24 THE OPERATIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



(32) First things first. — When Duke Kung I became 

 Premier of Luh the whole country brought him presents of 

 fish, knowing he was fond of it, but which he refused to 

 accept. Ti Tzu remonstrated with him and wanted to know 

 why he refused every gift of fish seeing he was so fond of it ? 

 He gave as his reason that he declined the presents for the 

 very reason that he was fond of it. Were he to accept such, 

 he said, it would involve his vacating the post of minister. 

 Though he liked fish yet he could not afford to buy it himself 

 (out of office). But his refusal to accept any presents of 

 fish did away with the necessity of retiring from office and 

 thus he could afford to supply himself with fish always. 

 Thus he was clear on altruism and egotism. Just as Lao Tzu 

 says : 



BY PUTTING HIS PERSON LAST IT BECAME FIRST 



BY DENYING HIS BODY HE PRESERVED IT 



IT WAS NOT WHOLLY A MATTER OF UNSELFISHNESS 



THAT HE WAS ABLE TO GRATIFY HIS PRIVATE 



DESIRES. 



Another saying of his is : 



SATISFIED WITH WHAT ONE HAS WILL 

 PRECLUDE THE SNEER OF OTHERS. 



(33) An elderly man of Hu Ch'iu said to Sun Hsu Ao, 

 "People have three kinds of hatreds. Do< you know them." 

 Well they are, "The scholars envy a high noble: the king 

 dislikes a great officer : and all dislike those with big 

 salaries." Sun Hsu Ao> replied, "My nobility is the highest 

 and my ambitions are the lowest : my post is the highest 

 but my mind is- the humblest; my salary is the biggest but 

 I lavishly distribute it hence I escape the three hatreds." 

 As Lao Tzu says : 



THE EXALTED MUST MAKE LOWLINESS THEIR ROOT. 

 THE HIGH MUST TAKE THE LOW T AS A FOUNDATION. 



(34) Concentration of purpose leads to perfection of 

 Action. — The man who acted as smith for Ta Ssu Ma was 

 still beating swords at 80 years of age without ever making 

 a mistake in shaping even the finest edge. The minister 

 said to him: "Is it skill or is there some secret about it 

 that you can work thus." The smith replied, "It is practice 

 and attention. When your servant was twenty years old, 

 I liked to beat swords, and paid no attention to anything else. 

 I never examined an article that wasn't a sword. Therefore 

 in the use of this skill it came to be second nature to me, 

 and by this concentrated practice I became perfect." How 

 much more of that which is in constant use like the art of 



