Shuofu — Explaining Correspondences說符篇

Zi Liezi studied under Huqiu Zilin. Huqiu Zilin said, "If you know how to keep behind, then you may be spoken with about keeping the body."

Liezi said, "I wish to hear about keeping behind."

He said, "Look back at your shadow, and you will know it."

Liezi looked back and observed his shadow. When the form was bent the shadow was crooked, and when the form was straight the shadow was upright. So bending and straightness follow the form and do not lie in the shadow, and bending and stretching are left to things and do not lie in me. This is called keeping behind and standing in front.

Guan Yin said to Zi Liezi,

"If the word is fair, the echo is fair. If the word is ugly, the echo is ugly. If the body is long, the shadow is long. If the body is short, the shadow is short. The name is the echo. The body is the shadow.

Therefore it is said, be careful of your words, and there will be those who answer them. Be careful of your deeds, and there will be those who follow them.

Therefore the sage sees what goes out and knows what comes in, and he observes what has passed and knows what is to come. This is the principle of knowing beforehand.

The measure lies in my own body, and the reckoning lies in others. If others love me, I too will surely love them. If others hate me, I too will surely hate them. Tang and Wu loved all under heaven, and so they became kings. Jie and Zhou hated all under heaven, and so they perished. This is what is reckoned.

To have the reckoning and the measure both clear and still not to go by the way may be likened to going out without passing through the gate, or traveling without following the road. To seek profit by this, is it not hard?

I have looked at the virtue of Shennong and Yandi, reckoned it against the writings of Yu, Xia, Shang, and Zhou, and measured it against the words of law-keeping scholars and worthy men. There has never yet been a case where surviving and perishing, falling and rising, did not come by this way."

Yan Huī (嚴恢) said, "The reason men ask about the way is to grow rich. Now a man grows rich by getting a pearl as well, so what use is the way?"

Zi Liezi said, "Jie and Zhou made profit alone heavy and made the way light, and so they perished. It is a good thing that I have not yet spoken to you. To be a man and have no right, and only to eat, is to be a chicken or a dog. To fight for food by force and to lock horns, with the winner taking charge, is to be a bird or a beast. To become a chicken or a dog, a bird or a beast, and then to wish that others honor you, cannot be had. If others do not honor you, danger and disgrace will reach you."

Liezi studied archery, and when he hit the mark he asked Guan Yinzi about it.

Yinzi said, "Do you know why you hit the mark?"

He answered, "I do not know."

Guan Yinzi said, "Not yet."

He withdrew and practiced. After three years he reported to Guan Yinzi again. Yinzi said, "Do you know why you hit the mark?"

Liezi said, "I know."

Guan Yinzi said, "That will do. Keep it and do not lose it. It is not archery alone. Governing a state and governing the body are both like this. Therefore the sage does not examine surviving and perishing, but examines why they are so."

Liezi said, "He whose beauty is in full flower is proud, and he whose strength is in full flower is forceful. With such men the way cannot be spoken of. So it is wrong even to speak of the way with a man whose hair is not yet gray, and how much more to practice it with him. Therefore, if a man pushes himself forward, others will tell him nothing. If others tell him nothing, he is alone and has no help. The worthy man entrusts things to others, and so he does not weaken though his years grow old, and he is not confounded though his wisdom is spent. Therefore the difficulty of governing a state lies in knowing the worthy, not in being worthy oneself."

Among the men of Song there was one who made a paper mulberry leaf of jade for his lord. In three years it was finished. Its points and edges, its stem and twig, its fine down and thick gloss were such that, mixed among paper mulberry leaves, it could not be picked out. This man then lived off his skill in the state of Song.

Zi Liezi heard of it and said, "If heaven and earth, in giving birth to things, took three years to make one leaf, then few things would have leaves. Therefore the sage leans on the changing of the way and does not lean on wisdom and skill."

