occurred on the way to Ch'i, which I may transfer to these pages
as a good specimen of the way in which Confucius turned
occurring matters to account, in his intercourse with his
disciples. As he was passing by the side of the Tai mountain,
there was a woman weeping and wailing by a grave. Confucius
bent forward in his carriage, and after listening to her for some
time, sent Tsze-lu to ask the cause of her grief. 'You weep, as if
you had experienced sorrow upon sorrow,' said Tsze-lu. The
woman replied, 'It is so. My husband's father was killed here by a
tiger, and my husband also; and now my son has met the same
fate.' Confucius asked her why she did not remove from the place,
and on her answering,' There is here no oppressive government,' he
turned to his disciples, and said, 'My

1 See Analects, III. i. ii, et al.
2 ´º¤½.
3 Ana. XVI. xii.
4 ®ËÀ¦. This is the same who was afterwards styled ®Ë¥­¥ò.
5 ³¯.


children, remember this. Oppressive government is fiercer than a
tiger [1].'
As soon as he crossed the border from Lu, we are told he
discovered from the gait and manners of a boy, whom he saw
carrying a pitcher, the influence of the sages' music, and told the
driver of his carriage to hurry on to the capital [2]. Arrived there,
he heard the strain, and was so ravished with it, that for three
months he did not know the taste of flesh. 'I did not think,' he
said, 'that music could have been made so excellent as this [3].'