Wang ch‘ung lun-hêng philosophical essays Traduits et annotés par Alfred forke

When the people of Lu caught the unicorn, they dared not straightway call it a unicorn, but said that it was a horned deer. _p1.371 At that time in fact they did not know it. Wu Ti called upon the censor Chung Chün to give his opinion about the unicorn. Chung Chün replied that it was a wild animal with joined horns, showing that the whole empire had grown from the same root. He did not at once style it a unicorn, but declared it to be a wild animal. Chung Chün had his doubts as well, and did not know it. The knowledge of the scholars of our age does not exceed that of the people of Lu or of Chung Chün. Should they see a phœnix or a unicorn, they would certainly have the same doubts as the latter.

How is it possible to find out a phœnix and a unicorn among uncommon birds and animals ? If shape and colour be taken as a criterion, they are not always alike. If there be a big train of birds and animals following them, this is not always a proof of their excellence. If their rarity be regarded as a characteristic, there is the ‘mainah’ also, and if importance be attached to peculiarities, then sages as well as wise men have strange physical features. Both sages and wise men are abnormal, and there is no means to distinguish between them.

Taking wisdom and sageness as a starting point, we find that sage birds and sage animals do not possess more peculiarities than ordinary birds or common animals. The wisdom of sage or wise men may be quite extraordinary, whereas their bones show no anomaly. Thus sage and wise birds and animals can be endowed with benevolence, honesty, unselfishness, and purity, though there be nothing remarkable in their physical constitution. Sometimes there are rich and noble persons who have not the body of a sage, and the osseous structure of many points to wealth and honour, who do not prove to be sage or wise. Accordingly some birds are multicolour, and some animals have a horn, but are devoid of benevolence or sageness. How do we know then but that the phœnixes and unicorns, seen in olden days, were common birds or animals, and the magpies and deer seen at present are phœnixes and unicorns ? The present holy age is the result of the reforms emanating from Yao and Shun, why should no benevolent or wise creatures be born ?

It may happen that phœnixes and unicorns are mixed with snow-geese, magpies, deer or stags, so that our people cannot distinguish them. When precious jade was hidden in a stone, the governor of the king of Ch‘u did not know it, which distressed the owner so much, that he wept tears of blood ¹. Perhaps _p1.372 now-a-days the phœnixes and unicorns also hide their benevolent and wise heart under a common plumage and ordinary fur, and have neither a single horn nor five colours as a distinctive mark, so that our people know them no more, than the jade in the stone was known. How can we prove that ? By a reference to the plants, which at the commencement of the Yung-p‘ing period ² were always presenting omens. When the emperor Hsiao Ming Ti was manifesting his kindness, all sorts of omens happened at the same time. At the Yuan-ho and Chang-ho epochs ³, when Hsiao Chang Ti’s virtue was shining, perfect harmony pervaded the world, and auspicious omens and strange things corresponded. Phœnixes and unicorns came forth one after the other, and were observed on many occasions, much more than at the time of the Five Emperors. This chapter was already completed, therefore I could not mention it then ⁴.

It might be objected that arguing on omens, I have declared that the phœnix and the unicorn are hard to know, and that the omens of our age cannot be distinguished, whether, therefore, the phœnixes and the unicorns attracted now by Hsiao Chang Ti could not be known ? — I say that according to the ‘Records on the Five Birds’ ⁵ there are big birds in the four regions and the centre which, when they roam about, are accompanied by all the other birds. In size, and the colour of the plumage they resemble a phœnix, but are difficult to know indeed.

Since the omens of our age do not allow of distinction, how can we find them out ? By the government of the empire. Unless the virtue of the reigning emperor equalled that of Yü, we would not perceive phœnixes and unicorns with our own eyes. The omens of Yü were undoubtedly genuine, and Yao’s excellence is evident. Under Hsiao Hsüan Ti the world enjoyed a still more universal peace than at the time of Yao and Shun, as far as ten _p1.373 thousand Li, people were anxious for reforms and progress, and the moral laws found an echo everywhere. Affected by this state of things, the benevolent birds and animals made their appearance, only the size, the colour of the hair, the feet and the wings of those auspicious creatures were not always the same. Taking the mode of government and the intelligence of the rulers as a criterion for the various omens, we find them all to be genuine. That means that they are hard to know, but easy to understand.

