Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/131

Rh The fifth Heavenly law: Be filial towards parents.

(The Supreme God says that if you are filial towards parents you can live long. Those who are intractable towards them break the Heavenly law.)

The records say that Shun was most filial to life's close,

For both lowly parents he prepared the utmost happiness

Exalting them to the skies. Such deserve to be requited

Since they failed not to care for us even before our birth!

The sixth Heavenly law: Do not kill or injure men.

(To kill others is to kill yourself; to injure others is to injure yourself. They who kill or injure others break Heaven's law.)

All under Heaven form a single family, all are brothers.

Why endure the cruel slaying and injuring of life?

Our forms and endowments are all the gift of Heaven;

If each follows each great tranquillity will result.

The seventh Heavenly law: Do not hold illicit intercourse.

(The many men on earth are a group of brothers; the many women on earth are a group of sisters. The sons and daughters of Heaven are arranged in companies, men with men and women with women, and they are not to be thrown together. When men and women indulge in illicit relations they may be called reprobates, transgressors to the highest degree of Heaven's law. Similarly, to cast lustful glances, to entertain lustful desire towards another, also to smoke opium and sing licentious songs, are transgressions of Heaven’s law.)

Unlawful desire is by far the chief evil.

It transforms men into reprobates, then into fiends most pitiable.

Whoever hopes to enjoy the true bliss of Heaven

Must come through self denial and bitter discipline.

The eighth Heavenly law: Do not steal or rob.

(Poverty and wealth are alike determined by the Supreme God. Whoever steals men’s things or takes them by force breaks Heaven’s law.)