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Common Errors in English Usage and More Reading About the World

Japanese Creation Myth (712 CE)

From Genji Shibukawa: Tales from the Kojiki


The following is a modern retelling of the creation story from the Kojiki, Japan’s oldest chronicle, compiled in 712 CE by O No Yasumaro. This version is easier for the modern reader to understand than the original, but its essential features are preserved. The quest for Izanami in the underworld is reminiscent of the Greek demigod Orpheus’ quest in Hades for his wife, Euridice, and even more of the Sumerian myth of the descent of Innana to the underworld.

How does this story reflect the sense of its creators that Japan is the most important place in the world?


The Beginning of the World

Before the heavens and the earth came into existence, all was a chaos, unimaginably limitless and without definite shape or form. Eon followed eon: then, lo! out of this boundless, shapeless mass something light and transparent rose up and formed the heaven. This was the Plain of High Heaven, in which materialized a deity called Ame-no-Minaka-Nushi-no-Mikoto (the Deity-of-the-August-Center-of-Heaven). Next the heavens gave birth to a deity named Takami-Musubi-no-Mikoto (the High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity), followed by a third called Kammi-Musubi-no-Mikoto (the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity). These three divine beings are called the Three Creating Deities.

In the meantime what was heavy and opaque in the void gradually precipitated and became the earth, but it had taken an immeasurably long time before it condensed sufficiently to form solid ground. In its earliest stages, for millions and millions of years, the earth may be said to have resembled oil floating, medusa-like, upon the face of the waters. Suddenly like the sprouting up of a reed, a pair of immortals were born from its bosom. These were the Deity Umashi-Ashi-Kahibi-Hikoji-no-Mikoto (the Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder-Deity) and the Deity Ame-no-Tokotachi-no-Mikoto (The Heavenly-Eternally-Standing-Deity). . . .

Many gods were thus born in succession, and so they increased in number, but as long as the world remained in a chaotic state, there was nothing for them to do. Whereupon, all the Heavenly deities summoned the two divine beings, Izanagi and Izanami, and bade them descend to the nebulous place, and by helping each other, to consolidate it into terra firma. “We bestow on you,” they said, “this precious treasure, with which to rule the land, the creation of which we command you to perform.” So saying they handed them a spear called Ama-no-Nuboko, embellished with costly gems. The divine couple received respectfully and ceremoniously the sacred weapon and then withdrew from the presence of the Deities, ready to perform their august commission. Proceeding forthwith to the Floating Bridge of Heaven, which lay between the heaven and the earth, they stood awhile to gaze on that which lay below. What they beheld was a world not yet condensed, but looking like a sea of filmy fog floating to and fro in the air, exhaling the while an inexpressibly fragrant odor. They were, at first, perplexed just how and where to start, but at length Izanagi suggested to his companion that they should try the effect of stirring up the brine with their spear. So saying he pushed down the jeweled shaft and found that it touched something. Then drawing it up, he examined it and observed that the great drops which fell from it almost immediately coagulated into an island, which is, to this day, the Island of Onokoro. Delighted at the result, the two deities descended forthwith from the Floating Bridge to reach the miraculously created island. In this island they thenceforth dwelt and made it the basis of their subsequent task of creating a country. Then wishing to become espoused, they erected in the center of the island a pillar, the Heavenly August Pillar, and built around it a great palace called the Hall of Eight Fathoms. Thereupon the male Deity turning to the left and the female Deity to the right, each went round the pillar in opposite directions. When they again met each other on the further side of the pillar, Izanami, the female Deity, speaking first, exclaimed: “How delightful it is to meet so handsome a youth!” To which Izanagi, the male Deity, replied: “How delightful I am to have fallen in with such a lovely maiden!” After having spoken thus, the male Deity said that it was not in order that woman should anticipate man in a greeting. Nevertheless, they fell into connubial relationship, having been instructed by two wagtails which flew to the spot. Presently the Goddess bore her divine consort a son, but the baby was weak and boneless as a leech. Disgusted with it, they abandoned it on the waters, putting it in a boat made of reeds. Their second offspring was as disappointing as the first. The two Deities, now sorely disappointed at their failure and full of misgivings, ascended to Heaven to inquire of the Heavenly Deities the causes of their misfortunes. The latter performed the ceremony of divining and said to them: “It is the woman’s fault. In turning round the Pillar, it was not right and proper that the female Deity should in speaking have taken precedence of the male. That is the reason.” The two Deities saw the truth of this divine suggestion, and made up their minds to rectify the error. So, returning to the earth again, they went once more around the Heavenly Pillar. This time Izanagi spoke first saying: “How delightful to meet so beautiful a maiden!” “How happy I am,” responded Izanami, “that I should meet such a handsom youth!” This process was more appropriate and in accordance with the law of nature. After this, all the children born to them left nothing to be desired. First, the island of Awaji was born, next, Shikoku, then, the island of Oki, followed by Kyushu; after that, the island Tsushima came into being, and lastly, Honshu, the main island of Japan. The name of Oyashi- ma-kuni (the Country of the Eight Great Islands) was given to these eight islands. After this, the two Deities became the parents of numerous smaller islands destined to surround the larger ones.


The Birth of the Deities

Having, thus, made a country from what had formerly been no more than a mere floating mass, the two Deities, Izanagi and Izanami, about begetting those deities destined to preside over the land, sea, mountains, rivers, trees, and herbs. Their first-born proved to be the sea-god, Owatatsumi-no-Kami. Next they gave birth to the patron gods of harbors, the male deity Kamihaya-akitsu-hiko having control of the land and the goddess Haya-akitsu-hime having control of the sea. These two latter deities subsequently gave birth to eight other gods.

Next Izanagi and Izanami gave birth to the wind-deity, Kami-Shinatsuhiko-no-Mikoto. At the moment of his birth, his breath was so potent that the clouds and mists, which had hung over the earth from the beginning of time, were immediately dispersed. In consequence, every corner of the world was filled with brightness. Kukunochi-no-Kami, the deity of trees, was the next to be born, followed by Oyamatsumi-no-Kami, the deity of mountains, and Kayanuhime-no-Kami, the goddess of the plains. . . .

The process of procreation had, so far, gone on happily, but at the birth of Kagutsuchi-no-Kami, the deity of fire, an unseen misfortune befell the divine mother, Izanami. During the course of her confinement, the goddess was so severely burned by the flaming child that she swooned away. Her divine consort, deeply alarmed, did all in his power to resuscitate her, but although he succeeded in restoring her to consciousness, her appetite had completely gone. Izanagi, thereupon and with the utmost loving care, prepared for her delectation various tasty dishes, but all to no avail, because whatever she swallowed was almost immediately rejected. It was in this wise that occurred the greatest miracle of all. From her mouth sprang Kanayama- biko and Kanayama-hime, respectively the god and goddess of metals, whilst from other parts of her body issued forth Haniyasu-hiko and Haniyasu-hime, respectively the god and goddess of earth. Before making her “divine retirement,” which marks the end of her earthly career, in a manner almost unspeakably miraculous she gave birth to her last-born, the goddess Mizuhame-no-Mikoto. Her demise marks the intrusion of death into the world. Similarly the corruption of her body and the grief occasioned by her death were each the first of their kind.

By the death of his faithful spouse Izanagi was now quite alone in the world. In conjunction with her, and in accordance with the instructions of the Heavenly Gods, he had created and consolidated the Island Empire of Japan. In the fulfillment of their divine mission, he and his heavenly spouse had lived an ideal life of mutual love and cooperation. It is only natural, therefore, that her death should have dealt him a truly mortal blow.

He threw himself upon her prostrate form, crying: “Oh, my dearest wife, why art thou gone, to leave me thus alone? How could I ever exchange thee for even one child? Come back for the sake of the world, in which there still remains so much for both us twain to do.” In a fit of uncontrollable grief, he stood sobbing at the head of the bier. His hot tears fell like hailstones, and lo! out of the tear-drops was born a beauteous babe, the goddess Nakisawame-no-Mikoto. In deep astonishment he stayed his tears, a gazed in wonder at the new-born child, but soon his tears returned only to fall faster than before. It was thus that a sudden change came over his state of mind. With bitter wrath, his eyes fell upon the infant god of fire, whose birth had proved so fatal to his mother. He drew his sword, Totsuka-no-tsurugi, and crying in his wrath, “Thou hateful matricide,” decapitated his fiery offspring. Up shot a crimson spout of blood. Out of the sword and blood together arose eight strong and gallant deities. “What! more children?” cried Izanagi, much astounded at their sudden appearance, but the very next moment, what should he see but eight more deities born from the lifeless body of the infant firegod! They came out from the various parts of the body,–head, breast, stomach, hands, feet, and navel, and, to add to his astonishment, all of them were glaring fiercely at him. Altogether stupefied he surveyed the new arrivals one after another.

