bear such misery! Yet Hui never fell from mirth. What a man he was!"

[10] Jan Ch'iu" said: "Pleasure in the Master's path I do not lack: I lack strength."

The Master said: "Who lacks strength faints by the way; thou puttest a curb upon thee."

[11] The Master said to Tzu-hsia: "Read to become a gentleman; do not read as the vulgar do."

[12] When Tzu-yu was governor of Wu-ch'eng," the Master said: "Hast thou gotten any men?"

He answered: "I have Tan-t'ai Mieh-ming. When walking he will not take a short-cut; he has never come to my house except on business."

[13] The Master said: "Meng Chih-fan never bragged. He was covering the rear in a rout; but when the gate was reached, he whipped up his horse and cried: 'Not courage kept me behind; my horse won't go!""

[14] The Master said: "Unless glib as the reader T'o, and handsome as Chao of Sung, escape is hard in the times that be!"

[15] The Master said: "Who can go out except by the door? Why is it no one keeps to the way?"

[16] The Master said: "Nature outweighing art begets roughness; art outweighing nature begets pedantry. Art and nature well blent make a gentleman."

[17] The Master said: "Man is born upright. If he cease to be so and live, he is lucky to escape!"

[18] The Master said: "Who knows does not rank with him who likes, nor he who likes with him who is glad therein."

[19] The Master said: "To men above the common we may speak of things above the common. To men belowthe common we must not speak of things above the com

[20] Fan Ch'ih" asked, What is wisdom?

The Master said: "To foster right amongst the people; to honour the ghosts of the dead, whilst keeping aloof from them, may be called wisdom.”

The disciple Jan Yu.

A town in Lu, belonging to the Chi.

18 A disciple.

He asked, What is love?

The Master said: "To rank the effort above the prize may be called love."

[21] The Master said: "Wisdom delights in water; love delights in hills. Wisdom is stirring; love is quiet. Wisdom enjoys life; love grows old."

[22] The Master said: "By one revolution Ch'i might grow as Lu: by one revolution Lu might win to truth." [23] The Master said: "A drinking horn that is no horn! What a horn! What a drinking horn!"

[24] Tsai Wo said: "Were a man who loves told that there is a man in a well, would he go in after him?”

The Master said: "Why should he? A gentleman might be brought to the well, but not entrapped into it. He may be cheated; he is not to be fooled."

[25] The Master said: "By breadth of reading and the ties of courtesy a gentleman will also keep from error's path."

17

[26] The Master saw Nan-tzu." Tzu-lu was displeased. The Master took an oath, saying: "If there were sin in me may Heaven forsake me, may Heaven forsake me!"

[27] The Master said: "The highest goodness is to hold fast the golden mean. Amongst the people it has long been rare."

[28] Tzu-kung said: "To treat the people with bounty and help the many, how were that? Could it be called love?"

The Master said: "What has this to do with love? Would it not be holiness? Both Yao and Shun" still yearned for this. In seeking a foothold for self, love finds a foothold for others; seeking light for itself, it enlightens others also. To learn from the near at hand may be called the key to love."

VII

[1] THE Master said: "A teller and not a maker, one who trusts and loves the past; I may be likened to our old P'eng.""

10 A disciple. 17 The dissolute wife of Duke Ling of Wei.

18 Two emperors of the golden age.

Of old P'eng we should be glad to know more, but "the rest is silence."

[2] The Master said: "A silent communer, an ever hungry learner, a still unflagging teacher; am I any of these?"

[3] The Master said: "Neglect of what is good in me; want of thoroughness in study; failure to do the right when told me; lack of strength to overcome faults, these are my sorrows."

[4] In his free moments the Master was easy and cheerful.

[5] The Master said: "How deep is my decay! It is long since I saw the Duke of Chou' in a dream."

[6] The Master said: "Will the right; hold to good won; rest in love; move in art."

[7] The Master said: "From the man who paid in dried meat upwards, I have withheld teaching from no one."

[8] The Master said: "Only to those fumbling do I open, only for those stammering do I find the word. From him who cannot turn the whole when I lift a corner I desist."

[9] When eating beside a mourner the Master never ate his fill. On days when he had been wailing, the Master did not sing.

[10] The Master said to Yen Yüan: "I and thou alone can both fill a post when given one and live unseen when passed by."

Tzu-lu said: "Had ye to command three armies, Sir, who should go with you?"

