|
|
|
Passage #1 comes from Zuo Zhuan, 左傳襄公二十五年傳, which will be called as Ref 1 in this article.Passage #2 comes from Lushi chunqiu, 呂氏春秋卷第十慎行論第二, which will be called as Ref 2 in this article.Passage #3 comes from Hanfeizi, 韓非子第四卷姦劫殺臣第十四, which will be called as Ref 3 in this article.Cui Shu Murders the Marquis The story of Cui Shu's murder of Duke Zhuang appears in many works. Many questions are raised. In order to answer all the questions we have in the handout, we have to examine the origin and style of the three references we are going to use. 左傳 was written in chronological order, all the events were recorded by years; Cui Shu's story was recorded as a historical event; the author did not have any personal comment; the ideas, doctrines, are expressed through conversations. On the contrast, 呂氏春秋 and 韓非子 were written in specific topics, to discuss ideas, doctrines; Cui Shu's story was used as examples to fortify the viewpoint of the author. For example, the title of Ref 2 is 慎行論第二, we can tell right away that it is an essay on "thinking before doing."The three references gives us some insight into the ancient Chinese conception of the relationship between a ruler and his ministers, which falls into two categories, familial model and bureaucratic model. The two models are related in many ways in Ref 1. When the commandant of Tang 齊棠公 died, Cui Shu saw his beautiful wife 棠姜 and wanted to marry her. However, her younger brother, Dong Guoyan 東郭偃, opposed the proposal and said "husband and wife should be of different surnames, you [Cui Shu] are descended from [duke] Ding, and I from [duke] Heng, the thing cannot be." His argument was based on the difference of origin of the two families, or ancestral relationship -- the familial model. Cui Shu did not listen to him, and consulted the milfoil about it, and got the diagram of Kun (困, ) and then Da Guo (大過, ), which were both fortunate according to the diviners. But when Cui Shu showed it to Wenzi 文子, he had a totally different explanation of the meaning of the two diagrams, "the [symbol for] a man [in Kun] is displaced by that for wind in [Da Guo], the woman out not to be married." Cui Shu refuted by saying "she is a widow; what does all this matter? Her former husband bore the brunt of it." So he married her. Afterwards Duke Zhuang had an intrigue with her, and constantly went to Cui Shu's house. "[On one occasion] he took Cui's hat and gave it to another person; and when his attendants said that he should not do so, he remarked, 'although he be not Cui Zi, should he therefore be without a hat?'" We can see clearly that Duke Zhuang did not respect his minister at all, which is typical in the familial model. A very common idiom to show this is, even after thousands of years, "If the king command the minister to die, the minister cannot avoid the death. If the father command the son to die, the son cannot avoid the death." (君令臣死, 臣不能不死; 父叫子亡, 子不得不亡). Thus the king could whatever he wanted to his ministers, and the ministers had to take it for granted.Later in the same story, after Cui Shu murdered Duke Zhuang, Yanzi 晏子 stood outside the gate of Cui Shu's house. When asked, he said,Our ruler is dead. Where should I go back to? Is it the business of the ruler of the people to merely be above them? The altars of the State should be his chief care. Is it the business of the minister of a ruler merely to be concerned about his support? The nourishment of the altars should be his object. Therefore when a ruler dies or goes into exile for the altars, the minister should die or go into exile with him. If he die or go into exile for his seeking his own ends, who, excepting his private associates, would presume to bear the consequences with him?
