THE WILD GOOSE AND THE SPARROW
The great Chinese sage, Confucius, had a son-in-law, Kung Yeh Chang, who understood better than any one before or since his day the habits of birds. So much time and study did he give to them that tradition says he understood all bird language and many stories are told of him in this connection. He built a beautiful pavilion in his garden, which was rich in flowers, trees, shrubs, and ponds, so that the birds loved to gather there; thus he was able to spend many delightful hours in their company listening to their wise and unwise talk.
Many of these conversations have been handed down the past two thousand years in the wonderful folklore of China, and from these one can see the influence they have had on the customs and traditions of the people.
Among the Chinese the wild goose has the reputation for having more virtues and wisdom than any other bird. This is brought out in the following story. One day, while Kung Yeh Chang was resting in his pavilion, a small house-sparrow lit in a tree near-by and commenced [[57]]singing and chattering. A little later a wild goose dropped down by the pond for a drink. Hardly had he taken a sip when the little sparrow called out, “Who are you? Where are you going?” To this the goose did not reply and the sparrow became angry and asked again, “Who are you, that you should be so proud and lofty you cannot pay attention to my questions? Why do you consider me beneath your notice?” and still the goose did not answer. Then, indeed, was the little sparrow furious. In a loud, shrill voice, he said, “Every one listens to me! Again I ask, who are you with your lofty airs? Tell me or I will fly at you,” and he put his head up, and spread his wings, and tried to look very large and fierce.
By this time the goose had finished drinking, and looking up he said, “Don’t you know that in a big tree with many branches and large leaves the cicadas love to gather and make a noise? I could not hear you distinctly. You also know the saying of the Ancients, ‘If you stand on a mountain and talk to the people in the valley they cannot hear you,’ ” and the wild goose took another drink.
How the little sparrow chattered and sputtered, shook his wings, and at last said, “In what way are you, with your long neck and short tail, better than I? In what is your value [[58]]greater. Tell me, and if you can prove it you shall be my teacher. What, for instance, do you know of the great world? Now, I can go into people’s houses, hide in the rafters under their windows, see their books and pictures, what they have to eat and what they do. I can hear all the family secrets, know all that goes on in the family and state. I know who are happy and who are sad. I know all the quarrels and all the gossip. All the other birds are glad to see me because I can tell them the latest news, and I know just how to tell it to produce the best effect. So you see that I know much that you, with your great stupid body, can never hope to know.”
“We consider,” said the wild goose, “that the highest law of virtue and good is to give others an equal chance with ourselves, or even to give them the first choice. Because of this we always fly either in the shape of the character ‘Man’ or the figure one. No one takes advantage of the other. We believe in the ‘Three Bonds,’ i.e., Prince and Minister, Husband and Wife, Father and Son. Also in the five virtues,—Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Knowledge, and Truth. With us, if the male bird dies, the female flies alone; if the female dies the male flies alone; if both parents die their young fly alone for three [[59]]years. We have our unchanging customs of going north in the spring and south in the winter. People come to depend on us, and make ready for either their spring work or the cold of winter. Thus, while we have not known the family or state skeletons and the gossip of the women and servants, we are a help to man.
“Now, you have no laws binding you. As a family, you sparrows are selfish; you gossip, chatter, steal, and drive away every one else, only thinking of your own good. Even among yourselves you quarrel. Because of these things you are treated with contempt and looked lightly upon by all. Indeed, so much so that you are a by-word. Now, we are respected and held up as models. Do you not hear parents and teachers tell their children and scholars to come and go quietly by themselves to and from school; to go straight ahead without looking to the right or left; not to gather in groups and chatter like house-sparrows? Do not the respectable people do the same on the street and in the house? Is there not a proverb that ‘There are many people without the wisdom and virtues of the wild goose’? You do, indeed, chatter about small affairs like foolish women and girls and thus are beneath my notice and I bid you good-day.”
All this time the poor little sparrow was [[60]]trembling with rage, and so great was it that she could not fly away nor keep her hold on the branch of the tree, and so she fell to the ground, and thus she died.