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PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.
203
BOOK IV.
Part I. SECTION IV.
Zăn Kien Shih, or · Man in the World, Associated
with other Men 1' 1. Yen Hui? went to see Kung-ni 3, and asked leave to take his departure. Where are you going to ?'' asked the Master. 'I will go to Wei 4' was the reply. “And with what object ?' 'I have heard that the ruler of Wei 5 is in the vigour of his years, and consults none but himself as to his course. He deals with his state as if it were a light matter, and has no perception of his errors. He thinks lightly of his people's dying; the dead are lying all over the country as if no smaller space could contain them; on the plains 6 and about the marshes, they are as thick as heaps of fuel. The people know not where to turn to. I have heard you, Master, say, “Leave the state that is well
See pp. 131, 132. ? The favourite disciple of Confucius, styled also Zze-yuan. s Of course, Confucius ;-his designation or married name.
4 A feudal state, embracing portions of the present provinces of Ho-nan, Kih-lî, and Shan-tung. There was another state, which we must also call Wei in English, though the Chinese characters of them are different ;-one of the fragments of the great state of in, more to the west.
• At this time the marquis Yüan, known to us by his posthumous title of duke Ling ;—see Book XXV, 9.
Adopting Lin's reading of instead of the common E.
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