Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian (太上感應篇)

太上曰：「禍福無門，惟人自召；善惡之報，如影隨形。」

Laozi, the Most High, said: "Misfortune and blessing have no fixed gate; people summon them upon themselves. The retribution for good and evil follows a person like a shadow follows its form."

是以天地有司過之神，依人所犯輕重，以奪人算。算減則貧耗，多逢憂患；人皆惡之，刑禍隨之，吉慶避之，惡星災之；算盡則死。

Therefore, between heaven and earth there are spirits who oversee transgressions, and according to how grave a person's offenses are, they reduce his allotted span (one suan equals one hundred days of life). When the span is reduced, the person grows poor and ruined and is often beset by grief and calamity; everyone loathes him, punishments and disasters follow him, auspicious things shun him, and baleful stars send down harm upon him; when his span is exhausted, he dies.

又有三臺、北斗神君，在人頭上，錄人罪惡，奪其紀算。又有三尸神，在人身中，每到庚申日，輒上詣天曹，言人罪過。月晦之日，灶神亦然。凡人有過，大則奪紀，小則奪算。其過大小，有數百事，欲求長生者，先須避之。

There are also the Lords of the Three Terraces and the Lord of the Northern Dipper, who stand just above a person's head and record his sins, stripping away his ji and suan (one ji equals three hundred days). There are also the Three Corpse spirits dwelling in the body, who on each gengshen day ascend to the celestial bureau to report the person's faults; on the last day of each month the Hearth God does the same. For a person's offenses, a grave one costs a ji and a minor one costs a suan. The offenses number several hundred, great and small; whoever seeks long life must first avoid them.

是道則進，非道則退。不履邪徑，不欺暗室；積德累功，慈心於物；忠孝友悌，正己化人；矜孤恤寡，敬老懷幼；昆蟲草木，猶不可傷。宜憫人之兇，樂人之善；濟人之急，救人之危。見人之得，如己之得；見人之失，如己之失。不彰人短，不炫己長；遏惡揚善，推多取少。受辱不怨，受寵若驚。施恩不求報，與人不追悔。

Do what accords with the Dao, and withdraw from what does not. Do not walk crooked paths, and do not do shameful things in dark places where none can see; accumulate virtue and merit, and keep a heart of kindness toward all creatures. Be loyal to your ruler, filial to your parents, friendly to your elder brothers and respectful to your younger brothers; first set yourself right, then transform others. Pity orphans and help widows; honor the old and cherish the young; do not harm even insects, grasses and trees. You should sympathize with others' misfortunes, take joy in their good deeds, relieve their urgent troubles and rescue them from danger. When you see others gain, be as if you had gained; when you see others lose, be as if you had lost. Do not publicize others' shortcomings, and do not boast of your own strengths; restrain evil deeds and praise good ones; give much to others and keep little for yourself. Receive insult without resentment, and receive favor with wariness. Bestow kindness without seeking return, and give to others without later regret.

所謂善人，人皆敬之，天道佑之，福祿隨之，眾邪遠之，神靈衛之；所作必成，神仙可冀。欲求天仙者，當立一千三百善；欲求地仙者，當立三百善。

Such a person is called a good person: everyone respects him, the Way of Heaven protects him, blessings and rank follow him, all evil influences keep far from him, and the spirits guard him; whatever he undertakes succeeds, and he may even hope to become an immortal. One who seeks to be a heavenly immortal should accumulate one thousand three hundred good deeds; one who seeks to be an earthly immortal should accumulate three hundred good deeds.

苟或非義而動，背理而行。以惡為能，忍作殘害；陰賊良善，暗侮君親；慢其先生，叛其所事；誑諸無識，謗諸同學；虛誣詐偽，攻訐宗親；剛強不仁，狠戾自用；是非不當，向背乖宜；虐下取功，諂上希旨；受恩不感，念怨不休；輕蔑天民，擾亂國政；賞及非義，刑及無辜；殺人取財，傾人取位；誅降戮服，貶正排賢；凌孤逼寡，棄法受賂；以直為曲，以曲為直；入輕為重，見殺加怒；知過不改，知善不為；自罪引他，壅塞方術；訕謗聖賢，侵凌道德。

But if a person acts against righteousness and does things contrary to heavenly principle: if he takes doing evil as a skill and ruthlessly commits cruel deeds; secretly harms the good and, behind their backs, slights his ruler and parents; is disrespectful to his own teacher and betrays those he serves; deceives the ignorant and slanders his fellow students; invents false charges and fakes things, and attacks the private affairs of his own clan and kin; is obstinate and domineering without kindness, fierce and violent and self-righteous; judges right and wrong unfairly and chooses his allegiances wrongly; abuses his subordinates to win credit and fawns on his superiors to please their wishes; receives kindness without gratitude and holds grudges without end; scorns the people Heaven has given birth to and disturbs the government of the state; gives rewards to the undeserving and imposes punishments on the innocent; kills people to seize their wealth and brings others down to take their posts; executes those who have surrendered and slaughters those who have submitted; demotes the upright and pushes out the worthy; bullies orphans and presses widows; abandons the law and takes bribes; calls the straight crooked and the crooked straight; makes a light offense into a heavy one and, seeing a man put to death, is still angry; knows he is at fault yet will not mend, knows he should do good yet will not do it; incurs guilt himself yet drags others in, and blocks the paths by which others might practice their arts; mocks and slanders sages and worthies, and offends and insults men of the Dao.

