He said to Tze-Hsia: Observe the
phenomena
of
nature as one in whom the ancestral voices speak, don't just watch in a mean way.
nature as one in whom the ancestral voices speak, don't just watch in a mean way.
Ezra Pound - Confucian Analects
2. He (Mang) asked again, and Confucius said : In a state of a thousand cars he could manage military enrollment, but I do not know if he is a total man.
3. "What about Ch'iu? " Confucius said : He could
govern a city of a thousand families, or a clan mounting
a hundred war cars, I do not know if he is all one can
ask of a man.
11
4.
an immaculate sash, could be used to talk to visitors and court guests, I do not know if he is ail one can ask of a man.
VIII
1. He asked Tze-Kung: Who comprehends most, you
or Hui?
2. The answer : No comparison, Hui hears one point and relates it to ten (understands its bearing on ten, I on one only); I hear one point and can only get to the next.
3. He said : Not the same, I agree you are not alike. IX
1. Tsai Y u was sleeping in day-time. Confucius said: Rotten wood cannot be carved; a wall of dung won't hold plaster, what's the use of reproving him?
30
BOOK F IV E
2. He said : When I started, I used to hear words, and believe they would be acted on; now I listen to what men? say and watch what they do. Yu has caused that adjustment.
x
1. I-Ie said : I do not see anyone constant.
answered: Shan Ch'ang. He said : Ch'ang is moved by his passions, how can he achieve constancy?
XI
l. Tze-Kung said: What I don't waat done to me,
I don't want to do to anyone else.
Ts'ze, you haven't got that far yet.
XII
Confucius said : No,
1. Tze-Kung said: The big man's culture shows, one can manage to hear about that; the big man's words about the inborn-nature and the process of heaven, one cannot manage to hear. [They don't go in through the ear. ]
XIII
l. When Tze-Lu had heard of anything he couldn't practice he was only worried about having heard it.
[Doubtful reading. ]
XIV
1. Tze-Kung asked how . Kung-Wan got to be called
u Wan," the accomplished. Confucius said: He was active, loved study and was not ashamed to question his inferiors, therefore described as "the accomplished. "
31
Someone
? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
xv
1. IIe said to Tze-Ch'an: there are four components in a proper man's doing: 1Ie is rev. erent in his personal conduct, scrupulously honourable in serving his prince, considerate in provisioning the people, and just in employing them.
XVI
I. He said : Yen P'ing understood friendship, how- ever long the intercourse his scruples remained as at first.
XVII
I. He said : Tsang Wan the elder kept a large tor- toise; his capitals showed dCpicted mountains, and the little columns were adorned as if with duckweed; just what sort of kuowl. edge had he? fLegge's punctuation. Shift the comma and it cd/mean, dwelt on Tsan (Tor- toise) mountain. ]
XVIII
1. Tze-Chang asked about Tsze-Wan made minister three times and his face showed no pleasure, retired three tim. es and his face showed no displeasure, felt constrained to tell the new minister about the old minister's (mode of) governing? Confucius said : a sincere man. (Chang) said : and as to his being the total man? Confucius said : I don't know how he ean be called fully human.
2. Ch'ui-tze killed the Ch'i prince, Ch'an Wan had forty tea1ns of horses, he abandoned them and went abroad, coming to another state he said : " ~fhey are like the great officer Ch'ui" and departed fron1 that first state, to a second, and again saying: "They are like the great officer Ch'ui," he departed. What about him? Confucius said : pure. (Chang) said : total manhood? Confucius said : I do not know how this ean amount to being total manhood.
32
BOOK SIX r/ XIX
I. , ~hi Wan ! ? ought three times before taking action. Confucms heard it and said: Twice might be enough.
xx
I. He said : Ning Wu when the country was well governed behaved as a savant; when the country was in c~aos he acted as a simple rustic; one can attain this wisdom but not this simplicity.
XXI
I. When he was in Ch'an he said : Return, let me return. My ~ssociates are little children, uppish, short- cutters, ;cersatile and accomplished up to the end of the chapter, but do not know how to moderate.
XXII
I. He said : Po-i and Shu-ch'i did not think about antient hates (birds hidden under the grass), you might say they moulted off their resentments.
XXIII
I. He said: Who calls Wei-shang Kao straight? Som. ebody begg. ed a little vinegar, and he begged it from a neighbour and gave it him.
