Being authentic is the foundation of the Sage. "Great indeed is the originating [power] of Ch'ien! The myriad things rely on it for their beginnings."[4] It is the source of being authentic. "The way of Ch'ien is transformation, with each [thing] receiving its correct nature and endowment."[5] In this way authenticity is established. Being pure and flawless, it is perfectly good. Thus: "The alternation of yin and yang is called the Way. That which issues from it is good. That which fulfills it is human nature."[6] "Origination and development" are the penetration of authenticity;[7] "adaptation and correctness" are the recovery of authenticity. Great indeed is change (i)![8]   It is the source of human nature and endowment.

Being a Sage is nothing more than being authentic. Being authentic is the foundation of the Five Constant [Virtues] and the source of the Hundred Practices. It is imperceptible when [one is] still, and perceptible when [one is] active;[9] perfectly correct [in stillness] and clearly pervading [in activity]. When the Five Constants and Hundred Practices are not authentic, they are wrong; blocked by depravity and confusion.

Therefore one who is authentic has no [need for] undertakings (shih). It is perfectly easy, yet difficult to practice; when one is determined and precise, there is no difficulty with it. Therefore [Confucius said], "If in one day one could subdue the self and return to ritual decorum, then all under Heaven would recover their humanity."[10]

In being authentic there is no deliberate action (wu-wei). In incipience (chi) there is good and evil.[12] As for the [Five Constant] Virtues, loving is called humaneness (jen), being right is called appropriateness (i), being principled (li) is called ritual decorum (li), being penetrating is called wisdom (chih), and preserving is called trustworthiness (hsin). One who is by nature like this, at ease like this, is called a Sage. One who recovers it and holds onto it is called a Worthy. One whose subtle signs of expression are imperceptible, and whose fullness is inexhaustible, is called Spiritual (shen).[13]

That which is "completely silent and inactive"[15] is authenticity. That which "penetrates when stimulated"[16] is spirit (shen). That which is active but not yet formed, between existing and not existing, is incipient.[17] Authenticity is of the essence (ching), and therefore clear. Spirit is responsive, and therefore mysterious. Incipience is subtle, and therefore obscure. One who is authentic, spiritual, and incipient is called a Sage.[18]

To be active and yet correct is called the Way (tao). To be functioning and yet harmonious is called virtue (te).[19] To rebel against humanity, to rebel against appropriateness, to rebel against propriety, to rebel against wisdom, and to rebel against honesty is to be completely depraved. To be depraved in one's activity is abuse. To do so to an extreme is injury. Therefore the superior person is cautious in activity.

The Way of the Sages is nothing more than humanity, appropriateness, equilibrium, and correctness. Preserve it and it will be ennobling. Practice it and it will be beneficial. Enlarge it and it will match heaven-and-earth. How can it not be easy and simple? How can it be difficult to know? By not preserving it, not practicing it, and not enlarging it.

Someone asked: "Who makes all under Heaven good?"

Reply: "The teacher."

"What do you mean?"

"[He is one whose] nature is simply in equilibrium between firm and yielding good and evil."

"I do not understand."

Reply: "Firmness is good when it is appropriate, direct, decided, dignified, capable and certain. It is evil when it is violent, narrow, and limited. Yielding is good when it is compassionate, docile, and mild. It is evil when it is weak, indecisive, and treacherous."

Only equilibrium is harmonious and "moderately regulated."[20] This is "the all-encompassing Way of the world."[21] It is the activity of the Sage. Therefore the Sage establishes education, to enable common people to change their evil [tendencies], and on their own to reach equilibrium and stay there. Therefore those who first become aware awaken those who become aware later, the unenlightened seek from the enlightened, and the Way of instruction is established. With the Way of instruction established, then good people will proliferate. When good people proliferate, then the Court will be correct and all under Heaven will be well-governed.

In human life, it is unfortunate not to hear about one's errors. To lack shame is a great misfortune. Only with a sense of shame can one be taught. If one hears about one's errors, then one can become a Worthy.

