Annotations to Canon VI:—
Marquis Chao of Han once held his nails in his fist,
pretending to have lost one of his nails, and was very anxious
to find it. One of his attendants purposely cut off one of
his nails and presented it to His Highness. Thereby Marquis
Chao comprehended the insincerity of the attendant.
Marquis Chao of Han sent horsemen out into the local
districts. When the servants came back to report, he asked
them what they had seen. "Nothing," replied they. "Yet
you must have seen something. What was that?" asked
Marquis Chao insistently. "There were outside the south
gate yellow calves eating rice plants on the left-hand side
of the road." Accordingly, Marquis Chao instructed the
servants not to divulge what he had asked about. Then
he issued the order to the effect "that while seedlings are
growing, oxen and horses be excluded from the rice fields;
that since despite the order the magistrates have neglected
their duties, till a great number of oxen and horses have
entered the fields of people, the inspectors quickly count
the number of them and report to the authorities; and that
if they fail in the matter, their punishment be doubled".
Thereupon the inspectors counted all the cattle in the rice
fields in three directions and reported to the superior
authorities. "Not yet finished," remarked Marquis Chao.
So they went out again to investigate the case and found the
yellow calves outside the south gate. Thereafter the
magistrates, thinking Marquis Chao was clear-sighted, all
trembled for fear of his sagacity and dared not commit any
wrong.
The Sovereign of Chou issued an order to look for crooked
canes. The officials sought after them for several days but
could not find any. The Sovereign of Chou sent men out
in secret to look for them and found them within one day.
Thereupon he said to the officials: "Now I know the
officials do not attend to their duties. It is very easy to find
crooked canes, but the officials could not find any. I ordered
men to look for them and found them within one day.
How can you be called `loyal'? " The officials all trembled
for fear of his sagacity, thinking His Majesty was divine
and enlightened.
When Po P`i was a prefect, his coachman was unclean
and had a beloved concubine. So he employed a petty
official to pretend to love her in order thereby to detect the
secret affairs of the coachman.
Hsi-mên Pao, Prefect of Yah, once pretended to have
lost the linchpin of his carriage and therefore ordered officials
to look for it. As they could not find it, he sent out men to
search for it and found it inside the room of some private
house.
