by An Liu
There is one other context in which the place of chapter 18 must be understood. “Among Others” is one of a sequence of chapters beginning with “A Mountain of Persuasions” (chapter 16) and continuing through “Cultivating Effort” (chapter 19) that deal with aspects of oral argumentation as a court activity. The symmetrical structure of chapter 18 makes it a compendium of exemplars of the art of debate itself and an illustration of how anecdotes may be deployed in oral argumentation. Beyond this, by demonstrating that anecdotes can be found to support, with apparently equal validity, both the “pro” and “con” sides of any argument, “Among Others” implicitly declares that although debate may be a versatile instrument of court policy, it can never serve as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Skilled debate may effectively lay out the merits of contrasting policy positions, but a ruler not fully realized in the Way will not be able to discern the future trajectories of good or ill fortune prefigured by either side of such a contest.14
Andrew Meyer
1. Le Blanc and Mathieu 2003 translate the title as “Du monde des hommes.”
2. In the Lüshi chunqiu, anecdotes are generally grouped together and linked so that all anecdotes in an essay support its central thesis.
3. A significant structural variant is 18.27, whose motif has four rather than two legs, thus altering the section’s subsequent structure.
4. Changes, hexagrams 41, Sun, and 42, Yi, respectively.
5. The conclusion of 18.2 contains more material that I have omitted, as this short section is more typical of a common envoy.
6. Ouyang Xun, Yiwen leiju (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), 57.1039.
7. Xiao Tong, Wen xuan (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1994), 2387.
8. The paradoxical juxtaposition of “accumulated substance” and “exalted vacuity” mirrors the common construction of a typical motif in chap. 18, although the subsequent lines provide examples only of “exalted vacuity.”
9. “Parallel prose” is generally considered a hallmark of the Six Dynasties period, but its origins date to the Former Han. Already the fu of celebrated authors like Sima Xiangru (ca. 145–86 B.C.E.) relied heavily on parallelism for aesthetic effect, and the text of the Huainanzi itself is replete with parallel and symmetrical constructions. See Christopher Leigh Connelly, “Sao, Fu, Parallel Prose, and Related Genres,” in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 223–47; and Andrew H. Plaks, “Where the Lines Meet: Parallelism in Chinese and Western Literatures,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 10, nos. 1–2 (1988): 43–60.
10. Michael J. Puett, To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002), 3–4.
11. For a discussion of the anecdote and its historical usage in Warring States and Han prose composition, see the introduction to chap. 12.
12. For a discussion of some of these issues, see David Schaberg, A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University East Asia Center, 2002); and William G. Boltz, “The Composite Nature of Early Chinese Texts,” in Text and Ritual in Early China, ed. Martin Kern (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005), 50–78.
13. The text was certainly intended to reach a wide intellectual audience even if, as suggested elsewhere, its “ideal reader” was a young monarch or emperor-in-training.
14. David Schaberg noted the relationship between “Among Others” and the issue of oral argumentation in “Oratorical Training in the Huainanzi ” (paper presented at the conference “Liu An’s Vision of Empire: New Perspectives on the Huainanzi,” Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., May 31, 2008).
Eighteen
18.1
The nature of humans is pure, clear, peaceful, and content.
The regulators of affairs are models, gnomons, the compass, and the square.
If you understand the nature of humans, you will not err in nurturing yourself.
If you understand the regulators of affairs, you will not be confused in your taking and giving.1 [18/185/20–21]
When one end emerges,
it comprehends limitlessly.
Roaming the eight limits,
it gathers it all into a single straw.
It is called “the mind.”
Looking at the root and knowing the branches, observing the finger and seeing the return [path], holding to the One and responding to the many, grasping the essentials and ordering the details. These are called “techniques.” [18/185/23–24]
What the wise are at rest, where the wise go in motion, what the wise wield in affairs, that from which the wise act: this is known as “the Way.”
The Way:
Place it in front, and [the cart] will not lean forward;
place it behind, and [the cart] will not lean backward.