射飛逐走，發蟄驚棲；填穴覆巢，傷胎破卵；願人有失，毀人成功；危人自安，減人自益；以惡易好，以私廢公，竊人之能，蔽人之善；形人之醜，訐人之私；耗人貨財，離人骨肉；侵人所愛，助人為非；逞志作威，辱人求勝；敗人苗稼，破人婚姻；苟富而驕，苟免無恥；認恩推過，嫁禍賣惡；沽買虛譽，包貯險心；挫人所長，護己所短；乘威迫脅，縱暴殺傷；無故剪裁，非禮烹宰；散棄五穀，勞擾眾生；破人之家，取其財寶；決水放火，以害民居；紊亂規模，以敗人功；損人器物，以窮人用。

He shoots flying birds and chases running beasts, digs open the burrows of hibernating creatures and scatters roosting birds; stops up dens and overturns nests, harms the unborn and breaks eggs; hopes for others' failure and ruins what others have accomplished; harms others to seek his own safety and diminishes others to enrich himself; swaps bad goods for another's good ones and sacrifices public business for private feeling; steals others' talents and hides others' good deeds; broadcasts others' shameful acts and exposes their private matters; squanders others' wealth and sows discord among others' kin; seizes what others love and helps others do wrong; indulges his own temper to lord it over others and insults others to win over them; ruins others' crops and wrecks others' marriages; grows arrogant on a lucky fortune and shameless on an escape from guilt; claims the credit for himself and shifts the blame to others, shifts disaster onto others and sells them a bad name; buys an empty reputation by courting fame while his heart hides malice; attacks others' strengths and shields his own faults; uses his power to press and coerce, and gives free rein to violence that kills and wounds living beings; cuts cloth for no reason, and slaughters livestock against ritual propriety; scatters and wastes the five grains, and burdens and disturbs the common people with labor; destroys others' households and seizes their treasures; breaches dikes and sets fires to damage the people's homes; upsets others' settled plans to spoil their work; and damages others' utensils so that they have nothing to use.

見他榮貴，願他流貶；見他富有，願他破散；見他色美，起心私之；負他貨財，願他身死；幹求不遂，便生咒恨；見他失便，便說他過；見他體相不具而笑之，見他才能可稱而抑之。

On seeing others honored and exalted, he hopes they will be demoted and exiled; on seeing others rich, he hopes they will go bankrupt and decline; on seeing a woman beautiful, he conceives the idea of an illicit affair; when he owes others money, he hopes the creditor will die; when his requests are not granted, he breaks into curses and resentment; on seeing others lose out, he goes about talking of their faults; on seeing others with a disfigured limb or face he ridicules them, and on seeing others with praiseworthy talent he suppresses them.

埋蠱厭人，用藥殺樹；恚怒師傅，抵觸父兄；強取強求，好侵好奪；擄掠致富，巧詐求遷；賞罰不平，逸樂過節；苛虐其下，恐嚇於他；怨天尤人，呵風罵雨；鬪合爭訟，妄逐朋黨；用妻妾語，違父母訓；得新忘故，口是心非；貪冒於財，欺罔其上；造作惡語，讒毀平人；毀人稱直，罵神稱正；棄順效逆，背親向疏；指天地以證鄙懷，引神明而鑒猥事。

He buries sorcerous objects and uses witchcraft to put a curse on others, and poisons trees with poison; he harbors hatred and anger toward his teacher, and clashes with his father and elder brothers; he extorts and demands by force, loves to encroach and loves to seize from others; he grows rich by plunder and seeks promotion by cunning deceit; his rewards and punishments are unfair, and his pleasures and ease are without restraint; he is harsh and cruel to his own subordinates and frightens others with his authority; he complains against Heaven and blames others, scolds the wind and curses the rain; he stirs up quarrels and lawsuits among others and blindly follows cliques for private ends; he listens only to his wife and concubines and defies his parents' instruction; he forgets the old once he has the new, and says one thing with his mouth and means another in his heart; he is insatiable in his greed for goods and deceives and misleads his own superiors; he fabricates vicious words and slanders the innocent with false accusations; having slandered others, he still calls himself upright, and having reviled the spirits, he still calls himself fair; he abandons what accords with principle to imitate what is perverse, and turns away from his nearest kin to side with the distant; he points to heaven and earth to vouch for his own base thoughts, and calls on the spirits to inspect his shabby conduct.

