孟子荀卿列傳

The Grand Historian remarks: Whenever I read the works of Mencius and reach the passage where King Hui of Liang asks "How can you profit my state?", I never fail to put down the book and sigh. Alas, profit is truly the beginning of disorder! The Master rarely spoke of profit because he constantly guarded against its source. Therefore it is said: "If one acts with profit as the guide, resentment will be many." From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, is the corruption brought by the desire for profit any different?

Meng Ke was a man of Zou. He studied under the disciples of Zisi. Once he had mastered the Way, he traveled to serve King Xuan of Qi, but King Xuan could not use him. He went to Liang, but King Hui of Liang found his proposals impractical, considering them far-fetched and remote from reality. At that time, Qin was employing Lord Shang to enrich the state and strengthen its army; Chu and Wei were using Wu Qi to win battles and weaken their enemies; Kings Wei and Xuan of Qi were using Sun Bin, Tian Ji, and others, so that the feudal lords faced east to pay court to Qi. All under Heaven were engaged in forming vertical and horizontal alliances and considered military conquest the highest merit. Yet Meng Ke expounded the virtues of the Tang, Yu, and Three Dynasties eras — and so his proposals found no acceptance wherever he went. He withdrew and, together with his disciples Wan Zhang and others, edited the Odes and Documents, elaborated on the ideas of Confucius, and composed the seven chapters of the Mencius. After him came the Zou masters and their like.

Qi had three Zou masters. The first was Zou Ji, who used his zither-playing skills to gain an audience with King Wei, then became involved in state affairs, was enfeoffed as Marquis of Cheng and received the chancellor's seal — before Mencius's time.

The second was Zou Yan, who came after Mencius. Zou Yan observed that those who held states grew ever more dissolute and extravagant, unable to esteem virtue — as if the Greater Odes' insistence on self-cultivation could actually extend to the common people. He therefore made a deep study of the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang and produced his fantastical and far-fetched theories, composing over 100,000 words in his chapters on the Cycle of the Five Phases and the Great Sage. His language was vast and extraordinary, invariably starting from the verification of small phenomena, then extending outward to the boundless. He began with the present and traced back to the Yellow Emperor — ground common to all scholars — and broadly surveyed the rise and fall of successive ages, recording their auspicious signs and institutional systems, then pushing further back to before heaven and earth were born, to what is dark and unfathomable and beyond investigation. He first catalogued China's famous mountains, great rivers, connecting valleys, birds and beasts, the products of water and soil, and the treasures of each category, then extended his analysis to what lies beyond the seas, which humans cannot see. He claimed that since heaven and earth were first separated, the Five Phases have rotated, each epoch requiring its own governance, with corresponding omens and portents. He maintained that what the Confucians call 'China' occupies only one eighty-first of the world. China is called 'Scarlet District, Divine Continent.' Within this Scarlet District, Divine Continent, there are nine provinces — these are Yu's nine provinces, which should not be counted as the total. Beyond China there are nine more regions each equivalent to the Scarlet District, Divine Continent — these constitute the true Nine Provinces. Each is encircled by a subsidiary sea, so that neither humans nor animals can pass between them; each such enclosed region constitutes one province. Beyond these nine, a Great Ocean encircles the outer edge, where heaven and earth meet. All his theories were of this kind. Yet in the end, they invariably returned to benevolence, righteousness, frugality, and the proper relations between ruler and minister, superior and inferior, and the six degrees of kinship — though the beginning was extravagant.

When kings and great lords first encountered his methods, they were awed and inclined to reform, but afterward could not put them into practice. This is why Zou Yan was valued in Qi. When he visited Liang, King Hui came out to the suburbs to welcome him and observed the full rites of host and guest. When he visited Zhao, Lord Pingyuan walked beside him and personally dusted his seat. When he went to Yan, King Zhao held a broom and walked before him as a guide, asked to be seated among his disciples and receive instruction, and built the Jieshi Palace, going in person to study under him. He composed the Cycle of Dominion. That his travels among the feudal lords earned such respect and courtesy — how could this be compared with Confucius going hungry between Chen and Cai, or Mencius being rebuffed in Qi and Liang? Thus King Wu used benevolence and righteousness to overthrow Zhou and become king, while Boyi starved rather than eat Zhou grain; Duke Ling of Wei asked about military formations, and Confucius refused to answer; King Hui of Liang planned to attack Zhao, and Mencius cited the Great King's departure from Bin. Were these men deliberately pandering to popular taste? It is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole — can it go in? Some say that Yi Yin carried a cooking pot to persuade Tang to become king, and Baili Xi fed cattle beneath a cart before Duke Mu used him to achieve hegemony — they first accommodated the ruler, then guided him to the great Way. Though Zou Yan's words were unconventional, might he not have had the same spirit of the cooking pot and the cattle?

