Shuxu — Falsehoods in Books書虛篇

The world believes empty and reckless books, holding that what is set down on bamboo and silk was all handed down by the worthy and the sage, and that there is no matter in it that is not so, and so they believe it and call it right, and recite it and read it. When they see a truly right tradition at odds with an empty and reckless book, they lump it in as a short writing and say it cannot be believed or used. Now the reality of what is dark and hidden can still be known, and the feeling of what is sunk and concealed can still be settled. Yet with open writing and plain books, where right and wrong are easy to see, to hand it all down in a lump and let stand what is not real comes of not using the spirit wholly and having no thought for the matter.

Now the books handed down in the world and the words of the various masters often seek to set up the strange and make the odd, framing arguments to startle the eye and astonish the common people of the age, and making outlandish books to raise a name for being different.

It is handed down in a book that Jizi of Yanling went out roaming and saw gold dropped on the road. It was the fifth month of summer, and there was a man gathering firewood in a fur robe. Jizi said, "Pick up that gold on the ground and bring it here." The woodman threw his sickle to the ground, glared, shook off his hand, and said, "How is it that you dwell so high and look so low, that your bearing is so grand and your speech so coarse? I am a man who gathers firewood in a fur robe in the fifth month of summer. How should I be one to pick up gold?" Jizi apologized and asked his surname and style. The woodman said, "You are a gentleman who judges by the skin. What is there in a name worth telling you?" And he went off without looking back. The world holds this to be so, but it is likely empty talk.

Now Jizi was ashamed of the disorder of Wu. Wu wished to set him up as its lord, but to the end he would not take it, and he left for Yanling and never returned as long as he lived. His conduct of honesty and yielding was one and the same from first to last. Xu You yielded all under heaven, so there is no suspicion that he coveted a fief. Bo Yi cast away his state and starved to death, so there is no suspicion that he coveted a knife or a buckle. In conduct of honesty and yielding, the great may be matched against the small, but the small can hardly be matched against the great. Jizi could yield the throne of Wu. What suspicion is there that he coveted gold dropped on the ground?

Jizi went as envoy to a state of the upper region, and his road passed through Xu. The lord of Xu liked his precious sword, but Jizi did not give it to him at once. On his way back the lord of Xu had died, so he loosed the sword, hung it on the tree at the grave, and went away. It was a heart of honesty and yielding, ashamed to betray his earlier intent. Jizi did not betray a dead man and gave up his precious sword. What suspicion is there that he shouted at a living man to pick up gold from the ground? If Jizi had not yet left Wu, he was a son of the ducal house; if he had already left Wu, he was the lord of Yanling. A son of the ducal house and a lord have men before and behind them when they go out, and attendants following the carriage, and cannot walk the road alone. That is plain. And if he was not ashamed to take the gold, why would it be hard to send one of the men at his side, and why trouble the man in the fur robe?

The world praises the conduct of Liuxia Hui, saying that even in what was dark and hidden he could keep himself cultivated and clean. Worthy men hold to the same bearing, and so their aims meet across a thousand years. Put Jizi in a dark and blind place, and he still would not take gold. How much less is it the bearing of Jizi to take gold on the road in broad daylight, with men before and behind him. Perhaps Jizi truly saw the dropped gold and pitied the man gathering firewood in a fur robe and wished to add to his means. Or perhaps when he said to pick up that gold on the ground, he meant to give it to the woodman and not to take it himself. What the common world hands down says that Jizi took the dropped gold.

It is handed down in some books that Yan Yuan climbed Mount Tai in Lu together with Confucius, and that Confucius looked away to the southeast and saw a white horse tied outside the Changmen gate of Wu, and drew Yan Yuan to him and pointed it out to him and said, "Do you see the Changmen gate of Wu?" Yan Yuan said, "I see it." Confucius said, "What is outside the gate?" He said, "There is something like a length of boiled silk tied there."

