Objections, Part Three難三

Duke Mu of Lu asked Zisi, "I hear that the son of Pangjian is not filial. What is his conduct like?" Zisi answered, "The gentleman honors the worthy and so exalts virtue, and raises up the good and so shows the people. Faults of conduct are what small men take note of. Your servant does not know them." Zisi went out. Zifu Libo came in to the audience, and the ruler asked about the son of Pangjian. Zifu Libo answered, "His faults are three." All of them were things the ruler had never heard before. After this the ruler held Zisi in honor and Zifu Libo in contempt.

Someone says: The ducal house of Lu was coerced by the Ji clan for three generations. Was that not fitting? The enlightened ruler seeks out the good and rewards them, and seeks out the treacherous and puts them to death, and what he gains by both is one. So the man who reports the good is one who delights in the good as his superior does, and the man who reports treachery is one who hates treachery as his superior does. These are the men whom reward and praise should reach. Not to report treachery is to differ from one's superior and to band together below with the treacherous. This is the man whom blame and punishment should reach. Now Zisi did not report the fault and Duke Mu honored him. Libo reported the treachery and Duke Mu held him in contempt. The feelings of men all delight in honor and hate contempt. So the disorder of the Ji clan came to its full growth and never reached the ears above. This is why the ruler of Lu was coerced. Moreover this is the custom of a fallen king, the thing in which the people of Zou and Lu think themselves fine, and Duke Mu alone honored it. Is that not upside down?

When Duke Wen was in flight, Duke Xian sent the eunuch Pi to attack him at the city of Pu, and Pi cut off his sleeve, and Duke Wen fled to Di. When Duke Hui ascended the throne he again sent Pi to attack him at Huidou, but Pi did not take him. When Duke Wen came back to his state, Pi asked to be received. The duke said, "In the affair at the city of Pu the ruler set you one night, and you came at once. In the trouble at Huidou the ruler set you three nights, and you came after one night. How was it that you were so quick?" Pi answered, "The ruler's command is not two things. In taking away what the ruler hated I feared only that I could not do it. The men of Pu and the men of Di, what were they to me? Now your lordship has ascended the throne. Will there be no Pu and no Di again? Moreover Duke Huan set aside the shot at his belt hook and made Guan Zhong his prime minister." The ruler then received him.

Someone says: The sacrifices of Qi and Jin were cut off. Was that not fitting? Duke Huan could use the merit of Guan Zhong and forget his grudge over the shot at his belt hook. Duke Wen could listen to the words of the eunuch and cast away the crime of the cut sleeve. Duke Huan and Duke Wen were men who could take in these two. The rulers of later ages are not as clear-sighted as the two dukes, and the ministers of later ages are not as worthy as the two men. When a disloyal minister serves a ruler who is not clear-sighted, then if the ruler does not know him there are villains like Cao of Yan and Zihan and Tian Chang, and if the ruler does know him the minister excuses himself by pointing to Guan Zhong and the eunuch. If the ruler is then certain not to put him to death, and thinks himself to have the virtue of Duke Huan and Duke Wen, then he has an enemy for a minister and no light to see it by, he lends him much means, he thinks himself worthy and takes no warning. Then though he leave no heir, is that not fitting? Moreover the eunuch's words were only that he had dressed up the ruler's command and had not been of two minds. If so, this is uprightness toward his ruler. Only when the dead ruler could come back to life and the minister feel no shame is it uprightness. Now Duke Hui died in the morning and in the evening Pi served Duke Wen. What of the eunuch's not being of two minds?

A man set Duke Huan a riddle and said, "What are the first difficulty, the second difficulty and the third difficulty?" Duke Huan could not answer, and told Guan Zhong. Guan Zhong answered, "The first difficulty is to keep entertainers near and gentlemen far. The second difficulty is to leave one's state and go often to the sea. The third difficulty is for the ruler to grow old and set up a crown prince late." Duke Huan said, "Good." Without choosing a day he performed the rite for the crown prince in the ancestral temple.

