The Analects: Conclusions and Conversations of Confucius 9780520974715

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The Analects

The Analects Conclusions and Conversations of Confucius

Translated by

Moss Roberts

UNIVERSIT Y OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

University of California Press Oakland, California © 2020 by Moss Roberts Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Confucius, author. | Roberts, Moss, 1937- translator, writer of  introduction, writer of supplementary textual content. Title: The analects : conclusions and conversations of Confucius /  Confucius ; translated by Moss Roberts. Other titles: Lun yu. English Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020] |  Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: lccn 2020019226 (print) | lccn 2020019227 (ebook) |  isbn 9780520343290 (paperback) | isbn 9780520974715 (epub) Subjects: lcsh: Confucius. Lun yu. | Confucius. Lun yu—Criticism,  Textual. | Confucius—Criticism and interpretation. | Philosophy, Confucian. Classification: lcc pl2478 .l564 2020 (print) | lcc pl2478 (ebook) |   ddc 181/.112—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019226 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019227 Manufactured in the United States of America 29  28  27  26  25  24  23  22  21  20 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

c ontents

Dedication and Acknowledgments Introductory Remarks

vii 1

Book One: Learning pursued . . .

21

Book Two: Exerting political authority . . .

31

Book Three: Eight rows of dancers . . .

40

Book Four: Surrounded by the humane . . .

50

Book Five: Gongye Chang is wived . . .

55

Book Six: Our Yong here . . .

62

Book Seven: I do not innovate . . .

70

Book Eight: Taibo’s virtue . . .

78

Book Nine: Rarely did Confucius speak . . .

84

Book Ten: Home in his locale . . .

89

Book Eleven: Those who first entered . . .

94

Book Twelve: Yan Yuan asked about Ren . . .

100

Book Thirteen: Zilu asked about governing . . .

106

Book Fourteen: Xian asked about shame . . .

112

Book Fifteen: Lord Ling asked about marshaling troops . . .

121

Book Sixteen: The Jisun clan prepares to attack . . .

127

Book Seventeen: Yang Huo sought a meeting . . .

132

Book Eighteen: Weizi quit his office . . .

137

Book Nineteen: Zizhang said . . .

141

Book Twenty: Yao hath said . . .

146

Appendix A: Terms and Titles Appendix B: A Timeline for Confucius’s Life Selected Bibliography

160

149 165

de di c at i on and acknowled gments

This translation is dedicated to several of my teachers in college and graduate school. The late Professor Andrew J. Chiappe, who taught Shakespeare at Columbia College, instilling in his students a love of literature and language; the late Peter A. Boodberg, of the University of California, Berkeley, who showed his students how to recognize the importance of the precise meanings of key words to an understanding of the ideas they convey; and the late Professor W. T. de Bary, of Columbia University, who enlightened his students on the enduring values in the Confucian approach to problems of politics and morality and interpersonal relations. I also remember with gratitude and respect the dedicated native-language instructors who taught Chinese at Columbia University in the early 1960s, especially the late Charles Lo. More immediately, I am grateful to the two readers engaged by the University of California Press—Professor Olivia Milburn and one anonymous colleague—whose perceptive comments and corrections significantly improved the manuscript. A word of thanks to James Peck, a friend and colleague, who launched my career as a translator when Pantheon Books published my first Three Kingdoms translation in 1976. Mr. Peck read and commented astutely on the manuscript of this translation. From my students at New York University and from my colleagues in the Department of East Asian Studies I have enjoyed intellectual stimulation and support. Finally, a tribute to Caroline Knapp, the copyeditor, whose adroit revisions and apt suggestions saved many a phrase and sentence from a fate of uncertainty. vii

Introductory Remarks The ancient philosophers conveyed most of their instruction in the form of dialogue. —david hume, natural religion

Inert like a painting, a text cannot respond to questions. Only the spoken word communicates effectively. Being alive, speech is the medium of philosophically productive dialogue, though only between the right persons. Moreover, what is spoken exercises and strengthens memory; the written word weakens it. —socrates, phaedrus (paraphrased)

In a world that lacks humanity, be human. —pirkei avot, chapter 2, mishnah 5

Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. —helen keller, journal, december 10, 1936

Every word pure gold and fine jade, the Lunyu, truly an imperishable, invaluable classic for all mankind. —liang qichao, dushu zhinan (guidance for study)

The Analects contains the humanist (Ren) teachings and ideals (dao) of Confucius, who lived some twenty-five hundred years ago, shortly before Socrates began his critical synthesis of Heraclitus and Parmenides as he reoriented philosophy from nature and cosmos to humanity. Confucius too kept his distance from nature and the supernatural and concentrated on the human realm. 1

2      Introductory Remarks

For his trenchant axioms and strict judgments about political morality and social responsibility, Confucius (d. 479 BC) has been a dominant figure in the history and culture of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, the four nations that constitute the core of East Asia. His teachings and ideals have served as the philosophical architecture that gives cohesion, durability, and continuity to these societies, and the influence of his thought remains evident there in our own day. Beyond the four nations, Confucius’s dao has manifested itself in diverse diasporas. Today, were Confucius to revisit any of those four nations or their diasporic communities, the external effects of modernization notwithstanding, he would still recognize his basic principles and values regarding the bonds of human relations and the forms of authority, with emphasis on learning, on teaching, and on ethics in politics. Xue, learning, is the first word Confucius speaks as the book devoted to his life and thought begins. In Chinese the book is called the Lunyu. It is a collection of nearly five hundred brief entries consisting of Confucius’s solo statements, conversations with or among his disciples, and a few dialogues with regional rulers. In their cumulative effect these conversations and conclusions became precepts and concepts that shaped the social forms and guided the conduct of the peoples of East, or Confucian, Asia. Though the continuity of values was one of his main themes, Confucius realized that his project to restore good governance by modeling governments on family values and ancient tradition would fail in his own time. The Analects not only tracks his heroic efforts to bring this cause to fulfillment, it also records his resignation to the adverse trends of history and the perversity of rulers. For this reason, apart from its practical, everyday wisdom and enlightened authoritarianism, the work has a kind of tragic grandeur. The tragic aspect of Confucius’s life is echoed in a moment of danger that he experienced as he traveled with some disciples from state to state searching for a ruler whose confidence he might win. “Are we wild oxen or tigers, to find ourselves led into this wilderness?” Confucius cried out, reciting the lines of a classic ode and then continuing, “Will my cause prove a failure? What are we doing out here?”1 In The 1.  Sima Qian, “Kongzi shijia,” Shiji. This is the earliest account of Confucius’s life, written by China’s first historian of the imperial period. Sima Qian died in 90 BC. For

Introductory Remarks    3

Analects, the moments when Confucius despairs are infrequent but telling. “He knows he cannot succeed but does not give up trying,” says one observer (A14.40). If he failed in his own time he became a guiding light in a future time. As for its international status, while The Analects does not have the wide Western readership that the Daode Jing of Laozi enjoys, its influence has reached beyond the small world of China studies. One scholar, who approaches the work from a philosophical angle, writes, “When I began to read Confucius, I found him to be a prosaic and parochial moralizer. . . . Increasingly I have become convinced that Confucius can be a teacher to us today.”2 The Analects is not an object of sacred veneration. It makes no gestures toward the divine. It needs no garnish of illustrations. Though it has given rise to a long and diverse commentary tradition, it is for the most part rather accessible on its own, without priestly or scholarly intermediaries. No one swears on the text in a law court. Its homely words ask only to be lived by. Wherein lies the power of The Analects? It is not a work of philosophical grandeur or metaphysical poetry. It is mundane, matter-of-fact, undramatic, and occasionally banal. Its suggestions and exhortations about political order and personal virtue, though often pithy in style, are plainspoken, low-key common sense open to all. Many of its phrases have been absorbed into the common language. In our own culture such a claim might be made mainly for parts of the Bible and certain passages in Shakespeare. While this study addresses the meaning of The Analects in its own historical period, as well as ways to present it in the classroom, its broader applications are worth keeping in mind. Rather than think of this small book as a classic or cultural treasure, it may be more fitting to regard it as a common mode of consciousness or a behavioral “operating system” designed for a specific culture. If one were to attempt to summarize its message, it would have two parts: resolute self-reflection and self-discipline together with abiding concern for public service and the common good. Confucius an English translation, see Sima Qian, Selections from Records of the Historian, translated by Xianyi Yang and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1979). 2.  Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1998), vii.

4      Introductory Remarks

stays within the secular sphere of individual, society, government, and history, rarely and tentatively venturing into matter known in other cultures as religious. •

•

•

As to the text itself, of its twenty books, book 1, with its sixteen passages, is relatively short; book 14, with forty-seven, is relatively long. In this study, passages are cited by book and number, preceded by an A for Analects. For example, the first passage of the first book is referred to as A1.1. The passage numbering follows James Legge’s 1893 edition, but occasionally varies by a single entry; such differences are noted. Translations in this introduction and in appendix A may differ slightly from those in the body of the book since there is no definitive translation. By long-standing convention each of the twenty books of The Analects is named with the first two words spoken—or three if a name has three words. Book 1 is titled “Xue er,” which means “Having studied . . . .” For completeness or clarification, this translation sometimes adds a word or so to the Chinese title. To book 5, for example, titled “Gongye Chang,” reference to his marriage is added. Book 12 is titled “Yan Yuan”; the translation adds “. . . asked about Ren.” Many of The Analects’ passages consist of quotations. Among them, those of Confucius are dominant and authoritative, but never imposing, for he was as much a seeker as a giver of lessons. As he puts it in A7.21: “When in the company of several men, I have invariably found one who has something to teach me.” The disciples in The Analects number about thirty named figures; they represent a variety of social milieus and come from several different states, but only about half a dozen stand out as participants in multiple passages. While individual passages carry compelling points and arresting thoughts, the text as a whole seems unorganized and presents no sustained argument. Thematically related passages appear in different books, while neighboring passages often have no connection, or at best, seem to come in pairs or little groupings. Thus random and incomplete, the text resembles an enlightened group conversation or even a temperate town meeting with a varied agenda, at which many state their cases or make their points, but in no particular order and with numerous interruptions and diversions. The presence of a multiplicity of interlocutors creates a vivid effect.

Introductory Remarks    5

Never overbearing, Confucius leaves a great deal up to the reader— and to his students. He does not overexplain, instead speaking succinctly in provocative aphorisms often posed as questions. In brief dialogues he engages one on one with his students, his followers, and a small number of ruling authorities. All these voices contribute to developing the main themes of the work, making The Analects one of the most democratic works of philosophy; among this variety of voices, Confucius’s is only the first among equals, authoritative but far from imposing and always ready to defer. The very brevity of The Analects’ entries reflects something essential about Confucius: an inclination toward reticence. A10.1 says that he tended to be rather self-contained when he was within his own community, “as if unable to speak.” Perhaps he held back in order to avoid overshadowing his kinsmen and clansmen, or to allow them room to express themselves. This inclination to listen before speaking, to recognize that the other may have something important to say, also explains why he would say, in A13.27, “reticence is close to benevolence [Ren, regard for the other, humaneness].” One might call this a kind of Socratic method, but Socrates was far more wordy than the Master; he also tended to exploit and overpower as well as to midwive his interlocutors (or use them as his midwives). Unlike the Platonic oeuvre, The Analects can be read easily in a few hours, but it is worth a lifetime’s study and discussion. In its quotidian attention to human activity, The Analects is an unassuming work that seems by its very incompleteness and diffuseness to invite the reader to participate, to add his or her own voice, to reflect on his or her own thought and experience—the first text of interactive philosophy, which by implication values and includes its audience as an equal. Confucius respected the inner authority of every person. In A9.26 he says: “The general of an entire army may be captured; but no one can deprive even a common man of his own sense of purpose.”3 This internalization of moral authority has an almost Reformation or Enlightenment, even Kantian, ring. The concept of internal authority is embedded in a complex of social and political roles. At the level of the state and the clan (guo and 3.  Readers will note that Confucius and his disciples use the generic masculine throughout this translation. Though words have no gender in Chinese, socially his world was a male one.

6      Introductory Remarks

jia), the principal units of social organization of its time, The Analects deals with questions about authority: what external forms it takes, what it consists of, and how it is lost. Indeed, another title for The Analects might be The Book of Authority and Discipline—it examines how to practice self-discipline and how to relate to authority. This aspect of the work has to do with Confucius’s strong interest in social cohesion achieved through moral leadership. When asked what a ruler can dispense with if forced, he responds: first the military, next the food supply, last the people’s trust. The conversion of the Chinese has been undertaken as a challenge by many Christians, almost as a derivative or compensatory project to the conversion of the Jews, a project that Christian leaders have set their sights on for almost two millennia. Like the “obstinacy” of the Jews, the resistance of the Chinese to this project, which has suffered from its historical intimacy with militarized colonialism, has to a great extent depended on the philosophical and ethical teachings operative in their culture, most important among them Buddhism and Confucianism. These schools and teachings amount to a behavioral equivalent to Western religious and political self-idealizations and self-representations. Thus Chinese cultural self-sufficiency and self-confidence have worked to protect them from the West’s ambitious bid to remake China in its own image (or imaginary). •

•

•

Born in 552 or 551 BC, Confucius became an active learner in his teens: “By fifteen my heart was set on learning” (A2.4). In middle age he traveled widely among the small states of the proto-Chinese areas around the eastern stretch of the Yellow River. His visits to some of these states, Wei and Qi, for example, are cited in the text. He returned to his home state of Lu in his final years, which he devoted to teaching and to editing classic texts. Although he held office in Lu, his political role was limited and hardly transformative. How long after Confucius’s death the Lunyu took its final form remains uncertain, with a timespan from the late fifth century BC (the earliest suggested dating) to about 150 BC, in the Han dynasty. Over the millennia most Chinese scholars have favored an earlier date, viewing the text as an edition of his disciples’ (and their disciples’) diverse notes and memories. Even contemporary Chinese scholars

Introductory Remarks    7

have been hesitant to challenge this tradition, holding that the text “had been in existence since the early to middle Warring States period [ca. 420–350 BC].”4 In its form, The Analects is a mosaic of judgments, homilies, arguments, and exchanges, nearly five hundred in number, arranged in twenty books of varying length. Did it assume this form at one time, or over many generations? There is no generally accepted answer. Furthermore, we “do not know how long Confucius’ teachings were passed on orally after his death, the extent to which his disciples made notes of his teachings, nor how many different sets of students’ notes were compiled and transmitted.”5 While this statement is true, The Analects should not be thought of as an oral tradition that has become a text. In A15.6, Zizhang asks Confucius about the nature of good conduct and Confucius replies, “ ‘If your speech is true-hearted and trustworthy, if your conduct is consistently respectful, then even among the uncultured tribes your conduct will be acceptable. If not, even in your own town and village your conduct will not be acceptable.’ . . . Zizhang wrote these words on his belt.” This habit, among the various disciples, of quoting and transcribing is attested to in other texts of the Warring States and early Han periods, and supports the view that records of what a leader—in education or in politics—had said existed during Confucius’s lifetime and in the two generations following. Based on this, as well as on the fact that bits of The Analects have appeared in the recently unearthed Guodian texts from a tomb dating to around 300 BC, the contemporary scholar Yang Chaoming argues for an Analects date between 428 and 400 BC.6 As Yang Chaoming observes, the very form in which the statements of Confucius are prefaced—Ziyue, or “The Master [Zi] says [yue]”—tells us that a statement made by Confucius has been taken down, as if by dictation. One further detail worthy of note is that we find about ten Analects passages spread across five of the seven books of the Mencius, believed 4.  John Makeham, “The Formation of Lunyu as a Book,” Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies 44 (1996): 1–24, 1–2. 5.  Makeham, “Formation of Lunyu,” 5. 6.  Yang Chaoming, “Xinchu zhushu yu ‘Lunyu’ chengshu wenti zairenshi,” Zhongguo zhexueshi, no. 3 (2003): 35–37.

8      Introductory Remarks

to date from the late fourth century to the early third century BC; the passages are from books 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, and 17 of the received Analects. By contrast the later Xunzi contains only two paraphrases.7 The Analects quotes in the Mencius are attributed to “the Master,” but not to any text, Lunyu or otherwise. Upon what source the Mencius editor drew is unknown. But he may well have had before him a collection of entries resembling our Analects. Then there is the Xunzi (based on the teachings of Xunzi, ?310–?220 BC). The Lunyu and Xunzi texts are framed in a similar way: the opening books of both take up the theme of study (xue) and the closing book takes up the figure of the legendary sage-king Yao. Since the Xunzi, though respectful toward Confucius, departed from Confucian doctrine on major points and never acquired classic status, it is not likely that The Analects took it as a textual model. More likely, the Xunzi’s editor, Liu Xiang (d. 6 BC), sought to recall The Analects and implicitly borrow some of its and Confucius’s own prestige. But Liu Xiang’s edition may not reflect the original order of the Xunzi’s books. Concerning terms, there is an ex nihilo argument to be made. Human nature (renxing), a fundamental issue for Mencius and Xunzi, plays no role of any importance in The Analects. Moreover, although Confucius praises the legendary sages Yao and Shun, he never mentions the supposed transfer of power by abdication, something that became an important issue among later Confucians. This may indirectly support the argument for an early compilation of The Analects. Of course, dating the compilation does little to determine the dating of contents. If the contents of The Analects date largely to the late sixth and early to mid-fifth centuries BC, it may well be, as John Makeham argues, that the order and selection of the passages was not finalized until generations later.8 One might ask, further, does the fact that these two Warring States works, the Mencius and the Xunzi, contain quotes of Confucius that are not from The Analects suggest that the Analects 7.  James Legge, “Prolegomena,” Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, Chinese Classics 1 (London: Dover, 1971; repr. of Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893), 17. 8.  Anne Cheng lists the various suggestions for an early Han date. See Anne Cheng, “Lun Yu,” in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael Loewe, 313–23 (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1993), 316.

Introductory Remarks    9

corpus had yet to be authoritatively consolidated at the time of their compilation? Perhaps The Analects was formed from a diffuse body of material that existed in various collections, much like the elements that would eventually become New Testament books before their canonization in the fourth century. Maybe the title Lunyu should be translated The Canonical Analects, or The Definitive Analects? That the “Lunyu as a book did not exist prior to about 150–140 BC” is the hypothesis of Makeham.9 He holds that The Analects crystallizes as a book in the Han, arguing that the apparent absence of the title Lunyu until the Han era suggests that there was no stable text before then.10 Makeham concludes that the Lunyu first became a book in a time when Confucianism was ascendant and there was a need for an “orthodox and standard version of Confucius’ recorded sayings.” Nonetheless, he goes on, there is “no reason to suspect that much if not most of the material contained in [it] . . . did not ultimately derive from the early Warring States period.”11 A stable text could have existed for some time before a title was affixed to it. Moreover, tombs have yielded texts that are not titled or are titled by default, that is, by the opening words of each book, as each book of The Analects is still titled. Hence Makeham’s hypothesis, which in any event concerns the title and the form more than the content, does not exclude taking the content as reliably representing the ideas of, and the issues and stakes for, the early Confucian school. In other words, a late compilation date need not rule out the historical authenticity of the content as reflecting the late sixth through early fifth centuries BC, that is, the lifetime of Confucius, his followers, and theirs. Meanwhile, how the dating of the text’s compilation affects interpretation of Confucius’s teachings is a question of considerable importance to be held open. Taken as a whole, this body of transcribed passages constitutes a handbook of ethical, social, and political guidance. It is rich in historical detail and incident, and its points and purposes emerge from contexts of immediate experience. Its aphorisms and metaphors have 9.  Makeham, “Formation of Lunyu,” 1–2. 10.  Makeham, “Formation of Lunyu,” 10. The “Fangji” section of the Liji, which mentions the title, has yet to be definitively dated as either Han or Warring States. 11.  Makeham, “Formation of Lunyu,” 14.

10      Introductory Remarks

entered into the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages as living idioms: “A junzi [noble man] will not serve (or treat others) as a mere instrument.” “It does not take a battle ax to kill a chicken.” Even fragments like “friends who come from afar” are embedded in modern speech. And yet it is the collective power of The Analects’ underlying themes that has informed its multiple small moments with significance and applicability beyond their occasion. T R A N SL AT I N G A N D T R A N SL AT IO N S

A dozen or so translations of the Lunyu into English have been made. One of the earliest, by the Scottish missionary James Legge, was published in 1861 in Hong Kong. Legge imparted to his translation something of the gravitas of the King James English in which he was steeped. More than one student has said that parts of Legge’s text remind one (in some ways) of the Old Testament. Later translators, Arthur Waley and D. C. Lau for example, have chosen a more secular tone and here and there have improved upon some of Legge’s renderings, but his thoughtful and erudite translation has not been superseded. Legge’s edition has the added advantage of placing the handsomely printed Chinese text above the English, giving the reader easy reference to the original and also indicating its superior authority. Legge acknowledged this authority when he wrote, in his preface to the 1893 reprint of his 1861 translation, that his object had “always been faithfulness to the original Chinese rather than grace of composition.” Analects, Legge’s inspired rendering of the Chinese title Lunyu, has become the accepted English title of the work. It is possible that this name was suggested by the Analecta Rabbinica, a work by the famed Dutch orientalist of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Adrian Leland. The word comes from the Greek: ana, meaning “from before,” and lect, meaning “gathered, regathered.” The term “analects” well characterizes the book’s salvaged conversations and sayings. The Chinese title, Lunyu, suggests something slightly different: it is generally taken to mean the collected (lun) sayings (yu) of Confucius and his followers. For lun, Legge chose the word “digested,” meaning systematically arranged and condensed. Another possibility, however, is that both lun and yu are nouns, with lun meaning conclusions, positions, statements, or judgments, and yu meaning conversations. This

Introductory Remarks    11

too describes the contents well. The ambiguity of Chinese grammar— lun could be a modifier or a noun—permits both interpretations. Lunyu is a modest title, in contrast to works titled according to the thinker—the Mencius, the Mozi, et cetera; that said, the text may have once been called the Kongzi, after Confucius himself. The English name Confucius derives from “Con” for “Kong,” “fu” for “the” or “the very,” and “cius,” the Latin for “zi” or master. Since Legge the Lunyu has had a fair number of adequate English translations, most of which have made useful improvements. Among these, the later translations have updated the convolutions of Legge’s Victorian style and its august Biblical tone. A new translator coming to the task at this point in time remembers appreciatively at every turn the debt owed to almost all the preceding work, in an attempt to add a small measure of new value to the cumulative enterprise. These previous translators have helped the present one in presenting The Analects in Chinese philosophy classes for over fifty years. The main trouble with all the translations, including this one, is that the text is easier to read in the original. English distorts. There are various reasons for this: one is that the language of the period (middle-late Warring States, or BC 450–250) is relatively simple compared to the more evolved and complicated language of succeeding periods, beginning with the Han dynasty. In the end there can never be a definitive translation, only degrees of approximation and imperfection. The first step toward bridging the difference between the original and the translation is to explain, for the reader unfamiliar with Chinese, the key interconnected terms that constitute the text’s value system and so organize the whole. Translating any one of these terms into several different English words weakens both the effect of its recurrence as a motif and its mutual resonance with other terms. For example, Legge renders the all-important term Ren as “benevolence,” but also as “perfect virtue,” even though he usually renders another term, de, as “virtue.” On the other hand, consistently using the same English word for the same Chinese term creates another kind of distortion, since the Chinese terms are too semantically complex for one word to suffice. Each term is so loaded with information, phonetic and graphic, that no foreign word can capture more than a portion of it. In this translation, for example, Ren is translated “humane, humankindness, human feeling, humanity” in an attempt to tie it to the underlying

12      Introductory Remarks

graph and sound ren, meaning “person, other persons, human being walking.” But, simply speaking, Ren means “empathy, treating others as kin.” When reading the translation, it is good to keep in mind a menu of the several possible English equivalents of each Chinese term. Each key term presents as a graph united with a sound, both contributing to the term’s meanings. We should consider the following nine terms (capitalized only when there is another term spelled identically): Li, ritual, ceremonial formalities; Ren, humanitarian; zhi, knowledge, understanding; tian, heaven; dao, the Way, ideals, teachings; xiao, filial piety; yi, righteous, right and just; de, virtue; and junzi, ruler’s (ideal) son, true prince. Confucius’s statement, “Our dao by a single principle ties it all together,” may refer to this set of value terms. Among the these nine, Li and zhi not only are values but also serve as instrumental terms functioning to make these values operational. For example, filial piety is a value but Confucius also wants parents to be served graciously: “The expression is the hard part.” Li in the sense of proper form is required in serving parents and elders (including those who have died). On the other hand, if it is detached from humane ends, Li may be no more than an empty formality, just as zhi, knowledge, detached from humane ends may have bad results. Appendix A explores in detail the terminology of the text as well as some relevant critical terms that appear in the Mozi, Daode jing, and Han Feizi. S O C I E T Y V E R SU S R E L IG IO N

“Pay attention [first] to your responsibilities for the people. [Next] respect the ancestral spirits but keep them at a distance. This may be called sound judgment [zhi: knowledge, understanding, discretion].” Thus Confucius replies to a question in A6.20. The word zhi here is best understood in conjunction with A2.17 and A11.12. In A11.12, Confucius admonishes the impetuous disciple Zilu to distinguish between things known and unknown, knowable and unknowable: “You are not yet able to serve the living, how can you serve the dead? You have yet to know the living, how can you know the dead?” In A2.17 Confucius addresses Zilu again: “Let me teach you something about knowing. Knowing means telling what you know from what you do not.”

Introductory Remarks    13

The Chinese can be grateful for Confucius’s prudent restriction on the scope of the term knowing. He cautions pragmatically against allowing matters of the afterlife to displace social and governmental issues. Thanks in part to Confucian influence, even today, nearly two and a half millennia after his death, Chinese political culture still emphasizes the secular and the social, and education still aims, as it did in Confucius’s time, toward social service through individual discipline more than toward personal development for individual fulfillment, not to speak of divine aspiration. Confucius kept his philosophy firmly within the bounds of education, self-awareness, ethics, social responsibility, and political organization, maintaining those boundaries by putting the gods at a remove: a ruler’s responsibility to his people (the living) comes first (the point of A6.20). The same secular focus may explain why the term tian, heaven, appears so rarely in The Analects, and why it plays so limited a role. The sacred dead are owed due respect and ceremonial service, but in the end, ritual (Li) expands in The Analects from its ancestralreligious sense to include and to emphasize the vital principle of government (also the primary meaning of Li in the Zuozhuan; see below). This is also why “filial piety” (xiao) is so important in The Analects: it binds the familial and the political, it enjoins on everyone precision and awareness with respect to every word spoken and every gesture made in all interactions at all levels of society—the ordeal of civility, after a well-known book title. Ritual in The Analects is a family affair, and centered on the order of ancestral descent, the present generation being charged with maintaining the continuity of the past through the present and toward the future. Each father upheld the teachings and practices as well as the lineage of his father and expected the same of his son. Nothing transcended the ancestral line. All authority was contained within it. In later times the sanctity of ancestral lines, above all that of the emperor, served as a decisive barrier against the Christian doctrine of a “single common father dwelling in heaven.” Indeed the entire “father”-son relationship that permeates the Gospels and culminates in a crucifixion was alien to a culture that placed such value on “filial piety,” the devotion of an idealized son to an idealized parent. Confucius restricted his focus to ethics and politics because his primary concern was social harmony, and he understood the potential

14      Introductory Remarks

for conflict over things unknown and unknowable. Though he had his own personal, possibly deistic, views about heaven or fate, he treated the world beyond this one with caution. That the key term Li encompasses both ancestral (clan) and political (governing) ritual practices, binding both to this world, is a crucial feature of The Analects. As Confucius says in A14.43, “When those in authority prefer Li, the people are easier to administer.” In the sense of administrative rule, Li serves a similar purpose to law, and it is this aspect of Li that Xunzi developed some two hundred years after Confucius’s death. In the third century BC, Xunzi modernized Li as humanely administered law, minimizing the aspect of ancestor reverence. As the Confucian tradition unfolded in the fourth and third centuries BC, something more than moral philosophy was brought into play, a new element, a kind of transcendental naturalism. One Analects passage that refers to (or marks the incipience of) transcendent matters is A5.12. Here the wealthy and influential disciple Zigong, cited for his rhetorical skills by Confucius, tells us: “It was possible to hear the Master on the traditional cultural presentations, but there was no way to hear him on human nature and the Way of heaven.” This passage actually points up issues and terms that are largely absent not only from The Analects but also from the Zuozhuan, another sixth- or fifthcentury BC work. As we have noted, The Analects is not by and large concerned either with an immanent universalism (human nature) or a transcendental process (the Way of heaven). Confucius thus would address things present and manifest, that is, cultural presentations (wenzhang), but not things invisible and speculative, that is, human nature (renxing) and the Way of heaven (tiandao). Several generations after Confucius’s time, however, human nature and the Way of heaven became focal points in the political and cosmological arguments of the main Confucian thinkers, among them Zisi, Mencius, and Xunzi. Chapters of the Li Ji (the Book of Rites) also reflect this development. For example, key words in The Analects—ren, human; Li, ritual; and zheng, law or government—are embedded in cosmic terms in the Li Ji’s chapter “Li yun” (Functions of Ritual). “Man is the mind of heaven and earth,” is one example; “government should be based on heaven,” is another. A third example: “For truly Li is based on the Grand Universal, which divides into heaven and earth, then devolves into yin and yang, transforms itself into the four seasons, and

Introductory Remarks    15

finally arrays itself as the ancestral spirits and the deities of nature.”12 These formulas mark the beginning of a departure from the Confucius of The Analects in the direction of what eventually became a kind of state religion. Back in the earthbound Analects, terms like Ren, Li, and zheng are all defined in relation to each other in a socioethical system without reference to cosmic or transcendent terms. Since the “grand universal” appears in a Guodian document (buried late fourth century BC) one should again assume that the absence of any sign of such grandiosity in The Analects is a suggestive time-marker. The Daoists too engaged in grand speculations of a cosmological variety. One might surmise that Laozi was the first trans-social and transhistorical speculative philosopher, and that Confucian transcendentalism is a counterresponse to both the critical and speculative aspects of the Daode Jing. Mencius’s theory of a single human nature, for example, may have been formulated to oppose the Daoist theory of nature, with its “ten thousand things,” and indeed the dao itself, the universal (single) mother that gave birth to creation in order to counter patriarchal authority. In comparison, the all-too-modest Analects, beyond saying that men “though similar in nature are far apart in their habits” (A17.2), does not address such subjects as human nature, the mind’s workings, or the Way of heaven. Indeed Confucius may never have gone into such issues (though he mentions them in passing) for the simple reason that they did not emerge as discourse until well after Confucius’s death, probably not until late in Zigong’s life (d. 456 BC) when he made the comment preserved in A5.12. Indeed, with reference to the dating of The Analects, one could well argue that the meaning of Zigong’s words in A5.12 is that Confucius confined himself to history, tradition, and the major texts of record before human nature and the Way of heaven arrived on the agenda of philosophical debate. Thus A5.12 may indirectly support the traditional view that the content of The Analects is largely late sixth to early fifth century BC. About heaven, Confucius spoke sparingly. Aside from its being the home of the stars, hence the dwelling place of the ancestors, the only 12.  Yang Tianyu, Li Ji yizhu (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chuban she, 1997), 373–82. “Grand universal” translates taiyi, a term of all-encompassing unity.

16      Introductory Remarks

roles Confucius allowed for heaven were as a natural force or as a kind of deistic destiny. “Fate [ming] determines death, heaven determines economic fortune” is a statement Zixia attributes to Confucius in A12.5. The statement resonates with Confucius’s outcry upon the death of Yan Hui, his favorite disciple, “Heaven has bereft me.” Then there is the sigh of resignation in A14.37, “No one recognizes me. I neither complain of heaven nor lay blame on men. Studying humbly to advance in learning, may I perhaps win recognition from heaven?” And, in A17.19 Confucius says, “Heaven does not speak; the four seasons cycle through it; all life is born from it; but whenever does it speak?” Personal or impersonal, this heaven is not integrated in any consistent way with human activity. Instead, all social outcomes are produced out of the totality of human relations and affairs—the sphere of Confucius’s concerns. The term for this totality is Li, a many-sided term that dominates The Analects and has no direct connection to heaven (tian). A detailed discussion of Li is in Appendix A. T H E HO U SE O F Z HO U, T H E Z U O Z H UA N , A N D T H E A NA L E C T S

In The Analects the concept of Li compensates for the waning authority of the royal Zhou house. Many passages in the text address the importance of the founding of the Zhou dynasty in 1046 BC and the early reigns that followed. It meant to Confucius a renewal of civilization after the breakdown of the preceding Yin-Shang dynasty as well as a model for the future (see A2.23). Another example of his regard for the Zhou dynasty is A19.22, which says that the ideals of the Zhou founders survive in the hearts of living men. This transference or transformation may remind some of the way that Kant rescued moral categories from a failing church authority and tried to reconstitute and develop them as internal capacities of the mind. Li may be understood as both dependent on yet independent of the authority of the Zhou house. Some states, Lu (Confucius’s home kingdom) for example, are cited in the Zuozhuan as archival preservers of Li, and therefore enjoy a special cultural prestige. The marker for the decline of the Zhou house is 771 BC, when King Ping was forced to move his seat of power east to the area of present-day Luoyang.

