Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 443

416
THE APPENDIXES.
SECT. I.
Chapter VI. 30. In the superior man his conduct is (the fruit of his perfected virtue, which might be seen therefore in his daily course; but the force of that phrase, 'lying hid,' requires him to keep retired, and not yet show himself, nor proceed to the full development of his course. While this is the case, the superior man (knows that) it is not the time for active doing.
31. The superior man learns and accumulates the results of his learning; puts questions, and discriminates among those results; dwells magnanimously and unambitiously in what he has attained to; and carries it into practice with benevolence. What the Yi says, 'The dragon appears in the field :-it will be advantageous to meet with the great man,' has reference to the virtuous qualities of a ruler (as thus described).
32. In the third line there is a twofold (symbol of) strength, but (the position) is not central. (Its
as the summer follows on the spring, according to an illustration of Ka Hsî. The advantageousness' and 'firm correctness,' he compares also to the autumn and winter, saying that the Khien power in its essence, as it is in itself, is best described by these two latter characteristics, while the two former describe it in its operation. It is thus that he tries to give his readers an idea of what he understood by 'nature and feelings' in 25. But this chapter treats of the Khien power in nature rather than in humanity. Confining our view to the power so operating, we cannot say that the description of it in 26 and 27 is magniloquent or hyperbolical.
Paragraph 28 returns to the explanations of the lines of the hexagram by the duke of Kâu, which exhibit the power in different positions and relations, bringing out all its significance; and then 29 confines us to the fifth line, in which we have its ideal. The spheres of nature and of men seem to be in the view of the author, and therefore I introduce the great man,' as the subject, after the example of the best critics. Like the clouds and the rain to the thirsty earth, so is the rule of the sage to expectant humanity.
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