The Thousand Character Classic numbered 千字文數字對照表

 The Thousand Character Classic  is a Chinese text that contains 1000 characters, of which no character appears twice. This characteristic lent the work to an interesting off-label use: numeration

Because every character in the text is unique, you could use individual characters to compactly represent any number from 1-1000. So instead of writing 七百一十七(717), you could simply write  林 "forest" to represent the number seven hundred and seventeen.  Volumes of the Qianlong Tripitaka 乾隆大藏經  were numbered in this fashion (using the first 724 characters!) , as well as examination cells, etc.  Even until recently, Taiwanese conscripts' serial numbers started with one of the first four characters of the Thousand Character Classic. 

Another related use was the lottery known as Puckapoo, which used the first 80 characters as entries for punters to place bets on. Sometimes the first 100 characters were used, but rather awkwardly characters 98-100 are 弔民伐罪 which could be interpreted as "the people are hanged for their crimes" (the actual meaning is 'the people are consoled; crimes are punished"), and various substitutions were made. 

The system is not perfect. For example, some natural numbers are in the text, and awkwardly not in the corresponding positions. Eg: two is character number 415. A complete list is shown below:

two 二=415 

five 五=151

four 四=149

eight 八=499 

nine 九=609 

hundred 百=613 

thousand 千=603 

ten thousand 萬=143 

To the author's knowledge, no such table corresponding each number of the 1000 character classic to natural numbers has been attempted. As such he places this table on his blog, for the convieneicence of the public. His base text has been the Wikisource text . Some of the characters have alternate forms, or have commonly established subsitutions (eg 元-玄; these are placed in brackets. If there are any errors or omissions in the text below, please let him know of them, for which he will be most grateful. 

Update 15 April 2024:Fixed bug  where only the first 796  entries were displayed. Thanks, George Pollard! 

燒餅歌 The Song of the Shaobing

 燒餅歌 The Song of the Shaobing 

In this post i will offer the first English translation (to my knowledge) translate what has become a somewhat notorious prophetic text: The Song of the Shaobing, sometimes translated as "the burnt biscuit poem"

The text is a dialogue between the first Ming Emperor- Taizu 明太祖 (Hongwu Emperor 洪武, reigned 1368 to 1398) and Liu Bowen 劉伯溫, a famous Chinese sage.The Emperor asks Liu Bowen to deliver him a prophesy of the future of his dynasty, and indeed of China as a whole. What follows is a set of apparently cryptic poems that predict future political events and the names of the personages involved.

Although apparently cryptic, the editions of the poem have glosses that decypher the names of the personages involved. Much of the encoding is done through breaking apart Chinese characters. For example, the surname Wei 魏 can be decomposed into the words 八千女鬼- "8000 lady ghosts"- which is how a man surnamed Wei is named in the poem. Some of these decompositions are fairly obvious, but others are not. As large sections of the poem are written in this manner, it is unsurprising that no complete translation has been made so far.

Much of the poem is dedicated to events of the Qing dynasty- the successor to the Ming. Much is made of the fact that the Qing were Manchus- and thus Barbarians from a Han Chinese perspective. In any case the poem predicts, that with the fall of the Qing, disasters of positively apocalyptic proportions would occur; however at the end of them a new ruler would come to rule china, and usher in an era of peace.

***

Something must be said about The origins of the Song of the Shaobing itself. To my knowledge, the earliest dated printed text is actually rather late - the 27th year of the Republic, or 1938. published in a compendium called 中國二千年之預言  "Seven Chinese prophesies for Two thousand years"   https://books.google.com/books?id=dPokAAAAMAAJ&dq=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E9%A0%90%E8%A8%80&pg=PP101#v=onepage&q&f=false 

The collection is prefaced by the following note as a sort of certificate of authenticity: [it is also translated into chinese on the facing page]

"In 1859, when the allied English and French troops burnt the Yuan Ming Yuan in Peking, one of the soldiers discovered a box of manuscripts written in Chinese which had been carefully preserved by the Imperial Family. Seeing that they contain pictures, the soldier presented them to Miss Lypia from whom I secured the same. 

In translating them I found that they represented the predictions of a chinese prophet and reference the rise, the fall the tranquility and the turbulence of China. The emperor of the past dynasties prohibited their publication, for they might disturb the minds of the people- and lead to bad consequences

It is indeed our good fortune that they had came into our country and that we may study them. These lines are written as an inroduction

- Maeon (1867)"

I am convinced that this note- and indeed, all the texts in the book are relatively recent forgeries, dating from the late years of the Qing.  However in my opinion that is unproductive, especially when you consider the context.

