| Replies in Self-Defense:...: |
Some one might put the following question: The worthies and sages were not born for nothing; decidedly their minds were required. How is it that from Confucius and Mo Di down to Xunzi and Mencius they all acted as teachers and left their works to posterity?
Our reply is that the sages wrote the Classics, and the worthies composed their records. They rectified the depraved customs, and enjoined upon the people to revert to truth and sincerity. The thirteen thousand chapters of the Six Departments of Literature increased the good and diminished the evil, sometimes restricting, sometimes expanding, and urging on the stragglers, with a view to leading them back from their by-paths into the right way.
Confucius wrote the Chun-qiu in consequence of the depravity of the people of Zhou. He, therefore, established the smallest merit, and blamed the slightest wrong; he removed every disorder, and re-established propriety. The ways of men as well as those of the sovereign were well ordered by him. To check extravagant and mean practices one must take every precaution, and use every means. When a dyke breaks, and no measures are taken, there will be a disastrous inundation. When a net opens, and is not shut again, the animals caught in it are lost. Had the ways of Zhou not degenerated, the people would not have been uncultured, and had the people not been uncultured, the Chun-qiu would not have been written.
If the doctrines of Yang Zhu and Mo Di had not perverted the traditions, the records of Mencius would not have been published. Had the Han State not been small and weak, and its system of government corrupt, Han Fei Zi's book would not have appeared. Had Gaozi not contested that the conquerors of empires had not alighted from their horses nor changed their martial habits, Lu Jia would not have written his memorials. If the truth had not been lost everywhere, and scientific researches not been in a state of great confusion, the discussions of Huan Tan would not have come forth.
Ergo, when worthies and sages write something, they do not do so for nothing, but have their good reasons. Thus their writings are by no means purposeless, but conducive to reforms, and their reforms to re-establish the right principles.
Accordingly the Han created the censorate to review books and examine their contents. Dong Zhong Shu wrote a book on magical arts, in which he spoke much about calamitous events as being caused by the faults of the government. When the book was complete, and the text revised, it was presented to the Imperial Court of the Han. Chu Fu Yan from jealousy slandered the book in a memorial to the throne. The emperor handed Dong Zhong Shu over to the tribunal, and the judges declared that he was very stupid, and deserved to die, but the emperor pardoned him. Xiao Wu Di did not punish Dong Zhong Shu for his remarks on calamities, on the contrary, he honoured him. How much more would he have done so for Dong Zhong Shu's inoffensive utterances, for his researches into the nature of the fundamental principles and his collection of old and true sayings?
As long as a wise man holds an official position in this world, he is perfectly loyal to his sovereign, and propagates his reforms to enlighten the government. When he has retired, he still teaches and criticises to rouse the simple-minded who have gone astray. They cannot find their way back to the right path, their principles are shallow, and their doings wrong. Unless we scholars hurry to their rescue, they come to perdition, and do not awake from their slumber. |
