Rising Together to the Ranks of Lords: Innate Equality and the Pre-Qin Vision of Self-Cultivation, Compared with Western Freedom and Equality
Starting from a brief episode in the Analects, in which the noble Wenzi of Wei promotes his own household steward, Zhuan, to stand alongside him among the lords, this essay reads that small event against the great declarations of freedom and equality since the Renaissance: the West places its ideal at the starting line, while the pre-Qin thinkers built the ideal into lived reality.
V. Rising Together to the Ranks of Lords: An "Equality" Accomplished on the Spot
5.1 Zhuan's Labor: Advancing Himself Through Talent and Virtue
The historical record leaves us very little about Zhuan by way of name. The "Xian Wen" chapter of the Analects records none of his words, his age, or his family background — it tells us only two things: that he was a steward of Wenzi of Wei, and that he later "rose together with Wenzi to stand among the lords." Precisely because the record is so sparse, we cannot invent a legend on his behalf, nor can we call his ascent a chance act of favor. What can be established is this: in the concrete position of steward, through long service, learning, and judgment, he made himself qualified to enter public office.
"Steward" was not an identity that automatically converted into "grand master." A steward had to handle the affairs entrusted to him by his master, dealing with the particulars of finance, ritual, diplomacy, or military matters; every one of those particulars might expose a person's carelessness, greed, or incompetence, or it might reveal his reliability, perceptiveness, and self-restraint. Had Zhuan not built a reputation within these daily affairs, Wenzi could hardly have made others believe in him even had he wished to recommend him. Public office is not a private gift — it must face the scrutiny of one's peers, one's ruler, and the common people; a recommendation carries weight only on the premise that the one recommended has already proven himself in visible work.
Zhuan's labor was therefore not "waiting to be discovered," but turning his present, lowly position into a place of learning. Those in low positions often feel that the real opportunity lies in the future, and that present work is merely temporary drudgery; the pre-Qin view of self-cultivation, by contrast, demands that a person practice order, proportion, and responsibility precisely within such drudgery. Whether one can carry out small matters clearly, whether one can keep faith when no one is applauding, whether one can learn to discern advantage and harm from one's master's decisions — these are exactly the measures by which one judges whether a person can bear greater responsibility. Ascent is not a leap away from lowliness, but a deepening of the labor done within lowliness.
Nor does Zhuan's story support a simple narrative of the lone individual hero. Had his talent and virtue not been recognized by Wenzi, they might have remained buried within the household forever; but had Wenzi's recommendation lacked Zhuan's accumulated substance behind it, it would have amounted to nothing more than a gamble. It takes one person advancing himself and another recommending the worthy for genuine mobility of public rank to occur. The pre-Qin thinkers place responsibility neither wholly on the individual nor wholly on institutions — they let a person's own labor and the opportunities within a relationship mesh together. That he "could rise" is both an affirmation of Zhuan and a reminder to every subordinate who comes after him: treat today's work as tomorrow's credential.
5.2 Wenzi's Labor: Recommending the Worthy Without Fear of His Peers
The difficulty for Wenzi of Wei was that he was not doing good on an empty field free of competition. Once Zhuan "rose together with him to stand among the lords," a relationship that had originally been clearly one of master and servant was carried into the company of peers. Wenzi could easily have kept Zhuan within the household, letting his ability continue to serve him alone. To recommend the worthy, however, meant sending a familiar and capable person out into a larger public space. If a superior cultivates only those who will never surpass him, what he cultivates is not talent but dependency.
Wenzi chose the opposite path. He did not, because Zhuan had originated as a steward, convert Zhuan's talent and virtue into his own private property; nor did he, out of fear of what his peers might say, seal public office within the old order of rank. Recommending the worthy is at once a matter of recognizing talent and a matter of self-restraint: a superior must acknowledge that the interest of the organization sometimes requires the people around him to rise higher than himself. True achievement does not consist in keeping everyone forever orbiting oneself, but in enabling more people to bear affairs independently.
Such recommendation requires a particular kind of security. A leader who is inwardly impoverished often regards a subordinate's growth as a threat to himself; a leader who is truly virtuous regards a subordinate's growth as the fulfillment of his own responsibility. On the surface, both may claim to be "cultivating talent," yet their actual conduct runs in opposite directions: the former gives only trivial tasks and no decision-making power, offers only praise and withholds true information, and once the other gains a reputation, finds ways to push him back into his original place. The latter is willing to let a person face difficulty, gain access to core affairs, and, once that person has matured, openly acknowledges his achievement. Wenzi's wen can be understood precisely as this latter kind of bringing-to-completion.
Nor does recommending the worthy mean pushing everyone forward without any principle. That Wenzi could earn the Master's approval was precisely because Zhuan's ascent was not a mockery of order but a response to talent and virtue. If the one recommended does not yet have the capacity to bear responsibility, and a superior promotes him rashly merely to display his own generosity, this will harm both the organization and the person himself. Bringing someone to completion is not indulgence; delegating authority must be accompanied by testing, and sharing one's position must be accompanied by responsibility. What Wenzi did had both a side of benevolence and a side of judgment: he knew when to keep a person at his side to learn, and when to let him step out onto the public stage.
For everyone who holds resources, information, and decision-making power, Wenzi's labor remains a live question. Can the people under you speak only in your name, or can they build their own credibility$15 Are you willing to let the most capable person gain a larger stage, even if he will no longer remain under your direct control afterward$16 The longevity of an organization does not depend on how many people its leader keeps close to himself, but on whether the talent he has cultivated can still stand once it has left his shelter. Yielding precedence to the worthy does not diminish a superior — it transforms his value from "occupying the height" into "creating heights for others."
