VIII. Fortune and Misfortune Are Not Rewards and Punishments Sent Down from Beyond Heaven

"Things gather by kind and creatures divide by group; thus fortune and misfortune arise." The character "arise" (sheng) shows that fortune and misfortune are generated out of relation and action. Heaven and Earth take their places, the low and the high are set out, movement and stillness have their constancy, the firm and the yielding can be distinguished, groups and kinds gather and divide -- and a person, taking and forsaking, advancing and withdrawing within all this, thereby comes to have gain and loss, regret and remorse. Fortune and misfortune do not fall from beyond Heaven for no reason at all, nor are they manufactured out of nothing by a single oracle statement. Divination can reveal fortune and misfortune, but it does not produce fortune and misfortune in a person's stead. Their root still lies in the time one is in, the position one occupies, the kind one is drawn to, and the Way one follows.

The Book of Documents says, "To follow the right path is fortune, to follow the deviant path is misfortune -- as sure as shadow and echo." To act in accord with the Way brings fortune the way a shadow follows a form; to act against principle brings misfortune the way an echo answers a sound. This does not mean the good person always profits at once and the wicked person is always punished on the spot. What the pre-Qin classics call fortune and misfortune sometimes refers to whether a matter can be accomplished, sometimes to whether virtue and position can be secured, sometimes to whether one's ancestral state can endure, and sometimes to whether, even amid outward calamity, one is inwardly without shame. If one measures only by immediate material gain, then plundering great profit could be called fortune, and holding to righteousness while suffering hardship would become misfortune -- and this is plainly not the measure of the Yi.

Fortune, first of all, is according and attaining: acting in accord with the time, the firm and the yielding finding their proper fit, above and below corresponding to one another, so that wherever one goes bears fruit. Misfortune is going against and losing: not gauging the time and configuration, losing the mean and correctness, relations falling into discord, advance and retreat having no ground to stand on. Regret is perceiving one's loss and correcting it; remorse is having some difficulty not yet resolved. Hence when the Yi sets out fortune and misfortune, it is not to make a person shrink back and stay still, but to teach a person to discern where each comes from. To know where misfortune arises lets one correct it before it has taken shape; to know how fortune is formed keeps one from mistaking a chance stroke of luck for an eternal warrant.

Master Meng, discussing calamity and blessing, traces the root again and again back to oneself and to one's governance. Practicing benevolent government makes the people draw close; oppressing the people makes them rebel. Whoever holds to the Way has many helpers; whoever loses the Way has few. Many or few helpers is no mysterious retribution, but the unfolding, within human affairs, of gathering by kind and dividing by group. The benevolent person extends himself to others, and the people are willing to stand with him; the tyrant treats the multitude as a pit to fill, and even his own kin may leave him. Those who help gather together and a configuration of strength forms; those who leave divide apart and a configuration of defeat forms -- and fortune and misfortune arise from just this.

The Most High said, "Calamity is what blessing leans upon; blessing is where calamity lies hidden," reminding a person not to nail down fortune and misfortune already seen as though fixed forever. Within fortune, misfortune may already lie hidden: attaining one's ambition and growing arrogant, gaining wealth and rank and growing dissolute, defeating an enemy and growing fond of war -- all of these can turn fortune into misfortune. Within misfortune, fortune may also be growing: knowing danger and being on guard, meeting hardship and turning to self-examination, suffering a setback and casting off extravagance -- all of these can turn misfortune into fortune. Fortune and misfortune are judgments made within change, not a permanent verdict on a person. Precisely because they can change, the noble person, in fortune, does not forget to be on guard, and in misfortune, does not lose what he is still able to do.

What is precious in the Yi lies precisely in transforming fear into clear discernment. A person who has never examined himself, meeting misfortune, easily turns to seeking out the uncanny; attaining fortune, easily attributes it to mere luck. One who understands how fortune and misfortune arise instead turns to examine himself: has he lost his position, has he been excessive in firmness, has he been excessive in yielding, what kind has he drawn close to, has his conduct accorded with the time. In this way, divination is no excuse for evading responsibility, but becomes a mirror for setting one's action in order. The Way of Heaven is worthy of reverence, but revering Heaven is by no means pushing every fault of one's own onto Heaven; and knowing one's fate (ming) is by no means folding one's hands and waiting. Reverence lies in not acting rashly; knowing lies in discerning principle; action lies in cultivating virtue.