The Master said, A gentleman is calm and spacious; the small man
is always fretting.

37. The Master's manner was warm yet dignified. He was stern, but not
fierce; humble, yet easy.

BOOK VIII

1. The Master said, T'ai-po[72] may be said to have carried nobility
furthest. Thrice he refused all below heaven. Men were at a loss how
to praise him.

2. The Master said, Without good form attentions grow into fussiness,
heed becomes fearfulness, daring becomes unruliness, frankness becomes
rudeness. When gentlemen are true to kinsfolk, love will thrive among
the people; if they do not forsake old friends, the people will not
steal.

3. When Tseng-tzu lay sick he called his disciples and said, Uncover
my feet, uncover my arms. The poem says,

As if a deep gulf
Were yawning below,
As crossing thin ice,
Take heed how ye go.

My little children, I have known how to keep myself unhurt until now
and hereafter.[73]

4. When Tseng-tzu was sick Meng Ching[74] came to ask after him.

[Footnote 72: T'ai-po was the eldest son of the King of Chou. The
father wished his third son to succeed him, so that the throne might
pass later to his grandson, afterwards known as King Wen. To enable
this plan to be carried out T'ai-po and his second brother went into
exile.]

[Footnote 73: The Chinese say: 'The body is born whole by the mother;
it should be returned whole by the son.']

[Footnote 74: Chief of the Meng clan, minister of Lu.]

Tseng-tzu said, When a bird is dying his notes are sad; when man is
dying his words are good. Three branches of the Way are dear to a
gentleman: To banish from his bearing violence and disdain; to sort
his face to the truth, and to banish from his speech what is low or
unseemly. The ritual of chalice and platter[75] has servitors to see
to it.

5. Tseng-tzu said, When we can, to ask those that cannot; when we are
more, to ask those that are less; having, to seem wanting; real, to
seem shadow; when gainsaid, never answering back; I had a friend[76]
once that could do thus.

6. Tseng-tzu said, A man to whom an orphan, a few feet high, or the
fate of an hundred towns, may be entrusted, and whom no crisis can
corrupt, is he not a gentleman, a gentleman indeed?

7. Tseng-tzu said, The knight had need be strong and bold; for his
burden is heavy, the way is far. His burden is love, is it not a heavy
one? No halt before death, is that not far?

8. The Master said, Poetry