arts and learning.

3. The Master said, I get no help from Hui.[89] No word I say but
delights him!

4. The Master said, How good a son is Min Tzu-ch'ien! No one finds
fault with anything that his father, or his mother, or his brethren
say of him.

5. Nan Jung would thrice repeat _The Sceptre White_.[90] Confucius
gave him his brother's daughter for wife.

6. Chi K'ang asked which disciples loved learning. Confucius answered,
There was Yen Hui[91] loved learning. Alas! his mission was short, he
died. Now there is no one.

[Footnote 89: Yen Yuean.]

[Footnote 90: The verse runs--

A flaw can be ground
From a sceptre white;
A slip of the tongue
No man can right.
]

[Footnote 91: Yen Yuean.]

7. When Yen Yuean died, Yen Lu[92] asked for the Master's carriage to
furnish an outer coffin.

The Master said, Brains or no brains, each of us speaks of his son.
When Li[93] died he had an inner but not an outer coffin: I would not
go on foot to furnish an outer coffin. As I follow in the wake of the
ministers I cannot go on foot.

8. When Yen Yuean died the Master said, Woe is me! Heaven has undone
me! Heaven has undone me!

9. When Yen Yuean died the Master gave way to grief.

His followers said, Sir, ye are giving way.

The Master said, Am I giving way? If I did not give way for this man,
for whom should I give way to grief?

10. When Yen Yuean died the disciples wished to bury him in pomp.

The Master said, This must not be.

The disciples buried him in pomp.

The Master said, Hui treated me as his father. I have failed to treat
him as a son. No, not I; but ye, my two-three boys.

11. Chi-lu[94] asked what is due to the ghosts of the dead?

The Master said, When we cannot do our duty to the living, how can we
do it to the dead?

He dared to ask about death.

We know not life, said the Master, how can we know death?

[Footnote 92: The father of Yen Yuean.]

[Footnote 93: The Master's son.]

[Footnote 94: Tzu-lu.]

12. Seeing the disciple Min standing at his side with winning looks,
Tzu-lu with warlike front, Jan Yu and Tzu-kung frank and free, the
Master's heart was glad.

A man like Yu,[95] he said, dies before his day.

13. The men of Lu were building the Long Treasury.

Min Tzu-ch'ien said, Would not the old one do? Why must it be rebuilt?

The Master said, That man does not talk, but when he speaks he hits
the mark.

14. The Master said, What has the lute of Y