Parable of Conscience

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Parable of Conscience

It happened long long ago. There came into the world Conscience. She was born in the still of the night, when the whole creation thinks. Scintillated in the moonlight, the river thinks; studded with stars, the sky thinks; standing still in the night’s shades, a blade of grass thinks. A pupa thinks what motley patterns it should endow the butterfly. Plants think about their beautiful inflorescences; birds think about songs; and stars – about the future. That is why it is so serene at night. All is full of life during the day, but is silent and thoughtful at night. And it was in such a night, when all living things were thinking, that Conscience was born. She was delightful. Her big beautiful eyes reflected fires of distant stars. The moonlight circumfused her face with its radiance. And the night wrapped her up in its mysterious covers.
So Conscience went to people. She got on among them half well, half poorly. She lived like a night bird, for no one wanted even to speak to her during the day. Whoever she came to brushed her off saying: “We’ve a lot on our plate just now, the work is in full swing all round. We can’t waste time talking to you!” At night, however, she made her way unimpeded into the houses of both the rich and the poor. She touched the sleeping person, and they woke up.
When they saw her they asked: “What do you want, Conscience?”
And she asked softly: “What have you done today?”
“Me? I wasn't doing anything...”
“Try to think a little.”
“Ah... Well, except...”
And while the person was recalling, Conscience left to see another one. The awoken could not sleep till the morning and kept pondering over what they had been doing the day before. Many things they did not want to hear during the noise of the day, they heard echoing in the hush of the night. In this manner Conscience kept coming to everyone until everyone became sleepless.
And so people decided to ask the advice of the wisest man in their province Li Hang-Zhu whether he knew a remedy to cure insomnia. People called Li Hang-Zhu the wised because they thought, since he had more money than others, more land than others, more houses than others; it meant he had more brains than others!
But they didn’t know that he, whom they called ‘the wisest,’ was suffering from the same insomnia malady more than others and was not aware how to get rid of it. For everyone around was indebted to him. And these people had done nothing in their entire lives, but worked a debt out to him. Such was the way wise Li Hang-Zhu managed his life. As a wise man, for example, he knew what to do when a debtor stole from him and got caught. In his wisdom Li Hang-Zhu drubbed the man, and so painstakingly at that, so as to teach the others not to try something like that again. It came out to be wise during the daytime as other people, seeing the punishment, were afraid of him. But at night Li Hang-Zhu was afraid himself – afraid for his life, for his riches. That’s why quite other thoughts came to him at night than during the day: “Why does a poor man steal? Because he has nothing to eat and has no time to earn his food. All he does is work a debt out to me all day long.” Yet, Li Hang-Zhu argued with Conscience trying to excuse his actions: “It turns out that I was robbed, but I am wrong too?!” Even though he made excuses, he could not sleep all the same.
These sleepless nights drove him to the point when Li Hang-Zhu could not bear it any longer and despite his wisdom he declared: “I shall give back all their money, all their land, all their houses!”
But as soon as relatives of wise Li Hang-Zhu heard this, they raised a terrible hue and cry shouting to people: “It’s because of sleepless nights that such madness came over a wise man! But the one guilty is ‘she’ – Conscience!”
The rich got frightened: “If madness came over the wisest, what would happen to us?”
The poor got frightened too: “We have less things than the rest, that means we have less brains. If madness comes over the wisest because of sleepless nights, what would happen to our small mind?”
When they saw the fear of the poor, the rich held council among each other: “See how Conscience frightens the poor. We ought to stand up for the poor at least and get rid of Conscience!”
And so, they brooded over how to arrange this small affair, but could not come up to anything. They decided to send ambassadors to the most wise in all China A Pu-O who lived in Nanking then. He was so wise and so learned that his council was sought by rulers throughout all China. The ambassadors were fitted out for him. They brought him generous gifts, bowed low to him many times and gave an account of their request – to help people get rid of insomnia caused by Conscience.
A Pu-O listened to this ‘people’s grief,’ smiled and said: “Yes, it’s possible to deprive Conscience of the right even to approach you! How can a benighted man know what he should and shouldn’t do? Let’s invent laws. We’ll write what a man should and shouldn’t do in scrolls. Mandarins would learn laws by rote. Others would ask them what’s allowed and what’s forbidden. But at first they should pay, of course, because you know the mandarins should get something for stuffing their minds with laws! And when Conscience comes and asks benighted man: ‘What have you done today?’ – they would answer: ‘I did what is required to do, what’s written in the scrolls.’ And everyone would sleep calmly.”
