Loyalty and Filial Piety忠孝
天下皆以孝悌忠順之道爲是也，而莫知察孝悌忠順之道而審行之，是以天下亂。皆以堯舜之道爲是而法之，是以有弑君，有曲於父。堯、舜、湯、武或反君臣之義，亂後世之教者也。堯爲人君而君其臣，舜爲人臣而臣其君，湯、武爲人臣而弑其主、刑其尸，而天下譽之，此天下所以至今不治者也。夫所謂明君者，能畜其臣者也；所謂賢臣者，能明法辟、治官職以戴其君者也。今堯自以爲明而不能以畜舜，舜自以爲賢而不能以戴堯，湯、武自以爲義而弑其君長，此明君且常與而賢臣且常取也。故至今爲人子者有取其父之家，爲人臣者有取其君之國者矣。父而讓子，君而讓臣，此非所以定位一教之道也。臣之所聞曰：「臣事君，子事父，妻事夫。三者順則天下治，三者逆則天下亂，此天下之常道也。」明王賢臣而弗易也，則人主雖不肖，臣不敢侵也。今夫上賢任智無常，逆道也，而天下常以爲治。是故田氏奪呂氏於齊，戴氏奪子氏於宋。此皆賢且智也，豈愚且不肖乎？是廢常上賢則亂，舍法任智則危。故曰：上法而不上賢。
All under heaven hold the way of filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty and obedience to be right, and yet none know how to look into the way of filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty and obedience and carry it out with care. This is why all under heaven is in disorder. All hold the way of Yao and Shun to be right and take it for their model, and this is why there is the killing of rulers and the bending to fathers. Yao, Shun, Tang and Wu turned about the duty of ruler and subject and threw the teaching of later ages into disorder. Yao was a ruler of men and made a ruler of his subject; Shun was a subject and made a subject of his ruler; Tang and Wu were subjects and killed their masters and punished their corpses, and all under heaven praises them. This is why all under heaven is still not in order today. Now he who is called an enlightened lord is one who can keep his subjects in hand; he who is called a worthy subject is one who can make the law clear and govern his office so as to hold up his ruler. Today Yao took himself for enlightened and could not keep Shun in hand; Shun took himself for worthy and could not hold Yao up; Tang and Wu took themselves for righteous and killed their rulers. This is the enlightened lord always giving away and the worthy subject always taking. So to this day there are sons who take their father's house and subjects who take their ruler's state. For a father to yield to his son and a ruler to yield to his subject is not the way to settle positions and make the teaching one. What your servant has heard runs, "The subject serves the ruler, the son serves the father, the wife serves the husband. When these three go with the grain, all under heaven is in order; when these three go against it, all under heaven is in disorder. This is the constant way of all under heaven." Enlightened kings and worthy subjects do not change it, and then even though the lord of men be unworthy, no subject dares encroach on him. Today men raise up the worthy and give charge to the wise with no constancy, and this goes against the way, yet all under heaven always takes it for order. Thus the Tian seized the state from the Lü in Qi, and the Dai seized it from the Zi in Song. These were all worthy and wise as well. Were they fools and unworthy men? This shows that to set aside constancy and raise up the worthy brings disorder, and to let go of law and give charge to the wise brings peril. So it is said, raise up law and do not raise up the worthy.