Put in inside a cramped space, and it will not fill it,
Spread it over the world, and it will not be stretched.
For this reason,
what cause others to exalt and praise you are the strengths of the mind. [18/185/26–28]
What cause others to denigrate and slander you are the faults of the mind.
Words that issue from the mouth cannot be halted among others;
actions that are manifest nearby cannot be kept from afar.
Affairs are difficult to complete and easily defeated;
reputation is difficult to establish and easily abandoned.
A thousand-li dike will breach because of a cricket or ant burrow;
a hundred-xun roof will burn because of a spark from a crack in the chimney.2
The Admonitions of Yao says, “Trembling and shaking, take heed day by day. People do not stumble over a mountain; they stumble over an anthill.”3 This is why those who look lightly on small harms and scorn minor affairs will have many regrets. Worrying about a calamity once it has arrived is like a sick person’s searching for a good doctor once he has already become critically ill. Even if [the doctor] has the skill of a Bian Que4 or a Yu Fu,5 [the patient] will still not live. [18/185/30–18/186/4]
The arrival of calamity is generated by human beings;
the arrival of good fortune is effected by human beings.
Calamity and good fortune share a gateway;
benefit and harm are neighbors.
No one who is not a spirit or sage can distinguish them. [18/186/6–7]
In all people’s undertaking of affairs, none dares set his plans before using his intelligence to reflect and assess. Some lead to benefit, others to harm; this is the difference between the stupid and the wise. Those who thought that they clearly knew the fulcrum of survival and extinction, the portal of calamity and good fortune, and who, having used it, become trapped in difficulty, cannot be counted. If whenever one knew what was right, one’s affair would succeed, there would be no unfinished ventures in the world. For this reason,
intelligence and reflection are the portals of calamity and good fortune;
motion and stillness are the fulcrums of benefit and harm.
The alterations and transformations of the hundred affairs, the order and chaos of the state and the household, wait [for them] to be effected. [For this reason, one who does not fall into difficulty succeeds.]6 Thus one cannot but take heed of them. [18/186/9–13]
18.2
The world has three perils:
To have little Potency but [enjoy] much favor is the first peril.
To have lower talent and high position is the second peril.
For one’s person to be without great merit and yet to receive rich emolument is the third peril.
Thus, as for things,
some are increased by being decreased;
some are decreased by being increased. [18/186/15–16]
How do we know this is so? In olden times, King Zhuang of Chu had just defeated Jin between the [Yellow] River and Yong.7 Returning, he offered Sunshu Ao a fief, b
ut Sunshu Ao declined it. When [Sunshu Ao] was sick and about to die, he told his son, “When I have died, the king will certainly enfeoff you. You must decline the rich and fertile land and accept sandy and rocky land. Between Chu and Yue are the hills of Qin.8 Its land is lacking and its reputation is bad. The people of Wu9 and Yue both think it haunted.10 No one considers it of any benefit.” Sunshu Ao died, and the king indeed did offer his son rich and fertile land as a fief. His son declined it, requesting the hills of Qin. According to the customs of Chu, officials of merit received title and emolument in the second generation, [yet] Sunshu Ao alone survived.11 This is what is called “increasing it by reducing.”
What is called “reducing it by increasing?” In antiquity, Duke Li of Jin attacked Chu to the south, Qi to the east, Qin to the west, and Yan to the north. His soldiers marched the breadth of the world without being defeated; he awed the four directions into submission without [himself] surrendering. Thereupon he assembled the Lords of the Land at Jialing.12 His qi was replete, his will arrogant, [and] he tyrannized the myriad people. Within, he had no supporting ministers; without, he had no aid from the Lords of the Land. He slaughtered his great ministers; he drew close to manipulators and slanderers. The next year he went traveling to [the fief of] the Jiangli clan. Luan Shu and Zhonghang Yan seized and imprisoned him.13 None of the Lords of the Land would save him; none of the common people grieved for him. After three months he died. Now, victory in battle and conquest in assault [and making] one’s territory expansive and one’s name revered; these are what [everyone in] the world desires, yet [for Duke Li] they ended with his person dead and his state lost.14 This is what is called “reducing it by increasing.”
