《太平經》Vol. 42

In the Vernacular: An Interpretation

Taiping Jing, Scroll 42: The Fifty-Sixth Method for Dispelling Calamities from the Nine Heavens and the Former Kings

The Dao of Heaven assigns nine kinds of people to their respective duties. Only then can the Qi of Yin-Yang be harmonized and the world be at peace. What is a human being? The foremost among all things. The duties of the nine kinds of people are as follows: the spirit person who entrusts himself to Qi without form is responsible for governing primordial Qi; the great spirit person, for governing Heaven; the perfected person, for governing Earth; the immortal, for governing the four seasons; the person of the Great Dao, for governing the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water); the sage, for governing Yin-Yang; the worthy person, for governing documents; ordinary people, for tending plants and the five grains; and servants, for managing goods and wealth.

Why are they assigned in this way? Because all things are governed according to their kind.

The formless spirit person who entrusts himself to Qi resembles primordial Qi, and so governs primordial Qi. The great spirit person has form and great stature, resembling Heaven, and so governs Heaven. The perfected person is single-minded and trustworthy, resembling Earth, and so governs Earth. The immortal is ever-changing, resembling the four seasons, and so governs the four seasons. The person of the Great Dao excels at divination and foreseeing good and ill fortune, resembling the Five Phases, and so governs the Five Phases. The sage presides over the harmonizing Qi, resembling Yin-Yang, and so governs Yin-Yang. The worthy person is skilled at handling documents and fluent in speech, resembling written words, and so governs documents. Ordinary people are confused and ignorant, resembling the myriad things, and so govern the myriad things. Servants accumulate wealth, resembling goods: the rich have them, the poor do not, and they can be exchanged and traded. Thus servants govern goods and wealth.

When the Celestial Emperor assigns positions, he does not go against people’s innate nature. If each person follows their own kind, there will be no error; if they go against it, great calamity will result. Therefore, when the Celestial Emperor orders the people of the world, all should follow this principle. The sages of antiquity understood it deeply and clearly. They did not go against Heaven’s will, and so won the Celestial Emperor’s favor.

The perfected person said, “What I am saying now is meant to admonish perfected people not to go against this principle.”

The disciple replied, “Yes, yes. I will certainly strive to put it into practice. But there is still something I do not understand: these nine kinds of people each carry out different tasks. How does this benefit the governance of the royal Way?”

The perfected person said, “It is not without benefit. The key to governance is to win the Celestial Emperor’s favor, harmonize the Qi of these nine kinds, and bring the nine kinds of people to unity of heart. Only then can the Great Peace of the August Sovereign be achieved. If these nine matters are not harmonized and instead oppose one another, peace cannot be achieved. These nine matters give rise to one another in turn and generate one another in a cycle; people simply have not understood them deeply. The sages and worthies of earlier generations, too, had no time to explain these principles, and so for a long time they remained sealed off and obscure. Yet now, if even one of these matters is left in disarray, the world cannot be at peace.”

A Plain-Language Interpretation

Why is it said that the qi of the Most High Sovereign had reached its height? Nine kinds of people came together to assist the ruler in governing the world.

If even one kind of qi is out of harmony, things go wrong. Yin and Yang cannot then be fully harmonized, and affairs of state cannot be at peace. How did these people come to be? Formless divine beings—heavenly gods without visible bodies—came to inform the ruler, gradually brightening his heart and mind. Great divine beings often appeared to teach him. Perfected beings, immortals, and great Dao masters all came as teachers to help transform the people. Sages and worthy men emerged from seclusion to serve as ministers. Ordinary people and enslaved servants all turned toward goodness and did no evil. These were signs that Heaven and Earth rejoiced greatly.

Conversely, if even one kind of qi is out of harmony, the corresponding people will not come. If primordial qi is out of harmony, formless divine beings will not come. If the qi of Heaven is out of harmony, great divine beings will not come. If the qi of Earth is out of harmony, Perfected beings will not come. If the four seasons are out of harmony, immortals will not come. If the Five Phases are out of harmony, great Dao masters will not come. If Yin and Yang are out of harmony, sages will not come. If written words and speech are not truthful, great worthies will not come. If the myriad things are out of harmony, only ordinary people will remain to rebel; wealth and goods will dwindle, enslaved servants will flee, and every affair will fall into disorder. This is where calamity lies.

