Discourses on salt and iron : a debate on state control of commerce and industry in ancient China, chapter I-XXVIII / translated from the Chinese of Huan K'uan, with introduction and notes, by Esson M. Gale. |
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 | CHAPTER III Discourses on salt and iron : |  |
CHAPTER III
CIRCULATION OF GOODS
a. The Lord Grand Secretary: Tso and Chi of Yen, Han Tan of
Chao, Wên and Chih of Wei, Ying Yang of Han, Lin Tsê of Ch'i,
Wan Ch'iu of Ch'u, Yang Chai of Chêng, the two Chou of San
Ch'uan,[1]
in riches surpassing all within the seas, are famous
municipalities of the world.[2]
They are so not because there has been
some one who has helped them to cultivate their country side
and till their fields, but because they are situated on the intersecting
routes of the five feudal states[3]
and sit astride the network
of highways. In other words, where products abound, the people
multiply; when the house is near the market, the family will get
rich. Getting rich depends on `methods' and `statistical calculation',
not on hard manual labor; profits depend on `circumstances',[4]
not
on strenuous farming.[5]
b. The Literati: In Ching Yang, there is the fertile land of Kuei
Lin to the south, the facilities of the rivers and the lakes within
of Shu and Han[6] to the right. Forests were cut down in order to
raise grain, and brush was burnt to give room for the sowing of
millet. Through clearing by fire for farming and water-weeding,[7]
arable land was extended and natural resources were abundant.
Thereupon evil habits of idleness imperceptibly grew up. People wear
fine clothes and eat delicate food. Even in humble cottages and
straw-thatched huts, we hear ballad-singing and playing on stringed
instruments; wanton for a day, in want for a month, carolling in
the morning, mourning in the evening. Chao and Chung Shan[8]
border the great River;[9] they form the connecting center of the
radiating roads and are situated on the highway of the world. Merchants
throng the ways. Princes meet on the streets. But the people's
trend is to the non-essential persuits. They grow luxurious, disregarding
the fundamentals. The fields are not cultivated, while the
men and women vie with one another in dress. Without a peck of
reserve[10] in the house, the lute thrums in the hall. This is why of
the people of Ch'u and Chao[11] most are poor and few rich. On the
other hand, the people in Sung, Wei, Han and Liang[12] adhere to the
fundamental and till the soil. Among the common people and
yeomanry[13] every house prospers and every person is satisfied. Therefore
profit comes from care for one's self, not from favorable location
on the highways. Riches come from thrift and labor at the right
and in increasing the display in the ceremonies.[14]
c. The Lord Grand Secretary: According to the theory of the
Five Elements,[15]
the East pertains to Wood, but at Tan Chang[16]
we
have mountains containing gold and copper. The South pertains to
Fire, but in Chiao Chih[17]
we have rivers as big as the ocean. The
West pertains to Metal, but in Shu and Lung[18]
we find forests of
famous timber. The North pertains to Water, but in Yü Tu[19]
we
find the land of heaped up sand. This is how Heaven and Earth
compensate scarcity with abundance and facilitate the circulation of
all goods. Now the supply of bamboo in Wu and Yüeh,[20]
and the
timber in Sui and T'ang[21]
is more than can be used while in Ts'ao,
Wei, Liang and Sung[22]
they are forced to use coffins over again
for the dead.[23]
The fish of the regions of the great River and the
lakes and the globe fish of Lai and Huang[24]
are too many for local
consumption, while in Tsou, Lu, Chou and Han[25]
they have only
vegetable fare. The wealth of nature is not deficient, and the treasures
of the mountains and the seas are indeed rich, and yet the people
still remain necessitous and the available wealth is not adequate.
the wealth of the world has not been circulated.
d. The Literati: In olden times, the rafters were not carved, and
the hut-thatch was left untrimmed. People wore plain clothes[26]
and
ate from earthenware. They cast metal into mattocks and shaped
clay into containers. Craftsmen did not fashion novel, clever articles.
The world did not value things that could not be worn or eaten.
Each was satisfied with his own dwelling, enjoyed his own customs,
found his own food and implements satisfactory. Hence, things from
distant lands were not exchanged and the jade of K'un Shaʼn[27]
did
not arrive. Nowadays manners have degenerated in a race of extravagance.
