I have heard something about keeping the world in place and within bounds, I have heard nothing about governing the world. You ‘keep it in place’, because you fear that everyone may indulge man’s nature to excess; you ‘keep it within bounds’, because you fear that everyone may displace man’s powers. If everyone refused to indulge his nature to excess and displace his powers, would there be any such thing as governing the world?
Formerly when Yao governed the world he made everyone exultantly delight in his nature, which is excitement; and when Chieh governed the world he made everyone suffer miserably in his nature, which is discontent. To be excited or discontented is to go counter to the Power; and nothing in the whole world which goes counter to the Power can last for long.
Is it that people were too pleased? That unbalances in favour of the Yang. Too angry? That unbalances in favour of the Yin. When Yin and Yang were both off balance, the seasons came at the wrong times, the proportions of heat and cold were imperfect, and does not that injure rather than benefit the bodies of men? It caused men’s joy and anger to miss their occasions, they had no constant home in which to settle, however much they pondered they remained unsatisfied, and broke off half-way without finishing what they started. It was then that for the first time the world was agitated by restless ambitions, and only after that that you had the conduct of Robber Chih on one hand and of Tseng and Shih on the other. The result is that though you mobilise the whole world to reward the good among us it is insufficient, though you mobilise the whole world to punish the wicked among us it remains inadequate. So the world itself is not big enough to do the rewarding and punishing. Since the Three Dynasties we have ended up in fussing over this business of rewarding and punishing; what chance do they give themselves of finding security in the essentials of our nature and destiny?
Or would you rather indulge the eyesight? That’s to be led into excess by spectacle. Or hearing? That’s to be led into excess by sounds. Or Goodwill? That’s to disorder your own powers. Or Duty? That’s to upset the patterns of other things. Or Rites? That’s to encourage artifice. Or Music? That’s to encourage letting yourself go in excess. Or sagehood? That’s to encourage the polite accomplishments. Or knowledge? That’s to encourage faultfinders. When the world is ready to find security in the essentials of our nature and destiny, it does not matter whether these eight are retained or not; it is when the world is not so inclined that these eight start to warp and derange and disorder the world, that the world starts to honour them and finds it cannot do without them. How utterly deluded the world is! Nonsense to say they are simply obsolete things we have got rid of! On the contrary, people prepare with fasts and austerities before speaking about them, kneel before the throne to present them, mime them in dance to drums and song. It leaves me at my wits’ end!
So if the gentleman is left with no choice but to preside over the world, his best policy is Doing Nothing. Only by Doing Nothing will he find security in the essentials of his nature and destiny. So if you value regard for your own person more than governing the world, you are fit to be entrusted with the world; if you love the care of your own person more than governing the world, you deserve to have the world delivered to you. If then a gentleman does prove able not to dislocate his Five Organs and stretch his eyesight and hearing, then sitting as still as a corpse he will look majestic as a dragon, from the silence of the abyss he will speak with a voice of thunder, he will have the promptings which are daemonic and the veerings which are from Heaven, he will have an unforced air and do nothing, and the myriad things will be smoke piling higher and higher. Why after all should I bother about governing the empire?
Ts’ui Chu asked Old Tan
‘Without governing the empire, how are we to improve men’s hearts?’
‘Be very careful not to meddle with man’s heart. Man’s heart when spurned goes down, when promoted goes up, when down is the prisoner and when up is the executioner. Gently it goes on yielding to the harder and stronger, yet it has corners and it jabs, it is engraved, it is polished. When hot it is a scorching flame, when cold it is congealed ice, it is so swift that between a glance up and a glance down it has twice gone right round the four seas. At rest it is still from the depths, in motion it takes to the air on the course laid down by Heaven. Is there anything as eager and proud and impossible to tie down as the heart of man?’
In former times the Yellow Emperor was the first to use Goodwill and Duty to meddle with the hearts of men. After that Yao and Shun worked the fat off their thighs and the hairs off their shins to nourish the bodies of everyone in the world, tormented their Five Organs using them to make Goodwill and Duty, tired out the energies in their blood estimating laws and measures, but still there were some they failed to conquer. Yao thereupon banished Huan Tou to Mount Ch’ung, expelled the San-miao to San-wei, exiled Kung-kung to Yu-tu; this is failing to conquer the world, is it not? By the time of the Three Kings the whole world was in utter panic. At worst there were tyrant Chieh and robber Chih, at best there were Tseng and Shih, and the Confucians and Mohists sprung up in all their variety. From that time on, becoming friendly or hostile they doubted each other, becoming stupid or clever they cheated each other, becoming good or bad they blamed each other, becoming trustworthy or faithless they vilified each other, and the world fell into decay. Ultimate Power ceased to be shared, and our nature and destiny were frayed and smudged. The whole world lusted after knowledge and the Hundred Clans were in turmoil. From that time on we have hatcheted and sawed to get things in shape, inked the carpenter’s line to trim them, hammered and chiselled to sunder them, and the world has been jumbled in utter chaos. The fault was in meddling with men’s hearts.
The result is that men of worth hide away under the great mountains and craggy cliffs, while the lords of 10,000 chariots go on trembling with anxiety up in the shrines of their ancestors. In the present age the condemned to death lie back to back, the shackled in cangues and stocks are elbow to elbow, there is always a mutilated man somewhere in sight, yet it is just now that the Confucians and Mohists start putting on airs and come flipping back their sleeves among the fettered and manacled. Alas, it passes belief, their impudence and shamelessness passes belief! I am inclined to think that sagehood and knowledge are the wedges of the stocks and the cangue, that Goodwill and Duty are the pin and hole of fetters and manacles. How do I know that Tseng and Shih are not the whistling arrows which signal the attack of tyrant Chieh and robber Chih?