Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

42
CONFUCIUS
fail to have a grand funeral over me, I should hardly be left on
my death on the public highway, should I ? "
Tsz-kung once said to him, " Here is a fine gem. Would
you guard it carefully in a casket and store it away, or seek a
good price for it and sell it? " " Sell it, indeed," said the Mas-
ter — " that would I ; but I should wait for the bidder."
The Master protested he would " go and live among the nine
wild tribes."
" A rude life," said some one ;— " how could you put up with
it?"
" What rudeness would there be," he replied, " if a * superior
"
was living in their midst ?
man '
—
Once he remarked, " After I came back from Wei to Lu the
music was put right, and each of the Festal Odes and Hymns
was given its appropriate place and use."
" Ah ! which one of these following," he asked on one occasion,
" are to be found exemplified in me— proper service ren-
dered to superiors when abroad ; duty to father and elder
brother when at home ; duty that shrinks from no exertion
when dear ones die ; and keeping free from the confusing
effects of wine ? "
Standing once on the bank of a mountain stream, he said
(musingly), " Like this are those that pass away—no cessation,
"
day or night !
Other sayings :
" Take an illustration from the making of a hill. A simple
basketful is wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I
stop short.
" Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground.
Suppose again just one basketful is left, when the work has so
progressed. There I desist
" Ah !
!
!
it was Hwui, was it not? who, when I had given him
his lesson, was the unflagging one !
" Alas for Hwui ! I saw him ever making progress. I never
saw him stopping short.
" Blade, but no bloom—or else bloom, but no produce ; aye,
that is the way with some
" Reverent regard is due to youth. How know we what dif-
ference there may be in them in the future from what they are
now? Yet when they have reached the age of forty or fifty,
and are still unknown in the world, then indeed they are no
more worthy of such regard.