When [the tyrant] Chou killed the prince Pi-kan,[2]
Chi-tzŭ let
his hair down his back and feigned madness. When Duke Ling of
Ch`ên killed Hsieh Yeh,[2]
Têng Yüan left Ch`ên with his family.
After these events, Yin was conquered by Chou, and Ch`ên was
destroyed by Ch`u, because they had killed Pi-kan and Hsieh Yeh,
and had lost Chi-tzŭ and Têng Yüan. King Chao of Yen got Kuo
Wei; Tsou Yen and Yo I came from Wei and Ch`i. Thereupon
he raised an army and attacked Ch`i, detaining King Min in Chü.
[3]
In territory and population Yen
[4]
was no match for Ch`i. But what
enabled Yen to expand to this extent was reliance on gentlemen.
Truly,
[5]
there is no state always static, nor a people [always] ready
to be ruled. If it gets a sage, [the state] will be prosperous; if it
loses a sage, it will perish: from antiquity to the present time this
has been always the case. Now a bright mirror is the means of
reflecting the form, and the past is the means of knowing the
present. For to know enough to detest that whereby ancient
[dynasties] fell, but not to follow the methods by which they preserved
themselves, is no different from seeking to catch up with
the man ahead of you by walking backwards. T`ai-kung knew
it and so gave office to the successors of Wei-tzŭ and built a
mound over the tomb of Pi-kan. Now when saintly men act in
so generous a manner toward even the descendants of sages, how
much the more [generous] they must be toward [sages] still living
in their time.
The Ode says,[6]
[The terrors of] great Heaven are very excessive,
But indeed I have committed no offense.