Chinese Literature - Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han by Mencius;Faxian;Confucius
page 47 of 386 (12%)
page 47 of 386 (12%)
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them;--this may be called wisdom."
To a further query, about philanthropy, he replied, "Those who possess that virtue find difficulty with it at first, success later. "Men of practical knowledge," he said, "find their gratification among the rivers of the lowland, men of sympathetic social feeling find theirs among the hills. The former are active and bustling, the latter calm and quiet. The former take their day of pleasure, the latter look to length of days." Alluding to the States of Ts'i and Lu, he observed, that Ts'i, by one change, might attain to the condition of Lu; and that Lu, by one change, might attain to good government. An exclamation of the Master (satirizing the times, when old terms relating to government were still used while bereft of their old meaning):--"A quart, and not a quart! _quart_, indeed! _quart_, indeed!" Tsai Wo, a disciple, put a query. Said he, "Suppose a philanthropic person were told, 'There's a fellow-creature down in the well!' Would he go down after him?" "Why should he really do so?" answered the Master. "The good man or, a superior man might be induced to go, but not to go down. He may be misled, but not befooled." "The superior man," said he, "with his wide study of books, and hedging himself round by the Rules of Propriety, is not surely, after all that, capable of overstepping his bounds." |
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