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Chinese Literature - Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han by Mencius;Faxian;Confucius
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Pih Hih sent the Master an invitation, and he showed an inclination to
go.

Tsz-lu (seeing this) said to him, "In former days, sir, I have heard you
say, 'A superior man will not enter the society of one who does not that
which is good in matters concerning himself'; and this man is in revolt,
with Chung-man in his possession; if you go to him, how will the case
stand?"

"Yes," said the Master, "those are indeed my words; but is it not said,
'What is hard may be rubbed without being made thin,' and 'White may be
stained without being made black'?--I am surely not a gourd! How am I to
be strung up like that kind of thing--and live without means?"

"Tsz-lu," said the Master, "you have heard of the six words with their
six obfuscations?"

"No," said he, "not so far."

"Sit down, and I will tell you them. They are these six virtues, cared
for without care for any study about them:--philanthropy, wisdom,
faithfulness, straightforwardness, courage, firmness. And the six
obfuscations resulting from not liking to learn about them are,
respectively, these:--fatuity, mental dissipation, mischievousness,
perversity, insubordination, impetuosity."

"My children," said he once, "why does no one of you study the
Odes?--They are adapted to rouse the mind, to assist observation, to
make people sociable, to arouse virtuous indignation. They speak of
duties near and far--the duty of ministering to a parent, the duty of
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