there is the Wei State. In the Wei State there is the city of Liang. In the city of Liang there is a prince. In what does that prince differ from Violence?"
- In his pettiness.
"There is no difference," said the prince.
Thereupon Tai Chin Jen took his leave, and the prince remained in a state of mental perturbation, as though he had lost something.
When Tai Chin Jen had gone, Hui Tzŭ presented himself, and the prince said, "Our friend is truly a great man. Sages are not his equal."
"If you blow through a tube," replied Hui Tzŭ, "the result will be a note. If you blow through the hole in a sword-hilt, the result will be simply whssh. Yao and Shun have been belauded by mankind; yet compared with Tai Chin Jen they are but whssh."
When Confucius went to Ch'u, he stopped at a restaurant on Mount I. The servant to a man and his wife who lived next door, got up on top of the house.
"Whatever is he doing up there?" asked Tzŭ Lu.
"He is a Sage," replied Confucius," under the garb of a menial. He buries himself among the people.
- So as to get into closer relation with them.
He effaces himself at the wayside. Fame, he has
