The Sayings of Confucius A New Translation of the Greater Part of the Confucian Analects · Confucius
MISCELLANEOUS SAYINGS
The Master said: To learn, and to practise on occasion what one has learnt--is this not true pleasure? The coming of a friend from a far-off land--is this not true joy? Make conscientiousness and sincerity your grand object. Have no friends not equal to yourself. If you have done wrong, be not ashamed to make amends. Observe the bent of a man's will when his father is alive, and his actions after his father is dead. If during the three years of mourning he does not swerve from his father's principles, he may be pronounced a truly filial son. The Odes[1] are three hundred in number, but their purport may be summed up in a word:--Have no depraved thoughts. Observe a man's actions; scrutinise his motives; take note of the things that give him pleasure. How then can he hide from you what he really is? Acquire new knowledge whilst thinking over the old, and you may become a teacher of others. The higher type of man is not like a vessel which is designed for some Special use.[2] Study without thought is vain; thought without study is perilous. Absorption in the study of the supernatural is most harmful. Yu, shall I tell you what true knowledge is? When you know, to know that you know, and when you do not know, to know that you do not know--that is true knowledge.
Tzŭ Chang was studying with a view to official preferment. The Master said to him: Among the various things you hear said, reserve your judgment on those which seem doubtful, and give cautious utterance to the rest: then you will seldom fall into error. Among the various things you see done, set aside those which seem dangerous, and cautiously put the others into practice: then you will seldom have occasion for repentance. If you seldom err in your speech, and seldom have to repent of your actions, official preferment will come of itself. The Master said: I do not see how a man without sincerity can be good for anything. How can a cart or carriage be made to go without yoke or cross-bar? To sacrifice to a spirit with which you have nothing to do, is mere servility. To shirk your duty when you see it before you, shows want of moral courage. Some one inquired as to the meaning of the Great Sacrifice. The Master said: I do not know. He who knew its meaning would find it as easy to govern the Empire as to look upon this (pointing to his palm).[3] Wang-sun Chia[4] asked, saying: What means the adage, "Better be civil to the kitchen-god than to the god of the inner sanctum"?--The Master replied: The adage is false. He who sins against Heaven can rely on the intercession of none.
The Master said: He who serves his prince with all the proper ceremony will be accounted by men a flatterer. It is bootless to discuss accomplished facts, to protest against things past remedy, to find fault with things bygone. How am I to regard one who has rank without liberality, who performs ceremonies without reverence, who approaches the rites of mourning without sorrow? Men's faults are characteristic.[5] It is by observing a man's faults that one may come to know his virtues. Having heard the True Way in the morning what matters it if one should come to die at night? The scholar who is bent on studying the principles of virtue, yet is ashamed of bad clothes and coarse food, is not yet fit to receive instruction. Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known. When you see a good man, think of emulating him; when you see a bad man, examine your own heart. The ancients hesitated to give their thoughts utterance: they were afraid that their actions might not be equal to their words. Few are those who err on the side of self-restraint.[6] Virtue cannot live in solitude: neighbours are sure to grow up around it.[7]
Chi Wên Tzŭ[8] used to reflect thrice before he acted. When told of this, the Master said: Twice would do. The Master said: Alas! I have never met a man who could see his own faults and arraign himself at the bar of his own conscience. Tzŭ Hua having been sent on a mission to the Ch‘i State, Jan Ch‘iu begged for a gift of grain for his mother. The Master said: Give her a peck.--The disciple asking for more, he said: Give her then a bushel.--But Jan Ch‘iu eventually gave her as much as five hundredweight of grain. Then the Master rebuked him, saying: When Ch‘ih went to the Ch‘i State, he was conveyed by a team of sleek horses and was wearing costly fur garments. Now I have heard that the princely man succours the distressed, but will not add to the opulence of the wealthy. Yüan Ssŭ, having been made governor of a district, was presented with nine hundred measures of grain.[9] He declined them. The Master said: Do not decline them. May they not be distributed among the villages and townships of your neighbourhood? The Master said: Who can go out of a house except by the door? In life, why not pass likewise through the door of virtue?[10] You may speak of higher subjects to those who rise above the average level of mankind, but not to those who fall below it.
