The Thai-Shang Kan Ying Phien, or Lao Zi's Book of Actions and Their Retribution,
c. 1000 CE
1. The Thai-Shang says, "There are no special doors for calamity and
happiness in men's lot; they come as men themselves call them. Their recompenses follow
good and evil as the shadow follows the substance.
2. "Accordingly, in heaven and earth there are spirits that take
account of men's transgressions, and, according to the lightness or gravity of their
offenses, take away from their term of life. When that term is curtailed, men become poor
and reduced, and meet with many sorrows and afflictions. All other men hate them;
punishments and calamities attend them; good luck and occasions for felicitation shun
them; evil stars send down misfortunes on them. When their term of life is exhausted they
die. There also are the Spirit-rulers in the three pairs of the Thai stars of the Northern
Bushel over men's heads, which record their acts of guilt and wickedness, and take away
from their term of life periods of twelve years or of a hundred days.
"There also are the three Spirits of the recumbent body which reside within a
man's person. As each kang-shan day comes round, they forthwith ascend to the court
of Heaven, and report men's deeds of guilt and transgression. On the last day of the moon,
the spirit of the Hearth does the same. In the case of every man's transgressions, when
they are great, twelve years are taken from his term of life; when they are small, a
hundred days. Transgressions, great and small, are seen in several hundred things. He who
wishes to seek for long life must first avoid these.
3. Is his way right, he should go forward in it; is it wrong, he
should withdraw from it. He will not tread in devious byways; he will not impose on
himself in any secret apartment. He will amass virtue and accumulate deeds of merit. He
will feel kindly toward all creatures. He will be loyal, filial, loving to his younger
brothers, and submissive to his elder. He will make himself correct and so transform
others. He will pity orphans, and compassionate widows; he will respect the old and
cherish the young Even the insect tribes, grass, and trees he should not hurt. He ought to
pity the malignant tendencies of others; to rejoice over their excellences; to help them
in their straits; to rescue them from their perils; to regard their gains as if they were
his own, and their losses in the same way; not to publish their shortcomings; not to vaunt
his own superiorities; to put a stop to what is evil, and exalt and display what is good;
to yield much, and take little for himself; to receive insult without resenting it, and
honor with an appearance of apprehension; to bestow favors without seeking for a return,
and give to others without any subsequent regret---this is what is called a good man. All
other men respect him; Heaven in its course protects him; happiness and emolument follow
him; all evil things keep far from him; the spiritual Intelligences defend him; what he
does is sure to succeed; he may hope to become Immaterial and Immortal. He who would seek
to become an Immortal of Heaven ought to give the proof of 1300 good deeds; and he who
would seek to become an Immortal of Earth should give the proof of three hundred.
4. But if the movements of a man's heart are contrary to
righteousness, and the actions of his conduct are in opposition to reason; if he regard
his wickedness as a proof of his ability, and can bear to do what is cruel and injurious;
if he secretly harms the honest and good; if he treats with clandestine slight his ruler
or parents; if he is disrespectful to his elders and teachers; if he disregards the
authority of those whom he should serve; if he deceives the simple; if he calumniates his
fellow learners; if he vent baseless slanders, practise deception and hypocrisy, and
attack and expose his kindred by consanguinity and affinity; if he is hard, violent, and
without humanity; if he is ruthlessly cruel in taking his own way; if his judgments of
right and wrong are incorrect; and his likings and aversions are in despite of what is
proper; if he oppresses inferiors, and claims merit for doing so; courts superiors by
gratifying their evil desires; receives favors without feeling grateful for them; broods
over resentments without ceasing; if he slights and makes no account of Heaven's people;
if he trouble and throw into disorder the government of the State; bestows rewards on the
unrighteous and inflicts punishments on the guiltless; kills men in order to get wealth,
and overthrows men to get their offices; slays those who have surrendered, and massacres
those who have made their submission; throws censure on the upright, and overthrows the
