Liangzhi — Measuring Knowledge量知篇

What the Chengcai chapter discussed was ability and conduct and bearing; it did not speak of what is special in learning and knowing. Now the reason the Confucian scholar surpasses the clerk is that his learning grows by the day, so that his nature is sifted and tempered and his ability carved and polished. Therefore learning is what turns the feelings back and orders the nature, exhausts the ability and completes the virtue. When ability is exhausted and virtue complete, then, set beside the clerk who has also been carved and polished, there is much to grade and measure. A poor man and a rich man both bring a hundred coins and together make the gift of condolence at a house in mourning for the dead. He who knows knows that the poor man, though he can ill afford it, offers a hundred, while the rich man has plenty and something over. He who does not know sees that the coins are a hundred in both cases and holds that in goods the poor and the rich are all alike. Clerks and Confucian scholars have something like this. When both have become section clerks and hold one section together, the chief who knows knows that the brush of clerk and of Confucian scholar is the same, but that what the scholar stores within his breast still has much to spare. He who does not know holds that both are clerks, and that deep and shallow, much and little, are all of one measure; and this loses the reality greatly. The nature of the earth brings forth grass, and the nature of the mountain brings forth trees. But plant mallow and leek in the earth and jujube and chestnut on the mountain, and they are called a fair garden and a thriving wood, and are no longer set beside a common field and an ordinary hill. Clerks and Confucian scholars have something like this. Both have ability and both use brush and ink, but the Confucian scholar has besides the Way of the former kings. The Way of the former kings is not merely a matter of mallow and leek and jujube and chestnut. The hands of an ordinary woman spin thread and weave cloth; but if one has a rare skill and weaves brocade and works embroidery, she is called outstandingly different and is no longer put in the same class as an ordinary woman. Now in grading the ability of the Confucian scholar and the clerk, the scholar's ample learning of the Classics and their traditions is like the rare skill of the woman who weaves brocade and works embroidery.

The poor man loves to overreach and the rich man keeps his principle, because the poor man has not enough and the rich man has plenty to spare. The Confucian scholar does not do wrong and the clerk loves to work craft, because the clerk is small in the virtue of the Way and the scholar is large in benevolence and right. When a poor man and a rich man are both guests and receive a gift from their host, the rich man is not ashamed and the poor man is always abashed, because the rich man has something to return and the poor man has nothing to return with. The Confucian scholar and the clerk both take the senior officer for their host. The scholar receives the pay of the senior officer and repays him with the Way. The clerk has an empty breast with no learning of benevolence and right; he stays on and eats his pay and in the end has nothing to repay with. He is what is called shiwei sucan. Su means empty. To be empty and without virtue and yet eat another man's pay is called sucan. To have no work of the Way and of the arts, not to understand government, to sit silent in the court and be unable to speak of affairs, is no different from being a corpse, and so it is called shiwei. Then the clerk is what is called shiwei sucan. Standing on the right hand and eating what is good, when he sees his chief leaning into crookedness, how could he raise up a record and set out the right and the wrong of it? First, he cannot see right from wrong. Second, he fears punishment and dares not speak straight. The Li says, "The feelings would be deft."

Those who can speak with force write badly and are not liked; they have bone and no flesh and lack fat and richness, so that they offend the will of chief and minister and end by drawing a breach. He who fights for land cannot set up merit and a name, and he who covets rank and pay cannot remonstrate with those above. The clerk covets rank and pay, and once he has been a day in his place he means at once to plan for gain and make it his stock. He takes by force and follows his own body, and does not bring right into the open for his chief and his office. Though he see an evil as big as Mount Tai, how would he be willing to lift up a word as small as a hair? Since the principle of the matter is such, with what will he clear himself of shiwei sucan? The Confucian scholar learns the great meanings and serves his chief with the Way, and when it will not do he stops. He has the will of a great minister, and by the Classics he works to make his bearing just and fair, and he is one who dares to speak. But his place is also far off and loosely joined; and for a man who is far off to remonstrate as though he were near is what the Li calls flattery. This is why the yards of the offices of commandery and county are always wide and empty of men.

Someone says, "The clerk, with his skill at brush and tablet, orders and settles the registers and looks into and manages troublesome affairs. Though he has no learning of the Way, he gives his sinew and strength and ability wholly to the court, and this too is proof that he repays those above."

The answer is this. It is like a poor man who bears a heavy debt to the office and, being poor, has nothing to pay it with, and so works for the office with his body until the debt is at last worked off. Now the work of the office is either houses or walls. For houses the axe and the adze are used, and for walls the rammer and the spade. How does shouldering the axe and the adze and grasping the rammer and the spade differ from holding that knife and taking up that brush?

If the man who orders documents is truly to be called proof of repaying those above, then the man who builds houses and walls repays those above as well. Both work for the office, and knife and brush, axe and adze, rammer and spade are all of a piece. To carry cloth and trade it for silk is to buy and sell where one has and the other lacks, so that each gets what he wished for. The Confucian scholar carries the Way and buys his pay with it. The clerk carries nothing; with what will he buy and sell? Farmer and merchant have different work, and the goods they store up cannot be the same. Reckon how fine or coarse they are and measure how many or few, and the man whose goods run over is called a rich man; and when a rich man is in the world his village wishes for him. Now the Way of the former kings is not merely the goods of farmer and merchant. That a man should set up merit and bring about right teaching for his senior officer is, among all the crowd, the glory of being rich and having much that runs over. And how should the work of the Confucian scholar be a running over only? His own person is sifted and tempered, his knowledge and thought are bright, he sees right from wrong, and he looks into what is most rare.

