Story of 孔子[KongZi](7)

* click the link to your right "The ABC of Chinese pronunciation" to get some ideas of how these Chinese words are pronounced.

Some time later, the State of 晋 [Jin4] had a civil strife, and two families of nobility (祁氏 [Qi2Shi4] and 羊舌氏 [Yang2She2Shi4]) were stripped out of power. 魏舒 [Wei4Shu] became the new head of the State. He divided up these two families' farmland into ten administrative counties, and appointed sons of high ranking officials to be county chiefs. When doing the assignment, he only assigned his own son, 魏戊 [Wei4Wu4] to one county to be the chief. The rest of nine counties were assigned to different sons of hign ranking officials who were virtuous and talented with contribution to the royal family. Before he appointed his son to the county chief position, he had actually consulted the senior official 成鳆 [Cheng2Fu2] as whether or not it's the right thing to do. 成鳆 told him, "As a warrior, your son wouldn't forget about you no matter how remote he stationed; he wouldn't lost his independence no matter how close he's near you. When he was profitable in business, he thought about fairness; when he gave out a promise, he tried to keep it. He demonstrated good behaviors and never did immoral things. There shouldn't be any worries if you hand him a county, he sure could do a good job. In the old days, 武王 [Wu3Wang2 - the ancient king] conquered the whole China. Ten brothers of his only be sent out five as head of states, the rest heads of fourty state were appointed to people with a different last name. You see, recommending people to important executive position do not require them to be your relatives. So long as you are using talents, that whether or not he is related to you is unimportant." 魏舒 [Wei4Shu] advised 贾辛 [Jia3Xin], one who had a different last name: " You have made great contribution to our royal family, that's why today I reward you as a county chief. Behavor yourself and work hard, take caution, don't degrade yourself and us." When 孔子 heard the first anecdote about 魏戊 [Wei4Wu4], he believed that this was the so called 义 [Yi4 - Righteousness]; when he heard about the second anecdote of 贾辛, he called it 忠 [Zhong - Royalty]. He said, "The Book of Songs stated, 永言配命, 自求多福, 忠也 [Yong3Yan2Pei4Ming4, Zhi4Qiu2DuoFu2, ZhongYe3 - always be mindful of one's own fate, but strike for one's own good fortune - that's called honesty) 孔子 believed that 魏舒's decision of using his son was agreed with the principle of 为政以德, 选贤任能 [Wei2Zhen4Yi3De2, Xuan3Xian2Ren4Neng2 - governing according to morality, promotion according to talents]. In the 29th ruling year of 鲁 昭公 [Lu3ZhaoGong], the State of 晋 [Jin4] cast a 刑鼎 [XingDing3 - a giant, three-leg, ancient cast iron vessel with provisions of law cast on the side of it], publicized the criminal code. From the viewpoint of patriarchal system (i.e. rich and poor should be in order), 孔子 criticized the event. He pointed out that in order to run a country, there ought to be a social estate system that distinguishes the upper class from the lower class, and separates the rich from the poor. Instead, the State of 晋 [Jin4] publicized the criminal code. The common people therefore would no longer respect the system of order and degree in measuring their behavior; they would conduct themselves by only following the law book. This, 孔子 believed, would degrade the society into a state of chaos, which would lead to the destruction of the states.

The fifth ruling-year of 鲁定公 [Lu3Ding4Gong - one of the kings of State 鲁], senior executive official 季平子 [Ji4Ping2Zi3] died. His son 季恒子 [Ji4Heng2Zi3] resumed his most powerful position. Not for long, 季 [Ji4] family's business manager 阳虎[Yang2Huo4] staged a coup. 阳虎 [Yang2Huo4] jailed 季恒子 [Ji4Heng2Zi3], who did not get released until he had agreed to form an alliance with 阳虎 [Yang2Huo4]. Because 阳虎 [Yang2Huo4] controlled 季恒子 [Ji4Heng2Zi3], and 季 [Ji] family controlled the running of the country. Therefore from that time on, the State 鲁 [Lu3] was in a situation where the fate of State was in the hand of a private business manager of a most powerful family. The history had it that "from that point on, from the most high level officials down, nobody in the ruling class took care of their official duty." 孔子 didn't have the desire to serve either. Stepping back from politics, he put his energy into editing and preserving of ancient poems, old historical documents, theory of 礼 [Li3] and 乐 [Yue4 - the music theory]. The number of followers increased daily; 孔子 took everyone in no matter what their social status were, near or far, as long as they were willing to learn." Meanwhile, 阳虎 was hoping that 孔子 could come out and serve the country. 孔子 promised to him diplomatically, but didn't actually keep it. Because he strongly disliked the reality of the family servant of a feudal official be in charge of the country, 孔子 wasn't willing to cooperate; he put all his energy into activities of his school teaching instead.

(Click Next to continue)