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[seanzxh]

Story of Lin XiangRu – Honor and Bravery, in variety of forms

The lord of manor ZHAO got the famous HE’s Jade of manor CHU. Lord Zhao of manor QIN wanted that jade, so he asked ZHAO to trade it with fifteen cities. The lord of manor ZHAO didn’t want to trade, but was afraid of manor QIN; on the other hand, he also worried that QIN would cheat if he did trade.

The lord of manor ZHAO turned to Lin XiangRu about the request from QIN. Lin XiangRu offered his suggestion, “Manor QIN asked for a trade of the jade with cities. If my lord rejects the deal, the fault is on my lord. On the other hand, if we do give Qin the jade and QIN does not give us the cities, then the fault is on QIN. Weighing on the two options, I suggest rather give the jade and burden QIN with the fault. I’m willing to take the jade to manor QIN. I will secure the safe return of the jade if QIN does not give us the cities.”

The lord of manor ZHAO accepted Lin XiangRu’s suggestion and sent him to manor QIN. Once he met the lord of manor QIN, Lin XiangRu realized that he had no intention of giving ZHAO the cities in return. Lin XiangRu tricked the lord of manor QIN and get the jade back, and then sent his aid back to ZHAO via countryside roads with the jade. Once the aid was gone, Lin XiangRu presented himself to the wrath of lord of manor QIN, ready to sacrifice himself. The lord of QIN commended Lin XiangRu’s wisdom, treated him with proper manner and sent him back to ZHAO. The lord of manor ZHAO appointed Lin XiangRu as minister.

The next year, QIN attacked ZHAO and took two cities. One year later, QIN attacked ZHAO again and took the Stone City. Another year later, general Bai Qi of QIN defeated the army of ZHAO, beheaded twenty thousand and took the city GUANGLANG of manor DAI.

The next year, the lord of QIN sent an envoy to ZHAO, saying that he would like to have a feast with the lord of ZHAO at the city of YINCHI west to the Yellow River and make peace.

The lord of manor ZHAO didn’t want to go. Lian Po and Lin XiangRu suggested, “If my lord does not go, ZHAO would be seen as weak and cowarded.” The lord of manor ZHAO accepted their advice and departed to the city of YINCHI. Lin XiangRu went with the lord. Lian Po saw them to the border and bid the final farewell with the lord of manor ZHAO, saying, “This journey of my lord, considering the time on the road and the feast, should be finished within thirty days. If my lord does not come back after thirty days, I would like to have my lord’s approval to crown the heir as the lord, so that QIN would not think about holding my lord for ransom.” The lord of ZHAO approved Lian Po’s plan.

The lords of the two manors QIN and ZHAO feasted at the city of YINCHI. Late into the party, the lord of QIN asked the lord of ZHAO to play a string instrument called SE. The lord of ZHAO went to play the instrument. Lin XiangRu then stepped forward asking the lord of QIN to play a drum instrument called FU for the lord of ZHAO. The lord of QIN refused. Lin XiangRu approached the lord of QIN closely, saying “I’m five steps away from your honor. I would spill my blood on your honor.” Upon hearing the threat, the guards pulled out their knives and pointed them at Lin XiangRu. Lin XiangRu turned to the guards, glared and shouted. The guards all got scared and stepped back. Seeing that, the lord of QIN reluctantly beat the FU once.

Thus, throughout the party, QIN was not able to overpower ZHAO at all. Since ZHAO was on guard the whole time, QIN couldn’t find any opportunity to attack ZHAO. Once the lord of ZHAO finished the feast and went back home, he promoted Lin XiangRu to a higher rank of minister, even higher than Lian Po.

Lian Po talked to others about Lin XiangRu’s promotion, saying “I am a general of ZHAO. I have battled in the war and taken cities and territories for ZHAO. Lin XiangRu is just a low status civilian yet he now ranks above me just through words and talking. It’s really a shame for me to be ranked under him.” He declared to everyone “If I meet Lin XiangRu face to face, I will insult him.” Those words reached Lin XiangRu and he responded by avoiding Lian Po by all means. When ministries met, he would often call in sick to avoid standing by ranks with Lian Po. Whenever he was on the road, if he saw Lian Po from afar, Lin XiangRu always took a detour to avoid Lian Po.

