“But,” said Yen Yu, “so far as Chuen-yu is concerned, it is now fortified, and it is close to Pi; and if he does not now take it, in another generation it will certainly be a trouble to his descendants.”

“Yen!” exclaimed Confucius, “it is a painful thing to a superior man to have to desist from saying, ‘My wish is so-and-so,’ and to be obliged to make apologies.  For my part, I have learnt this—­that rulers of States and heads of Houses are not greatly concerned about their small following, but about the want of equilibrium in it—­that they do not concern themselves about their becoming poor, but about the best means of living quietly and contentedly; for where equilibrium is preserved there will be no poverty, where there is harmony their following will not be small, and where there is quiet contentment there will be no decline nor fall.  Now if that be the case, it follows that if men in outlying districts are not submissive, then a reform in education and morals will bring them to; and when they have been so won, then will you render them quiet and contented.  At the present time you two are Assistants of your Chief; the people in the outlying districts are not submissive, and cannot be brought round.  Your dominion is divided, prostrate, dispersed, cleft in pieces, and you as its guardians are powerless.  And plans are being made for taking up arms against those who dwell within your own State.  I am apprehensive that the sorrow of the Ki family is not to lie in Chuen-yu, but in those within their own screen.”

“When the empire is well-ordered,” said Confucius, “it is from the emperor that edicts regarding ceremonial, music, and expeditions to quell rebellion go forth.  When it is being ill governed, such edicts emanate from the feudal lords; and when the latter is the case, it will be strange if in ten generations there is not a collapse.  If they emanate merely from the high officials, it will be strange if the collapse do not come in five generations.  When the State-edicts are in the hands of the subsidiary ministers, it will be strange if in three generations there is no collapse.

“When the empire is well-ordered, government is not left in the hands of high officials.

“When the empire is well-ordered, the common people will cease to discuss public matters.”

“For five generations,” he said, “the revenue has departed from the ducal household.  Four generations ago the government fell into the hands of the high officials.  Hence, alas! the straitened means of the descendants of the three Hwan families.”

“There are,” said he, “three kinds of friendships which are profitable, and three which are detrimental.  To make friends with the upright, with the trustworthy, with the experienced, is to gain benefit; to make friends with the subtly perverse, with the artfully pliant, with the subtle in speech, is detrimental.”

Again, “There are three kinds of pleasure which are profitable, and three which are detrimental.  To take pleasure in going regularly through the various branches of Ceremonial and Music, in speaking of others’ goodness, in having many worthy wise friends, is profitable.  To take pleasure in wild bold pleasures, in idling carelessly about, in the too jovial accompaniments of feasting, is detrimental.”