is that?” questioned the lord. “I never heard of such item before.”
“For many years,” the guest continued “Your Lordship has focused on accumulating enormous wealth for your own enjoyment. On the other hand, even after a year’s labor, those woeful farmers still couldn’t pay their debts in full. The balance, compounded with high interest, would create even more debt, a vicious circle from which they could never be free. So on behalf of Your Lordship, I exempted their debts and canceled all of the I.O.U.’s.”
The lord was shocked by this bold act, but remembered his own words, “Buy anything you think I need,” and reluctantly accepted this vexatious fact.
One year later, in a severe political struggle, this lord fell out of favor. His servants fled, the “house-guests” disappeared, and his friends abandoned him. All of his properties were immediately confiscated and his life threatened.
Under a moonless night, with a chilly north wind gnashing at him, the lord, accompanied only by Feng Shuan and a few faithful servants, fled for his life from the capital city. They dared not to stop and traveled for days without rest. Running out of food, they soon found themselves on the edge of starvation.
While approaching a distant town at dawn one day, the lord observed with great amazement hundreds of people standing on the roadside, carrying meats, wine and other food and patiently waiting to welcome him. Soon his coach was surrounded. He stepped down and received the crowd, who submissively presented their provisions. Hurriedly consuming this welcome meal, the lord gratefully praised his house-guest. “Now, I understand the use of the ‘gratitude,’ which you bought for me last year.”
Do small kindnesses on your hay days. You will have some faithful friends to help you out on your rainy days.
A Well-Known Thinker
Western Chou Dynasty1100 B.C. to 770 B.C.
In traditional China the feudal system was rigorously enforced. People were constantly reminded to respect gods, nature, the emperor, their parents and teachers, in that order. In the eleventh century B.C., during the Western Chou dynasty, a nobleman named Tai-Gong Wan14 received a lordship and was given a huge portion of land in eastern China. In his domain, there was a very famous philosopher, Hwa Shi,15 who advocated absolute freedom and encouraged people neither to worship gods nor any authority. This philosopher had thousands of dedicated followers who treated him as a sacred prophet.
The newly-appointed lord, with sincerity, dispatched his ablest assistant to invite this philosopher to become an advisor, to help him in governing the people, or to accept some suitable academic position. In this way, the philosopher and his wild theory would be confined to the realm of the scholastic, and not infect the common people.
But Hwa Shi flatly and arrogantly declined. So the shrewd lord fabricated some serious crimes and promptly ordered his marshals to arrest this philosopher. After a brief show trial, he was condemned to death and executed shortly after. Citizens were shocked. This lord’s high-handed behavior became a public embarrassment. He was immediately summoned back to the imperial palace and brought before the prime minister.
“How could you slaughter such a famous gentleman without proper justification?” shouted the prime minister. “His followers might cook up a riot.”
After this reprimand, the lord responded “Your Highness, this person, who inspired people to be egotistic, is too well-known to be alive. With his fallacious and demagogic theories of self-indulgence, he neither wanted to be supervised by our laws nor be confined to any academic jurisdiction. His anarchical philosophy is counter-productive to our strict social system. Without proper supervision, he, with his charisma and a great ambition, could successfully spread those vicious germs of disobedience. First to be charmed would be a handful of unconventional intellects, who intend to have a voice in the world at all costs. Gradually, lower-level and under-educated clerks, grumbling about their meager salary, would follow suit. It would multiply with amazing speed. Then, illiterate farmers and labor hands might turn against us. In the long run, that man and his ideas would be extremely dangerous. If the number of followers grew big enough, they could threaten the tranquillity of our society, and our social system would collapse. Why wait till then and bet our necks on it? I had to snuff this potential crisis and terminate him for the sake of our dynasty.”
Pondering for a while, the prime minister agreed with Wan and quietly sent him away.
The Prophecy Becomes True
Tang Dynasty618 A.D. to 907 A.D.
In a traditional society, people often used superstitions to rationalize the unexplained. An ordinary person’s superstition would, at most, affect only a family. However, when an emperor was superstitious, the whole country might suffer dearly. This story took place at the end of the eighth century A.D.
One day, a man reported to Emperor Tang-Teh,1 that a famous general, Bai Chi,2 who had died over a thousand years ago, had appeared to him in a dream. The general informed this man that barbarians on the western border would soon invade their country.
The emperor was skeptical about this story, but as a precaution he reinforced that part of the frontier. In less than a month, barbarians actually attacked there, but were immediately repelled thanks to the army’s increased readiness. Amazed, the emperor handsomely rewarded this person and intended to build a temple to commemorate this deceased general. With sincerity and enthusiasm, he discussed this matter with Prime Minister Lee Mee,3 who was surprised by his master’s lack of sophistication.
Acting seriously and holding back a smile with some difficulty, the prime minister pretended to ponder for a long while, and then spoke.
“Your Majesty, improving and revitalizing a country depends on the cooperation of people. The enemy was defeated by our competent generals and courageous soldiers. Their gallant behavior needs to be honored. If Your Majesty credits the victory to this legendary general, I’m afraid that the soldiers will feel indignant and ignored. Our servicemen’s morale will be greatly dampened. Furthermore, to build a temple for him, Your Majesty is promoting superstition and ghost-worship. That will eventually destroy the self-confidence and self-reliance of our people, which is the most valuable resource that an emperor could possess. The consequences could be hazardous. By the way, I have heard there is a weather-beaten old shrine on the outskirts of the capital city which honors this general. To pay respects, Your Majesty could quietly send some servants to restore it, which won’t cost much and will not raise people’s suspicion.” The emperor duly accepted this recommendation.
This prime minister was both farsighted and very sophisticated. Daring not to go directly against his master’s naive idea, he objectively and diplomatically presented his opinions, step by step. He scrupulously upheld his own principles but shrewdly yielded on a few trivial points. For example, if the emperor didn’t pay respects to this dead general at all and his army suffered a great loss in the next military encounter, this prime minister for sure would blamed and even lose his head because of poor advice. Therefore he cleverly advised his master to update a shrine, satisfying the emperor’s simple-minded belief.
As an old saying goes; “When confronting a problem, it is much more reliable to seek help from one’s self
