CHAP. XIV. The Master said, 'He who is not in any particular office, has nothing to do with plans for the administration of its duties.' CHAP. XV. The Master said, 'When the music-master Chih first entered on his office, the finish of the Kwan Tsü was magnificent ;— how it filled the ears!’ CHAP. XVI. The Master said, 'Ardent and yet not upright; stupid and yet not attentive; simple and yet not sincere:-such persons I do not understand.' CHAP. XVII. The Master said, 'Learn as if you could not reach your object, and were always fearing also lest you should lose it.' CHAP. XVIII. The Master said, 'How majestic was the manner in which Shun and Yü held possession of the empire, as if it were nothing to them!! 14. EVERY MAN SHOULD MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS. So the sentiment of this chapter is generalized by the paraphrasts, and perhaps correctly. Its letter, however, has doubtless operated to prevent the spread of right notions about political liberty in China. 16. A LAMENTATION OVER MORAL ERROR ADDED TO NATURAL DEFECT. 吾不知之, (I do not know them;' that is, say commentators, natural defects of endowment are generally associated with certain redeeming qualities, as hastiness ties Confucius had in view, those redeeming with straightforwardness, &c., but in the par. 15. THE FRAISE OF THE MUSIC-MASTER CHIH. Neither Morrison nor Medhurst gives what ap-qualities were absent. He did not understand pears to be the meaning of in this chapter. The K'ang-het dictionary has it一樂之卒 章日亂(The last part in the musical services is called lwan.' The programme on those occasions consisted of four parts, in the last of which a number of pieces from the Fang or songs of the States was sung, commencing with the Kwan Tsu. The name lwan was also given to a sort of refrain, at the end of each song. The old interpreters explain differently, them, and could do nothing for them. 18. THE LOFTY CHARACTER OF SHUN AND Yt. Shun received the empire from Yao, s.d. 2255, and Yü received it from Shun, B. c. 2205. The throne came to them not by inheritance. They were called to it through their talents and vir tue. And yet the possession of it did not affect them at all.,-'it did not concern them,' was as if nothing to them. Ho Yen takes - when the musio-master Chih Arat corrected 與求,they had the empire without seek the confusion of the Kwan Tsù,'&c. |ing for it. This is not according to usage. 乎人。治国也名 名堯 唐· 孔武舜順焉 才 虞子王有乎巍之 巍 於難有人文其平天 斯不亂而章有民為 為其臣天 盛然十下 功 大 唯君 有天下也而不與焉 sovereign! How majestic was he! It is only Heaven that is grand, CHAP.XIX. 1. The Master said, 'Great indeed was Yão as a and only Yao corresponded to it. people could find no name for it. How vast was his virtue ! The 2. 'How majestic was he in the works which he accomplished! How glorious in the elegant regulations which he instituted!' CHAP.XX. 1. Shun had five ministers, and the empire was well-governed. 2. King Wû said, 'I have ten able ministers.' 3. Confucius said, 'Is not the saying that talents are difficult to find, true ? Only when the dynasties of Tang and Yu met, were they more abundant than in this of Châu, yet there was a woman among them. The able ministers were no more than nine men. 19. THE PRAISE OF YEO, I. No doubt, Yao, as of Instruction;臯陶, Minister of Justice; he appears in Chinese annals, is a fit object of admiration, but if Confucius had had a right and 1, Warden of Woods and Marshes. knowledge of, and reverence for, Heaven, he Those five, as being eminentabove all their com. could not have spoken as he does here. Grant peers, are mentioned. a. See the Shû-ching, that it is only the visible heaven overspreading V. i. sect. ii. 6. 亂臣,‘governing, ie able all, to which he compares Yao, even that is suf ficiently absurd. 則之, not simply = ministers.' In the dictionary, the first meaning -法 之,'imitated it, but 能與之準,could just the opposite,' to confound, “confusion., given of is to regulate,' and the second is course was the duke of Châu. One of them, it is equalize with it.’2. 其有成功-其所 Of the ten ministers, the most distinguished of 有之成功,the great achievements of his government. 文章 (see V. xii) = the music, said next paragraph, was a woman, but whether she was the mother of king Wan, or his wife, is much disputed. The ten men were : the duke ceremonies, &c., of which he was the author. of Chau, the duke of Shao, Grandfather Hope, 20. THE SCARCITY OF MEN OF TALENT, AND PRAISE OF THE HOUSE OF CHÂU. 1. Shun's five ministers 禹 were 1, Superintendent of Works; 稷, Super intendent of Agriculture;契(hsieh), Minister the duke of Pi, the duke of Yung, Tai-tien, Hung-yão, San-i Shăng, Nan-kung Kwo, and of the usual.The Master said, we have here 孔子曰, (The philosopher K'ung said.. the wife or mother of king Wăn. 3. Instead 力平鬼 溝冕 洫卑 禹宮 吾室 飲日 德殷 鬼神惡衣服而致美 非飲食而致孝乎 巴墜子 日禹吾無間然 盡美乎 4. King Wan possessed two of the three parts of the empire, and with those he served the dynasty of Yin. The virtue of the house of Châu may be said to have reached the highest point indeed.' CHAP. XXI. The Master said, 'I can find no flaw in the character of Yü. He used himself coarse food and drink, but displayed the utmost filial piety towards the spirits. His ordinary garments were poor, but he displayed the utmost elegance in his sacrificial cap and apron. He lived in a low mean house, but expended all his strength on the ditches and water-channels. I can find nothing like a flaw in Yü.' This is accounted for on the ground that the 矣,‘In Yi, I find no crevice so,'i.e. I find words of king Wû having been quoted immedi ately before, it would not have been right to nothing in him to which I can point as a flaw. crown the sage with his usual title of the is interpreted of the spirits of heaven Master. The style of the whole chapter, how- and earth, as well as those sacrificed to in the ever, is different from that of any previous ancestral temple, but the saying that the rich one, and we may suspect that it is corrupt. offerings were filial (孝) would seem to re才難 is a sort of proverb, or common saying, striot the phrase to the latter. The 发 which Confucius quotes and illustrates. 