University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VIII.

The Valuation of Knowledge (Liang-chih).

In our essay on the weighing of talents[269] we have spoken on
talents and conduct, but the great superiority of learning has not
yet been set forth. Scholars surpass the officials by their learning,
on which they spend a long time, purifying their characters and
refining their talents. The learned thus suppress their evil desires
and rectify their natures, until their talents are fully developed, and
their virtue is complete. At that juncture a comparison shows that
the capacities of those thus refined are much greater than those
of the officials.

When poor and rich men both send a present of a hundred
cash for funeral expenses,[270] the mourners, provided they are intelligent,
know that the poor have no means and that, if they
likewise have contributed a hundred, the rich, who have plenty,
possess much more. The unintelligent infer that, since in both cases
the sum is a hundred, the fortunes of the rich and the poor are
the same. Scholars and officers are in a similar position. Both
being employed as clerks or acting as secretaries, the wise among
their chiefs are aware that officials and scholars are alike, as far
as their writing is concerned, but that the students have many
hidden treasures in their bosoms besides. The simple-minded, however,
consider that they are both functionaries, and that, as to the
thoroughness and extent of their knowledge, their acquirements are
the same, a great mistake.

It is the nature of the earth to produce plants, and the nature
of mountains to grow trees. If mallows and leeks be sown in the
earth, and jujubes and chestnuts planted upon the mountains, we
speak of a garden and a park, which can no more be placed on

a par with common land or ordinary mountains. The case of officials
and students is analogous. Both have their faculties, and both use
pencil and ink, but, in addition to this, the students are the guardians
of the doctrine of former emperors, which doctrine means more than
mallows and leeks, jujubes and chestnuts.

An ordinary woman spins and weaves with her hands. Should
she be endowed with extraordinary skill, she will weave brocade
and make embroidery, and be accounted exceptional so as not to
come in the same class with the common run. Now, when the
faculties of the scholars are contrasted with those of the officials,
the former have still a surplus in their knowledge of classical and
other writings, as the spinning girls still possess the special gift
of weaving brocade and embroidering.

Poor fellows are prone to excesses, while rich people observe
the rules, because the poor are hard up, whereas the rich live in
opulence. Thus scholars do not do evil, but officials indulge in
malpractices, for they are devoid of morality and virtue, and scholars
have abundance of benevolence and righteousness.[271]

When poor and rich men together are guests, and receive a
present from the host, the rich are not abashed, but the poor always
feel ashamed:—the former are in a position to make acknowledgments,
the latter have nothing to give in return. Students and
officials both look upon the high officers as their hosts. The students
receiving their salary from them, repay them with virtue and wisdom;
the hearts of the officials are empty, they have not acquired
humanity and equity, and merely live on their income, incapable
of showing their gratitude, they are, as it were, dining gratis like
the personators of the dead.[272]

Gratis means for nothing:—without virtue they live on a
salary paid by others for nothing, whence the expression:—dining
gratis. They do not know any method or art, nor can they regulate
the administration. They are sitting silent in the court, unable
to discourse on any subject, exactly like corpses. Therefore they
are called personators of the dead, and it is thus that the officials

are, so to speak, dining gratis like the personators of
the dead.

Occupying places of honour and living in luxury, how would
they venture to take notice of any wicked inclinations of their
superiors or administer admonitions? In the first place, they themselves
cannot distinguish between right and wrong, and then they
are apprehensive of punishment and dare not speak their minds.

The Liki says, `Human nature is fond of beauty.' Those who
can speak with vigour are not appreciated owing to their bad style.
They have backbone, it is true, but no flesh, and are not portly
enough.[273] They who oppose the views of governors and ministers,
are sure to incur their displeasure, and even if they should fight
for their country, would not earn any fame. Therefore he who
covets rank and emoluments must not remonstrate with his superiors.

The officials struggle for rank and money. Once instated,
they desire snbstantial profit, which they can expend at discretion.
To extort money they would even risk their lives, and could not
explain the right principles to their covetous superiors. They might
see wrongs as high as the T`ai-shan, how would they dare to utter
the slightest reproof? Under these circumstances they cannot clear
themselves from the charge of dining gratis like the personators
of corpses.

