Tzŭ Chang asked Confucius, saying: What are the essentials of good government?—The Master said: Esteem the five excellent, and banish the four evil things; then you will become fit to govern.—Tzŭ Chang asked: What are the five excellent things?—The Master replied: The wise and good ruler is benevolent without expending treasure; he lays burdens on the people without causing them to grumble; he has desires without being covetous; he is serene without being proud; he is awe-inspiring without being ferocious.—He is benevolent without expending treasure: what does that mean?—The Master replied: He simply follows the course which naturally brings benefit to the people.[16] Is he not thus benevolent without expending treasure? In imposing burdens, he chooses the right time and the right means, and nobody can grumble. His desire is for goodness, and he achieves it; how should he be covetous? The wise and good ruler never allows himself to be negligent, whether he is dealing with many men or with few, with small matters or with great. Is this not serenity without pride? He has his cap and robe properly adjusted, and throws a noble dignity into his looks, so that his gravity inspires onlookers with respect. Is he not thus awe-inspiring without being ferocious?—Tzŭ Chang then asked: What are the four evil things?—The Master said: Cruelty:—leaving the people in their native ignorance, yet punishing their wrong-doing with death. Oppression:— requiring the immediate completion of tasks imposed without previous warning. Ruthlessness:—giving vague orders, and then insisting on punctual fulfilment. Peddling husbandry:—stinginess in conferring the proper rewards on deserving men.[17]
[1] Ai was the honorary epithet of the Duke of Lu who was reigning during the last years of Confucius' life.
[2] Chi K‘ang Tzu succeeded to the headship of the great Chi family in 491, when Chi Huan died, by whom he was advised to recall Confucius from his long wanderings. The sage, however, did not return until eight years later.
[3] The point of the original lies partly in the fact that the Chinese words for "govern" and "straight" are similar in form and identical in sound.
[4] The hidden meaning of this saying is made clear by the context to be found in Ssŭ-ma Ch‘ien's biography of Confucius. The Prince of Wei at this time was the young man mentioned on [p. 128] as holding the throne against his own father. By so doing he had in some sort inverted the relationship which should have subsisted between them, and each was in a false position, the father being deprived of his proper parental dignity, and the son no longer "doing his duty as a son" (see [p. 41]). Confucius then is administering a veiled rebuke to the young ruler, for in saying that the first reform necessary is the correct definition of names, he implies in effect that the terms "father" and "son," among others, should be made to resume their proper significance. An alternative rendering of chêng ming as "rectification of the written character," though backed by the great authority of M. Chavannes, can only be described as feeble and far-fetched, and has been ably confuted by Herr Franke in the T'oung Pao for July, 1906.
[5] Confucius is of course merely insisting on the principle of division of labour, and not by any means depreciating the value of husbandry or other useful arts. It is not the ruler's business to make himself proficient in these, because the task of governing and setting an example to the governed will claim all his attention. Compare Plato's disapproval of πολυπραγμοσύνη, and Confucius' remarks on his own skill in various arts ([p. 88]).
[6] The weak ruler of the Lu State (510-494 B.C.), who lost the services of Confucius by his infatuation in accepting the insidious gift of eighty beautiful singing-girls from the Ch‘i State. See Introduction, [p. 16].
[7] Shê was a district of the Ch‘u State, which Confucius visited in 488 B.C. The following anecdote, told by T‘an Kung, is a striking illustration of the above saying. Travelling with his disciples, the Master came across a woman weeping and wailing beside a grave, and inquired the cause of her grief. "Alas!" she replied. "My father-in-law was killed here by a tiger; after that, my husband; and now my son has perished by the same death."—"But why, then, do you not go elsewhere?"—"The government here is not harsh," answered the woman.—"There!" cried the Master, turning to his disciples, "remember that. Bad government is worse than a tiger."
[8] A small city in Lu.