And what wouldst thou do, Tien[114]?
Tien stopped playing, pushed his still sounding lute aside, rose and answered, My choice would be unlike those of the other three.
What harm in that? said the Master. Each but spake his mind.
In the last days of spring, all clad for the springtime, with five or six young men and six or seven lads, I would bathe in the Yi, be fanned by the wind in the Rain God's glade, and go back home singing.
The Master said with a sigh, I side with Tien.
Tseng Hsi stayed after the other three had left, and said, What did ye think, Sir, of what the three disciples said?
Each but spake his mind, said the Master.
Why did ye smile at Yu,[115] Sir?
Lands are swayed by courtesy, but what he said was not modest. That was why I smiled. Yet did not Ch'iu speak of a state? Where would sixty or seventy, or fifty or sixty, square miles be found that are not a state? And did not Ch'ih too speak of a state? Who but great vassals are there in the Ancestral Temple, or at the Grand Audience? But if Ch'ih were to take a small part, who could fill a big one?