Women go to the extreme in finery and the artisans aim
at excessive cleverness. Unadorned raw materials[28]
are carved and
strange objects prized. They bore into the rocks to get gold and
silver. They dive into the watery deeps looking for pearls. Pitfalls
are devised to trap rhinoceri and elephants.[29]
Nets are spread for
the kingfisher. Barbarian products are sought out to dazzle the
Middle Kingdom. The goods of Kung and Tso[30]
are transported to
the Eastern Sea at a cost of ten thousand miles. Time and labor
are spent for nothing. This is why the common men[31]
and women,
weary and heavy-laden, wear themselves out without getting enough
excessive profits, and cut off unnecessary expenses. When undue
gain is prohibited, people return to the fundamental. When unnecessary
expenses are cut off, people have enough to spend. Hence
people will not suffer from want while alive, nor from exposure of
their corpses when dead.
e. The Lord Grand Secretary: In ancient times, reasonable limits
were set to the style of palaces and houses, chariots and liveries.
Plain rafters and straw thatch were not a part of the system of
the Ancient Emperors. The true gentleman, while checking extravagance,
would disapprove of parsimoniousness because over-thriftiness
tends to narrowness.[32]
When Sun-shu Ao was the prime minister
of Ch'u[33]
and his wife did not wear silk nor his horses feed on
grain, Confucius said: One should not be too thrifty so as to be hard
on one's inferiors.[34]
This is how the poem The Cricket[35]
was written.
Kuan-tzŭ said:[36]
If palaces and houses are not decorated, the timber
supply will be over-abundant. If animals and fowls are not used in
the kitchens, there will be no decrease in their numbers. Without the
hankering for profit, the fundamental occupation will have no outlet.
Without the embroidered ceremonial robes, the seamstresses[37]
will have
no occupation. Therefore, artisans, merchants, carpenters and mechanics
They have existed from ancient times and are not a unique feature
of the present age. Hsien Kao fed cattle at Chou.[38] Wu Ku carried
on a cart-renting business in order to enter Ch'in.[39] Kung-shu Tzŭ[40]
was an expert in the compass and square and Ou Yeh[41] in founding.
Thus the saying goes: The various craftsmen dwell in their booths
that they may do their work effectively.[42] Farmers and merchants
exchange their goods so that both the fundamental and the accessory
pursuits may be benefited. People who live in the mountains and
marshes, or on moors and sterile uplands, depend on the effective
circulation of goods to satisfy their wants. Thus it would not be
only those who have abundance that have a surplus and only
those who have little that would starve. If everybody stays where
he lives and consumes his own food, then oranges and pumaloes
would not be sold, Ch'ü Lu[43] salt would not appear, rugs and
carpets would not be marketed and the timber of Wu and T'ang[44]
would not be used.
f. The Literati: Mencius[45]
says that if the seasons of husbandry
are not disturbed there will be more grain than can be eaten. If silk
will be more than what is required for wear. If the axes and bills
enter the forest according to season, the timber supply will be more
than the demand. Hunting and fishing according to season, fish and
game will be more than can be eaten. If you do not do all these
things according to the seasons, and on the other hand, you decorate
the palaces and dwelling houses and raise terraces and arbors higher
and higher, and if carpenters and mechanics carve the large into
the small, the round into the square, so as to represent clouds and
mists above and mountains and forests below, then there will not
be enough timber for use. If the men folk abandon the fundamental
in favor of the non-essential, carving and engraving in imitation
of the forms of animals, exhausting the possibilities of manipulation
of materials, then there will not be enough grain for consumption.
If the women folk decorate the small things and work on the
minute and form elaborate articles to the best of their skill and
art, then there will not be enough silk and cloth for wear. If the
cooks boil and slaughter the immature, fry and roast and mix and
blend, exhausting all the varieties of the Five Flavors,[46] then there
will not be enough fish and meat for food. At present while there
is no question of suffering from fowls and animals not declining in
number, and of the timber supply being more than can be consumed,
the trouble is that we are extravagant without limit; and while
we do not suffer from the lack of rugs, carpets, oranges and
pumeloes, the trouble is that we have no hovels and husks and chaff.