Zi Liezi was in straits, and there was a look of hunger in his face. A guest spoke of him to Ziyang (子陽) of Zheng. "Lie Yukou is surely a scholar who has the way. He lives in my lord's state and is in straits. Will it not be said that my lord does not care for scholars?"

Ziyang of Zheng at once had an officer send him grain. Zi Liezi came out, saw the messenger, bowed twice, and declined. The messenger went away.

Zi Liezi went in, and his wife looked at him and beat her breast and said, "I have heard that the wife and children of a man who has the way all get ease and joy. Now there is a look of hunger here, and the lord came by and sent food to you, master, and you did not take it. How is this not fate?"

Zi Liezi laughed and said to her, "The lord did not know me of himself. He sent me grain on another man's word, and when he charges me with a crime he will do it on another man's word again. This is why I did not take it."

In the end the people did rise in revolt and killed Ziyang.

The Shi family (施氏) of Lu had two sons. One loved learning, and one loved the art of war. The one who loved learning went with his craft to the lord of Qi, and the lord of Qi took him in and made him tutor to the young princes. The one who loved war went to Chu and went with his methods to the king of Chu, and the king was pleased with him and made him marshal of the army (軍正). Their stipends made the house rich, and their offices brought honor to their parents.

The Meng family, neighbors of the Shi, also had two sons, and what they had studied was the same, but they were pinched by poverty. They envied what the Shi had, and so they came and asked the way to get ahead. The two sons told the Mengs the truth.

One son of the Meng family went to Qin and went with his craft to the king of Qin. The king of Qin said, "Now the lords contend by force, and what they work at is soldiers and food, nothing more. To govern my state with benevolence and right is the road to ruin." In the end he had him castrated and cast out.

The other son went to Wey and went with his methods to the lord of Wey. The lord of Wey said, "We are a weak state, pressed in between great states. The great states we serve, and the small states we soothe. This is the road to seeking peace. If we lean on soldiers and power, ruin can be looked for. If we send him back whole, and he goes to another state, our trouble will not be light." In the end he had his feet cut off and sent him back to Lu.

When they came home, the father and sons of the Meng family beat their breasts and reproached the Shi. Shi said,

"Whoever gets his time flourishes, and whoever loses his time perishes. Your road was the same as ours, and your result was different from ours. That is losing the time, not an error in the doing.

Moreover, in the pattern of all under heaven there is nothing always right, and in affairs there is nothing always wrong. What was used in former days is sometimes cast aside now, and what is cast aside now is sometimes used later. In this using and not using there is no fixed right and wrong.

To watch for the opening and meet the moment, and to answer affairs with no fixed method, rests on wisdom. If wisdom is truly wanting, then though you were as broad as Kong Qiu and as skilled as Lü Shang, where could you go and not be blocked?"

The father and sons of the Meng family were eased, and their angry looks went away. They said, "We understand. Do not say it again."

Duke Wen of Jin went out and held a meeting, and he meant to attack Wey. Prince Chu (鋤) of Jin looked up to heaven and laughed.

The duke asked, "What are you laughing at?"

He said, "Your servant was laughing at this. A neighbor of mine was taking his wife to her old home, and on the road he saw a woman picking mulberry leaves, and he was pleased and spoke with her. But when he looked back, there was someone calling to his wife as well. Your servant was quietly laughing at that."

The duke understood his words, and so he stopped and led his army back. Before he arrived, there were men attacking his northern border.

The state of Jin suffered from thieves. There was a man named Xi Yong (郄雍) who could look at the face of a thief and examine the space between his brows and his lashes and get at what was inside him. The lord of Jin had him look at thieves, and whether they were a thousand or a hundred he missed not one.

The lord of Jin was greatly pleased and said to Zhao Wenzi (趙文子), "I have got one man, and the thieves of the whole state will be gone. What use have I for many men?"

Wenzi said, "My lord leans on spying and examining to catch thieves. The thieves will not all be gone, and Xi Yong will surely not die his own death."