Someone says: Guan Zhong's answer to the riddle did not hit it. The use of gentlemen does not lie in near or far, and entertainers and dwarfs are from of old the men a ruler feasts with. So to keep entertainers near and gentlemen far and still have government is not the difficult thing. Now to sit in power and be unable to use what one has, and to be thwarted and yet not leave the state, is to hold back a whole state by the strength of one man. Few who hold back a whole state by the strength of one man can prevail. If his light can shine on distant treachery and see what is hidden and minute, and his commands are certain to be carried out, then though he be far off at the sea there will surely be no upheaval within. So to leave the state and go to the sea and not be coerced or killed is not the difficult thing. King Cheng of Chu set up Shangchen as crown prince, and then wished to set up Prince Zhi. Shangchen raised a revolt and in the end killed King Cheng. Prince Zai was the crown prince of Zhou, and Prince Gen was favored, and in the end he turned against them with Dongzhou, and it was split into two states. None of these was the trouble of setting up a crown prince late. Now if power is not divided in two, if the sons of concubines are kept low, and if favor gives them nothing to lean on, then even with great ministers in place it is allowable to set up a crown prince late. So to set up a crown prince late and have the sons of concubines make no disorder is again not the difficult thing. What is called difficult in these matters is this. To borrow men and so build one's power, and yet not let them encroach upon oneself and do harm, may be called the first difficulty. Not to let an honored concubine make a second queen is the second difficulty. Not to let a beloved son of a concubine endanger the rightful heir, and to give ear to one minister alone and yet not let him dare to match the ruler, this may be called the third difficulty.

Duke She Zigao asked Zhongni about government. Zhongni said, "Government lies in pleasing those near and drawing those far." Duke Ai asked Zhongni about government. Zhongni said, "Government lies in choosing the worthy." Duke Jing of Qi asked Zhongni about government. Zhongni said, "Government lies in sparing wealth." When the three lords had gone out, Zigong asked, "The three lords asked the master about one thing, government, and the master answered them differently. Why was that?" Zhongni said, "She is a great city in a small state, and the people have hearts that turn away. So I said, 'Government lies in pleasing those near and drawing those far.' Duke Ai of Lu has three great ministers. Outside they block and shut out the gentlemen of the feudal lords and of the four neighbors, and inside they band together and make their ruler a fool. The men who will leave the ancestral temple unswept and the altars of soil and grain without blood offerings are surely these three ministers. So I said, 'Government lies in choosing the worthy.' Duke Jing of Qi built the Yong Gate and made the great hall, and in one morning he three times granted a household of three hundred chariots. So I said, 'Government lies in sparing wealth.'"

Someone says: Zhongni's answers are the words that lose a state. The people of She had hearts that turned away, and to tell him to please those near and draw those far is to teach the people to cherish favors. When government is done by favors, those without merit receive rewards and those with crimes go free. This is how law is ruined. When law is ruined government falls into disorder. It has never been seen that a ruined people can be governed by disordered government. Moreover the people have hearts that turn away because there is something the ruler's light does not reach. Not to carry on the light of Duke She, but to have him please those near and draw those far, is to lay aside what his own power can forbid and to join with those below in doing favors and contending for the people. He is not a man who can hold power. Now the worthiness of Yao was the first among the six kings. Shun moved once and a town was formed, and Yao no longer had the world. Here is a man with no method for holding back those below, who trusts to being a Shun and so not losing his people. Is that not to be without method? The enlightened ruler sees small treachery while it is minute, so the people make no great plots. He carries out small punishments upon trifles, so the people make no great disorder. This is what is meant by "plan for the difficult while it is easy, and do the great while it is small." Now he who has merit is certainly rewarded, and the rewarded man has not got it from the ruler. His own strength brought it about. He who has a crime is certainly put to death, and the man put to death does not resent his superior. His own crime gave birth to it. The people know that death and reward both rise out of themselves, so they press after merit and profit in their work and receive no gifts from the ruler. "The highest of all, those below only know that he is there." This says that the people under the highest of all have nothing to praise. Where then would one get a people that cherish favors? The people of a high ruler have neither profit nor harm from him, so the saying about pleasing those near and drawing those far may well be laid aside.

Duke Ai had ministers who blocked outside and banded together inside and made their ruler a fool, and to tell him to choose the worthy is not a judgment by achievement. It is choosing those whom his own heart calls worthy. Had Duke Ai known that the three men blocked outside and banded together inside, the three would not have stood for a single day. Duke Ai did not know how to choose the worthy, and chose those whom his heart called worthy, so the three men were able to hold office. Zikuai of Yan called Zizhi worthy and Sun Qing wrong, so he himself died and was made a public shame. Fuchai thought the grand steward Pi wise and Zixu a fool, so he was destroyed by Yue. The ruler of Lu does not necessarily know the worthy, and to tell him to choose the worthy is to give Duke Ai the trouble of Fuchai and of Zikuai of Yan. The enlightened ruler does not raise up ministers himself. The ministers put one another forward. He does not call men worthy himself. Achievement makes its own round. He weighs a man by the appointment, tries him in affairs, and rates him by results. So the host of ministers govern in a public spirit and have no private aims. They do not hide the worthy and do not put forward the unfit. That being so, what labor has the ruler in choosing the worthy?

