In Three Years, The Government
Would Be Perfected.'
CHAP.
XI.
The Master said, '"If good men were to govern a
country in succession for a hundred years, they would be able to
transform the violently bad, and dispense with capital
punishments." True indeed is this saying!'
CHAP. XII. The Master said, 'If a truly royal ruler were to
arise, it would still require a generation, and then virtue would
prevail.'
CHAP. XIII. The Master said, 'If a minister make his own
conduct correct, what difficulty will he have in assisting in
government? If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with
rectifying others?'
CHAP. XIV. The disciple Zan returning from the court, the
Master said to him, 'How are you so late?' He replied, 'We had
government business.' The Master said, 'It must have been family
affairs. If there had been government business, though I am not
now in office, I should have been consulted about it.'
CHAP. XV. 1. The Duke Ting asked whether there was a single
sentence which could make a country prosperous. Confucius replied,
'Such an effect cannot be expected from one sentence.
2. 'There is a saying, however, which people have - "To be a
prince is difficult; to be a minister is not easy."
3. 'If a ruler knows this, - the difficulty of being a prince, -
may there not be expected from this one sentence the prosperity of
his country?'
4. The duke then said, 'Is there a single sentence which can
ruin a country?' Confucius replied, 'Such an effect as that cannot be
expected from one sentence.
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