The Sayings of Confucius.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

VIII

THE MASTER said: “T´ai-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.”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.”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.’
Till this day, and beyond, I have walked unscathed, my boys.”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.”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.”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?”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?”The Master said: “Poetry rouses, courtesy upholds us, music is our crown.”The Master said: “The people may be made to follow: they cannot be made to understand.”The Master said: “Love of daring, inflamed by poverty, leads to crime: a man without love, if deeply ill-treated, will turn to crime.”The Master said: “All the glorious gifts of the Duke of Chou, if coupled with pride and meanness, would not be worth one glance.”The Master said: “A man to whom three years of study have borne no fruit would be hard to find.”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. 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.”The Master said: “When not in office, discuss not policy.”The Master said: “In the first days of the music master Chih how grand was the ending of the Kuan-chu! How it filled the ear!”The Master said: “Of such as are eager, but not straight; shallow, but not simple; dull, but not truthful, I will know nothing.”The Master said: “Study as though the time were short, as one who fears to lose.”The Master said: “It was sublime how Shun and Yu swayed the world and made light of it!”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!”Shun had five ministers, and order reigned below heaven. 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.”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.”

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