Gongshu公輸

Mozi (The Book of Master Mo) 墨子 · Mo Di and his disciples · About the 4th century BC · 1 passages · 647 Chinese characters · reading time 2.6 min

Mozi (The Book of Master Mo) The writings of the school that in the Warring States period stood beside the Confucians as one of the "two great companies." It is not the work of one man but what Mo Di and his disciples added generation after generation, and so many chapters set down the same argument in three versions — upper, middle and lower. These are taken as the traces of the branches of the school, each copying it out in its own way. Ten doctrines are the backbone — exalting the worthy, conforming upward with what is right, loving all alike, condemning aggression, thrift in use, thrift in burial, following the will of Heaven, making ghosts clear, condemning music, and condemning fate. "If a man looked on the house of another as on his own house, who would steal?" is in the chapters on loving all alike. The ladder of "Condemning Aggression" — that a man who steals peaches and plums from another's orchard is punished, while a man who attacks another's state is praised — and the three gauges of "Condemning Fate," that to speak without a measure is "like setting the marks of sunrise and sunset upon a turning potter's wheel," stand there too. The last chapter, "Gongshu," is a story. When Chu made cloud ladders to attack Song, Mozi walked ten days and ten nights, met Gongshu Ban, and beat him nine times over with a belt and pieces of wood; and on the way home he met rain and was not let in to shelter inside the gate of that very Song village.

公輸般爲楚造雲梯之械成，將以攻宋。子墨子聞之，起於齊，行十日十夜，而至於郢，見公輸般。公輸般曰：「夫子何命焉爲？」子墨子曰：「北方有侮臣者，願藉子殺之。」公輸般不說。子墨子曰：「請獻十金。」公輸般曰：「吾義固不殺人。」子墨子起，再拜曰：「請說之。吾從北方聞子爲梯，將以攻宋。宋何罪之有？荆國有餘於地，而不足於民，殺所不足而爭所有餘，不可謂智。宋無罪而攻之，不可謂仁。知而不爭，不可謂忠。爭而不得，不可謂强。義不殺少而殺衆，不可謂知類。」公輸般服。子墨子曰：「然乎不已乎？」公輸般曰：「不可，吾既已言之王矣。」子墨子曰：「胡不見我於王？」公輸般曰：「諾。」子墨子見王，曰：「今有人於此，舍其文軒，鄰有敝轝而欲竊之；舍其錦繡，鄰有短褐而欲竊之；舍其粱肉，鄰有穅糟而欲竊之。此爲何若人？」王曰：「必爲竊疾矣。」子墨子曰：「荆之地方五千里，宋方五百里，此猶文軒之與敝轝也；荆有雲夢，犀兕麋鹿滿之，江漢之魚鼈黿鼉爲天下富，宋所爲無雉兔狐貍者也，此猶粱肉之與穅糟也；荆有長松文梓楩柟豫章，宋無長木，此猶錦繡之與短褐也。臣以三事之攻宋也，爲與此同類。」王曰：「善哉！雖然，公輸般爲我爲雲梯，必取宋。」於是見公輸般，子墨子解帶爲城，以牒爲械，公輸般九設攻城之機變，子墨子九距之，公輸般之攻械盡，子墨子之守圉有餘。公輸般詘，而曰：「吾知所以距子矣，吾不言。」子墨子亦曰：「吾知子之所以距我，吾不言。」楚王問其故，子墨子曰：「公輸子之意，不過欲殺臣，殺臣，宋莫能守，可攻也。然臣之弟子禽滑釐等三百人，已持臣守圉之器，在宋城上而待楚寇矣。雖殺臣，不能絕也。」楚王曰：「善哉！吾請無攻宋矣。」子墨子歸，過宋，天雨，庇其閭中，守閭者不內也。故曰：治於神者，衆人不知其功；爭於明者，衆人知之。

Gongshu Ban made the gear of cloud ladders for Chu, and when it was finished he was about to attack Song.

Mozi heard of it and set out from Qi, and walked ten days and ten nights, and came to Ying (郢), and saw Gongshu Ban.

Gongshu Ban said, "What command has the master for me?"

Mozi said, "There is a man in the north who has insulted me. I wish to borrow you and kill him."

Gongshu Ban was not pleased. Mozi said, "I ask to offer ten pieces of gold."

Gongshu Ban said, "My righteousness is that I do not kill men."

Mozi rose and bowed twice and said, "Let me speak of this. I heard in the north that you had made ladders and were about to attack Song. What guilt has Song?

Chu has land to spare and lacks people. To kill what is lacking and fight over what there is to spare cannot be called wise. Song has no guilt, and to attack it cannot be called benevolent. To know this and not argue against it cannot be called loyal. To argue and not prevail cannot be called strong. To hold a righteousness that will not kill a few and yet to kill many cannot be called knowing the kind of a thing."

Gongshu Ban gave in.

Mozi said, "Then will you not stop?"

Gongshu Ban said, "I cannot. I have already spoken of it to the king."

Mozi said, "Why not present me to the king?"

Gongshu Ban said, "Very well."

Mozi saw the king and said, "Suppose there is a man here who leaves his figured carriage and wishes to steal the worn-out cart next door; who leaves his brocade and embroidery and wishes to steal the short coat of hair next door; who leaves his fine rice and meat and wishes to steal the husks and lees next door. What sort of man is this?"

The king said, "He must have the sickness of stealing."

Mozi said, "The land of Chu is five thousand li square and Song is five hundred li square, and this is like the figured carriage and the worn-out cart. Chu has Yunmeng, filled with rhinoceros and wild ox, elk and deer, and the fish and turtles and river turtles and alligators of the Jiang and the Han make it the richest under heaven, while Song, as they say, has neither pheasant nor hare nor fox, and this is like the fine rice and meat and the husks and lees. Chu has tall pines and figured catalpa, cedar and camphor, while Song has no tall trees, and this is like the brocade and embroidery and the short coat of hair.

I hold that my lord's servants attacking Song is of the same kind as this."

The king said, "Well said! Even so, Gongshu Ban has made the cloud ladders for me, and I must take Song."

Thereupon he saw Gongshu Ban. Mozi loosened his belt to make a city wall and took wooden tablets for engines. Gongshu Ban set out nine changes of his engines for attacking a wall, and Mozi held them off nine times. Gongshu Ban's engines of attack were used up, and Mozi's guarding and holding off was still to spare.

Gongshu Ban gave way and said, "I know how I would hold you off, but I will not say it."

Mozi also said, "I know how you would hold me off, but I will not say it."

The king of Chu asked the reason, and Mozi said, "Gongshuzi's intent is no more than to kill me. If I am killed, Song cannot hold out and can be attacked.

But my disciples, Qin Huali and the rest, three hundred men, already hold my engines for guarding and holding off, and they are on the wall of Song waiting for the robbers of Chu. Though I be killed, it cannot be cut off."

The king of Chu said, "Well said! I ask to make no attack on Song."

Mozi went home, and as he passed through Song the sky sent rain, and he would have sheltered inside the village gate, but the keeper of the gate would not let him in.

Therefore it is said: of the man who governs by what is divine, the multitude do not know his achievement, and of the man who contends in the open, the multitude know it.

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