Zhenglun — Correcting Common Opinions正論篇

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "The way of the ruler profits by being closed all round."

This is not so. The ruler is the call the people answer; the one above is the bearing of those below. They will hear the call and answer, see the bearing and move. If the call is silent, the people have nothing to answer; if the bearing is hidden, those below have nothing to move by. If they neither answer nor move, those above and those below have no way to hold one another. If it is like this, it is the same as having no one above, and nothing is more unlucky than that.

So the one above is the root of those below. When the one above spreads light, those below are ordered and discerning. When the one above is upright and true, those below are careful and honest. When the one above is fair and straight, those below are easy and straight. Ordered and discerning, they are easily made one; careful and honest, they are easily employed; easy and straight, they are easily known. Easily made one, they are strong; easily employed, they achieve; easily known, they are clear. This is where order is born from.

When the one above is closed and tight, those below grow doubtful and dim. When the one above is dark and dangerous, those below grow deceitful little by little. When the one above is partial and crooked, those below band together in cliques. Doubtful and dim, they are hard to make one; deceitful, they are hard to employ; banded in cliques, they are hard to know. Hard to make one, they are not strong; hard to employ, they do not achieve; hard to know, they are not clear. This is where disorder rises from.

So the way of the ruler profits by being bright and does not profit by being dark; it profits by spreading open and does not profit by being closed all round. So when the way of the ruler is bright, those below are safe; when the way of the ruler is dark, those below are in danger. When those below are safe, they hold the one above dear; when those below are in danger, they hold the one above cheap. So when the one above is easy to know, those below draw close to him; when the one above is hard to know, those below fear him. When those below draw close to the one above, the one above is safe; when those below fear him, the one above is in danger.

So in the way of the ruler nothing is worse than being hard to know, and nothing is more dangerous than making those below fear him. A saying handed down goes, "When many hate a man, he is in danger." The Documents say, "He was able to make bright his bright virtue." The Odes say, "Bright and bright it is below." So the former kings made it bright. How should they have only made it dim?

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "Jie and King Zhou (紂) held all under heaven, and King Tang and King Wu seized it from them."

This is not so. To say that Jie and King Zhou always held the seat of all under heaven is so; to say that they held that seat in their own persons is not so; to say that all under heaven lay with Jie and King Zhou is not so.

In old times the Son of Heaven had a thousand offices and the feudal lords a hundred offices. When with these thousand offices his commands were carried out in the central states, he was called a king. When with these hundred offices his commands were carried out within the borders, and the state, though not at peace, did not come to being cast down, changed, and at last lost, he was called a lord.

A man may be the son of a sage king, the heir of one who held all under heaven, the one in whom power and the seat rest, the head of the house of all under heaven, and yet be no timber for it and not fit. Then within, the hundred families hate him; without, the feudal lords turn away from him; near at hand what lies within the borders is not one; far off the feudal lords do not listen; his commands are not carried out within his borders; and at the worst the feudal lords encroach on him and pare him away and attack him. If it is like this, then though he is not yet lost, I say that he has no all under heaven.

When the sage king has died and the one who holds power and the seat is too poor a man to hang all under heaven upon, then all under heaven has no lord. If among the feudal lords there is one whose virtue is bright and whose awe is heaped up, so that among the people within the seas there is none who does not wish to get him for lord and teacher, and a cruel state alone runs to excess, how should he not cut it down? He will surely not harm the guiltless people; he cuts down the ruler of the cruel state as one cuts down a lone fellow. If it is like this, he may be said to be able to use all under heaven. To be able to use all under heaven is called being a king.

King Tang and King Wu did not take all under heaven. They cultivated their way and carried out their right, they raised up what was of common profit to all under heaven and took away what was of common harm to all under heaven, and all under heaven turned to them. Jie and King Zhou did not cast all under heaven away. They went against the virtue of King Yu and King Tang, threw the divisions of ritual and rightness into disorder, behaved as birds and beasts, heaped up their ill and made their wickedness whole, and all under heaven left them. When all under heaven turns to a man, it is called being a king; when all under heaven leaves a man, it is called being lost.