The sweet dew may also serve us as a key. The sweet dew is produced by the harmonious fluid, it has no cause in itself which could make it sweet ; this can only be done by the intervention of the harmonious fluid. When the harmonious fluid appears, the sweet dew pours down, virtue permeates everything, and the various omens come forth together. From the Yung-p‘ing down to the Chang-ho period the sweet dew has continually been falling. Hence we know that the omens are all true, and that phœnixes and unicorns are likewise all genuine.

CHAPTER XXXI

The Forming of Characters

8. II, IV. Shuai-hsing

The duke of Shao admonished King Chêng saying :

— Now you for the first time carry out Heaven’s decree. Oh ! you are like a youth with whom all depends on his first years of life ¹.

By youth is meant the age up to fifteen. If a youth’s thoughts are directed towards virtue, he will be virtuous to the last, but if his propensities tend to badness, he will end badly.

The Shiking says

« What can that admirable man be compared to ² ?

The Tso-chuan answers,

« He is like boiled silk ; dyed with indigo, it becomes blue ; coloured with vermilion, it turns crimson.

A youth of fifteen is like silk, his gradual changes into good or bad resembling the dying of boiled silk with indigo and vermilion, which gives it a blue or a red colour. When these colours have once set, they cannot be altered again. It is for this reason that Yang Tse ¹ wept over the by-roads and Mê Tse ² over boiled _p1.375 silk. They were sorrowful, because men having gone astray from the right path cannot be transformed any more. Human nature turns from good into bad, and from bad into good only in this manner. Creepers growing amidst hemp, stand upright without support by themselves. White silk yarn placed amongst dark, becomes black without boiling. Creepers are not straight by nature, nor is the black colour an attribute of silk yarn. The hemp affording support, and the dark silk lending the colour, creepers and white silk become straight and black. Human nature bears a resemblance to creepers and silk yarn. In a milieu favourable to transformation or colouring, it turns good or bad.

Wang Liang and Tsao Fu were famous as charioteers : out of unruly and vicious animals they made good ones. Had they only been able to drive good horses, but incapable of breaking bad ones, they would have been nothing more than jockeys and ordinary equerries. Their horsemanship would not have been remarkable nor deserving of world-wide fame. Of Wang Liang the saying goes that, when he stepped into a chariot, the steeds knew no exhaustion.

Under the rule of Yao and Shun people were neither seditious nor ignorant. Tradition says that the people of Yao and Shun might have been invested with fiefs house by house ³, whereas those of Chieh and Chou ⁴ were worthy of death door by door. The people followed the way prescribed by the three dynasties. That the people of the holy emperors were like this, those of the wicked emperors otherwise, was merely the result of the influence of their rulers, not of the people’s original nature.

The covetous hearing of Po Yi’s ⁵ fame became disinterested, and the weak resolute. The news of Liu Hsia Hui’s ⁶ reputation made the niggardly generous and the mean liberal. If the spread of fame alone could bring about such changes, what then must be the effect of personal intercourse and tuition ?

The seventy disciples of the school of Confucius were each of them able to creditably fill the post of a minister of state. _p1.376 Conforming to the holy doctrines, they became accomplished scholars, and their knowledge and skill grew tenfold. This was the result of teaching ; thus latent faculties were gradually developed. Before they joined Confucius’ school, they sauntered about in the streets as quite ordinary and in no wise exceptional people. The most ungovernable of all was Tse Lu, who is generally reported to have been a common and unsteady individual. Before he became Confucius’ pupil, he wore a feather hat and a pig skin belt. He was brutal and unmannerly. Whenever he heard some reading, he tossed up his feather hat, pulled his belt, and uttered such a yell, that he deafened the ears of the worthies and sages. Such was his wickedness. Confucius took him under his guidance. By degrees he polished and instructed him. The more he advanced in knowledge, the more he lost his fierceness, and his arrogance was broken. At last he was able to govern a state, and ranked in the four classes ¹. This is a shining example of how a man’s character was changed from bad into good.

Fertility and sterility are the original nature of the soil. If it be rich and moist, the nature is good, and the crops will be exuberant, whereas, if it be barren and stony, the nature is bad. However, human efforts : deep ploughing, thorough tilling, and a copious use of manure may help the land, so that the harvest will become like that of the rich and well watered fields. Such is the case with the elevation of the land also. Fill up the low ground with earth, dug out by means of hoes and spades, and the low land will be on a level with the high one. If these works are still continued, not only will the low land be on a level, but even higher than the high land. The high ground will then become the low one. Let us suppose that the human natures are partly good, partly bad ; as the land may be either high or low. By making use of the good effects of education goodness can be spread and generalized. Reformation being pushed on and instruction persevered in, people will change and become still better. Goodness will increase and reach a still higher standard than it had before, just as low ground, filled up with hoes and spades, rises higher than the originally elevated ground.

