الفصل الفصل 20 · _Extracts from the Book of History_
The Emperor Yau said to Shun, "Ah, upon you, upon your person, lies
the Heaven-appointed order of succession! Faithfully hold to it,
without any deflection; for if within the four seas necessity and want
befall the people, your own revenue will forever come to an end."
Shun also used the same language in handing down the appointment to Yu.
The Emperor T[']ang in his prayer, said, "I, the child Li, presume to
avail me of an ox of dusky hue, and presume to manifestly announce to
Thee, O God, the most high and Sovereign Potentate, that to the
transgressor I dare not grant forgiveness, nor yet keep in abeyance
Thy ministers. Judgment rests in Thine heart, O God. Should we ourself
transgress, may the guilt not be visited everywhere upon all. Should
the people all transgress, be the guilt upon ourself!"
Chow possessed great gifts, by which the able and good were richly
endowed.
"Although," said King Wu, "he is surrounded by his near relatives,
they are not to be compared with men of humane spirit. The people are
suffering wrongs, and the remedy rests with me--the one man."
After Wu had given diligent attention to the various weights and
measures, examined the laws and regulations, and restored the degraded
officials, good government everywhere ensued.
He caused ruined States to flourish again, reinstated intercepted
heirs, and promoted to office men who had gone into retirement; and
the hearts of the people throughout the empire drew towards him.
Among matters of prime consideration with him were these--food for the
people, the duty of mourning, and sacrificial offerings to the departed.
He was liberal and large-hearted, and so won all hearts; true, and so
was trusted by the people; energetic, and thus became a man of great
achievements; just in his rule, and all were well content.
Tsz-chang in a conversation with Confucius asked, "What say you is
essential for the proper conduct of government?"
The Master replied, "Let the ruler hold in high estimation the five
excellences, and eschew the four evils; then may he conduct his
government properly."
"And what call you the five excellences?" he was asked.
"They are," he said, "bounty without extravagance; burdening without
exciting discontent; desire without covetousness; dignity without
haughtiness; show of majesty without fierceness."
"What mean you," asked Tsz-chang, "by bounty without extravagance?"
"Is it not this," he replied--"to make that which is of benefit to the
people still more beneficial? When he selects for them such labors as
it is possible for them to do, and exacts them, who will then
complain? So when his desire is the virtue of humaneness, and he
attains it, how shall he then be covetous? And if--whether he have to
do with few or with many, with small or with great--he do not venture
ever to be careless, is not this also to have dignity without
haughtiness? And if--when properly vested in robe and cap, and showing
dignity in his every look--his appearance be so imposing that the
people look up to and stand in awe of him, is not this moreover to
show majesty without fierceness?"
"What, then, do you call the four evils?" said Tsz-chang.
The answer here was, "Omitting to instruct the people and then
inflicting capital punishment on them--which means cruel tyranny.
Omitting to give them warning and yet looking for perfection in
them--which means oppression. Being slow and late in issuing
requisitions, and exacting strict punctuality in the returns--which
means robbery. And likewise, in intercourse with men, to expend and to
receive in a stingy manner--which is to act the part of a mere
commissioner."
"None can be a superior man," said the Master, "who does not recognize
the decrees of Heaven.
"None can have stability in him without a knowledge of the proprieties.
"None can know a man without knowing his utterances."
THE SAYINGS OF MENCIUS
[_Translated into English by James Legge_]
INTRODUCTION
A hundred years after the time of Confucius the Chinese nation seemed
to have fallen back into their original condition of lawlessness and
oppression. The King's power and authority was laughed to scorn, the
people were pillaged by the feudal nobility, and famine reigned in
many districts. The foundations of truth and social order seemed to be
overthrown. There were teachers of immorality abroad, who published
the old Epicurean doctrine, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die." This teaching was accompanied by a spirit of cold-blooded
egotism which extinguished every spark of Confucian altruism. Even the
pretended disciples of Confucius confused the precepts of the Master,
and by stripping them of their narrow significance rendered them
nugatory. It was at this point that Mang-tsze, "Mang the philosopher,"
arose. He was sturdy in bodily frame, vigorous in mind, profound in
political sagacity and utterly fearless in denouncing the errors of
his countrymen. He had been brought up among the disciples of
Confucius, in whose province he was born B.C. 372, but he was much
more active and aggressive, less a Mystic than a fanatic, in
comparison with his Master. He resolved on active measures in stemming
the tendency of his day. He did indeed surround himself with a school
of disciples, but instead of making a series of desultory travels,
teaching in remote places and along the high-road, he went to the
heart of the evil. He presented himself like a second John the Baptist
at the courts of kings and princes, and there boldly denounced vice
and misrule. It was not difficult for a Chinese scholar and teacher to
find access to the highest of the land. The Chinese believed in the
divine right of learning, just as they believed in the divine right of
kings. Mang employed every weapon of persuasion in trying to combat
heresy and oppression; alternately ridiculing and reproving: now
appealing in a burst of moral enthusiasm, and now denouncing in terms
of cutting sarcasm the abuses which after all he failed to check. The
last prince whom he successfully confronted was the Marquis of Lu, who
turned him carelessly away. He accepted this as the Divine sentence of
his failure, "That I have not found in this marquis, a ruler who would
hearken to me is an intimation of heaven." Henceforth he lived in
retirement until his ninety-seventh year; but from his apparent
failure sprang a practical success. His written teachings are amongst
the most lively and epigrammatic works of Chinese literature, have
done much to keep alive amongst his countrymen the spirit of
Confucianism, and even Western readers may drink wisdom from this
spring of Oriental lore. The following selections from his sayings
well exhibit the spirit of his system of philosophy and morality:
E. W.