The Chinese Classics
Confucius (James Legge translation)
783 passages indexed from The Chinese Classics (Confucius (James Legge translation)) — Page 8 of 16
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The Chinese Classics, passage 541
It may be well to bring forward here Confucius's own estimate of himself and of his doctrines. It will serve to illustrate the [Sidebar] His own estimate of himself and of his doctrines. statements just made. The following are some of his sayings:-- 'The sage and the man of perfect virtue;-- how dare I rank myself with them?
The Chinese Classics, passage 570
It will come in due time, in its place, in the present Publication, and I do not think that what I here say of Confucius will require much, if any, modification.' So I wrote in 1861; and I at last accomplished a translation of the Yi, which was published in 1882, as the sixteenth volume of 'The Sacred Books of 'the East.' I should like to bring out a revision of that version, with the Chinese text, so as to make it uniform with the volumes of the Classics previously published.
The Chinese Classics, passage 581
There was the case of Mang Chih-fan, who boldly brought up the rear of the defeated troops of Lu, and attributed his occupying the place of honour to the backwardness of his horse. The action was gallant, but the apology for it was weak and unnecessary. And yet Confucius saw nothing in the whole but matter for praise [4]. He could excuse himself from seeing an unwelcome visitor on the ground that he was sick, when there was nothing the matter with him [5].
The Chinese Classics, passage 341
superior:-- that is all I have to care about [1].' It does not appear whether these offices were held by Confucius in the direct employment of the State, or as a dependent of the Chi family in whose jurisdiction he lived. The present of the carp from the duke may incline us to suppose the former. 3. In his twenty-second year, Confucius commenced his labors as a public teacher, and his house became a resort for young and inquiring spirits, who wished to learn the doctrines of antiquity.
The Chinese Classics, passage 25
The works of Mencius were included in the second division [1], among the writings of what were deemed orthodox scholars [2], of which there were 836 collections, from fifty-three different individuals. 3.
The Chinese Classics, passage 271
When one cultivates to the utmost the moral principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path.
The Chinese Classics, passage 703
The place next Kao Ch'ai is occupied by Fan Hsu, styled Tsze-ch'ih (樊 須, 字子遲), a native of Ch'i, or, according to others, of Lu, and whose age is given as thirty-six and forty-six years younger than Confucius. When young, he distinguished himself in a military command under the Chi family. 27. Yu Zo, styled Tsze-zo (有若, 字子若). He was a native of Lu, and his age is stated very variously. He was noted among the disciples for his great memory and fondness for antiquity.
The Chinese Classics, passage 559
But they stand out from their fellows, and rise above the level; and from the birth of mankind till now, there never has been one so complete as Confucius [1].' I will not indulge in farther illustration. The judgment of the sage's disciples, of Tsze-sze, and of Mencius, has been unchallenged by the mass of the scholars of China. Doubtless it pleases them to bow down at the shrine of the Sage, for their profession of literature is thereby glorified.
The Chinese Classics, passage 9
The third is the Chung Yung [5], or 'Doctrine of the Mean,' as the name has often been translated, though it would be better to render it, as in the present edition, by 'The State of Equilibrium and Harmony.' Its composition is ascribed to K'ung Chi [6], the grandson of Confucius. He is the philosopher of it. The fourth contains the works of Mencius. 3. This arrangement of the Classical Books, which is commonly supposed to have originated with the scholars of the Sung dynasty, is defective.
The Chinese Classics, passage 70
7 魯王共 (or 恭). While doing so, there were found in the wall copies of the Shu-ching, the Ch'un Ch'iu, the Hsiao-ching, and the Lun Yu or Analects, which had been deposited there, when the edict for the burning of the Books was issued.
The Chinese Classics, passage 123
In his note appended to what he calls the chapter of 'Classical Text,' Chu Hsi says that the tablets of the 'old copies' of the rest of the Great Learning were considerably out of order.
The Chinese Classics, passage 655
HIS IMMEDIATE DISCIPLES. Sze-ma Ch'ien makes Confucius say: 'The disciples who received my instructions, and could themselves comprehend them, were seventy-seven individuals. They were all scholars of extraordinary ability [1].' The common saying is, that the disciples of the sage were three thousand, while among them there were seventy-two worthies. I propose to give here a list of all those whose names have come down to us, as being his followers.