記曰：「舜見瞽瞍，其容造焉。孔子曰：『當是時也，危哉，天下岌岌！有道者，父固不得而子，君固不得而臣也。』」臣曰：孔子本未知孝悌忠順之道也。然則有道者，進不爲主臣，退不爲父子耶？父之所以欲有賢子者，家貧則富之，父苦則樂之；君之所以欲有賢臣者，國亂則治之，主卑則尊之。今有賢子而不爲父，則父之處家也苦；有賢臣而不爲君，則君之處位也危。然則父有賢子，君有賢臣，適足以爲害耳，豈得利焉哉？所謂忠臣，不危其君；孝子，不非其親。今舜以賢取君之國，而湯、武以義放弑其君，此皆以賢而危主者也，而天下賢之。古之烈士，進不臣君，退不爲家，是進則非其君，退則非其親者也。且夫進不臣君，退不爲家，亂世絶嗣之道也。
The record says, "When Shun saw Gusou, his face was strained. Confucius said, 'At that time, how perilous! All under heaven was near to falling. A man who has the way, his father cannot truly make a son of him, and his ruler cannot truly make a subject of him.'" Your servant says: Confucius never did know the way of filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty and obedience. Does it mean, then, that the man who has the way does not step forward and become his ruler's subject, and does not step back and become his father's son? A father wishes for a worthy son because when the house is poor the son will make it rich, and when the father suffers the son will make him glad. A ruler wishes for a worthy subject because when the state is in disorder the subject will bring it order, and when the master is low the subject will raise him high. Today if there is a worthy son and he does not act for his father, the father's life in the house is bitter; if there is a worthy subject and he does not act for his ruler, the ruler's place on the throne is perilous. Then a father's having a worthy son and a ruler's having a worthy subject is just enough to do them harm. Where is the profit in it? He who is called a loyal subject does not put his ruler in peril; the filial son does not hold his parent wrong. Today Shun by his worth took his ruler's state, and Tang and Wu by their righteousness drove out and killed their rulers. These all put their masters in peril by their worth, and all under heaven calls them worthy. The stalwart knights of old did not step forward and serve a ruler, and did not step back and work for a household. This is to step forward and hold one's ruler wrong, and to step back and hold one's parent wrong. And to step forward without serving a ruler and step back without working for a household is the road that throws the age into disorder and cuts off the line of descent.
是故賢堯、舜、湯、武而是烈士，天下之亂術也。瞽瞍爲舜父而舜放之，象爲舜弟而殺之。放父殺弟，不可謂仁；妻帝二女而取天下，不可謂義。仁義無有，不可謂明。《詩》云：「普天之下，莫非王土；率土之濵，莫非王臣。」信若《詩》之言也，是舜出則臣其君，入則臣其父，妾其母，妻其主女也。故烈士内不爲家，亂世絶嗣，而外矯於君，朽骨爛肉，施於土地，流於川谷，不避蹈水火。使天下從而效之，是天下徧死而願夭也。此皆釋世而不治是也。世之所爲烈士者，離衆獨行，取異於人，爲恬淡之學而理恍惚之言。臣以爲恬淡，無用之教也；恍惚，無法之言也。言出於無法，教出於無用者，天下謂之察。臣以爲人生必事君養親，事君養親不可以恬淡；治人必以言論忠信法術，言論忠信法術不可以恍惚。恍惚之言，恬淡之學，天下之惑術也。孝子之事父也，非競取父之家也；忠臣之事君也，非競取君之國也。
Therefore to hold Yao, Shun, Tang and Wu worthy and the stalwart knights right is the art that throws all under heaven into disorder. Gusou was Shun's father, and Shun drove him out; Xiang was Shun's younger brother, and he killed him. To drive out a father and kill a younger brother cannot be called benevolent. To take the two daughters of the emperor to wife and take all under heaven cannot be called righteous. Where neither benevolence nor righteousness is present, a man cannot be called enlightened. The Odes says, "Under the wide heaven there is no land that is not the king's; to the shores of all the earth there is no man who is not the king's subject." If it is truly as the Odes says, then Shun going out made a subject of his ruler, and coming in made a subject of his father, made a concubine of his mother and a wife of his ruler's daughter. So the stalwart knight within does not work for his household, throwing the age into disorder and cutting off his line, and without stands stiff against his ruler, until his bones rot and his flesh festers and is scattered over the ground and washed down streams and valleys, and he does not shrink from treading on water and fire. Make all under heaven follow and copy this, and all under heaven dies together and longs to die young. All of this is to hold right the letting go of the world and not governing it. Those the age calls stalwart knights leave the crowd and walk alone, taking up what is different from other men, making a learning of calm detachment and setting in order words that are dim and blurred. Your servant holds that calm detachment is a teaching of no use, and dimness and blurring are words without law. Words that come out of what is without law, and teaching that comes out of what is of no use, all under heaven calls discernment. Your servant holds that a man's life must be to serve his ruler and nourish his parents, and serving one's ruler and nourishing one's parents cannot be done with calm detachment; and that governing men must be done with speech and discussion, loyalty and good faith, law and method, and speech and discussion, loyalty and good faith, law and method cannot be done with dimness and blurring. Words that are dim and blurred and learning that is calmly detached are the art that leads all under heaven astray. The filial son in serving his father does not contend to take his father's house; the loyal subject in serving his ruler does not contend to take his ruler's state.
