Exemplary Figures / Fayan法言

Chapter 12. The Noble Man

Chapter 12 The Noble Man Verse Summary The noble man who remains pure to the end earns a fine reputation. Malefactors wreaking havoc, they he constrains,1 at every point developing the models of the sages. Thus, I have compiled chapter 12, “The Noble Man.” 12.1 Someone asked me, “In his every speech, the noble man brings to perfection his visible refinements of character, and in his every action, he perfects his charismatic presence.2 How does he do that?”3 “At his core, he is as taut and full as a stretched bow, and outwardly, he is as beautiful as a tiger skin.4 He is another Lu Ban wielding an ax, another Hou Yi shooting arrows.5 The noble man seldom speaks,6 but 1 The phrase chundi jianya 蠢迪撿/檢押 is difficult to translate. In the Fayan itself (13/26), as well as in every other Han text, the phrase chundi is coupled with references to barbarian incursions. The phrase jianya elsewhere is used to mean “putting manacles and stocks on malefactors.” David Knechtges, following most commentators cited in Wang Rongbao 1987, takes this four-character phrase to be a positive description: “All his acts follow standards and norms,” presuming the noble man to be bound or constrained by the Way. However, the description is so negative in other texts that I have decided to reject the standard positive gloss. 2 This line may also refer not to words and acts but to the perfection of the noble man’s inner training (he becomes an exemplary pattern). It is also often read to mean “When a noble man uses words, he creates literature,” in the same way that when he moves, he creates virtue. For this reading, see Vervoorn 1996, 57. 3 Or “What does he use?” 4 See Changes, Hexagram 49 (Ge), Line text 5. Cf. Blake’s poem: “Tyger, Tyger burning bright / In the forest of the night / What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry” (another reflection on ineffable perfection). 5 Meaning that he is reliably expert in all his activities. The analogy may hold only for his expertise; he realizes his virtue in right actions, as unerringly as Lu Ban with the ax or Hou Yi with the bow. 6 Cf. Analects 11.14. But the same Analects phrase is also taken to mean that “he did not 208 | 209 Exemplary Figures 12. The Noble Man 12.2 或問君子之柔剛。曰君子於仁也柔。於義也剛。 12.3 或問航不漿。衝不薺。 2 有諸。曰有之。或曰大器固不周於小乎。 曰斯械也。君子不械。 12.4 或問孟子知言之要。知德之奧。曰非苟知之。亦允蹈之。或曰子 小諸子。孟子非諸子乎。曰諸子者, 以其知異於孔子者也。孟子異 乎。不異。 12.5 或曰孫卿非數家之書。侻也。 3 至于子思, 孟軻。詭哉。曰吾於孫 卿。與見同門而異戶也。惟聖人為不異。 2 The commentators cannot agree on the significance of the second metaphor, ji 薺. Most think it refers to a pulling song used by charioteers—hence, the translation. However, Liu Shipei (1916), following Li Gui, believes it refers to the near impossibility that a big war chariot would be filled with greens or the stems of young garlic rather than weapons. L’Haridon (2006) concurs. 3 Reading tui 侻 as hao 好. when he does, his words invariably hit the mark. He seldom acts, but when he does, his conduct has always been weighed.” 12.2 Someone asked me about the relative “softness or hardness” of the noble man.7 “The noble man is soft insofar as he is benevolent and hard in that he does his duty.” 12.3 Someone asked me, “Are there great battleships that do not rely on oars, or ramming carts not pulled to the tune of “Shepherd’s Purse”?8 “There are.” Someone remarked, “So you concede that a great vessel may be less well equipped than a small one for handling small tasks?”9 “We’ve been talking about tools and vessels. The noble man is no mere tool.”10 12.4 Someone asked me, “Mencius knew the essentials of rhetoric,11 but did he understand the mysterious depths of charismatic virtue?” “He not only understood it; he fully realized it.”12 Someone asked me, “You disparage the various philosophical masters, but wasn’t Mencius one of them?” “The philosophical masters are defined by the points on which they diverged from Kongzi.13 Did Mencius ever diverge? He did not.” 12.5 Someone said to me, “In the many writings where Xun Qing14 criticized the various philosophical masters, he did well. But was he not perversely argumentative when it came to Zisi15 and Mencius?” speak [at all],” as in Analects 7.21. 7 “Hard” and “soft” refer not only to “yang” and “yin” respectively (as in the “Xici”) but also...