Week 4_Reading 1

 


Emperor Han considered Xiao He to have achieved the highest merit and decided to award him accordingly (93t). But others objected, claiming that their victories in arms outweighed Xiao’s “brush and ink” deliberations (93t). To counter their point, Emperor Han reasons that the one who instructs is more valuable than the one who carries out said instructions. He offers a parable in which Xiao is the huntsman; the warring officials are the hunting dogs led by said huntsman (93tm). Although the emperor tames the official with this reasoning, they fail to understand the root of his argument; when the question of precedence arises, they believe that the man of arms, Cao Can, deserves priority over Xiao He (93mb). To them Cao’s “seventy wounds” are proof enough of his esteemed worth for they prioritize loud and evident breeds of achievement, ones that have visible scars to show (93mb). In this manner, the officials are shortsighted in their ignorance of how tamer efforts tend to have broader reaching consequences. When Lord E intervenes* on behalf of Xiao He’s place of precedence, he does so by delineating the differences between “achievements of a moment” and “those of all time” (93b). He points out ways in which Xiao He anticipated the needs of the emperor and the army; how his reinforcements, contingents, and firm holdings allowed the forces to continue with their fighting and seizing (93b, 94t-m). Lord E suggests that without Xiao’s quiet work, someone like Cao wouldn’t have seventy wounds to show as defeat would have come much sooner for the Han forces. In this manner, Xiao’s actions serve as the backbone of claimed victories; the absence of Xiao’s work resulting in gravely more dire consequences than the absence of even “a hundred fighting men like Cao Can” (94tm). Like puppets unaware of their master, the Han officials failed to recognize the road they tread as paved by the man of brush and ink.

 

At the close of Xiao’s chapter, Sima speaks of Xiao as being “a petty official, wielding his brush and scraper” in the time of Qin, and he attributes his success to catching “a little of its [Han’s] brilliance” when it rose (98b). In Han, Xiao continued to be a “man of brush and ink” (perhaps it is of note that his scraper was replaced by the ink—no more need for the censuring and erasures of Qin in Han), yet his skill was able to flourish and aid. Sima may be suggesting that it is because of leaders like Emperor Han—those who educated others on distinctions between long-term consequences and short-term victories; those who understood how inconspicuous work often functions as a cause for effective fighting and seizing—that strategists like Xiao were effectively used and that consequently Han was able to flourish.

 

*It is of note that Emperor Han restrains himself from arguing the officials on this second count of precedence, after he has his way on the first count of fiefdom. This shows the emperor’s understanding of the need for compromise, and also of the fact that he cannot be the only one actively in favor of such things. He leaves room for others in Han to “work for the advancement of worthy men” (93m).

 

 

 

 

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