Lin XiangRu’s aids all took his avoidance of Lian Po as shameful. Lin XiangRu then asked his aids “How do you guys compare general Lian with the lord of QIN?” His aids said, “General Lian is not as powerful as the lord of QIN.” Lin XiangRu said, “As powerful a person as the lord of QIN, I spoke against him on the royal court and insulted his counselors surrounding him. Though I’m not a capable man, would I be afraid of general Lian alone? My only concern is that general Lian and I, the two of us, is the only reason that the strong manor QIN dares notwage war against ZHAO. When two tigers fight, they cannot both survive. I avoid general Lian because I put the nation above personal affair.” When Lian Po heard about Lin XiangRu’s words, he took off his shirt, tied himself up with whips and knelt down in front of Lin XiangRu’s residence to confess his guilt and accept whatever punishment Lin XiangRu would give him. From then on, the two instead became brothers for life.

[seanzxh]

QI and WEI - art of war

At the time, the lord of manor QI, whose posthumous title is Wei, and lord of manor WEI, whose posthumous title is Hui, joined together for a hunting game. The lord Hui of the manor WEI asked the lord Wei of manor QI, “Are there precious treasures in QI?”

The lord Wei of QI said, “No.”

The lord Hui said, “My manor is small, yet we have ten pearls. Each are three centimeters in diameters and can shine twelve carriages. How come a big manor such as QI does not have precious treasures?”

The lord Wei of QI said, “I consider treasures differently from your honor. I have HuanZi as my minister to guard city of NAN. Because of him, manor of CHU dare not invade and twelve manors along the SI river all come and acknowledge me as their overlord. I have PaiZi as minister to guard city of GAO TANG. Because of him, people in manor ZHAO dare not even fish in the HUANG river, which sets the border of QI and ZHAO. I have QianFu as minister to guard city of XU ZHOU. Because of him, manor of YAN prays to the northern city gate of XU ZHOU and manor of ZHAO prays to the western gate of XU ZHOU, hoping for the blessing of peace. Over seven thousand families migrated to the city of XU ZHOU. I have ZhongShou as minister to head the police force. Because of him, people don’t even pick up other’s lost belongings on the road. Those four ministers of mine shine thousands of kilometers, not just twelve carriages.”

The lord Hui felt ashamed.

In the early days, SunBin and PangJuan learned the art of war together. Later PangJuan served in the manor of WEI as a general. He knew he was not as good as SunBin, so he called SunBin to WEI. When SunBin went to PangJuan, PangJuan set him up and laid punishment on him to cut his legs off and mark his face with criminal tattoos. In that way, PangJuan wanted to make SunBin a deserted man for life.

The envoy of manor of QI came to WEI one day. SunBin, as a criminal, secretly met the envoy and appealed to him. The envoy of QI then secretly carried him to the manor of QI. TianJi, a top general of QI, hosted SunBin very kindly, and recommended him to the lord Wei of QI. The lord Wei consulted SunBin about the art of war and appointed him as military adviser.

Later, the lord Wei of manor QI planned to rescue manor ZHAO from its war with manor WEI and wanted to appoint SunBin as general for that. SunBin turned down the offer because he had a criminal record. The lord Wei then appointed TianJi as general and SunBin as military advisor, who would sit in a carriage to set out the strategy and advise TianJi.

TianJi wanted to take the army to manor ZHAO to rescue. But SunBin advised him, “When there’s a fight, you can’t use your fists to tear the two parties apart. When two parties are in a brawl, you can’t help them by joining them with a spear. The way to face the enemy is to divert him when he is attacking, and attack when he is weak. Once the formation and momentum are stopped, the crisis resolves by itself. Now the two manors are in fight with each other. Their elite armies must all be out on the battle field, only the weak battalions are left home. Sir, why not take the army quickly to the capital of manor WEI, hold its key roads and attack its weak positions. That way, army of WEI surely will leave manor ZHAO and go save its own city. Thus we will save manor ZHAO and weak manor WEI in one maneuver.”

