Gongsun Hong cut his hair to serve as a mounted warrior for the King of Yue. Gongsun Xi sent a messenger to sever their fraternal bond: “I disown you as my brother.”
Gongsun Hong replied: “I only cut my hair, yet you risk your neck commanding troops for others. What fault can I lay against me?”
Later in the Battle of Zhounan, Gongsun Xi died in combat.
Note
It is unfair to harshly judge others’ small mistakes while excusing one’s own dangerous choices; people should apply identical criteria to oneself and others.
Implicit here is a rhetorical question: You accuse me of “harming my hair,” yet what you yourself are doing is harming life itself. You rebuke me in the name of filial piety, but isn’t the profession you have chosen handing over the life your parents gave you to the battlefield?
Late Warring States Legalist, uses the brothers’ story to criticize double standards in judgment.
Gongsun Hong
Chopped hair to serve Yue’s monarch, criticized by his brother.
Gongsun Xi
Gongsun Hong’s brother, condemned Hong’s minor deed while devoting his life to warfare.
Cutting hair in ancient China
Hair was valued as part of parents’ gift; cutting hair was deemed an abnormal sacrifice or servitude choice, hence Xi’s disapproval.
Warring States custom of knight service
Many commoners and clan men enlisted as soldiers or royal bodyguards across different vassal kingdoms.
Double-standard metaphor
Han Fei borrows the anecdote to remind rulers not to rigorously punish trivial faults of subordinates while ignoring their own major risky blunders.
公孫弘斷髮而為越王騎，公孫喜使人絕之曰：「吾不與子為昆弟矣。」公孫弘曰：「我斷髮，子斷頸而為人用兵，我將謂子何？」周南之戰，公孫喜死焉。
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