Meanwhile Izanami, for whom her divine husband pined so bitterly, had quitted this world for good and all and gone to the Land of Hades.


Izanagi’s Visit to the Land of Hades

As for the Deity Izanagi, who had now become a widower, the presence of so many offspring might have, to some extent, beguiled and solaced him, and yet when he remembered how faithful his departed spouse had been to him, he would yearn for her again, his heart swollen with sorrow and his eyes filled with tears. In this mood, sitting up alone at midnight, he would call her name aloud again and again, regardless of the fact that he could hope for no response. His own piteous cries merely echoed back from the walls of his chamber.

Unable any longer to bear his grief, he resolved to go down to the Nether Regions in order to seek for Izanami and bring her back, at all costs, to the world. He started on his long and dubious journey. Many millions of miles separated the earth from the Lower Regions and there were countless steep and dangerous places to be negotiated, but Izanagi’s indomitable determination to recover his wife enabled him finally to overcome all these difficulties. At length he succeeded in arriving at his destination. Far ahead of him, he espied a large castle. “That, no doubt,” he mused in delight, “may be where she resides.”

Summoning up all his courage, he approached the main entrance of the castle. Here he saw a number of gigantic demons, some red some black, guarding the gates with watchful eyes. He retraced his steps in alarm, and stole round to a gate at the rear of the castle. He found, to his great joy, that it was apparently left unwatched. He crept warily through the gate and peered into the interior of the castle, when he immediately caught sight of his wife standing at the gate at an inner court. The delighted Deity loudly called her name. “Why! There is some one calling me,” sighed Izanami-no-Mikoto, and raising her beautiful head, she looked around her. What was her amazement but to see her beloved husband standing by the gate and gazing at her intently! He had, in fact, been in her thoughts no less constantly than she in his. With a heart leaping with joy, she approached him. He grasped her hands tenderly and murmured in deep and earnest tones: “My darling, I have come to take thee back to the world. Come back, I pray thee, and let us complete our work of creation in accordance with the will of the Heavenly Gods,–our work which was left only half accomplished by thy departure. How can I do this work without thee?Thy loss means to me the loss of all.” This appeal came from the depth of his heart. The goddess sympathized with him most deeply, but answered with tender grief: “Alas! Thou hast come too late. I have already eaten of the furnace of Hades. Having once eaten the things of this land, it is impossible for me to come back to the world.” So saying, she lowered her head in deep despair.

“Nay, I must entreat thee to come back. Canst not thou find some means by which this can be accomplished?” exclaimed her husband, drawing nearer to her. After some reflection, she replied: “Thou hast come a very, very long way for my sake. How much I appreciate thy devotion! I wish, with all my heart, to go back with thee, but before I can do so, I must first obtain the permission of the deities of Hades. Wait here till my return, but remember that thou must not on any account look inside the castle in the meantime. ” I swear I will do as thou biddest,” quoth Izanagi, ” but tarry not in thy quest.” With implicit confidence in her husband’s pledge, the goddess disappeared into the castle.

Izanagi observed strictly her injunction. He remained where he stood, and waited impatiently for his wife’s return. Probably to his impatient mind, a single heart-beat may have seemed an age. He waited and waited, but no shadow of his wife appeared. The day gradually wore on and waned away, darkness was about to fall, and a strange unearthly wind began to strike his face. Brave as he was, he was seized with an uncanny feeling of apprehension. Forgetting the vow he had made to the goddess, he broke off one of the teeth of the comb which he was wearing in the left bunch of his hair, and having lighted it, he crept in softly and- glanced around him. To his horror he found Izanagi lying dead in a room: and lo! a ghastly change had come over her. She, who had been so dazzlingly beautiful, was now become naught but a rotting corpse, in an advanced stage of decomposition. Now, an even more horrible sight met his gaze; the Fire Thunder dwelt in her, head, the Black Thunder in her belly, the Rending-Thunder in her abdomen, the Young Thunder in her left hand, the Earth-Thunder in her right hand, the Rumbling-Thunder in her left foot,-and the Couchant Thunder in her right foot:–altogether eight Thunder-Deities had been born and were dwelling there, attached to her remains and belching forth flames from their mouths. Izanagitno-Mikoto was so thoroughly alarmed at the sight, that he dropped the light and took to his heels. The sound he made awakened Izanami from her death-like slumber. For sooth!” she cried: “he must have seen me in this revolting state. He has put me to shame and has broken his solemn vow. Unfaithful wretch! I’ll make him suffer, for his perfidy.”

Then turning to the Hags of Hades, who attended her, she commanded them to give chase to him. At her word, an army of female demons ran after the Deity.

Translated by Yaichiro Isobe


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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Old Chinese Poem

Many classic Chinese poems speak eloquently of the suffering caused by warfare. The author of this one is unknown, but it is considered a classic.

At fifteen I went with the army,
At fourscore I came home.
On the way I met a man from the village,
I asked him who there was at home.
That over there is your house,
All covered over with trees and bushes.
Rabbits had run in at the dog-hole,
Pheasants flew down from the beams of the roof.
In the courtyard was growing some wild grain;
And by the well, some wild mallows.
I’ll boil the grain and make porridge,
I’ll pluck the mallows and make soup.
Soup and porridge are both cooked,
But there is no one to eat them with.
I went out and looked towards the east,
While tears fell and wetted my clothes.

Translated by Arthur Waley (1919)


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

Li Po (701 762 CE): Drinking Alone by Moonlight

Li Po was famous for his drinking, but he was no simple-minded drunk. Here drinking is linked to longing for absent friends.

A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
For he, with my shadow, will make three men.
The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
While we were sober, three shared the fun;
Now we are drunk, each goes his way.
May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,
And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky. (1)


(1) The Milky Way.

Translated by Arthur Waley(1919)


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
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Chinese Poetry

Po Chü-i (772-846): Passing T’ien-Men Street in Ch’ang-an and Seeing a Distant View of Chung-Nan Mountain (1)

Chinese poets and artists concentrate heavily on the beauties of nature, but ordinary life went on in the T’ang Dynasty as in most places and times.


The snow has gone from Chung-nan; spring is almost come.
Lovely in the distance its blue colors, against the brown of the streets.
A thousand coaches, ten thousand horsemen pass down the Nine Roads;
Turns his head and looks at the mountains,–not one man!


The Charcoal-Seller

Po Chü-i is famous for the simplicity of his language and his sympathy with the oppressed, as in this poem depicting the sufferings of a charcoal-vendor exploited by arrogant aristocrats.

An old charcoal seller
Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forest of the Southern Mountain.
His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the color of smoke.
The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are black.
The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go?
It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth.
Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining,
He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of coal!
Last night, outside the city,–a whole foot of snow;
At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts.
Oxen,–weary; man,–hungry: the sun, already high;
Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in the mud.
Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can it be coming?
A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt.
In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues–the words of an order;
They turn back the wagon and curse the oxen, leading them off to the north.
A whole wagon of charcoal,
More than a thousand pieces!
If officials choose to take it away, the woodman may not complain.
Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask,
The Courtiers have tied to the oxen’s collar, as the price of a wagon of coal!


Lao-tzü

Po Chü-i impishly taunts one of the most influential of all Chinese philosophers in this poem.

“Those who speak know nothing
Those who know are silent.”
These words, as I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzü.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzü
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?


Fu Hsüan: Woman (3rd C. CE)

Chinese civilization has often been considered one of the least favorable toward women, yet their problems are largely common from culture to culture. At least a number of Chinese women were able to articulate their plight in poems that came to be considered classics. Here the theme of distance is used throughout the poem to emphasize the emotional isolation that is women’s lot.

How sad it is to be a woman!
Nothing on earth is held so cheap.
Boys stand leaning at the door
Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.
Their hearts brave the Four Oceans,
The wind and dust of a thousand miles.
No one is glad when a girl is born:
By her the family sets no store.
Then she grows up, she hides in her room
Afraid to look a man in the face.
No one cries when she leaves her home–
Sudden as clouds when the rain stops.
She bows her head and composes her face,
Her teeth are pressed on her red lips:
She bows and kneels countless times.
She must humble herself even to the servants.
His love is distant as the stars in Heaven,
Yet the sunflower bends toward the sun.
Their hearts more sundered than water and fire–
A hundred evils are heaped upon her.
Her face will follow the years’ changes:
Her lord will find new pleasures.
They that were once like substance and shadow
Are now as far as Hu from Ch’in. (2)
Yet Hu and Ch’in shall sooner meet
Than they whose parting is like Ts’an and Ch’en. (3)


Mei Yao Ch’en (Sung, 1002-1060)

Despite the fact that Chinese civilization has not generally provided much freedom or status for women, clearly many men loved their wives dearly, for they said so in poems like this lament of a bereaved husband. In China it was believed that the spirits of the departed continued to surround the living; so his experience is in no way unusual.

