Chapter XXVI.
CUTTING EXCHANGES.
(a) The Cancellarius: Would a heaped-up tumulus
in seeking to reach a stately height reject an extra cubit
of earth[77]
; would a superior man in seeking to widen his
reputation disregard the words of an humble faggotcarrier?
For he is widely versed who has observed much,
and he is wise who much has retained; clogged the mind
of him who is adverse to censure and friendless he who
puts trust solely in himself. Hence he will never be
remiss who seeks counsel even unto the lowest of the
lowest, and undulled in his achievements he who seeks
suggestions even among the commons as says the Book of
Odes: Go thou to the humble shepherd and woodcutter.[78]
Now since plain-clothed people are all given freedom to
vent their opinions, how much the more should not I, a
secretary to my lords, the high ministers, also be allowed
to do so? It is true that the Spring and Autumn does
not record the deeds of mere scholars, yet it notes the
fact that a certain Huan acted as steward.[79]
Although
they do not engage me in office, said Confucius, yet
I should have been consulted about them.[80]
However
incapable is my humble self, I, too, have inclined my ears
to hear instructions, holding up my skirts, have submitted
to a teacher's directions and have joined a school to learn
how one should walk in the superior man's path. If
what you, Literati, have said is right, then what harm
can the words of my humble self do? If what you said
is wrong, who could refrain to say it is wrong, though he
be an insignificant cancellarius?
(b) The Literati: Assisting men in righteousness
is called loyalty, but misleading people into evil is
treachery. He who grieves at his master's faults and
approaches him with good advice, is a loyal minister to
his prince and a true vassal of his lord. Let a lord have
three blunt , said Confucius, and that lord will
never lose his patrimony though he be devoid of
principle.[81]
But you, sir, holding now the rank of a
steward, you have a heart where no feeling of loyalty or
right is present. It is beyond your power to straighten
out the crooked, or rectify the evil. You follow the
current to safeguard yourself, and bow to the wind to
please your superiors, blindly accepting what your
superiors declare and deviously following them in what
they practice, like a shadow pursuing its body and an
echo repeating a sound, never being able to distinguish
right from wrong. You have donned the Confucian
dress, capped yourself with the Confucian cap but you
will never be able to follow in the Confucian path. You
are no true `Confucian!' Not unlike a painted clay
dragon with head and eyes complete in every detail, but
which is only a mock dragon. The shepherd's purse
looks like a vegetable, but is quite different in taste; jade
and stone look similar but differ in kind. You are not a
Confucian who, after Master K'ung, clings to the Classics
and holds fast to principle, you are of those Confucianists
lowly about facing and fawning upon the ministers; you
are none of our kind. Said Confucius when Jan Yu
became steward to Chi Shih and kept on still increasing
his income: You may beat the drum my sons and attack
him.[82]
We do not hold, therefore, a helper of Chieh for
wise, nor Chieh's tax-gatherer for altruistic.
Silenced, the Cancellarius made no reply.