Introductory Remarks    17

The Zuozhuan, or Zuo, is a history centering on the records of twelve gong, dukes or lords, of the state of Lu, and covering the period 722–476 BC. It is said to have been compiled and edited by a disciple of Confucius, Zuo Qiuming. Hence the title, which might be translated A Narrative History Transmitted by Mr. Zuo. The narratives sometimes end with a judgment by a commentator called junzi; some scholars think this refers to Confucius. A number of the themes in the Zuozhuan and its junzi commentaries parallel those of The Analects. These annals of Zuozhuan open some fifty years after King Ping’s flight east, with the Zhou king dependent on the state of Zheng to maintain his titular authority over all the states of the realm (tianxia or all under heaven). Thus, from the very first reign period of the Zuozhuan chronicle, that of Yingong (Lord Yin), we find accounts of rebellion against the Zhou house. “The lord of Song refuses to acknowledge the royal authority of the Zhou king [Song gong buwang],” says the Zuozhuan (Yingong 9); it continues: “The lord of Zheng, who served the king as high minister under the mandate of His Highness, organized a punitive expedition against the state of Song [to punish it for disloyalty].” Under the heading of the following year, the commentator (junzi) of the Zuozhuan writes that the action of the lord of Zheng “can accordingly be called correct, for under the authority of the royal Zhou he punished a state that had failed properly to present itself [as ritual requires] at the royal court—a model of rectitude, for he sought no territory for himself ” (Yingong 10). Preserving the subordination of the lord (gong) to the king (wang) is the essence of Li here and is a central concern of The Analects. Another case, in which Li serves to resolve military conflict, is a Zuozhuan entry concerning the petty state of Xu, a satellite of Lu. Dated to the eleventh year of Lord Yin (711 BC), the chronicle says that the states of Lu, Qi, and Zheng joined forces to seize Xu, and then expelled its ruler. Afterwards, however, the lord of Zheng, instead of retaining the territory, invited back the expelled ruler “so that he can resume his offerings at the ancestral soil shrine,” that is, so that he could regain his lineage rule of the state. To Confucius the refusal to seize power or territory is a categorical imperative. The close of this narrative says, “The royal Zhou house has long ago sunk low, and with each passing day the descendants of the Zhou are losing their rightful hereditary places. The rulers of Xu can trace their

18      Introductory Remarks

ancestry all the way back to the ancient tribes of the Four Mountains. Even if Heaven is now dissatisfied with the virtue of the royal Zhou house, how can we [lower ourselves to] contend for the territory of Xu?” (Yingong 11). In this passage the lord of Zheng is praised for “preserving Li” and for “understanding Li.” The lord of Zheng has saved the face of Zhou as supreme authority, enhancing his own status as protector of the Zhou house. Despite his superior military power, Zheng’s ruler was unwilling to step forward as an independent force and forsake the traditional legitimacy he enjoyed through the Zhou. Perhaps this helps explain Confucius’s comment, “The Zhou house reflected upon the [fall of] the two eras that preceded it. How rich and splendid was its grand design [of civil order]. Thus we follow the [model] of Zhou” (A3.14). The wen, or civil order, of Zhou is another part of Zhou’s significance to Confucius. The refusal to go to war is implicit in this, for the word wen implies civil order as opposed to military force (wu). In A8.20, Confucius says, “How great was the virtue [de] of Zhou. They held two-thirds of the realm of Yin but remained in the service of Yin. This may be called the ultimate virtue, beyond any doubt.” Confucius’s reference here is to King Wen (civil order), father of King Wu (martial order). Under King Wen the Zhou reached a high level of political power, but King Wen declined to revolt against the Yin. His son, King Wu, carried out the conquest after King Wen had died. The refusal of the lord of Zheng to conquer the territory of Xu is appraised by the junzi commentator of the Zuozhuan as follows: “From this we see that the lord acts according to Li.” Thus Li, more hallowed tradition than formal law, is fulfilled when a deposed ruler is restored and can again perform the services for his ancestors. The state regains legitimacy and therefore protection, which prevents other states from seizing the territory. Ritual involves some relinquishment or yielding to the other (rang). A state that steps back from a conquest in order to safeguard the lineage continuity of a potential victim’s family services is an example of rang, though one more honored in the breach. Nonetheless, it is an ideal that the Zuozhuan expresses: “There is no greater act of Ren than to yield control of the kingdom” (Xigong, eighth year).13 Ren or humaneness is Confucius’s principal value. 13.  Cited in Luo Xinhui, “Li rang yu shan rang,” Xian Qin, Qin-Hanshi no. 2 (2003), 46.

Introductory Remarks    19

In The Analects, rang does not play a large direct role, but it is paired with Li in A4.13. Confucius says, “What cannot be accomplished when you govern with Li [ritual] and rang [yielding]? If you can’t govern with Li and rang, then why bother with Li at all?” In other words, ritual performance without meaningful concern for the interests or claims of the other, be it another state or another claimant to power, is not worth the trouble. Confucius warns that Li could in this way be debased into a hollow form of authority and hierarchy. The well-known passage A1.12, cited above, which defines harmony as the chief value of Li, can also be read in the light of the above Zuozhuan passages. Confucius was interested in the practical application of Li, that is, in resolving conflict by yielding in order to balance interests—another way to look at he, or harmony. Moreover A1.12 has the prestige of coming between two passages on ethics and family. It is preceded by a statement on filial piety and succeeded by a statement treating those devoted to duty and ritual as family members. The preceding passage, A1.11, says, “A son may be called filial if he does not alter his father’s teachings for the three years of mourning.” This is one of Confucius’s best-known statements about how to measure a son’s devotion to his father’s “Way,” or teachings and life conduct. In A1.13, the succeeding passage, Youzi seeks to anchor the social virtues in family values: “Maintain close ties both with those whose trust is bound to ethical service, for their words are dependable; and with those whose humility is bound to social forms [Li], for they will avoid shame and disgrace. Such men may even be taken as members of one’s clan.” Taken together, the three passages integrate the governance of family and state. Though unsuccessful in his own time, Confucius returned to prominence in the Han dynasty as a symbol of generational continuity and the demand for morality in politics. Founded in 202 BC, the Han dynasty lasted over four hundred years, during which time it organized China geographically, bureaucratically, and ideologically. Under unified Han rule, interstate war ended and internal regional conflict was controlled if not altogether overcome. In AD 220 the Han fell and was followed by period of division into three kingdoms, a partial regression to the Warring States period that had preceded unification. Thereafter, over the next two millennia and down to our own time, Chinese history has swung between periods of unity and of division.

20      Introductory Remarks

The opening lines of the mid-Ming novel Three Kingdoms alert the reader to this pattern: the empire, long united, must divide; long divided, it must unite. A similar idea is expressed earlier, at the end of the Mencius: order and disorder—one after the other. The Republican revolution of 1911–1912 ended the long history of dynastic rule. In the period 1912–1949, China was again thrown into division and civil war, which opened it to brutal foreign intervention. The nation was again reunited in 1949 and has remained vigilantly so to this day. As for political leadership, it no longer involves hereditary claims but rather an appointment practice called meritocracy. The outcome of the Vietnam wars (1945–1975) ended Washington’s wars in Asia, and China emerged from its national security crises of the period 1950–1972. It was not long before Confucius reclaimed his position in China as an icon both of education for social service and of domestic normalization, as well as a figure of outreach to the diasporic Chinese communities. And there he remains today, part of the pantheon of leaders, together with Mao Zedong and Sun Yat-sen. Further discussion of these and other issues may be found in Appendix A.

Book One Learning pursued . . .

A1.1 Our Master [Confucius] said, “Learning pursued persistently and applied when timely—is that not inspiring? And the gathering of friends coming from afar—is that not occasion for song and celebration? But to remain unprovoked though unrecognized by others, now that is truly princely—wouldn’t you agree?” Three questions open the text; they cover the main concerns of the whole: learning, fellowship, public political careers. The sober warning of the third question diverges from the enthusiasm of the first two. Devoted to poetry, history, and ritual formalities, both learning and reunions with the community of kindred spirits are essential for developing intellect and character as well as for seeking government positions in any of the dozens of minor, clan-ruled dukedoms. Such a career however depends ultimately on suiting the preferences of those with the power to make appointments. The first definition of the true prince (junzi), the protagonist of The Analects, is that he is able to endure rejection gracefully; Confucius warns repeatedly about the risk of rejection that honorable service in government entails. This warning culminates in book 18, which recalls the plight of a series of historic ministers who stood up to their rulers. Recognition is the basis for a successful political career. It is the responsibility of aspirants to prepare themselves morally and intellectually and to prove themselves worthy, and that of those with power to recognize and appoint those they deem worthy. Confucius rarely 21

22      Book 1

mentions fate or fortune as a factor in these calculations because that would weaken his emphasis on personal responsibility. Emphasis on internal integrity and exclusion of external factors are consistent themes holding The Analects together. Other political thinkers, Mozi for example, who advocates material incentives for recruiting officials, put more emphasis on external factors. Xi, or improving through habitual application, translated here “pursued persistently and applied when timely,” is about study and includes the idea of practice. This is made clear if we check 1.1 against 1.4, 1.7, and 1.14, which establish the two branches of learning: character and intellect. For this reason the translation here combines the two senses of xi: constant practice and timely application, taking the hint from the first book of the Xunzi: “Learning begins with recitation of the main texts and ends with the practice of ritual.” It may be supposed that in 1.1 Confucius addresses a group of his students who are preparing to seek office upon completing their studies in his graduate school of political management. The ideal type Confucius puts before them is the “true prince,” or ruler’s son (junzi). See 13.5 for a companion passage. Expressing himself succinctly and unwilling to assert his views too strongly, Confucius speaks in the interrogative not the declarative mood. At this time, ca. 500 BC, twenty-one years before Confucius’s death, the Chinese cultural world was shaped by the political patchwork of small states—dukedoms or statelets—each administered by a ruling clan. Only gradually through constant warfare did the dozens of small states begin to be reorganized into larger ones, until seven sizable states remained by the middle of the third century BC. The final step came a generation later, in 221 BC, when one state, the Qin, conquered the others and created a geographically and bureaucratically unified imperium, essentially historical China. Comparatively, one might think of Bismarck’s reorganization of the many small German duchies as the background of Germany’s unification and modernization. In Confucius’s time, as statelets began transitioning to states, the resulting expansion and complication of governmental functions required technical and managerial expertise in various fields, hence his “graduate school.” As clan rule proved too limited, rulers needed to recruit experts from other states and from lower levels of society, far beyond the narrow circle of family members. To train such experts required educa-

Book 1    23

tion, the field in which Confucius excelled. Education however engendered sophistry and opportunism, which Confucius, like Socrates, opposed. Both had a rigorous commitment to an intellectual ethic and vigorously opposed affectation and artificiality, as 1.3 attests. Notably, this opening passage contains the word “afar” (yuan) and says nothing about family, except insofar as the zi within junzi may mean either a son or an expert. The junzi may thus be defined as filial experts or pseudo-sons who serve the ruler (jun) as they would their actual father, but never presume to replace him—they are his virtual heirs by dint of their virtues and skills rather than bloodright. This is why “son” or “prince” translates the term more closely than “man.” Interference in hereditary succession is not what Confucius is working toward, however; rather, he wants the junzi advisors to reinforce family rule, protect the succession, and respect the hierarchy of lineage authority. This approach is opposed by, for example, Mozi who, like Socrates, wants family and state separated and does not advocate for hereditary succession. In the Zuozhuan, the entry for the seventh year of Lord Zhao lists a hierarchy of authorities: it begins with the Zhou king (wang), who commands obedience from the lords (gong, often rendered “dukes”), who in turn command obedience from their chief ministers (daifu), who in turn expect and enforce obedience from the government servants (shi). Significantly, the junzi is not on this chain of command. Mozi calls for rulers to replace family members with expert outsiders, whom he calls xianren, or worthy elites, avoiding applying the term junzi to the ideal government servant. The word for money appears at the bottom of the graph for xian, below the word for servant. Mozi’s worthies are men of ability whose loyal service is secured by material reward and high status, not by the junzi ethos of principled commitment indifferent to reward (4.16). Uniquely, in this opening passage junzi does not refer to a person or type but to a set of qualities or values, that is, about the way to be “truly princely,” a definition carried through the whole text. The word “afar” suggests that family in the narrow sense is not necessarily part of the junzi community or the quest for office. Family is central in the next passage. A1.2 Master You [Youzi] said, “Those whose conduct is devoted to serving their parents and elder brothers are rarely tempted to

24      Book 1

defy authority, and those rarely tempted to defy authority have never been known to disrupt social order. The true prince concentrates on these fundamentals, which, like a firmly planted tree, give life to our teaching, our ideals (dao). Filial and fraternal service—are they not then the very foundation of the humanity that embraces humankind as family (Ren)?, The combination of filial and fraternal relations recalls the opening of the Zuozhuan, which features a fraternal conflict over succession in the state of Zheng in 722 BC, followed by a reconciliation of son and mother. Confucius is represented in the Zuozhuan on a number of occasions, urging the subordination of ministers to rulers; this connection to the Zuozhuan is barely touched on in The Analects. The Analects emphasizes both branches of his teaching—learning and service—with a slight preference for the former, which may explain why the editors made “learning” the first word ascribed to Confucius. Appointment is in the hands of others, but learning, which includes self-discipline and character building, is fully in one’s own. Based on family values, this passage completes the opening diptych, contrasting the junzi who is steadfast in principle with the junzi who is compliant with authority. The junzi here is no longer a potentially tragic figure but rather exemplifies one of the basic teachings of the school: extending family values to all humanity. Ren is the cardinal value term of the entire text, phonetically identical with ren, the word for humans or others (upright walkers) that appears in the preceding passage. The graph for Ren consists of ren plus two parallel horizontal lines indicating either the number two (for other) or duplication of the graph (for the modern “everyone,” or the terms man-and-man, or man’s relation to others). The ren in 1.1 is the word for human in general and the only word in the text that is socially neutral, having no reference to any social or political role (ruler, minister, father, son, brother, etc.). The word is an appropriate basis for Ren, the love of mankind in general, transcending family, thus echoing yuan, afar, in 1.1. The human ren at the end of 1.1 anticipates the humanitarian Ren at the end of 1.2, linking the two opening passages; repetition of junzi similarly knits the two passages together. The compound “true prince” (junzi) combines state (jun, or ruler) and family (zi, or son), a central

Book 1    25

Analects theme, while the concept of fraternal devotion as the counterpart to filial service has a much smaller role in the text, though the word for disciples, di, is the same as the word for younger brother. Another possible translation of Ren as a universal expansion of family values would be “family of man,” the title of the famous American photography exhibit of the 1950s. A1.3 Confucius said, “An imposing appearance and beguiling speech rarely go with humane ideals (Ren).” The sophists of Confucius’s time were called youshui, or traveling advocates; they taught students and sought to influence rulers. Confucius too teaches on the political level (service in government) and the personal level (learning, relations with others). Kant in a somewhat similar way distinguished public and private discourse. A1.4 Master Zeng [Zengzi] said, “Each day I subject myself to unsparing questioning on three points: In consulting on others’ behalf have I failed to serve their interests with undeviating commitment? In dealing with equals and friends have I failed to keep good faith? Have I been remiss in improving my study of the legacies of our forefathers?” In the real world of social interactions, the study of tradition and teachings is relegated to third place. Zengzi, who was forty-six years younger than Confucius, has an important role in the text. Some scholars see him as a main editor of The Analects, possibly jointly with Youzi (You Ruo). Could this be why Zengzi and Youzi are only figures who have the honorary zi particle after their names (like Confucius himself, Kongzi), and why they speak right beside Confucius, that is, in 1.2 and 1.4, as if seated on either side of the master at the head table? According to the Mencius (3.1.4), Zengzi had some kind of conflict with Youzi immediately after Confucius died: Zengzi refused, despite pressure, to acknowledge Youzi as the successor to Confucius. 1.4 contrasts with 1.2 however. In 1.2 the family as a training ground for obedience to political authority is made the basis for Confucius’s highest ideal. In 1.4 the principles of ethics come not from family but from self, from rigorous self-reflection and criticism, anticipating Mencius’s emphasis on the inner self. The word zhong, “undeviating

26      Book 1

commitment,” mainly refers to relationships, but in other passages means loyalty to the ruler, as it always did in the imperial era, when state and family combined in dynastic rule. In this latter sense the word was joined with filial devotion and placed first, as zhong-xiao, an authoritarian compound that Confucius might not have appreciated. The graph for zhong, showing “center” over “mind”, is an archery metaphor: to strike the target’s center is to have true aim. The graph for xiao has “child” beneath and supporting “elder.” A1.5 Confucius said, “Leaders of a medium-sized country of a thousand war-chariots should conduct military action [shi] and ancestral service only after conscientious observance [jing] of the ritual forms. This will maintain confidence in their leadership by apportioning their material resources and husbanding their human resources, and most importantly by tasking the people according to the seasonal cycle.” Prospective military campaigns were first proposed to ancestors in the temple. The word shi (action to be taken, affairs) should probably be understood in relation to the opening sentence rather than independently of it. Jing, respect, which often means observance of ritual forms, is related to jing, frighten. A1.6 Confucius said, “Within the family our students should render filial service; in the outside world they should treat each man as an older brother. They should speak prudently and be reliable, look kindly on all but treat the humane as kinsmen, and apply whatever energy is left to studying texts.” This passage shows that, however important, book learning must take second place to ethical self-improvement, an injunction elaborated in 1.7. Ti (the graph for which consists of “mind” alongside “younger brother”) widens the concept of brotherhood to include those outside the family (“treat each man as an older brother). “Mind-and-heart” (xin) is often used to indicate an ideal or aspiration, such as when di, “younger brother” (a status), rises to ti, “love of elder brother” (a value). An early graph for Ren includes xin, below shen (self, person). These prescriptions seem too detailed and demanding to apply to young persons in general rather than to students under his tutelage.

Book 1    27

A1.7 Zixia said, “Whoever recognizes the worthy as worthy rather than the semblance thereof; whoever can serve his parents unstintingly and his ruler giving all; whoever deals with friends and colleagues so they never doubt his word—I must call such a man learned, even if some say he is ‘not yet learned.’ ” Zixia is known among the disciples for erudition. He is placed in the text beside Confucius. Curiously, translators favor “beauty” rather than “semblance” for se, but here and elsewhere the text explicitly contrasts se to de, or virtue, warning his fellow disciples not to mistake what seems for what is. Regarding the use of zi (son, child) preceding a style or a complimentary name (zi under radical 40): zi is an honorific, comparable to The Sons of Liberty or the later “Honorable Sir.” “Young Master” is another possible translation. Read literally, the characters zi and xia mean honored son to xia (or traditional texts and cultures); Zigong literally means honored son to gong (wealth, tribute) and, hence, value-contributor. The lu of Zilu means road, and he traveled with Confucius. When zi instead follows the family name— Kongzi, Zengzi, for example—it is translated as “Master”: Master Kong, Master Zeng. Zi alone always means Confucius, the Master. Not all names are semantically transparent. A1.8 Confucius said, “If the true prince fails to take serious matters seriously he will not make his authority felt nor in learning will he be steadfast. Let commitment and reliability govern his conduct, avoiding friendships with those unworthy of him and never holding back from correcting a misstep. A1.9 Master Zeng [Zengzi] said, “Think hard about final outcomes, where things end up; bring back among you things far away; thus you can restore public morality to its former strength and fullness.” Zhui, translated here as “bring back,” is related to gui (go home, come home, or bring home), being based on the same phonetic. A1.10 Ziqin asked Zigong: “When our master arrives in a given state, they make sure to inform him about government affairs. Does he solicit the information or do they furnish it?” Zigong replied, “Our master is gentle, benign, and self-effacing; he

28      Book 1

requires little for himself and readily concedes priority to others. This is how he ‘solicits’ information, so unlike the way others seek it—wouldn’t you agree?” In this period of inter-dukedom conflict (as throughout history) sensitive governmental information was rarely shared with outsiders. That any ruler would confide in Confucius by sharing confidential information shows how trustworthy he was thought to be, and also his lack of perceived loyalty to any particular dukedom or ruler. Confucius was an internationalist politically as he was a humanitarian morally. Zigong was one of the few “inner” disciples to outlive Confucius, and thus may have had a role in compiling and editing the material in the Lunyu. The five qualities that Zigong attributes here to Confucius could be identified with Li, as ritual or ceremonial formalities. However, this all-important term does not appear until 1.12. Zigong was primarily interested in government service, diplomacy, and commerce, unlike Zixia and Yan Hui, who were scholars. The common phrase “scholar official” expresses Confucius’s commitment to both career paths, but whoever edited the Lunyu made sure that learning (xue) was the opening word attributed to him, a gesture to Confucius’s priorities after he gave up on government service. A1.11 The Master said, “Observe well the direction of a man’s thinking while his father lives, and his conduct when his father is no longer alive. And if for a goodly period of time he stays true to his father’s way of life, then we may call him a filial son.” A1.12 Youzi said, “No effect of formal ceremony [Li] is of greater value than harmony; it was the finest of the ways of the worthy kings of old—followed in matters both great and small. But where ceremonial harmony cannot be reached, harmony alone, merely verbally acknowledged, will indeed fail, for want of the adjustments and reconciliations that ritual can effect.” This is the first appearance of the all-important term Li—ceremonial formalities, tradition, ritual forms, diplomatic negotiation. It is a complex term; its graph has “sacred” on the left and a ritual vessel on the right, a metonym for hierarchical order in both the social and the political spheres, with an aesthetic connotation (the artwork of the

Book 1    29

vessel). Here it is introduced not only as a form of history, a tradition of the ancient dynasties, as in 2.23, but also as a form of behavior, as in 8.2. This passage links living men to their ancient cultural, not personal, ancestors. There are passages where the word “religion” more or less captures the meaning of Li. And yet, much as religion seems like a functional equivalent, the meaning of Li is wholly secular; constitutional law may be a better analogy. Despite its importance, Li is an instrumental term often dependent on realizing something else of value, here harmony; see 3.3 and 3.8. In The Book of Lord Shang, containing writings of the mid-fourth century BC, Li is paired with fa, or law, suggesting the division of the social and the political, in other words the transition from the smaller to the larger state. That fa appears only once in the Lunyu may put the dating of the whole Lunyu text before the mid-fourth century. According to the Zuozhuan: “Li serves to control state and clan, to stabilize the ancestral soil-shrine, to organize the population, and to protect the interests of the successor to the reigning ruler” (Lord Yin, year 11, 712 BC). A1.13 Youzi said, “Provided mutual trust stays within the bounds of honor, what is promised should be fulfilled. Keeping modesty within the bounds of ceremonial formality will keep shame and disgrace away. Accordingly, do not fail to keep the right persons close as kinsmen, indeed as if part of one large ancestral family.” Youzi in 1.2 speaks of family values as the basis for love of mankind. Enlarging the boundaries of the family is again touched on here, as it is in 12.5. In 8.2 Confucius shows how Li, or ritual, transforms negative behaviors into virtues. In this passage, he warns that without the discipline of Li, trust might be placed in a bad cause and modesty might become a hypocritical show. A1.14 The Master said, “The true prince, for his food, seeks no fine cuisine, and for his dwelling no ease and comfort. Apt and alert in his work, cautious with his words, he bonds with those on the right path and corrects himself against their example.” A1.15 Young Master Gong [Zigong] asked Confucius, “What do you think of one who despite poverty does not stoop to flatter and one who despite wealth does not lord it over others?” Confucius

30      Book 1

replied: “Well and good, but even better, the cheerful soul despite poverty and the lover of ritual despite wealth.” Zigong continued: “So the song goes: ‘Now we cut the ore of jade, now we scrape it, now we grind it, and now we hone it.’ Don’t these lines mean just this?” Then the Master said: “Our Si [Zigong] here, you know, is surely one with whom I can begin discussing the meaning of our ancient Songs. Offer him a thought and he knows how to respond and enhance it!” The prominence of The Book of Songs (Shijing) in the Lunyu is an implicit homage to the early Zhou era. A single personal name, here Si for Zigong, is often used in direct address within the fellowship, which is a “family.” Confucius calls himself Qiu on occasion. Si means donation reflecting the gong (tribute, wealth) in his professional name A1.16 The Master said, “It’s no problem if others know you not, but it is one if you do not know others.”

Book Two Exerting political authority . . .

A2.1 Confucius said, “When the ruler exerts his political authority with virtue he may be likened to the North Star, whose fixed position hosts the stars encircling it, honored to serve.” The virtuous ruler need not move, for he naturally attracts able ministers and followers; they come to him, sometimes drawn from afar. His position is north; he faces south, while those who serve him or present themselves to him face north. The sky is where the illustrious dead take up residence as stars or planets, the better to keep an eye on the world left behind. As the word for soul (hun) suggests, the graph of which is “cloud” placed to the left of “ghost,” lesser mortals must be content with lower and less permanent positions as clouds. This is the first use of de, or virtue, a word that has political and moral aspects. It has also been translated “power,” “potency,” and “excellence,” but “virtue” is a good translation if understood in light of the Latin stem vir, meaning man or male, the core of words like virus, virile, virulent. Medieval herbals speak of the vertu of certain plants, their medicinal efficacy. Confucius rarely connects virtue and heaven because he concentrates on social ethics, political responsibility, and history, reluctant to go beyond the human world’s boundaries. Here he references the early Zhou political theory that heaven mandates the rule of the virtuous, as in Ode 267, somewhat like the Hebrew prophets who summoned a covenantal past to criticize a present in which the covenant had lapsed. 31

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Just as 1.1 emphasizes learning and 1.2 government service, so book 1 and book 2 are titled with those opening words xue (learning) and zheng (political rule, administration), translated here as “political authority.” The text’s editors seem intent on linking Confucius’s twin projects, teaching and government. A2.2 Confucius said, “The Songs number three hundred but a single phrase applies to them all: they clear the mind of errant thoughts.” The Book of Songs (Shijing), already referenced in 1.15, was a gateway to the fundamentals of Confucian thought. Originally a diverse collection of lyrics on love, marriage, ritual, and history (including narratives of the great founding kings), The Songs were reinterpreted by Confucians to convey moral messages; they attributed this reinterpretation to Confucius. As a trove of lessons, citing The Songs may serve to emphasize a point already made, in the manner of “as the Bible says . . .” A2.3 Confucius said, “Led by strict rule and kept in order by punishments, a people will only evade them and by so doing lose the inner voice of conscience. But led with virtue and kept in order by the ritual formalities, they will keep their conscience and maintain discipline all the same.” Legge translates zheng (“strict rule,” political authority, administration) as law. The graph means to correct others; law is a valid translation here, but the usual term for law, fa, is hardly used in The Analects and became an important term only later as larger state structures formed and the unification of China (221 BC) approached. Zheng’s antithesis here is Li (ritual formality). What is the issue? The mind is the key to social order and motive governs the mind. Outward behavior is controlled from within. Accordingly, models of virtue combine with socialization through formal clan and communal rituals to internalize ethical thinking. The opposite is also true: if social order is imposed by strict measures and corporal punishments, this will only stunt the development of the ethical mind, the internalizing of values. Because they are external, positive material incentives, no less than harsh measures, will have this negative effect. Inhibition is more effective than prohibition in maintaining personal responsibility. In mod-

Book Two    33

ern terms Confucius is an antibehaviorist according to the definitions of the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner and his school. Mozi is a strict behaviorist and influences Xunzi, while Mencius opposes Mozi’s ideas. This important passage on government is also found in the Guodian manuscript Ziyi (Black Clothing), slightly enlarged. It has the verb jiao (teach) instead of the verb dao (lead). It ends with reinforcing quotes from both The Book of Songs and The Book of Documents; the Analects editors tended to prefer lines from The Songs. A2.4 Confucius said, “By age fifteen my heart was set on learning; I stood straight and tall and on my own by my thirties, and by my forties had freed myself of uncertainties; in my fifties I was resigned to what heaven had ordained for me and for my time; by my sixties my ear was attuned to the inner voice behind whatever was said; by seventy I was following whatever my heart desired without crossing the bounds of propriety.” There is no little modesty in the brevity of this autobiography, which ends on a whimsical note of relief that the elderly are unlikely to have the energy to get into much trouble and so can do what suits them. Confucius expresses a sense of optimism up to his fifties (ca. 500 BC), when he left his position in Lu and began traveling from state to state for fourteen years, hoping to find a reform-minded ruler. Then follows a transition from resignation to improved judgment, and finally a few years, on returning to Lu, of simple living and scholarship. He received no further appointment in his home state and died at seventy-three in 479 BC, two of his best disciples and a son having predeceased him. One of the Analect’s two occurrences of tianming, or mandate of heaven (“what heaven had ordained”), is used here to mean his individual fate but also his failure to find a virtuous ruler in his travels or in his own dukedom, Lu. See 16.8 for the second occurrence. A2.5 Meng Yizi of the Mengsun clan asked Confucius about filial service. “Let there be no deviation,” was the reply. Once when riding in a chariot, Confucius told the driver, Fan Chi, “Mengsun asked about filial service, and I replied, ‘Let there be no deviation.’ ” Fan Chi replied, “What does that mean?” Confucius said, “In life, serve parents according to the proper

34      Book Two

formalities. When they have died, inter them and honor them with sacrificial services according to the proper formalities.” Xiao, or filial service, often translated filial piety, is a lifelong commitment to serve, remember, and honor; it is a principle of generational continuity. The key term Li is a way of maintaining family tradition and extending it into the future. Here Confucius is speaking of one of the three ministerial clans, the Mengsun, of the dukedom of Lu. Legend has it that the Mengsun clan arranged Confucius’s journey to the Zhou capital at Luoyang to read ritual texts; Confucius’s concern is that the family rituals accord with ministerial status and presume nothing higher. In book 3, Confucius criticizes the third and most powerful ministerial clan of Lu, the Jisun, for allowing a royal ceremony in its own honor, a usurpation that Confucius sees as a cause of disorder. Thus “deviation” here means deviation from ritual hierarchical norms and loyalty to the lord of Lu. Of the three Huan clans, the Jisun dominated the government; they rose to power in 660 when Ji You ensured Lord Xi’s accession to the lordship of Lu. Confucius’s ties to the third and weakest Mengsun clan were very close and they probably knew the circumstances of his paternity. The Shusun was the second clan. The rise of the Jisun clan goes back to the murder of Lord Zhuang of Lu, son of Lord Huan, in 662 BC. In 660 the Jisun crushed the revolt of Zhuang’s brother Qingfu, the virtual Macbeth of Lu and installed Lord Xi, brother of Lord Min, who had ruled since Lord Zhuang’s death. Qingfu was the eldest of Lord Huan’s sons, that is, the meng. In collusion with the state of Qi and a wife of the late Lord Zhuang, Qingfu had tried to usurp the throne, committing regicide and causing his rivals to flee to safety. The Qi rulers also helped the Jisun leader, Ji You, confirming his position as clan leader, stabilizer of the rule of Lord Xi (660–627), and founder of the Jisun line of descendants (sun). Orderly succession prevents such intralineal violence and is one of the main reasons Li is so important to Confucius. In 2.3, Li refers to a mode of governing. Elsewhere Li refers to the manner of serving a ruler. At the end of book 2, Li refers to multigenerational historical traditions; it is a form or sublimation or idealization of history, not a complete picture such as the Zuozhuan provides.

Book Two    35

Hence Li has many semantic aspects and its translations range from “proper formalities,” to “rules of propriety,” to “etiquette,” to “ritual,” to “ceremonies,” to “traditions,” et cetera. There is at this time (~500 BC) no single, unified China such as was created by the Qin monarchy in 221 BC, only a cultural-linguistic area broader than any single state or group of states. However, some of Confucius’s concepts, such as Ren, have universal implications and prophetically recognize a common humanity that extends beyond individual states. A2.6 When Meng Wubo asked about serving his parents, Confucius replied, “Let illness be the only worry.” Whose illness? Traditional comments divide: some say it’s a parent’s illness, others the child’s. Possibly Confucius left it ambiguous. Meng Wubo is the son of Meng Yizi, who appears in 2.4. A2.7 Ziyou asked about serving one’s parents and Confucius said, “Nowadays it means their care and feeding; since we do no less for dogs and horses, then without the show of respect what is the difference?” A2.8 Zixia asked about filial devotion and Confucius said, “Presentation is the hard part. When there is work the young assume the burden, when there is wine and food the elders partake first. You think that’s all there is to it?” Caring for parents must first and foremost respect their psychological dignity; providing for their physical needs is secondary and routine. A2.9 Confucius said, “I spent a whole day conversing with Yan Hui [Ziyuan, Yan Yuan]; like a simpleton he contradicted nothing I’d said, but after we had parted I looked into how he acted on his own and found him quite capable of expanding on my words. Our Hui here is no simpleton.” Hui is the personal name of Ziyuan or Yan Yuan. Yuan means origin, source, and Hui means returning to an origin. He was Confucius’s favorite, a virtual son, and having no political ambition, devoted himself only to his studies. This is his first of more than twenty appearances in The Analects; his last is in Book 15.

36      Book Two

A2.10 Confucius said, “Observe his whys and wherefores, consider where he is coming from, check out where he comes down—where can the man hide? Where? I ask you.” A2.11 Confucius said, “Stay up to date, keep the past alive and warm—that will do for teaching.” A2.12 Confucius said: “The true prince will neither serve nor use another as an instrument.” A2.13 Zigong asked about the true prince. Confucius replied, “Act first on your words, and then they should be followed up on.” Noted for his eloquence, Zigong was given to overstatement (see book 19); Confucius calls attention to this failing. A2.14 Confucius said, “The true prince moves in a wide circle, lesser men side with their own.” The famed Southern Song scholar Zhu Xi commented that 2.12 ties into this passage as follows: unlike an instrument that has a single use the junzi is adaptable and can handle a variety of situations, while the small-minded (or lesser men) are limited to working among their own. The metaphor is geometric: a circle for the true prince versus parallel lines for lesser men. The same idea is expressed later as harmony (he) versus sameness (tong). A2.15 Confucius said, “Learning without reflection—wasted effort; reflection without learning—fruitless.” Miscarriage is the actual metaphor translated here as “fruitless.” A2.16 Confucius said, “To dedicate effort and talent to the perverse doctrines now springing up will surely bring great harm.” In 4.15 Confucius says a single thread ties together all aspects of his teaching. This thread draws together the past with the present but excludes doctrines such as Mozi’s separation of jia and guo, family and state, or Laozi’s condemnation of ritual and history in the name of a dao that transcends the human or social world. Confucius styles himself a follower of the Zhou royal house, the dynasty of a hallowed ritualized past, a remote ideal that has declined but is not entirely lost and thus remains recoverable.