In what role does the husband think affectionately of his late wife? How has her death affected his own attitude toward life?

In broad daylight I dream I
Am with her. At night I dream
She is still at my side. She
Carries her kit of colored
Threads. I see her image bent
Over her bag of silks. She
Mends and alters my clothes and
Worries for fear I might look
Worn and ragged. Dead, she watches
Over my life. Her constant
Memory draws me towards death.


Su Tung-p’o (1036-1101 CE): On the Birth of his Son

The Confucian examination system for recruiting officials into the bureaucracy may have been far more egalitarian than anything comparable in its heyday; yet it had its limits. Wealthy men were able to hire tutors to ensure their success, and poor but intelligent men seldom rose to the top. Su Tung-p’o, usually considered the greatest poet of the Sung Dynasty, often commented cynically on the system he considered corrupt and was dismissed from various positions for his pains. His sarcasm in the following poem sounds a strikingly contemporary note in this age of cynicism about politicians. The poet’s revenge lies in the fact that his poems are still read and memorized when all those who persecuted him have been forgotten.

Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.

All translated by Arthur Waley (1919)


(1) Part of the great Nan Shan range, fifteen miles south of Ch’ang-an.

(2) Two lands.

(3) Two stars.


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This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

 

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

Examples of Filial Piety (14th Century CE)

According to Chinese tradition, filial piety (hsiao) was the primary duty of all Chinese. Being a filial son meant complete obedience to one’s parents during their lifetime and–as they grew older–taking the best possible care of them. After their death the eldest son was required to perform ritual sacrifices at their grave site or in the ancestral temple. A son could also express his devotion to his parents by passing the Civil Service examinations, winning prestige for the whole family. Most important of all, a son had to make sure that the family line would be continued. Dying without a son therefore was one of the worst offenses against the concept of filial piety. If a marriage remained barren, it was a son’s duty to take a second wife or adopt a child in order to continue the family. Since Chinese women became part of their husband’s family through marriage, filial conduct for a woman meant faithfully serving her in-laws, in particular her mother-in-law, and giving birth to a son. By fulfilling these duties, she also gained prestige for her own family. If the mother and daughter-in-law did not get along, filial piety demanded that a man should get rid of his wife in order to please his mother. He could always get another wife, but he would only have one mother. While continuing the family line was probably the most important issue for the vast majority of the Chinese, Buddhist monks and nuns were required to remain celibate. Their refusal to fulfill the obligations of filial piety made them suspect in the eyes of other Chinese. Along with the eunuchs at the emperor’s court and Taoist priests they were often believed to conduct themselves in an immoral or criminal manner.

Stories about exemplary filial conduct abound in Chinese history. The Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety (Er-shih-ssu hsiao) were chosen and compiled by Kuo Chü-ching during the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368 CE) while he was mourning the death of his father. Other collections followed. Even today, these stories form an important part of Chinese folklore. You may be surprised at how brief these stories are and how little background is given. Two reasons may explain this: On the one hand, everyone was so familiar with the heroes of these examples that it was unnecessary to give any details about their lives. On the other hand, brevity is considered to be good style in the classic Chinese tradition.

Choose a western fairy tale which involves children’s relationship to their parents and compare the attitudes in that tale with the attitudes expressed here. What strikes you as familiar? Where do you see differences?


Freezing in a Thin Coat in Obedience to His Stepmother

Min Tzu-chien had lost his mother at a young age. His father remarried and had two more sons with his second wife. She always dressed her own sons in thickly padded robes. But to her stepson she gave only a thin coat padded with cattails [instead of cotton]. One winter day, when Min Tzu-chien was told to hold the reins of his father’s cart, he was shivering so badly that he dropped the reins. This way his father found out that his wife dressed his oldest son very poorly. In his rage he decided to dismiss his second wife. But Min Tzu-chien said: “If she stays, one son will be freezing. But if she leaves, all three sons will suffer from the cold.” When his stepmother heard this, she changed her attitude towards Min Tzu-chien.


Allowing Mosquitoes to Feast on His Blood

During the Chin Dynasty (4th-5th Century CE), a boy named Wu Meng (1) was already serving his parents in exemplary filial piety although he was just eight years old. The family was so poor that they could not even afford a gauze net against the mosquitoes. Therefore every night in the summer swarms of mosquitoes would come and bite them. Wu Meng let them all feast on his naked stomach. Even though there were so many, he did not drive them away. He feared that the mosquitoes, having left him, would instead bite his parents. His heart was truly filled with love for his parents.


Sacrificing His Son for the Sake of His Mother

Kuo Chi, who lived during the Han Dynasty (200 BCE-200 CE) and his family were very poor. He had a three-year-old son. Even though there was little food, Kou Chi’s mother would always give part of her share to her grandson so that he did not suffer hunger.

One day Kuo Chi said to his wife, “We are so poor and needy that we cannot give mother enough to eat, and on top of this our son is eating part of mother’s share. It were better if we buried our son.” (2) He started digging a grave. When he had dug a hole of about three chih (3), he discovered a pot filled with gold and the inscription: “Officials may not take it, people may not steal it.”


Wearing Children’s Clothes to Amuse His Parents

During the time of the Chou Dynasty (11th-3rd Century BCE), there was a man named Lao Lai-tzu (4) who was by nature extremely filial. He took care of both his parents and provided for them with the choicest delicacies. After he himself turned seventy, he never spoke about his age. (5) He often wore clothes striped in five colors and acted like an infant in front of his parents. He would carry a bowl of water to them, and then stumble on purpose. Lying on the floor he would cry like a little child in order to make his parents laugh.


Crying in the Bamboo-Grove and Making the Bamboo Sprout

During the era of the Three Kingdoms (3rd Century CE) there lived a man named Meng Sung, also known as [Meng] Chien-wu (6). He had lost his father during his childhood. When his mother was old and sick she craved fresh bamboo-shoots even though it was winter. Sung had no idea how he could get them. In desperation, he went into a bamboo grove, clasped a bamboo stem and broke into tears. His filial devotion moved heaven and earth and they forced the earth to crack open. Numerous shoots of bamboo came out. Meng Sung carried them home and made them into a soup for his mother. As soon as she had eaten she felt much better.


Cleaning his Mother’s Chamberpot

Huang T’ing-chien (7) of the Sung Dynasty, also known as [Huang] Shan-gu, became a member of the Hanlin academy (8) during the Yuan-Yu reign (1086-1094 CE) (9).

He was by nature extremely filial. Even though he was such an esteemed and famous person, he served his mother with utmost devotion. Every evening he would personally clean his mother’s chamber pot. Not a moment passed without his fulfilling his filial duties.


(1) According to Chinese tradition, Wu Meng later in life studied black magic and could cross a river without a boat, waving a fan of white feathers over the water. His body did not decompose after death and finally disappeared.

(2) Chinese texts sometimes continue this conversation: “We can always get another son, but it is impossible to get another mother.”

(3) One chih is approximately 11 inches long.

(4) Lao Lai-tzu lived during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 CE) of the Chou Dynasty and was a native of Ch’u in South-West China. According to Chinese tradition, the king of Ch’u eventually heard of his ability to make people laugh and gave him a post in his court.

(5) In China it is quite unusual even today for both men and women above seventy not to mention their age with pride. In some colloquial versions of this story it is said that he does not mention his age so that his parents would not be sad and realize that both their son and they themselves might be near death.

(6) Meng Sung eventually became keeper of the imperial fish ponds under the first emperor of the succeeding Chin dynasty.

(7) Huang T’ing-chien (1050-1110 CE) was a well-known poet and calligrapher.

(8) The Hanlin academy was the central institution of learning in Imperial China. This appointment was very prestigious for any scholar.

(9) Upon his ascension to the throne and whenever he considered it beneficial, a Chinese emperor proclaimed a new maxim for his reign. “Yuan yu” means “great protection.”

