Confucius

“ He thought that one was enough.
If for three years gentlemen forsake courtesy, courtesy must suffer. If for three years they forsake music, music must decay. The old grain passes, the new grain sprouts, the round of woods for the fire-drill is ended in one year.
The Master said, Feeding on rice, clad in brocade, couldst thou be at rest?
I could, he answered.
Then do what gives thee rest. But a gentleman, when he is mourning, has no taste for sweets and no ear for music; he cannot rest in his home. ”

“ Tzu-chang wrote them on his girdle.
6. The Master said, Straight indeed was the historian Yü! Like an arrow whilst the land kept the Way; and like an arrow when it lost the Way! What a gentleman was Ch'ü Po-yü! Whilst the land kept the Way he took office, and when the land had lost the Way he rolled himself up in thought.
7. The Master said, Not to speak to him that has ears to hear is to spill the man. To speak to a man without ears to hear is to spill thy words. Wisdom spills neither man nor words. ”

“ 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.
10. Tzu-hsia said, Until they trust him, a gentleman lays no burdens on his people. If they do not trust him, they will think it cruel. ”

“ Tzu-kung said, This is like the palace wall. My wall reaches to the shoulder: peeping over you see the good home within. The Master's wall is several fathoms high: no one can see the beauty of the Ancestral Temple and the wealth of its hundred officers, unless he gets in by the gate. And if only a few men find the gate, may not my lord have spoken the truth?
24. Shu-sun Wu-shu cried down Chung-ni.
Tzu-kung said, It is labour lost. Chung-ni cannot be cried down. The greatness of other men is a hummock, over which we can still leap. Chung-ni is the sun or moon, which no one can overleap. ”

“ Speaking to Tzŭ Lu, the Master said: Have you ever heard, Yu, of the six shadows which attend six several virtues?—No, he replied.—Sit down, then, and I will tell you. Love of goodness without the will to learn [24] casts the shadow called foolishness. Love of knowledge without the will to learn casts the shadow called instability. Love of truth without the will to learn casts the shadow called insensibility. Love of candour without the will to learn casts the shadow called rudeness. Love of daring without the will to learn casts the shadow called turbulence. ”

“ Unlike Christianity and Mahometanism, the Way preached by the Chinese sage knows neither the sanction of punishment nor the stimulus of reward in an after-life. Even Buddhism holds out the hope of Nirvana to the pure of heart, and preaches the long torment of successive rebirths to those who fall short of perfect goodness. No great religion is devoid of elevated precepts, or has ever failed to mould numbers of beautiful characters to attest the presence of something good and great within it. ”

“ The higher type of man is calm and serene; the inferior man is constantly agitated and worried.
With sincerity and truth unite a desire for self-culture. Lay down your life rather than quit the path of virtue. Enter not the state which is tottering to its fall. Abide not in the state where sedition is rampant. When law obtains in the Empire, let yourself be seen; when lawlessness reigns, retire into obscurity. In a state governed on right principles, poverty and low station are things to be ashamed of; in an ill-governed state, riches and rank are things to be ashamed of. ”

“ MISCELLANEOUS SAYINGS
The Master said: To learn, and to practise on occasion what one has learnt—is this not true pleasure? The coming of a friend from a far-off land—is this not true joy?
Make conscientiousness and sincerity your grand object. Have no friends not equal to yourself. If you have done wrong, be not ashamed to make amends.
Observe the bent of a man's will when his father is alive, and his actions after his father is dead. If during the three years of mourning he does not swerve from his father's principles, he may be pronounced a truly filial son. ”

“ 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. ”

“ SAYINGS OF THE DISCIPLES
Yu Tzŭ said: It is seldom that good sons and brothers are given to insubordinate conduct. That those who dislike insubordinate conduct should be ready to foment sedition, is something absolutely unknown. The wise man attends to the root; for if this be properly set, virtue will spring from it. And what is the root of all goodness but filial piety and fraternal love? ”

“ The Master said, A gentleman has no small knowledge, but he can carry out big things: the small man can carry out nothing big, but he may be knowing in small things.
34. The Master said, Love is more to the people than fire and water. I have seen men come to their death by fire and water: I have seen no man that love brought to his death. ”

“ Chung-kung asked, What is love?
The Master said, Without the door to behave as though a great guest were come; to treat the people as though we tendered the great sacrifice; not to do unto others what we would not they should do unto us; to breed no wrongs in the state and breed no wrongs in the home. ”

“ Hui was indeed a philosopher! Other men living as he did, in a miserable alley, with a single dish of food and a single bowl of drink, could not have endured the distress. But Hui was invariably cheerful. He was a philosopher indeed!
Jan Ch‘iu said: It is not that I have no joy in my Master's teaching, it is my strength that fails me.—The Master replied: Those whose strength fails them fall fainting by the way. What you do is to set up bounds which you will not attempt to pass.
The Master said: Mêng Chih-fan is no braggart. ”