The Hung-fan says: "[The virtue of ] thinking (ssu) is called perspicacity (jui).... Perspicacity makes one a Sage."[22] To be without thinking is the foundation. When thinking is penetrating, this is its function. When there is incipient activity on the one hand, and authentic activity on the other, with no thinking and yet penetrating everything,[23] one is a Sage.

If one does not think, then one cannot penetrate subtleties. If one is not perspicacious, then one cannot penetrate everything. Thus, [the ability] to penetrate everything arises from penetrating subtleties, and [the ability] to penetrate subtleties arises from thinking.

Therefore thinking is the foundation of the Sage's achievement and the opportunity for good fortune or misfortune. The I says, "The superior person perceives incipience and acts, without waiting all day."[24] It also says, "Knowing incipience is his spirituality."[25]

The Sage emulates Heaven. The Worthy emulates the Sage. The literatus emulates the Worthy. I-yin and Yen Yüan were great Worthies. I-yin was ashamed that his prince was not Yao or Shun. If one person did not attain his rightful place, it was like being whipped in the marketplace. Yen Yüan "did not transfer his anger and did not repeat an error,"[26] and "for three months did nothing contrary to humanity."[27]

Be determined to have I-yin's determination. Learn what Yen Yüan learned. If you exceed this you will be a Sage. If you reach it you will be a Worthy. Even if you do not reach it you will not miss out on an honorable reputation.

Heaven generates the myriad things through yang, and fulfills the myriad things through yin. Generating is humanity. Fulfillment is appropriateness. Therefore when a Sage is above [on the throne], he nourishes the myriad things with humanity and corrects the myriad people with appropriateness.

The Way of Heaven proceeds and the myriad things comply [with it]. The virtue of the Sage cultivates [others] and the myriad people are transformed. Great compliance and great transformation leave no visible trace. Since no one understands them, they are considered spiritual. Therefore everything under Heaven is originally contained in every person. How can the Way be distant? How can its methods be numerous?

Teaching by speaking directly to everyone is not sufficient even in a village of ten households. How much more difficult in an extensive Empire with millions of people! I say: Purify the mind/heart, that is all. "Purify" means to do nothing contrary to the four [virtues of] humanity, appropriateness, propriety and wisdom, whether in activity or when still, in one's speech, appearance, seeing and hearing. When his mind/heart is pure, then worthy and talented men will assist him. When worthy and talented men assist him, the Empire will be well-governed. Purifying the heart/mind is indeed essential. Employing worthy men is urgent.

Ritual (li) is Order (li). Music is harmony. Yin and yang are harmonious only when Ordered. Then the ruler is [truly] ruler, the minister is minister, father is father, son is son, elder brother is elder brother, younger brother is younger brother, husband is husband, and wife is wife. The myriad things are harmonious only when each achieves its Order. Therefore ritual is first and music follows.

For actualization to dominate [one's work] is good. For fame to dominate is shameful. Therefore the superior person advances his virtue and cultivates his work with unceasing diligence, devoting himself to the dominance of actualization. If his virtue and affairs are not prominent, he apprehensively fears that others will know [about it]; he wants to distance himself from shame. The inferior person, on the other hand, is simply hypocritical. Therefore the superior person is always at ease, while the inferior person is always anxious.

[What if I] do not measure up to a good person?[28]

"If you do not measure up, then learn to do so."        

Question: "[What if] there is a bad person?"        

"If he is not good, then inform him that he is not good. Furthermore, exhort him, saying, 'Suppose you change; you will then become a superior person.'"

"If one person is good and two are not good, then learn from the one and exhort the two."        "If someone says, 'This person has done something that is not good, but it is not a great evil,' then say, 'Who makes no errors? How do we know that he cannot change? If he changes, then he can become a superior person. Not changing results in evil. Evil is what Heaven hates. How can he not fear [Heaven]? How do we know that he cannot change?'"

Therefore the superior person possesses all goodness, and there is no one who does not love and revere him.

Activity as the absence of stillness and stillness as the absence of activity characterize things (wu). Activity that is not [empirically] active and stillness that is not [empirically] still characterize spirit (shen). Being active and yet not active, still and yet not still, does not mean that [spirit] is neither active nor still. For while things do not [inter-]penetrate (t’ung),[29] spirit subtly [penetrates/pervades] the myriad things.

