ROBBER CHÊ.
[Spurious.]
Confucius was on terms of friendship with Liu Hsia Chi, whose younger
brother was known as "Robber Chê."
This is an anachronism. Liu Hsia Chi (_or_ Hui) was a virtuous
official of the Lu State. He flourished some 80 and more years before
the time of Confucius.
Robber Chê had a band of followers nine thousand strong. He ravaged
the whole empire, plundering the various nobles and breaking into
people's houses. He drove off oxen and horses. He stole men's wives and
daughters. Family ties put no limit to his greed. He had no respect for
parents nor for brothers. He neglected the worship of his ancestors.
Wherever he passed, the greater States flew to arms, the smaller ones
to places of safety. All the people were sore distressed.
"A father," said Confucius to Liu Hsia Chi, "should surely be able
to admonish his son; an elder brother to teach his younger brother.
If this be not so, there is an end of the value attached to these
relationships.
"Now you, Sir, are one of the scholars of the age, while your younger
brother is the Robber Chê, the scourge of the empire. You are unable to
teach him, and I blush for you. Let me go and have a talk with him on
your behalf."
"As to what you say, Sir, about fathers and elder brothers," answered
Liu Hsia Chi, "if the son will not listen to his father, nor the
younger brother to his elder brother, what becomes of your arguments
then?
"Besides, Chê's passions are like a bubbling spring. His thoughts are
like a whirlwind. He is strong enough to defy all foes. He can argue
until wrong becomes right. If you follow his inclinations, he is
pleased. If you oppose them he is angry. He is free with the language
of abuse. Do not go near him."
Confucius paid no attention to this advice; but with Yen Hui as
charioteer and Tzŭ Kung on his right, went off to see Robber Chê.
The latter had just encamped to the south of T'ai-shan, and was engaged
in devouring a dish of minced human liver. Confucius alighted from his
chariot, and advancing addressed the doorkeeper as follows:--
"I am Confucius of the Lu State. I have heard of the high character of
your captain."
He then twice respectfully saluted the doorkeeper, who went in to
announce his arrival.
When Robber Chê heard who it was, he was furious. His eyes glared like
stars. His hair raised his cap from his head as he cried out, "What!
that crafty scoundrel Confucius of Lu? Go, tell him from me that he
is a mere word-mongerer. That he talks nonsense about Wên Wang and Wu
Wang. That he wears an extravagant cap, with a thong from the side of
a dead ox. That what he says is mostly rhodomontade. That he consumes
where he does not sow, and wears clothes he does not weave. That his
lips patter and his tongue wags. That his rights and wrongs are of his
own coining, whereby he throws dust in the eyes of rulers and prevents
the scholars of the empire from reverting to the original source of all
things.
_Sc._ TAO.
That he makes a great stir about filial piety and brotherly love, glad
enough himself to secure some fat fief or post of power. Tell him that
he deserves the worst, and that if he does not take himself off his
liver shall be in my morning stew."
But Confucius sent in again, saying, "I am a friend of Liu Hsia Chi. I
am anxious to set eyes upon your captain's shoe-strings."
Another interpretation is "upon your captain's feet visible from
beneath the screen."
When the doorkeeper gave this second message, Robber Chê said, "Bring
him before me!" Thereupon Confucius hurried in, and avoiding the place
of honour stepped back and made two obeisances.
Robber Chê, flaming with anger, straddled out his two legs, and laying
his hand upon his sword glared at Confucius and roaring like a tigress
with young, said, "Ch'iu! come here. If what you say suits my ideas,
you will live. Otherwise you will die."
"I have heard," replied Confucius, "that the world contains three
classes of virtue. To grow up tall, of a beauty without compare, and
thus to be the idol of young and old, of noble and lowly alike,--this
is the highest class. To be possessed of wisdom which embraces the
universe and can explain all things,--this is the middle class. To
be possessed of courage which will stand test and gather followers
around,--this is the lowest class.
"Now any man whose virtue belongs to either of these classes is fit to
occupy the place and title of ruler. But you, Captain, unite all three
in yourself. You are eight feet two in height. Your expression is very
bright. Your lips are like vermilion. Your teeth like a row of shells.
Your voice is like a beautiful bell;--yet you are known as Robber Chê.
Captain, I blush for you.
"Captain, if you will hearken to me I will go south for you to Wu and
Yüeh, north to Ch'i and Lu, east to Sung and Wei, and west to Chin and
Ch'u. I will have a great wall built for you of many _li_ in extent,
enclosing hamlets of many hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, over
which State you shall be ruler. Your relations with the empire will
enter upon a new phase. You will disband your men. You will gather your
brothers around you. You will join in worship of your ancestors. Such
is the behaviour of the true Sage and the man of parts, and such is
what the world desires."