Now that the Perfected being wishes to remedy the disorderly qi of the seasons, he should strive to bring it into harmony. He must not grow weary or slacken, but should act with care.

The disciple replied, “Yes.” When qi is harmonized, all nine kinds of people uphold the Dao and bear the calamities accumulated by the former kings across the generations, until they are entirely dispelled. If people fail to bear what they are meant to bear, calamities increase day by day. These nine kinds of people, from the highest formless god to the lowliest enslaved servant, each regulate one kind of qi. When the Yin-Yang of the nine kinds of qi is harmonized, the world is at peace.

To harmonize the qi of humanity and Heaven, one must first consume qi. Thus, when an adept is about to enter the Dao, he first stops eating tangible food and instead consumes qi, so that he may unite with primordial qi. He should therefore be settled in a thatched hut and made to observe purification, without seeing what is evil. He should refine his form each day without suppressing his desires. Those who can pass freely between coming and going, and who assist the immortals, the Perfected, and the primordial qi in governing Heaven, are called divine adepts and officers of Heaven. They should neither be prohibited nor restrained. Those who truly accomplish this are called adepts of Heaven. Heaven examines and selects the good, rejoices greatly, and brings benefits to humanity. What does this mean? Those who attain the Dao and depart, though they no longer act directly within the sight of human beings, all work together to harmonize the qi of Yin and Yang. This is what the ancient emperors meant when they made offerings to Heaven and the High Gods descended to partake of the food.

A Plain Language Interpretation of the Taiping Jing (Excerpt)

On “taking food from below” and the celestial officials

The disciple asked, “Do you take food for yourself from below?”

The Perfected One replied, “Excellent. You have understood correctly. Such a person serves above as a celestial official, with the spirit of Heaven as his lord. Lord and official direct one another: the official is charged with overseeing and carrying out all affairs. If the official guides people to do good and earn merit, the lord bestows blessings on those under his charge. When they are pleased, they release people from the burden inherited from their forebears. But if the official is displeased, it means the Daoist has failed his lord in Heaven. The officials will not descend to provide people with food, and faults and burdens will grow heavier day by day. If people can barely look after themselves, how could they dispel the lingering disasters left by former kings?”

The Perfected One asked again, “You understand these things too, don’t you? It is truly frightening!” The disciple, trembling as though his breath had left him, said, “I have come to seek instruction from the Celestial Master, and never expected to hear such principles.” The Perfected One urged him to put them diligently into practice and, having finished speaking, prepared to leave. The disciple repeatedly answered, “Yes, yes,” in assent.

Right-hand slip: Nine people have completed their review; none has been wronged. The King of Peace governs Heaven, and in his joy releases the burden inherited from former kings.

(This is a summary of the section: After review, nine people are found to have suffered no injustice. The King of Peace governs the celestial realm and, in his joy, releases the burden inherited from the age of former kings.)

A Method for Testing Whether the Dao Is True or False (57)

As his work was coming to an end, the Perfected One was about to pass on the teachings and instructions in detail. The disciple listened, answering, “Yes, yes.”

After people begin practicing this Dao, the burden inherited from the past has accumulated over a long time and spread ever farther. There truly are many baleful energies, knotted energies, and various poisonous calamities; they cannot all be eliminated in an instant. But if people understand this and act accordingly, the inherited burden’s afflictions will lessen day by day, fade month by month, and be cleared away year by year. How can we know this?

The Perfected One praised him: “Excellent. Your question is difficult. You may be said to have grasped the meaning of the Dao.”

