Chengcai — Weighing Talent程材篇
論者多謂儒生不及彼文吏，見文吏利便而儒生陸落，則詆訾儒生以為淺短，稱譽文吏謂之深長。是不知儒生，亦不知文吏也。
Those who debate often say that the Confucian scholar does not come up to the clerk. Seeing that the clerk is quick and handy while the Confucian scholar lags and falls behind, they run the Confucian scholar down as shallow and short, and praise the clerk as deep and long. This is not to know the Confucian scholar, and it is not to know the clerk either.
儒生、文吏皆有材智，非文吏材高而儒生智下也，文吏更事，儒生不習也。謂文吏更事，儒生不習，可也；謂文吏深長，儒生淺短，知妄矣。世俗共短儒生，儒生之徒亦自相少。何則？并好仕學宦，用吏為繩表也。儒生有闕，俗共短之；文吏有過，俗不敢訾。歸非於儒生，付是於文吏也。夫儒生材非下於文吏，又非所習之業非所當為也，然世俗共短之者，見將不好用也。將之不好用之者，事多，己不能理，須文吏以領之也。夫論善謀材，施用累能，期於有益。文吏理煩，身役於職，職判功立，將尊其能。儒生栗栗，不能當劇，將有煩疑，不能效力，力無益於時，則官不及其身也。將以官課材，材以官為驗，是故世俗常高文吏，賤下儒生。儒生之下，文吏之高，本由不能之將。世俗之論，緣將好惡。
Confucian scholars and clerks both have ability and wit. It is not that the clerk's ability is high and the scholar's wit is low. The clerk has been through affairs and the scholar has not practiced them. To say that the clerk has been through affairs and the scholar has not practiced them is right. To say that the clerk is deep and long and the scholar shallow and short is a reckless judgment. The age in common calls the Confucian scholar short, and the scholars themselves think one another small. Why is this? Because they all love office and study for office, and take the clerk for their measuring line and their mark. When the Confucian scholar falls short, the age in common calls him short. When the clerk has a fault, the age does not dare to run him down. They turn the wrong onto the Confucian scholar and fasten the right onto the clerk. Now the scholar's ability is not lower than the clerk's, nor is the work he has practiced something he ought not to do. Yet the age in common calls him short because it sees that the chief does not like to use him. The chief does not like to use him because affairs are many and he cannot manage them himself, and must wait on the clerk to take charge of them. Now in weighing goodness and planning for ability, in putting men to use and piling up their skills, what is looked for is profit. The clerk manages what is troublesome, and his body is worked by his office. When his office is settled and his merit stands, the chief honors his ability. The Confucian scholar trembles and cannot meet hard business. When the chief has a troubling doubt, the scholar cannot offer his strength; and where strength brings no profit to the hour, office does not reach the man. The chief grades ability by office, and ability takes office for its proof. For this reason the age in common always raises the clerk high and holds the Confucian scholar cheap and low. The lowness of the scholar and the height of the clerk come in truth from a chief who is not able. The talk of the age follows what the chief likes and hates.
今世之將，材高知深，能達眾凡，舉綱持領，事無不定。其置文吏也，備數滿員，足以輔己志。志在修德，務在立化，則夫文吏瓦石，儒生珠玉也。夫文吏能破堅理煩，不能守身，〔不能守〕身，則亦不能輔將。儒生不習於職，長於匡救，將相傾側，諫難不懼。案世間能建蹇蹇之節，成三諫之議，令將檢身自敕，不敢邪曲者，率多儒生。阿意苟取容幸，將欲放失，低嘿不言者，率多文吏。文吏以事勝，以忠負；儒生以節優，以職劣。二者長短，各有所宜。世之將相，各有所取。取儒生者，必軌德立化者也；取文吏者，必優事理亂者也。材不自能則須助，須助則待勁。官之立佐，為力不足也；吏之取能，為材不及也。
If a chief of this age is high in ability and deep in knowledge, able to reach through the whole run of men, lifting the net rope and holding the collar so that no affair goes unsettled, then his placing of clerks is only to fill out the number and complete the roll, enough to help his own will. If his will is on cultivating virtue and his work is on setting up right teaching, then the clerks are tile and stone and the Confucian scholars are pearl and jade. Now the clerk can break what is hard and manage what is troublesome, but he cannot keep his own person. And if he cannot keep his own person, then he cannot help the chief either. The Confucian scholar has not practiced office, but he is strong in setting right and in rescuing, and when chief and minister lean and tilt he does not fear to remonstrate and press. Look at the world: those who can set up a firm and upright principle, who carry through the counsel of remonstrating three times, who make the chief examine himself and warn himself so that he dares not be crooked, are for the most part Confucian scholars. Those who fawn on his wishes and snatch at favor as they can, who hang their heads and say nothing when the chief is about to run loose and lose his way, are for the most part clerks. The clerk wins by affairs and loses by loyalty. The Confucian scholar is the better in principle and the worse in office. The long and the short of the two each have their fitting place. The chiefs and ministers of the age each take what they will. He who takes Confucian scholars is surely one who patterns himself on virtue and sets up right teaching. He who takes clerks is surely one who puts affairs first and orders disorder. When ability cannot do a thing of itself, help is needed; and when help is needed, what is strong is waited for. Assistants are set up in office because strength is not enough. The ability of clerks is taken because ability does not reach.