Book Two    37

A2.17 Confucius said, “My good You [Zilu], if I may instruct you regarding knowledge: it means telling what you know from what you don’t.” Confucius has moments of impatience with Zilu, though they are very close. His personal name, You, meaning “follow from,” reflects his formal name, Lu, meaning “road.” He has over forty appearances in the text ranging from Book 2 to Book 18. A2.18 Zizhang’s studies aimed at a government appointment. Confucius advised him: “Get much information, reserve judgment on whatever seems doubtful, and cautiously address all else; this should minimize complaints. Observe widely; reserve judgment on something likely to fail and act cautiously on all else; that should minimize regrets. Between minimizing complaints and minimizing regrets you should be able to find employment.” Confucius anticipates that Zizhang’s tendencies will evoke criticism. He wants his students to be successful when appointed to office, only in extreme necessity sacrificing themselves on principle. The zhang of in Zizhang’s name means enlarge or senior; his personal name, Shi, means teacher. He has twenty appearances in the text from Book 2 to Book 20. A2.19 Lord Ai of the dukedom of Lu asked: “What should I do to make my people submit to my authority?” Confucius replied, “Raise up men of integrity to check the wrongdoers and then your people will submit. Raise up wrongdoers to check men of integrity, and they will not.” A healthy social hierarchy depends not on law but on examples of integrity for people to look up to and trust. A2.20 Ji Kangzi asked: “How can I make the people respectful and motivate them to be loyal?” Confucius replied, “Oversee the people with strong authority and they will respect it; show devotion to parents and kindness to the young and they will be loyal. Raise up the good and worthy and instruct those lacking ability, and they will be motivated.”

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This passage emphasizes the close interrelation between family values and government. Ji Kangzi was a leading member of the dominant Jisun clan. A2.21 Someone was asking: “Why does not the Master take office?” Confucius said, “According to The Book of Documents, ‘The service of parents above all, and then close friendship among brothers influence office-holders.’ So if these two things are part of governing, do I need to enter office? A2.22 Confucius said, “When all trust is gone, who can tell what men might do? Without the crossbar and the yoke, how can one get the oxcart or the horse-drawn carriage to go forward?” Social cohesion is impossible when all trust is gone, leaving only external means of imposing discipline, such as beasts of burden require. A2.23 Zizhang asked, “Can the future be known even at a remove of ten generations?” Confucius replied, “The Yin house was founded on the ceremonial traditions [Li] of the Xia, its predecessor, and amended them in ways known to us. Our own Zhou house was founded on the ceremonial traditions of the Yin, its predecessor, amended in ways known to us. And should some other house filially succeed our Zhou, the future can still be known even at a remove of one hundred generations.” The key to this passage is the word ji (fourth tone—continue, follow, succeed). It is a special term for the son who succeeds the father, in contrast to the word ji (second tone), for fraternal succession. Generational continuity of traditions depends on fidelity to the ancestral houses. Here Li means a form of history rather than the forms of civilized relations among the elite and with the ruled. One might translate Li as traditions of civilization. Confucius wittily answers a question about the remote future by pointing to the remoter past, but only goes as far back as the Xia, the start of hereditary succession, not farther to the time of the legendary Yao and Shun. A2.24 Confucius said, “To perform sacrificial service to ancestors not one’s own debases the ritual. In the presence of what is right and just, failing to act is cowardice.”

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The Zuozhuan for Lord Xi, years 10 and 31 (658, 626 BC), has two similar entries: “The spirits on high will refuse to savor the sacred fumes rising from the offerings of unrelated worshippers” and “The people do not perform services to an unrelated clan.” In modern times a citizen of one country owes no allegiance to another.

Book Three Eight rows of dancers . . .

A3.1 Regarding the Jisun clan, Confucius said, “If they will not refrain from staging eight rows of eight dancers in the court, then to what lengths would they not go? Sixty-four dancers is the ritual standard for the presentation honoring the Zhou king (wang) and his ancestors; the king was also called tianzi, the Zhou son of heaven. Lord Hui of Lu (768–723 BC) had begun the practice of staging the performance without royal authorization after the Zhou king had been driven east to Luoyang in 771 BC. The move had left Lu’s authorization in abeyance, and the western state of Qin had first appropriated it. For the ministerial Jisun clan to stage the dances, rightfully the prerogative of the lord of Lu, is a further travesty. The Jisun were at two removes from the Zhou court, having already usurped power from their superior, the lord of Lu, with the inauguration of Lord Xi (659 BC). The Zuozhuan takes a different view. In the thirty-second and last year of Lord Zhao’s tenure (510 BC), the Zuozhuan quotes historian Shi Mo, who gives the Jisun clan credit for continuity and stability in Lu, the lords having failed for generations. Shi Mo argues that the inversion of ruler-lord (wang-gong) authority, which Confucius opposes in The Analects, is common in history and nature, accords with The Book of Changes and a song from The Book of Songs, and thus is justified. Confucius refers to the putative Zuozhuan editor, Zuo Qiuming, in 5.24. 40

Book Three    41

In The Analects, Confucius condemns the inferior superseding the superior and any disturbance of hierarchies, beginning with father and son, ruler and minister (12.11), and elder and junior brother, for these roles are the foundation stones of social order. A3.2 To the chanting of the hymn “Yong,” the Three Houses led the recessional as the sacrificial vessels were removed from the ancestral hall. Quoting from the hymn: “The high lords attend the son of heaven in all his solemn dignity,” Confucius asked, “How can they appropriate these words in the hall of the Three Houses?” Yong means ample and harmonious; the hymn referenced is Book of Songs 292. This is another critique of the Jisun clan’s usurping the son of heaven’s ritual prerogatives, this time with the collaboration of the lesser Mengsun and Shusun clans. A3.3 Confucius said, “What do those without humanity have to do with sacred rituals and accompanying performances of music and dance?” Referring implicitly to 2.24, 3.1, and 3.2, this passage expresses outrage at those who debase the traditional liturgical formalities, performed in the ancestral hall. Note that Li, the protocols of hierarchy, and yue, the aesthetics of ceremony, often form a compound term, Liyue (“sacred rituals and accompanying performances of music and dance”), and always appear in that order: the discipline of a stratified social order should be followed by the harmony of the whole community audience, expressed through musical performance (voices, instruments, dance). On a more general level both protocols and aesthetics are empty formalities without some moral content. A3.4 Lin Fang [a man of Lu] asked: “What is the main thing in ritual?” Confucius replied, “A great question! For rituals, modesty rather than extravagance, and for funerals, expressing grief rather than maintaining composure [yi].” Though “ceremony” is typically chosen to translate yi, it seems to me that this passage calls for the emotional antithesis of fully expressed, even exaggerated, grief, thus following one early commentator who suggests that he, harmony, should be substituted for yi.

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A3.5 Confucius said, “The uncultured tribes even with a ruler do not approach the standard of our cultured states even without one.” The graphs for yi and di, “uncultured tribes,” each contain a dog. The boundary between human and animal, social and biological, is as central to Confucian thought as erasing it is central to Daoist thought. The term for “cultured states” is zhuxia, and their people are the various xia-nese or proto-Chinese, all of them descendants within the Zhou realm of the Xia dynasty a millennium earlier (2.23). The word xia is still used today as a reference to Chinese culture, sometimes combined with hua (flowering), in the compound huaxia. Hua, not guo (state or statelet), is used in the name of China, suggesting a cultural rather than a territorial domain. The graph for hua suggests horticulture, while that of guo suggests defended boundaries. The point of this passage seems to be that the cultural level of the proto-Chinese areas is high enough that order will be maintained there even without a ruling authority’s guidance. There is also an implication that the dukedom of Lu might be better off without rulers like the Jisun clan. A3.6 About the Jisun pilgrimage to Tai Mountain, Confucius said to Ran You, “And you can do nothing to stop it?” He replied, “I cannot.” And Confucius cried woefully, “Will it be said that the gods and spirits of the mountain have lower standards than Lin Fang!?” An ordinary person like Lin Fang takes this important ceremony seriously. Confucius’s unspoken implication may be that Ran Qiu (here called Ran You) should resign from his office as chief steward of the Jisun house. A3.7 Confucius said, “True princes never have occasion to compete, but if they must do so, might not archery be a better way? With raised hands respectfully joined, mutually yielding priority, each competitor ascends the platform, afterward stepping down to share the proffered wine cup. How truly princely it is to compete this way.” A3.8 Zixia questioned Confucius, “What do these lines from the song mean? ‘Oh maiden of beguiling smiles! And darkened eyes

Book Three    43

a-glancing! Delicate hues color the surface.’ ” Confucius replied, “Lastly, they paint upon a plain surface.” Zixia then asked, “Ritual ceremonies come last then?” Confucius continued, “Our Shang [Zixia] here catches my point; now we have begun to discuss The Songs!” If ritual is last, what comes before it? To what does the plain ground or surface refer? The skin (or foundation) underneath the cosmetic? Human nature itself, which must be beautified through education? These lines are not in the received version of The Songs. A3.9 Confucius said, “We can talk about the ceremonial formalities of the Xia though its descendent dukedom of Ji does not represent them well enough. We can talk about the ceremonial formalities of the Yin although its descendent dukedom of Song does not represent them well enough either. So much of the canonical record is missing. Otherwise, we could better verify them.” Confucius’s own ancestry goes back to the dukedom of Song, a remnant of the Yin ruling house, whose lineage name was Zi (another meaning of this graph, after “child,” “master,” and “expert”). Confucius’s surname, Kong, also goes back to the dukedom, deriving from a member of the Song ruling family, Kongfu Jia (note the enclitic fu, meaning senior male, father, or sire), rather than from his putative father, Shu Lianghe. The Shiji life of Confucius says that he gathered many new disciples on returning to Lu from his trip to Luoyang, the Zhou capital, where a great repository of documents was housed. A3.10 Confucius said, “Once the libation has been offered I will not stay to observe the sacred service honoring the first founders.” As an exception, the royal Zhou king, Cheng, had granted the lord of Zhou, founder of the dukedom of Lu, permission to perform the di service, honoring the Zhou’s first founders. Normally it was the king’s prerogative to perform the ceremony. In Lu, the tradition was carried on down to Confucius’s time. As part of the ritual, the line of Lu lords or dukes is also honored, in turn, as successors to the founders. The

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order was disrupted however when Lord Xi, brother of Lord Wen and a commoner, was placed ahead of Lord Min (BC 660), the legitimate heir of Lord Wen, in the protocol of succession. Citing Zhou ritual practice, Confucius decries the disorder in his day—Lord Zhao of Lu had been openly displaced by the ministerial Jisun clan and driven into exile in the state of Qi, where he died. In the Mencius, Confucius and the lord of Zhou are linked as defining a dao (3.1.4). A3.11 Someone wanted an explanation of the First Founders service. Confucius replied, “Who knows? Whoever did understand the service fully would be in a position to have the whole realm below heaven right here,” indicating the palm of his hand. The di service or First Founders service is dedicated to the mythical first ancestors of the Zhou, emperor Ku and his son Houji, who first bore the Zhou clan name Ji. This sacred ritual is at the heart of political order, much like the ceremonies around royal genealogies. It is about rightful succession. Observing “constitutional” rules of succession is essential to effective governmental authority; violating them brings endless conflict. Confucius’s generation had inherited the rule of the Jisun clan, divided with the two fraternal clans Mengsun and Shusun, and had endured troubles whose roots went back to the violation of BC 660, and even further to the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period (BC 712) when the second Lu lord, Huan, came to his seat of power through the murder of the first, Yin. The ministerial Jisun clan, as well as the Mengsun and the Shusun, were all descended from Lord Huan’s son and successor Lord Zhuang (BC 694–662); these clans are the notorious Three Huan, object of Confucius’s anger for displacing Lord Zhao (d. 510 BC). A3.12 It is said: “Make offering to the dead as if they were alive and present with you; do the same with offerings to the spirits.” Confucius said, “If I am not myself actively engaged in the offering, it’s as if I had made no offering.” Commentators agree that personal communion is vital; the formality is empty without it. We have already seen that Confucius has refused to participate in the First Founders service. According to the account in Sima Qian’s Shiji, Confucius did not know where his father (said to have died when he was three) was buried.

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A3.13 Wangsun Gu asked the meaning of the saying “Better to curry favor with the kitchen god than with the household shrine.” Confucius replied, “How could you? If you affront heaven who will hear your prayers?” The household shrine, in the southwest corner of the home, is where food offerings to the family ancestors are made. Confucius opposes preferring the place where food is made for the common meal, the domain of the kitchen god, to the place where a sacramental meal is offered to the family ancestors. Some commentators suggest that Confucius is declining an offer conveyed by a minister, Wangsun Gu, in the dukedom of Wei to work for his master, the lord of Wei. Then the idea would be: I’ll stick to the rituals and pass up the job offer (compensation measured in food). A3.14 Confucius said, “The Zhou had two preceding royal houses to reflect upon. How ample was the grand design that organized these civilizations! We are proud to be men of the Zhou.” By the Zhou Confucius means the Western Zhou, heir to the rituals of the Xia and Yin-Shang houses (see 2.23). The key word wen, meaning grand design, is often translated “culture”; wen, like Li, broadly covers custom, ceremony, moral codes, and institutions. During the Western Zhou, the dukedom of Lu, through its familial link to the founders, helped protect their authority in the east (western Shandong). See “The Hidden Palace” (Bi Gong), in “Hymns in Praise of Lu,” song 300 in The Book of Songs. The Western Zhou lasted until a vassal, aggrieved by the displacement of his daughter as queen to King You, and thus her son as heir apparent, joined with the Rong people and sacked the capital at Hao (near Xi’an), driving the Zhou king, Ping, east to Luo in 771 BC. King You was killed and his displaced heir apparent restored as King Ping, whose reign began the Spring and Autumn period and lasted until 720. During the Eastern Zhou period (770 BC to 256/221 BC), not only was the king politically weak but the royal rituals were also degraded, as described in the opening passages of this third book. The weakened central regional states—Zheng, Lu, Qi, Chu—rose and fought to control the Zhou court. Confucius lived more than two centuries after King Ping’s flight east, as the Spring and Autumn period was moving into the Warring States period. The

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phrase Spring and Autumn is the name of the period between the Western Zhou and the Warring States (770BC-405BC); it acknowledges the nominal authority of the exiled king to set the calendar for loyal dukedoms, thus preserving some of his lost authority. Spring and Autumn is also the name of a chronicle attributed to Confucius covering events in Lu from 722 to 479 BC. The Zuozhuan elaborates on this chronicle. A3.15 When Confucius went into the main ancestral temple he constantly raised questions about every part of the ceremonies. Someone said, “Who says that he knows so much about ceremony, that son of the man from Zou, who is always asking questions?” Upon learning of this Confucius said, “That in and of itself is ceremonial!” Confucius liked formulating in the interrogative, somewhat analogous to the Talmudic method. A3.16 Confucius said, “Marksmen should not make piercing the animal hide target the main thing, for men’s arms vary in strength. This was the traditional practice.” To aim for a proper goal is what counts in life, not whether one succeeds in reaching it. A3.17 Zigong wanted to dispense with the sacrifice of the lamb announcing the first day of a new month. “My dear Si [Zigong],” Confucius answered, “You would spare the lamb. Me? I’d spare the ritual.” A3.18 Confucius said, “Serving the lord by fully observing the ritual forms is now widely considered obsequious.” Confucius’s entire political philosophy concerns the role of the junzi, who is willing to challenge a ruler who is doing something wrong. The presentation of criticism however has to be mediated by ritual (8.2). A3.19 Lord Ding said, “Tell me how the lord requires service of the minister and how the minister renders it to the lord.” Confucius replied, “The lord requires service according to ritual, the minister renders service with undeviating commitment.”

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It was under Lord Ding (508–495 BC; following Zhao and preceding Ai) that Confucius finally gained an official appointment as magistrate, after having spent some fourteen years visiting the various states in search of a ruler to serve. Zhong, commitment or loyalty, uses an archery metaphor: the heart centered on the ruler’s goals. The word is translated here as “undeviating commitment.” A3.20 Confucius said, “In the ‘Guanju’ Song there is celebration without excess, sorrow without injury.” In The Book of Songs, “Guanju” is the first of the Zhounan set, a marriage song; it has the word “celebration,” ’ while the third song of the set, about a woman’s yearning, has the word “injurious.” There is also yearning in the first song. “Guanju” may thus refer to all eleven songs of the opening Zhounan set, apparently named for the region entrusted to the lord of Zhou, founder of the dukedom of Lu. Some commentators think “Guanju” refers to the whole 305 songs of the Book of Songs or perhaps the first section, the airs of fifteen states. The first song’s famous opening compound, guanguan (gated-gated) is probably a reference to the monogamous home-building osprey and not to its mating call. The graph for guan shows a connected pair within a gate. In the song, the osprey (a bird of prey whose name derives from the Latin avis predae) builds its home on a high place near shore so it can scan the water for fish (prey, mates), then dive down and snatch (ju) one—this prelude to mating in raw nature introduces the marriage theme. A3.21 Lord Ai asked Zai Wo about the shrine to the land. Zai Wo answered, “The Xia rulers placed it by pines, the Yin by cypresses, while the Zhou by chestnut trees—to make the people tremble, it is said.” Hearing of this Confucius said, “Let us not revisit what happened long ago; neither denounce things now done with, nor cast blame upon what no longer remains.” Zai Wo is a student with whom Confucius has expressed dissatisfaction. Here Confucius critiques him for a cheap slur on the Zhou ritual—the word for chestnut is a homophone for the verb meaning to tremble in fear. In ancient times human sacrifice may have been offered at the shrines, which honor ancestors.

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A3.22 Confucius said, “Guan Zhong had a rather petty character!” Asked, “Was he prudent economically?” Confucius replied, “Not at all! He had the revenues from three of his lord’s seven markets, and the officials under him each specialized in a single skill, never sharing responsibilities to save on government expenses.” Asked again, “Did he understand ritual then?” Confucius replied, “When his lord put up a wall to screen his gateway, Guan Zhong did the same. And when his lord hosted another leader they were served on an earthen platform symbolizing the grain shrine of the state. And once again Guan Zhong did the same. If that’s understanding ritual, then who doesn’t?” Much as he admired Guan Zhong, the famed minister to Lord Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 BC), here Confucius reacts to his presuming to enjoy the prerogatives of Lord Huan, the second ba, or hegemon. Guan Zhong organized the dukedoms of the proto-Chinese cultural area and saved them from conquest by the uncultured tribes, thus shielding the Zhou king (wang). For this he was lauded (including by Confucius) in the era when hegemons protected kings after the son of heaven’s traumatic evacuation of the Western Zhou capital and his retreat to the east in 771 BC. The usurping ministers of Lu, the Jisuns, have no such achievements to their credit. A3.23 Speaking with the musical director of Lu, Confucius said, “We can say a little about performance: at the opening, the bells and drums break the silence, sounding and resting, followed by the melody in the treble of wind and strings, and then the ongoing sequences unfold until they reach the finale, which consummates the whole.” Each instrument in the ensemble’s hierarchy plays its part. A3.24 When Confucius arrived at the town of Yi, a local official requested audience, saying, “I have never been refused audience with any notable arriving here in Yi.” The party accompanying Confucius granted the request. Emerging from the audience, the local official said, “Worry not, good gentlemen, there is still hope for what has been lost. For far too long the realm under heaven has had no leaders to show the right way of governing. But heaven means to use the Master to sound the alarm bell.”

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Confucius is imagined as a kind of musical instrument, the wooden clapper (muduo) in a bronze bell. A3.25 With regard to the Shao court music Confucius said, “It is both entirely good and beautiful.” With regard to the martial Wu music, “It is not entirely good, although entirely beautiful.” Confucius may have harbored reservations about the Zhou conquest of the Yin house under the military leadership of King Wu, brother of the lord of Zhou, founder of Lu. Wu’s father, King Wen, had not sanctioned the campaign, earning Confucius’s praise. The Book of Songs and The Book of Documents praise both kings for favoring the transition, ignoring their differences. The lord of Zhou was an advocate of the conquest and so although Confucius admires him as the founder of Lu he does not address his support for King Wu. A3.26 Confucius said, “Why should I have to witness authority exercised without forbearance, rituals performed without due respect, funeral services attended without mourning?”

Book Four Surrounded by the humane . . .

A4.1 Confucius said, “It is best to live in a humane community. If one chooses not to be situated among the humane, how would one come to understand humankindness? The first word here, li, means inside, also an enclosed rural settlement and, by extension, the approximate diameter of one, or one-third of a mile. Li here is a verb, to put yourself inside of. A4.2 Confucius said, “Those who are not humane cannot long endure adversity nor maintain their enthusiasm [for Ren]. The humane are permanently settled on it, those with knowledge benefit from it.” Confucius distinguishes between his main value term, Ren, and a secondary value, knowledge, an instrumental term that often pairs with and facilitates a main value. Those with knowledge may occasionally derive some benefit from Ren but are not permanently committed to Ren. Benefit (li) is a major value term for the utilitarian Mozi. Confucius sees it as an external incentive. A4.3 Confucius said, “Toward others only the humane can feel affection or hostility.” Only those who are humane are so unprejudiced that they can legitimately make subjective judgments, trusting their emotions. 50

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A4.4 Confucius said, “Only fix the will on humankindness and no evils will follow.” A4.5 Confucius said, “Though wealth and status are what all desire, take neither unless attained the right way; though all detest poverty and low status, evade them not unless in the right way. How can a true prince reject humankindness and still be known as a true prince? A true prince will not turn away from humankindness, not even for the time it takes to eat. However beset, however desperate, he stays the course.” A4.6 Confucius once said, “I have yet to encounter one who cherishes what is humane and despises what is inhumane. To those who cherish it there is nothing above it, while those who despise what is inhumane can never be forced to act inhumanely. Who is there unable to exert themselves to reach this goal, even for a single day? I have never encountered anyone insufficiently able. Maybe there are such, but as for me, I have yet to encounter them.” A4.7 Confucius said, “When men transgress they do so in the context of their various communities. Observe carefully their transgressions to know whether or not they are part of a humane community.” A4.8 Confucius said, “Hearing one morning of our ideals put into practice, I would die content that very evening.” A4.9 Confucius said, “It’s not worth discussing serious issues with a scholar-official intent on pursuing our ideals yet ashamed of inferior dress and food.” Not junzi but a different term, shi, or officer or scholar official, appears for the first time; its verbal form (enlarged by the character for “man” on the left of the graph) means to take office. As the dukedoms developed state forms, elite experts were displacing the true princes. The potential amoral instrumentality of the shi contrasts with the ethical commitments of the junzi. Thus the terms junzi and shi suggest the distinction made previously between value and instrumentality, moral qualifications and government service. As Confucius says in 2.12,

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“The junzi will neither serve nor use another as an instrument.” When we look at other treatments of the shi, for example in 12.20 and 13.20, it becomes clear that Confucius’s concern is that careerism may draw the shi away from his core teachings, and so he admonishes the shi to remain true to the junzi model and not become a xiaoren (lesser man). In 6.11 Confucius warns Zixia not to become a xiaoren scholar (ru) but a junzi scholar. (Since Zixia was known for his literary ability, Confucius may have meant for him not to let his textual studies keep him from pursuing larger goals.) Confucius’s primary interest is in the ethical integrity, not the career outcome, of his followers. The self-cultivation through selfreflection that he urges upon his followers is the method of preserving that integrity. As he says in 15.21, “The junzi seeks what he wants from himself; the inferior man from others.” A4.10 Confucius said, “The true prince neither prefers nor rejects any thing beforehand, aligning himself only with what is right and just in his approach to the realm under heaven.” Concomitant with his humanitarian ideal, Confucius widens his view beyond the boundaries of any particular state or ruler, harking back to the time when a son of heaven (tianzi) reigned over all under heaven (tianxia). This explains why various rulers were willing to receive Confucius for frank consultation. Yi, “what is right and just,” last appeared in 2.24: “In the presence of what is right and just failing to act is cowardice.” The Confucian critic of Confucianism Mozi elevates yi to a top position, as heaven’s wish, displacing Ren. Mencius will combine the two into Renyi, a compound term not found in The Analects; opposing Mozi, Mencius says (7B.13) that a lord without Ren may rule a dukedom, but without Ren no one can rule the realm under heaven (tianxia). Mozi prefers yi alone as it objectively represents heaven’s will for mankind, an idea that points toward law (fa) but retains a connection between heaven and man. Xunzi’s breakthrough was to sever that connection. A4.11 Confucius said, “The true prince keeps virtue firmly in mind, lesser men, property. The true prince keeps the force of law firmly in mind, lesser men, leniency.” A4.12 Confucius said, “To give one’s self over to the pursuit of self-interest will arouse much resentment.”

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A4.13 Confucius said, “What stops a ruler from being able to govern using ritual and flexible compromise? But there is no place for ritual if his dukedom cannot be so governed. Presumably, ritual for internal order, compromise for harmony. A4.14 Confucius said, “Being qualified for appointment is what counts, not lacking one. Seek to win recognition, stay unconcerned if not recognized.” A4.15 Confucius once said, “My good Shen [Zengzi], one thing connects all our teachings.” He replied, “I agree.” After Confucius had left a student asked, “What does that mean?” Zengzi said in reply, “Our Master’s ideal consists of nothing more than commitment and compassion.” The Analects editors emphasize the authoritative voice of Zengzi’s interpretation of Confucius’s thinking. The two key words, zhong and shu, translated here as “commitment” and “compassion,” may be understood as “fully from the self ” and “fully for the other.” The definition of Ren in the last part of 6.28 expands the formula. A4.16 Confucius said, “The true prince speaks in terms of what is just and right, lesser men speak of self-interest.” This is the origin of the samurai code of self-sacrifice and indifference to personal gain, though without military emphasis. The junzi may be thought of as a civilian samurai. The noun samurai has it roots in the Japanese verb samarau meaning to serve. Samurai come into prominence as a warrior class in the eleventh century AD. Their code of honor is represented by yi, what is right and just. Among the disciples Zilu exemplifies the samurai ethos. A4.17 Confucius said, “On seeing excellence think of emulation. On seeing the opposite look within.” A4.18 Confucius said, “Serving father and mother a son may still tactfully reproach them. But seeing they decline his advice he continues showing them full respect without turning away, exerting himself without complaint.”

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A4.19 Confucius said, “While father and mother still live their son must not travel far except to a proper destination.” A4.20 Confucius said, “Following unchanged the father’s teaching for three years may be called filial service.” A4.21 Confucius said, “The years of each parent’s life shall be known—for rejoicing and for anxiety.” A4.22 Confucius said, “They were chary of speech in olden days lest their conduct fall short and shame them.” A4.23 Confucius said, “Self-restraint rarely results in mistakes.” A4.24 Confucius said, “The true prince should be slow to speak, quick to act.” A4.25 Confucius said, “Virtue is never isolated, it always has neighbors.” A4.26 Young Master You said, “Pointing out the faults of the ruler one serves brings disgrace; of one’s friends and colleagues, estrangement.”

Book Five Gongye Chang is wived . . .

A5.1 On giving his daughter in marriage to Gongye Chang, Confucius said, “I approve the marriage. Though held in custody, he has committed no crime.” On giving his elder brother’s daughter in marriage to Nanrong, Confucius said, “Were this state governed rightly he should not have been removed from office; if governed badly he should be spared corporal punishment.” Is Confucius opposed to socioeconomic factors in arranging marriages? His elder brother Meng Pi had died, leaving him with parental authority over his niece. A5.2 Confucius said of Zijian, “A true prince! Such a man! Were Lu without true princes, whom could Young Master Jian have found to emulate?” A5.3 Zigong asked, “And what about me?” Confucius replied, “You are an instrument. Of what kind? asked Zigong. “A jeweled ceremonial vessel,” Confucius replied. See 2.12, where Confucius states that a junzi should not serve as an instrument (qi). Zigong was a man of wealth, and Confucius, who is often critical of Zigong, suggests that he involve himself in ritual. A5.4 Someone said, “Yong here is no clever talker but he is humane.” Confucius said, “What use is sophistry? Thwarting 55

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others by outtalking them usually provokes anger. Who knows if Yong is humane, but what use is sophistry to him?” A5.5 When Confucius urged Qidiao Kai to accept appointment, Kai replied, “I am not ready to trust myself for this,” to Confucius’s delight. A5.6 Confucius said, “Our teachings make no headway. Shall we mount a raft and ride the waters? Would our You [Zilu] come along with us?” Zilu was most pleased to hear this, but Confucius said, “Our You surpasses us in courage but that is not a trait for us all to acquire. A5.7 Meng Wu asked, “Is Zilu a man of humanity?” And when Confucius replied, “I’m not sure,” Meng Wu repeated the question. “Our You [Zilu] here,” Confucius answered, “could administer military resources in a dukedom of one thousand warchariots. I’m not sure he is humane.” Confucius added, “Our Qiu [Ran Qiu] here could be assigned to manage a settlement of one thousand homes or a ministerial clan of one hundred war-chariots, but I’m not sure he’s humane.” Meng Wu continued, “What about Chi [Zihua] here?” Confucius answered, “Our Chi, standing in court in official dress, could be assigned to receive dignitaries and government guests, but I’m not sure he’s humane. A5.8 Speaking to Young Master Gong, Confucius said, “Compared to Yan Hui, which of you excels?” In reply Zigong said, “Speaking for myself I could never overtake him. Hui learns ten things having heard one. Two is the best I can do.” Confucius said, “You are not his equal, neither am I!” A5.9 Zai Yu lay in bed in the daytime. Confucius said, “Rotted wood cannot be engraved; mounds of ordure cannot be made into a white wall. As for my approach to Yu, why bother condemning him?” Then he added, “My approach to others used to be that I would trust to their conduct having heard them speak; but now I observe their conduct having heard them speak. This revision I owe to Yu.”

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Zai Yu appears elsewhere as Zai Wo. Wo and Yu are first-person pronouns; Zai Wo and Zai Yu are probably different ways of writing an almost similar sound. A5.10 Confucius said, “I have yet to meet a man of inner strength.” Someone replied, “What about Shen Cheng?” Confucius replied, “His desires drive him; where do you find in him inner strength?” A5.11 Zigong said, “As I would not want others to behave toward me, so I would not behave toward others.” Confucius said, “My good Si, this is beyond you.” A5.12 Zigong said, “From our Master we learned about written documents and cultural presentations, we never learned what he had to say about human nature and the Way of heaven. These new terms—“human nature” (renxing) and “Way of heaven” (tiandao)—occur only here. It may be that Zigong spoke these words well after Confucius’s death, but before his own in 456. Did Confucius die before addressing human nature and heaven’s way, subjects that did not get major attention in his lifetime? It was somewhat before 400 BC that those phrases emerged as major points of discussion, at least within the Confucian tradition. The absence of these phrases in the Lunyu thus suggests a date before those terms became important. Alternatively, this passage may mean that Confucius, in keeping with his aversion to speculation on the cosmos or abstractions, concentrated solely on the observable details of persons, history, and ritual. Renxing, commonly translated as “nature,” is a major term in the Mencius. A5.13 When Zilu heard of something important to do his one fear was hearing it repeated before he could get it done. Unlike Zai Yu, who naps in daytime, Zilu is like the true prince of 4.24, quick to act. We have seen Confucius chiding Zilu; an Analects editor may have wanted to balance any negative impression this created. Zilu died fighting to save the lord of Wei, a succession conflict that involved Confucius. He was also a military officer for the Jisun.

