A Prophet - Chapter 17 (Part 3)
Chapter 3 - The Three Lessons of Liaofan
For the past few days, for reasons unknown, Grandpa had been constantly restless. While the gang leaders and foot soldiers were all plotting their grand return to the jianghu, Grandpa remained tight-lipped.
Grandpa had no idea what kind of consequences it would bring if he raised the banner of the "Number One Divination Master of the River and Commercial Faction" in this Hubei-Hunan border region partitioned by the Nationalists and Communists, infested with bandits, and coveted by the Japanese devils. Ninth Master Wang Yaqiao was dead, Zeng Jingwu had defected to the Communists, and Jiang Feiyan was far away in Guangxi... Filled with boundless confusion, Grandpa once again thought of Huang Farong.
If Huang Farong were here, she could help Grandpa brainstorm strategies; regardless of whether her ideas were right or wrong, she could always bring him peace of mind. She was rebellious and dared to speak her mind. Although she always managed to displease Grandpa, she spoke the truth and could make Grandpa look at the exact same problem from a different perspective. That was precisely the kind of rebellion Grandpa needed right now—a rebellion that could ignite his thinking! Yet looking at the gang leaders before him now, every single one of them was utterly respectful to Grandpa. What Grandpa said was law; not a single one of them dared to talk back, leaving Grandpa feeling utterly helpless.
At that moment, Grandpa was plunged back into the feeling of his family being torn apart and destroyed years ago—an inexplicable sense of loneliness surged into his heart, desolate and entirely alone, with no one to help him, forcing him to rely solely on himself to press forward. Suddenly, he recalled when he was eight years old, his mother had invited a Daoist priest to divine his fortune. That priest had given him a few lines of ominous prophecy: "Afflicted by the Heavenly Annihilation Lone Star destiny. A solitary fate, isolated to the point of withering away all life; within ten miles no seedlings grow, within eight miles no grass sprouts. Throughout life, he shall lack the aid of noble benefactors; lean against a mountain and the mountain collapses, lean against a river and the river runs dry. A destiny of a tyrannical overlord, fated to be a dragon trapped in the shallows. A natural lifespan ending at fifty, without sons or posterity. The six relations of kindred should keep far away from him."
It had frightened his mother to tears on the spot, and she hurried to ask, "Does the Master know of any method to break this curse?"
The priest shook his head.
Growing even more anxious, his mother pressed on, "If a person's destiny can be calculated yet cannot be resolved, what use is it that the sages authored the Book of Changes?" Grandpa's mother was the daughter of a late-Qing imperial scholar, having read extensively since childhood and having delved deeply into the Book of Changes, which explained why she posed such a startling question.
This was also the eternal question continuously voiced by countless common folk and innumerable students of the I-Ching throughout the long river of history: Do human beings truly have a fixed destiny? Can destiny actually be calculated? Once calculated, can it be altered? If it cannot be changed, why did the sages invent the Book of Changes in the first place? Was it merely to add extra grief and borrow troubles in advance for future generations?
The priest let out a long sigh and replied, "As for a method to break it—you could say one exists, or you could say none does."
Not understanding, his mother asked, "How is the Master to be understood?"
The priest countered, "What does Madam mean by a method to break it?"
After a moment of thought, his mother answered, "Things like feng shui adjustments, drawing talismans and chanting mantras, changing one's name, adopting a godfather or godmother, shifting or altering one's fate, asking you to perform rituals, or wearing protective accessories such as jade pendants, prayer beads, and peace talismans..."
Hearing this, the priest threw his head back in laughter, noncommittal, and immediately turned the question back on Grandpa's mother: "Madam, let me ask you—do you think these methods are effective?"
"I do not know, but ordinary folk frequently do these things," his mother replied.