Confucius stroked his eyes and set them right, and they came down together. When they came down, Yan Yuan's hair turned white and his teeth fell out, and he died of illness. It is said that his spirit could not match Confucius, that he forced himself to the utmost, and that his essence was used up, and so he died young. The common world hears this and all hold it to be so. Discussed as it really is, it is likely empty talk.

Look into the text of the Analects, and this saying is not to be found. Examine the traditions of the Six Classics, and this word is not there either. Now if Yan Yuan could see a thousand li away, he was the equal of a sage. Why would the disciples of Confucius have shrunk from saying so? What the eye of a man sees goes no further than ten li. Beyond that he does not see, and it is not a thing he can make out clearly, because it is far. It is handed down, "Mount Tai stands high and towering, but go a hundred li from it and you do not see so much as a snail, because it is far." Now Lu is more than a thousand li from Wu. Set Li Zhu to look at it, and to the end he could not see it. How much less could Yan Yuan make it out? If a man whose talent came near a sage had eyes brighter than other men's, the world would rightly call him the second sage, and would not speak of Li Zhu.

In what the eye of a man sees, a large thing is easy to make out and a small thing hard to discern. Set Yan Yuan outside the Changmen gate and have him look at the shape of Mount Tai, and to the end he could not see it. How much less, from the top of Mount Tai, could he make out the color of a white horse. That he could not see the color is plain. It is not that Yan Yuan alone could not see it. Confucius could not see it either. How is this tested? The use of the ear and the eye is even. If the eye cannot see a hundred li, neither can the ear hear so far. Lu Jia said, "The bright eye of Li Lou cannot make out what is inside a curtain, and the keen ear of Shi Kuang cannot hear beyond a hundred li." The Changmen gate and Mount Tai are not merely the inside of a curtain or a hundred li away.

King Wu of Qin lifted a cauldron with Meng Yue, could not bear it, and died when his sinews snapped. In lifting a cauldron one uses strength, and strength comes from the sinews. The sinews could not bear it, and they snapped and were hurt and he died. That is as reason would have it. Now if Yan Yuan used his eyes to look far, and his pupils could not bear the far looking, he ought to have gone blind. White hair and fallen teeth are not what such a thing brings about. His hair turned white and his teeth fell out because he used his spirit on study and worked hard without rest until his breath and strength were spent, and so he came to die.

When Bo Qi was cast out and wandered, the hair of his head turned white early. The Shi says, "It is only grief that makes one old." Bo Qi used grief, and Yan Yuan used his pupils. In the sudden moment of a single glance, how could it come to this?

The books of the scholars say that Shun was buried at Cangwu and Yu at Kuaiji because they grew old on their tours of inspection and died on the road in the border lands. A sage takes all under heaven for his house, and does not choose between far and near, or set inside apart from outside, and so they were buried where they lay. Now to speak of Shun and Yu is real, but to speak of their tours of inspection is empty. Shun and Yao were both emperors. They shared a realm of five thousand li and held the same lands within the four seas. The way of the two emperors followed one upon the other and was not different.

The Yao dian says that Shun went on tour of inspection east to Daizong, south to Mount Huo, west to Taihua, and north to Mount Heng. These are called the four marchmounts, the middle points of the four quarters. When the feudal lords came and gathered together at the foot of a marchmount, nothing deep or far or near was left unseen, for a sage in raising an undertaking seeks what is fitting for it. Yu was king as Shun was and changed nothing in his affairs, so the places he reached on tour would again have been the same as Shun's. That Shun reached Cangwu and Yu came to Kuaiji is not the reality of it.

In truth, in the time of Shun and Yu the great flood was not yet controlled. Yao handed over to Shun, and Shun received it and became emperor, and he divided the districts with Yu and they went about controlling the great flood. After Yao died, Shun grew old and likewise handed over to Yu. Shun controlled the waters in the south and died at Cangwu, and Yu controlled the waters in the east and died at Kuaiji. The worthy and the sage take all under heaven for their house, and so they were buried where they lay.