XXIV
I. He said : Elaborate phrases and expression to fit [L. insinuating, pious appearance] self-satisfied defer- ence; Tso Ch'iuming was ashamed of; I also am asham~d of '~m. ~ro conceal resentment while shaking* hands in a friendly manner, Tso-Ch'iuming was ashamed
to; I also am ashamed to.
?
33
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
xxv
BOOK
I
1. He said: Yung could be appointed to a throne [idiom: south face] .
2. Ching-kung asked about Tze-sang Po-tze. Con- fucius said : Can do. [Able, handy. ]
3. Chang-kung said: if a man's home address is
reverence he can be easy-going, and thereby come near the people, that's permissible? But if his basic address is : take it easy and he carries that into action, it will be too much of a take-it-easy.
1 Y en
Let. each of you say what he would like.
2 Tze-Lu said: I would like a car and horses, and light fur clothes that I could share with my friends. They could spoil 'em without offence. .
3. Y en Y uan said : I should like go? dness w1th? ut aggressiveness and to put energy into domg a good )Ob without making a show of 1t. .
4. Tze-Lu said: Now, boss, I should hke to h~ar your bent. Confucius said : that the aged have qmet, and friends rely on our words, and that the young be cherished.
XXVI
1. He said: Is this the end of it? I have seen no
one who can see his errors and then go ~nto. his o~ mind and demand justice on them in precise, JUSt, dis- criminating words.
XXVII
1. He said : A village with ten homes will contain
sincere men who stand by their word quite as well as I
do but no one so in love with study. '
SIX
Y uan and Tze-Lu were with him, he said :
34
-------~
? 4.
Confucius said : Yung has the word for it.
[Nate: The terminology in some of these
very short verses must be discussed between students, no one version can be just swal- lowed. ]
II
1. The Duke Ai asked which of the young fellows loved study.
2. Confucius replied: There was Yen Hui who loved to study, he didn't shift a grudge or double an error [L. repeat a fault]. Not lucky, short life, died and the pattern is lost, I don't hear of anyone who likes study.
III
1. Tze Hwa was commissioned to Ch'i, Mr. Zan asked grain for his mother. He said : give a fu. He asked for more. He said give a bushel. Zan gave five ping. [L. note figures, it may have been the whole of his own grain allowance. ]
*This is the picture, L. and P. stick to the dictionary simply,
appearing friendly.
35
? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
2. Ch'ih was going to Ch'i, with a team of fat horses, and wearing light fox fur, I have heard that. gendemen aid the distressed, not that they tie up with riches.
[L. M. : add to wealth of rich. ] .
3. Yuan Sze being made governor, declmed 900
measures of grain given him. .
4. Confucius said :'Don't, they could be given to your
big and little hamlets, villages, towns.
IV
I. He said in reference to Ching-kung: if the spotted cow's calf be red with the right sort of horn, though men won't want to use it, will the mountains and rivers reject
it?
v
1. He said: Hui, now, a mind that for three months wouldn't transgress humanity; the rest of 'em, can reach this pattern for a day or a month, and that's all. [~? probably better: get to it i:' a day or a moon, and thats all, i. e. , get there but not stick. ]
VI
]. Chi K'ang asked if Chung-yu c? uld b. e appoi~ted as colleague in government. Confucius said : Yu s _a determined fellow, what would be the tr~uble about his carrying on the government work? (Kang) asked: 1f Ts'ze could be given a government appo1ntn1~nt. Sa~d . Ts'ze's intelligent (penetrating), why not? (K anl! ") said. : and Ch'iu? Said : Ch'iu's versatile, what's against h1s
doing government work?
VII
BOOK SIX
VIII
1. Po-niu was ill. Confucius went to ask after him
and took hold of his hand through the window. Said :
he's lost, it is destiny, such a man, and to have such a
(On declining to serv. e an evil overlord. ) .
T h e H e a d o f C h i a p p o i n t e d . M m Tz~-ch1en governor of Pi. Min Tze-chien said : Kindly decline for
me, and if they come back for me I shall have to (go) live up over the Wan.
36
I. He said: Hui had solid talent (merit). One bamboo dish of rice, one ladle full of drink, living in a \Vrctched lane, others couldn't have stood it. Hui con- tinued to enjoy (life) unaltered, that's how solid his talent \Vas.
x
I. Yen Ch'iu said : It's not that I don't like your system, I haven't the strength for it. He said : If a man isn't strong enough he stops half way, you shut yourself in (draw your own limit. M. 2222).
XI
1.
He said to Tze-Hsia: Observe the phenomena of
nature as one in whom the ancestral voices speak, don't just watch in a mean way.