虞之際 (Yao is called Tang, having over the knees, and the was an apron made of leather, and coming down was a sort of cap ascended the throne from the marquisate of or crown, flat on the top, and projecting before that name, and Yu became a sort of accepted and behind, with a long fringe on which gems and pearls were strung, exactly like the Christ surname or style of Shun) 於斯爲盛Church cap of Oxford."They were both used is understood by Chû Hst as in the translation, while the old writers take exactly the opposite view. The whole is obscure. 4. This para-| graph must be spoken of king Wǎn. 21. THE PRAISE OF YU. 閒, tone, ‘a crevice,' ‘a crack.' The form in the text is not so correct. 禹吾無閒然 in sacrificing., generally the waterchaunels by which the boundaries of the fields were determined, and provision made for their | irrigation, and to carry off the water of floods. were four cubits wide and deep, and arranged so as to flow into the, which were double the size. The 溝 CHAPTER I. The subjects of which the Master seldom spoke were-profitableness, and also the appointments of Heaven, and perfect virtue. CHAP. II. 1. A man of the village of Tâ-hsiang said, 'Great indeed is the philosopher K'ung! His learning is extensive, and yet he does not render his name famous by any particular thing.' 2. The Master heard the observation, and said to his disciples, 'What shall I practise? Shall I practise charioteering, or shall I practise archery? I will practise charioteering.' HEADING OF THIS BOOK. -purpose and determination, but the decree emThe Master seldom, No. 9.' The thirty chap-bodied and realised in its object. ters of this Book are much akin to those of the seventh. They are mostly occupied with the doctrine, character, and ways of Confucius himself. 1. SUBJECTS SELDOM SPOKEN OF BY CONFUCIUS. is mostly taken here in a good sense, not as selfish gain, but as it is defined under the first 2. AMUSEMENT OF CONFUCIUS AT THE REMARK OF AN IGNORANT MAN ABOUT HIM. Commentators, old and new, say that the chapter shows the exceeding humility of the sage, educed by his being praised, but his observation on the man's remark was evidently ironical. 1. For want of another word, I render by village. Acof the diagrams in the Yi-ching,-,cording to the statutes of Châu, 'five families 'the harmoniousness of all that is righteous;' H, four pia, and five lü or 500 that is, how what is right is really what is truly profitable. Compare Mencius, I. i. 1. Yet even in this sense Confucius seldom spoke of it, as he would not have the consideration of the profitable introduced into conduct at all. made a families a tang.' Who the villager was is not recorded, though some would have him to be the same with, the boy of whom it is said in the of old Confucius was a scholar of Hsiang To.' The man was able to see that Confucius was very extensively learned, but his idea of fame, common to the age, was that it must be acquired by excellence in some one particular art. In his lips, 孔子 was not more than our 'Mr. With his not speaking of there is a diffi- 者之旣籌毋關雖禮也 不將沒子固子違也純 色 ·儉 得喪 斯 文 我。 吾吾麻 從乎從冕 也死天王 必 意下。上眾。禮 泰也 也下今 CHAP. III. 1. The Master said, 'The linen cap is that prescribed by the rules of ceremony, but now a silk one is worn. It is economical, and I follow the common practice. 2. 'The rules of ceremony prescribe the bowing below the hall, but now the practice is to bow only after ascending it. That is arrogant. I continue to bow below the hall, though I oppose the common practice.’ CHAP. IV. There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism. CHAP. V. 1. The Master was put in fear in K' wang.. 2. He said, ‘After the death of king Wăn, was not the cause of truth lodged here in me? 3. SOME COMMON PRACTICES INDIFFERENT AND it was not by any effort, as 色 and 母 OTHERS NOT. more naturally suggest, that Confucius attained to these things. 1. The cap here spoken of was that prescribed to be worn in the ancestral temple, and made of very fine linen dyed of a 5. CONFUCIUS ASSURED IN A TIME OF DANGER deep dark colour. It had fallen into disuse, BY HIS CONVICTION OF A DIVINE MISSION. Comand was superseded by a simpler one of silk. pare VII. xxii, but the adventure to which this Rather than be singular, Confucius gave in to a chapter refers is placed in the sage's history practice, which involved no principle of right, before the other, not long after he had resigned and was economical. 2. Chû Hsi explains the office, and left Lù. r. There are different 拜下,拜乎上, thus : ‘In the coremo- opinions as to what State K'wang belonged to. nial intercourse between ministers and their The most likely is that it was a border town prince, it was proper for them to bow below the of Chang, and its site is now to be found in raised hall. This the prince declined, on which the department of K'ai-fang in Ho-nan. It is they ascended and completed the hounage. See | said that K'wang had suffered from 陽虎 this illustrated in the經註集證, in toc. an officer of Lu, to whom Confucius bore a The prevailing disregard of the first part of resemblance. As he passed by the place, more the ceremony Confucius considered inconsist over, a disciple, 顏刻, who had been asso tent with the proper distanco to be observed between prince and minister, and therefore he would be singular in adhering to the rule. 4. FRAILTIES FROM WHICH CONFUCIUS WAS FREE.田, it is-said, is not prohibitive here, but simply negative;-to make it appoar that ciated with Yang Hù in his measures against |