Wu Jungao said, "Kuaiji was first the name of a mountain. Yu of the Xia went on tour of inspection and made his reckoning (會計) at this mountain, and the commandery was named from it, and so it is called Kuaiji." Now to say that the commandery was named from the mountain may pass, but to say that Yu went on tour and made his reckoning at this mountain is empty. His tour of inspection never reached Kuaiji, so how could he make a reckoning at this mountain? Follow the word of Jungao, and let Kuaiji truly be a reckoning (會計). When Yu came to the south, what did he reckon? And if Yu first went east and died at Kuaiji, and Shun too went on tour as far as Cangwu, where did he make his reckoning?

If the hundred kings went out on tour whenever their rule was settled, and made a reckoning whenever they toured, then the mountains of the four quarters are all reckoning places. When the hundred kings had peace they climbed Mount Tai and made the feng offering. On top of Mount Tai the feng marks that can still be seen are seventy-two, and those tangled and effaced are past counting. If it were truly so that emperors and kings made a reckoning whenever they toured, the reckoning grounds ought to be as many in the four quarters as the feng marks on Mount Tai. Now the making of the names of commanderies and states is like the names of the ten thousand things, and they cannot be explained. Was a name set up for Kuaiji alone? In the time of Zhou the old names were Wu and Yue. What did the setting up of the names Wu and Yue follow? And what shape did the setting up of the names of the six states take? Under heaven the commanderies and states are more than a hundred, the districts and towns are above ten thousand, and every village and post and hamlet and ward has a name, and not even the talent of a worthy or a sage could explain them. Jungao can explain Kuaiji, but he cannot settle and sort the names of the quarters. The word about a reckoning (會計) cannot be followed. A tour of inspection is for examining and correcting the laws and measures. But in the time of Yu, Wu was a naked country where they cut their hair and tattooed their bodies, so there was nothing to be gained by examining it, and what then of a reckoning?

It is handed down in a book that when Shun was buried at Cangwu elephants plowed for him, and when Yu was buried at Kuaiji birds weeded for him. It is said that his sage virtue brought it about, and that Heaven sent the birds and beasts to repay and help him.

There is no one in the world who does not hold it so. Examine the reality of it, and it is likely empty talk. Now the virtue of Shun and Yu could not surpass Yao. Yao was buried in Jizhou, or some say on Mount Chong, and the birds and beasts of Jizhou did not plow. If the birds and beasts plowed for Shun and Yu alone, how uneven and mottled is the kindness of Heaven. Someone says, "Shun and Yu were controlling the waters and could not rest at ease, and so Shun died at Cangwu and Yu died at Kuaiji. They toiled hard and had merit, and so Heaven repaid them. They went far from the Middle Kingdom, and so Heaven grieved for them." Now if Heaven repaid Shun and Yu by making birds weed and elephants plow, what did it profit Shun and Yu? If Heaven wished to repay Shun and Yu, it ought to have made the people of Cangwu and Kuaiji sacrifice to them always.

It made the birds and beasts weed and plow, but it could not make men sacrifice. The sacrifice is added at the graves of Shun and Yu, and the plowing is bestowed on the houses of the people. How clumsy, and how profitless besides, is Heaven's repaying and helping of a sage. Speaking from this, that birds weeded and elephants plowed to repay and help Shun and Yu is not the reality of it. The reality is that Cangwu is a land of many elephants and Kuaiji a place where many birds live. The Yu gong says, "Pengli has gathered its waters, and the yang birds (陽鳥) dwell there." It is the nature of Heaven and earth and the conduct of birds and beasts. The elephants tread the soil of themselves, and the birds eat the duckweed of themselves. The soil is broken and the grass is gone, as though a field had been plowed, and the earth is loose and the mud is turned, and men follow and sow there, and the common world then calls it the field of Shun and Yu. The deer fields of Hailing are like the shape of elephant plowing. What emperor or king was ever buried at Hailing?

