The case for caution in public service
Made with historical scholarship, insight, and booze
A Hard Road to Walk (3) Li Bai They say: Don’t stuff your mouth with coarse hill-grain Because your lord has lost the plain! Don’t dunk your ears in River Ying To duck the call to reign as king! A team player’s humility Embraces anonymity; To pose aloof as moon or cloud— It signals merely that you’re proud. And yet: From what I see of history, In tales of honourable men, Those who stay on once glory’s won Are apt to meet a fearful end. Zixu was slain and his remains Were tipped into the River Wu. And Qu Yuan died by suicide: Reward for years of serving Chu. For Lu Ji, ingenuity Could not prevent a gruesome fate; While Li Si only wished he’d thrown The traces at an earlier date: He never heard the cry of birds Where cranes flew on his rich estate, He missed Shangcai, where once he’d fly His falcons; now it was too late. And do we not recall? An independent man, Zhang Han Whose heart remained untouched by fame, Achieved great things, but when autumn winds Recalled his home, he quit the game. The joy wine gives while we still live Is greater prize for you and me Than once we’re dead, our names be read For a thousand years of history. 李白 行路难·其三 有耳莫洗颍川水，有口莫食首阳蕨。 含光混世贵无名，何用孤高比云月？ 吾观自古贤达人，功成不退皆殒身。 子胥既弃吴江上，屈原终投湘水滨。 陆机雄才岂自保？李斯税驾苦不早。 华亭鹤唳讵可闻？上蔡苍鹰何足道？ 君不见吴中张翰称达生，秋风忽忆江东行。 且乐生前一杯酒，何须身后千载名？
The ease with which Li Bai collates and arrays historical evidence to suit his conclusion feels so brilliant that it’s almost dismissive. Certainly, at the end of the poem, he gives up on the use of examples from history, and makes his final argument in terms much more concrete: drinking. If all the instructive stories of the past can’t persuade his readers, then perhaps drunkenness will!
The first section of this poem is in the voice of a dodgy ruler, calling on dubious men to get over their moral scruples and come to work for him. Li Bai then responds in his own voice: but people who spend too long working for the wrong people end up losing their lives. Then he raises the positive example of Zhang Han, who knew when it was time to quit. Finally, he points out that reputation doesn’t do you much good when you’re dead.
It’s interesting to note that though the two voices in this poem are arguing, they both treat the issue of lasting fame as a historical figure in the same way. The unworthy ruler at the start argues that those who reject government work are seeking fame by holding out, and they should give up this vanity; Li Bai at the end suggests that those who keep on chasing after high office, even when the situation at the top is wrong, are trying to get their names in the history books, and these are the vain ones. Both use the technique of shaming vanity to argue for their preferred outcome.
Coarse mountain grain: Boyi and Shuqi were loyal subjects of the Shang Dynastry. When the Shang were overthrown by the Zhou (about 1,000 BCE), these two brothers retreated to the mountains and subsisted on wild plants rather than eat any grain grown under rulers they regarded as illegitimate.
Dunk your ears: The legendary Emperor Yao was determined to leave the state in good hands. His own children were not good enough to inherit the throne, so he famously abdicated in favour of Shun. But before that, he offered the job to the Xu You was an honourable but retiring private citizen. Xu You was so offended by this call to high office that he washed out his years in the River Ying to remove the taint of the emperor’s unwelcome suggestion.
Cloud: A standard metaphor for a private citizen who refuses to join the court of a king of which he doesn’t approve.
Zixu: Wu Zixu, from the state of Wu (the name of the country is not the same as his surname) in the Warring States period, stayed in office too long, incurred his king’s wrath, and was ultimately executed, burned, and his ashes dumped in the river.
Qu Yuan: The greatest early poet, who served as first minister of Chu, but wrote long poems in frustration that the king did not listen to his advice. The king was indeed making bad choices, Chu was conquered, and Qu Yuan jumped in a river.
Lu Ji: During the Han-Tang interregnum, Lu Ji served the state of Jin, but had the misfortuned to command a losing army. He was charged with treason and executed (along with all of his brothers and sons).
Li Si: A chancellor of the state of Qin who was instrumental in unifying China under the Qin Dynasty; but he, too, ended up in jail. As he walked out to his execution, he embraced his son, and told him how much he missed hunting with falcons. Emotional intelligence had not yet been invented, you see.
Zhang Han: Another courtier from the period between the Han and Tang dynasties. The court of his state of Jin was entering a complex period of factional infighting, known today as the ‘struggle of eight kings.’ Zhang Han didn’t fancy it, so told his ruler that the autumn breeze had made him homesick for Wuzhong, his hometown, far, far away from the capital.
This ought to be required reading for all political candidates and those who seek political appointments.