"The Yellow Emperor, however, could not attain to this virtue. He fought with Ch'ih Yu at Chŏ-lu, and blood flowed for a hundred _li_. Then came Yao and Shun with their crowd of ministers. Then T'ang who deposed his sovereign, and Wu Wang who slew Chou. After which time the strong took to oppressing the weak, the many to coercing the few. In fact, ever since T'ang and Wu Wang we have had none other than disturbers of the peace. "And now you come forward preaching the old dogmas of Wên Wang and palming off sophistries without end, in order to teach future generations. You wear patched clothes and a narrow girdle, you talk big and act falsely, in order to deceive the rulers of the land, while all the time you yourself are aiming at wealth and power! You are the biggest thief I know of; and if the world calls me Robber Chê, it most certainly ought to call you Robber Ch'iu. "By fair words you enticed Tzŭ Lu to follow you. You made him doff his martial cap, Shaped like a cock's comb. and ungird his long sword, and sit a disciple at your feet. And all the world cried out that Confucius could stop violence and prevent wrong-doing. By and by, when Tzŭ Lu wished to slay the prince of Wei, but failed, and was himself hacked to pieces and exposed over the eastern gate of Wei,--that was because you had not properly instructed him. See the account in the _Tso Chuan_. "You call yourself a man of talent and a Sage forsooth! Twice you have been driven out of Lu. You were tabooed in Wei. You were a failure in Ch'i. You were surrounded by the Ch'êns and the Ts'ais. In fact, the empire won't have you anywhere. It was your teaching which brought Tzŭ Lu to his tragical end. You cannot take care, in the first place, of yourself, nor, in the second place, of others. Of what value can your doctrine be? "There is none to whom mankind has accorded a higher place than to the Yellow Emperor. Yet his virtue was not complete. He fought at Chŏ-lu, and blood ran for a hundred _li_. Yao was not paternal. He killed his eldest son. Shun was not filial. He banished his mother's younger brother. The great Yü was deficient in one respect. He was wanting in natural feeling. When engaged in his great engineering work of draining the empire, he even passed his own door without going in to see his family. T'ang deposed his sovereign. Wu Wang vanquished Chou. Wên Wang was imprisoned at Yin Li. "Now these six worthies enjoy a high reputation among men. Yet a fuller investigation shows that in each case a desire for advantage disturbed their original purity and forced it into a contrary direction. Hence the shamelessness of their deeds. "Among those whom the world calls virtuous were Poh I and Shu Ch'i. They declined the sovereignty of Ku-chu and died of starvation on Mount Shou-yang, their corpses deprived of burial. "Pao Chiao made a great show of virtue and abused the world in general. He grasped a tree and died.