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
- To support the practice of kindness.
- To revere love and respect.
- To help others succeed in practicing goodness.
- To persuade others to practice kindness.
- To help those in desperate need.
- To develop public projects for the greater benefit of people.
- To practice merits by giving wealth.
- To protect and maintain proper teachings.
- To respect elders.
- 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.
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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