So Jie and King Zhou had no all under heaven, and King Tang and King Wu did not kill their lord: by this it is made clear. King Tang and King Wu were the father and mother of the people; Jie and King Zhou were the robbers the people hated. Now those who make sayings in the common world take Jie and King Zhou for lords and say that King Tang and King Wu killed them. Then this is to cut down the father and mother of the people and to take the robbers the people hated for teachers, and nothing is more unlucky than that.

If the joining of all under heaven makes a man lord, then all under heaven never joined with Jie and King Zhou. That being so, to call King Tang and King Wu killers is a saying all under heaven has never held; it only tears them down.

So only the right man can be Son of Heaven. All under heaven is the heaviest of things, and none but the strongest can bear it; it is the greatest of things, and none but the most discerning can divide it; it is the most numerous of things, and none but the brightest can bring it into harmony. These three utmost things none but a sage can fulfill. So none but a sage can be king. The sage is one whose way is complete and whose beauty is whole; he is the balance that weighs all under heaven.

As for Jie and King Zhou, their thoughts and reckonings were the most dangerous, their minds the most benighted, their deeds the most disordered. Those close to them kept away, the worthy held them cheap, the living people hated them. They were the heirs of Yu and Tang, and yet they could not get one man to stand with them. They cut open Bi Gan and shut Ji Zi up; they died and their states were lost, and they became the great laughingstock of all under heaven. When later ages speak of wickedness, they always look back to these two. This is the reckoning of men who could not hold even wife and child.

So the utmost in worth makes the four seas his field, and Tang and King Wu were such men; the utmost in poorness of parts cannot hold even wife and child, and Jie and King Zhou were such men. Now those who make sayings in the common world say that Jie and King Zhou held all under heaven and make subjects of Tang and King Wu. Is this not going far too far? To liken it, it is as if a hunchbacked shaman and a lame man thought themselves greatly knowing.

So one may seize another man's state, but one may not seize another man's all under heaven; one may steal a state, but one may not steal all under heaven. He who is able to seize may hold a state, but he may not hold all under heaven; by stealing one may get a state, but one may not get all under heaven.

Why is this? I say: a state is a small vessel. A small man can hold it, a small way can get it, a small strength can keep it. All under heaven is a great vessel. A small man cannot hold it, a small way cannot get it, a small strength cannot keep it. A small man can hold a state, yet it is not certain that it will not be lost; all under heaven is the greatest of things, and none but a sage can hold it.

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "In the ordered world of old there were no punishments that cut the flesh; there were punishments in likeness. Branding the brow was done with a black kerchief, cutting off the nose with a hat string of grass, castration with a knee cover of mugwort color, cutting off the feet with hemp sandals, and death with a red robe left without a border. The ordered world of old was like this."

This is not so. If you hold that it was ordered, then no man touched a crime at all, and not only were punishments that cut the flesh not used, punishments in likeness were not used either.

If you hold that men did touch crime and only that their punishments were made light, then this means that one who kills a man does not die and one who wounds a man is not punished. When the crime is the heaviest and the punishment the lightest, the common run of men no longer know it for a wrong, and no disorder is greater than that.

The root of punishing men is to forbid cruelty, to hate wickedness, and to check what has not yet come. If one who kills a man does not die and one who wounds a man is not punished, this is called being kind to the cruel and lenient with robbers; it is not hating wickedness. So punishments in likeness were most likely not born in the ordered world of old; they rose together with the disorder of today.

The ordered world of old was not like this. Ranks of title, offices of state, praise and reward, punishment and penalty are all repayments; they follow one another by kind. Let one thing lose its match, and it is the beginning of disorder. When virtue does not match the place, ability does not match the office, reward does not fit the merit, and penalty does not fit the crime, nothing is more unlucky than that.

Long ago King Wu attacked Shang, cut down King Zhou, severed his head, and hung it from a red banner. To march on the cruel and cut down the violent is government at its fullest. That one who kills a man dies and one who wounds a man is punished is what the hundred kings held in common, and there is no one who knows where it came from.