The Chinese Classics, passage 266
secret,' by which he means to tell us that the path of duty is to be pursued everywhere and at all times, while yet the secret spring and rule of it is near at hand, in the Heaven-conferred nature, the individual consciousness, with which no stranger can intermeddle. Chu Hsi, as will be seen in the notes, gives a different interpretation of the utterance.
The Chinese Classics, passage 90
In the critical work on the Four Books, called 'Record of Remarks in the village of Yung [1],' it is observed, 'The Analects, in my opinion, were made by the disciples, just like a record of remarks.
The Chinese Classics, passage 486
The duke Ai and Chi K'ang often conversed with him, but he no longer had weight in the guidance of state affairs, and wisely addressed himself to the completion of his literary labors. He wrote a preface, according to Sze-ma Ch'ien, to the Shu-ching; carefully digested the rites and ceremonies determined by the wisdom of the more ancient sages and kings; collected and arranged the ancient poetry; and undertook the reform of music [4]. He has told us himself.
The Chinese Classics, passage 496
He bathed, went to court, and represented the matter to the duke, saying, 'Ch'an Hang has slain his sovereign, I beg that you will undertake to punish him.' The duke pleaded his incapacity, urging that Lu was weak compared with Ch'i, but Confucius replied, 'One half the people of Ch'i are not consenting to the deed.
The Chinese Classics, passage 772
The Dictionaries chiefly consulted have been:-- The well-known Shwo Wan (說文解字), by Hsu Shan, styled Shu-chung ( 許慎, 字叔重), published in A.D. 100; with the supplement (繫傳) by Hsu Ch'ieh (徐鍇), of the southern Tang dynasty. The characters are arranged in the Shwo Wan under 540 keys or radicals, as they are unfortunately termed. The Liu Shu Ku (六書故), by Tai T'ung, styled Chung-ta (戴侗, 字仲達), of our thirteenth century. The characters are arranged in it, somewhat after the fashion of the R Ya (p.
The Chinese Classics, passage 557
Tsai Wo's opinion was, 'According to my view of our master, he is far superior to Yao and Shun.' Tsze-kung said, 'By viewing the ceremonial ordinances of a prince, we know the character of his government. By hearing his music, we know the character of his virtue. From the distance of a hundred ages after, I can arrange, according to their merits, the kings of those hundred ages;-- not one of them can escape me.
The Chinese Classics, passage 129
The treatise, as printed from these slabs, has some trifling additions, and many alterations in the order of the text, but differing from the arrangements proposed by Chu Hsi, and by other scholars. There seems to be now no difference of opinion among Chinese critics that the whole affair was a forgery.
The Chinese Classics, passage 748
It is the production of Chin Ch'ang, styled Chi'u-t'an (金澂, 字秋潭), an officer and scholar, who, returning, apparently to Canton province, from the North in 1836, occupied his retirement with reviewing his literary studies of former years, and employed his sons to transcribe his notes. The writer is fully up in all the commentaries on the Classics, and pays particular attention to the labours of the scholars of the present dynasty.
The Chinese Classics, passage 178
Here the Chinese moralist fails us. According to Chu Hsi's arrangement of the Treatise, there is only one sentence from which we can frame a reply to the above question. 'Therefore,' it is said, 'the superior man must be watchful over himself when he is alone [2].' Following. Chu's sixth chapter of commentary, and forming, we may say, part of it, we have in the old arrangement of the Great Learning all the passages which he has distributed so as to form the previous five chapters.
The Chinese Classics, passage 305
The names by which it has been called in translations of it have led to misconceptions of its character. Were it styled 'The states of Equilibrium and Harmony,' we should be prepared to expect something strange and probably extravagant. Assuredly we should expect nothing more 1 See the concluding note by Chu Hsi. 2 See the Introductory note below. strange or extravagant than what we have.
The Chinese Classics, passage 234
'And how?' Tsze-sze said, 'O prince, if you and your ministers will only strive to realize the government of the duke of Chau and of Po-ch'in; practising their transforming principles, sending forth wide the favours of your ducal house, and not letting advantages flow in private channels; if you will thus conciliate the affections of the people, and at the same time cultivate friendly relations with neighboring states, your state will soon begin to flourish.' On one occasion, the duke asked whether it had been the custom of old for ministers to go into mourning for a prince whose service and state they had left.
The Chinese Classics, passage 696
Nan-kung Kwo, styled Tsze-yung (南宮括 [al. 适 and, in the 'Narratives of the School,' 縚 (T'ao)], 字子容), has the place at the east next to Yuan Hsien. It is a question much debated whether he was the same with Nan-kung Chang-shu, who accompanied Confucius to the court of Chau, or not.
