# The Sayings of Confucius; a New Translation of the Greater Part of the Confucian Analects/Confucius on Himself

The Master: I will not be grieved that other men do not know me: I will be grieved that I do not know other men.
At fifteen, my mind was bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I was free from delusions. At fifty, I understood the laws of Providence. At sixty, my ears were attentive to the truth. At seventy, I could follow the promptings of my heart without overstepping the mean.
Tzǔ Kung was for doing away with the customary sacrifice of a sheep on the first day of the month. The Master said: Ah, Tz'ǔ, you grudge the loss of a sheep, but I grudge the loss of a ceremony.
The Master said: In any hamlet of a dozen houses you will surely find men as honest and conscientious as myself, though they may not be so devoted to ethical study.
The Master having gone to visit Nan Tzǔ, ​Tzǔ Lu was displeased. Thereupon Confucius swore a solemn oath, saying: In whatsoever I have sinned, may I be abominable in the sight of God!
The Master said: My function is to indicate rather than to originate. Regarding antiquity as I do with trust and affection, I would venture to compare myself with our ancient patriarch P'êng Tsu.
The unpretentious hiving of wisdom, patient self-cultivation, and untiring instruction of others—to which of these can I make any claim?
The failure to cultivate virtue, the failure to examine and analyse what I have learnt, the inability to move towards righteousness after being shown the way, the inability to correct my faults—these are the causes of my grief.
Alas! what a falling-off is here! Long is it since I dreamt of Chou Kung.
​There is no one, from the man who brings me dried meat as payment upwards, to whom I have refused my instruction.
I do not expound my teaching to any who are not eager to learn; I do not help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself; if, after being shown one corner of a subject, a man cannot go on to discover the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.
If the pursuit of riches were a commendable pursuit, I would join in it, even if I had to become a chariot-driver for the purpose. But seeing that it is not a commendable pursuit, I engage in those which are more to my taste.
The Duke of Shê questioned Tzǔ Lu about Confucius. Tzǔ Lu made no reply. The Master said to him afterwards: Why did you not say: "He is a man whose zeal for self-improvement ​is such that he forgets to eat; whose happiness in this pursuit is so great that he forgets his troubles and does not perceive old age stealing upon him"?
The Master said: In me, knowledge is not innate. I am but one who loves antiquity and is earnest in the study of it.
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
My disciples, do you think that I have any secrets? I have no secrets from you. It is my way to do nothing without communicating it to you, my disciples.
There are men, I daresay, who act rightly without knowing the reason why, but I am not one of them. Having heard much, I sift out the good and practise it; having seen much, I retain in my memory. This is the second order of wisdom.
​In literary accomplishments I am perhaps equal to other men; but I have not yet succeeded in exhibiting the conduct of the princely man in my own person.
To divine wisdom and perfect virtue I can lay no claim. All that can be said of me is that never falter in the course which I pursue and unwearying in my instruction of others—this and nothing more.—Kung-hsi Hua said: But those are just the qualities that we, your disciples, are unable to acquire.
The Master being grievously sick, Tzǔ Lu proposed the offering up of a prayer.—Is there a precedent for this? asked the Master.—Tzǔ Lu replied: There is. In the Eulogies it is written: "We pray unto you, O spirits of Heaven and Earth."—The Master said: My prayers began long ago.
The Master was passing through a by-street when a man of the district shouted: Great is Confucius the philosopher! Yet for all his wide ​learning, he has nothing which can bring him fame.—On hearing this, the Master turned to his disciples and said: What shall I take up? Shall I take up charioteering or shall I take up archery? I will take up charioteering!
The Mastersaid: The ancient rites prescribe linen as the material for a ceremonial cap, but nowadays silk is used as being more economical. In this matter I fall in with the general custom. According to the ancient rites, the Prince is to be saluted from below the daïs, but nowadays the salutation takes place above. This is presumptuous, and therefore, though infringing thereby the general custom, I adopt the humbler position.
A high officer asked Tzǔ Kung, saying: Surely your Master is a divine Prophet? What a variety of accomplishments he seems to possess!—Tzǔ Kung replied: Truly he must be a Prophet, so richly has he been endowed by God. And he has also perfected himself in various arts.—The Master, being told of this, said: Does His Ex​cellency really know me now for what I am? Being of low condition as a boy, I did become skilled in various arts—but these are base accomplishments after all. If asked whether the higher type of man has many such accomplishments, I should say, Not many.
The Master said: Am I possessed of true knowledge? Not so. But if an ignorant fellow from the lower class comes to me with a question, I will discuss the subject from end to end, and set it fully before him.
Tzǔ Kung said to Confucius: If you had a lovely jewel, would you hide it away in a casket, or would you try to sell it for a good price?—The Master replied: Oh, certainly I would sell it, but I would wait until a price was offered.
The Master said: Out of doors, to tender faithful service to princes and ministers; at home, to be duteous towards father and elder brothers; to observe the rites of mourning with ​the utmost care; to avoid being overcome with wine:—which of these virtues have I?
In matters pertaining to ceremonies and music, the ancients were more or less uncivilised in comparison with the refinement of a later age. Nevertheless, in practice I take the earlier period as my guide.
As an arbiter in litigation I am no better than other men. But surely the grand object to achieve is that there shall be no litigation at all.
Wei-shêng Mou, addressing Confucius, said: Ch'iu, why is it you keep hopping about thus from place to place? Is it not in order to show off your fine rhetoric?—Confucius replied: I do not allow myself to indulge in fine rhetoric; no, it is because I consider obstinacy a fault.
The Master said: There are none who know ​me for what I am.—Tzǔ Kung said: How is it, Sir, that none know you?—The Master replied: I make no complaint against Heaven, neither do I blame my fellow-men. In the study of virtue I begin at the bottom and tend upwards. Surely Heaven knows me for what I am.
