strain one another, and refuse to step over this one barrier even till death.
10.
Early in the morning I went to see my brother, who was standing outside the front hall gazing at the sky. I went up to him and with my back to the door said in an unusually calm and peaceful manner, "Brother, I have something to say to you."
"Please go ahead," he replied, turning around abruptly and nodding.
"I have only a few words but I find it difficult to say them. Brother, in the beginning all the savages probably ate a little human flesh. Later on, some of them gave up this practice because their hearts were different. They tried their best to improve themselves and they became human, real human beings, while others continued to eat human flesh. The case of these savages is similar to that of the insects, some of which became fish and birds and monkeys and eventually men, while others did not try to better themselves and remained insects. How shameful are the men who eat men compared with those who do not: their shame must be even greater than the shame that the insects feel toward the monkeys.
"It is true that it was a long, long time ago that Yi-ya steamed up his own son for Chieh and Chou[1] to eat; the trouble is that people have continued to eat one another from the creation of heaven and earth by P'an Ku to the son
- ↑ The legend alluded to here actually centers around King Wen. When he was served with his own son's flesh by the tyrant Chou, he pretended not to know the truth. Had he betrayed the intuition that was attributed to him as a great sage, Chou would have murdered him as a potential rival.