日之照幽，不須燈燭；賁、育當敵，不待輔佐。使將相知力若日之照幽，賁、育之難敵，則文吏之能無所用也。病作而醫用，禍起而巫使。如自能案方和葯，入室求祟，則醫不售而巫不進矣。橋梁之設也，足不能越溝也；車馬之用也，走不能追遠也。足能越溝，走能追遠，則橋梁不設、車馬不用矣。天地事物，人所重敬，皆力劣知極，須仰以給足者也。今世之將相，不責己之不能，而賤儒生之不習；不原文吏之所得得用，而尊其材謂之善吏。非文吏，憂不除；非文吏，患不救：是以選舉取常故，案吏取無害。儒生無閥閱，所能不能任劇，故陋於選舉，佚於朝庭。
When the sun shines into a dark place, lamp and candle are not needed. When Meng Ben and Xia Yu face an enemy, they do not wait for helpers. If the knowledge and strength of chiefs and ministers were like the sun shining into a dark place, or like Meng Ben and Xia Yu, whom an enemy can hardly face, then the ability of the clerk would have no use. When sickness comes the physician is used, and when calamity rises the shaman is set to work. If a man could look over the prescriptions and mix the medicine himself, and go into the room and seek out the curse himself, then the physician would not sell and the shaman would not come forward. Bridges are set up because the foot cannot cross the ditch. Cart and horse are used because running cannot chase what is far. If the foot could cross the ditch and running could chase what is far, then bridges would not be set up and cart and horse would not be used. Among the affairs and things of Heaven and earth, those that men hold weighty and revere are all ones where their own strength falls short and their knowledge runs out, so that they look up and wait to be made sufficient. The chiefs and ministers of this age do not blame themselves for not being able, but hold the Confucian scholar cheap for not having practiced. They do not trace out why the clerk comes to be used, but exalt his ability and call him a good clerk. Without the clerk, they say, care is not removed; without the clerk, trouble is not rescued. For this reason, in choosing and raising men they take what has always been done, and in looking over clerks they take the man who does no harm. The Confucian scholar has no standing of family office, and what he can do cannot take on hard business. So he is passed over shabbily in the choosing and left out of the court.
