Annotations to Canon VII:—
When the Lord of Shan-yang[42]
heard about the King's
suspicion of him, he purposely slandered Chiu Shu, a
favourite of the King, in order thereby to know the truth
through Chiu Shu's reaction.
When Nao Ch`ih heard about the hatred of the King of
Ch`i for him, he fabricated an envoy from Ch`in in order
thereby to know the truth.
Some Ch`is wanted to create disturbances and were afraid
the King might know their conspiracy beforehand. So they
pretended to drive away their favourites and let[43]
the King
know of it, and thereby dispensed with all suspicion.
Once Tzŭ-chih, Premier of Yen, while seated indoors,
asked deceptively, "What was it that just ran outdoors?
A white horse?" All his attendants said they had seen
nothing running outdoors. Meanwhile, someone ran out
after it and came back with the report that there had been
a white horse. Thereby Tzŭ-chih came to know the
insincerity and unfaithfulness of the attendant.
Once there were litigants. Tzŭ-ch`an separated them and
never allowed them to speak to each other. Then he inverted
their words and told each the other's arguments and thereby
found the vital facts involved in the case.
Duke Ssŭ of Wei once sent men out to go through the
pass as travellers. There the officers made them serious
trouble, wherefore they bribed the officers with gold. The
officers, accordingly, released them. Later, Duke Ssŭ said
to the officers, "At a certain time there came certain travellers
to go through the pass. Since they gave you gold, you
sent them away, did you?" Thereby the officers were
frightened and thought Duke Ssŭ was clear-minded.