worthy; maltreats the orphan and oppresses the widow; if he casts the laws aside and
receives bribes; holds the right to be wrong and the wrong to be right; enters light
offenses as heavy; and the sight of an execution makes him more enraged with the criminal;
if he knows his faults and does not change them, or knows what is good and does not do it;
throws the guilt of his crimes on others; if he tries to hinder the exercise of an art for
a living; reviles and slanders the sage and worthy; and assails and oppresses the
principles of reason and virtue; if he shoots birds and hunts beasts, unearths the
burrowing insects and frightens roosting birds, blocks up the dens of animals and
overturns nests, hurts the pregnant womb and breaks eggs; if he wishes others to have
misfortunes and losses; and defames the merit achieved by others; if he imperils others to
secure his own safety; diminishes the property of others to increase his own; exchanges
bad things for good; and sacrifices the public weal to his private advantage; if he takes
credit to himself for the ability of others; conceals the excellences of others; publishes
the things discreditable to others; and searches out the private affairs of others; leads
others to waste their property and wealth; and causes the separation of near relatives;
encroaches on what others love; and assists others in doing wrong; gives the reins to his
will and puts on airs of majesty; puts others to shame in seeking victory for himself;
injures or destroys the growing crops of others; and breaks up projected marriages; if
becoming rich by improper means makes him proud; and by a peradventure escaping the
consequences of his misconduct, he yet feels no shame; if he owns to favors which he did
not confer, and puts off his errors on others; marries away his own calamity to another,
and sells for gain his own wickedness; purchases for himself empty praise; and keeps
hidden dangerous purposes in his heart; detracts from the excellences of others, and
screens his own shortcomings; if he takes advantage of his dignity to practise
intimidation, and indulges his cruelty to kill and wound; if without cause he wastes cloth
in clipping and shaping it; cooks animals for food, when no rites require it; scatters and
throws away the five grains; and burdens and vexes all living creatures; if he ruins the
families of others, and gets possession of their money and valuables; admits the water or
raises fire in order to injure their dwellings; if he throws into confusion the
established rules in order to defeat the services of others; and injures the implements of
others to deprive them of the things they require to use; if, seeing others in glory and
honor, he wishes them to be banished or degraded; or seeing them wealthy and prosperous,
he wishes them to be broken and scattered; if he sees a beautiful woman and forms the
thought of illicit intercourse with her; is indebted to men for goods or money, and wishes
them to die; if, when his requests and applications are not complied with, his anger vents
itself in imprecations; if he sees others meeting with misfortune, and begins to speak of
their misdeeds; or seeing them with bodily imperfections he laughs at them; or when their
abilities are worthy of praise, he endeavors to keep them back; if he buries the image of
another to obtain an injurious power over him; or employs poison to kill trees; if he is
indignant and angry with his instructors; or opposes and thwarts his father and elder
brother; if he takes things by violence or vehemently demands them; if he loves secretly
to pilfer, and openly to snatch; makes himself rich by plunder and rapine; or by artifice
and deceit seeks for promotion; if he rewards and punishes unfairly; if he indulges in
idleness and pleasure to excess; is exacting and oppressive to his inferiors; and tries to
frighten other men; if he murmurs against Heaven and finds fault with men; reproaches the
wind and reviles the rain; if he fights and joins in quarrels; strives and raises
litigations; recklessly hurries to join associate fraternities; is led by the words of his
wife or concubine to disobey the instructions of his parents; if, on getting what is new,
he forgets the old; and agrees with his mouth while he dissents in his heart; if he is
covetous and greedy after wealth, and deceives and befools his superiors to get it; if he
invents wicked speeches to calumniate and overthrow the innocent; defames others and calls
it being straightforward; reviles the Spirits and styles himself correct; if he casts
aside what is according to right, and imitates what is against it; turns his back on his
near relatives, and his face to those who are distant; if he appeals to Heaven and Earth