Before long the band of thieves plotted. "The one who blocks us is Xi Yong." In the end they fell upon him together and killed him.

The lord of Jin heard it and was greatly alarmed. He called Wenzi at once and said to him, "It has turned out as you said, and Xi Yong is dead. Then what way is there to catch thieves?"

Wenzi said, "There is a saying of Zhou: he who looks closely at the fish in a deep pool is not blessed, and he who reckons out hidden things by wisdom meets disaster. Moreover, if my lord wishes there to be no thieves, nothing is better than raising up worthy men and entrusting things to them, so that teaching is bright above and change goes forward below, and the people have a heart that knows shame. Then what thieving would there be?"

So Sui Hui (隨會) was employed to take charge of the government, and the band of thieves fled to Qin.

Confucius was returning from Wey to Lu. He rested his carriage at Heliang (河梁) and looked out. The water fell thirty ren and swirled for ninety li. Fish and turtles could not swim there, and great turtles and crocodiles could not live there. A man was just about to wade across it.

Confucius sent someone along the bank to stop him. "Here the water falls thirty ren and swirls for ninety li. Fish and turtles cannot swim here, and great turtles and crocodiles cannot live here. Surely it would be hard to cross."

The man paid it no mind, and in the end he crossed and came out.

Confucius asked him, "Is it skill? Do you have a way and an art? How is it that you can go in and come out?"

The man answered, "When I first went in, I went first with loyalty and good faith. When I came out, I followed again with loyalty and good faith. Loyalty and good faith set my body down in the waves, and I did not dare to act for myself. This is how I could go in and come out again."

Confucius said to his disciples, "Mark this, my young friends. Even water can be drawn near with loyalty and good faith and a true body, and how much more a man."

The Duke of Bai (白公) asked Confucius, "May a man speak with another in secret?" Confucius did not answer.

The Duke of Bai asked, "What if one throws a stone into water?"

Confucius said, "A good diver of Wu can bring it up."

He said, "What if one pours water into water?"

Confucius said, "Though the Zi and the Sheng be mixed, Yi Ya (易牙) tastes them and tells them apart."

The Duke of Bai said, "Then may a man truly not speak with another in secret?"

Confucius said, "Why not? Only he who knows what words mean can do it. He who knows what words mean does not speak with words. The man who fights over fish gets wet, and the man who chases beasts runs, and it is not that they enjoy it. Therefore the highest words put words away, and the highest doing is doing nothing. What shallow wisdom fights over is the tip of things."

The Duke of Bai could not help himself, and in the end he died in the bath house.

Zhao Xiangzi sent Xinzhi Muzi (新穉穆子) to attack the Di. He defeated them and took Zuoren (左人) and Zhongren (中人), and he sent a courier to report it. Xiangzi was just eating, and there was a look of worry on his face.

Those at his side said, "Two walled towns fell in a single morning, and this is what men rejoice at. Now my lord has a look of worry. How is this?"

Xiangzi said, "Even when the Jiang and the He rise high, it does not pass three days. Whirlwinds and cloudbursts do not last out a morning. The sun stands at the middle only a moment. Now the virtuous deeds of the Zhao have laid nothing up, and two walled towns have fallen in a single morning. Ruin will reach me."

Confucius heard it and said, "The Zhao will flourish. Worry is what makes a house flourish, and rejoicing is what makes it perish. Winning is not the hard thing. Holding it is the hard thing. The worthy ruler holds his victory by this, and so his blessing reaches later ages. Qi and Chu and Wu and Yue all won once, and yet they came to ruin in the end, because they did not reach the holding of victory. Only a ruler who has the way can hold a victory."

The strength of Confucius could push up the bar of the city gate, but he did not care to be known for strength. Mozi made the methods of defense and attack and brought Gongshu Ban to submit, but he did not care to be known for the art of war. Therefore he who holds a victory well makes the strong into the weak.