TianJi accepted SunBin’s advice. On October, ZHAO capital HANDAN was captured by manor WEI. The army of WEI returned to fight the army of QI at GUI LIN, and was defeated.

One year, general PangJuan of manor WEI led the army to invade manor HAN. Manor HAN plead to manor QI. The lord Wei of manor QI called his ministers to discuss the matter, “shall we rescue HAN sooner or later?”

One nobleman named ZhouJi (his title is ChengHou) said, “I say we would rather not rescue HAN.”

TianJi said, “If we don’t rescue HAN, it will be conquered and merged into the manor WEI. We should rescue HAN quickly.”

SunBin then provided his analysis, “Armies of HAN and WEI are not wearied yet. If we rescue HAN now, we will become the replacement HAN’s army to be attacked by the army of WEI, and therefore put ourselves under the control of the manor of HAN. This time, manor of WEI has the ambition to conquer the manor of HAN. When HAN is at the verge of collapse, it will surely come to plea to QI. If we go rescue them at that point, then on one hand we will get a very close ally of HAN, and on the other hand, face the weary army of WEI. Thus, we will gain a lot of benefit as well as a high reputation.”

The lord Wei was very convinced. “Good idea!’ he said.

So, the lord Wei implicated the rescue to the envoy of HAN and sent him home without sending an army. Therefore, the Manor of HAN thought they had QI to back them up and fight the army of WEI. However, five battles over, no victory. Manor HAN then came to QI again and put itself under QI’s mercy.

Then, the manor of QI sent out its army with TianJi, TianYin and TianPan as the generals, and SunBin as the military advisor, to rescue manor HAN. The army marched right towards the capital of WEI. Hearing about it, PangJuan left HAN and returned to defend the capital. The manor WEI sent out a huge army with the prince of heir Sheng as general to face off with army of QI.

SunBin said to TianJi, “Their army is from area of three JIN. The soldiers from that area are always strong and courageous, and look down on QI. QI does have a reputation of being a coward. The generals, who are good at war strategy, consider the situation and guide it skillfully” He then quoted the book “Art of War” saying, “Army in pursuit for hundred kilometers continuously will lose its general; Army in pursuit for fifty kilometers, only half of the battalion can reach destination.”

Then SunBin and TianJi led the army of QI into manor WEI territory and made a hundred thousand battlefield stoves. The next day, they made fifty thousand stoves. The day after, they made twenty thousand stoves. PangJuan pursued army of QI for three days, and was very happy seeing this, “I always knew the army of QI is a coward. Just three days in my territory and more than half of the soldiers are gone.” So, he left the infantries, led only the light armor elite battalion, doubling the speed of the pursuit.

SunBin calculated PangJuan’s speed and determined that he will arrive at MA LIN by night time. MA LIN has a narrow path sandwiched by hills on the sides, suitable for setting up ambush. SunBin ordered to peel off a big tree by the path and wrote on the trunk, “PangJuan will die under this tree”. And then he setup ambush on the two sides of the path with ten thousand good archers, ordering them to shoot at will when they see a torch by the tree after sunset.

PangJuan did arrived at the tree by night time as expected. He saw there was writing on the tree trunk, so light up torch to read. He hadn’t even finished reading when ten thousand archers shot all together causing great chaos in the army of WEI. PangJuan knew by then that it was all over for him and defeat was right in front of him, so he took the sword to himself saying, “So I give the fame to that rogue.” The army of QI then went ahead to further defeat the army of WEI and captured prince of heir Sheng.

ZhouJi (aka. ChengHou) hated TianJi. He sent a man to a fortune teller in the market saying, “I’m a servant of TianJi. My general fought three great wars and brought back three victories. Now he wants to execute a great plan (implicating usurper). Will it succeed?” When the fortune teller came out, ZhouJi sent people to catch the fortune teller to accuse TianJi of usurper. TianJi couldn’t find a way to clear himself, then led his men to attack the capital city of LIN ZI, asking for ZhouJi (aka. ChengHou). It didn’t work out. TianJi fled to manor of CHU.