Nodding, the priest said, "Seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune is human nature. Everyone wants to live a few more years, everyone wants wealth and honor, everyone wants to steer clear of disaster, everyone wants to marry a good spouse or take a good wife, and everyone wants a house full of descendants and filial children. Yet if Madam looks out across this world, everyone's destiny is invariably different. Whether you acknowledge it or not, human beings do have a destiny. Therefore, the sages authored the Book of Changes so that future generations might understand their own destiny."
"What the Master says is very true," his mother acknowledged.
The priest continued, "Once people understand their destiny, they naturally wish to change it—turning the bad into good and making the good even better. This is human nature and entirely understandable. However, people pin their hopes of changing it on heterodox shortcuts. Madam, think carefully..." At this point, the priest suddenly raised his voice, "If drawing talismans, chanting mantras, adjusting feng shui, and changing names could cause destiny to shift, then destiny would be far too easy to alter! Those beggars on the street—if we changed their names and moved them to a different place to live, could they become millionaires? Certainly not! Those people on the verge of death—if we drew talismans, performed rituals, and held Daoist ceremonies for them, could we prevent them from dying? Absolutely not! Those who are fated to die will die just the same! Those fortune-tellers who shout all day about giving this person a name change to alter their fate or giving that person longevity blessings—if they could truly accomplish such things, they wouldn't be running all over the streets fortune-telling to earn this hard-earned money. They would have hidden away somewhere long ago, conjured up massive fortunes for themselves, and lived for hundreds of years while enjoying boundless wealth and luxury!"
Left dumbfounded by the lecture, Grandpa's mother experienced a sudden flash of enlightenment.
Continuing in a loud voice, the priest said, "Madam, you are well-read in history and literature, so you must know the anecdotes of the sages. That First Emperor of Qin, who gathered all the scholars of the realm under his wing, exhausted every magical art and consumed every elixir of immortality, yet failed to extend his life by a single day! Jing Fang of the Han dynasty, the great synthesizer of the Six-Line divination method, could calculate heaven, earth, people, and events with absolute precision, yet could not escape his own death! Zhuge Kongming of the Three Kingdoms, who mastered the cosmic arts of commanding wind and rain to the absolute pinnacle, ultimately could not rescue the crumbling Han dynasty! Shao Kangjie of the Song dynasty, whose Supreme World-Ordering Book spanned past and present and whose Plum Blossom Numerology spread across the realm, declared on his deathbed that he did not believe in destiny! Liu Bowen of the Ming dynasty, knowing five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future, knew he was about to die yet could not escape it, forced to drink Hu Weiyong's poison filled with grievance and hatred. If he could resolve disasters, he surely should have resolved one for himself!"
Hearing this, Grandpa's mother was shaken to her core, a sense of supreme awakening washing over her mind. Pondering for a moment, she could not help asking, "Does this mean the Book of Changes can only calculate destiny, but cannot resolve it?"
The priest let out a long sigh. "Of course it can be resolved! It is simply that most people in the world abandon the root and chase the branches, defiling the original intention of the sages in authoring the Book of Changes! Madam, look closely: among the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes, every single hexagram expounds upon the principles of human conduct. Through hexagram images and the corresponding relationships between lines, hexagram judgments and line statements are generated; through the Ten Wings, the philosophy of human behavior is elucidated. When all is said and done, the entire text speaks of one ultimate truth—'A family that accumulates goodness is bound to have an abundance of blessings, while a family that accumulates evil is bound to have an abundance of misfortunes!' Broken down specifically, under the premise of 'goodness,' it further details concrete methods and principles for human conduct. For example, the Qian hexagram, the very first of the sixty-four hexagrams, demands that people conduct themselves such that 'Heaven in its motion gives a vigorous image of strength; corresponding to this, the superior man makes himself strong and untiring.' It warns people to be like Heaven—self-reliant, independent, and endlessly vigorous, never abandoning oneself to despair, never slackening or turning lazy. Look next at the Kun hexagram, the second hexagram, which demands that people conduct themselves such that 'The earth's condition is receptive devotion; corresponding to this, the superior man holds fast to his duty with a large capacity, supporting all things.' One must be like the earth, possessing an inclusive heart, free of jealousy, never plotting harm against others, lest one reap the bitter fruits of one's own actions. There are also the concepts frequently spoken of by people—things reaching an extreme reverse themselves, and misfortune turns into fortune. 'Fu' (Destruction) and 'Tai' (Peace) are two respective hexagrams among the sixty-four; they warn people that when life hits rock bottom, one must not lose heart and despair, must not abandon one's moral conscience, and must not go mad. As long as one adheres to the path of goodness, everything will turn around for the better..."
