human ability of choosing destiny are asserted (Pregadio, “Destiny, Vital Force, or Existence?,” 163–164).

177. Another claim of modifying one’s destiny is the case of Wei Xi 魏禧 (1624–1681) who, in despair over having no offspring, turned to a Daoist divinity, promising to cultivate the virtues seriously: “[...] Day after day I shall intensify the cultivation of myself and the practice of examining my conscience. Although everything is predestined, great acts of goodness are always capable of altering the course of events. Even criminals can move the spirits by the slightest sign of sincerity.” (Wei Shuzi wenji, 6: 2736; translated by Wu Pei-yi, The Confucian’s Progress, 226; italics mine). In this case, the sense of responsibility is manifested in repentance, a vow, faith in retribution and an active conception of destiny. Present too is a syncretic and ambiguous attitude on the part of the writer, as is revealed in a postscript dated 1663, in which the author justifies this action in terms of his dual attitude: veneration toward the divinity together with skepticism as to the effectiveness of the act (Wei Shuzi wenji, 6: 2738; and Wu Pei-yi, The Confucian’s Progress. 227).

178. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, 97.

179. Yü Chün-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, 116. In another philosophical context, this question may recall the eternal topic of Stoic moral philosophy. See Spinoza, Prop. 41 and 42 in Ethics part 5.

180. Chinese Buddhist causation concepts are very complex because of various theories within Buddhism, and hybridizations with Daoism. Walen Lai (“Chinese Buddhist causation theories,” 241–264), after presenting the indigenous biogenerative model ben-mo 本末 and the various syncretic formulations—to avoid a mere cause-effect relationship as they also consider concomitant conditions—concludes that China avoided both causal determinism and causal indeterminism.

181. 俺也曉得,為人在世,就如做夢,那名利二字,原是假的,平時聽人談論,也就冷談。 無奈到了爭名奪利關頭,心裡不由就覺發迷,倒象自己永世不死,一味朝前奔命,將來到了昏迷時,怎能有人當頭一棒,指破迷團？ (Jinghuayuan, 16: 69).

182. See Jingshi Tongyan, 35: 534. We cannot forget the influence of literary texts and illustrations, both for the meaning with which they are laden and as means of seduction. Du Liniang 杜麗娘, the lead character in The Peonies Pavilion, is paradoxically awakened to love by reading the first poem in the Book of Songs, seeing its amorous message coming through the mystification of puritanical interpretations of her tutor (Mudan Ting, reprinted in Tang Xianzu Ji, 7: 1841; Birch, The Peony