ervant ones who have not
been too insufferable to be guided by the experience of those who have
gone before."

CHAPTER IV. THE EXPERIMENT OF THE MANDARIN CHAN HUNG

Related by Kai Lung at Shan Tzu, on the occasion of his receiving
a very unexpected reward.

"There are certainly many occasions when the principles of the Mandarin
Chan Hung appear to find practical favour in the eyes of those who form
this usually uncomplaining person's audiences at Shan Tzu," remarked Kai
Lung, with patient resignation, as he took up his collecting-bowl and
transferred the few brass coins which it held to a concealed place among
his garments. "Has the village lately suffered from a visit of one
of those persons who come armed with authority to remove by force or
stratagem such goods as bear names other than those possessed by their
holders? or is it, indeed--as they of Wu-whei confidently assert--that
when the Day of Vows arrives the people of Shan Tzu, with one accord,
undertake to deny themselves in the matter of gifts and free offerings,
in spite of every conflicting impulse?"

"They of Wu-whei!" exclaimed a self-opinionated bystander, who had
by some means obtained an inferior public office, and who was, in
consequence, enabled to be present on all occasions without contributing
any offering. "Well is that village named 'The Refuge of Unworthiness,'
for its dwellers do little but rob and illtreat strangers, and spread
evil and lying reports concerning better endowed ones than themselves."

"Such a condition of affairs may exist," replied Kai Lung, without
any indication of concern either one way or the other; "yet it is an
undeniable fact that they reward this commonplace story-teller's too
often underestimated efforts in a manner which betrays them either to
be of noble birth, or very desirous of putting to shame their less
prosperous neighbouring places."

"Such exhibitions of uncalled-for lavishness are merely the signs of an
ill-regulated and inordinate vanity," remarked a Mandarin of the eighth
grade, who chanced to be passing, and who stopped to listen to Kai
Lung's words. "Nevertheless, it is not fitting that a collection of
decaying hovels, which Wu-whei assuredly is, should, in however small
a detail, appear to rise above Shan Tzu, so that if the versatile and
unassuming Kai Lung will again honour this assembly by allowing his
well-constructed bowl to pass freely to and fro, this obscure and
otherwise entirely