Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/356

322 : A generous compliment to an old adversary.
 * "There was no one," says Lin Hsi Chung," in all Chuang Tzŭ's generation who could understand him; neither is there any one now, at this late date, any more than there was then."

Kuan Chung being at the point of death, Duke Huan went to see him.


 * See p. 226.

"You are ill, venerable Sir," said the Duke, "really ill. You had better say to whom, in the event of your getting worse, I am to entrust the administration of the State"

"Whom does your Highness wish to choose?" enquired Kuan Chung.

"Will Pao Yü do?" asked the Duke.


 * Kuan Chung and Pao Yü are the "Damon and Pythias" of China.

"He will not," said Kuan Chung. "He is pure, incorruptible, and good. With those who are not like himself, he will not associate. And if he has once heard of a man's wrong-doing, he never forgets it. If you employ him in the administration of the empire, he will get to loggerheads with his prince and to sixes and sevens with the people. It would not be long before he and your Highness fell out."

"Whom then can we have?" asked the Duke.

"There is no alternative," replied Kuan Chung; "it must be Hsi P'êng. He is a man who forgets the authority of those above him, and makes those