Tzŭ Lu asked if he should at once put the precepts which he heard into practice.--The Master said: There are your father and elder brothers to consult first; why should you be so impatient to act on what you hear?--Jan Yu asked the same question, and the Master said: Yes, act at once according to the instruction that is given to you.--Kung-hsi Hua then said: When Yu asked if he should put the precepts which he heard into practice, you replied, Sir, that he had his father and elder brothers to consult first. When Ch‘iu asked the same question, you said: "Act at once according to the instruction that is given to you." Now I am puzzled, and beg for an explanation.--The Master replied: Ch‘iu is apt to hang back, therefore I press him on. Yu has eagerness enough for two, therefore I hold him back. Chi Tzŭ-jan[21] asked if Chung Yu and Jan Ch‘iu could be termed great ministers. The Master said: I thought you had something extraordinary to ask about, and now it turns out to be a question about Yu and Ch‘iu. What men call a great minister is one who serves his prince according to the principles of truth and virtue, and when that is impossible, resigns. Yu and Ch‘iu, however, can only be termed ordinary officials.--Which is as much as to say that they will always obediently follow their master's will?--The Master replied: They would not follow him so far as to commit parricide or regicide. The Master said: Yu is the man to settle a long litigation in a few words. Tzŭ Kung was fond of weighing other men's merits and defects. The Master said: Surely Tz‘u must be a very great sage! Personally, I have no time for this. [1] It is said elsewhere in the Analects (see p. 94) that "the higher type of man is unlike a vessel designed for some special use," which means that his moral capacity is not narrow and limited. Tzŭ Kung, then, it seems, had not fully grasped the higher principles of morality, was wanting in breadth of mind and the larger outlook on life. His aptitudes, however, were excellent so far as they went, and the Master compliments him hero on his proficiency in things relating to religious ceremonial. [2] Confucius probably wished to impress upon his questioner that true moral virtue (fen) was deeply implanted in the soul, and not to be gauged offhand from the presence or absence of certain superficial signs. [3] It is passing strange that the clumsy "I grant you" for _wu yü ju_ (I and you) should have found favour with translators. Wade even goes one better, by translating: "I award you this praise, Hui does not equal you "! [4] Prime Minister of the Chêng State in the sixth century B.C. When he had ruled for three years, so great was the change effected that "doors were not locked at night, and lost articles were not picked up on the highway." Confucius wept when he heard of his death. [5] Minister in the neighbouring state of Ch‘i.