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CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Tiger Trouble (Tsao-hu).

The phenomenalists aver that the devouring of men by tigers
is a consequence of the misdeeds of the high commissioners,[1655] their
idea being that as the high commissioners are the chiefs of the officers,
so tigers are the fiercest of beasts. The commissioners do mischief
by fleecing their subordinates, therefore tigers devour men to accord
with this idea.

Tigers eat men, but it likewise happens that men kill tigers.
If they contend that, as tigers eat men, the commissioners plunder
the officials, do the latter extort money from the commissioners,
when men eat the tigers?

In our age, there is not one unselfish and undefiled officer
among a hundred, and all high commissioners have wicked designs.[1656]
By good connexions and old friendship one succeeds, and bribes of
all sorts, big and small, are always welcome. If tigers are considered
to correspond to high commissioners, tigers in the country always
destroy people. Tigers come out at certain times, as dragons appear
at fixed periods. The Yin creatures appear in winter, whereas Yang
animals come out in summer.[1657] Their appearance corresponds to
their fluid, which prompts its corresponding species.

Orion and its sword come forth in winter, the "Heart"[1658] and
the "Tail"[1659] become visible in summer. Orion and its sword are
the constellation of tigers, the "Heart" and the "Tail," the heavenly
signs of dragons. When these signs are visible, the creatures make
their appearance, and the fluid supervening, the respective species
is affected. Such is the nature of Heaven and Earth.

Those who move about in forests and marshes just fall in
with tigers, which assault them and tear them to pieces. Tigers
are endowed with fierceness. When they are greedy and hungry,
and encounter a man arriving of his own accord, why should they

not eat him? Human muscles and sinews are weak and powerless,
and man lacks agility, therefore meeting a tiger, he is sure to
perish. If Mêng Pên ascends a mountain, or Mrs. Fêng[1660] enters a
wood, they do not succumb.

When Confucius was walking through a forest in Lu, a woman
cried most mournfully. He sent Tse Kung to inquire, wherefore
she cried so sadly. The woman replied, "Last year a tiger devoured
my husband, and this year it devoured my son, hence
my lamentation." Tse Kung rejoined, "Why do you not leave the
place under these circumstances?" — "Because," said the woman,
"I like the government which is not oppressive, and the officials
who are not tyrannical." Tse Kung went back, and reported what
he had heard to his master. Confucius said, "Remember, my disciples,
that an oppressive government and tyrannical officials are
worse than tigers."[1661]

That tigers kill men has ever been the case. Government not
being oppressive, and the officers not being tyrannical, the effects
of virtue are apt to avert tigers. Nevertheless, those two individuals
were eaten in two successive years, ergo the beasts in the
forest did not conform to goodness. There being no such correspondence
in the case of unselfish officials, it cannot be expected for
depraved ones either.

Some say that tigers comport with the perversity of high
commissioners, but that the so-called inoppressive government is
not equivalent to these commissioners. The woman was under
the rule of unselfish officers, but how could good government operate
upon tigers?[1662]

In Lu there were no high commissioners, who are nothing
else than ministers of State. The ministers of Lu were not Confucius
or Mê Ti, but members of the three families.[1663] Their proceedings
as ministers cannot have been recommendable. All power
and influence being invested in persons devoid of virtue, their doings
must have been wicked, and there can be no question of disinterestedness.
If the depravity of ministers induces tigers to devour
men, then those in the wilds of Lu must always have eaten men.

The destruction in the water does not reach the hills, and
the fluid on the hills does not enter into the water. All creatures
fall a prey to their enemies which are near. Thus fish, caught by
the fisherman, do not die on the mountains, and animals, chased
by the hunter, do not dive into the pond.[1664] If people like to rove
through the mountain woods, to spy out obscure caverns, and intrude
into the tiger's den, it cannot be a matter for surprise that
the tiger pounces upon and devours them.[1665]

Duke Niu Ai of Lu, during a sickness, was changed into a
tiger, which attacked and devoured his elder brother.[1666] People do
not wonder at this simultaneous metamorphosis; why then be surprised
that in mountain forests, jungles, and marshes people are
killed by tigers? Snakes and vipers are very fierce, and likewise
injurious to mankind. If somebody meets with a snake in a marsh,
to which class of officials does it respond? Wasps and scorpions
hurt people, and so do poisonous exhalations, water, and fire. If
a person is stung by a wasp or a scorpion, infected by poisonous
air, burned in fire, or drowned in water, who has been the cause?

Provided that there be a sort of relation between wild animals
and officers or government, then all those animals living on
mountains or in forests, such as elks, stags, wild boar, oxen, elephants,
brown and spotted bears, wolves, and rhinopithecus,[1667] kill
men. But should a correspondence be assumed only in case they
eat men, then fleas, lice, mosquitoes, and gadflies[1668] all feed on men,
yet the human body being so strong and big, it does not occasion
its death. In times of famine, when food is dear, and the people
starved, they go even the length of eating one another. Such an
atrocity is far worse than tigers, but phenomenalists do not ascribe
this to oppressive government.