It is handed down in a book that King Fuchai of Wu killed Wu Zixu, boiled him in a cauldron, put him in a leather sack, and threw him into the river. Zixu bore a grudge and drives the water into waves to drown men and kill them. Today at Kuaiji, at the great river of Dantu, and at the Zhe River of Qiantang, they have all set up shrines to Zixu. It is said that they wish to soothe his resentful heart and stop his fierce waves. Now to say that the king of Wu killed Zixu and threw him into the river is real, but to say that in his resentment he drives the water into waves is empty.

Qu Yuan bore a grudge and threw himself into the Xiang River, and the Xiang River makes no waves. Shentu Di threw himself into the He and died, and the waters of the He make no waves. Men of the world will surely say that Qu Yuan and Shentu Di were not brave and fierce, and that their strength and anger did not match those of Zixu. Now Wei made mincemeat of Zilu and Han boiled Peng Yue, and the bravery and fierceness of Zixu do not surpass Zilu and Peng Yue. Yet why could those two gentlemen not raise their anger in the midst of the cauldron, and do something to the men beside them with the boiling water and the pickling brine?

Zixu himself went first into the cauldron and only then into the river. While he was in the cauldron, where was his spirit? Was he a coward before the boiling of the cauldron and brave in the water of the river? How is it that his angry breath does not match itself before and after?

And when they threw him into the middle of a river, which river was it? There is the great river of Dantu, there is the Zhe River of Qiantang, and there is the Tongling River of Wu. Some say he was thrown into the great river of Dantu, but it has no waves, so they would say he was thrown into the Zhe River of Qiantang. The Zhe River and the Shanyin River and the Shangyu River all have waves. If the three rivers have waves, did they divide the body in the sack and scatter it among the three rivers? A man may hold a grudge while his enemy is not yet dead and the enemy's sons and grandsons are left. But now Wu is already destroyed, Fuchai has no kin left, and Wu has become Kuaiji with a governor set over it. What has the spirit of Zixu still to resent and suffer, that it does not stop making waves, and what does it seek?

When Wu and Yue were standing, the commandery of Kuaiji was divided between them. Yue had its seat at Shanyin and Wu had its capital at what is now Wu. South of Yuji belonged to Yue, and north of Qiantang belonged to Wu. The river of Qiantang was the border of the two states. Shanyin and Shangyu lie inside the border of Yue. If Zixu went into the river of Wu, he ought to make his waves inside the border of Wu. Why does he go into the land of Yue? To resent the king of Wu and let out his anger on the river of Yue goes against all reason, and is proof that there is no spirit there.

And water is hard to drive, while men are easy to make follow. In life one trusts to sinew and strength, and in death one uses essence and soul. While Zixu lived he could not make living men follow him and guard his body, but let his own body be killed, and his sinews and strength melted away and his essence and soul flew apart. How then could he make waves? Let several hundred or a thousand men like Zixu board a boat and cross a river, and they could not master the water. One body of Zixu was boiled in the water of a cauldron, its bones and flesh were pulped, and it became soup and pickle. What harm could it do?

King Xuan of Zhou killed his minister Du Bo, and Duke Jian of Yan killed his minister Zhuang Ziyi. Afterward Du Bo shot King Xuan, and Zhuang Ziyi struck down Duke Jian. The matter seems to stand to reason, and yet it is empty talk. Now Zixu could not keep his body whole, and could not repay the king of Wu as Du Bo and Ziyi did, and yet he drives the water back and forth. How is that the right of revenge, or proof that there is knowing? A common saying that is not real becomes red and blue paint, and by the writing of red and blue paint the worthy and the sage are deluded.