施與後悔，假借不還；分外營求，力上施設；淫慾過度，心毒貌慈；穢食餧人，左道惑眾；短尺狹度，輕秤小升；以偽雜真，採取姦利；壓良為賤，謾驀愚人；貪婪無厭，咒詛求直。

He regrets having given alms, and does not return what he has borrowed; he schemes for gain beyond his station and overreaches his strength to put on a show; his lust is without restraint, and his heart is malicious while his looks are kind; he feeds people spoiled food and deludes the crowd with heterodox ways; he makes his rulers short and his measures narrow, weighs out with light scales and measures out with small pecks; he mixes the false in with the true to make unjust private profit; he presses commoners of good family into servile status and cheats the ignorant; he is greedy and never satisfied, and swears oaths to make others believe he is in the right.

嗜酒悖亂，骨肉忿爭；男不忠良，女不柔順；不和其室，不敬其夫；每好矜誇，常行妒忌；無行於妻子，失禮於舅姑；輕慢先靈，違逆上命；作為無益，懷挾外心；自咒咒他，偏憎偏愛；越井越灶，跳食跳人；損子墮胎，行多隱僻；晦臘歌舞，朔旦號怒；對北涕唾及溺，對灶吟詠及哭；又以灶火燒香，穢柴作食；夜起裸露，八節行刑；唾流星，指虹霓；輒指三光，久視日月；春月燎獵，對北惡罵，無故殺龜打蛇…如是等罪，司命隨其輕重，奪其紀算。算盡則死；死有餘責，乃殃及子孫。

He is addicted to wine and becomes unruly, and quarrels furiously with his own flesh and blood; as a man he is not honest and good, and as a woman she is not gentle and compliant; he is not harmonious with his household and not respectful to his husband; he is always boasting and showing off, and always harbors jealousy; he has no virtue toward his wife and children, and lacks propriety toward his parents-in-law; he treats his ancestral spirits lightly and defies the orders of his elders; what he does is all useless, and in his heart he holds divided loyalties; he curses himself and curses others, leaning toward hatred and toward favoritism; he steps over wells and over stoves, and leaps over food and over people; he harms his offspring and induces abortion, and often acts in secret and depraved ways; at month's end and on the La festival day he sings and dances, and on the first morning of the month he weeps and rages; he spits, blows his nose and relieves himself facing north, and sings and weeps facing the stove; he also burns incense with the stove fire and cooks with filthy firewood; he gets up at night naked, and carries out punishments on the eight festival days; he spits at shooting stars and points a finger at rainbows; he constantly points at the sun, moon and stars, and stares at the sun and moon for long; in spring he sets fire to the mountains to hunt, faces north and curses viciously, and for no reason kills turtles and beats snakes to death... For offenses of this kind, the Director of Fates strips away his ji and suan according to their gravity. When his span is used up, he dies; and if there is punishment left over after death, it falls upon his descendants.

又諸橫取人財者，乃計其妻子、家口以當之，漸至死喪。若不死喪，則有水火盜賊、遺亡器物、疾病口舌諸事，以當妄取之值。

Furthermore, if someone forcibly seizes another's property, Heaven reckons the lives of his wife, children and whole household against it, until they die off one by one. If it does not come to death and bereavement, then calamities such as floods and fires, robbery and plunder, loss or damage of goods, illness and legal quarrels are used to repay the amount he wrongly took.

又枉殺人者，是易刀兵而相殺也。取非義之財者，譬如漏脯救飢，鴆酒止渴；非不暫飽，死亦及之。

Furthermore, one who kills a person wrongly is, in effect, exchanging blades, and will later be killed in return. One who takes ill-gotten wealth is like one who eats spoiled dried meat to stave off hunger, or drinks poisoned wine to quench thirst; it is not that he cannot be sated for a time, but death follows right behind.

夫心起於善，善雖未為，而吉神已隨之；或心起於惡，惡雖未為，而凶神已隨之。其有曾行惡事，後自改悔，諸惡莫作，眾善奉行，久久必獲吉慶；所謂轉禍為福也。故吉人語善、視善、行善，一日有三善，三年天必降之福。兇人語惡、視惡、行惡，一日有三惡，三年天必降之禍。胡不勉而行之？

When a good thought arises in a person's heart, even though the good deed has not yet been done, the auspicious spirits are already following him; when an evil thought arises in his heart, even though the evil deed has not yet been done, the baleful spirits are already following him. If one who has done evil later repents of his own accord, and does no further evil of any kind and practices all manner of good, then over time he is sure to obtain good fortune; this is what is called turning misfortune into blessing. Therefore a fortunate person speaks good words, sees good things and does good deeds; if for one day he has these three good things, then after three years Heaven will surely send down blessings upon him. An unfortunate person speaks evil words, sees evil things and does evil deeds; if for one day he has these three evils, then after three years Heaven will surely send down misfortune upon him. Why not strive to do good?