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A5.14 Zigong asked, “Why is Kong Wenzi posthumously titled Wen [cultured]?” Confucius said, “So keen was his desire to learn that he never shied away from seeking answers from those below him. That is the reason.” Kong Wenzi, an official in Wei, died the year before Confucius, so this passage (and others nearby?) may be dated to 480 or early 479 BC. A5.15 About Zichan, Confucius said, “In him we find four features of the true prince’s path: in conducting himself, unpresuming; in serving his ruler, deferential; in caring for the people, considerate; in assigning their labors, fair and just.” Zichan (d. 522 BC) was a prime minister of Zheng who brought internal order to its government through strictly applying ritual principles and treating the common people like the ruler’s children. He also managed to deal with two threatening neighbor dukedoms, Jin and Chu. Zichan brutally suppressed a revolt of the Zheng dukedom nobles against the ducal house, a goal Confucius might have approved though it is unlikely he would have approved of the means, to which he does not refer. But Zichan never guided the state of Zheng to a position of authority over the other dukedoms, which is why Confucius placed him below Guan Zhong according to the “Da lue” chapter in the Xunzi. A5.16 Confucius said, “Yan Pingzhong skillfully maintained relations with other [statesmen] and has long been respected for that.” Yan Pingzhong (Yanzi) was a high minister in the dukedom of Qi, northeast of Lu. Ritual is essential for diplomatic negotiation. In the “Da lue” chapter, Xunzi rated Zichan above Yanzi, who is commended here for skill in diplomacy but not for virtue. A5.17 Confucius said, “Zang Wenzhong housed a tortoise shell in a splendid room with hills and water plants incised on the arches connecting pillars to beams. What sort of wisdom was this?” The shells were used for divination, a practice Confucius frowned on as antithetical to relying on history and culture as sources of wisdom. The expensive decorations went against Confucius’s preference for simplicity and personal austerity. Zang is mentioned twice in The Ana-

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lects. He was an indispensable advisor and diplomat serving Lord Xi of Lu (see 3.10 for Lord Xi). But his historical importance does not outweigh his neglect of Liu Xiahui (15.14). A5.18 Zizhang asked, “Prime Minister Ziwen of Chu assumed office three times, never seeming pleased. Nor on the three occasions of his being removed did he ever show resentment or fail to report in full to the incoming minister. What does that tell us?” Confucius replied, “He was loyal, surely.” Zhang then asked, “A man of humanity, would you say?” Confucius replied, “Still hard to say. Why draw that conclusion?” Zizhang continued, “When Cuizi murdered his prince, ruler of Qi, Chen Wenzi left his ten chariots and forty horses behind, quitting his state for another. Once there he concluded, ‘They’re no different from High Minister Cuizi here.’ Again he left and went to another state only to find again, ‘They’re no different from High Minister Cuizi here either,’ and turned away. What do you think?” Confucius said, “A man of personal purity for sure.” Zizhang asked, “Humane?” Confucius said, “Hard to say. Why draw that conclusion?” Cuizi (Cui Shu) was a high minister who helped put Lord Jing of Qi in power. Lord Jing appears in 12.11, 16.12, and 18.3. The succession conflicts in Qi and also in Cuizi’s clan were brutal and bloodthirsty. A5.19 Ji Wenzi thought thrice before acting. “Twice should do,” Confucius remarked. Ji Wenzi (d. 568) served as prime minister to three lords of Lu. He was renowned for capability and frugality. Confucius may be criticizing him for being overly cautious or for his role in the era of the ministerial Jisun clan’s dominance of Lu, usurping the ducal lords. A5.20 Confucius said, “When his dukedom followed the true path Ning Wuzi was wise; when it deviated from the path he was simple-minded. His wisdom is attainable, but not his simplemindedness.” Ning was an officer in Wei in the mid-seventh century BC. A5.21 Staying in the dukedom of Chen, Confucius said, “We should be going home [to Lu], let’s return home. The young

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students of our party are too impetuous: though they extravagantly present themselves, they don’t know how to limit themselves.” A5.22 Confucius said, “Bo Yi and Shu Qi did not dwell on wrongs long past, and attracted little resentment accordingly.” Bo Yi was the eldest brother of the ruling family of Guzhu, a small statelet; at his father’s behest he turned down the rulership, offering it to his third brother Shu Qi, who also declined, leaving it to their second brother. This happened at the time of transition from the Shang to the Zhou dynasty. Mentioned several times in The Analects, Bo Yi and Shu Qi are the subjects of the first biographies in the Shiji, which records their opposition to Zhou King Wu’s armed conquest of the Shang. Afterward they starved in the wilderness rather than submit to the new ruling house of Zhou. They are icons of refusing power for themselves and of refusing to submit to power attained wrongfully. A5.23 Confucius said, “Would anyone claim that Wei Shenggao is principled? When someone begged weak wine of him he begged the same from a neighbor and then gave it to the first man.” A5.24 Confucius said, “Beguiling speeches, an imposing image, excessive deference, that’s what Zuo Qiuming finds shameful, and I, Qiu, myself do too. Concealing a grudge and befriending the man—Zuo Qiuming finds that as shameful, and I, Qiu, myself do too.” Zuo Qiuming is assumed to be the author of the Zuozhuan, China’s first narrative chronicle, covering 722–468 BC, that is, the Spring and Autumn. The same Qiu that appears in Qiuming’s name, meaning sunken hilltop grave, is Confucius’s personal name, so he uses it in place of “I” or “me” when speaking strictly personally and not for his school. It is rare for someone to so address him (see 14.32). Zuo is a surname; Qiuming could mean enlightened by (or as) Confucius. A5.25 Yan Yuan [Yan Hui] and Ji Lu [Zilu] were attending Confucius when he said, “Would each of you tell us your hopes for the future?” Zilu replied, “I’d like to own a horse-drawn carriage and fine fur coats—fox and badger—to share with my friends,

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and not mind if they got worn out.” Yan Yuan said, “I should not like to make much of what I’m good at nor to highlight my achievements.” Zilu asked, “May we hear the Master’s hopes?” And Confucius said, “To see my elders secure, to have the trust of my colleagues and friends, and to take proper care of the youth.” Zilu represents the service side of Confucius’s ambitions for his students, Yan Yuan the academic. Zilu is the staunchest critic of Confucius. Here his surname is given, Ji, the same as the Jisun clan, which Confucius criticizes. What is Confucius’s connection to the Meng clan? Is his close relationship with Zilu affected by Ji and Meng clan tensions? Zilu was in charge of the military for the Jisun clan. A5.26 Confucius said, “All is over and done with! I have yet to have brought before me the man who on seeing his faults accuses himself in his own mind.” Confucius had held office as a magistrate, and said he could not judge better than anyone else, that what was needed was to get rid of litigation. Here he claims that the developed conscience, the inner voice, not the external written law or formal court sessions, is the law-giver. This could be called a theory of personal sovereignty. A5.27 Confucius said, “In any settlement of ten clans one can find others no less dedicated and trustworthy than myself, Qiu, even if none so devoted to learning.”

Book Six Our Yong here . . .

A6.1 Confucius said, “Our Yong here could face southward and serve in a position of high authority.” Zhonggong [Yong] asked about Zisang Bozi. Confucius said, “He’s all right, but lenient.” Zhonggong continued, “In office his conduct is strictly respectful, but he supervises the people leniently; that’s still all right, don’t you think? But if he both conducts himself leniently and supervises leniently, isn’t that a bit too lenient?” Confucius said, “Yong is quite correct.” To face south is an idiom for “to reign”; usually it is applied to the ruler but is can be used for a high official. Typically officials face north, but under the circumstances in Lu, to whom in authority would they face? Yong receives higher praise than anyone in the Lunyu so far; Confucius’s earlier appraisals of him were guarded. Painstaking attention to the details of ritual is not for Zisang. Confucius is a stickler for the slow tempo of ritual precision, which maintains the authority of the office, even if its business is conducted summarily or leniently (jian). A6.2 Lord Ai of Lu asked, “Which of your disciples most loves to learn?” Confucius replied, “Take Yan Hui for example. He never displaced his anger on another nor repeated a mistake. By ill fortune his life was cut short. He died young and we are bereft. I await another like him.” 62

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Again learning is defined more in terms of character than of knowledge. Yan Hui (Yan Yuan), Confucius’s favorite student, was a relative on his mother’s side. Lord Ai reigned from 495 to 467, and like Lord Zhao was driven into exile after Confucius’s death in 479. Ai had brought Confucius back to Lu in 484 to strengthen the central authority of the lord. A6.3 Zihua [Chi] was sent on a mission to the dukedom of Qi. Ranzi [You] requested extra grain for Zihua’s mother. Confucius said, “Let her have a day’s worth.” Ranzi asked for more. Confucius said, “Give her a bit more.” Ranzi gave her ten times that much. Confucius said, “When Zihua arrived in Qi, his carriage was drawn by well-fed horses and he wore a light fur coat. I’ve heard it said that the true prince provides for the needy not for the wealthy.” Yuan Si, who managed Confucius’s household, refused Confucius’s offer of nine hundred measures of grain. Confucius said, “Do not refuse. Share it rather with your neighbor villages and rural communities.” The initial offer of a fu (cooking pot)’s worth of grain already implies the criticism. Ranzi is asking for grain for the ambassador’s mother and wants to impress the ambassador with a big gift. A6.4 Confucius said to Zhonggong, “The plow-bull calf is reddish and horned. Though you might prefer not to sacrifice it, don’t think the gods of the hills and streams would spurn it.” Like Confucius, Zhonggong had a troubled family background. Confucius has already (in 6.1) said he merits a position of high authority. Here he assures Zhonggong (Yong) that his background is no barrier to his career. Zhonggong also appears in dialogue with Confucius in a recently discovered text in which Confucius is urging Zhonggong to overcome his scruples to accepting appointment serving the Jisun clan. See Wei Houkai’s presentation of the text, “Zhonggong jishi.” A6.5 Confucius said, “Hui here held humanity uppermost in mind most of the time; others reach that level only occasionally or briefly, no more than that.” A6.6 Ji Kangzi asked, “Is Zhongyou [Zilu] qualified to hold office?” Confucius replied, “He is resolute; there should be no

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objection.” Kangzi said, “What about Si [Zigong]?” Confucius said, “He has been successful; there should be no objection.” Kangzi said, “What about Qiu [Ran You]?” Confucius said, “Given his skills and talents there should be no objection.” Ji Kangzi was a member of the Ji or Jisun clan, which ruled Lu. Kangzi was in charge of Lu for most of Lord Ai’s reign, years 3–27. He appears frequently in books 9 and 12. He was a strong supporter of Confucius and arranged for his return to Lu. A6.7 The Ji clan appointed Minzi Qian to govern Bi. Qian said, “Be so kind as to decline the appointment for me. Should they repeat the offer I’ll be moving north of the River Wen.” North of the river would be in the territory of Qi. Bi was the fortified town from which the Jisun ruled Lu and the setting of Yang Hu’s failed revolt against the Jisun clan. A6.8 Bo Niu fell ill and Confucius called on him. Reaching through an aperture, Confucius took his pulse and said, “We will lose him. Such is fate. For this man to have such a disease. Such a man, such a disease!” A6.9 Confucius said, “How worthy our Hui [Yan Yuan] is, living in a neglected lane, on a small basket of grain and drinking from an old dried gourd. Who else could endure such grievous poverty? Yet his enthusiasm for our ideals never wavers. How worthy! Our Hui.” A6.10 Ran Qiu said, “Not that your teachings don’t inspire me, but I don’t have the strength to act on them.” Confucius said, “Those whose strength gives out abandon the course midway. You have set yourself a limit.” Called Ranzi, Ran You, and Ran Qiu, this disciple has often displeased Confucius, especially in respect to his service to the Jisun. The last line implies that he has hardly started to follow the path of Confucius’s teachings. A6.11 Confucius said to Zixia, “You should be a true prince of a scholar, not a petty self-interested scholar.”

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Zixia is a scholar who tends to be pedantic, narrow. A6.12 When Ziyou was in charge of the town of Chengwu, Confucius asked him, “You have capable men there?” You replied, “There is Dandai Mieming. He hews to the straight and narrow, never coming to see me except for official business.” A6.13 Confucius said, “Mengzhi Fan does not flaunt his deeds. When a contingent was fleeing [a battle with Qi], he held back to defend the rear. About to reach the safety of his own town gate, he lashed his horse, saying, ‘I was not brave enough to bring up the rear, but my horse held back.’ ” A6.14 Confucius said, “In an age like ours, even with the handsome bearing of Prince Zhao of Song, one could hardly survive without the agile tongue of Zhu Tuo [of Wei].” Confucius is knowledgeably judgmental about leading figures in many states as well as his own followers. Knowing men is the main object of his study. This is why The Analects is filled with historical and contemporary names as important examples. The first Daoist classic, Daode Jing, names no person, place, or event. Transhistorical, it complements The Analects, as nature complements culture. A6.15 Confucius said, “Who can exit except by the door? Why then does no one follow our true path?” In the Mencius, Ren is compared to a gate, yi to a road, suggesting orientation and direction, thought and action, beginnings and endings. Stanza 47 of the Daode Jing says that the sage knows the world without exiting his gate. A6.16 Confucius said, “Whenever matter exceeds art the effect is unrefined; whenever art exceeds matter the effect is pedantic. Striking the balance between the two marks a true prince.” Compare 3.8 and 8.2. The opposing qualities matter and art suggest character and culture, substance and design, intent and execution, interior and exterior, beginning and end. A6.17 Confucius said, “Those with integrity survive, without it survival depends on chance.”

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A6.18 Confucius said, “Those who know it fall short of those who care for it; those who care for it fall short of those who exult in it.” The “it” in this passage is Confucius’s dao, or the path to his ideals. A6.19 Confucius said, “With the ordinary man and those above him the higher things may be discussed, but not with those below the ordinary.” A6.20 Fan Chi asked about knowledge. Confucius said, “Concentrate on what is fair and just for the people. Keep a good distance from the gods and spirits but render them all due respect. This may be called knowledge.” Fan Chi asked about humanity. Confucius said, “First take up the hardest tasks; the reward will come later. This may be called humane.” Don’t spare yourself: the hardest tasks may not be left to others; the rewards may come but not at once. Combining knowledge (zhi) and Ren is one of Confucius’s core teachings. A6.21 Confucius said, “Men of knowledge exult in water, men of humanity exult in mountains. Men of knowledge [like water] are always moving, men of humanity [like mountains] are unmovable. Men of knowledge exult [in their activity], men of humanity endure through time. Another set of balanced opposites. Humanity is the value term; knowledge is the instrumental term that should serve humankindness. The unmoving mountains represent principles that never change, rising above the flow of events in time. As a higher principle, Ren, like the fixed and enduring polestar of virtue, is represented as a mountain. Water represents the onrush of events in time, history. As the Song poet Liu Fu put it, “The wave behind pushes on the wave ahead.” But water must be controlled. The hills form the channels that guide the water’s flow, lest it overflow. The graph for the word zhi, or govern, shows water beside an elevation (a dyke?). Flooding is a metaphor for social disorder (book 18). Heraclitus said nothing stays the same; Parmenides that nothing changes. For Confucius, as hills give direction to water, so time-honored principles must guide knowledge and tradi-

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tions must give direction to social conduct; hills and water must work together. It is rare to see one without the other in a painting. The Chinese term for landscape, shan-shui or mountain-and-waters, may derive from Confucius’s metaphor here. Virtue alone is inadequate without knowledge, and knowledge alone may be misused without virtue to guide it (see 15.33). Confucius’s purposes are more moral than aesthetic. A6.22 Confucius said, “With one great reform the state of Qi could reach the level of Lu; and Lu, with a great reform, could reach the ideal Way of good government.” Lu is closer than any other state to the Zhou royal house because the famed minister Lord Zhou (Zhougong) was a founder of Lu. As regent, Lord Zhou is hailed for peacefully returning power to King Cheng on his reaching majority; relinquishing power is an aspect of Ren. The Analects passes over the three-year military campaign that Lord Zhou led when he went east (to today’s western Shandong) to extend the power of King Cheng there. The state of Qi, just east of Lu, was founded together with Lu; the leader of Qi was a relative of Lord Zhou. Centuries later, after the Zhou house was driven east in 771 BC, the two states of Lu and Qi had troubled relations, sometimes at war sometimes at peace. Confucius hoped to reinvigorate ties between them by appealing to their linked origins and their relations to the royal house when in its prime; this was his life’s work and dream, but it was not to be. Confucius laments in 7.5 that Lord Zhou has not appeared in his dreams for too long, a sign of his fading hopes for reviving the historical and cultural kinship between the two states. A6.23 Confucius said, “The sacred wine-chalice no longer serves. The chalice! The chalice!” The chalice, a metonym for ritual, no longer serves its original purpose. The ceremonies of state—the offices, the roles, the fathers, the sons, the teachers, the followers, the ministers, the rulers—everything has fallen so far below its historic, early Zhou ideal that only their names remain. The gu, or chalice, was an artifact that had been used in the Shang and early Zhou periods. It may be that 6.23 continues the thought of 6.22: Qi is no longer a partner of Lu, and Lu no longer

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upholds the example of Western Zhou government by ritual. Qi and Lu were more or less equals until the time of Guan Zhong, in the seventh century BC; then Qi became dominant. A6.24 Zai Wo asked Confucius, “Suppose you tell a humane man that another humane man has fallen into a well, would he listen and go down?” Confucius said, “Do so for what reason? A true prince would run to look, but would not be tricked; he can be deceived but not entrapped.” Mencius revisited this hypothetical rescue situation more clearly using a child instead of a man. This passage sheds some light on 6.23: the humane person may be naïve or credulous if they lack knowledge and good sense. A legend in the “Cha wei” chapter of the Lushi Chunqiu says that Zilu once leapt into a well to rescue a man. A6.25 Confucius said, “A true prince, broadly learned in the canonical writings and disciplined through ritual in his conduct and studies, is unlikely to violate the ritual forms thanks to these constraints.” A6.26 When Confucius was received by Nanzi, Zilu was distressed. Our Master swore an oath saying, “Whatever I may have done wrong, let heaven object, let heaven object!” This passage refers to the well-known succession crisis that arose in Wei when the heir fled and his son (the deceased ruler’s grandson) took power. Confucius wanted to restore the heir, despite his crimes, in order to preserve orderly succession. Nanzi was a concubine of the lord—and the power behind him. A6.27 Confucius said, “What is greater than the virtue of finding the middle way and making it work? It is a virtue that the people rarely sustain over time.” The career choices for Confucius and his students are either entering government service or pursuing a life of learning and teaching. Confucius did both, though his career in government was cut disappointingly short. His “graduate school” prepares students for both tracks and he advises keeping on both, rather than quitting one for the other, just as he wants to find the right balance between matter and art.

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A6.28 Zigong said, “What do you think of broadly benefiting the people and thus bringing succor to all? Would you call it humanitarian?” Confucius said, “Is this not even more—a matter of sage rule rather than humanity? Even the sage rulers Yao and Shun agonized over this question. As for the man of humanity, he establishes for others as he would for himself, and seeks success for others as for himself. Thus drawing upon the example near at hand may be called the recipe for humankindness.” Personally, Ren begins with the self and then extends to others; politically, it begins with one state then broadens out. The term sheng, or sage, here transcending Ren, is rare in The Analects but common in the Daode jing. Confucius is trying to make a start toward reforming rulers one at a time and so is wary of utopian formulas.

Book Seven I do not innovate . . .

A7.1 Confucius said, “I do not innovate, I receive and convey the ancient past, to which I am devoted, and since I am for that trusted, might I be thought a peer to Old Peng?” A7.2 Confucius said, “Reserving comment, I mark things carefully, study insatiably, teach untiringly—this much I can manage with little trouble.” A7.3 Confucius said, “Not developing my character, not sharing what I have learned, being unable to act promptly when informed of a matter of justice, leaving faults unreformed— such are my anxieties.” A7.4 When retiring at home, Confucius was strict and orderly but gentle and receptive in his manner. A7.5 Confucius said, “How badly things have gone for us. How long it has been since I dreamed of being in the presence of the lord of Zhou.” Confucius’s hopes for reform based on the ritual government of the early Zhou reigns are fading. The lord of Zhou referred to here, Zhougong, was a leader in the momentous transition from the Yin period (1600–1046 BC) to the founding of the royal Zhou house. He first served as regent to the underage Zhou king, Cheng, guiding him through a difficult period before returning the regalia of authority to the king upon his coming of age. Zhougong then assumed the dukedom of 70

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Lu. Yielding high political authority to a more legitimate figure is an important precedent in The Analects. In Chinese, the terms for yielding (rang) and for humanity (Ren) are indirectly related. Confucius’s era was marked by inferiors usurping the place and power of their superiors. In the state of Lu it was the Jisun clan, whose ministers exiled Lord Zhao; they also exiled a subordinate, Yang Hu, who had tried to usurp the Ji with the help of the state of Qi. As mentioned earlier, the Zuozhuan takes another stance toward the Jisun, vindicating their role going back to the mid seventh century BC and claiming that the failure of the lords necessitated the clan taking charge of Lu. A7.6 Confucius said, “Stay committed to our ideals, hold firmly to virtue, rely always on humankindness, and for recreation there are arts and exercises to cultivate.” A7.7 Confucius said, “I have never denied instruction to anyone bringing me a small packet of dried meat.” Like Socrates, who took no fees, and unlike the Sophists, who charged high tuition. A7.8 Confucius said, “I open up only if the student is struggling, offer guidance only if the student is frustrated. Whenever I raise one angle of a problem and the student does not respond with a few new ones, I do not repeat myself.” A7.9 When taking food beside someone in mourning, the Master ate lightly. On a day that the Master shed tears of grief, he would not sing. A7.10 Confucius said to Yan Yuan, “In office to serve, dismissed to lie low, who but we two can do this?” Zilu said, “If you had charge of the military forces, with whom would you march forth?” Confucius said, “Someone capable of wrestling a tiger or fording a rough river, to the point of dying without regret—him I would not go with. I’d insist on someone who would exercise caution in evaluating the situation, who cared about calculating final outcomes.” Zilu, who served as a bodyguard for Confucius, was a great warrior but rather impulsive and disinclined to be studious. Yet Confucius

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valued him for his managerial skills as well as for his valor. As he does elsewhere, Zilu interrupts the conversation; is he a bit jealous perhaps of Yan Yuan? A7.11 Confucius said, “If properly sought after, I would seek material gain even as a lowly whip-bearer for a lord. If improperly, I’d rather pursue what suits me better.” A7.12 Confucius exercised caution regarding fasting, warfare, and illness. Diet had to be restricted before conducting sacrificial services or undertaking military action, as well as when praying for recovery from illness. A7.13 After listening to the music of Shao performed in the state of Qi, Confucius did not take meat for three months. “I never imagined that music could reach such heights,” he said. This performance was said to be in praise of the legendary sage Shun, successor to the first sage ruler, Yao, who had shared rule with Shun for decades. A7.14 Ran You asked Zigong, “Would our Master serve the ruler of the state of Wei?” Zigong replied, “Probably, let me ask him,” and went in to see Confucius, who asked Zigong, “What kind of men were Bo Yi and Shu Qi?” Zigong replied, “Ancients of integrity.” Confucius asked further, “Did they feel remorse [for declining the throne]?” He then added, “They sought humankindness and they achieved humankindness. Remorse for what?” Zigong left Confucius’s presence and said to Ran You, “Our Master will not serve him.” Confucius is displeased with Ran You’s eagerness to accept office and criticizes him severely in 16.1. For more on Bo Yi and Shu Qi, see 5.22. At this time in the state of Wei, a struggle for the throne was going on in the wake of Lord Ling’s death in the second year of the rule of Lu Ai of Lu (BC 494). A son, Kuai Kui, the rightful heir, had been at odds with his supposed mother, Nanzi, and in 496 fled the state after trying and failing to kill her in revenge for her liaison with a princeling of Song (her home state). Kuai Kui’s son, Lord Ling’s grandson, was

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installed in power. The ruler of Jin, harboring ambitions of its own, then moved to reinstate Kuai Kui; the ruler of Qi moved to block the son and protect the instated grandson. It was not until 480 that the son, Kuai Kui, regained his rightful throne in a bloody conflict that cost Zilu, who was in service in Wei, his life. Lineage conflicts caused the succession crises that plagued the dukedoms. By providing principal wives to the rulers of Lu and other dukedoms and statelets, Qi gained a strong hold on these foreign courts through influence on the succession. Secondary wives or young wives taken by elderly rulers typically bore sons who posed a major threat to the principal heir, causing internal succession crises. The junzi concept is an attempt to remedy succession strife. In The Analects we see several cases where Confucius subordinates questionable conduct—here Kuai Kui’s attempt to kill Nanzi—to the principle of orderly succession, which he considers the key to functional governance. Confucius refers to Bo Yi and Shu Qi to make clear to his disciples that he will not aid the current heir (the grandson), thus opposing inversion of the order of succession, in this case, junior displacing senior. The two brothers embody Ren (here, rejection of high office) because one declined the seat of power in deference to his father, and the other in deference to his brother. A7.15 Confucius said, “With coarse grain for food, plain water to drink, head pillowed on bent arm, one may delight in our ideals withal. Wealth and status unjustly gained are to me but floating clouds.” This is close to the conduct of Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who starved to death rather than submit to the Zhou conquerors. A7.16 Confucius said, “Grant me a few years more and at fifty I’ll study The Book of Changes, which should enable me to avoid major mistakes.” The Book of Changes (Yijing) is a manual that combines fortune-telling and moral admonitions, distinguishing acts that bring misfortune and acts that will end favorably. Another text uses a form of yi that alters its meaning from “Book of Changes” to “and then.” The former may have been substituted to connect Confucius to the Yijing, there

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being only one other mention of it in the text (13.22). In that case the passage would read: “Grant me a few more years after age fifty for study, and then I may be free of major mistakes.” This would jibe with 2.4, “by my sixties.” The Shiji biography however says that Confucius came to enjoy The Book of Changes late in life. The Yijing known today has a considerable amount of Confucian thought, added at a later time. A7.17 Confucius cited for excellence of expression The Book of Songs, The Book of Documents, and the way to perform the Book of Rites—citing all three for their excellence of expression. The Book of Changes is not included. Confucius generally preferred history over divination. Divination by reading cracks in oracle bones was the main form of decision-making in the Yin house; it continued as a popular if minor type of communication with ancestors throughout Chinese history, latterly in types of fortune-telling. A7.18 The lord of She asked Zilu about Confucius, but Zilu did not respond. Confucius said, “Why not say something like: he’s this sort of man—so outraged he neglects to eat, so exultant he forgets his troubles, heedless that old age is upon him.” Despite holding office under Ji Kangzi, Confucius actually had less ambition for official service than for learning, though he stressed the importance of both to his students—the two sides of his personality as well as his teaching. A7.19 Confucius said, “I myself am not one of those who know things naturally. I am drawn to the ancients and keenly seek knowledge from them.” A7.20 Confucius would not speak to us about enormities, feats of strength, political disorders, or gods and spirits. A7.21 Confucius said, “Walking in company with a small group, I never fail to learn something from what they say. I choose what seems right and follow it, and revise what is not.” A7.22 Confucius said, “Heaven gave birth to virtue in me. What can Huan Tui do to me?”

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The Shiji biography says that Confucius and his disciples were traveling from Cao to Song, when Huan Tui, an official from Song, threatened to kill him. This is said to be the occasion for this remark. The form of “I” used here, yu, is dramatic and individual, unlike wu and wo, which can mean “I” or “we” and are often more inclusive. Confucius, a leading advocate of filial devotion, never mentions his father; instead he asserts here that he serves ancestral heaven, whose paternity places him in a sacred cultural lineage rather than a biological one. Heredity is superseded by merit and virtue in Confucius’s scale of values—but only for ministers, not for rulers. This stance is echoed in the Zuozhuan, under the fifth year of Lord Xi (655 BC), where we find: “The ancestral gods and spiritual forces are not the real kinsmen of anyone. They are available [for ancestral blessing] only to men of virtue.” A7.23 Confucius said to a small group, “Dear disciples, do you think I am withholding anything from you? I am not, I assure you. Everything I do is shared with you. That is who I am.” Perhaps his consultations with various rulers obligated Confucius to keep certain confidences. A7.24 Confucius gave instruction on four subjects: texts, conduct, commitment, trust. A7.25 Confucius said, “If I never get to see a sage, I’ll be satisfied with a true prince.” He added, “If I never get to see a good man, I’ll be satisfied with a man of constancy. It’s hard to be constant though when one feigns having what one does not have, having plenty when having nothing, making a show of opulence when short of resources.” A7.26 Confucius fished with a rod but never a net; he never aimed an arrow at a resting bird. Thoreau never used gun or trap. A7.27 Confucius said, “I’m sure there are some who act rightly without intellectual understanding, but I do not have such aptitude. I listen widely and follow what I find right. I observe

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things widely and keep them in mind. It’s a lesser type of understanding.” A7.28 In the town of Hu Xiang, Confucius’s words were not well received. When a youth from that town came to see Confucius, his followers could not decide whether to present him. Confucius said, “We accept his presenting himself, not what he may do after leaving. Why such special strictness in this case? To be allowed presentation, ritual ablution is required, which we accept without being sure of his future.” A7.29 Confucius said, “Is humankindness far from us? We can reach it if we but wish to.” A7.30 The Minister of Laws of the state of Chen asked if Lord Zhao of Lu knew the ritual formalities. Confucius said, “Yes, he does,” and withdrew. The minister raised his hands respectfully to Wuma Qi, invited him to come forward, and asked, “My understanding has been that a true prince does not join a faction. Does a true prince really join one? The lord of Lu married a royal daughter of the state of Wu, whose rulers are all of the royal Zhou lineage, so [to disguise the rule against lineage intramarriage] they called her ‘Senior Daughter of Wu.’ If the lord knows the ritual formalities, then who does not know them?” When Wuma Qi informed him of this conversation, Confucius said, “How fortunate I am that others are sure to take notice when I manage to get something wrong.” Confucius is reluctant to criticize Lord Zhao, whose rule he seeks to have restored and the ministerial usurpation reversed. Therefore, he covers for Zhao by blaming himself (“How fortunate I am”), possibly mocking a minor charge against the unjustly exiled Lord Zhao. A7.31 If Confucius was with a singer who excelled, he would have him sing again so he could join in. A7.32 Confucius said, “In matters of culture I am by now not that far behind others. But the personal practice of a true prince is still beyond me.” A7.33 Confucius said, “Would I dare think of myself in terms of sagehood and humankindness? Rather, persevering though

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unsatisfied, I try to enlighten others without tiring, and that’s about all there is to say, I am quite sure.” Gong Xihua said, “Just what we disciples have not been able to learn.” Sheng, or sage, is rare in The Analects; it is too utopian for Confucius, though common in the Daode jing. Later Confucians add it as a fifth, political virtue to the basic set of four ethical virtues: humankindness, honor, ritual, and knowledge. A7.34 Confucius was severely ill. Zilu requested permission to pray for his life. Confucius said, “There are prayers for that?” Zilu replied, “Of course. The litany goes, ‘For your life we offer prayers to the gods above, and to the spirits below.’ ” Confucius said, “Me? How long have I been saying them!” A7.35 Confucius said, “The affluent may become tactless, the frugal may become stubborn; the latter is more tolerable.” A7.36 Confucius said, “The true prince is calm and even-tempered, lesser men fretful and flustered.” A7.37 Confucius was warm but strict, authoritative but not severe, deferential but composed.

Book Eight Taibo’s virtue . . .

A8.1 Confucius said, “Taibo’s virtue should be called supreme. Thrice he yielded the realm under heaven to his brother, and the people could not say enough in his praise.” Taibo was the eldest son of an ancestor of the Zhou founders. He declined the throne in favor of his youngest brother. In this he joins the ranks of those celebrated for eschewing power in one way or another, like the lord of Zhou, Zhougong, (according to the dominant account; see 7.5). Opening with a remembrance of a man of virtue, book 8 is largely a tribute to the disciple Zengzi (see 1.4), recording some of his signature statements. No other speaker save Confucius appears in book 8. A8.2 Confucius said, “Without ritual, humility becomes tedious; caution trepidation; bravery disorder; and forthrightness contention. When the true prince is dedicated to kinship the people will awaken to humankindness. So long as the old ways are kept up without lapse, the people will not depart from them.” A8.3 Having suffered serious illness, Master Zeng summoned the disciples and said, “Examine my hands and feet. The Songs say, ‘With trembling trepidation, to stare down into the abyss, to tread on thinning ice.’ My young masters, now and for the future I know what it means to be spared.” Preserving one’s own body intact is part of filial obligation. 78

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A8.4 When Master Zeng fell ill, Meng Jingzi asked about it. Zengzi spoke to him saying, “Near death, a bird cries mournfully, a man speaks words of wisdom. The three things in our teachings that the true prince values are to keep one’s bearing and manner far from threatening or disdainful; to adjust one’s mien, making it as trusting as possible; to keep one’s language and temper far from vulgarity and contrariness. As for the ritual implements, leave them to the temple’s service personnel.” A8.5 Master Zeng said, “Being capable, to inquire of those who are not; having much [understanding], to inquire of those who have little; to possess but seem to lack; to be replete but seem empty; to be confronted but refuse conflict. Long ago I had a friend who devoted himself to such conduct.” A8.6 Master Zeng said, “The man you can trust to care for an adolescent orphan, whom you can assign to govern a small dukedom, whose integrity cannot be shaken when facing a lifeor-death crisis—is he a true prince? He is a true prince.” A8.7 Master Zeng said, “A serving official must have great staying power, for his burden is heavy and his path long. It is the weight of acting with human feeling that he takes upon himself—is that not heavy? And he comes to rest only when life ends—is that not long?” Zengzi is the first disciple so far to speak of Ren—humankindness. In his first appearances, in 1.4 and 1.9, he speaks of introspection and the connection between reverence for the dead and public morality. A8.8 Confucius said, “Awakening by The Songs; development by the rituals; consummation by the musical arts.” Education proceeds through culture, and the disciplining of the emotions should be completed by age thirty, according to 2.4. Socialization of the young begins with The Book of Songs and ends with music, which inscribes its lessons on the heart, according to the Xunzi’s chapter on music, “Yue lun.” Music, as sublimated emotion, can overcome the resistance of nature to the rigors of externally controlled behavior and by so doing facilitate the internalization of virtue (de). The graphs for music and moral exultation are the same, though their pronunciation

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differs. Confucius accordingly condemns improperly exciting music, such as music from Zheng, a state in grave disorder. Mozi and Laozi opposed both ritual and music. A8.9 Confucius said, “Have the common people if so inclined follow us; if not, have them understand.” The traditionally accepted interpretation is that the common people can be made to follow but not to understand, but such a reading conflicts with 9.14 and 9.26. The grammar is ambiguous. Zizhang says Confucius himself had no teacher and learned from anyone because the fundamentals of Zhou civilization reside in the hearts of all men; see 19.22. A8.10 Confucius said, “To relish heroics or detest poverty will end in disaster; to detest too intensely an inhumane man will also end in disaster.” A8.11 Confucius said, “Despite having the splendid talents of a lord of Zhou, once a man turns arrogant and stingy, nothing is left to admire him for.” A8.12 Confucius said, “It’s not easy to find someone who, after three years’ study, is not heading for an official salary.” A8.13 Confucius said, “Consistently trustworthy, devoted to learning, guarding with his life the true path—this man will not enter an imperiled state nor remain in a chaotic one. When the realm under heaven follows the true path he is publicly visible. When that path is lost he is not to be seen. When a state follows the true path, poverty and low status shames him; when it loses the true path, wealth and high status shames him.” A8.14 Confucius said, “If not occupying the office, don’t consult on its policy.” A8.15 Confucius said, “As the musical director Zhi began [performing], the different parts of the “Guanju” flowed over the audience and resonated in our ears.” The well-known marriage poem “Guanju” is also mentioned in 3.20.

