[33] The Master said: "How dare I lay claim to holiness or love? A man of endless craving I might be called, an unflagging teacher; but nothing more."

"That is just what we disciples cannot learn," said Kunghsi Hua.

[34] The Master being very ill, Tzu-lu asked leave to pray.

The Master said: "Is it the custom?"

"It is," answered Tzu-lu. "The Memorials say, 'Pray to the spirits in heaven above and on earth below.'

The Master said: "Long lasting has my prayer been." [35] The Master said: "Waste begets self-will; thrift begets meanness: but better be mean than self-willed."

[36] The Master said: "A gentleman is calm and spacious: the vulgar are always fretting."

[37] The Master was friendly, yet dignified; he inspired awe, but not fear; he was respectful, yet easy.

VIII

[1] THE Master said: "Tai-po' might indeed be called a man of highest worth. Thrice he gave up the throne. Men were at a loss how to praise him."

[2] The Master said: "Without a sense of courtesy, attentions grow into fussiness, heed turns to fearfulness, courage becomes unruliness, uprightness turns to harshness. When the gentry are true to kinsmen, love will thrive among the people. If they do not forsake old friends, the people will not be selfish."

[3] When Tseng-tzu lay sick he summoned his disciples and said: "Uncover my feet, uncover my arms. The poem says:

'As though a deep gulf
Were yawning below,
As crossing thin ice,

Take heed how ye go.'

T'ai-po was the eldest son of the King of Chou. The father wished his third son to succeed him, in order that the throne might pass through him to his famous son, afterwards known as King Wen. To facilitate this plan T'ai-po and his second brother went into voluntary exile.

Till this day, and beyond, I have walked unscathed, my boys."

[4] When Tseng-tzu lay sick Meng Ching came to ask after him.

Tseng-tzu said: "When a bird is to die, his note is sad; when a man is to die, his words are true. There are three duties that a gentleman prizes: to banish from his bearing violence and levity; to sort his face to the truth; to purge his speech of the low and unfair. As for temple matters, there are officers to mind them."

[5] Tseng-tzu said: "Out of knowledge to learn from ignorance, out of wealth to learn from penury; having to seem wanting, real to seem shadow; when gainsaid never answering back: I had once a friend who would act thus."

[6] Tseng-tzu said: “A man to whom an orphan stripling or the fate of an hundred townships may be entrusted, and whom no crisis can corrupt, is he not a gentleman, a gentleman indeed?"

[7] Tseng-tzu said: "The scholar had need be strong and bold; for his burden is heavy, the road is far. His burden is love, is it not a heavy one? Death is the goal, is that not far?

[8] The Master said: "Poetry rouses, courtesy upholds us, music is our crown."

[9] The Master said: "The people may be made to follow: they cannot be made to understand."

[10] The Master said: "Love of daring, inflamed by poverty, leads to crime: a man without love, if deeply illtreated, will turn to crime."

[11] The Master said: "All the glorious gifts of the Duke of Chou, if coupled with pride and meanness, would not be worth one glance."

[12] The Master said: "A man to whom three years of study have borne no fruit would be hard to find."

[13] The Master said: “A man who loves learning with simple faith, who to mend his life is content to die, will not enter a tottering kingdom, nor stay in a land distraught.

The Chinese say: "The body is born whole by the mother; it is for the son to return it again whole.

Head of the Meng clan, minister of Lu.
This is believed to refer to Yen Yüan.

See note to vii. 5.

When right prevails below heaven, he is seen; when wrong prevails, he is unseen. When right prevails, he would blush to be poor and lowly; when wrong prevails, wealth and honours would shame him."

[14] The Master said: "When not in office, discuss not policy."

[15] The Master said: "In the first days of the music master Chih how grand was the ending of the Kuan-chü! How it filled the ear!"

[16] The Master said: "Of such as are eager, but not straight; shallow, but not simple; dull, but not truthful, I will know nothing."

[17] The Master said: "Study as though the time were short, as one who fears to lose."

[18] The Master said: "It was sublime how Shun and Yü swayed the world and made light of it!"

[19] The Master said: "How great was Yao in kingship! Sublime! Heaven alone is great; Yao alone was patterned on it! Boundless! Men's words failed them. Sublime the work he did, dazzling the wealth of his culture!"

[20] Shun had five ministers, and order reigned below heaven.