聰慧捷疾者，隨時變化，學知吏事，則踵文吏之後，未得良善之名。守古循志，案禮修義，輒為將相所不任，文吏所毗戲。不見任則執欲息退，見毗戲則意不得。臨職不勸，察事不精，遂為不能，斥落不習。有俗材而無雅度者，學知吏事，亂於文吏，觀將所知，適時所急，轉志易務，晝夜學問，無所羞恥，期於成能名文而已。其高志妙操之人，恥降意損崇，以稱媚取進，深疾才能之儒，（泊）〔汨〕入文吏之科，堅守高志，不肯下學。亦時或精暗不及，意疏不密，臨事不識，對向謬誤；拜起不便，進退失度，秦記言事，蒙士解過；援引古義，割切將欲，直言一指，觸諱犯忌；封蒙約縛，簡繩檢署，事不如法，文辭卓詭，辟刺離實，曲不應義。故世俗輕之，文吏薄之，將相賤之。
The quick and clever man changes with the times. Once he has learned and knows the clerk's business he follows at the clerk's heels, but he does not get the name of being good and worthy. The man who holds to the old and follows his will, who looks to ritual and cultivates right, is at once one whom chiefs and ministers will not entrust and whom clerks make sport of. Not being entrusted, he holds to his will and wishes to rest and withdraw. Being made sport of, his mind cannot have its way. He comes to his office without zeal and looks into affairs without care, and so at last he is held to be unable and is cast down as unpracticed. The man who has a common sort of ability but no upright measure learns and knows the clerk's business and mixes in among the clerks. He watches what the chief knows and fits himself to what the hour presses for. He turns his will and changes his work, studies and asks day and night with nothing he is ashamed of, and looks only to gain the name of one who is able and lettered. But the man of high will and fine conduct is ashamed to lower his mind and cut down his height and take advancement by pleasing praise. He deeply hates that a Confucian of talent should sink into the ranks of the clerks, and he holds firmly to his high will and will not stoop to learn. Yet at times his fineness is dim and does not reach, his mind is loose and not close. He comes to an affair and does not know it, and answers wrongly. He bows and rises awkwardly and loses the measure in going forward and drawing back. In sending up records and speaking of affairs he unties his error like an ignorant scholar. He draws in the old meanings and cuts across what the chief wants; with a straight word he points to one thing and touches on what is shunned and breaks a taboo. In sealing and binding, in checking and marking the documents, his work is not according to the rules, and his writing, though outstanding, is strange, veering away from the real, crooked and not answering the sense. And so the age in common makes light of him, the clerks think little of him, and chiefs and ministers hold him cheap.
是以世俗學問者，不肯竟經明學，深知古今，急欲成一家章句，義理略具，同（超）〔趨〕學史書，讀律諷令，治作（情）〔請〕奏，習對向，滑（習）跪拜，家成室就，召署輒能。徇今不顧古，趨仇不存志，競進不案禮，廢經不念學。是以古經廢而不修，舊學暗而不明，儒者寂於空室，文吏嘩於朝堂。材能之士，隨世驅馳；節操之人，守隘屏竄。驅馳日以巧，屏竄日以拙。非材頓知不及也，希見闕為，不狎習也。蓋足未嘗行堯、禹問曲折，目未嘗見孔、墨問形象。
For this reason those of the age who study will not go to the end of a Classic and make their learning clear, or know the old and the new deeply. They hasten to finish the chapter and verse of one school, and when the sense and the principle are roughly furnished they all turn together to learning the histories, to reading the statutes and reciting the ordinances, to drawing up petitions, to practicing their answers and smoothing their kneeling and bowing. When the house is finished and the room complete, they are called up and appointed and are able at once. They follow the present and do not look back at the old. They run after their fellows and keep no will of their own. They strive to get ahead and do not look to ritual. They cast aside the Classics and give no thought to learning. For this reason the old Classics are cast aside and not kept up, and the old learning is dim and not clear. The Confucian sits silent in an empty room and the clerk clamors in the court hall. Men of ability and skill are driven along with the age. Men of principle and conduct keep to their narrow place and hide away. Driven along, they grow craftier by the day. Hidden away, they grow clumsier by the day. It is not that their ability is dull and their knowledge does not reach. It is that they have seen little and done less and are not used to it. For the foot has never walked to Yao and Yu to ask them the turns of a matter, and the eye has never seen Confucius and Mozi to ask them their shape and form.
