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

76
CONFUCIUS
means of living quietly and contentedly ;
for where equilibrium
is preserved there will be no poverty, where there is harmony
their following will not be small, and where there is quiet con-
tentment there will be no decline nor fall. Now if that be the
case, it follows that if men in outlying districts are not submis-
sive, then a reform in education and morals will bring them to
and when they have been so won, then will you render them
quiet and contented. At the present time you two are Assist-
ants of your Chief; the people in the outlying districts are not
submissive, and cannot be brought round. Your dominion is
divided, prostrate, dispersed, cleft in pieces, and you as its
guardians are powerless. And plans are being made for tak-
ing up arms against those who dwell within your own State. I
am apprehensive that the sorrow of the Ki family is not to lie
in Chuen-yu, but in those within their own screen."
" When the empire is well-ordered," said Confucius, " it is
from the emperor that edicts regarding ceremonial, music, and
expeditions to quell rebellion go forth. When it is being ill
governed, such edicts emanate from the feudal lords ; and
when the latter is the case, it will be strange if in ten generations
there is not a collapse. If they emanate merely from the high
officials, it will be strange if the collapse do not come in five
generations. When the State-edicts are in the hands of the
subsidiary ministers, it will be strange if in three generations
there is no collapse.
" When the empire is well-ordered, government is not left in
the hands of high officials.
" When the empire is well-ordered, the common people will
cease to discuss public matters."
" For five generations," he said, " the revenue has departed
from the ducal household. Four generations ago the government
fell into the hands of the high officials. Hence, alas ! the
straitened means of the descendants of the three Hwan fam-
ilies."
" There are," said he, " three kinds of friendships which are
profitable, and three which are detrimental. To make friends
with the upright, with the trustworthy, with the experienced, is
to gain benefit ; to make friends with the subtly perverse, with
the artfully pliant, with the subtle in speech, is detrimental."
Again, " There are three kinds of pleasure which are profit-
able, and three which are detrimental. To take pleasure in go-
;