Zhishi — The Sage Is No Seer知實篇

In every discussion of affairs, if a man departs from the facts and brings no proof, then however sweet his meaning and however abundant his arguments, the crowd will not believe him. To argue that the sage is not a spirit who knows beforehand, and that in this knowing beforehand he cannot see by himself alone, is not mere empty argument and hollow talk. It is the craft of measuring and comparing by talent and wisdom. Affairs have evidence and proof, and by proof their truth is made plain. How is this made plain?

Confucius asked Gongming Jia about Gongshu Wenzi. "Is it true? They say the Master does not speak, does not laugh and does not take. Is there such a thing?" He answered, "The one who told you went too far. The Master speaks when the time is right, so people do not tire of his words. He laughs when he is glad, so people do not tire of his laughter. He takes when it is right, so people do not tire of his taking." Confucius said, "How can that be? How can that be?" Among the people of the world there have been men as pure as Bo Yi, who would not take so much as a mustard seed from another, but there has never been a man who did not speak and did not laugh. Confucius could not weigh it in his own mind and settle whether it was so or not, so he thought it strange and did not believe it. Neither could he see through things and see far off and examine the truth of it. Only when he asked Gongming Jia did he learn how matters stood. This is the first proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Chen Ziqin asked Zigong, "When the Master comes to a state, he always hears about its government. Does he seek it out, or is it given to him?" Zigong said, "The Master gets it by being warm, good, respectful, frugal and yielding." To be warm, good, respectful, frugal and yielding is high conduct. When a man has high conduct, others draw close to him. When others draw close to him, they tell him things. So Confucius heard about government through the words of men, and did not know it of himself by spirit power. Duke Jing of Qi asked Zigong, "Is the Master a worthy?" Zigong answered, "The Master is a sage. How should he be a worthy only!" Duke Jing did not know that Confucius was a sage, and Zigong set his name right. Ziqin too did not know how Confucius heard about government, and Zigong settled the fact of it. Since he answered Duke Jing, "The Master is a sage, how should he be a worthy only," then in answering Ziqin he ought likewise to have said, "He knows it of himself by spirit power and does not hear the words of men." Taking Zigong's answer to Ziqin, this is the second proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Yan Yuan was cooking rice when dust fell into the steamer. To leave it there would not be clean, and to throw it on the ground would be to waste the rice, so he picked it up and ate it. Confucius saw him from afar and took him for eating in secret. This is the third proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

On the road there is a madman who throws his blade and waits. In the marsh there is a fierce tiger that grinds its teeth and watches. He who knows of them and sees them does not dare go forward. He who does not know and does not see meets the madman's blade and runs upon the fierce tiger's teeth. When the men of Kuang surrounded Confucius, had Confucius looked ahead and known beforehand, he ought to have changed his road early and kept clear of the harm. He did not know, and ran into it, and so met with that trouble. Taking the surrounding of Confucius, this is the fourth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

The Master was in fear at Kuang, and Yan Yuan fell behind. Confucius said, "I thought you were dead." If Confucius knew beforehand, he ought to have known that Yan Yuan would surely not run into harm and that the men of Kuang would surely do him no violence. Only when he saw Yan Yuan come did he know that he was not dead; before he came, he thought him dead. This is the fifth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Yang Hu wished to see Confucius, and Confucius would not see him, so he sent Confucius a pig. Confucius chose a time when the man was out and went to bow his thanks, and met him on the road. Confucius did not wish to see him, and as he went he waited for a time when the man was out. This shows that he was set on not seeing him. Coming back, he met him on the road. Taking the meeting of Confucius with Yang Hu, this is the sixth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Changju and Jieni were ploughing as a pair. Confucius passed by and sent Zilu to ask where the ford was. If Confucius knew the ford, he ought not to have asked again. Those who discuss it say, "He wished to observe the bearing of men in hiding." But if Confucius knew beforehand, he ought to have known it himself, and there was nothing to observe. And if he did not know and so asked, then he cannot know beforehand. This is the seventh.