夫爲人子而常譽他人之親曰「某子之親，夜寢早起，强力生財以養子孫臣妾」，是誹謗其親者也。爲人臣常譽先王之德厚而願之，是誹謗其君者也。非其親者知謂之不孝，而非其君者天下皆賢之，此所以亂也。故人臣毋稱堯、舜之賢，毋譽湯、武之伐，毋言烈士之高，盡力守法，專心於事主者爲忠臣。
Now if a man who is another's son is forever praising other men's parents, saying, "So-and-so's father sleeps at night and rises early, and works hard to bring forth goods and feed his children and grandchildren and his servants," this is to revile his own parent. If a man who is another's subject is forever praising the thickness of the virtue of the former kings and longing for it, this is to revile his own ruler. Men know to call him unfilial who holds his own parent wrong, and yet all under heaven calls him worthy who holds his own ruler wrong. This is why there is disorder. So the subject who does not speak of the worth of Yao and Shun, does not praise the strikes of Tang and Wu, does not talk of the loftiness of stalwart knights, but spends all his strength keeping the law and turns his whole mind to serving his master, is a loyal subject.
古者黔首悗密惷愚，故可以虚名取也。今民儇詗智慧，欲自用，不聽上。上必且勸之以賞，然後可進；又且畏之以罰，然後不敢退。而世皆曰：「許由讓天下，賞不足以勸；盜跖犯刑赴難，罰不足以禁。」臣曰：「未有天下而無以天下爲者，許由是也；已有天下而無以天下爲者，堯、舜是也。毁廉求財，犯刑趨利，忘身之死者，盜跖是也。此二者，殆物也。治國用民之道也，不以此二者爲量。治也者，治常者也；道也者，道常者也。殆物妙言，治之害也。天下太上之士，不可以賞勸也；天下太下之士，不可以刑禁也。然爲太上士不設賞，爲太下士不設刑，則治國用民之道失矣。
In old times the common people were dull and simple, and so they could be taken with empty names. Today the people are shrewd and clever, wish to use their own judgment, and do not listen to the one above. The one above must urge them with rewards, and only then can he make them come forward; and he must frighten them with punishments, and only then will they not dare to draw back. Yet everyone in the age says, "Xu You gave away all under heaven, so rewards are not enough to urge men on; Robber Zhi broke the punishments and ran into danger, so punishments are not enough to forbid." Your servant says: he who does not yet have all under heaven and has no use for all under heaven is Xu You. Those who already have all under heaven and have no use for all under heaven are Yao and Shun. He who breaks down his own honesty to seek goods, offends against the punishments and runs after profit, and forgets that his own body will die, is Robber Zhi. These two are things at the edge. The way of governing a state and using the people does not take these two for its measure. To govern is to govern what is constant; the way is to speak of what is constant. Things at the edge and subtle words are a harm to order. The very highest knights under heaven cannot be urged on by rewards, and the very lowest knights under heaven cannot be forbidden by punishments. Yet if for the sake of the very highest knights no rewards are set out, and for the sake of the very lowest knights no punishments are set out, then the way of governing a state and using the people is lost.
故世人多不言國法而言從橫。諸侯言從者曰「從成必霸」，而言橫者曰「橫成必王」。山東之言從橫未嘗一日而止也，然而功名不成，霸主不立者，虚言非所以成治也。王者獨行謂之王，是以三王不務離合而正，五霸不待從橫而察，治内以裁外而已矣。
So men of the age mostly do not speak of the law of the state but speak of the Vertical and the Horizontal. Among the feudal lords, those who speak for the Vertical say, "Let the Vertical be made and we are sure to be hegemon"; and those who speak for the Horizontal say, "Let the Horizontal be made and we are sure to be king." East of the mountains the talk of the Vertical and the Horizontal has never stopped for a single day, and still merit and name are not made and no hegemon stands. Empty words are not the means by which order is made. He who is king walks alone, and that is called being king. Thus the Three Kings did not work at breaking apart and joining together, but set things straight; and the Five Lords Protector did not wait on the Vertical and the Horizontal, but looked closely into things. They governed within and so cut out what was without, and that is all.