University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XII.

Apparent Backwardness (Chuang-liu).

Since able scholars, as we have asserted, rank above all others,
people are amazed that as officials they do not advance, and that
the posts and functions they have to fill are so inferior. As a
matter of fact, we need not be surprised that talented men should
be outpaced by ordinary functionaries, for just this circumstance
will show us the difference between clever persons and unworthy
ones, and display what more or less dignity really means.

When a tortoise is three hundred years old, it is as big as
a cash and walks on lotus leaves. At the age of three thousand,
it has a green edge and it measures one foot and two inches.
When milfoil is seventy years old, it grows one stalk, and at the
age of seven hundred it has ten stalks. Both are supernatural
things,[496] which accounts for the slowness of their growth. These
many years give them their wisdom and their knowledge of the truth.

Able scholars on earth are like the spiritual milfoil and the
divine tortoise. They spend at least half the days of the year on
their studies. Intensely bent upon their researches, they do not
covet official honours, and, if called to office, their conduct is
irreproachable, square and upright, and not like that of ambitious
officials. Hence their advance in life is delayed, and their promotion
fraught with difficulties.

If a needle or an awl pierce something, they go through, but
in case the points of these implements were square, they would not
even penetrate one tenth of an inch deep. Able scholars like square
dealings, they do not possess the sharpness of a needle or an awl,
and therefore have not the means of making their way and push
themselves to the front.

A courser runs a thousand Li a day, but it must be unhampered.
Should it have to drag a cart, any hackney might
compete with it. Used to pull a salt-waggon, it would drop its
head, the perspiration[497] would trickle down, and it would be unable

to advance. However, if Po Lo[498] started it, or Wang Liang[499] took
the reins and allowed it to chase along, free of any burden, it
would keep up its reputation of a thousand Li runner.

Our students encompass the wisdom of the past and the present
in their bosoms, and carry the burden of propriety and righteousness
on their shoulders. Within they are troubled with all their
learning, and without harassed with their care for a decent and
honest behaviour. They dare not recklessly advance or seek promotion
at all cost. Consequently they are left behind. How could
they start on a bright morning and win the prize of a thousand
Li race, unless they find a friendly Po Lo or a protector like
Wang Liang?

Furthermore, it is a fact that all living creatures, filled with
the vital fluid, have their backs turned upwards and their bellies
downwards, as long as they move about. When they fall sick or
die, the back is turned downwards and the belly uppermost.[500] The
reason is that on the back the flesh is thick and heavy, whereas
on the belly it is thin and light.[501] When able scholars and ordinary
officials meet in life, their relation is similar:—Under enlightened
governors, and when sciences flourish, ordinary officials
have to carry the scholars, who rise upon their shoulders, but,
when the highest authorities are short-sighted, and sciences
neglected, then the officials rise above the scholars, who are kept
in subordinate positions, as with animals struck by a fatal blow
the belly is uppermost and the back turned downwards.

Moreover, the back has a certain tendency towards heaven,
and the belly, towards earth. As long as a creature is alive and
moving, the proper order is observed, the belly and the back being
in their respective places. By sickness or death this order is
reversed, for then the belly usurps the place of the back above.

This is not only true in regard to the belly, for when
creatures happen to fall, the feet of others are above them also,
and when scholars in life meet with misfortune and come to fall,
officers who do not rank higher than their feet or ankles, walk
over them.

Tung Fang So[502] made the remark that, if the eyes were not
in the face, but in the feet, they would not be fit to dispel darkness,

for how could they see then? Chi Yen[503] said to the emperor
Wu Ti, "Your Majesty employs officers as one heaps up fuel. That
which comes last is placed on the top."

The dictum of Tung Fang So and the remark of Chi Yen did
not merely disapprove of ordinary officers obtaining positions and
able scholars being dismissed. For, when an officer has lost his
post, it is difficult to discover his virtue, whereas, while he keeps
it, it is hard to perceive his unworthiness. Fame always attends
high offices, and aspersions are cast on low positions in which able
scholars usually find themselves.

Observing the rules of propriety and walking the right path,
purifying themselves and keeping the moral laws, they do not take
heed of what is mean and below them. Thus they happen to
stick fast, and their progress is checked. They have enough to
do to get clear and save themselves, but this impediment prevents
them from pushing themselves to the front. For the purpose of
acquiring and storing up as much knowledge as possible they do
all that is in their power.

Common officers do not think of self-education. When they
have advanced, their covetousness is aroused, and they do mean
things, making unlawful gain by oppression and extortion.[504]

The maple and the varnish trees grow very rapidly, therefore
their bark and their wood cannot be very solid. The hard-wood
tree gets its leaves but in the fifth month, much later than those
trees blooming in spring, but its timber is very hard, so that it
can be used for axle-trees. The paper-mulberry of the Yin dynasty[505]
measured a span after seven days, but after its sudden growth it
completely dried up, and therefore was regarded as a miracle. Big
vessels require a considerable time for their completion, and precious
merchandise is difficult to be sold. That which does not need a whole
day and forthwith fetches a price, are things like fruit and vegetables.[506]

In the current of rapids, gravel turns round, while big stones
remain unmoved. Why? Because big stones are heavy, and gravel
is light. The gravel whirling round is deposited on the big stones,

which are completely hidden and become invisible. Able scholars
meeting with ordinary officials in life, are in a similar condition.
Blunt-witted superiors push the ordinary officials and make them
jump over the heads of the scholars, who must lie low and suffer
their rivals to pass over them. So it may happen that they retire
altogether, to lead a hermit life in a grotto or a cavern. Those in
authority are responsible for it, for they are unfit to discern real
merit. These able men are proficient students, but without influence,
and they cannot well commend themselves.

