The great Chinese sage, Confucius, had a son-in-law, Kung Yeh Chang,
who understood better than any one before or since his day the habits
of birds. So much time and study did he give to them that tradition
says he understood all bird language and many stories are told of him
in this connection. He built a beautiful pavilion in his garden, which
was rich in flowers, trees, shrubs, and ponds, so that the birds loved
to gather there; thus he was able to spend many delightful hours in
their company listening to their wise and unwise talk.
Many of these conversations have been handed down the past two thousand
years in the wonderful folklore of China, and from these one can see
the influence they have had on the customs and traditions of the
people.
Among the Chinese the wild goose has the reputation for having more
virtues and wisdom than any other bird. This is brought out in the
following story. One day, while Kung Yeh Chang was resting in his
pavilion, a small house-sparrow lit in a tree near-by and commenced
singing and chattering. A little later a wild goose dropped down by the
pond for a drink. Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow
called out, “Who are you? Where are you going?” To this the goose did
not reply and the sparrow became angry and asked again, “Who are you,
that you should be so proud and lofty you cannot pay attention to my
questions? Why do you consider me beneath your notice?” and still the
goose did not answer. Then, indeed, was the little sparrow furious. In
a loud, shrill voice, he said, “Every one listens to me! Again I ask,
who are you with your lofty airs? Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he
put his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and
fierce.
By this time the goose had finished drinking, and looking up he said,
“Don’t you know that in a big tree with many branches and large leaves
the cicadas love to gather and make a noise? I could not hear you
distinctly. You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on
a mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,’”
and the wild goose took another drink.
How the little sparrow chattered and sputtered, shook his wings, and at
last said, “In what way are you, with your long neck and short tail,
better than I? In what is your value greater. Tell me, and if you can
prove it you shall be my teacher. What, for instance, do you know of
the great world? Now, I can go into people’s houses, hide in the
rafters under their windows, see their books and pictures, what they
have to eat and what they do. I can hear all the family secrets, know
all that goes on in the family and state. I know who are happy and who
are sad. I know all the quarrels and all the gossip. All the other
birds are glad to see me because I can tell them the latest news, and I
know just how to tell it to produce the best effect. So you see that I
know much that you, with your great stupid body, can never hope to
know.”
“We consider,” said the wild goose, “that the highest law of virtue and
good is to give others an equal chance with ourselves, or even to give
them the first choice. Because of this we always fly either in the
shape of the character ‘Man’ or the figure one. No one takes advantage
of the other. We believe in the ‘Three Bonds,’ i.e., Prince and
Minister, Husband and Wife, Father and Son. Also in the five
virtues,—Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Knowledge, and Truth.
With us, if the male bird dies, the female flies alone; if the female
dies the male flies alone; if both parents die their young fly alone
for three years. We have our unchanging customs of going north in the
spring and south in the winter. People come to depend on us, and make
ready for either their spring work or the cold of winter. Thus, while
we have not known the family or state skeletons and the gossip of the
women and servants, we are a help to man.
“Now, you have no laws binding you. As a family, you sparrows are
selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else,
only thinking of your own good. Even among yourselves you quarrel.
Because of these things you are treated with contempt and looked
lightly upon by all. Indeed, so much so that you are a by-word. Now, we
are respected and held up as models. Do you not hear parents and
teachers tell their children and scholars to come and go quietly by
themselves to and from school; to go straight ahead without looking to
the right or left; not to gather in groups and chatter like
house-sparrows? Do not the respectable people do the same on the street
and in the house? Is there not a proverb that ‘There are many people
without the wisdom and virtues of the wild goose’? You do, indeed,
chatter about small affairs like foolish women and girls and thus are
beneath my notice and I bid you good-day.”
All this time the poor little sparrow was trembling with rage, and so
great was it that she could not fly away nor keep her hold on the
branch of the tree, and so she fell to the ground, and thus she died.
Kung Yeh Chang exclaimed as he looked at her and then at the goose away
in the distance, “Ai ya [sad, sad], most of mankind are like the
sparrow, but the truly superior man will be like the wild goose and
follow the rules of the Three Bonds and Five Virtues.”