Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/138



all these different forms of restraint are the head and front of everything that is deleterious and cruel; so that if these are swept away, and a man quietly waits for death every day of his life in unrestrained enjoyment, you have what I call the true method of preserving one's health. But to be subjected to such restraints does not conduce to the preservation of men's health—no, not if a man lives a hundred years, or a thousand, or ten thousand."

The Virtuous Profligates.

Tzŭ Ch'an, Prime Minister of the State of Chêng, wielded complete power for three years, during which time the virtuous all submitted to his reforms, while the vicious feared his prohibitions; so that the State of Chêng, from its good government, commanded the respectful dread of all the feudal princes. Now, the Minister had two brothers, of whom Chao, the elder, was a drunkard, and Mu, the younger, was a lecher. Chao's house contained a thousand chung (about 750 tun) of wine; accumulations of yeast stood up like a barricade, and the odour of wine-dregs offended everybody's nose to a distance of a hundred paces from his door. The man was simply reckless in his self-indulgence, and neither knew nor cared what was going on in the world—whether things were prosperous or in danger, whether public affairs were being wisely administered or not, whether his relations lived or died, or whether even his own life were or were not threatened. Mu, on his side, filled his inner rooms, to the number of thirty or forty, with concubines. The place just overflowed with the choicest, most delicate, voluptuous, and seductive girls imaginable. The man was simply a slave to lust, and broke off all intercourse with his relatives and former comrades, skulking away in his harem, where, not satiated with night pleasures, he prolonged them throughout the day. He only went out once every three months, and even then he would have preferred remaining inside. If ever he heard that there was a virgin of unusual beauty in some country place, he would send and tempt her with money, or employ a procuress to abduct her; and if he failed, he turned his pursuit elsewhere.