CHAPTER 15

1. Tsze-kung said, "What do you pronounce concerning the poor man who yet does not flatter, and the rich man who is not proud?" The Master replied, "They will do; but they are not equal to him, who, though poor, is yet cheerful, and to him, who, though rich, loves the rules of propriety."

2. Tsze-kung replied, "It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'As you cut and then file, as you carve and then polish.'—The meaning is the same, I apprehend, as that which you have just expressed."

3. The Master said, "With one like Tsze, I can begin to talk about the Odes. I told him one point, and he knew its proper sequence."

14. WITH WHAT MIND ONE AIMING TO BE A KEUN-TSZE PURSUES HIS LEARNING. He may be well, even luxuriously, fed and lodged, but, with his higher aim, there things are not his seeking, —无求. A nominative to 可谓 must be supposed, —all this, or such a person. The closing particles, 也已, give emphasis to the preceding sentence,=yes indeed.

15. AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE SUCCESSIVE STEPS IN SELF-CULTIVATION. 1. Tsze-kung had been poor, and then did not cringe. He became rich, and was not proud. He asked Confucius about the style of char. to which he had attained. Conf. allowed its worth, but sent him to higher attainments. 而, here,= 'and yet'. 何如, 'what as?'= 'what do you say – what is to be thought, – of this? ' Obs. the force of the 未, 'not yet'. 2. The ode quoted is the first of the songs of Wei (卫), praising the prince Woo, who had dealt with himself as an ivory-worker who first cuts the bone, and then files its smooth, or a lapidary whose hammer and chisel are followed by all the appliances for smoothing and polishing. See the Sheking, I. v. Ode I. st. 2. In 其斯之谓, the antecedent to 其 is the passage of the ode, and that to 斯 is the reply of Confucius. 之谓, see Premare, p.156. 3. Intorcetta and his co-adjutors translate this par. as if 赐 were in the 2d person. But the Chin. comm. put it in the 3d, and correctly. Premare, on the char. 也, says, 'Fere simper adjungitur nominibus propriis. Sic in libro Lun Yu, Confucius loquens de suis discipulis, Yeou, Keou, Hoei, vel ipsos alloquens, dicit 由也, 求也, 回也.' With the example in III.17, before us, it is not to be denied that the name before 也 is sometimes in the 2d person, but generally it is in the 3d, and the force of the 也=quoad. 赐也, quoed Tsze. 已矣, nearly=也已, in ch.14. 已, the final part. (see Prem.p.185), is thus marked with a tone, to distinguish it from 已, 'self', as in next ch. The last clause may be given—'tell him the past, and he knows the future', but the connection determines the meaning as in the translation. 诸, as in ch.10, is a particle, a mere 语助, as it is called, 'a helping' or supporting sound.