The scholars study the great principles, and serve their chiefs
with virtue. When it is useless, they desist. Their aims being
those of great ministers, they do their best to establish a just and
proper course according to the canon. They do dare to speak.
But by their rank they are far below the high authorities, and
when such inferior officers approach them to make remonstrances,
the Liki calls it flattery.[274] Therefore the residences of prefects and
district magistrates are always empty and short of men.[275]

Somebody may suggest that officials have the faculty of drawing
up documents, of keeping books and registers, and of investigating
and settling all kinds of affairs. Though ignorant of moral science,
they yet exert their strength and their skill, and exhaust it in the

service of the State, which must also be deemed a manifestation
of their indebtedness to those above them.[276]

I reply that, in this respect, they again resemble poor men
who have been burdened with a heavy official duty. Owing to
their poverty, they have no other means of compensation than
personally discharging their official duty, more they cannot do.
This discharge of their duty is like house or wall building. For
houses they use hatchets and axes, and for walls, beetles and spades.
What difference is there between carrying hatchets and axes, and
grasping beetles and spades, and the holding of knives, or the
taking of styles? If the composition of official papers is held
to be a manifestation of the indebtedness to one's superiors,
the masons building houses or walls are likewise showing their
gratefulness to those above them, and all are performing official
duties, knives, styles, hatchets, axes, beetles, and spades all being
the same.[277]

One takes cloth to barter silk; exchanging that which it
possesses against that which it has not, each party obtains what
they desire. Students take their science to barter wages, the officials
however possess nothing to trade with.[278] Peasants and merchants
have different professions, and their products cannot be the same.
He who, in regard to quality and quantity, produces in abundance,
is called a rich man. To become rich is the desire of every villager.
Now the doctrine of the ancient kings is not merely like the produce
of peasants and merchants. Those who become high officers, gain
honour and bring about great reforms, have more glory than rich
people in their luxury. Moreover the work of the scholars is more
than abundant produce. They perfect themselves, their intellect
shines brightly and, what is still more remarkable, they correctly
distinguish right and wrong.

The similarity of twigs of hemp[279] with the trunks of the
trees on the mountains is that they serve as torches.[280] First they
give much smoke, but, after the fire has come through, their radiance
is most lustrous, and lighted in a hall, they shed their splendour

round about to a great distance, and have much more brilliancy than
the fire on the hearth.[281]

Before a piece of silk is embroidered, or brocade woven, they
do not distinguish themselves from common silk or ordinary fabrics.
By the skilful use of variegated silk, the needle distributing the
thread in an artistic way, a brilliant composition is created, in
black and white, or black and blue: pheasants, mountains and dragons,
the sun and the moon.[282] The savants have likewise compositions,
which they study, resembling the multicoloured chefs-d'œuvres of silk
embroidery. By their original endowments they do not exceed others,
but, when they have amassed learning, they leave them far behind.

Nuts which have no kernels, are called specious, and if they
cannot be opened with knives or axes, they are termed solid.
Officials who have not acquired the learning of the age have no
kernel. How could the faculties of the specious and the solid be
compared together?

Bone is carved, ivory is sculptured, jade polished, and jewels
are ground. By carving, sculpturing, polishing, and grinding[283] precious
objects are produced. As regards human learning, knowledge and
skill are developed in the same manner as bone, ivory, jade, and
jewels are cut, carved, polished, or ground. Even in case such a
polished scholar should prefer not to be employed, a wise ruler
would not give him up.

Sun Wu[284] and Ho Lü[285] were the best experts of their age in
enlisting soldiers. He who knows, or has learned the rules of war,
must needs win a battle. But should he ignore the art of marshalling
his troops by tens and by hundreds, or not understand
fencing and swordsmanship, his army led on by force would be
routed, and the leader defeated for not knowing the art of war.[286]

When rice[287] is ripe, they call it paddy.[288] Pounded in a
mortar and separated from chaff by sifting, steamed in a pot, and
cooked with fire, it becomes well done food.[289] Then it is sweet
and eatable, which means that it has got the proper taste of food,
and the necessary softness. Before paddy has been transformed
into hulled rice,[290] and hulled rice into food, its raw flavour has
not yet been removed, and its consumption would be injurious.
Now, a man without learning is like rice not yet turned into paddy,
or hulled rice not yet cooked. His mind is as unprepared as raw
rice, whose consumption is prejudicial to our health. A student is
improved by his studies and educated by his teacher, and the result
is as remarkable as the transformation of rice into food, and the
food becoming soft.

