 First, a country’s decline is the result of people’s being unjust in mind and carrying out crooked behavior, as well as staining their minds, staining their bodies, and staining their households. It is a result of them turning their backs on the hearts of kishin spirits of heaven and earth and, thereby, escaping their grace. Moreover, in years of bad harvest and famine, or encountering calamities such as fires and epidemic, people dwindle and their fortunes shrink. A country’s decline all results from such rebuke from the kishin spirits. (KH: 292)