Grandpa's mother was completely captivated, feeling that everything this old gentleman said made profound sense! Then, sensing something amiss, she hurried to ask, "Master, according to your view, are we merely left to await the torment of destiny, facing various calamities with nothing to do but accept our fate passively and feel utterly helpless?"
The priest shook his head. "The Book of Changes has already given us the answer. This precisely demonstrates the ignorance and shortsightedness of the common masses. Look, I have spoken at length, yet Madam has still failed to comprehend..."
His mother's face flushed. "Please instruct me further, Master!"
"Practice goodness! Practice goodness! Practice goodness!" the priest repeated three times.
Startled, his mother said, "Ah, I understand!"
The priest offered a slight smile. "To say you understand is to understand; to say you do not understand is to not understand. Let me gift Madam a book. If you study it carefully, the method to save your son lies entirely within it!" With that, he drew a yellowish, aged book from his robes and handed it to Grandpa's mother.
Taking it, his mother looked down to find a book titled The Three Lessons of Liaofan. When his mother raised her head again, the Daoist priest had already vanished. Stunned, she returned to her room and began studying it meticulously. Later on, his mother frequently recounted the figures and stories within this book to Grandpa—it was a sacred manual for transforming one's destiny.
The book recorded the following story: In the twelfth year of the Jiajing era, a man named Yuan Liaofan was born in Weitang Town, Jiashan County. He later became an important thinker of the Ming dynasty and a legendary master who fought against destiny and altered his fate through the practice of goodness. His entire life thoroughly exemplified the true meaning of destiny taught in the Book of Changes: "A family that accumulates goodness is bound to have an abundance of blessings, while a family that accumulates evil is bound to have an abundance of misfortunes."
Mr. Liaofan lost his father at a young age, and his mother admonished him to abandon the pursuit of official scholarly examinations and instead take up the study of medicine. She advised him that studying medicine could earn a living to sustain life while also relieving others, and if his medical skills became refined, he could become a renowned physician—fulfilling his late father's wish as well.
Thus, Mr. Liaofan began studying medicine. Later on, at Ciyun Temple, Mr. Liaofan encountered a numerology master surnamed Kong, who was a descendant of Shao Kangjie, the great predictive master of the Song dynasty. Master Kong cast Mr. Liaofan's horoscope, telling him that he ought not to study medicine but should instead pursue official examinations, as he was certain to pass. Master Kong even calculated his exact ranking in every single examination, projected his official career path by telling him when he would receive promotions and when he would become a county magistrate, predicted that Mr. Liaofan would only live to the age of fifty-three, passing away peacefully at the Hour of Chou on the fourteenth day of the eighth month of that year, and added that his destiny lacked any sons.
Later, when Mr. Liaofan went to take his examinations, every single prediction came true precisely as Master Kong had foretold. Numerous subsequent events verified themselves one by one as well. Consequently, Mr. Liaofan lost all fighting spirit in life, figuring that since a person's entire life was predestined, engaging in wishful thinking was completely useless. He might as well just drift with the current and coast along—whatever was fated to arrive would arrive anyway, and when it was time to die he would die; if his destiny lacked sons, then he simply had no sons, and thinking about it was pointless.
Later on, while studying in Nanjing, Yuan Liaofan visited Master Yungu at Qixia Mountain. He pessimistically recounted to the Chan master how destiny bound human beings, saying: "My fate was fully calculated by Master Kong. When I shall live, when I shall die, when I shall prosper, and when I shall decline—all of it has a fixed number, and there is no way to alter it. Even if I indulge in idle fantasies about gaining some benefit, it is entirely futile; therefore, I have stopped thinking about such things altogether..."
