Annotations of Canon VI:—
King Wên financed Fei Chung, made him stay around
Chow, and told him to admonish Chow and disturb his mind.
The King of Ching once sent an envoy to Ch`in. The King
of Ch`in showed him great courtesies. Later, he said: "If
any enemy state has worthies it causes us worries. Now that
the envoy of the King of Ching is very worthy, I am worried
over it." Then the body of officials advised him, saying:
"Win the envoy of the King of Ching to our side with the
worthiness and saintliness of Your Majesty and with the
resources and generosity of our country. Why does Your
Majesty not cultivate deep friendship with him and pretend[45]
to keep him in Your Majesty's service? Then, if Ching
thinks he is rendering service to foreign states, they will
infallibly censure him."
When Chung-ni was governing the Lu State, no one would
pick up things dropped on the road. Over this Duke Ching
of Ch`i worried. Therefore, Li Chü said to Duke Ching:
"To get rid of Chung-ni is as easy as to blow off a hair.
Why does Your Highness not invite him to office with big
emolument and high position and present Duke Ai[46]
girl
musicians so as to make him self-conceited and bewilder[47]
his ideas? When Duke Ai is rejoicing in new pleasures, he
will certainly neglect governmental affairs, and Chung-ni
will certainly remonstrate with him. If Chung-ni makes any
remonstrance at all, he will certainly be slighted in Lu."
"Good," said Duke Ching, and then ordered Li Chü to
present girl musicians, twice eight in number, to Duke Ai.
Enjoying their dance and music, Duke Ai actually neglected
governmental affairs. Chung-ni remonstrated with him,
but he would not listen. So Chung-ni left him and went to
Ch`u.
The King of Ch`u said to Kan Hsiang: "I want to support
Kan Mu with Ch`u's influence and make him premier of Ch`i
Is this practicable?" "Impracticable," was the reply.
"Why impracticable?" asked the King. In reply Kan Hsiang
said: "Kan Mu when young studied under Master Shih Chü.
Shih Chü, while gate-man of Shang-ts`ai, neither served his
master well nor provided his family well, wherefore he was
known throughout All-under-Heaven to be offensive and
cruel. Nevertheless, Kan Mu served him with obedience.
King Hui is enlightened, Chang Yi is discriminating. Kan
Mu has served them and has been appointed to ten successive
offices but has committed no fault whatever. This shows Kan
Mu's worthiness." Then the King asked, "To find a worthy[48]
for the premiership of the enemy state is not practicable.
Why?" In reply Kan Hsiang said: "Formerly Your Majesty
sent out Shao Hua to Yüeh and in five years could ruin
Yüeh. The reason therefore was that Yüeh was then misgoverned
while Ch`u was well governed. In the past[49]
Your
Majesty knew what to do with Yüeh but now forgets what
to do with Ch`in. Is he not very quick to forget things?"
"Well, if so, then what shall we do about it?" asked the
King. "We may as well make Kung Li Premier of Ch`in."
"Why is it practicable to make Kung Li Premier?" asked
the King. "Kung Li in his youth," replied Hsiang, "was
loved and favoured, and grew up to be a noble and an official.
Wearing beautiful clothes embroidered with precious stones,
[50]
holding fragrant grass
[51]
in his mouth and keeping jade armlets
around his hands, he attends to his public duties at the court.
Furthermore, he thinks he can gain by a misgovernment of
Ch`in."
Wu was invading Ching. Tzŭ-hsü then sent men out to
spread rumours in Ching that if Tzŭ-ch`i, were taken into
service by Ching, Wu would attack Ching, but if Tzŭ-ch`ang
were taken into service, she would leave them free. When
the Chings heard about these words, they took Tzŭ-ch`ang
into service and dismissed Tzŭ-ch`i from his office. The
Wus then fell upon them and triumphed over them.
Duke Hsien of Chin wanted to invade Yü and Kuo and
therefore made a present of the team of the Chü breed, the
jade of Ch`ui-chi, and girl musicians, twice eight in number,
in order thereby to bewilder[52]
the ideas of their rulers and
disturb their governmental affairs.
When Shu Hsiang was slandering Ch`ang Hung, he falsified
a letter from Ch`ang Hung in which the latter said to
him: "Will you please on my behalf speak to the Ruler
of Chin that it is now time to carry out the agreement I made
with His Highness and ask him why he has not promptly
sent troops here?" Then he pretended to drop the letter at
the court of the Ruler of Chou and left immediately.
[53]
The
Ruler of Chou, regarding Ch`ang Hung as a betrayer of
Chou, censured him and put him to death.
When Duke Huan of Chêng was about to raid K`uai,
he asked about the able men, worthy ministers, eloquent,
intelligent scholars, and daring, gallant warriors, recorded[54]
all
their names, selected the good fields of K`uai as bribes to
them, and wrote down the posts and ranks reserved for
them. He then constructed an altar compound outside the
city-walls, buried the written documents there, and smeared
the sacrificial vessels with the blood of chickens and piglings as
though there they had taken an oath together. The Ruler of
K`uai, regarding this as a civil disturbance, killed all his worthy
subjects. Meanwhile, Duke Huan raided K`uai all of a sudden
and took it.
A[55]
certain clown at the Court of Ch`in was on good terms
with the King of Ching. Besides[56]
he was secretly on good
terms with the attendants of the King of Ching and at home
was highly trusted by the Ruler Hui-wên. Whenever Ching
had any stratagem, the clown would hear about it before
anybody else did and reported it to the Ruler Hui-wên.
Hsiang Tzŭ, Magistrate of Yeh, was secretly on good terms
with the attendants of the King of Chao. Whenever the King
of Chao schemed to raid Yeh, Hsiang Tzŭ always heard about
it and forewarned the King of Wey. As the King of Wey
always took precautions against any sudden attack, Chao had
to stop
[57]
her expedition every time.
At the time of Duke Ssŭ[58]
of Wei, detectives by his side
were ordered to watch the prefect. Once the prefect opened
up his mattress and found the mat seriously torn. That day,
when Duke Ssŭ went home, he ordered men to give the
prefect a new mat and said: "His Highness has heard you
just opened your mattress and found the mat seriously torn.
So he is bestowing upon you this new mat." Greatly
astonished thereby, the prefect thought the Duke was
superhuman.
