him who should slay his father and his prince!"
was the reply.

Through the intervention of Tsz-lu, Tsz-kau was being appointed
governor of Pi.

"You are spoiling a good man's son," said the Master.

Tsz-lu rejoined, "But he will have the people and their superiors to
gain experience from, and there will be the altars; what need to read
books? He can become a student afterwards."

"Here is the reason for my hatred of glib-tongued people," said the
Master.

On one occasion Tsz-lu, Tsang Sin, Yen Yu, and Kung-si Hwa were
sitting near him. He said to them, "Though I may be a day older than
you, do not (for the moment) regard me as such. While you are living
this unoccupied life you are saying, 'We do not become known.' Now
suppose some one got to know you, what then?"

Tsz-lu--first to speak--at once answered, "Give me a State of large size
and armament, hemmed in and hampered by other larger States, the
population augmented by armies and regiments, causing a dearth in it of
food of all kinds; give me charge of that State, and in three years'
time I should make a brave country of it, and let it know its place."

The Master smiled at him. "Yen," said he, "how would it be with you?"

"Give me," said Yen, "a territory of sixty or seventy li square, or of
fifty or sixty square; put me in charge of that, and in three years I
should make the people sufficiently prosperous. As regards their
knowledge of ceremonial or music, I should wait for superior men to
teach them that."

"And with you, Kung-si, how would it be?"

This disciple's reply was, "I have nothing to say about my
capabilities for such matters; my wish is to learn. I should like to
be a junior assistant, in dark rob and cap, at the services of the
ancestral temple, and at the Grand Receptions of the Princes by the
Sovereign."

"And with you, Tsang Sin?"

This disciple was strumming on his harpsichord, but now the twanging
ceased, he turned from the instrument, rose to his feet, and answered
thus: "Something different from the choice of these three." "What
harm?" said the Master; "I want each one of you to tell me what his
heart is set upon." "Well, then," said he, "give me--in the latter
part of spring--dressed in full spring-tide attire--in company with
five or six young fellows of twenty,[27] or six or seven lads under
that age, to do the ablutions in the I stream, enjoy a breeze in the
rain-dance,[28] and finish up with songs on the road home."

T