CHAP. IX. 1. The Master said, 'My children, why do you not
study the Book of Poetry?
2. 'The Odes serve to stimulate the mind.
3. 'They may be used for purposes of self-contemplation.
4. 'They teach the art of sociability.
5. 'They show how to regulate feelings of resentment.
6. 'From them you learn the more immediate duty of serving
one's father, and the remoter one of serving one's prince.
7. 'From them we become largely acquainted with the names
of birds, beasts, and plants.'
CHAP. X. The Master said to Po-yu, 'Do you give yourself to
the Chau-nan and the Shao-nan. The man who has not studied the
Chau-nan and the Shao-nan, is like one who stands with his face
right against a wall. Is he not so?'
CHAP. XI. The Master said, '"It is according to the rules of
propriety," they say.-- "It is according to the rules of propriety,"
they say. Are gems and silk all that is meant by propriety? "It is
music," they say.-- "It is music," they say. Are bells and drums all
that is meant by music?'
CHAP. XII. The Master said, 'He who puts on an appearance of
stern firmness, while inwardly he is weak, is like one of the small,
mean people;-- yea, is he not like the thief who breaks through, or
climbs over, a wall?'
CHAP. XIII. The Master said, 'Your good, careful people of the
villages are the thieves of virtue.'
CHAP. XIV. The Master said, 'To tell, as we go along, what we
have heard on the way, is to cast away our virtue.'
CHAP. XV. 1. The Master said, 'There are those mean
creatures! How impossible it is along with them to serve one's
prince!
2. 'While they have not got their aims, their anxiety is how to
get them. When they have got them, their anxiety is lest they
should lose them.
3. 'When they are anxious lest such things should be lost,
there is nothing to which they will not proceed.'
CHAP. XVI. 1. The Master said, 'Anciently, men had three
failings, which now perhaps are not to be found.
2. 'The high-mindedness of antiquity showed itself in a
disregard of small things; the high-mindedness of the present day
shows itself in wild license. The stern dignity of antiquity showed
itself in grave reserve; the stern dignity of the present day shows
itself in quarrelsome perverseness. The stupidity of antiquity
showed itself in straightforwardness; the stupidity of the present
day shows itself in sheer deceit.'