields sixty-three; three is linked to the Northern Dipper, and the Northern Dipper is linked to the dog; hence it is said that the dog gestates for three months. Six times nine yields fifty-four; four is linked to the four seasons, and the four seasons are linked to the pig; hence it is said that the pig gestates for four months. The Northern Dipper is arrayed next in sequence after the sun and moon, and so there is a further connection with the Northern Dipper. Four times nine yields thirty-six; six is linked to the pitch-pipes, and the pitch-pipes are linked to the deer; hence it is said that the deer gestates for six months. Three times nine yields twenty-seven; seven is linked to the stars and constellations, and the stars and constellations are linked to the tiger; hence it is said that the tiger gestates for seven months. The twenty-eight lunar lodges are distributed among the four directions, with seven lodges in each direction, and so seven corresponds to the stars and constellations. Two times nine yields eighteen; eight is linked to wind, and wind is linked to insects; hence it is said that insects come into being in the eighth month. The numbers of the wind category stop at eight, and insects correspond to wind. Other living things are likewise discussed, each according to its kind.

Crows and fish are generated within Yin, yet they belong to Yang, and so both are egg-born. Fish swim in the water, and crows fly among the clouds; thus the ancients said that at the Beginning of Winter, swallows and sparrows enter the sea and transform into clams. The silkworm only eats and does not drink, the cicada only drinks and does not eat, and the mayfly neither drinks nor eats. These differences show that the inborn endowments of the myriad things are not the same.

Shelled animals and scaly animals feed in summer and lie dormant in winter; “jie” refers to beetles and the like. Animals that chew and gulp their food have eight orifices and are mostly egg-born birds; animals that chew their food have nine orifices and are mostly womb-born. Animals with nine orifices include human beings and beasts.

Four-footed animals have no plumage or wings, and horned animals have no upper incisors. Those without horns that lack front teeth are called “gao”; those with neither horns nor teeth are called “zhi.” The Huainanzi adopts these statements. The book further says that those without horns have gao and lack front teeth, while those with horns have zhi and lack back teeth.

People born in the daytime resemble their fathers more in temperament; people born at night resemble their mothers more. Thus, when Yin Qi (vital energy) reaches its extreme, it governs the female, and when Yang Qi reaches its extreme, it governs the male. I venture to ask: is this account true? Confucius said, “I once heard Lao Dan speak of this, and it is much the same as what you have said.”

Zixia said, “I have heard the Mountain Book (Shanshu) say: the east–west direction of the earth is the weft, and the north–south direction is the warp. Mountains are places where De (Virtue/Power) accumulates, and rivers are places where physical forms gather. High places govern life, and low places govern death. Hills belong to Yang and resemble the male; valleys belong to Yin and resemble the female. Mussels, clams, turtles, pearls, and the like also flourish and decline with the waxing and waning of the sun and moon: when the moon is full, mussels, pearls, and their kind are replete; when the moon wanes, they become empty.

“Therefore, people born on firm ground are strong and unyielding, while those born on soft ground are pliant and weak; people born on ruined land are tall and large in body, while those born on sandy ground are slight and small in body; people born on fertile land are fair in appearance, while those born on barren land are ugly in appearance. Here, ‘growing soil’ (xitu) means fine, dense, and fertile soil, and ‘depleted soil’ (haotu) means coarse, thin, and barren soil.

“Creatures that feed on water are good at swimming and larger in form; creatures that feed on earth have no heart and do not breathe. Creatures that feed on grasses and trees are great in strength yet lack the ability to regulate blood and Qi. The Huainanzi says, ‘Though their strength is great, they are not docile,’ which likewise describes a condition of being poor at proper regulation. Creatures that eat grass are good at running yet dull-witted; creatures that eat mulberry leaves can produce silk and later transform into moths; creatures that eat meat are brave and resolute, and also fierce; creatures that feed on Qi are luminous in Shen (spirit) and long-lived; creatures that eat grain are intelligent and skillful; creatures that eat nothing do not die and possess a spiritual nature.

“Therefore, of feathered kinds there are three hundred and sixty, with the phoenix at their head; of furred kinds there are three hundred and sixty, with the qilin at their head; of armored kinds there are three hundred and sixty, with the turtle at their head; of scaled kinds there are three hundred and sixty, with the dragon at their head; of naked kinds there are three hundred and sixty, with the human being at their head. All these are the principles of the Yin-Yang transformations of Heaven and Earth. Qian represents Heaven, and Kun represents Earth.”

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius. Confucius said: When a person is first born, five capacities have not yet been acquired: the eyes cannot see, one cannot eat, cannot walk, cannot speak, and cannot reproduce. Three months after birth, the eyes begin to brighten faintly and the pupils take form, and only then can one see; at eight months the teeth emerge, and only then can one eat; after three years the cheeks develop, and only then can one speak; at the age of sixteen, Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) mature, and only then does one gain the capacity to reproduce offspring.

When Yin Qi develops to its extreme, it turns into Yang Qi, and so Yin changes by means of Yang; when Yang Qi develops to its extreme, it turns into Yin Qi, and so Yang changes by means of Yin. Therefore a male grows teeth at eight months and replaces them at eight years of age; a female grows teeth at seven months and replaces them at seven years of age, and at fourteen undergoes a transformation. Yin and Yang alternate with one another, and odd numbers are matched with even numbers; only then can they accord with the operation of the Dao (the Way) and bring forth the root of nature and life. The human form comes into being from this.

Duke Ai of Lu asked, “If a male’s Jing and Qi mature at sixteen, and a female undergoes transformation at fourteen, can they then bear children?”

Jiandi swallowed the egg left by the dark bird and gave birth to Xie. Jiang Yuan stepped on a giant’s footprint; joy rose in her heart, and she trod upon it, whereupon her body at once took on the appearance of pregnancy. When the pregnancy reached full term, she gave birth to Houji.

When Heaven and Earth had just separated, the first Qi (a primordial kind of vital energy) produced Yuanshi; the second Qi produced Yuanhuang; the third Qi produced Laojun (Lord Lao), who became the sovereign presiding over the teaching and transformation of the myriad things. In Heaven, Laojun is the lord of the myriad heavens; descending to be born in the human world, he is the teacher of the rulers of successive ages. Among the constellations he is called Tianhuang Dadi (the Heavenly Sovereign Great Emperor); in Daoism he is called Taishang Laojun (the Most High Lord Lao). When Laojun was born, his mother delivered him from beneath her left armpit; at birth his hair was already white. Another account states that Laojun underwent eighty-one incarnations and appeared in the world.

