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 overmuch 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 Hang 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 marketplace 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.]