How should he be distressed for lack of brothers!'" [29]
Tsz-chang asked what sort of man might be termed "enlightened."
The Master replied, "That man with whom drenching slander and cutting
calumny gain no currency may well be called enlightened. Ay, he with
whom such things make no way may well be called enlightened in the
extreme."
Tsz-kung put a question relative to government. In reply the Master
mentioned three essentials:--sufficient food, sufficient armament, and
the people's confidence.
"But," said the disciple, "if you cannot really have all three, and one
has to be given up, which would you give up first?"
"The armament," he replied.
"And if you are obliged to give up one of the remaining two, which would
it be?"
"The food," said he. "Death has been the portion of all men from of old.
Without the people's trust nothing can stand."
Kih Tsz-shing once said, "Give me the inborn qualities of a gentleman,
and I want no more. How are such to come from book-learning?"
Tsz-kung exclaimed, "Ah! sir, I regret to hear such words from you. A
gentleman!--But 'a team of four can ne'er o'er-take the tongue!'
Literary accomplishments are much the same as inborn qualities, and
inborn qualities as literary accomplishments. A tiger's or leopard's
skin without the hair might be a dog's or sheep's when so made bare.
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