When the punishment matches the crime there is order; when it does not match the crime there is disorder. So where there is order the punishments are heavy, and where there is disorder the punishments are light, for a crime committed in an ordered world is heavy of itself and a crime committed in a disordered world is light of itself. The Documents say, "Punishments are light in one age and heavy in another." This is what is meant.

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "King Tang and King Wu were not good at forbidding and commanding." "Why is this?" "Because Chu and Yue did not accept their measures."

This is not so. King Tang and King Wu were the best in all under heaven at forbidding and commanding. King Tang dwelt at Bo and King Wu dwelt at Hao, each a land of a hundred li, and all under heaven became one, the feudal lords became their subjects, and of all that could be reached there was none that did not shake and stir, follow and submit, and be changed into obedience. How should Chu and Yue alone not have accepted their measures?

The measures of a king are these: he looks at the shape and the lie of the land and settles what gear and goods it uses, he matches far and near and grades what is brought in tribute. How should these be the same everywhere? So the men of Lu use tang (榶), the men of Wey use ke (柯), and the men of Qi use a single hide. Where land and shape and measure are not the same, the gear and goods and trappings cannot but differ.

So the central states wear the same dress and keep the same bearing, while the states of the Man, the Yi, the Rong, and the Di wear the same dress but do not keep the same measures. Within the enfeoffed land is the dian service (甸服); beyond the enfeoffed land is the hou service (侯服); the hou and the wei are the bin service (賓服); the Man and the Yi are the yao service (要服); the Rong and the Di are the huang service (荒服). Those of the dian service sacrifice daily, those of the hou service sacrifice monthly, those of the bin service bring offerings each season, those of the yao service bring tribute each year, and those of the huang service come once when a king is changed. Daily sacrifice, monthly sacrifice, seasonal offering, yearly tribute, and coming when a king is changed: this is what is meant by looking at the shape and the lie of the land to settle what gear and goods it uses, and matching far and near to grade what is brought in tribute. These are the measures of a king.

Now Chu and Yue belong among those who bring offerings each season, bring tribute each year, and come when a king is changed. Must they be made even with those who sacrifice daily and monthly before you will say that they have accepted his measures? This is a saying that would grind all things to one compass. A starveling in a ditch is not yet fit to be brought as far as the measures of a king. The saying goes, "With the shallow you cannot sound the deep, with the foolish you cannot plan what is wise, and with the frog of a pit well you cannot speak of the joy of the Eastern Sea." This is what is meant.

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "Yao and Shun yielded the throne at their own will."

This is not so. The power and place of the Son of Heaven are the most honored, and he has no match in all under heaven. To whom, then, would he yield? His way and virtue are pure and complete, his wisdom and kindness are most bright. He faces south and gives ear to all under heaven, and among the living people there is none who does not shake and stir, follow and submit, and be changed into obedience. In all under heaven there is no hidden scholar and no goodness left out; those who agree with him are right and those who differ from him are wrong. How, then, should there be any yielding of all under heaven at one's own will?

They say, "He yielded it as he died."

This again is not so. When a sage king is above, he judges virtue and settles the ranks, he measures ability and gives out the offices, so that all the people carry their own task and each gets what is fitting for him. Those who cannot measure profit by right and cannot dress their nature by deliberate effort he makes into common people alike.

When the sage king has died and there is no sage in all under heaven, then of course no one is fit to hand all under heaven over at his own will. If there is a sage in all under heaven and he is the son who comes after, then all under heaven does not fall away, the court does not change places, the state does not alter its measures, and all under heaven rests easy, with nothing to mark it off from the day before. It is Yao following upon Yao. What change is there in that?

If the sage is not the son who comes after but one of the three dukes, then all under heaven goes to him as if coming home; it is only turned back and shaken into place again. All under heaven rests easy, with nothing to mark it off from the day before. It is Yao following upon Yao. What change is there in that? Only the moving of the court and the altering of the measures is hard.

