Tzu-lu said, What with the people and the spirits of earth and corn, must a man read books to become learned?
The Master said, This is why I hate a glib tongue.
25. The Master said to Tzu-lu, Tseng Hsi,[111] Jan Yu and Kung-hsi Hua as they sat beside him, I may be a day older than you, but forget that. Ye are wont to say, I am unknown. Well, if ye were known, what would ye do?
Tzu-lu answered lightly. Give me a land of a thousand chariots, crushed between great neighbours, overrun by soldiers and searched by famine, and within three years I could put courage into it and high purpose.
The Master smiled.
What wouldst thou do, Ch'iu[112]? he said.
He answered, Give me a land of sixty or seventy, or fifty or sixty square miles, and within three years I could give the people plenty. As for courtesy and music, they would wait the coming of a gentleman.
And what wouldst thou do, Ch'ih[113]?
He answered, I do not speak of what I can do, but of what I should like to learn. At services in the Ancestral Temple, or at the Grand Audience, I should like to fill a small part.