The Master said, 'In hearing litigations, I am like
any other body. What is necessary, however, is to cause the people
to have no litigations.'
CHAP. XIV. Tsze-chang asked about government. The Master
said, 'The art of governing is to keep its affairs before the mind
without weariness, and to practise them with undeviating
consistency.'
CHAP. XV. The Master said, 'By extensively studying all
learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of
propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right.'
CHAP. XVI. The Master said, 'The superior man seeks to
perfect the admirable qualities of men, and does not seek to perfect
their bad qualities. The mean man does the opposite of this.'
CHAP. XVII. Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government.
Confucius replied, 'To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the
people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?'
CHAP. XVIII. Chi K'ang, distressed about the number of
thieves in the state, inquired of Confucius how to do away with
them. Confucius said, 'If you, sir, were not covetous, although you
should reward them to do it, they would not steal.'
CHAP. XIX. Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government,
saying, 'What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of
the principled?' Confucius replied, 'Sir, in carrying on your
government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced
desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The
relation
between superiors and inferiors, is like that between the wind and
the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it.'
CHAP. XX. 1. Tsze-chang asked, 'What must the officer be, who
may be said to be distinguished?'
2. The Master said, 'What is it you call being distinguished?'
3. Tsze-chang replied, 'It is to be heard of through the State,
to be heard of throughout his clan.'
4. The Master said, 'That is notoriety, not distinction.
5. 'Now the man of distinction is solid and straightforward,
and loves righteousness. He examines people's words, and looks at
their countenances. He is anxious to humble himself to others. Such
a man will be distinguished in the country; he will be distinguished
in his clan.
6. 'As to the man of notoriety, he assumes the appearance of
virtue, but his actions are opposed to it, and he rests in this
character without any doubts about himself. Such a man will be
heard of in the country; he will be heard of in the clan.'
CHAP. XXI. 1. Fan Ch'ih rambling with the Master under the
trees about the rain altars, said, 'I venture to ask how to exalt
virtue, to correct cherished evil, and to discover delusions.'
2. The Master said, 'Truly a good question!
3. 'If doing what is to be done be made the first business, and
success a secondary consideration; - is not this the way to exalt
virtue?
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