The Shilu (Veritable Records) states: In the beginning, Lady Yan went to Mount Niqiu to pray and afterward gave birth to Confucius. When Confucius was born, the crown of his head was sunken, and the shape of the top resembled Mount Niqiu. Another account likewise states that Laojun underwent eighty-one incarnations and appeared in the world.

The Shilu records: At the outset, Lady Yan went to Mount Niqiu to pray, and later gave birth to Confucius. When Confucius was born, the crown of his head was somewhat sunken, in a shape like Mount Niqiu, and so he was named Qiu, with the courtesy name Zhongni. That night two dragons circled the house, and five elders came into the courtyard. These five elders were transformations of the Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) of the five stars. Heavenly music sounded in Lady Yan’s chamber; before Confucius was born, a qilin at Queli spat out a jade writ that read: “The son of the Jing of water shall succeed the declining Zhou and become a sage-king without a sovereign’s title.” Lady Yan thought this extraordinary and tied a colored silk ribbon to the qilin’s horn. After two nights, the qilin departed.

The Puyao Jing (scripture/classic) records: Shakyamuni descended from Tushita Heaven to be born in the palace of King Suddhodana of the state of Jiawei in the Western Regions; Lady Maya gave birth to him from her right side.

The imperial son of Emperor Wu of Han, Fuling, was born amid the sand. While Zhao Jieyu was living in the Gouyi Palace she became pregnant, and after fourteen months she gave birth to Fuling. Emperor Wu of Han said: “I have heard that in ancient times Yao too was born only after a pregnancy of fourteen months; now it is the same at the Gouyi Palace.” He therefore named the palace gate the Gate of Yao’s Mother.

The Xiaojing says: “Among all things born of heaven and earth, the human being is the most honored.”

The imperial son of Emperor Wu of Han, Fuling, was born amid the sand. While Zhao Jieyu was living in the Gouyi Palace she became pregnant, and after fourteen months she gave birth to Fuling. Emperor Wu of Han said: “I have heard that in ancient times Yao too was born only after a pregnancy of fourteen months; now it is the same at the Gouyi Palace.” He therefore named the palace gate the Gate of Yao’s Mother.

The Xiaojing says: “Among all things born of heaven and earth, the human being is the most honored.” The Xuanling Jing says: “A human body is hard to obtain.” Master Zhou says: “The human being is the most numinous among the myriad things.”

The Xuanwu Jing says: The mother of the deity Zhenwu dreamed that she swallowed sunlight and, upon waking, was pregnant; after twenty-four months she gave birth to the deity Zhenwu.

In the Song dynasty, the grandfather of Yang Wengong dreamed that someone said the Lord of Wuyi would be reborn into this world. Later, when Yang Danian was born, his form was like an egg. When it was cut open, inside was a young stork covered all over with purple down. They wrapped it up and cast it away at the river’s edge. Yang Danian’s uncle thought this strange, went to the river to look, and found that it had already turned into an infant; he took it home and raised it. Yang Danian later served as Guanglu Cheng.

When the Xia dynasty was in decline, a woman of the inner palace, living in her chamber, became pregnant through a response to a dragon’s saliva and gave birth to Bao Si, who in the end plunged the world into chaos.

The Chuci says: Nü Qi had no husband, yet she bore nine children. She is the mother of the nine sons.

There are quite a few further examples of this kind. Only a few will be briefly mentioned here, to show that some people are endowed with the clear and refined Qi (vital energy) of heaven and earth, born with an uncommon natural constitution and the qualities of sages and worthies, while others receive turbid and corrupt Qi and are therefore ignorant and vicious, even becoming demonic aberrations.

Cao Bin of the Song dynasty was later posthumously enfeoffed as Prince Wuhui. When he had just turned one, according to the custom of the time, the family held a “testing the year” ceremony, setting out toys, precious jades, food, and the like before the child and then carrying him over to look. Cao Bin alone took up a weapon in his left hand and, with his right, took the sacrificial zu and dou (vessels for holding offerings). Later he pacified Jiangnan for Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin.

From the age of one, feelings of liking and disliking begin to arise in a person. Yet while one still cannot speak or move, such preferences remain the pure and unfeigned nature of an infant. After growing up, the likes and dislikes of many people no longer accord with what is just and impartial.

Nurturing Life, the Third Category

The Laozi says: “My greatest affliction comes only from having this body; if I had no body, what affliction would I have?” The Suwen (a section of the Chinese medical classic, the Huangdi Neijing) says that men and women should marry at a suitable age. At sixteen a man’s Jing (essence) and Qi begin to flourish, and he should ordinarily take a wife at thirty; at fourteen a woman’s tiangui (the physiological substance that brings the reproductive functions to maturity) arrives, and she should ordinarily marry at twenty. The hope is that the Jing and Qi of both will be abundant, so that they can conceive and bear children, and that this will also benefit longevity. The ancients therefore held that those who live long can for the most part reach the age of one hundred and twenty.

One common failing of people today is marrying too early. Men are wed before they reach twenty, and women before they reach fifteen, and so their Zhenyuan (true original qi, the innate vital energy a person is born with) is spent far too soon. Later in life, they do not know how to nourish themselves or make up for what has been lost.

It is like an oil lamp. The oil poured into the lamp is like the original Qi a person receives at birth, while the size of the lamp and how long the oil lasts are like a person's constitution and the length of their life. If the lamp is placed where there is no wind and is carefully protected, it can burn for a long time, until the oil is exhausted and the flame goes out. If it is placed in a draft, the oil is easily used up, and the flame may suddenly be snuffed out. The length of a human life follows the same principle.

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius, "Do the wise live long? Do the benevolent live long?" Confucius replied, "There are three ways in which people die that are not decreed by fate but are brought on by themselves. Those whose sleeping and daily routines lack regularity, whose eating and drinking lack moderation, and who fall into excess of either toil or ease will die of illness. Those who hold a lowly position yet offend their ruler, whose desires are never satisfied, and who never stop demanding more will die by punishment. Those who pit the few against the many, who bully the strong from a position of weakness, who act out of anger without reason, and who move without measuring their own strength will die by the weapons of war. These three kinds of death are not caused by fate, but are made by the people themselves."

