injuries, and therefore their enemies were few.
Who will say that Wei-shêng Kao[1] was an upright man? When asked by somebody for some vinegar, he went and begged it of a neighbour, and gave this to the man who had asked him.
For the space of three months together Hui[2] would not deviate in spirit from the path of perfect virtue. My other disciples may attain this height once in a day or in a month, but that is all.
Po Niu[3] lying sick unto death, the Master went to visit him. He clasped his hand through the window and said: He is dying. Such is fate. Alas! that such a man should have such an illness, that such a man should have such an illness!
- ↑ This was a young man who, if legend may be trusted, died more heroically than he lived. He agreed to meet a girl under a bridge, but, woman-like, she failed to keep her appointment. Though the water was rising rapidly, her lover waited on, unwilling to quit his post, and finally clung to a pillar until he was drowned.
- ↑ This is the man whom Confucius, according to Wade (see p. 73), ranked below Tzǔ Kung!
- ↑ Po Niu is said to have been suffering from leprosy, and therefore he would not allow visitors to enter his room.
the overthrow of the Yin dynasty. Rather than live under the rule of the new sovereign, the great and virtuous Wu Wang, they wandered away into the mountains to perish of cold and hunger. This fidelity to the cause of Chou Hsin, one of the bloodiest and most infamous tyrants in history, seems a shade more quixotic than the conduct of those who espoused for so long the fallen fortunes of the house of Stuart.