The yin of water is based in yang; the yang of fire is based in yin. The Five Phases are yin and yang; yin and yang are the Supreme Polarity (t'ai-chi).[30] The Four Seasons revolve; the myriad things end and begin [again]. How undifferentiated! How extensive! And how inexhaustible!

The ancient sages and kings systematized the ritual procedures and reformed education. The Three Bonds were corrected, the Nine Divisions were arranged, the hundred surnames [i.e. all people] were in great harmony, and the myriad things were all in accord. They created music to give expression to the airs of the eight [directional] winds and to pacify the dispositions of all under Heaven.

Therefore the sounds of music are placid and not distressing, harmonious and not licentious. When they enter the ear they move the heart/mind; [yet] they are entirely placid and harmonious. Being placid, they calm the desirous heart/mind. Being harmonious, they ease the fierce heart/mind.

To be easy-going and evenly-balanced is the height of virtue. In the transformation of all under Heaven, government is perfected. This is what is meant by the Way that matches Heaven-and-Earth, the Ultimate of antiquity.[31]

Later generations have neglected ritual.[32] Their governmental measures and laws have been in disorder. Rulers have indulged their material desires without restraint, and consequently the people below them have suffered bitterly. Rulers have claimed that ancient music is not worth listening to and replaced it by or changed it into modern music, which is seductive, licentious, depressive, and complaining. It arouses desires and increases bitterness without end. Therefore there have been cases of people destroying their rulers, casting away their fathers, taking life lightly, and ruining human relations, and it has been impossible to put an end to such atrocities.

Alas! Ancient music appeased the heart but modern music enhances desires. Ancient music spread a civilizing influence, but modern music increases discontent. To hope for perfect government without restoring ancient ritual and changing modern music is to be far off the mark.[33]

Music is based in government. When government is good and the people are at peace, then the minds/hearts of all under Heaven are harmonious. Therefore the Sages created music to give expression to these harmonious hearts/minds. When it spreads throughout heaven-and-earth, the ch'i of heaven-and-earth is stimulated and there is great harmony throughout. When heaven-and-earth are harmonious, then the myriad things are compliant. Therefore the ancestral and natural spirits (shen ch'i) will approach [when sacrifices are offered], and birds and beasts will be tame.

When the sound of music is quiet then the listener's mind is pacified. When the music's lyrics are good then the singer is respectful. Thus styles shift and customs change. The influence of weird sound and passionate lyrics is also like this.

[Someone asked:] "Can Sagehood be learned?"

Reply: It can.

"Are there essentials (yao)?"

Reply: There are.

"I beg to hear them."

Reply: To be unified (i)[34] is essential. To be unified is to have no desire.[35] Without desire one is vacuous when still and direct in activity. Being vacuous when still, one will be clear (ming); being clear one will be penetrating (t’ung). Being direct in activity one will be impartial (kung); being impartial one will be all-embracing (p’u). Being clear and penetrating, impartial and all-embracing, one is almost [a Sage].

One who is impartial toward oneself will be impartial toward others. There has never been one who was not impartial toward oneself and yet was able to be impartial toward others. When one is not perfectly clear [ming] then doubts arise. Clarity is the absence of doubts. To say that being able to doubt is clarity is a thousand miles off the mark.

The manifest and the subtle: without intelligence one cannot perceive them. There is firm good and firm evil, and the same for yielding. Rest in the mean [chung] between them. The two [modes of] ch'i and the five phases transform and generate the myriad things. The five are the differentia and the two are the actualities; the two are fundamentally one. Thus the many are one, and the one actuality is divided into the many. Each one of the many is correct; the small and the large are distinct.

Yen Tzu "had only one dish [of rice] to eat, only one gourdful [of water] to drink, and he lived in a squalid lane. Others could not have endured such distress, yet it did not alter his happiness." Now, wealth and honor are what people love. Yet Yen Tzu, neither loving nor seeking them, took pleasure in being humble. What was his idea?