The Chinese Classics, passage 121
They were in a more dilapidated condition at the time of the revivial of the ancient literature under the Han dynasty, and were then published in three collections, only one of which -- the Record of Rites -- retains its place among the five Ching. The Record of Rites consists, according to the ordinary arrangement, of forty-nine Chapters or Books. Liu Hsiang (see ch. I. sect. II.
The Chinese Classics, passage 618
Mencius inculcated this principle with a frequency and boldness which are remarkable. It was one of the things about which Confucius did not like to talk. Still he held it. It is conspicuous in the last chapter of 'The Great Learning.' Its tendency has been to check the violence of oppression, and maintain the self-respect of the people, all along the course of Chinese history. I must bring these observations on Confucius's views of government to a close, and I do so with two remarks.
The Chinese Classics, passage 273
Earnest in practising the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them; if in his practice he has anything defective, the superior man dares not but exert himself; and if in his words he has any excess, he dares not allow himself such license.
The Chinese Classics, passage 402
'He was standing alone once, when I was passing through the court below with hasty steps, and said to me, "Have you learned the Odes?" On my replying, "Not yet," he added, "If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse with." Another day, 1 公山佛擾(史記, 狃). 2 閔損.
The Chinese Classics, passage 769
歷代統記表, 'The Annals of the Nation.' Published by imperial authority in 1803, the eighth year of Ch'ia-ch'ing. This Work is invaluable to a student, being, indeed, a collection of chronological tables, where every year, from the rise of the Chau dynasty, B.C. 1121, has a distinct column to itself, in which, in different compartments, the most important events are noted.
The Chinese Classics, passage 710
Chu will have five sons after he is forty.' It has turned out so, and I apprehend it is your fault, and not your wife's, that you have no son yet.' Chan took this advice, and in the second year after, he had a son. 31. Yen Hsing [al. Hsin, Liu, and Wei], styled Tsze-liu (顏幸 [al. 辛, 柳, and 韋], 字子柳), occupies the place, east, after Wu-ma Shih. He was a native of Lu, and forty-six years younger than Confucius. 32. Liang Chan is followed on the west by Zan Zu, styled Tsze-lu [al.
The Chinese Classics, passage 59
There would be no occasion for the scholars of the Han dynasty, in regard to the bulk of their ancient literature, to undertake more than the work of recension and editing. 9. The idea of forgery by them on a large scale is out of the question. The catalogues of Liang Hsin enumerated more than 13,000 volumes of a larger or smaller size, the productions of nearly 600 different writers, and arranged in thirty-eight subdivisions of subjects [1].
The Chinese Classics, passage 396
2 Ana. XVIII. iii 3 Sze-ma Ch'ien makes the first observation to have been addressed directly to Confucius. 4 According to the above account Confucius was only once, and for a portion of two years, in Ch'i. For the refutation of contrary accounts, see Chiang Yung's Life of the Sage. 5 定公. 6 陽虎. 7 陽貨. Kung-shan Fu-zao [1]. At one time Chi Hwan, the most powerful of the chiefs, was kept a prisoner by Yang Hu, and was obliged to make terms with him in order to obtain his liberation.
The Chinese Classics, passage 493
In it, from the standpoint of Lu, he briefly indicates the principal events occurring throughout the country, every term being expressive, it is said, of the true character of the actors and events described.
The Chinese Classics, passage 460
After all, he did not go to Pi Hsi; and having travelled as far as the Yellow river that he might see one of the principal ministers of Tsin, he heard of the violent death of two men of worth, and returned to Wei, lamenting the fate which prevented him from crossing the stream, and trying to solace himself with poetry as he had done on leaving Lu.
The Chinese Classics, passage 472
As to the past, reproof is useless, but the future may be provided against. Give up, give up your vain pursuit.' Confucius alighted and wished to enter into conversation with him, but the man hastened away [2].
The Chinese Classics, passage 634
Thornton observes:-- 'It may excite surprise, and probably incredulity, to state that the golden rule of our Saviour, 'Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you,' which Mr.
The Chinese Classics, passage 553
Being charged by Tsze-ch'in with being too modest, for that Confucius was not really superior to him, he replied, 'For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We ought to be careful indeed in what we say. Our master cannot be attained to, just in the same way as the heavens cannot be gone up to by the steps of a stair.