Upon hearing this, Master Yungu enlightened him: "An ordinary person cannot claim to be entirely free from the conscious mind of idle illusions; as long as this incessant, restless, deluded mind remains active, one is bound to be constrained by the numbers of yin and yang and cosmic cycles. Since one is bound by the numbers of yin and yang, how can one say there are no fixed numbers? While it is true that numbers exist, they only bind ordinary people. If a person of supreme goodness is concerned, numbers cannot hold them down." His meaning was that human beings are all governed by the breath of the five elements of yin and yang, but if an individual can achieve supreme goodness, they can break through the constraints of destiny.
Mr. Liaofan seemed to understand something. "Is this truly so?"
"Just go ahead and do good!" Master Yungu declared loudly.
Thus, Mr. Yuan Liaofan first vowed to perform three thousand acts of goodness. True to his word, every time he performed a charitable deed, he recorded it in a ledger with his brush. His illiterate wife would draw a circle on the old household almanac after completing a good deed. As his good deeds accumulated, Mr. Liaofan gradually broke through the shackles of destiny, and subsequent events began to diverge from the outcomes calculated by Master Kong: Master Kong had predicted he would place third in an examination, but Yuan Liaofan took first place instead; Master Kong had calculated he would fail to pass the provincial imperial examination, yet Yuan Liaofan passed it successfully. The scales of destiny began to be steered by Mr. Yuan Liaofan himself.
Once the three thousand acts of goodness were completed, Mr. Liaofan vowed another three thousand. When those three thousand were finished, he vowed ten thousand more. In the year of Jisi, the couple surprisingly gave birth to a son, and a delighted Mr. Liaofan named his son "Tianqi"; later on, Mr. Liaofan's son even passed the imperial palace examinations to become a jinshi scholar. Because Mr. Liaofan accumulated blessings through good deeds, he also successfully sailed past the hurdle of age fifty-three.
In his later years, Mr. Yuan shared his experiences of altering his fate through goodness with his son: "Master Kong calculated my destiny, stating that I should face a calamity when reaching the age of fifty-three. Although I did not pray to Heaven for longevity, when the year of my fifty-three turned, I did not suffer even the slightest ailment. Now I am already sixty-nine years old, having lived sixteen extra years."
With his personal experiences, Mr. Liaofan altered his destiny and interpreted the true meaning of life found in the Book of Changes: "A family that accumulates goodness is bound to have an abundance of blessings, while a family that accumulates evil is bound to have an abundance of misfortunes." He authored books and established doctrines to warn the world not to let their hands and feet be bound by destiny, but to strive unceasingly and take hold of their own fate.
Compiled by later generations, this book was titled The Three Lessons of Liaofan. Through his personal experiences and vivid materials from around him, Mr. Liaofan taught the world that destiny can be changed through hard work. Containing profound cultural connotations and Eastern wisdom, this book has been hailed as the "Number One Inspirational Masterpiece of the East," winning immense acclaim since its publication and continuing to circulate down to the present day.
Later, the Hong Kong Chinese Moral Society praised Yuan Liaofan for using "the spirit of transforming destiny to create one's own happiness as well as a bright future for society, the country, and indeed all of humanity," calling The Three Lessons of Liaofan "a sacred manual for creating happiness." Mr. Liaofan enjoys an exceptionally lofty reputation not only in China but also in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Australia, and beyond.
Therefore, ever since his childhood, Grandpa's mother had instructed him: "You must always be a good person!" Later on, Grandpa joined the "River and Commercial Faction" precisely to punish the wicked and promote goodness, acting on behalf of Heaven to mete out justice. Yet after so many years, Grandpa suddenly found himself lost and confused, no longer knowing whether the deeds he was doing counted as acts of goodness or acts of evil.