[seanzxh]

WEI Yang - Credibility is treasure

Yang is one of the grandsons of lord of manor WEI (卫). He was enthusiastic about theories that law is the fundamental principle of governance and order of society classes is the fundamental principle of governance. At the time he served prime minister of WEI (魏), named Zuo. Zuo knew about Yang’s competence but just had yet not had chance to recommend Yang to the lord of WEI (魏). Zuo was gravely sick, the lord came to ask him, “In case you die of this sickness, what shall I do to deal with the government affairs?” Zuo said, “Among my servants, there’s a boy WEI (卫) Yang. Although he is very young, Yang is very talented. I recommend my lord to leave all the government affairs to him.” The lord of WEI didn’t say anything. Zuo saw that, then gave a second suggestion, “If my lord does not listen to me to put Yang in use, then you must kill him and never give him a chance to leave the country.” Lord of WEI promised Zuo and left. Zuo then called in Yang and apologized to him, “I prioritize lord over servants, therefore I consider matters for my lord first then tell you about it. Now you must run away as quickly as you can.”

Yang said to Zuo, “Lord of WEI won’t listen to your recommendation to put me in governance position, how would he possibly take to your suggestion to kill me?” So Yang didn’t leave. Lord of WEI left Zuo’s place and told the people around him, “It’s sad that Zuo is sick to such a degree. First he told me to trust the whole country with Yang, then he suggested me to kill Yang. Isn’t that self-contradictory?”

Later, Yang of WEI (卫) went to the manor of QING. Through JinJian, a confidante of the lord of QING whose title was XiaoGong, Yang was able to meet XiaoGong and presented his plan to make QING rich and strong. XiaoGong was very happy, then planned with him about the QING’s government affairs.

WEI Yang wants to overhaul the rules and laws in QING. QING’s noblemen were not happy about that. WEI Yang said to XiaoGong, “People are not for the lord to plan the governance with; people are just there to enjoy the benefit once the work is accomplished. When discussing the highest moral matters, one shall not intend to appease the mass; those who accomplish great things do not plan them with the mass population. That’s why the great ones do all things as long as it can make the country strong, but do not follow the rules of the past.”

GanLong, one of the counsellors, disagreed on that, “Not so. When we follow the existing rules to govern, the officials are accustomed to it and the people are calm under it.”

WEI Yang said, “Average people are accustomed to old traditions, scholars are stuck with what they have learned. Those two kinds of people can hold government positions and abide the laws, but cannot join the discussion of the plans beyond the existing rules. Smart people make rules; less intelligent people are restricted by the rules. Wise people change the ways of doing things, while the not wise are stuck with the old ways.”

XiaoGong agreed, “That’s nicely said.” Then he appointed WEI Yang as one of the assistant minsters. And then the overhaul of the law started.

The new laws included grouping every five families together and then ten families in a set. Families in the same groups and sets were to monitor each other. If one of the families broke the law, all families in the group and the set would be punished. Reporting a crime would be rewarded the same as killing an enemy on the battle field. Covering and not reporting the crime would be punished the same as surrendering to the enemy. Doing well on the battle field would be awarded with promotions. Participating in the brawl will be punished accordingly. Working hard on the jobs assigned, producing more in agriculture and textile, would be rewarded with tax relaxation. Focus on non productive matters, laziness, and therefore led to poverty would be punished by enslavement of the whole family. Nobles with no earned awards on the battle field could not inherit the noble titles. Hierarchy of the positions and noble titles were clarified. Entitlement of the land, servants and cloths to each class in the hierarchy were also clarified. Accomplishments in serving the country would be given honors. Otherwise one could not be honored no matter how rich he is.

At that time the new law had not be made public yet. Yang was worried that the people would not believe that the new law would be executed as said. So he set a pole seven meters high in the middle of the southern gate of the QING capital and promised that anyone who could carry the pole and walked to northern city gate would be awarded with ten units of copper money. People all thought this was strange and no one tried. Yang increased the award to fifty units of copper money. One person came forward and did it. And surely he was awarded fifty units of copper money. After that, the new law was implemented publically.

