Confucius opens with three questions that sound like courtesy and are not. Is it pleasant to keep learning? Is it delightful when friends come from far away? Is a person of complete virtue still composed when nobody takes note of him? Yu answers from the root. People who honour parents and siblings rarely offend those above them or stir up confusion. The Master then cuts the usual shortcut: fine words and a smooth face are seldom true virtue. Tsang shows the nightly work. He examines himself on three points: faithfulness in work done for others, sincerity with friends, and whether he practised what his teacher taught. Even the ruler of a thousand chariots is measured on the same scale: take the job seriously, mean it, spend carefully, care for people, and do not work them out of season.
Learning, here, is a way of treating people, not a certificate. A youth honours parents at home and elders abroad, tells the truth, and seeks good company before leftover time goes to polite studies. Tsze-hsia will call that person educated even when critics say he has not learned. Gravity, sincerity, equal friends, and the courage to drop a fault matter more than a title. When Tsze-ch'in asks how the Master learns the government of every country he enters, Tsze-kung does not describe a clever interrogation. People tell him because he is benign, upright, courteous, temperate, and complaisant.
Two failures sit side by side. Ease without the rules of propriety is not to be done, and propriety without ease is no prize. The person who aims at complete virtue does not hunt comfort. He works earnestly, speaks carefully, and keeps company that can correct him. Tsze-kung praises the poor man who does not flatter and the rich man who is not proud. They will do, the Master says, but they are not equal to cheerfulness in poverty and love of propriety in wealth. Tsze-kung hears the same movement in the Odes: cut, then file; carve, then polish. The Master will not be afflicted at men's not knowing him. He will be afflicted that he does not know men.
Coming Up in Chapter 2
The Master compares a ruler who leads by virtue to the north polar star: it keeps its place, and the other stars turn towards it. Lead people by laws and punishments, he says, and they learn to dodge the penalty. Lead them by virtue and propriety, and shame does the work.
