Chinese Cultures-The Confucian Analects(LunYu)-8

[1] THE MASTER said: “A teller and not a maker, one who trusts and loves the past; I may be likened to our old P'eng.” 1
[2] The Master said: “A silent communer, an ever hungry learner, a still unflagging teacher; am I any of these?”
[3] The Master said: “Neglect of what is good in me; want of thoroughness in study; failure to do the right when told me; lack of strength to overcome faults, these are my sorrows.”
[4] In his free moments the Master was easy and cheerful.
[5] The Master said: “How deep is my decay! It is long since I saw the Duke of Chou 2 in a dream.”
[6] The Master said: “Will the right; hold to good won; rest in love; move in art.”
[7] The Master said: “From the man who paid in dried meat upwards, I have withheld teaching from no one.”
[8] The Master said: “Only to those fumbling do I open, only for those stammering do I find the word. From him who cannot turn the whole when I lift a corner I desist.”
[9] When eating beside a mourner the Master never ate his fill. On days when he had been wailing, the Master did not sing.
[10] The Master said to Yen Yüan: “I and thou alone can both fill a post when given one and live unseen when passed by.” Tzu-lu said: “Had ye to command three armies, Sir, who should go with you?” “No man,” said the Master, “ready to fly unarmed at a tiger, or plunge into a river and die without a pang should be with me; but one, rather, who is wary before a move and gains his end by well-laid plans.”
[11] The Master said: “Were shouldering a whip a sure road to riches, I would turn carter: but since there is no sure road, I tread the path I love.”
[12] The Master gave heed to devotions, war, and sickness.
[13] When the Master was in Ch'i for three months after hearing the Shao played he knew not the taste of meat. “I did not suppose,” he said, “that music could touch such heights.”
[13] The Master said: “A man who loves learning with simple faith, who to mend his life is content to die, will not enter a tottering kingdom, nor stay in a land distraught. When right prevails below heaven, he is seen; when wrong prevails, he is unseen. When right prevails, he would blush to be poor and lowly; when wrong prevails, wealth and honours would shame him.”
[14] The Master said: “When not in office, discuss not policy.”
[15] The Master said: “In the first days of the music master Chih how grand was the ending of the Kuan- chu! How it filled the ear!”
[16] The Master said: “Of such as are eager, but not straight; shallow, but not simple; dull, but not truthful, I will know nothing.”
[17] The Master said: “Study as though the time were short, as one who fears to lose.”
[18] The Master said: “It was sublime how Shun and Yu swayed the world and made light of it!”
[19] The Master said: “How great was Yao in kingship! Sublime! Heaven alone is great; Yao alone was patterned on it! Boundless! Men’s words failed them. Sublime the work he did, dazzling the wealth of his culture!”
[20] Shun had five ministers, and order reigned below heaven. King Wu said: “Ten in number are my able ministers.” Confucius said: “‘The dearth of talent,’ is not that the truth? The days when Yü 6 succeeded T'ang 7 were rich in talent; yet there were but nine men in all, and one of these was a woman. The utmost worth was the worth of Chou! 8 Lord of two-thirds of the earth, he submitted all to Yin.”
[21] The Master said: “I find no flaw in Yü. Frugal in eating and drinking, he was lavish to the ghosts of the dead: ill-clad, he was gorgeous in cap and gown: his home a hovel, he poured out his strength upon dikes and ditches. No kind of flaw can I find in Yü.”

Note 1. T'ai-po was the eldest son of the King of Chou. The father wished his third son to succeed him, in order that the throne might pass through him to his famous son, afterwards known as King Wen. To facilitate this plan T'ai-po and his second brother went into voluntary exile.
Note 2. The Chinese say: “The body is born whole by the mother; it is for the son to return it again whole.”
Note 3. Head of the Meng clan, minister of Lu.
Note 4. This is believed to refer to Yen Yüan.
Note 5. See note to vii.
Note 6. Shun.
Note 7. Yao.
Note 8. King Wen, Duke of Chou. [back]