Related by Kong Ho on the occasion of the all-water
disportment, under the circumstances previously set forth.
BEYOND the limits of the township of Yang-chow there dwelt a rich
astrologer named Wei. Reading by his skilful interpretation of the
planets that he would shortly Pass Above, he called his sons Chu, Shan,
and Hing to his side and distributed his wealth impartially among them.
To Chu he gave his house containing a gold couch; to Shan a river with
a boat; to Hing a field in which grew a prolific orange-tree. “Thus
provided for,” he continued, “you will be able to live together in
comfort, the resources of each supplying the wants of the others in
addition to his own requirements. Therefore when I have departed let it
be your first care to sacrifice everything else I leave, so that I also,
in the Upper Air, may not be left destitute.”
Now in addition to these three sons Wei also had another, the youngest,
but one of so docile, respectful, and self-effacing a disposition that
he was frequently overlooked to the advantage of his subtle, ambitious,
and ingratiating brothers. This youth, Kao, thinking that the occasion
certainly called for a momentary relaxation of his usual diffidence,
now approached his father modestly, and begged that he also might be
included to some trivial degree in his bounty.
This reasonable petition involved Wei in an embarrassing perplexity.
Although he had forgotten Kao completely in the division, he had now
definitely concluded the arrangement; nor, to his failing powers, did it
appear possible to make a just allotment on any other lines. “How can a
person profitably cut up an orange-tree, a boat, an inlaid couch, or
a house?” he demanded. “Who can divide a flowing river, or what but
unending strife can arise from regarding an open field in anything
but its entirety? Assuredly six cohesive objects cannot be apportioned
between four persons.” Yet he could not evade the justice of Kao’s
implied rebuke, so drawing to his side a jade cabinet he opened it, and
from among the contents he selected an ebony staff, a paper umbrella,
and a fan inscribed with a mystical sentence. These three objects he
placed in Kao’s hands, and with his last breath signified that he should
use them discreetly as the necessity arose.
When the funeral ceremonies were over, Chu, Shan, and Hing came
together, and soon moulded their covetous thoughts into an agreed
conspiracy. “Of what avail would be a boat or a river if this person
sacrificed the nets and appliances by which the fish are ensnared?”
asked Shan. “How little profit would lie in an orange-tree and a field
without cattle and the implements of husbandry!” cried Hing. “One cannot
occupy a gold couch in an empty house both by day and night,” remarked
Chu stubbornly. “How inadequate, therefore, would such a provision be
for three.”
When Kao understood that his three brothers had resolved to act in this
outrageous manner he did not hesitate to reproach them; but not being
able to contend against him honourably, they met him with ridicule.
“Do not attempt to rule us with your wooden staff,” they cried
contemptuously. “Sacrifice IT if your inside is really sincere. And,
in the meanwhile, go and sit under your paper umbrella and wield
your inscribed fan, while we attend to our couch, our boat, and our
orange-tree.”
“Truly,” thought Kao to himself when they had departed, “their words
were irrationally offensive, but among them there may stand out a
pointed edge. Our magnanimous father is now bereft of both comforts
and necessities, and although an ebony rod is certainly not much in the
circumstances, if this person is really humanely-intentioned he will not
withhold it.” With this charitable design Kao build a fire before the
couch (being desirous, out of his forgiving nature, to associate his
eldest brother in the offering), and without hesitation sacrificed the
most substantial of his three possessions.
It here becomes necessary to explain that in addition to being an expert
astrologer, Wei was a far-seeing magician. The rod of unimpressionable
solidity was in reality a charm against decay, and its hidden virtues
being thus destroyed, a contrary state of things naturally arose, so
that the next morning it was found that during the night the gold couch
had crumbled away into a worthless dust.
Even this manifestation did not move the three brothers, although the
geniality of Shan and Hing’s countenances froze somewhat towards Chu.
Nevertheless Chu still possessed a house, and by pointing out that they
could live as luxuriantly as before on the resources of the river and
the field and the tree, he succeeded in maintaining his position among
them.
After seven days Kao reflected again. “This avaricious person still has
two objects, both of which he owes to his revered father’s imperishable
influence,” he admitted conscience-stricken, “while the being in
question has only one.” Without delay he took the paper umbrella and
ceremoniously burned it, scattering the ashes this time upon Shan’s
river. Like the rod the umbrella also possessed secret virtues, its
particular excellence being a curse against clouds, wind demons,
thunderbolts and the like, so that during the night a great storm raged,
and by the morning Shan’s boat had been washed away.
This new calamity found the three brothers more obstinately perverse
than ever. It cannot be denied that Hing would have withdrawn from the
guilty confederacy, but they were as two to one, and prevailed, pointing
out that the house still afforded shelter, the river yielded some of the
simpler and inferior fish which could be captured from the banks, and
the fruitfulness of the orange-tree was undiminished.
At the end of seven more days Kao became afflicted with doubt. “There is
no such thing as a fixed proportion or a set reckoning between a dutiful
son and an embarrassed sire,” he confessed penitently. “How incredibly
profane has been this person’s behaviour in not seeing the obligation in
its unswerving necessity before.” With this scrupulous resolve Kao took
his last possession, and carrying it into the field he consumed it
with fire beneath Hing’s orange-tree. The fan, in turn, also had hidden
properties, its written sentence being a spell against drought, hot
winds, and the demons which suck the nourishment from all crops. In
consequence of the act these forces were called into action, and before
another day Hing’s tree had withered away.
It is said with reason, “During the earthquake men speak the truth.” At
this last disaster the impious fortitude of the three brothers suddenly
gave way, and cheerfully admitting their mistake, each committed
suicide, Chu disembowelling himself among the ashes of his couch, Shan
sinking beneath the waters of his river, and Hing hanging by a rope
among the branches of his own effete orange-tree.
When they had thus fittingly atoned for their faults the imprecation was
lifted from off their possessions. The couch was restored by magic
art to its former condition, the boat was returned by a justice-loving
person into whose hands it had fallen lower down the river, and
the orange-tree put out new branches. Kao therefore passed into an
undiminished inheritance. He married three wives, to commemorate the
number of his brothers, and had three sons, whom he called Chu, Shan,
and Hing, for a like purpose. These three all attained to high office in
the State, and by their enlightened morals succeeded in wiping all the
discreditable references to others bearing the same names from off the
domestic tablets.
From this story it will be seen that by acting virtuously, yet with an
observing discretion, on all occasions, it is generally possible not
only to rise to an assured position, but at the same time unsuspectedly
to involve those who stand in our way in a just destruction.