Can say of Yu-chung and I-yi, they went to live in
retirement
and talked.
Ezra Pound - Confucian Analects
How do we place the
jewels and the silk robes? Music, they say, Music! Where do the gongs and drums stand? [Mind on in- struments not on shape of the musvc. ]
XII
He said : Hard as a whetstone outside and wobbly as grass (or squashy) inside is rather like a picayune fellow who bores a hole in a wall to steal.
XIII 2556 He said : These (? lenient) village prototypes are pur-
loiners (con men) acting on a conscience not their own
117
? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
[L. takes yuan' (7725) as equiv. ; 7727. Rousseauesques] good careful, thieves of virtue. [P: cherchent /es suffrages des mllageois. Note 7725 a. J
XIV
He said : To pass on wayside gossip and smear with
BOOK SEVENTEEN
statements unl<ss they are taken as fixing the
meaning and usage of the words. ]
the old punctilio [attention, ed. almost be point of honour] was modest (implying consideration of values)' the present is mere peevishness ; the old simplicity was direct, the present consists in thinking you can fool others by simple wheezes, [or simply: is faked] and that's that.
XVII
He said: Elaborate phrases and a pious expression (L. M. insinuating) seldom indicate manliness.
XVIII
He said : I hate the way purple spoils vermilion, I hate the way the Chang sonority confuses the music of the Elegantiae, I hate sharp mouths (the clever yawp, mouths set on profits) that overturn states and families.
XIX
l. He said : I'd like to do without words.
2. Tze-kung said : But, boss, if you don't say it, how can we little guys pass it on?
3. He said: Sky, how does that talk? The four seasons go on, everything gets born. Sky, what words does the sky use?
xx
Zu Pei wanted to see Kung-tze. Kung-tze declined on
account of illness. As the messenger was going out the
front door, he took his lute and sang so that the latter
could hear.
L. notes indicate that Zu had probably asked advice before and not taken it, and that the call was fake, try on.
119
scolding is to defoliate one's candour. 2
'I'u is primarily smear, secondarily road, with binome L. and M. tell what one has heard on the road.
General sense perfectly clear, the verse is against careless gossip and ill-natured slander, "smear-scold" is there in the pictogram if one wants it.
(To waste acts proceeding from clear conscience) is to
stop acting on one's own inner perceptions.
xv
1. He said: How can one serve a prince along with these village-sized (kinky) minds?
2. Until they get on they worry about nothing else, and, when they have, they worry about losing the advantages.
3. When they are afraid of losing (advantages, privileges) there is nothing, absolutely nothing they will not do to retain (them) (no length they won't go to).
XVI
l. He said : iMen of old had three troubles which no longer exist.
2. The old uppishness was reckless (ostentatious), the
present uppishness, mere dissipation;
[Mvght say, old was hearty, present dissolute. Excess vs. pettiness, petty leaks. Exuberance vs. license. There is no~hing in such brief
118
? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS XXI
1. Tsai Wo asked about three years' mourning, wasn't one foll year enough?
2. He said : If gentlemen do not observe the rites, the rites will go to ruin; if music is not played for three years the music will slip down.
3. The old (good) grain is exhausted, the new grain has risen; fire you kindle by twirling wood is a different fire, you can stop at tht end of a year.
L. put. in idea that " kindling by friction we go thru all the changes of wood" on the belief that they used different kinds of wood drills at dirfjerent seas. ans, elm, willow, in spring, dat~, almond in summer. I should be more inclined to think that Kwng indicates a break in con- tinuity, but ends on the note: but do it if you
like. Cf. verse 6 below.
4. He said : You'd feel at ease eating your rice and
wearing embroidered clothes?
Said : Quite.
5. He said : If you can feel easy, go ahead, but the
proper man during the period of mourning, does not savour sweet food, does not delight in hearing n1usic, does not feel easy in cushy surroundings, and therefore does not indulge, but if you now feel easy about it, go ahead.
6. Tsai Wo went out.
He said : He is not fully humane, a child does not leave its parental arms till it is three; three years' mourning is observ<;d everywhere under heaven, did (Tsai Wo) Yu have three years' parental affection?
I suggest that the medimval debate betwem active and contemplative life is moderated Ui the old Chinese disposition, the need of con- templaitive period being answered by the years of mourning.
120
BOOK SEVENTEEN
XXII
, He said: Stuffing in food all day, nothing that he puts his mind on, a hard case ! Don't chess players at least do something and have solid merit by comparison? ?
XXIII
Tze-lu said : Does the proper man honour bravery?
He said : The proper man puts equity at the top, if a gentleman have courage without equity it will make a mess; if a mean man have courage without equity he will steal.
