The Student and the Master — The Analects

Book XIX opens with disciples talking past one another. Tsze-chang says a trained scholar faces danger ready to die, treats gain as a righteousness test, and keeps sacrifice and mourning reverent. Virtue held but never enlarged, principles believed but not sincerely lived, barely count as existing. His rival school appears when Tsze-hsia's disciples ask Tsze-chang about company. Tsze-hsia says associate with those who can advantage you and put away those who cannot. Tsze-chang answers differently: honor talent, bear with all, praise the good, pity the weak. If he is great, whom will he not bear with? If he is small, others will put him away. What business is it of his to discard people? Tsze-hsia adds practical lines: even small crafts have something to see but do not stretch them too far; note each day what you lack and each month what you retain; learn widely with sincere aim; mechanics keep shops, the superior man learns to reach his principles. The middle turns to teaching, trust, and limits. The mean man glosses faults. The superior man changes three times: stern at a distance, mild up close, firm in speech. Without people's confidence, labor looks like oppression; without a prince's trust, remonstrance looks like slander. Small virtues may bend if great ones hold. Tsze-yu attacks Tsze-hsia's followers for mastering sprinkling and replying while missing essentials; Tsze-hsia replies that teaching sorts students like plants and does not make fools of them. Officer and student should exchange roles over time. Mourning should stop at the height of grief. Tsze-hsia admits his friend Chang does hard things but is not perfectly virtuous; Tsang adds that Chang's manner makes virtue difficult to practice beside him. Tsang also records mourning as a test of character and praises Meng Chwang for keeping his father's ministers and methods. Closing belongs to Tsze-kung defending Confucius. Yang Fu, new criminal judge, is told to pity the accused when truth is found, not rejoice in his own ability, because rulers failed long before the crime. Tsze-kung warns against dwelling low where world's evil collects. A superior man's faults are like eclipses: visible, then corrected, and people look up again. Asked where Confucius learned, Tsze-kung says Wan and Wu's way survives in men high and low; the Master could learn anywhere without a fixed teacher. His wall reaches the shoulders; Confucius's wall stands several fathoms high and needs a door. Confucius is sun and moon, not a hillock to step over. One word can mark a man wise or foolish. Book XIX ends with Tsze-kung saying the Master, if he ruled, would establish, lead, gladden, and harmonize people at once, and asking how such a man could be attained to.