Translated by Lydia Gerber


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This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers, Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

 

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

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Han Fei-tzu (d. 233 BCE): Legalist Views on Good Government

The Confucian ideal of “government through virtue” and the tendency of Confucianists to seek guidance in the rule of former kings was strongly criticized by another school of thought: the Legalists or School of Law. According to the Legalists, neither the wisdom of ancient kings nor an ethical code would make a state strong. Instead “good” and “bad” were defined by whatever the self-interest of the ruler demanded. A system of harsh punishments and rewards, regulated through laws and enforced without exceptions, should guarantee good behavior within the state. The Legalists considered military service and agriculture as the only occupations beneficial to the welfare of the state and discouraged all scholarship.

The state of Qin in Western China was the first to adopt Legalist doctrines. The Qin were so successful that by 221 BCE they had conquered the other Chinese states and unified the empire after centuries of war. The following paragraph was taken from Han Fei-tzu, The “[book of] Master Han Fei,” chapter 50. Han Fei-tzu had studied under the Confucian scholar Hsun-tzu and became the major theorist of the Legalist school. Confucian scholars vigorously denounced his teachings in all subsequent generations; yet his harsh pragmatism, often compared to that of Machiavelli and Kautilya, more accurately explains the actions of many rulers than does the idealistic Confucian model.

What attitude does Han Fei express toward the common people? What kinds of stern measures does he suggest should be enacted for their own good?

When a sage governs a state, he does not rely on the people to do good out of their own will. Instead, he sees to it that they are not allowed to do what is not good. If he relies on people to do good out of their own will, within the borders of the state not even ten persons can be counted on [to do good]. Yet, if one sees to it that they are not allowed to do what is not good, the whole state can be brought to uniform order. Whoever rules should consider the majority and set the few aside: He should not devote his attention to virtue, but to law.

If it were necessary to rely on a shaft that had grown perfectly straight, within a hundred generations there would be no arrow. If it were necessary to rely on wood that had grown perfectly round, within a thousand generations there would be no cart wheel. If a naturally straight shaft or naturally round wood cannot be found within a hundred generations, how is it that in all generations carriages are used and birds shot? Because tools are used to straighten and bend. But even if one did not rely on tools and still got a naturally straight shaft or a piece of naturally round wood, a skillful craftsman would not value this. Why? Because it is not just one person that needs to ride and not just one arrow that needs to be shot. Even if without relying on rewards and punishments there would be someone doing good out of his own will, an enlightened ruler would not value this. Why? Because a state’s law must not be neglected, and not just one person needs to be governed. Therefore, the skilled ruler does not go after such unpredictable goodness, but walks the path of certain success. . . .

Praising the beauty of Ma Ch’iang or Hsi shih (1) does not improve your own face. But using oil to moisten it, and powder and paint will make it twice as attractive.

Praising the benevolence and righteousness of former kings does not improve your own rule. But making laws and regulations clear and rewards and punishments certain, is like applying oil, powder and paint to a state.

An enlightened ruler holds up facts and discards all that is without practical value. Therefore he does not pursue righteousness and benevolence, and he does not listen to the words of scholars. These days, whoever does not understand how to govern will invariably say: “Win the hearts of the people.” If winning the hearts of the people is all that one needs in order to govern, a Yi Yin or a Kuan Chung (2) would be useless. Listening to the people would be enough. But the wisdom of the people is useless: They have the minds of little infants! If an infant’s head is not shaved, its sores will spread, and if its boil is not opened, it will become sicker. Yet while its head is being shaved and its boil opened, one person has to hold it tight so that the caring mother can perform the operation, and it screams and wails without end. Infants and children don’t understand that the small pain they have to suffer now will bring great benefit later.

Likewise, if the people are forced to till their land and open pastures in order to increase their future supplies, they consider their ruler harsh. If the penal code is being revised and punishments are made heavier in order to wipe out evil deeds, they consider their ruler stern. If light taxes in cash and grain are levied in order to fill granaries and the treasury so that there will be food in times of starvation and sufficient funds for the army, they consider their ruler greedy. If it is required that within the borders everybody is familiar with warfare, that no one is exempted from military service, and that the state is united in strength in order to take all enemies captive, the people consider their ruler violent. These four types of measures would all serve to guarantee order and peace, yet the people do not have the sense to welcome them. Therefore one has to seek for an enlightened [ruler] to enforce them.

(1) The beauty of these women is proverbially famous.

(2) Ancient Chinese statesmen famous for their wisdom.

Translated by Lydia Gerber


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers, Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.

 

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
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Lao Tzu: Tao te Ching

The Tao te Ching (literally, “the classic of the way of virtue”) is attributed to Lao Tzu, though scholars disagree about his actual existence. In its very poetic form it teaches that there is a dynamic, cosmic structure underlying everything that happens in the world. We humans need to discover that Way (Tao) , which is immanent in all aspects of the world, not a rule imposed from without; and we need to fit into it, letting things take their course, not exerting ourselves in opposition to it by trying to bend things to our will.

Our naming (describing) of things always falls short of the way things are, since things are not limited as our language presupposes. Even the Tao which we are trying to talk about here eludes our words. The original polarity is that of being and non-being, and it will be found to interplay throughout the world, with non-being (emptiness, what is not) having as much significance as does being (the fullness of things, what is). Thus the notion of the Tao recaptures the earlier Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, the polarities running through all things.

What price is paid when people come to know beauty and goodness? (i.e., what comes along with such knowledge?) Is that bad, according to Taoism?


1

The Tao that can be spoken of is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

Having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; having a name, it is the Mother of all things.

We should rid ourselves of desires if we wish to observe its subtlety; we should allow our desires if we wish to see something of its manifestations.

Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the mystery; where the mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.


2

All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing so they have the idea of ugliness; they all know the good, and in doing so they have the idea of what is the bad.

So it is that being and non-being give birth each to the other; that difficulty and ease each produce the idea of the other; that the ideas of height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following the other.

Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his teachings without the use of speech.

[In that way] all things come forth, and there is not one which declines to show itself; they grow, and there is no ownership claim made upon them; they go through their processes, and there is no expectation placed on them. The work is accomplished, and there is no disruption of order.


Taoism eschews many of the practices and principles of Confucianism, as in the following passage, where we are urged not to single out exemplary individuals and not to store up treasures and invest in fancy clothing and such. The sage rules his people not by force from the top but by subtly encouraging those trends and inclinations which are in keeping with the Tao; thus he can “act without action.”

Which kind of knowledge is it that the sage ruler protects his people from?


3

Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles which are precious difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming thieves; not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is the way to keep their minds from disorder.

Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, (1) fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones.

He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal.


The Tao te Ching uses a series of images to show the potency of that which is not. The vessel or bowl is essentially an empty space, but it makes containment, hence drinking and life, possible. Similarly a room gets its usefulness from being empty; and doors and windows are important because there is nothing there. The valley, as a female receptacle, is rich and productive. The hub of the wheel is the empty space to which the spokes connect. Water becomes an image for the moral character of humans (at least in its passive mode), for it “does not compete” but fills in the cracks between other things. While our task is to fit in quietly, we may still “love the earth,” i.e., extreme asceticism is not called for.

A brief list of what Taoists love and appreciate can be gleaned from Chapter 8. What are those sorts of things?


4

The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honored Ancestor of all things!

We should blunt our sharp points and unravel the complications of things; we should moderate our brightness and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!

I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.


6

The spirit of the valley dies not, but remains the same;

Thus we name it the mysterious female.

Its gate is called the root from which grew heaven and earth.

Long and unbroken does its power remain,

Used gently, it will never be exhausted.


8

The highest excellence (2) is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving, the low place which all men dislike. Hence it is near to the Tao.

The excellence of a residence is in the suitability of the place; that of the mind is in the stillness of the abyss; that of relationships is in their being with the virtuous; that of government is in its securing good order; that of the conduct of affairs is in its ability; and that of any movement is its timeliness. And when one with the highest excellence does not strive against his low position, no one finds fault with him.


11

The thirty spokes unite in the one center; but it is on the empty space for the axle that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space that its use depends. Therefore, whatever has being is profitable, but what does not have being can be put to use.

Translated by James Legge (1887), revised by Michael Neville


(1) “Emptying the mind” seems here to mean “freeing from concerns which might press in upon them.”

