Bab Bab 14 · _Good and Bad Government--Miscellaneous Sayings_

Yuen Sz asked what might be considered to bring shame on one.

"Pay," said the Master; "pay--ever looking to that, whether the

country be well or badly governed."

"When imperiousness, boastfulness, resentments, and covetousness cease

to prevail among the people, may it be considered that mutual

good-will has been effected?" To this question the Master replied, "A

hard thing overcome, it may be considered. But as to the mutual

good-will--I cannot tell."

"Learned officials," said he, "who hanker after a home life, are not

worthy of being esteemed as such."

Again, "In a country under good government, speak boldly, act boldly.

When the land is ill-governed, though you act boldly, let your words

be moderate."

Again, "Men of virtue will needs be men of words--will speak out--but

men of words are not necessarily men of virtue. They who care for

their fellow-men will needs be bold, but the bold may not necessarily

be such as care for their fellow-men."

Nan-kung Kwoh, who was consulting Confucius, observed respecting I,

the skilful archer, and Ngau, who could propel a boat on dry land,

that neither of them died a natural death; while Yu and Tsih, who with

their own hands had labored at husbandry, came to wield imperial sway.

The Master gave him no reply. But when the speaker had gone out he

exclaimed, "A superior man, that! A man who values virtue, that!"

"There have been noble-minded men," said he, "who yet were wanting in

philanthropy; but never has there been a small-minded man who had

philanthropy in him."

He asked, "Can any one refuse to toil for those he loves? Can any one

refuse to exhort, who is true-hearted?"

Speaking of the preparation of Government Notifications in his day he

said, "P[']i would draw up a rough sketch of what was to be said; the

Shishuh then looked it carefully through and put it into proper shape;

Tsz-yu next, who was master of the ceremonial of State intercourse,

improved and adorned its phrases; and Tsz-ch[']an of Tung-li added his

scholarly embellishments thereto."

To some one who asked his opinion of the last-named, he said, "He was

a kind-hearted man." Asked what he thought of Tsz-si, he exclaimed,

"Alas for him! alas for him!"--Asked again about Kwan Chung, his

answer was, "As to him, he once seized the town of P[']in with its

three hundred families from the Chief of the Pih clan, who, afterwards

reduced to living upon coarse rice, with all his teeth gone, never

uttered a word of complaint."

"It is no light thing," said he, "to endure poverty uncomplainingly;

and a difficult thing to bear wealth without becoming arrogant."

Respecting Mang Kung-ch[']oh, he said that, while he was fitted for

something better than the post of chief officer in the Chau or Wei

families, he was not competent to act as minister in small States like

those of T[']ang or Sieh.

Tsz-lu asked how he would describe a perfect man. He replied, "Let a

man have the sagacity of Tsang Wu-chung, the freedom from covetousness

of Kung-ch[']oh, the boldness of Chwang of P[']in, and the attainments

in polite arts of Yen Yu; and gift him further with the graces taught

by the 'Books of Rites' and 'Music'--then he may be considered a

perfect man. But," said he, "what need of such in these days? The man

that may be regarded as perfect now is the one who, seeing some

advantage to himself, is mindful of righteousness; who, seeing danger,

risks his life; and who, if bound by some covenant of long standing,

never forgets its conditions as life goes on."

Respecting Kung-shuh Wan, the Master inquired of Kung-ming Kia,

saying, "Is it true that your master never speaks, never laughs, never

takes aught from others?"

"Those who told you that of him," said he, "have gone too far. My

master speaks when there is occasion to do so, and men are not

surfeited with his speaking. When there is occasion to be merry too,

he will laugh, but men have never over much of his laughing. And

whenever it is just and right to take things from others, he will take

them, but never so as to allow men to think him burdensome." "Is that

the case with him?" said the Master. "Can it be so?"

Respecting Tsang Wu-chung the Master said, "When he sought from Lu the

appointment of a successor to him, and for this object held on to his

possession of the fortified city of Fang--if you say he was not then

using constraint towards his prince, I must refuse to believe it."