As for those who are wise and benevolent, they know how to restrain themselves, their conduct accords with righteousness, and their joy and anger are kept within bounds. They do not harm their own bodies and minds, and so they should indeed be able to live long.

Guangchengzi, a legendary immortal of high antiquity, said to the Yellow Emperor: “Do not overtax the body, and do not dissipate Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy). Only in this way can one live long.”

The Zuoshi, that is, the Zuo Zhuan, says that Heaven has six kinds of Qi, which generate the five flavors, appear as the five colors, and are expressed as the five sounds. When the six Qi fall out of balance or become excessive, they give rise to six kinds of illness. The six Qi are Yin, Yang, wind, rain, darkness, and brightness. Distributed through the four seasons, they form five seasonal divisions in turn; once their movement goes awry, they bring disaster. Excessive Yin Qi brings cold illness; excessive Yang Qi brings heat illness; excessive wind Qi brings illness of the extremities; excessive rain Qi brings abdominal illness; excessive Qi of darkness confuses the mind; and excessive Qi of brightness unsettles Shen (spirit).

The Xiangdang chapter, a chapter of the Analects, records that there were ten kinds of food Confucius would not eat. Mencius said, “Eating and drinking should accord with the season, and what one takes should accord with ritual propriety.” He also said, “Having seen a living creature, one cannot bear to watch it die; having heard its cry, one cannot bear to eat its flesh. Therefore the gentleman keeps away from the kitchen.”

Diet and daily living are an important foundation of nurturing life, and so the sages attached great importance to them. The five flavors should not be eaten in excess, for excess injures the body. Eating too much merely for the pleasure of taste may invite illness. Overworking the mind and exhausting the body also damage the limbs and the Qi and blood. Gleaming white teeth and a beautiful countenance may become a sharp axe that harms life; sweet, crisp, rich, and tender foods may become poisons that injure the stomach and intestines. One should therefore refrain from killing and accumulate De (Virtue/Power), moderate one’s diet, and reduce cravings and desires. This also helps to lessen illness and prolong life.

If a cultivator wishes to expel surplus Qi from the five viscera, the corresponding methods of exhalation may be used: the xu breath nourishes the liver, the he breath nourishes the heart, the si breath nourishes the lungs, the hu breath nourishes the spleen, and the chui breath nourishes the kidneys. If one wishes to replenish what the five viscera lack, one inhales in accord with the corresponding organ.

The Yuanshi Taixuan Jing (Scripture of the Primordial Supreme Mystery) says: Joy and anger injure one’s innate nature, and sorrow and delight deplete Shen. When nature is damaged, life is harmed. Therefore, cultivating one’s nature can preserve primordial Qi, and guarding Shen can bring peace to the body. When primordial Qi is abundant and the body is at ease, when the mind is settled and Shen is unobstructed, this is the essential method of preserving life.

The Yellow Emperor (a legendary sovereign of high antiquity) asked Qibo (a legendary physician): Human beings come into being by receiving the Qi (vital energy) of Heaven and Earth, and this root of life is called Jing (essence). When Jing joins and combines, it gives rise to numinous responsiveness, which is called ling. When this numinous quality manifests, it is called Shen (spirit). When Shen undergoes change, it is called hun (the ethereal soul). When hun moves to and fro together with Shen, it is called shi (cognition). That which enters and leaves together with Jing is called po (the corporeal soul). That which governs the nourishment of the body and gathers the hun is called the heart-mind. When the heart-mind has something it follows, this is called emotion. When emotion has a place to which it belongs, this is called intention. When intention has a direction toward which it points, this is called the will. When the will retains and remembers, this is called thought. When thought looks far ahead and aspires, this is called deliberation. When, through deliberation, one brings a matter to completion, this is called wisdom. What is meant by possessing wisdom is the ability to make full use of these forms of knowing and insight. Jing and Shen, hun and po, intention, emotion, and wisdom are all different aspects in which discernment comes into play.

The True Person Sun (usually referring to Sun Simiao) said: The hair should often be combed; the teeth should often be clicked together; the fluids in the mouth should often be swallowed; the breath should often be regulated and refined; and Jing and Qi should often be preserved and nurtured.

The Baopuzi (Ge Hong’s Daoist work) says: The single aperture of Tianling is the place where the many spirits gather and turn their faces; grasp the “One,” and the myriad affairs obtain their essential point. Zhuangzi called this “seeing the Unique,” that is, realizing the one and only fundamental substance. The Yellow Emperor called it “breathing pure Jing and Qi, standing alone and guarding Shen,” meaning to breathe the pure and refined Qi and single-mindedly guard the spirit. The Taishang (a Daoist name for the Dao or a revered deity) called it “silent and vast, standing alone and unchanging, circulating without slackening,” meaning still and spacious, independent and unaltered, and moving without cease. “The Unique” is the “One.” What is meant is guarding the One in order to nourish the spirit, and relying on the spirit in order to guard the One. One who can guard the One may endure as long as Heaven and Earth, with a life span without end.

The original text repeats a passage at this point: “Vast and still, standing alone and unchanging, circulating without slackening. The Unique is the One. What is called guarding the One to sustain the spirit, and relying on the spirit to guard the One: one who guards the One may come to an end together with Heaven and Earth, with a life span without end.”

The Laozi Daode Jing says: “Know the white, yet hold to the black.” It also says: “Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to life.” This means recognizing the bright and manifest side while at the same time holding to the dark and hidden side; returning to the root is called stillness, and when stillness reaches its utmost it is a return to the source of life. The “Mysterious One” is the very root of one’s own life. The True Person who cultivates the Dao holds to it from birth; when this guarding reaches the utmost stillness, one obtains it and keeps hold of it without loss.

The Huangting Jing (Scripture of the Yellow Court) says: Above the Mysterious Origin—the source of the Dao (the Way)—only when the hun and po souls have been refined can the realm of the “One” become manifest. An existence such as the “One” is difficult to see all at once. One must reach a state of pure genuineness, free of all falsity, before one can turn the gaze back upon oneself and illuminate one’s own being. What is most to be avoided is letting the Qi (vital energy) of death contaminate oneself and render one filthy and base.

In the discourse it is said: Human beings arise from emptiness and non-being, and so there is a process in which “Shen (spirit) transforms into Qi, and Qi transforms into Jing (essence).” This is the principle by which the body and the activities of life are formed. The person of clear understanding does not spend his effort on external things, but uses it to cultivate himself: he causes Jing to transform back into Qi, and Qi in turn to transform into Shen; he refines Shen until it unites with the Dao, and at last once more realizes in his own experience the subtle mystery of emptiness and non-being. This is the method of returning to the source and reverting to the root, and of recovering one’s original life; it is also the path of cultivating the true and nourishing life.

