34 THE OPERATIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



out any compunction or manifestation of chagrin, Ch'i Tzu 

 of Yen Ling was pressed by the Wu people to become their 

 King but was unwilling. Hsu Yu declined the throne and 

 refused to accept it. An Tzu made an oath to Ts'ui Shu 

 that he would not serve him nor change his loyalty to the 

 old house, though he were to suffer death for it. 



All these loyal men had a vision of something beyond 

 the present. Their spirits were indifferent to life and death, 

 and so they were not to he beguiled by any material condi- 

 tions or worldly goods. 



(49) The spirit of Self-sacrifice. — The Ching nation had a 

 man named Tz'u Fei, who gained an excalibur in the Kan 

 army. On returning from the war he had to cross a river. , 

 When midway a violent storm was raised by Yang Hou the 

 spirit of the water, and two scaly dragons clutched the sides 

 of the boat. Tz'u Fei asked the ferrymen whether they had 

 survived another such storm. They replied it was most 

 unusual. So Tz'u Fei shutting his eyes, rolling up his 

 sleeves and drawing out his sword exclaimed, "A soldier may 

 be persuaded by the courteous way of kindness and justice, 

 but he refused to submit to intimidation. You rotten and 

 despicable creatures of the river, I wouldn't grieve if I 

 lost my precious sword in attacking you !" So jumping into 

 the river he slashed at the dragons and cut off their heads. 

 All the passengers were saved, and the wind and waves died 

 away. Tz'u Fei was made a baron of Ching with territory. 

 Confucius hearing of it remarked, "Tz'u Fei did well in 

 drawing his sword at the hideous" monsters of the river." 

 Thus Lao Tzu says : 



HE WHO SACRIFICES HIS LIFE IS SUPERIOR 

 TO HIM WHO WOULD SAVE IT. 



(50) The man of fickle purpose is unfit to be a leader. — 

 Shun Yu K'un of Ch'i counselled King Wu to adopt the 

 principle of Federation. The King accepted the advice and 

 gave him ten fine chariots to go to Ching. When about to 

 depart, his men held that federation was not good enough, 

 so he offered the King the further advice of Imperialism 

 Just as he was departing with this alternative idea. 

 the King stopped him, as he had lost confidence in a 

 man who had as suddenly abandoned the purpose of federa- 

 tion, holding such a person incompetent to work out the 

 principle of imperialism, as he was unstable. Words should 

 be based on conviction and business should be carried on on 

 fundamental principles. When these are both lost, devices 

 though many are useless. This is the significance of the 

 fio-ure biting his finger cast on the Chou tripod. It showed 