This decision was greeted gladly by everyone. By mandarins in the first place. It’s easier to rummage in scrawls than till the land, you know. Others were glad too. It’s better to pay a mandarin and chat with him for a minute in the afternoon than to have a heart-to-heart talk with Conscience at night. So, they started to write laws what a man should do and what he shouldn’t. The laws were written, and for his valuable advice wise A Pu-O was made the supremest of all mandarins in order for his wisdom to help clever people live quietly away from Conscience.
And people began to live a life according to the laws of mandarins and the supremest A Pu-O. Should something be done or should an argument arise, people went to see a mandarin and, generously paying for his answer, they asked: “Unroll the scrolls. Who proves right among us under them?”
Only the neediest paupers suffered from sleeplessness now, as they had nothing to pay a mandarin for his advice. As for the rest, as soon as Conscience came to them at night, they said: “Stop annoying me! I acted by law! As it’s written in the scrolls! It’s not just me!”
They turned over on the other side and fell asleep.
Even the wisest Li Hang-Zhu, who had suffered from sleeplessness more than others, now only laughed up in his sleeve when Conscience came to him: “Well, hello beauty! What are you going to tell me now?”
Looking at him with her eyes where stars glimmered, Conscience said: “How did it happen that you wanted to give your possessions back to the poor, but are not doing so?!”
“Do I even have a right to do so?!” Li Hang-Zhu mocked at her. “What’s written in the scrolls? ‘Property of each person belongs to him and his descendants.’ How would I squander somebody else’s property, if my descendants do not agree to giving? It looks like I am a thief, because I steal from them, or a mad man, because I steal from myself. But it’s written in the law: ‘Thieves and madmen are to be enchained.’ So leave me alone. Besides, I advise you to sleep instead of roaming about!”
He turned his back to her and was fast asleep.
Anywhere Conscience came, she heard the same words: “How do we know?! We do as mandarins tell us to do. Go and ask them! We live by law.”
Conscience went to mandarins and asked them: “Why does nobody want to listen to me?”
They laughed in response: “Can people really listen to you and do as you advise them? And what are laws for? Here, it’s written for everyone in Chinese ink on yellow paper! A great thing! No wonder A Pu-O was reckoned as the supremest of all mandarins for inventing it.”
Thus Conscience went to the supremest mandarin, the wisest in all China A Pu-O. She touched him gently. Awoken was A Pu-O; he leaped up and, seeing Conscience, cried in his fright: “How dare you appear in private property without permission? What’s written in the law? ‘He, who sneaks into another’s home at night, is to be considered a thief and put into prison’!”
“I did not come to steal from you!” she answered. “I am Conscience!”
“By law, however, you are a bad woman! It’s clearly said there: “If a woman comes to an unfamiliar man at night, consider her a bad woman and put her into prison!’ So, if you are not a thief, you are a libertine!”
“I am no libertine!” she replied in surprise. “I am Conscience!”
But A Pu-O blazed with anger even more.
“Ah! So you are neither a libertine nor a thief, you just don’t want to observe the laws, do you? There’s a law for such case too: ‘He, who does not abide laws, is to be considered a transgressor of the law and put into prison.’ Hey, servants! Put her in the stocks and lock her up in a dungeon forevermore as a libertine, suspected in theft and exposed in evident disobedience of laws.”
Servants of A Pu-O seized Conscience, put her in the stocks and locked her up in a dungeon. Since that time, she has not come to anyone and has not disturbed anyone. Thus people even forgot her completely. Except that seldom a man, discontented with mandarins, cries: “You have no shame, no conscience!”
So they would immediately show him a paper that Conscience is locked up and would answer: “We do, if we keep her under lock!”
And the man grows silent, looks at the mandarin’s paper, written in ink and sees that they are actually right! Since then, people have lived without Conscience under law of mandarins and the supremest A Pu-O. Should it be burdensome or sweet for someone, each decides for oneself when night falls and all creation begins to think.