With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and the bended arm as a pillow, happiness may still exist. Wealth and rank unrighteously obtained seem to me as insubstantial as floating clouds. The inhabitants of Hu-hsiang were unconversable people, and when a young man from those parts came to see Confucius, the disciples hesitated to let him in. But the Master said: When a man comes to me, I accept him at his best, not at his worst. Why make so much ado? When a man washes his hands before paying a visit, and you receive him in that clean state, you do not thereby stand surety for his always having been clean in the past. The Master said: Is virtue then so remote? I have only to show a desire for virtue, and lo! it is here. The Master said: Prodigality begets arrogance,[11] parsimony begets niggardliness. But it is better to be niggardly than arrogant. Without due self-restraint,[12] courtesy becomes oppressive, prudence degenerates into timidity, valour into violence, and candour into rudeness. Love of daring and dread of poverty lead to sedition. The man without natural virtue, if pursued by the hatred of society, will become a desperado. If a man is proud and avaricious, though his other qualities may embrace all that was fine in the character of Chou Kung, they are not worth taking into account.
It is not easy to find a man who after three years of self-cultivation[13] has not reached happiness. He who is out of office should not meddle in the government. Hot-headedness without honesty; ignorance without ingenuousness; simplicity without sincerity:--such characters I do not understand.[14] Pursue the study of virtue as though you could never reach your goal, and were afraid of losing the ground already gained. The Master said: I have not met one whose love of virtue was equal to his love of sensual beauty. Though in making a mound I should stop when but one more basketful of earth would complete it, the fact remains that I _have_ stopped. On the other hand, if in levelling it to the ground I advance my work by but one basketful at a time, the fact remains that I _am_ advancing.[15] Alas! there are sprouting crops which never come into ear. There are others which, having come into ear, never ripen into grain. We ought to have a wholesome respect for our juniors. Who knows but that by-and-by they may prove themselves equal to the men of to-day? It is only when they reach the age of forty or fifty without distinguishing themselves that we need no longer be afraid of them. Words of just admonition cannot fail to command a ready assent. But practical reformation is the thing that really matters. Words of kindly advice cannot fail to please the listener. But subsequent meditation on them is the thing that really matters. I can make nothing of the man who is pleased with advice but will not meditate on it, who assents to admonition but does not reform.
A great army may be robbed of its leader, but nothing can rob one poor man of his will. It is only when the cold season comes that we know the pine and cypress to be evergreens.[16] Let a pupil join with you in self-cultivation before you let him approach the general truths of philosophy, but let him approach these general truths before he is allowed to form his character for good. He should have formed his character for good before he is allowed to make exceptions to a general rule. When Yen Yüan died, the Master said: Alas! God has forsaken me, God has forsaken me! On the death of Yen Yüan, the disciples wanted to give him a sumptuous funeral, but the Master said, Better not.[17] Nevertheless, the disciples did give him a sumptuous funeral, whereupon the Master said: Hui looked upon me as his father, yet I have not been able to treat him as my son. The fault is not in me, but in you, my disciples. Chi Lu inquired concerning men's duty to spirits. The Master replied: Before we are able to do our duty by the living, how can we do it by the spirits of the dead?--Chi Lu went on to inquire about death. The Master said: Before we know what life is, how can we know what death is?
Tzŭ Chang asked a question about clearness of mental vision. The Master said: He whose mind is proof against the slow-soaking poison of slander and the sharp stings of calumny, may be called clear-sighted, and far-seeing as well. The Master said: A man may know the three hundred odes by heart, but if he proves himself incapable when given a post in the government, or cannot make a speech unaided when sent on a foreign mission, of what use to him is all his learning? Tzŭ Kung asked, saying: What may be said of a man who is beloved by all his fellow-townsmen?--The Master replied: That is not enough to go upon.--What of one who is hated by all his fellow-townsmen?--The Master replied: Neither is that enough to go upon. It would be otherwise if, among his fellow-townsmen, the good loved him and the wicked hated him. The Master said: A good man must have trained the people for seven years before they are fit to go to war. To take an untrained multitude into battle is equivalent to throwing them away. In a well-governed country, speak boldly and act boldly. In a country where lawlessness prevails, let your actions be bold but your speech tactful. It is harder to be poor without murmuring, than to be rich without arrogance.
