letters I am perhaps equal to other men; but the character of the
superior man, carrying out in his conduct what he professes, is
what I have not yet attained to.' 'The leaving virtue without
proper cultivation; the not thoroughly discussing what is learned;
not being able to move towards righteousness of which a
knowledge is gained; and not being able to change what is not
good;-- these are the things which occasion me solicitude.' 'I am
not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one
who is fond of antiquity and earnest in seeking it there.' 'A
transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients,
I venture to compare myself with our old P'ang [1].'
Confucius cannot be thought to speak of himself in these
declarations more highly than he ought to do. Rather we may
recognise in them the expressions of a genuine humility. He was
conscious that personally he came short in many things, but he
toiled after the character, which he saw, or fancied that he saw,
in the ancient sages whom he acknowledged; and the lessons of
government and morals which he labored to diffuse were those
which had already been inculcated and exhibited by them.
Emphatically he was 'a transmitter and not a maker.' It is not to
be understood that he was not fully satisfied of the truth of the
principles which he had learned. He held them with the full
approval and consent of his own understanding. He believed that if
they were acted on, they would remedy the evils of his time.

1 All these passages are taken from the seventh Book of the
Analects. See chapters xxxiii, xxxii, iii, xix, and i.


There was nothing to prevent rulers like Yao and Shun and the