Duke Jing granted a household of a hundred chariots, and to tell him to spare wealth is to leave Duke Jing without a method for knowing the extravagance of the rich and to make him frugal alone at the top. He will not escape poverty. If a ruler feeds his own mouth and belly with a thousand li, then not even Jie or Zhou was more extravagant than that. Qi is three thousand li square, and Duke Huan fed himself with half of it. This was more extravagant than Jie and Zhou. Yet he could become the first of the five hegemons, because he knew where extravagance and frugality belong. When a ruler cannot forbid those below and forbids himself, this is called being coerced. When he cannot adorn those below and adorns himself, this is called disorder. When he does not stint those below and stints himself, this is called poverty. The enlightened ruler makes men have no private aims. Those who eat by deceit are forbidden. Those who spend their strength on affairs and turn the profit over to the ruler are certainly made known, and those made known are certainly rewarded. Those who act foully for private gain are certainly found out, and those found out are certainly put to death. Therefore loyal ministers give all their loyalty to the public business, the people and the gentlemen spend their strength in their households, and the hundred officers strive with care for their ruler. Then extravagance twice that of Duke Jing is no trouble to the state. That being so, to tell him to spare wealth was not the urgent thing.

Now to answer three lords in one word, and so leave the three lords without trouble, is what is meant by knowing those below. When the knowing of those below is clear, one forbids things while they are minute. When one forbids things while they are minute, treachery does not pile up. When treachery does not pile up, there is no banding together. When there is no banding together, public and private are divided. When public and private are divided, factions scatter. When factions scatter, there is no trouble of blocking outside and banding together inside. When the knowing of those below is clear, one sees what is fine and clean. When one sees what is fine and clean, death and reward are clear. When death and reward are clear, the state is not poor. So it is said: to answer once and leave the three lords without trouble is what is meant by knowing those below.

Zichan of Zheng went out at dawn and passed the ward of Dongjiang. He heard a woman weeping, and he pressed his driver's hand and listened. After a while he sent an officer to seize her and question her, and she had strangled her own husband with her hands. On another day his driver asked, "How did the master know it?" Zichan said, "Her voice was afraid. When a man is dealing with one he loves dearly, at the start of the illness he is anxious, at the point of death he is afraid, and once the death has come he grieves. Here she was weeping for one already dead, and she did not grieve but was afraid. By this I knew there was treachery."

Someone says: Is Zichan's governing not full of bother? If treachery must wait upon what his ear and eye reach before it is known, then few in the state of Zheng will be caught at treachery. Not to leave it to the officers charged with judgments, not to look into a government of cross-checking, not to make clear the measures and weights, but to exhaust his hearing and sight and weary his wits in order to know treachery, is that not to be without method? Moreover things are many and wits are few, and the few do not overcome the many. Wits are not enough to know all things, so one uses things to govern things. Those below are many and those above are few, and the few do not overcome the many. This says that the ruler is not enough to know all his ministers, so one uses men to know men. Thus the body is not wearied and affairs are governed, the wits are not used and treachery is caught. So the men of Song have a saying, "If one sparrow passes Yi and Yi must take it, then Yi is a fraud. Make a net of the whole world and no sparrow is lost." Now in knowing treachery too there is a great net, and by it not one is lost. If a man does not cultivate that principle, but makes the watching of his own breast into his bow and arrows, then Zichan is a fraud. Laozi said, "To govern a state by wits is the ruin of the state." That was said of Zichan.

