Chinese Literature | Page 5

of distant
ancestors kept and cherished."
Tsz-k'in put this query to his fellow disciple Tsz-kung: said he, "When
our Master comes to this or that State, he learns without fail how it is
being governed. Does he investigate matters? or are the facts given
him?"
Tsz-kung answered, "Our Master is a man of pleasant manners, and of
probity, courteous, moderate, and unassuming: it is by his being such
that he arrives at the facts. Is not his way of arriving at things different
from that of others?"
A saying of the Master:--
"He who, after three years' observation of the will of his father when
alive, or of his past conduct if dead, does not deviate from that father's
ways, is entitled to be called 'a dutiful son.'"
Sayings of the Scholar Yu:--
"For the practice of the Rules of Propriety,[1] one excellent way is to
be natural. This naturalness became a great grace in the practice of
kings of former times; let everyone, small or great, follow their
example.
"It is not, however, always practicable; and it is not so in the case of a

person who does things naturally, knowing that he should act so, and
yet who neglects to regulate his acts according to the Rules.
"When truth and right are hand in hand, a statement will bear repetition.
When respectfulness and propriety go hand in hand, disgrace and
shame are kept afar-off. Remove all occasion for alienating those to
whom you are bound by close ties, and you have them still to resort to."
A saying of the Master:--
"The man of greater mind who, when he is eating, craves not to eat to
the full; who has a home, but craves not for comforts in it; who is
active and earnest in his work and careful in his words; who makes
towards men of high principle, and so maintains his own rectitude--that
man may be styled a devoted student."
Tsz-kung asked, "What say you, sir, of the poor who do not cringe and
fawn; and what of the rich who are without pride and haughtiness?"
"They are passable," the Master replied; "yet they are scarcely in the
same category as the poor who are happy, and the rich who love
propriety."
"In the 'Book of the Odes,'" Tsz-kung went on to say, "we read of one
Polished, as by the knife and file, The graving-tool, the
smoothing-stone.
Does that coincide with your remark?"
"Ah! such as you," replied the Master, "may well commence a
discussion on the Odes. If one tell you how a thing goes, you know
what ought to come."
"It does not greatly concern me," said the Master, "that men do not
know me; my great concern is, my not knowing them."
[Footnote 1: An important part of a Chinaman's education still. The
text-book, "The Li Ki," contains rules for behavior and propriety for the

whole life, from the cradle to the grave.]

BOOK II
Good Government--Filial Piety--The Superior Man
Sayings of the Master:--
"Let a ruler base his government upon virtuous principles, and he will
be like the pole-star, which remains steadfast in its place, while all the
host of stars turn towards it.
"The 'Book of Odes' contains three hundred pieces, but one expression
in it may be taken as covering the purport of all, viz., Unswerving
mindfulness.
"To govern simply by statute, and to reduce all to order by means of
pains and penalties, is to render the people evasive, and devoid of any
sense of shame.
"To govern upon principles of virtue, and to reduce them to order by
the Rules of Propriety, would not only create in them the sense of
shame, but would moreover reach them in all their errors.
"When I attained the age of fifteen, I became bent upon study. At thirty,
I was a confirmed student. At forty, nought could move me from my
course. At fifty, I comprehended the will and decrees of Heaven. At
sixty, my ears were attuned to them. At seventy, I could follow my
heart's desires, without overstepping the lines of rectitude."
To a question of Mang-i, as to what filial piety consisted in, the master
replied, "In not being perverse." Afterwards, when Fan Ch'i was driving
him, the Master informed him of this question and answer, and Fan Ch'i
asked, "What was your meaning?" The Master replied, "I meant that
the Rules of Propriety should always be adhered to in regard to those
who brought us into the world: in ministering to them while living, in
burying them when dead, and afterwards in the offering to them of

sacrificial gifts."
To a query of Mang Wu respecting filial piety, the Master replied,
"Parents ought to bear but one trouble--that of their own sickness."
To a like question put by