Addressing Tsz-kung, the Master said, “Which of the two is ahead of the other—­yourself or Hwui?” “How shall I dare,” he replied, “even to look at Hwui?  Only let him hear one particular, and from that he knows ten; whereas I, if I hear one, may from it know two.”

“You are not a match for him, I grant you,” said the Master.  “You are not his match.”

Tsai Yu, a disciple, used to sleep in the daytime.  Said the Master, “One may hardly carve rotten wood, or use a trowel to the wall of a manure-yard!  In his case, what is the use of reprimand?

“My attitude towards a man in my first dealings with him,” he added, “was to listen to his professions and to trust to his conduct.  My attitude now is to listen to his professions, and to watch his conduct.  My experience with Tsai Yu has led to this change.

“I have never seen,” said the Master, “a man of inflexible firmness.”  Some one thereupon mentioned Shin Ch’ang, a disciple.  “Ch’ang,” said he, “is wanton; where do you get at his inflexibleness?”

Tsz-kung made the remark:  “That which I do not wish others to put upon me, I also wish not to put upon others.”  “Nay,” said the Master, “you have not got so far as that.”

The same disciple once remarked, “There may be access so as to hear the Master’s literary discourses, but when he is treating of human nature and the way of Heaven, there may not be such success.”

Tsz-lu, after once hearing him upon some subject, and feeling himself as yet incompetent to carry into practice what he had heard, used to be apprehensive only lest he should hear the subject revived.

Tsz-kung asked how it was that Kung Wan had come to be so styled Wan (the talented).  The Master’s answer was, “Because, though a man of an active nature, he was yet fond of study, and he was not ashamed to stoop to put questions to his inferiors.”

Respecting Tsz-ch’an,[12] the Master said that he had four of the essential qualities of the ’superior man’:—­in his own private walk he was humble-minded; in serving his superiors he was deferential; in his looking after the material welfare of the people he was generously kind; and in his exaction of public service from the latter he was just.

Speaking of Yen Ping, he said, “He was one who was happy in his mode of attaching men to him.  However long the intercourse, he was always deferential to them.”

Referring to Tsang Wan, he asked, “What is to be said of this man’s discernment?—­this man with his tortoise-house, with the pillar-heads and posts bedizened with scenes of hill and mere!”

Tsz-chang put a question relative to the chief Minister of Tsu, Tsz-wan.  He said, “Three times he became chief Minister, and on none of these occasions did he betray any sign of exultation.  Three times his ministry came to an end, and he showed no sign of chagrin.  He used without fail to inform the new Minister as to the old mode of administration.  What say you of him?”