[OMITTED], "political methods"; [OMITTED], "statistical calculations"; [OMITTED] "conditions",
"influences", "power". These are typical expressions of the legalist school. Duyvendak,
The Book of Lord Shang, 92 seq. discusses these fa chia terms at length.
Chang quotes the Shih-chi, ch. CXXIX: Agriculture cannot be compared with
practising some craft, practising a craft cannot be compared with commerce, sticking
the needle in [trading in] rich embroideries cannot be compared to getting a favorable
place at the market gate, [OMITTED]
[OMITTED].
[OMITTED]: Shih-chi, ch. CXXIX. The field was flooded, destroying the weeds but
not harming the rice plants. This was done after the grass and brush had been burned.
Cf. Ch'ien-han-shu, ch. VI, quoted by Chavannes, Mém. hist., III, 589, note 1. These
easy ways of cultivation in the south accounted for the "evil habits of idleness".
[OMITTED]. The phrase is rather obscure. Chang refers to the Tso-chuan,
Chao Kung, XVII, where are enumerated the "bird-officers" of the Emperor Shao-hao.
The five "turtle-dove" officers [OMITTED] (assemble, settle) the people. On the other hand [OMITTED]
are the rows of pantomimes used in ceremonial dances. Thus "increase [OMITTED] of the rows
of pantomimes" is an outward show of wealth. A reference to this use of [OMITTED] in the Shu-ching
is found in Couvreur, Dictionnaire classique, 1047.
[OMITTED]. The Five Elements or Primordial Essences are Water, Fire, Wood,
Metal and Earth. Upon these perpetually active principles of Nature, the whole scheme
of Chinese philosophy, as originated in the "Great Plan" of the Shu-ching, is based.
Cf. Mayers, Chinese Reader's Manual, Pt. II, 333.
[OMITTED] is translated by Legge (Mencius II. i. ii. 4, 7; III. i. iv.
1, 4) according to the dictionaries as `hair cloth'. The implication is that it was unwoven,
and worn by the lower classes. It may have been felt such as used by the
Mongols. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the term may mean actual
fur garments, such as the sheepskins worn by the shepherds and camel-drivers of northern
China today, in the winter season. See below [OMITTED] "the common men".
[OMITTED]. Jade in China has been dealt with in various aspects by
Laufer in Jade A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion, (Chicago, 1912).
[OMITTED]: a word favored by Taoists in their preaching of the simple life. Employed
by the Han "Confucianists", it indicates that the later Taoist and Confucianist schools
had not yet become distinctly differentiated. The word frequently appears in the Shang-tzŭ,
cf. Duyvendak, op. cit., passim.
[OMITTED]: the animals, not "ivory" as above. The actual existence of the rhinoceros
in China has been discussed by Laufer and H. Giles.
[OMITTED]: Chang has Chi Wên Tzŭ [OMITTED] (the minister of Lu who
used to think thrice before acting, Lun-yü, V, xix) instead of Sun-shu Ao, and Lu
[OMITTED] for Ch'u [OMITTED]. The parsimoniousness of Sun-shu Ao is also confirmed by Hanfei-tzŭ,
ch. [OMITTED].
This quotation, not identified, seems to represent a general sentiment of the Chinese
social order, for which Confucius is here made the high authority.
[OMITTED]: Shih-ching, [OMITTED], I, a poem written in criticism of
Duke [OMITTED] of Chin's parsimoniousness. Cf. Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. IV, Pt. I, 174,
for the translation.
Not in the present Kuan-tzŭ text. `Hankering after profit' [OMITTED]; Lu suggests
[OMITTED]. `Will have no outlet' [OMITTED], undoubtedly a mistake, as Lu points
out, with [OMITTED] or [OMITTED] missing.
[OMITTED]: the latter character is pronounced kung in the special sense of a
"weaving woman", as Chang indicates. Cf. Couvreur, Dictionnaire Classique, sub rad. 120.
[OMITTED]: salt made from the (?) rock salt of Ch'ü, a place name. Cf.
[OMITTED], Ping of Ch'ü, a person later mentioned in the YTL. See glossary.
| CHAPTER III Discourses on salt and iron : | |