Confucian Canon 31-60

31
The Master said, "At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning.
32
"At thirty, I stood firm.
33
"At forty, I had no doubts.
34
"At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven.
35
"At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth.
36
"At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right."
37
Mang I asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "It is not being disobedient."
38
Soon after, as Fan Ch'ih was driving him, the Master told him, saying, "Mang-sun asked me what filial piety was, and I
answered him,-'not being disobedient.'"
39
Fan Ch'ih said, "What did you mean?" The Master replied, "That parents, when alive, be served according to
propriety; that, when dead, they should be buried according to propriety; and that they should be sacrificed to
according to propriety."
40
Mang Wu asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "Parents are anxious lest their children should be sick."
41
Tsze-yu asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "The filial piety nowadays means the support of one's parents.
But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support;-without reverence, what is there to
distinguish the one support given from the other?"
Confucian Analects : texts 1 - 41
Confucian Canon
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Confucian Analects : texts 42 - 82
42
Tsze-hsia asked what filial piety was. The Master said, "The difficulty is with the countenance. If, when their elders
have any troublesome affairs, the young take the toil of them, and if, when the young have wine and food, they set them
before their elders, is THIS to be considered filial piety?"
43
The Master said, "I have talked with Hui for a whole day, and he has not made any objection to anything I said;-as if
he were stupid. He has retired, and I have examined his conduct when away from me, and found him able to illustrate
my teachings. Hui!-He is not stupid."
44
The Master said, "See what a man does.
45
"Mark his motives.
46
"Examine in what things he rests.
47
"How can a man conceal his character? How can a man conceal his character?"
48
The Master said, "If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a
teacher of others."
49
The Master said, "The accomplished scholar is not a utensil."
50
Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior man. The Master said, "He acts before he speaks, and afterwards
speaks according to his actions."
51
The Master said, "The superior man is catholic and not partisan. The mean man is partisan and not catholic."
52
The Master said, "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous."
53
The Master said, "The study of strange doctrines is injurious indeed!"
54
The Master said, "Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and
when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;-this is knowledge."
55
Tsze-chang was learning with a view to official emolument.
56
The Master said, "Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the
same time of the others:-then you will afford few occasions for blame. See much and put aside the things which seem
perilous, while you are cautious at the same time in carrying the others into practice: then you will have few occasions
for repentance. When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his
conduct, he is in the way to get emolument."
57
The Duke Ai asked, saying, "What should be done in order to secure the submission of the people?" Confucius
replied, "Advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit. Advance the crooked and set
aside the upright, then the people will not submit."
58
Chi K'ang asked how to cause the people to reverence their ruler, to be faithful to him, and to go on to nerve
themselves to virtue. The Master said, "Let him preside over them with gravity;-then they will reverence him. Let him
be final and kind to all;-then they will be faithful to him. Let him advance the good and teach the incompetent;-then they
will eagerly seek to be virtuous."
59
Some one addressed Confucius, saying, "Sir, why are you not engaged in the government?"
60
The Master said, "What does the Shu-ching say of filial piety?-'You are final, you discharge your brotherly duties.
These qualities are displayed in government.' This then also constitutes the exercise of government. Why must there be
THAT-making one be in the government?"