Sunshu Ao’s requesting the hills of Qin, a sandy and rocky territory, was why it was not vied for by successive generations. Duke Li of Jin’s assembling of the Lords of the Land at Jialing was why he died in [the fief of] the Jiangli clan. [18/186/18–18/187/3]
The mass of people all know to view benefit as benefit and illness as illness; only the sage understands that illness is benefit, benefit is illness. The trunk of a tree that is doubly solid will certainly be harmed; the family that digs up graves [to rob them] will certainly suffer disaster. These speak of great benefits that conversely become harm. Zhang Wu instructed Earl Zhi to wrest away the territory of Hann and Wei, and [Earl Zhi] was taken at Jinyang. Shenshu Shi instructed King Zhuang [of Chu] to enfeoff the descendants of the Chen clan, and [King Zhuang] became hegemon.15
When Confucius read the Changes, on arriving at [the hexagrams] “Loss” and “Gain,”16 he never failed to sigh loudly, saying, “Gain and loss, are these not the affairs of a king?” [18/187/5–8]
18.3
Actions:
Some are taken in order to benefit a person and ultimately only injure him;
some are taken in order to injure a person and conversely [only] benefit him.
The reversals of benefit and injury
are the portal of calamity and good fortune.
They cannot but be investigated. [18/187/8–9]
Yang Hu rebelled in Lu.17 The ruler of Lu ordered the people to bar the city gate and seize him. Anyone who apprehended him would be rewarded greatly; anyone who lost him would be heavily incriminated. Being encircled three times, Yang Hu was about to take up his sword and cut his own throat. One of the gatekeepers stopped him, saying, “I will let you out.” Yang Hu thus went to the encirclement and drove them back; raising his sword and lifting his spear, he ran. The gatekeeper let him out. Turning around, [Yang Hu] went back to the one who let him out, stabbing him with his spear, grabbing his sleeve, and hitting him in the armpit. The one who let him out [said] resentfully, “I had no reason to befriend you. For you, I have risked death and incurred incrimination, yet you turn and injure me. It is fitting that you should have this trouble!”
When the ruler of Lu heard that Yang Hu had escaped, he was greatly angry. He asked which gate [Yang Hu] had left through and ordered his officers to seize [its gatekeeper]. Thinking that if he were injured, it was because he fought and that if he were uninjured, it was because he had let [Yang Hu] go, [he ordered that] if he were injured, he would receive a great reward [and that] if he were not injured, he would be severely punished. This is what is called “injuring him and yet benefiting him.” [18/187/11–17]
What is called “wanting to benefit [a person] and yet injuring him?” King Gong of Chu and the people of Jin did battle at Yanling.18 When the fighting was fierce, King Gong was injured and withdrew. Commander Zifan19 was thirsty and asked for a drink; his page Yang Gu brought wine and gave it to him. Zifan was fond of wine, and when he tasted it, he could not stop drinking; thus he became drunk and lay down. King Gong wanted to resume battle and sent someone to summon Commander Zifan. Zifan excused himself on account of a heart malady. The king drove to see him; entering his tent, he smelled wine. King Gong, greatly angry, said, “In today’s battle I was personally wounded. The one I depended on was you, and yet you are like this. You abandon the altars of the soil and grain of Chu and have no concern for my people; I will not go into battle with you again!” Thereupon he halted the army and withdrew, beheading Zifan as punishment. Thus the page Yang Gu’s giving Zifan wine was not out of a desire to cause him calamity. He truly loved and wanted to please him, and ultimately it only killed him.20 This is called “wanting to benefit him and conversely injuring him.” [18/187/19–25]
“If they are sick with a fever, force them to eat,
If they are sick with chills, give them a cold drink.”