"Ch'iu! come here," cried Robber Chê in a great rage. "Those who are
squared by offers and corrected by words are the stupid vulgar masses.
The height and the beauty which you praise in me are legacies from my
parents. Even though you did not praise them, do you think I should be
ignorant of their existence? Besides, those who flatter to the face
speak evil behind the back. Now all you have been saying about the
great State and its numerous population simply means squaring me by
offers as though one of the common herd. And of course it would not
last.
"There is no State bigger than the empire. Yao and Shun both got this,
yet their descendants have not territory enough to insert an awl's
point. T'ang and Wu Wang both sat upon the Imperial throne, yet their
posterity has been obliterated from the face of the earth.
Hardly in Chuang Tzŭ's time.
Was not this because of the very magnitude of the prize?
"I have also heard that in olden times the birds and animals
outnumbered man, and that the latter was obliged to seek his safety
by building his domicile in trees. By day he picked up acorns
and chestnuts. At night he slept upon a branch. Hence the name
_Nest-builders_.
"Of old, the people did not know how to make clothes. In summer they
collected quantities of fuel, and in winter warmed themselves by fire.
Hence the name _Provident_.
"In the days of Shên Nung, they lay down without caring where they were
and got up without caring whither they might go. A man knew his mother
but not his father. He lived among the wild deer. He tilled the ground
for food. He wove cloth to cover his body. He harboured no thought of
injury to others. These were the glorious results of an age of perfect
virtue.
"The Yellow Emperor, however, could not attain to this virtue. He
fought with Ch'ih Yu at Chŏ-lu, and blood flowed for a hundred _li_.
Then came Yao and Shun with their crowd of ministers. Then T'ang who
deposed his sovereign, and Wu Wang who slew Chou. After which time
the strong took to oppressing the weak, the many to coercing the few.
In fact, ever since T'ang and Wu Wang we have had none other than
disturbers of the peace.
"And now you come forward preaching the old dogmas of Wên Wang
and palming off sophistries without end, in order to teach future
generations. You wear patched clothes and a narrow girdle, you talk
big and act falsely, in order to deceive the rulers of the land, while
all the time you yourself are aiming at wealth and power! You are the
biggest thief I know of; and if the world calls me Robber Chê, it most
certainly ought to call you Robber Ch'iu.
"By fair words you enticed Tzŭ Lu to follow you. You made him doff his
martial cap,
Shaped like a cock's comb.
and ungird his long sword, and sit a disciple at your feet. And all
the world cried out that Confucius could stop violence and prevent
wrong-doing. By and by, when Tzŭ Lu wished to slay the prince of Wei,
but failed, and was himself hacked to pieces and exposed over the
eastern gate of Wei,--that was because you had not properly instructed
him.
See the account in the _Tso Chuan_.
"You call yourself a man of talent and a Sage forsooth! Twice you have
been driven out of Lu. You were tabooed in Wei. You were a failure in
Ch'i. You were surrounded by the Ch'êns and the Ts'ais. In fact, the
empire won't have you anywhere. It was your teaching which brought Tzŭ
Lu to his tragical end. You cannot take care, in the first place, of
yourself, nor, in the second place, of others. Of what value can your
doctrine be?
"There is none to whom mankind has accorded a higher place than to the
Yellow Emperor. Yet his virtue was not complete. He fought at Chŏ-lu,
and blood ran for a hundred _li_. Yao was not paternal.
He killed his eldest son.
Shun was not filial.
He banished his mother's younger brother.
The great Yü was deficient in one respect.
He was wanting in natural feeling. When engaged in his great
engineering work of draining the empire, he even passed his own door
without going in to see his family.
T'ang deposed his sovereign. Wu Wang vanquished Chou. Wên Wang was
imprisoned at Yin Li.
"Now these six worthies enjoy a high reputation among men. Yet a fuller
investigation shows that in each case a desire for advantage disturbed
their original purity and forced it into a contrary direction. Hence
the shamelessness of their deeds.
"Among those whom the world calls virtuous were Poh I and Shu Ch'i.
They declined the sovereignty of Ku-chu and died of starvation on Mount
Shou-yang, their corpses deprived of burial.
"Pao Chiao made a great show of virtue and abused the world in general.
He grasped a tree and died.