So while the Son of Heaven lives, all under heaven raises up one man, brings obedience to its full and is ordered, and ranks are settled by the weighing of virtue; and when he dies, there is surely someone able to take all under heaven upon him. The divisions of ritual and rightness are then complete. What use is there in yielding at one's own will?

They say, "He was old and worn out, and so he yielded it."

This again is not so. Blood and breath, sinew and strength do wear out; but wisdom and reckoning, taking and leaving, do not wear out.

They say, "The old man could not bear the toil of it, and so he rested."

This again is the talk of one who fears the work. The power of the Son of Heaven is the heaviest and his body the most at ease; his heart is the most glad and his will bends to nothing; his body does no toil and his honor has nothing above it.

For dress he wears the five colors, blends the in-between colors, doubles figure and embroidery, and adds ornaments of pearl and jade. For food and drink he doubles the great sacrificial beasts and sets out rare things, matching smell and taste; the dishes are brought slowly, a drum is struck for him to eat, music in harmony takes them away and offers them at the five sacrifices. More than a hundred men hold the offerings and wait upon him in the western chamber.

Where he stays, the curtains are spread and he sits with a screen at his back, and the feudal lords hasten below the hall. When he goes out of the door, the shamans, women and men, have their office; when he goes out of the gate, the invocators of the ancestral temple have their office. He rides the great carriage and treads a rush mat to nourish his ease, at his side is borne sweet grass to nourish his nose, before him is the figured yoke bar to nourish his eyes, and the sound of the bells, keeping to the Wu and the Xiang when he walks and to the Shao and the Hu when he hastens, nourishes his ears.

The three dukes bear up the yoke and hold the reins, the feudal lords hold the wheels and flank the carriage and go before the horses, the great lords are ranged behind, the high officers come next, the lesser lords and the senior officers next to these, the common officers go in armor along both sides of the road, and the common people hide themselves away and dare not look up. At rest he is like a great spirit; in motion he is like the Lord of Heaven.

For holding old age and nourishing what is worn out, is there anything better than this? If a man who is not old rests, is there in his rest such ease and gladness and calm as this? So it is said: the feudal lords have old age, but the Son of Heaven has no old age.

There is giving up a state at one's own will; there is no giving up all under heaven at one's own will. In this old times and today are one. To say that Yao and Shun yielded the throne at their own will is an empty word. It is what shallow men have handed down and what narrow men say. They do not know the pattern of going against and going along, nor the changes of small and great, of reaching and not reaching; they are not yet fit to be brought as far as the great pattern of all under heaven.

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "Yao and Shun could not teach and change men." "Why is this?" "Because Danzhu and Xiang were not changed."

This is not so. Yao and Shun were the best in all under heaven at teaching and changing men. They faced south and gave ear to all under heaven, and among the living people there was none who did not shake and stir, follow and submit, and be changed into obedience. Yet Danzhu and Xiang alone were not changed. This was not the fault of Yao and Shun; it was the crime of Danzhu and Xiang.

Yao and Shun were the flower of all under heaven; Danzhu and Xiang were the strange ones of all under heaven, the petty ones of one age. Now those who make sayings in the common world do not find Danzhu and Xiang strange, but hold Yao and Shun to be wrong. Is this not going far too far? This is what is called a strange saying.

Yi and Fengmen were the best archers in all under heaven, but with a warped bow and crooked arrows they could not hit the smallest mark. Wang Liang and Zaofu were the best drivers in all under heaven, but with limping horses and a broken carriage they could not come far. Yao and Shun were the best in all under heaven at teaching and changing men, but they could not change the strange and the petty.

What age has been without its strange ones? What time has been without its petty ones? From Taihao and Suiren on there has been no age without them. So he who makes such a saying is unlucky, he who learns it takes the harm of it, and he who calls it wrong has praise. The Odes say, "The woes of the people below are not sent down from heaven. Chattering to the face and hating behind the back, the striving comes only from men." This is what is meant.