When the mother of Confucius died, he did not know where his father's grave was, and he laid her coffin at the crossroads of Wufu. Those who saw it took it for a burial. Since there was no place for a joint burial, he was careful with the coffin, and so people took it for a burial. Only when the mother of his neighbour Zou Manfu told him could he bury her with his father at Fang. The grave was there at Fang all along, and yet he set the coffin at the crossroads. This is the eighth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

When the joint burial was done and Confucius was coming back, his disciples fell behind, and the rain came down hard. Confucius asked, "Why are you late?" They said, "The grave at Fang has fallen in." Confucius did not answer. Then the tears ran down his face and he said, "I have heard that in old times graves were not repaired." If Confucius knew beforehand, he ought to have known first that the grave at Fang would fall in, and by the time the disciples came he should have been weeping as he waited for them. He knew only when the disciples arrived. This is the ninth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

The Master entered the Grand Temple and asked about each thing. To ask because one does not know is to make a rule for others. Confucius had never entered the temple before, and the ritual vessels in the temple were many and not of one sort. Sage though Confucius was, how could he know them? Someone says, "He had seen them before and truly knew them already, and he asked again to make a rule for others." Confucius said, "When in doubt, think of asking." Is it not when one is in doubt that one should ask? If a man truly knows already and yet should ask again to make a rule for others, then Confucius knew the Five Classics and his disciples followed him to learn them, and he ought to have gone on asking about them to make a rule for others. Why then did he simply hand them to his disciples by mouth? He did not ask again about the Five Classics that he knew already, to make a rule for others; yet with the Grand Temple alone, which he knew already, he asked again to make a rule for others. How is the sage's use of his mind so far from being all of a piece? Taking the entry of Confucius into the Grand Temple, this is the tenth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

When a host asks a guest to eat and drink, the guest stays a while and then stops. If the guest has heard that in that house there are sons who make light of him and grandsons who are thin toward him, who are sure to tell their father to take the food away and clear the dishes so that he may not eat or drink, and to shut the lodge and bar the house so that the guest may not stay, then, when the guest lays his plans, he will surely not go. Why? Because he knows there is no gladness in the invitation, and that he would go for nothing and be wearied and shamed. To go, find no gladness, be wearied and shamed and come back again, is not to know that house and not to see how matters truly stand there. Men are truly hard to know, and good and ill fortune are hard to plan for. If Confucius knew beforehand, he ought to have known that the feudal lords were led astray by slandering ministers and could surely not use him, and that he would weary and shame himself for nothing, and though the gifts and the summons came, he ought to have let them be and not gone. The gentleman does not do what brings no gain, and does not tread a path that shames his person. There was no need to travel about answering summons and so take on the shame of having his traces swept away, nor to plead in vain with men who were no rulers and so run into the straits of having his grain cut off. Speaking from this, he could not know what was near at hand. Those who discuss it say, "Confucius knew of himself that he would not be used, but his sage thought pitied the Way for not being practised and the people for lying in mire and charcoal, and he hoped in some measure to help the feudal lords, to practise the Way and save the people. So he answered summons and travelled about and did not shun trouble and shame. He acted for the Way and not for himself, and so he met trouble and did not hate it. He acted for the people and not for a name, and so he bore slander and did not avoid it." I say: this is not the fact. Confucius said, "It was after I came back to Lu from Wei that the music was set right, and the ya and the song pieces each found their place." This means that Confucius knew of himself what his time was. How did he know it of himself? Lu and Wei were the worthiest states in the world. If Lu and Wei could not use him, then no one in the world could use him, and so he withdrew and made the Chunqiu and cut down and settled the Shi and the Shu. Speaking from his coming back to Lu from Wei, it is clear that while he went about answering summons he did not yet know it of himself. Why? Because without sign, shape and proof the sage has no way to settle a thing. When Lu and Wei could not use him, he knew of himself that he had come to the end; when the men of Lu caught the unicorn, he knew of himself that it was cut off. The Way was at its end and his destiny was cut off, and the signs and shapes were plain and clear, so his hopes were broken within him, and he withdrew and thought in quiet. To travel about without rest is like being sick and not yet dead, and praying and divining to be made well. While no sign of death is seen, a man hopes to live. So in answering summons he had not yet seen the proof that it was cut off, and hoped to be used. When the sign of death is seen, he gives it up, sends the diviner back, dismisses the physician, and takes his brush to settle his book. Taking his answering summons and travelling about, this is the eleventh proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Confucius said, "What swims can be taken with a line. What runs can be taken with a stringed arrow. As for the dragon, I do not know it; it rides the clouds and the wind and rises. Today I have seen Laozi. Is he not like the dragon!" The sage knows things and knows affairs. Laozi and the dragon are a man and a creature, and their rising and descending is an affair. Why then did he not know them? If Laozi is a spirit, then the dragon is a spirit too, and the sage is a spirit too. Spirits share one Way, and their essence and breath are joined together. Why then did he not know? Taking the failure of Confucius to know the dragon and Laozi, this is the twelfth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Confucius said, "Filial indeed is Min Ziqian! No one can drive a wedge into what his father and mother and elder brothers say of him." Shun of Yu was a great sage, and in hiding the faults of his own flesh and blood he ought to have surpassed Ziqian. Gusou and Xiang had Shun repair the granary and dredge the well, meaning to kill him. He ought to have seen their purpose to kill him and remonstrated early and stopped it beforehand. And if nothing could be done, he ought to have kept away and not gone, and pleaded sickness and refused. Why did he let his father and his younger brother carry through the evil of killing him, so that men heard that his father and brother were in the wrong, and it is not wiped out in ten thousand generations? That Shun of Yu did not see it beforehand is the thirteenth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