XXIV
1. Tze-kung said : Does the proper man have his hatreds also?
Said : He has hates, he hates those who proclaim the ill doing of others; he hates those who live below the current and s? lander those above; he hates those who are bold without observing the rites (don't use their courage rightly, audacious in outraging the proper procedures), he hates those who obstinately presume and obstruct* [or, 'vho are satisfied to presume and obstruct. ]
2. Said : Granty, have you any hates?
"Hate those who snoop and pretend they have found out by intelligence; hate those who think brashness is courage; hate blabbers who pr. etend they do it from honesty. "
xxv
He said : Young women and small men [L. in sense' of: flappers and hoitse boysJ are hard to rear, familiarity loses respect, and aloofness rouses resentment.
*P. v. interesting and probably right "q111i s'arretent," plus the explanation (au milie? u de leurs entreprises sa-ns woir le cw. ur de /es achever), i. e. stop half way because they haven't the guts to finish.
121
? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
XXVI
He said : If a man is hateful at forty he'll be so to the end.
BOOK EIGHTEEN
Wei Tze
The Viscount of Wei
I
(Decline of the Yin Dynasty)
1. The Viscount of Wei retired. The Viscount of Chi became a slave. Pi-kan protested and died.
2. Kung-tze said : Y in had three men (with a capital M).
II
1. Hui of Liu-Hsia, chief criminal judge, was dis-
missed three times. Someone said : Isn't it about time for you to clear out?
Said : Going straight and being useful to others, where would I go and not be fired three times? If I want to go crooked, what need of leaving my parental country?
III
1. Duke Ching of Ch'i awaiting Kung-tze said : I can't treat him a Chi chief, but something between that and a Mang chief.
Said : I am an old man, I can'_t make use of his theories (can't use the Confucian procedure). [Thus L. but hard to get from text strictly more tlwm cannot use. Employ him, give him office]. Kung-tze proceeded, travelled [L.
took departure].
IV
1. Ch'i folk (? the man of Ch'i) sent a present of female musicians (corps de ballet), Chi Hwan accepted them and did not hold court for three days. Confucius travelled.
123
122
------------- - - - - -
? ? ? ? ? ? -------~ ----
? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
v
1. The madman of Ch'u, Chieh-yu, passed Kung-tze, singing out : " Phoenix, oh Phoenix, how is your clarity fallen, no use blaming what's past, you might look out for what's to come. There's danger to anyone who goes into this present government. "
2. Confucius got down (from his carriage) and wanted to talk with him but (Chieh) hurried away, so he could not.
VJ
1. Ch'ang-tsu and Chieh-ni were teamed plowing [Plowmen worked in pairs/ vide Odes etc. ]. Kung-tze
going by, sent Tze-lu to ask about the ford. 2. Ch'ang-tsu said: Who's that driving? Tze-lu said : Kung Hillock.
Said : Kung Hillock of Lu?
Said: Yes.
Said : He knows the ford.
3. (Tze-lu then) asked Chieh-ni.
Chieh-ni said : What are you, sir?
Said : I'm Sprout, secundus.
Said: A pupil of Kung Hillock of Lu?
Replied : Yes . . .
Said : " Disorder overfloods all the empire, who has
the means to change it? Moreover, rather than follow a man who leaves one chief after another, better follow a scholar who has given up the world (this generation) altogether. " He did not stop covering up the seed in his furrow.
4. Tze-lu went and reported, the big man sighed : One cannot collaborate with birds and beasts. If I don't work with these people whom can I work with? If the empire were on the right track, it would not need me, Hillock, to change it. [Or I would not give (myself, or effort) to change it. ]
124
BOOK EIGHTEEN
VII
1. Tze-lu was lagging behind and met an old man
ccirrying a basket of weeds, on a staff over his shoulder. Tze-lu asked: Have you seen my big man?
The old man said : See by your arms and legs you
haven't done any work; don't know the five grains one from another, who is your big man? He put down his stave and started weeding.
2. Tze-lu bowed and stood before him.
3. He kept Tze-lu for the night, killed a chicken, fixed the millet and fed him, introduced his two sons.
4. At sun-up Tze-lu went on and told of this.
He said : A recluse; sent Tze-lu back to see him again. When he arrived, the old man was gone.
5. 1"'ze-lu said : It's not right not to take office.
You can't neglect the relations between old and young, ho'v can he neglect the right relation between prince and minister, wishing to conserve his personal purity, he lets lbose chaos in the great order. A proper man takes a government job, goes straight. He knows perfectly well perfect principles are not followed [or he knows in the end that they aren't (universally) followed].
VIII
1. The men who have retired: Po-i, Shu-ch'i, Yu-
chung, 1-yi, Chu-chang, Hui of Liu-hsia, Shao-lien.
2. He said : Not lowering their aims, not disgracing themselves, Po-i, Shu-ch'i. I'd say.
3. Can say Hui of Liu-hsia, and Shao-lien did lower
their aims, did undergo personal shame, but their words were centred in reason and their acts worth consideration. That's all.
4.
