[Footnote 4:  The Chief of the Ki clan was virtually the Duke of Lu, under whom Confucius for a time held office.]

[Footnote 5:  These posturers were mutes who took part in the ritual of the ancestral temple, waving plumes, flags, etc.  Each line or rank of these contained eight men.  Only in the sovereign’s household should there have been eight lines of them; a ducal family like the Ki should have had but six lines; a great official had four, and one of lower grade two.  These were the gradations marking the status of families, and Confucius’s sense of propriety was offended at the Ki’s usurping in this way the appearance of royalty.]

[Footnote 6:  Three great families related to each other, in whose hands the government of the State of Lu then was, and of which the Ki was the chief.]

[Footnote 7:  One of the five sacred mountains, worshipped upon only by the sovereign.]

[Footnote 8:  Tsou was Confucius’s birthplace; his father was governor of the town.]

[Footnote 9:  A renowned statesman who flourished about two hundred years before Confucius’s time.  A philosophical work on law and government, said to have been written by him, is still extant.  He was regarded as a sage by the people, but he lacked, in Confucius’s eyes, the one thing needful—­propriety.]

BOOK IV

Social Virtue—­Superior and Inferior Man

Sayings of the Master:—­

“It is social good feeling that gives charm to a neighborhood.  And where is the wisdom of those who choose an abode where it does not abide?

“Those who are without it cannot abide long, either in straitened or in happy circumstances.  Those who possess it find contentment in it.  Those who are wise go after it as men go after gain.

“Only they in whom it exists can have right likings and dislikings for others.

“Where the will is set upon it, there will be no room for malpractices.

“Riches and honor are what men desire; but if they arrive at them by improper ways, they should not continue to hold them.  Poverty and low estate are what men dislike; but if they arrive at such a condition by improper ways, they should not refuse it.

“If the ‘superior man’ make nought of social good feeling, how shall he fully bear that name?

“Not even whilst he eats his meal will the ‘superior man’ forget what he owes to his fellow-men.  Even in hurried leave-takings, even in moments of frantic confusion, he keeps true to this virtue.

“I have not yet seen a lover of philanthropy, nor a hater of misanthropy—­such, that the former did not take occasion to magnify that virtue in himself, and that the latter, in his positive practice of philanthropy, did not, at times, allow in his presence something savoring of misanthropy.

“Say you, is there any one who is able for one whole day to apply the energy of his mind to this virtue?  Well, I have not seen any one whose energy was not equal to it.  It may be there are such, but I have never met with them.