الفصل الفصل 6 · _More Characteristics--Wisdom--Philanthropy_

Of Yen Yung, a disciple, the Master said, "Yung might indeed do for a

prince!"

On being asked by this Yen Yung his opinion of a certain individual,

the Master replied, "He is passable. Impetuous, though."

"But," argued the disciple, "if a man habituate himself to a reverent

regard for duty--even while in his way of doing things he is

impetuous--in the oversight of the people committed to his charge, is

he not passable? If, on the other hand, he habituate himself to

impetuosity of mind, and show it also in his way of doing things, is

he not then over-impetuous?"

"You are right," said the Master.

When the Duke Ngai inquired which of the disciples were devoted to

learning, Confucius answered him, "There was one Yen Hwui who loved

it--a man whose angry feelings towards any particular person he did

not suffer to visit upon another; a man who would never fall into the

same error twice. Unfortunately his allotted time was short, and he

died, and now his like is not to be found; I have never heard of one

so devoted to learning."

While Tsz-hwa, a disciple, was away on a mission to Ts[']i, the

disciple Yen Yu, on behalf of his mother, applied for some grain.

"Give her three pecks," said the Master. He applied for more. "Give

her eight, then." Yen gave her fifty times that amount. The Master

said, "When Tsz-hwa went on that journey to Ts[']i, he had well-fed

steeds yoked to his carriage, and was arrayed in light furs. I have

learnt that the 'superior man' should help those whose needs are

urgent, not help the rich to be more rich."

When Yuen Sz became prefect under him, he gave him nine hundred

measures of grain, but the prefect declined to accept them.[14] "You

must not," said the Master. "May they not be of use to the villages

and hamlets around you?"

Speaking of Yen Yung again, the Master said, "If the offspring of a

speckled ox be red in color, and horned, even though men may not wish

to take it for sacrifice, would the spirits of the hills and streams

reject it?"

Adverting to Hwui again, he said, "For three months there would not be

in his breast one thought recalcitrant against his feeling of

good-will towards his fellow-men. The others may attain to this for a

day or for a month, but there they end."

When asked by Ki K[']ang whether Tsz-lu was fit to serve the

government, the Master replied, "Tsz-lu is a man of decision: what

should prevent him from serving the government?"

Asked the same question respecting Tsz-kung and Yen Yu he answered

similarly, pronouncing Tsz-kung to be a man of perspicacity, and Yen

Yu to be one versed in the polite arts.

When the head of the Ki family sent for Min Tsz-k[']ien to make him

governor of the town of Pi, that disciple said, "Politely decline for

me. If the offer is renewed, then indeed I shall feel myself obliged

to go and live on the further bank of the Wan."

Peh-niu had fallen ill, and the Master was inquiring after him. Taking

hold of his hand held out from the window, he said, "It is taking him

off! Alas, his appointed time has come! Such a man, and to have such

an illness!"

Of Hwui, again: "A right worthy man indeed was he! With his simple

wooden dish of rice, and his one gourd-basin of drink, away in his

poor back lane, in a condition too grievous for others to have

endured, he never allowed his cheery spirits to droop. Aye, a right

worthy soul was he!"

"It is not," Yen Yu once apologized, "that I do not take pleasure in

your doctrines; it is that I am not strong enough." The Master

rejoined, "It is when those who are not strong enough have made some

moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up; but you are

now drawing your own line for yourself."

Addressing Tsz-hia, the Master said, "Let your scholarship be that of

gentlemen, and not like that of common men."

When Tsz-yu became governor of Wu-shing, the Master said to him, "Do

you find good men about you?" The reply was, "There is Tan-t[']ai

Mieh-ming, who when walking eschews by-paths, and who, unless there be

some public function, never approaches my private residence."

"Mang Chi-fan," said the Master, "is no sounder of his own praises.

During a stampede he was in the rear, and as they were about to enter

the city gate he whipped up his horses, and said, ''Twas not my daring

made me lag behind. My horses would not go.'"

_Obiter dicta_ of the Master:--

"Whoever has not the glib utterance of the priest T[']o, as well as

the handsomeness of Prince Chau of Sung, will find it hard to keep out

of harm's way in the present age.

"Who can go out but by that door? Why walks no one by these guiding

principles?

"Where plain naturalness is more in evidence than polish, we

have--the man from the country. Where polish is more in evidence than

naturalness, we have--the town scribe. It is when naturalness and

polish are equally evident that we have the ideal man.

"The life of a man is--his rectitude. Life without it--such may you

have the good fortune to avoid!

"They who know it are not as those who love it, nor they who love it

as those who rejoice in it--that is, have the fruition of their love

for it.

"To the average man, and those above the average, it is possible to

discourse on higher subjects; to those from the average downwards, it

is not possible."

Fan Ch[']i put a query about wisdom. The Master replied, "To labor for

the promoting of righteous conduct among the people of the land; to be

serious in regard to spiritual beings, and to hold aloof from

them;--this may be called wisdom."

To a further query, about philanthropy, he replied, "Those who possess

that virtue find difficulty with it at first, success later.

"Men of practical knowledge," he said, "find their gratification among

the rivers of the lowland, men of sympathetic social feeling find

theirs among the hills. The former are active and bustling, the latter

calm and quiet. The former take their day of pleasure, the latter look

to length of days."

Alluding to the States of Ts[']i and Lu, he observed, that Ts[']i, by

one change, might attain to the condition of Lu; and that Lu, by one

change, might attain to good government.

An exclamation of the Master (satirizing the times, when old terms

relating to government were still used while bereft of their old

meaning):--"A quart, and not a quart! _quart_, indeed! _quart_, indeed!"

Tsai Wo, a disciple, put a query. Said he, "Suppose a philanthropic

person were told, 'There's a fellow-creature down in the well!' Would

he go down after him?"

"Why should he really do so?" answered the Master. "The good man, or a

superior man might be induced to go, but not to go down. He may be

misled, but not befooled."

"The superior man," said he, "with his wide study of books, and

hedging himself round by the Rules of Propriety, is not surely, after

all that, capable of overstepping his bounds."

Once when the Master had had an interview with Nan-tsz, which had

scandalized his disciple Tsz-lu, he uttered the solemn adjuration, "If

I have done aught amiss, may Heaven reject me! may Heaven reject me!"

"How far-reaching," said he, "is the moral excellence that flows from

the Constant Mean![15] It has for a long time been rare among the

people."

Tsz-kung said, "Suppose the case of one who confers benefits far and

wide upon the people, and who can, in so doing, make his bounty

universally felt--how would you speak of him? Might he be called

philanthropic?"

The Master exclaimed, "What a work for philanthropy! He would require

indeed to be a sage! He would put into shade even Yau and Shun!--Well,

a philanthropic person, desiring for himself a firm footing, is led on

to give one to others; desiring for himself an enlightened perception

of things, he is led on to help others to be similarly enlightened. If

one could take an illustration coming closer home to us than yours,

that might be made the starting-point for speaking about

philanthropy."

[Footnote 14: At this time Confucius was Criminal Judge in his native

State of Lu. Yuen Sz had been a disciple. The commentators add that this

was the officer's proper salary, and that he did wrong to refuse it.]

[Footnote 15: The doctrine afterwards known by that name, and which

gave its title to a Confucian treatise.]

BOOK 7.