Moreover, tigers do not only eat men:—birds with blood in
their veins, and animals with bodies, all afford them food. If a
man eaten is believed to testify to the wickedness of the high
commissioners, to which functionaries do other birds and animals
refer, when devoured? The tiger is a hairy mammal, and man a

naked one. If a hairy mammal in its hunger eats a naked one,
why must this be accounted an extraordinary phenomenon?

Beyond the countries of the four classes of savages,[1669] the
Giants devour the Pigmies. The nature of tigers is like that of
the Man and the Yi.[1670]

Plains and large cities are not resorts for tigers. They thrive
in mountain forests, jungles, and marshes. Supposing that a tiger's
devouring a man is a correlate of the depravity of high commissioners,
then in the districts of the plain with large cities, the
commissioners must always be excellent, whereas in territories
covered with mountains, woods, and marshes they are always
culpable. Accordingly, the tiger's eating a man in the country, has
its counterpart in the viciousness of the commissioners. But, when
it happens that a tiger enters a city, and walks about among the
people, do, at that time, the commissioners saunter about through
lanes and alleys?[1671]

As a matter of fact, the killing of a man by a tiger in the
country has nothing to do with government, but its appearance
in a big city is a prodigy, for the tiger is a wild beast of the
mountains and woods, and not domesticated. It lives in jungles,
and cannot be tamed, and bears some resemblance to the common
rat, which is not always visible, as it usually hides itself, and
seldom comes out. As long as people live in happiness and tranquillity,
rats do not stir, but scarcely is their felicity destroyed,
and are dangers impending, when rats by their agitation indicate
an extraordinary calamity.[1672] The same holds good for tigers. While
cities and districts enjoy peace and happiness, and the high officers
have no trouble, tigers do not leave their hiding places, but no
sooner are the high officers on the road to ruin, than tigers enter
the cities, and wander about among the populace. The glory of
the high officers being extinguished, their towns and cities sink to
the level of a wilderness.[1673]

Proceeding on this line of argument, we arrive at the conclusion
that, when a man is eaten by a tiger, fate and time come

into play. Fate being exhausted,[1674] and time out of gear, the lustre
of the body fades away, the flesh appears as a corpse, consequently
the tiger eats it. It is a fortuitous coincidence according to the
principles of Heaven that a tiger happens to eat a man, and that
the high officers are just wicked. Thus, what is looked upon as
an extraordinary phenomenon, is in harmony with the laws of
Heaven.

In ancient and modern times all kinds of wild animals have
served as inauspicious auguries, not tigers alone. Before the upper
story of the Ying palace of the king of Ch`u was completed, a stag
walked over its terrace. Some time after, the king expired. —
Duke Chao of Lu going out one morning, a "mainah" arrived, and
began building its nest. Subsequently the Chi family expelled the
duke, who fled to Ch`i, where he afterwards died without returning
to his own country.[1675]

Chia Yi was privy councillor to the king of Ch`ang-sha. A
screech owl perched on his house.[1676] He opened his book and
divined that he was going to leave his master, and, later on, he
was transferred to be councillor to the king of Liang. King Huai[1677]
was fond of riding, but was thrown from his horse, and breathed
his last. Chia Yi took this death so much to heart, that he contracted
a disease and died likewise. — In the time of the king of
Ch`ang-yi,[1678] an exotic partridge alighted under a palace hall, and was
shot by the king, who questioned the steward of the palace, Kung
Sui.[1679] Kung Sui replied that the entering of an exotic partridge,
a wild bird, into the palace was an augury of death. Subsequently,
the king of Ch`ang-yi, in fact, lost his life.

The magistrate of Lu-nu,[1680] T`ien Kuang conjointly with Kung-Sun
Hung[1681] and others planned an insurrection. When it was about
to be discovered, a wild cat mewed on the roof of his house.
T`ien Kuang felt disgusted. Afterwards the intrigue was discovered,
and he suffered execution. — In the time of Li Wên Po, the commander

of the eastern part of Kuei-chi, a sheep lay down in his
reception hall. Subsequently he was promoted and appointed prefect
of Tung-lai.[1682] When Wang Tse Fêng was commander, a deer
entered his residence, and afterwards he rose to the rank of a
prefect of Tan-yang.[1683]

Good and bad luck can both be ascertained, promotion and
dismission both have their prognostics. When they all point to
desolation and death, the vital force disperses and vanishes. Thus,
when a man is about to die, wild birds intrude into his home,
and when a town is to be deserted, animals from the prairies enter
its precincts. These affinities are very numerous, and similar events,
constantly met with. I have selected some conspicuous ones, to
prove the truth of such prognostics.