The Sayings Of Confucius Part 11

8. He did not dislike well-cleaned rice or hash chopped small. He did not eat sour or mouldy rice, bad fish, or tainted flesh. He did not eat anything that had a bad colour or that smelt bad, or food that was badly cooked or out of season. Food that was badly cut or served with the wrong sauce he did not eat. However much flesh there might be, it could not conquer his taste for rice. To wine alone he set no limit, but he did not drink enough to muddle him. He did not drink bought wine, or eat ready-dried market meat. He never went without ginger at a meal. He did not eat much.

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 coa.r.s.e rice, or herb broth, or gourds, he made his offering with all reverence.

9. If his mat was not straight, he would not sit down.

10. When the villagers were drinking wine, as those that walked with a staff left, he left too.

At the village exorcisms he put on court dress and stood on the east steps.

11. When sending a man with enquiries to another land, he bowed twice to him and saw him out.

When K'ang gave him some drugs, he bowed, accepted them, and said, I have never taken them; I dare not taste them.

12. On coming back from court after his stables had been burnt, the Master said, Is anyone hurt? He did not ask about the horses.

13. When the king sent him cooked meat, he put his mat straight, and tasted it first; when he sent him raw flesh, he had it cooked, and offered it to the spirits; when he sent him a live beast, he kept it alive.

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.

14. On going into the Great Temple he asked about everything.

15. When a friend died, who had no home to go to, he said, It is for me to bury him.

When friends sent him anything, even a carriage and horses, he never bowed, unless the gift was sacrificial flesh.

16. He did not sleep like a corpse. At home he unbent.

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.

17. When mounting his carriage he stood straight and grasped the cord.

When he was in it, he did not look round, or speak fast, or point.

18. Seeing a man's face, she rose, flew round and settled. The Master said, Hen pheasant on the ridge, it is the season, it is the season.

Tzu-lu went towards her: she sniffed thrice and rose.[88]

[Footnote 88: This pa.s.sage cannot belong here. It is corrupt and unintelligible.]

BOOK XI

1. The Master said, Savages! the men that first went into courtesy and music! Gentlemen! those that went into them later! My use is to follow the first lead in both.

2. The Master said, Not one of my followers in Ch'en or Ts'ai comes any more to my door! Yen Yuan, Min Tzu-ch'ien, Jan Po-niu and Chung-kung were men of n.o.ble life; Tsai Wo and Tzu-kung were the talkers; Jan Yu and Chi-lu were statesmen; Tzu-yu and Tzu-hsia, men of arts and learning.

3. The Master said, I get no help from Hui.[89] No word I say but delights him!

4. The Master said, How good a son is Min Tzu-ch'ien! No one finds fault with anything that his father, or his mother, or his brethren say of him.

5. Nan Jung would thrice repeat _The Sceptre White_.[90] Confucius gave him his brother's daughter for wife.

6. Chi K'ang asked which disciples loved learning. Confucius answered, There was Yen Hui[91] loved learning. Alas! his mission was short, he died. Now there is no one.

[Footnote 89: Yen Yuan.]

[Footnote 90: The verse runs--

A flaw can be ground From a sceptre white; A slip of the tongue No man can right.

[Footnote 91: Yen Yuan.]

7. When Yen Yuan died, Yen Lu[92] asked for the Master's carriage to furnish an outer coffin.

The Master said, Brains or no brains, each of us speaks of his son.

When Li[93] 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.

8. When Yen Yuan died the Master said, Woe is me! Heaven has undone me! Heaven has undone me!

9. When Yen Yuan died the Master gave way to grief.

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?

10. When Yen Yuan died the disciples wished to bury him in pomp.

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.