Confucian Canon 421>

421
Tsze-kung asked which of the two, Shih or Shang, was the superior. The Master said, "Shih goes beyond the due
mean, and Shang does not come up to it."
422
"Then," said Tsze-kung, "the superiority is with Shih, I suppose."
423
The Master said, "To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short."
424
The head of the Chi family was richer than the duke of Chau had been, and yet Ch'iu collected his imposts for him, and
increased his wealth.
425
The Master said, "He is no disciple of mine. My little children, beat the drum and assail him."
426
Ch'ai is simple. Shan is dull. Shih is specious. Yu is coarse.
427
The Master said, "There is Hui! He has nearly attained to perfect virtue. He is often in want.
428
"Ts'ze does not acquiesce in the appointments of Heaven, and his goods are increased by him. Yet his judgments are
often correct."
429
Tsze-chang asked what were the characteristics of the good man. The Master said, "He does not tread in the footsteps
of others, but moreover, he does not enter the chamber of the sage."
430
The Master said, "If, because a man's discourse appears solid and sincere, we allow him to be a good man, is he really
a superior man? or is his gravity only in appearance?"
431
Tsze-lu asked whether he should immediately carry into practice what he heard. The Master said, "There are your
father and elder brothers to be consulted;-why should you act on that principle of immediately carrying into practice
what you hear?" Zan Yu asked the same, whether he should immediately carry into practice what he heard, and the
Master answered, "Immediately carry into practice what you hear." Kung-hsi Hwa said, "Yu asked whether he should
carry immediately into practice what he heard, and you said, 'There are your father and elder brothers to be consulted.'
Ch'iu asked whether he should immediately carry into practice what he heard, and you said, 'Carry it immediately into
practice.' I, Ch'ih, am perplexed, and venture to ask you for an explanation." The Master said, "Ch'iu is retiring and
slow; therefore I urged him forward. Yu has more than his own share of energy; therefore I kept him back."
432
The Master was put in fear in K'wang and Yen Yuan fell behind. The Master, on his rejoining him, said, "I thought you
had died." Hui replied, "While you were alive, how should I presume to die?"
433
Chi Tsze-zan asked whether Chung Yu and Zan Ch'iu could be called great ministers.
434
The Master said, "I thought you would ask about some extraordinary individuals, and you only ask about Yu and
Ch'iu!
435
"What is called a great minister, is one who serves his prince according to what is right, and when he finds he cannot
do so, retires.
436
"Now, as to Yu and Ch'iu, they may be called ordinary ministers."
437
Tsze-zan said, "Then they will always follow their chief;-win they?"
438
The Master said, "In an act of parricide or regicide, they would not follow him."
439
Tsze-lu got Tsze-kao appointed governor of Pi.
440
The Master said, "You are injuring a man's son."
441
Tsze-lu said, "There are, there, common people and officers; there are the altars of the spirits of the land and grain.
Why must one read books before he can be considered to have learned?"
442
The Master said, "It is on this account that I hate your glib-tongued people."
443
Tsze-lu, Tsang Hsi, Zan Yu, and Kunghsi Hwa were sitting by the Master.
444
He said to them, "Though I am a day or so older than you, do not think of that.
445
"From day to day you are saying, 'We are not known.' If some ruler were to know you, what would you like to do?"
446
Tsze-lu hastily and lightly replied, "Suppose the case of a state of ten thousand chariots; let it be straitened between
other large cities; let it be suffering from invading armies; and to this let there be added a famine in corn and in all
vegetables:-if I were intrusted with the government of it, in three years' time I could make the people to be bold, and to
recognize the rules of righteous conduct." The Master smiled at him.
447
Turning to Yen Yu, he said, "Ch'iu, what are your wishes?" Ch'iu replied, "Suppose a state of sixty or seventy li
square, or one of fifty or sixty, and let me have the government of it;-in three years' time, I could make plenty to
abound among the people. As to teaching them the principles of propriety, and music, I must wait for the rise of a
superior man to do that."
