The Sayings Of Confucius Part 23

Yes, said Tzu-lu.

He knows the ford, said Ch'ang-chu.

Tzu-lu asked Chieh-ni.

Who are ye, Sir? he answered.

I am Chung Yu.

The disciple of K'ung Ch'iu of Lu?

Yes, he answered.

All below heaven is seething and boiling, said Chieh-ni, who can change it? How much better would it be to follow a knight that flees the world than to follow a knight that flees persons!

And he went on hoeing without stop.

Tzu-lu went and told the Master, whose face fell.

Can I herd with birds and beasts? he said. Whom but these men can I take as fellows? And if the Way were kept by all below heaven, I should not need to change them.

7. Tzu-lu, who was following behind, met an old man carrying a basket on his staff.

Tzu-lu asked him, Have ye seen the Master, Sir?

The old man answered, Thy four limbs are idle, thou canst not sort the five seeds: who is thy Master?

And he planted his staff, and weeded.

Tzu-lu stood and bowed.

He kept Tzu-lu for the night, killed a fowl, made millet, gave them him to eat, and presented his two sons.

Tzu-lu left the next day, and told the Master.

The Master said, He is in hiding.

He sent Tzu-lu back to see him; but when he arrived he had gone.

Tzu-lu said, Not to take office is not right. If the ties of old and young cannot be thrown off, how can he throw off the liege's duty to his lord? He wishes to keep his life clean, but he is unsettling the bonds between men. To discharge that duty a gentleman takes office, though he knows beforehand that the Way will not be kept.

8. Po-yi, Shu-ch'i, Yu-chung, Yi-yi, Chu-chang, Liu-hsia Hui and Shao-lien were men that hid from the world.

The Master said, Po-yi[168] and Shu-ch'i[169] did not bend the will or shame the body.

[Footnote 168: See note to Book V, -- 22.]

[Footnote 169: See note to Book V, -- 22.]

We must say that Liu-hsia Hui[170] and Shao-lien bent the will and shamed the body. Their words. .h.i.t man's duty, their deeds. .h.i.t our hopes. This we can say and no more.

We may say that Yu-chung and Yi-yi lived hidden, but were free of speech. Their lives were clean, their retreat was well weighed.

But I am unlike all of them: there is nothing I must, or must not, do.

9. Chih, the Great Music-master, went to Ch'i; Kan, the conductor at the second meal, went to Ch'u; Liao, the conductor at the third meal, went to Ts'ai; Chueh, the conductor at the fourth meal, went to Ch'in.

The drum master Fang-shu crossed the River; the tambourine master Wu crossed the Han; Yang the second bandmaster and Hsiang, who played the sounding stones, crossed the sea.

10. The Duke of Chou[171] said to the Duke of Lu,[172] A gentleman does not forsake kinsmen, nor offend his great lieges by not using them. He will not cast off an old friend unless he have big cause; he does not ask everything of anyone.

11. Chou had eight knights: Po-ta and Po-kuo, Chung-tu and Chung-hu, Shu-yeh and Shu-hsia, Chi-sui and Chi-kua.

[Footnote 170: See note to Book XV, -- 13.]

[Footnote 171: See note to Book VII, -- 5.]

[Footnote 172: His son.]

BOOK XIX

1. Tzu-chang said, The knight that stakes his life when he sees danger, who in sight of gain thinks of right, and whose thoughts are reverent at wors.h.i.+p, and sad when he is in mourning, will do.

2. Tzu-hsia said, Goodness, clutched too narrowly; a belief in the Way which is not honest; can they be said to be, or said not to be?

3. The disciples of Tzu-hsia asked Tzu-chang whom we should choose as our companions.

Tzu-chang said. What does Tzu-hsia say?

They answered, Tzu-hsia says, If the men be well for thee, go with them; if they be not well, push them off.

Tzu-chang said. This is not the same as what I had heard. A gentleman honours worth and bears with the many. He applauds goodness and pities weakness. If I were a man of great worth, what could I not bear with in others? If I am without worth, men will push me off: why should I push other men off?

4. Tzu-hsia said, Though there must be things worth seeing along small ways, a gentleman does not follow them, for fear of being left at last in the mire.

5. Tzu-hsia said, He that each day remembers his failings and each month forgets nothing won may be said to love learning indeed!

6. Tzu-hsia said, By wide learning and singleness of will, by keen questions and home thinking we reach love.

7. Tzu-hsia said, To master the hundred trades, apprentices work in a shop; by learning, a gentleman finds his way.

8. Tzu-hsia said, The small man must always gloss his faults.

9. Tzu-hsia said, A gentleman changes thrice. Looking up to him he seems stern; as we draw near, he warms; but his speech, when we hear it, is sharp.