Can say of Yu-chung and I-yi, they went to live in retirement and talked. They kept themselves pure [M :], in their retirement they hit the mean of opportunism (wasted in mid-balance).
125
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
5. I differ from these models, I have no categoric c~n and cannot.
IX
(Dispersion of the musicians of Lu)
1. The grand music master Chih went to Ch'i.
2. Kan, conductor for second meal, went to Ch'u.
Liao, "third meal," went to Ts'ai.
Chueh, H fourth meal," went to Ch'in.
3. The drummer Fang Shu went into the Honan [L.
north of the river].
4. Wu, the hand drum, went to Han.
5. Yang the assistant conductor, and Hsiang the
musical stone went to the sea. x
1. The Duke of Chau said to the Duke of Lu, a
proper man does not negleat his relatives; he does not grieve his great ministers by keeping them useless; he does
BOOK NINETEEN
Tze-Chang
I
1. Tze-Chang said: The scholar-gentleman* sees danger and goes through to his fate [L. sacrifice life] ; when he sees a chance of getting on he thinks of equity, at sacrifices his thoughts are full of reverence for the powers of vegetation; in mourning, of grief; that is perhaps a complete definition.
II
1. Tze-Chang said : To comprehend acting straight
from the conscience, and not put energy into doing it,
to stick to the letter of the right process and not be
strong in it, can you be doing with that sort? Does it
matter what becomes of them? To believe in the right
course, and not maintain it.
III
1. Tze-hsia's pupils asked Tze-Chang about friendly association.
Tze-Chang said: What does Tze-hsia say?
Replied : Tze-hsia says share it with those who can and ward off those who cannot. [L. adds "advantage you. "
1
The chiao covers the meanings: pay, exchange, com- municate. Say: with whom there can be an exchange. }
Tze-chang said : Differs from what I've heard, i. e. the
vroper man honours solid merit and is easy on the multi-
tude, praises the honest and pities the incompetent. If I have enough solid talent what is there in men I can't put up with? If I haven't solid merit, men will be ready enough to ward me off, why should I ward off others?
*The shih inight very well have been translated knight in the a~e of European chivalry on various counts.
127
not cast off the old without great reason. old families? ]
XI
[L. members of
1. Chau had eight officers : Po-ta, Po-kwo, Chung-tu, Chung-hwu, Shu-ya, Shu-hsia, Chi-sui, Chi-kwa.
126
? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
IV
BOOK NINETEEN
x
1. Tze-hsia said : A proper man keeping his word [o'r: whose word is believed] can make the people work hard; if he don't keep his word they will consider the same work an oppression. A man who keeps his word can remonstrate with his prince, if he do not keep it, the
remonstrance will be taken for insult.
XI
1. Tze-hsia said : If a man does not transgress the barriers of the great virtues, he can have leeway in smalJ (go out and in).
XII
1. Tze-Yu said: Tze-hsia's door-men and little chaps
are correct in sprinkling and sweeping, answer politely, make their entries and exits, all in a n1odel manner, these are branches, \Vithout the root, what about it?
2. Tze-hsia heard it and said: Too bad, Tze-Yu is wrong. What does a proper man's method put first and teach and put second and loaf over? By analogy with plants and trees he divides (activities) into kinds, but how could the proper man's behaviour bring false accusa-
tion against them? Only the sag. e starts out knowing all
the consequences.
XIII
1. Tze-hsia said : When the man in office has an abundance (of energy) he studies; when the studious man has an abundance he goes into office.
XIV
1. Tze-yu said : Lamentation ought to stop at the end
of the mourning period.
F,
T z e - h s i a s a i d : I f a m e a n contriva~ce f u n c t i o n s there must be something in it worth attention, but car7 it far : 'ware mud. That's why the proper man doesn t use it.
v
1 Tzc-hsia said : To be daily aware of what he lacks, not. forgetting what he can make function (capacity due to what bits of knowledge he has put together), can be defined as loving study.
VI
1. Tze-hsia said: Extending study, keep,ing the. will hard yet supple; putting a fine edge on ? nes questwns, and stickin' close to what one really thmks. Manhood takes root in the centre of these.
VII
1. Tze-hsia said: Artificers (the hundred works) li". e in a market amid the outlay of their tools to perfect their technique. [The szu' (? cf Arab. suk), tools spread for use, also concurrence of shops of similar wa;e. J. The proper man studies so that he arrive at proceechng in the process. [Very much: . pour savoir vivre. l? eally learn how to live, up to the hilt. ]
VIII
1. Tze-hsia said : The mean man just has to gloss
his faults.
IX
1. Tze-hsia said: The proper man undergoes thrhee transformations, at a distance : stern; gentle to approac ; his words firm as a grindstone.
128
1 .
129
. ? - - - - - - --------. . . --
? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
xv
1. Tze-yu said: My friend Chang can do difficult things, oh yes, but he is not completely humane.
XVI
1. Master Tsang said: Magnificent! Chang is mag- nificent, but hard to be human with him [or: difficult to combine all that splendour with being really human].
