one,
  But their answers are full of prevarication. 
  They say their book is the Holy Book,
  But the Old and New Testaments are like the songs of Wei and
    Cheng.[!]
  As to the people who are gradually being misled,
  I compassionate their ignorance;
  As to the educated who are thus deceived,
  I am wroth at their want of reflection. 
  For these men are not of us;
  We are like the horse and the cow;[@]
  If you associate with them,
  Who will expel these crocodiles and snakes? 
  This is a secret grievance of the State,
  A manifest injury to the people! 
  Truly it is the eye-sore of the age. 
  You quietly look on unconcerned! 
  I, musing over the present state of men’s hearts,
  Desire to rectify them. 
  Alas! the ways of devils are full of guile! 
  But man’s disposition is naturally pure. 
  How then can men willingly walk with devils? 
  You, like trees and plants, without understanding,
  Allow the Barbarians to throw into confusion the Flowery Land. 
  Is it that no holy and wise men have appeared? 
  Under the Chow dynasty, when the barbarians were at the height of
    their arrogance,
  The hand of Confucius and Mencius was laid upon them! 
  Under the T’ang when Buddhism was poisoning the age,
  Han and Hsi exterminated them. 
  Now these devils are working evil,
  Troubling the villages and market-places where they live. 
  Surely many heroes must come forward
  To crush them with the pen of Confucius. 
  Turn then and consider
  That were it not for my class[#]
  None would uphold the true religion. 
  I say unto you,
  And you should give heed unto me,
  Believe not the nonsense of Redemption,
  Believe not the trickery of the Resurrection. 
  Set yourselves to find out the true path,
  And learn to distinguish between man and devil. 
  Pass not with loitering step the unknown ford,
  Nor bow the knee before the vicious and the depraved. 
  Wait not for Heaven to exterminate them
  To find out that earth has a day for their destruction. 
  The shapeless, voiceless imp—­
  Why worship him? 
  His supernatural, unprincipled nonsense
  Should surely be discarded. 
  Ye who think not so,
  When the devils are in your houses
  They will covet your homes,
  And they will take the fingers and arms of your strong ones
  To make claws and teeth for imps. 
  They excite people at first by specious talk,
  Not one jot of which is intelligible;
  Then they destroy your reason,
  Making you wander far from the truth. 
  You throw over ancestral worship to enjoy none yourselves;
  Your wives and children suffer pollution,
  And you are pointed at with the finger. 
  Thus heedlessly you injure eternal principles,
  Embracing filth and treasuring corruption,
  To your endless shame