The Mencius says: “Whether one’s years be few or many, one does not waver; one cultivates oneself and awaits it.” The meaning is that, whether life is short or long, one does not change one’s resolve, but attends only to cultivating oneself while awaiting what fate arranges. This is the method of securely establishing one’s own allotted portion of life. One who understands the mandate of Heaven does not place himself beneath a wall in danger of collapse.

Kong Mao says: “At fifty I knew the mandate of Heaven.” He also says that if one does not understand the mandate of Heaven, one cannot become a gentleman. Master Liu says: The common people are born by receiving the centrally harmonious Qi of Heaven and Earth; this is what is called ming, one’s allotted life.

The Book of Changes says: “Exhaust principle and fully realize nature, and thereby arrive at ming.” It also says that the sages composed the Changes in order to accord with the principles of nature and life. It further says that the gentleman acts according to proper measure and awaits the arrangement of fate, and that, content to remain in ordinary circumstances, he likewise awaits the arrangement of fate.

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius: “What, respectively, are a person’s ming and his nature?” Confucius answered: “The endowment allotted and fixed by Heaven, and the principle that human beings follow, are called ming.”

The Neiguan Jing (Scripture of Inner Observation) says: To receive life from the Dao is called ming.

The Mencius says: The mouth’s liking for delicious flavors, the eyes’ liking for beautiful sights, the ears’ liking for pleasant sounds, the nose’s liking for fragrances, and the four limbs’ liking for ease—these are all human nature. Yet whether they can be satisfied is still constrained by one’s allotted ming. The gentleman does not speak of the satisfaction or non-satisfaction of these desires as if it were all a matter of nature.

Master Cheng explains: The desire for delicious flavors, beautiful sights, sounds, fragrances, and ease is human nature; but the conditions each person receives are not the same, and not all can have their wishes fulfilled—this is ming. The “ming” spoken of here refers to the conditions and the limited share with which a person is endowed.

Textual note: In the original, the passage “The Mencius says: ‘A premature end transforms back into Qi…’” is joined directly to the preceding discussion of cultivation, and the sense does not hold together; there may be an error of copying or a corruption in the wording. Later in the text, parts of the sayings of Mencius and Master Cheng appear again. The interpretation above explains each portion according to the wording that now exists, without taking the liberty of altering or supplying anything.

End of the upper scroll of the Yungong Fayu (Dharma Words of the Cloud Palace).

Yungong Fayu, Lower Scroll

The fragmentary words that survive at the opening of the lower scroll—“jishui xu: this is nature; there is ming involved in it; the gentleman does not call it nature”—are followed by Master Cheng’s explanation, and they connect with the earlier discussion of the desires of the mouth, the eyes, the ears, the nose, and the four limbs, and of one’s allotted portion of ming. Because the phrase “jishui xu” and the text before and after it are incomplete, it is difficult to determine its exact meaning.

End of the upper fascicle of the Yungong Fayu (Instructive Words of the Cloud Palace).

Yungong Fayu, lower fascicle.

Compiled by Wang Kesun of Jishui, Xuyizi Jing’an.

Fourth Division: Illuminating the Good

The Shangshu (Book of Documents) says: “The human mind is easily drawn into partiality and peril; the mind of the Dao (the Way) is dim, subtle, and hard to discern. One must be single-minded and exact in scrutiny, and hold fast to the center and the upright.”

Mencius says: “A person of De (Virtue/Power) does not lose the original mind, pure, genuine, and free of falsity, like that of an infant.”

The Daxue (Great Learning) says: “The inner mind must be set right. If there is anger within, the inner mind cannot be set right; if there is fear, the inner mind cannot be set right; if there is craving and fondness, the inner mind cannot be set right; if there is anxiety, the inner mind likewise cannot be set right. When the mind is not intent, one looks and yet it is as if one had not seen, listens and yet it is as if one had not heard, and eats without tasting the flavor. Therefore, cultivating one’s own person begins with setting the inner mind right.”

Mencius says further: “Hold the mind and it remains; leave it untended and it is lost. The mind comes and goes at no fixed time, and no one knows where it will go—is this not said precisely of the mind?” He also says: “When I reached the age of forty, I was no longer shaken by external things.” He says again: “The best way to nurture the mind is to lessen desire.” And he says: “The pursuit of learning has no other essential; it is only to recover the mind that has been let loose and lost.”

The Doujing Shi (Commentary on the Dipper Scripture) says: “If a person’s thoughts race and chase outward, the Shen (spirit) wanders and scatters; if the mind is settled within, the Shen becomes calm and peaceful. Good and evil both arise from the mind. The mind is where Shenming (spirit-brightness) dwells. Whatever good or evil a person does in movement and action, or in stillness and rest, the mind knows it all the moment it begins to stir. Should a person’s deluded mind not be brought to rest?”

The text says further: “A person’s yuanchen (original primordial spirit) lodges outwardly in the eyes and is stored inwardly in the mind. The eyes look outward upon the myriad things, while the mind races inward after every manner of affair. Whatever the mind and the eyes pursue, the spirit follows in busy haste; this is why it is called the yuanchen. A horse that runs without stopping is just like the mind and Shen chasing without cease. If a person can gather in the inner mind, turn the gaze back and illuminate the self, and let the xuanling (subtle, hidden numinous nature) abide in one’s own person, one can bring about ‘sending the running horses back to manure the fields’—that is, making the galloping horses return to plow and fertilize—which means no longer allowing the mind and Shen to race outward.”

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra (Lengyan Jing) says that the mind races outward after all manner of affairs; wherever the eyes and thoughts go, the spirit (shen) follows in restless contention, and so it is called “yuanchen” (here referring to a person’s spirit and mind). Borrowing the image of a horse that never stops running, if one can gather the thoughts of the mind, turn inward to observe the heart, and settle the subtle numinous nature within oneself, one can attain what the Daodejing calls “returning the galloping horses to manure the fields”: bringing the racing horses back to the fields to be used in cultivation.