Those who make sayings in the common world say, "In highest antiquity burial was thin. The coffin was three inches thick, the clothes and coverlets were three sets, and the grave land did not get in the way of the fields, and so graves were not dug up. In the disorder of today burial is thick and the coffin is adorned, and so they are dug up."

This is the word of one who does not know the way of government and has not looked into why graves are dug up or not dug up.

When a man steals, it is always for something: if not to make up what he lacks, then to add to what he already has in plenty. But when a sage king gave the people their living, he made them all rich and well provided and easy enough to know contentment, and did not let them go past measure with what was left over. So thieves did not steal and robbers did not stab, dogs and pigs spat out beans and grain, and farmers and merchants alike could yield goods and wealth to one another. So beautiful were the manners of the time that men and women of themselves took up nothing from the road, and the hundred families were ashamed to pick up what was dropped.

So Confucius said, "When all under heaven has the way, the thief will be the first to change." Though pearls and jade filled the body, figure and embroidery filled the coffin, gold filled the outer coffin, cinnabar was added and azurite laid on, rhinoceros horn and ivory were made into trees, and langgan (琅玕), longzi (龍茲), and huajin (華覲) were made into their fruit, still no one would dig them up. Why is this? Because the seeking of profit is crooked and slack in them, and the shame of breaking the divisions is great.

In the disorder of today it is the other way about. Those above employ men without law, those below act without measure. The wise do not get to plan, the able do not get to govern, the worthy do not get to be employed.

If it is like this, then above they lose the nature of heaven, below they lose the profit of earth, and between they lose the harmony of men. So the hundred works are laid aside, goods and wealth are cramped, and calamity and disorder rise. Kings and dukes suffer from not having enough above, and the common people freeze and starve and waste away below.

At such a time men live in herds like Jie and King Zhou, and thieves and robbers strike and seize and put those above in danger. They are at ease in the ways of birds and beasts, greedy as tigers and wolves, and so they cure the flesh of grown men and roast infants. If it is like this, what blame is there in digging up a man's grave and prying open a man's mouth in the search for profit? Though you stripped a body bare and buried it, still it would surely be dug up. How could there be any burying at all? Such men will eat the flesh and gnaw the bones.

To say that in highest antiquity burial was thin and so graves were not dug up, and that in the disorder of today burial is thick and so they are dug up, is only a crooked man led astray by disordered sayings, who deceives the foolish, sinks them in the mire, and snatches a profit for himself. This is what is called great crookedness. A saying handed down goes, "He endangers others and makes himself safe, he harms others and makes himself rich." This is what is meant.

Zi Songzi said, "Make it clear that to be insulted is no disgrace, and men will not fight. All men take being insulted for a disgrace, and so they fight; if they knew that being insulted is no disgrace, they would not fight."

The answer to this is, "Then do you hold that it is not in the feelings of men to hate an insult?"

He says, "They hate it, but they are not disgraced by it."

I say, "If it is like this, you will surely not get what you are after. When men fight, they always make their hatred the reason for it; they do not make their disgrace the cause.

Now players and dwarfs and jesters are railed at and insulted and do not fight. Is this because they greatly know that being insulted is no disgrace? They do not fight because they do not hate it.

Now if a man goes into another's ditch and steals his pig, the other takes up sword and halberd and chases him and does not shrink from death or wounds. Is this because he takes the loss of a pig for a disgrace? He does not shrink from the fight because he hates it.

Though a man takes being insulted for a disgrace, he will not fight if he does not hate it; though he knows that being insulted is no disgrace, he will surely fight if he hates it. Then whether men fight or do not fight lies not in disgrace and no disgrace, but in hating and not hating.

Now Zi Songzi cannot loosen men from their hatred of insult, and works at coaxing them not to feel disgraced. Is this not going far too far? Though his tongue were of metal and his mouth worn out, it would still do no good.

If he does not know that it does no good, he is not wise; if he knows that it does no good and only deceives men, he is not benevolent. To be neither benevolent nor wise, no disgrace is greater than that. He meant to do men good, and he does men no good; he will only get a great disgrace and withdraw. Of sayings there is none more diseased than this."