Kindling is the same in stem and stock as the timber of all the hills; but cut it for kindling, smoke it over fire so that smoke and heat soak all through it and its color is glossy and rich, and set it in the hall, and its shining is broad and wide. The work of fire and stove has been added to it. Before the embroidery is stitched and the brocade woven, how do the common thread and the ordinary silk differ from any other? Add to them the deftness of the five colors and lay on the adornment of needle and thread, and the figures shine out: the axe pattern and the paired-bow pattern, the flowery bird, the mountain, the dragon, the sun and the moon. That the scholar has letters is like thread and silk having the deftness of the five colors. In their root stuff they cannot pass one another, but where learning is piled up the going beyond is great. A thing with no kernel inside it is called yu (郁). A thing that knife and axe have not cut is called pu (朴). The clerk does not learn, so the teaching of the age has no kernel in him; and with a man who is yu and pu, what is there to grade? Of bone it is said qie, to cut. Of ivory it is said cuo, to file. Of jade it is said zhuo, to carve. Of stone it is said mo, to polish. Only by cutting and filing and carving and polishing does a thing become a precious vessel. That a man's learning and his knowing and ability come to completion is like the cutting and filing and carving and polishing of bone and ivory and jade and stone. Even if one wished not to use such a man, would a worthy ruler cast him aside? Sun Wu and Helü were men of the age who used soldiers well, and one who knows, or who has learned their method, will surely win when he fights. Force a man who does not understand the formations of tens and hundreds and does not know the art of striking and stabbing to lead soldiers, and the soldiers are overturned and the host defeated, because he has not the method. Grain when it first ripens is called su (粟). Pound it in the mortar and winnow out its husks and chaff, steam it in the pot and put fire beneath it, and when it is cooked through it becomes a meal and is sweet and fit to eat. Fit to eat and eaten, it makes its taste and puts flesh on the body. While the grain has not become husked rice and the rice has not become a cooked meal, its breath is raw and unripe, and eating it harms a man. Now a man's not learning is like grain that has not become su and rice that has not become a meal. That his knowledge and his mind are troubled and small is like eating raw grain, whose breath harms a man. That the scholar is sifted and tempered in learning and ripened by his teacher, so that it profits his person, is like grain becoming a meal, which when eaten puts flesh on the body. Copper and tin, while they are still unmined among the many stones, must be cut and dug out by the workman and cast and melted at the bellows before they become a vessel. Before they have passed the bellows they are called jishi, piled stone; and piled stone is one in reality with the tiles by the roadside and the pebbles among the hills. Therefore grain that has not been pounded and steamed is called su, copper that has not been cast and melted is called jishi, and a man who has not learned and asked is called meng (矇). Meng is of the sort of bamboo and wood. Now bamboo grows on the hills and trees grow up in the forest, and they do not yet know what they are to go into. Cut the bamboo to make a tube and split it to make slips, add to it the traces of brush and ink, and it becomes writing: the large becomes a Classic and the small becomes a record. Cut wood to make a board, saw it into planks, and put strength into the scraping, and it becomes a tablet for memorials. Now bamboo and wood are rough and coarse things, and only by carving and polishing and cutting and scraping do they become a thing of use. How much more so with man, who holds within him the nature of Heaven and earth and is the most honored of all!

If a man does not enter the teacher's gate and has no teaching of the Classics and their traditions, and with the substance of one who is yu and pu does not understand ritual and right, then to set him up in the court is of the sort of setting up a fence and planting a marker. What profit is there in it? When grass grows thick on hill and field, it must be cut with hook and sickle before it becomes a road. That the scholar has not yet entered the gate of the Way and his crookedness is not yet cleared away is like the grass and trees of hill and field not yet cut, so that there is no road. When cloth and silk are dyed and finished they are called colored, and they are honored and auspicious clothing. What has no dyeing and finishing is called coarse; and coarse is not auspicious, and the mourner wears it. That a man without the learning of the Way, holding office in the court, cannot call good things to him is like the mourner in coarse cloth being unable to call what is auspicious. One who can shape pillar and beam is called a carpenter in wood. One who can bore holes and dig pits is called a workman in earth. One who can carve and polish documents is called a craftsman of records. Now the learning of the clerk is the learning of how to order documents, and it ought to be put in the same class as the workman in wood and earth. How can it be graded against the Confucian scholar? The censor handles documents without losing a fraction or a grain. The officer in charge sets out the ritual vessels without mistaking a row. Those who are deft at it have also learned it beforehand; but men do not hold it precious, because it is a small and mean ability and not a high and great office. To have no root of the Classics and the arts but the tip of brush and ink, to fall short in the great Way and have too much of small skill, is, though a man say that his learning is much, the knowledge of a censor and the wit of an officer in charge. He who eats millet and fine grain is satisfied and he who eats dregs and chaff is filled; and though both are said to eat, what puts flesh on them is not the same. Confucian scholars and clerks are both said to have practiced their learning, but their profit to the court is not equal.

When Zipi of Zheng set Yin He to govern, Zichan likened it to making a man cut with a knife when he cannot yet hold one. When Zilu made Zigao steward of Bi, Confucius said, "You are harming another man's son." In both cases it was because they had not yet learned and did not see the great Way. If a physician who has no method of his art says, "I can cure sickness," and is asked, "With what do you cure sickness?" and answers, "With my heart and mind," the sick man will surely not believe him. A clerk who has no learning of the Classics says, "I can govern the people"; and asked, "With what do you govern the people?" he answers, "With ability."

This is a physician curing sickness with heart and mind and no method of his art. How would the people be willing to believe in him and turn to him, and how would the ruler entrust him with office and employ him! Go to the market with no money in your hand, and when the owner of the goods asks, "Where is your money?" and you answer, "I have no money," the owner will surely not give them to you. Now to have no learning in the breast is like having no money in the hand. To wish the ruler to entrust and employ you, and the people to believe in you and turn to you, what is to be done!