 Starting in 1849, China was enduring a "Century of humiliation" where, amongst other things the Forbidden City was sacked by foreign troops. The much detested Qing dynasty fell in 1912-- ending the 3000 odd years of imperial rule. As the text was published, China was in the process of a civil war. Given this context, the fall of the barbarian Qing- foretold in the last golden age of China- would seem comforting; the apocalyptic pronouncements of the final part might have seemed plausible, and the arrival of the sage ruler positively intoxicating. Indeed, the note stating that the texts came from a sacked imperial  palace only adds to to the text's authority:With the collapse of the Imperial system, the people of China can now access- and hence control- their own destiny. 

I understand Modern commentaries of the text still exist, but I have yet the time to read them. If I do come round to doing so, I will add their comments to this translation. 

太上感應篇 Taishang Ganying Pian: Three translations

 太上感應篇

太上老君感應篇

Taishang Ganying Pian 

Watters : The KAN YING PIEN OR A Chapter On the Causes which Induce Retribution by the Grand Supreme 

Legge: THE THÂI-SHANG TRACTATE OF ACTIONS AND THEIR RETRIBUTIONS

Carus: TREATISE OF THE EXALTED ONE ON RESPONSE AND RETRIBUTION

Over the past months, we have featured translations of several famous popular Chinese morality books on. The first such book was 關聖帝君覺世真經-- The Sage Therach Guan's true Scripture to Awaken the world: the second was 文昌帝君陰騭文 -- . Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merit  Now we finally the last of this trilogy, the Taishang Ganying pian-- The treatise of the Highest One on Ganying. 

In the Carus and Suzuki translation of the text. it is stated that this was one of the most widely distributed books of all China. Whilst this is no longer true, the Taishang Ganying Pian is still republished now and then by Chinese religious presses; in fact it is one of the very few regularly distributed religious books that is not a buddhist sutra of some form. Still, it nonetheless is published by Buddhist presses, because the morality espoused in the book should be generally promoted. 

The Taishang Ganying Pian- as are the Sage Thearch Guan and Wenchang Texts- is about Ganying. Generally the term refers to a kind of associateve resonance; a kind of relationship between two objects that are related to each other, and can  interact from a distance. In the context of this text, the interactions are between good or bad deeds, and quality of life. If one does good things, good things would come to you; the converse if one does bad things. In a way it resembles popular notions of karma. However, some aspects of the doctrine may strike modern as strange. For one, the mechanism by which this is done, is by omnipresent spirits. These spirits report acts to the gods, who would correspondingly send good or bad luck to a person. For another, it is taken as a matter of course that retribution can devolve on people other than the sinner. The text explicitly states that Wives and children can die as a consequence of the man's sins; in turn, numerous other miracle tales attest to people's children suffering good (or bad) fortune owing to the deeds of their ancestors. 

Whilst Wenchang's treatise on secret merit is positive-- a series of injunctions on what to do, Taishang Laojun's treatise is negative-- For the most part it is a long list of sins. There are some 137 in total. 

The list of sins may strike the modern reader as strange. It struck some of the translators as strange as well. Extremely egregious sins (murder, rebellion) are condemned in the same terms as one that are relatively minor (killing snakes, pointing at stars). The reason why this is so may be seen from the wider context of Ganying. The consequence of evil deeds is worldy misfortune. If only significant evils were prohibited, every instance of misfortune occurring to a person would be seen as evidence of secret murder, adultery etc. However, by mixing in relatively minor transgressions like pointing at the luminaries, the unfortunate is given the benefit of the doubt. Indeed,  this very treatise condemns the practise: "見他失便，便說他過； on seeing others have misadventures,  Speaks of them as committing faults".

Preliminary remarks on Liao-fan's four lessons

 One of the more curious Chinese morality books is Liao-fan's four lessons: it shows the relationship between actions and the results of natal astrology. However, despite its importance- and its continual citation by numerous fortunetellers, it has received zero attention in English.

 The reason would be apparent on analysis of its contents: The worldview of this book has been more-or-less completely extirpated from modern society. For starters, as much as this text is a morality book, it is one that is ultimately rooted in mantic techniques-- specifically the reason why natal astrology even works, and how a person can transcend it. In many ways, the book is a rationalised, expanded version of the more direct cause-effect/ 'karma' mentioned in texts like the Taishang Ganying Pian, and Wenchang's treatiese on secret merit. However, unlike the above texts, which are really nothing more than long lists of things you should and should not do, this book provides something more: actual principles by which you can carry out the ways in which the precepts can be made. 