In the world there is extreme honor and extreme wealth, which can be loved and sought after. Yet he [Yen Tzu] was one who differed from others in seeing what was great and ignoring what was petty. Seeing what was great, his mind was at peace. With his mind at peace, nothing was insufficient. With nothing insufficient, then wealth and honor, poverty and humble station were all the same [to him]. Being all the same, then he was able to transform and equalize [others, i.e. regard others as equal].[37] Thus Yen Tzu was second only to the Sage [Confucius].

The most revered thing in the world is the Way; the most honored is virtue; the most rare [difficult to attain] is the human being. What is rare about the human being is having the Way and virtue in one's own body. Without teachers and friends, it is impossible to seek out and obtain in one's own body that which makes the human being the most rare.

Morality [tao-i] is valued and honored only when it is possessed by a person. People at birth are ignorant. As they grow, if they have no teachers and friends they become stupid. This is why morality acquires honor and reverence when it is possessed by a person in reliance on teachers and friends. Is the meaning [of teachers and friends] not important? Is it not a pleasure to associate with them?

Chung Yu [Tzu-lu] was happy to hear about his transgressions, and his good name [reputation] was inexhaustible. Today, when people transgress, they are not happy for others to correct them. It is like concealing one's illness and avoiding a doctor, preferring to harm oneself without being aware of it. Alas!

The empire is simply power. Power is either weak or strong. Ultimate power cannot be overcome. If one recognizes its strength and promptly [tries to] overcome it, one can [succeed]. If one does not recognize it early, the effort to overcome it will not be easy. When effort is exerted without success, it is due to Heaven. When it is not recognized or no effort is made, it is due to the person. Is it due to Heaven? Then how can a person find fault?

Writing is the vehicle of the Way. When the wheels and shafts of a carriage are ornamented but inoperable, the ornamentation is in vain. How much more so an empty carriage!

Literary expression is an art. The Way and virtue are real (shih). If one is devoted to what is real and expresses it artistically in writing, its beauty will be loved. Being loved, it will be transmitted, and Worthies will be able to learn it and achieve its object. This is education. Thus it is said, "When one's words are not written, they will not go far" (Tso-chuan, Duke Hsiang, 25th year).[38]

But the unworthy will not learn it even if father and elder brother are nearby, or teachers and tutors exhort them. Even if forced, they will not comply. They do not know how to devote themselves to the Way and virtue; they lower themselves to being experts in literary expression. This is nothing more than art [i.e. it does not express concrete reality]. Alas! This is a long-standing defect.

"To those who are not eager to learn I do not explain anything, and to those who are not bursting to speak I do not reveal anything. If I raise one angle and they do not come back with the other three angles, I will not repeat myself."[39] "The Master said, 'I wish to do without speech. ...What ever does Heaven say? Yet the four seasons run their course through it and all things are produced by it'."[40]

So then, were it not for Yen Tzu, the Sage's comprehensiveness (yün) might not have been seen. Yen Tzu was the one who brought out the Sage's comprehensiveness and taught 10,000 generations without limit. Was he not equally profound?

The ordinary person, having heard or understood one thing, is anxious that others will not quickly know he has it. To be in haste to be known by others by reputation is very superficial.

The essence of the Sage was displayed in the drawing of the hexagrams [of the I Ching].[41] The comprehensiveness of the Sage is expressed by means of the hexagrams. Were the hexagrams not drawn, the essence of the Sage could not have been seen. Were it not for the hexagrams, it would almost be impossible to know about the comprehensiveness of the Sage. How can the I merely be one of the Five Classics? It is the mystery of Heaven and Earth, ghosts and spirits!

"The superior person is creatively active and unceasing in his authenticity."[42] But he must "control his anger and repress his desires,"[43] and move towards the good and correct his transgressions[44] before he can reach his goal. Among the functions of Ch'ien this is the best. Of the greatness of Sun and I, nothing surpasses this. The Sage's meaning is profound indeed! "The auspicious, the inauspicious, repentance and regret arise from activity."[45] Alas! The auspicious is only one [of the four]. Can we not be careful about activity?