Things that can be taken in hand are utensils. He that finds
his strength inadequate to lift them, does not dare to move them.
The principles of able scholars are not merely as heavy as vessels.[507]

Gold and iron placed on the ground are not moved by a
north-easter, whereas a hair or straw amongst them are carried
away a thousand Li. The principles cherished by the scholars
are like the heavy stones in the water, or gold and iron on
the ground. Their advance is not as swift as that of ordinary
functionaries, and the high officers are too weak to use them. One
breath suffices to blow away a hair or a straw from among gold
and iron, and no north-easter is required. Ordinary officials are
as easily shifted as a hair or chaff are blown away.

When gravel is rolled about by a current, and a mote carried
away by a north-easter, it is not a mere swelling, or a soft sea breeze
that moves it.[508] An unprincipled governor who, acting upon uncontrollable
impulses, promotes whomever he just chances to like,
without any careful inquiry, (and thus recklessly confers posts and
honours), is like a wild current turning gravel about, or a northeaster
wafting aloft a hair or a straw. They fly about in a strong
gale, gravel rolls to and fro in a wild current, and common officials
advance, when falling in with a wayward governor.

When we throw a round thing on the ground, it may roll
in one of the four directions, north, south, east, or west. Knocked
with a stick, it comes to rest after a short while. Square things
thrown on the ground remain motionless immediately after their fall.
In order to shift them, men must push or lift them. Able scholars
are always square,[509] therefore hard to be moved, and to advance
them men[510] are required.

Birds have more agility than man, who, in hurrying to a
distant place, cannot cope with them. In spite of that, amongst the
creatures of Heaven and Earth man is the noblest.[511] Locusts can
fly ten thousand Li, and the unicorn must be sent as a tribute, to
reach the court of the emperor. Yet locusts are a plague, and the
unicorn, a felicitous presage.[512] It has four legs, still it cannot
arrive of itself,[513] how then should man make his way with his two
legs? Thus swallows are more light-winged than phœnixes, and
hares more nimble-footed than unicorns. A frog jumps better than
a spiritual tortoise, and a snake leaps with greater agility than a
divine dragon.[514]

Men like Lü Shang[515] are conspicuous among grey-heads, and
the wisdom of Po Li Hsi[516] shines even among persons with yellow
hair.[517] By their excellent political advice they became the helpmates
of their princes. They were weighty personages and not easy to
be promoted. Futile and frivolous things are quickly done, calamities
and disasters happen quite suddenly. Therefore they say that he
who advances with impetuosity is prompt to retire.

The warmth of the Yang, and the cold of the Yin take months
till they arrive. A calamitous change is a disaster completed in
one day. For the ice of a river to close, one day's frost is not
sufficient, and forming a mountain by heaping up earth is a work
not to be completed in a short time.

A Kan-chiang[518] sword must be long on the coal in the furnace.
To sharpen the blade and make it pointed, it must be smelted and
hammered under intense heat, and it is only taken out of the fire
after a long heating. The working is a very slow process, but it
thus acquires its sharpness.

Flesh suddenly grown, is called a tumor, and a spring violently
rushing forth, a fountain. Wine suddenly heated, easily becomes
sour, and minced meat, suddenly made sour, is easily spoiled.[519] From
these considerations we may infer that the slow advance of able
scholars has its analogies and its causes. Which are they? Great
learning and momentous thoughts weigh heavily upon the whole being.

Plants and trees, while alive, are full of sap; and being sappy,
they are heavy. Dead, they are dry:—While dry, they are light
and easy to lift; being sappy, they are heavy and difficult to
move. Now the original fluid resides in living organisms, not in
those withered.[520]

When carts drive on land, and ships sail through a canal,
those heavy and full of cargo proceed slowly, whereas the empty
and light ones move swiftly. The weight of the doctrines of former
emperors, carried in the bosom, is heavier than the burden of ships
or the loading of carts, and for those carrying so heavy a burden,
a quick promotion becomes difficult.

Thieves stealing other people's property obtain it soon enough,
but the things, thus obtained, are not their own, nor acquired by
their own industry. A man of the world may very soon obtain
a high post which spreads a lustre about him, but, at the same
time, evil reports will be set on foot to the effect that he is nothing
but a dummy, living on his salary and doing nothing. That able
scholars do not get on in their career is owing to the lack of
insight on the part of the higher authorities and superior officers.

Peasants bring their grain to the capital, and merchants convey
their goods to distant places, both expecting to see their hopes
realised. But should the gates and the suburbs be closed to traffic,
or fords and bridges have been made impracticable, they would, in
spite of all their efforts, and all their speed, not be able to arrive
in time and make the gains they expected.[521]

The higher officers are envious of able men, and will have
nothing to do with them. If the latter are not put in irons and
treated as mean criminals, they may congratulate themselves. How
can they hope to rise in the service, or expect that their doctrines
will soon be realised?