(2) Some translators take this to be “the good man.” In any case, it is human virtue that is being talked about. Back to table of contents


 


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
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Ta-Hsüeh: “The Great Learning” (3rd Century BCE)

Originally the Ta Hsüeh was a chapter of the Li-chi, the “Book of Rites,” one of the five Chinese classics. Literary analysis suggests that it was written in the 3rd century BCE. During the Song Dynasty (960-1280), the Ta Hsüeh was considered sufficiently important to be singled out as one of the canonical “Four Books.” Since both the Five Classics and the Four Books had to be memorized by Chinese students aspiring for a position in the Chinese civil service, the Ta-Hsüeh had to be studied twice.

How does the Ta Hsüeh emphasize the traditional Confucian value of the importance of knowledge?


The Ancients, wishing to illuminate with shining virtue all under heaven, would first establish order in their own states. (1)
Wishing to establish order in their own states, they would first harmonize their families.
Wishing to harmonize their families, they would first cultivate their own persons.
Wishing to cultivate their own persons, they would first rectify their minds. (2)
Wishing to rectify their minds, they would first seek to verify their opinions.
Wishing to verify their opinions, they would first expand their knowledge.

The expansion of knowledge lies in the investigation of things. (3)

Once things are investigated, knowledge will be completed.
Once knowledge is complete, opinions will be verified.
Once opinions are verified, minds will be rectified.
Once minds are rectified, persons will be cultivated.
Once persons are cultivated, families will be harmonized.
Once families are harmonized, states will be put in order.
Once states are in order, there will be peace all under heaven.

From the emperor to the common people, all must see the cultivation of their own person as the root of all else.
If roots are in disarray, there will never be healthy branches.

Translated by Lydia Gerber


(1) “All under heaven” (t’ien-hsia) was a term used for the Chinese empire rather than for the world at large. Before 221 BCE, the Chinese empire consisted of a number of very strong, independent states.

(2) “Mind” (hsin) can also be translated as “heart.” Classical Chinese does not differentiate between the rational and emotional aspects of a person the way western languages do.

(3) The Chinese term wu–translated as “things”–basically means “all that is outside oneself.” It is usually translated either as “things” or “affairs”.

 

 



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers, Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. This is just a sample of Reading About the World, Volume 1. If, after examining the table of contents of the complete volume, you are interested in considering it for use at your own campus, please contact Paul Brians.

Kalidasa: The Recognition of Sakuntala (4th-5th C. CE?)

The greatest of all ancient Indian playwrights is Kalidasa. His Abhijnanasakuntalam (The Recognition of Sakuntala) begins with the encounter between a great king and the miraculously beautiful Sakuntala when he is hunting in the woods occupied by her stepfather’s hermitage. They fall passionately in love, almost instantly. Keep in mind that women were expected to be shy and reticent with men. The audience would recognize from the way she is described that she has developed almost instantly an overwhelming passion for the king, despite the fact that she seems to reject him. In this scene he happens upon Sakuntala and her friends as they water plants near the hermitage, and observes them from hiding.

In what ways are Sakuntala and the King compared to objects or phenomena in nature? What does the bee buzzing around Sakuntala’s lips symbolize? What examples can you find of symbols for Sakuntala’s “ripeness” for marriage? What evidence is there that the gods have destined this meeting between the two?

Note: in this instance the selection displayed here is somewhat longer than the selection actually printed in the reader.

Act One

Scene: The forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.

King Dushyanta, armed with a bow and arrow, enters on a chariot. Accompanied by his charioteer, the King now desperately pursues a deer.

SUTA (gazing at the deer and the King):

When I cast my eye on the deer
That flees in fear, and when I look at you
With your bow and arrow, I seem to see none
But the great Pinaki in human form
Descending on earth to chase the deer.

KING: Following the deer, Suta, we’ve come a long way. It’s high time that we find him now.

Curving his neck gently, gracefully,
He glances back at the chasing chariot.
And dreading the fall of the dart,
He bends his slender frame; the path he takes
Is strewn with tender grass half-chewed,
And fallen from his wide-gaping mouth,
As he races and pants. Look, with his leaps
Bounding high, he does not run, but fly!

What’s wrong? Despite our desperate pursuit, we find him nowhere else!

SUTA: Sir, finding the ground uneven, I had to pull back on the reins and slacken the speed of the chariot, so the deer was able to race along faster than we did. But now that you are pursuing him on level ground, you should have no difficulty in finding him soon.

KING: Well, race your chariot, Suta.

SUTA: Yes, Sir (he drives the chariot faster than before).

My king!

Look again, as I loosen the reins,
The horses leap and leap forward,
Surpassing even the swirl of dust
Their feet themselves have raised;
With ears erect and plumes stilled,
The horses do not gallop, but float.

KING (joyously): Indeed, the horses seem
To outstrip Indra’s steeds and the sun’s.
What was small only a moment ago,
Quickly looms so large! What was split into parts
Suddenly assumes a unified whole!
What was undulating in its shape
Streams into a line so straight to my gaze!
The speed now makes the distant near
And the near distant, all in a flash!

Suta, you’ll now see how I am going to kill the deer.

( A voice off-stage) : O King, for God’s sake, hold–hold your arrow, and do not kill the deer, for it is a holy deer of the hermitage.

SUTA (listens and looks around): Sir, I can see some sages standing in front of the deer, so how can you possibly shoot your arrow?

KING (urgently): Stop the chariot!

SUTA: Yes, Sir. (He stops) Enter a sage accompanied by a number of disciples.

SAGE (lifting his right hand): This is a holy place, King.
And the deer is a holy one; it belongs to the hermitage.
Never, never shoot your arrow at him.
Let not your arrow pierce his tender body
Like tongues of flames into flowers. Oh, how fragile
Is his body, and how cruel is your arrow!
Please put the arrow back in your quiver;
It should only defend the distressed,
Not assail the innocent!

KING (with a bow): Well, then, let me withdraw my arrow (he puts it back in his quiver).

SAGE (pleased): Nobly done, Sir. You have justly behaved like a Puru.

Indeed your action befits your race.
O dear King! Let me bless you:
May you have a worthy son able to
Rule everything in heaven and earth.

ALL SAGES: O King, we have come out to gather sticks for the sacrificial fire. There, on the left bank of the Malini, you can see the asrama of our guru Kanva. If you have no urgent duties to perform now, please accept our invitation. Besides,

When you watch the holy rites
Of a sage performed without hindrance,
You can realize how strongly your arm
Scarred by the bowstring protects.

KING: Is Sage Kanva at home now?

SAGE: No. He is away on a pilgrimage to Somatirtha to ward off an evil spell that has been cast on his daughter Sakuntala.

KING: Well, I’d like to meet her, and request her to convey my profound regards to Sage Kanva.

ALL SAGES: Good. We will meet you there. (Exit all sages).

KING: Suta, race, race as fast as you can. For we must take this opportunity of purifying ourselves with the sight of the holy asrama.

SUTA: Yes, your Majesty (he clucks to the horses)..

KING (looks around): Though none has told me where the holy grove is, I can see that we have reached the grove now.

SUTRA: How can you see that, Sir?

KING: Well, just take a look–

Look, look, how those grains of wild rice
Have dropped from the beaks of parrots
Strewing the path that runs under the tree.
Look there! The stones, still glistening with oil,
Have been used for bruising the fruits of ingudi.
See, so safe and secure do the deer feel here
That no sounds, not even our chariot’s, and no
Human voices can ever startle or scare them.
And there, drops of water dripping off the edges
Of garments the sages wear mark a path to the pool.

Moreover,

With ripples raised by the fingers of the wind,
Waters in deep canals flow to wash the roots of trees.
The glossy verdure of those sprouting leaves
Is only dimmed by the dusky smoke swirling upward
From the jaws of the sacred fire. See, how fearlessly
Do fawns graze leisurely in meadows there, where
The sharp darbha-shoots have been mown!

SUTA: Yes, Sir, now I can see what you say.

They advance a little further.

KING: Suta, we should by no means disturb the peace of the grove. Stop the chariot and let me alight.

SUTA: I’ve reined in, Sir. Your Majesty may dismount now.

KING (alighting): One should enter the holy grove in humble attire. So, let me hand over my insignia and bow to you, Suta. Well, now that I am visiting this hermitage, wash the backs of the horses in a nearby pond.

SUTRA: Yes, I’ll do so, your Majesty. (Exits)


Selection printed in reader begins here


KING (walks about and looks): So, here is the gate to the asrama! Let me enter. (enters and indicates an omen)

How serene and profoundly peaceful is this hermitage!
Yet my arm trembles! Oh, what does it augur for me?
Who knows fate may open its door anywhere, any time!

A VOICE OFF-STAGE: O dear friends, let us go then…

KING (listening): Ah, I hear voices to the right of the grove. I’ll go and see (walks about and looks). I see! They are the hermit-maidens coming this way, carrying pitchers proportionate to their strength and size; perhaps they will water the shrubs here.