King Wu was unwell, and the Duke of Zhou asked for his destiny. The altar and the cleared ground were already set out and the prayer on the tablets was already finished, but he did not know whether Heaven granted his request or not, and so he divined with three tortoises, and all three were auspicious. If the sage knows beforehand, the Duke of Zhou ought to have known that Heaven had granted it already, and there was no need to turn at once to three tortoises. Knowing that the sage does not set up a rule on what he alone sees, he asked for the destiny once more; but it was hidden away and not shown, and the mind of Heaven is hard to know, so he divined and matched the signs, and only when the signs were settled and his mind was fixed did he go on with the business. This is the fourteenth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Yanzi went as an envoy to Lu. Where men do not hasten with short steps on the hall, Yanzi hastened; where men do not kneel in handing over the jade, Yanzi knelt. The disciples thought it strange and asked Confucius. Confucius did not know, and asked Yanzi. Yanzi explained it, and then Confucius understood. This is the fifteenth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Chen Jia asked Mencius, "What sort of man was the Duke of Zhou?" He said, "A sage." "He set Guanshu to watch over Yin, and Guanshu rebelled. Were there these two things?" He said, "There were." "Did the Duke of Zhou know that he would rebel and send him, or send him without knowing?" He said, "He did not know." "Then has even a sage his faults?" He said, "The Duke of Zhou was the younger brother, and Guanshu the elder. Was not the fault of the Duke of Zhou fitting enough!" Mencius was a man of real facts, and he said that the Duke of Zhou, sage as he was, stood below his brother and could not know that Guanshu would rebel. This is the sixteenth proof that the sage cannot know beforehand.

Confucius said, "Si does not take his destiny and goes in for trade, and when he reckons he often hits the mark." This blames Zigong for being good at storing goods up, weighing the times of dear and cheap, and often catching the right moment, so that his trade grew great and his wealth matched that of Tao Zhu. If so, the sage's knowing beforehand is of the same kind as Zigong's reckoning and hitting the mark. The sage leans on shapes and signs, traces out the kinds of things, and gets at them by thinking. That he sees a change and names a thing comes of wide learning and a good memory. He reckons cleverly and thinks well, sees widely and remembers much, and from the small he sees the clear, as though by measuring today he looked upon a thousand years. This is what is called knowing deep as a pool and wide as the sea. Confucius saw through a crack and saw the small, his thought ran clear through, his talent and wisdom were twice other men's, and he was strong and never weary, and so he went beyond his fellows, that is all! His eyes had no brightness of far sight by which he knew shapes that other men could not know. If the sage saw through things and saw far off, heard through things and heard what was hidden, spoke with Heaven and earth and spoke with ghosts and spirits, and knew the affairs above the sky and under the earth, then he might be called a spirit who knows beforehand and stands apart from other men. As it is, his ears and eyes hear and see no differently from other men, and when he meets an affair and looks at a thing he is no different from other men. He is one grade above the worthy, no more. On what ground is he called a spirit who stands apart?

