Great Throughts Treasury

"The recompense of good and evil follows as the shadow follows the figure."

"Accumulate virtue, increase merit."

"Above their means they plot and plan."

"According to the lightness or gravity of his transgressions, the sinner's term of life is reduced. Not only is his term of life reduced, but poverty also strikes him. Often he meets with calamity and misery. His neighbors hate him. Punishments and curses pursue him. Good luck shuns him. Evil stars threaten him; and when his term of life comes to an end, he perishes."

"Always as wives they practice jealousy and suspicion."

"As husbands they are neither faithful nor kind."

"As husbands they behave unmannerly toward their wives and children."

"As husbands they delight in bragging and conceit."

"As husbands they are not in harmony with their wives; as wives they are not respectful to their husbands."

"Assist those in need, and rescue those in danger."

"Be faithful, filial, friendly, and brotherly."

"Be grieved at the misfortune of others and rejoice at their good luck."

"Being indebted to others for goods or property, they wish their creditors to die."

"Being on a high horse they threaten and intimidate."

"Beyond their due lot they scheme and contrive."

"By artful tricks they seek promotion."

"As wives they are neither gentle nor pliant."

"As wives they lack propriety to their father-in-law and their mother-in-law."

"Causelessly they kill tortoises and snakes."

"Disregarders of law they are, and bribe takers. They call crooked what is straight, straight what is crooked, and what is light they make heavy."

"Do not call attention to the faults of others, nor boast of your own excellence."

"Do not proceed on an evil path."

"Do not sin in secret"

"Even the multifarious insects, herbs, and trees should not be injured."

"Extend your help without seeking reward."

"Facing the north, they snivel and spit; facing the hearth, they sing, hum and weep."

"Facing the north, they use vile language."

"First rectify thyself and then convert others."

"For all these crimes the councilors of destiny deprive the guilty, according to the lightness or gravity of the offence, of terms from twelve years to a hundred days, and when the lease of life is exhausted they perish."

"For private ends they neglect public duties."

"For worthless things they exchange what is valuable."

"Further, there are the three body-spiritsthat live within man's person. Whenever Kêng Shên day comes, they ascend to the heavenly master[15] and inform him of men's crimes and trespasses."

"Further, there are the three councilor, spirit-lords of the northern constellation, residing above the heads of the people, recorders of men's crimes and sins, cutting off terms of from twelve years to a hundred days."

"Further, with hearth fire they burn incense, and with filthy fagots they cook their food."

"Give to others and do not regret or begrudge your liberality."

"If a man's heart be awakened to evil, though evil be not yet accomplished, evil spirits verily are already following him."

"If a man's heart be awakened to the good, though the good be not yet accomplished, good spirits verily are already following him."

"If at death an unexpiated offence be left, the evil luck will be transferred to children and grandchildren."

"If evil be no longer practiced and good deeds done, and if in this way a man continues and continues, he will surely obtain happiness and felicity. He will, indeed, so to speak, transform curses into blessings."

"If the guilt be not expiated by death, they will suffer by various evils, by water, by fire, by theft, or by robbery, by loss of property, by disease and illness, and by ill repute, to compensate for any unlawful violence of justice. Further, those who unlawfully kill men will in turn have their weapons and arms turned on them; yea, they will kill each other."

"Ill-humored and angry they are towards teachers and instructors."

"Improperly they have grown rich, and withal they remain vulgar."

"Improperly they shirk without shame."

"In evil they delight."

"In the night they rise and expose their nakedness."

"In the spring they hunt with fire."

"In their own guilt they implicate others."

"Indulging in liquor they become rebellious and unruly."

"Insentient to favors received, they remember their hatred and are never satisfied."

"Insidiously they injure the good and the law-abiding."