Annotations to Canon V:—
P`ang Ching, a prefect, sent tradesmen out on a mission.
Suddenly he recalled the sheriff from among them, stood
with him for awhile, gave him no special instruction and
sent him off finally. The tradesmen thought the prefect
and the sheriff had had some private talk and therefore
would not confide in the sheriff. On the way they dared
not commit any villainy.
Tai Huan, Premier of Sung, at night sent men out and
said to them, "For several nights I have heard somebody
riding in a covered wagon going to the residence of Li
Shih. Carefully find that out for me?" The servants came
back with the report that they had seen no covered wagon
but somebody bringing a bamboo chest as present and
speaking with Li Shih, and that after a while Li Shih accepted
the chest.
The Sovereign of Chou lost jade bodkins and ordered
officials to search for them. For three days they could not
find them. The Sovereign of Chou then ordered men to
look for them and found them inside the room of some private
house. "Now I know the officials do not attend to their
duties," remarked the Sovereign of Chou. "Searching for
the jade bodkins for three days, they could not find them.
The men I ordered to look for them found them out within
one day, however." Thereafter the officials became very
afraid of him, thinking His Majesty was divine and
enlightened.
The Prime Minister of Shang once sent a petty official
out, and asked him upon his return what he had seen in
the market-place. "Nothing," replied the official. "Yet
you must have seen something. What was that?" asked
the Premier insistently. "There were outside the south
gate of the market-place a number of ox carts, through
which one could barely walk," replied the official.
Accordingly, the Premier instructed the messenger not to
tell anybody else what he had asked about. Then he
summoned the mayor, blamed him, and asked him why
there was so much ox dung outside the gate of the marketplace.
Greatly astonished at the quickness of the Premier's
information, the mayor trembled and became afraid of his
wide knowledge.