XVII
1. ! Master Tsang said: I've heard our big man say you can't tell all there is in a man until he is mourning his relatives.
XVIII
1. ! Master Tsang said : I've heard our big man say Mang Chwang was a true son, others can be that, but when it comes to his not changing his father's ministers, nor his father's mode of government, that is hard for 'em to match.
XIX
1. The Mang chief having made him chief criminal judge, Yang Fu questioned Master Tsang. Master Tsang said: The high-ups have lost the way, the people have been in disorder for a long time, when you find it out, pity 'em, don't think yourself clever.
"A bad name " xx
1. Tze-kung said : "Crupper's" uncleanness wasn't
as low as all that. That's why the proper man hates living at the bottom of the drain-slope where all the rot flows down.
130
BOOK NINETEEN
XXI
1. 1'ze-kung said : A superior man's errors are like sOlar and lunar eclipses, when he goes wrong everyone sees it, when he comes back to course again all lift their faces. [Yang can also mean: trust. ]
xxrr
1. Kung-sun Ch'ao of Wei asked Tze-kung: How did Chung-ni (Chung secundus, Confucius) study?
2. Tze-kung said : Wan and Wu's system hadn't com- pletely collapsed, the men of solid talent conserved the great features (the great parts of it were rooted in their memory) and the minor items were rooted in the memories of the men without talents, no one was wholly without something of Wan and Wu's method, how could the big man help studying it, though without an ordinary teacher?
xxrrI
1. Shu-sun Wu-shu said to a high court officer : Tze- kung is superior to Chung-ni.
2. Tze-fu Ching-po told Tze-kung, Tze-kung said: By analogy with a house wall, mine is shoulder high, one can look over it at the house and family, and whalt is good in them.
3. The big man's wall is many times the height of an eight-footer, if you don't find the door and go in, you can't see the splendour of the feudal temple, or the hundred officers' riches.
4. But how few find the door, wasn't that big chap's remark perfectly suited to him?
XXIV
1. Shu-san Wu-shu spoke ill of Chung-ni. Tze-kung said : It's no use, you can't break him down. It's the other men that are " hillocks " [play on Confucius' familiar
131
? ? ? ? ? name Ch'iu "hillock"] and hummocks that one can walk up. Chung-ni, the sun, the moon you cannot walk up stairs to. Though a man wants to cut himself off, what harm does that do to the sun and moon, many people see them who cannot m. easure a meridian. [The pictogram is a meruure of the sun-ris@, rather than of capwcitY", as L. ]
xxv
1. Ch'an Tze-ch'in said to Tze-kung, You are over- doing this respectfulness, how is Chung-ni more talented than you are ?
2. Tze-kung said: The proper man can be known fron1 a single sentence and one sentence is enough to show what a man does not know. Can't neglect keeping the word aligned with the mind.
3. You can't reach the big man, just as you can't get to heaven by walking up stairs.
4. . If the big man were in charge of a state or clan, what 1s properly called establishment would be established the proper system would work, the traces would be hitched so that they would draw, energies would be harmonized. He would be splendid in life, lamented in death, how can one match him ?
BOOK TWENTY
I
1. Yao said: Attend! you Shun, heaven's calendar [sun under grain under cover] has now pulsed through in its count to take root in your personal strength, hang on to what it is all about, hand and foot (biceps and legs) if within the four seas there be dearth and exhaustion, tbc defining light of heaven [L. heaven's revenueJ will
come to perpetual end.
2. Shun gave the same sealed order to Yii. [T'ang,
as in the Shu IV, iii, 3. ]
3. Said : I, the little child Li (" Shoe") dare to use
the black victin1; dare clearly announce to the Whiteness above all Whiteness above all kings, to the Dynasty Overspreading; dare not pardon offences, nor let those who serve the spread cloth of heaven be overgrown; their report roots in the mind of the O'erspreading.
If in us, the emperor's person, be fault, it is not by the myriad regions, if the myriad regions have fault, it takes root from our person. [Cf. Wu, in the Shu V. iii. ]
4. Chao had a great conferring : honest men could be rich.
5. Although he had the Chao relatives, not a matter of someone else's manhood, if the hundred clans err, it is rooted in me the one man.
6. He kept watch over the balances (weights) and the measuring [ [ shd/ say taking the sun. L . / measures], he investigated the statutes and regulations [or better: the functioning of the regulations, how they worked, whether they worked. La Vie du Droit], he combed out the useless officials, and the government of the Four Coigns
went ahead.
7. He built up wasted states, restored broken succes-
sions, promoted men who had retired, and the people of the empire returned to good sense.
133
132
---------
? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
-
? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
8. What he put weight on was feeding the people,
mourning and offerings.