"No man," said the Master, "ready to fly unarmed at a tiger, or plunge into a river and die without a pang should be with me; but one, rather, who is wary before a move and gains his end by well-laid plans."

[11] The Master said: "Were shouldering a whip a sure road to riches, I would turn carter: but since there is no sure road, I tread the path I love."

[12] The Master gave heed to devotions, war, and sick

ness.

[13] When the Master was in Ch'i for three months after hearing the Shao played he knew not the taste of meat.

2 Died B.C. 1105. He was the younger brother of King Wu, the founder of the Chou dynasty, as great in peace as the king in war. He was so anxious to carry out olden principles, that when aught he saw did not tally with them, he would look up in thought, till day gave way to night; and if by good luck he found the answer, would sit on waiting for dawn (Mencius, IV. B. 20).

"I did not suppose," he said, that music could touch such heights."

[14] Jan Yu said: "Is the Master for the King of Wei?" "I will ask him," said Tzu-kung.

He went in, and said: "What kind of men were Po-yi and Shu-ch'i?"

"Worthy men of yore," said the Master.

"Did they rue the past?"

"They sought love and found it; what had they to fue?" Tzu-kung went out, and said: "The Master is not on his side."

[15] The Master said: “Living on coarse rice and water, with bent arm for pillow, mirth may be ours; but ill-gotten wealth and honours are to me a wandering cloud.”

[16] The Master said: "Given a few more years, making fifty for the study of the Yi," I might be purged from gross sin."

[17] The Master liked to talk of poetry, history, and the upkeep of courtesy. Of all these he was fond of talking. [18] The Duke of She asked Tzu-lu about Confucius. Tzu-lu did not answer.

The Master said: "Why couldst thou not say: 'He is a man so eager that he forgets to eat, whose cares are lost in triumph, unmindful of approaching age'?"

[19] The Master said: "I was not born to understanding. I loved the past, and questioned it earnestly."

[20] The Master never spake of ghosts or strength, crime or spirits.

[21] The Master said: "Walking three together I am sure of teachers. I pick out the good and follow it; I see the bad and shun it."

[22] The Master said: "Heaven planted worth in me; what harm can come of Huan T'ui?"

[23] The Master said: “My boys, do ye think that I hide

The grandson of Duke Ling, husband of Nan-tzu. His father had been driven from the country for planning to kill Nan-tzu. When Duke Ling died, he was succeeded by his grandson, who opposed by force his father's attempts to seize the throne.

* See note to v. 22.

An abstruse, ancient classic, usually called the Book of Changes.

In B.C. 495, during Confucius' wanderings, Huan T'ui was an officer of Sung. He sent a band of men to kill Confucius; but why he did so is not clear.

things from you? I hide nothing. One who keeps from his boys nought that he does, such is Ch'iu."

[24] The four things the Master taught were culture, conduct, faithfulness, and truth.

[25] The Master said: "A holy man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a gentleman! A good man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a steadfast one! But when nothing poses as something, cloud as substance, want as riches, steadfastness must be rare.”

[26] The Master angled, but did not fish with a net; he shot, but not at birds sitting.

[27] The Master said: "There may be men who act without understanding why. I do not. To listen much, pick out the good and follow it; to see much and ponder it: this comes next to understanding."

[28] It was ill talking to the Hu villagers. A lad having been admitted, the disciples wondered.

The Master said: "I allow his coming, not what is to come. Why be so harsh? If a man cleanse himself to gain admission, I admit his cleanness, but go not bail for his past."

[29] The Master said: "Is love so far a thing? I yearn for love, and lo! love is come."

[30] A judge of Ch'en asked whether Duke of Chao knew courtesy.

Confucius answered: "He knew courtesy."

After Confucius had left, the judge beckoned Wu-ma Ch'i to his side, and said: "I had heard that gentlemen are of no party, but are they too for party? The prince married a Wu, of the same name as himself, and called her Miss Tzu of Wu. If the prince knew courtesy, who does not know courtesy?"

When Wu-ma Ch'i told this to the Master, he said: "How lucky I am! If I make a slip, men are sure to know it!" [31] When any one sang to the Master, and sang well, he would make him repeat it and join in.

[32] The Master said: "I have no more culture than others: to live as a gentleman is not yet mine.”

* Confucius.

Duke Chao of Lu (+B.C. 510) was the duke who first employed Con. fucius. It is contrary to Chinese custom for a man to marry a girl of the same surname as himself. A disciple of Confucius.