Lin Hui Drops the Jade
The state of Jia falls, and Lin Hui throws away a jade disc worth a thousand gold to carry an infant on his back. The challengers do the arithmetic: the infant is worth less and weighs more. Lin Hui's answer cuts the arithmetic in half: that was joined by profit, this is joined by heaven — and the passage's closing sentence gives Confucius its quietest miracle: when the formalities stopped, the disciples' love increased.
The passage
孔子问子桑雽曰：“吾再逐于鲁，伐树于宋，削迹于卫，穷于商、周，围于陈、蔡之间。吾犯此数患，亲交益疏，徒友益散，何与？“子桑雽曰：“子独不闻假人之亡与？林回弃千金之璧，负赤子而趋。或曰：‘为其布与？赤子之布寡矣。为其累与？赤子之累多矣。弃千金之璧，负赤子而趋，何也？‘林回曰：‘彼以利合，此以天属也。‘夫以利合者，迫穷祸患害，相弃也；以天属者，迫穷祸患害，相收也。夫相收之与相弃，亦远矣。且君子之交淡若水，小人之交甘若醴；君子淡以亲，小人甘以绝。彼无故以合者，则无故以离。“孔子曰：“敬闻命矣！“徐行翔佯而归，绝学捐书，弟子无挹于前，其爱益加进。
Confucius asked Zisang Hu: “Twice I was expelled from Lu; the tree was felled over me in Song; my footprints were erased in Wei; I was blocked in Shang and Zhou; besieged between Chen and Cai. Having suffered all these disasters, my relatives grow more distant and my disciples and friends more scattered. Why?” Zisang Hu said: “Have you alone not heard of the flight of the people of Jia? Lin Hui threw away a jade disc worth a thousand gold and fled carrying an infant on his back. Someone said: ‘For its value? An infant’s value is little. For its burden? An infant’s burden is heavy. Throwing away a thousand-gold jade to flee with an infant — why?’ Lin Hui said: ‘That was joined by profit; this is joined by heaven.’ Those joined by profit, when pressure, poverty, and disaster press on them, abandon each other; those joined by heaven, when pressure, poverty, and disaster press on them, gather each other in. And the distance between gathering in and abandoning is far. Moreover, the friendship of gentlemen is plain like water, the friendship of small men is sweet like wine; gentlemen are plain and yet close, small men are sweet and yet severed. Those who join for no cause will part for no cause.” Confucius said: “I respectfully hear your command.” Walking slowly and wandering back, he cut off his learning, gave away his books — the disciples no longer bowed before him, and their love for him increased all the more.
Why this passage matters
- The arithmetic that gets the answer wrong. The challenger’s objection is a cost-benefit analysis and it is correct: the infant is worth less (赤子之布寡矣) and weighs more (赤子之累多矣) — by every unit of the calculus, Lin Hui chose badly. The passage’s point is not that the calculus erred; it is that the calculus is the wrong kind. 彼以利合，此以天属也 — that was joined by profit, this is joined by heaven — and the two joinings behave opposite under pressure: 迫穷祸患害, the profit-joined abandon (相弃), the heaven-joined gather in (相收). The site’s social-pelt page (same chapter) holds the general diagnosis this applies to Confucius’ question: having people is a burden, being had by people is a worry — and Confucius’ catalogue of disasters (exiled twice, tree felled, tracks erased, besieged) is the biography of a man joined to everyone by profit of office.
- The famous sentence and its full form. 君子之交淡若水 — the friendship of gentlemen is plain like water — is today’s idiom of disinterested friendship, and the passage gives it its full machinery: 小人之交甘若醴 (small men’s friendship sweet like wine), 君子淡以亲 (gentlemen plain yet close), 小人甘以绝 (small men sweet yet severed). The modern drift dropped the halves that explain the first: the plain one lasts because it asks nothing, the sweet one severs because sweetness is the interest. The site’s friendship file (the four who asked each other only whether the other knew what friendship is) and its forgetting file (the friends who forget each other like fish forgetting the river) hold the same water-family: the bond that survives is the one with nothing in it.
- The closing miracle. 绝学捐书，弟子无挹于前，其爱益加进 — he cut off learning, gave away books, the disciples no longer bowed before him, and their love increased all the more. It is the passage’s quietest and most precise claim: removing the form (the bowing, the curriculum, the teacher-position) increased the bond. The Guo Xiang subcommentary makes the point explicit (去饰任素 — remove the adornment, release the plainness), and the site’s forgetting glossary page holds the term-family this closes: the two forgettings (两忘而化其道) — what the water-friendship forgets is the accounting itself. The same chapter’s empty boat is the negative image: the boat gets cursed because someone is in it; here the disciples stop bowing because the someone has stepped out.
- The chapter’s frame, completed. This passage and the dithering bird are the chapter’s two lessons to the same starving Confucius, and the site files them as a pair: the bird lesson says remove the display (the harm comes from showing); the jade lesson says remove the accounting (the abandonment comes from profit-joining). Together they are the chapter’s answer to its own opening dilemma (no fixed formula: the tree dies by uselessness, the goose by usefulness) — not a formula but a direction of removal. What survives the collapse of the state of Jia is not the asset but the heaven-bound weight on Lin Hui’s back.
Sources
- Zhuangzi ch. 20 (Shan Mu, outer chapter), the Lin Hui passage, verified against the Shidianguji Zhuangzi Yi edition (carrying the Guo Xiang subcommentary) and the Wikisource full chapter, which agree on the received text: 孔子问子桑雽曰：吾再逐于鲁，伐树于宋，削迹于卫，穷于商周，围于陈蔡之间。吾犯此数患，亲交益疏，徒友益散，何与？子桑雽曰：子独不闻假人之亡与？林回弃千金之璧，负赤子而趋。或曰：为其布与？赤子之布寡矣。为其累与？赤子之累多矣。弃千金之璧，负赤子而趋，何也？林回曰：彼以利合，此以天属也。夫以利合者，迫穷祸患害，相弃也；以天属者，迫穷祸患害，相收也。夫相收之与相弃，亦远矣。且君子之交淡若水，小人之交甘若醴；君子淡以亲，小人甘以绝。彼无故以合者，则无故以离。孔子曰：敬闻命矣！徐行翔佯而归，绝学捐书，弟子无挹于前，其爱益加进 — with the name variant registered (子桑雽 in Wikisource, 子桑虖 in the Zhuangzi Yi edition) and the Baidu Baike entry and ctext parallel section confirming the story's fixed status as the source of 君子之交淡若水