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A8.16 Confucius said, “Zealous but not upright; simple-hearted but recalcitrant; ingenuous but untrusting. These types I could never figure out!” A8.17 Confucius said, “Learn as if in desperate pursuit, but take care not to lose what was already learned.” A8.18 Confucius said, “Shun and Yu towered like mountains over the realm under heaven that they ruled; yet they did not partake of the fruits of their position.” Shun followed Yao as a predynastic (pre-Xia) ruler; Yu followed Shun and founded the Xia, said to end around 1600 BC. Yu is famed for his flood control project and for expanding farming. After Yu, succession to the throne by the heir son (or royal sibling) rather than by a chosen outsider became the rule. The transition to familial succession is a focus of concern in other, mostly later, texts, some of which say that Yao abdicated to Shun (see 8.19), others that Shun overthrew Yao. The Analects either avoids the issue or was edited before the controversies. Another possible reason is that filial succession was requisite for the Han dynasty emperors, so if the Lunyu was compiled in the early Han, the prestige of Confucius could not be lent to nonfamilial succession. A8.19 Confucius said, “And how very great indeed was the reign of Yao: Yao, who modeled himself after the greatness of heaven— so vast and expansive that none of the people knew how to refer to him. The deeds that he accomplished towered like a mountain, and the light of his ceremonial presentations radiated in all directions.” According to Mozi, Yao is to be honored above all for abdicating his rulership to Shun. This enhancement of the legend is not explicit in The Analects, but is implied by the references to Yao and Shun in this book. They are also implicitly referenced, as in the opening passage of this book, which begins with the figure Taibo, who thrice relinquished his right to rule. As for Shun, not all early texts hail his benevolence. According to Xunzi, Yao’s abdication to Shun is an “empty legend,” while Han Feizi, a critic of the Confucians, says that “Shun confined Yao and Yu confined Shun; the Shang-Yin founder exiled the last Xia

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ruler; and the Zhou founder waged war against the last Shang ruler. Yet the whole world praises these examples of regicide and usurpation by subordinates” (see the “Shuo yi” chapter in the Han Feizi). Han Feizi condemns King Wu, who overthrew the Yin house, but not King Wen, who remained loyal and died before the conquest. Separately, The Analects praises King Wen in the same terms as it praises Taibo, as having attained the “height of virtue” (zhi de). The Analects avoids the abdication theme, perhaps to forestall any suggestion that the junzi figure could receive the succession and thus exceed his role as a filial counselor to the ruler—or for the previously mentioned textual dating reasons. See 12.22 for Confucius’s view of Shun’s selection of ministers. A8.20 Shun had five ministers and the realm under heaven knew good government. King Wu had said, “I have ten competent officials under me.” Confucius said, “How true! Talent is scarce! There were more in the time of Yao and Shun, and also in King Wu’s time, than there are in our own; but King Wu had only nine, and one was a wife. When King Wen held two-thirds of the realm yet remained in service to the Yin house, the virtue of Zhou, as I see it, had reached its summit.” The Book of Songs and The Book of Documents consistently laud the Zhou conquest of the Shang-Yin house, and honor the founders, Kings Wen and Wu (father and son), as joint leaders of the new Zhou house. But here Confucius raises doubts, saying that King Wen remained loyal to the Shang-Yin house. A similar distinction between the two kings is found in the Shiji biography of Bo Yi and Shu Qi, which Sima Qian places at the head of the lie zhuan (biographies) section. The two men not only refused the grain of Zhou but defiantly accosted the war chariot of King Wu as he rode to battle, holding high the funerary tablet of the late King Wen to show their opposition to the planned conquest. Moreover, no mention is made here of the wicked last Yin ruler, the standard justification for the Zhou rebellion. Book 18.1 however highlights the plight of his ministers. The present passage does not deny King Wu’s achievement, since he led the victory over Yin after the death of King Wen. Thus, King Wen’s loyalty to Yin shows that combining the authority of Kings Wen and Wu is an essential part of the Zhou narrative, asserting the continuity of Yin-Zhou ceremonial

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rule. And Confucius, whatever his reservations about the Zhou conquest of Yin, ardently supported the Western Zhou, whose form of rule he hoped to restore. A8.21 Confucius said, “As for Yu, I have nothing to take exception to. He maintained a humble diet but offered the choicest meat in filial service to the gods and spirits. He disliked wearing formal attire but when wearing the cap and gown for court he was perfectly attired.” Yu or Great Yu, founder of the Xia house, follows Shun in the legendary pantheon; see 8.18.

Book Nine Rarely did Confucius speak . . .

A9.1 Rarely did Confucius speak of self-interest. He was engaged with human fates and with humankindness. A9.2 A man from the community of Da Xiang said, “Very great indeed is Confucius. Though widely learned, he has not made his reputation for it.” Hearing this, Confucius said to his followers, “What shall I take up? Chariot driving? The bow and arrow? Chariot driving it is then!” A9.3 Confucius said, “For appearing at court a linen hat accords with ritual protocol. Lately, they don black silk, which is economical. I follow the majority. Bowing down at the base of the ruler’s hall accords with ritual. Lately they’ve been ascending the stairs before bowing down, which is presumptuous. As before, I bow down at the base of the stairs even though it means going against the majority.” A9.4 Confucius warned strictly against four things: surmise, certainty, inflexibility, and in-group bias. A9.5 Taken into custody in Kuang, Confucius said, “King Wen’s example is no longer before us, but the glorious design of culture [wen] he represented still lives among us, does it not? Had heaven meant for this culture to perish, then we in these latter times could not have been sharing in it. But since heaven has not yet doomed it, what can Kuang’s officers do to me?” 84

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A9.6 A prime minister asked Zigong, “If your master is a sage how do you explain his diverse skills?” Zigong replied, “No doubt heaven granted that he become a sage; that said, he does have many common skills.” Hearing this Confucius said, “Does the Prime Minister know me? As a youth I was so poor that I acquired various minor skills. Need a true prince do so? He should not need so many.” A9.7 Confucius said, “Having never been invited to serve in office is what increased the number of my skills.” Spoken before becoming a magistrate in Lu. A9.8 Confucius said, “Am I a knowledgeable man? No, I lack knowledge. Should an ordinary man question me about something I don’t know, then I thrash out the pros and cons in order to answer thoroughly.” A9.9 Confucius said, “No phoenix appears, no diagrams from the river, it’s all over for me!” Legends have it that the arrival of this mythical bird heralds an era of universal peace, and that the appearance of river diagrams signals the enthroning of a wise ruler. The comment may be ironic. A9.10 Whenever Confucius witnessed someone in mourning dress, someone in formal court attire, or someone blind, once he noticed them, no matter how young they were, he always stood up; or if passing them he hurried by, bent forward. A9.11 Yan Yuan sighed deeply and said, “The higher I looked the taller they rose, the more I delved, the harder they became; they seemed to stand before me only to appear behind me, out of nowhere. Step by step our Master skillfully led us into his teachings, widening our views with writings, imposing discipline through ritual. We could not quit even if we wished to, and after exhausting our talents, something transcendent remained standing, which we could not try to reach, however much we wanted to, for there was no way in.” A9.12 Confucius was gravely ill and Zilu had some attendees from the school minister to him. During a respite Confucius

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said, “How long has our You [Zilu] here been playing tricks on me? I have no ministers and he assigns me ministers? Whom am I deceiving? Heaven? I’d rather meet my fate tended by my closest disciples than by students from my school. Moreover, even if there is no elaborate burial, will I be left to die by the roadside?” A9.13 Zigong said, “We have here a precious jewel. Should we keep it safe where it can’t be seen or seek the right buyer and sell it?” Confucius said, “Sell, sell by all means. When the buyer is right—and the price.” A9.14 Confucius expressed a wish to dwell among the uncultured tribes. Someone asked, “They are so low and backward, what could you do for them?” Confucius said, “If a true prince dwelled among them, would they stay backward? A9.15 Confucius said, “After I returned to Lu from Wei the official music of court was rectified, with the classic songs and the historical songs appropriately placed.” Probably from the last phase of Confucius’s life, 484–479 BC. A9.16 Confucius said, “Out in the world serving the court, at home serving parents and elder brothers, striving to render in full all services due the departed while remaining unaffected by the ceremonial wine—in this way have I not managed well enough?” A9.17 Overlooking a flowing river, Confucius said, “So do all things flow on and then are seen no more—day and night, no end.” See 6.21 where the onrush of water (the sequence of events) is counterbalanced by the stability of the hills (permanent principles). A9.18 Confucius said, “I have yet to meet one as devoted to virtue as to its semblance.” Se, here “semblance,” is more likely to mean appearance, image, or appeal than beauty or sex. De, “virtue,” its opposite, is the inner quality of character. A9.19 Confucius said, “For comparison, if I am building a mound that needs but a basket of earth to complete, and I stop,

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then it is my own doing. If I am beginning the mound on flat ground, although I have only overturned the first basketful, so long as I continue, I progress.” A9.20 Confucius said, “Tell him something and he acts on it promptly. That’s our Hui [Yan Yuan] for you!” A9.21 Confucius said of Yan Yuan, “How sad! That I never saw him at rest, only moving forward.” A9.22 Confucius said, “Not all leaves yield to flowers nor all flowers to fruit.” A9.23 Confucius said, “Regard with awe those who will come after us, for who can be sure that judging by today they will fall short? Only those who by forty or fifty have yet to make a name need not be so regarded.” A9.24 Confucius said, “How can stern principled words not be agreed with? But their value lies in the corrections they induce. How can gentle persuasion fail to stimulate reflection? But its value lies in the results it achieves. Reflection without results, agreement without correction—I have no idea what to do about this.” A9.25 Confucius said, “Undeviating commitment and unfailing reliability—these are the main thing. Do not befriend anyone unworthy of you. Whatever goes wrong, never hesitate to correct it.” A9.26 Confucius said, “The chief commander of an army will be taken prisoner before you can deprive a commoner of his own free will.” A9.27 Confucius said, “In his worn-out apparel yet not ashamed to stand beside someone in fine fur, is that not our You [Zilu] for you!?” A9.27a All his life Zilu would recite the lines from The Songs, “Not envying, not demanding, good in this and every way.” Confucius said, “What is so good in this?” The lines Zilu enjoys are from the song “Male Pheasant,” “Xiong zhi,” number 33 in The Book of Songs, which describes the junzi. Apparently

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Confucius sees the qualities it extols as ideals Zilu has not fulfilled. Zilu shows respect to a pheasant at the end of Book 10. The song compares a male pheasant that flies off to a true prince, who is far away and for whom the poet yearns. Some commentators separate 27 and 27a. A9.28 Confucius said, “Only when winter arrives do we realize that the pine and cypress have stayed green though the leaves of all the other trees have fallen.” “Pine” contains the graph for patriarch or lord; “cypress” the graph for “male with white hair,” elder, or lord. A9.29 Confucius said, “The wise do not get confused; the humane do not get anxious; the courageous do not panic.” A9.30 Confucius said, “Those with whom we learn together may not be those with whom we advance toward our ideals; those with whom we advance toward our ideals may not be those with whom we take a stand [on them]; those with whom we take a stand may not be those with whom we can wisely make exceptions to the norms.” Quan, here “exceptions,” is translated “weigh occurring events” by Legge. The idea fits in with that of yi, as a duty to do the right thing when the right thing may change at any time, depending on circumstances. A9.31 “How the juneberry flowers turn, this way that way / How can I not think of you at home so far from me?” Regarding these lines, Confucius said, “It’s only far when one has yet to think of it.” The line is from the “Zhulin” chapter of the Lushi Chunqiu, rather than The Book of Songs.

Book Ten Home in his locale . . .

A10.1 Home in his local community, Confucius was earnest and attentive, as if unqualified to speak out. In the ancestral temple or at court, however, he spoke appropriately but cautiously. A10.2 At court, when speaking with lower-ranking officials, Confucius was open and direct; with higher officials, diplomatic in debate. In the presence of the ruler, he walked with guarded gait and his deportment was deliberate. A10.3 When summoned by the ruler to serve in welcoming an honored guest, Confucius’s expression was full of energy and his step lively. He raised his joined palms saluting those he stood with, turning to left and right. His cloak was above the knee, front and back, so that when he hastened into the ruler’s presence he bent forward, arms extended behind him like two wings. Once the guest had retired he reported to the ruler, “The honored guest is now on his way.” A10.4 Entering the gate of the lord’s mansion, he bowed low as if there were hardly room for him to pass. He never stood in the middle of the gate nor stepped upon the threshold. Passing the lord’s empty seat, his expression was energetic, his step lively. His speech seemed scarcely adequate. He raised the lower edge of his cloak on ascending the hall, bowing low, barely daring to breathe. Then, coming out, he descended one level, his face showing lightness of heart, and reaching the bottom he advanced, bent 89

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forward, arms extended behind like wings. As he returned to his place his gait was guarded. A10.5 Holding the tablet of office, he bowed low as if unworthy to hold it. He never raised it higher than the ceremony of salutation required, and lowered it as if handing it to another. He looked agitated as if trembling and took small steps as if tracking a line. At the presentation ritual he wore an expression of fulfillment; received in audience, he could not look more pleased. A10.6 Confucius would never wear purple or dark brown trim [signs of fasting or mourning] on his collar or sleeves. Nor would he wear strong reds when at leisure. In summer he wore an unlined shirt of finely or loosely woven hemp for an outer garment. With a black short coat he wore a fleece robe; with a plain beige short coat, a deerskin robe; with a yellow coat, a fox fur robe; if his leisure robe was long, the right sleeve would be shortened to free the hand. If he needed a sleeping gown, it would be half again as long as his body. On the floors, thick pelts of fox or badger were spread for receiving guests. When funeral attendance was finished, any pendant gems, symbols of virtue, were hung from the belt. Fleece robes and black cap, signs of good fortune, were not to be worn in mourning. During the first day of the month, court dress was required when present at court. A10.7 During ritual abstinence and purification, he wore fresh clothes of plain cloth, limited his diet, and did not sit in his regular place. A10.8 Confucius did not mind if his rice was refined or if his meat was minced. He would not eat stale or turned rice, or fish that looked wilted or no longer fresh. He refused anything with an unpleasant appearance or odor, or that was undercooked or not in season. He refused food not cut precisely right or served with the wrong sauce. However ample the serving of flesh, he would consume less than the rice. As for liquor, he drank his fill but never to intoxication. He avoided liquor and dried meat from the market, and never dispensed with ginger though he consumed little. From the official sacrifice, he never kept his

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portion of flesh overnight. Sacrificial flesh does not last more than three days; after that it is inedible. Dining, he did not converse. In bed he did not speak. Even if taking vegetable soup and beans, he would make an offering of it—always as if observing ritual purification. A10.9 If his seating mat was not correctly positioned he did not take it. A10.10 During the year-end village banquet, he did not depart until the elders and the mourners, walking with their staffs, had left before him. When the villagers began their ritual exorcism exercises he put on his court dress and stood on the eastern steps of the ancestral temple. As an official Confucius mingled with the local rural folk. He also demonstrated reverence for seniors when leaving the celebration. Next he moved to the temple stairs to remind the revelers of their duties to their ancestors. This set a good example and so brought under official and ancestral aegis the superstitious practices of the rural folk. Standing on the eastern steps of the temple positioned him to receive the lord in case he appeared. The word for exorcism (nuo) is the origin of the word Noh, the Japanese theater form; in Japanese it was later sanitized to neng (ability to perform). Many Noh plays are about exorcism, depicting the frenzied expulsion of the haunts, plagues, and misfortunes that visited during the old year, clearing the way to the new. A10.11 Sending his regards and best wishes to someone in another state, Confucius saluted twice, palms joined and raised. When Kangzi, the high minister of Lu, presented him with medicine, Confucius saluted only once before receiving it, saying, “I, myself, am unsure of the proper protocol, but I’d rather not taste it right now.” Confucius fastidiously observes ritual protocols. Normally a gift of food is received with a single obeisance and then sampled to show appreciation. Medication, like food, is taken by mouth, but since it’s for an ailment, Confucius confesses to his lord his uncertainty about the proper way to show his appreciation.

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A10.12 The official stable caught fire as Confucius was leaving the court. Confucius said, “Was anyone injured?” He never asked after the horses. A10.13 On receiving a gift of food from the lord of Lu, Confucius never failed to square his sitting mat and sample the food before sharing it with those around him. If the lord presented raw meat, he would cook it and present it at temple. If the present were a live animal, he would rear it. If present at the lord’s table when the lord was making an ancestral offering, he would begin by tasting the rice only. If ill when the lord paid a visit, he would orient his head to the east and spread his robes of office over himself, laying the belt across his waist. Whenever summoned by the lord, he would start out on foot without waiting for his carriage. A10.14 Upon entering the main temple, he inquired about each and every aspect of the service. A10.15 When a friend died without family to lay him in state, Confucius said, “It falls to me then.” When a friend sent a gift, he saluted only for sacrificial meat for the ancestors; even for a gift as handsome as a horse and carriage he did not salute. A10.16 In bed, Confucius did not lie stiff and straight like a corpse; at home, he did not sit formally like a host or guest. On seeing someone in mourning, even someone known casually, his bearing and expression were solemn. On seeing an official or a blind man he would incline slightly forward, however often it happened. In his carriage, on seeing someone in funeral attire, he rose and leaned against the crosspiece; he did the same if he saw a courier carrying official documents. At an abundant banquet he stood up, his face and posture showing appreciation. At a sudden clap of thunder or a violent storm, his expression changed again. A10.17 Climbing onto a carriage, Confucius made sure to stand erect and hold onto the safety rope. Once inside, he did not look behind, did not speak urgently, did not point out things with his own hands. A10.18 On foot by a hill, Confucius showed his face to a group of pheasants; startled, they flew upward, then alighted again. He

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quoted from an ode: “Hens on the wooden bridge—What timing! What timing!” Upon which, Zilu extended his arms toward them in a gesture of respect. The pheasants eyed him briefly and took off. See 9.27a for the poem “Male Pheasant.” The natural world is separate from the human, except in metaphor. Pheasants have keen sight and hearing and can fly or move swiftly, though they nest on the ground and mainly scurry around importantly. The hens have rather plain plumage; the roosters, gloriously feathered, have a lordly strut and symbolic connections to the sun and high office. (In Japanese the word for the sun, derived from the language of early China (tian huang), is linguistically related to “emperor.”) Is Confucius likening himself to a lone hen? The female pheasant is subordinate to the male as the minister is to his lord; does Zilu’s gesture to the hens make him an aspiring rooster, for which Confucius has already rebuked him in 9.27? The quote recalls Mencius’s description, in the opening of part 2 of the chapter “Wan zhang,” of Confucius as the sage of timing, who “served when he should and quit when he should, moved slowly when he should and swiftly when he should. The sage of timeliness.” Confucius knew that the times he lived in were out of joint, and he moved around in futile pursuit of a ruler who would apply his teachings to government. Zilu, whose rough disposition often displeased Confucius, frightened away the birds much as Confucius had done, perhaps not fully appreciating what Confucius said about (to?) them. Zilu accompanies Confucius as his protector in book 18.

Book Eleven Those who first entered . . .

A11.1 Confucius said, “Those who first entered upon the study of ritual ceremony and musical arts were simple and uncultured; the privileged sons came to ritual and music later. For appointment to office, I prefer the former.” Confucius gives priority to virtue, an inner quality, over appearances however appealing—sincerity over exhibition. Some traditional commentators say that the “those who first entered” refers to his earlier followers, or that 11.2 is part of 11.1. Junzi here is used in its older sense of “privileged sons” or noble elites. Another reading holds that the contrast is generational, between a former time when simple-hearted sincerity counted for more than external show, and present days when performance matters more than character. Ideally, Confucius would like the true prince to exemplify a perfect balance between form and content, outer and inner, mutually enhancing. A11.2 Confucius said, “Those who were beside me when we were at grave risk between Cai and Chen are no longer studying with us.” A little more information about this incident appears in 15.1 and 15.2. The Shiji says that the group was on the Cai-Chen border when the southern state of Wu was attacking Chen. To rescue Chen, the state of Chu sent troops—and learned that Confucius was in the area. Zhao, king of Chu, wanted to invite Confucius for consultation. The rulers of 94

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Chen and Cai, lest Confucius’s knowledge and expertise be used against them, held him in custody until Chu secured his release. A11.3 For virtue there are Yan Yuan, Minzi Qian, Ran Boniu, and Zhonggong; for rhetoric, Zai Wo and Zigong; for government service, Ran You and Ji Lu [Zilu]; and for documents and literature, Ziyou and Zixia. A11.4 Confucius said, “Our Hui [Yan Yuan] is no help to me; he finds inspiration in everything I say.” A11.5 Confucius said, “How filial that Minzi Qian! No outsider takes exception to what his parents and siblings have to say of him.” A11.6 Confucius gave his elder brother’s daughter in marriage to Nan Rong, for he was ever repeating the lines about the white tablet. The lines are from number 256 in The Book of Song, “Da Ya: Yi.” The opening speaks of pairing demeanor with virtue (an inner quality), and read: “Flaws in jade can be smoothed away / flaws in speech are there to stay.” A11.7 Ji Kangzi asked, “Which of your disciples best loved learning?” Confucius replied, “There was Yan Hui [Yan Yuan]. It was a misfortune that his life was cut short in his youth. As for now, no one.” A11.8 Upon the death of Yan Yuan, his father, Yan Lu, appealed to Confucius to sell his carriage and purchase a casket to hold the smaller coffin. Confucius said, “One man’s son may be more gifted than another’s, but every father speaks for his own. When my Li died, we had only a wooden box but no casket to hold it. Was I to go on foot in order to get a casket for my son? When I have to proceed behind the high ministers, I should not have to do so on foot.” A11.9 On the death of Yan Yuan, Confucius said, “Heaven has bereft me of him, heaven has bereft me.” A11.10 For the death of Yan Yuan, Confucius wept sorely. His followers said, “The Master is so shaken.” Confucius said, “Am I ‘so shaken’? For whom then if not for this man?”

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A11.11 On the death of Yan Yuan, the students wanted to hold a lavish funeral. Confucius said, “Not acceptable.” The students did so, ignoring Confucius’s objection. Confucius said, “Hui [Yan Yuan] looked upon me as though I were his father, but I was unable to look upon him as my son—due to you, my dear disciples, not to me.” A11.12 Ji Lu [Zilu] asked how to serve the dead and the sacred spirits. Confucius said, “Before you are able to serve the living, what makes you think you can serve the dead?” Ji Lu said, “May I ask about the dead?” Confucius replied, “You have yet to understand the living, how can you understand the dead?” Is Zilu a member of the Jisun clan? Does his name, which contains lu, or road, suggest his companionship with Confucius when they traveled? His personal name, You, meaning “follow from” or “follow along” matches lu, following a common practice of matching the meanings of birth (ming) and attribute (zi) names. Confucius’s personal name is Qiu, which he uses for himself, but only an equal would call him Qiu; the word means “sunken (neglected) grave,” and the legend is that there was a depression on his skull. Qiu also means a small group of villages, perhaps surrounding a field or lake. A11.13 When beside Confucius, Minzi Qian was diplomatic in debate; Zilu was forward; Ran You and Zigong open and direct. Confucius was happy with them all, but said, “Our You [Zilu] here will not die naturally.” A11.14 The leaders of the state of Lu were repairing the storehouse of valuable items when Minzi Qian said, “Why not retain the traditional design? Why must we change it?” Confucius said, “He doesn’t say much but hits the mark when he does.” A11.15 Confucius said, “Why is our You [Zilu] playing his zither by my home gate?” Confucius’s followers lost respect for Zilu. Confucius said, “You here has made his way up to the hall but still has not entered its inner chambers.” A11.16 Zigong asked who was worthier, Shi [Zizhang] or Shang [Zixia]. Confucius said, “Shi goes too far, Shang falls short.”

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Zigong said, “So then Zizhang is superior?” Confucius replied, “Going too far is no better than falling short.” The middle path or zhongyong (“hitting the mark”; see 6.29 and 11.14) may be thought of as the midpoint between opposites, or as the correct timing of words or deeds. The routine exercise of such accurate judgment is yong. A11.17 The ruling clan of Lu, the Ji, led by Kangzi, was wealthier than the state’s founder, the lord of Zhou, yet [Ran] Qiu gathers the taxes for them, adding to their wealth. Confucius said, “He’s no student of mine. My disciples, I have no objection if you strike up the drums and assail him.” A11.18 Chai [Gao Zigao] is simple-hearted; Shen [Zengzi] slow to respond; Shi [Zizhang] one-sided; You [Zilu] gets overexcited. These are minor flaws in the followers of Confucius. A11.19 Confucius said, “Our Hui [Yan Yuan] here is basically complete, but he often suffers from poverty, while our Si [Zigong] does not acknowledge fate. His wealth reproduces and his speculations often strike the mark.” A11.20 Zizhang asked about the teachings that those with skills follow. Confucius said, “They do not follow the path of the wise, neither do they enter the inner chambers of wisdom.” A11.21 Confucius said, “If his judgments are consistently approved, is he a true prince or a well-constructed image?” A11.22 Zilu asked, “Shall I act on what I have learned?” Confucius replied, “How can you when your father and elder brothers are living?” Ran You asked the same question and Confucius simply answered, “Yes.” Gongxi Hua [Gong Zihua] said to Confucius, “You told Zilu he had elders to answer to, but told Ran Qiu [Ran You] to go right ahead. This has made me wonder. Please explain the difference.” Confucius said, “Our Qiu [Ran You] here is somewhat hesitant so I encouraged him, while Zilu works as hard as two men so I held him back.” A11.23 Confucius was taken into custody in Kuang. Yan Yuan was the last to reunite with Confucius, who said, “I thought you

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had died.” Yan Yuan said, “With you still alive, Master, would I ever?” A11.24 Jizi Ran asked, “Could Zhong You [Zilu] and Ran You [Ran Qiu] be considered great ministers?” Confucius replied, “I was thinking you would ask a different question, but since you have asked about You and Qiu—we consider a great minister one who serves his ruler according to our teachings and ideals, but leaves office if he is rejected. Now both You and Qiu we consider as adequate ministers.” Jizi Ran asked, “Are they compliant types then?” Confucius said, “They would balk at killing, if those they serve meant to kill their fathers or their rulers.” A11.25 Zilu arranged for Zigao to be governor in Bi. Confucius said, “He is doing an injustice to a man’s son.” Zilu replied, “There are people in Bi and the soil shrines to the ancestors as well [to be tended]. Why is one learned enough only after studying texts?” Confucius said, “You see why I despise those subtle sophists.” Thirty years younger than Confucius, Zigao may not have been ready to take office, in Confucius’s judgment. Confucius was strict on succession and appointment and may have been dismayed by a younger follower using the old myth opportunistically (see 11.1); see Sarah Allan, Buried Ideas. Zigao, like Zhonggong, is the title given to a recently discovered text about the Yao-Shun succession. Bi was a township in Lu and the Jisun clan stronghold. Yang Hu, a man who physically resembled Confucius, tried to capture it for the exiled Lord Zhao, but the attempt failed. A11.26 Zilu, Zeng Xi, Ran You, and Gongxi Hua were sitting in attendance beside Confucius, when he said to them, “Though I’m a day or two older than you, ignore my status. Now while we’ve been here together, you have said ‘We are not recognized.’ Suppose someone did recognize you, what would you choose to do [if appointed]?” Zilu impulsively spoke first, “A sizable state of a thousand chariots, under pressure from larger neighbors, under threat of foreign invasion plus hardship and famine at home—such a state I could govern so that within three years’ time I would instill courage in its people and they would come to know the meaning of right conduct.”

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Smiling broadly, Confucius turned to Ran You, saying, “And what have you to say, Qiu?” Ran You replied, “Give me a small state to govern, sixty or seventy li of land, even fifty or sixty— within three years I can make the people self-sufficient and on that basis prepare them for a true prince who will bring ritual and music, the arts of civilization.” Confucius then said, “Chi, what about you?” Gongxi Huai replied, “I can’t claim to be able to, but I am willing to learn. For the duties in the ancestral temple, or interstate conferences, I would don the ritual robe and cap, hoping to be of service as a humble aide.” Confucius turned to Zeng Xi and said, “And you, Dian, what about you?” All the while Zeng Xi had been strumming his zither; as the last notes were fading he set it down with a final plangent chord, and then rose to his feet saying, “I would choose differently from these three gentlemen.” Confucius said, “No matter. Each is telling his heartfelt ambition.” Zeng Xi then said, “In the last month of spring I’d put on my springtime gown and with half a dozen men and another half dozen youths, go to refresh body and soul in the River Yi, climb up onto the rainmaker’s viewing stand to savor the views and breezes, and after that, back home singing all the way.” Confucius said, “So I am minded myself.” The three disciples departed. Zeng Xi stayed behind and asked, “What do you have to say about the three gentlemen?” Confucius replied, “They were only expressing their innermost thoughts.” Zeng Xi continued, “Why were you grinning at You [Zilu] then?” Confucius said, “Because in governing one must observe ritual formalities, yet in speaking he did not yield priority—that’s the reason.” Zeng Xi said, “I see—and for Qiu? Is that a real governing role?” Confucius said, “Whoever saw a land of some fifty or sixty li that wasn’t a state?” Zeng Xi said, “I see— and for Chi? Is that a real governing role?” Confucius said, “Ancestral temple services, interstate conferences—these are for the feudal lords, whom else? With Chi in a smaller role? Who would play a greater one?” Zeng Xi is Zengzi’s father.

Book Twelve Yan Yuan asked about Ren . . .

