Power, Friendship, and Life's Three Stages — The Analects

The Chi family plans to attack Chwan-yu. Zan Yu and Chi-lu visit Confucius and say their chief wants war but they do not. Confucius turns on them: Ch'iu, is it not you who are in fault? Chwan-yu was appointed to guard eastern sacrifices; it sits inside Lu; its ruler answers to the sovereign. What business does your chief have attacking it? When they blame the boss, Confucius cites Chau Zan: serve if you can, retire if you cannot. Do not guide a blind man and fail to catch him when he falls. If a tiger escapes its cage or jade breaks in its case, whose is the fault? He hates declining to say what you want and dressing it up. Rulers should fear unrest in their own house, not a small population; when people keep their places, poverty and rebellion fade. Remote peoples who resist should be won by culture, not force. Yu and Ch'iu cannot fix divisions at home yet help plan war inside the state. The sorrow of the Chi-sun family, Confucius warns, will not come from Chwan-yu but from inside their own court. The middle stacks practical tests into threes and nines. When bad government spreads, ceremony and punitive war leave the Son of Heaven; power taken low rarely lasts ten, five, or three generations. Lu's revenue left the ducal house five generations ago; great officers rule four; the three Hwan lines shrink. Friendship with the upright, sincere, and observant helps; the specious, soft, and glib-tongued harm. Enjoy ceremony, praising others, and worthy friends; avoid extravagance, idleness, and feasting. Before a superior, do not speak rashly, hide when you should speak, or talk without reading the face. Guard against lust in youth, quarrels in strength, greed in age. Stand in awe of Heaven, great men, and sage words. The superior man weighs nine things from clear sight to gain checked by righteousness. He has seen men shrink from evil like boiling water; he has heard of retiring to study aims, but not seen them. Closing contrasts wealth with memory and family with form. Duke Jing of Ch'i had a thousand four-horse teams and died without a single praised virtue; Po-i and Shu-ch'i starved on Shau-yang and are still praised. Po-yu tells Ch'en K'ang he learned only two private lessons from Confucius: learn the Odes or you cannot converse; learn Propriety or character cannot stand. The superior man keeps distant reserve toward his son. Book XVI ends not on battle but on names: a prince's wife is FU ZAN to him, HSIAO T'UNG to herself, CHUN FU ZAN to her people, K'WA HSIAO CHUN to outsiders. Titles must match reality.