Once there was a King in Au
Lac who was a tyrant and also was very arrogant. This King disliked
very much an official in the royal government. This official
was very honest, and often counseled the King in a straight
forward manner. Therefore, the King disliked him very much!
One day, the King and all the
top civil and military officials went to the ocean in a dragon
boat to sightsee. Those corrupted officials were good at overly
pleasing the King. They also very much disliked the honest official,
and came up with ways to ridicule him, making lots of nonsensical
sarcastic remarks. Finally, the King was fed up, so he asked
the honest official: “I heard that you are a learned person,
so you must know what the duty of a citizen is.” The honest
official replied: “One must be loyal to the King and love
the country. Everyone knows that, and it does not take a learned
person to know it.”
Hearing those words, the King
was even more disgusted with the official. So he continued to
ask: “Suppose that you are a loyal minister. Does that
mean that if the King wants you to die, you will die?”
The King was planning a trap for the official to fall into.
The loyal minister replied immediately: “Yes, your Majesty.”
Then the King said: “All right. Now I command you to die!
Quickly jump into the ocean and kill yourself!” As a result,
the official quickly jumped off the boat.
Is this person more serious
than Qu Yuan*? (Audience answer: “Yes.”) No! It’s
nonsense! Why die? (Master laughs.)
Then, all the civil and military
officials on the boat started to cry loudly, squeezing out a
few drops of crocodile tears: “It’s so pitiful that
he died! My God! Such a good person, good to die! Oh!”
(Master and audience laugh.) Everyone was crying and making
chaotic noise. They threw some plastic flowers into the ocean
to see the loyal minister off.
It seemed that the loyal minister
heard everyone’s sad crying, so he emerged from the water.
(Master and audience laugh.) He seemed to not want to die. He
climbed up onto the boat, looking like a wet bird. The King
said: “Oh, you didn’t die.” The minister said:
“Yes, I must have been dead already. But when I was down
there I came upon Qu Yuan.” The King said: “Really,
how could Qu Yuan be down there?” He said: “Yes,
Qu Yuan was originally drowned there. The whole ocean is his!
(Master laughs.) His soul was moving around everywhere. He knew
I was going down, and quickly came to see me. Then he was chatting
with me, and told me to go up.”
The King said: “How could
he tell you to come up? I commanded you to die. Why did he tell
you to come up?” The official said: “Qu Yuan scolded
me so much. He said I was stupid! When Qu Yuan was alive, he
met a bad King. So, he had to commit suicide. But now I have
a good King. Why should I die? (Master and audience laugh and
applaud.) I felt that his reprimand was reasonable. I could
not die, so I came up here!”
Did you hear that? This ending
is good. If he had died, I would have beaten him up! (Master
laughs.) I would not liberate him!
This was a true Aulacese story.
Maybe Aulacese officials were a little smarter. (Master laughs.)
They knew better how to protect themselves and how to counsel
their King. It’s not necessary to use the serious ways!
There are so many people in the world. If you can not convince
a King, why should you die? Maybe after a while the King will
die. (Master laughs.) If you can wait until his death, you can
serve another King. You should devote your talent, intelligence
and wisdom to the country, not just to the King.
If the King is good, we serve
him and respect him, and contribute all our talent to him. If
the King is not good, we should reserve our talent and wisdom
given by God, because God gives the talent and wisdom to us,
not the King. God gives us the talent and wisdom so we can serve
the country, and serve the world. If a King does not know how
to utilize people, we can wait and find another one.
Our purpose is to serve the
country, serve people, and give people peace and happiness.
It is not to serve a King, and allow the King to judge us. For
example, we have a very beautiful peacock. Then we make her
reluctantly marry a toad. But the toad says that she is not
good, and does not want to get married to her. So should we
feel so sad and kill the peacock? Should we? (Audience answer:
“No.”) It’s nonsense! So no matter what we
do, if we do it at a wrong time or a wrong occasion, there is
no use. This is wisdom. If you are very smart, but do things
in a hasty way, it won’t be good.
* Qu Yuan
(340 BC - 278 BC) was a Chinese official in Chu dynasty.
He committed suicide as a form of protest against the corruption
of that era. His death is commemorated on Dragon Boat Festival.
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