The Master said, T'ai-po may be said to have carried nobility

1. The Master said, T'ai-po may be said to have carried nobility

furthest. Thrice he refused all below heaven. Men were at a loss how

to praise him.



2. The Master said, Without good form attentions grow into fussiness,

heed becomes fearfulness, daring becomes unruliness, frankness becomes

rudeness. When gentlemen are true to kinsfolk, love will thrive among

the people; if they do not forsake old friends, he people will not

steal.



3. When Tseng-tzu lay sick he called his disciples and said, Uncover

my feet, uncover my arms. The poem says,



As if a deep gulf

Were yawning below,

As crossing thin ice,

Take heed how ye go.



My little children, I have known how to keep myself unhurt until now

and hereafter.



4. When Tseng-tzu was sick Meng Ching came to ask after him.





Tseng-tzu said, When a bird is dying his notes are sad; when man is

dying his words are good. Three branches of the Way are dear to a

gentleman: To banish from his bearing violence and disdain; to sort

his face to the truth, and to banish from his speech what is low or

unseemly. The ritual of chalice and platter has servitors to see

to it.



5. Tseng-tzu said, When we can, to ask those that cannot; when we are

more, to ask those that are less; having, to seem wanting; real, to

seem shadow; when gainsaid, never answering back; I had a friend

once that could do thus.



6. Tseng-tzu said, A man to whom an orphan, a few feet high, or the

fate of an hundred towns, may be entrusted, and whom no crisis can

corrupt, is he not a gentleman, a gentleman indeed?



7. Tseng-tzu said, The knight had need be strong and bold; for his

burden is heavy, the way is far. His burden is love, is it not a heavy

one? No halt before death, is that not far?



8. The Master said, Poetry rouses us, we stand upon courtesy, music is

our crown.



9. The Master said, The people may be made to follow, we cannot make

them understand.



10. The Master said, Love of daring and hatred of poverty lead to

crime; a man without love, if he is sorely harassed, turns to crime.



11. The Master said, All the comely gifts of the Duke of Chou,

coupled with pride and meanness, would not be worth a glance.















12. The Master said, A man to whom three years of learning have borne

no fruit would be hard to find.



13. The Master said, A man of simple faith, who loves learning, who

guards and betters his way unto death, will not enter a tottering

kingdom, nor stay in a lawless land. When all below heaven follows the

Way, he is seen; when it loses the Way, he is unseen. While his land

keeps the Way, he is ashamed to be poor and lowly; but when his land

has lost the Way, wealth and honours shame him.



14. The Master said, When out of place, discuss not policy.



15. The Master said, In the first days of the music-master Chih how

the hubbub of the Kuan-chue rose sea beyond sea! How it filled the

ear!



16. The Master said, Of men that are zealous, but not straight; dull,

but not simple; helpless, but not truthful, I will know nothing.



17. The Master said, Learn as though the time were short, like one

that fears to lose.



18. The Master said, How wonderful were Shun and Yue! To have all

below heaven was nothing to them!



19. The Master said, How great a lord was Yao! Wonderful! Heaven

alone is great; Yao alone was patterned on it. Vast, boundless! Men's

words failed them. The wonder of the work done by him! The flame of

his art and precepts!



20. Shun had five ministers, and there was order below heaven.



King Wu said, I have ten uncommon ministers.



Confucius said, 'The dearth of talent,' is not that the truth? When

Yue followed T'ang the times were rich in talent; yet there

were but nine men in all, and one woman. In greatness of soul we may

say that Chou was highest: he had two-thirds of all below heaven

and bent it to the service of Yin.



21. The Master said, I see no flaw in Yue. He ate and drank little, yet

he was lavish in piety to the ghosts and spirits. His clothes were

bad, but in his cap and gown he was fair indeed. His palace buildings

were poor, yet he gave his whole strength to dykes and ditches. No

kind of flaw can I see in Yue.