Hear this clearly: once people practice this Dao, the documents throughout the world will become entirely correct, and people too will become entirely upright. All will enter the true Dao, and there will be no more documents tainted by falsehood or deceit. Everyone will be careful in their conduct, especially the younger generations, who will learn from one another. They will all know how to look inward at themselves and cherish their own lives. The young will be filial and long-lived, and will all be skilled at caring for the elderly. Their complexions will no longer resemble those of people in a time without the Dao. As they grow older, they will increasingly understand the deepest intent and make the Dao their home. Their learning will surpass that of their predecessors; they will grow ever more kind and close to one another, and honor those who possess the Dao. Warfare and deceit will cease. Thus the afflictions of the inherited burden will diminish day by day. This is the natural course of things.

The Perfected One stressed: “What I say is never wrong—not once in ten thousand times. This is the great proof of my writings; I cannot simply offer fine words without foundation. Their evidence accords with Heaven and Earth. How could I speak falsely? The documents emerged at different times and were not written by one person, so the circumstances behind their accumulation are difficult to know. That is why our Dao takes sincerity as its foundation.”

The disciple continued to ask questions, probing the matter more deeply.

Notes:

• Inherited burden (承负): The idea that the sins and calamities of earlier generations are borne and accumulated by their descendants.
• Celestial officials, the spirit of Heaven, and the lord of Heaven: Terms within the Daoist cosmology of celestial offices and sovereign powers.
• “Taking food from below” (自下食): A statement about cultivation or ethics connected with celestial duties and the provision of sustenance by celestial officials. The specific ritual practice requires comparison with the full text.
• King of Peace (平王): A ruler who governs Heaven in the Taiping Jing narrative and is often associated with ending injustice and releasing the inherited burden.

The Taiping Jing: The Essential Formula on the Origins of the Four Ways, Chapter 58 (A Plain-Language Interpretation)

Someone asked urgently, “I want to know the Dao’s true and powerful effects. Why, though, do they so often turn out opposite to what we expect? It is like cold and heat: the more heat there is, the less cold; the more cold, the less heat.”

It is also said that ever since Heaven and Earth were first formed, most former masters and students have hidden the true Dao and instead studied a showy, superficial set of teachings, gaining at most a few small benefits. They have treated later generations unfairly, and false learning has grown stronger day by day as people pass it on to one another. Though the Way of Heaven is ancient, the earliest authors who wrote books and established teachings laid a broad path for later generations to deceive one another. One generation is fooled, and those who do not understand carry the deception forward. Those above can no longer inspire trust, and those below have nowhere to entrust their lives. People suspect one another, and the world falls into disorder. Generation after generation, later people bear the misfortune brought about by those before them; as it accumulates, it is called “intensifying”—growing ever more severe. Heaven too is wronged today, which is why I speak to you in this way.

The Perfected One, a transmitter of the Dao, urges you: “You must strive to cherish and encourage yourself. You are helping Heaven cure its ills and helping rulers avert calamity. Heaven knows that your merit is great and will not treat you lightly.”

(This passage belongs to a set of essential teachings on “the signs and effects of conduct, and knowing what is true or false.”)

The Perfected One asked, “How many kinds of human conduct are there? Are there a hundred ways, or ten thousand?”

The answer: “No. How could the words of the Perfected One be like those of ordinary people? There are four kinds of conduct. What is one of them called?”

When a person acts neither well nor badly, this is called “floating and level conduct”—it drifts along, stays even, and cannot be relied on. When conduct is partly good and partly bad, it is called “impure and inconstant conduct”; its good or ill fortune cannot be settled.

The Perfected One asked again, “How many kinds of conduct bring good or ill fortune? Are there a thousand, or ten thousand?”

The answer: “When the Perfected One speaks of good and ill fortune, it is not in the terms ordinary people use. Conduct that brings good or ill fortune also has four kinds. What is one of them called?”

When everything is either greatly auspicious or greatly inauspicious, and is neither auspicious nor inauspicious in between, this is a “floating and level fate.” When good and ill fortune are mixed, it is “mixed, impure, and inconstant good and ill fortune,” and cannot be reliably divined.

The Perfected One asked again, “How many kinds of good and ill are there in Heaven and Earth, in the years, months, and days?”

The answer: “They cannot be counted.”