A12.1 Yan Yuan asked about humankindness and Confucius replied, “Self-control and turning back to the path of traditional ritual is the way to practice humankindness. The day the ruler does so the whole realm of states will tender allegiance for that alone. Conclusively speaking, does the practice of humankindness originate from within the self or from outside, from others?” Yan Yuan said, “May I venture to ask the key points?” Confucius said, “Never regard whatever violates ritual, nor listen to it, nor speak of it, nor act upon it.” Yan Yuan said, “Though lacking the aptitude I aspire to dedicate myself to these words.” Humankindness is realized through the self-to-other dynamic, as explained in 6.28 to Zhonggong. Ritual begins with self-discipline and then applies outwardly to all relations with others. The integrity and dynamism of the ruler’s character is central to Confucian political theory, and is opposed by the legalists, who emphasize law and external incentives. A12.2 Zhonggong asked about humankindness and Confucius replied, “In your official capacity act as if receiving honored guests; minister to the common people as if officiating at the ancestral sacrifices. Do not act toward others as you would not have them act toward you. Then none in your state nor your household will complain.” To this Zhonggong replied, “Though I 100

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lack the aptitude for this, I aspire to dedicate myself to your words.” Again, political administration and ritual formalities are linked through Ren. The implication of “minister to the common people as if officiating at a sacrifice” is that the familial circle should ceremonially widen to include the entire population, often in later texts called the children of the rulers. This is the universal aspiration of humankindness. A12.3 Sima Niu asked about humankindness and Confucius replied, “The humane are reserved when they speak.” Sima Niu replied, “Reserved when they speak? Is that the meaning of humankindness?” Confucius replied, “How difficult it is to match deeds to words. Can one not be reserved in speaking?” A12.4 Yan Yuan and Sima Niu asked about the true prince. Confucius said, “The true prince does not get anxious or agitated.” Sima Niu said, “Neither anxious nor agitated? Is that what you mean by the true prince?” Confucius replied, “When he looks within himself and finds no cause for remorse, what would make him anxious or agitated?” A12.5 In an anxious mood Sima Niu said, “Other men, except me, have brothers; I have none.” Zixia said, “Death and birth have their fixed time; wealth and status rest with heaven. The true prince respects ancestral tradition and commits no misdeeds. In his interactions with others he is self-effacing and keeps to ritual and thus can find brothers in every corner of the realm. Why should having no blood brothers distress the true prince?” A12.6 To Zizhang’s question about clarity of mind, Confucius replied, “If insidious slander or superficial accusations get nowhere with a man, that may be called clarity of mind. Slander and accusation getting nowhere with him means keeping them far away. Of this I am more than certain.” A12.7 Zigong asked Confucius about the right way to govern. He replied, “Ensure sufficient food and defense, and that the

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people trust the leadership.” Zigong said, “If one of these three conditions cannot be met, which would you first give up?” Confucius said, “Defense.” Zigong asked again, “And which of the remaining two would you give up?” Confucius said, “Food. The people have always suffered death, but if they lack trust in the leader he will fall.” A12.8 Jizi Cheng said, “The true prince needs only a solid moral foundation; what is a cultured exterior good for?” Zigong replied, “How unfortunate, my good sir, your understanding of the true prince. But the tongue outruns a horse-drawn chariot. The inward man and the outward man resemble and define each other, but a skinned tiger resembles a skinned sheep or dog. A12.9 Lord Ai of Lu asked You Ruo, “In a year when food is scarce and resources lacking, how do I manage?” You Ruo answered, “Why not reduce taxes to one-tenth?” The lord said, “Two-tenths is already too little, how can I manage with one?” You Ruo replied, “If the people have enough, how can you yourself not have enough? If the people do not have enough, how can you yourself have enough?” A12.10 Zizhang asked how to win high regard for virtue and distinguish truth from falsehood. Confucius replied, “Above all with undeviating commitment and trustworthiness; always go with what is right and just, and your virtue will be highly regarded. Whom [a ruler] favors he first wants to live, but then, loathing him, wants him dead. Now he wishes him alive, now dead. His thinking is confused. As the song goes, ‘Truly from this no fortune comes, only deviance from the norm.’ ” A rejected wife speaks the closing line, about a fickle ruler replacing a wife, in The Book of Songs, ; here she represents a minister discarded for another minister. In the poem’s title, “Xiao Ya: Wo xing qi ye” or “I walk on the outside,” the word ye (outside) may refer to the world outside the court. Zizhang is forty-eight years younger than Confucius and tends to ask large, somewhat sophomoric questions. A12.11 Lord Jing of the state of Qi asked Confucius about governing correctly. Confucius replied, “If the ruler rules well, so his

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ministers will serve; if the father is fatherly, the sons will be filial.” The lord said, “Well put! And if the ruler misrules, the ministers will not minister; if the father is no father, the sons won’t be good sons. And though I have millet from the grain tax, how can I enjoy it?” A12.12 Confucius said, “Taking but a few words to settle a dispute in court, isn’t You [Zilu] here the one who could do that? Zilu never waited until tomorrow to fulfill a promise.” A12.13 Confucius said, “In hearing cases in court I am no better than anyone else. What we need is to put an end to having court cases.” A12.14 Zizhang asked about governing correctly. Confucius said, “Never relax in the office you hold, and act with undeviating commitment.” A12.15 Confucius said, “A true prince studies widely from the various writings, but strictly disciplines himself by ritual formalities. And by these means he may generally commit no offenses.” A12.16 Confucius said, “A true prince brings out the best in others, lesser men bring out the worst.” A12.17 Ji Kangzi asked Confucius about governing. Confucius replied, “Governing correctly means rectification. Lead with self-rectification and who will not act correctly?” Ji Kangzi was the leading minister in Lu. A12.18 Ji Kangzi was troubled by banditry and asked advice from Confucius, who said, “What you yourself do not desire, the bandits would not steal either, even if you rewarded them.” A12.19 Ji Kangzi asked Confucius about correct governing: “What about putting to death the wrongdoers and holding close those who act rightly?” Confucius replied as follows: “In governing, what’s the use of taking life? If you, sir, desire what is good and decent, then the people will be good and decent. For the character of a true prince is like the wind and the character of

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the lesser folk is like grass, which bows under the force of the wind.” A12.20 Zizhang asked, “What would success mean for a government official in service?” Confucius replied, “How do you define success?” Zizhang answered, “He must be distinguished in his dukedom as well as in his clan.” Confucius said, “That’s distinction, not success. As for what we mean by success, the successful official embraces justice because his character is upright; he reads the expressions of men having examined what they say; he has the humility to put others above himself because he reflects thoughtfully. And so he is successful in his dukedom and in his clan. As for distinction, he adopts the guise of humanity but his conduct departs from humanity, playing his role with self assurance. He will be distinguished in his dukedom and in his clan, without fail.” A12.21 Accompanying Confucius on an excursion below the rainmaking platform, Fan Chi said, “May I ask how to have virtue honored, how to deal with covert motives, and how to sort out confused thinking?” Confucius replied, “A great question! The right step to take comes first; the final result comes last. Is that not how to make virtue honored? To question one’s own misdeeds, not those of others, is that not how to deal with covert motives? To put one’s self and even one’s kinsmen at risk to satisfy a passing indignation, is that not confused thinking?” A12.22 Fan Chi asked about humankindness. Confucius said, “Hold others dear.” Fan Chi asked about knowledge, and Confucius said, “Understand others.” When Fan Chi sought further explanation, Confucius said, “Raise the just to office to check the unjust, and you can straighten the unjust out.” On leaving, Fan Chi encountered Zixia, to whom he said, “A while ago I asked our Master about knowledge, and he replied, ‘Promote the just to check the unjust, and you can make them just.’ What do you think he meant?” Zixia replied, “These words have great value. When Shun held the realm under heaven he scoured the population and found Gao Yao, whom he raised to office, and those with no humankindness fled far away. And when Tang held the

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realm he scoured the population and found Yi Yin, whom he raised to office, and those with no humankindness fled far away.” In this passage the junzi model is enhanced with a legendary heredity. The legend that Shun yielded his throne to Great Yu is not mentioned, probably because Confucius (or the Analects editors) held hereditary succession essential to stable government, but neither wanted heredity to dominate appointments to office. Thus Shun is hailed only for his good judgment in appointing for merit and nothing else. The abdication myths are not in The Analects. A12.23 Zigong asked about friendship. Confucius said, “Offer loyal counsel and well-meant guidance, but desist if refused, lest you disgrace yourself.” A12.24 Zengzi said, “A true prince maintains friendships through arts and culture and with those friendships maintains humankindness.”

Book Thirteen Zilu asked about governing . . .

A13.1 Zilu asked about correct governing. Confucius said, “Set examples before them and reward their toil.” Zilu asked for more. “Unceasingly,” Confucius answered. A13.2 As chief minister to the Ji clan, Zhonggong asked about correct governing. Confucius said, “Set an example for the office holders; forgive minor offenses; elevate the worthy.” Zhonggong asked, “How am I to recognize men worth elevating?” Confucius said, “Elevate the ones whom you know; would others overlook those whom you do not know?” A13.3 Zilu told Confucius, “The ruler of Wei awaits you to assist in his government. What would you do first?” Confucius replied, “The correct use of language is imperative, no?” Zilu said, “That is your first step? Quite a deviation for you, Master. Why the correction of language?” Confucius said, “How impetuous you are, You [Zilu]. A true prince holds judgment in abeyance concerning things he does not understand. If terms are not correct then statements are not coherent, and if statements are not coherent, then undertakings will not come to fruition, and if undertakings do not come to fruition, then culture and ritual will not thrive, and if culture and ritual do not thrive, then rules and punishments will not be just and true, and if rules and punishments are not just and true, then the common folk will be at a loss how to conduct their lives. These are the very reasons why the terms that 106

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a true prince uses must form coherent statements, and those statements must be realizable in action. In his statements a true prince is never careless or evasive—and that’s all there is to it!” A13.4 Fan Chi proposed learning how to farm. Confucius said, “You can learn that better from an old farmer than from me.” He proposed learning horticulture, and Confucius said, “Better to learn that from an old gardener.” After Fan Chi left, Confucius said, “A lesser sort, our Fan Chi. If the authorities favor ritual, then the common folk without exception will respect it; if the authorities favor what is just and right, then the common folk will submit to them without exception. If the authorities favor being trustworthy, then the common folk without exception will be devoted to them. These are the measures that will draw people from all over the realm to your state, carrying their children on their backs. So what does Fan Chi need to learn farming for?” A13.5 Confucius said, “However much an official may know from declaiming the three hundred Songs, should he fail his assigned home duties, or prove unable to reply aptly when abroad, to what use can he put his knowledge?” A13.6 Confucius said, “If his character is upright, his subordinates will act accordingly without being commanded. If his character is not upright, though he issue commands they will not be followed.” A13.7 Confucius said, “Politically speaking, Lu and Wei are fraternal states.” The founder of Wei was Kang Shu, a brother of the lord of Zhou, founder of Lu. A13.8 Speaking of Jing, one of the sons of the lord of Wei, Confucius said, “To start with he built a secure household, saying, ‘It seems I have provided.’ As his circumstances improved he said, ‘It seems our work has succeeded.’ When he became wealthy he said, ‘It seems an excellent outcome.’ ” Jing is one of the lord’s sons (gongzi), but not the heir son (shizi). Confucius admires the simple lifestyle of a privileged scion in a culture otherwise descending into greed and self-indulgence in Wei and in Lu.

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A13.9 Traveling in the dukedom of Wei, Confucius said to Ran You, his driver, “How the population here has grown!” Ran You said, “Now that their numbers have grown, what should be done next to benefit them?” Confucius said, “Enable them to prosper.” Ran You continued, “And after that?” Confucius said, “Education.” A13.10 Confucius said, “If only a ruler would appoint me, within a year at most he would approve my reforms, and within three my reforms would succeed.” A13.11 Confucius said, “If capable men were to govern a state for a century, by and large that would be time enough to overcome brutality and put an end to killing. How true these words!” A13.12 Confucius said, “Were a true king to rule, humankindness would hold sway within a generation.” A13.13 Confucius said, “So long as one has corrected his character nothing should keep him from serving in government, but if one cannot correct his character how is he supposed to correct others?” A13.14 Ranzi [Ran You, Ran Qiu] was leaving court when Confucius said to him, “Why so late coming out?” He replied, “On official business.” Confucius said, “Routine matters rather. If it were official business I should have been involved even though I do not hold office now.” A13.15 Lord Ding of Lu asked, “Is there one simple formula for a state to prosper?” Confucius answered, “No one formula can work such a quick change, but rulers have said, ‘The ruler’s role is so difficult, and those serving him don’t have it easy either.’ Whoever knows this much is getting fairly close to the one formula that should make the state prosper.” The lord then said, “Is there one formula that would doom a state?” Confucius replied, “No one formula can work such a quick change, but rulers have said, ‘I take no delight in ruling. I have only to speak and no one goes against me.’ If the ruler is good and no one goes against him, is that not good? But if the ruler is no good and no one goes against him, is that not getting close to the one formula that dooms the state?”

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A13.16 The lord of She asked Confucius about correct government; he replied, “Those close by are inspired, those farther off are moved to come.” A13.17 When Zixia was in charge of Jufu, he asked about correct government. Confucius said, “Do not act in haste nor look for small gains. Haste will not bring success; watching for small gains ruins major tasks.” A13.18 Conversing with Confucius, the lord of She said, “In our community there is a just man. His father stole a sheep and the son gave evidence of it to the authorities.” Confucius said, “The just in our community are quite different. A father will cover for his son, and the son for his father, and to my mind in this there is justice.” Confucius holds fast to the solidarity of the family over the authority of the government. A13.19 Fan Chi asked about humankindness. Confucius said, “At home maintain humility, handling business with respect for ritual formalities, and in all dealings be undeviatingly committed to loyalty. Even if you go to the uncultured nations, never abandon these injunctions.” Ritual formalities bring humankindness to actual life. This is the symbiosis of Li and Ren. See 12.1. A13.20 Zigong asked Confucius, “How does one merit the name of government servant?” Confucius said, “Conducting himself mindful of shame and dishonor; sent as an emissary to other states, never disgracing his ruler’s command; this entitles a man to be called a government servant.” Zigong then asked, “May I know what comes next?” Confucius said, “In his ancestral clan he is regarded as filial, in his village community he is regarded as fraternal.” Zigong said, “And may I ask what comes next?” Confucius said, “Lesser men plod along, sticking to their business, keeping their word, producing results.” Zigong said, “And as for those currently in service?” Confucius said, “Small-minded bean counters, not worth our reckoning.”

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Shi is the word Ziong and Confucius use here for a mid- or lower-level government servant; it is listed fourth in a Zuozhuan hierarchy of authorities (Lord Zhao 7). Junzi is not on the list. See 1.1. A13.21 Confucius said, “Having failed to find true moderates to work with, I have to settle for the zealous and the hesitant. The former will forge ahead and obtain results, and the latter will know what they should not do.” A13.22 Confucius said, “The southerners have a saying, ‘No one lacking a steady mind should practice shamanic healing.’ Well said, that! Whoever is unsteady in virtue will somehow incur humiliation.” Confucius added, “No need for shamanic divination—no more needs be said!” Confucius is quoting hexagram 32 of The Book of Changes (Yijing), heng, or steadiness of mind; he praises the qualification but not its purpose. A13.23 Confucius said, “A true prince harmonizes with diverse kinds but does not identify with them. Lesser men identify only with their own but do not harmonize with others.” See 1.12 for ritual (Li) as essential for harmony, and 2.14 for the true prince’s ability to relate to various sorts of men. Confucius is defending the true prince against the rising shi caste of government servants, who follow orders. This is the first occurrence of junzi in book 13. A13.24 Zigong asked Confucius, “What if the whole community approves?” Confucius said, “Not good enough.” Zigong said, “And if the community disapproves?” Confucius replied, “Not good enough. Better if the honorable members approve and the dishonorable disapprove.” A13.25 Confucius said, “It’s easy to work for a true prince but difficult to gain his favor, which if improperly attempted will only displease him. When it comes to selecting men to work for him, he judges their fitness. It’s difficult to work for a lesser man but easy to gain his favor, which if improperly attempted will succeed. When selecting men to work for him, he demands far more than they are capable of.”

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A13.26 Confucius said, “A true prince has dignified authority without arrogance; lesser men are arrogant without dignified authority. A13.27 Confucius said, “The unyielding, the intrepid, the plain, and the reserved are not far from humankindness.” A13.28 Zilu asked, “How does one merit the name of government servant?” Confucius replied, “Vitally engaged, mutually critical, and gentle-hearted—vitally engaged and mutually critical with friends and colleagues, gentle-hearted with brothers.” A13.29 Confucius said, “With capable men instructing the people, after seven years, generally speaking, the people should be ready to take up arms.” A13.30 Confucius said, “To fight a war for which the people have had no instruction to prepare them is to abandon them.”

Book Fourteen Xian asked about shame . . .

A14.1 Answering [Yuan] Xian’s question about shame, Confucius said, “Whether the state is on the right path or the wrong path, it is shameful to be minding one’s allotment.” A14.2 Xian then asked, “Violence and aggression, exaggeration and self-promotion, grievances and grudges, greed and lust—if these make no headway, could that be acting according to humankindness?” Confucius said, “Difficult enough to do, all right, but humankindness? I’m not so sure.” Legge combines 14.1 and 14.2. Xian is called Zisi in the Shiji citation of this passage; he may not be the same Zisi to whom the Zhongyong is attributed. A14.3 Confucius said, “Holding office yet craving security— that’s not how a man worthy to serve in government behaves.” A14.4 Confucius said, “When government takes the right path, speak and act despite the risk; when government takes the wrong path, act despite the risk but speak tactfully.” A14.5 Confucius said, “Those with virtue will surely give voice to it, but those who give it voice do not necessarily have it. Those who are humane are sure to be courageous; those with courage are not sure to be humane.” 112

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A14.6 Nangong Guo [Nan Rong] asked Confucius, “Yi was a superb archer, and Ao could navigate a boat, but both died before their time. Great Yu and Hou Ji bent body and soul to the tasks of farming, and in time came into possession of the realm under heaven.” Confucius made no answer. But after Nangong Guo had left, he said, “A true prince—that man! He puts virtue above all else—that man.” Presumably Nangong Guo’s emphasizing virtue over a specific skill pleased Confucius. A14.7 Confucius said, “There is such a thing as a true prince who is not humane, surely; but there is no such thing as lesser men who are humane.” A14.8 Confucius said, “Can you refrain from tasking hard those you cherish? Can you refrain from instructing those you are committed to?” A14.9 Confucius said, “The decrees [of the state of Zheng] were drafted by Bi Chen, questioned and discussed with Shi Shu; Ziyu of interstate affairs edited them, and their final polishing was done by Zichan of Dongli.” A14.10 Someone asked Confucius about Zichan, and he replied, “Sympathetic.” The questioner asked about Zixi, and Confucius replied, “Him! You mention him!” Then he asked about Guan Zhong, and Confucius replied, “He was humane: the Bo clan was deprived of three hundred families of the Bian settlement, reducing them to eating beans. Yet their whole lives they held no grievance against him.” The text has ren, or human, not Ren, or humane. Some scholars say the latter should be understood based on 14.17 below; others interpret ren as rencai, meaning “talented in a field” or “talented in contributing to society,” which seems to fit Guan Zhong better than “humane.” Confucius is quoted in the Xunzi rating Zichan below Guan Zhong (see 5.15). A14.11 Confucius said, “It’s quite difficult to be poor and uncomplaining, easy enough to be rich and without arrogance.”

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A14.12 Confucius said, “Meng Gongchuo would excel as a senior councilor in the clans of Zhao or Wei, but not as a high steward in the minor states of Teng or Xue.” The high steward (daifu) is third in the hierarchy of authorities, lower than lord (gong), higher than government servant (shi). A14.13 Zilu asked about the achieved man. Confucius said, “With the wisdom of a Zang Wuzhong, the restraint of desire of a Gongchuo, the courage of a Bian Zhuangzi, the skills of a Ran Qiu, all culturally mediated through the ritual formalities and the musical arts—such might constitute an achieved man.” Zilu replied, “Why need these standards define the achieved man of our times? Is he not an achieved man whose mind turns to what is right and just in the presence of gain, who will risk his life in the presence of danger, who under sustained duress does not forget his long-standing commitments?” Zang Wuzhong was an adviser to Lord Xiang of Lu and had a reputation for clever solutions to political and military problems. He sided with the ruling house against the Three Huan, but ran afoul of the Mengsun clan leader and had to take refuge in Qi after trying to exchange Fang, which he held in fee, for an official position for his son. Confucius was born at this time, in 552 or 551 BC. Zilu advocates for traits over exemplars; Confucius wants both (see 6.16). Meng Gongchuo and Bian Zhuangzi were daifu (clan stewards) in Lu. A14.14 Confucius asked Gongming Jia whether Gongshu Wenzi in fact did not speak, laugh, or accept gifts. Gongming Jia replied, “I’d say the reports are wrong. My master spoke, but only at the right time, and no one was displeased; he laughed, but only when there was reason to, and no one was displeased; he accepted gifts, but only if fitting, and no one was displeased.” Confucius said, “Is that so? Could it really be so?” A14.15 Confucius said, “Zang Zhongwu used his control of Fang to petition for his sons to be placed in the state of Lu. You may say he did not coerce the lord [of Lu] if you like, but I don’t believe it.” Fang was a township near the dukedom of Qi, to which Zang fled afterwards. Lu and Qi were at odds at the time. Zang fled to Qi

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after failing to exchange his holding, Fang, for positions for his sons in Lu. A14.16 Confucius said, “Lord Wen of the state of Jin was devious and not upright; Lord Huan of Qi was upright and not devious.” A14.17 Zilu said, “Lord Huan saw [his own brother] Jiu killed [by Lu]. Shao Hu chose to die with him; Guan Zhong did not. Does Guan Zhong fall short of the epithet humane?” Confucius replied, “That Lord Huan united the lords of the realm without resort to military action was due to the work of Guan Zhong. This comes close to humankindness, very close.” The story concerns a succession crisis in the state of Qi, neighbor to Lu and provider of wives to Lu’s lords. When Lord Xiang of Qi died in 686 BC, his elder brother, Jiu, fled to Lu with Guan Zhong, his mentor and supporter of his status as the rightful lord of Qi. Jiu’s younger brother, Xiaobai (later Lord Huan, d. 643 BC), fled elsewhere. When Xiang’s successor, Wuzhi, was killed, the lord of Lu attacked Qi, attempting to put Jiu on the throne of Qi. Lu’s attack failed, and the rival brothers raced back to Qi. Then Bao Shuya, Xiaobai’s tutor and supporter for lordship of Qi, counterattacked with forces from Qi and defeated Lu. To block Xiaobai and protect Jiu, Guan Zhong tried to assassinate Xiaobai, and Guan Zhong and Jiu were both placed in the custody of the defeated Lu leaders. Bao demanded that Lu execute Jiu but return Guan Zhong to Qi. Recognizing Guan Zhong’s exceptional talents, Bao recommended that Xiaobai, now Lord Huan, make him prime minister. Guan Zhong’s strategic and administrative talents helped Lord Huan of Qi to exercise authority over the other lords, thus bringing Qi closer to the royal Zhou ideal of uniting the dukedoms or states (guo) under heaven (tianxia) as a virtuous son of heaven (tianzi). Thus Lord Huan’s forgiveness for the assassination attempt served him well in the end, as did Bao Shuya’s generous advice and shrewd judgment. A14.18 Young Master Gong said, “Wouldn’t you say Guan Zhong is in no way humane? Lord Huan had Lu kill his own elder brother, Jiu, whom he had failed to defend unto death, and Guan Zhong went on to serve Lord Huan as prime minister.” Confucius said, “During Guan’s ministry Qi became overlord of the

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regional lords, creating a framework that brought order to the realm under heaven, benefiting the people to this day. If not for Guan Zhong we would probably be letting our hair hang loose and fastening our coats on the left [in the manner of primitive tribes]. Do you expect him to have the same bond of sympathy as an ordinary married couple, who might do themselves in and lie unknown forever in a roadside ditch? Here loyalty to the wise ruler takes precedence over family values, especially ti, or devotion to an elder brother. The ba role that Qi assumes, here “overlord” or hegemon, may be compared to that of the shogun, a kind of military regent who protects a royal sovereign. A14.19 The clan steward [Yuan] Xian, in service to Gongshu Wenzi, went up before the lord in his master’s company. Hearing of this Confucius said, “His name, Wen [cultured], fits him well.” A14.20 Confucius spoke of Lord Ling of Wei as a ruler who took the wrong path; Kangzi asked, “In that case, why does he retain power?” Confucius replied, “Zhongshu Yu takes charge of visiting dignitaries, Tuo, the seer, is in charge of the ancestral temple, Wangsun Jia is in charge of the armed forces. With such men in his service, how could he lose power?” A14.21 Confucius said, “Words spoken without caution will prove difficult to act upon.” A14.22 Chen Chengzi of Qi killed his ruler, Lord Jian of Qi. Confucius came out of retirement, took a ceremonial bath, and went before Lord Ai of Lu, to whom he said, “Chen has committed regicide, I appeal to you to order a punitive expedition.” Lord Ai said, “Report it to those three clan leaders [Jisun, Shusun, and Mengsun].” Confucius said, “Since entering service I have never failed to report to my sovereign, who now tells me to report to the three clan leaders!” Confucius went to them and reported the murder. They declined to act. Confucius said, “Since undertaking service I have never failed to report.” Confucius may have hoped that Lord Ai would regain control of the Lu military from the three clan leaders. The event is dated in other sources to 481 BC. Chen Chengzi is also known as Tian Heng and Tian Chang.

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A14.23 Zilu asked how to serve a ruler. Confucius said, “Never deceive, but do confront.” A14.24 Confucius said, “The true prince advances ever higher, lesser men descend ever lower.” A14.25 Confucius said, “Learning in olden times was for one’s own sake, today it’s for the sake of others.” A14.26 Qu Boyu [an official in Wei] sent a representative to Confucius. During their conference Confucius asked him, “What is your master doing now?” The representative replied, “My master seeks to reduce his faults but has not yet been able to do so.” After the represen­­tative had left, Confucius said, “What a representative! What a representative!” A14.27 Confucius said, “If one does not hold the position one does not proffer counsel regarding its policies.” A14.28 Zengzi said, “The true prince does not think of exceeding his place.” Legge combines 14.27 and 14.28. A14.29 Confucius said, “The true prince outdoes himself in action while remaining self-conscious in speaking.” A14.30 Confucius said, “On the path of the true prince there are three challenges that I am unable to meet: the humane do not agonize; the wise do not get confused; the courageous do not panic.” Zigong said, “And that is your very own path.” A14.31 Zigong liked comparing himself to others. Confucius said, “So our Si [Zigong] is a worthy now? As for me, I have no time for this.” A14.32 Confucius said, “Being unrecognized never troubles me; what troubles me is what I cannot do.” A14.33 Confucius said, “Neither anticipating deceit, nor assuming bad faith, but ever alert in good time—this marks a worthy man.” A14.34 Weisheng Mou said to Confucius, “My dear Qiu, why are you always flitting hither and thither? Are you turning into one

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of those subtle sophists?” Confucius replied, “Would I ever dare to? It’s just that I find rigidity so hateful.” A14.35 Confucius said, “The stallion is acclaimed for its excellence, not its strength.” A14.36 Someone said, “What about answering ill will with kindness?” Confucius said, “Then how will you answer kindness? Answer ill will with justice, kindness with kindness.” A14.37 Confucius said, “No one recognizes us!” Zigong said, “Why makes you say ‘No one recognizes us,’ Master?” Confucius said, “With no ill will toward heaven, without blaming others, we advance upward as we study the world below; might not heaven recognize us?” A14.38 Gongbo Liao made accusations to Jisun against Zilu, which Zifu Jingbo reported to Confucius: “Though our Master Jisun has been misled by Gongbo Liao, I still have the power to have Liao executed and his corpse exposed publicly.” Confucius said, “Whether our teachings and ideals are to be put into practice or discarded is a matter of fate. Gongbo Liao can do nothing about fate in either case.” Confucius is resigned to fate; what hot-tempered Zilu would want may be imagined given Confucius’s feelings about the Jisun usurpation. A14.39 Confucius said, “Some worthies forgo the world, others their land, some forgo appearing openly, others forgo speaking.” He added, “Seven men have done this.” Though unnamed, these seven might include the following worthies who are mentioned in the text as having withdrawn from service: the virtuous brothers Bo Yi and Shu Qi (5.22, 7.14, 16.12, 18.8); Jie Ni, Chang Zu, and their fellow recluse (18.5, 18.6, 18.7); Yuzhong, Yiyi, Zhuzhang, and Shaolian (18.8); and Liu Xiahui (15.4, 18.2, 18.8). A14.40 When Zilu was spending the night at Stonegate, the gateman asked, “Whom do you come from?” Zilu replied, “From the home of Confucius.” And the gateman said, “You mean the one who keeps trying to do what he knows cannot be done?”

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A14.41 While in Wei, as Confucius was striking the stone chimes a man shouldering a basket passed his front gate and said, “Played with such conviction.” And then added, “But so undistinguished, the music, plodding along [as if to say], ‘No one knows me.’ So then be done with it, for good. ‘In deep water why lift one’s robe, as one does in shallow water?’ ” Confucius said, “He seems quite convinced. No way to rebuke him.” Presumably the unnamed passerby is one of the learned recluses who thinks Confucius is wasting his time reforming the rulers of a degenerate age (in deep water why bother trying to stay dry?). Citing an air from “Bei” a song in The Songs (“Gourds Have Bitter Leaves”), he mocks Confucius’s use of the poems in education and diplomacy as well as his humane concern for others. The poem he quotes ends with the poet refusing to cross the water as others are doing, because he is waiting for a friend. The implied reference may be to the state of Wei, fraternal to Lu, which was Confucius’s best hope for reform, but whose ruler was too old and tired to take a chance on appointing Confucius. In 3.24 someone says that heaven will use Confucius as its bell to proclaim a righteous law. This passage indirectly evokes that more encouraging moment in his life. A14.42 Zizhang said, “The Book of Documents says ‘Gaozong resided in obscurity to observe the mourning rituals for his emperor and father, and kept silent for three years.’ What does this mean?’ Confucius said, “No need to single out Gaozong. All the men of olden times did no less. When the ruler passed away, all his officials performed their tasks pursuant to the orders of the Minister of the Burial Mound.” The Minister of the Burial Mound was a surrogate for the spirit of the deceased ruler. While the royal successor observed ritual mourning for an imperial father, the title made the regent equivalent to a representative of the deceased ruler, another early Zhou ritual that Confucius upheld. The title itself continued to be used into the imperial period. In Confucius’s time, ritual mourning was often scanted. A14.43 Confucius said, “When those in authority favor ritual, the people are easily managed.”

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A14.44 Zilu asked about the true prince. Confucius said, “Develop one’s self in order to show reverence.” Zilu said, “No more than this?” Confucius said, “Develop one’s self to make others secure.” Zilu said, “No more than this?” Confucius said, “Develop one’s self to make the clans of the realm secure—that’s something that troubled even Yao and Shun.” See note to 12.22. A14.45 Yuan Rang was sitting on his heels. Confucius said, “To be young and not defer to a senior; as an adult to leave no legacy; in old age to be still living—how troublesome.” Confucius then struck him on the leg with his walking stick. Yuan Rang’s pose was offensive to ritual and provocative rather than deferential and contained. A14.46 A young man from the community at Que was serving as Confucius’s assistant. Someone asked, “Is he improving?” Confucius said, “I have seen him sitting in a seat reserved for his elders, and walking alongside instead of behind them. He’s not seeking improvement, only rushing to complete his tutelage.”

Book Fifteen Lord Ling asked about marshaling troops . . .

A15.1 Lord Ling of Wei asked Confucius about marshaling troops. Confucius replied, “I have learned something about rituals that use utensils for animal sacrifice, but I have never studied military exercises.” The following day Confucius departed. Zudou, the “utensils for animal sacrifice,” a carving board and crock for holding flesh, later became an idiom for exploiting a helpless victim. Does Confucius’s reference have a similar import? Or is this passage the origin of the idiom? Legge combines 15.1 and 15.2 into a single passage. A15.2 In the state of Chen, Confucius’s followers fell ill when the food grains were used up and none could recover. An angry Zilu confronted Confucius, asking, “Must even a true prince suffer such privation?” Confucius said, “A true prince endures privation; lesser men suffering privation lose all discipline.” A15.3 Confucius said, “My dear Si [Zigong], you regard me as cognizant of the wide variety of things I have studied?” Zigong replied, “Is it not so?” Confucius said, “No. A single thing connects them all.” A15.4 Confucius said, “My dear You [Zilu], few indeed are those who recognize virtue.” 121

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Presumably the “single thing” of 15.3 is here revealed as de, or virtue, the quality of character that puts all values into effect in the real world. Earlier the “one thing” was commitment-and-compassion (4.15). A15.5 Confucius said, “May we not say that Shun exemplifies governing with a minimum of actions? How so? He humbled himself as he assumed the south-facing seat of authority, and that was all he had to do.” Subject to the authority of a sage and virtuous ruler, the officials and the people will act properly, facing north, because they know that such a ruler occupies the throne. The unmoving mover-ruler also appears in 2.1 as the north star. A15.6 Zizhang asked about a man of effective action. Confucius said, “In speech true and trustworthy, in action consistently conscientious. And even in the uncultured statelets north or south he will be effective. Otherwise, if his speech is untrue and untrustworthy, his actions not consistently conscientious, even in familiar territory would he be effective? Walking, mark these words as if they stood before you; riding, mark them resting on the carriage’s front crossbar—before taking any action mark them.” Zizhang transcribed the words on his belt. An example of a follower writing down Confucius’s words, presumably the material for the compilation of The Analects. A15.7 Confucius said, “How just the historian Yu is! Straight as an arrow, whether the state is on the right path or the wrong. And what a true prince Qu Boyu! Serving when the state was on the right path, but withdrawing into himself when it was on the wrong path, still nurturing his ideals.” Yu and Qu Boyu are the two notables of the state of Wei whom Confucius most admired. Confucius had high hopes for reforming Wei, and so leaving the state was a great disappointment.’ A15.8 Confucius said, “Why give up on someone you can talk to? Why bother talking to someone you can’t. Men of judgment neither fail the man nor waste their words.”

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A15.9 Confucius said, “A committed officer and a humane man will not violate humankindness to save themselves, and have been known to sacrifice themselves to fulfill humankindness.” A15.10 Zigong asked about humane action. Confucius said, “A workman must hone his implements to perfect his work. Wherever you may reside serve under worthy high ministers and associate with government servants who are humane.” See 4.1 on surrounding yourself with the humane; 1.15 on the honing of the true prince’s character. A15.11 When Yan Yuan asked about governing, Confucius said, “Accord with the seasons of the Xia calendar, ride in the royal carriage of the Yin, don the coronet of the Zhou; as for court music, let it be the chorus and dance forms of Shao. Banish the sound of the songs of Zheng, and keep the subtle sophists distant: the Zheng songs are seductive and the sophists endanger the state.” As in 2.23, Confucius advocates maintaining the long continuity of the present with the past. A15.12 Confucius said, “Those who do not think through remoter outcomes will surely find trouble closing in on them.” A15.13 Confucius said, “What hope is there now?! For I have yet to find those for whom virtue is as appealing as its semblance.” A15.14 Confucius said, “Is not Zang Wenzhong an example of misappropriating a position? He knew the worth of Liu Xiahui but refused to grant him one.” Active in the late seventh century, Zang Wenzhong held office in Lu as Minister of Justice. Comparison to Winston Churchill would not be out of place. He served four lords of Lu, from Zhuang to Wen, and made major contributions to them in diplomacy and defense. But Confucius cannot forgive even so eminent a servant of Lu for bypassing Liu Xiahui, who is discussed in book 18. A15.15 Confucius said, “Whoever tasks himself hard, but asks little of others will keep ill will far away.”

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A15.16 Confucius said, “I’ve never been able to deal with those who keep saying, ‘How do I deal with this? How do I deal with this?’ ” A15.17 Confucius said, “In a daylong gathering if the conversation does not touch on questions of right and wrong, and only pursues trivial considerations, it’s a sure sign of trouble!” A15.18 Confucius said, “What is right and just is a firm foundation, but ritual formality is needed to put it into effect, then tact to present it and good faith to complete it. And that is how a true prince does things.” A15.19 Confucius said, “A true prince is deeply concerned by what he cannot do, not by nonrecognition.” A15.20 Confucius said, “It pains a true prince to leave this world without making his name known.” A15.21 Confucius says, “A true prince seeks what he wants from himself; lesser men seek it from others.” A15.22 Confucius said, “A true prince maintains his position but not contentiously; deals with many but does not join factions.” A15.23 Confucius said, “A true prince does not recommend a man for his words, nor does he reject the words for the man.” A15.24 Young Master Gong [Zigong] asked, “Is there a single statement that one may act upon throughout life?” Confucius said, “What about empathy? Never act toward others the way you would not want others acting toward yourself.” Again shu, here “empathy,” is a unifying principle, close to Ren. Its graph suggests empathetic transposition, with “to go toward” placed above “heart/mind,” meaning the heart goes out to another. A15.25 Confucius said, “In my interactions with others, whom do I condemn and whom commend? I commend men who have proven themselves, men thanks to whom the three great houses, the Xia, Yin, and Zhou, have advanced on the right path.”