9. By magnanimity reached to everyone; by keeping his word got their trust; got through a lot of work by attention to detail and kept them happy by justice.
jewels and the silk robes? Music, they say, Music! Where do the gongs and drums stand? [Mind on in- struments not on shape of the musvc. ]
XII
He said : Hard as a whetstone outside and wobbly as grass (or squashy) inside is rather like a picayune fellow who bores a hole in a wall to steal.
XIII 2556 He said : These (? lenient) village prototypes are pur-
loiners (con men) acting on a conscience not their own
117
? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
[L. takes yuan' (7725) as equiv. ; 7727. Rousseauesques] good careful, thieves of virtue. [P: cherchent /es suffrages des mllageois. Note 7725 a. J
XIV
He said : To pass on wayside gossip and smear with
BOOK SEVENTEEN
statements unl<ss they are taken as fixing the
meaning and usage of the words. ]
the old punctilio [attention, ed. almost be point of honour] was modest (implying consideration of values)' the present is mere peevishness ; the old simplicity was direct, the present consists in thinking you can fool others by simple wheezes, [or simply: is faked] and that's that.
XVII
He said: Elaborate phrases and a pious expression (L. M. insinuating) seldom indicate manliness.
XVIII
He said : I hate the way purple spoils vermilion, I hate the way the Chang sonority confuses the music of the Elegantiae, I hate sharp mouths (the clever yawp, mouths set on profits) that overturn states and families.
XIX
l. He said : I'd like to do without words.
2. Tze-kung said : But, boss, if you don't say it, how can we little guys pass it on?
3. He said: Sky, how does that talk? The four seasons go on, everything gets born. Sky, what words does the sky use?
xx
Zu Pei wanted to see Kung-tze. Kung-tze declined on
account of illness. As the messenger was going out the
front door, he took his lute and sang so that the latter
could hear.
L. notes indicate that Zu had probably asked advice before and not taken it, and that the call was fake, try on.
119
scolding is to defoliate one's candour. 2
'I'u is primarily smear, secondarily road, with binome L. and M. tell what one has heard on the road.
General sense perfectly clear, the verse is against careless gossip and ill-natured slander, "smear-scold" is there in the pictogram if one wants it.
(To waste acts proceeding from clear conscience) is to
stop acting on one's own inner perceptions.
xv
1. He said: How can one serve a prince along with these village-sized (kinky) minds?
2. Until they get on they worry about nothing else, and, when they have, they worry about losing the advantages.
3. When they are afraid of losing (advantages, privileges) there is nothing, absolutely nothing they will not do to retain (them) (no length they won't go to).
XVI
l. He said : iMen of old had three troubles which no longer exist.
2. The old uppishness was reckless (ostentatious), the
present uppishness, mere dissipation;
[Mvght say, old was hearty, present dissolute. Excess vs. pettiness, petty leaks. Exuberance vs. license. There is no~hing in such brief
118
? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS XXI
1. Tsai Wo asked about three years' mourning, wasn't one foll year enough?
2. He said : If gentlemen do not observe the rites, the rites will go to ruin; if music is not played for three years the music will slip down.
3. The old (good) grain is exhausted, the new grain has risen; fire you kindle by twirling wood is a different fire, you can stop at tht end of a year.
L. put. in idea that " kindling by friction we go thru all the changes of wood" on the belief that they used different kinds of wood drills at dirfjerent seas. ans, elm, willow, in spring, dat~, almond in summer. I should be more inclined to think that Kwng indicates a break in con- tinuity, but ends on the note: but do it if you
like. Cf. verse 6 below.
4. He said : You'd feel at ease eating your rice and
wearing embroidered clothes?
Said : Quite.
5. He said : If you can feel easy, go ahead, but the
proper man during the period of mourning, does not savour sweet food, does not delight in hearing n1usic, does not feel easy in cushy surroundings, and therefore does not indulge, but if you now feel easy about it, go ahead.
6. Tsai Wo went out.
He said : He is not fully humane, a child does not leave its parental arms till it is three; three years' mourning is observ<;d everywhere under heaven, did (Tsai Wo) Yu have three years' parental affection?
I suggest that the medimval debate betwem active and contemplative life is moderated Ui the old Chinese disposition, the need of con- templaitive period being answered by the years of mourning.
120
BOOK SEVENTEEN
XXII
, He said: Stuffing in food all day, nothing that he puts his mind on, a hard case ! Don't chess players at least do something and have solid merit by comparison? ?
XXIII
Tze-lu said : Does the proper man honour bravery?
He said : The proper man puts equity at the top, if a gentleman have courage without equity it will make a mess; if a mean man have courage without equity he will steal.
