on; Yu is twice a
man, so I held him back.

22. When the Master was in fear in K'uang, Yen Yuean fell behind.

The Master said, I held thee for dead.

He answered, Whilst my Master lives how should I dare to die?

23. Chi Tzu-jan[108] asked whether Chung Yu[2] or Jan Ch'iu[3] could
be called a great minister.

The Master said, I thought ye would ask me a riddle, Sir, and ye ask
about Yu[109] and Ch'iu.[110] He that holds to the Way in serving his
lord and leaves when he cannot do so, we call a great minister. Now Yu
and Ch'iu I should call tools.

Who are just followers then?

Nor would they follow, said the Master, if told to kill their lord or
father.

24. Tzu-lu made Tzu-kao governor of Pi.

The Master said, Thou art undoing a man's son.

Tzu-lu said, What with the people and the spirits of earth and corn,
must a man read books to become learned?

The Master said, This is why I hate a glib tongue.

25. The Master said to Tzu-lu, Tseng Hsi,[111] Jan Yu and Kung-hsi Hua
as they sat beside him, I may be a day older than you, but forget
that. Ye are wont to say, I am unknown. Well, if ye were known, what
would ye do?

[Footnote 108: The younger brother of Chi Huan, the head of the Chi
clan.]

[Footnote 109: Tzu-lu. He and Jan Yu had taken office under the Chi.]

[Footnote 110: Jan Yu.]

[Footnote 111: A disciple: the father of Tseng-tzu.]

Tzu-lu answered lightly. Give me a land of a thousand chariots,
crushed between great neighbours, overrun by soldiers and searched by
famine, and within three years I could put courage into it and high
purpose.

The Master smiled.

What wouldst thou do, Ch'iu[112]? he said.

He answered, Give me a land of sixty or seventy, or fifty or sixty
square miles, and within three years I could give the people plenty.
As for courtesy and music, they would wait the coming of a gentleman.

And what wouldst thou do, Ch'ih[113]?

He answered, I do not speak of what I can do, but of what I should
like to learn. At services in the Ancestral Temple, or at the Grand
Audience, I should like to fill a small part.

And what wouldst thou do, Tien[114]?

Tien stopped playing, pushed his still sounding lute aside, rose and
answered, My choice would be unlike those of the other three.

What harm in that? said the Master. Each but spake his mind.

In the last days of spring, all clad for the springtime, with five or
six young men and six or seven lads, I would bathe in the Yi