Among the men of Song there was one who loved to practice benevolence and right, and for three generations they did not slacken. In his house a black ox gave birth to a white calf for no reason, and he asked Confucius about it. Confucius said, "This is a good omen. Offer it to the Lord on High."

A year later the father went blind for no reason. The ox gave birth to a white calf again, and the father had his son ask Confucius again.

The son said, "We asked before, and you lost your sight. What is there to ask again?"

The father said, "The words of a sage go against us first and fit afterward. The matter is not yet finished. Ask again for now."

The son asked Confucius again. Confucius said, "It is a good omen." Again he told him to sacrifice. The son came home and reported it. His father said, "Do as Confucius says."

A year later the son too went blind for no reason.

After that Chu attacked Song and surrounded its walls. The people traded their children and ate them, and split bones for fuel. The able-bodied men all went up on the walls to fight, and more than half of them died. This man and his son were both spared because of their illness, and when the siege was lifted both were healed.

In Song there was a man called Lanzi (蘭子) who went with his skill to Duke Yuan (元公) of Song, and Duke Yuan called him in to be seen. His skill was this. He took two wooden legs twice the height of his own body and tied them to his shins, and he ran and raced on them, and he juggled seven swords, throwing them in turn so that five were always in the air. Duke Yuan was greatly astonished and gave him gold and silk on the spot.

There was another Lanzi who could play the swallow. He heard of this and went to Duke Yuan in the same way. Duke Yuan was greatly angered and said, "Before this a man came to me with a rare skill. The skill was of no use, but it happened that I was in a glad mood, and so I gave him gold and silk. This man surely heard of it and has come forward, hoping for my reward again." He had him seized and meant to put him to death, and only after a month did he let him go.

Duke Mu of Qin said to Bo Le, "Your years are many. Is there one among your kin who can be sent to seek horses?"

Bo Le answered, "A good horse can be seen by its form and look and its sinews and bones. But the horse of all under heaven is as if faded, as if gone, as if lost. Such a horse cuts off the dust and leaves no track. Your servant's sons are all of small talent. They can be told of a good horse, but they cannot be told of the horse of all under heaven. Your servant has one who carried loads with him and gathered firewood and herbs, Jiufang Gao (九方皋). In the matter of horses this man is not below your servant. I ask leave to bring him before you."

Duke Mu saw him and sent him out to seek a horse. After three months he came back and reported, "I have found it. It is at Shaqiu (沙丘)."

Duke Mu said, "What kind of horse?"

He answered, "A mare, and yellow."

Men were sent to fetch it, and it was a stallion, and black. Duke Mu was not pleased. He called Bo Le and said to him, "It has gone wrong, this man you sent to seek a horse. He cannot tell the color, or a mare from a stallion. What sort of horse could he know?"

Bo Le sighed and drew a long breath. "Has it come to this? That is the very reason he is ten million times beyond your servant, past all counting. What Gao looks at is the working of heaven. He gets the kernel and forgets the husk. He is in the inside and forgets the outside. He sees what is to be seen and does not see what is not to be seen. He watches what is to be watched and lets go what is not to be watched. What Gao sees has in it something more precious than a horse."

The horse arrived, and it was indeed the horse of all under heaven.

King Zhuang of Chu asked Zhan He, "How is a state governed?"

Zhan He answered, "Your servant is clear about governing the body, and not clear about governing a state."

King Zhuang of Chu said, "I have come to uphold the ancestral temple and the altars of the land. I wish to learn how to keep them."

Zhan He answered, "Your servant has never heard of a body well governed and a state in disorder, and he has never heard of a body in disorder and a state well governed. Therefore the root is in the body, and I dare not answer with the tip."

The king of Chu said, "Well said."

The elder of Huqiu (狐丘) said to Sunshu Ao, "Men have three resentments. Do you know them?"

Sunshu Ao said, "What do you mean?"

He answered, "The man of high rank is envied by others. The man of great office is disliked by his lord. The man of thick stipend has resentment reach him."

