"But if such is the case," said Tzŭ Kung, "why should we stick to the rule?"
"Heaven has condemned me to this," replied Confucius. "Nevertheless, you and I may perhaps escape from it."
"By what method?" asked Tzŭ Kung.
"Fishes," replied Confucius, "are born in water. Man is born in Tao. If fishes get ponds to live in, they thrive. If man gets Tao to live in, he may live his life in peace.
- Without reference to the outward ceremonial of this world.
Hence the saying, 'All that a fish wants is water; all that a man wants is Tao.'"
- It is of course by a literary coup de main that Confucius is here and elsewhere made to stand sponsor to the Tao of the rival school.
"May I ask," said Tzŭ Kung, "about divine men?"
"Divine men," replied Confucius, "are divine to man, but ordinary to God. Hence the saying that the meanest being in heaven would be the best on earth; and the best on earth, the meanest in heaven."
- "Man is a kind of very minute heaven. God is the grand man."— Swedenborg.
Yen Hui said to Confucius, "When Mêng Sun Ts'ai's mother died, he wept, but without snivelling;
- Which the Chinese regard as the test of real sorrow.