The sage is like the worthy: the man who stands out from others is called a sage. So sage and worthy are names for a greater and a smaller degree, not names for things utterly apart. How is this made plain? Duke Huan of Qi planned with Guan Zhong to attack Ju. The plan had not yet gone out, and it was heard of in the state. Duke Huan thought it strange and asked Guan Zhong, "I planned with Zhongfu to attack Ju. It has not gone out, and it is heard of in the state. What is the reason?" Guan Zhong said, "There must be a sage in the state." A little later Donguo Ya happened to come. Guan Zhong said, "This must be the man." So he had him received as a guest and led up, and they stood on separate steps. Guan Zhong said, "Was it you who said that Ju would be attacked?" He answered, "It was." Guan Zhong said, "I am not attacking Ju. Why did you say that I would attack Ju?" He answered, "Your servant has heard that the gentleman is good at planning and the small man is good at guessing. Your servant guessed it in private." Guan Zhong said, "I did not speak of attacking Ju. How did you guess it?" He answered, "Your servant has heard that the gentleman has three colours. Glad and joyful is the colour of bells and drums. Sorrowful, clear and still is the colour of mourning garments. Angry, with hands and feet full of it, is the colour of arms and armour. My lord's mouth hung open and did not close, and what he spoke of was Ju. My lord raised his arm and pointed, and what he faced was Ju again. Your servant reckoned in private that among the small feudal states there is only Ju that does not submit. That is why I spoke." Now Guan Zhong was a man of the highest wisdom, and his telling of things and weighing of affairs were searching. In saying, "There must be a sage in the state," he meant in all sincerity that there must be one in the state. When Donguo Ya came and he said, "This must be the man," he meant that Donguo Ya was a sage. If the worthy and the sage were of wholly separate ranks, Guan Zhong would have known that there was no company of twelve sages in his time, and he ought to have said, "There must be a worthy in the state," and there would have been no call to speak of a sage. When the plan had not gone out and was heard of in the state, Guan Zhong said, "There must be a sage in the state," and this means that the sage knows beforehand. When he saw Donguo Ya and said, "This must be the man," he meant that a worthy is a sage. Donguo Ya's knowing was searching, and this is the same as the sage.

There was a man who presented Chunyu Kun to King Hui of Liang. He presented him twice, and to the end Kun said nothing. King Hui thought it strange and reproached the man, saying, "You praised Master Chunyu and said that Guan Zhong and Yanzi did not come up to him. But when he saw me, I got nothing from him. Am I not worth speaking to?" The man spoke to Kun. Kun said, "Just so! The first time I saw the king, his mind was on something far off; the second time I saw him, his mind was on music. That is why I kept silent." The man reported it all, and the king was greatly startled and said, "Ah! Master Chunyu is truly a sage. The first time Master Chunyu came, someone had presented me with a dragon horse, and I had not yet had time to look at it when he arrived. The next time he came, someone had presented me with a singer, and I had not yet had time to try her, and again he arrived just then. Though I had sent my attendants away, my private mind was on those things." Now in seeing that King Hui's mind was on what was far off and on music, not even the discernment of Tang and Yu could go beyond Kun. The mind lay in his breast, hidden and unseen, and Kun could know it. If men like Kun are counted sages, then Kun is a sage. If men like Kun are said not to be sages, then how does the sage's knowing go beyond Kun's knowing of King Hui? Watching the colour of a man to spy out his mind is in every case a matter of taking hold of something and aiming by it.

King Ling of Chu called the feudal lords together, and Zichan of Zheng said, "Lu, Zhu, Song and Wei will not come." When the lords met, the four states indeed did not arrive. Zhao Yao was censor of the seals, and Fangyu Gong, a man of Zhao, said to Zhou Chang the censor in chief, "Your clerk Zhao Yao will take your place." Afterwards Yao did become censor in chief. So the four states not arriving was Zichan tracing out the principle, and Zhao Yao's becoming censor in chief was Fangyu Gong seeing the shape of it. To trace out the principle and see the shape, and so to settle and set forth what is about to come, is to have the means of examining it. Gongsun Chen, a man of Lu, sent up a letter in the time of Emperor Xiaowen saying that Han held the power of earth and that its token, a yellow dragon, ought to appear. Afterwards a yellow dragon appeared at Chengji. So Gongsun Chen's knowing that a yellow dragon was about to come out was his examining the pitch pipes and the calendar and settling it by them.

The knowing of the worthy and the sage must have its proof in affairs. The talent of the worthy and the sage can in every case know beforehand, but this knowing beforehand rests on method and uses reckoning, or else it weighs well and guesses cleverly. It is not that the sage knows out of the empty air. Spirits and strange powers on the one side, and sages and worthies on the other, take different ways and different roads. The knowing of sages and worthies does not pass its bounds, and so their use of thought goes in and out of one another; and in meeting affairs there is nothing of spirit or strange power in them, and so their names and titles are traded for one another. Therefore the worthy and the sage are titles of virtue, wisdom and ability, while the spirit is the reality of what is dim and far and shadowy and without shape. Where the reality differs, the substance cannot be the same; where the reality is level, the effect cannot differ. The titles of sage and spirit are not the same, and so it is said that the sage is no spirit and the spirit is no sage. Donguo Ya guessed well and so knew how things stood in the state; Zigong guessed well and so got goods and gain. The sage's knowing beforehand is of the company of Zigong and Donguo Ya. If it is the same as Zigong's and Donguo's, then the likes of Zigong and Donguo are sages too. If this is so, the reality of sage and worthy is the same and only the names and titles differ, and it need not be that their talents stand utterly apart and the wisdom of the one is twice the other's.

