Han shih wai chuan :: :: University of Virginia Library

Pao Chiao's clothes were so worn his skin showed through; he
was holding a basket and gathering vegetables[2] when he met
Tzŭ-kung on the road. Tzŭ-kung said, "My dear sir, what has
brought you to this?"

Pao Chiao said, "In the empire there are a host of teachers
who have abandoned virtue. How could I not have come to this?
I have heard that the man who keeps on acting when the world
does not know him is acting wrongly,[3] and he who persists in
taking part when his superiors do not use him is spoiling his
integrity. If his conduct is wrong and his integrity spoiled, and
even so he does not desist, it is because he is deluded by profit."

Tzŭ-kung said, "I have heard that one who finds fault with the
time should not make his living on profit derived therefrom, and
one who thinks his prince is impure should not walk in his territory.[4]
[Now you, sir, thinking your prince impure, still walk in his
territory],[5] and finding fault with the times, you still gather vegetables
produced therein. The Ode says.[6]

Under the wide heaven,
All is the king's land.

Whose are these?"[7]

Pao Chiao said, "Alas, I have heard that the sage is reluctant
to take office but quick to withdraw, and that the scrupulous man
is easily ashamed but thinks lightly of dying." Whereupon, casting
away his vegetables, he forthwith stiffened in death on the
bank of the Lo River.[8]

When the superior man hears of this he says, "He was scrupulous
indeed and unyielding."

Now "if a mountain is [merely] a pinnacle, it cannot be high,
and if the water flows straight, it cannot be deep"; if one's conduct
is scrupulous, its efficacy is not great. One who aspires to
rank with Heaven and Earth—that person's case is not auspicious.[9]
It may be said of Pao Chiao's case that it was inauspicious. His
limitations and endowments were just enough to bring him to this
[end].[10] The Ode says,[11]

So it is!
Heaven has done it;—
What then shall I say?

[1]

Cf. Hsin hsü 7.14b-15a.

[2]

Following Yü Yüeh (CYTT 17.3b), I emend [OMITTED] to [OMITTED]. TPYL 426.3a has
[OMITTED]. Chao (31-2) agrees it should be [OMITTED].

[3]

Before [OMITTED] add [OMITTED] from TPYL 426.3b and Hsin hsü. (CHy, Chao.)

[4]

Chang Shou-chieh's com. on Shih chi 83.2b-3a quotes as [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] "I have heard that one who disapproves of a government
should not walk in its territory; and one who thinks his prince is impure should
not accept any advantage from him." (Chao 32.)

[5]

[OMITTED]: CHy and Chou add this phrase from Hsin hsü.
TPYL 746.3a has [OMITTED], and the com. on Shih chi, loc. cit., quotes as [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] "Now is it right that you should walk on his land and eat what is
produced from it?" Chao thinks the sentence makes better sense ending with the
interrogative [OMITTED] "is it proper?"

[6]

Shih 360 No. 205/2.

[7]

[OMITTED]: CHy inverts to [OMITTED]. Chao (33) cites TPYL 426.3a, which
has [OMITTED].

[8]

The com. on Shih chi, loc. cit., quotes as [OMITTED]. Li Hsien's com. on
Hou-Han shu 52.8a has [OMITTED] in place of [OMITTED]. (Chao.) [OMITTED] occurs in a similar
context in HSWC 9/3. The more usual expression is [OMITTED], for which cf. HSWC 1/25
and TT 1455, where 15 examples are collected. It shows a range of meanings, from
"withered, dry" as applied to vegetation (Han shu 8.22a: [OMITTED])
through "wrinkled, dried up" of a person's appearance (Ch`u-tz`ŭ 7.1b: [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]) to the present idea of "stiff [in death]" (Chuang-tzŭ 6.1a: [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] "This is what gentlemen who betake themselves
to the hills and valleys, who are always blaming the world, and who wither [by
starvation] or throw themselves into deep pools, are fond of." [Legge 1.363]). [OMITTED]
can hardly be "stand until withered," especially in its occurrence in HSWC 9.3:
[OMITTED]. I am here supplying [OMITTED] as necessary to the sense after Hsin hsü and
the line just quoted.

[9]

Cf. HSWC 1/25.

[10]

Hsin hsü adds [OMITTED]. (Chou.)

[11]

Shih 65 No. 40/1.