Confucius said, "Yen, there is a sentence of Cháu Jin which runs thus:
'Having made manifest their powers and taken their place in the official
list, when they find themselves incompetent they resign; if they cannot
be firm when danger threatens the government, nor lend support when it
is reeling, of what use then shall they be as Assistants?'--Besides, you
are wrong in what you said. When a rhinoceros or tiger breaks out of its
cage--when a jewel or tortoise-shell ornament is damaged in its
casket--whose fault is it?"

"But," said Yen Yu, "so far as Chuen-yu is concerned, it is now
fortified, and it is close to Pi; and if he does not now take it, in
another generation it will certainly be a trouble to his descendants."

"Yen!" exclaimed Confucius, "it is a painful thing to a superior man to
have to desist from saying, 'My wish is so-and-so,' and to be obliged to
make apologies. For my part, I have learnt this--that rulers of States
and heads of Houses are not greatly concerned about their small
following, but about the want of equilibrium in it--that they do not
concern themselves about their becoming poor, but about the best means
of living quietly and contentedly; for where equilibrium is preserved
there will be no poverty, where there is harmony their following will
not be small, and where there is quiet contentment there will be no
decline nor fall. Now if that be the case, it follows that if men in
outlying districts are not submissive, then a reform in education and
morals will bring them to; and when they have been so won, then will you
render them quiet and contented. At the present time you two are
Assistants of your Chief; the people in the outlying districts are not
submissive, and cannot be brought round. Your dominion is divided,
prostrate, dispersed, cleft in pieces, and you as its guardians are
powerless. And plans are being made for taking up arms against those who