In the Emperor Yü[1] I find no loophole for censure. His own food and drink were plain, but his offerings to the ancestral spirits showed extreme piety. His own garments were poor, but his robes and cap of state were extremely fine. His own dwelling was humble, but he spent all his strength on the construction of public canals and water-courses. I find no loophole for censure in Yü.
After the word had gone forth, Hui was never backward in his deeds.
The Master speaking of Yen Yüan said: Ah, what a loss! I used to see him ever progressing and never coming to a standstill.
The Master said: Yu, I fancy, is a man who would stand up, dressed in shabby garments quilted with hemp, among people attired in furs of fox and badger, and not be ashamed.
"Hating none and courting none, how can he be other than good?"[2]As Tzǔ Lu kept constantly humming over this line, the Master said: This rule of conduct is not enough by itself to constitute goodness.
- ↑ The "Great Yü," who in the reign of the Emperor Yao laboured incessantly for eight years to control the disastrous inundations of the Yellow River, himself became Emperor after the death of Yao's successor Shun, and founded the Hsia dynasty (2205-1766 B.C.).
- ↑ A quotation from the Book of Poetry, a collection of some 300 ancient ballads said to have been selected and arranged by Confucius himself, and hence raised to the dignity of a "classic."
