תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

也 多雖仲人

知子仲陳晛欲尼之以叔 言一尼子其自日賢為孫 不言豈禽不絶月者也武 以賢謂知其也丘仲叔 ̇子量何無陵尼毁

慎 知子 貢也傷得也 平

子以貢 篇 之為日恭

於而猶可 尼。

日踰可雙子

月焉踰也貢

乎人也他日

[ocr errors]

Sung

[ocr errors]
[graphic]

whai

CHAP. XXIV. Shû-sun Wû-shù having spoken revilingly of Chung-nî, Tsze-kung said, 'It is of no use doing so. Chung-ni cannot be reviled. The talents and virtue of other men are hillocks and mounds, which may be stepped over. Chung-nî is the sun or moon, which it is not possible to step over. Although a man may wish to cut himself off from the sage, what harm can he do to the sun or moon? He only shows that he does not know his own capacity.' CHAP. XXV. I. Ch'ăn Tsze-ch'in, addressing Tsze-kung, said, 'You are too modest. How can Chung-nî be said to be superior to you?’

2. Tsze-kung said to him,‘For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We ought to be careful indeed in what we say.

[ocr errors]

3. Our Master cannot be attained to, just in the same way as

the heavens cannot be gone up to by the steps of a stair.

24. CONFUCIUS IS LIKE THE SUN OR MOON, HIGH | Hsing Ping, however, supplies 'from the sun and ABOVE THE REACH OF DEPRECIATION :-BY TSZE-moon.' The meaning comes to the same. Chû

KUNG.

無以為 is explained by Chû Hsi Hsi says that here is the same with祇,

given in the dictionary, but it is necessary here;

(and the gloss of Hsing Ping is the same) as = ‘only;' and Hsing Ping takes it as = 滴, 無用為此, it is of no use to do this? (just. This meaning of the character is not 他人之賢者一他人 is to be understood, according to the 備合, as embracing

–see supplement to Hsing Ping's 疏 in loc.

25. CONFUCIUS CAN NO MORE BE EQUALLED THAN

THE HEAVENS CAN BE CLIMBED:-BY TSZE-KUNG.

all other sages. -I have supplied We find it difficult to conceive of the sage's dis

from the sage, after most modern paraphrasts. | ciples speaking to one another, as Tsze-ch'in does

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

階也

邦升

4. Were our Master in the position of the ruler of a State or the chief of a Family, we should find verified the description which has been given of a sage's rule:-he would plant the people, and

forthwith they would be established; he would lead them on, and forthwith they would follow him; he would make them happy, and forthwith multitudes would resort to his dominions; he would stimulate them, and forthwith they would be harmonious. While he lived, he would be glorious. When he died, he would be bitterly lamented. How is it possible for him to be attained to?'

here to Tsze-kung, and Hsing Ping says that the translation, is quite as much as it denotes.

this was not the disciple Tsze-ch'in, but another Compare its use in I. viii, et al. 4. 夫子之

man of the same surname and designation.

But this is inadmissible, especially as we find must be understood hypothe same parties, in I. x, talking about the thetically, because he never was in the position -as in X. X. I.

character of their Master. I.

子為恭,here assigned to him. 斯

‘you are doing the modest.’ 2. 君子 has 道 is for 導, as in I. v.

來 -as in XVI. i.

here its lightest meaning. The備有makes rr.

動之一 -as in XV. xxxii. 3. Z, them,

II.

it=學者‘a student,' but ‘a man,' as in the people being always understood.

BOOK XX. YÀO YÜEH.

簡罪昭小終中曆

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

不 子舜四 數堯

萬帝 于履亦海 日日

方心赦皇敢以困爾

萬朕帝皇用命窮躬爾

方躬臣后玄禹天允舜十 日祿執天

有有不帝

罪罪

有敢予

其他

CHAPTER I. I. Yao said, Oh! you, Shun, the Heaven-determined order of succession now rests in your person. Sincerely hold fast

the due Mean. If there shall be distress and want within the four

seas, the Heavenly revenue will come to a perpetual end.'

2. Shun also used the same language in giving charge to Yu.

[ocr errors]

3. Tang said, I, the child Li, presume to use a dark-coloured victim, and presume to announce to Thee, O most great and sovereign God, that the sinner I dare not pardon, and thy ministers, O God, I do not keep in obscurity. The examination of them is by thy mind, O God. If, in my person, I commit offences, they are not to be attributed to you, the people of the myriad regions. If you in the myriad regions commit offences, these offences must rest on my person.'

[blocks in formation]

-This Book records the words of the two sovereigns, the three kings, and of Confucius, throwing light on the excellence of the ordinances of Heaven, and the transforming power of government. Its doctrines are all those of sages, worthy of being transmitted to posterity. On this account, it brings up the rear of all the other Books, without any particular relation to the one immediately preceding.'

verbal accuracy, or, possibly, the Shû-ching, as

it was in his days, may have contained the passages as he gives them, and the variations

be owing to the burning of most of the classical books by the founder of the Ch'in dynasty, and their recovery and restoration in a mutilated state. 1. We do not find this address of Yao to Shun in the Shû-ching, Pt. I, but the different sentences may be gathered from Pt. II. ii. 14, 15, where we have the charge of Shun to Yü. Yao's reign commenced B. c. 2357, and 1. PRINCIPLES AND WAYS OF YAO, SHUN, YU, istration to Shun. He died B.C. 2257, and, two | after reigning 73 years, he resigned the adminTANG, AND WU. The first five paragraphs here

are mostly compiled from different parts of the years after, Shun occupied the throne, in obe

