Tsze-lu was always the mentor on such occasions. He said to him, 'Master, I have heard you say, 1 See the 史記, 孔子世家, p. 6. 2 司城貞子. See Mencius, V. Pt. I. viii. 3. 3 Chiang Yung digests in this place two foolish stories,-- about a large bone found in the State of Yueh, and a bird which appeared in Ch'ia and died, shot through with a remarkable arrow. Confucius knew all about them. 4 吳. 5 蒲. 6 This ia related by Sze-ma ch'ien 孔子世家, p. 7, and also in the 'Narratives of the School.' I would fain believe it is not true. The wonder is, that no Chinese critic should have set about disproving it. 7 Ana. XII. x. 8 晉. that when a man in his own person is guilty of doing evil, a superior man will not associate with him. Pi Hsi is in rebellion; if you go to him, what shall be said?' Confucius replied, 'Yes, I did use those words. But is it not said that if a thing be really hard, it may be ground without being made thin; and if it be really white, it may be steeped in a dark fluid without being made black? Am I a bitter gourd? Am I to be hung up out of the way of being eaten [1]?' These sentiments sound strangely from his lips. After all, he did not go to Pi Hsi; and having travelled as far as the Yellow river that he might see one of the principal ministers of Tsin, he heard of the violent death of two men of worth, and returned to Wei, lamenting the fate which prevented him from crossing the stream, and trying to solace himself with poetry as he had done on leaving Lu. Again did he communicate with the duke, but as ineffectually, and disgusted at being questioned by him about military tactics, he left and went back to Ch'an. He resided in Ch'an all the next year, B.C. 491, without anything occurring there which is worthy of note [2]. Events had transpired in Lu, however, which were to issue in his return to his native State. The duke Ting had deceased B.C. 494, and Chi Hwan, the chief of the Chi family, died in this year. On his death-bed, he felt remorse for his conduct to Confucius, and charged his successor, known to us in the Analects as Chi K'ang, to recall the sage; but the charge was not immediately fulfilled. Chi K'ang, by the advice of one of his officers, sent to Ch'an for the disciple Yen Ch'iu instead. Confucius willingly sent him off, and would gladly have accompanied him. 'Let me return!' he said, 'Let me return [3]!' But that was not to be for several years yet. In B.C. 490, accompanied, as usual, by several of his disciples, he went from Ch'an to Ts'ai, a small dependency of the great fief of Ch'u, which occupied a large part of the present provinces of Hu-nan and Hu-pei. On the way, between Ch'an and Ts'ai, their provisions became exhausted, and they were cut off somehow from obtaining a fresh supply. The disciples were quite overcome with want, and Tsze-lu said to the master, 'Has the superior man indeed to endure in this way?' Confucius answered him, 'The superior man may indeed have to endure want; but the mean man l Ana. XVII. vii.