68

King Wu said: Ten in number are my able ministers." Confucius said: "The dearth of talent,' is not that the truth? The days when Yü' succeeded T'ang' were rich in talent; yet there were but nine men in all, and one of these was a woman. The utmost worth was the worth of Chou ! Lord of two-thirds of the earth, he submitted all to Yin."

[21] The Master said: "I find no flaw in Yü. Frugal in eating and drinking, he was lavish to the ghosts of the dead: ill-clad, he was gorgeous in cap and gown: his home a hovel, he poured out his strength upon dikes and ditches. No kind of flaw can I find in Yü."

IX

[1] THE Master seldom spake of gain, doom, or love. [2] A man from the Ta-hsiang village said: "The great King Wen, Duke of Chou.

• Shun. 7 Yao.

Confucius, with his vast learning, has made no name in anything."

When the Master heard it, he said to his disciples: "What shall I take up? Shall I take up charioteering? Shall I take up bowmanship? I must take up charioteering."

[3] The Master said: "A linen cap is correct: to-day silk is worn. It is cheap, and I follow the many. To bow below is correct: to-day it is done above. This is overweening, and, despite the many, I bow below."

[4] From four things the Master was quite free. He had no by-views; he knew not "must," or "shall," or "I."

[5] When the Master was affrighted in K'uang,' he said: "Since the death of King Wen, is not this the home of culture? Had Heaven condemned culture, later mortals had missed their share in it. If Heaven uphold culture, what can the men of K'uang do to me?"

[6] A high minister said to Tzu-kung: "The Master must be a holy man, he can do so many things!"

Tzu-kung said: "Heaven has indeed well-nigh endowed him with holiness, and he is many-sided too."

When the Master heard it, he said: "Does the minister know me? Being lowly born, I learned many an humble trade in my youth. But has a gentleman skill in many things? No, in few things."

Lao said that the Master would say: "Having no post, I learned a craft."

[7] The Master said: "Have I in truth understanding? I have no understanding. But if a yokel ask me aught in an empty way, I tap it on this side and that, and sift it to the bottom."

[8] The Master said: "The phoenix comes not, nor does the river give forth a sign. All is over with me!"

[9] When the Master saw folk clad in mourning, or in robes of state, or else a blind man, he made a point of rising -even for the young-or, if he were passing by, of quickening his step.

1 During the Master's wanderings. K'uang is said to have been a small state near Lu, that had been oppressed by Yang Huo. Confucius resembled him, and the men of K'uang set upon him, mistaking him for their enemy; The commentators say that the Master was not affrighted, only "roused to a sense of danger." I cannot find that the text says so.

[10] Yen Yüan heaved a sigh and said: "As I gaze it grows higher, more remote as I dig! I sight it in front, next moment astern! The Master tempts men forward deftly bit by bit. He widened me with culture, he bound me with courtesy. Until my strength was spent I had no power to stop. The goal seemed at hand: I longed to reach it, but the way was closed."

[11] When the Master was very ill, Tzu-lu moved the disciples to act as ministers.

During a better spell the Master said: "Yu has long been feigning. This show of ministers, when I have no ministers, whom can it deceive? Will it deceive Heaven? Moreover, is it not better to die in your arms, my boys, than to die in the arms of ministers? And if I lack a grand burial, shall I die by the roadside?"

[12] Tzu-kung said: "Were a beauteous jadestone mine, ought I to hide it away in a case, or seek a good price and sell it?"

The Master said: "Sell it, sell it! I tarry for my price." [13] The Master wished to make his home among the nine tribes."

One said: "They are low, how could ye?"

The Master said: "Where a gentleman has his home, can aught live that is low?"

[14] The Master said: "After I came back from Wei to Lu the music was set straight and each song found its place." [15] The Master said: "To serve men of high rank when abroad, and father and brothers when at home; to dread slackness in graveside duties, and be no thrall to wine: to which of these have I won?"

[16] As he stood by a stream, the Master said: "Hasting away like this, day and night without stop!"

[17] The Master said: "I have found none who love good as they love women."

[18] The Master said: "In making a mound, if I stop when one basketful more would end it, it is I that stop. In levelling ground, if I go on after throwing down one basketful, it is I that proceed."

The half-barbarous tribes in the mountainous, eastern districts of the present province of Shantung.