to witness to the mean thoughts of his mind; or calls in the spiritual Intelligence to
mark the filthy affairs of his life; if he gives and afterward repents that he has done
so; or borrows and does not return; if he plans and seeks for what is beyond his lot; or
lays tasks on people beyond their strength; if he indulges his lustful desires without
measure; if there be poison in his heart and mildness in his face; if he gives others
filthy food to eat; or by corrupt doctrines deludes the multitude; if he uses a short
cubit, a narrow measure, light weights, and a small pint; mixes spurious articles with the
genuine; and thus amasses illicit gain; if he degrades children or others of decent
condition to mean positions; or deceives and ensnares simple people; if he is insatiably
covetous and greedy; tries by oaths and imprecations to prove himself correct; and in his
liking for drink is rude and disorderly; if he quarrels angrily with his nearest
relatives; and as a man he is not loyal and honorable; if a woman is not gentle and
obedient; if the husband is not harmonious with his wife; if the wife does not reverence
her husband; if he is always fond of boasting and bragging; if she is constantly jealous
and envious; if he is guilty of improper conduct to his wife or sons; if she fails to
behave properly to her parents-in-law; if he treats with slight and disrespect the spirits
of his ancestors; if he opposes and rebels against the charge of his sovereign; if he
occupies himself in doing what is of no use; and cherishes and keeps concealed a purpose
other than what appears; if he utter imprecations against himself and against others in
the assertion of his innocence; or is partial in his likes and dislikes; if he strides
over the well or the hearth; leaps over the food, or over a man; if he kills newly born
children or brings about abortions; if he does many actions of secret depravity; if he
sings and dances on the last day of the moon or of the year; bawls out or gets angry on
the first day of the moon or in the early dawn; weeps, spits, or urinates, when fronting
the north; sighs, sings, or wails, when fronting the fireplace; and moreover, if he takes
fire from the hearth to burn incense; or uses dirty firewood to cook with; if he rises at
night and shows his person naked; if at the eight terms of the year he inflicts
punishments; if he spits at a shooting star; points at a rainbow; suddenly points to the
three luminaries; looks long at the sun and moon; in the months of spring burns the
thickets in hunting; with his face to the north angrily reviles others; and without reason
kills tortoises and smites snakes:---In the case of crimes such as these, the Spirite
presiding over the Life, according to their lightness or gravity, take away the culprit's
periods of twelve years or of one hundred days. When his term of life is exhausted, death
ensues. If at death there remains guilt unpunished, judgment extends to his posterity.
5. Moreover, when parties by wrong and violence take the money of
others, an account is taken, and set against its amount, of their wives and children, and
all the members of their families, when these gradually die. If they do not die, there are
the disasters from water, fire, thieves, and robbers, from losses of property, illnesses,
and evil tongues to balance the value of their wicked appropriations. Further, those who
wrongfully kill men are only putting their weapons into the hands of others who will in
their turn kill them.
To take to one's self unrighteous wealth is like satisfying one's hunger with putrid
food, or one's thirst with poisoned wine. It gives a temporary relief, indeed, but death
also follows it.
Now when the thought of doing good has arisen in a man's mind, though the good be not
yet done, the good Spirits are in attendance on him. Or, if the thought of doing evil has
arisen, though the evil be not yet done, the bad Spirits are in attendance on him.
If one have, indeed, done deeds of wickedness, but afterward alters his way and
repents, resolved not to do anything wicked, but to practise reverently all that is good,
he is sure in the long run to obtain good fortune: this is called changing calamity into
blessing. Therefore the good man speaks what is good, contemplates what is good, and does
what is good; every day he has these three virtues: at the end of three years Heaven is
sure to send down blessing on him. The bad man speaks what is wicked, contemplates what is
wicked, and does what is wicked; every day he has these three vices: at the end of three
years Heaven is sure to send down misery on him.---How is it that men will not exert
themselves to do what is good?"
