Tsz-lu was asking about government. "Lead the way in it," said the
Master, "and work hard at it."

Requested to say more, he added, "And do not tire of it."

Chung-kung, on being made first minister to the Chief of the Ki family,
consulted the Master about government, and to him he said, "Let the
heads of offices be heads. Excuse small faults. Promote men of sagacity
and talent."

"But," he asked, "how am I to know the sagacious and talented, before
promoting them?"

"Promote those whom you do know," said the Master.

"As to those of whom you are uncertain, will others omit to notice
them?"

Tsz-lu said to the Master, "As the prince of Wei, sir, has been waiting
for you to act for him in his government, what is it your intention to
take in hand first?"

"One thing of necessity," he answered--"the rectification of terms."

"That!" exclaimed Tsz-lu. "How far away you are, sir! Why such
rectification?"

"What a rustic you are, Tsz-lu!" rejoined the Master. "A gentleman would
be a little reserved and reticent in matters which he does not
understand. If terms be incorrect, language will be incongruous; and if
language be incongruous, deeds will be imperfect. So, again, when deeds
are imperfect, propriety and harmony cannot prevail, and when this is
the case laws relating to crime will fail in their aim; and if these
last so fail, the people will not know where to set hand or foot. Hence,
a man of superior mind, certain first of his terms, is fitted to speak;
and being certain of what he says can proceed upon it. In the language
of such a person there is nothing heedlessly irregular--and that is the
sum of the matter."

Fan Ch'i requested that he might learn something of husbandry. "For
that." said the Master, "I am not equal to an old husbandman." Might he
then learn something of gardening? he asked. "I am not equal to an old
gardener." was the reply.

"A man of little mind, that!" said the Master, when Fan Ch'i had gone
out. "Let a man who is set over the people love propriety, and they will
not presume to be disrespectful. Let him be a lover of righteousness,
and they will not presume to be aught but submissive. Let him love
faithfulness and truth, and they will not presume not to lend him their
hearty assistance. Ah, if all this only were so, the people from all
sides would come to such a one, carrying their children on their backs.
What need to turn his hand to husbandry?

"Though a man," said he, "could hum through the Odes--the three
hundred--yet should show himself unskilled when given some
administrative work to do for his country; though he might know much of
that other lore, yet if, when sent on a mission to any quarter, he could
answer no question personally and unaided, what after all is he good
for?

"Let a leader," said he, "show rectitude in his own personal character,
and even without directions from him things will go well. If he be not
personally upright, his directions will not be complied with."

Once he made the remark, "The governments of Lu and of Wei are in
brotherhood."

Of King, a son of the Duke of Wei, he observed that "he managed his
household matters well. On his coming into possession, he thought, 'What
a strange conglomeration!'--Coming to possess a little more, it was,
'Strange, such a result!' And when he became wealthy, 'Strange, such
elegance!'"

The Master was on a journey to Wei, and Yen Yu was driving him. "What
multitudes of people!" he exclaimed. Yen Yu asked him, "Seeing they are
so numerous, what more would you do for them?"

"Enrich them," replied the Master.

"And after enriching them, what more would you do for them?"

"Instruct them."

"Were any one of our princes to employ me," he said, "after a
twelvemonth I might have made some tolerable progress;"

Again, "How true is that saying, 'Let good men have the management of a
country for a century, and they would be adequate to cope with
evil-doers, and thus do away with capital punishments,'"

Again, "Suppose the ruler to possess true kingly qualities, then surely
after one generation there would be good-will among men."

Again, "Let a ruler but see to his own rectitude, and what trouble will
he then have in the work before him? If he be unable to rectify himself,
how is he to rectify others?"

Once when Yen Yu was leaving the Court, the Master accosted him. "Why so
late?" he asked. "Busy with legislation," Yen replied. "The details of
it," suggested the Master; "had it been legislation, I should have been
there to hear it, even though I am not in office."

Duke Ting asked if there were one sentence which, if acted upon, might
have the effect of making a country prosperous.

Confucius answered, "A sentence could hardly be supposed to do so much
as that. But there is a proverb people use which says, 'To play the
prince is hard, to play the minister not easy.' Assuming that it is
understood that 'to play the prince is hard,' would it not be probable
that with that one sentence the country should be made to prosper?"