“ Poverty does not vex him, but want of peace vexes him. For if wealth were even, no one would be poor. In harmony is number; peace prevents a fall. Thus, if far off tribes will not submit, bring them in by encouraging mind and art, and when they come in give them peace. But now, when far off tribes will not submit, ye two, helpers of your lord, cannot bring them in. The kingdom is split and falling, and ye cannot save it. Yet inside our land ye plot to move spear and shield! The sorrows of Chi's grandsons will not rise in Chuan-yü, I fear: they will rise within the palace wall. ”

“ Such unswerving devotion to the abstract cause of right and justice and good government cannot but puzzle those who have been taught to regard Confucius as the very type and embodiment of materialistic wisdom and practical utilitarianism. But in truth, strange though it may sound, he was a great idealist who gained his hold on his countrymen by virtue rather of his noble imaginings and lofty aspirations than of any immediate results or tangible achievements. By the men of his own day he was more often than not considered a charlatan and an impostor. ”

“ The Master said, Wisdom delights in water; love delights in hills. Wisdom is stirring; love is quiet. Wisdom is merry; love grows old.
22. The Master said, By one revolution Ch'i might grow to be Lu; by one revolution Lu might reach the Way.
23. The Master said, A drinking horn that is no horn! What a horn! What a drinking horn!
24. Tsai Wo [61] said, If a man of love were told that a man is in a well, would he go in after him?
The Master said, Why should he? A gentleman might be got to the well, but not trapped into it, He may be cheated, but not fooled. ”

“ The Master taught four things: art, conduct, faithfulness and truth.
25. The Master said, A holy man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a gentleman! A good man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a steadfast one! But when nothing poses as something, cloud as substance and want as riches, it is hard indeed to be steadfast! ”

“ If you, sir, can check your own cupidity, there will be no stealing, even though rewards should be offered for theft.
Chi K‘ang Tzŭ questioned Confucius on a point of government, saying: Ought not I to cut off the lawless in order to establish law and order? What do you think?—Confucius replied: Sir, what need is there of the death penalty in your system of government? If you showed a sincere desire to be good, your people would likewise be good. The virtue of the prince is like unto wind; that of the people, like unto grass. For it is the nature of grass to bend when the wind blows upon it. ”

“ Tzu-lu said, The lord of Wei [125] waits for you, Sir, to govern. How shall ye begin?
Surely, said the Master, by putting names right.
Indeed, said Tzu-lu, that is far-fetched, Sir. Why put them right?
What a savage Yu [126] is! said the Master. A gentleman is tongue-tied when he does not understand. If names are not right, words do not fit. If words do not fit, affairs go wrong. If affairs go wrong, neither courtesy nor music thrive. If courtesy and music do not thrive, law and justice fail. And if law and justice fail them, the people can move neither hand nor foot. ”

“ Over and over again he gave proof of the highest and noblest moral courage in ignoring the narrow rules of conventional morality and etiquette when these conflicted with good feeling and common sense, and setting up in their stead the grand rule of conscience which, by asserting the right of each individual to judge such matters for himself, pushed liberty to a point which was quite beyond the comprehension of his age. ”

“ Can ceremonies be reduced to a mere matter of silken robes and jade ornaments? Music, forsooth! Can music be reduced to a mere matter of bells and drums? [25] [Pg 108] Men who are grave and stern in appearance, but inwardly weak and unprincipled—are they not comparable to the lowest class of humanity—sneaking thieves that break into houses by night?
Your goody-goody people are the thieves of virtue.
The Master said: Would that I could do without speaking!—Tzŭ Kung said: If our Master never spoke, how could we, his disciples, transmit his doctrines?—The Master replied: Does God speak? ”

“ Ambitious men of old were not nice; now they are unprincipled. Stern men of old were hard; now they are quarrelsome. Ignorant men of old were straight; now they are false. That is all.
17. The Master said, Smooth words and fawning looks are seldom found with love.
18. The Master said, I hate the ousting of scarlet by purple. I hate the strains of Cheng, confounders of sweet music. I hate a sharp tongue, the ruin of kingdom and home.
19. The Master said, I wish no word were spoken!
Tzu-kung said, Sir, if ye said no word, what could your little children write? ”

“ If a man can for the space of one day subdue his selfishness and revert to natural laws, the whole world will call him good. True goodness springs from a man's own heart. How can it depend on other men?—Yen Yüan said: Kindly tell me the practical rule to be deduced from this.—The Master replied: Do not use your eyes, your ears, your power of speech or your faculty of movement without obeying the inner law of self-control. [22] —Yen Yüan said: Though I am not quick in thought or act, I will make it my business to carry out this precept.
Chung Kung inquired as to the meaning of true goodness. ”

