Chapter 36
Ka’yu said: Such is the base the ancients have given into our hands, but who could follow them into detail?
I was not born into the world for this; but to choose from each and all of them, what all of them will accept.
In the ancient days our country was sparsely settled; families were a good convenience. But, behold, the land is full of people. I do not have just a few scattered barbarians to deal with.
I have to deal with a learned people, who have scarcely room to stand. I am only one man; and you, only seventy-two.
By ourselves, we can do nothing. Shang Te has shaped the times to our hands. Whether we live to see it, it matters little. The time will surely come, when the emperor will be obliged to destroy the books of the ancients.
Let us therefore take the cream of them, and provide for their preservation while we may. ||
Ka’yu then divided up the labor among his seventy-two disciples; apportioning the books of the ancients justly among them.
And so great was the wisdom and scholarship of Ka’yu, that in twelve days’ time some of his disciples were ready with their reports to begin. And from these reports Ka’yu dictated, and the scribes wrote down his words.
And it came to pass, that when a committee presented a revision before Ka’yu that he even knew it before it was read in the Council. And he dictated on its contents, making the necessary alterations. After which, the subject was given to the scribes to do the full rewrite.
Now the whole time of the first sitting of the Council was eight and a half years, at which time they had been over all the work.
But so great was the wisdom and memory of Ka’yu, that he called out from the errors of his disciples enough material to require two years’ more deliberation.
And thus from the lips of Ka’yu, twenty books were produced containing the digest of more than eighteen thousand books. Nor had any man in all the world ever done even one-tenth of so great a feat of learning.
The scribes wrote six copies for every one of the disciples; and when they were thus provided, and were ready to depart, Ka’yu spoke to them, saying:
What, in your opinion, is the highest, best satisfaction? And after the disciples had answered, some one thing, and some another, the master said:
To know that one has done the highest thing within his power, this is the highest, best satisfaction. For what is any man at most, but an agent of the Most High?
To be true to one’s own highest idea, is this not serving the Father? To be neglectful in such conviction, is this not the sickness of all the learned?
What honor, in your opinion, does any man have? The disciples answered, some one thing, and some another. After a while, the master said:
If those beneath him honor him, then it is no honor to him. If those above him honor him, then it is a reproof of his other deeds. But if he honors himself, he has great honor indeed. But who can honor himself, except he who is perfect in his own sight? He cannot do this, therefore he has no honor in extreme. To choose little honor, to choose a medium line, is this not the highest any man can attain to?
To grieve over one’s own self, because of imperfection, this is great folly. To eat fruit, herbs and rice, these are the purest diet, but only a fool would starve rather than eat flesh. Rites and ceremonies are useful, but a man had better dispense with even these, than to go to war for them.
To rest on the ancients only, this is great folly. To honor the ancients only, and to believe that they alone received revelation, these are the extremes of a foolish understanding.
To remember that the Creator is Ever Present, and with as much power, love and wisdom today as in the ancient days, this is wisdom.
To try to find some good thing one can do, this is creditable. But to do nothing good, because one cannot do it in his own way, this is execrable.
He who finds a good work to do, and does it, has much satisfaction. But he should not exult in it, for he has only done his duty. I have no honor in these twenty books.
Two kinds of men I have found; those who are predestined by the Gods to accomplish a certain work, and those who are born with no predestination. The first are erroneously called the highest, because they are at the head of great undertakings; but they are nevertheless only instruments in the hands of the Gods. The others, who are born without a predestined work, never can understand the former.
To be born near enough to the (es) Light to see it, and believe in it, and have faith in it, this is a great delight. To be so far from the Creator that one cannot believe in His Person and Presence, this is pitiable.
I divorced my wife because I discovered she could not bring forth heirs to belief or faith. No man should be bound to a woman whose desires lie in the corporeal self. And women should have the same privilege.
He who is wed to the Great Spirit, how can he dwell with one who is wed to the earth?
To one man, celibacy is the highest life, because he has joy in his Heavenly Father. But to one who does not have this joy, celibacy is a great punishment. The society must admit both conditions.
There is no mean between these two; therefore, both must be provided for.
Those who desire celibacy approach the termination of the race; those whose desires are the other way are of a breed not so far along.
There need be no quarrel between them. The destiny of both must be completed some time.
When a country is sparsely settled, those of extremes can go and live aside; it is nothing to govern such a state, or to proclaim extreme doctrines before them. But when a country is full of people, the two extremes and the mean must dwell in proximity. It is not an easy matter to govern them wisely.
Whatever people can dwell together in great numbers on the smallest piece of ground, and yet have peace and plenty, such a people are the highest of all peoples.
Where an extreme doctrine cannot be carried out, it is better to have a less extreme doctrine. People, like a drove of sheep, are much inclined to follow a leader. In which case, politicians, lawyers and judges run the state into war.
To legislate in such a way, that leaders cannot lead the multitude into evil, this is wisdom. Were all leaders dead, the people themselves would not be very bad. Yet it is wrong to take any man’s life; for life is something man has no property in. Life rests with Jehovih only; it is His.
Before the ignorant, and before fools, we speak by commandment. Chine’ya has passed that age; our books must go persuasively, yes, in the mean (balance between the extremes).
To dictate to the learned, is to cast one’s treasures into the fire. By asking them questions, we can often lead them.
Coaxing, with effect, is greater than dictation not obeyed. We preach to the rich man, that he should give all he has to the poor, and he walks away, giving nothing. When we say to him: Give a little, he does it. In this case the higher doctrine is the lower, and the lower doctrine is the higher, because it has potency.