Now that the earth has its hundred streams is like a man having blood and veins. The blood and veins flow and run, they rise and stir and are still, and they have a measure of their own. The hundred streams are so too, and their coming and going morning and evening is like a man breathing, his breath going out and in. It is the nature of Heaven and earth, and it has been so from highest antiquity. The Classic says, "The Jiang and the Han pay court to the sea."

It is from before Tang and Yu. When it rises in the midst of the sea it only swells and runs, but when it comes into the three rivers, which are somewhat small and shallow and narrow, the water strikes and boils up, and so it leaps into waves. The Qu River at Guangling has waves, and men of letters have made rhapsodies on it. The great river is broad and vast, and the Qu River has waves, and it is narrowness after all. Wu killed his body, yet he makes waves at Guangling, so the spirit of Zixu has no knowing after all. Where a valley is deep, what flows is quiet and broad, and where it is shallow and full of sand and stones, the water strikes and rises and becomes a rapid. Now waves and rapids are one thing. If they say Zixu makes the waves, who is it that dwells in the valleys and makes the rapids? Look: when the waves come into the three rivers, the banks boil and leap while the middle is without sound. If Zixu must be the one who makes the waves, then the body of Zixu is gathered at the banks. The rising of the waves follows the waxing and waning of the moon, and their small and great, their fullness and falling, are not even and alike. If Zixu makes the waves, then the anger of Zixu takes the moon for its measure. On the three rivers there is wind at times, and the swift billows it raises also drown men and kill them. Does the spirit of Zixu become the wind as well? The First Emperor of Qin was crossing the Xiang waters and met a wind, and he asked what shrine was on Mount Xiang. Those beside him answered, "It is the daughter of Yao and the wife of Shun."

The First Emperor was greatly angered, and he sent three thousand convict laborers to cut down the trees of Mount Xiang and trample them. Now to say that the spirit of Zixu makes the waves is like saying that the essence of the two women makes the wind.

It is handed down in a book that Confucius was buried facing the Si River, and that the Si River turned back its flow for him. This means that the virtue of Confucius could make the water draw back so that it would not beat against his grave. Men of the world believe it. And so the scholars, in their discussions, all say that the descendants of Confucius ought to be enfeoffed, and they take the turning back of the Si River as their proof. Trace it to its source, and it is likely empty talk.

Now how does the death of Confucius compare with his life? Living, he could hold to his conduct, and was careful of the way and answered to Heaven. Dead, his conduct is cut off. Heaven helps the utmost virtue, and so when the Five Emperors and the Three Kings drew down auspicious answers, it was all while they were alive and not after they died. While Confucius lived he was pushed aside and not taken in, and so he sighed and said, "The phoenix does not come, the He sends forth no chart. It is over with me!" He had no help while he lived. Would there be repayment after his death? The death of Confucius is the death of the Five Emperors and the Three Kings. If the Five Emperors and the Three Kings had no help, and the death of Confucius alone had repayment from Heaven, then the soul of Confucius is holy and the essence of the Five Emperors is not divine.

The Si River has no knowing, so if it turned back its flow for Confucius, the spirit of Heaven made it do so. But then, while Confucius lived, the spirit of Heaven did not make men honor him. If the Si River turned back its flow because Heaven wished to enfeoff the descendants of Confucius, then while Confucius lived his merit and virtue answered to Heaven, and would Heaven not enfeoff his own person and wish to enfeoff his descendants instead? This is water that turned back of itself by chance. In the flow of the Jiang and the He there are places where it comes round again, and in the running of the hundred streams some change their course and take another road, and these are no different from turning back. So the turning back of the Si River is nothing divine or strange.

It is handed down in a book that the virtue of the prince of Wei was kind and generous, that he humbled himself to gentlemen, and that it reached even to birds and beasts. He was drinking with his guests when a sparrowhawk struck a pigeon. The pigeon fled and circled under the prince's table, and the sparrowhawk chased it and struck it and killed it before the prince. The prince was ashamed of it, and at once sent men to set many nets and take some tens of them, and he rebuked them for the crime of striking the pigeon. When the sparrowhawk that had struck the pigeon hung its head and dared not look up, the prince killed it. The world praises this and says, "The prince of Wei took revenge for the pigeon." This is empty talk.