448
"What are your wishes, Ch'ih," said the Master next to Kung-hsi Hwa. Ch'ih replied, "I do not say that my ability
extends to these things, but I should wish to learn them. At the services of the ancestral temple, and at the audiences of
the princes with the sovereign, I should like, dressed in the dark square-made robe and the black linen cap, to act as a
small assistant."
449
Last of all, the Master asked Tsang Hsi, "Tien, what are your wishes?" Tien, pausing as he was playing on his lute,
while it was yet twanging, laid the instrument aside, and "My wishes," he said, "are different from the cherished
purposes of these three gentlemen." "What harm is there in that?" said the Master; "do you also, as well as they, speak
out your wishes." Tien then said, "In this, the last month of spring, with the dress of the season all complete, along with
five or six young men who have assumed the cap, and six or seven boys, I would wash in the I, enjoy the breeze
among the rain altars, and return home singing." The Master heaved a sigh and said, "I give my approval to Tien."
450
The three others having gone out, Tsang Hsi remained behind, and said, "What do you think of the words of these
three friends?" The Master replied, "They simply told each one his wishes."
451
Hsi pursued, "Master, why did you smile at Yu?"
Confucian Analects : texts 411 - 451
Confucian Analects : texts 452 - 492
452
He was answered, "The management of a state demands the rules of propriety. His words were not humble; therefore
I smiled at him."
453
Hsi again said, "But was it not a state which Ch'iu proposed for himself?" The reply was, "Yes; did you ever see a
territory of sixty or seventy li or one of fifty or sixty, which was not a state?"
454
Once more, Hsi inquired, "And was it not a state which Ch'ih proposed for himself?" The Master again replied, "Yes;
who but princes have to do with ancestral temples, and with audiences but the sovereign? If Ch'ih were to be a small
assistant in these services, who could be a great one?
455
Yen Yuan asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "To subdue one's self and return to propriety, is perfect virtue.
If a man can for one day subdue himself and return to propriety, an under heaven will ascribe perfect virtue to him. Is
the practice of perfect virtue from a man himself, or is it from others?"
456
Yen Yuan said, "I beg to ask the steps of that process." The Master replied, "Look not at what is contrary to
propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement
which is contrary to propriety." Yen Yuan then said, "Though I am deficient in intelligence and vigor, I will make it my
business to practice this lesson."
457
Chung-kung asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "It is, when you go abroad, to behave to every one as if you
were receiving a great guest; to employ the people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice; not to do to others as
you would not wish done to yourself; to have no murmuring against you in the country, and none in the family."
Chung-kung said, "Though I am deficient in intelligence and vigor, I will make it my business to practice this lesson."
458
Sze-ma Niu asked about perfect virtue.
459
The Master said, "The man of perfect virtue is cautious and slow in his speech."
460
"Cautious and slow in his speech!" said Niu;-"is this what is meant by perfect virtue?" The Master said, "When a man
feels the difficulty of doing, can he be other than cautious and slow in speaking?"
461
Sze-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear."
462
"Being without anxiety or fear!" said Nui;"does this constitute what we call the superior man?"
463
The Master said, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there
to fear?"
464
Sze-ma Niu, full of anxiety, said, "Other men all have their brothers, I only have not."
465
Tsze-hsia said to him, "There is the following saying which I have heard-'Death and life have their determined
appointment; riches and honors depend upon Heaven.'
466
"Let the superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and
observant of propriety:-then all within the four seas will be his brothers. What has the superior man to do with being
distressed because he has no brothers?"
467
Tsze-chang asked what constituted intelligence. The Master said, "He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks
into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed. Yea,
he with whom neither soaking slander, nor startling statements, are successful, may be called farseeing."
468
Tsze-kung asked about government. The Master said, "The requisites of government are that there be sufficiency of
food, sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler."
469