The Great Oath, Part 3
The next morning, King Wu conducted a grand review of the six armies and made a clear oath to the assembled troops.
King Wu said: “Alas! You gentlemen of the Western Lands. Heaven has a manifest Way, and its categories are exceedingly clear. Now the king of Shang, Shou, draws near to and insults the Five Constant Virtues, being negligent and slothful without reverence. He has cut himself off from Heaven and incurred the resentment of the people.”
“He cut off the shins of those who waded at dawn, and ripped open the heart of the worthy. He wreaks his power in slaughter, poisoning all within the four seas. He trusts in the evil and crooked, banishes his tutors and protectors, discards the statutes and penal codes, and imprisons and enslaves upright men. He does not perform the suburban and altars’ sacrifices, nor offer in the ancestral temple. He fabricates strange and lewd contrivances to please women. The Supreme Lord does not accord with him, and sends down this destruction. You must be diligent and unremitting, assisting me, the One Man, to reverently execute Heaven’s punishment.”
“The ancients had a saying: ‘He who cherishes me is my lord; he who oppresses me is my enemy.’ The solitary tyrant Shou knows only how to exercise his power—he is the enemy of your generations. In establishing virtue, seek to make it grow; in removing evil, seek to uproot it utterly. Therefore, I, the Little Child, will greatly lead you, the multitudes, to completely annihilate your enemy. You, the multitudes, should follow the path of resoluteness and firmness, aiding your lord to achieve his enterprise. Those with great merit shall receive ample rewards; those who disobey shall receive clear punishment.”
“Alas! My deceased father, King Wen, was like the sun and moon in their shining, illuminating the four quarters, and manifest in the Western Lands. It is only we, Zhou, who have broadly received the peoples of many regions.”
“If I can conquer Shou, it is not because of my martial prowess, but because my deceased father has no fault. If Shou conquers me, it is not because my deceased father has fault, but because I, the Little Child, am not good.”