Tzŭ Kung, one of Confucius' disciples, is said to have scolded Pao
Chiao so vigorously that the latter withered up into dead wood.
"Shên T'u Ti, when no heed was paid to his counsels, jumped into the
river with a stone on his back and became food for fishes.
See p. 72.
"Chieh Tzŭ T'ui was truly loyal. He cut a slice from his thigh to feed
Wên Wang. Afterwards, when Wên Wang turned his back upon him, he
retired in anger, and grasping a tree, was burnt to death.
He took refuge in a forest, from which Wên Wang, anxious to recover
his friend, tried to smoke him out!
"Wei Shêng made an assignation with a girl beneath a bridge. The girl
did not come, and the water rose. But Wei Shêng would not leave. He
grasped a buttress and died.
"These four differed in no way from dogs and pigs going about begging
to be slaughtered. They all exaggerated reputation and disregarded
death. They did not reflect upon their original nature and seek to
preserve life into the old age allotted.
"Among ministers whom the world calls loyal, none can compare with
Wang Tzŭ, Pi Kan, and Wu Tzŭ Hsü. The last-mentioned drowned himself.
Pi Kan was disembowelled. These two worthies are what men call loyal
ministers; yet, as a matter of fact, all the world laughs at them!
"Thus, from the most ancient times down to Tzŭ Hsü and Pi Kan, there
have been none deserving of honour. And as to the sermon you, Ch'iu,
propose to preach to me,--if it is on ghostly subjects, I shan't
understand them, and if it is on human affairs, why there is nothing
more to be said. I know it all already.
"I will now tell you a few things. The lust of the eye is for beauty.
The lust of the ear is for music. The lust of the palate is for
flavour. The lust of ambition is for gratification. Man's greatest
age is one hundred years. A medium old age is eighty years. The lowest
estimate is sixty years. Take away from this the hours of sickness,
disease, death, mourning, sorrow, and trouble, and there will not
remain more than four or five days a month upon which a man may open
his mouth to laugh. Heaven and Earth are everlasting. Sooner or later
every man has to die. That which thus has a limit, as compared with
that which is everlasting, is a mere flash, like the passage of some
swift steed seen through a crack. And those who cannot gratify their
ambition and live through their allotted span, are men who have not
attained to TAO.
"Ch'iu! all your teachings are nothing to me. Begone! Go home! Say no
more! Your doctrine is a random jargon, full of falsity and deceit. It
can never preserve the original purity of man. Why discuss it further?"
Confucius made two obeisances and hurriedly took his leave. On mounting
his chariot, he three times missed hold of the reins. His eyes were so
dazed that he could see nothing. His face was ashy pale. With down-cast
head he grasped the bar of his chariot, unable to find vent for his
feelings.
Arriving outside the eastern gate of Lu, he met Liu Hsia Chi, who said,
"I have not seen you for some days. From the look of your equipage I
should say you had been travelling. I guess now you have been to see
Chê."
Confucius looked up to heaven, and replied with a sigh, "I have."
"And did he not rebuff you," asked Liu Hsia Chi, "as I said he would?"
"He did," said Confucius. "I am a man who has cauterized himself
without being ill. I hurried away to smooth the tiger's head and comb
out his beard. And I very nearly got into the tiger's mouth."
* * * * *
Tzŭ Chang asked Man Kou Tê,
Which means "Full of the Ill-gotten."
saying, "Why do you not practise virtue? Otherwise, it is impossible
to inspire confidence. And without confidence, no place. And without
place, no wealth. Thus, with a view to reputation or to wealth, duty
towards one's neighbour is the true key.
As leading to reputation, which was what Tzŭ Chang wanted.
If you were to discard all thoughts of reputation and wealth and attend
to the cultivation of the heart, surely you would not pass one day
without practising the higher virtues."
"Those who have no shame," replied Man Kou Tê,
Meaning himself.
"grow rich. Those who inspire confidence make themselves conspicuous.
Meaning Tzŭ Chang.
Reputation and wealth are mostly to be got out of shamelessness and
confidence inspired. Thus, with a view to reputation or to wealth, the
confidence of others is the true key.
As leading to wealth, which was what Man Kou Tê wanted.
If you were to discard all thoughts of reputation and wealth, surely
the virtuous man would then have no scope beyond himself."
Beyond his own nature.
"Of old," said Tzŭ Chang, "Chieh and Chou sat upon the Imperial throne,
and the whole empire was theirs. Yet if you were now to tell any common
thief that his moral qualities resembled theirs, he would resent it as
an insult. By such miserable creatures are they despised."
