子日不在其位不謀 哉。關 雎 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 Tsu 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. Ite letter, however, has doubtless oper. ated to prevent the spread of right notions about political liberty in China. 15. THE PRAISE OF THE MUSIC-MASTER CHIH. Neither Morrison nor Medhurst gives what appears to be the meaning of in this chapter. 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. qualities were absent. He did not understand them, and could do nothing for them. 17. WITH WHAT EARNESTNESS AND CONTINUOUSNESS LEARNING SHOULD BE PURSUED. 18. THE LOFTY CHARACTER OF SHUN AND YU. Shun received the empire from Yao, a.c. 2255, 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 and Yu received it from Shun, B. C. 2205. The those occasions consisted of four parts, in the throne came to them not by inheritance. They last of which a number of pieces from the Fang were called to it through their talents and vir or songs of the States was sung, commencing tue. And yet the possession of it did not affect with the Kwan Tsu. The name hoon was also them at all. f,it did not concern given to a sort of refrain, at the end of each them,' was as if nothing to them. Ho Yen takes song. The old interpreters explain differently, • when the music-master Chih firat corrected 與求, they had the empire without seek the confusion of the Kwan Tsü,' &c. -- ing for it.' This is not according to usage. 乎人。治国也名堯也 武舜焉則巍 有乎巍之巍 臣其巍蕩乎 乎大 際 予 有平汤唯 難 斯 其有成功 有天下也而不與焉 十日大哉堯之爲君 唯君 乎天 堯 民 大 CHAP. XIX. 1. The Master said, 'Great indeed was Yão as a It is only Heaven that is grand, sovereign! How majestic was he! and only Yão corresponded to it. How vast was his virtue! The people could find no name for it. 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 T'ang 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 YAO, I. No doubt, Yao, as of Instruction;臯陶, Minister of Justice; admiration, but if Confucius had had a right and 1, Warden of Woods and Marshes. he appears in Chinese annals, is a fit object of 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. 2. See the Shû-ching, that it is only the visible heaven overspreading V. i. sect. ii. 6. LE, 'governing, ie able ministers. In the dictionary, the first meaning all, to which he compares Yao, even that is suf 6 ficiently absurd 則之, not simply-法 given of l is to regulate, and the second is 之‘imitated it,'but 能與之準, could just the opposite, to confound, ‘confusion.. equalize with it.’2. 其有成功-其所 有之成功, the great achievements of his government. 文章(seev.xii)=the music, Of the ten ministers, the most distinguished of course was the duke of Châu. One of them, it is she was the mother of king Wăn, or his wife, is said next paragraph, was a woman, but whether much disputed. The ten men were :―the duko 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 were the duke of Pi, the duke of Yung, Tai-tien, Hung-yao, San-i Shăng, Nan-kung Kwo, and the wife or mother of king Wăn. 3. Instead ·禹, Superintendent of Works; 稷, Super- of the usual The Master said,' we have here intendent of Agriculture;契(hsieh), Minister 孔子曰,‘The philosopher K'ung said' 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 Yu, I find no crevice so,'i.e. I find words of king Wû having been quoted immedi- nothing in him to which I can point as a flaw. ately before, it would not have been right to 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 ro才難 is a sort of proverb, or common saying, strict the phrase to the latter. The 黻 which Confucius quotes and illustrates. was an apron made of leather, and coming down 虞之際 (Yao is called Tang, having over the knees, and the 冕 was a sort of oap ascended the throne from the marquisate of or crown, fat 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) 於斯為盛 is understood by Chû Hst as in the translation, while the old writers take exactly the opposite view. The whole is obscure. 4. This paragraph must be spoken of king Wăn. 21. THE PRAISE OF Yt., read chien, 4th tone, ‘a crevice,” ‘a crack.' The form in the text is not so correct 禹吾無閒然 Church cap of Oxford They were both used channels by which the boundaries of the fields The 溝 were double the size. 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 OP THIS BooK.子罕第九, purpose and determination, but the decree em'The 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 Commentators, AN IGNORANT MAN ABOUT HIM. 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. Ac of the diagrams in the Yi-ching,一義之和, cording to the statutes of Chau, ‘ive families 'the harmoniousness of all that is righteous;' 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. With his not speaking of there is a difficulty which I know not how to solve. The fourth Book is nearly all occupied with it, and no doubt it was a prominent topic in Confucius's teachings. 命 is not = our fate, unless in the made a , four pi a, and five lü or 500 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 三字經昔仲尼師項槖 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. primary meaning of that term,-'Fatum est 之旣 禮也 子違也 純子的 我。四吾吾 者不得與於斯文也 旣沒文不在兹平 之將喪斯文也後死 也死天王 毋從乎從冕 意下。上眾。禮 泰也 必 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? it was not by any effort, as and more naturally suggest, that Confucius attained to these things. 5. CONFUCIUS ASSURED IN A TIME OF DANGER Com 3. SOMF COMMON PRACTICES INDIFFERENT AND OTHERS NOT. 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 deep dark colour. It had fallen into disuse, BY HIS CONVICTION OF A DIVINE MISSION. and 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. Chú Hsi explains the office, and left Lû. 1. There are different 拜下拜乎上, thus : ‘In the ceremo- 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 homago. See said that K'wang had suffered from 陽虎 this illustrated in the, in loc. an officer of Lu, to whom Confucius bore a The prevailing disregard of the first part of resemblance. As he passed by the place, morethe ceremony Confucius considered inconsis-over, a disciple,, who had been assotent with the proper distance to be observed between prince and minister, and therefore ciated with Yang Hû in his measures against he would be singular in adhering to the rule. K'wang, was driving him. 4. FRAILTIES FROM WHICH CONFUCIUS WAS 母, it is said, is not prohibitive here, but simply negative;-to make it appear that FREE. These circum stances made the people think that Confucius was their old enemy, so they attacked him, and kept him prisoner for five days. The accounts of his escape vary, some of them |