T‘se ² though not predestinated thereto, made a fortune. His capital increased without a decree from Heaven which would have _p1.377 him rich. The accumulation of wealth is due to the cleverness of the rich men of the time in making a fortune. Through this ability of theirs they are themselves the authors of their growing wealth without a special decree from Heaven. Similarly, he who has a wicked nature changes his will and his doings, if he happens to be taught by a Sage, although he was not endowed with a good character by Heaven.

One speaks of good swords for which a thousand chin ³ are paid, such as the Yü-ch‘ang ⁴ sword of T‘ang-ch‘i ¹ and the T‘ai-a sword ² of Lung-ch‘üan ³. Their blade is originally nothing more than a common piece of iron from a mountain. By the forger’s smelting and hammering they become sharp-edged. But notwithstanding this smelting and hammering the material of good swords is not different from others. All depends on excellent workmanship and on the blade-smith’s ability in working the iron. Take a sword worth only one chin from Tung-hsia, heat it again, and forge it, giving it sufficient fire, and smoothing and sharpening its edge, and it will be like a sword of a thousand chin. Iron and stones are made by Heaven, still being worked, they undergo a modification of their substance. Why then should man, whose nature is imbued with the five virtues, despair of the badness of his character, before he has been thoroughly worked upon by Worthies and Sages ?

The skillful physicians that in olden days were held in high esteem, knew the sources where virulent diseases sprang from, and treated and cured them with acupuncture and medicines. Had they merely known the names of the complaints, but done nothing besides, looking quietly on, would there have been anything wonderful in them ? Men who are not good have a disease of their nature. To expect them to change without proper treatment and instruction would be hopeless indeed.

The laws of Heaven can be applied in a right and in a wrong way. The right way is in harmony with Heaven, the wrong one owes its results to human astuteness, but cannot in its effects be _p1.378 distinguished from the right one. This will be shown by the following. Among the ‘Tribute of Yü’ ⁴ are mentioned jade and white corals ⁵. These were the produce of earth and genuine precious stones and pearls. But the Taoists melt five kinds of stones, and make five-coloured gems out of them. Their lustre, if compared with real gems, does not differ. Pearls in fishes and shells are as genuine as the jade-stones in the Tribute of Yü. Yet the Marquis of Sui ⁶ made pearls from chemicals, which were as brilliant as genuine ones ⁷. This is the climax of Taoist learning and a triumph of their skill.

By means of a burning-glass one catches fire from heaven. Of five stones liquefied on the Ping-wu ⁸ day of the 5th moon an instrument is cast, which, when polished bright, held up against the sun, brings down fire too, in precisely the same manner as, when fire is caught in the proper way. Now, one goes even so far as to furbish the crooked blades of swords, till they shine, when, held up against the sun, they attract fire also. Crooked blades are not burning-glasses ; that they can catch fire is the effect of rubbing. Now, provided the bad-natured men are of the same kind as good-natured ones, then they can be influenced, and induced to do good. Should they be of a different kind, they can also be coerced in the same manner as the Taoists cast gems, Sui Hou made pearls, and people furbish the crooked blades of swords. Enlightened with learning and familiarized with virtue, they too begin by and by to practise benevolence and equity.

When Huang Ti fought with Yen Ti ¹ for the empire, he taught bears, leopards, and tigers to combat for him in the wilds of Fan ch‘üan. After three battles he gained his end, and Yen Ti was routed.

The equalization of what varies in different categories as well as the differentiation of what is the same in similar classes, does not depend on the thing itself, but is man’s doing.

It is by instruction that living beings are transformed. Among the Three Miao tribes ⁵ some were honest, some disreputable. Yao and Shun made them all alike by conferring the boon of instruction upon them.

Suppose the men of Ch‘u and Yüeh ⁶ to settle down in Chuang or Yü ⁷. Having passed there months and years, they would become pliant and yielding, and their customs changed. They say that the people of Ch‘i are soft and supple, those of Ch‘in unsteady and versatile, of Ch‘u lively and passionate, of Yen ¹ dull and simple. Now let us suppose that people of the four States alternately went to live in Chuang and Yü for a certain time, the prolonged stay in a place remote from their country would undubitably bring about a change of their character.

