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Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Miscellaneous Chapters -> The Robber Zhi -> 2.2

子張Zi-zhang said,
天子 'Formerly Jie and Zhou each enjoyed the honour of being the sovereign,
天下 and all the wealth of the kingdom was his;
but if you now say to a (mere) money-grabber,
』, "Your conduct is like that of Jie or Zhou,"
he will look ashamed,
and resent the imputation:
(these two sovereigns) are despised by the smallest men.
仲尼墨翟Zhongni and Mo Di (on the other hand) were poor, and common men;
宰相but if you say to a Prime Minister
仲尼墨翟』, that his conduct is like that of Zhongni or Mo Di,
then he will be put out and change countenance, and protest that he is not worthy (to be so spoken of):
(these two philosophers) are held to be truly noble by (all) scholars.
天子 Thus it is that the position of sovereign does not necessarily connect with being thought noble,
nor the condition of being poor and of common rank with being thought mean.
。」The difference of being thought noble or mean arises from the conduct being good or bad.'
滿苟得 Man Gou-de replied,
'Small robbers are put in prison;
諸侯 a great robber becomes a feudal lord;
諸侯and in the gate of the feudal lord
your righteous scholars will be found.
桓公小白管仲For instance, Xi-bo, the duke Huan, killed his elder brother, and took his sister-in-law to himself, and yet Guan Zhong became his minister;
田成子常孔子and Tian Cheng, styled Cheng-zi, killed his ruler, and usurped the state, and yet Confucius received a present of silks from him.
In their discussions they would condemn the men,
but in their conduct they abased themselves before them.
In this way their words and actions must have been at war together in their breasts
- was it not a contradiction and perversity?
As it is said in a book,
"Who is bad? and who is good?
The successful is regarded as the Head,
。』」 and the unsuccessful as the Tail."'


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