There is no one, from the man who brings me dried meat as payment upwards, to whom I have refused my instruction.
I do not expound my teaching to any who are not eager to learn; I do not help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself; if, after being shown one corner of a subject, a man cannot go on to discover the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.
If the pursuit of riches were a commendable pursuit, I would join in it, even if I had to become a chariot-driver for the purpose. But seeing that it is not a commendable pursuit, I engage in those which are more to my taste.[1]
The Duke of Shê questioned Tzǔ Lu about Confucius. Tzǔ Lu made no reply. The Master said to him afterwards: Why did you not say: "He is a man whose zeal for self-improvement
- ↑ Legge and others (including even Mr. Ku Hung-ming) make the sense out to be "If there were any prospect of my being successful in the search for riches, I would not hesitate to pursue them by any means in my power." Thus translated, the Master's saying is grotesquely at variance with the whole trend of his conduct and the essential spirit of his teaching. Curiously enough, too, there is nothing in the Chinese itself, so far as I can see, to justify such a startling interpretation.
himself wholly to the welfare of the State. Confucius in the reforming zeal of his younger days had an ardent desire to see the principles and institutions of Chou Kung brought into general practice.
