Superphysics
Good and Bad Government
10 minutes • 2082 words
What brings shame?
Pay ever looking to that, whether the country be well or badly governed."
When imperiousness, boastfulness, resentments, and covetousness cease to prevail among the people, may it be considered that mutual good-will has been effected?
A hard thing overcome, it may be considered. But as to the mutual good-will I cannot tell.
Learned officials who hanker after a home life are not worthy of being caled learned. In a country under good government, speak boldly, act boldly.
When the land is ill-governed, though you act boldly, let your words be moderate. Men of virtue will needs be men of words�will speak out�but men of words are not necessarily men of virtue.
Those who care for their fellow-men will needs be bold, but the bold may not necessarily be such as care for their fellow-men.
Nan-kung Kwoh was consulting Confucius.
He observed respecting I, the skilful archer, and Ngau, who could propel a boat on dry land, that neither of them died a natural death; while Yu and Tsih, who with their own hands had labored at husbandry, came to wield imperial sway.
The Master gave him no reply. But when the speaker had gone out he exclaimed
A superior man, that! A man who values virtue, that!
There have been noble-minded men who were lacking in philanthropy. But never has there been a small-minded man who had philanthropy in him.
Can any one refuse to toil for those he loves?
Can any one refuse to exhort, who is true-hearted?
Speaking of the preparation of Government Notifications in his day he said:
P’i would draw up a rough sketch of what was to be said; the Shishuh then looked it carefully through and put it into proper shape;
Tsz-yu next, who was master of the ceremonial of State intercourse, improved and adorned its phrases; and Tsz-ch’an of Tung-li added his scholarly embellishments thereto."
What is your opinion of Tsz-chan of Tung-li?
He was a kind-hearted man.
What about Tsz-si?
Alas for him!
What about Kwan-Chung?
He once seized the town of P’in with its 300 families from the Chief of the Pih clan. That Chief was afterwards reduced to living on coarse rice with all his teeth gone and never uttered a word of complaint.
It is difficult to:
- endure poverty uncomplainingly and
- bear wealth without becoming arrogant
He said that Mang Kung-ch’oh was fit for something better than the post of chief officer in the Chou or Wei families.
- But he was not competent to act as minister in small States like those of T’ang or Sieh.
How would you describe a perfect man?
He would have:
- the sagacity of Tsang Wu-chung
- the freedom from covetousness of Kung-ch’oh
- the boldness of Chwang of P’in
- the attainments in polite arts of Yen-Yu
- the graces taught by the ‘Books of Rites’ and ‘Music’
But what is the need of such in these days?
The man that may be regarded as perfect now is the one who, seeing some advantage to himself, is mindful of righteousness; who, seeing danger, risks his life; and who, if bound by some covenant of long standing, never forgets its conditions as life goes on."
Kung-ming Ki, is it true that your master Kung-shuh Wan never speaks, never laughs, never takes aught from others?
No. My master speaks when there is occasion to do so. Men are not surfeited with his speaking.
When there is occasion to be merry too, he will laugh. But men have never overmuch of his laughing.
Whenever it is just and right to take things from others, he will take them, but never so as to allow men to think him burdensome.
When Tsang Wu-chung sought from Lu the appointment of a successor to him, and for this object held on to his possession of the fortified city of Fang if you say he was not then using constraint towards his prince, I must refuse to believe it.
Confucius described:
- Duke Wan of Tsin as “artful but not upright”
- Duke Hwan of Ts’i as “upright but not artful.
When Duke Hwan caused his brother Kiu to be put to death, Shau Hwuh committed suicide, but Kwan Chung did not. He had not much good-will in him eh?
When Duke Hwan held a great gathering of the feudal lords, dispensing with military equipage, it was owing to Kwan Chung’s energy that such an event was brought about. Match such good-will as that�match it if you can.
But was not Kwan Chung lacking in good-will?
He could not give up his life when Duke Hwan caused his brother to be put to death. Besides, he became the duke’s counsellor.
In acting as his counsellor, he put him at the head of all the feudal lords and unified and reformed the whole empire. The people, even to this day, reap benefit from what he did.
Had it not been for him we should have been going about with locks unkempt and buttoning our jackets (like barbarians) on the left.
Would you suppose that he should show the same sort of attachment as exists between a poor yokel and his one wife�that he would asphyxiate himself in some sewer, leaving no one the wiser?
Kung-shuh Wan’s steward became the high officer Sien. He went up accompanied by Wan to the prince’s hall of audience.
When Confucius heard of this he remarked, “He may well be esteemed a ‘Wan,’”
The Master having made some reference to the lawless ways of Duke Ling of Wei, Ki K’ang said to him,
If he be like that, how is it he does not ruin his position?” Confucius answered, “The Chung-shuh, Yu, is charged with the entertainment of visitors and strangers; the priest T’o has charge of the ancestral temple; and Wang-sun Ki� has the control of the army and its divisions with men such as those, how should he come to ruin?” He once remarked, “He who is unblushing in his words will with difficulty substantiate them.
Ch’in Shing had slain Duke Kien.
