CHAPTER 9

The philosopher Tsăng said, "Let there be a careful attention to perform the funeral rites to parents, and let them be followed when long gone with the ceremonies of sacrifice;—then the virtue of the people will resume its proper excellence."

8. PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CULTIVATION. 1. 君子has here its lightest meaning,=a student, one who wishes to be a keun-tsze. 孔安国, of the Han dynasty, in the 1st half of the 2d century, took 固, in the sense of 'obscured', 'dulled', and interprets—'let him learn, and he will not fall into error'. The received interpretation, as in the transL, is better. 2. 主, as a verb, 'to hold to be chief'. It is often used thus. 3. The object of friendship, with Chinese moralists, is to improve one's knowledge and virtue;—hence, this seemingly selfish maxim.

9. THE GOOD EFFECT OF ATTENTION OF THE PART OF PRINCES TO THE OFFICES TO THE DEAD:—AN ADMONITION OF TSANG SIN. 终, 'the end',=death, and 远, 'distant' have both the force of adjectives,= 'the dead' and 'the departed' or 'the long gone'. 慎 and 追 mean, 'to be careful of', 'to follow', but their application is as in the translation. 厚, 'thick', in opposition to 薄, 'thin', metasphorically,=good, excellent. The force of 归, 'to return', is to shew that this virtue is naturally proper to the people.