Now among creatures the feelings and hearts are not alike, and sound and speech do not pass between them. Even a sage cannot make birds and beasts act by right and reason. What manner of man was the prince, that he could make one hang its head and blame itself? Among birds the sparrowhawks number in the thousands and ten thousands. How was the one that struck the pigeon and flew off just then to be caught again? If it could hang its head and blame itself, it was a holy bird. If it understood the words of the prince, then it knew the conduct of the prince, and if it knew the conduct of the prince, it would not have struck the pigeon before him. Men still cannot mend their faults. Birds are not as men, and to say that it could repent is for the talk of the common world to lose the reality of the kinds of things. Perhaps the prince really did catch a sparrowhawk. A man held its head and wrenched its neck, and in its pain it drooped low and could not look up. Because the prince was a man of kindness and right, they praised him on this account and said the bird submitted to its fault. In the course of talk an empty and reckless beauty is born from nothing, and under merit and a name there is always something added that is not real.

It is handed down in a book that Duke Huan of Qi took seven women, his aunts and his sisters, to wife. This saying is empty. Now to throw flesh and bone into disorder, to violate one's kin, to have no order of above and below, is the nature of birds and beasts, a disorder that does not know the bonds of men. Look: Duke Huan gathered the feudal lords nine times and set all under heaven right once, leading them with virtue and commanding them with awe, and for this reason the feudal lords submitted and none dared not follow. That is not something a man in disorder within, holding the nature of a bird or beast, could do. Now he led the feudal lords to attend the royal house and serve it because he was ashamed that above there was no power and below there was no rite. Ashamed outside that the rite did not stand, how within would he violate the rite and ruin himself? If outside and inside do not match, then merit is not achieved and awe does not stand.

The world speaks of the wickedness of Jie and Zhou, but it does not say they were lewd with their kin. Those who discuss the reality say that the wickedness of Jie and Zhou was smaller than that of the fallen Qin, and that the fault of the fallen Qin was thinner than that of Wang Mang, and yet there is no word of lewd disorder. If Duke Huan took seven women, his aunts and his sisters, to wife, his wickedness is greater than that of Jie and Zhou and his fault heavier than that of Qin and Wang Mang. The Chunqiu gathers up beauty as fine as a hair and cuts down wickedness as small as a mote. The wickedness of Duke Huan is great. Why then was it not cut down? Wen Jiang of Lu was the sister of Duke Xiang of Qi, and Duke Xiang had commerce with her. The text of the Chunqiu says, "In the winter of the second year of Duke Zhuang, the lady Jiang met the marquis of Qi at Gao." Why does the Chunqiu blame Duke Xiang and write down his adultery, yet pardon Duke Huan and hide it and not reprove him? And if the Classic left it out, why did Zuo Qiuming and Gongyang and Guliang, who made the traditions, shrink from telling it? Look: the fault of Duke Huan was the many favorites within. Of those favored within there were six who were like wives, and five of his sons contended for the succession, and Qi fell into disorder, and the duke's death was announced only three months after he died. The world heard of the six favorites within, with no separation of the lawful wife from the rest, and so it said he was in disorder with seven aunts and sisters.

It is handed down in a book that Duke Huan of Qi carried a woman on his back while he received the court of the feudal lords. This saying means that his lewdness and want of rite were very great. Now if Duke Huan carried a woman on his back at the time of the great court, what did he do beyond this at his roaming and feasting? At a time when the rites of gentlemen were being kept and grave reverence was held high, how could he carry a woman on his back and still lead the feudal lords to attend the royal house and serve it? At the meeting of Kuiqiu, Duke Huan was proud, and at that time nine states among the feudal lords turned away. If nine states turned away and left over a single sidelong look, how much less would they have stayed for the lewd act of carrying a woman on his back.