"Is there, then," he asked, "one sentence which, if acted upon, would
have the effect of ruining a country?"

Confucius again replied, "A sentence could hardly be supposed to do so
much as that. But there is a proverb men have which says, 'Not gladly
would I play the prince, unless my words were ne'er withstood.' Assuming
that the words were good, and that none withstood them, would not that
also be good? But assuming that they were not good, and yet none
withstood them, would it not be probable that with that one saying he
would work his country's ruin?"

When the Duke of Sheh consulted him about government, he replied, "Where
the near are gratified, the far will follow."

When Tsz-hia became governor of Kue-fu, and consulted him about
government, he answered, "Do not wish for speedy results. Do not look at
trivial advantages. If you wish for speedy results, they will not be
far-reaching; and if you regard trivial advantages you will not
successfully deal with important affairs."

The Duke of Sheh in a conversation with Confucius said, "There are
some straightforward persons in my neighborhood. If a father has stolen
a sheep, the son will give evidence against him."

"Straightforward people in my neighborhood are different from those,"
said Confucius. "The father will hold a thing secret on his son's
behalf, and the son does the same for his father. They are on their way
to becoming straightforward."

Fan Ch'i was asking him about duty to one's fellow-men. "Be courteous,"
he replied, "in your private sphere; be serious in any duty you take in
hand to do; be leal-hearted in your intercourse with others. Even though
you were to go amongst the wild tribes, it would not be right for you to
neglect these duties."

In answer to Tsz-kung, who asked, "how he would characterize one who
could fitly be called 'learned official,'" the Master said, "He may be
so-called who in his private life is affected with a sense of his own
unworthiness, and who, when sent on a mission to any quarter of the
empire, would not disgrace his prince's commands."

"May I presume," said his questioner, "to ask what sort you would put
next to such?"

"Him who is spoken of by his kinsmen as a dutiful son, and whom the
folks of his neighborhood call' good brother.'"

"May I still venture to ask whom you would place next in order?"

"Such as are sure to be true to their word, and effective in their
work--who are given to hammering, as it were, upon one note--of inferior
calibre indeed, but fit enough, I think, to be ranked next."

"How would you describe those who are at present in the government
service?"

"Ugh! mere peck and panier men!--not worth taking into the reckoning."

Once he remarked, "If I cannot get _via media_ men to impart instruction
to, then I must of course take the impetuous and undisciplined! The
impetuous ones will at least go forward and lay hold on things; and the
undisciplined have at least something in them which needs to be brought
out."

"The Southerners," said he, "have the proverb, 'The man who sticks not
to rule will never make a charm-worker or a medical man,'
Good!--'Whoever is intermittent in his practise of virtue will live to
be ashamed of it.' Without prognostication," he added, "that will indeed
be so."

"The nobler-minded man," he remarked, "will be agreeable even when he
disagrees; the small-minded man will agree and be disagreeable."

Tsz-kung was consulting him, and asked, "What say you of a person who
was liked by all in his village?"

"That will scarcely do," he answered.

"What, then, if they all disliked him?"

"That, too," said he, "is scarcely enough. Better if he were liked by
the good folk in the village, and disliked by the bad."

"The superior man," he once observed, "is easy to serve, but difficult
to please. Try to please him by the adoption of wrong principles, and
you will fail. Also, when such a one employs others, he uses them
according to their capacity. The inferior man is, on the other hand,
difficult to serve, but easy to please. Try to please him by the
adoption of wrong principles, and you will succeed. And when he employs
others he requires them to be fully prepared for everything."

Again, "The superior man can be high without being haughty. The inferior
man can be haughty if not high."

"The firm, the unflinching, the plain and simple, the slow to speak,"
said he once, "are approximating towards their duty to their
fellow-men."

Tsz-lu asked how he would characterize one who might fitly be called an
educated gentleman. The master replied, "He who can properly be
so-called will have in him a seriousness of purpose, a habit of
controlling himself, and an agreeableness of manner: among his friends
and associates the seriousness and the self-control, and among his
brethren the agreeableness of manner."

"Let good and able men discipline the people for seven years," said the
Master, "and after that they may do to go to war."

But, said he, "To lead an undisciplined people to war--that I call
throwing them away."