_ A king speaks no jape (天子无戏言)

疆富芹达

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　　                        Jun. 23 , 2007
　　
　　                   A king speaks no jape (天子无戏言)
　　
　　 ZhouChenWang(周成王), JiYong(姬诵), is the son of ZhouWuWang who died after he had been the king of Zhou Dynasty only for seven years. So ZhouChenWang was only a child when he became the third king of Zhou Dynasty, therefore, his uncle, JiDan(姬旦) helped him administer the country.
　　
　　 One day, when ChenWang saw ZhouGong(周公) who had just quenched rebellion and come back, he picked up a leaf from the ground and handed it to his younger brother, ShuYu(叔虞), said:" I appanage this to you." ShuYu took it and joined the game with joy. ZhouGong(周公) saw that, hastily went to ChenWang, and said:" Your Majesty, please choose a good day to appanage ShuYu as the Lord of Tang State." ChenWang then said seriously:" I only played with my brother." ZhouGong took it very seriously and said again:"No! For you are the king, so your words should be a promise, and you should do what you have promised."  Having heard what ZhouZhong said, ChenWang had to send his younger brother to Tang State for the king.
　　
　　 In Chinese history, ZhouGong was the greatest prime minister. ZhouGong was as wise as JiangShang(姜尚), he did a lot of things to help his brother, JiFa(姬发), to put down the Shang Dynasty. In fact, he was more competent to be the second king of Zhou than his brother, JiFa. But he had never the idea of taking the place of ZhouWuWang.
　　
　　 After ZhouChenWang died, ZhouChenWang was too young to manage the country, thus ZhouGong helped him. Under the ZhouGong's management, Zhou Kingdom became much stronger, and people lived in peace and nicer than before. The country presented unprecedented prosperity. Two of ZhouGong's brothers rebelled, ZhouGong put them down. But ZhouGong had never had the ambition of being the king himself. ZhouGong returned the regime to ChenWang as soon as he was old enough to be able to administer the country.
　　
　　 For a life, ZhouGong never thought of himself. All he did was for the country, the king, the people until he died. As a matter of fact, he was not only wise but also powerful, and had good chance to be the king by replacing ZhouChenWang. But he didn't do that. Because of what he did, the Zhou Dynasty had then become prosperous. Therefore, people escaped from living in the violences of great rebellions.
　　
　　 Looking into the history of China, ZhouGong was the only one who had no idea of rebellion to take the king place when he was in the high and powerful position, and he had the best opportunity.
　　
　　 The humanity of ZhouGong was featured by not only the kindness to the people of Zhou but also to the nobilities of Shang. After overthrowing the Shang Dynasty, ZhouGong tried his best to persuade WuWang to be kind to the people of Shang, so that there are not sweeping devastation after the regime of Zhou was established. The destruction from dynasty-changing was thus kept to the lowest level in the history of China.
　　
　　 I rather say in private that ZhouGong has been the apotheosis of humanity.