On one occasion the Master exclaimed, “Ah, ’tis hopeless!  I have not yet seen the man who can see his errors, so as inwardly to accuse himself.”

“In a small cluster of houses there may well be,” said he, “some whose integrity and sincerity may compare with mine; but I yield to none in point of love of learning.”

[Footnote 10:  Lit., a State of 1,000 war chariots.]

[Footnote 11:  Lit., a House of 100 war chariots.]

[Footnote 12:  A great statesman of Confucius’s time.]

[Footnote 13:  A familiar way of speaking of his disciples in their hearing.]

BOOK VI

More Characteristics—­Wisdom—­Philanthropy

Of Yen Yung, a disciple, the Master said, “Yung might indeed do for a prince!”

On being asked by this Yen Yung his opinion of a certain individual, the Master replied, “He is passable.  Impetuous, though.”

“But,” argued the disciple, “if a man habituate himself to a reverent regard for duty—­even while in his way of doing things he is impetuous—­in the oversight of the people committed to his charge, is he not passable?  If, on the other hand, he habituate himself to impetuosity of mind, and show it also in his way of doing things, is he not then over-impetuous?”

“You are right,” said the Master.

When the Duke Ngai inquired which of the disciples were devoted to learning, Confucius answered him, “There was one Yen Hwui who loved it—­a man whose angry feelings towards any particular person he did not suffer to visit upon another; a man who would never fall into the same error twice.  Unfortunately his allotted time was short, and he died, and now his like is not to be found; I have never heard of one so devoted to learning.”

While Tsz-hwa, a disciple, was away on a mission to Ts’i, the disciple Yen Yu, on behalf of his mother, applied for some grain.  “Give her three pecks,” said the Master.  He applied for more.  “Give her eight, then.”  Yen gave her fifty times that amount.  The Master said, “When Tsz-hwa went on that journey to Ts’i, he had well-fed steeds yoked to his carriage, and was arrayed in light furs.  I have learnt that the ‘superior man’ should help those whose needs are urgent, not help the rich to be more rich.”

When Yuen Sz became prefect under him, he gave him nine hundred measures of grain, but the prefect declined to accept them.[14] “You must not,” said the Master.  “May they not be of use to the villages and hamlets around you?”

Speaking of Yen Yung again, the Master said, “If the offspring of a speckled ox be red in color, and horned, even though men may not wish to take it for sacrifice, would the spirits of the hills and streams reject it?”

Adverting to Hwui again, he said, “For three months there would not be in his breast one thought recalcitrant against his feeling of good-will towards his fellow-men.  The others may attain to this for a day or for a month, but there they end.”