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Read Ebook: The Sayings of Confucius by Confucius BCE BCE Lyall Leonard Arthur Translator
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Ebook has 349 lines and 25566 words, and 7 pages
His nightgown was always half as long again as his body.
In the house he wore thick fur, of fox or badger.
When he was not in mourning there was nothing missing from his girdle.
Except for sacrificial dress, he was sparing of stuff.
He did not wear lamb's fur, or a black cap, on a mourning visit.
At the new moon he always put on court dress and went to court.
After a sacrifice at the palace he did not keep the flesh over-night. He never kept sacrificial flesh more than three days. If it had been kept longer it was not eaten.
He did not talk at meals, nor speak when he was in bed.
Even at a meal of coarse rice, or herb broth, or gourds, he made his offering with all reverence.
At the village exorcisms he put on court dress and stood on the east steps.
When K'ang gave him some drugs, he bowed, accepted them, and said, I have never taken them; I dare not taste them.
When he ate in attendance on the king, the king made the offering, he tasted things first.
When he was sick and the king came to see him, he lay with his head to the east, with his court dress over him and his girdle across it.
When he was called by the king's bidding, he walked, without waiting for his carriage.
When friends sent him anything, even a carriage and horses, he never bowed, unless the gift was sacrificial flesh.
Even if he knew him well, his face changed when he saw a mourner. Even when he was in undress, if he saw anyone in full dress, or a blind man, he looked grave.
To men in deep mourning and to the census-bearers he bowed over the cross-bar.
Before choice meats he rose with changed look. At sharp thunder, or a fierce wind, his look changed.
Tzu-lu went towards her: she sniffed thrice and rose.
The Master said, Brains or no brains, each of us speaks of his son. When Li died he had an inner but not an outer coffin: I would not go on foot to furnish an outer coffin. As I follow in the wake of the ministers I cannot go on foot.
His followers said, Sir, ye are giving way.
The Master said, Am I giving way? If I did not give way for this man, for whom should I give way to grief?
The Master said, This must not be.
The disciples buried him in pomp.
The Master said, Hui treated me as his father. I have failed to treat him as a son. No, not I; but ye, my two-three boys.
The Master said, When we cannot do our duty to the living, how can we do it to the dead?
He dared to ask about death.
We know not life, said the Master, how can we know death?
A man like Yu, he said, dies before his day.
Min Tzu-ch'ien said, Would not the old one do? Why must it be rebuilt?
The Master said, That man does not talk, but when he speaks he hits the mark.
But when the disciples looked down on Tzu-lu, the Master said, Yu has come up into hall, but he has not yet entered the inner rooms.
The Master said, Shih goes too far, Shang not far enough.
Then is Shih the better? said Tzu-kung.
Too far, said the Master, is no nearer than not far enough.
He is no disciple of mine, said the Master. My little children, ye may beat your drums and make war on him.
The Master said, He does not tread the beaten track; and yet he does not enter the inner rooms.
The Master said, Whilst thy father and elder brothers live, how canst thou do all thou art taught?
Jan Yu asked, Shall I do all I am taught?
The Master said, Do all thou art taught.
Kung-hsi Hua said, Yu asked, Shall I do all I am taught? and ye said, Sir, Whilst thy father and elder brothers live. Ch'iu asked, Shall I do all I am taught? and ye said, Sir, Do all thou art taught. I am in doubt, and dare to ask you, Sir.
The Master said, Ch'iu is bashful, so I egged him on; Yu is twice a man, so I held him back.
The Master said, I held thee for dead.
He answered, Whilst my Master lives how should I dare to die?
The Master said, I thought ye would ask me a riddle, Sir, and ye ask about Yu and Ch'iu. He that holds to the Way in serving his lord and leaves when he cannot do so, we call a great minister. Now Yu and Ch'iu I should call tools.
Who are just followers then?
Nor would they follow, said the Master, if told to kill their lord or father.
The Master said, Thou art undoing a man's son.
Tzu-lu said, What with the people and the spirits of earth and corn, must a man read books to become learned?
The Master said, This is why I hate a glib tongue.
Tzu-lu answered lightly. Give me a land of a thousand chariots, crushed between great neighbours, overrun by soldiers and searched by famine, and within three years I could put courage into it and high purpose.
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