Someone says, "Guan Zhong told the feudal lords, 'Our lord has a boil on his back, and unless he gets a woman the sore does not heal.' The feudal lords believed Guan Zhong, and so none of them turned away." Now in a hamlet of ten houses there is surely loyalty and good faith like that of Confucius. At that time the feudal lords were more than a thousand men, and there were surely some who knew prescriptions and arts and knew that women are not used in treating a boil. Guan Zhong was hiding it for his lord. And if the feudal lords knew that Guan Zhong was hiding it for his lord and deceiving them, they would surely have been angry and turned away and left. How then could he long hold the feudal lords together and achieve the merit of a hegemon?

Someone says, "Duke Huan was truly without the way, but he put his trust in the worthy minister Guan Zhong, and so he could be hegemon over all under heaven." Now a man without the way is no different from a madman. He believes slander and keeps the worthy far off, and harms benevolence and right instead. How could he trust Guan Zhong, and rear men, and have affairs brought to completion? Jie killed Guan Longfeng and Zhou killed Prince Bi Gan, for a lord without the way cannot use the worthy. If Guan Zhong was worthy, Duke Huan could not have used him, and since he did use Guan Zhong, it may be known that Duke Huan had no disorderly conduct. Where there is a worthy and enlightened lord, there are upright and good ministers. That the minister was worthy is proof that the lord was enlightened. How then can they say there was disorder?

It is objected, "Duke Ling of Wei was a lord without the way, yet at times he knew a worthy minister. How does the aid of Guan Zhong make it plain that Duke Huan was not disorderly?" Now Duke Ling was without the way, and by employing three ministers he barely escaped ruin. It was not that he had merit and conduct. Duke Huan honored the man who knew the multiplication tables, raised up Ning Qi from under a cart, rebuked the failure to send tribute of bundled thatch, moved his troops and attacked Chu, gathered the feudal lords nine times, and set all under heaven right once. He was a lord such as comes once in a thousand ages. And yet they say he carried a woman on his back. It is empty. Those who expound the Shang shu say, "The Duke of Zhou, while he held the regency, wore the cord of the Son of Heaven and the cap of the Son of Heaven, and with his back to the south-facing place he received the court of the feudal lords."

The space between the door and the window is called the yi (扆), and it is the seat where one faces south. If one sits with his back to the south-facing place, the screen is behind him. When Duke Huan received the court of the feudal lords, he may have sat facing south with a woman standing behind him. The common world handed it down and said that he carried a woman on his back. This is like the saying that Kui had one leg, and that Ding of Song dug a well and got one man. In the time of Tang and Yu, Kui was a great officer, and by nature he knew music, and he tuned the notes with sorrow and skill. The men of that time said, "For tuning music, one like Kui is enough (一足)." The common world handed it down and said that Kui had one leg (一足).

Look: when the office of zhizong was vacant, the emperor Shun sought widely for a man, and the many named Bo Yi, and Bo Yi bowed his head to the ground and yielded to Kui and Long. The zhizong is a minister's office, the zongzheng of Han. To have had a foot cut off is not in reason for such a man.

And a man with one leg, what does he walk with? Kong Jia, the ruler of Xia, was hunting on Mount Dong when Heaven sent rain and it grew dark and gloomy, and he went into the house of a commoner where the wife had just given birth. Someone said, "The ruler has come, so this child will surely be noble." Someone said, "The house cannot bear it, so this child will surely be base." Kong Jia said, "If I make him my own son, who can make him base?" So he carried the child home. But in cutting open a hanging, an axe cut off the child's foot, and in the end he became a gatekeeper. The child Kong Jia wished to make noble had strength to spare, but with his foot cut off he was not fit, and so he became a gatekeeper. Now if Kui had one leg, there was no way for him to walk about, and to sit and tune music would do well enough. But the office of zhizong is not fit for a man with one leg, just as the gatekeeper with his foot cut off could not become noble. Kong Jia could not make the child noble, and Bo Yi could not have yielded to Kui.