The Grand Steward asked Zigong, "Is the Master a sage? How many things he can do!" Zigong said, "Heaven has indeed let him loose to be a sage before long, and he can do many things besides." "Before long" means "about to be". He did not say that he was a sage already, but that he was to be a sage, and this takes the sagehood of Confucius as not yet complete. Now if sagehood is like worthiness, a man orders his conduct and files his bearing, and while his bearing and conduct are not yet established he is said to be about to be worthy. To say here that he is to be a sage is because sagehood is something a man can come to. Confucius said, "At fifteen I set my mind on learning. At thirty I stood firm. At forty I was not led astray. At fifty I knew the destiny of Heaven. At sixty my ear was in accord." From knowing the destiny of Heaven to the ear in accord, his learning was complete and his knowing was clear, and this is the proof that he became a sage. Before the years of fifty and sixty he could not yet know the destiny of Heaven or reach the ear in accord, and so he was said to be "about to be" a sage. When Zigong answered the Grand Steward it was near his thirtieth or fortieth year.

King Zhao of Wei asked Tian Qu, "When I was in the eastern palace I heard that you said in your discussions, 'It is easy to become a sage.' Is there such a thing?" Tian Qu answered, "That is what your servant has learned." King Zhao said, "Then is the master a sage?" Tian Qu said, "To know a man's sagehood before he has any achievement is how Yao knew Shun. To wait until he has achievement and then know his sagehood is how the men of the market knew Shun. Now your servant has no achievement yet, and your Majesty asks me, 'Are you a sage?' May I ask whether your Majesty is a Yao?" Sagehood can be reached by learning, and so Tian Qu called it easy. If it stood apart from other men, received from the nature Heaven gives and so of itself, how could it be learned, and how could the doing of it be brought to completion? Tian Qu's saying that it is easy to become a sage need not mean that he could bring it to completion, and his saying that it is easy need not be right; but his saying "that is what your servant has learned" is likely the fact.

Sagehood can be learned, but the toil and the ease of it differ, and so the titles of worthy and sage are shared by the benevolent and the wise. Zigong asked Confucius, "Is the Master a sage?" Confucius said, "Sagehood is beyond me. I only learn without being sated and teach without growing weary." Zigong said, "To learn without being sated is wisdom. To teach without growing weary is benevolence. Benevolent and wise, the Master is a sage already." Speaking from this, a man who is benevolent and wise may be called a sage. Mencius said, "Zixia, Ziyou and Zizhang had one limb of the sage. Ranniu, Min Ziqian and Yan Yuan had the whole body, but in small measure." These six men in their time all had the talent of a sage; some had much of it but not the whole, and some had the whole of it but not in clear light; yet all were called sages. So sagehood can be reached by effort. Mencius said again, "To serve no ruler but his own and use no people but his own, to come forward when there was order and withdraw when there was disorder, that was Bo Yi. To say, 'What ruler is not a ruler to serve, what people are not a people to use,' and to come forward alike in order and in disorder, that was Yi Yin. To take office when it was fit to take office, to stop when it was fit to stop, to stay long when it was fit to stay long, to go quickly when it was fit to go quickly, that was Confucius. All of them were sages of old." He said again, "The sage is the teacher of a hundred generations, and Bo Yi and Liuxia Hui are such. Therefore those who hear the character of Bo Yi grow pure though they were stubborn, and set their will though they were weak; those who hear the character of Liuxia Hui grow generous though they were thin, and broad though they were mean. They rose up a hundred generations above, and of those who hear of them a hundred generations below there is none who is not stirred. Could it be so if they were not sages? How much more for those who came near and were warmed by them?" Now Yi Yin, Bo Yi and Liuxia Hui do not come up to Confucius, and yet Mencius called them all sages, because the worthy and the sage are of one kind and can share a single name. Zai Yu said, "As I look at the Master, he is far worthier than Yao and Shun." Confucius was a sage, and it would have been fitting to say that he was more sagely than Yao and Shun; but the word said was "worthier", because sage and worthy go in and out of one another, and so their names and titles are traded for one another.