第 七 章 · _Characteristics of Confucius--An Incident_

Said the Master:--

"I, as a transmitter[16] and not an originator, and as one who

believes in and loves the ancients, venture to compare myself with our

old P[']ang.

"What find you indeed in me?--a quiet brooder and memorizer; a student

never satiated with learning; an unwearied monitor of others!

"The things which weigh heavily upon my mind are these--failure to

improve in the virtues, failure in discussion of what is learnt,

inability to walk according to knowledge received as to what is right

and just, inability also to reform what has been amiss."

In his hours of recreation and refreshment the Master's manner was

easy and unconstrained, affable and winning.

Once he exclaimed, "Alas! I must be getting very feeble; 'tis long

since I have had a repetition of the dreams in which I used to see the

Duke of Chow.[17]

"Concentrate the mind," said he, "upon the Good Way.

"Maintain firm hold upon Virtue.

"Rely upon Philanthropy.

"Find recreation in the Arts.[18]

"I have never withheld instruction from any, even from those who have

come for it with the smallest offering.

"No subject do I broach, however, to those who have no eager desire to

learn; no encouraging hint do I give to those who show no anxiety to

speak out their ideas; nor have I anything more to say to those who,

after I have made clear one corner of the subject, cannot from that

give me the other three."

If the Master was taking a meal, and there were any in mourning beside

him, he would not eat to the full.

On one day on which he had wept, on that day he would not sing.

Addressing his favorite disciple, he said, "To you only and myself it

has been given to do this--to go when called to serve, and to go back

into quiet retirement when released from office."

Tsz-lu, hearing the remark said, "But if, sir, you had the handling of

the army of one of the greater States,[19] whom would you have

associated with you in that case?"

The Master answered:--

"Not the one 'who'll rouse the tiger,'

Not the one 'who'll wade the Ho;'

not the man who can die with no regret. He must be one who should

watch over affairs with apprehensive caution, a man fond of strategy,

and of perfect skill and effectiveness in it."

As to wealth, he remarked, "If wealth were an object that I could go

in quest of, I should do so even if I had to take a whip and do

grooms' work. But seeing that it is not, I go after those objects for

which I have a liking."

Among matters over which he exercised great caution were times of

fasting, war, and sickness.

When he was in the State of Ts[']i, and had heard the ancient Shau

music, he lost all perception of the taste of his meat. "I had no

idea," said he, "that music could have been brought to this pitch."

In the course of conversation Yen Yu said, "Does the Master take the

part of the Prince of Wei?" "Ah yes!" said Tsz-kung, "I will go and

ask him that."

On going in to him, that disciple began, "What sort of men were Peh-I

and Shuh Ts[']i?" "Worthies of the olden time," the Master replied.

"Had they any feelings of resentment?" was the next question. "Their

aim and object," he answered, "was that of doing the duty which every

man owes to his fellows, and they succeeded in doing it;--what room

further for feelings of resentment?" The questioner on coming out

said, "The Master does not take his part."

"With a meal of coarse rice," said the Master, "and with water to

drink, and my bent arm for my pillow--even thus I can find happiness.

Riches and honors without righteousness are to me as fleeting clouds."

"Give me several years more to live," said he, "and after fifty years'

study of the 'Book of Changes' I might come to be free from serious

error."

The Master's regular subjects of discourse were the "Books of the

Odes" and "History," and the up-keeping of the Rules of Propriety. On

all of these he regularly discoursed.

The Duke of Shih questioned Tsz-lu about Confucius, and the latter did

not answer.

Hearing of this, the Master said, "Why did you not say, He is a man

with a mind so intent on his pursuits that he forgets his food, and

finds such pleasure in them that he forgets his troubles, and does not

know that old age is coming upon him?"

"As I came not into life with any knowledge of it," he said, "and as

my likings are for what is old, I busy myself in seeking knowledge

there."

Strange occurrences, exploits of strength, deeds of lawlessness,

references to spiritual beings--such-like matters the Master avoided

in conversation.