Ding of Song was a man of Song. Before he dug his well he always had water fetched from elsewhere, and reckoning it, one man's work went out each day. After he dug the well he no longer had water fetched from elsewhere, and reckoning it, he gained one man's work each day. And so it was said, "Ding of Song dug a well and got one man." The common world handed it down and said, "Ding dug a well and got a man inside the well." Now men are born of men, and are not born of earth. Boring the earth and digging a well can be no way to get a man. Reasoning from this, the saying about carrying a woman on his back is of the same kind.

Sitting with his back to a woman was told as a woman on his back. Because they knew that a woman on his back was not the way, the saying arose that Guan Zhong treated the boil with a woman. If Duke Huan had used a woman, taken off his clothes, and put the woman to his back so that the breath of a woman healed the sore, then one might say he treated the boil with a woman. But when he was receiving the court of the feudal lords, Duke Huan wore his robes in layers and the woman wore her skirts over one another, so that the breath of the woman was parted and shut off. What good would carrying her have done? Duke Huan thought of gentlemen, and set torches burning in his courtyard and sat at night to bring gentlemen to him. Would he then, in broad daylight, carry a woman on his back and see the feudal lords?

It is handed down in a book that Nie Zheng stabbed and killed the king of Han for Yan Wengzhong. This is empty. Now the time of Nie Zheng was that of Marquis Lie of Han. In the third year of Marquis Lie, Nie Zheng stabbed Xia Lei, the chief minister of Han. In the twelfth year Marquis Lie died. That is seventeen years apart from the killing of Xia Lei by Nie Zheng. And yet they say that Nie Zheng stabbed and killed the king of Han. Short writings and small traditions are empty after all and cannot be believed.

It is handed down in a book also that Prince Dan of Yan sent the assassin Jing Ke to stab the king of Qin, and that he failed and was put to death. Afterward Gao Jianli came before the king of Qin again with his playing of the zhu, and the king of Qin was pleased with him. But knowing that he had been a retainer of the prince of Yan, the king had his eyes put out and made him play the zhu. Jianli then put lead inside the zhu to make it heavy. When he played the zhu, the king of Qin drew near on his knees and could not hold himself back. Jianli struck the forehead of the king of Qin with the zhu, and the king of Qin lay ill of the wound and died in three months.

Now to say that Gao Jianli struck the king of Qin with the zhu is real, but to say that he hit the king of Qin and that the king lay ill of the wound and died in three months is empty. Now the king of Qin is the First Emperor of Qin. In the twentieth year of the First Emperor, Prince Dan of Yan sent Jing Ke to stab the First Emperor, and it is plain that the First Emperor killed Jing Ke. In the twenty-first year he sent the general Wang Jian to attack Yan and got the head of the prince. In the twenty-fifth year he attacked Yan at last and took King Jia of Yan captive. Later, in a year that cannot be made out, Gao Jianli struck at the First Emperor with the zhu and missed, and Jianli was put to death. In the twenty-seventh year the First Emperor roamed all under heaven, came to Kuaiji, came to Langya, went north to Mount Lao and Mount Sheng, followed the sea, went west to the ford of Pingyuan and fell ill, and came to the Pingtai at Shaqiu, and there the First Emperor died. Now the prophecy books say that the First Emperor was on his way back and died when he came to Shaqiu, and the handed-down book says besides that he lay ill of the wound from the zhu and died in three months in Qin. Of the one body of the First Emperor, the world says now that he died at Shaqiu and now that he died in Qin, and of his death they say he was long ill of a wound. The words of handed-down books often lose the reality of things, and the men of the common world cannot settle them.