“When two-thirds of the empire were held by King Wan, he served with that portion the House of Yin.  We speak of the virtue of the House of Chow; we may say, indeed, that it reached the pinnacle of excellence.”

“As to Yu,” added the Master, “I can find no flaw in him.  Living on meagre food and drink; yet providing to the utmost in his filial offerings to the spirits of the dead!  Dressing in coarse garments; yet most elegant when vested in his sacrificial apron and coronet!  Dwelling in a poor palace; yet exhausting his energies over those boundary-ditches and watercourses!  I can find no flaw in Yu.”

[Footnote 20:  Comparison of three of the Classics:  the “Shi-King,” the “Li Ki,” and the “Yoh.”  The last is lost.]

BOOK IX

His Favorite Disciple’s Opinion of Him

Topics on which the Master rarely spoke were—­Advantage, and Destiny, and Duty of man to man.

A man of the village of Tah-hiang exclaimed of him, “A great man is Confucius!—­a man of extensive learning, and yet in nothing has he quite made himself a name!”

The Master heard of this, and mentioning it to his disciples he said, “What then shall I take in hand?  Shall I become a carriage driver, or an archer?  Let me be a driver!”

“The sacrificial cap,” he once said, “should, according to the Rules, be of linen; but in these days it is of pure silk.  However, as it is economical, I do as all do.

“The Rule says, ‘Make your bow when at the lower end of the hall’; but nowadays the bowing is done at the upper part.  This is great freedom; and I, though I go in opposition to the crowd, bow when at the lower end.”

The Master barred four words:—­he would have no “shall’s,” no “must’s,” no “certainty’s,” no “I’s.”

Once, in the town of K’wang fearing that his life was going to be taken, the Master exclaimed, “King Wan is dead and gone; but is not ‘wan’ [21] with you here?  If Heaven be about to allow this ‘wan’ to perish, then they who survive its decease will get no benefit from it.  But so long as Heaven does not allow it to perish, what can the men of K’wang do to me?”

A high State official, after questioning Tsz-kung, said, “Your Master is a sage, then?  How many and what varied abilities must be his!”

The disciple replied, “Certainly Heaven is allowing him full opportunities of becoming a sage, in addition to the fact that his abilities are many and varied.”

When the Master heard of this he remarked, “Does that high official know me?  In my early years my position in life was low, and hence my ability in many ways, though exercised in trifling matters.  In the gentleman is there indeed such variety of ability?  No.”

From this, the disciple Lau used to say, “’Twas a saying of the Master:  ’At a time when I was not called upon to use them, I acquired my proficiency in the polite arts.’”