Chinese Æsop:

In the time of Duke Yi of Wei there was a minister named Hung Yin, who received the order to go on a mission to another state. Before his return, the Ti barbarians attacked Wei. Duke Yi wished to raise an army to meet them, but his people with one accord said, " What Your Highness values and what have high salaries and rank are cranes. What you love are your concubines. Go have your cranes and concubines fight. How can we fight?" And they all scattered and fled. The Ti barbarians arrived and attacked Duke Yi at Jung-tsê. They killed him and completely ate the flesh of his body, leaving only his liver. When Hung Yin got there, he reported on his mission to the liver. When he had finished speaking, he cried out to Heaven and wept. When his mourning was over, he said, "As minister all I may properly do is die." And he then actually cut himself open and, pulling out his intestines, put Duke Yi's liver inside and died. When Duke Huan heard of this he said, "...

Of old the Ssŭ-ch’êng Tzŭ-han was minister to the ruler of Sung. He said to the Prince of Sung, "Now the peace of a state and the governance of its people depend on the conduct of the ruler. Titles and rewards are what people like. May Your Highness take charge of them. Executions and punishments are what the people hate. Let me be responsible for them." The Prince said, "Agreed. I will get their approval and you will receive their hatred. I am convinced that I will not be the laughing-stock of the feudal lords." When the people of the state knew that the punishments of death and decapitation were entirely in the hands of Tzŭ-han, the great ministers were friendly with him and the common people feared him. Before the year was out, Tzŭ-han had driven out the Prince of Sung and taken over the government himself. Just as Lao-tzŭ says, It is best to leave the fish down in his pool; Best to leave the State's sharpest weapons where none can see them. The Ode sa...

Tradition has it that Duke Ching of Ch’i asked Yen-tzŭ about the worries of governing a state. Yen-tzŭ replied, "What one worries about are ‘altar rats.' " Duke Ching said, "What do you mean by altar rats?" Yen-tzŭ said, "Altar rats steal things outside and then go inside the altar for protection. You would drown them out, but you fear damaging the mud wall. You would burn them out, but you fear setting the wood on fire. This is the worry of rats. Now as to Your Highness' officers, outside they sell you for profit, and inside they depend on Your Highness not to punish them for throwing the laws into disorder. Your Highness moreover both protects and supports them. This is the worry of altar rats." Duke Ching said, "Alas! How can this be?" "A man sold wine of very fine quality, and put out a long advertisement, but the wine soured before he had sold any. He asked the villagers why they had not bought his wine, and one of them s...

Chao Chien-tzŭ had a minister named Chou Shê, who stood outside his gate for three days and three nights. Chien-tzŭ sent a messenger to ask, "On what business do you wish an interview?" Chou Shê replied, "I would like to be your outspoken minister. With inked brush and tablet in hand I would follow after Your Highness, looking out for your faults and writing them down, so that each day there will be a record, each month an achievement, and each year good results." Where Chien-tzŭ stayed, Chou Shê stayed there with him, and when Chien-tzŭ went out, he went out with him. After a little while Chou Shê died, and Chien-tzŭ mourned for him as if he had been his own son. Later he was drinking with the Great Officers in the Hung-po Terrace. When he was drunk on the wine, Chien-tzŭ began to weep, and the Great Officers all went out saying, "We are at fault without knowing ourselves wherein we have offended." Chien-tzŭ said, "You Great Officers are not at...

Confucius and his disciples were in distress between Ch’ên and Ts’ai. They spent seven days without food sitting on the "Three Classics mat." They had li soup but no rice, and the disciples had a hungry look. They read the Shu and practiced rites (li) and music without stopping. Tzŭ-lu offered an objection: " Heaven rewards with good fortune those who practice good and requites with disaster those who practice evil. Now you, Master, have long accumulated virtue, piled up jên, and practiced good. I suppose there is still some defect in your conduct? Otherwise why do you live in obscurity?" Confucius said, "Come, Yu. You are a mean man, without any understanding of principles. Be still while I tell you. Do you think that the wise are never punished? Then how was it the Prince Pi-kan had his heart cut out and died? Do you think the just are always hearkened to? Then how was it Wu Tzŭ-hsü had his eyes torn out and hung from the eastern gate of the capital of Wu? ...

