The Master said, 'The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.'
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“‘Non alium videre patres, aliumve nepotes Aspicient.’
[Literally, "make servants of them." Tu Yu says "prevent them from having any rest."]
The Master said, 'Of those who were with me in Ch'an and Ts'ai, there are none to be found to enter my door.' 2. Distinguished for their virtuous principles and practice, there were Yen Yuan, Min Tsze-ch'ien, Zan Po-niu, and Chung-kung; for their ability in speech, Tsai Wo and Tsze-kung; for their adminis- trative talents, Zan Yu and Chi Lu; for their literary acquirements, Tsze-yu and Tsze-hsia.
In night-fighting, then, make much use of signal-fires and drums, and in fighting by day, of flags and banners, as a means of influencing the ears and eyes of your army.
The Master said, 'When the year becomes cold, then we know how the pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves.'
Tsze-chang having asked how virtue was to be exalted, and delusions to be discovered, the Master said, 'Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles, and be moving continually to what is right;-- this is the way to exalt one's virtue. 2. 'You love a man and wish him to live; you hate him and wish him to die. Having wished him to live, you also wish him to die. This is a case of delusion. 3. '"It may not be on account of her being rich, yet you come to make a difference."'
“To what end should you endeavour to draw back, if there be no possibility to evade it? you have seen examples enough of those who have been well pleased to die, as thereby delivered from heavy miseries; but have you ever found any who have been dissatisfied with dying? It must, therefore, needs be very foolish to condemn a thing you have neither experimented in your own person, nor by that of any other. Why dost thou complain of me and of destiny? Do we do thee any wrong? Is it for thee to govern us, or for us to govern thee? Though, peradventure, thy age may not be accomplished, yet thy life is: a man of low stature is as much a man as a giant; neither men nor their lives are measured by the ell. Chiron refused to be immortal, when he was acquainted with the conditions under which he was to enjoy it, by the god of time itself and its duration, his father Saturn. Do but seriously consider how much more insupportable and painful an immortal life would be to man than what I have already given him. If you had not death, you would eternally curse me for having deprived you of it; I have mixed a little bitterness with it, to the end, that seeing of what convenience it is, you might not too greedily and indiscreetly seek and embrace it: and that you might be so established in this moderation, as neither to nauseate life, nor have any antipathy for dying, which I have decreed you shall once do, I have tempered the one and the other betwixt pleasure and pain. It was I that taught Thales, the most eminent of your sages, that to live and to die were indifferent; which made him, very wisely, answer him, ‘Why then he did not die?’ ‘Because,’ said he, ‘it is indifferent.’--[Diogenes Laertius, i. 35.]--Water, earth, air, and fire, and the other parts of this creation of mine, are no more instruments of thy life than they are of thy death. Why dost thou fear thy last day?
Sze-ma Niu, full of anxiety, said, 'Other men all have their brothers, I only have not.' 2. Tsze-hsia said to him, 'There is the following saying which I have heard:-- 3. '"Death and life have their determined appointment; riches and honours depend upon Heaven." 4. 'Let the superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety:-- then all within the four seas will be his brothers. What has the superior man to do with being distressed because he has no brothers?'
The Master said, 'The superior man is affable, but not adulatory; the mean man is adulatory, but not affable.'
When Yen Yuan died, the Master said, 'Alas! Heaven is destroying me! Heaven is destroying me!'
How victory may be produced for them out of the enemy’s own tactics—that is what the multitude cannot comprehend.
The philosopher Tsang said, 'The officer may not be without breadth of mind and vigorous endurance. His burden is heavy and his course is long. 2. 'Perfect virtue is the burden which he considers it is his to sustain;-- is it not heavy? Only with death does his course stop;-- is it not long?
[This does not mean that the enemy is to be allowed to escape. The object, as Tu Mu puts it, is "to make him believe that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair." Tu Mu adds pleasantly: "After that, you may crush him."]
Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity.
The Master said, 'The governments of Lu and Wei are brothers.'
The Duke Ching, of Ch'i, asked Confucius about government. 2. Confucius replied, 'There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son.' 3. 'Good!' said the duke; 'if, indeed; the prince be not prince, the minister not minister, the father not father, and the son not son, although I have my revenue, can I enjoy it?'
[In the tactics of Turenne, deception of the enemy, especially as to the numerical strength of his troops, took a very prominent position. [2] ]
The Master said, 'May not Shun be instanced as having governed efficiently without exertion? What did he do? He did nothing but gravely and reverently occupy his royal seat.'
When Yen Yuan died, the disciples wished to give him a great funeral, and the Master said, 'You may not do so.' 2. The disciples did bury him in great style. 3. The Master said, 'Hui behaved towards me as his father. I have not been able to treat him as my son. The fault is not mine; it belongs to you, O disciples.'