Text of Confucianism Part 01

SR No.: 007675
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1879
Total Pages: 2829
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 50 MB

Page 1935

SECT. II.
KUNG YUNG.
317
obtain (the confidence of) their superiors, the people cannot be governed successfully.
18. “There is a way to obtain (the confidence of) the superior;—if one is not believed in by his friends, he will not obtain the confidence of his superior. There is a way to secure being believed in by his friends ;-if he be not in submissive accord with his parents, he will not be believed in by his friends. There is a way to secure submissive accord with parents ;-ifone, on turning his thoughts in on himself, finds that he has not attained to the perfection of his nature 1, he will not be in submissive accord with his parents. There is a way to secure the perfection of the nature;if a man have not a clear understanding of what is good, he will not attain to that perfection.
19. 'Perfection of nature is characteristic of Heaven. To attain to that perfection belongs to man. He who possesses that perfection hits what is right without any effort, and apprehends without any exercise of thought ;-he is the sages who
Literally, 'that he is not sincere,' which is Mr. Wylie's rendering; or, as I rendered it in 1861, 'finds a want of sincerity.' But in the frequent occurrence of it in the Sequel of the Treatise,'
sincerity' is felt to be an inadequate rendering of it. Zottoli renders the clause by . Si careat veritate, integritate,' and says in a note, il est naturalis entis perfectio, quae rei convenit juxta genuinum Creatoris protypon, quaeque a creatore infunditur ; proindeque est rei veritas, seu rei juxta veritatem perfectio.' It seems to me that this ideal perfection, as belonging to all things, which God made 'good,' is expressed by in the last clause; and that the realisation of that perfection by man, as belonging to his own nature, is the work of , and may be spoken of as actually and fully accomplished, or in the process of being accomplished. It is difficult with our antecedent knowledge and opinions to place ourselves exactly in the author's point of view.
- Rémusat, Zottoli, and many give for this name
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