"Confucius and Mih Tzŭ, on the other hand, were poor and simple enough.
Yet if you were to tell any Prime Minister of to-day that his moral
qualities resembled theirs, he would flush with pride and declare you
were paying him too high a compliment. So truly honourable is the man
of learning.
"Thus, the power of a monarch does not necessarily make him worthy;
nor do poverty and a low station necessarily make a man unworthy.
The worthy and the unworthy are differentiated by the worthiness and
unworthiness of their acts."
"A petty thief," replied Man Kou Tê, "is put in gaol. A great brigand
becomes ruler of a State. And among the retainers of the latter, men
of virtue will be found.
"Of old, Duke Huan, named Hsiao Poh, slew his elder brother and took
his sister-in-law to wife. Yet Kuan Chung became his minister.
"T'ien Ch'êng Tzŭ killed his prince and seized the kingdom. Yet
Confucius accepted his pay.
See p. 111.
"To condemn a man in words, yet actually to take service under
him,--does not this show us practice and precept directly opposed to
one another?
"Therefore it was written, 'Who is bad? Who is good? He who succeeds is
the head. He who does not succeed is the tail.'"
"But if you do not practise virtue," said Tzŭ Chang, "and make no
distinction between kith and kin, assign no duties to the worthy and
to the unworthy, no precedence to young and old, how then are the Five
Bonds and the Six Ranks to be distinguished?"
Commentators are divided as to these Bonds and Ranks. One makes the
former calendaric. Another considers that the five cardinal virtues
and six ranks of nobility are meant. Of the latter there are only
five, but "sovereign" is added to patch the deficiency.
"Yao slew his eldest son," answered Man Kou Tê. "Shun banished his
mother's brother. Was there kith and kin in that?
"T'ang deposed Chieh. Wu Wang slew Chou. Was that the duty of the
worthy towards the unworthy?
"Wang Chi was the legitimate heir, but Chow Kung slew his elder
brother. Was that precedence of young and old?
"The false principles of the Confucianists, the universal love of the
Mihists,--do these help to distinguish the Five Bonds and the Six Ranks?
"You, Sir, are all for reputation. I am all for wealth. As to which
pursuit is not in accordance with principle nor in harmony with right,
let us refer to the arbitration of Wu Yoh."
"The mean man," said Wu Yoh, "devotes himself to wealth. The superior
man devotes himself to reputation. The moral results are different in
each case. But if both would set aside their activities and devote
themselves to doing nothing, the results would be the same.
"Wherefore it has been said, 'Be not a mean man. Revert to your natural
self. Be not a superior man. Abide by the laws of heaven.'
"As to the straight and the crooked, view them from the standpoint of
the infinite.
All distinctions are thus merged.
Gaze around you on all sides, until time withdraws you from the scene.
"As to the right and the wrong, hold fast to your magic circle,
At the centre of which all positives and negatives converge. See ch.
ii, p. 18.
and with independent mind walk ever in the way of TAO.
"Do not swerve from the path of virtue; do not bring about your own
good deeds,--lest your labour be lost. Do not make for wealth; do not
aim at success,--lest you cast away that which links you to God.
"Pi Kan was disembowelled. Tzŭ Hsü had his eyes gouged out.
Better known as Wu Yüan. See p. 112. He expressed a wish to be buried
on the road to the Yüeh State that he might witness the defeat of the
Wu State. Whereupon the prince of the latter State at once had him
deprived of sight.
Such was the fate of loyalty.
"Chih Kung bore witness against his father. Wei Shêng was drowned. Such
are the misfortunes of the faithful.
"Pao Chiao dried up where he stood. Shên Tzŭ would not justify himself.
He would not defend himself against a charge of putting poison in his
father's food.
Such are the evils of honesty.
"Confucius did not visit his mother.
There is no authority for this statement.
K'uang Tzŭ did not visit his father.
By whom he had been turned out of doors.
Such are the trials which come upon the upright.
"The above instances have been handed down to us from antiquity and are
discussed in modern times. They show that men of learning emphasized
their precepts by carrying them out in practice; and that consequently
they paid the penalty and fell into these calamities."
* * * * *
Discontent asked Complacency, saying, "There is really no one who
does not either aim at reputation or make for wealth. If a man is
rich, others flock around him. These necessarily take a subordinate
position, and consequently pay him court. And it would seem that
such subordination and respect constitute a royal road to long life,
comfort, and general happiness. How is it then that you, Sir, have no
mind for these things? Is it that you are wanting in wit? Or is it that
you are physically unable to compete, and therefore go in for being
virtuous, though all the time unable to forget?"