In Ch’i were two retired gentlemen, Master Tung-kuo and Master Liang Shih. At the time when Minister of State Ts’ao was minister of Ch’i, a retainer said to Master K’uei, "Master Tung-kuo and Master Liang Shih are the worthy men of the times. They have secreted themselves in the depths of the mountains and will not bend their bodies or degrade their wills to seek office. I hear that you have access to Minister of State Ts’ao. I wish you might recommend them. Now in my village the matrons are on good terms with one another. A girl was suspected of stealing meat, and her mother-in-law drove her out. Indignant, the girl told a village matron, who said, ‘Go slowly, and presently I will have your mother-in-law call you back,' and tying up a bunch of grass, she went to ask for a light from the family that had driven the girl out. She said, ‘My dogs were fighting over a piece of meat and killed each other. May I have a light so that I can cook them?' Whereupon the mother-in-law i...

King Hsüan of Ch’i said to T’ien Kuo, "I have heard that Confucians mourn three years for their parents, and three years for a ruler. Now which is the more important, a father or a ruler?" Kuo replied: “A ruler is almost not as important as one’s father.” King Hsüan became very angry, “Then why do you literati leave your parents to serve a ruler?” T’ien Kuo replied, "Without a ruler's lands there is no place to settle one's parents; without a ruler's pay there is no means of supporting one's parents; without rank conferred by a ruler there is no way of making one's parents respected and illustrious. What is received from the ruler is passed on to the parents. So serving a ruler is also something always done on behalf of one's parents." King Hsüan was taken aback and had nothing to answer him. The Ode says, The king's business is not to be slackly performed, And I have no leisure to nourish my father. 齐宣王谓田过曰：“吾闻：儒者亲丧三年。君与父孰重？”过对曰...

The King of Chao was on the point of sending an envoy to Ch’u. He played for a while on the cither, and then dispatched him saying, "Be careful not to forget the words of my message." The envoy received the order kneeling and said without rising, "Never have I heard Your Majesty play such moving music on the cither as today." The king said, "It is true. The cither is certainly well tuned." The envoy said, "Since it is in tune, it would be a good thing to make a note of the position of the bridge." The king said, "It will not do. As the weather is dry or wet, so the strings are loose or tight. The bridge must be adjustable, and cannot be marked for a given position." The envoy said, "May I borrow a metaphor from this? Ch’u is more than a thousand li distant from Chao. Furthermore fortune is variable. Bad luck calls for condolences, and good luck for congratulation. It is like the bridge of a cither which must be adjustable and ...

Duke P’ing of Chin was happily drifting along the River and said, "Where am I to get worthy gentlemen to enjoy this with me?" His boatman Ho Hsü knelt and replied, "It is simply because Your Highness does not care for worthy gentlemen that he has none. Now pearls from river and ocean, and jade from the K’un mountains, come to you without having feet, because of Your Highness' liking for them. If worthy gentlemen, possessed of feet, do not come, it means nothing else than that Your Highness does not care for gentlemen. Do not worry about there being no gentlemen." Duke P’ing said, "As for the guests I support, to the left of the gate there are a thousand men, and to the right of the gate another thousand. If in the morning there is not enough for their support, in the evening I give them the market revenues; if in the evening there is not enough for their support, in the morning I give them the market revenues. Can it be said of me that I do not care for...

With one shout the brave officer puts to flight all the three armies: it is because of his sincerity. Of old Hsiung Ch’ü-tzŭ of Ch’u was traveling at night. He saw a stone lying in his path which he took to be a reclining tiger. Bending his bow, he shot it, so that the head of the arrow was buried up to the feathers. When he looked down and realized it was a stone, he then again shot it, but the arrow bounced off without leaving a mark. When Hsiung Ch’ü-tzŭ showed a sincere mind, metal and stone opened up for him; how much the more will men! Now if a person initiates a thing and others do not join in with him, or if when he acts others do not agree, it is certainly because he is not complete within. The man who rules the empire without descending from his mat has sought in himself for sincerity. Confucius said, "When a prince's personal conduct is correct, his government is effective without the issuing of orders. If his personal conduct is not correct, he may issue orders...