From Zou Yan onward, together with Qi's Jixia masters — such as Chunyu Kun, Shen Dao, Huan Yuan, Jie Zi, Tian Pian, and Zou Shi — each wrote books discussing governance and disorder to gain the attention of the rulers of the age. How could they all be enumerated!

Chunyu Kun was a man of Qi. He was widely learned with a powerful memory, though his scholarship had no single school. In his remonstrance and persuasion, he admired Yan Ying's character, yet made it his business to read the ruler's mind and observe his moods. A retainer introduced Kun to King Hui of Liang. The king dismissed his attendants and sat alone to receive him on two occasions, but Kun said nothing either time. The king found this strange and reproached the retainer: "You praised Master Chunyu as surpassing Guan Zhong and Yan Ying, yet when he sees me, I gain nothing. Am I not worth speaking to? What is the reason?" The retainer reported this to Kun. Kun said: "Naturally. The first time I saw the king, his mind was on horse racing. The second time, his mind was on music. That is why I remained silent." The retainer reported this in full to the king, who was greatly startled: "Master Chunyu is truly a sage! When he first came, someone had just presented fine horses and I had not yet had time to examine them before he arrived. When he came the second time, someone had presented a singer and I had not yet tried her before he arrived. Though I had dismissed my attendants, my private thoughts were elsewhere — it is true." When Chunyu Kun next had an audience, they conversed for three days and three nights without tiring. The king wished to appoint him to a ministerial position, but Kun declined and took his leave. The king sent him off with a comfortable carriage drawn by four horses, bundled silks with jade, and a hundred yi of gold. Kun held no office for the rest of his life.

Shen Dao was from Zhao. Tian Pian and Jie Zi were from Qi. Huan Yuan was from Chu. All studied the Huang-Lao arts of the Way and its Virtue, and developed and systematized these ideas. Shen Dao wrote twelve treatises, Huan Yuan wrote upper and lower chapters, and Tian Pian and Jie Zi each produced their own essays.

Zou Shi was one of Qi's various Zou masters and largely adopted Zou Yan's methods for his written compositions.

The King of Qi valued all of them. From Chunyu Kun on down, he conferred on them all the title of Grand Officer, opened fine residences for them on the main boulevard, with tall gates and grand houses, and honored and favored them. He recruited guest scholars from the feudal lords throughout the realm, proclaiming that Qi could attract the finest minds under Heaven.

Xun Qing was a man of Zhao. He was fifty years old when he first came to study in Qi. Zou Yan's methods were far-fetched and grandly argued; Zou Shi's writings were polished but difficult to apply; Chunyu Kun, after long association, occasionally produced a fine insight. Thus the people of Qi had a saying: "Yan talks of Heaven, Shi carves dragons, Kun scorches the hub as he passes." Tian Pian and his contemporaries had all died by the time of King Xiang of Qi, and Xun Qing was the most senior master. Qi still maintained the Grand Officer appointments, and Xun Qing three times served as libationer — the senior scholar. Some in Qi slandered Xun Qing, so he moved to Chu, where the Lord of Chunshen appointed him magistrate of Lanling. When the Lord of Chunshen was killed, Xun Qing was dismissed and settled permanently in Lanling. Li Si had once been his student and later became chancellor of Qin. Xun Qing detested the corrupt politics of his age — ruined states and chaotic rulers succeeding one another, failing to follow the great Way while busying themselves with shamans and diviners, trusting in omens and portents, narrow-minded Confucians being overly rigid, and the likes of Zhuang Zhou using clever mockery to subvert proper customs. He therefore assessed the successes and failures of the Confucian, Mohist, and Daoist schools, composed a systematic work of several tens of thousands of words, and died. He was buried at Lanling.

Zhao also had Gongsun Long, who conducted debates on "hard and white" and "sameness and difference," and the arguments of Master Ju. Wei had Li Kui, who taught the full use of the land's productive power. Chu had Master Shi and Changlu; there was also Master Yu of A. From Mencius down to Master Yu, the world still possesses many of their writings, so I shall not discuss their biographies further.

As for Mo Di, he was a senior official of Song, skilled in defensive warfare and an advocate of frugal expenditure. Some say he was a contemporary of Confucius; others say he came after.