Lü Zu Quan Shiren Xingwu Ge — Attributed to Patriarch Lü

This is a two-part exhortation song from the popular, moral-teaching side of Daoism, carrying the name of Lü Dongbin — the immortal known to devotees as Patriarch Lü (呂祖), most celebrated of the Eight Immortals and, from the Ming dynasty onward, the credited voice behind a vast literature of morality books and spirit-writing (扶乩) texts. No catalogue headnote or Daozang fascicle number survives with this piece in the source consulted here, and it does not appear to belong to the formally numbered Zhengtong Daozang; it belongs instead to the broader, far less catalogued world of shanshu (善書, "goodness books") — moral verse meant for wide recitation rather than monastic transmission. Its date of composition is accordingly not established here; the vernacular idiom of its first part suggests a late, popular hand, but this translation claims no more than the source itself shows.

The song has two parts, printed together under one title in the source. The first — which gives the whole piece its name — surveys, in fourteen rhymed couplets, a gallery of ordinary failings: blaming fate instead of oneself, forgetting a parent's kindness, quarreling siblings, a wife who forgets her husband's parents, a stingy household, a family undone at last by its own scheming. Each half-line turns on a folk device with no exact equivalent in English: a two-character word doubled into four and chanted rather than merely stated — fortune-fortune, misfortune-misfortune; mistake-mistake, fault-fault. The second part, headed in the source Zhengxin Anming Ge ("Song of Rectifying the Mind and Being at Peace with Fate"), shifts to plainer five-character verse and a single teaching long central to Chinese popular ethics: that the mind, not fate alone, decides a life's outcome — illustrated by the well-known story of Song Jiao, who rescued a colony of ants from drowning and rose, against an earlier prediction, to the very top of the examination rolls.

A note on translation: the doubled words of the first part ("fortune on fortune," "again and again") render the sense and something of the chant of the Chinese reduplication, which cannot be copied word for word into English without breaking; two characters illegible in the source witness are marked ▢▢ there and rendered […] below. Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese printed in full beneath the translation. We know of no complete published English translation of this song.

Translation

Raise your eyes and see the great thousand worlds, fortune on fortune, misfortune on misfortune —
all of it comes from the people of this world, their good and their evil, again and again.

They will not blame themselves for mistake on mistake, fault on fault —
instead they resent that fate favors others, and cry, what's to be done, what's to be done!

Never do they think of their parents' kindness, piled layer on layer —
how many truly, truly, in earnest, exhaust their filial heart?

He will not blame himself for laziness and idleness —
instead he resents his parents' instruction as […] nagging.

Brothers and sisters of one flesh go their separate ways, bickering you and me, you and me —
over some trifling thing, why must they argue and argue?

Never do they think at all of the bond of flesh and blood between younger brother and elder —
let a quarrel arise, and they must argue who is stronger, who is weaker.

Women love to adorn themselves, flower upon flower —
but when has one been seen honoring her husband's father and mother?

Over the smallest thing they smash the household's wares in a temper —
never a word of harmony between sisters-in-law, concord upon concord.

Those who do harm to others band together in threes and fives —
those who feast on others' wine and meat laugh on, ha, ha.

The hard-hearted put on an outward show of simple innocence —
the rich and noble hoard up wealth and grain, mean upon mean, harsh upon harsh.

Storing up no virtue, minding only their own ease and comfort —
when old age and decline come, they will surely be driven, toil upon toil.

And there are those, moreover, who lay their schemes, scheme on scheme, deceive on deceive —
their sons, and their sons' sons, will surely be brought down, forlorn and adrift.

Better, then, to keep to one's own place, settled and secure —
to mind no business, stir no quarrel, and live happy, happy and at ease.

In idle hours speak good words, sitting and talking, talking and sitting —
whether spoken or read, is this not true happiness?

Song of Rectifying the Mind and Being at Peace with Fate

When the mind is good and fate is good too,
wealth and honor are enjoyed to old age.
When the mind is good but fate is not,
heaven and earth themselves will stand guard.

When fate is good but the mind is not,
wealth and honor are cut off before their time.
When neither mind nor fate is good,
poverty and lowliness bring nothing but trouble.

The mind is the wellspring of fate;
what matters most is to hold to the way of benevolence.
Fate is the root of one's course;
whether it flows or runs dry is hard to foretell.

Trust fate and not the mind,
and harm comes in secret, unnoticed.
Cultivate the mind and heed fate as well —
then the seeking of wealth has its proper way.

Li Deng committed an act of lechery and evil,
and his rank of top graduate was secretly taken from him.
Song Jiao rescued mole crickets and ants,
and passed at the head of the examination early.

Goodness is the foundation of blessing;
evil is the sign of calamity.
Hold to hidden virtue and hidden merit;
hold to loyalty and hold to filial devotion.

Nobility and lowliness have their causes from before;
calamity and blessing are what people call down on themselves.
To lend a ready hand to those in danger and distress
is worth more than holding rank at court.