The Chinese Classics, passage 357
He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were Fu-fu Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K'ao-fu, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Heh has observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K'ung Ch'iu.
The Chinese Classics, passage 345
Both coffins were conveyed to Fang, and put in the ground together, with no intervening space between them, as was the custom in some States. And now came a new perplexity. He said to himself, 'In old times, they had graves, but raised no tumulus over them. But I am a man, who belongs equally to the north and the south, the east and the west.
The Chinese Classics, passage 315
We have accounts of him as being in communication with the Grand- historiographer of the kingdom, and engaged in researches about its ancient poetry, thus setting an example of one of the works to which Confucius gave himself [7]. K'ao gave birth to K'ung-fu Chia [8], from whom the surname of K'ung took its rise.
The Chinese Classics, passage 447
One day the duke rode out through the streets of his capital in the same carriage with Nan-tsze, and made Confucius follow them in another. Perhaps he intended to honour the philosopher, but the people saw the incongruity, and cried out, 'Lust in the front; virtue behind!' Confucius was ashamed, and made the observation, 'I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty [4].' Wei was no place for him. He left it, and took his way towards Ch'an.
The Chinese Classics, passage 443
On the way, he passed a house where he had formerly lodged, and finding that the master was dead, and the funeral ceremonies going on, he went in to condole and weep. When he came out, he told Tsze-kung to take the outside horses from his carriage, and give them as a contribution to the expenses of the occasion.
The Chinese Classics, passage 195
589-618), in the chapter on the History of Literature [2], there are mentioned three Works on the Chung Yung;-- the first called 'The Record of the Chung Yung,' in two chuan, attributed to Tai Yung, a scholar who flourished about the middle of the fifth century; the second, 'A Paraphrase and Commentary on the Chung Yung,' attributed to the emperor Wu (A.D.
The Chinese Classics, passage 562
[Sidebar] Subjects on which Confucius did not treat.-- That he was unreligious, unspiritual, and open to the charge of insincerity. The testimony of the Analects about the subjects of his teaching is the following:-- 'His frequent themes of discourse were the Book 1 Mencius, II. Pt. I. ii. 23-28. 2 'The contents of the Yi-ching, and Confucius's labors upon it, may be objected in opposition to this statement, and I must be understood to make it with come reservation.
The Chinese Classics, passage 516
'When any of his friends died, if there were no relations who could be depended on for the necessary offices, he would say, "I will bury him." 'The disciples were so careful to record these and other characteristics of their master, it is said, because every act, of movement or of rest, was closely associated with the great principles which it was his object to inculcate. The detail of so many small matters, however, hardly impresses a foreigner so favourably.
The Chinese Classics, passage 33
7 The burning of the ancient Books by order of the founder of the Ch'in dynasty is always referred to as the greatest disaster which they sustained, and with this is coupled the slaughter of many of the Literati by the same monarch. The account which we have of these transactions in the Historical Records is the following [2]: 'In his 34th year [the 34th year, that is, after he had ascended the throne of Ch'in.
The Chinese Classics, passage 77
sustained several of the highest offices of the empire, instituted a comparison between the exemplars of Lu and Ch'i, with a view to determine the true text. The result of his labors appeared in twenty-one Books, which are mentioned in Liu Hsin's catalogue. They were known as the Lun of prince Chang [1], and commanded general approbation.
The Chinese Classics, passage 329
That night she dreamt the black Ti appeared, and said to her, 'You shall have a son, a sage, and you must bring him forth in a hollow mulberry tree.' One day during her pregnancy, she fell into a dreamy state, and saw five old men in the hall, who called themselves the essences of the five planets, and led an animal which looked like a small cow with one horn, and was covered with scales like a dragon.
The Chinese Classics, passage 498
479, Confucius had to mourn the death of another of his disciples, one of those who had been longest with him, the well-known Tsze-lu. He stands out a sort of Peter in the Confucian school, a man of impulse, prompt to speak and prompt to act. He gets many a check from the master, but there is evidently a strong sympathy between them.
The Chinese Classics, passage 113
He composed, or his disciples complied, in the twelfth century, three Works on the Analects:-- the first called 'Collected Meanings [4];' the second, 'Collected Comments [5];' and the third, 'Queries [6].' Nothing could exceed the grace and clearness of his style, and the influence which he has exerted on the literature of China has been almost despotic.