XXIV
1. Tze-kung said : Does the proper man have his hatreds also?
Said : He has hates, he hates those who proclaim the ill doing of others; he hates those who live below the current and s? lander those above; he hates those who are bold without observing the rites (don't use their courage rightly, audacious in outraging the proper procedures), he hates those who obstinately presume and obstruct* [or, 'vho are satisfied to presume and obstruct. ]
2. Said : Granty, have you any hates?
"Hate those who snoop and pretend they have found out by intelligence; hate those who think brashness is courage; hate blabbers who pr. etend they do it from honesty. "
xxv
He said : Young women and small men [L. in sense' of: flappers and hoitse boysJ are hard to rear, familiarity loses respect, and aloofness rouses resentment.
*P. v. interesting and probably right "q111i s'arretent," plus the explanation (au milie? u de leurs entreprises sa-ns woir le cw. ur de /es achever), i. e. stop half way because they haven't the guts to finish.
121
? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
XXVI
He said : If a man is hateful at forty he'll be so to the end.
BOOK EIGHTEEN
Wei Tze
The Viscount of Wei
I
(Decline of the Yin Dynasty)
1. The Viscount of Wei retired. The Viscount of Chi became a slave. Pi-kan protested and died.
2. Kung-tze said : Y in had three men (with a capital M).
II
1. Hui of Liu-Hsia, chief criminal judge, was dis-
missed three times. Someone said : Isn't it about time for you to clear out?
Said : Going straight and being useful to others, where would I go and not be fired three times? If I want to go crooked, what need of leaving my parental country?
III
1. Duke Ching of Ch'i awaiting Kung-tze said : I can't treat him a Chi chief, but something between that and a Mang chief.
Said : I am an old man, I can'_t make use of his theories (can't use the Confucian procedure). [Thus L. but hard to get from text strictly more tlwm cannot use. Employ him, give him office]. Kung-tze proceeded, travelled [L.
took departure].
IV
1. Ch'i folk (? the man of Ch'i) sent a present of female musicians (corps de ballet), Chi Hwan accepted them and did not hold court for three days. Confucius travelled.
123
122
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? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
v
1. The madman of Ch'u, Chieh-yu, passed Kung-tze, singing out : " Phoenix, oh Phoenix, how is your clarity fallen, no use blaming what's past, you might look out for what's to come. There's danger to anyone who goes into this present government. "
2. Confucius got down (from his carriage) and wanted to talk with him but (Chieh) hurried away, so he could not.
VJ
1. Ch'ang-tsu and Chieh-ni were teamed plowing [Plowmen worked in pairs/ vide Odes etc. ]. Kung-tze
going by, sent Tze-lu to ask about the ford. 2. Ch'ang-tsu said: Who's that driving? Tze-lu said : Kung Hillock.
Said : Kung Hillock of Lu?
Said: Yes.
Said : He knows the ford.
3. (Tze-lu then) asked Chieh-ni.
Chieh-ni said : What are you, sir?
Said : I'm Sprout, secundus.
Said: A pupil of Kung Hillock of Lu?
Replied : Yes . . .
Said : " Disorder overfloods all the empire, who has
the means to change it? Moreover, rather than follow a man who leaves one chief after another, better follow a scholar who has given up the world (this generation) altogether. " He did not stop covering up the seed in his furrow.
4. Tze-lu went and reported, the big man sighed : One cannot collaborate with birds and beasts. If I don't work with these people whom can I work with? If the empire were on the right track, it would not need me, Hillock, to change it. [Or I would not give (myself, or effort) to change it. ]
124
BOOK EIGHTEEN
VII
1. Tze-lu was lagging behind and met an old man
ccirrying a basket of weeds, on a staff over his shoulder. Tze-lu asked: Have you seen my big man?
The old man said : See by your arms and legs you
haven't done any work; don't know the five grains one from another, who is your big man? He put down his stave and started weeding.
2. Tze-lu bowed and stood before him.
3. He kept Tze-lu for the night, killed a chicken, fixed the millet and fed him, introduced his two sons.
4. At sun-up Tze-lu went on and told of this.
He said : A recluse; sent Tze-lu back to see him again. When he arrived, the old man was gone.
5. 1"'ze-lu said : It's not right not to take office.
You can't neglect the relations between old and young, ho'v can he neglect the right relation between prince and minister, wishing to conserve his personal purity, he lets lbose chaos in the great order. A proper man takes a government job, goes straight. He knows perfectly well perfect principles are not followed [or he knows in the end that they aren't (universally) followed].
VIII
1. The men who have retired: Po-i, Shu-ch'i, Yu-
chung, 1-yi, Chu-chang, Hui of Liu-hsia, Shao-lien.
2. He said : Not lowering their aims, not disgracing themselves, Po-i, Shu-ch'i. I'd say.
3. Can say Hui of Liu-hsia, and Shao-lien did lower
their aims, did undergo personal shame, but their words were centred in reason and their acts worth consideration. That's all.
4.
Can say of Yu-chung and I-yi, they went to live in retirement and talked. They kept themselves pure [M :], in their retirement they hit the mean of opportunism (wasted in mid-balance).