The other person said, “Your words make it sound as if you are getting people drunk.”

The Perfected One said, “Heaven and Earth, the years, months, and days also have four kinds. One of them is called ‘impure, with changes and anomalies at its heart.’ What does this mean?”

In a given year, things are either greatly joyful or greatly evil; when they are neither joyful nor evil, it is a “floating and level year.” When good and evil are mixed, Heaven’s changes become confusing and the year’s order is unsettled. On a given day, if it is not greatly good, it is greatly evil…

Note: This chapter uses three parallel accounts—people, good and ill fortune, and Heaven and Earth across years, months, and days—to repeat the same idea. Things are either wholly good or wholly bad; otherwise they are “floating and level.” When good and bad are mixed, they are “impure and inconstant” and cannot be trusted as a true Dao or a reliable effect. The true Dao must be pure and steady, while false learning involves deception and mixture. The later passage therefore stresses distinguishing truth from falsehood and separating what is genuine from what is merely floating and level. The original text appears incomplete here; the final sentence is unfinished.

Plain-Language Interpretation

Scripture:

Acting neither for good nor doing evil is called the conduct of floating equilibrium, like the sun and moon. When good and evil are mixed together, it is called deluded conduct, or strange conduct, and brings disaster. Here I am only outlining the main points and indicating the beginning; this is true of everything under Heaven. What does “so” mean? If the people under Heaven do not turn toward good, they must fall into evil. To be neither good nor evil is level conduct; to mix good with evil is deceitful conduct, on which nothing can be established. Level conduct gives nothing that can be encouraged. Great good and great evil each have their own names. Why, then, are there precisely these four kinds of conduct? Excellent! Your question may be said to have grasped the meaning of the Dao.

Great good is the pure conduct of the Great Yang; great evil is the baleful conduct of the Great Yin. The joining of good and evil is conduct of the middle harmony. With inconstant conduct, Heaven and Earth, ruler and ministers, the people, and all things lose their way. Thus, those who wish to follow the right path and follow Yang mostly attain good; those who follow Yin mostly attain evil; those who follow harmony attain floating equilibrium. Where fortune and misfortune are inconstant, conduct has no more standards.

Therefore, the sages of old observed Heaven and Earth, the seasons, the sun, the people, and all things deeply. They watched their rise and decline, their floating equilibrium, their advance and retreat, and used these to know whether their own conduct would succeed or fail. They used a mirror of penetrating clarity to examine their own appearance. How remarkable! Excellent, excellent! What should we do now?

The answer is this: To act while keeping to the fundamental law and taking Heaven as one’s model is the beginning. Taking Earth as one’s model leads mostly to harm; taking harmony as one’s model is second; inconstancy is the end of conduct. Why have people today gone so far as to act inconstantly? Did the people of old first suffer a small lapse, followed by something small? Then something great? Then a great loss of the root of the Way, leaving them ever more confused, with nothing to rely on? Their intentions then turned toward inconstant conduct, and they changed their words to speak of inconstant years. This shows that the decline of the Way has not yet reached its limit; one must return to the root.

In ancient times, when the sages saw this and knew that it marked the extreme of decline, they turned back. Thus they did not lose good government and preserved their Heaven-given mandate. The great sages understood matters clearly, and so they were always uniquely fortunate. Do you, True One, value the weight of this teaching and know that it is reliable? Only the Celestial Master can reveal it.

When the year’s course begins in flourishing but ends in decline, this is Yin-Yang at its extreme. When people born later are more evil and diminished, this is the world at its extreme. When all things flourish at first but yield no harvest in the end, this is things at their extreme.

This scripture primarily critiques the superficial and hypocritical tendencies of contemporary society, pointing out how people's speech has become increasingly hollow and insubstantial, with documents piling up yet lacking genuine substance. This trend of neglecting the root while chasing the trivial, abandoning substance for ornamentation, is likened to heaven and earth nurturing all things yet losing their fundamental essence—the root problem lies in humanity's departure from "original truth" (本真) in pursuit of "superficial falsehood" (末伪).

