SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

Zi Gong

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 39.3

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    This Han Feizi ‑ Chapter 39.3 offers dual rebuttals over Zhao Gong’s murder by Gao Qumi. It debates statecraft: whether rulers should promptly execute hated ministers or avoid excessive, untimely punishments that breed widespread enemies.

  • When a Bandit Challenges Confucian Morality

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    This commentary on Zhuangzi ‑ Daozhi features three fictional dialogues. Robber Zhi and other figures assail conventional Confucian morality, exposing its hypocrisy and urging people to cherish their innate inborn nature.

  • Value Your Life Above Kingship, Wealth and Power

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    This commentary on Zhuangzi ‑ Rang Wang gathers fables stressing valuing innate life above kingship and wealth. It also notes textual tensions: some tales celebrate moral suicide, conflicting with its core cherish‑life theme.

  • Chapter 28. Yielding the Throne (Rang Wang)

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    This Zhuangzi ‑ Rang Wang collects fables of hermits rejecting thrones, rank and wealth. It advocates cherishing one’s inner life above worldly power, holding politics as secondary to personal spiritual cultivation.

  • Chapter 12. Heaven and Earth (Tian Di)

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    Heaven and Earth (Tian Di) is Chapter 12 of the Outer Chapters of Zhuangzi. This wide‑ranging text discusses cosmic order, ideal governance, human nature, tools, desire and the danger of over‑civilization.

  • Chapter 6. The Great Ancestral Master (Dazongshi)

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    This Zhuangzi ‑ Dazongshi excerpt portrays the ideal True Man. Through fables and dialogues, it expounds unity with the Dao, accepting life‑death transformation, and the core spiritual practice “sitting and forgetting”.

  • The Analects – Chapter 13.24

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    Zi Gong asked, “What about someone whom everyone in the village likes?”The Master said, “That is not sufficient grounds for approval.”Zi Gong asked again, “What about someone whom everyone in the village dislikes?”The Master replied, “That is also insufficient. It is better if the good people in the village like him, and the bad…

  • The Analects – Chapter 13.20

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    Zi Gong asked, “What must one be like to be called a ‘shi’ (a morally responsible scholar-official)?”The Master said, “One who acts with a sense of shame and, when sent on missions abroad, fulfills his ruler’s charge without disgracing it—such a person may be called a shi.”Zi Gong asked, “May I ask about the…

  • Mencius – Chapter 3.2 The Unmoved Heart

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    Gongsun Chou asked Mencius: “If you should be the prime minister in Qi and be able to put your principles into practice, it would be no wonder that Qi achieve the hegemony or even true kingship. In such a momentous situation, would your mind be stirred?”