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SECT. I. PT. III.
THE THAN KUNG.
149
4. Yd-zze asked 3ăng-zze if he had ever questioned the Master about (an officer's) losing his place. 'I heard from him,' was the reply, that the officer in such a case should wish to become poor quickly, (just as) we should wish to decay away quickly when we have died.' Ya-zze said, “These are not the words of a superior man. 'I heard them from the Master,' returned 3ăng-xze. Ya-zze repeated that they were not the words of a superior man, and the other affirmed that both he and 3ze-ya had heard them. "Yes, yes,' said Ya-zze, 'but the Master must have spoken them with a special reference.' 3ăng-zze reported Ya-zze's words to 3ze-ya, who said, 'How very like his words are to those of the Master! Formerly, when the Master was staying in Sung, he saw that Hwan, the minister of War, had been for three years having a stone coffin made for himself without its being finished, and said, "What extravagance! It would be better that when dead he should quickly decay away.". It was with reference to Hwan, the minister of War, that he said, “We should wish to decay away quickly when we die.” When Nankung King-shồ returned (to the state), he made it a point to carry his treasures with him in his carriage when he went to court, on which the Master said, “Such an amount of property! It would have been better for him, when he lost his office, to make haste to become poor.” It was with reference to Nan-kung King-shd that he said that
himself en rapport' with the thoughts and ways of men, so far removed from him in time and in mental training! The subject of these vessels, which yet were no vessels, will come up again.
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