1842.
Notice of the Works of Su Taugpo
135
There is also a great deal concerning ceremonies, and not a little about my lord Chau, that very pink of ministers, who restrained a vicious court, and introduced order throughout the empire. At that time the celestials were often sorely pressed by the Tartars, an enciny that never gave up the contest; and this circumstance suggested to the author, to write an essay upon bravery, according to the model of the ancient kings. Their principle was to interfere in all quarrels of their neighbors, but to do so merely from motives of benevolence. It was their endeavor to soothe the people, and therefore they went about to kill them, a process similar to that of Napoleon's, who waged war for the pacification of the world.
ing
After much miscellaneous matter, we have a treatise against here- sies, and Sú recapitulates all the heresiarchs, that lived about or near the time of Confucius, two of whom Shángyáng and Hánfi asserted, that the empire ought to be ruled by the fear of punishment—a the- ory afterwards fully adopted by Tsin Chí hwángtí. When the mi- nister discourses upon the government of the state, he forgets the present exigencies of the times, and reverts to the happy periods of which Confucius gives a charming account. He was constantly liv- in the golden age, and forgot his country's woes; for notwith- standing the excellency of his treatises, the Tartars encroached upon the imperial domains and ravaged the whole frontier. And when at last he proposed a grand stratagem according to the treatises of Yáu and Shun, the enemy would not attack the Chinese where they had prepared the ambush, and therefore all these contrivances succeeded very ill.
But still he would revert to the same plans and urge the adoption of the whole Confucian system; in fact Yáu and Shun were always in his mouth, and if he could have resuscitated them, he would indeed have made them field marshals.
It was a reinarkable circumstance that whilst the rude Tartars in the north kept the country in good order by exercising a vigorous government, the Chinese emperors lived for their own pleasure. Sú Tungpo upbraids them in a series of well written papers, in the strictly classical style, long before the division took place; not su much for being inferior to their fierce neighbors, as for neglecting to imitate their ancestors. The fault of government, he says, is not so much in the constitution, as in the administration. There are laws enacted which are quite inapplicable to circumstances, and officers are appointed to fulfill duties for which they are totally unfit. To the sovereign ought to be intrusted the whole power of levying duties, and bestowing rewards: one man ought to control the whole,