In Defence of Corruption - The He Shen View

This is my third reference to the Chinese drama serial Ji Xiaolan (铁齿铜牙纪晓岚) that I am aware that I run the risk of sounding like a marketing agent for the mainland Chinese series.

But anyway, my entry on the series yesterday reminded me of a memorable scene between Ji Xiaolan (纪晓岚) and He Shen (和珅) in the serial.

Apparently, Ji confronted He over the latter's involvement and knowledge of a huge corruption scandal where the central government's delivery of food supplies to disaster-striken areas were pocketed by corrupted officials.

During the confrontation, Ji accused He of being greedy, for ignoring the plight of the ordinary people, and of not performing the duties that the central government had entrusted him. And He's retort, I thought, was truly exceptional.

He argued that to feed the starving masses, he first had to feed his officials, and only when the officials are fed, satisfied and happy, could he then rely on these same officials to feed the masses.

He argued that the Chinese written word for official (or guan - 官) has two mouths, adding that "If I don't feed the upper mouth, what makes you think I can feed the lower mouth?"

And when accused of selling food supplies at a high price and then purchasing animal feed at a lower price to feed the people, He's reply was equally robust.

He asked, "my dear Minister Ji, have you even seen how people looked like when they are about to starve to death?". Ji said no. And He answered: "Well, when they are about to starve to death, they are no different from animals."

When Ji protested that that was no way to talk about humans, He asked Ji : "Have you heard of the term "exchanging babies for food?" Again, Ji said no. And He said, "I have been to areas where people are so hungry that they exchange their children for food. Have you ever witnessed with your own eyes misery like that? Do you know what it means to have something to eat, regardless of what that something is? Have you seen people so hungry that they have to resort to eating grass, tree bark and even dirt?" Again, Ji's answer was no.

He explained that by selling one sack of food intended for starving people, he could exchange that sack of human food for three bags of animal feed. And when when people are dying, it made no difference if they are fed animal feed or human food. And with three bags of animal feed, you can save more people than you otherwise could with just one bag of human food!

You know, even though corruption should never be celebrated, He Shen's argument made me looked at the issue in a whole new light. Of course, I love Ji Xiaolan for his righteousness and for his refusal to accept corruption in whatever form or extent.

But in that scene, I saw for myself the confrontation between a realist and an idealist. And it made me pondered once again the meaning of right and wrong in a world which is hardly black and white, but rather with lots of shades of grey in between.