When such beauty, rare even in the palace,
Dwells in the heart of a grove, then who would
Deny that wild woodland vines far outshine
The cultivated ones in our orchards?
Let me conceal myself behind these trees,
And watch a beauty to my heart’s content.

Enter Sakuntala, accompanied by her two friends–Anasuya and Priyamvada.

ANASUYA: O dear Sakuntala, it is evident that Father Kanva loves these trees far more than he loves you. Indeed, it pains me to have to see that he has engaged a girl like you, as soft and delicate as a newly bloomed jasmine, in watering these plants. Such a hard task simply does not suit you, Sakuntala.

SAKUNTALA: But, dear Anasuya, I don’t consider it merely as a task imposed by Father Kanva, for I love these trees like my own sister (she begins to water the trees).

PRIYAMVADA: Dear Sakuntala, now that we have watered all summer-blooming trees, let us turn to new-grown ones, and earn merit for our selfless devotion.

KING (whispering to himself): What! Is she Sakuntala, the daughter of Sage Kanva? (surprised) How utterly deficient in judgement is the Sage to lock up such a lovely, delicate beauty in this asrama! Oh, how terribly she is imprisoned in her bark-garment!

It’s a pity! It’s a pity!
While trying to train her
In ascetic austerity,
The Sage only attempts
To cut an acacia wood
With the soft edge
Of a blue lotus-leaf.

Well, let me remain hidden in the trees, and watch her without raising anyone’s suspicions.

SAKUNTALA: Dear Anasuya, Priyamvada has drawn my garment too tightly. Would you please loosen it a little? (Anusuya loosens it)

PRIYAMVADA (spreading a smile over her face): Oh, is it Priyamvada who has tied your dress too tightly? Or is it the budding youth of your body?

KING (again whispering to himself): She has observed justly!
Her bark-dress conceals the splendid orbs
Of her breasts, and reveals not their beauty
And brilliance; it seems that a sallow leaf
Has barely imprisoned a bud in the morning.

Yet her bark-garment, howsoever restrictive,
Radiates with its own brightness, as an ornament does.
Even hidden in the duckweed, the lotus glows,
And dusky scars in the face of the moon
Only heighten its radiance; thus, Sakuntala’s
Beauty is only revealed by what her bark
Conceals: her dress makes her far more attractive,
For, indeed, beauty lies in concealing beauty.

SAKUNTALA (curiously glancing at one of the trees): O dear, look there! It seems that the Kesara tree is fluttering his fingers of young shoots, calling me to converse with him. And how can I ignore his call? (she walks over to the tree)

PRIYAMVADA: O dear Sakuntala, pause there for a moment.

SAKUNTALA: But why?

PRIYAMVADA: As you are standing beside the tree, it seems that the tree has found a lover in a flowering creeper.

SAKUNTALA: O Priyamvada, you really are what your “name” means–a “flatterer!”

KING (once again whispering to himself):
Yes, what Priyamvada says is sweet and flattering,
But also true.

Her lips are like red, red shoots of a vine,
Her arms are as delicate as its winding stems,
Her limbs are lovely noonday flowers
Glittering with the glory of charming youth.

ANASUYA: Mark, Sakuntala, the fresh jasmine-flower whom you call by the name of Vana-jyostna–the “Moonlight-of-the-Grove”–seems to have chosen the mango as her bridegroom.

Sakuntala approaches the vine and gazes at it with immense delight.

SAKUNTALA: And indeed it is a splendid wedding in a delightful season. Look, the jasmine has produced fresh blossoms, while the mango tree is vibrant with its youthfulness, with its joy of bearing new fruits (she stands gazing at the flower).

PRIYAMVADA: Anasuya, do you know why Sakuntala gazes so intently at the Moonlight-of-the-Grove?

ANASUYA: No, I don’t. But why don’t you tell me?

PRIYAMVADA: Well, gazing at the flower, what our dear Sakuntala thinks is simply this: “As the jasmine has found its husband in the tree, so, may I also find one worthy of me.”

SAKUNTALA: Oh, thus you only speak of your own heart’s desire, Priyamvada (Sakuntala waters the flower).

ANASUYA: Dear Sakuntala, why don’t you take a look at the bush here–the Madhabi bush that Father Kanva has perhaps nursed more lovingly than he has nursed you. Have you forgotten her?

SAKUNTALA: I might as well forget myself (approaches the bush and shouts in joy). Oh, here is a great surprise, Priyamvada! Now I’ll tell you something that you’ll love to hear.

PRIYAMVADA: O dear Sakuntala, please tell me what it is.

SAKUNTALA: See, what a wonderful thing has happened to our Madhavi! It’s covered with buds, down to its root, though this is not the season for its blooming.

BOTH (in great excitement): Is it true, Sakuntala?

SAKUNTALA: Of course, it is. Why don’t you come here and see it with your own eyes?

PRIYAMVADA: I see! Well, now it is my turn to tell you something that you’ll love to hear, Sakuntala. You’ll get married soon.

SAKUNTALA (crossly): Once again you’re expressing your own heart’s desire, Priyamvada.

PRIYAMVADA: Oh, this is no joke, dear. I’ve heard Father Kanva himself say that this would be an omen for your marriage.

ANASUYA: So, this is the reason why Sakuntala so lovingly nurses Madhavi.

SAKUNTALA: Why shouldn’t I? I love her like a sister (she begins to pour water from the pitcher).

KING: Ah, I wish she were the daughter of a Brahmin by a wife of the Kshatriya caste. But let me do away with doubts:

She is destined to become a warrior’s bride,
For my heart and my being sincerely desire her.
In the face of doubt or confusion, nothing can be
A safer guide than the inner voice of the virtuous soul.
Yet I should try to find out more about her.

SAKUNTALA: O God, this bee is buzzing round my face…(she tries to drive it away)

KING (longingly):
O, those dark, lovely eyes keep following
The movement of the bee buzzing near her face,
As a lover’s eyes follow the movement of her beloved
Though not in fear, but in love.

(annoyed)
Hey, you rascal thief! How fearlessly you rove
To steal the lustre from her sparkling eyes
As she darts a glance at you. And how closely
You hover by her ear, as if to whisper a secret!
As she waves her delicate hand to ward you off,
You only rush to drink the dense, sweet nectar
Of her ripe, lower lip–oh, how blessed you are, my rival!
While you drink ambrosia, I must stand here thirsting!

SAKUNTALA: O dear friends! Save me from this wicked bee.

BOTH FRIENDS (with a grin): Who are we to save you, Sakuntala? But why don’t seek help from King Dushyanta who is responsible for protecting our asrama?

KING: I think this is the most opportune moment for me to reveal myself (the King, however, pauses for a moment). No, I should not appear in such a way that they would recognize me as the King. I should rather act like an ordinary visitor.

SHAKUNTALA: I think this rascal bee would not leave off. Scat! Shoo! No, he won’t listen. I must leave the place. Oh, no! Help! Help!

KING (emerging from behind the trees):
Who dares disturb the peace
Of the hermit-maidens,
When the King of Puru’s line
Still reigns supreme in the world?

As the King appears suddenly, the asrama girls stand confused.

ANASUYA: Honorable Sir, nothing serious has happened. (Pointing to Sakuntala) Our dear friend Sakuntala was being pursued by a large bee, and she was frightened.

KING: I am glad to know that you are not in a serious trouble. I trust all is well with the holy rites.

Sakuntala stands confused, silent.

ANASUYA: Indeed, all is well, Sir. And the noble presence of a distinguished guest like you further ensures our safety.

PRIYAMVADA: We welcome you to our asrama, Sir.

ANASUYA: Dear Sakuntala, go, and bring for our distinguished guest flowers, rice and fruits from the asrama. Meanwhile, let me wash his feet with the water that we have here.

KING: O ladies! Your gracious words have already sufficed to welcome and entertain me, and nothing more is needed.

PRIYAMVADA: But, Sir, you must sit under the cool shade of the Saptaparna tree and rest awhile.

KING: I think all of you must be tired after performing your holy duties. So, why don’t we all sit down for a while?

ANASUYA (aside): Dear Sakuntala, propriety demands that we provide a hospitable company to our noble guest. Come, let’s sit down.

They all sit down.

SAKUNTALA (whispering to herself): Oh, why do I feel so lost and shaken? Why does the sight of this man fill my heart with emotions clashing with my ascetic life?

