Tsz-hia once inquired what inference might be drawn from the lines—­

  “Dimples playing in witching smile,
    Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright! 
  Oh, and her face may be thought the while
    Colored by art, red rose on white!”

“Coloring,” replied the Master, “requires a pure and clear background.”  “Then,” said the other, “rules of ceremony require to have a background!” “Ah!” exclaimed the Master, “you are the man to catch the drift of my thought.  Such as you may well introduce a discussion on the Odes.”

Said the Master, “As regards the ceremonial adopted and enforced by the Hia dynasty, I am able to describe it, although their own descendants in the State of Ki can adduce no adequate testimony in favor of its use there.  So, too, I am able to describe the ceremonial of the Yin dynasty, although no more can the Sung people show sufficient reason for its continuance amongst themselves.  And why cannot they do so?  Because they have not documents enough, nor men learned enough.  If only they had such, I could refer them to them in support of their usages.

“When I am present at the great quinquennial sacrifice to the manes of the royal ancestors,” the Master said, “from the pouring-out of the oblation onwards, I have no heart to look on.”

Some one asked what was the purport of this great sacrifice, and the Master replied, “I cannot tell.  The position in the empire of him who could tell you is as evident as when you look at this”—­pointing to the palm of his hand.

When he offered sacrifices to his ancestors, he used to act as if they were present before him.  In offering to other spirits it was the same.

He would say, “If I do not myself take part in my offerings, it is all the same as if I did not offer them.”

Wang-sun Kia asked him once, “What says the proverb, ’Better to court favor in the kitchen than in the drawing-room’?” The Master replied, “Nay, better say, He who has sinned against Heaven has none other to whom prayer may be addressed.”

Of the Chow dynasty the Master remarked, “It looks back upon two other dynasties; and what a rich possession it has in its records of those times!  I follow Chow!”

On his first entry into the grand temple, he inquired about every matter connected with its usages.  Some one thereupon remarked, “Who says that the son of the man of Tsou [8] understands about ceremonial?  On entering the grand temple he inquired about everything.”  This remark coming to the Master’s ears, he said, “What I did is part of the ceremonial!”

“In archery,” he said, “the great point to be observed is not simply the perforation of the leather; for men have not all the same strength.  That was the fashion in the olden days.”

Once, seeing that his disciple Tsz-kung was desirous that the ceremonial observance of offering a sheep at the new moon might be dispensed with, the Master said, “Ah! you grudge the loss of the sheep; I grudge the loss of the ceremony.”