"Let there," he said, "be three men walking together: from that number

I should be sure to find my instructors; for what is good in them I

should choose out and follow, and what is not good I should modify."

On one occasion he exclaimed, "Heaven begat Virtue in me; what can man

do unto me?"

To his disciples he once said, "Do you look upon me, my sons, as

keeping anything secret from you? I hide nothing from you. I do

nothing that is not manifest to your eyes, my disciples. That is so

with me."

Four things there were which he kept in view in his

teaching--scholarliness, conduct of life, honesty, faithfulness.

"It is not given to me," he said, "to meet with a sage; let me but

behold a man of superior mind, and that will suffice. Neither is it

given to me to meet with a good man; let me but see a man of

constancy, and it will suffice. It is difficult for persons to have

constancy, when they pretend to have that which they are destitute of,

to be full when they are empty, to do things on a grand scale when

their means are contracted!"

When the Master fished with hook and line, he did not also use a net.

When out with his bow, he would never shoot at game in cover.

"Some there may be," said he, "who do things in ignorance of what they

do. I am not of these. There is an alternative way of knowing things,

viz.--to sift out the good from the many things one hears, and follow

it; and to keep in memory the many things one sees."

Pupils from Hu-hiang were difficult to speak with. One youth came to

interview the Master, and the disciples were in doubt whether he ought

to have been seen. "Why so much ado," said the Master, "at my merely

permitting his approach, and not rather at my allowing him to draw

back? If a man have cleansed himself in order to come and see me, I

receive him as such; but I do not undertake for what he will do when

he goes away."

"Is the philanthropic spirit far to seek, indeed?" the Master

exclaimed; "I wish for it, and it is with me!"

The Minister of Crime in the State of Ch[']in asked Confucius whether

Duke Ch[']au, of Lu was acquainted with the Proprieties; and he

answered, "Yes, he knows them."

When Confucius had withdrawn, the minister bowed to Wu-ma K[']i, a

disciple, and motioned to him to come forward. He said, "I have heard

that superior men show no partiality; are they, too, then, partial?

That prince took for his wife a lady of the Wu family, having the same

surname as himself, and had her named 'Lady Tsz of Wu, the elder.' If

he knows the Proprieties, then who does not?"

The disciple reported this to the Master, who thereupon remarked,

"Well for me! If I err in any way, others are sure to know of it."

When the Master was in company with any one who sang, and who sang

well, he must needs have the song over again, and after that would

join in it.

"Although in letters," he said, "I may have none to compare with me,

yet in my personification of the 'superior man' I have not as yet been

successful."

"'A Sage and a Philanthropist?' How should I have the ambition?" said

he. "All that I can well be called is this--An insatiable student, an

unwearied teacher;--this, and no more."--"Exactly what we, your

disciples, cannot by any learning manage to be," said Kung-si Hwa.

Once when the Master was seriously ill, Tsz-lu requested to be allowed

to say prayers for him. "Are such available?" asked the Master. "Yes,"

said he; "and the Manual of Prayers says, 'Pray to the spirits above

and to those here below.'"

"My praying has been going on a long while," said the Master.

"Lavish living," he said, "renders men disorderly; miserliness makes

them hard. Better, however, the hard than the disorderly."

Again, "The man of superior mind is placidly composed; the

small-minded man is in a constant state of perturbation."

The Master was gentle, yet could be severe; had an overawing presence,

yet was not violent; was deferential, yet easy.

[Footnote 16: In reference to his editing the six Classics of his time.]

[Footnote 17: This was one of his "beloved ancients," famous for what

he did in helping to found the dynasty of Chow, a man of great

political wisdom, a scholar also, and poet. It was the "dream" of

Confucius's life to restore the country to the condition in which the

Duke of Chow left it.]

[Footnote 18: These were six in number, viz.: Ceremonial, Music,

Archery, Horsemanship, Language, and Calculation.]

[Footnote 19: Lit., three forces. Each force consisted of 12,500 men,

and three of such forces were the equipment of a greater State.]

BOOK 8.