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says: “The Tathāgata constantly teaches that all phenomena are created by the mind alone, and that all causes and effects take their substance through the mind.” Zhang Wujin says that once one understands this delusive mind, one can realize the pure Buddha-nature, that is, the mind of emptiness and stillness. The Precept Master says that the mind is the root of all things and the ruler of the nine apertures of the body; it transcends past and present and does not perish. Thus, as soon as a single thought stirs within Suchness (the true, unchanging nature), the six consciousnesses (the cognitive activities of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) begin to circulate outwardly; if the mind does not tend toward good, it tends toward evil.

The Qingjing Jing (Scripture of Clarity and Stillness) says: once there is a delusive mind, the spirit is disturbed; when the spirit is disturbed, one clings to the myriad things; clinging to the myriad things gives rise to craving; and with craving, afflictions follow. The Dingguan Jing (Scripture of Concentration and Observation) says: when one perceives a delusive thought arising, let it cease; when the delusive thought ceases, disturbance is eliminated. Remove only the restless thoughts of the mind; do not extinguish clear and luminous awareness. Let the mind settle in empty stillness; do not let it congeal upon any particular object.

The Diamond Sūtra says: “The mind of the past cannot be grasped, the mind of the present cannot be grasped, and the mind of the future cannot be grasped.” The Sixth Patriarch says that the delusive mind is a shadow upon the true mind. The scripture says: “Your body and mind are both things manifested within the wondrously luminous nature.” Once one understands that the various thoughts are not the true, unchanging mind, one can recognize the fundamental substance of the mind: the delusive mind is divided into past, present, and future, while true nature remains still and unmoving.

The foregoing concerns the “mind.”

Zhang Zai (courtesy name Hengqu) said, “The heart-mind unifies and governs nature and emotion.” He also said, “When the heart-mind is open, luminous, and clear, and not benighted, that is the heart-mind; when the principle of Heaven is originally complete, without the slightest deficiency, that is nature; when it is stirred into motion in response to external things, that is emotion.”

Someone explains it this way: within the Great Vacuity there is Qi (vital energy), and so it is called “Qi”; the transformations and movements of Qi are called the Dao (the Way); the union of the Great Vacuity and Qi is called “nature”; the union of nature and perception is called the “heart-mind.” What is luminous and clear is the heart-mind; the principle that is truly and fully present is nature. The Announcement of Tang says, “The great Sovereign on High bestowed a good nature upon the people, so that they would possess a constant heavenly nature.” The Yi Yin says, “Habit and nature gradually come into accord.” Zu Yi said, “The heavenly nature cannot be calculated or determined in advance.” When Mencius discusses nature, he holds that human nature is originally good, and he lays particular stress on explaining the principle within it.

The Doctrine of the Mean says, “What Heaven confers is called nature.” Here nature is spoken of in relation to concrete human beings. For a person to receive the principle of Heaven, there must be Qi to rely upon; if there were no Qi, where would this principle be lodged? Cheng Yi said, “To speak of nature without speaking of Qi leaves the account incomplete; to speak of Qi without speaking of nature leaves the account one-sided.”

Reflections on Things at Hand says that the heart-mind is only one, yet it may be discussed from two sides: in terms of its substance, the heart-mind is still and unmoving; in terms of its function, when it encounters things it can respond and penetrate. Zhu Xi said, “In stillness there is always awareness; in movement there is always accord with right principle.” This is the wondrous functioning of the heart-mind: within stillness it can respond, and after responding it can return to stillness.

Confucius said that people’s inborn natures are close to one another, while later habituation and influence set them far apart. Mencius said that by fully examining one’s own heart-mind, one can come to know one’s nature; preserving the original heart-mind and nurturing one’s nature is to fulfill the heart-mind in serving Heaven. Mencius also said that humaneness is shown in the relation between father and son, rightness in the relation between ruler and minister, ritual propriety in the dealings between guest and host, and wisdom in the recognition of the worthy; as for the sage’s understanding of the Dao of Heaven, it concerns the mandate of Heaven and also concerns nature. The noble person does not treat all of these simply as matters fixed by destiny.

The Changes says, “By exhaustively investigating the principles of things and fully knowing human nature, one goes on to reach an understanding of the mandate of Heaven.” It also says, “The sages composed the Changes in order to accord with the principles of nature and destiny.”

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius, “What is meant by a person’s destiny and nature?” Confucius replied, “When each bodily form constitutes a whole of its own, that is called nature. Each person receives the Qi of Yin and Yang (Yin-Yang) and displays differing qualities of firmness and yielding; this is the principle of nature and destiny.”

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius, “What do a person’s life and nature each refer to?” The human form is manifested from the “One,” and this is called nature. Each person receives the Qi (vital energy) of Yin-Yang and thereby forms an endowment differing in firmness and softness; hence it is said that the human form is manifested in the “One.” The Neiguan Jing (Scripture of Inner Observation) says, “To receive the bodily form from the ‘One’ is what is called nature.” Zhu Xi said, “Nature is Taiji (Supreme Ultimate), a wholly integrated substance that at the outset cannot be described by any concrete name.”

The above concerns the mind and nature.

In the preceding entries, the Confucians speak of preserving and nourishing the original mind and of cultivating the nature endowed by Heaven, while the Daoists and Buddhists speak of clarifying the original mind and recognizing fundamental nature. The Confucians take the principles of actual affairs to be nature and hold that these must be embodied in conduct; the Daoists and Buddhists take naturalness and Wuwei (non-action) to be nature. In my view, the nature of which the Daoists and Buddhists speak is the centered and correct state before the thoughts of the mind have arisen, whereas the nature of which the Confucians speak is this: after the thoughts of the mind have arisen, words and deeds still accord with due measure. What is called “to see nature is the Dao (the Way)” is like the Buddhist saying “to see nature is to become a Buddha.” “Buddha” means awakening; it does not refer to an image molded of clay and wood.

Fifth: Daily Upholding and Practice

Yan Yuan said, “What kind of person was Shun, and what kind of person am I? If one is only willing to strive, one can also become as Shun was.” Confucius said, “To understand the principle yet not put it into practice is worse than not understanding it.” The Huayan Jing (Avatamsaka Sutra) says, “I do not look down on you; you will all become Buddhas.” Buddha is a title for the sages of the West. The Sixth Patriarch said, “Those who have not awakened are called sentient beings and ordinary people; those who have awakened are called Buddhas.” Buddha is the title of the “Great Awakened One.”

A person is born by receiving the Qi of heaven and earth. Buddha is a title for the sages of the West. The Sixth Patriarch said, “Those who have not awakened are called sentient beings and ordinary people; those who have awakened are called Buddhas.” Buddha is the title of the “Great Awakened One.”

