Comprehensive Reflections to Aid in Governance
By Sima Guang
Translated By Yiming Yang
Annals of Zhou Book 3 Scroll 3 (continued)
The 17th year of King Nan (298 B.C.)
A reminder to the King of Qin highlighted concerns regarding Lord Mengchang, the Prime Minister of Qin, suggesting that his allegiance to the kingdom of Qi over Qin‘s interests posed a significant threat to the stability and security of the kingdom of Qin. This sparked grave concern for the kingdom of Qin‘s stability.
In response, the King of Qin reinstated Lou Huan as the prime minister and ordered the imprisonment of Lord Mengchang, planning for his execution. However, Lord Mengchang sought aid from one of the King’s favored concubines in a desperate bid for help. The concubine proposed a bargain: she would intervene to save Lord Mengchang if he offered her his prized white fox fur-coat.
Though Lord Mengchang had previously dedicated the fur-coat to the King of Qin, he orchestrated a plan. One of his associates, skilled in deception, disguised himself as a dog and stealthily stole the fur from the royal warehouse. Lord Mengchang then presented the fur-coat to the concubine, who used her influence to persuade the King to release him.
Initially agreeing to release Lord Mengchang, the King regretted his decision upon Lord Mengchang’s departure. He dispatched guards to retrieve him. Lord Mengchang, aware of the impending danger, found himself at the gate of a pass, which only opened at the first crowing of roosters every morning.
With the guards approaching, Lord Mengchang anxiously waited at the gate during the night. One of his retainers, skilled in mimicking rooster calls, simulated a rooster’s crow, triggering responses from wild roosters. This created confusion, and as roosters crowed, the gate opened as expected. Lord Mengchang seized the opportunity, sprinting through the pass and eventually returning to the kingdom of Qi, evading capture.
People in the kingdom of Chu revealed to the people of Qin: ”Blessed by the god of land and god of grain, our kingdom finally has a new king!” This declaration greatly angered the King of Qin, prompting him to take drastic action.
In retaliation, the King of Qin ordered troops to march through the Wu pass, launching a devastating raid on the kingdom of Chu. The Qin troops ruthlessly executed fifty thousand individuals and captured sixteen towns in an aggressive and brutal attack on the kingdom of Chu.
The King of Zhao named his brother Zhao Sheng as Lord Pingyuan. Lord Pingyuan likes to hire intellectuals. His dinner is often filled with up to thousands of retainers on his payroll. There was a person called Gongsun Long, who was good at debating. He would debate with others on topics such as the rock being neither hard nor white, because that white rocks or hard rocks are different from rocks in general. Lord Pingyuan accepted Gongsun Long to be his guest. A descendant of Confucius whose name is Kong Chuan happened to come to the kingdom of Zhao from the kingdom of Lu. He and Gongsun Long held a debate about whether a housemaid had three ears. Gongsun Long was so eloquent that Kong Chuan could not counter. Kong Chuan left the debate after only a short while.
He talked to Lord Pingyuan the next day. Lord Pingyuan said: “Mr. Gongsun was good at debating yesterday, wasn’t he? What do you think of him?” Kong Chuan replied: “He surely was. He almost made the housemaid grow three ears. It sounded good, but it would be difficult to make it true! Let me ask my grace a question: ‘To say that a housemaid has three ears is hard to convince yet it is false. To say that a housemaid has two ears is very easy to convince and it is also true. I would like to know if you prefer the easy argument and truth, to the difficult argument and falsehood?’” Lord Pingyuan could not refute that. He spoke to Gongsun Long the next day: “You should not debate with Kong Chuan any more. He had better logic than speech whereas you had better speech than logic. Holding speech over logic would fail in the end.”
During his travels through the kingdom of Zhao, Zou Yan, a respected scholar from Qi, was invited by Lord Pingyuan to engage in a debate with Gongsun Long. However, Zou Yan declined the invitation, asserting, “Let’s not begin this. Debates should aim to distinguish between different objects, avoiding conflicts, and clarify concepts to prevent confusion. Their purpose should be constructive communication, not obfuscation. In a beneficial debate, both sides achieve their goals; the winner affirms their conviction while the opposition clarifies their stance. However, using verbose speech as argument, employing flashy insults, convoluted analogies to replace concepts, and employing logical traps to distract opponents hinder the pursuit of truth. It’s not a dignified manner for a scholar to resolve disputes through relentless argumentation. I choose not to participate.” This principled stance earned applause from all present, leading to a decline in Gongsun Long’s popularity. I choose not to participate.” This principled stance earned applause from all present, leading to a decline in Gongsun Long’s popularity.
Reflection by Rio Grande 
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