5.3 The Master's Labor: Honoring Through Posthumous Naming, Establishing the Direction of Civilization
At this point in the story, the Master's labor introduces a third dimension: how public memory should judge one who yields precedence to the worthy. When the Master heard that Wenzi had recommended Zhuan, all he said was "this is worthy of being called wen." This was no casual compliment — it placed an individual act within the scale of posthumous naming and of civilization itself. The Yi Zhou Shu, in its "Explanation of Posthumous Titles," says: "To weave together Heaven and Earth is called wen; to be broadly learned in the Way and virtue is called wen; to be diligent in learning and fond of inquiry is called wen." This single word wen encompasses the intelligence to order Heaven and Earth, broad virtue, and the habit of loving learning and seeking instruction — far more than mere elegance of language.
To bestow "wen" upon Wenzi of Wei is, in effect, to tell later generations: what deserves to be remembered is not only conquest, the accumulation of wealth, or the expansion of one's household, but also the recognition of the worthy, the acceptance of the worthy, and the putting of the worthy to public use. A posthumous title is a form of public education. It transforms one particular person's choice into a standard that later generations can understand: if one wishes to earn the judgment of "wen," one must have talent in the handling of affairs, virtue in relationships, a refusal to grow complacent in learning, and, when one holds power, a willingness to bring others to completion.
This mechanism of honor differs from the office a person gains in the moment. Office resolves the immediate distribution of responsibility; a posthumous title handles the long-term ranking of values. If an age rewards only possession and victory, those who come after will naturally treat other people as stepping stones; if yielding to the worthy, caring for the people, and loving to learn are written into public judgment, people will know that achievement also lies in leaving the community better heirs. Wenzi's "wen" is therefore a calibration offered to society.
Nor does the Master turn Wenzi into a deified figure — his judgment concerns only the specific act of "rising together with Zhuan." Public honor need not portray a person as entirely without fault; the more concrete the honor, the more clearly later generations can see what there is to learn. Erasing a person's complexity makes it easy to manufacture an idol; pointing out why one particular act is praiseworthy is what actually builds a workable standard for civilization.
The significance of posthumous naming also lies in the fact that it does not let evaluation be decided entirely, in the moment, by whoever holds power. After a person dies, his name must still undergo the test of the community's memory; the prominence of today does not necessarily buy the respect of later ages, and virtue overlooked today may become clear only with the passage of time. Once public judgment has this long-range measure, a superior cannot pursue only the applause of the present moment. The "wen" that Wenzi earned by recommending Zhuan fixes one local instance of personnel mobility into a lasting mark of civilization — a sign of what kind of leadership deserves praise.
5.4 Mobility and Order Together: This "Equality" Overturned Nothing
"Rising together to the ranks of lords" can be called an equality accomplished on the spot, yet it did not overturn the steward system, did not declare that everyone was thereafter without difference, and did not demote Wenzi of Wei to the position Zhuan had originally occupied. The change occurred elsewhere: a person's origin no longer served as the sole measure of his final rank, and a superior's power was no longer merely possession, but was required to transform itself into the capacity to recommend the worthy. The existing order retained its division of labor and its responsibilities, yet within that order a genuine ascent took place.
This equality is reliable precisely because it did not sidestep reality. Zhuan first learned, served, and accumulated a reputation in the position of steward; he was then recommended by Wenzi; and finally he entered public office — every step can answer the question "on what grounds." Had it simply been declared that "he was always exactly the same as Wenzi to begin with," this would have failed to explain why he in particular came to bear a certain responsibility, or why he in particular was allowed to stand alongside Wenzi. The wisdom of the pre-Qin thinkers lies in acknowledging that a person's dignity may never be treated lightly, while responsibility must still differ — and in translating that respect for a person's dignity into an actual change of rank through learning, virtue, and demonstrated effect.
Nor is mobility a one-way assault on order. As Zhuan rose, he had to bear responsibility commensurate with his new office; as Wenzi recommended him, he had to submit to the scrutiny of his peers and of later generations; and as the public office received Zhuan, it had to trust that this new ability could serve a larger community. Ascent expands responsibility — it does not merely increase one's compensation. If a person understands "attaining equality" to mean being freed thereafter from every demand, what he has gained is only self-indulgent license; true ascent means being answerable to more people even as one is seen by more people.
From this we can see that difference of position and equality are not naturally opposed to one another. Difference of position answers the question "who bears which responsibility," while equality demands that no one be judged in advance, on account of origin, as unfit to learn, to be respected, and to change. Difference of position without mobility leaves an organization rigid and lifeless; leveling without responsibility leaves an organization without direction. Wenzi and Zhuan bring both together in a single act: one rises, the other yields precedence, and the public position thereby gains both order and vitality.
For today, what this story offers is not a template to be copied from the Spring and Autumn institutions, but a question to keep asking: does someone in a low position have a path to learn; does someone in a high position bear the duty to recommend and to yield precedence to the worthy; does public judgment honor the act of bringing others to completion$1 Where all three hold, difference of position need not be darkness; where all three are lost, even a slogan of equality will conceal a closed system.
What "rising together to the ranks of lords" finally leaves behind is not a command to abolish hierarchy, but an art of connecting the ideal to reality: acknowledging that human groups need layers, acknowledging that ability can grow, acknowledging that growth needs teachers, friends, and opportunity, and letting public memory fix such acts of bringing-to-completion as an honorable virtue. Equality is not a banner planted somewhere in the distance — it is the attainment, within the very structure of rank, of a position commensurate with one's virtue and talent.