________________
PT. III. SECT. III.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-SZE.
121
collected there as we see them ?' Kung-ni replied, 'The man is a disciple of the sages. He is burying himself among the people, and hiding among the fields. Reputation has become little in his eyes, but there is no bound to his cherished aims. Though he may speak with his mouth, he never tells what is in his mind. Moreover, he is at variance with the age, and his mind disdains to associate with it ;-he is one who may be said to lie hid at the bottom of the water on the dry land. Is he not a sort of i Liâo of Shih-nan?' Zze-là asked leave to go and call him, but Confucius said, 'Stop. He knows that I understand him well. He knows that I am come to Khū, and thinks that I am sure to try and get the king to invite him (to court). He also thinks that I am a man swift to speak. Being such a man, he would feel ashamed to listen to the words of one of voluble and flattering tongue, and how much more to come himself and see his person! And why should we think that he will remain here?' Zze-la, however, went to see how it was, but found the house empty.
6. The Border-warden of Khang-wû", in questioning Zze-lâo?, said, 'Let not a ruler in the exercise of his government be (like the farmer) who leaves the clods unbroken, nor, in regulating his people, (like one) who recklessly plucks up the shoots. Formerly, in ploughing my corn-fields, I left the clods unbroken, and my recompense was in the rough unsatisfactory crops; and in weeding, I destroyed and tore up (many good plants), and my recompense was in the scantiness of my harvests. In subse
* Probably the same as the Khang-wû Zze in Book II, par. 9. . See Analects IX, vi, 4.
Digitized by Google