齊部世刺繡，恆女無不能；襄邑俗織錦，鈍婦無不巧。（日）〔目〕見之，日為之，手狎也。使材士未嘗見，巧女未嘗為，異事詭手，暫為卒睹，顯露易為者，猶憒憒焉。方今論事不謂希更，而曰材不敏；不曰未嘗為，而曰知不達。失其實也。儒生材無不能敏，業無不能達，志不（有）〔肯〕為。今俗見不習謂之不能，睹不為謂之不達。科用累能，故文吏在前，儒生在後。是從朝庭謂之也。如從儒堂訂之，則儒生在上，文吏在下矣。從農論田，田夫勝；從商講賈，賈人賢。今從朝庭謂之，文吏，朝庭之人也，幼為干吏，以朝庭為田畝，以刀筆為耒耜，以文書為農業，猶家人子弟生長宅中，其知曲折愈於賓客也。賓客暫至，雖孔、墨之材，不能分別。儒生猶賓客，文吏猶子弟也。
In the districts of Qi they have embroidered for generations, and there is no ordinary woman who cannot do it. In Xiangyi the custom is to weave brocade, and there is no dull wife who is not deft at it. Their eyes have seen it and they do it day by day, and their hands are used to it. Let a man of ability never have seen a thing and a deft woman never have done it, and then with a strange task and an unaccustomed hand let them do it for a moment and see it all at once: even what lies open and is easy will leave them dazed. Now in discussing affairs men do not say that a man has been through a thing seldom, but say that his ability is not quick. They do not say that he has never done it, but say that his knowledge does not reach. This loses the reality. There is nothing in which the Confucian scholar's ability could not be quick, and nothing in which his work could not reach; but his will is not willing to do it. Now the age in common sees that he has not practiced and calls him unable, and sees that he does not do it and calls him unreaching. Men are used by their grade and their skills are piled up, and so the clerk stands in front and the Confucian scholar behind. This is to speak of them from the court. If they are set right from the Confucian hall, then the Confucian scholar is above and the clerk below. Discuss fields with the farmer, and the plowman wins. Talk of trade with the merchant, and the trader is the better. Now to speak of them from the court: the clerk is a man of the court. From his youth he was a working clerk. He takes the court for his field and furrow, the knife and brush for his plow and spade, and documents for his farming. It is like a son of the house, born and grown up within the dwelling, who knows its turns better than a guest does. The guest comes only for a moment, and though he had the ability of Confucius or Mozi he could not tell one thing from another. The Confucian scholar is like the guest and the clerk like the son of the house.
以子弟論之，則文吏曉於儒生，儒生暗於文吏。今世之將相，知子弟以文吏為慧，不能知文吏以狎為能；知賓客以暫為固，不知儒生以希為拙：惑蔽暗昧，不知類也。一縣佐史之材，任郡掾史。一郡修行之能，堪州從事。然而郡不召佐史，州不取修行者，巧習無害，文少德高也。五曹自有條品，簿書自有故事，勤力玩弄，成為巧吏，安足多矣。賢明之將，程吏取材，不求習論高，存志不顧文也。
To judge by the son of the house, the clerk is clearer than the Confucian scholar and the scholar dimmer than the clerk. The chiefs and ministers of this age know that the son of the house is clever by being a clerk, but cannot know that the clerk is able by being used to it. They know that the guest is stiff because he comes for a moment, but do not know that the Confucian scholar is clumsy because he comes seldom. They are deluded and screened and dim, and do not know the kinds of things before them. The ability of an assistant scribe of one county will bear the post of a section clerk of a commandery. The skill of one who has cultivated his conduct in one commandery will bear the post of an attendant of a province. Yet the commandery does not call up the assistant scribe, and the province does not take the man of cultivated conduct, because deft practice does no harm, while the other is slight in writing and high in virtue. The five sections have their own articles and ranks, and the registers have their own precedents. To work hard and handle them and so become a deft clerk, what is there in this that is enough to be called much? A worthy and clear-sighted chief, in grading clerks and taking ability, does not seek practice but weighs what is high. He keeps to the will and does not look to the writing.
稱良吏曰忠，忠之所以為效，非簿書也。夫事可學而知，禮可習而善，忠節公行，不可立也。文吏、儒生皆有所志，然而儒生務忠良，文吏趨理事。苟有忠良之業，疏拙於事，無損於高。論者以儒生不曉簿書，置之於下第。法令比例，吏斷決也。
A good clerk is spoken of as loyal, but what makes loyalty effective is not the registers. Now affairs can be learned and known, and ritual can be practiced and done well; but loyalty and principle and upright conduct cannot be set up at will. Clerks and Confucian scholars both have what they set their will on. Yet the Confucian scholar works at loyalty and goodness, and the clerk runs after the ordering of affairs. If a man truly has the work of loyalty and goodness, then though he be loose and clumsy in affairs it takes nothing from his height. Those who debate hold that the Confucian scholar does not know the registers, and put him in the lower grade. But the drawing of parallels in the laws and ordinances is what the clerk decides.
文吏治事，必問法家。縣官事務，莫大法令。必以吏職程高，是則法令之家宜最為上。或曰：「固然，法令，漢家之經，吏議決焉。事定於法，誠為明矣。」
When the clerk orders affairs he must ask the school of law. In the business of the district office nothing is greater than laws and ordinances. If height is to be graded by the clerk's office, then the school of law ought to stand highest of all. Someone says, "Just so. The laws and ordinances are the Classic of the house of Han, and the clerks debate and decide by them. That affairs are settled by law is truly clear."
