lessons. Six and thirty years have elapsed[1]; the generation has been changed; and manners have altered. Through the four quarters of the land there is no occasion for anxiety, and I, the One man, enjoy repose.
'The prevailing ways now tend to advancement and now to degeneracy, and measures of government must be varied according to the manners (of the time). If you (now) do not manifest your approval of what is good, the people will not be led to stimulate themselves in it. But your virtue, O duke, is strenuous, and you are cautiously attentive to the smallest things. You have been helpful to and brightened four reigns[2]; with deportment all correct leading on the inferior officers, so that there is not one who does not reverently take your words as a law. Your admirable merits were many (and great) in the times of my predecessors; I, the little child, have but to let my robes hang down, and fold my hands, while I look up for the complete effect (of your measures),'
3. The king said, 'Oh! Grand-Master, I now reverently charge you with the duties of the duke of Kâu. Go! Signalize the good, separating the bad from them; give tokens of your approbation in their neighbourhoods[3], making it ill for the evil by such distinction of the good, and thus establishing the influence and reputation (of their virtue). When the people will not obey your lessons and statutes,
- ↑ Probably, from the death of the duke of Kâu.
- ↑ Those of Wăn, Wû, Khăng, and the existing reign of Khang.
- ↑ Setting up, that is, some conspicuous monument, with an inscription testifying his approbation. All over China, at the present day, such testimonials are met with.
