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Confucianism -> Lunheng -> Autobiography -> 13

充细族孤门。或啁之曰：“宗祖无淑懿之基，文墨无篇籍之遗，虽著鸿丽之论，无所禀阶，终不为高。夫气无渐而卒至曰变，物无类而妄生曰异，不常有而忽见曰妖，诡于众而突出曰怪。吾子何祖？其先不载。况未尝履墨涂，出儒门，吐论数千万言，宜为妖变，安得宝斯文而多贤？”荅曰：鸟无世凤皇，兽无种麒麟，人无祖圣贤，物无常嘉珍。才高见屈，遭时而然。士贵故孤兴，物贵故独产。文孰常在有以放贤，是则澧泉有故源，而嘉禾有旧根也。屈奇之士见，倜傥之辞生，度不与俗协，庸角不能程。是故罕发之迹，记于牒籍；希出之物，勒于鼎铭。五帝不一世而起，伊、望不同家而出。千里殊迹，百载异发。士贵雅材而慎兴，不因高据以显达。母骊犊騂，无害牺牲；祖浊裔清，不榜奇人。鲧恶禹圣，叟顽舜神。伯牛寝疾，仲弓洁全。颜路庸固，回杰超伦。孔、墨祖愚，丘、翟圣贤。杨家不通，卓有子云；桓氏稽可，遹出君山。更禀于元，故能著文。 Wang Chong is from a simple family, in which he stands quite alone. A caviller might say:--- "Your ancestors have not left you a treasure of pure virtue, nor a collection of literary works. You may yourself write the most brilliant essays, you have no basis to stand upon, and therefore no claim to our admiration." "When a force bursts upon us quite suddenly, not by degrees, we call it a phenomenon. When a creature is born from quite dissimilar parents, we call it a wonder. When something quite unusual appears all at once, it is regarded as a supernatural appearance, and when something different from anything else quite abruptly comes forth, it is termed a miracle." "Who are your ancestors? Their names have not been recorded in former times. You did not spring from a learned family, whose members have already walked the path of literature, and you write disquisitions of several thousand or ten thousand sentences. This must be considered a supernatural phenomenon. How could we appreciate such writings, or think them able productions?" I beg to reply that a bird without a pedigree is a phoenix, an animal without a family, a unicorn, a man without an ancestry, a sage, and a thing without a peer, a jewel. And so it is with men of great talents, who are browbeaten and viewed with disfavour by their age. Scholars of worth appear single, and precious things grow solitary. How could literature be inherited? If a man could learn to become a sage, then the water of the Feng river would have a source, and auspicious grain an old stem. When a remarkable scholar appears and puts forward his noble doctrines, he does not fall under the general rule, and his capacity cannot be measured by the bushel. Therefore events which seldom happen are recorded on tablets and books, and rare things engraved on bronze vases. The Five Emperors did not rise in one generation, and Yi Yin and Tai Kung Wang did not issue from one family. There was a distance of thousand Li between them, and one lived several hundred years after the other. When scholars of note quietly develop their marvellous faculties, they do not become famous as descendants of noble lines. The calf of a black cow may be brown, this does not affect the nature of the animal. The ancestors of a scholar may be coarse, provided that he himself is pure, it has no influence upon his character. Kun was wicked, and Yu a sage, Sou was perverse, and Shun divine. Po Niu was visited with a horrible disease, and Chung Kung was clean and strong. Yan Lu was vulgar and mean, and Yen Hui outvied all his companions. Confucius and Mo Di had stupid ancestors, and they themselves were sages. The Yang family had not been successful, when Yang Zi Yun rose like a star, and the house of Huan had been tolerably well off, until Huan Chun Shan took his brilliant flight. A man must have been imbued with more than the ordinary dose of the original fluid to become an able writer.

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