XII
1. When Tze-Yu was governor of Wu-ch'ang, he said to him : Got any men there, what about 'em? Answered : Got 1'an-t'ai Mieh-ming who never takes a short cut and never corn. es to any office except when he has government business.
XIII
I. He said : Mang Chih-fan doesn't brag.
the rear of a retreat, but when nearing the (city) gate, whipped up his horse and said : not courage keeping me back, horse wouldn't go.
37
1 .
He was in
disease.
Such a man, such a disease.
IX
? ? ? - --~"I"? --
? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
XIV
1. He said: if you haven't the smooth tongue of T'o the prayer-master, or Sung Chao's beauty, it's hard to get away with it in this generation.
xv
1. He said: The way out is via the door, how is it that no one will use this method.
XVI
1. He said : More solidity than finish, you have the
rustic; more finish than solid worth, the clerk; accom-
plishment and solidity as two trees growing side by side and together with leafage and the consequence is the proper man.
XVII
1. He said : men are born upright, if they tangle this inborn nature, they are lucky to escape.
XVIII
1. He said : Those who know aren't up to those who love; nor those who love, to those who delight in.
XIX
1. He said : One can talk of high things (or, of the better things) with those who are above mediocrity, with those below mediocrity one cannot.
xx
1. Fan Ch'ih asked about knowing. He said : put
your energy into human equities, respect the spirits and
powers of the air and keep your distance, that can be called knowing. He asked about humanitas. (Con- fucius) said: the real man goes first for the difficulty, success being secondary. That you can call manhood.
38
BOOK SIX
XXI
. 1. He said : the wise delight in water, the humane delight in the hills. The knowing are active ? the humane
tranquil; . the lmowing get the pleasure, and the human~ get long hfe.
XXII
1. He said : If Ch'i could make one change it would con;e up to Lu_; if Lu could achieve one change it would arrive at the right way to do things.
XXIII
1. He said : a cornered dish without corners; what
sort of a cornered dish is that? XXIV
1. Tsai Wo said : If you yell : "well-hole" [Both L. and M. say: meaning, "a man down it"], wiH the proper m~n go down after him? He said: why? a proper n;an would come to the edge, he can't (be expected to) smk; he can be cheated, but not entrapped.
[Itisnotuptohimtogodownit. Whynot the literal: If they tell him manhood is at the bottom of the well, will he go down after it? a simple pun on the spoken word jen' without the graph. ]
xxv
1. f'. e said : A p~oper man extends his study of accomplishment, he brings it into close definition for the rites, and that may enable him to keep from divagations
(from overstepping the edge of the field).
XXVI
1. _He went to see (the duchess) Nan-tze. Tse-Lu was displeased. The big man said: Well I'll be damned if there's anything wrong about this, heaven chuck me:
39
? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
XXVII
He said: the pivot that does not wobble (what it's all about, always); looking into the mind and then doing; attain this? Few men have for long.
XXVIII
1. Tze-Kung said : if a man extend wide benefits to the people and aid them all [pictorially: sees that they all get an even or constant water supply] would you call that manhood? He said: why attribute that to manhood, he would have to be a sage, Yao and Shun were still worried about such things. [Or: at fault, unable to accomplish all that. ]
2. The complete man wants to build up himself in order to build up others ; to be intelligent (see through things) in order to make others intelligent.
3. To be able to take the near for analogy, that may be called the square of humanitas, and that's that.
BOOK SEVEN
Shu Erh
I
1. He said : Transmitting not composing, standing by the word and loving the antient [L. antients]. I might get by in old P'ang's class.
II
1. He said : Like a dog by a spent camp-fire (i. e. , si1ent or ? dark) remembering, studying and not satiate [pictogranimically same dog under shelter. The" remem- bering" is specifically keeping ? the right tone of the word. Various signs containing dog cover the various emotions of dog in given conditions, and are oriented by context], teaching others without being weary, how can these things apply to me?
III
1. lie said : To see into one's mind and not measure
acts to it; to study and not analyse [rt/hand component also in verb "to plough"], to hear equity and not have the gumption to adjust (oneself to it), to be wrong and unable to change, that's what worries me.
IV
1. When dining at home, he was unbent, easy-like,. \Vith a smile-smile. [P. charmingly; ses maniCres etaient douces et persuasives ! que son air etait affable et pre- venant ! ]
v
1. He said : Deep my decadence, I haven't for a long time got back to seeing the Duke of Chou in my dreams.
41
-40
? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS
VI
1. He said : Keep your mind (will, directio voluntatis) on the process (the way things function).
2. Grab at clarity in acting on inwit as a tiger lays
hold of a pig.