Sunshu Ao said, "The higher my rank, the lower I will hold my will. The greater my office, the smaller I will make my heart. The thicker my stipend, the wider I will make my giving. If I escape the three resentments by this, will it do?"

Sunshu Ao fell ill, and when he was about to die he warned his son, "The king has often wished to grant me land, and I did not take it. When I die the king will grant land to you, and you must not take profitable land. Between Chu and Yue there is a place called Qinqiu (寢丘). This land is not profitable, and its name is very ill. The men of Chu fear ghosts and the men of Yue shun ill luck, and the only place that can be held for long is this."

When Sunshu Ao died, the king did grant his son fine land, and the son declined and did not take it. He asked for Qinqiu and was given it, and to this day it has not been lost.

Niu Que (牛缺) was a great scholar of Shangdi (上地). He was going down to Handan when he met thieves in the middle of Ousha (耦沙), and they took all his clothes and his baggage and his cart. Niu Que went off on foot, and to look at him he was content, with no sign of worry or regret.

The thieves ran after him and asked the reason. He said, "The gentleman does not harm what is nourished with the things that nourish it."

The thieves said, "Ah, he is worthy." Then they said to one another, "With a worthy man like that, if he goes and sees the lord of Zhao and has him deal with us, he will surely give us trouble. Better to kill him." So they went after him together and killed him.

The men of Yan heard of it and gathered their kin and warned one another. "If you meet thieves, do not do as Niu Que of Shangdi did." All of them took the teaching.

Before long his younger brother went to Qin, and when he came below the pass he did meet thieves. He remembered his brother's warning, and so he fought hard with the thieves. When he was no match for them, he ran after them and asked for his things in humble words.

The thieves grew angry and said, "It was a great thing that we let you live, and you keep after us without stopping, and our tracks will be shown. We are thieves already. Where would benevolence be?" In the end they killed him, and they harmed four or five of his company beside him.

The Yu family (虞氏) were rich men of Liang. Their house was full and thriving, their coin and silk beyond measure, their goods beyond counting. They went up to a high tower and looked down on the great road, and they set out music and laid out wine and played at draughts on the tower.

Knights-errant were passing by one behind another. The man playing at draughts on the tower threw and the dice fell right, and he won two points and laughed. Just then a kite flying overhead dropped a rotten rat, and it struck them.

The knights said to one another, "The Yu have been rich and merry a long time, and they always have a mind that makes light of others. We did not offend them, and yet they have shamed us with a rotten rat. If this is not repaid, there is no standing as strong men under heaven. I ask you to join your strength with mine and make our will one, and to lead our followers and wipe out that house without fail." All of them agreed.

On the night of the appointed day they gathered a crowd and piled up weapons and attacked the Yu, and they destroyed that house utterly.

In the east there was a man called Yuan Jingmu (爰旌目). He was going somewhere and grew hungry on the road. A thief of Hufu (狐父) called Qiu (丘) saw him and set down a jar of food and fed him.

Yuan Jingmu took three mouthfuls, and only then could he see. He said, "What manner of man are you?"

He said, "I am Qiu, a man of Hufu."

Yuan Jingmu said, "Ah, are you not a thief? Why did you feed me? By what is right I will not eat your food." He put both hands on the ground and tried to bring it up. It would not come. He gagged and gagged, and at last he fell forward and died.

The man of Hufu was a thief, but the food was not a thief. To call the food a thief because the man was a thief, and not dare to eat it, is to lose the name and the substance.

Zhu Lishu (柱厲叔) served Duke Ao (敖公) of Ju. Holding that he was not known, he left and lived by the sea. In summer he ate water chestnuts and caltrops, and in winter he ate acorns and chestnuts.

When trouble came upon Duke Ao of Ju, Zhu Lishu took leave of his friend and went to die with him. His friend said, "You left because you held that you were not known. Now you go and die with him, and so there is no telling being known from not being known."