The views expressed here by Yanzi is kind of like a modified version of the familial model towards the bureaucratic side. Yanzi believed that the ruler should take the altars of the State as his responsibilities, not just stand above the people and rule them; the ministers should not die or go into exile for the ruler if the ruler only concerns about his own benefits -- a typical bureaucratic view. However, the ministers should die or go into exile for the ruler if the ruler got into it for the benefits of his people -- typical familial model. Moreover, his private associates, or servants, would always die or go into exile with the ruler. Thus Yanzi told people to "obey their rulers, but not to obey unconditionally." So he fled the scene and did not die with Duke Zhuang himself. Before he left, he said "if I do not adhere to those who are faithful to the ruler and seek the good of the altars, may God witness it!" and smeared his lips with blood. Fleeing together with Yanzi was Shen Xianyu, he was a believer of pure familial model. When Yanzi wrapped his wife in a curtain and put her in the carriage, Shen Xianyu pushed her out of the carriage and said to Yanzi, "you could not correct the ruler in his blindness, nor save him in his peril, nor die with him in his death, and yet you know how to conceal your wife here; who will receive you?" In his view, he believed that Yanzi should have died together with Duke Zhuang, because Yanzi did not do his job well as a minister; he could not even prevent the Duke from being killed. So Shen Xianyu chose to "push" 推而下之 Yanzi's wife out of the carriage to show his dissatisfaction with Yanzi's action.Ref 2 was part of an essay on human behavior. The essay advises people to consider the consequences of their actions before they act 慎行, "people who act in good faith will be treated with good faith, people who act in malice will be treated with malice." Cui Shu's story was presented as an example to explain the idea. Different from Ref 1, the story talked mostly about how Cui Shu himself was killed by Qing Feng 慶封, and how Qing Feng was killed, too. The story does not say or imply any concept of ruler-minister relationship.Ref 3 was also part of an essay, specifically written by Hanfeizi on the relationship between ruler and ministers. According to historians, Hanfeizi was a major work of the Legalist 法家, which advocates legalism, law and bureaucracy 法制, contrary to common Confucianism belief of good ruler 人制. Ref 3 is a good example of the bureaucratic model. The first sentence was the key to the whole paragraph,If the ruler does not have measures to control his ministers, although [the ruler] may be older and wise, the ministers can still get the power and decide things by himself, then [they will] work hard for their own benefits; [they will] be afraid the outstanding good guys, who may take the power of the ruler, and forbid and kill them; thus [they] kill the wise and older [ruler] and establish an young and weak [ruler], [they] get rid of the good and establish the bad.
Hanfeizi does not talk about the actions of the ruler or , instead, he starts by telling people why a king has to be able to control his ministers -- the art of bureaucracy. Then he goes on and tells the consequences of out-of-control -- the ministers will take the over power and kill the ruler. Thus a ruler may be a good ruler in the familial model, he can still be overthrown and killed in the bureaucratic model. Likewise, as it is implied, a ruler can still be in control even if he behaves badly, as long as he has control over his ministers. The three texts differs dramatically in their view of the relationship between the ruler and the minister. Ref 1 portrays the relationship as "father and son" -- familial model, Ref 2 does not have its own definition, Ref 3 portrays the relationship as "control" and "being controlled" -- bureaucratic model. The society described in 左傳 is mostly based on tradition and custom. Most of the people believed in the hierarchies of families, the origin of ancestries, for example, when the grand historiographer was killed because of his remark of Cui Shu's murder in the book, two of his brother did the same and were also put to death. A third brother wrote the same and was let alone (for some reason unknown to us). As a tradition, a historiographer 大史 is in charge of