“ He never achieved the Utopian object of reforming all mankind by means of a wise and good sovereign. On the contrary, after his death confusion grew worse confounded, and the din of arms rose to a pitch from which it did not subside until after the momentous revolution which swept away the Chou dynasty and established a new order of things in China. In a radically individualistic and liberty-loving country like China, the feudal system was bound sooner or later to perish, even as it perished in a later day among ourselves. ”

“ The Master said, It is hard indeed when a man eats his fill all day, and has nothing to task the mind! Could he not play at chequers? Even that were better.
23. Tzu-lu said, Do gentlemen honour daring?
They put right higher, said the Master. With daring and no sense of right gentlemen turn rebels and small men turn robbers.
24. Tzu-kung said, Do gentlemen hate too?
[91]
They do, said the Master. They hate the sounding of evil deeds; they hate men of low estate that slander those over them; they hate daring without courtesy; they hate men that are stout and fearless, but blind. ”

“ The baser sort of man is difficult to serve yet easy to please. Who seeks to please him in any wrongful way will assuredly succeed. And he requires absolute perfection in those from whom he exacts service.
The nobler sort of man is dignified but not proud; the inferior man is proud but not dignified.
[Pg 66]
Hsien said: To refrain from self-glorification, to subdue feelings of resentment, to control selfish desire—may this be held to constitute perfect virtue?—The Master said: These things may certainly be considered hard to achieve, but I am not so sure that they constitute perfect virtue. ”

“ Then only will he be doing his duty as a father, just as a son is not doing his duty unless he shows honour and obedience to his parents. The all-important element which makes possible the working of the family machine, the lubricating oil that eases the bearings, is not merely filial piety without any corresponding feeling on the part of the parent, but rather a certain subtle principle of harmony and self-control permeating every member of the family group, which restrains egoistic propensities and promotes the common good. ”

“ Tseng-tzu said, Even in his thoughts, a gentleman does not outstep his place.
29. The Master said, A gentleman is shamefast of speech: his deeds go further.
30. The Master said, In the way of the gentleman there are three things that I cannot achieve. Love is never troubled; wisdom has no doubts; courage is without fear.
That is what ye say, Sir, said Tzu-kung. ”

“ Tzu-kung said, By one word a gentleman shows wisdom, by one word want of wisdom. Words must not be lightly spoken. No one can come up to the Master, as heaven is not to be climbed by steps. If the Master had power in a kingdom, or a clan, the saying would come true, 'What he sets up stands; he shows the way and men go it, he brings peace and they come, he stirs them and they are at one. ”

“ What men call a great minister is one who serves his prince according to the principles of truth and virtue, and when that is impossible, resigns. Yu and Ch‘iu, however, can only be termed ordinary officials.—Which is as much as to say that they will always obediently follow their master's will?—The Master replied: They would not follow him so far as to commit parricide or regicide.
The Master said: Yu is the man to settle a long litigation in a few words.
Tzŭ Kung was fond of weighing other men's merits and defects. The Master said: Surely Tz‘u must be a very great sage! ”

“ He asked, What is love?
The Master said, To rank the effort above the prize may be called love. ”

“ It is high time that an effective protest was made against such an amazing piece of misrepresentation. With bitter truth we may retort that "propriety"—that is, the Chinese word li which has been cruelly saddled with this absurd rendering—has indeed been a stumbling-block, but a stumbling-block not so much to Confucius as to Dr. Legge himself. The whole tenor of the Master's teaching cries aloud against such wilful and outrageous distortion. Any one who reads the sayings carefully will soon discover that this accusation is not only libellous but grotesque in its remoteness from the truth. ”

“ Chi K'ang being troubled by robbers asked Confucius about it.
Confucius answered, If ye did not wish it, Sir, though ye rewarded him no man would steal.
19. Chi K'ang, speaking of kingcraft to Confucius, said, To help those that follow the Way, should we kill the men that will not?
Confucius answered, Sir, what need has a ruler to kill? If ye wished for goodness, Sir, the people would be good. The gentleman's mind is the wind, and grass are the minds of small men: as the wind blows, so must the grass bend.
20. Tzu-chang asked, What must a knight be, for him to be called eminent? ”

“ If a kingly sovereign were to appear, by the end of one generation natural goodness would prevail.
If a man can reform his own heart, what should hinder him from taking part in government? But if he cannot reform his own heart, what has he to do with reforming others?
Duke Ting [6] asked if there was a single sentence [Pg 46] by which a country might be made to flourish. Confucius answered: No single sentence can be expected to have such a virtue as this. But there is the common saying: "To be a good king is difficult; to be a good minister is not easy." ”