5. The Master said, To guide a land of a thousand chariots, honour
business and be true; spend little and love men; time thy calls on the
people.
6. The Master said, The young should be dutiful at home, modest
abroad, careful and true, overflowing in kindness for all, but in
brotherhood with love. And if they have strength to spare they should
spend it on the arts.
7. Tzu-hsia[3] said, If a man eschews beauty and honours worth, if he
serves his father and mother with all his strength, if he is ready to
give his life for his lord, and keeps faith with his friends, though
others may say he has no learning, I must call him learned.
8. The Master said, A gentleman will not be looked up to unless he is
staid, nor will his learning be sound. Put faithfulness and truth
first; have no friends unlike thyself; be not ashamed to mend thy
faults.
9. Tseng-tzu[4] said, Heed the dead, follow up the past, and the soul
of the people will again grow great.
[Footnote 4: A disciple.]
10. Tzu-ch'in[5] said to Tzu-kung,[6] When he comes to a country the
Master always hears how it is governed; does he ask, or is it told
him?
[Footnote 5: A disciple.]
[Footnote 6: A disciple.]
Tzu-kung said, The Master gets it by his warmth and honesty, by
politeness, modesty and yielding. The way the Master asks is unlike
other men's asking.
11. The Master said, Whilst thy father lives look for his purpose;
when he is gone, look how he walked. To change nothing in thy father's
ways for three years may be called pious.
12, Yu-tzu[7] said, To behave with ease is the best part of courtesy.
This was the beauty of the old kings' ways; this they followed in
small and great. But knowing this, it will not do to give way to ease,
unchecked by courtesy. This too is wrong.
[Footnote 7: A disciple.]
13. Yu-tzu said, If pledges are close to right, word can be kept. If
attentions are close to courtesy, shame will be kept far. If we do not
choose our leaders wrong, we may worship them too.
14. The Master said, A gentleman that does not seek to eat his fill,
nor look for ease in his home, who is earnest at work and careful of
speech, who walks with those that keep the Way, and is guided by them,
may be said to love learning.
15. Tzu-kung[8] said, Poor, but no flatterer; rich, but not proud: how
would that be?
[Footnote 8: A disciple.]
It would do, said the Master; but better still were poor but merry;
rich, but loving courtesy.
Tzu-kung said, When the poem says:
If ye cut, if ye file,
If ye polish and grind,
is that what is meant?
The Master said, Now I can begin to talk of poetry to Tz'u. Tell him
what is gone, and he knows what shall come.
16. The Master said, Not to be known is no sorrow. My sorrow is not
knowing men.
BOOK II
1. The Master said, He that rules by mind is like the north star,
steady in his seat, whilst the stars all bend to him.
2. The Master said, The three hundred poems are summed up in the one
line, Think no evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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