Of old Chao Chien-tzŭ had died and before he was buried the district of Chung-mou revolted. When he had been buried five days, Hsiang-tzŭ raised troops and attacked Chung-mou. Before he had finished surrounding the city, ten ch’ang of its walls fell down of their own accord. Hsiang-tzŭ beat the signal for retreat, and his forces withdrew. An officer objected, "When Your Highness is punishing the crime of Chung-mou and their walls break down of themselves, it is Heaven aiding you. Why have you withdrawn your forces?" Hsiang-tzŭ said, "I have heard Shu-hsiang say that the superior man does not take advantage of another in distress, nor does he make trouble for a man who is in straits. Have them repair their walls; after that we will launch an attack." When the people of Chung-mou heard how just (i) he had been, they asked to surrender. The superior man would say, "Good. Hsiang-tzŭ is meant by this." The Ode says, The king's plans were true and s...

Confucius had gone on a journey when Chien-tzŭ was about to kill Yang Hu. Confucius resembled the latter, and Chien-tzŭ surrounded Confucius' dwelling with troops. Tzŭ-lu was angry, and, brandishing a lance, was about to strike when Confucius stopped him, saying, "Yu, how is it you are so lacking in an abundance of jên and i? If the Shih and the Shu are not studied, if rites (li) and music are not explained, that is my fault. If when I am not Yang Hu, they take me for Yang Hu, that is not my fault; it is fate. You sing and I will accompany you." Tzŭ-lu sang and Confucius accompanied him. When they had finished three strophes, the soldiers had left off surrounding them. The Ode says, Rambling and singing. This is how through a display of the harmony of flourishing virtue non-interference is practiced. 孔子行，简子将杀阳虎，孔子似之，带甲以围孔子舍，子路愠怒，奋戟将下，孔子止之，曰：“由。何仁义之寡裕也！夫诗书之不习，礼乐之不讲，是丘之罪也。若吾非阳虎，而以我为阳虎，则非丘之罪也，命也！我歌，子和若。”子路歌，孔子和之，三终而围罢。《诗》曰：“来游来歌。”以陈盛德之和而无为也。

Duke Ling of Wei had been asleep in the daytime. When he got up, his vitality became progressively weaker. A man was sent in haste to summon the brave soldier Kung-sun Chüan. On the way he met the Hsing-jên Pu Shang. Pu Shang said, "Why are you in such a hurry?" The man replied, "The Duke having slept in the daytime, when he got up he sent me to summon the brave soldier Kung-sun Chüan." Tzŭ-hsia said, "Would another person than Chüan, but equal to Chüan in bravery do?" The driver said, "He would do." Tzŭ-hsia said, "Carry me back." When they arrived the ruler said, "I sent you to summon a brave soldier. Why have you brought a literatus?" The messenger said, "This Hsing-jên said, ‘Would another person than Chüan, but equal to Chüan in bravery do?' And I said, ‘He would do.' So I brought him with me." The ruler said, "Very well. Invite the gentleman to come up, but in addition summon Kung-sun ...

King Chuang of Ch’u attacked and defeated Chêng. The Earl of Chêng advanced with bared body, holding in his left hand an ox-tail tufted banner and in his right grasping a sacrificial knife with bells, and said to King Chuang, "I am devoid of goodness. Because of my behaviour toward your subjects on the frontier, I have met with a Heaven-sent disaster and have caused you, Prince of a great state, to have the overwhelming disgrace of coming from afar to this place." King Chuang said, "It was the words of Your Highness' bad subjects in their intercourse with us that gave me the opportunity of viewing Your Highness' jade countenance, and this is the insignificant reason which has brought us to this pass." Taking his signal staff King Chuang signalled to his attendants to remove the camp of Ch’u's army seven li. The general Tzŭ-chung proffered an objection, "Nan-ying is several thousand li distant from Chêng. Among the Great Officers there have been ...

Mencius exercised his eloquence on King Hsüan of Ch’i, who was not pleased. Ch’un-yü K’un was in attendance. Mencius said, "Today I exhorted your ruler, but he was not pleased. I suppose that he does not know what good is?" Ch’un-yü K’un said, "Master, it is only that you are really not good. Of old when Hu-pa played the cither, the fishes of the deep came out to listen; and when Po-ya played the lute, his six horses raised their heads from their feeding. If even fishes and horses know what is good, how much the more must a prince know it." Mencius said, "Lightning and thunder occur and split bamboo, break trees, and convulse the empire, but they are not able suddenly to make the deaf have hearing. The brightness of sun and moon everywhere illumines the world, but it is not able suddenly to make the blind have sight. Now it is like this with your ruler." Ch’un-yü K’un said, "Not so. Of old when I-fêng lived in Kao-shang, the people of Ch’i were ...

