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Confucianism -> Lunheng -> Autobiography -> 11

Wang Chong's book is very voluminous.
Some say
that in writing the chief thing is to be brief and clear,
and that in speaking one must be short and plain.
The words of a good debater are succinct, but to the point,
the style of a good writer is concise, but perspicuous.
Now Wang Chong's new work
contains more than ten thousand sentences.
For a reader it is impossible to work through such an enormous mass,
and there are so many chapters,
that they cannot all be transmitted.
The author of so much bad stuff may well be called a fool.
Short sentences are easy to enunciate,
whereas a bulky work presents great difficulties.
Gems are few, stones many;
that which occurs in great number, is not precious.
Dragons are rare, fish numerous;
。」that which is of rare occurence, is justly deemed divine.
I admit that there is such a saying.
Concise language is not long,
but beautiful language must not be concise.
If they are useful to the world,
a hundred chapters do no harm,
while one paragraph, if useless, may be superfluous.
If there are several things, all useful,
the longer rank before the shorter.
Who is richer, he who has piled up a thousand chin, or he who possesses a hundred?
Longer works are preferable to shorter ones,
and a small amount of wealth is better than poverty.
Most people have not a single book,
I possess a hundred chapters:
others have not one character,
I have more than ten thousand sentences.
Who is the cleverer?
Now they do not say that my words are wrong,
but that they are too many;
they do not say that the world does not like good things,
but that it cannot take them all in.
The reason why my book cannot be so concise
is that for building many houses
a small ground would not be sufficient,
and that for the registration of a large populace
簿 few registers would be inadequate.
At present, the errors are so many,
that the words necessary to point out the truth, show what is right, and controvert what is false,
cannot well be brief and succinct.
韓非Han Fei Zi's work
is like the branch of a tree.
The chapters are joined together by tens,
and the sentences count by ten thousands.
For a large body
the dress cannot be narrow,
and if there be many subjects,
the text must not be too summary.
A great variety of subjects requires abundance of words.
In a large extent of water, there are many fish,
in an emperor's capital, there is plenty of grain,
and on the market of a metropolis, there is a throng of people.
My book may be voluminous,
but the subjects treated are manifold.
太公望Tai Gong Wang in ancient times
董仲舒and recently Dong Zhong Shu
produced books containing more than a hundred chapters.
My book also contains more than a hundred chapters.
Those who contend that they are too many,
only mean to say that the author is of low origin,
and that the readers cannot but take exception to it.
When we compare a river, whose waters overflow the banks, with others,
which is the biggest?
And, when the cocoons of a certain species of worms are especially heavy and big,
which worms yield most silk?


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