The ancients said, the first best thing was to love the Creator; I think so too. But when a philosopher asks me to prove that the Creator is a Person, and is worth loving, I am puzzled. To accept Him as a Person, and as All Good, without criticism, this I find gives the greatest happiness.
I have seen men who would pull the Creator to pieces and weigh His parts to know His worth, but such men end in disbelief in Him. I have not found one such man who accomplished any good in the world. In the presence of goodly men he is like a fly that delights in breeding maggots—pretty enough in himself, but a breeder of vermin in the state.
Yet he who says: Let the evil practice evil, because the Creator created them, is of a narrow mind. Or, if he says: Jehovih sent the rainstorm to destroy the harvest; or, Jehovih sends fevers to the dirty city: such a man lacks discretion in words and judgment.
But he who perceives that man is part of the creation, in which he must do a part of the work himself, or fevers will result, such a man has his understanding open in regard to the Father.
Between the too much casting of all things in Jehovih’s face, and too little belief in Him, lies the mean, which works (develops) the perfection of man.
To try to find the Creator with love and adoration, instead of with a dissecting knife; this leads man on the highest road. To trust in Him, while we strive to do our best; this is good philosophy. To lie about idly, and not plant our fields, blindly trusting in Him to provide; this is great darkness.
A wise man, perceiving the defects of the society, will not censure it, but turn to work and find a remedy. It is for such purpose the angels of the higher heavens raise up great men in the world.
I have seen many people in many different kinds of worship, and they go through their parts in the sacrifice without perceiving the spiritual idea of the founders, and they are neither better nor worse for it. The infidel, with little discretion, seeing this, abuses all the doctrines, but a wise man goes between them to find the good which others lose sight of.
To find all the beauties in a man or woman, or in their behavior—this is Godlike. To find their faults and speak of them—this is devilish. Yet, consider reverently the man who does not speak of persons. Who knows, may not all men be as automatons, some in the hands of Gods, and some in the hands of devils?
Such a doctrine would make us less severe with those who err, or who do evil. We hope for this.
I have seen the criminals being whipped, and I have said to myself: Only by a mere circumstance of birth, the wrong ones are being lashed. Otherwise, they would have been governors of the states.
I once helped a bad man to elude his pursuers, and he escaped whipping, and he reformed himself. Since then, I have been a convert to great leniency.
The time will come when bad men will be neither whipped nor tortured, but appropriated to benefit the province; to shape our laws for such interpretation, is the beginning of wisdom in the government.
To appropriate all men to the best use; this is the wisest governing. To punish a bad man for vengeance’ sake; this is devilish.
If a man slays my sister, I raise my sword up before him, so that he may run against it, but I do not strike him. To reform a man is better than to kill him; to lock up a bad man where he can do no harm, is sufficient for the state.
I have watched the soldiers in drill, and I said: This is a beautiful sight! For, I saw the colors of their clothes, and the poetry of their maneuvers.
But I watched them again, and I said: This is wicked! For, I looked into the object of the drill, and I saw blood and death. The state uses power by violent means, but the soul within us desires to accomplish peacefully.
The standard of a wise man, to judge wisely, requires of him to imagine he is a God, high up in heaven, and that all men are his children. He should consider them as a whole, and beneficially.
This I perceive: There were a few wise men among the ancients, as wise as the wisest of this day. But, today, there are more wise men than in the ancient times. Does this not lead us to believe that a time will come, when all people will be wise?
I would like to see this; it would settle many vexing questions. The seers tell us the soul of man is immortal; moreover, that they have seen the spirits of the dead. I tried for many years to ascertain if this were true, but I could not discover.
Nevertheless, I said: It is a good doctrine; I will appropriate it. The Creator must have perceived it also. It is reasonable, then, that He created man immortal.
The priests have appropriated this doctrine also. Moreover, the ancients say, the good are rewarded in heaven, and the evil punished in hell. The people have been told this, and yet they will not be good.
Chine said: To deny one’s self and to labor for others with all our wisdom and strength; this is the highest doctrine. || I saw a man on a mountain, calling to his flocks in the valleys, but they did not understand him, and did not come. Then he came halfway down the mountain, and called, and the flocks heard him and understood, and they went up to him.
It is easy to plan out high doctrines, but not so easy to give an efficient doctrine. He who is mid-way, is the most potent. I have observed that all peoples have higher doctrines than they live up to. Yes, the boast of one religion over another is of its relatively superior height in the doctrines enunciated. And yet, they, who boast thus, practice neither virtue nor sincerity, for they do not live up to even the commonest doctrines.
On the other hand, the boast of a government is not of its virtue and goodness, and its fatherly care of the helpless, but of its strength in arms, and its power to kill. And these are the lowest of attributes.
I was born into the world to reach the government, and make it virtuous and fatherly. This can only be done through the family, then to the hamlet, then to the province, and then to the empire.
But I could not do this without sincere men, who would faithfully practice my doctrines.
That you are sincere, is proved in your being with me; that you are virtuous and discreet, with propriety, is proved in your listening to my words. Yet, regarding this work, how can I be sincere? I say, my words, when in truth I feel that no words I utter before the Council, are my words in fact.
Is this not true of all good men, in that they are mouthpieces for the Gods, or for the circumstances surrounding them? We open our mouth and speak, but where do our ideas come from?
When the sun shines on the field, the herbs come forth; is it not the Creator’s light falling upon us, that causes our ideas to come forth? And if we keep away the grass and the weeds, we receive a profitable harvest.
I wish that all men would write a book on the Creator. Thought, directed in this way, will not go far from the right road.
To feel that He is with us, hearing all our words, seeing all our deeds: Is this not the surest foundation to teach our children? What is so potent as faith in the Creator, and in His Son, Shang Te, in making our children sincere, and to behave with propriety?