125
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
5. I differ from these models, I have no categoric c~n and cannot.
IX
(Dispersion of the musicians of Lu)
1. The grand music master Chih went to Ch'i.
2. Kan, conductor for second meal, went to Ch'u.
Liao, "third meal," went to Ts'ai.
Chueh, H fourth meal," went to Ch'in.
3. The drummer Fang Shu went into the Honan [L.
north of the river].
4. Wu, the hand drum, went to Han.
5. Yang the assistant conductor, and Hsiang the
musical stone went to the sea. x
1. The Duke of Chau said to the Duke of Lu, a
proper man does not negleat his relatives; he does not grieve his great ministers by keeping them useless; he does
BOOK NINETEEN
Tze-Chang
I
1. Tze-Chang said: The scholar-gentleman* sees danger and goes through to his fate [L. sacrifice life] ; when he sees a chance of getting on he thinks of equity, at sacrifices his thoughts are full of reverence for the powers of vegetation; in mourning, of grief; that is perhaps a complete definition.
II
1. Tze-Chang said : To comprehend acting straight
from the conscience, and not put energy into doing it,
to stick to the letter of the right process and not be
strong in it, can you be doing with that sort? Does it
matter what becomes of them? To believe in the right
course, and not maintain it.
III
1. Tze-hsia's pupils asked Tze-Chang about friendly association.
Tze-Chang said: What does Tze-hsia say?
Replied : Tze-hsia says share it with those who can and ward off those who cannot. [L. adds "advantage you. "
1
The chiao covers the meanings: pay, exchange, com- municate. Say: with whom there can be an exchange. }
Tze-chang said : Differs from what I've heard, i. e. the
vroper man honours solid merit and is easy on the multi-
tude, praises the honest and pities the incompetent. If I have enough solid talent what is there in men I can't put up with? If I haven't solid merit, men will be ready enough to ward me off, why should I ward off others?
*The shih inight very well have been translated knight in the a~e of European chivalry on various counts.
127
not cast off the old without great reason. old families? ]
XI
[L. members of
1. Chau had eight officers : Po-ta, Po-kwo, Chung-tu, Chung-hwu, Shu-ya, Shu-hsia, Chi-sui, Chi-kwa.
126
? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
IV
BOOK NINETEEN
x
1. Tze-hsia said : A proper man keeping his word [o'r: whose word is believed] can make the people work hard; if he don't keep his word they will consider the same work an oppression. A man who keeps his word can remonstrate with his prince, if he do not keep it, the
remonstrance will be taken for insult.
XI
1. Tze-hsia said : If a man does not transgress the barriers of the great virtues, he can have leeway in smalJ (go out and in).
XII
1. Tze-Yu said: Tze-hsia's door-men and little chaps
are correct in sprinkling and sweeping, answer politely, make their entries and exits, all in a n1odel manner, these are branches, \Vithout the root, what about it?
2. Tze-hsia heard it and said: Too bad, Tze-Yu is wrong. What does a proper man's method put first and teach and put second and loaf over? By analogy with plants and trees he divides (activities) into kinds, but how could the proper man's behaviour bring false accusa-
tion against them? Only the sag. e starts out knowing all
the consequences.
XIII
1. Tze-hsia said : When the man in office has an abundance (of energy) he studies; when the studious man has an abundance he goes into office.
XIV
1. Tze-yu said : Lamentation ought to stop at the end
of the mourning period.
F,
T z e - h s i a s a i d : I f a m e a n contriva~ce f u n c t i o n s there must be something in it worth attention, but car7 it far : 'ware mud. That's why the proper man doesn t use it.
v
1 Tzc-hsia said : To be daily aware of what he lacks, not. forgetting what he can make function (capacity due to what bits of knowledge he has put together), can be defined as loving study.
VI
1. Tze-hsia said: Extending study, keep,ing the. will hard yet supple; putting a fine edge on ? nes questwns, and stickin' close to what one really thmks. Manhood takes root in the centre of these.
VII
1. Tze-hsia said: Artificers (the hundred works) li". e in a market amid the outlay of their tools to perfect their technique. [The szu' (? cf Arab. suk), tools spread for use, also concurrence of shops of similar wa;e. J. The proper man studies so that he arrive at proceechng in the process. [Very much: . pour savoir vivre. l? eally learn how to live, up to the hilt. ]
VIII
1. Tze-hsia said : The mean man just has to gloss
his faults.
IX
1. Tze-hsia said: The proper man undergoes thrhee transformations, at a distance : stern; gentle to approac ; his words firm as a grindstone.
128
1 .
129
. ? - - - - - - --------. . . --
? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
xv
1. Tze-yu said: My friend Chang can do difficult things, oh yes, but he is not completely humane.
XVI
1. Master Tsang said: Magnificent! Chang is mag- nificent, but hard to be human with him [or: difficult to combine all that splendour with being really human].