Zhu Lishu said, "Not so. I left because I held that I was not known. Now if I die, it comes out that he truly did not know me. I will die with him, to shame the rulers of later ages who do not know their own servants."

To die for a lord who knows you and not to die for one who does not is to walk the straight road. Zhu Lishu may be called a man who resented until he forgot his own body.

Yang Zhu said, "Send profit out and substance reaches you. Send resentment out and harm comes to you. What rises here and answers outside is the heart alone, and therefore the worthy man is careful about what he sends out."

A neighbor of Yangzi lost a sheep. He led out his own people, and he also asked for Yangzi's servant to go after it.

Yangzi said, "Ah, one sheep is lost. Why are there so many going after it?"

The neighbor said, "There are many forks in the road."

When they came back, he asked, "Did you get the sheep?"

He said, "We lost it."

He said, "How did you lose it?"

He said, "Among the forks there were more forks. I did not know where to go, and so I came back."

Yangzi's face changed with sorrow. He did not speak for a long while, and he did not laugh all day.

His followers thought it strange and asked, "A sheep is a cheap beast, and it was not the master's own. Why do you give up speech and laughter?"

Yangzi did not answer. His followers did not get his meaning.

The disciple Mengsun Yang went out and told Xin Douzi (心都子). On another day Xin Douzi went in with Mengsun Yang and asked,

"Long ago there were three brothers who traveled between Qi and Lu. They studied under the same master, went to the end of the way of benevolence and right, and came home. Their father asked, 'What is the way of benevolence and right?' The eldest said, 'Benevolence and right make me love my body and put my name after it.' The second said, 'Benevolence and right make me kill my body to make my name.' The third said, 'Benevolence and right make me keep body and name both whole.' Those three arts go against one another, and all of them came out of the Confucian school. Which is right and which is wrong?"

Yangzi said, "There was a man who lived by the river. He was at home in the water and bold at swimming. He worked a boat and sold crossings, and the profit fed a hundred mouths. Those who wrapped up provisions and came to learn made a crowd, and nearly half of them drowned. What they came to learn was swimming, not drowning, and yet the profit and the harm were like this. Which would you call right and which wrong?"

Xin Douzi went out in silence.

Mengsun Yang reproached him. "Why was your question so roundabout and the master's answer so oblique? I am more confused than before."

Xin Douzi said, "The great road has many forks, and so the sheep is lost. The learner has many branches, and so he loses his life. Learning is not different at the root, and it is not other than one at the root, and yet the difference at the tip is like this. Only by going back to the same and returning to the one is there neither gain nor loss. You have grown up long at the master's gate and studied the master's way, and still you do not reach the master's likenesses. How sad."

The younger brother of Yang Zhu was called Bu. He went out wearing white clothes. Rain fell from the sky, so he took off the white clothes and put on black clothes and came back. His dog did not know him and met him with barking.

Yang Bu was angry and was about to strike it. Yang Zhu said, "Do not strike it. You would be the same. Just now, if your dog had gone out white and come back black, how could you help thinking it strange?"

Yang Zhu said, "Do good and do not do it for a name, and the name follows you. The name makes no appointment with profit, and profit comes to you. Profit makes no appointment with strife, and strife reaches you. Therefore the gentleman is careful in doing good."

Among the men of old there was one who said he knew the way of not dying. The lord of Yan sent a man to receive it, and before he got there the man who spoke of it died.

The lord of Yan was very angry and was about to put his messenger to death. A favored servant remonstrated, "Of all that men worry over, nothing is more pressing than death, and of all that a man holds heavy, nothing is beyond life. That man lost his own life. How could he make my lord not die?" So he did not put him to death.

There was a man of Qi who also wished to learn that way, and when he heard that the man who spoke of it had died, he beat his breast and grieved.

Fuzi (富子) heard of it and laughed and said, "What he wished to learn was not dying. The man is dead already, and still he grieves over it. This is not to know what learning is."

