to have no litigations.'
CHAP. XIV. Tsze-chang asked about government. The Master
said, 'The art of governing is to keep its affairs before the mind
without weariness, and to practise them with undeviating
consistency.'
CHAP. XV. The Master said, 'By extensively studying all
learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of
propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right.'

CHAP. XVI. The Master said, 'The superior man seeks to
perfect the admirable qualities of men, and does not seek to perfect
their bad qualities. The mean man does the opposite of this.'
CHAP. XVII. Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government.
Confucius replied, 'To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the
people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?'
CHAP. XVIII. Chi K'ang, distressed about the number of
thieves in the state, inquired of Confucius how to do away with
them. Confucius said, 'If you, sir, were not covetous, although you
should reward them to do it, they would not steal.'
CHAP. XIX. Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government,
saying, 'What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of
the principled?' Confucius replied, 'Sir, in carrying on your
government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced
desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The
relation

between superiors and inferiors, is like that between the wind and
the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it.'
CHAP. XX. 1. Tsze-chang asked, 'What must the officer be, who
may be said to be distinguished?'