All people receive the Qi of heaven and earth and are born of it, and all possess a good nature; they differ only in awakening earlier or later. Those who awaken later must follow the practice of those who awakened earlier before they can understand the principle of goodness and recover their original good nature. This is stated most thoroughly. The sage understands the principle innately, can practice it with ease, and never wearies of learning; the worthy come to understand the principle through study and likewise strive to practice it; as for those who are in difficulty yet unwilling to learn, they are the very lowest.

Zengzi examined himself three times each day and threaded all things together by the Dao of loyalty and reciprocity. The gentleman is to fulfill the “Nine Reflections” (nine kinds of thinking), the “Three Awes” (three kinds of reverence), and the “Three Cautions” (three points of careful restraint). Yanzi strove to restrain selfish desire, to restore the requirements of ritual, and to achieve “do not look, do not listen, do not speak, and do not act contrary to ritual.” Confucius cast off four faults, stressed extending from oneself to others, and remained cautious and self-possessed even when alone.

All of these are the work of self-cultivation that one ought to uphold and practice in daily life.

The mind and its intentions must be sincere; one must not deceive oneself. What is most fundamental is sincerity (cheng)—that is, the absence of falsity and delusion. To succeed in not deceiving oneself already counts as sincerity of a secondary order.

Shao Yong (known as Kangjie) said: “The learning of the Former Heaven takes sincerity as its guiding principle. Utmost sincerity can move and commune with the spirits; without sincerity, one cannot attain the Dao (the Way).” What is called sincerity is the root originally present in mind and nature, without beginning or end, and without form or fixed shape. When utmost sincerity is reached, one can know things beforehand. That is to say, when there is not the slightest selfishness or hypocrisy in one’s heart, one constantly remains empty, still, and luminously clear, and naturally sees into the principles of things.

Sincerity is what the Dao of Heaven is in itself; striving to become sincere is the path of the human being. One who is born with utmost sincerity accords with the middle way without forcing himself, comes to understanding without having to deliberate, and in word and deed is at ease yet everywhere in keeping with principle—this is the sage. One who cultivates sincerity through effort must choose the good way and hold to it firmly. To come to understand principle by way of sincerity is called “nature”; to move toward sincerity by understanding principle is called “teaching.” Sincerity can make a person clear-sighted, and clear-sightedness can also make a person sincere.

Only the most sincere person in the world can fully realize his own nature, assist Heaven and Earth in transforming and nurturing the myriad things, and stand alongside Heaven and Earth in carrying out their work. The scripture (Jing) further says that only the person of utmost sincerity in the world can transform and nurture the myriad things. From beginning to end, the myriad things cannot be apart from sincerity; without sincerity, the myriad things would have no basis on which to be established. Utmost sincerity does not cease; because it does not cease, it endures; and enduring, it is without limit.

Only the person of utmost sincerity in the world can set in order the great Dao of the world, establish the great foundation of the world, and understand the transformation and growth of the myriad things; and he does not rely on anything external to do so. What is called the “great constant norms” are the five constant ways within human relationships; what is called the “great foundation” is nature in its integral wholeness. The sage thoroughly recognizes the Dao of freedom from delusion, and his efficacy arises of itself—why would he need to depend on external things in order to realize it?

The Classic of Poetry says: “Heaven’s mandate is profound and vast, and its movement never ceases.” This speaks of why King Wen of Zhou became King Wen: his De (Virtue/Power) was broad and luminous, pure and without falsity, and it never ceased. The Classic of Poetry also says: “King Wen was solemn and reverent, bright without cease, and careful in observing ritual propriety.”

The Classic of Changes says: “The body of Heaven moves with firm vigor and never rests; the noble person therefore spurs himself on and never stops.” The inscription that Tang of Shang carved on his bathing basin says: “If today one renews oneself, one must renew oneself day after day, and go on renewing without end.”

As a person, Yan Hui chose the way of the Mean; once he obtained a single good principle, he held it firmly in his heart and would not let it be lost. The Dao cannot be left even for a moment; if there were something that could leave the person and exist on its own, it would not be the Dao.

Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) Laojun, a revered deity of Daoism, and Master Fu used a wooden drill to bore a stone disk in a stone chamber on Mount Jiao. The disk was about five chi thick. They drilled for forty-nine years and at last pierced through the stone.

The Mencius says: “Sun it for one day and freeze it for ten, and nothing can grow up in that way.”

Scholars of earlier generations said that reverence is the key by which the learning of the sages is brought to completion, and that from beginning to end one cannot do without it. Cheng Yi explained reverence as “concentrating on one thing, without letting the mind glance aside.” He also said: “Utmost sincerity admits of no interruption.” What is called sincerity is being genuine and free of falsehood.

The human mind easily grows scattered. If one does not set down rules to restrain and sustain it, and constantly remind oneself, one will slip into indulgence and slackness and not know where to turn. Only single-minded concentration without division, and utmost sincerity without cease, can carry one from the start all the way to the end. In my view, what people most fear is giving up halfway. Buddhism likewise speaks of the one-sided clinging to permanence and to interruption—like steaming sand, which in the end can never be made into rice. The “method of constant wakefulness” taught in Chan, which means maintaining clear awareness at every moment, requires that each thought continue without a break. Thus the saying “advance with courageous vigor and do not turn back” is also very much to the point. This is the same essential teaching as the Confucian insistence on single-minded concentration without division and utmost sincerity without cease. Sincerity and reverence cannot leave one’s person for even a moment.

Chapter Six: Probing the Subtle (the chapter that investigates the refined and minute)

The Huayan Hymn says: “The Buddha is not simply the form-body (the tangible body), nor is he merely voice and sound; yet one also cannot come to know the Buddha apart from the form-body, for the power of the Buddha’s supernormal abilities can be seen within the form-body.”

The Zhuangzi says: “When the gentleman sits still he is as quiet as a corpse, yet when he appears he is like a dragon; when silent he is deep as an abyss, and when he speaks he resounds like thunder. When his spirit (Shen) stirs, the myriad things follow in response; he is at ease and unforced, and does not act with deliberate contrivance.”

Guangchengzi, a legendary immortal, said: “The subtle essence of the ultimate Dao (the highest Way) is secluded and deep, hard to see; the furthest reach of the ultimate Dao is dim and still. Do not look with the eyes, and do not listen with the ears. Guard the spirit and quiet the mind, and the body will of itself become upright.”

