[3] Every ceremonial rite being symbolical of some portion of the world's harmony, and the Great Sacrifice being the head and fount as it were of all the rest, it follows that the man who could penetrate its profound symbolism would have the whole system of morals and government unrolled before his eyes.
[4] Prime Minister of the Wei State, who suspected Confucius of coming to seek office, and took this means of hinting that the real power lay with himself and not with the Duke.
[5] After some hesitation, I have adopted this clever rendering of Mr. Ku Hung-ming, as being the only one that fits well with the next sentence.
[6] A few other renderings of this sentence will illustrate at once the elasticity of the Chinese language, and the difficulty of making it flow into European moulds.—LEGGE: "The cautious seldom err." WADE: "It seldom happens that a man errs through excess of moderation." JENNINGS: "Those who keep within restraints are seldom losers." KU HUNG-MING: "He who wants little seldom goes wrong."
[7] I.e. virtue begets virtue.
[8] A member of the great Chi family, who held office in Lu.
[9] The proper allowance for an officer in his station.
[10] As being, in the end, the moat natural and least troublesome route to take.
[11] It is impossible to find an exact equivalent for this negative expression "non-yieldingness," "non-humility." But the dominant idea is one of selfishness, and therefore such renderings as "insubordination" (Legge), "frowardnes" (Wade), "excess" (Ku Hung-ming), are rather wide off the mark.
[12] For note on li, see [p. 60]. Here again it is the inner sense of moral proportion and harmony, which prevents any quality from being carried to excess. Not a translator but has come to grief over this word, though Mr. Ku is not so far off with "judgment." That, however, makes of it an intellectual principle rather than what it realty is—a moral sense.