Week Seven Metzger

 

[N 73t-m].  In its immediate context, Bo Yang’s (BY) prediction of Chou’s demise is presented as an interpretation of an earthquake that took place in the Western Chou capital and in the basin of three rivers. But if BY’s statement were an interpretation of a portent (Change your ways, King Yu!), I wonder why BY begins with a prediction of Chou’s demise which does not suggest any way to avoid the event predicted (“Chou is going to perish,” 73t). What is more, the length of time between the prediction (780 BCE, 72b) and the event predicted (249 BCE, 83b) might indicate that there is ample time to reorder the “energy flowing between Heaven and Earth” (73t, 1^st full para., l. 1). This distinction between interpretation and prediction becomes significant when I consider the question, “even though Chou’s demise is subsequently chronicled, could something have been done at the time?” After all, according to some, “portent cannot outweigh virtue” (N46m, 3^rd full para., l. 6). What is more, the power of virtue is not alien to SQ’s account of the Chou; Chow’s forsaking “his ancestors’ bright virtue” is attested in the Chou account as an explanation for the passing of the mandate from the Yin dynasty (N62m, first full para.,ll. 12-13). And BY himself suggests that “Chou’s deeds are like those of these two dynasties [Xia and Shang] in their final years, and the rivers and their sources again are blocked” (N62m, 2^nd full para., ll. 2-3). At first blush, BY’s prediction appeared to focus explicitly on a description of the problem--providing no explicit development of a solution.  But I think that I may have been more concerned about whether and how something like “virtue” could participate in a network of events that also includes earthquakes and drought than with seeing the solution BY implicitly proposes.  It is possible that BY is using the language of yin/yang theory to suggest that King Yu is “blocked” and should open his grain storage facilities (if he has them), or transport daily necessities from one part of his kingdom to another, or even strike a bargain with a neighbor to provide needed supplies for the people.  Then, the flow of heavenly and earthly energies might not “lose [their] proper order” (73t, 1^st full para., ll. 1-2).

 

Q87m-b provides a script for the low points in my experience of reading Sima Qian.  Q87 also provides the hope of a future high point.  Could I become a “future [gentleman] who will peruse [SQ’s] work (87b, last sentence)?  “Why must one learn only from high antiquity?” (87m, 2^nd full para., l. 2). I read this as a rhetorical question, since the next sentence acknowledges that “the seizure of the empire was accomplished by much violence, yet it managed to change with the times and its accomplishments were great” (ll. 2-4). But it will not do for me to say, “I agree, SQ, there’s more to learn from more recent history.” I imagine SQ’s response: “You only think that, Mr. Metzger, because the `rulers of later times’ are `close to us, their customs and the happenings of their times resemble ours, and their ideals are lowly and easy to perceive’” (87m, 3rd full para.). I admit to feeling a little insulted. Did SQ just call me “lazy,” or a person who finds a kinship with others whose “ideals are lowly and easy to perceive”? But then, in the next paragraph, I see that SQ has been saving, all this time, an explicit insult for those he terms “scholars,” those who are “influenced by what they have heard” (87b, 4^th full para., l. 1). SQ sharpens his point indicating that this sort of scholar will “refer to the Qin only as an object of ridicule and decline to say anything more about it” (87b, 4^th full para. ll. 3-4). This “scholarly” activity is “lamentable indeed” and “as ridiculous as trying to eat with one’s ear” (87b, 4th full para. l. 5). Coupled with the previous statement regarding scholars “influenced by what they have heard,” SQ’s curious insult suggests that these scholars take their sustenance from what they’ve heard and all they have to offer is “ear sustenance” to those who, in their turn, will do nothing but pass on what they have heard. Is that me?  Now, I begin to wonder whether there is much difference between the “ear sustenance” provided by words of praise (SQ is a genius! Shiji is a masterpiece) and the “ear sustenance” provided by words of blame (SQ loved “weird things”). How can I profit from the sustenance that SQ has to offer and pass it on? Paragraph five (87b) may suggest a way to plan for becoming a “future gentleman”:  identify, perhaps attempt to experience, the labor that has gone into making Shiji. For example, I might try to appreciate the work (if only the sheer act of collation) required to construct a chronological table from records that count the passage of time in terms of the reigns of different kings. Should I attempt such a project, I might even be grateful (miserable creature that I am) for the odd earthquake or eclipse that is reported across several court records because such events might help me to identify the fourteenth year of King X of Y with the sixth year of King T of P.  Then, there’s the labor required to identify the “beginnings of success and failure,” beginnings that start as a gentle thaw in the mountains, then turn into a river’s roar and end in the great flood of….