In the original text the quotations from the Mencius and the Zhuangzi are repeated; the above combines them and interprets them according to the sense.

Guangchengzi said: The most subtle realm of the Great Dao (Dao, the Way) is profound and difficult to see; its most ultimate realm is dim and without distinction, silent and without sound. When the eyes do not look outward and the ears do not listen outward, and when the spirit (Shen) is gathered in and kept quiet and unmoving, the body naturally becomes upright; the mind within must also be pure and lucid.

The Miduo Heart Scripture (Miduo Xinjing) says: One observes that the five aggregates—the five factors that constitute the person and experience, namely form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—are all empty. The Scripture of Ascending to the Mysterious (Shengxuan Jing) says: Purify the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind), and eliminate deviant thoughts and obstructions. The Scripture of Attaining the Dao (Dedao Jing) says: Turn inward to contemplate the mind and the eyes, and the true Qi (Qi, the vital energy circulating through life) will manifest; the state of mind becomes pure and bright, empty, clear, and transparent.

A verse also says: Within the profound and silent lies the pure Great Dao; within the dim and wordless lies the vast and boundless void. Human nature is clear and settled, clinging to no place at all; when body and mind both return to stillness, this is the true root.

The Scripture of Fundamental Practice (Benxing Jing) says: Thoughts of every kind no longer arise, and all entanglements are at once stilled. Evil karma accumulated like dust and sand disperses as thoughts come to rest, and all celestial demons are naturally extinguished. The Scripture of Clarity and Stillness (Qingjing Jing) says: If a person can constantly maintain clarity and stillness, heaven, earth, and the myriad things will all return to clarity and stillness. It also says: If one does not cling even to the notion of “non-being,” one can become limpid, bright, and still; if one does not cling even to “stillness,” how could desire arise? Only when desire does not arise is there true quiet. To be able both to respond to things and to preserve constant tranquility is the realm of sustained clarity and stillness.

The Daode Jing (the Scripture of the Dao and De, Virtue/Power) says: Everyone else is elated, as if ascending a high terrace in spring or enjoying a lavish sacrificial feast; I alone am plain and tranquil, as if no sign had yet appeared, like an infant not yet grown and not yet able to smile. It also says: By single-mindedly guarding the true Qi and making body and mind soft and yielding, one can be like an infant. It also says: Return to the state of an infant.

Zhang Wujin said, “Not clinging to what one has gained is true gain; not speaking with deliberate intent is true speech.”

Chan Master Xubian said, “Mahayana Buddhism teaches that one should not keep any attainment lodged in the mind. In this way one attains great freedom: one may act, yet not cling to the acting; one may carry something out, yet not cling to the carrying out. This is the realm of sagely clarity and worthy understanding.”

The Classic of Poetry says, “The Heavenly Dao (the Way) proceeds without sound and without scent, subtle to the very utmost.” Elder Chuan’s gatha says, “Seeing colors and hearing sounds is simply the ordinary condition of the world; snow falls upon snow, and frost is added to frost. If you now wish to see the Yellow-Headed Elder (referring to the Buddha), you must enter the womb of Lady Māyā (the Buddha’s mother) to seek him.”

This is the cultivation of returning to the root and restoring the origin, and also a method of practice in which the light is turned back to shine within, ultimately entering the state of forgetting the light and cutting off all contemplation.

Chapter Seven: The Transformation of Shen (spirit)

Of the nine blessings set forth in the “Hongfan” (“Great Plan”) of the Book of Documents, the fifth is long life ending in a good death. The Book of Changes says, “The Changes accord with the principles of Heaven and Earth, and therefore can make clear the shifts between the hidden and the manifest, trace the beginning of things and return to their end, and thus understand the principle of life and death.”

Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius. Confucius said, “When the transformations of Yin-Yang reach their limit and bodily form appears, this is called life; life begets life in unending change, without exhaustion. When the allotted measure of Qi (vital energy) comes to its end, this is called death. Thus, receiving one’s mandate is the beginning of life, and death is the completion of life. Where there is a beginning, there must be an end.” Confucius also said, “If one does not understand life, how can one understand death?”

Letian said, “Death is the allotted measure of Qi coming to its end; life, by contrast, is generation upon generation of change without exhaustion. When the allotted measure of Qi comes to its end, this is called death. Thus, receiving one’s mandate is the beginning of life, and death is the completion of life. Where there is a beginning, there must be an end. Confucius said, ‘If one does not understand life, how can one understand death?’”

Mencius said, “To die after exhausting one’s heart-mind in practicing the Dao (the Way) is a proper allotment of fate; to die through instruments of punishment, imprisonment, and the like is not a proper allotment of fate. One who understands the allotment of fate will not stand beneath a high wall that is about to collapse.”

The Book of Documents says, “The Yin-Shang had many wise kings of former generations in heaven.” The commentary explains, “The Shang dynasty had many wise kings of former generations, and their Jing (essence), Qi, and Shen (spirit) remained in heaven.”

The Book of Changes says, “The wandering hun and po souls undergo transformation.” It also says, “One comes to know the circumstances of ghosts and spirits.” And further, “To exhaust the subtle principles of the spiritual and to comprehend the transformations of things is the manifestation of De (Virtue/Power) attaining its fullness.”

Confucius said, “How great is the De embodied by ghosts and spirits! Look, and one does not see them; listen, and one does not hear them. They pervade all things, and nothing can depart from them. The people of the world therefore fast and purify their hearts, dress in full ceremonial attire, and perform sacrifices to honor them. Vast and abundant, they seem to be above and also at one’s left and right. When the spirits descend, they cannot be fathomed—how then could one presume to neglect or slight them? What is minute becomes manifest, and sincerity truly cannot be concealed. It is precisely thus.”

Earlier Confucians, citing the Book of Rites, said, “The feudal lords would sacrifice to those ancestors of their own states who had no descendants to preside over the offerings.” The scripture continues, “They cannot be fathomed—how then could one neglect or slight them? What is formless becomes manifest, and sincerity cannot be concealed. It is precisely thus.”

Earlier Confucian scholars, citing the Book of Rites, held that a feudal lord should sacrifice to former rulers of his own state who no longer had descendants to preside over the rites. When Taigong of Qi, for example, was enfeoffed with the state of Qi, he was to sacrifice to the Shuangjiu, to Jikuai, to Feng Boling, to the Pugu, and to others of their kind. They had ruled that land one after another, so later rulers of Qi were, by the ritual order, to offer them a combined sacrifice.

