“Give prominent place to loyalty and sincerity.

“Have no associates in study who are not advanced somewhat like yourself.

“When you have erred, be not afraid to correct yourself.”

A saying of the Scholar Tsang:—­

“The virtue of the people is renewed and enriched when attention is seen to be paid to the departed, and the remembrance of distant ancestors kept and cherished.”

Tsz-k’in put this query to his fellow disciple Tsz-kung:  said he, “When our Master comes to this or that State, he learns without fail how it is being governed.  Does he investigate matters? or are the facts given him?”

Tsz-kung answered, “Our Master is a man of pleasant manners, and of probity, courteous, moderate, and unassuming:  it is by his being such that he arrives at the facts.  Is not his way of arriving at things different from that of others?”

A saying of the Master:—­

“He who, after three years’ observation of the will of his father when alive, or of his past conduct if dead, does not deviate from that father’s ways, is entitled to be called ‘a dutiful son.’”

Sayings of the Scholar Yu:—­

“For the practice of the Rules of Propriety,[1] one excellent way is to be natural.  This naturalness became a great grace in the practice of kings of former times; let everyone, small or great, follow their example.

“It is not, however, always practicable; and it is not so in the case of a person who does things naturally, knowing that he should act so, and yet who neglects to regulate his acts according to the Rules.

“When truth and right are hand in hand, a statement will bear repetition.  When respectfulness and propriety go hand in hand, disgrace and shame are kept afar-off.  Remove all occasion for alienating those to whom you are bound by close ties, and you have them still to resort to.”

A saying of the Master:—­

“The man of greater mind who, when he is eating, craves not to eat to the full; who has a home, but craves not for comforts in it; who is active and earnest in his work and careful in his words; who makes towards men of high principle, and so maintains his own rectitude—­that man may be styled a devoted student.”

Tsz-kung asked, “What say you, sir, of the poor who do not cringe and fawn; and what of the rich who are without pride and haughtiness?” “They are passable,” the Master replied; “yet they are scarcely in the same category as the poor who are happy, and the rich who love propriety.”

“In the ‘Book of the Odes,’” Tsz-kung went on to say, “we read of one

  Polished, as by the knife and file,
  The graving-tool, the smoothing-stone.

Does that coincide with your remark?”

“Ah! such as you,” replied the Master, “may well commence a discussion on the Odes.  If one tell you how a thing goes, you know what ought to come.”

“It does not greatly concern me,” said the Master, “that men do not know me; my great concern is, my not knowing them.”