KING (looking at them): I feel honored, ladies, by the charming company and warm hospitality of three beautiful girls of the same age.

PRIYAMVADA (aside to Anasuya): I wonder who this stranger could be! His manner is so dignified and majestic, yet he speaks so fluently and politely!

ANASUYA (aside): O Priyamvada, I, too, am curious to know who he is. Well, let me simply ask him. (aloud) Noble Sir, we feel encouraged by your gracious words to ask you a few questions which we hope will not offend you. Sir, what royal family do you descend from? Which country laments your absence? And what is it that brings a delicately nurtured young man like you to this grove of penance?

SAKUNTALA (whispering to herself): O heart, keep quiet! Anasuya is asking the same questions I’ve wanted to ask.

KING (aside): What should I do now? To reveal, or to conceal–that is the question. (thinking for a moment) Well, then, let me do it this way. (aloud) I am a person well-versed in the Vedas, and the Paurava King has entrusted me with the charge of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. I am, therefore, visiting this grove of penance only to see if the holy rites are being performed without impediments.

ANASUYA: Indeed, Sir, we are happy to have a guardian like you.

Sakuntala’s trembling lips, uneasy silence, and coyness look like signs of falling in love.

ANASUYA (noticing the behavior of both the King and Sakuntala, aside): Sakuntala, if only your father returns today. . .

SAKUNTALA (frowning, aside): So?

BOTH: He would then reward this guest in the most befitting manner by offering him the greatest treasure of his life.

SAKUNTALA (petulantly): Oh, you two with all your silly notions! Would you please stop prattling?

KING: Now if you permit, let me ask you something about your friend.

BOTH: We will feel honored to answer your question, Sir.

KING: So far as I know the holy Sage Kanva has hitherto observed celibacy. How, then, can your friend be his daughter?

ANASUYA: That’s easy to answer, Sir. Have you heard of a royal sage called Kausika?

KING: Yes, I have.

ANASUYA: Yes, it is Kausika who is Sakuntala’s real father. Father Kanva only adpoted and reared her after she was found abandoned.

KING: Abandoned? The word arouses my curiosity. Would you please relate the story from the beginning?

ANASUYA: Once, a long time ago, Sage Kausika was deeply immersed in meditation for many years. His unflinching devoutness made the gods jealous and nervous. So, they sent Menaka to tempt him.

KING: Yes, the gods are well-known for showing resentment of human accomplishments. But what happened then?

ANASUYA: It was spring then, and Menka’s irresistible beauty. . .(she stops short, in embarrassment)

KING: I can guess what the rest was. So, your friend is Menaka’s daughter?

ANASUYA: Yes, Sir.

KING: So, there is no incongruity. . .

Indeed, how could such a rare beauty be mortal?
Can the radiance of the tremulous lightening
Ever spring upward from the womb of the earth?

Sakuntala remains seated with her eyes downcast.

KING (whispering to himself):: Now my heart’s longings have true scope for their indulgence.

PRIYAMVADA (looking with a smile at Sakuntala, and then turning to the King): Noble Sir, it seems that you want to say something.

Sakuntala makes a reproving gesture with her forefinger.

KING: Yes, yes, you have made a right guess. May I ask you yet another question?

PRIYAMVADA: Please feel free to ask, Sir. Asrama girls may be asked questions freely.

KING: What I wish to ask is this–

Should she observe, until betrothal,
Her ascetic vow that resists love and marriage,
Or is she condemned to living forever the life
Of a hermit in this Grove of Righteousness,
With those small antelopes so dear to her,
Whose lovely eyes only parallel the beauty
Of her own eyes.

PRIYAMVADA: True, Sir, she follows her father’s instructions in religious duties. But I’m sure her father will love to see her happily married to a husband worthy of her.

KING (whispering to himself in delight):
O my heart, now harbor what is devoutly
To be wished, for all doubts are now dissolved.
What you feared might be a flame
Is now turned into a lovely gem,
Worthwhile to possess.

SAKUNTALA (pretending to be annoyed): Anasuya, I’m leaving now.

ANASUYA: But, dear Sakuntala, it is improper to desert a distinguished guest, neglecting the duties of hospitality.

KING (whispering to himself): Oh, is she leaving? No! (makes a move to restrain her, but instantly checks himself, aside): Ah, a lover’s act reflects his feelings. . .

As I was about to stop her on the way
Decorum restrained my desire, all at once.
I did not leave my place at all,
Yet I seemed to rise and return.

PRIYAMVADA (holding Sakuntala back): Are you out of your senses, Sakuntala? You must not leave now.

SAKUNTALA: Why not?

PRIYAMVADA: Simply because you owe me your turn to water a couple of plants here. First, pay the debt, and then, leave (forces her back).

KING: Well, I can see that she is tired now.

Her shoulders droop, her palms glow red,
As she lifted up the heavy watering jar;
Her bosom heaves rapidly, while she breathes.
Rounded blobs of sweat glinting on her cheek
Only tend to catch the flower of her ear.
With her one hand, she restrains her lock
Dishevelled, almost falling.

Let me free her of the debt she owes to you, if you please permit me (offers his ring).

The two friends take the ring, and reading the royal seal on it, stare at each other.

KING: O ladies, do not get confused by the royal seal on the ring. I received it as a gift from the King.

PRIYAMVADA: In that case, Sir, you should not part with such a precious gift. Your gracious words suffice enough to set her free.

ANASUYA: O dear Sakuntala, now that you are free by the grace of this noble man or of the King, shouldn’t you leave?

SAKUNTALA (whispering to herself): Oh, what is this strange, anonymous power that has robbed me of all my movement?

PRIYAMVADA: Hey Sakuntala, why don’t you leave now?

SAKUNTALA: Am I still bound to answer your question, Priyamvada? I will leave whenever I feel like doing so.

KING (looking closely at Sakuntala, aside): Is it likely that she feels in the same way I feel towards her? Oh, if it is so, my desire will be fulfilled. Yet I believe I have reasons to hope.

Even though she keeps her words hidden
Beneath her silences, she lends her ears
To whatever I say. And even though
She keeps her eyes downcast, she watches me
Only when I watch her not!

(A VOICE OFF-STAGE): Watch, all people of the hermitage! Get ready to save the creatures of the grove, for King Dushyanta who revels in hunting has entered our grove.

Swirls of thick dust, stirred up by the hoof-beats
Of wildly prancing horses, are falling on the branches
Of our trees like swarms of locusts, thus clouding
The afternoon sunglow and the immense azure
Of the grove. . .

KING (to himself): O, what a bad luck! I think my armed guards are rummaging through the grove in search of me.

(AGAIN A VOICE OFF-STAGE): Be careful, everybody! Here comes a wild elephant, chasing children, women, and men.

Frightened by the royal chariot
An elephant invades the grove,
Smashing tree-trunks, and chasing
And scattering antelope-herds.
With its sound and fury, the elephant
Also drags along the fetter of uprooted
Vines at its feet. All these, to our penance,
Are nothing but impediments incarnate.

All the girls now rise in alarm.

KING (quickly): Oh, what a mess! I have indeed greatly harmed the sages here. I must leave the place now.

FRIENDS: Noble Sir! The warning about the elephant makes us feel very nervous. If your good self permits us, we may return to our asrama.

ANASUYA(looking at Sakuntala): Dear Sakuntala, Mother Gautami must be worrying about us. Come, let us return as soon as we can.

SAKUNTALA (showing difficulty in walking): Oh God, I cannot walk, for a strange numbness pains my thighs.

KING: Take care, gracious ladies. I will try to protect the grove from any possible damage.

FRIENDS: Forgive this inadvertent interruption, my Lord! May we request you to visit us again so that we can compensate for the lack of our hospitality to you.

KING: O dear ladies, don’t worry; what can be better hospitality than the lively company of three charming girls like you?

SAKUNTALA: Wait, Anasuya. My foot has been pricked by the pointed blade of the Kusa grass. . .and my dress is caught in an amaranth twig. Wait a little, and let me free myself.

Sakuntala follows her friends, but keeps looking back at the King.

KING (with a deep sigh): Oh, gone! Gone are all of them! Sakuntala has robbed me of all my desire to return to the capital. Well, I will set up a camp with my companions in the vicinity of this grove. Oh, how impossible it is to punctuate, even for a moment, the stream of my thoughts that flows towards only one destination it has known–Sakuntala. Oh, Sakuntala! Sakuntala!

My body has an apparent movement,
But my heart? Oh, it only turns back
Like a silken pennon, borne against
The gale.


