Junzi Xunzi 非十二子 Wrong Twelve Zi Noisy Large Moo

'Their emitted emotions are of a peaceful nature... they wantonly stare at the behavior of birds and beasts... they do not 'walk the talk', they do not coherently unite their words with their own self-governing... it is within their grasp... their speech is rational... but their walk deceives the confused stupid multitude... right it be noisy Wei Mou.'

The behavior is very common; many people talk about things that may sound rational, and yet the speakers themselves do not 'walk the talk'. Bad televangelists preach about morals, and yet the televangelists themselves are immoral. Many people believe that their gods created everything, including Earth, and yet all of the people hate and dishonor their gods by polluting and destroying the Earth. James Legge and Homer Dubs were both Christians, both were Christian missionaries, both were Oxford University sinology department employees, and both wrote a lot of books about the ancient Chinese texts, but Legge and Dubs both exhibited the anti-Christian and anti-scholarly behavior of lies, deceit, and hate. Xunzi's complaint was valid 2,300 years ago, and is still valid today.

No known record exists of a Ta Xiao. Some individuals suspect the name ought to have been Fan Sui or Huan Yuan, but, regardless of the guesses, at the moment it is unimportant who or what Xunzi referred to. The reference to Wei Mou might refer to a prince of Wei, who was well-known for his philosophies, and who was allegedly a hedonist (a person who believes that the ultimate value in life is pleasure: see Hedonist Ethics for further information). If Wei Mou were indeed a hedonist, and if Wei Mou did occupy his time as history books state, then his behavior did indeed not 'walk the talk', and he fully deserved a strong rebuke from Xunzi and everyone else.

Or, perhaps, might have Xunzi used another play of words as he had done in a different book? Dictionaries give the word 牟 (mou) to have several possible definitions, including the name Mou, as well as the sound of a cow/bovine: 'moo'. Perhaps there might have been a popular slang term during Xunzi's era, that of calling hypocrites a 'noisy large moo' (sort of like today's phrase of 'big fat cow'). Nevertheless, for the moment, it does not matter much whether Xunzi implied 'Wei Mou' or 'large moo', the wording still points at people who do not 'walk their talk'.

An example of a 'noisy large moo' is Homer Dubs' translation of paragraph #2: "...they give rein to their passions ; they are satisfied to be supercilious ; they perform bestial actions ; they are insufficient to be classed with the accomplished or with those who know how to govern rightly ; yet what they support seems reasonable, their teachings are plausible, sufficiently so to deceive and mislead the ignorant multitude — such are Tuo Hsiao and Wei Mou."

Homer Dubs preached Christian values and academic values, but he walked neither. Dubs was a noisy large moo.