3. That outward acts comply with manhood. 4. Relax in the cultural arts.
VII
1. He said : From the fellow bringing his flitch of dried meat upward, I have never refused to teach (any- one).
VIII
1. He said: Not zeal not explain [slightly more inclusive than L. 's I do not explain to anyone who is not eagerJ, not wishing to speak, not manifesting. [L. M. slant vt to equivalents of: I don't show it to anyone who won't put his own cards on the table. ] I hold up one corner (of a subject) if he cannot turn the other three, I do not repeat (come back to the matter).
IX
1. When eating beside someone in mourning he did not stuff himself.
2. He did not sing on the same day he had mourned.
x
1. He said to Yen Yuan: When in office keep to the edge of its duties; when out, don't meddle (keep under the grass), only I and you have this sense.
2. Tze-Lu said : If you were in charge of the three army corps whom would you take for associate?
3. He said: Not someone who would tackle a tiger
barehanded or cross a stream without boats and die with-
out regret. Not on the staff; but a man who keeps both
eyes open when approaching an action, who likes to plan and bring to precision.
42
BOOK SEVEN
XI
1. He said : If I could get rich by being a postillion I'd do it; as one cannot, I do what I like.
XII
1. The things he looked very straight at, were the
arrangement of altar dishes, war and disease.
XIII
1. In Ch'i he heard the " Shao " sung, and for three months did not know the taste of his meat; said : didn't figure the performance of music had attained to that summit.
XIV
1. Yen Yu said: Is the big man for the Lord of Wei? Tze-Kung said : I'll ask him.
2. Went in and said: What sort of chaps were Po-i and Chu Ch'i? Confucius said : Antients of solid merit.
" (Did they) regret it? "
(Confucius) said : They sought manhood, and reached manhood, how could they regret after that?
(Tze-Kung) came out and said: He's not for him. (No go. Not business, won't work. )
xv
1. He said: A meal of rough rice to eat water to drink, bent arm for a pillow, I can be hap~y in sucht condition, riches and honours got by injustice seem to' me drifting clouds.
XVI
1. He said : If many years were added to me, I would' give fifty to the study of The Book of the Changes, andi might thereby manage to avoid great mistakes.
/(' .
l1
43
/I' 'J
. /. . 1'.
J
,! ,,'
,_. ,;
? ? ? ? ? CONFUCIAN ANALECTS XVII
1. [L. : What he constantly talked of, hut ya? means also elegant. ] He frequently spoke of (and kept refining his expression about) the Odes, the Historic Documents,
the observance of rites (ceremonial, correct procedure) all frequently (or polished) in his talk.
XVIII
1. The Duke of Sheh asked Tze-Lu about Confucius; Tze-J_,u did not answer.
2. He said : Couldn't you have said: He's so keen and eager he forgets to eat, so happy he forgets his troubles and doesn't know age is coming upon him?
XIX
1. He said: I wasn't born knowing; Jove antiquity (the antients), actively investigating.
xx
1. He did not expatiate on marvels, feats of strength, disorder or the spirits of the air.
XXI
1. He said : three of us walking along, perforce one to teach me, if he gets it right, I follow, if he errs, I do different.
XXII
1. He said: Heaven gave me my conscience, what can Hwan T'ui do to me.
XXIII
1. He said : You two or three, do I hide anything from you? I do not hide anything from you, I don't go
IlOOK SEVEN
XXIV
1. He taught by four things : literature, procedure, sincerity (middle-heart) and standing by his word. [P. rather better: employait quatrc sortes d'enseignements. Taught by means of four things. ]
xxv
1. He said : I have not managed to see a sage man. If I could manage to see a proper man (one in whom
the ancestral voices function) that would do.
2. He said: A totally good man, I have not managed to see. If I could see a constant man (consistent, a
" regular fellow ") that would do.
3. To lack and pretend to have, to be empty and
pretend to be full, to be tight and pretend to be liberal : hard to attain consistency (in that case).
XXVI
1. He fished but not with a net; shot but not at sit- ting birds.
XXVII
1. If there are men who start off without knowledge, I don't. I listen a lot and pick out what is balanced, see a lot and keep the tone of the word, and so manage to
know.
XXVIII
l. It was bothersome to talk with Hu-hsiang folk, the disciples were worried when Kung received a boy. 2.