After a year of new law, thousands of people of QING came to the capital complaining the law made life inconvenient. At that time, the manor’s first prince broke the law. WEI yang said, “The law didn’t get executed properly because the top class of the manor breaks it.” The first prince is the heir to the throne, therefore can not be punished. But punishment went to his teacher prince Qian. The other teacher Jia got a criminal mark tattoo on his face. The next day, all people in QING followed the new law. In ten years, across QING, people did not pick up properties others dropped on the road, there were no bandits in the countryside or wild, people were all courageous on the battle field yet dared not brawl on the street. Cities and villages around the country were all under good governance. Among those people who earlier complained about inconvenience, some came around and praised that the new law made life so nice. WEI Yang said, “All of those people are the ones disturbing the law.” So he sent them all to rural wilderness. After that people dare not comment or criticize laws or orders.

  The Author and Historian SiMaGuang made comments on this story.

 Credibility is great treasure to the kings. Kingdom is kept by the people; the people are kept by the credibility of the king. Without credibility, the king can’t rule the people; without the people a kingdom cannot hold. Therefore, the great kings in the history did not cheat on others. Overlords do not cheat on neighboring kingdoms, great governors do not cheat on his people, good family heads do not cheat on his relatives. The incompetents do the contrary. They cheat on neighbor countries, cheat on their people, even cheat on their brothers, cheat on their fathers and sons. Lord does not trust people, people do not trust lord, the minds of lord and people go in opposite directions, and that leads to defeat. What was improved by cheating cannot cure the hurt from the cheat; what was gained by cheating cannot compensate what was lost due to the cheat. Isn’t that sad. In the history, HuanGong of QI did not break the promise to CaoMo, WenGong of JIN did not seek in greed the gain from attacking YUAN, WenHou of WEI didn’t miss the appointment with a villager, XiaoGong of QING did not break the promise of awarding the person who carried the pole. Those four kings are not perfect in their governance; WEI Yang is especially infamous for being mean to people, and they were in a time of endless wars. Conspiracy and deceptions was the way of running things in the world at that time. Yet they dared not desert credibility so that they could shepherd their people. Shouldn’t it so be for the rulers of peaceful and prospered countries as well?

[seanzxh]

Bo and WuXu - stories of selecting heirs

In the Dynasty of Zhou, there’s a manor of ZHI under kingdom of JIN. The head of the manor is XuanZi. One day, XuanZi wanted to designate his oldest son Yao as the heir.

Guo, an elder of the ZHI, suggested against it, saying, “Xiao, the other son, is better. Yao is better than all others in five aspects, but there’s one bad quality.” Guo continued, “Yao has long and magnificent beards, is more handsome than others. He is good at horsemanship and archery, mightier than others. He is good at art, more talented than others. He is good at literature and speech, more appealing than others. He has more perseverance, and is more determined, decisive and courageous. However, the one bad quality of him is that he has no mercy. For a lord like him with those five advantages to treat others with a cruel heart, who would be able to serve him?” After that, Guo laid out his verdict, “If Yao is really designated as heir, ZHI will perish.” 

XuanZi didn’t listen to Guo’s suggestion. Guo requested to the kingdom registrar official to delist his branch of the family from the ZHI manor, and registered as  a new manor of FU.

There’s a nobleman in the manor of ZHAO, named JianZi. He had two sons. Older named BoLu and younger named WuXu. JianZi wanted to designate the heir, but didn’t know whom to pick. So he wrote down some admonitions and teachings on two bamboo tablets and gave them to the two sons, saying “read carefully and remember it.” Three years later, JianZi asked the two sons about it. BoLu couldn’t remember the words and lost the tablet. WuXu, on the other hand, recited the words very well. When asked for the tablet, WuXu took it out from his sleeve pocket and presented it to his father. Therefore, JianZi saw WuXu as wise and worthy, and designated him as heir.

One day, JianZi sent a man named YiDuo to administer the city of JinYang. Before leaving, YiDuo asked his lord, “Do you consider that city like a silkworm to extract the silk from, or do you consider that city as a protection and base to fall back to?”

JianZi said, “Of course protection and base!”

YiDuo went to JinYang and under-counted the number of the residents to relax the taxes. JianZi knew that and said to WuXu, “One day when the manor is in grave danger, even though YiDuo’s rank is low and JinYang is far away, you must make that place your home.”

