report of a fire in Lu, telling whose ancestral temple had been
destroyed by it.
3 Ana. V. xxi.


when he is in want, gives way to unbridled license [1].' According
to the 'Narratives of the School,' the distress continued seven
days, during which time Confucius retained his equanimity, and
was even cheerful, playing on his lute and singing [2]. He retained,
however, a strong impression of the perils of the season, and we
find him afterwards recurring to it, and lamenting that of the
friends that were with him in Ch'an and Ts'ai, there were none
remaining to enter his door [3].
Escaped from this strait, he remained in Ts'ai over B.C. 489,
and in the following year we find him in Sheh, another district of
Ch'u, the chief of which had taken the title of duke, according to
the usurping policy of that State. Puzzled about his visitor, he
asked Tsze-lu what he should think of him, but the disciple did
not venture a reply. When Confucius heard of it, he said to Tsze-
lu. 'Why did you not say to him:-- He is simply a man who in his
eager pursuit of knowledge forgets his food, who in the joy of its
attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not perceive that
old age is coming on [4]?' Subsequently, the duke, in conversation
with Confucius, asked him about government, and got the reply,
dictated by some circumstances of which we are ignorant, 'Good
government obtains, when those who are near are made happy, and
those who are far off are attracted [5]'
After a short stay in Sheh, according to Sze-ma Ch'ien, he
returned to Ts'ai, and having to dross a river, he sent Tsze-lu to
inquire for the ford of two men who were at work in a neighboring