The text employs vivid analogies to illustrate how minor errors accumulate into grave consequences: just as a single grain of millet may seem insignificant, countless grains can fill a granary; raindrops falling continuously eventually merge into rivers and seas. Similarly, when people initially stray only slightly from the proper path (正道), the accumulated deviations passed down through generations ultimately lead to catastrophe, throwing heaven and earth into imbalance and unleashing widespread calamities. Even wise rulers find it difficult to reverse such deeply entrenched corruption.

The scripture proposes the solution lies in "returning to the origin and recovering truth" (返本归真): when things reach an extreme, they must revert to their source. Just as Yang energy at its peak transforms into Yin, and Yin energy at its limit shifts to Yang, external development at its zenith must turn inward. This is the natural law of heaven and earth (天道). Losing the proper path is no minor issue—it leads to generational errors, with later generations growing increasingly lost and society descending into darkness and chaos.

Finally, it emphasizes the vital importance of spreading the true Dao: through scriptures, each person must engage in self-reflection and recognize the dangers of straying from the great Way (大道). Only when all return to simplicity and authenticity can heaven and earth, rulers and subjects, the common people, and all things find their rightful places. Practitioners of the Dao (真人) must strive tirelessly to align their actions with the will of heaven (天心). This passage embodies the core Daoist teaching of "returning to the origin and recovering truth," while delivering a profound warning about the moral decline of society.

This passage comes from juan 42 of the Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace). It takes the form of a dialogue in which a disciple asks the Celestial Master a question and receives an answer. Its general meaning is as follows.

“How can we know this?” Because most things and people begin by tending toward goodness but later turn bad; few are able truly to accomplish anything. They say much, and at first seem sincere, but in the end their words prove empty. The sages of antiquity often observed the actions and stillness of the people, and through this came to understand the principle. That is why they seldom misjudged matters.

The disciple then asked: “According to what the Celestial Master has said, all things have a lower extreme and an upper extreme. If, among the ‘nine kinds of people,’ we take the upper extreme to be the ‘spirit-being entrusted with Qi’—a spirit commissioned by Heaven and attuned to primordial Qi—and the lower extreme to be a slave or servant, then if those who study at the lower level can advance to the upper extreme, can those at the upper extreme also descend again?”

The Celestial Master replied: “A good question. Yet you, the perfected person, still seem not to have understood the Dao of Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate). The spirit-being entrusted with Qi takes form in union with primordial Qi—the original Qi of Heaven and Earth, the root from which all things are generated—and, working in concert with the Four Seasons and Five Phases, brings all things into being. The spirits within the human body are all received from the Qi of Heaven; the Qi of Heaven, in turn, comes from primordial Qi. Shen (spirit) travels by riding Qi. Thus, where a person has Qi, there is Shen; where there is Shen, there is Qi. When Shen departs, Qi is cut off; when Qi perishes, Shen departs. Without Shen, one dies; without Qi, one dies.”

The disciple asked: “Can the spirit-being entrusted with Qi enter a person’s abdomen?”

The Celestial Master continued: “The Five Phases arise from primordial Qi, and Shen shares the same body and course of movement as primordial Qi. When the Five Phases enter the human body, they become the Five Viscera, the organs associated with the Five Phases. To say that those at the upper extreme among the nine kinds of people can descend again and return to the human body is to misunderstand the matter.”

The disciple said that although he had studied for a long time, this explanation still seemed new to him when he first encountered it. He asked the Celestial Master to explain it in detail, saying that an imprecise account would be of no use. He also asked whether the Dao of Heaven is inherently cyclical.

The Celestial Master replied: “You may be said to have grasped its essentials. If you leave with any doubts, do not hesitate to ask again.”

The closing note reads, “On Heaven, the four phases, root and branch, Taiji, and governing by turning things around.” It is the title of a section in this volume, and broadly concerns the Dao of Heaven, the Four Phases—the Four Seasons and Five Phases—the relation between root and branch, and the principle of Taiji, in order to discuss the art of governing by reasoning in reverse.