I. Harmony is to be valued,[1] and an avoidance of wanton opposition to be honoured. All men are influenced by class-feelings, and there are few who are intelligent. Hence there are some who disobey their lords and fathers, or who maintain feuds with the neighboring villages. But when those above are harmonious and those below are friendly, and there is concord in the discussion of business, right views of things spontaneously gain acceptance. Then what is there which cannot be accomplished!
II. Sincerely reverence the three treasures. The three treasures, viz. Buddha, the Law and the Priesthood, are the final refuge of the four generated beings,[2] and are the supreme objects of faith in all countries. What man in what age can fail to reverence this law? Few men are utterly bad. They may be taught to follow it. But if they do not betake them to the three treasures, wherewithal shall their crookedness be made straight?
III. When you receive the Imperial commands, fail not scrupulously to obey them. The lord is Heaven, the vassal is Earth. Heaven overspreads, and Earth upbears. When this is so, the four seasons follow their due course, and the powers of Nature obtain their efficacy. If the Earth attempted to overspread, Heaven would simply fall in ruin. Therefore is it that when the lord speaks, the vassal listens; when the superior acts, the inferior yields compliance. Consequently when you receive the Imperial commands, fail not to carry them out scrupulously. Let there be a want of care in this matter, and ruin is the natural consequence.
IV. The Ministers and functionaries should make decorous (XXII. 11.) behavior their leading principle, for the leading principle of the government of the people consists in decorous behavior.[3] If the superiors do not behave with decorum, the inferiors are disorderly: if inferiors are wanting in proper behaviour, there
- ↑ From the "Lunyu," or "Analects" of Confucius.
- ↑ That is, the beings produced in transmigration by the four processes of being born from eggs, from a womb, moisture-bred, or formed by metamorphosis (as butterflies from caterpillars). Some editions omit the phrase Buddha, the Law and the Priesthood.
- ↑ The Chinese 禮, li, decorum, courtesy, proper behaviour, ceremony, gentlemanly conduct as we should say.