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A15.26 Confucius said, “I can still note lacunae in the written records. He who owns horses would lend one to someone to ride. But today, there is no more of this.” This uncertain passage has many readings. The two unrelated practices that Confucius admired are no longer observed; perhaps in earlier times record-keeping was more thorough and lending to those in need more customary. A15.27 Confucius said, “The subtle tongue of sophistry is the ruin of virtue; impatience over something trivial is the ruin of a master plan.” A15.28 Confucius said, “If the majority hates something, it must be looked into; if the majority favors something, it must be looked into.” A15.29 Confucius said, “Men can augment the ideal Way, but our ideal Way does not augment men.” A15.30 Confucius said, “A transgression left uncorrected may well be called transgression indeed.” A15.31 Confucius said, “I tried fasting all day, staying awake all night, the better to meditate. Nothing gained. Study proved preferable.” A15.32 Confucius said, “A true prince aims for ideals, not for his own advantage. For the farmer, food shortage is always possible; for the student, employment is always possible. But the true prince fears for the path to his ideals; he has no fear of poverty.” A15.33 Confucius said, “Whatever intellect attains, if humankindness is not maintained too, will be lost. Even if humankindness can maintain what intellect has attained, unless one presides with authority the people will not show respect. Humankindness can maintain what intellect attains, and one can preside with authority too, and yet if actions do not follow ritual formalities, then it’s still not good enough.” See 3.8. Knowledge is a means that must combine with worthy ends; ritual is the final touch.

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A15.34 Confucius said, “One cannot tell much about a true prince in unimportant situations, but he can assume major responsibilities. Lesser men cannot assume major responsibilities but can be known in unimportant situations.” A15.35 Confucius said, “People derive even more from humankindness than they do from water and fire. For we have seen men die from walking in water or fire but never from walking in the Way of humankindness.” A15.36 Confucius said, “With humankindness at stake one may not allow anyone to take one’s place, not even one’s teacher.” One must confront the issue personally. A15.37 Confucius said, “A true prince is uncompromising and not concessive.” A15.38 Confucius said, “Serving the ruler means conscientiously fulfilling the duties of office, and putting compensation last.” A15.39 Confucius said, “We teach all social groups.” A15.40 Confucius said, “Those taking separate paths do not take counsel together.” A15.41 Confucius said, “Nothing more is required of language than reaching its audience with clear communication.” A15.42 Music Master Mian came to see Confucius. When he reached the stair, Confucius said, “Stairs here.” And when he reached the sitting room, Confucius said, “Seating mats here.” Once they were seated together, Confucius told him, “So and so is over here, so and so over there.” After the music master had left, Zizhang asked, “Is it part of our teaching to speak this way to the music master?” Confucius answered, “That’s right. That’s always been how we help the blind.” Confucius’s deference may be an allusion to the virtuous sage ruler Shun: Shun’s father was said to be blind and harsh to him, but his filial devotion never wavered.

Book Sixteen The Jisun clan prepares to attack . . .

A16.1 The Ji clan was preparing to attack the walled town of Zhuanyu; Ran Qiu and Zilu came and informed Confucius: “The Ji [Ji Kangzi] are about to undertake military action against Zhuanyu.” Confucius said, “Qiu! Are you not at fault here? Long ago a former king appointed an officiant there for conducting the ancestral sacrifices at Mount Meng [the burial site]. Furthermore, Zhuanyu is part of our own state’s territory [thus under the lord’s authority] and you two are dedicated to serve its shrine. What purpose does a military attack serve?” Ran You [Qiu] said, “Our master heads the clan and he wishes it, we two do not.” Confucius replied, “The ancient worthy Zhou Ren had said, ‘Demonstrate the abilities you have and join the ranks of the other vassals. If you cannot, then desist.’ To fail to support a man in danger of falling!? To leave him lying on the ground and not lifted up!? What else is your advisory role for? Moreover, your statement is wrong. When a caged tiger or gaur escapes, when a diviner’s tortoiseshell or a jade treasure is damaged in its showcase, who is to blame?” Ran You said, “Look, Zhuanyu is well defended and close to Bi [stronghold of the Ji]. If the Ji do not seize the town it will remain a threat to their descendants.” Confucius said, “Qiu!! A true prince is loath to make excuses for pursuing a goal previously disclaimed. My understanding is that those who hold power in realm or clan see danger in inequity not in losing population, in discontent not in scarcity. Generally 127

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speaking, with equity there is no scarcity, with harmony there is no loss of population, and with content there is no subverting of the authorities. You see, this is why if those afar do not submit, then cultivating the virtues of civil order will attract them; and once they come, will settle them. Now you two are aiding the Ji but those afar do not submit, and you fail to attract them. Moreover, the state of Lu suffers dissension and coups, from which you have not protected it, instead counseling resort to arms within the land. I fear that the danger to the Jisun clan comes not from the town of Zhuanyu but rather from the Jisun’s inner council.” A16.2 Confucius said, “If the true path were followed throughout the realm, then it would be the [royal Zhou] son of heaven who would initiate ritual ceremonies and cultural arts as well as punitive military actions. When the regional lords initiate these sacred acts, few of the lords can survive for ten generations. When the high ministers initiate these sacred acts, the ministers last only five generations. And if subordinate vassals get their hands on decision-making, then they’ll be gone in three. When the true path is followed throughout the realm political authority does not rest with the high ministers, nor do the commoners engage in political criticism.” A16.3 Confucius said, “It has been five reigns since the house of the lords of Lu lost its authority to make official appointments. Its administrative authority devolved upon the high ministers four reigns ago. Indeed, the status of the descendants of the original Three Huan is much diminished now.” A16.4 Confucius said, “There are three beneficial friendships and three harmful ones. Befriend the just, the considerate, and the knowledgeable—these are beneficial. Harmful friendships are with those given to eccentricity, those who submit too easily, and those given to facile speech.” A16.5 Confucius said, “One benefits from three pleasing things, and three things cause harm. Pleasure in the regular practice of ritual and music, in citing the goodness of others, and in finding

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more worthy friends—all are beneficial. The three harmful things are unbridled pleasures, idle excursions, and banqueting and entertainments.” A16.6 Confucius said, “Serving a true prince there are three kinds of lapses: speaking out of turn—impatience; not speaking in turn—withholding; failing to observe the prince’s expression— not observing.” A16.7 Confucius said, “A true prince is thrice forewarned: in youth when his animal spirits are not yet controlled, to beware of the lure of appearances; in full manhood when the animal spirits peak, to beware of conflict; in old age when the animal spirits have declined, to beware of avarice.” A16.8 Confucius said, “A true prince holds three things in awe: heaven’s decrees, great men, and the words of the sages. Lesser men, not knowing the decrees fear them not, ingratiate themselves with great men, and demean the words of the sages.” This is the second appearance of the term tianming, here “heaven’s decrees,” conventionally the mandate of heaven, which authorizes the virtuous king’s rule over the tianxia, that is, all under heaven. If we take the term to be consistent with the text’s half-dozen uses of tian (heaven) alone, then tianming should be read narrowly, as an individual’s fate, in keeping for example with Confucius’s declaration that “heaven gave birth to virtue in me” (7.22), words that could be taken to mean that no rulers of his time have virtue, thus heaven confers no mandate. A16.9 Confucius said, “Those born with intellectual capacity rank highest; those who acquire it by learning rank next; those hampered yet striving to learn rank third; those hampered and failing to learn come last among the population.” A16.10 Confucius said, “A true prince is mindful of nine things: in vision, clear-sighted; in hearing, seeking to comprehend; in facial expression, gentle; in appearance, humble; in speech, committed to truth; in performing duties, conscientious; in doubt,

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questioning; in anger, mindful of trouble; in view of profit, mindful of honor.” A16.11 Confucius said, “They pursue the good they see as if it were beyond reach, they avoid the bad as if putting a hand in boiling water; such men I have seen and their words I have heard. But to live in obscurity in pursuit of their goals, to do what is honorable to further their ideals—such words have I heard, such men have I not seen.” A16.12 Lord Jing of the state of Qi had a thousand four-horse chariots. The day he died his people found no virtue in him to acclaim. Bo Yi and Shu Qi died of hunger on the slope of Mount Shouyang, and to this very day the people acclaim them. Is this what the saying [above] means? A16.13 Chen Gang asked Boyu, Confucius’s son: “Have you learned anything different from the Master, other than what we have?” Boyu replied, “That has not happened. Once he was alone when I hurried past his residence and he said to me, ‘Have you studied The Songs?’ I answered, ‘Not yet.’ And he continued, ‘If you do not, how will you engage in discourse?’ So I withdrew and studied them. Another day he was alone when I hurried past his residence and he said, ‘Have you studied the rituals?’ I replied again, ‘Not yet.’ And he continued, ‘If you do not, how will you take your place in society?’ So I withdrew and studied the rituals. These are the two lessons I had from him.” Chen Gang withdrew and said with delight, “My one question got three answers. I learned about The Songs, about the rituals, and also that a true prince keeps a distance from his sons.” A16.14 The ruler of a dukedom calls his spouse “First Lady”; she calls herself “youngster”; the common people call her “the lord’s First Lady.” Addressing another state she calls herself “orphanlord’s lesser lady”; the people of the other state call her “the lord’s First Lady.” Only in book 16 is Confucius as main speaker called Kongzi, Master Kong, instead of Zi, Master, suggesting that the recorder of his words was not a direct student of Confucius. This would also account for the

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rather mundane, formulaic passages in this book, many presented as numbered lists. Scholars have marked off books 16–20 either as having different editors from 1–15, or as having been added at a later time. However, passages in books 17, 18, and 19 seem fully compatible with most of the material in books 1–15.

Book Seventeen Yang Huo sought a meeting . . .

A17.1 Yang Huo sought a meeting with Confucius but Confucius refused to receive him. Yang Huo then sent a shoat to Confucius as a gift-offering. Confucius chose a time when Yang Huo was away from home to go to thank him, but on the road they ran into each other. Yang Huo said to Confucius, “Come over here, I’ll have a word with you.” Yang Huo continued, “To leave our state without guidance while concealing precious counsel— could you call that humane?” Confucius said, “I could not.” Next Yang Huo said, “Drawn to enter service yet always missing the time—could you call that wise?” Again Confucius replied, “I could not.” Yang Huo said, “The days and months pass us by, years are not granted us.” Confucius said, “All right then, I will take up an office.” As high minister, Yang Huo had intended to usurp the rule of the Ji clan but Confucius would not join him—hence his hesitance here. Yang had been implicated in the removal of Lord Zhao of Lu. A17.2 Confucius said, “By nature men are not that far apart, but habit greatly widens their differences.” A17.3 Confucius said, “Only the highest order of wisdom and the lowest order of folly refuse to change.” A17.4 Approaching the city of Wu, Confucius heard singing accompanied by strings. He remarked, “Does one need a blade 132

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for slaughtering oxen to kill a chicken?” Ziyou [the governor of the city] replied, “Once I heard you say, Master, ‘A true prince studies our ideal path and thus treasures men; lesser men who study our ideal path are easier to direct.’ ” Confucius said to his companions, “Right he is. I spoke in jest.” Confucius felt that his student had overdone the welcoming ceremony, but retracted his remark. A17.5 Gongshan Furao, leading a rebellion against the Ji clan in Bi, invited Confucius to visit. Confucius wanted to go but Zilu in dismay said, “It’s the last thing you should do. What’s the point of your going to him?” Confucius said, “How could his invitation lead nowhere? If only someone would put me in the right position, could we not re-create an Eastern Zhou?” Confucius’s philosophy of history goes back to the break in Zhou history in 771 BC, when the royal house fled east under attack. That is when the regional states began their ascent and the Zhou house began to decline, inverting the hierarchy of authorities. The Western Zhou, especially its founding in the mid-eleventh century BC, was the ideal model he wanted an Eastern Zhou dynasty to maintain. The longue durée of governance is the subject of 2.23 and 20.1. A17.6 Zizhang asked Confucius about humankindness. Confucius said, “One needs five things in this world in order to practice humankindness, namely, an empathetic heart, a broad and tolerant mind, good faith, alertness, and consideration. The empathetic do not demean others. The broad-minded can win over many. The reliable, others will trust. The alert will achieve much. The considerate are qualified to direct others.” A17.7 Confucius was eager to accept Bi Xi’s invitation to visit his town, but Zilu objected, saying, “I recall your saying ‘A true prince will not get involved with someone personally engaged in wrongdoing.’ Now Bi Xi is in rebellion at Zhongmou and you want to go there? What is going on?” Confucius said, “True enough, but isn’t there the saying ‘Something hard can be ground into a shape but not crushed. Something white can be immersed in mud but not defiled.’ What am I? A gourd too bitter to taste?”

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The gourd here (pao gua) is also the name for a star that serves as an “official” over a small group of stars. The expression “pao gua hanging in the sky” is an idiom for an overlooked, lonely talent. A17.8 Confucius said, “My good You [Zilu], do you know the six formulas that darken the mind?” Zilu replied, “Not as yet.” Confucius said, “Stay, and I will tell you. To care for humankindness but not for learning: gullibility. To care for knowledge but not for learning: an undisciplined mind. To care for being trusted but not for learning: self-deception. To care for rectitude but not for learning: contention. To care for courage but not for learning: disorder. To care for certainty but not for learning: aberration.” A17.9 Confucius said, “My young disciples, none of you is studying The Songs, why? The Songs arouse interest in things, they offer a panoramic view of life, they serve for gatherings, they serve for expressing outrage. At home they help in serving a father, and in public office in serving the ruler. They increase our knowledge of the names of fauna and flora.” A17.10 Confucius said to Boyu, “Are you working on the ‘Zhounan’ and the ‘Shaonan’? Anyone who has not worked on them is like someone standing before a barrier.” The Songs address marriage, parent-child relations, and ruler-minister relations, thus covering completely the sociopolitical world that is the sphere of Confucius’s interest. Ignorance of The Songs restricts a student intellectually and socially. As yue, music, The Songs complement ritual. The first two sections of The Songs—the “Zhounan” and the “Shaonan”—evoke the culture of the first Zhou reigns. A17.11 Confucius said, “All this talk of ritual ceremonies! Does it mean no more than silk apparel adorned with jade? And the talk of musical arts! Does it mean no more than sounding chimes and drums?” A17.12 Confucius said, “I would liken those inwardly submissive beneath a stern expression to lesser men who sneak their way around like thieves, wouldn’t you?” A17.13 Confucius said, “Those who compromise with local convention are the thieves of virtue.”

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A17.14 Confucius said, “Traffic in wayside gossip casts virtue aside.” A17.15 Confucius said, “How is one to serve the ruler alongside men who deserve no respect? Who care only about what they can’t wait to get their hands on. Who, once they do, care only about losing it, and will go to any lengths not to?” A17.16 Confucius said, “In olden times three things plagued the people; today things have changed. Then the headstrong were heedless, nowadays they are out of control. Then the self-important were self-satisfied, nowadays they are belligerent. Then the foolish were simple, nowadays they are nothing less than deceitful.” A17.17 Confucius said, “Men of beguiling speech and imposing appearance are rarely humane.” A17.18 Confucius said, “I abhor the way the color purple vitiates pure red and the way the music of the state of Zheng subverts the standards of court music. I also abhor sharp-tongues for toppling states and clans.” The color purple is the result of a mixture, suggesting compromise on principles. A17.19 Confucius said, “I’ve said all I have to.” Zigong said, “If you stop talking, what will your disciples have to pass on?” Confucius said, “Does heaven speak? Through it the four seasons march on, all life comes into being—and what does heaven have to say?” A17.20 Ru Bei requested audience but Confucius sent a messenger out to decline the request, pleading illness. As the messenger was leaving, Confucius took up his zither and sang loud enough for Ru Bei to hear him. The lord of Lu is said to have sent Ru Bei to study with Confucius; he later wrote the section of the Yili on mourning of government officials. A17.21 Zai Wo asked, “Instead of the three years’ mourning required for a parent, wouldn’t a period of one year suffice? If a true prince performs no rituals for three years the rituals will run down from disuse, and the arts of music unperformed for three years will decline and decay. All it takes is a year for the

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grain to be consumed and a new crop to ripen. And we follow the annual round of the seasons in choosing the kinds of tree from whose wood we derive fire.” Confucius said, “And so you would be comfortable eating fine rice and dressing elegantly after a year?” Zai Wo said, “That’s right.” Confucius said, “Then do whatever feels comfortable. But a true prince, being in mourning, does not enjoy his food nor whatever music he might hear, nor does he enjoy comfort at home. Indeed he does not! But if you feel comfortable then go do so.” Zai Wo left and Confucius said, “This shows his lack of human feeling. A child lives for three years before its parents let it out of their arms. And the three years’ mourning is common throughout the realm. Our Zai Wo was cherished by his parents for three years, wasn’t he?” A17.22 Confucius said, “Relishing food all day long without exercising the mind leads to trouble! Don’t we have gamblers and chess players? Surely even that would be an improvement, no?” A17.23 Zilu said, “Should a true prince give priority to courage?” Confucius replied, “Nothing is more important to a true prince than what is right and just. A true prince with courage but no code of honor will create disorder; lesser men with courage and no code of honor will commit crimes.” A17.24 Zigong asked, “Are there things that a true prince abhors?” Confucius replied, “There are. He abhors publicly proclaiming the evils of others. He abhors those in inferior positions who speak ill of their superiors. He abhors men of courage who ignore ritual. He abhors resolute men who are narrowminded.” Confucius added, “My dear Si, what are the things that you abhor?” He answered, “I abhor a wide smattering taken for knowledge. I abhor tactlessness taken for courage. I abhor reporting another’s failings to justify one’s self as a truth-teller.” A17.25 Confucius said, “Women and lesser men can be difficult to cultivate. Get too close and they become tactless. Keep your distance and they resent it.” A17.26 Confucius said, “Nothing is going to change about a man who reaches age forty and has been rejected.”

Book Eighteen Weizi quit his office . . .

A18.1 Weizi quit office; Qizi was made the ruler’s slave; Bigan died protesting. Confucius said, “In them the house of Yin had three men of virtue.” In this book the warning given at the end of 1.1 is made concrete in several examples. These three ministers opposed the last ruler of the Yin royal house (c. 1600–1046 BC). The passage implicitly justifies the overthrow of the Yin by the founders of the Zhou royal house (1046– 256 BC). Confucius has current events as well as history in mind. Despite the Zhou’s steep decline in his time, Confucius remained committed to its founding traditions. A18.2 Liu Xiahui was repeatedly dismissed from his position as chief judge. Someone said to him, “Good sir, are you still not inclined to quit because of such treatment?” He replied, “If I serve others honestly where can I go and not get dismissed? If I serve men dishonestly, why should I leave the land of my parents?” A18.3 Lord Jing of Qi asked how he should treat Confucius: “Like a leader of the Ji clan? I cannot do so. Or less than a Ji leader but better than a Meng clan leader?” The lord added, “I have grown too old now to offer him a position.” Confucius quit the state. A18.4 The leaders of Qi sent a group of female musicians to the state of Lu, and Ji Huanzi accepted the gift. No court sessions were held for three days; Confucius quit the state. 137

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A18.5 Jie Yu, the eccentric of the state of Chu, was singing when he crossed paths with Confucius and said, “Oh Phoenix, Phoenix! How virtue has declined. Things past cannot be remedied by advice. Things to come may yet be overtaken. The end has come. The end has come. Today those who pursue politics are doomed to miscarry.” Confucius stepped down from his carriage hoping to speak with him, but Jie Yu avoided him and the encounter never took place. A recluse engaged in humble chores—fishing, farming, cooking—is in reality a potential sage-king (like Shun) whom a wise ruler would already have troubled himself to discover and raise up. This is a challenge to the current rulers and the favorites around them for eschewing men of talent. A18.6 Chang Zu and Jie Ni were jointly preparing the soil for planting when Confucius drove by in his carriage. He stopped and had Zilu ask them where to ford the stream. Chang Zu said, “Who is holding the carriage?” Zilu replied, “It’s Kong Qiu [Confucius].” Chang Zu said, “You mean the Kong Qiu of Lu?” Zilu said, “The same.” Chang Zu said, “He knows where to cross.” Zilu then asked Jie Ni, who said, “Who are you?” Zilu said, “I am Zhongyou.” Jie Ni said, “The follower of that Kong Qiu of Lu?” Zilu said, “That’s right.” Then Jie Ni said, “The realm under heaven is in turmoil, deluged, and who can redeem it? Would it not be better for you to join with former officials like us who have quit the world instead of following someone who takes leave of one ruler after another?” While speaking, Jie Ni kept plowing the soil, and Zilu went back to report the conversation. Confucius consoled himself, saying, “I could never become part of a life with birds and beasts. With whom can I make common cause if not living men? If the realm under heaven followed the true path, I would not be engaged in changing it.” In public, outside of the school and its fellowship, Confucius is called by his ordinary name, Kong Qiu, not enhanced with zi, or master. These recluses may be considered Daoists living close to nature. A18.7 Falling behind on their journey, Zilu became separated from Confucius; he crossed paths with an old man who had a

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weeding rake on his shoulder. Zilu asked if he had seen his master and the man replied, “You do not do physical labor, you cannot tell one grain from another, who might your master be?” So saying, he set his rake to work and continued weeding. Zilu raised his clasped hands before him and stood respectfully. The old man detained Zilu for the night, killed a chicken, cooked millet, and fed him. Afterward he presented his two sons. The following morning, Zilu caught up with Confucius and reported his encounter. Confucius said, “He is one of the recluses,” and sent Zilu back to the old man. But when he arrived the old man had left. Zilu said, “To leave office is dishonorable. If the bonds between senior and junior may not be set aside, then how could the sacred obligations between ruler and minister be? Wishing to keep one’s person pure subverts that moral imperative, which supersedes all others. The true prince perseveres to advance what is just and right while in office, fully aware that his ideals do not progress.” A18.8 Listed among those who have left the world of men behind: Bo Yi, Shu Qi, Yuzhong, Yiyi, Zhuzhang, Liu Xiahui, and Shaolian. Confucius said, “They did not lower their ambitions nor suffer opprobrium—such were Bo Yi and Shu Qi, I would say. As for Liu Xiahui and Shaolian, although they lowered their ambitions and suffered opprobrium, their words stayed true to ethical norms, and their actions were carefully considered. There is no more to say. As for Yuzhong and Yiyi, they lived in obscurity and spoke without restraint. In their persons they managed to stay uncorrupted and their removal from office was irregular. As for myself, I am not like any of them, I am open to any course.” Three of the seven worthies listed have been introduced; on the other four information is lacking. Confucius sets himself apart from the two extremes of refusing to serve or sacrificing ideals in order to serve and make a difference; he also sets himself apart from those wrongfully dismissed after expressing themselves too freely. A18.9 Music Director Zhi betook himself to Qi, Music Director Gan of the second sacramental meal betook himself to Chu, Director Liao of the third sacramental meal to Cai, and Director

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Que of the fourth sacramental meal to Qin. The drummer Fang Shi was provided refuge near the Yellow River, and Wu, the tambourine player, was sheltered near the River Han. The junior director Yang and the chime-striker Xiang sheltered by the sea. The loss of music means the loss of ritual, to which it is integral. A sacramental meal is a ritual gathering to honor a person or occasion. A18.10 The lord of Zhou said to his son, the lord of Lu, “A true prince is never careless toward his kinfolk, nor does he neglect his high ministers and thus cause resentment. He does not remove from office those long in service except for cause. He does not rely on one man for too many things.” A18.11 The Zhou had these eight officials in service: Boda, Boshe, Zhongtu, Zhonghu, Shuye, Shuxia, Jisui, and Jihuo. There is no information about these eight except that the names suggest a series of twin births: bo means eldest, zhong means second-born, shu means third-born, ji means fourth-born.

Book Nineteen Zizhang said . . .

A19.1 Zizhang said, “The scholar in service who will risk his life in the presence of danger, who is mindful of honor in the presence of gain, of reverence in performing sacrificial duties, and of grief in mourning; this may be considered satisfactory.” The disciples speak, they do not ask: Confucius is no more. A19.2 Zizhang said, “Adhering to virtue without expanding it to the fullest scope, trusting in the true path without persevering on it; who can tell whether such a man has virtue or not?” A19.3 A follower of Zixia asked Zizhang about engaging with others. Zizhang asked, “What has Zixia said about this?” The reply was, “Zixia has said, ‘Work with those who are acceptable and reject the unacceptable.’ ” Zizhang said, “I’ve learned something different: a true prince respects the worthy but is tolerant toward all, praises the able and sympathizes with the incapable. Am I a great worthy? Whom among men would I shun? Am I unworthy? Others will reject me before I have a chance to reject them.” A19.4 Zixia said, “Even in the methods of the minor arts one can surely find something admirable. But if extended they can go only so far and no farther. This is why a true prince will not practice them.” 141

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A19.5 Zixia said, “Whoever each day knows what he has missed, and each month is mindful of his capabilities, may be said to be devoted to learning, I should say.” A19.6 Zixia said, “Studying broadly and persevering toward one’s goals, keenly questioning and being mindful of one’s immediate surroundings; humankindness lives in this.” A19.7 Zixia said, “The many artisans work in their shops to perfect their trades; the true prince studies to further his ideals.” A19.8 Zixia said, “When lesser men do wrong, they are ever ready to hide it behind fine words.” A19.9 Zixia said, “A true prince’s aspect changes three times: from a distance he looks forbidding; close up, gentle; listened to, stern and severe.” A19.10 Zixia said, “A true prince must be trusted before he can task his people, who otherwise will consider him unfair; he must also be trusted before he can criticize his ruler, who otherwise will think himself maligned.” A19.11 Zizhang said, “The greater virtues permit no transgressions; about the lesser virtues one may be less demanding.” A19.12 Ziyou said, “Zixia’s advanced and younger students are good enough for sweeping the road, for responding to questions, for entering and withdrawing [in ceremonial performances]. However these are the lesser branches of ritual. His students are wanting when one probes them on basics. What can be done about it?” Zixia heard of this and answered, “Ai! Yan You [Ziyou] is so wrong. For the path of the true prince, which transmitted instruction takes priority? And which can wait until later? For example, in gardening, we separate plants by category. How can the path of the true prince allow such misunderstanding? The path has a start and a finish as befits the sagely man.” A19.13 Zixia said, “When an official excels in service he should continue his studies; when a student excels in his studies he should enter service.”

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A19.14 Ziyou said, “Mourning should come to an end after grieving has reached its limit.” A19.15 Ziyou said, “My friend Zizhang here can do things hard to do, but he is not yet entirely humane.” A19.16 Zengzi said, “Rather high and mighty is our friend Zizhang. It’s not easy serving the cause of humankindness together with him.” A19.17 Zengzi said, “This is what I heard our master say: ‘A man who has yet to do his utmost will do it in mourning his parents— without fail.’ ” A19.18 Zengzi said, “This is what I heard our master say about Meng Zhuangzi: ‘In his devotion to his father’s memory there was nothing out of the ordinary, except that he did not remove any of his father’s ministers, and he endorsed his father’s policies—no easy thing to do!’ ” A19.19 The Mengsun clan appointed Yang Fu as judge in criminal court. Yang Fu sought advice from Zengzi, who said, “The authorities have left the true path, and so the people’s adherence to law has long ago broken down. Whenever you obtain the actual facts of a given case, show compassion and no satisfaction in the proceedings.” A19.20 Zigong said, “The evils of Zhou [the last Yin ruler] were less than commonly thought. That is why a true prince abhors falling so low that he gets blamed for all the world’s evils.” An echo of Confucius’s occasionally voiced doubts about the Zhou conquest. A19.21 Zigong said, “A true prince’s failures are like a solar or lunar eclipse, seen by all. Reformed, he wins the admiration of everyone.” A19.22 Gongsun Zhao of the state of Wei asked Zigong, “Whom did Zhongni [Confucius] study with?” Zigong replied, “The ideals of Kings Wen and Wu are not dead and buried but alive in the hearts of the living; the worthy are cognizant of their major

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aspects, the less worthy of their minor aspects. No one lacks those ideals in themselves. Our master thus learned from everyone, though he had no permanent instructor.” Presumably, Confucius is now no longer living. Zhongni is the name given Confucius in the context of his students; it appears in the remaining passages of this book. Zhong means second son (students are pseudo-family), while Ni may be a name for the place where he was conceived. In the Shiji, the lie zhuan (list of biographies) for the disciples uses this name, while the shi jia (list of hereditary houses) calls him Kongzi. King Wen and King Wu are identified with civil order and martial might, respectively. A19.23 Shusun Wushu said to the ministers during an official session: “Zigong is more able than Zhongni.” Zifu Jing reported this to Zigong, who said, “Comparing myself to Confucius in terms of architecture, I would be the outer wall, shoulder-high, over which one might inspect what appeals to him inside. Our Master would be a wall many meters high; unless one found the gate and entered one would never witness the splendor of the ancestral temple or the grandeur of the assembled officials. How few, it seems, those who find that gate! As your master’s comment all too fittingly reveals, don’t you think?” A19.24 Shusun Wushu was critical of Zhongni. Zigong said, “That won’t accomplish anything. Zhongni cannot be faulted. Other men’s abilities are like low-lying hills that can be crossed over. Zhongni is like the sun and the moon, which cannot be crossed over. Others may wish to reject them, but if they do, would the sun or moon care? Such men only reveal their ignorance of proportions.” A19.25 Chen Ziqin said to Zigong: “You, sir, are too modest. How could Zhongni be more able than you?” Zigong replied, “For a single statement a true prince may be deemed wise or deemed ignorant; statements must thus be made with the utmost caution. Our Master can no more be overtaken than heaven can be reached by a staircase, and were he in power, ‘whom he appointed would have standing, whom he guided would follow, whom he conciliated would join him, whom

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he motivated to act would be in harmony; in life the people would celebrate him, in death mourn him.’ Could anyone else go that far?” Zigong is quoting from an ancient source of political wisdom that is no longer known.

Book Twenty Yao hath said . . .