曰：夫《五經》亦漢家之所立，儒生善政大義，皆出其中。董仲舒表《春秋》之義，稽合於律，無乖異者。然則《春秋》，漢之經，孔子制作，垂遺於漢。論者徒尊法家，不高《春秋》，是暗蔽也。《春秋》、《五經》義相關穿，既是《春秋》，不大《五經》，是不通也。《五經》以道為務，事不如道，道行事立，無道不成。然則儒生所學者，道也；文吏所學者，事也。假使材同，當以道學。如比於文吏，洗泥者以水，燔腥生者用火。水火，道也，用之者事也，事末於道。儒生治本，文吏理末，道本與事末比，定尊卑之高下，可得程矣。
The answer is this. The Five Classics too were set up by the house of Han, and the Confucian scholar's good government and great meanings all come out of them. Dong Zhongshu set forth the meanings of the Chunqiu and matched them against the statutes, and there was nothing at odds. Then the Chunqiu is the Classic of Han, made by Confucius and left behind for Han. Those who debate merely honor the school of law and do not hold the Chunqiu high. This is dimness and screening. The Chunqiu and the Five Classics run through one another in their meaning. To hold the Chunqiu right and yet not make much of the Five Classics is not to understand. The Five Classics work at the Way, and affairs are not the equal of the Way. When the Way goes forward, affairs stand; and without the Way nothing is completed. Then what the Confucian scholar learns is the Way, and what the clerk learns is affairs. Suppose their ability the same: one ought to go by the learning of the Way. Set beside the clerk it is like this. He who washes off mud uses water, and he who roasts raw flesh uses fire. Water and fire are the Way; the using of them is affairs, and affairs are the tip of the Way. The Confucian scholar orders the root and the clerk manages the tip. Set the root of the Way beside the tip of affairs, and the high and low of honored and mean can be fixed and graded.
堯以俊德致黎民雍。孔子曰：「孝悌之至，通於神明。」
Yao by his outstanding virtue brought the people to harmony. Confucius said, "When filial piety and brotherly respect reach their utmost, they run through to the spirits and the bright powers."
張釋之曰：「秦任刀筆小吏，陵遲至於二世，天下土崩。」
Zhang Shizhi said, "Qin entrusted things to small clerks of the knife and brush, and it sank away by degrees until, by the time of the Second Emperor, the empire crumbled like earth."
張湯、趙禹，漢之惠吏，太史公《序累》置於酷部而致土崩，孰與通於神明，令人填膺也？將相知經學至道，而不尊經學之生，彼見經學之生能不及治事之吏也。牛刀可以割雞，雞刀難以屠牛。刺繡之師，能縫帷裳。納縷之工，不能織錦。
Zhang Tang and Zhao Yu were the kindly clerks of Han, yet the Grand Historian in the Xu lei placed them in the section of the harsh clerks and said that they brought things to crumbling like earth. Set beside running through to the spirits and the bright powers, which of the two fills a man's breast? Generals and ministers know that the learning of the Classics is the utmost Way, and yet they do not honor the scholar of that learning, because they see that what such a scholar can do does not come up to the clerk who orders affairs. An ox knife can cut a chicken, but a chicken knife can hardly butcher an ox. A master of embroidery can sew curtains and skirts. A workman who threads a needle cannot weave brocade.