"You and your friends," replied Complacency, "regard all men as alike
because they happen to be born at the same time and in the same place
as yourselves. You look on us as scholars who have separated from
humanity and cast off the world, and who have no guiding principle
beyond poring over the records of the past and present, or indulging in
the logomachy of this and that.
"Were we to lead the mundane lives you do, it would be at the sacrifice
of the very conditions of existence. And surely thus we should be
wandering far from the royal road to long life, comfort, and general
happiness. The discomfort of wretchedness, the comfort of well-being,
you do not refer to the body.
But to some external cause of which the body becomes subjectively
conscious.
The abjectness of terror, the elation of joy, you do not refer to the
mind itself. You know that such things are so, but you do not know how
they are so. Wherefore, though equalling the Son of Heaven in power,
and with all the empire as your personal property, you would not be
free from care."
"Wealth," replied Discontent, "is of the greatest service to a man.
It enables him to do good, and to exert power, to an extent which the
perfect man or the true Sage could never reach. He can borrow the
courage and strength of others to make himself formidable. He can
employ the wisdom and counsels of others to add clearness to his own
deliberations. He can avail himself of the virtue of others and cause
it to appear as his own. Without being in possession of a throne, he
can wield the authority of a prince.
"Besides, the pleasures of music, beauty, rich food, and power, do not
require to be studied before they can be appreciated by the mind; nor
does the body need the example of others before it can enjoy them. We
need no teacher to tell us what to like or dislike, to follow or to
avoid. Such knowledge is instinctive in man. The world may condemn this
view, but which of us is free from the taint?"
"The wise man," answered Complacency, "acts for the common weal, in
pursuit of which he does not overstep due limits. Wherefore, if there
is a sufficiency, he does not strive for more. He has no use for more,
and accordingly does not seek it. But if there is not a sufficiency,
then he seeks for more. He strives in all directions, yet does not
account it greed. If there is a surplus, he declines it. Even though
he refused the whole empire, he would not account it honesty. To him,
honesty and greed are not conditions into which we are forced by
outward circumstances, but characteristics innate in the individual.
He may wield the power of the Son of Heaven, but will not employ it
for the degradation of others. He may own the whole empire, yet will
not use his wealth to take advantage of his fellows. But a calculation
of the troubles and the anxieties inseparable therefrom, cause him
to reject these as injurious to his nature, not from a desire for
reputation.
"When Yao and Shun occupied the throne, there was peace. They did not
try to be beneficent rulers. They did not inflict injury by doing good.
They were simply natural, and good results followed.
"Shan Chüan and Hsü Yu both declined the proffered throne. Theirs was
no empty refusal. They would not cause injury to themselves.
"In all these cases, each individual adopted the profitable course in
preference to the injurious course. And the world calls them virtuous,
whereby they acquire a reputation at which they never aimed."
"It is necessary," argued Discontent, "to cling to reputation. If
all pleasures are to be denied to the body and one's energies to be
concentrated upon health with a view to the prolongation of life, such
life would be itself nothing more than the prolonged illness of a
confirmed invalid."
"Happiness," said Complacency, "is to be found in contentment. Too much
is always a curse, most of all in wealth.
"The ears of the wealthy man ring with sounds of sweet music. His
palate is cloyed with rich meats and wine. In the pursuit of pleasure,
business is forgotten. This is confusion.
"He eats and drinks to excess, until his breathing is that of one
carrying a heavy load up a hill. This is misery.
"He covets money to surround himself with comforts. He covets power
to vanquish rivals. But his quiet hours are darkened by diabetes and
dropsy. This is disease.
"Even when, in his desire for wealth, he has piled up an enormous
fortune, he still goes on and cannot desist. This is shame.
"Having no use for the money he has collected, he still hugs it to him
and cannot bear to part with it. His heart is inflamed, and he ever
seeks to add more to the pile. This is unhappiness.
"At home, he dreads the pest of the pilfering thief. Abroad, the
danger of bandit and highwayman. So he keeps strict guard within, while
never venturing alone without. This is fear.
"These six are the greatest of the world's curses. Yet such a man never
bestows a thought upon them, until the hour of misfortune is at hand.
Then, with his ambitions gratified, his natural powers exhausted, and
nothing but wealth remaining, he would gladly obtain one day's peace,
but cannot do so.
"Wherefore, if reputation is not to be enjoyed and wealth is not to be
secured, how pitiable it is that men should harass their minds and wear
out their bodies in such pursuits!"