XVII
1. ! Master Tsang said: I've heard our big man say you can't tell all there is in a man until he is mourning his relatives.
XVIII
1. ! Master Tsang said : I've heard our big man say Mang Chwang was a true son, others can be that, but when it comes to his not changing his father's ministers, nor his father's mode of government, that is hard for 'em to match.
XIX
1. The Mang chief having made him chief criminal judge, Yang Fu questioned Master Tsang. Master Tsang said: The high-ups have lost the way, the people have been in disorder for a long time, when you find it out, pity 'em, don't think yourself clever.
"A bad name " xx
1. Tze-kung said : "Crupper's" uncleanness wasn't
as low as all that. That's why the proper man hates living at the bottom of the drain-slope where all the rot flows down.
130
BOOK NINETEEN
XXI
1. 1'ze-kung said : A superior man's errors are like sOlar and lunar eclipses, when he goes wrong everyone sees it, when he comes back to course again all lift their faces. [Yang can also mean: trust. ]
xxrr
1. Kung-sun Ch'ao of Wei asked Tze-kung: How did Chung-ni (Chung secundus, Confucius) study?
2. Tze-kung said : Wan and Wu's system hadn't com- pletely collapsed, the men of solid talent conserved the great features (the great parts of it were rooted in their memory) and the minor items were rooted in the memories of the men without talents, no one was wholly without something of Wan and Wu's method, how could the big man help studying it, though without an ordinary teacher?
xxrrI
1. Shu-sun Wu-shu said to a high court officer : Tze- kung is superior to Chung-ni.
2. Tze-fu Ching-po told Tze-kung, Tze-kung said: By analogy with a house wall, mine is shoulder high, one can look over it at the house and family, and whalt is good in them.
3. The big man's wall is many times the height of an eight-footer, if you don't find the door and go in, you can't see the splendour of the feudal temple, or the hundred officers' riches.
4. But how few find the door, wasn't that big chap's remark perfectly suited to him?
XXIV
1. Shu-san Wu-shu spoke ill of Chung-ni. Tze-kung said : It's no use, you can't break him down. It's the other men that are " hillocks " [play on Confucius' familiar
131
? ? ? ? ? name Ch'iu "hillock"] and hummocks that one can walk up. Chung-ni, the sun, the moon you cannot walk up stairs to. Though a man wants to cut himself off, what harm does that do to the sun and moon, many people see them who cannot m. easure a meridian. [The pictogram is a meruure of the sun-ris@, rather than of capwcitY", as L. ]
xxv
1. Ch'an Tze-ch'in said to Tze-kung, You are over- doing this respectfulness, how is Chung-ni more talented than you are ?
2. Tze-kung said: The proper man can be known fron1 a single sentence and one sentence is enough to show what a man does not know. Can't neglect keeping the word aligned with the mind.
3. You can't reach the big man, just as you can't get to heaven by walking up stairs.
4. . If the big man were in charge of a state or clan, what 1s properly called establishment would be established the proper system would work, the traces would be hitched so that they would draw, energies would be harmonized. He would be splendid in life, lamented in death, how can one match him ?
BOOK TWENTY
I
1. Yao said: Attend! you Shun, heaven's calendar [sun under grain under cover] has now pulsed through in its count to take root in your personal strength, hang on to what it is all about, hand and foot (biceps and legs) if within the four seas there be dearth and exhaustion, tbc defining light of heaven [L. heaven's revenueJ will
come to perpetual end.
2. Shun gave the same sealed order to Yii. [T'ang,
as in the Shu IV, iii, 3. ]
3. Said : I, the little child Li (" Shoe") dare to use
the black victin1; dare clearly announce to the Whiteness above all Whiteness above all kings, to the Dynasty Overspreading; dare not pardon offences, nor let those who serve the spread cloth of heaven be overgrown; their report roots in the mind of the O'erspreading.
If in us, the emperor's person, be fault, it is not by the myriad regions, if the myriad regions have fault, it takes root from our person. [Cf. Wu, in the Shu V. iii. ]
4. Chao had a great conferring : honest men could be rich.
5. Although he had the Chao relatives, not a matter of someone else's manhood, if the hundred clans err, it is rooted in me the one man.
6. He kept watch over the balances (weights) and the measuring [ [ shd/ say taking the sun. L . / measures], he investigated the statutes and regulations [or better: the functioning of the regulations, how they worked, whether they worked. La Vie du Droit], he combed out the useless officials, and the government of the Four Coigns
went ahead.
7. He built up wasted states, restored broken succes-
sions, promoted men who had retired, and the people of the empire returned to good sense.
133
132
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? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
-
? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
8. What he put weight on was feeding the people,
mourning and offerings.
9. By magnanimity reached to everyone; by keeping his word got their trust; got through a lot of work by attention to detail and kept them happy by justice.