After T’ien Ch’ang had assassinated Duke Chien, he made a covenant with the people of the state, saying, "Those who do not covenant with me will be put to death with their families." Shih T’o said, "Of old those who served a ruler died in their ruler's interests. To abandon one's ruler so as to preserve one's parents is not loyal. To abandon one's parents so as to die in the interests of one's ruler is not filial. So I cannot do it. However, if I do not covenant, it will be to kill my parents. If I do as others do and covenant, it will be repudiating my ruler. Alas! One born in disordered times cannot achieve upright conduct, and one suffering violence at the hands of a cruel man cannot behave in complete conformity with i. Too bad!" Whereupon he went up and covenanted so as to spare his father and mother, and then withdrew and threw himself on his sword to die for his ruler. Those who heard of it said, "A superior man indeed! What could...

One asked, "The ancients' designation for a person of understanding was ‘earlier born.' What does this mean?" It is like saying "earlier awakened." A man who has not heard of the methods of the True Way is in the dark as to success and failure, and does not know the sources of government and disorder. His befuddlement is like drunkenness. Now among the world's rulers there are those who are earlier awakened, those who are later awakened, and those who are not awakened at all. Of old, when King Chuang of Ch’u was making plans, whenever one turned out well he would have an anxious look. Shên-Kung Wu Ch'en asked, "Why is Your Highness anxious?" King Chuang said, "I have heard it said of the potentialities (tê) of the feudal lords that one who can himself choose his teachers will be king; one that can himself choose his friends will be hegemon; and one whose associates are not his equals will be lost. I am unworthy insofar as none of t...

After Tzŭ-lu had been governing P’u for three years, Confucius went to see him. On entering the borders of P’u he approved, saying, "Yu trusts those who are respectful." On entering the city he said, "Excellent! Yu is generous to the loyal and trustworthy." On arriving at the audience hall he said, "Excellent! Yu is enlightened in his judgments." Grasping the reins, Tzŭ-kung asked, "Master, you have not yet seen Yu, and still have thrice praised his excellence. Might I hear your reasons?" Confucius said, "On entering the borders, I saw that the grain fields and the hemp fields were very well attended to, and that the fallow lands were well opened up. This is the result of trusting those who are respectful, so that the people put forth all their strength. On entering the city I saw that walls and dwellings were very high, and that the trees were very flourishing. This is the result of being generous to the loyal and trustworthy, so that t...

Duke Huan of Ch’i, wishing to see the Hsiao-ch’ên Chi, thrice went to him without being granted an interview. His attendants said, "The office of hsiao-ch’ên is the lowest in the state. Having thrice gone to him without being granted an interview, Your Highness may properly desist." Duke Huan said, "Alas, what sort of talk is this? I have heard that a gentleman in cotton clothes who does not desire riches and honour will stand on his dignity toward the ruler of a state of ten thousand chariots, and that the ruler of a state of ten thousand chariots who does not love jên and i will stand on his dignity toward a cotton-clothed gentleman. It is all right if our master does not desire riches and honour, but for me not to love jên and i is not all right." When he went for the fifth time, he was granted an interview. On hearing of this the feudal lords of the empire said, "If Duke Huan condescends even to a cotton-clothed gentleman, how much the more can a prince o...

Confucius was sitting by one of the Chi-sun family. The Chi-sun's minister T’ung said, "If the prince should send someone to borrow a horse, should it be given him?" Confucius said, "I have heard that when a prince takes a thing from his subject, it is termed ‘taking'; one does not speak of ‘borrowing.' " The Chi-sun understood and said to the minister T’ung, "From now on when your prince takes a thing, call it taking. Do not speak of borrowing." Confucius rectified the expression "borrowing a horse," and as a result the proper relation between prince and subject was established. The Lun yü says, "What is necessary is to rectify names." The Ode says, The prince should not lightly utter his words. 孔子侍坐于季孙。季孙之宰通曰：“君使人假马，其与之乎？”孔子曰：“吾闻君取于臣，谓之取，不曰假。”季孙悟，告宰通曰：“今以往，君有取，谓之取，无曰假。”孔子曰正假马之言，而君臣之义定矣。《论语》曰：“必也正名乎！”《诗》曰：“君子无易由言。”