XuanZi of ZHI died, and Yao took the throne (his posthumous title is XiangZi). One day, Yao feasted at LanTai with KangZi from the manor of HAN and HuanZi from the manor of WEI. At the party, Bo (the alternative name of Yao) insulted KangZi and his counsellor DuanGui. There was a nobleman of ZHI named Guo (not the same Guo who left ZHI) who saw that and warned Bo, “Lord, if you don’t stay on guard of troubles then troubles surely will come.”

Bo said, “I rule the troubles. If I don’t give troubles to others, who dares to make trouble to me?”

Guo answered, “That’s not true. Book of XIA says one repeatedly making mistakes, wouldn’t the hate towards him hides under the surface? He shall prepare for the trouble before the hate surfaces.” Guo continued, “Therefore, a gentleman takes caution on small things to avoid big troubles. Today my lord had one party and insulted a nobleman and his counsellor, yet does not prepare for trouble, instead says who dares to make trouble to me. That’s really not the way of handling things. Mosquitoes, ants, bees and scorpions can all hurt people,  not to mention the ones you insulted are a lord and his counsellor.”

Bo didn’t listen.

One day, Bo asked for a piece of land from KangZi of WEI. KangZi didn’t want to give it to him. Counsellor DuanGui suggested to him “ZHI Bo is greedy and arrogant. If my lord does not give the land he asks, he will wage war at us. Better give him the land. He will be even more arrogant when he gets the land, and will ask for more land from others. Others won’t give him the land and he will certainly wage war at them. Then we can avoid the troubles but instead watch and seek the opportunities to act.”

“Good idea” KangZi said. He sent an envoy to give Bo a piece of land with ten thousand residents. Bo was very happy. Turning around, Bo went on and asked for a piece of land from HuanZi of HAN. HuanZi didn’t want to give either. His counsellor RenZhang asked him, “why don’t you give a piece of land to Bo as he asked for?”

HuanZi said, “It’s a request with no reason, therefore I won’t give.”

RenZhang said to him, “Unreasonable request of land scares all noblemen. If my lord gives it to Bo, he certainly will get arrogant. He becomes arrogant and will underestimate his enemies, while we other noblemen who are scared of him will get closer. Someone who underestimate enemies is faced by people who are close to each other. From there, the days of manor of ZHI are numbered.” Then RenZhang continue quote Book of ZHOU saying “To defeat someone, you must obey him for now. To take something from someone, you must first give it to him for now. So my lord,” RenZhang suggested, “you should better give the land to Bo to make him arrogant. Then seek allies to attack him. Why refuse Bo and make us Bo’s sole target?”

HuanZi agreed, “Good idea.” then gave Bo a piece of land with ten thousand residents.

With two successful acquisitions, Bo turned to WuXu of ZHAO (aka ZHAO XiangZi who took the rein after his father passed away) for two pieces of land – CAI (some historians say it’s a typo, should be LIN) and GAO. XiangZi refused. Bo got angry and gathered armies from ZHI as well as from WEI and HAN to wage war at ZHAO. XiangZi planed to leave the city and asked his counsellors, “Where shall we go?” His counsellors said, “ChangZi City is close, and the city wall is thick and complete.”

XiangZi disagreed, “The people there exhausted their efforts to complete the wall. Now we ask them to risk their lives to hold the city for me, who would possibly support me?”

His counsellors then gave him another option, “HanDan has a lot of reserve of supplies.”

XiangZi disagreed again, “The reserve was filled up by heavily taxing the people there, now I go there and risk their lives because of those reserves, who would possibly support me?” Then XiangZi said, “Let’s go to JinYang. That’s my father’s place and YiDuo is being very nice and easy to the people there. The people there will certainly be with me.” So they went to JinYang.

The armies from the three manors surrounded JinYang and rerouted the river to flood the city. The water went all the way up to just 2 meters below the top of the city wall. In the city, stoves collapsed and frogs were everywhere. But there’s still no rebellion among the people. Bo went to the battle front, HuanZi of HAN in the middle to drive and KangZi of WEI on the right to guard. Bo said, “Today I know water can conquer a kingdom.”

HuanZi poked KangZi with his elbow and KangZi poked HuanZi with his foot, thinking between themselves that FENG River can also flood WEI capital AnYi and JIANG River can also flood HAN capital PingYang.

