BOOK VIII
Sayings of Tsang—Sentences of the Master
Speaking of T‘ai-pih the Master said that he might be pronounced a man of the highest moral excellence; for he allowed the empire to pass by him onwards to a third heir; while the people, in their ignorance of his motives, were unable to admire him for so doing.
"Without the Proprieties," said the Master, "we have these results: for deferential demeanor, a worried one; for calm attentiveness, awkward bashfulness; for manly conduct, disorderliness; for straightforwardness, perversity.
"When men of rank show genuine care for those nearest to them in blood, the people rise to the duty of neighborliness and sociability. And when old friendships among them are not allowed to fall off, there will be a cessation of underhand practices among the people."
The Scholar Tsang was once unwell, and calling his pupils to him he said to them, "Disclose to view my feet and my hands. What says the Ode?—
'Act as from a sense of danger,
With precaution and with care,
As a yawning gulf o'erlooking,
As on ice that scarce will bear.'
At all times, my children, I know how to keep myself free from bodily harm."
Again, during an illness of his, Mang King, an official, went to ask after him. The Scholar had some conversation with him, in the course of which he said—
"'Doleful the cries of a dying bird,
Good the last words of a dying man.'