A20.1 Yao the sage ruler hath said, “Hear ye, Shun. By the reckoning of heaven the time of succession has arrived—for you and you alone. As the ruler, strive to keep to the mean. For should crisis or calamity befall the realm, heaven’s appointment will end forever.” And Shun spoke the very same words to his successor, Yu [founder of the Xia house]. [Tang, founder of the Yin house said,] “I, Lu, your insignificant heir son, humbly sacrifice a bull of dark color, declaring to thee, O sovereign emperor glorious as the sun, that those who offended thee will not be spared, thy ministers will not be put away but will conform to your thinking. And should I myself offend thee, it does not involve judgment against the broad domains, but if the domains offend thee, the fault is mine and mine alone.” The rulers of Zhou, on coming to power, granted land holdings on a large scale, enriching the able regional leaders. Although the Zhou house had its kinsmen, they were not so worthy of appointment as the humane men. If the people in their hundred clans do wrong, it is upon me, the present ruler, alone. [The newly reigning houses] conscientiously examined the system of measurements, evaluated the rules and regulations, and recalled the dismissed officials; thanks to these actions, administration throughout the regions proceeded smoothly. Extin146

Book Twenty    147

guished states were revived, disrupted lineages were restored, officials hiding in seclusion were brought back; so the Zhou won the people’s heartfelt allegiance throughout the realm. What mattered most to them were the people, their food supply, their mourning rituals, their sacrifices. The open and forgiving Zhou won over multitudes: for their good faith the people trusted them; their keen spirit led to achievements and their sense of fairness to popular excitement. This opening gives an archaic account of the millennial transitions from the rule of the legendary Yao to that of the Zhou founders, illustrating the theme of conscientious humane administration to which, Zigong emphasizes, Confucius’s teachings are integral. A20.2 Zizhang asked Confucius, “How should one behave when serving in government?” Confucius said, “Observe the five excellent practices and block the four hateful ones.” Zizhang asked for specifics and Confucius answered, “Be generous without wastefulness, task the people without angering them, have desires without craving, maintain dignity without arrogance, exert authority without intimidation.” Zizhang asked, “What does ‘generous but not wasteful’ mean?” Confucius answered, “Benefit the people according to what they hold beneficial. Is that not after all ‘generosity without excess’? Choose the tasks fittingly before tasking the people, and who will be angry? Seek humankindness and achieve humankindness, and what else will you crave? No matter if it affects many or few, if the issue be minor or major, never be inattentive. Is this not after all ‘dignity without arrogance’? A true prince, officially garbed in robe and cap, solemnizes his gaze so that others look with awe on his stern visage. Is this not after all ‘authority without intimidation’?” Zizhang said, “And the four hateful actions?” Confucius answered, “Executing uninstructed persons is brutal. To expect completed work with no advance notice is overbearing. Negligent orders issued too close to a deadline are deception. In dealing with others, to be overly frugal in giving or receiving is petty and despotic.” A20.3 Confucius said, “Whoever does not acknowledge heaven’s decrees has no way to be a true prince. Whoever does not know

148      Book Twenty

ritual has no way to take his proper place in society. Whoever does not understand language has no way to understand others.” The text ends on a note that Xunzi develops (or that reflects his thought): recognizing the part that heaven plays and the part that humans must play. Here again tianming, “heaven’s decrees” or the mandate of heaven, refers to what is beyond human control, rather than to the legitimation of the son of heaven. Thus the opening passage of this book, 20.1, speaks of the “reckoning of heaven,” not of a mandate extended to a virtuous Shun or transferred to him by Yao. After heaven’s decrees comes ritual, not virtue.

a ppe n dix a: terms and titles

This appendix is for further discussion of the key terms of the text, starting with Li, commonly translated as “rules of propriety,” “ceremonial formalities,” “etiquette,” “ritual traditions,” or “regulations.” Its graph consists of an element meaning “sacred” (a platform for offerings to the ancestors) on the left, and on the right a sacrificial vessel, used in ritual services but also a work of art—thus fusing the social and the aesthetic. Like the Socrates of the Symposium, Confucius saw the aesthetic, usually music, as the way toward a higher morality. The vessel is also a metonym for ancestral worship, either of lineal ancestors or of cultural ones, the great rulers of a past; the latter include both historical figures (Kings Wen and Wu) as well as mythical ones (Yao and Shun), all of whom dwell in the sky forever. In A19.22, a disciple discusses reverence for the founding kings of the Zhou dynasty: “The ideals of Kings Wen [civil order] and Wu [martial might] are not dead and buried but alive in the hearts of the living.” Confucius thought that as long as Zhou traditions (Li) were faithfully carried forward, the future of civilized society was knowable if not immutable; for Confucius, generational continuity on the parallel levels of family and state is the dao, the right historical path, of human civilization. The vessel has another semantic dimension, structure, which explains its use in the graph for ti, body or physical form, with “bone” replacing “sacred” on the left side. Ritual observances structure society’s hierarchies, and their sequence structures the annual round of ceremonies, as holidays mark the calendar. Ritual is both vertical and horizontal. It can be a form of history, the traditions inherited from the past to be remembered and reenacted in current 149

150      appendix a time. It can also mean the current modes of conduct and speech, the appropriate forms and formalities that social interactions require. Li is thus the total matrix of human relations. “Formalities” might be the one English word closest in meaning to Li, even as it leaves so much unsaid. This translation of The Analects tends to consider “ritual,” “ceremonial formalities,” and “ritual ceremonies” as passable equivalents. A12.2 says that one should direct the common people as if officiating at a sacrificial ceremony, thus expanding Li to include the whole society, as if it were the ruler’s extended family. In keeping with the congruence of family and state governance, this passage shows that Li is operative in both spheres, leaving no space for law (fa). Another dimension of Li is that it often pairs with yue, that is, music, musical arts, and musical performance (including dance and singing). This combination is always Li-yue, never yue-Li, perhaps because Li constrains, imposing various disciplines on each member of society, while music brings out Li’s aesthetic aspect, offering sublimation and emotional expression after the rigors of conformity to social demands. Furthermore, if Li is hierarchical, yue briefly holds the participating audience in a state of common exultation, which is itself another meaning of yue. The word yue, like many Chinese words, has an objective and a subjective dimension: the music itself and the emotional reaction to the music. Moreover, music can fix words of value firmly in the mind and the emotions, as Luther intended his hymns to do. Li alone may be no more than empty formality. Confucius said in A3.3, “Humans without humanity have no business with the rituals; humans without humanity have no business with the arts of music.” Thus, Li may not necessarily stand alone as an end in itself; it is a form that requires a moral content to fulfill its proper function. In The Analects, Li has two dimensions: behavioral and historical. In other words, Li applies both to social relations and to traditions or precedents. This is why the term sometimes means ceremonial formalities, sometimes sacred traditions, in either case a doctrine of continuity and social order. When it comes to designating (and eventually installing) the successor of a king or an important figure, Li is either observed or violated, almost as if it were equivalent to a legal or constitutional form. In widening the scope of Li to include the social and political as well as the observant, Confucius was redefining the entire cultural tradition as a common ancestral heritage. This meant that great figures of history enjoyed through Li a kind of filial continuity, not of the entire historical past but only of the historic past of civilization itself. This includes the past created by the founders of the Zhou house and its ancestral predecessors, the Yin (or Shang) and the Xia; it includes the legendary first sage-kings, Yao and Shun; but it also includes figures of dissent and opposition to authority like Bo Yi and Shu Qi

appendix a    151 (who perished rather than transfer their allegiance to the Zhou), as well as loyal critics who died for their protests (book 18). On the other hand, Li excludes what is ugly in history, such as lord of Zhou’s three-year conquest campaigns in the east (western Shandong) to consolidate the Zhou conquest. Also problematic is Zichan, chief minister in Zheng, whom Confucius cites for hui, consideration or leniency, without reference to his armed suppression of the nobles who rose against their lord. The omission is understandable, since Confucius opposed the usurpation by the nobles in his home state, Lu. Moreover, Confucius advocates bringing out the best rather than the worst in people (A12.16). And yet, Confucius expresses understated criticism of the Zhou conquest of Yin; in general he opposes violence by government and takes satisfaction in the continuity of Yin traditions through Zhou. In A2.23 the disciple Zizhang asks if the remote future, ten generations hence, may be known. Wryly, Confucius responds by referring to the remote past: “[In ancient times] the Yin house based itself upon the Li of its predecessor, the house of Xia, and the changes that the Yin rulers made [to them] may be known. [Likewise our] Zhou house based itself on the Li of the Yin and the changes it made to them may be known too. As long as the successors to the Zhou filially [or legitimately] follow its traditions the future may be known, even at a remove of one hundred generations.” This passage emphasizes the administrative or governmental aspect of Li; Legge accordingly translates the word “regulations.” But “tradition” seems to capture better the sense of Li in its deep historical dimension, where it is something like a constitution—a principle of continuity that makes some of the social and political practices of China even today recognizable as derived from Confucius’s era. A2.23 calls to mind the well-known statement of the English conservative Edmund Burke that those who never look back to their ancestry will never look forward to posterity. Confucius saw himself as heir to a deep cultural heritage when he said, “Heaven has begotten the virtue within me” (A7.22). Heaven is the dwelling place of the ancestral past, and virtue the living reproduction of their virtues. If we turn to the horizontal or behavioral aspects of Li, “formalities” rather closely fits the Chinese term, while “ritual,” “ceremony,” and “etiquette” have been popular with translators. Always relational never individual, Li requires proper speech, behavior, and performance and usually has an aesthetic aspect. No single English term, of course, can capture the semantic ramifications of the word Li, and so each translation is partly right. “Ritual observance” would be more an analogy than a translation. Li is in the realm of wenzhang, the manifest form or presentation of vital cultural content. A3.8 develops this idea. In this passage Zixia asks about the

152      appendix a meaning of a poem that goes, “The artful smile appealing, oh / the splendid eyes expectant, oh / like the hues that color plain silk.” Confucius replies, “Only after one has the plain silk, does one put on the design.” Zixia then asks, “And Li, does that too ‘come after’?” A delighted Confucius says that Zixia is someone with whom he can discuss poetry. This analogy raises a question. If the design comes after the plain silk, on what foundation then is ritual applied? No answer is given in this passage, but the logical inference would be that the human constitution is receptive to the engrafting of socialization with respect to language and behavior. Zixia’s comment points toward a theory of human nature as the plain ground or foundation within which ritual can take root. When Mencius defined human nature (renxing) as consisting of the social virtues in a potential state he was basically developing the idea of A3.8. Mencius did not see human nature as a passive “plain ground” receptive to moral education, however, but rather as endowed with the active propensity to develop outwardly, from internal constituent seeds or shoots—of benevolence, righteousness, ritual, and knowledge. Ritual is placed third in his list, Ren, humankindness or benevolence, comes first, for reasons explained below. While Confucius gives great weight to the inner man’s “sense of purpose” and explores its relation to conduct, the inner self must not remain an entity unto itself in a state of internal exile or withhold itself hermit-like. The Daoists, whom Confucius confronts decisively in book 18, chose that course, of withdrawal from society. For Confucius the inner “sense of purpose” has to extend outwards, to apply itself within the social modalities to reforming the age. Thus Confucius balances internal and external. A8.2 says, “Humility without Li is strained; caution without Li is irresolute; courage without Li is disorderly; directness without Li is contentious.” Subjective virtues require the mediation of the formalities in order to be socially effective. Values too cannot be made socially functional without the mediation of Li. In A15.18 Confucius says, “The junzi takes what is right (yi) as the foundation; he acts upon it according to ritual, makes it known in a self-effacing manner, and brings it to fruition in good faith.” Here yi and Li are interdependent: what is right is achieved through Li; Li without a rightful cause to carry forward amounts merely to empty formality. Another instance of how The Analects stresses Li’s secular functions is found in A1.12, where Youzi says, “Of all the uses of ritual, harmony is the most valued. This is what the kings of yore deemed excellent, and so the humble as well as the mighty observed ritual forms. But harmony alone may not suffice for an action to proceed: harmony merely acknowledged for its own sake is unlikely to succeed when the discipline of ritual is not applied.” Li, as a form

appendix a    153 of governing, is fulfilled by harmonizing different parties or interests (a social goal but also a musical metaphor). Harmony of the social levels and roles requires restraint on the part of those who govern. Confucius urges restraint upon governors when he says in A12.2, “Do not impose on any other (ren) what is displeasing to you so that you incur no resentment either in your clan or in the state.” This famous injunction (still a living part of the Chinese language) is addressed to Zhonggong, the one disciple that Confucius held to be capable of exercising high political authority. Therefore, as the modern scholar Gao Zhuancheng has noted in his Kongzi, Kongzi dizi, the more common ethical reading of the injunction is actually secondary to the political, which demands of those in authority (in clan or state) self-restraint and reciprocity toward those whom they rule (303–6). Ren, the dominant value term of the Lunyu, starts out within the family (A1.2), widens to consideration for others, and finally expands to a love of mankind in general—ideally, to consideration for the other. Ren is a term that transcends all the other virtues, which are limited to specific situations or occasions. Legge’s translates it “benevolence” or “perfect virtue.” But the word has an objective as well as a subjective side. “Humanity” seems a better fit, having both meanings, humankind and broad empathy. In A19.22 someone provocatively asks Zigong whom Confucius had as a teacher. Zigong replies, “Our master learned from everyone, though he had no permanent instructor.” Confucius could find something worth learning in every person, it being the essence of his optimism that there are no essential distinctions among men, despite the multiple contradictions of his time. As he says in A7.22, “When in the company of three, I have never failed to learn something from at least one.” Regard for the other is one way Confucius learned. Mencius, who revered Confucius, developed the ideal of Ren through his concept of human nature (ren xing). As he defined it, human nature has nothing to do with biological drives and instincts and is purely a social construct, the repository of the four ethical essentials in their potential form (duan, meaning young sprout), namely Ren, yi (“what is right”), Li, and zhi (“knowledge”). These four virtues are present as potential in all humans. Moreover, the way the Mencius lists the four suggests the primacy of Ren and yi, with Li and zhi coming afterward, implicitly distinguishing ends and means, values and instruments (Mencius 2.1.6). The next key term is zhi: knowledge, acknowledgment, noticing, wisdom, understanding, appreciation, recognition. One needs at least these seven translations to map the semantic range of this word. The original graph has two elements: “man” on the left, his head turned as he looks behind or aside; “mouth” on the right. This left element, written as an arrow, is phonetically identical to zhi, or branch. The English word advert (to turn the mind or

154      appendix a attention toward something) seems to capture the semantic nucleus of zhi: to know is to identify, verbally. The right-hand side of zhi is a mouth, for speaking to someone, or pointing at or calling attention to something. Zhi is unlike the Daoist term ming, which is more in the realm of intuitive nonverbal or unexpressed understanding. In A6.21 Confucius says that water (ever flowing) inspires men of knowledge, while mountains (standing still) inspire men of humanity. Ren is permanent, while zhi, knowledge, is active, moving, changing as circumstances change; Parmenides and Heraclitus had opposing positions of this kind. Ren is also a state of mind, an inborn proactive urge to serve others, even at personal risk. “Is Ren far?” Confucius asks in A7.30. “No, if I wish to I can reach it.” What is important for The Analects is that knowledge, like ritual, sometimes has intrinsic value, such as the importance of zhiren, or knowing the worth of others. But knowledge is usually more an instrumental than a value term. In the preceding example—those who know are inspired by water; those who act humanely are inspired by mountains—the emphasis is on the interdependence of morality and understanding. Detached from morality, knowledge may lead to unworthy ends; morality without understanding may be naïve or vulnerable, like the innocent dove without the cunning of the serpent. As water constantly moves, mountains always stand firm; current events (politics) always change, moral principles do not; their function is to guide the flow of water. To this day most Chinese think that politics should not be severed from morality, just as family should not be severed from the state, or wen (civil order) from wu (military might). It’s worth bearing in mind that water control (shuili) was a major concern in Confucius’s time, given the recurring floods and droughts that plagued agriculture. The graph for the word govern has “water” to the left of a rampart. Another important term, though it occurs rarely, is tian, heaven. Confucius in A7.22 says that heaven gave birth to the virtues in him. Heaven is a progenitor and Confucius in this sense is a tianzi, or son of heaven, the highest title and equal to emperor. The graph for tian shows a man of importance with the head emphasized; originally the head was round but scribes later simplified it to a horizontal line. The phonetic (dian, top) reinforces the meaning: great men are high above, the past is higher than the present, the future unfolds downward. Confucius advocates filial devotion to the grand tradition, convinced that the ills of the present can be overcome by recovering the early Zhou polity in which a single ruler had authority over the local states, but such a ruler has not existed, except as a figurehead, for a long time. Thus, the son of heaven is hardly mentioned in The Analects. The physical remains of great men were buried on mountains, towering above living mortals, or beneath gigantic funerary mounds. Their souls, how-

appendix a    155 ever, went higher, becoming stars or planets, their winking light suggesting observation and judgment of those below; the souls of ordinary mortals become only clouds, which have no fixed place above and congregate in the hills. All humans have a denser material soul that is buried and resides underground, severed by death from the risen one; gravesites are swept annually at springtime. Heaven thus has nothing to do with divinities; it is the collective residence of the great ancestors, to whom Confucius sees himself as heir. In the political theory of the Zhou founders, heaven observes the current descendants and authorizes with its mandate the son of heaven to rule— provided he has sufficient virtue to receive and remain worthy of the mandate. If he loses power or is overthrown, it is understood to indicate that he has lost his virtue and heaven has consequently withdrawn its mandate. One might expect the concept of the mandate of heaven, tianming, to play an important part in The Analects. However, heaven’s mandate has no importance in The Analects in part because there was no mandated son of heaven, only regional lords in their dukedoms, none worthy of the mandate. This meant that virtue was on its own, compelled to justify itself without reference to heaven. Heaven as a single term (tian) has a small role; Confucius appeals to it in moments of despair, almost as a deist would. The adviser to the state of Zheng, Zichan, who received limited praise from Confucius, had said that heaven and man go their separate ways, having no connection. It may be simply a curious coincidence, but the graphs of tian and dao have the same two elements: a walking man and a human head. The graph for a dead human, gui, also has an enlarged head on top of small running legs. The term de, virtue, discussed below, has walking legs on the left side of the graph, while the word jun, ruler, has a hand holding a walking stick. These five words are humanized in one way or another through reference to ren, walking human. Xiao, filial piety or devoted service to elders and ancestors, is related to heaven. Xiao begins with devotion to parents during life and after, and is usually extended to elders, authorities, and ancestors. Xiao is the central component and phonetic in both xue (learning) and jiao (teaching); the graph for xiao shows a junior or child (zi) under a senior (lao), a mutual relation of instruction and support. In early dictionaries, xu is the phonetic link, meaning to provide food: ancestors are revered with offerings of prime roasts, whose rising aromas the deceased souls above are invited to inhale before the living repair to dine. In The Analects, the title lord (gong) for the ruler of a state suggests senior male parental authority; it is often translated “duke” (from the Latin for leader). Xiao is the core of family relations and transferable to government. In A12.11 Confucius defines good government: “When the father behaves as he should, his children will do the same; when the ruler behaves as he should, his

156      appendix a ministers will do the same.” This passage makes it clear that responsibility for governance begins at the top, and is the prerequisite for respect and emulation of authority. The passage also makes family and government parallel— government as family writ large—the core of Confucius’s political ideology. The modern term guojia, for the country, preserves the combination of state (guo) and family (jia), though it originally meant the ruling family. As part of his criticism, Mozi (a breakaway Confucian) separated the two terms, guo from jia, because he rejected their interdependence. (Socrates, in the Republic, also wanted to free the state from private or narrower interests.) The next term of the value system is yi, conventionally translated as “righteous.” This translation comes from Legge, a missionary who favored Biblical rhetoric. “Righteous,” while a viable translation, is slightly misleading since it suggests a human-to-God relation more than a human-to-human one. No term is trickier to translate. Here is a list of possibilities: “right,” “just,” “fitting,” “honor,” “obligation,” “duty,” “service,” “fidelity,” and “code of honor” (semper fi). A2.24 says: “To be in the presence of what is right and take no action is to lack courage.” Yi is specific and situational. Confucius says in A4.10 that he is not predisposed to take any fixed position, preferring to align himself with what is right. But if not mediated by the proper formalities, yi slides easily into foolhardy contentiousness; it is a powerful motivating factor but with a potential for violence, suggesting the military background of the word, duty-bound to defend the lord. The word thus has a wide semantic range, from righteous to appropriate. As in the case of Ren and zhi, Li and yi are interdependent. The graph for yi shows a sheep over the pronoun we. In ancient times, diviners for rulers addressed questions to ancestors about proposed actions by burning cracks into sheep bones on which the questions were written and then examining the cracks. Thus, the sheep in yi stands for something sacred. The phonetic element wo (originally ngia) underneath the sheep stands for the we-group; what is regarded as just and right within the we-group is subject to wider application through Li in Confucian thinking, somewhat like the Christian expansion of the Old Testament religion in the New, called the doctrine of supersession. In The Analects, Ren and yi are treated as separate values, the universal and the particular, benevolence and righteousness. In the Mozi, yi is the dominant value. It proposes heaven’s yi as how heaven wishes mankind to act, acting impartially and avoiding war, and replaces Ren with a different term for universal love (jianai), moving beyond family first. The Mencius, which favors Confucius and opposes Mozi for denying ruler and father, reclaims yi and subordinates it to the authority of Ren to form a compound, Renyi, meaning something like civilized values. In Japan, by contrast yi stands alone, the heart

appendix a    157 of the samurai code (pronounced gi); Ren is not so dominant in Japan as it is in China. In various ways the Chinese thinkers recognized that yi often required some kind of control and thus subordinated yi to Ren or to tian. The famous fourteenth-century novel Outlaws of the Marsh (Shuihu zhuan) shows what happens when yi is not constrained by any other value. The term de, virtue, is the leadership factor that makes all the other values operational; it is the quality of the man who merits appointment to office, or of the ruler who has learned to appreciate and reward the merits of others. Virtue in this text has no connection to tianming, the mandate of heaven. Confucius confines de to the human realm, his sole sphere of interest, departing in this respect from the political ideology of the Zhou founders. The graph of de is complex. On the left are walking legs. On the right, top to bottom: a sprout growing out of an eye (the scion that was grafted into the rootstock); a straight horizontal line (the ground for the plant above it? the word tu, ground, separated by the eye?); The lowest element on the right is xin, meaning heart or mind. Virtue is a good translation of de: derived from Latin vir, meaning male, potent, like a virulent virus, like virtue, the meaning of de is usually positive but occasionally negative (e.g., a poison can have de). The virtuous man is a charismatic exemplar, whose moral dynamism influences others and inspires emulation. Teaching or political leadership can be understood as a kind of engrafting. Virtue pairs with ritual in A2.3 as preferable to ruling with administration (or law) and punishment. The legalist Han Feizi, writing at the end of the Warring States period, exalts law (fa) and despises virtue because virtue is occasional not constant, while law transcends the human sphere, like the towering law of Greek tragedies. The graph for Dao, conventionally translated “the Way,” has the walking element on the lower left, while the right side has the phonetic element for “head.” Its concrete meaning is “main road,” or “following (or leading along) the main road.” The common translation, Way, seems to me too passive. Dao is more like a conveyer belt that moves everything along its trajectory. Since it came into English nearly a century ago, dao could be left untranslated. In this book I’ve used “teachings,” “ideals,” “true (or right or ideal) path,” or “ideal way.” Confucius speaks of “our dao,” meaning the teachings of his school of thought—that is, “our methods,” “our cause.” The Daoists transformed the term dao into something much grander, equivalent to invisible time and visible nature. If generational continuity is central to the Confucian dao, the Daoists use the term antithetically, to deny generational continuity, defining time seasonally not generationally. Accordingly, it is no surprise that of all the Confucian value terms, it is Li, the principle of continuity, that the Daode jing most strongly condemns (stanza 38) as artificial, a source of disorder, the antithesis of the processes of nature.

158      appendix a Finally, we come to the human actors whom Confucius has constructed to internalize all these interdependent ideals and social roles and translate them into the real world by their virtuous conduct: the junzi, heroes of The Analects. The word means “ruler’s son,” translated in this volume as “true prince.” Interestingly there is in the graph for jun a covert walking element, a hand grasping a walking staff in the upper left, suggesting leadership; the phonetic is “mouth,” for roundness, suggesting the head and thus leadership, in the lower right— perhaps keeping the flock of followers together. Thus, the word’s graph resonates subtly with the walking component in dao and de. The typical translations of junzi are “superior man” and “gentleman.” The problem is that “son,” not “man,” is the meaning of zi, the point being that the junzi is the ruler’s ideal heir, the perfect successor, unlike the actual sons who often prove unsuitable or quarrelsome. The compound combines the political (jun) and the familial (zi). However, the ideal heir always defers to the actual heir; Confucius is conservative on this point. For a discussion of these issues see chapter 4 of Sarah Allan’s Buried Ideas. The junzi’s role is advisory, ministerial, because the Confucius (or the editors) of The Analects is not willing to challenge hereditary succession (see A14.19 for example). The junzi only strives to improve hereditary rule as a diplomatic, technical, and ethical expert (“expert” is another meaning of zi), whose mission is to guide the hereditary ruler. In an excavated text, the Zigao, discovered in the late twentieth century, Confucius advocates a ruler’s abdication to a worthy successor using the Yao-Shun model, but The Analects praises Yao and Shun only for the greatness of their respective rules, not for Yao’s abdication to Shun. Mozi, as a critic within the Confucian school and in keeping with his separation of family and state, endorses succession by abdication. The late fourth-century BC Mencius (d. 279 BC) cites Confucius as accepting in principle both forms of succession. The word zi—offspring, child, son—merits a comment since it is the lower half of the graph xiao and the second part of junzi. In The Analects, zi alone refers to Confucius, the Master himself. Zi may also come before or after another name. Coming after a clan name or a specialization, zi is a term of high respect. Thus Kongzi is a “son” (worthy member and successor) in the Kong clan. Zi in this position may also mean an expert in a given field or guild: Zhouzi is a skilled boatman. When zi precedes a word, as in Zigong or Zixia, for example, it often suggests aspiration: Zigong aims to join the family of the munificent (gong), Zixia the family devoted to traditional culture (xia). In many languages sons were named for fathers; in English we are familiar with Johnson, Fitzgerald (fitz derived from fils de), MacArthur (mac), et cetera. The Han dynastic line of emperors observed filial succession and if the text of The Analects was finalized in the early Han, that timing could be an alterna-

appendix a    159 tive explanation for the absence of the abdication theme in The Analects. Every posthumous imperial title (except that of the Han founder, Han Gaozu, whose father was a commoner) starts with the word xiao, legitimating each emperor as the filial successor to his imperial father. More likely though, the absence of the abdication theme in The Analects suggests that the junzi should act as a counselor not a successor, someone who has the wisdom to forestall succession crises, the bane of Confucius’s era.

a ppendix b: a timeline for c onfucius’s life

All listings are based on estimates in Yang Zuoren and Song Junping, Kongzi zhuan, 449–63. A few links to the Lunyu are given. Age 30:

Confucius speaks of Zichan’s four positive qualities (A5.15). This speech may have been Confucius’s eulogy, or part of it, for Zichan, who died in 522 BC.

Age 34:

With the support of Lord Zhao of Lu, Confucius visits the royal Zhou capital at Luo where he reviews artifacts and documents of the Zhou heritage, occasioning his remarks (A3.14) about the awesome record of these rulers.

Age 35:

Lord Zhao flees to Qi. He had failed to break the power of the Three Huan ministerial houses and reassert his authority, and their counter attack was successful. Confucius also leaves the disorder in Lu and goes to the state of Qi, where he is received by Lord Jing. The following year he offers Lord Jing a formula for right rule: “Let the ruler rule rightly and the ministers will serve rightly” (A12.11). Qi had taken some land from Lu to settle Lord Zhao. In the same year, Confucius is enthralled by the Shao music (A3.25).

Age 37:

Due to opposition from high officials in Qi to having Lord Jing appoint Confucius to office, Confucius returns to Lu. 160

appendix b    161 Age 42:

Lord Zhao dies in exile in the town Qi had provided him. The Jisun clan (led by Ji Pingzi) arranges for Lord Ding, a brother of Lord Zhao, to rule Lu.

Age 47:

Ji Pingzi dies and his chief minister, Yang Huo, arrests Ji Pingzi’s son Ji Huanzi and takes power himself. He calls on Confucius, but Confucius refuses to work for Yang Huo (A17.1), instead retiring to work on The Book of Songs, The Book of Documents, ritual, and music. “Unjustly gained, wealth and status to me are but floating clouds,” he says (A7.15).

Age 50:

Yang Huo fails to eliminate the Jisun clan. His fellow rebel Gongshan Furao takes armed action against the Jisun (whom he was serving) and summons Confucius, hoping to capitalize on the latter’s prestige. This time, Confucius initially wishes to serve, on the chance of overthrowing the Jisun, but Zilu dissuades him. It is not known why Confucius trusted Gongshan Furao but distrusted Yang Huo, but the two Jisun-vassals-turned-anti-Jisun-rebels may have had different attitudes to Lord Ding, whom Confucius wanted restored to real power in Lu.

Age 51:

Lord Ding attacks Yang Huo, driving him to take refuge in Qi; Yang eventually ends up in Jin, under the protection of that state’s Zhao clan.

Age 52–53:

Lord Ding appoints Confucius to a minor office; widely praised, he quickly rises to a ministerial position and accompanies Lord Ding to a meeting with Lord Jing of Qi. According to the Guliang zhuan, Confucius may have prevented Qi from kidnapping Lord Ding, the outcome instead is a truce in which Qi returns land taken from Lu.

Age 54:

Zilu has become chief officer (zai) for Jisun. Confucius wants to strengthen Lord Ding’s position and diminish the power of the Three Huan ministerial houses. Gongshan Furan, chief of Bi, abandons the stronghold at Bi and flees to Qi; Lord Ding retakes the Jisun stronghold, but the Mengsun clan prevents Lord Ding’s attempt to recover real power.

Age 55:

With the end of civil war in Lu, Qi fears Lu and sends a troupe of women musicians, which succeeds in distracting Lord Ding (A18.4). Indignant, Confucius leaves and goes to Wei, whose ruler is willing to match Lu’s salary. This departure from Lu marks the beginning of Confucius’s fourteen years of exile and

162      appendix b wandering. Slandered in Wei, he moves on to Chen but en route is surrounded by men from Kuang, who mistake him for Yang Huo. Confucius returns to Wei. Age 56:

Confucius visits Nanzi, wife of Lord Ling of Wei and the real power in Wei, over Zilu’s objections.

Age 57:

Lord Ding of Lu dies; his son Lord Ai takes his place.

Age 59:

Confucius remains in Wei but realizes that Lord Ling will never appoint him to office. The lord asks Confucius about military formations but Confucius refuses to answer him (A15.1). Disappointed, Confucius leaves for Jin but, hearing that two worthies were killed there, first returns to Wei then heads for Song. Facing poor prospects in Song he flees to Zheng, and then heads for Chen. Lord Ling of Wei dies and his grandson, son of Kuai Kui, is put in power. Kuai Kui was the heir apparent. See A5.23 and A7.14.

Age 60:

On his deathbed, Ji Kangzi’s father, Huanzi, expresses regret at not having used Confucius’s talents and advises his son to employ Confucius. Instead, Ji Kangzi appoints Ran Qiu. With his student in a powerful position, Confucius yearns to return to Lu.

Age 63:

Confucius is still in Chen when Wu attacks and Chu comes to Chen’s defense. Confucius leaves Chen but gets trapped between Chen and Cai with some followers; they run out of food (A15.2). This desperate situation causes Zilu great frustration. Yan Hui, however, keeps the faith. Confucius runs into the recluses of Chu (book 18). He says that he pays no heed to the advent of old age (A7.18).

Age 64:

Some former students employed in Wei get Confucius called back there. Zilu asks Confucius how he would proceed in reforming the state. Confucius starts with the rectification of names, to Zilu’s surprise (A13.3). Conflict breaks out between Wu and Lu. You Ruo plays a role in defeating Wu.

Age 68:

Confucius returns to Lu. In an attack by Qi on Lu, Ran Qiu rendered service, repelling the invaders. He convinces Ji Kangzi to call Confucius home, ending his fourteen years of wandering among the states. Confucius tells Lord Ai to raise the worthy in order to check the unworthy (A2.19). In the end, Confucius is not employed by the state in Lu and retires to study poetry, documents and history, The Book of Songs, The

appendix b    163 Book of Documents, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Age 71:

Confucius mourns the death of Yan Hui at age forty-one, saying, “Heaven has bereft me” (A6.2). The Tian clan of Qi (analogous to the Jisun of Lu) overthrows Lord Jian of Qi. Confucius urges the Lord Ai of Lu to punish Qi. But Lord Ai refuses to launch a campaign to restore Lord Jian.

Age 72:

A new coup takes place in Wei, and Zilu dies in the fighting; Confucius grieves (A5.23 and A7.14).

Age 73:

Confucius dies, in 479 BC. In a memorial tribute, Lord Ai of Lu says, “How unkind of heaven—not to spare him but a little while longer to serve me as guardian of my position as First Man, causing me to suffer unending distress. He was a father to me, O Ni, and a standard of right rule” (Zuozhuan, Aigong 16); the vocative “O Ni” references the latter part of Zhongni, Confucius’s name in the context of his students, and is thus very personal, perhaps too intimate. With reference to these words Zigong says, “The ruler will not die in Lu. Our master said, ‘A failure of ritual causes confusion; a failure of language misleads; a failure of purpose causes confusion; a failure of action misleads.’ To memorialize our Master after failing to appoint him is a breach of ritual. To call himself First Man is a breach of correct terms. The ruler has failed by both measures” (Zuozhuan, Aigong 16).

se l ected biblio graphy

An Zuozhang, ed. Lunyu cidian. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2004. Cao Haidong. “ ‘Fuzi zhi wenzhang ke de er wen,’ bie jie.” Kongzi yanjiu no. 1 (2004): 117–20. Gao Zhuancheng. Kongzi, Kongzi dizi. Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1991. Guo Keyu, Liang Fangjian, and Chen Dong. Luguo shi. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1994. Guoxuemeng. Lunyu [The Analects]. http://www.guoxuemeng.com/guoxue /lunyu/. Accessed June 8, 2020. Jiang Hao, et al. Shangshu quanyi. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1990. Kuang Yaming. Kongzi pingzhuan. Jinan: Qi-Lu shushe, 1985. Lai Kehong. Lunyu zhijie. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 1997. Qian Mu. Lunyu xinjie. Chengdu: Ba-Shu shushe, 1985. Su Yong. “Zhoudai zhengguo shi yanjiu.” PhD diss., Jilin University, 2010. Wang Gelin. Qiguo shi. Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1992. Wei Houkai, ed. “Zhonggong jishi.” Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, posted September 3, 2017, http://bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=2877. Wu Shundun, et al., eds. Shiji quanyi. 4 vols. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1990. Xunzi and Beijing daxue Xunzi zhushizu, eds. Xunzi xinzhu. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979. Yang Bojun. Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981. . Lunyu shizhu. Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1989; reprint of 1984 edition. Yang Chaoming. “Xinchu zhushu yu ‘Lunyu’ chengshu wenti zairenshi.” Zhongguo zhexueshi, no. 3 (2003): 35–37. 165

166      selected bibliography Yang Kuan. Xizhou shi. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1999. Yang Tianyu. Li Ji yizhu. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chuban she, 1997. Yang Zuoren and Song Junping. Kongzi zhuan. Jinan: Qi-Lu shushe, 1999. Yuan Yu’an, et al. Shijing quanyi. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1991. Zhao Jibin. Lunyu xintan. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1959. E N G L I SH

Allan, Sarah. The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981, reprinted 2016. . Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Boodberg, Peter A. Selected Works of Peter A. Boodberg, compiled by Alvin P. Cohen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Chan, Alan Kam-leung. Mencius: Contexts and Interpretations. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2002. Chin, Annping. The Authentic Confucius. New York: Scribner, 2007. Fingarette, Herbert. Confucius: The Secular as Sacred. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1998. Goldin, Paul, ed. A Concise Companion to Confucius. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017. Hunter, Michael, and Martin Kern, eds. Confucius and the Analects Revisited: New Perspectives on Composition, Dating, and Authorship. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Legge, James, trans. Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean. Chinese Classics 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893. . The Works of Mencius. Chinese Classics 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895. Loewe, Michael, and Edward L. Shaughnessy. The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Makeham, John. “The Formation of Lunyu as a Book.” Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies 44 (1996): 1–24. Rosemont, Henry. A Reader’s Companion to the Confucian Analects. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Schuman, Michael. Confucius and the World He Created. New York: Basic Books, 2015. Shaughnessy, Edward L. Before Confucius: Studies in the Creation of the Chinese Classics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. Van Norden, Bryan, ed. Confucius and the Analects: New Essays. New York: Oxford University Press 2001.

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