儒生能為文吏之事，文吏不能立儒生之學。文吏之能，誠劣不及，儒生之不習，實優而不為。禹決江河，不秉棃鍤；周公筑雒，不把筑杖。夫筆墨簿書，棃鍤筑杖之類也，而欲合志大道者躬親為之，是使將軍戰而大匠也。說一經之生，治一曹之事，旬月能之。典一曹之吏，學一經之業，一歲不能立也。何則？吏事易知，而經學難見也。儒生擲經，窮竟聖意。文吏搖筆，考跡民事。夫能知大聖之意，曉細民之情，孰者為難？以立難之材，含懷章句，十萬以上，行有餘力。博學覽古今，計胸中之穎，出溢十萬。文吏所知，不過辨解簿書。富累千金，孰與貲直百十也？京稟知丘，孰與委聚如坁也？
The Confucian scholar can do the clerk's business, but the clerk cannot set up the scholar's learning. The clerk's ability is truly the poorer and does not reach. The scholar's not having practiced is truly the better, and he simply does not do it. Yu opened up the Jiang and the He, but he did not take hold of plow and spade. The Duke of Zhou built Luo, but he did not grasp the rammer. Now brush and ink and registers are of the sort of plow and spade and rammer, and to want a man whose will is joined to the great Way to do them with his own hands is to make a general fight and be a master carpenter as well. Let a scholar who expounds one Classic manage the business of one section, and in ten days or a month he is able at it. Let a clerk who has charge of one section learn the work of one Classic, and in a year he cannot set it up. Why is this? Because the clerk's business is easy to know and the learning of the Classics is hard to see. The Confucian scholar throws himself upon the Classics and goes to the end of the sage's meaning. The clerk shakes his brush and looks into the traces of the people's affairs. Which is harder, to be able to know the meaning of the great sage, or to know the feelings of the small people? With an ability that meets what is hard, he holds chapter and verse within him, a hundred thousand and more, and he has strength to spare for action. He learns widely and looks over the old and the new, and if the keenness within his breast is reckoned it runs over a hundred thousand. What the clerk knows goes no further than sorting out and explaining the registers. How does wealth with a thousand pieces of gold piled up compare with goods worth a hundred or ten? How does the granary of the capital, known to be like a hill, compare with a gathering piled up like a sandbank?
世名材為名器，器大者盈物多。然則儒生所懷，可謂多矣。
The age names ability a famous vessel, and a large vessel holds many things. Then what the Confucian scholar holds within him may well be called much.
蓬生麻間，不扶自直；白紗入緇，不染自黑。此言所習善惡，變易質性也。儒生之性，非能皆善也，被服聖教，日夜諷詠，得聖人之操矣。文吏幼則筆墨，手習而行，無篇章之誦，不聞仁義之語。長大成吏，舞文巧法，徇私為己，勉赴權利。考事則受賂，臨民則采漁，處右則弄權，幸上則賣將。一旦在位，鮮冠利劍。一歲典職，田宅并兼。性非皆惡，所習為者違聖教也。故習善儒路，歸化慕義，志操則勵，變從高明。將（見）〔相〕之顯用儒生：東海相宗叔，廣召幽隱，春秋會饗，設置三科，以第補吏。一府員吏，儒生什九。陳留太守陳子瑀，開廣儒路，列曹掾史，皆能教授。簿書之吏，什置一二。兩將知道事之理，曉多少之量，故世稱褒其名，書記經累其行也。
When the mugwort grows among hemp, it is straight of itself without propping. When white silk goes into black dye, it is black of itself without being dyed. This says that what one practices, good or bad, changes and alters one's stuff and nature. The nature of Confucian scholars is not such that all of them can be good; but they are clothed in the sage's teaching and chant and sing it day and night, and so they get the conduct of the sage. The clerk from his youth is at brush and ink. His hand grows used to it and he acts by it. He has no recitation of chapters and does not hear the words of benevolence and right. He grows up and becomes a clerk. He makes the writing dance and works the law deftly, follows what is private and works for himself, and strains after power and gain. Looking into a case he takes a bribe. Coming before the people he digs and fishes among them. Standing on the right hand he plays with power. Favored by his superior he sells his chief. One morning he is in place, with a fine cap and a sharp sword. In a single year of office he joins field to field and house to house. Their nature is not all bad; it is that what they practice and do goes against the sage's teaching. And so if a man practices the good road of the Confucians, he turns to right teaching and longs for what is just; his will and his conduct are spurred on, and he changes and follows what is high and clear. As for chiefs and ministers who brought Confucian scholars into open use: Zong Shu, chancellor of Donghai, called in the hidden and the retired far and wide, gathered them to feast in spring and in autumn, set up three grades, and filled his clerkships by rank; in the whole office nine out of ten of the staff clerks were Confucian scholars. Chen Ziyu, grand administrator of Chenliu, opened wide the Confucian road, and the section clerks under him could all teach; of the clerks of the registers he set down one or two in ten. These two chiefs knew the principle of the Way and of affairs and understood the measure of much and little, and so the age praises and exalts their names, and the records write down their conduct again and again.