The gentleman up at the beam

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

   The gentleman up at the beam.  

   This story took place in the Han Dynasty (202BC to 220AD) and 
involved a district officer named Zhen Shi. One night he discovered 
a burglar hiding up on a beam in the ceiling of his bedroom. The 
burglar intended to steal from his house but the officer did not sound
the alarm. He called his children and nephews and nieces to his bed 
room and, with oblique reference to the burglar, he spoke loudly and
seriously to the children;

    "Human beings are born fundamentally good in nature.
     All men are the same in this respect.
     When they are in the process of growing up, 
     they start to develop their own characteristics. 
     When they are grown up and become adults their behaviours 
     tend to be different and far apart to each other." 
He continued: 
    "A man should always inspire himself. A man was not born bad. 
     He was bad because he did not inspire himself 
     whenever he did bad things. 
     Thus he became accustomed to his bad behaviour. 
     People start to call him a bad man. 
     The best example is the gentleman who is up there 
     on the beam in this room".

    The burglar was shocked to hear this and he realized that the 
lecture was not meant for the children but for him. He quickly jumped 
down and asked the district officer for forgiveness. He promised he 
would turn over a new leaf and never steal again.  He explained that 
he stole because he was poor and had a sick mother at home. He did not
look like a thief to the district officer. With compassion, the district
officer gave the burglar two yards of cloth and some money and told him 
to go home to his sick mother.

 "Liang2 Shang4 Jun Zi3".

 CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.