Zi Songzi said, "To be insulted is no disgrace."

The answer to this is: every argument must first set up the high standard, and only then will it do. Without the high standard right and wrong are not divided, and disputing and contending come to no end.

So what I have heard goes, "The great height of all under heaven, the boundary wall of right and wrong, the place where divisions and duties and names and forms arise, is the measure of the king." So in all speaking and arguing, in fixing right and wrong and giving them their names, take the sage kings for teachers. And the divisions of the sage kings are these: glory and disgrace.

Here there are two ends. There is the glory of right and the glory of power; there is the disgrace of right and the disgrace of power.

When the will is cultivated, virtue and conduct are thick, and knowing and reckoning are bright, this is glory coming out from within, and this is what is called the glory of right. When the rank of title is honored, the tribute and stipend are thick, and the power of one's station prevails, so that above one becomes Son of Heaven or feudal lord and below a minister, a counselor, or a great officer, this is glory arriving from without, and this is what is called the glory of power.

To run loose and be foul and idle, to break the divisions and throw the pattern into disorder, to be proud and cruel and greedy for profit, this is disgrace coming out from within, and this is what is called the disgrace of right. To be railed at and insulted, seized and beaten, whipped and caned, to have the kneecap taken and the leg cut off, to be cut down and severed and torn apart and hung up, to be bound with ropes and tied behind the back, this is disgrace arriving from without, and this is what is called the disgrace of power. These are the two ends of glory and disgrace.

So the gentleman may have the disgrace of power but may not have the disgrace of right; the small man may have the glory of power but may not have the glory of right. Having the disgrace of power does no harm to being a Yao; having the glory of power does no harm to being a Jie.

The glory of right and the glory of power are held together only by the gentleman; the disgrace of right and the disgrace of power are held together only by the small man. These are the divisions of glory and disgrace. The sage kings made them their law, the high officers make them their way, the officers of state make them their charge, and the hundred families make their manners of them; ten thousand ages cannot alter them.

Now Zi Songzi is not like this. Alone he bends his own bearing to his own use and reckons to alter all this in a single morning; his saying will surely not be carried out. To liken it, this is like damming rivers and seas with brick and mud, like making a Jiaoyao carry Mount Tai on his head: he will stumble and fall and be crushed and broken, and it will not take a moment. Those few who are friends of Zi Songzi had better stop him, for it is to be feared that he will get his body hurt.

Zi Songzi said, "The feelings of men want little, and yet all men take their own feelings to want much. This is going too far." So he led his flock of followers, argued out his sayings, and made his likenesses and comparisons clear, meaning to make men know that the feelings want little.

The answer to this is, "Then do you hold as well that it is in the feelings of men that the eye does not want the utmost of colors, the ear does not want the utmost of sounds, the mouth does not want the utmost of tastes, the nose does not want the utmost of smells, and the body does not want the utmost of ease? Do you hold that the feelings of men do not want these five utmosts either?"

He says, "The feelings of men want these, and nothing more."

I say, "If it is like this, your saying will surely not be carried out. To hold that the feelings of men want these five utmosts and yet do not want much of them, to liken it, is like holding that the feelings of men want wealth and honor but do not want goods, or that they love beauty but hate Xi Shi.

The men of old did not do so. They held that the feelings of men want much and do not want little, and so they rewarded with wealth and thickness and punished by cutting down and taking away. This is what the hundred kings held in common. So the highest in worth had all under heaven for stipend, the next in worth had one state for stipend, the lowest in worth had fields and towns for stipend, and the careful and honest among the people had their clothing and food whole.

Now Zi Songzi says that the feelings of men want little and do not want much. Then did the former kings reward men with what men do not want and punish them with what men do want? No disorder is greater than that.

Now Zi Songzi keeps a grave face and loves to talk, he gathers a crowd of followers, sets up a teaching and a school, and makes writings and canons; and yet his saying cannot escape taking the utmost of order for the utmost of disorder. Is this not going far too far?"