Tz'ǔ, do you look upon me as a man who has studied and retained a mass of various knowledge?—I do, he replied. Am I wrong?—You are wrong, said the Master. All my knowledge is strung on one connecting thread.
I used to spend whole days without food and whole nights without sleep, in order to meditate. ​But I made no progress. Study, I found, was better.
Pi Hsi sent an invitation to Confucius, and the Master wished to go. Tzǔ Lu, however, said: Once upon a time, Sir, I heard you say that the nobler sort of man would not enter into intimacy with one who laid himself out to do wrong. Now Pi Hsi has raised the standard of rebellion in Chung-mou. How can you think of going thither?—True, replied the Master. Those were my words. But is there not a saying: "The hard may be rubbed without losing its substance; the white may be steeped without losing its purity"? Am I then a bitter gourd—fit only to be hung up and not eaten?
* ↑ The wife of the Duke of Wei, notorious for her intrigues, and even accused of incest. Needless to say, Chinese commentators are at great pains to explain away this incident in the life of the sage.
* ↑ A grandson of the legendary Emperor Chuan Hsü. He is said to have been over 800 years old when ho disappeared into the west in the eleventh century B.C. The last words in the text are taken by some to mean "our patriarchs Lao Tzǔ and P'eng Tsu"—Lao Tzǔ being the founder of Taoism, who is also, by the way, alleged to have disappeared at an advanced age into the west.
* ↑ One of the most revered names in Chinese history. The younger brother of Wu Wang, he helped materially by his wise counsels to establish the dynasty of Chou. He drew up a legal code, purified the morals of the people, and devoted himself wholly to the welfare of the State. Confucius in the reforming zeal of his younger days had an ardent desire to see the principles and institutions of Chou Kung brought into general practice.
* ↑ Legge and others (including even Mr. Ku Hung-ming) make the sense out to be "If there were any prospect of my being successful in the search for riches, I would not hesitate to pursue them by any means in my power." Thus translated, the Master's saying is grotesquely at variance with the whole trend of his conduct and the essential spirit of his teaching. Curiously enough, too, there is nothing in the Chinese itself, so far as I can see, to justify such a startling interpretation.
* ↑ That is to say, the wisest men are those who act intuitively, without having to find their way by any conscious mental process. Confucius disclaims any such intuitive perception of right and wrong in his own case, and confesses that he is obliged to rely largely on objective experience, as acted upon by the critical and receptive powers of his mind. The saying has a distinctly Taoist flavour.
* ↑ It is not known exactly what these were—a collection of prayers, a book of rituals for the dead, or panegyrics on the departed.
* ↑ Confucius speaks of prayer in the sense made familiar to us by Coleridge's line: "He prayeth best who loveth best." In this higher sense his whole life had been one long prayer, and he refuses any mediation between himself and God. Could antagonism to the ritualistic spirit be carried much farther than this?
* ↑ This saying well illustrates the Master's attitude in regard to ceremonies. He was no stickler for mere outward conformity to rule, so long as the inner meaning of the ceremony was not affected. Now the salutation of the Prince was simply intended to be a way of expressing heartfelt loyalty and respect, and it was only because the new position seemed less respectful that Confucius opposed the change.
* ↑ See note on p. 44.
* ↑ Question and answer are of course parabolical. The enthusiastic young disciple thinks that his Master, in taking no steps to obtain official employment, is guilty of "hiding his jewel in a casket," or, as we should say, "his light under a bushel." Confucius, however, had a great sense of the responsibility of office, and was loth to thrust himself forward uninvited. His chance came at last after fifteen years of waiting, when Duke Ting appointed him governor of the town of Chung-tu.
* ↑ Another proof, if one were needed, that Confucius' instincts were all for simplicity and not elaboration in ceremonies.
* ↑ Said by Confucius when he was Minister of Justice in Lu.
* ↑ Evidently an older man, from his use of the personal name, not to speak of his disrespectful tone.
* ↑ Confucius, like other great men, was not exempt from the usual fate of seeing his actions derided and his motives misunderstood. Here we have a gibe thrown at his wandering from state to state, for the purpose, it is insinuated, of making a living by his wits. The answer is, that to have remained in Lu or any other state where he was plainly not wanted, would have been merely stupid persistency.
* ↑ This accounts for men taking no notice of him. Most so-called sages start with grandiose ideals and high-flown utterances, in order to attract attention.
* ↑ This is rightly considered to be one of the most important of the Master's sayings, because it gives the clue to his whole philosophy and view of life. The "connecting thread," as we learn from another passage (see p. 118), is simply the moral life, which consists in being true to oneself and good to one's neighbour. Confucius wished to impress upon his disciple that he was no mere amasser of knowledge nor lover of learning for learning's sake. The one thing necessary, in his eyes, was to be able to lead, in the highest sense of the word, a moral life, and this was the real object of all learning, the end and aim of all knowledge. Throughout the Analects, as we have already seen, the usual word for "learning" always means or implies the study of virtue, the striving after self-improvement. Like Socrates, Confucius was purely a moral philosopher, and would certainly have rejected the sharp distinction we draw nowadays between mental and moral science.
* ↑ A rebellious official in the Chin State. On more than one occasion in his career, Confucius made it plain that he declined to be bound by narrow convention or hampered by the fear of what people might say of him. To keep clear of bad associates was no doubt an excellent principle, but Confucius may have seen some justification for Pi Hsi's course of action, and in any case he was no longer of an age to be easily corrupted by evil communications. Knowing that rules were never meant to be so rigid as to admit of no exceptions, he felt it his primary duty to go where he could do good. Cf. the visit to Nan Tzǔ (p. 83), the mere idea of which would have horrified an ordinary teacher of morality.