A bad natured man’s heart is like wood or stone, but even wood and stone can be used by men, why not what really is neither wood nor stone ? We may hope that it will still be able _p1.380 to understand the precepts of superior men. Only in the case of insanity, when a person sings and weeps in the streets, knowing neither east nor west, taking no heed of scorching heat or humidity, unaware of his own madness and unconscious of hunger and satiety, nature is deranged and upset, and there is no help. As such a man sees nothing before him, he is afraid of nothing.

Therefore the government does not abolish the officers of public instruction or dispense with criminal judges, wishing thereby to inculcate the observance of the moral laws. The schools guide people at first, the laws control and restrain them later on.

Even the will of a Tan Chu might be curbed ; the proof is that the soldiers of a big army are kept in order by reproofs. Men and officers are held in check to such an extent, that they look at death as a return.

Ho Lu ² put his soldiers to the test by the ‘Five Lakes’ ³. They all cut their arms with swords, that the blood trickled down to the ground. Kou Chien ⁴ also gave his men a trial in the hall of his inner palace. Those who jumped into the fire and perished, were innumerable. Human nature is not particularly fond of swords and fire, but the two rulers had such a power over their men, that they did not care for their lives. It is the effect of military discipline to make light of cuts and blood.

Mêng Pên ⁵ was bold, but on hearing the order for the army he became afraid. In the same way the officers who were wont to draw their swords to fight out, whose merits were first, went through all the ceremonial, and prostrated themselves (before the emperor), when Shu Sun T‘ung ⁶ had fixed the rites. Imperious and overbearing first, they became obedient and submissive. The power of instruction and the influence of virtue transform the character. One need not sorrow that a character is bad, but it is to be regretted, if it does not submit to the teachings of the sages. Such an individual owes his misfortune to himself.

Beans and wheat are different from rite and millet, yet their consumption satisfies the appetite. Are the natures of low and _p1.381 superior men then of a different kind ? They resemble the Five Grains ¹, all have their use. There is no fundamental difference between them, only their manifestations are unlike. The fluid men are endowed with, is either copious or deficient, and their character correspondingly good or bad. The wicked have received but a small dose of kindness, the irascible, plenty of temper. If kindness be unsufficient, people do wrong, and there is not much hope for an improvement. With plenty of temper, people become violent, and have no sense of justice. Moreover, their feeling of sympathy is defective, joy and anger do not happen at the proper time, and they have baseless and irreasonable fears. Reckless men like that commit outrages, therefore they are considered bad.

Man has in his body the Five Qualities ² and the Five Organs ³. If he got too little of them, or if they are too small, his actions do not attain to goodness ⁴. Man himself is either accomplished or deficient, but accomplishment and deficiency do not mean a difference of organisation. Use leaven in big, or in small quantities, and the result will be similar. In rich as well as in poor wine there is the same leaven. Good men as well as bad ones are permeated by the same original fluid. According to its greater or smaller volumen the mind of the individual is bright or dull.

Hsi Mên Pao would tighten his leathern belt, whenever he wanted to relax himself. Tung An Yü loosened his girdle strings, when he was going to rouse himself ⁵. Yet neither passion nor indolence is the right medium. However, he who wears a belt or a girdle on his body is properly dressed. When the question arises, how deficiencies can be made good by means of belts and strings, the names of Hsi Mên Pao and Tung An Yü must be mentioned together ⁶.

Houses of poor, wretched people are not in a proper state. They have holes in the walls under the roof, to which others take objection. When rich and well-to-do people build houses, they have the walls made in a way, that they find there real shelter. The whole house is in good repair, and nobody could say anything against it ¹.

In Wei ² the land was divided in lots of a hundred mow, in Yeh ³ alone the lots measured two hundred mow. Hsi Mên Pao irrigated his land with water from the Chang ⁴ and made it so fertile, that it yielded one bushel ⁵ per mow. Man’s natural parts are like the fields of Yeh, tuition and education, like the water from the Chang. One must be sorry for him that cannot be transformed, but not for a man whose character it is difficult to govern.

In the streets of the city of Loyang ⁶ there was no water. It was therefore pulled up from the Lo by watermen ⁷. If it was streaming quickly day and night, it was their doing. From this point of view kindness and justice must increase manifold in him who comes into close contact with an excellent man ⁸. Mencius’ mother changed her domicile, for she had ascertained this truth ⁹.