recording the events in the society, and if he dies, his brother/son will move on to be the new historiographer; if the whole family of the historiographer die, other historiographer should take over and continue the work. Also as a tradition, the historiographer has to record the truth, exactly, no matter how dangerous it is. Thus, "the historiographer in the south, hearing that the grand historiographer and his brothers had died, took his tablets and set out [for the court]; but learning on his way that the record was made, he returned." Another example, as a tradition, a servant should die together with his mater. When Shen Kuai 申蒯 knew he was going to die, he told his steward to escape, but the steward stayed, and was killed together with Shen Kuai. 左傳 conceives the relationship between the ruler and his ministers as the familial model. The ruler has absolute power over his ministers; he could please them, humiliate them or kill them. To Duke Zhuang, his adultery with Tang Jiang was merely part of his power, even Cui Shu himself was merely his servant; a servant has to obey and suffer whatever the mater say or do. The conversations of Yanzi and Shen Xianyu also reveals the same familial model. Yanzi would still work for Duke Zhuang even though he was dead. Yanzi fled to Lu, and swore to serve Duke Zhuang forever, as a good servant and minister. However, Shen Xianyu did not see it the same way, he thought Yanzi should have died together with Duke Zhuang, because he believed that a real good minister should die with the ruler. Though different in details, Yanzi and Shen Xianyu were both in the familial model. Moreover, the Yijing divination and oath-taking are consistent with the society described in 左傳, which is based on traditional and customary relations. As a custom, people always consult Yijing to determine whether something is fortunate 吉 or evil 凶. After the consultation, people will try do the things that are fortunate and avoid things that are evil. For example, after Cui Shu consulted the milfoil and got the Kun and Da Guo diagrams, both are considered fortunate. But when he talked to Wenzi, Wenzi had a totally different explanation, "[upon Kun], it is said, 'Distressed by rocks; holding to brambles; he enters his palace and does not see his wife (see line 4 of Appendix A, on Kun diagram). It is evil.' 'Distressed by rocks' -- in vain does one attempt to go forward. 'Holding by brambles' -- that in which trust is placed wounds. 'He enters his palace and does not see his wife, it is evil' -- there is nowhere to turn to." But Cui Shu believed that the evil was taken by Tang Jiang's former husband and married her, believing that the Kun and Da Guo diagrams would bring him luck and fortune. In conclusion, the three readings we discussed here give us an insight into the two ancient Chinese conceptions of the relationship between a ruler and his ministers, the familial model and the bureaucratic model. Works Cited
Appendix A Kun Diagram 困 ． 亨 ． 貞 大 人 吉 ． は 咎 ． 有 言 不 信 ． 彖 曰 ． 困 ． 剛 揜 也 ． 險 以 說 ． 困 而 不 失 其 所 亨 ． 其 唯 君 子 乎 ． 貞 大 人 吉 ． 以 剛 中 也 ． 有 言 不 信 ． 尚 口 乃 窮 也 ． 象 曰 ． 澤 は 水 ． 困 ． 君 子 以 致 命 遂 志 ． 初 六 ． 臀 困 于 株 木 ． 入 于 幽 谷 ． 三 歲 不 覿 ． 象 曰 ． 入 于 幽 谷 ． 幽 不 明 也 ． 九 二 ． 困 于 酒 食 ． 朱 紱 方 來 ． 利 用 享 祀 ． 征 凶 は 咎 ． 象 曰 ． 困 于 酒 食 ． 中 有 慶 也 ． 六 三 ． 困 于 石 ． 據 于 蒺 蔾 ． 入 于 其 宮 ． 不 見 其 妻 ． 凶 ． 象 曰 ． 據 于 蒺 蔾 ． 乘 剛 也 ． 入 于 其 宮 ． 不 見 其 妻 ． 不 祥 也 ． 九 四 ． 來 徐 徐 ． 困 于 金 車 ． 吝 ． 有 終 ． 象 曰 ． 來 徐 徐 ． 志 在 下 也 ． 雖 不 當 位 ． 有 與 也 ． 九 五 ． 劓 刖 ． 困 于 赤 紱 ． 乃 徐 有 說 ． 利 用 祭 祀 ． 象 曰 ． 劓 刖 ． 志 未 得 也 ． 乃 徐 有 說 ． 以 中 直 也 ． 利 用 祭 祀 ． 受 福 也 ． 上 六 ． 困 于 葛 藟 ． 于 臲 卼 ． 曰 ． 動 悔 有 悔 ． 征 吉 ． 象 曰 ． 困 于 葛 藟 ． 未 當 也 ． 動 悔 有 悔 ． 吉 行 也 ． Obtained on-line from http://www.sinica.edu.tw/ftms-bin/ftmsw3?ukey=-409501685&path=/3.1.1.48 Appendix B Da Guo Diagram 大 過 ． 棟 撓 ． 利 有 攸 往 ． 亨 ． 彖 曰 ． 大 過 ． 大 者 過 也 ． 棟 撓 本 末 弱 也 ． 剛 過 而 中 ． 巽 而 說 行 ． 利 有 攸 往 ． 乃 亨 ． 大 過 之 時 大 矣 哉 ． 象 曰 ． 澤 滅 木 ． 大 過 ． 君 子 以 獨 立 不 懼 ． 遯 世 は 悶 初 六 ． 藉 用 白 茅 ． は 咎 ． 象 曰 ． 藉 用 白 茅 ． 柔 在 下 也 ． 九 二 ． 枯 楊 生 稊 ． 老 夫 得 其 女 妻 ． は 不 利 ． 象 曰 ． 老 夫 女 妻 ． 過 以 相 與 也 ． 九 三 ． 棟 橈 ． 凶 ． 象 曰 ． 棟 橈 之 凶 ． 不 可 以 有 輔 也 ． 九 四 ． 棟 隆 吉 ． 有 它 吝 ． 象 曰 ． 棟 隆 之 吉 ． 不 橈 乎 下 也 ． 九 五 ． 枯 楊 生 華 ． 老 婦 得 其 士 夫 ． は 咎 は 譽 ． 象 曰 ． 枯 楊 生 華 ． 何 可 久 也 ． 老 婦 士 夫 ． 亦 可 醜 也 ． 上 六 ． 過 涉 滅 頂 ． 凶 ． は 咎 ． 象 曰 ． 過 涉 之 凶 ． 不 可 咎 也 ． Obtained on-line from http://www.sinica.edu.tw/ftms-bin/ftmsw3?ukey=-409501685&path=/3.1.1.29 |
|
|