Duke Wan of Tsin he characterized as "artful but not upright"; and

Duke Hwan of Ts'i as "upright but not artful."

Tsz-lu remarked, "When Duke Hwan caused his brother Kiu to be put to

death, Shau Hwuh committed suicide, but Kwan Chung did not. I should

say he was not a man who had much good-will in him--eh?"

The Master replied, "When Duke Hwan held a great gathering of the

feudal lords, dispensing with military equipage, it was owing to Kwan

Chung's energy that such an event was brought about. Match such

good-will as that--match it if you can."

Tsz-kung then spoke up. "But was not Kwan Chung wanting in good-will?

He could not give up his life when Duke Hwan caused his brother to be

put to death. Besides, he became the duke's counsellor."

"And in acting as his counsellor put him at the head of all the feudal

lords," said the Master, "and unified and reformed the whole empire;

and the people, even to this day, reap benefit from what he did. Had

it not been for him we should have been going about with locks unkempt

and buttoning our jackets (like barbarians) on the left. Would you

suppose that he should show the same sort of attachment as exists

between a poor yokel and his one wife--that he would asphyxiate

himself in some sewer, leaving no one the wiser?"

Kung-shuh Wan's steward, who became the high officer Sien, went up

accompanied by Wan to the prince's hall of audience.

When Confucius heard of this he remarked, "He may well be esteemed a

'Wan.'"

The Master having made some reference to the lawless ways of Duke Ling

of Wei, Ki K[']ang said to him, "If he be like that, how is it he does

not ruin his position?"

Confucius answered, "The Chung-shuh, Yu, is charged with the

entertainment of visitors and strangers; the priest T[']o has charge

of the ancestral temple; and Wang-sun Kia has the control of the army

and its divisions:--with men such as those, how should he come to ruin?"

He once remarked, "He who is unblushing in his words will with

difficulty substantiate them."

Ch[']in Shing had slain Duke Kien. Hearing of this, Confucius, after

performing his ablutions, went to Court and announced the news to Duke

Ngai, saying, "Ch[']in Shing has slain his prince. May I request that

you proceed against him?"

"Inform the Chiefs of the Three Families," said the duke.

Soliloquizing upon this, Confucius said, "Since he uses me to back his

ministers,[30] I did not dare not to announce the matter to him; and

now he says, 'Inform the Three Chiefs.'"

He went to the Three Chiefs and informed them, but nothing could be

done. Whereupon again he said, "Since he uses me to back his

ministers, I did not dare not to announce the matter."

Tsz-lu was questioning him as to how he should serve his prince.

"Deceive him not, but reprove him," he answered.

"The minds of superior men," he observed, "trend upwards; those of

inferior men trend downwards."

Again, "Students of old fixed their eyes upon themselves: now they

learn with their eyes upon others."

Kue Pih-yuh despatched a man with a message to Confucius. Confucius

gave him a seat, and among other inquiries he asked, "How is your

master managing?" "My master," he replied, "has a great wish to be

seldom at fault, and as yet he cannot manage it."

"What a messenger!" exclaimed he, admiringly, when the man went out.

"What a messenger!"

"When not occupying the office," was a remark of his, "devise not the

policy."

The Learned Tsang used to say, "The thoughts of the 'superior man' do

not wander from his own office."

"Superior men," said the Master, "are modest in their words, profuse

in their deeds."

Again, "There are three attainments of the superior man which are

beyond me--the being sympathetic without anxiety, wise without

scepticism, brave without fear."

"Sir," said Tsz-kung, "that is what you say of yourself."

Whenever Tsz-kung drew comparisons from others, the Master would say,

"Ah, how wise and great you must have become! Now I have no time to do

that."

Again, "My great concern is, not that men do not know me, but that

they cannot."

Again, "If a man refrain from making preparations against his being

imposed upon, and from counting upon others' want of good faith

towards him, while he is foremost to perceive what is passing--surely

that is a wise and good man."

