King Zheng, who was dictatorial, impetuous, emotional and deeply superstitious, Li Si was rational, methodical, cold and calculating. Twenty-one years older than the monarch, Li Si acted as a father figure to the young King, who turned to the older man increasingly for advice after the downfall and suicide of Lü Buwei. Many of the great deeds attributed to the King alone were probably carried out with the able assistance of his minister. In a memorial written shortly before his death, Li Si enumerated his manifold services:
I sent out secret agents, equipped them with gold and precious gems, and ordered them to travel to different states to befriend and counsel the feudal lords. Eventually, I was able to help His Majesty annex the six states, capture their kings, unite the country, realise for Him the imperial heritage and establish Him to be the Son of Heaven.
I helped to drive out the Huns to the north and the Yues to the south. I reformed the policies, standardised the laws, weights, measures and the written characters. I laid out roads and highways and inaugurated regular imperial tours of inspection for His Majesty. I relaxed the punishments and lowered the taxes.
Li Si served the state of Qin for a total of thirty-nine years and was to play a pivotal role at the deathbed of his sovereign.
My grandfather was the one who first told me the story behind the proverb guo zu bu qian. With hindsight, I have come to realise that resentment of foreigners is not peculiar to Qin, London, Hong Kong or Los Angeles, but is universal. Locals everywhere wish to preserve their own turf and reserve the best jobs for themselves and their children.
In the 1960s, the USA had a special category of visa for visiting scholars called an exchange visa. At the conclusion of their work contract, foreigners who entered America on this type of visa were obliged to leave America for at least two years before re-entry. One of the unstated purposes of this type of special visa may have been to prevent foreigners from competing with locals for permanent positions at prestigious universities and other desirable institutions.
In Hong Kong today, although most of the domestic jobs are filled by alien maids and butlers, there is a movement pending to prevent foreigners from working as chauffeurs. Drivers traditionally receive higher wages than domestic workers and the locals wish to keep the more lucrative jobs for themselves. Throughout history, despite the fact that particular incidents may appear to differ in specific details, the same human impulses seem to repeat themselves over and over again.
Li Si correctly foresaw long ago that exclusionary policies to keep out foreigners would be counterproductive. He likened the practice to guo zu bu qian.
‘In the long run,’ Li Si predicted, ‘your ordinance will harm your own people and benefit your enemies. It is definitely not the way towards stability and safety for your state.’
* An ancient Chinese guitar with twelve or thirteen strings.
† It is interesting to note in Li Si’s letter that he considered ‘feminine beauty’ to be on a par with music, pearls and jade. Women were considered commodities rather than human beings.
Clapping with One Hand Produces No Sound
RECENTLY, I read a wonderful example of the current use of this proverb. President Jiang Zemin, the seventy-five-year-old leader of mainland China, was asked about China-US relations. He made a joke in English, saying that there were ‘too many proverbs in China’, but he gave his opinion on prospects between the two countries by quoting ‘Gu zhang nan ming — (it takes two hands to clap or clapping with one hand produces no sound).
This proverb comes from the writing of the brilliant philosopher Han Feizi. The proverb originates from a couplet that says ‘regardless of how fast you do it, clapping with one hand will produce no sound’. The western equivalent would be ‘it takes two to tango’ or ‘one cannot negotiate by oneself’.
After the publication of Falling Leaves, I received many letters from readers. Among them was one from a Chinese psychoanalyst who wrote:
Your book made me angry. The lack of love, security and family in your childhood has made you highly vulnerable and insecure. That is why you hankered after your stepmother’s love. Do you not realise even now that she was a narcissistic woman who was incapable of loving anyone but herself? As for your brother Edgar, he was obviously jealous of you. Sibling rivalry can be vicious and insidious. On top of that, you two were in the same class at medical school! Do you remember how envious Li Si was of his classmate Han Feizi when they were both being taught by Xunzi? The best thing you did for yourself was when you listened to your father and cut yourself off from Edgar. Otherwise you would still be clapping with one hand. Remember that no matter how hard you do it, gu zhang nan ming (clapping with one hand produces no sound). For a relationship to exist between two parties, both have to participate. Many fail to understand this fundamental fact.
Han Feizi was born a prince in Haan. Burdened with a speech impediment, he turned to writing as a means of self-expression. He and Li Si were exactly the same age and both studied under the Confucian philosopher Xunzi. During their time together, Li Si grew increasingly jealous of his classmate. Although both were excellent students, Li Si recognised that his fellow pupil was more talented. Also, Li Si was born poor whereas Han Feizi’s first cousin was the King of Haan.
When they completed their studies, Li Si travelled to Qin to seek employment while Han Feizi went home. After losing a series of wars, Haan had pursued a policy of appeasement towards Qin and was now almost bankrupt. Concerned over the weakness of his home state, Han Feizi repeatedly urged his cousin, the King of Haan, to reform the government, but his ideas were ignored. In his frustration, he wrote a book of essays outlining his programmes.
Han Feizi was a proponent of the Legalist school of philosophy. As such, he disagreed with the Confucian concept of regarding the past as the ideal and using the past to discredit the present. He wrote, ‘In the state of a wise ruler, there is no need for literature of books and bamboo slips. The LAW is the only creed. We do not need the sayings of appointed kings as our guides. The ancient officials are our only models.’
Han Feizi listed three principles that a king should adopt in order to rule effectively. The first was shi (absolute power). The second was shu (method). In this context, it is interesting to note that some of the shu (government method), such as the hukou system, which requires every household in Communist China to be registered with the local government, have been handed down virtually unchanged since the time of the Warring States. The third was fa (law).
Surprisingly modern in some aspects, the Legalist school made the rule of law the foundation of its new philosophy of government. The law was to be universal and was to be obeyed by everyone, regardless of rank or blood. Under feudalism, the king of each state was a law unto himself. He, his family and the nobles they appointed had unlimited powers over those under them. Han Feizi was a fierce opponent of feudal privileges and its hierarchic social structure. He wrote: ‘Let the laws be recorded in the registers, displayed within the government offices and made known to the people.’
He taught that the laws must be kept constant. All affairs could be carried out only within the scope of the law; and the law was to be the highest standard of behaviour in the world. He thought that laws should be established so as to do away with private standards. He stated that:
Private standards and private opinions tend to confuse the laws. If devious scholars should pursue their education while harbouring hidden agendas, then the more intelligent ones will criticise