Selection printed in reader ends here


End of Act One Entitled “The Chase”

Translated by Azfar Hussain

 

 


 

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

 

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

Kautilya: The Arthashastra (4th Century BCE)

This treatise on government is said to have been written by the prime minister of India’s first great emperor, Chandragupta Maurya. Although often compared to Machiavelli’s Prince because of its sometimes ruthless approach to practical politics, Kautilya’s work is far more varied–and entertaining–than usual accounts of it indicate. He mixes the harsh pragmatism for which he is famed with compassion for the poor, for slaves, and for women. He reveals the imagination of a romancer in imagining all manner of scenarios which can hardly have been commonplace in real life.


The Institution of Spies

One of the most notorious features of the Arthashastra is its obsession with spying on the king’s subjects. Kautilya sometimes goes to amusingly absurd lengths to imagine various sorts of spies. He even cynically proposes using fake holy men for this purpose.


A man with shaved head or braided hair and desirous to earn livelihood is a spy under the guise of an ascetic practicing austerities. Such a spy surrounded by a host of disciples with shaved head or braided hair may take his abode in the suburbs of a city, and pretend as a person barely living on a handful of vegetables or meadow grass taken once in the interval of a month or two, but he may take in secret his favorite foodstuffs.

Merchant spies pretending to be his disciples may worship him as one possessed of preternatural powers. His other disciples may widely proclaim that “This ascetic is an accomplished expert of preternatural powers.”

Regarding those persons who, desirous of knowing their future, throng to him, he may, through palmistry, foretell such future events as he can ascertain by the nods and signs of his disciples concerning the works of high-born people of the country–viz. small profits, destruction by fire, fear from robbers, the execution of the seditious, rewards for the good, forecast of foreign affairs, saying, “This will happen to-day, that to-morrow, and that this king will do.” Such assertions of the ascetic his disciples shall corroborate (by adducing facts and figures). (1)

He shall also foretell not only the rewards which persons possessed of foresight, eloquence, and bravery are likely to receive at the hands of the king, but also probable changes in the appointments of ministers.

The king’s minister shall direct his affairs in conformity to the forecast made by the ascetic. He shall appease with offer of wealth and those who have had some well-known cause to be disaffected, and impose punishments in secret on those who are for no reason disaffected or who are plotting against the king.


Formation of Villages

Far from being single-mindedly aimed at preserving the monarch’s power for its own sake, like Machiavelli’s The Prince, the Arthasastra requires the ruler to benefit and protect his citizens, including the peasants, whom Kautilya correctly believes to the ultimate source of the prosperity of the kingdom. He therefore advocates what is now called “land reform.”

What practical argument does Kautilya offer the king for supporting poor farmers?


Lands may be confiscated from those who do not cultivate them and given to others; or they may be cultivated by village laborers and traders , lest those owners who do not properly cultivate them might pay less (to the government). If cultivators pay their taxes easily, they may be favorably supplied with grains, cattle, and money.

The king shall bestow on cultivators only such favor and remission as will tend to swell the treasury, and shall avoid such as deplete it. . . .

The king shall provide the orphans, the aged, the infirm, the afflicted, and the helpless with maintenance. He shall also provide subsistence to helpless women when they are carrying and also to the children they give birth to.

Elders among the villagers shall improve the property of bereaved minors till the latter attain their age; so also the property of gods.

When a capable person other than an apostate or mother neglects to maintain his or her child, wife, mother, father, minor brothers, sisters, or widowed girls, he or she shall be punished with a fine of twelve panas.

When, without making provision for the maintenance of his wife and sons, any person embraces asceticism, he shall be punished with the first amercement; (2) likewise any person who converts a woman to asceticism.

Whoever has passed the age of copulation may become an ascetic after distributing the properties of his own acquisition (among his sons), otherwise he will be punished.


Rules Regarding Slaves and Laborers

Slaves were not as common in ancient India as in other civilizations, partly because the lower castes were forced to take on voluntarily many unsavory tasks that would have been performed by slaves elsewhere. However, they did exist, and Kautilya’s regulations governing them are among the most liberal in history. Note how upper-caste slaves are protected from demeaning labor that was reserved for the lowest castes, and how the chastity of female slaves is protected (even ancient Judaism and Islam explicitly allowed a master to have sex with his slave women). It is unknown how widely observed these idealistic regulations were.

Compare these laws on slavery with those in Hammurabi’s Code and the Hebrew Bible. In what ways did caste affect the way slaves were to be treated?


Deceiving a slave of his money or depriving him of the privileges he can exercise as an Arya, (3) shall be punished with half the fine (levied for enslaving the life of an Arya).

A man who takes in mortgage a person who runs away, or who dies or who is incapacitated by disease, shall be entitled to receive back [from the mortgagor] the value he paid for the slave.

Employing a slave to carry the dead or to sweep ordure, urine, or the leavings of food; (4) or a female slave to attend on her master while he is bathing naked; or hurting or abusing him or her, or violating (the chastity of) a female slave shall cause the forfeiture of the value paid for him or her. Violation [of the chastity] of nurses, female cooks, or female servants of the class of joint cultivators or of any other description shall at once earn their liberty for them. Violence towards an attendant of high birth shall entitle him to run away. When a master has connection with a nurse or pledged female slave under his power against her will, he shall be punished with the first amercement; for doing the same when she is under the power of another, he shall be punished with the middlemost amercement. (5) When a man commits or helps another to commit rape with a girl or a female slave pledged to him, he shall not only forfeit the purchase-value, but also pay a certain amount of money [sulka] to her and a fine of twice the amount [of sulka to the government].


Capture of the Enemy by Means of Secret Contrivances

Unlike most political treatises, the Arthasastra makes highly entertaining reading, partly because of the mini-narratives in which Kautilya describes how a king may retain his power or preserve his life after he has been overthrown.


Contrivances to kill the enemy may be formed in those places of worship and visit, which the enemy, under the influence of faith, frequents on occasions of worshipping gods and of pilgrimage.

A wall or stone, kept by mechanical contrivance, may, by loosening the fastenings, be let to fall on the head of the enemy when he has entered into a temple; stones and weapons may be showered over his head from the topmost story; or a door-panel may be let to fall; or a huge rod kept over a wall or partly attached to a wall may be made to fall over him; or weapons kept inside the body of an idol may be thrown over his head; or the floor of those places where he usually stands, sits, or walks may be besprinkled with poison mixed with cowdung1 or with pure water; or, under the plea of giving him flowers, scented powders, or of causing scented smoke, he may be poisoned; or by removing the fastenings made under a cot or a seat, he may be made to fall into a pit containing pointed spears. . . .

Or having challenged the conqueror at night, he may successfully confront the attack; if he cannot do this, he may run away by a side path; or, disguised as a heretic, he may escape with a small retinue; or he may be carried off by spies as a corpse; or disguised as a woman, he may follow a corpse [as it were, of her husband to the cremation ground]; or on the occasion of feeding the people in honor of gods or of ancestors or in some festival, he may make use of poisoned rice and water, and having conspired with his enemy’s traitors, he may strike the enemy with his concealed army; or, when he is surrounded in his fort, he may lie concealed in a hole bored into the body of an idol after eating sacramental food and setting up an altar; or he may lie in a secret hole in a wall, or in a hole made in the body of an idol in an underground chamber; and when he is forgotten, he may get out of his concealment through a tunnel, and, entering into the palace, slay his enemy while sleeping, or loosening the fastening of a machine he may let it fall on his enemy; or when his enemy is lying in a chamber which is besmeared with poisonous and explosive substances, or which is made of lac, he may set fire to it. Fiery spies, hidden in an underground chamber, or in a tunnel, or inside a secret wall, may slay the enemy when the latter is carelessly amusing himself in a pleasure park or any other place of recreation; or spies under concealment may poison him; or women under concealment may throw a snake, or poison, or fire or poisonous smoke over his person when he is asleep in a confined place; or spies, having access to the enemy’s harem, may, when opportunities occur, do to the enemy whatever is found possible on the occasion, and then get out unknown.

Translated by R. Shamasastry (1915)


(1) Of course these prophets, being in the employ of the King, have reason to know what he intends to do.

(2) A small fine, between 12 and 96 panas.

(3) Aryan, an upper-caste person, a Brahmin.

(4) These are defiling tasks reserved for the so-called “untouchable” castes, who are considered beneath even slaves.

(5) Between 200 and 500 panas.

 


 

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books. This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing. 

The reader was created for use in the World Civilization course at Washington State University, but material on this page may be used for educational purposes by permission of the editor-in-chief:

Paul Brians
Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman 99164-5020

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)