King Zhao of Qin asked those about him, "How do Han and Wei today compare with what they were at first?" Those about him answered, "They are weaker than at first." "And how do Ru'er and Wei Qi of today compare with Mengchang and Mang Mao of old?" They answered, "They do not come up to them." The king said, "Mengchang and Mang Mao led a strong Han and Wei, and still they could do nothing to me." Those about him answered, "That is very true." Zhongqi pushed his zither aside and answered, "Your majesty reckons the world wrongly. In the time of the six houses of Jin the Zhi clan was the strongest. It wiped out the Fan and the Zhonghang, and led the troops of Han and Wei to strike at Zhao, and poured the water of the Jin River upon them, and of the wall only three boards were not sunk. When Zhi Bo drove out, Xuanzi of Wei held the reins and Kangzi of Han rode at his side. Zhi Bo said, 'At first I did not know that water could wipe out a man's state. Now at last I know it. The Fen River can drown Anyi, and the Jiang River can drown Pingyang.' Xuanzi of Wei nudged Kangzi of Han with his elbow, and Kangzi trod on Xuanzi's foot. Elbow and foot spoke together upon the chariot, and the Zhi clan was divided up below Jinyang. Now your lordship is strong, but not as the Zhi clan was, and Han and Wei are weak, but they have not come to what they were below Jinyang. This is the hour when the world is using elbow and foot. I beg your majesty not to take it lightly."

Someone says: There was a fault in King Zhao's question, and there were faults in the answers of those about him and of Zhongqi. In all governing of a state the enlightened ruler leaves it to his power. If his power cannot be harmed, then even a world made strong can do nothing to him. How much less could Mengchang and Mang Mao and Han and Wei do anything to me? If his power can be harmed, then even unfit men like Ru'er and Wei Qi, and Han and Wei, can still harm him. That being so, being harmed or not being encroached upon lies in trusting oneself and nothing else. What is there to ask? If he trusts that he cannot be encroached upon, why should he pick out the strong from the weak? The fault lies in not trusting himself and asking what is to be done about it. That he is not encroached upon is mere luck. Shenzi said, "To lose it in the reckoning and seek it in good faith is to fall into doubt." That was said of King Zhao. Zhi Bo was without measure. He followed Kangzi of Han and Xuanzi of Wei and planned to pour water upon their states and wipe them out. This is why Zhi Bo's state was lost and he himself died, and his head was made into a drinking cup. Now King Zhao asked which was the stronger, today or the beginning. Was he afraid of the trouble of a man who floods with water? Though he had men about him, they were not the two men of Han and Wei. How could there be any matter of elbow and foot? Yet Zhongqi said, "Do not take it lightly." These are empty words. Moreover the office Zhongqi held was the zither and the lute. That the strings be in tune and the playing be clear was Zhongqi's charge, and this was how Zhongqi served King Zhao. Zhongqi may uphold his charge well and still not satisfy King Zhao, and here he did what he did not understand. Is that not reckless? When those about him answered "weaker than at first" and "they do not come up to them," that was allowable. When they said "that is very true," that was flattery. Shenzi said, "In governing do not overstep your office. Though you know, do not speak." Now Zhongqi did not know and spoke all the same. So it is said: there was a fault in King Zhao's question, and there were faults in the answers of those about him and of Zhongqi.

Guanzi said, "When he sees what may be done, his delight has proof. When he sees what may not be done, his hatred has a shape. If reward and punishment are trustworthy in what is seen, then even in what is not seen would men dare to do it? When he sees what may be done and his delight has no proof, when he sees what may not be done and his hatred has no shape, then reward and punishment are not trustworthy in what is seen, and to seek beyond, in what is not seen, cannot be attained."

Someone says: A broad court and a solemn seat are where the many become grave. A feasting room and being alone are where even Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu grow slack. To watch men where they become grave is not to see their feelings acted out. Moreover the ruler is the one for whom those below dress themselves up. If his likes and dislikes lie in what is seen, then it is certain that those below will dress up treacherous things and make their ruler a fool. When his light cannot shine on distant treachery and see what is hidden and minute, and he waits to watch dressed-up conduct in order to settle reward and punishment, is he not blinded?

Guanzi said, "Speak in the room and it fills the room. Speak in the hall and it fills the hall. This is called being king of the world."

Someone says: What Guan Zhong called speaking in the room and filling the room, and speaking in the hall and filling the hall, does not mean only the words of play and of food and drink. It must mean the great matters. The great matters of a ruler are either law or method. Law is what is written down in the registers, set up in the offices and spread abroad among the hundred families. Method is what is hidden in the breast, by which he matches up the many threads and secretly drives the host of ministers. So nothing suits law like being open, and method does not wish to be seen. Thus when the enlightened ruler speaks of law, there is none within his borders, however low and humble, who does not hear and know it, and it does not merely fill the hall. When he uses method, those close to him and those he is familiar with cannot hear it, and it cannot fill the room. Yet Guanzi says, "Speak in the room and it fills the room. Speak in the hall and it fills the hall." These are not the words of law and method.