CONFUCIUS THE ANALECTS

unaccustomed to toil; you cannot distinguish the five kinds of
grain:-- who is your master?' With this, he planted his staff in the
ground, and proceeded to weed.
2. Tsze-lu joined his hands across his breast, and stood before
him.
3. The old man kept Tsze-lu to pass the night in his house,
killed a fowl, prepared millet, and feasted him. He also introduced
to him his two sons.
4. Next day, Tsze-lu went on his way, and reported his
adventure. The Master said, 'He is a recluse,' and sent Tsze-lu back
to see him again, but when he got to the place, the old man was
gone.
5. Tsze-lu then said to the family, 'Not to take office is not
righteous. If the relations between old and young may not be
neglected, how is it that he sets aside the duties that should be
observed between sovereign and minister? Wishing to maintain his
personal purity, he allows that great relation to come to confusion.
A superior man takes office, and performs the righteous duties
belonging to it. As to the failure of right principles to make
progress, he is aware of that.'
CHAP. VIII. 1. The men who have retired to privacy from the
world have been Po-i, Shu-ch'i, Yu-chung, I-yi, Chu-chang, Hui of
Liu-hsia, and Shao-lien.
2. The Master said, 'Refusing to surrender their wills, or to
submit to any taint in their persons;-- such, I think, were Po-i and
Shu-ch'i.
3. 'It may be said of Hui of Liu-hsia, and of Shao-lien, that
they surrendered their wills, and submitted to taint in their
persons, but their words corresponded with reason, and their actions were
such as men are anxious to see. This is all that is to be remarked in
them.
4. 'It may be said of Yu-chung and I-yi, that, while they hid
themselves in their seclusion, they gave a license to their words;
but, in their persons, they succeeded in preserving their purity,
and, in their retirement, they acted according to the exigency of the
times.
5. 'I am different from all these. I have no course for which I
am predetermined, and no course against which I am
predetermined.'