太上感应篇英文版
Tractate of the Most High One
on Actions and Consequences
Tractate of the Most High One
on Actions and Consequences
Tractate of the Most High One
on Actions and Consequences 太上感应篇
Tàishàng Gǎnyìng Piān
Chapter Links
(Chapter divisions have been
inserted by me. The original
text is continuous.)
I.The Workings of
Good and Evil
II.How To Be Good
III.What Happens To
Good People
IV.The Crimes of the Wicked (longest section)
V.The Fate of the Wicked
VI.Hope for Those Who Repent
Introduction & Explanation
Unquestionably the most important literary genre for the vast majority of Chinese in later dynasties was the morality tract. Such works were generically called "good books"
(shànshū 善书).
These works were full of everything from claims about cosmic justice to hackneyed proverbs and tales of the fell fate of those who ignored them, from lamentations over the perpetually rambunctious young to injunctions against the drowning of unwanted infants, from potted biographies of moral exemplars to jingles about being kind to the senile.
Very few were productions of significant literary merit, and the whole genre tended to be scorned by the literati (as it is today). Many were written by mediums in trance through the use of one or another kind of ouija board (planchette), a practice which continues to the present. (See Jordan & Overmyer 1986, Overmyer 1976.) And such works were (and
are) printed in millions and millions of copies from small presses all over China for distribution for free, usually from the "take one" tables of popular temples. The cost was borne as an act of religious merit not just by the wealthy, but sometimes by people of quite modest means. Many added introductions or annotations, often arguing for great religious merit to be had by frequent reading or chanting of the text.
Among such works, none has ever rivaled the "Tractate of the Most High One on Actions and Consequences" or
Tàishàng Gǎnyìng Piān 太上感应篇.
Paul Carus, in his introduction to a 1906 translation of the work that he prepared in cooperation with Teitaro Suzuki, opined that, "Its editions exceed even those of the Bible and Shakespeare …" (p. 3). In the introduction to his own translation in 1918, James Webster remarks that the Tractate,
… is perhaps the most celebrated tract in the annals of literature. A book that has been scattered broadcast among a people numbering hundreds of millions, and tha5 for several centuries, must be almost without parallel.
… the widespread circulation of the text has made many of its pithy phrases part of the common talk of the people, and
one cannot listen long to any conversation, even on the most mundane affairs of daily and domestic life, without hearing some expressions the origin of which is to be found in the famous little book. (Pp. 1-2)
The Tractate probably originated in planchette-writing sessions, for it has the hackneyed phrases and choppy flow that characterize many such works, as well as the seemingly endless and repetitive list of those human deficiencies that strike amateur moralists around the world as so especially fascinating.
The "Most High One" referred to in the title is none other than L?oz? 老子, the legendary founder of Daoism, whose spirit remains to this day a frequent visitor in spirit writing
séances.
The Tractate has been associated with the work of a
IVth-century Daoist named G? Hóng 洪, who called himself the Master Embracing Simplicity (Bàopú z? 抱朴子), but the work is quite certainly not from his hand. Later scholars have suggested it may date from as late as the Míng 明dynasty (1368-1644, p eriod 20) or as early as the Sòng 宋
dynasty(960-1279, period 15).
Whatever its origin, by the time of European contact in the XIXth century, the Tractate had sufficient prominence to inspire French and English translations in 1816, 1828, 1830, 1835, and 1884, in addition to the early XXth-century ones mentioned above (Webster, pp. 10-11). If its ubiquity has faded somewhat today, together with the "good books" literature more broadly, it nevertheless remains one of the most common religious tracts in China. And quotations and paraphrases from it may still be heard in spoken language, just as they were a century and more ago.
The translation offered here, while informed by previous ones, is my own and has been been prepared for use in my classes. I have included the full Chinese text in both characters and romanization for the benefit of the majority of my students who are also studying Chinese and who may therefore be curious about the original text.
Other instructors should feel free to use the text in any way they please. No further permission is necessary.
Works cited above:
CARUS, Paul & Teitaro SUZUKI
1906 T'ai-shang kan-ying p'ien:Treatise of the exalted one on response and retribution. La Salle IL: Open Court Publishing.
JORDAN, David K. & Daniel L. Overmyer
1986 The flying phoenix: aspects of Chinese sectarianism in Taiwan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. Press. OVERMYER, Daniel L.
1976 Folk Buddhist religion: dissenting sects in late traditional China. Cambridge MA: Harvard U. Press. WEBSTER, James
1918 The kan ying pien: book of rewards and punishments. Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press.
The picture shows a XIXth-century tract printing shop. (reproduced from
Carus 1906, p. 133)
Chapter I: The Workings of Good and Evil
The most high one says: 太上曰：
太上曰：
Tàishàng yuē:
“Disasters and blessings have no entry gates of their own; they are summoned by people. 「祸福无门，惟人自召；「禍福無門，惟人自召；“Huòfú wú mén, wéi rén zì zhào;
The effects of good and evil are like shadows following their forms.” 善恶之报，如影随形。」善惡之報，如影隨形。」shàn'è zhī bào, rú yǐng suí xíng.”
And so heaven and earth have spirits who record crimes, 是以天地有司过之神，
是以天地有司過之神，Shìyǐ tiāndì yǒu sīguò zhī shén,
and in proportion to the severity of their crimes, they shorten human lives appropriately. 依人所犯轻重，以夺人算。依人所犯輕重，以奪人算。yī rén suǒ fàn qīngzhòng, yǐ duó rén suàn.
Because of this not only may 算减则贫耗，多逢忧患。
a person’s life be cut short, but he also becomes poor or destitute, his calamities are many; 算減則貧耗，多逢憂患。Suàn jiǎn zé pín hào,duō féng yōuhuàn;
People all hate him; punishments and disasters follow him 人皆恶之，刑祸随之。
人皆惡之，刑禍隨之。
Rén jiē è zhī, xíng huò suí zhī,
Good fortune avoids him while evil stars persecute him. 吉庆避之，恶星灾之。
吉慶避之，惡星灾之。
Jíqìng bì zhī, èxīng zāi zhī;
And when his span of years is complete, he dies. 算尽则死。算盡則死。Suàn jìn zé sǐ.
And then there are also the gods of the three towers and the north star, residing above the heads of ordinary people., 又有三台北斗神君，在人头上。又有三台北斗神君，在人頭上。Yòu yǒu Sāntái Běidǒu shén jūn, zài réntóu shàng.
They too record people’s 录人罪恶，夺其纪算。