Huzi (胡子) said, "Fuzi's words are wrong. There are men who have an art and cannot practice it, and there are men who can practice and have not the art.

Among the men of Wey there was one who was good at reckoning. When he was about to die he told the key of it to his son. The son kept his words in mind but could not practice them. Another man asked him, and he told him what his father had said. The man who asked used those words and practiced that art, and he was no different from the father. If that is so, why should a dead man not be able to speak of the art of living?"

The people of Handan presented doves to Jianzi on the first morning of the first month. Jianzi was greatly pleased and rewarded them richly.

A guest asked the reason. Jianzi said, "On the first morning of the year I set them free, to show that there is kindness."

The guest said, "The people know that my lord wishes to set them free, and so they vie with one another to catch them, and many of them die. If my lord wishes to keep them alive, nothing is better than forbidding the people to catch them. To catch them and set them free is a kindness that does not make up for the harm."

Jianzi said, "So it is."

Tian of Qi held the sacrifice for setting out on a journey in his courtyard, and a thousand guests ate there. Among those seated in the middle was one who presented fish and wild geese. Tian looked at them and sighed. "Heaven is generous to the people. It makes the five grains grow, and it brings forth fish and birds for their use."

The crowd of guests answered him like an echo.

The son of the Bao family (鮑氏), twelve years old, was in the lowest seat. He came forward and said,

"It is not as you say. The ten thousand things of heaven and earth were born alongside me, and they are of one kind with me. Among kinds there is no noble and no base. It is only by great and small and by wits and strength that they master one another and eat one another in turn, and they were not born for one another's sake. Men take what can be eaten and eat it. How should heaven have borne it for men in the first place? And mosquitoes and gnats bite the skin, and tigers and wolves eat flesh. Did heaven bear men for the mosquitoes and gnats, and flesh for the tigers and wolves?"

In Qi there was a poor man who always begged in the city market. The market grew weary of how often he came, and no one would give to him. In the end he went to the stable of the Tian family and worked under the horse doctor and got his food.

A man of the town mocked him. "You follow a horse doctor to eat. Is that not a disgrace?"

The beggar said, "Of all disgraces under heaven none is beyond begging. If begging itself is no disgrace, how should doctoring horses be a disgrace?"

Among the men of Song there was one who was wandering on the road and found a tally that someone had dropped. He went home and hid it, and he counted its notches in secret, and he said to his neighbor, "I can look for the day when I grow rich."

There was a man who had a withered paulownia tree. His neighbor, an old man, said that a withered paulownia is not lucky, and the neighbor cut it down in haste. The old man then asked for it as firewood.

At this the man was not pleased and said, "The old man next door only wanted firewood, and so he had me cut it down. To be my neighbor and be as crooked as this, how can it be right?"

There was a man who lost an axe, and he suspected his neighbor's son. He watched the way he walked, and it was the walk of one who had stolen an axe. His face was the face of one who had stolen an axe. His speech was the speech of one who had stolen an axe. In his every move and manner there was nothing that was not the way of one who had stolen an axe.

Before long he was digging in his own valley and found his axe. On another day he saw his neighbor's son again, and in his moves and manner there was nothing like one who had stolen an axe.

Duke Bai Sheng (白公勝) was plotting a revolt. He broke off the court audience and stood there. He leaned on his staff upside down, and its point ran through his chin, and the blood flowed to the ground, and he did not know it.

The men of Zheng heard of it and said, "He forgot his chin. What would he not forget?"

When the mind is fixed on something, a man's feet stumble over stumps and pits and his head strikes standing trees, and he does not know it himself.

Long ago among the men of Qi there was one who wanted gold. Early in the morning he put on his clothes and cap and went to the market, and he came to the place of a gold seller and grabbed his gold and went off.

An officer caught him and asked, "There were people all around. Why did you grab another man's gold?"

He answered, "When I took the gold, I did not see the people. I saw only the gold."