Hearing of this, Confucius, after performing his ablutions, went to Court and announced the news to Duke Ngai, saying,
“Ch’in Hang has slain his prince. May I request that you proceed against him?” “Inform the Chiefs of the Three Families,” said the duke.
Soliloquizing upon this, Confucius said, “Since he uses me to back his ministers*, I did not dare not to announce the matter to him; and now he says, ‘Inform the Three Chiefs.’”
*Confucius had now retired from office, and this incident occurred only two years before his death.
He went to the Three Chiefs and informed them, but nothing could be done. Whereupon again he said, “Since he uses me to back his ministers, I did not dare not to announce the matter.” Tsz-Lu was questioning him as to how he should serve his prince.
“Deceive him not, but reprove him,” he answered.
“The minds of superior men,” he observed, “trend upwards; those of inferior men trend downwards.”
Again, “Students of old fixed their eyes upon themselves= now they learn with their eyes upon others.” K� Pih-yuh despatched a man with a message to Confucius.
Confucius gave him a seat, and among other inquiries he asked, “How is your master managing?” “My master,” he replied, “has a great wish to be seldom at fault, and as yet he cannot manage it.” “What a messenger!” exclaimed he admiringly, when the man went out. “What a messenger!” “When not occupying the office,” was a remark of his, “devise not the policy.” The Learned Tsang used to say, “The thoughts of the ‘superior man’ do not wander from his own office.”
“Superior men are modest in their words, profuse in their deeds.”
Again, “There are three attainments of the superior man which are beyond me�the being sympathetic without anxiety, wise without scepticism, brave without fear.”
“Sir,” said Tsz-Kung, “that is what you say of yourself.” Whenever Tsz-Kung drew comparisons from others, the Master would say, “Ah, how wise and great you must have become! Now I have no time to do that.” Again, “My great concern is, not that men do not know me, but that they cannot.”
Again, “If a man refrain from making preparations against his being imposed upon, and from counting upon others’ want of good faith towards him, while he is foremost to perceive what is passing�surely that is a wise and good man.” Wi-shang Mau accosted Confucius, saying, “Kiu, how comes it that you manage to go perching and roosting in this way? Is it not because you show yourself so smart a speaker, now?” “I should not dare do that,” said Confucius.
“Tis that I am sick of men’s immovableness and deafness to reason.” “In a well-bred horse,” said he, “what one admires is not its speed, but its good points.” Some one asked, “What say you of the remark, ‘Requite enmity with kindness’?” “How then,” he answered, “would you requite kindness? Requite enmity with straightforwardness, and kindness with kindness.” “Ah! no one knows me!” he once exclaimed. “Sir,” said Tsz-Kung, “how comes it to pass that no one knows you?”
“While I murmur not against Heaven,” continued the Master, “nor cavil at men; while I stoop to learn and aspire to penetrate into things that are high; yet ’tis Heaven alone knows what I am.”
Liu was a kinsman of the duke. He complained against Tsz-Lu before Ki K’ang. An officer came to Confucius to inform him of this.
My lord is certainly having his mind poisoned by his kinsman Liu. But through my influence, perhaps we may yet manage to see him exposed in the marketplace or the Court.
If right principles are to have their course, it is so destined. If they are not to have their course, it is so destined. What can Liu do against Destiny?
There are worthy men fleeing from the world. Some from their district; some from the sight of men’s looks; some from the language they hear." “The men who have risen from their posts and withdrawn in this manner are seven in number.”
Tsz-Lu, having lodged overnight in Shih-mun, was accosted by the gate-keeper in the morning.
“Where from?” he asked. “From Confucius,”
Tsz-Lu responded. “That is the man,” said he, “who knows things are not up to the mark, and is making some ado about them, is it not?” When the Master was in Wei, he was once pounding on the musical stone, when a man with a basket of straw crossed his threshold, and exclaimed, “Ah, there is a heart that feels! Aye, drub the stone!”
After which he added, “How vulgar! how he hammers away on one note!�and no one knows him, and he gives up, and all is over! Be it deep, our skirts we’ll raise to the waist, �Or shallow, then up to the knee,’” “What determination!” said the Master. “Yet it was not hard to do.”
Tsz-chang once said to him, “In the ‘Book of the Annals’ it is stated that while K�u-tsung was in the Mourning Shed he spent the three years without speaking. What is meant by that?”
Why must you name Ku-tsung? It was so with all other ancient sovereigns. When one of them died, the heads of every department agreed between themselves that they should give ear for 3 years to the Prime Minister.
When their betters love the Rules, then the folk are easy tools
Yuen Jang who was sitting, waiting for him in a squatting (disrespectful) posture*. The Master said to him:
*It was a habit with the Chinese, when a number were out walking together, for the eldest to go first, the others pairing off according to their age. It was a custom much older than the time of Confucius.
A miscreant is someone who in his youth could show no humility or subordination, who in his prime misses his opportunity.
He tapped him on the shin with his staff.
Someone asked about his attendant a youth from the village of Kiueh whether he was one who improved.
He replied, “I note that he seats himself in the places reserved for his betters, and that when he is walking he keeps abreast with his seniors.
He is not one of those who care for improvement= he wants to be a man all at once.”