Shû-ching. But there are many variations of dience to the will of the people. 天之曆

language. The compiler may have thought it

sufficient, if he gave the substance of the original, literally, the represented and calculated in his quotations, without seeking to observe a numbers of heaven,' i. e. the divisions of the

[graphic]

國官人。仁人

焉祭 R

人是在

sik

方 權百富。朕

[ocr errors]

則 世: 量姓雖躬 政審有有周

公信重民焉度在親

則民天興修予

[ocr errors]

進行法過周有

說民食下滅廢

如 善

4. Chau conferred great gifts, and the good were enriched.

5. Although he has his near relatives, they are not equal to my virtuous men. The people are throwing blame upon me, the

One man.'

6. He carefully attended to the weights and measures, examined the body of the laws, restored the discarded officers, and the good government of the kingdom took its course.

7. He revived States that had been extinguished, restored families whose line of succession had been broken, and called to office those who had retired into obscurity, so that throughout the kingdom the hearts of the people turned towards him.

8. What he attached chief importance to, were the food of the people, the duties of mourning, and sacrifices.

9. By his generosity, he won all. By his sincerity, he made the people repose trust in him. By his earnest activity, his achievements were great. By his justice, all were delighted.

year, its terms, months, and days, all described | to God by T'ang, on his undertaking the overin a calendar, as they succeed one another with throw of the Hsia dynasty, which he rehearses determined regularity. Here, ancient and to his nobles and people, after the completion modern interpreters agree in giving to the

expression the meaning which appears in the of his work. Tang's name was 履 We do

translation. I may observe here, that Chû not find in the Shû-ching the remarkable desig

Hsi differs often from the old interpreters in nation of God—皇皇后帝:For the

explaining these passages of the Shû-ching, but

I have followed him, leaving the correctness or grounds on which I translate by God, see incorrectness of his views to be considered in

the annotations on the Shû-ching. 3. Before 日 here we must understand湯, the desig

nation of the founder of the Shang dynasty. The sentences here may in substance be col

lected from the Shû-ching, Pt. IV. iii. 4, 8.

my work on (The Notions of the Chinese con

cerning God and Spirits.’后 now generally

sovereign,' and applied to the kings. Here used for 'empress,' was anciently used for is an adjective, or in apposition with帝.

it

Down to簡在帝心 is a prayer addressed The sinner is Chieh (桀), the tyrant, and last

因民之所利而利之

可驕怨 子曰斯子何

[graphic]

惠何可

[ocr errors]

不不 不

利不猛貪

尊斯
斯張

五可

子張問於孔子

[graphic]

貪費 費美 美以於

而費子泰勞子屏從孔 利子張而而曰子四政子 之曰曰不不君張惡矣。曰

6

CHAP. II. 1. Tsze-chang asked Confucius, saying, 'In what way should a person in authority act in order that he may conduct government properly?' The Master replied, 'Let him honour the five excellent, and banish away the four bad, things; then may he conduct government properly. Tsze-chang said, What are meant by the five excellent things?' The Master said, 'When the person in authority is beneficent without great expenditure; when he lays tasks on the people without their repining; when he pursues what he desires without being covetous; when he maintains a dignified ease without being proud; when he is majestic without being fierce.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

2. Tsze-chang said, What is meant by being beneficent without great expenditure?’ The Master replied, When the person in authority makes more beneficial to the people the things from which

sovereign of the Hsiâ dynasty. The ministers not come to save them from their sufferings of God' are the able and virtuous men, whom by destroying their oppressor. The remaining T'ang had called, or would call, to office. By paragraphs are descriptive of the policy of king

簡在帝心, Tang indicates that, in his Wu, but cannot excepting the 8th one, be traced punishing or rewarding, he only wanted to act in the present Shu-ching. 1, paragraph 9, is in harmony with the mind of God. 無以 in the 4th tone. See XVII. vi, which chapter, 萬方=萬方小民何預焉 as in 2. HOW GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONDUCTED WITH

the translation.

In the dictionary, it is said that and fil are interchanged. This is a

case in point. 4. In the Shû-ching, Pt. V. iii. 9, we find king Wû saying

而萬姓悦服, I distributed great rewards through the kingdom, and all the people were pleased and submitted.’5. See the Shùching,Pt. V. i.sect.II. 6,7. The subject in

is

generally, resembles this paragraph.

EFFICIENCY,

BY HONOURING FIVE EXCELLENT THINGS, AND PUTTING AWAY FOUR BAD THINGS:A CONVERSATION WITH TSZE-CHANG. It is understood that this chapter, and the next, give the ideas of Confucius on government, as a sequel to those of the ancient sages and emperors, whose

principles are set forth in the preceding chap-
ter, to show how Confucius was their proper
successor. 1. On 從政
see VI. vi, but the

雖有周親s受or紂, tyrant of the gloss of the 備合 says 從政只泛 Yin dynasty. 周一in the sense of 至 過 說行政不作為大夫從政

6

here denotes generally the practice of govern

is used in the sense of, to blame.'-The ment. It is not to be taken as indicating a

people found fault with him, because he did minister.' We may, however, retain the proper

« הקודםהמשך »