 A summary of the book can be made as such: 

The first part of the book  spiritual autobiography of Yuan Liaofan.  In his youth, he encountered a fortuneteller, who calculated his future life events to pinpoint accuracy for 20 years. The prediction is mixed: as much as he would rise to success in life, he would never pass the imperial examination, nor have a son, and would perish at the age of 53. 

 He still remains spiritual, and undergoes a spiritual retreat. The buddhist master there informs him that despite his considerable accomplishments--  he was capable of maintaining concentration for 3 days and 3 nights, without sleeping, he has yet to transcend the ordinary world of yin and yang. This is because he has yet to achieve the capacity of entering the phase of 'no-thought', thereby allowing him to escape the constant fluctuations of yin and yang. His unthinking subjection to these forces  is what allows his fate to be calculated to the minutest detail. 

 The master then proceeds to describe how he could transcend this fate, through a regimen of moral and spiritual cultivation. Of partcoiular note is how the accumulation of good deeds would enable one to improve one's fate-- a theme echoed by similar morality books like the Taishang Ganying Pian. After receiving this valuable teaching, he changes his name from Xuehai to Liao-fan ("transcending the ordinary"). After accomplishing these deeds, his fortune begins to improve. He passed the imperial exam, gave birth to a son (to which the book is written for) and he did not die at the age of 53-- indeed, he states his age is 69 when he wrote the book!

The second  part of the book details how this is to be actualised; in brief, one first must repent one's faults, which requires a sense of shame, a sense of fear [specifically of constant divine retribution], and finally the courage to do. Then there are ways of doing so viz changing behaviour [etc]. Finally the benefits for such moral cultivation are enumerated, as well as the bad consequences of neglecting it.

The third part of the book is the longest. It begins with an assortment of stories of the meritorious consequences for doing good deeds. The first is particularly illustrative. Yang kong was a high official. Yang's grandfather was a boatman who rescued people during a storm. As a result of this merit, a divine being manifested before them, and proceed to direct them to a location to build their ancestral tomb. Yang's family prospered- and indeed, continues to prosper. 

The readers of this text would be immediately aware of the fact that the positioning of a tomb had a direct effect on the fortunes of its descendants. This positioning can be determined directly through actual surveying of the landscape through Fengshui, but that is an incredibly troublesome process. The implied subtext, is that the yang family's prosperity arose from access to such a good grave site, knowledge of which gravesite arose because of the Grandfather's righteousness. As much as the strictures of Yin and Yang existed, and could have effects on people, Moral cultivation allowed one to transcend these strictures, and indeed, reap the best of them. 

This is followed by a long dialog between a group of scholars and master Zhong, on true and false good deeds. The former are acts done for purely altruistic reasons; the latter with some ulterior, self-serving motive. The two forms are easily confused-- hence the continued misfortunes of those who apparently do good, or the fortunes of those who apparently do bad. there are circumstances where acts of goodness may arise from bad motives. An example given is a rich family taking the law into their own hands in a time of famine. Although their motives are selfish (protecting their own property) it deters others from committing further acts of chaos.

 Further sections go into precise detail about the various kinds of good acts.  Liao-fan himself gives a list of ten: as translated by Silent voices, they are 

1. To support the practice of kindness.
2. To revere love and respect.
3. To help others succeed in practicing goodness.
4. To persuade others to practice kindness.
5. To help those in desperate need.
6. To develop public projects for the greater benefit of people.
7. To practice merits by giving wealth.
8. To protect and maintain proper teachings.
9. To respect elders.
10. To love and cherish all living things. 

Liao-fan provides commentary on all of them.  

The last part of the book details more morality tales, mostly revolving around taking the Imperial Exam. Many modern students may sympathise with these people, and indeed find the examples most lively. 

Western readers, on reading the text may be surprised to see how seamlessly buddhism fits within this framework of divination: Liao-fan meets the original diviner at a buddhist temple, and the man who teaches him how to transcend his destiny is also a buddhist monk. In turn, things that would strike the reader as 'un-buddhist' the I Ching, sending petitions to heaven and writing talismans are mentioned without the least remark or comment. Indeed the recitation of the mantra of Cundi is explicitly stated as part of the spiritual regimen the monk prescribes to Liao-fan to change his fate. 

Again, in the second part of the book, we find Liao-fan freely quoting Confucian philosophers like Mencius with regards to the role of shame, and moral examples. 