Heaven and earth hold boundless grace;
sun and moon shine with no favor withheld.
Sons and grandsons receive the blessing left over;
the ancestors' years are thereby extended.

My mind and another's mind
each long to reach glory and honor.
If our minds are all the same,
why scheme against each other?

Fate carries strength enough for half;
the mind must be good through and through.
Cultivate and uphold both mind and fate together,
and the treasure within the self is gained.

First: do not deceive.
Second: give up cunning and treachery.
Let the thought to harm another sprout in the mind,
and ghosts and spirits laugh in the dark.

Spirits watch a person's inmost mind;
people see only a person's outer face.
You say that you are in the right;
I say that I am in the right.
Whether the right is truly right,
only the spirits know.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Lü Dongbin and the Immortals' Teachings shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The first part's fourteen couplets, each built on a doubled two-character phrase, are kept as fourteen two-line stanzas matching the source's own paragraphing; the second part's twelve stanzas of five-character verse are kept as eleven quatrains and a closing sestet, again matching the source's own paragraph breaks.

Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. The two standard local bibliographies of Daoist texts in English translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud survey of Daoist texts in Western languages) were searched for this title, its pinyin, and the title of its second part; neither returned a match. Komjathy's bibliography does include the great shanshu classics — the Taishang Ganying Pian, Wenchang's Yinzhi Wen — but not a text of this title, which suggests this song is a lesser-known example of the genre rather than one simply outside either bibliography's scope. Three further web searches were then run — for the Chinese title, for the pinyin title, and for the second part's opening line together with a name (Yuan Shushan) sometimes attached to poems of its type in Chinese-language sources — and surfaced no citable, published English translation of either part. The second part's teaching on mind and fate is, however, a widely circulated piece of Chinese popular moral literature under several related titles, and an English rendering of it may exist beyond what three bounded searches can find. For that reason we make no claim to be first: we know of no complete published English translation of this song, and offer that as the limit of what was checked, not as a certainty either way.

A note on two points. Yinde and yingong (陰德, 陰功 — "hidden virtue" and "hidden merit" below) name good deeds done without seeking recognition, a governing idea of the shanshu tradition this song belongs to; the sense is plain enough in English that the translation keeps it in words rather than as a loanword. Two characters in the first part's fourth couplet were illegible in the source witness, marked ▢▢ there and rendered […] in the translation above; the doubling pattern that governs every other line in this part of the poem makes it likely, though not certain, that the missing characters completed the ordinary word luosuo (囉嗦, "nagging," "long-winded"), but the translation asserts nothing beyond the bracket, and the source text below preserves the gap exactly as transcribed.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 呂祖勸世人省悟歌

Classical Chinese text of this song, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

呂祖勸世人省悟歌

舉目觀大千界福福禍禍，皆由於世上人善善惡惡。

不責備自作為錯錯過過，反怨命不如人奈奈何何。

從不念父母恩重重疊迭，有幾個盡孝心實實確確？

不責己不勤儉懶懶惰惰，反怨親訓誡他▢▢嗦嗦。

親手足分行徑你你我我，些許物又何必論論爭爭？

全不念骨肉情弟弟哥哥，有口角反要論強強弱弱。

婦女們愛打扮花花朵朵，何曾見孝敬她公公婆婆？

些小事胡亂摔家傢夥夥，從不講妯娌情睦睦和和。

害人的三五個打打夥夥，吃人的酒與肉笑笑哈哈。

狠心人外假裝癡癡樸樸，富貴家積財谷刻刻薄薄。

不積德只顧己安安樂樂，到衰老定然受奔奔波波。

更有等設機關謀謀騙騙，子而孫必折到落落泊泊。

倒不如守本分安安穩穩，不管事不惹非快快活活。

閒暇時講善言談談坐坐，或是講或是讀豈不快活？

正心安命歌

心好命又好，富貴享到老。心好命不好，天地也須保。

命好心不好，富貴夭折了。心命俱不好，貧賤受煩惱。

心乃命之源，最要存仁道。命乃行之本，窮通難可料。

信命不信心，暗損人不覺。修心又聽命，求財有正道。

李登犯淫惡，狀元暗損消。宋郊救螻蟻，及第登科早。

善乃福之基，惡乃禍之兆。陰德與陰功，存忠與存孝。

貴賤有宿因，禍福人自召。方便扶危厄，勝如佔當朝。

天地有洪恩，日月無私照。子孫受余慶，祖宗延壽考。

我心與彼心，各欲致榮耀。彼此一樣心，何用相計較？

命有五分強，心要十分好。心命兩修持，便得身中寶。

第一莫欺瞞，第二休姦狡。萌心欲害人，鬼神暗中笑。

神觀人內心，人看人外貌。你說你公道，我說我公道，

公道不公道，只有神知道。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of this song (article 呂祖勸世人省悟歌, revision of 10 June 2025), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is traditional and anonymous, and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.

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