<Previous Section>	E. Critique (philosophical, literary and historical). TOC PREFACE. INTRODUCTION. A. Biographical. B. Metaphysical. C. Physical. D. Ethical. E. Critique (philosophical, literary and historical). F. Folklore and religion. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. INDEX OF PROPER NAMES. CHINESE WORKS QUOTED. ERRATA AND ADDENDA. ADDITIONAL NOTE. A. Metaphysical. B. Ethical. C. Critique. D. Folklore and Religion. POSTSCRIPT. Comparative Table of Contents. Quotations. APPENDIX I. The Theory of the Five Elements and the Classifications based thereon. APPENDIX II. The Cycle of the Twelve Animals. APPENDIX III. On Some Implements Mentioned by Wang Ch`ung. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. INDEX OF PROPER NAMES. ERRATA AND ADDENDA TO VOL. I.		<Next Section>

Chapter XXXVIII. The Equality of the Ages (Ch`i-shih).

There is a saying that in ancient times people were tall, good-looking, and strong, and lived to become about a hundred years old, whereas in modern times they are short, ugly, cut off in their prime, and short-lived. The following cause is given:---In ancient times the harmonious fluid was in abundance. People married at the proper time. At their birth they received this good fluid, and therefore suffered no injuries afterwards. Their bones and joints being strong and solid, they grew tall, and reached a high age, and their outward appearance was beautiful. In later generations all this was reversed, therefore they were small, died young, and looked nasty.

This statement is preposterous. In olden days the rulers were sages, and so they are in modern times. The virtue of the sages then and now does not differ, therefore their government in ancient and modern times cannot be different. The Heaven of antiquity is the Heaven of later ages. Heaven does not change, and its fluid has not been altered. The people of former ages are the same as those of modern times. They all are filled with the original fluid. This fluid is genuine and harmonious now as well as in days of yore, why then should their bodies, which are made of it, not be the same? Being imbued with the same fluid, they have the same nature, and their nature being the same, their physical frames must be alike. Their physical frames being alike, their outward appearance must be similar, and this being the case, their length of life cannot but be equal. One Heaven and one Earth conjointly produce all beings. When they are created, they all receive the same fluid. Its scarcity and abundance varies in all ages equally. Emperors and kings reign over successive generations, and all the different ages have the same principles. People marry at the same time and with similar ceremonies, for although it has been recorded that men married at the age of thirty, and women at that of twenty, and though there has been such a rule for marriages, ¹ it is not certain that it really has been observed. We can infer this from the fact that it is not observed now either. The rules for ceremonies and music have been preserved up to our days, but are the people of to-day willing to comply with them? Since they do not like to practise them, people of old have not done so either. From the people of to-day we learn to know the people of old.

Creatures are creatures. Man can live up to one hundred years, but very often we see boys who only reach the age of ten years. The lives of the creatures living on earth and their transformations at the utmost last one hundred years. When they approach this period, they die, which can always be observed. Between all these creatures and those who do not become older them ten years is no fundamental difference. If people of ancient and modern times do not differ, it must be possible to predetermine the length of their lives within the limit of one hundred years by means of divination.

In the height of the domestic animals, the size of the various kinds of grain, the reptiles, plants, trees, metals, stones, pearls, and jewels as well as in the creeping, wriggling, crawling, and panting of the various animals there is no difference, which means that their shape is identical. The water and the fire in olden days are the present water and fire. Now, the fluid changes into water or fire. Provided that there be a difference in the fluids, was the water pellucid, and the fire hot formerly, and is now the water opaque, and the fire, cold?

Man grows six to seven feet high, measures three to four spans in circumference, his face has five colours, ² and his greatest age is one hundred years. During thousands and thousands of generations there is no change. Let us suppose that in ancient times men were tall, good-looking, strong, and long-lived, and that in later generations all this was reversed. Then, when Heaven and Earth were first established, and the first men were created, could they be as tall as the Prince of Fang-fêng,³ as handsome as Prince Chao of Sung,⁴ and as long-lived as Pêng Tsu?⁵ And after thousand generations hence, will they be as small as flower-seeds, as ill-favoured as Mu Mu,⁶ and as short-lived as an ephemeral fly?

Under the reign of Wang Mang⁷ there was a giant ten feet high, called Pa Ch`u, and during the Chien-wu<sup>8</sup> period Chang Chung Shih in Ying-ch`uan⁹ measured ten feet, two inches, and Chang T`ang over eight feet, whereas his father was not quite five feet high. They all belong to the present generation, and were either tall or small. The assertion of the Literati is wrong therefore and a mistake.

They say that in times of yore people were employed, as befitted them. Hunchbacks were used as gate-keepers, and dwarfs as actors. But, if all were tall and good-looking, where did the hunchbacks and the dwarfs come from?

