Superphysics
Policies for Government
5 minutes • 983 words
Table of contents
Duke Ngai was consulting Minister Yu Joh.
It is a year of dearth. There is an insufficiency for Ways and Means. What am I to do?
Why not apply the Tithing Statute?
But 2 tithings would not be enough for my purposes. What would be the good of applying the Statute?
So long as the people have enough left for themselves, who of them will allow their prince to be without enough?
But when the people have not enough, who will allow their prince all that he wants?
How can the standard of virtue be raised? How can we discern what was illusory or misleading?
You will raise the standard of virtue by:
- giving a foremost place to honesty and faithfulness
- treading the path of righteousness
As to discerning what is illusory, here is an example of an illusion= Whom you love you wish to live; whom you hate you wish to die.
To have wished the same person to live and also to be dead there is an illusion for you."
Duke King of Ts’i consulted Confucius about government.
Let a prince be a prince, ministers be ministers, fathers be fathers, and sons be sons.
Good! Would I be able to relish my allowance of grain even if:
- a prince fails to be a prince
- ministers fail to be ministers
- fathers fail to be fathers
- sons fail to be sons
The man to decide a cause with half a word is Tsz-Lu!
Tsz-Lu never let a night pass between promise and performance.
In hearing causes, I am like other men. The great point is�to prevent litigation.
Tsz-chang raised some question about government.
In the settlement of its principles be unwearied; in its administration see to that loyally.
The man of wide research also restrains himself by the Rules of Propriety, is not likely to transgress.
The noble-minded man makes the most of others’ good qualities, not the worst of their bad ones.
Men of small mind do the reverse of this.
Ki K’ang was consulting him about the direction of public affairs.
A director should be himself correct. If you, sir, as a leader show correctness, who will dare not to be correct?"
No to Death Penalty
Ki K’ang was much troubled by the robbers abroad. So he consulted Confucius on the matter.
If you were not covetous, neither would they steal, even were you to bribe them to do so.
Ki K’ang, when consulting Confucius about the government, said
What would you say if I put to death the disorderly for the better encouragement of the orderly?
Sir, in the administration of government why resort to capital punishment?
Covet what is good, and the people will be good.
The virtue of the noble-minded man is as the wind, and that of inferior men as grass.
The grass must bend, when the wind blows on it.
Tsz-chang asked how otherwise he would describe the learned official who might be termed influential.
What, I wonder, do you mean by one who is influential?
I mean one who is sure to have a reputation throughout the country, as well as at home.
That is reputation, not influence.
The influential man, then, if he be one who is genuinely straightforward and loves what is just and right, a discriminator of men’s words, and an observer of their looks, and in honor careful to prefer others to himself�will certainly have influence, both throughout the country and at home.
The man of mere reputation, on the other hand, who speciously affects philanthropy, though in his way of procedure he acts contrary to it, while yet quite evidently engrossed with that virtue�will certainly have reputation, both in the country and at home.
Fan Ch’i, strolling with him over the ground below the place of the rain-dance, said to him, “I venture to ask how to raise the standard of virtue, how to reform dissolute habits, and how to discern what is illusory?”
“Ah! a good question indeed!” he exclaimed.
“Well, is not putting duty first, and success second, a way of raising the standard of virtue? And is not attacking the evil in one’s self, and not the evil which is in others, a way of reforming dissolute habits?
And as to illusions, is not one morning’s fit of anger, causing a man to forget himself, and even involving in the consequences those who are near and dear to him�is not that an illusion?” The same disciple asked him what was meant by “a right regard for one’s fellow-creatures.”
It is love to man.
Asked by him again what was meant by wisdom,
It is knowledge of man.
Fan Ch’i did not quite grasp his meaning.
Lift up the straight, set aside the crooked, so can you make the crooked straight.
Fan Ch’i left him, and meeting with Tsz-hi� he said, “I had an interview just now with the Master, and I asked him what wisdom was.
In his answer he said, ‘Lift up the straight, set aside the crooked, and so can you make the crooked straight.’ What was his meaning?” “Ah! words rich in meaning, those,” said the other. “When Shun was emperor, and was selecting his men from among the multitude, he ’lifted up’ K�u-y�u; and men devoid of right feelings towards their kind went far away. And when T’ang was emperor, and chose out his men from the crowd, he ’lifted up’ I-yin�with the same result.”
Tsz-Kung was consulting him about a friend.
Speak to him frankly and respectfully. Gently lead him on. If you do not succeed, then stop. Do not submit yourself to indignity.
The learned Tsang observed, “In the society of books the ‘superior man’ collects his friends; in the society of his friends he is furthering good-will among men.”