Before copper and tin are found, they are among other minerals.
Picked or dug out by miners, melted in a furnace, heated with
bellows, and polished, they are wrought into tools. Previous to
the smelting process they are called ore.[291] Ore is the same as tiles
found by the roadside, or small stones on mountains. Thus rice
unhusked and not steamed is termed paddy, copper not yet molten
and unpolished, ore, and men without instruction, blockheads
resembling bamboo and wood.

While bamboo is growing on mountains and wood in forests,
their future use is still uncertain. Bamboo is broken into tubes,
which are split into tablets.[292] The traces made on these with
styles[293] and ink form characters. Big tablets become Classics, the
smaller ones, records. Wood is cut into blocks, which are split

into boards,[294] which by dint of carving and planing become writing
tablets for official memorials.[295] Bamboo and wood are coarse things,
but by cutting and polishing, carving and paring are wrought into
useful objects. What about man, the noblest creature of all, whose
nature encompasses heaven and earth? Unless he goes to school
to study the Classics and other works, and unless his honest, but
uncultured mind is imbued with propriety and righteousness, he
stands in the imperial court stiff like a lath or a tablet, and is
of no use.

When the grass in the wilds of the mountains is luxuriant,
they cut it down with sickles to make a road. Before scholars
have taken the road to knowledge, their vicious inclinations have
not yet been eradicated like the weeds, and the wood of the
mountain wilds, before they have been mowed down to make a
road. Dyed cloth and silk are called coloured stuffs.[296] They are
appreciated as dresses of lucky augury. Previous to the dying, one
speaks of coarse silk, which is unpropitious, for mourners dress
in it.[297] When illiterate people are in the government service, they
cannot bring about any happy results just as mourners dressed in
coarse cloth do not attract happiness.

Those knowing how to hew and shape beams and pillars, go
by the name of carpenters, those who dig holes and ditches, are
called diggers, and those who understand how to carve and polish
official documents,[298] are called scribes. Now the science of the
officials consists in preparing official papers;[299] they must be ranked
with carpenters and diggers, how then could they be placed on a
level with scholars?

Censors drawing up their documents give the exact weight
of money, not losing an atom,[300] and those charged with placing
the baskets and vessels at sacrifices, do not make any mistake in
arranging them in the proper rows. All this practice they have
acquired by previous learning, but people think nothing of it, for

it is trivial skill and not any valuable knowledge. Without a
classical erudition[301] as the basis, they are familiar with style and
ink. In great principles insufficient, they possess too many small
abilities, and, although they may speak of their great learning, it is
but the knowledge of secretaries, and the wisdom of stewards.

Eating millet, one becomes satiated, and dining on bran, one
appeases one's hunger. Though in both cases we speak of eating,
yet the taste is not the same. Scholars as well as officials are
said to have learning, but their usefulness in the State is not equal.

Tse P`i[302] of Chêng wished to employ Yin Ho in the administration.
Tse Ch an[303] compared him with a man who had not yet held a
knife in his hand and was called upon to cut.[304] Tse Lu got Tse
Kao appointed governor of Pi. Confucius said, "You are injuring
a man's son."[305] Both had not yet studied and were ignorant of
the great principles.

Should a physician who has no method, say that he could
cure diseases, he would be asked, how he performed his cures. If he
then replied that he followed his own judgment, sick persons would
distrust him. Now officials without a classical training pretend to
be able to govern the people. Asked by what they were going to
govern, they would reply, by their talents. That would be like
the physician curing sickness without any method, according to his
own fancy. How could the people put faith in such a man, or
how should the ruler of men appoint and use him?

Let somebody without money in his hands offer to purchase
something, and the seller ask him, where his money was, then he
would have to own that he had no money, and the proprietor
would doubtlessly not give him the ware. An empty head is like
empty hands. How could such a person expect the sovereign to
employ, and the people to have confidence in him?