It is further alleged that the natures of the people of the past were honest and easily reformed, whereas the culture of later ages is superficial, so that they are difficult to be governed. Thus the Yiking says that in the remote past, cords were knotted as a means of governing the people, which knots in later ages were replaced by books. ¹⁰ First knots were used, because reforms were easy, the books afterwards prove the difficulty of government. Prior to Fu Hsi,¹¹ the characters of the people were of the plainest kind:---They lay down self-satisfied, and sat up perfectly pleased. They congregated, and flocked together, and knew their mothers, but not their fathers. ¹² At Fu Hsi's time people had attained such a degree of refinement, that the shrewd attempted to deceive the simple-minded, the courageous would frighten the timid, the strong insult the weak, and the many oppress the few. Therefore Fu Hsi invented the eight diagrams for the purpose of restraining them. At the Chou epoch, the state of the people had become very degenerate, and it was difficult to raise the eight diagrams to their former importance. Therefore King Wên increased their number to sixty-four. The changes were the principal thing, and the people were not allowed to flag. When, during the Chou epoch, they had been down for a long while, Confucius wrote the "Spring and Autumn," extolling the smallest good, and criticizing the slightest wrong. He also said, "Chou¹³ had the advantage of viewing the two past dynasties. How complete and elegant are its regulations. I follow Chou." ¹⁴Confucius knowing that the age was steeped in sin, ill-bred, and hard to govern, made the strictest rules, and took the minutest preventive measures to repress the disrespectful, and everything was done in the way of restrictions.

This is absurd. Of old, people were imbued with the Five Virtues, and later generations were so likewise. They all had the principle of the Five Virtues in their hearts, and at birth were endowed with the same fluid. Why shall the natures of the former have been plain and honest, and the latter unmannerly? The opponents have noted that in olden times people drank blood, and ate herbs, as they had no grain for food. In later ages they dug up the earth for wells, tilled the ground, and sowed grain. They drank from the wells, and ate grain, which they had prepared with water and fire. They also note that in remote antiquity people were living high up in caverns, and wrapt themselves in skins of wild beasts and birds. Later generations changed the caverns into houses and palaces, and bedecked themselves with cloth and silk fabrics. It is for this reason that they regard the natures of the former as plain and honest, and the later as ill-bred. The tools and the methods have undergone a change, but nature and its manifestations have continued the same. In spite of that, they speak of plainness of nature and the poorness of culture.

In every age prosperity alternates with decay, and, when the latter has gone on for a long time, it begets vices. That is what happens with raiment and food used by man. When a garment has just been made, it is fresh and intact, and food just cooked is clean and smells good. After a while, the garment becomes worn out, and after some days, the food begins to smell bad. The laws by which nature and culture were governed in the past and at the present, are the same. There is nature, and there is culture, sometimes there is prosperity, and sometimes decay. So it has been of yore, not only now. How shall we prove that?

It has been put on record that the kings of the house of Hsia¹⁵ taught faithfulness. The sovereign teaching faithfulness, good men were faithful, but, when the decline set in, common people became rude. To combat rudeness nothing is better than politeness. Therefore the kings of the Yin dynasty ¹⁶ taught politeness. The sovereign inculcating politeness, good men were polite, but when the decline began, common people became rogues. To repress roguishness nothing is better than education. Therefore the kings of Chou¹⁷ taught science. The sovereign teaching science, good men were scholarly, but then came the decline, and common people became narrow-minded. The best antidote against narrow-mindedness is faithfulness, therefore the rulers succeeding the Chou dynasty ought to have recourse to faithfulness. The reforms of Yü continued by the Hsia dynasty, were labouring under narrow-mindedness, therefore it inculcated faithfulness. Since Yü based his reforms on science, roguishness must have been the defect of the people under his predecessors. Our contemporaries viewing the narrow-mindedness of our present culture, despise and condemn it, and therefore they say that in old times the natures of people were plain and honest, whereas the culture of later ages is narrow-minded. In the same manner, when the members of one family are not zealous, people will say that the members of other families are diligent and honest. ¹⁸

It has been asserted that the ancients set high store in righteousness, and slighted their bodies. When an event happened that appealed to their sense of loyalty and justice, so that they felt it their duty to suffer death, they would jump into boiling water, or rush into the points of swords, and die without lament. Such was the devotion of Hung Yen,¹⁹ and the honesty of Pu Chan of Ch`ên,²⁰ who acted like this. Similar instances have been recorded in books. The cases of voluntary deaths, and self-sacrifices are very numerous, and not scarce. The people now-a-days, they believe, are struggling for gain only, and leading a wild life. They have discarded justice, and are not scrupulous as to the meaus they employ in obtaining their ends. They do not restrain one another by righteousness, or vie in doing good. The disregard of justice they do not consider a source of danger, nor are they afraid of the consequences of their wrong doing.

This is nonsense. The heroes of ancient times are the heroes of the present age. Their hearts are equally sensible to benevolence and justice, and in case of any emergency they will be roused. In the past, Illegal HTML character: decimal 156