However, it must be said that for precisely these reasons, this text has ceased to be a part of ordinary moral education. After all, the motivating factor for the book is divination: acts of good allow one to transcend one's divinatory ordained fate. With the disappearance of divination as a valid way of knowing,-- along with belief the whole ecosystem of spirits, underworld judges, and officers that police the deeds of men, and allow the whole thing to work-- this book doubtless fades in the background. 

Regardless, the impact of the book cannot be understated: I was once in a Singaporean fortune-teller's shop, which constantly played the Cundi mantra in the backgound-- evidently derived from the teaching of this book. Contemporary fortune-tellers occasionally cite it, to show how their clients should treat their predictions, and indeed, alter their own fortunes. 

*** *** *** 

Two translations  in English exist; 

The first is by Zhi hai Huang, http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/liaofan.pdf 

It does not appear to be a translation from the Classical Chinese at all, but rather a transcription form an audiobook retelling of the text into vernacular. This is quite reasonable, as the original is in an exceptionally refined and complex form of classical chinese. Because of this, the translation is in a dialogue format, which is something that is completely absent from the original 

The second translation is by "Silent voices". 

. http://www.namoamitabha.net/en/publication/liaofan/liaofan_chinkung.pdf

As far as I can tell, this is the only good English translation extant.It is not a literal translation from the Classical Chinese- modernising terms here and there, putting glosses into the translation itself.   Indeed, in the first section of this text, it suffers from the exact opposite problem as the first translation: It is in the first person throughout, whereas in the original there is reported speech!  

 The PDF that is accessible, though, has a massive amount of commentary. A single paragraph of the original can bear as much as four pages of commentary  so much so that a book that is just under 50 pages in the original chinese  https://books.google.com/books?id=LWFIzIUOki8C&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false is now 300-odd pages long! Mercifully, the provide a bare text of the translation-- but only at the very end of the book! 

Much of this commentary is interpretations and exegesis of the book from a buddhist standpoint-- specifically the Pure land viewpoint.  

In any case I have given the translation -- with the original Chinese text, and some of my own comments here https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2022/03/liao-fans-four-lessons-silent-voices.html 

Liao-fan's four lessons: Silent Voices' translation, with a parallel Chinese text

This translation has been extracted from the translation by Silent Voices. It is the only good English translation that exists, to my knowledge. I have taken it from this PDF http://www.namoamitabha.net/en/publication/liaofan/liaofan_chinkung.pdf. 

The original text is surrounded by rather massive a commentary. It is of the Pure Land buddhist school, and makes frequent references to how the book can be integrated into the Pure land practise.The commentary is extensive indeed. In some cases, one paragraph of the original is followed by four pages of commentary! Mercifully, the authors have provided an uninterrupted commentary of the text-- but only at the very back of the book.

The translation is not always literal, which is understandable, given its purpose. Dates in the Chinese calendar have been turned into the rather vaguer "some years ago" etc. The translators prefer "dollars" or "cents" for the corresponding ancient units. I have re-translated Parts where I have felt the translators have departed greatly from the Chinese.  I have also added some comments etc. where I felt they are necessary. These parts are marked with an "E".

 In this post I have placed Silent Voices' translation next to the Chinese original, which was taken from Wikisource.https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%BA%86%E5%87%A1%E5%9B%9B%E8%A8%9  It is hoped that by re-issuing this translation in this form, it may reach a wider audience. May it provide an insight as to Chinese ideas of fate and fortune, as well as a source of moral teachings.

I will set out a preliminary analysis of the text in a future blogpost 

The Guanyin Universal Gate Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, as found in the Taisho Tripitaka

 

文昌帝君陰騭文 -- . Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merit : Three translations

In this post I will post three translations of a fairly well-known chinese morality book, called:

文昌帝君陰騭文

Eichel: Treatise of the Secret Law by the Lord and God of Composition 

Carus/ The Tract of the Quiet Way 

Chung / Lord Superior Wen Chang's Tract On The First Step Towards Non Abidance

E.W. Wenchang's Treatise on Secret Merits 

It is much of the nature of the The Sage Therach Guan's true Scripture to Awaken the world. that I featured earlier in this blog: a revelation from an important God, encouraging people to do good, and abstain from evil.  In this case, the God that delivered this text is Wenchang, the God of literature. The text was fairly popular in the 19thc,  with even illustrated versions existing, and is still occasionally printed today. Three English translations exist, but alas, all three of them are flawed one way or another. For that reason, more than any text, it is necessary to set them side-by-side.