The men of olden times who studied virtue had only their own improvement in view; those who study it now have an eye to the applause of others. Refusal to instruct one who is competent to learn entails the waste of a man. Instruction of one who is incompetent to learn entails waste of words. The wise man is he who wastes neither men nor words. Those whose care extends not far ahead will find their troubles near at hand. He who requires much from himself and little from others will be secure from hatred. If a man is not in the habit of asking, "What do you make of this? what do you make of that?" I can make nothing of him. Hopeless indeed is the case of those who can herd together all day long without once letting their conversation reach a higher plane,[18] but are content to bandy smart and shallow wit. When a man is generally detested, or when he is generally beloved, closer examination is necessary.[19] It is the man that is able to develop his virtue, not virtue that develops the man.[20] The real fault is to have faults and not try to amend them. Where there is education, there is no distinction of class. Men who differ in their principles cannot help each other in their plans.
If language is lucid, that is enough. There are three errors to be avoided in the presence of a great man. The first is precipitancy--speaking before it is your turn to speak; the second is bashfulness--not speaking when your turn comes; and the third is heedlessness--speaking without observing the countenance of the listener. There are three impulses against which the nobler sort of man is on his guard. In the period of youth, when the heyday in the blood has not yet subsided, he guards against lustfulness; in the prime of life, when the physical frame is vigorous and strong, he guards against pugnacity; in old age, when the vital forces are in their decline, he guards against the greed of gain.[21] The highest class of men are they whose knowledge is innate; next to these are they whose knowledge is acquired by study[22]; after them come those who are dull-witted, yet strive to learn; while those who are dull-witted and will make no effort to learn are the lowest of the people. "When you see the good, act as though you could never quite come up with it; when you are brought face to face with evil, act as though you were trying the heat of boiling water":--I have heard some such saying as this, and I have seen men live up to it. "Dwell in retirement, in order to work out your aims; practise righteousness, in order to apprehend the Truth":--such a saying I have heard, but I have never seen a man live up to it.[23]
Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that carry them far apart. Only two classes of men never change: the wisest of the wise and the dullest of the dull. Speaking to Tzŭ Lu, the Master said: Have you ever heard, Yu, of the six shadows which attend six several virtues?--No, he replied.--Sit down, then, and I will tell you. Love of goodness without the will to learn[24] casts the shadow called foolishness. Love of knowledge without the will to learn casts the shadow called instability. Love of truth without the will to learn casts the shadow called insensibility. Love of candour without the will to learn casts the shadow called rudeness. Love of daring without the will to learn casts the shadow called turbulence. Love of firmness without the will to learn casts the shadow called eccentricity. Ceremonies, forsooth! Can ceremonies be reduced to a mere matter of silken robes and jade ornaments? Music, forsooth! Can music be reduced to a mere matter of bells and drums?[25] Men who are grave and stern in appearance, but inwardly weak and unprincipled--are they not comparable to the lowest class of humanity--sneaking thieves that break into houses by night? Your goody-goody people are the thieves of virtue. The Master said: Would that I could do without speaking!--Tzŭ Kung said: If our Master never spoke, how could we, his disciples, transmit his doctrines?--The Master replied: Does God speak? The four seasons hold on their course, and all things continue to live and grow. Yet, tell me, does God speak?
Girls and servants are the most difficult people to handle. If you treat them familiarly, they become disrespectful; if you keep them at a distance, they resent it. [1] The rather inappropriate name given by foreigners to the songs or ballads contained in the _Shih Ching_ or Book of Poetry (see note on p. 78). Confucius is said to have selected these three hundred odd pieces from a much larger pre-existing mass of material, but his language here hardly strikes us as that likely to be used by a man speaking of his own compilation. [2] That is to say, he is not limited in his functions like a vessel or implement, not "borné" or a man of one idea. Cf. note on p. 71. [3] Every ceremonial rite being symbolical of some portion of the world's harmony, and the Great Sacrifice being the head and fount as it were of all the rest, it follows that the man who could penetrate its profound symbolism would have the whole system of morals and government unrolled before his eyes. [4] Prime Minister of the Wei State, who suspected Confucius of coming to seek office, and took this means of hinting that the real power lay with himself and not with the Duke. [5] After some hesitation, I have adopted this clever rendering of Mr. Ku Hung-ming, as being the only one that fits well with the next sentence.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.