Baizi Bei: The Hundred Character Tablet
Unaffiliated work from the Zhou Dynasty, entitled Da Xue (大學), or the “Great Learning.” This is an important work derived from the Classic of Rites (禮記 Liji). The basic teaching of the Great Learning is the importance of self-cultivation, explaining how it establishes the proper basis for every endeavor, and how it naturally leads to a peaceful society. This general view of cultivation, as well as the relationship between man and Heaven, belongs to an early stratum of Chinese culture in which the leader of a state was not an ordinary ruler, but a cultivated sage-king. Much like the Heart Sūtra of Buddhism, the Great Learning has been regarded as the essence of all Confucian teachings, and so it has remained an important text to this day.
To nourish the vital energy, keep watch in silence; In order to subdue the mind, act with non-action. Of movement and stillness, be aware of their origin; There is no work to do, much less someone to seek. The true and constant must respond to phenomena; Responding to phenomena, you must be unconfused. When unconfused, the nature will stabilize by itself; When the nature stabilizes, energy returns by itself. When energy returns, the elixir crystallizes by itself; Within the pot, the trigrams of kan and li are joined. Yin and yang arise, alternating over and over again; Every transformation comes like a clap of thunder. White clouds form and come to assemble at the peak; The sweet nectar sprinkles down Mount Sumeru. Swallow for yourself this wine of immortality; You wander so freely—who is able to know you? Sit and listen to the tune played without strings; Clearly understand the mechanism of creation. It comes entirely from these twenty lines: A true ladder going straight to Heaven.
