Evidences Of A Full Character (4)

1 Duke Ai of the State of Lu was eager to seek for talents. Once he mentioned a man to Confucius. Duke Ai said, “In the State of Wei, a man called Aitai Ta his appearance is very ugly but anyone talks with him always remember him and would like to work with him.”

2 Girls see him, would go home and tell their parents that they would rather be his concubines than marry any others.

3 This guy has had ten more concubines but the girls who hoping to be his concubines are lining long on the road.

4 Aitai Ta never wants to rule or lead anyone; however, there are many people following him. Why?

5 As you know, he has no power as emperor to keep his followers and their families safe; he has no much wealth to support the followers’ life; what’s more, he is so ugly.

6 The guy does not have his own views. All his views are just copying others’. His reputation is so-so. Beyond his hometown, few people know him.

7 Even so, he has a lot of followers. I believe that this guy must possess some outstanding characters. Years ago, my curiosity asked me to invite him to my palace. In the first meeting, I was assuredly scared for his appearance. But after stayed together for some times, I found that he truly had something beloved. Knowing him less than one year, I began to trust him totally.

8 When the position of prime minister was absent, I invited him as my prime minister. He however, was little happy when received the invitation, as if he was unwilling to accept it. I guessed that maybe he didn’t think I am a good King.

9 No matter what, he worked for a very short time and then resigned and left me.

10 I felt so sorry for his resignation and leaving. Without him as my prime minister, I seemed to have less interest in governing the country.

11 Confucius, what kind of man he is on earth, you think. Why does he has such a charm?”

12 Confucius replied, “The year when I traveled to the State of Chu, on the road I saw a piglet sucking milk from the dead sow’s breasts. It sucked for a while and nothing came out. The piglet left without any sentimental attachment to its dead mother.

13 Standing there, I considered the issue: why does the piglet soon desert its mother’s corpse that it usually lives on.

14 My conclusion is that the sow usually takes care of and nurses the piglet, but the dead sow, it stops taking care of and nursing its baby, which causes the piglet to leave. What the piglet attach to is sow’s care and fresh milk, not its body. Now that there is no fresh milk, the body not represents its mother anymore and the piglet leaves it naturally.

15 The funeral of a dead soldier in the battlefield is very simple.

16 If feet are cut off, shoes are unworthy. Man without feet, there is no reason to keep his shoes.

17 Why so? The reason is that once the thing’s original functions disappeared, it surely be abandoned.

18 According to the ancient convenance, it prohibited wife and concubines of the King from cutting nail and piercing ear hole; it prohibited married women from working in the palace. The regulations represented the principle of physical intactness.

19 We are so strict with our physical intactness. It is certainly more important that a man to keep his intact virtue.

20 Aitai Ta had achieved other’s trust without a word. He was promoted without eminent achievements. The position of prime minister was vacated for him and the only worry was his refusal. I guessed that he had overall talent and his virtue was profound as the Tao of Heaven.”

21 When Duke Ai discussed with Confucius about the way of managing state, the human resource was one of the inevitable topics.

22 Confucius’s advice was that the talent should be used appropriately. The most important work of governor is to put a talent on the appropriate position.

23 Confucius said again, “There are few people who are perfect. All we have to do is that employ his strongpoint and restrict his shortcoming.”

24 An idea suddenly occurred to Duke Ai. He asked, “Is there no perfect and overall talent?” Confucius replied, “It is very difficult to find perfect talent in the world. They mostly are those who practice.

25 The perfect talent knows clearly that life and death, richness and poverty, sage and unworthiness, compliment and blame, hunger and thirst, cold and hotness are inevitable phenomena in this world. They shift in turn as day and night are doing. Regarding life or death, richness or poverty nobody can make clear which one comes first and which one comes afterward. All these changes exist in the same space at the same time.

26 Nature decides which role we play. The overall talents know that human can not force or interfere with Nature and spoil its balance and harmony. They are not like Sun Wukong-the Monkey King who rebelled against the Heaven and intently asks it to give him the breaking-law benefits. They just peacefully accept the destiny without any complaint for befalling.

27 Not arrogant for win, not depressive for failure. When poor, they are contented with austere life; when rich, they are pleased to do benevolence. Any mood, such as happiness, anger, sadness, delight, love and loathing can’t affect their sound, tranquil and peaceful mind.

28 This kind of men is overall talent. They perhaps are unwilling to take the positions of government. So we don’t expect them to join us.”

29“What’s profound virtue?” Duke Ai asked.

30 Confucius answered, “A worker, no matter how strong he is, worked day after day, he also becomes exhausted. A magistrate racks his brain to make tact, consider issues and bring out ideas for long time, and then his mood ebbs and his energy is exhausted. He can no longer figure out new ideas.

31 So water is. Without stirring, water gets still and becomes clear and transparent. When we pot water, the water stops flowing. The still water stored in pot for long time stinks. The truth of Universe is the concept of making everything of Nature, works in its own way, without any artificial interference.

32 From observation of water, we make clear that still water is in best mood. We should imitate water to keep our mind sound, tranquil and peaceful, only for which we could fully concentrate our energy to exert the best performance.

33 If we are obsessed with or bothered by trivia all day, we can’t accomplish any important work.”

34 A few days passed, Duke Ai met Minzi. Thanks to Confucius’s explanations of the overall talent and the virtue beyond deformity, he told Minzi, “Once I thought I was a competent emperor: I am diligent in governing and love my people; I am worried about people’s life and the state affairs all day. After the day I discussed with Confucius about the signification of overall talent and the virtue beyond deformity and then I knew that I am short of talent and virtue. Before that, I governed my state out of Tao, which caused me to exhaust and made my state messy.

35 How profound is his wisdom! The relation between me and him is more than that of emperor and minister. Confucius actually is my friend and teacher in practice. The discussion has benefited me a lot.”