Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/141



state. But when Tuan-mu had lived sixty years he began to break up. His strength failed rapidly; his means of living were exhausted. In the course of a single year his treasuries became empty, his jewels disappeared, his chariots and his concubines were no more. Not a penny was left for his heirs; during his illness there was no money to buy medicine, and when he died there was no money to bury him. But all the people in the state who had enjoyed his benefits brought the money they had saved, and restored it to the sons and grandsons of the dead man.

When Ch'in Ku-li heard of this he said, "Tuan-mu Shu was a profligate, who brought disgrace upon his ancestors."Tuan-kan Shêng, on the other hand, said, "Tuan-mu Shu was a most intelligent person, whose ancestors were far inferior to him in virtue."

There is one more striking passage attributed to Yang Chu, scurrilously comparing the sad lives of the good and virtuous in Chinese history with the joyful careers of those whose names are execrated, and who are still happily unconscious of the curses heaped on them by posterity; and there are also a few more anecdotes in which he occupies a prominent position. But we have seen quite as much of the apostle of selfishness as is necessary to our purpose, and will proceed at once to a selection from the more pleasing stories with which the book concludes. We may remark, however, in taking our leave of Yang Chu, that Lieh-tzŭ, so far from endorsing his praise of cynicism and vice, says roundly that men who care nothing for integrity and everything for eating are no better than fowls and dogs, and need never hope for the respect of their fellow-men, for they will never get it.