Wi-shang Mau accosted Confucius, saying, "Kiu, how comes it that you

manage to go perching and roosting in this way? Is it not because you

show yourself so smart a speaker, now?"

"I should not dare do that," said Confucius. "'Tis that I am sick of

men's immovableness and deafness to reason."

"In a well-bred horse," said he, "what one admires is not its speed,

but its good points."

Some one asked, "What say you of the remark, 'Requite enmity with

kindness'?"

"How then," he answered, "would you requite kindness? Requite enmity

with straightforwardness, and kindness with kindness."

"Ah! no one knows me!" he once exclaimed.

"Sir," said Tsz-kung, "how comes it to pass that no one knows you?"

"While I murmur not against Heaven," continued the Master, "nor cavil

at men; while I stoop to learn and aspire to penetrate into things

that are high; yet 'tis Heaven alone knows what I am."

Liau, a kinsman of the duke, having laid a complaint against Tsz-lu

before Ki K[']ang, an officer came to Confucius to inform him of the

fact, and he added, "My lord is certainly having his mind poisoned by

his kinsman Liau, but through my influence perhaps we may yet manage

to see him exposed in the market-place or the Court."

"If right principles are to have their course, it is so destined,"

said the Master; "if they are not to have their course, it is so

destined. What can Liau do against Destiny?"

"There are worthy men," said the Master, "fleeing from the world; some

from their district; some from the sight of men's looks; some from the

language they hear."

"The men who have risen from their posts and withdrawn in this manner

are seven in number."

Tsz-lu, having lodged overnight in Shih-mun, was accosted by the

gate-keeper in the morning. "Where from?" he asked. "From Confucius,"

Tsz-lu responded. "That is the man," said he, "who knows things are

not up to the mark, and is making some ado about them, is it not?"

When the Master was in Wei, he was once pounding on the musical stone,

when a man with a basket of straw crossed his threshold, and

exclaimed, "Ah, there is a heart that feels! Aye, drub the stone!"

After which he added, "How vulgar! how he hammers away on one

note!--and no one knows him, and he gives up, and all is over!

'Be it deep, our skirts we'll raise to the waist,

--Or shallow, then up to the knee.'"

"What determination!" said the Master. "Yet it was not hard to do."

Tsz-chang once said to him, "In the 'Book of the Annals' it is stated

that while Kau-tsung was in the Mourning Shed he spent the three years

without speaking. What is meant by that?"

"Why must you name Kau-tsung?" said the Master. "It was so with all

other ancient sovereigns: when one of them died, the heads of every

department agreed between themselves that they should give ear for

three years to the Prime Minister."

"When their betters love the Rules, then the folk are easy tools," was

a saying of the Master.

Tsz-lu having asked what made a "superior man," he answered,

"Self-culture, with a view to becoming seriously-minded."

"Nothing more than that?" said he.

"Self-culture with a view to the greater satisfaction of others,"

added the Master.

"That, and yet no more?"

"Self-culture with a view to the greater satisfaction of all the clans

and classes," he again added. "Self-culture for the sake of all--a

result that, that would almost put Yau and Shun into the shade!"

To Yuen Jang,[31] who was sitting waiting for him in a squatting

(disrespectful) posture, the Master delivered himself as follows: "The

man who in his youth could show no humility or subordination, who in

his prime misses his opportunity, and who when old age comes upon him

will not die--that man is a miscreant." And he tapped him on the shin

with his staff.

Some one asked about his attendant--a youth from the village of

Kiueh--whether he was one who improved. He replied, "I note that he

seats himself in the places reserved for his betters, and that when he

is walking he keeps abreast with his seniors. He is not one of those

who care for improvement: he wants to be a man all at once."

[Footnote 30: Confucius had now retired from office, and this incident

occurred only two years before his death.]

[Footnote 31: It is a habit with the Chinese, when a number are out

walking together, for the eldest to go first, the others pairing off

according to their age. It is a custom much older than the time of

Confucius.]

BOOK 15.