Another case is this: the Marquis of Wei dreamed that Kangshu (the first lord enfeoffed with Wei) said, “Someone has taken away my sacrificial offerings.” Wei later moved its capital to Diqiu, where Xiang of the Xia had also established his capital. Since Wei’s capital stood on land that Xiang of the Xia had once ruled, he ought by rights to have been sacrificed to; if he was not, he would presumably have felt dim and obscured on that account. The Marquis of Jin dreamed of a yellow bear entering his bedchamber and took it to be the spirit of Gun—a case of the same kind.

It cannot be said that only ancestors who have left descendants can give rise to a response from spirits. Even without descendants, a person’s Qi (vital energy) has not disappeared. Goumang (the ancient deity of Wood), to whom sacrifice is offered today, belongs to a still more remote age; yet because the rites require that he be sacrificed to, his Qi still exists.

In sum, what runs through Heaven, Earth, human beings, and the myriad things is this one and the same Qi. Thus the Record of Rites says: “Vast and boundless, it seems to be above, and it seems to be at one’s side.” This principle fills the empty void; what matters is to grasp it in a flexible and living way.

Zhu Wengong of Hui’an (Zhu Xi, whose sobriquet was Hui’an) said: Breathing through the mouth and nose belongs to the hun; the clear perception of the ears and eyes belongs to the po. The yang aspect is the hun, also called Shen (spirit); the yin aspect is the po, also called a ghost. While a person is alive, Yin and Yang are joined: the po coalesces and the hun gathers, and thus there is life. After Yin and Yang separate… (the original text ends here; what follows is unfinished)

Zhu Wen Gong of Hui’an (Zhu Xi, whose style name was Hui’an) said: the activity of breathing through the mouth and nose is called hun, and the capacity of the ears and eyes to perceive clearly is called po. Hun belongs to Yang and is called Shen (spirit); po belongs to Yin and is called gui (ghost). While a person is alive in the world, Yin-Yang come together, po coalesces and hun gathers, and life is formed. When Yin-Yang separate, hun rises and becomes Shen, while po descends and becomes gui. Speaking in terms of coming and going, what arrives in the world is Yang Qi (vital energy) unfolding, and this is called Shen; what departs is Yin Qi contracting, and this is called gui. Yin-Yang are the distinction between two kinds of Qi, whereas Shen and gui are the operation and transformation of one and the same Qi.

Thus Confucius, in the Jiyi, says: “Qi is the state in which Shen is manifest and flourishing; po is the state in which gui is manifest and flourishing.” Master Zheng’s commentary says: “Qi is breathing out and in.” Clear perception by the ears and eyes belongs to po. From this it can be seen that Yin-Yang themselves cannot yet be directly called gui and Shen; only the wondrous, numinous functioning that Yin-Yang display is called gui and Shen. Po is the numinous quality of the physical form, and hun is the numinous quality of Qi. Hun and po are the quintessence of form and Qi, and this lucid, clear, and refreshing functioning is called “ling.”

The evening before, when the changes at the death of a person of self-cultivation were discussed, the sense of “xunhao” (qi steaming up and dispersing) seemed especially apt: that breath comes and presses close upon the body. The feeling of “qichuang” (what brings sorrow and dread) was also stated very clearly. When Emperor Wu of Han established a shrine for Lady Li, it was said that a wind passed solemnly through the shrine. Nowadays, in the villages, when sacrificial rites are held jointly by many people, there sometimes likewise appears a solemn effect like a gust of wind passing by. Common folk call this a “whirlwind,” and what they refer to is precisely this phenomenon. What is now called an assault of malign Qi, which makes people fearful and sorrowful, is also regarded as a manifestation of the clear, fresh Qi of the numinous essences of things.

The Dao (the Way) of Heaven moves in its course and brings the myriad things to life. Human beings receive the Qi of Heaven’s Dao and thereby come to have life. The clear and bright aspect of Qi forms the functioning of Qi, while the aspect that condenses and takes shape becomes physical substance. Perception and activity belong to Yang; the bodily form belongs to Yin. Qi is hun, and the bodily form is po. Buddhism takes original nature as hun and the illusory body as po. Gao You, in his commentary on the Huainanzi, says: “Hun is the Shen of Yang Qi, and po is the Shen of Yin Qi.” Hun and po preside over form and Qi and are therefore called Shen. A person is able to live because Jing (essence) and Qi gather together; yet a person’s Qi has a definite limit and will in the end be exhausted. When Qi is exhausted, Shen-Qi returns to Heaven, and the bodily form and po return to Earth. Zhu Xi further said that Buddhism takes original nature as its root and the illusory, transformed body as life, and that this can indeed be understood in just this way.

When a person is about to die, the hot Qi within the body gradually weakens; this is called the rising of hun. The lower half of the body gradually grows cold, and the luster in the eyes disappears; this is called the descending of po. Where there is life there is death, and where there is a beginning there is an end. Gathering and dispersal are all transformations of Qi. As for baleful anomalies, they are formed when the Qi of those who did not meet a good end has not yet dispersed, but remains pent up, accumulated, and congealed.

In explaining Qu Yuan’s “Far Roaming,” Hui’an says that when the po—the yin spirit that constitutes a person’s physical form and life activity—can no longer bear the hun—the yang spirit that governs consciousness—and the hun can no longer attach itself to the po, the two separate: the hun drifts away and disperses, the po declines and sinks, and death follows in the end.

He also says that hun and po are like burning incense. The liquid that flows out as the incense burns is like the po, and the smoke that rises as it burns is like the hun. The hun is the radiant flame given off by the po, and the po is the root in which the hun is grounded. One who cultivates must keep the hun always attached to the po, just as sunlight shines upon the body of the moon, and must also have the po constantly restrain and gather in the hun, just as the body of the moon receives the sunlight. In this way Shen (spirit)—a person’s spirit—will not scatter, nor will the po decay and perish, and one will then be able to ascend as an immortal, roam afar, and rise to the heights.

The Yi (Classic of Changes) says: “What is vast and able to transform is called the sage; what reaches the realm of the sage and is unfathomably profound is called Shen.” Wondrous transformation has no fixed position, and the principle of the Yi likewise has no fixed form.

Yun Gong Fa Yu (Words of the Cloud Palace), lower volume.