Later that day, ChiCi said to Bo, “HAN and WEI will rebel against you.”

Bo asked, “How do you know?”

ChiCi said, “Base on common thoughts of people. We gathered armies from HAN and WEI to attack ZHAO. Once ZHAO is defeated, troubles will certainly come to HAN and WEI. This time we agreed with them to split ZHAO’s land among the three manors once ZHAO is defeated. Now water is only 2 meters below the city wall, people in the city are already killing the horses to eat. It’s just a matter of days before the city falls. Yet the two lords do not look happy but rather worried. Isn’t that clear they will rebel?”

The next day, Bo told the two lords about what ChiCi said. The two lords said to Bo, “The guy is trying to lobby for ZHAO, to make my lord grow suspicion on us while lose focus on attacking ZHAO. What he said is wrong. How could we two leave the ZHAO’s land which is almost at hand in just few days, yet to take risks and pursue the impossible plot?” After the two left Bo, ChiCi came and asked Bo, “Why does my lord tell the two what I said?”

Bo said to him, “How do you know?”

ChiCi answered, “I saw them took a serious look at me and went away quickly, knowing that I found out what they were thinking.” Bo won’t change his mind. ChiCi then requested to be an envoy to kingdom of QI.

XiangZi of ZHAO sent ZhangMenTan to sneak out of the city and meet the two lords of HAN and WEI, saying, “I heard an idiom that lips die and teeth will feel cold. Now Bo of ZHI rallies HAN and WEI to attack ZHAO. If ZHAO is defeated, next comes to HAN and WEI then.”

The two lords said, “We knew in heart that certainly is the case. We’re just afraid that if the rebellion does not succeed and the plan gets leaked, then troubles will come to us right away.”

ZhangMenTan said to them, “Plan comes out the mouths of the two lords, and only goes into the ears of me, what will that hurt?” The two lords then secretly made the plan with ZhangMenTan, set the date then sent him back. ZHAO XiangZi sent soldiers to kill the river dam guards at one night, and opened up the dam to flood the Bo’s army camp instead. Bo’s army fell into chaos fighting the flood. Armies of HAN and WEI took the opportunity and attacked Bo’s army from the side. XiangZi led his army attacking from the front, defeated Bo’s army, killed Bo and then went further wipe out the whole family of Bo of ZHI. Only Guo of FU survived (because he early separated from ZHI to be FU).

  Author and Historian SiMa Guang commented on this story here. The death of ZHI Bo was because his competence was higher than his moral. Competence is not the same as moral, but the world cannot tell the difference but rather categorizes them generally as wise, therefore misjudges a person. Intelligence, sharp observation, might, determination and perseverance are competences. Righteousness, fairness and kindness are morals. Competence is the support of moral; moral is the leader of competence. Bamboo in YUNMEN is the strongest in the world. But if one does not straighten it, does not set feather on it, then it won’t be able to pierce through the firm shield as an arrow. Metal in TANGXI is the best in the world. But if one does not melt and forge it, it cannot tear apart the strong armor. Therefore, the one with both competence and moral is a saint, no competence nor moral is an idiot, more moral less competence is a gentleman, more competence less moral is a villain. The way to select a person is this; if one cannot find a saint or a gentleman then rather pick an idiot than a villain. Why is that? A gentleman uses his competence to do good, a villain uses his competence to do bad. Use competence to do good and good will come. Use competence to do bad and bad will come. Even if an idiot wants to do bad, he is not smart enough to plan well and not strong enough to win. It’s like a puppy trying to fight a man; man will get hold of it. A villain is smart enough to do the evil and courageous enough to carry out the violence. It’s like a tiger gets wings, won’t it cause even more damages? People respect those with moral while like those with competence. People tend to be close to those he likes while stay away from those he respects. That’s why when observing a person, people are often blinded by that person’s competence while overlooking his moral. Looking back at history, we find so many villain ministers of countries and bad heirs of families who have more than enough competence but not much moral, which led the countries and families to collapse. ZHI Bo is definitely not an one off incident. So if the leader of a country or a family can tell the difference between competence and moral and know the priority of those two, why does he need to worry about losing good people?