This is what the mass of people consider therapeutic, but a good physician considers them unhealthy.
What delights the eye,
what delights the mind,
these are what the foolish consider benefit but what those possessed of reason avoid.
Thus,
the sage first scrutinizes [something] and only later adopts [it];
the mass of people adopt [something] and only later scrutinize [it]. [18/187/27–18/188/2]
18.4
To possess merit is the duty of all ministers;
to be incriminated is what all ministers avoid.
[Yet] some who possess merit have fallen under suspicion;
some who commit crimes are trusted even more.
Why is this? It is because those who have merit were alienated from the Rightness of mercy; those who committed crimes did not dare lose their humane heart. [18/188/4–5]
The Wei general Yue Yang attacked Zhongshan.21 His son was held in the city, and those in the city hung up his son to show Yue Yang. Yue Yang said, “The Rightness of ruler and minister does not allow me to have selfish concern for my son.” He assaulted [the city] even more vigorously. Zhongshan then cooked his son, sending him a cauldron of soup containing his head. Yue Yang touched it and cried over it, saying, “This is my son.” He knelt before the emissary and drank three cups [of the soup]. The emissary returned and reported. [The ruler of] Zhongshan said, “This is one who is bound to the spot and will persist unto death; we cannot endure.” Thus he surrendered to him. [Yue Yang] had greatly expanded Marquis Wen of Wei’s territory; he possessed merit. [Yet] from this point on, he was daily less trusted.22 This is what is called “having merit and falling under suspicion.” [18/188/7–11]
What is called committing a crime yet being trusted even more? Meng Sun23 was hunting and caught a fawn. He ordered Qinxi Ba to take it back and cook it. The fawn’s mother followed him, crying. Qinxi Ba could not endure it, [so] he freed [the fawn] and gave it [to its mother]. Meng Sun returned and asked where the fawn was. Qinxi Ba replied: “Its mother followed and was crying. I truly could not endure it, so I let [the fawn] go and gave it [to its mother].” Meng Sun was angry and exiled Qinxi Ba. After one year, he took [Qinxi Ba] as his son’s teacher. Those around him said, “Qinxi Ba has transgressed against you, [yet] now you make him your son’s teacher, why?” Meng Sun said: “If he could not endure [the suffering] of a single fawn, how much
less [will he endure] that of a human being?”24 This is what is called “committing a crime and yet being trusted even more.” [18/188/13–17]
Thus one cannot but be careful in one’s taking and relinquishing. This is why when Gongsun Yang25 incurred recrimination in Qin, he could not enter Wei. It was not that his merit was not great, yet his feet were bound and he had nothing upon which to tread.26 It was because he was unrighteous. [18/188/19–20]
18.5
Actions:
Some are [undertaken] to take something and conversely give it away;
some are [undertaken] to give something away and conversely accept it.
Earl Zhi demanded territory from Viscount Huan of Wei.27 Viscount Huan did not want to yield it. Ren Deng28 said, “Earl Zhi’s strength is such that he spreads awe throughout the world. If he demands territory and you do not grant it, this will be accepting calamity before the Lords of the Land. It would be better to grant it.” Viscount Huan said, “If he demands territory without end, what shall I do?” Ren Deng said, “Give it to him; make him pleased. He will certainly go on to demand territory from the Lords of the Land, and they will surely fall in line. When we join minds to make plans with the entire world, what we gain29 will not merely be what we have lost.” Viscount Huan of Wei detached territory and gave it to him. [Earl Zhi] then demanded territory from Viscount Kang of Hann. Viscount Kang of Hann did not dare fail to grant it. The Lords of the Land were all afraid. [Earl Zhi] further demanded territory from Viscount Xiang of Zhao;30 Viscount Xiang refused to grant it. At this Earl Zhi allied with Hann and Wei and besieged Viscount Xiang at Jinyang. The three states31 plotted together, seizing Earl Zhi and dividing his state into three.32 This is what is called “taking it and conversely giving it away.” [18/188/22–27]