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XVIII.1. Wei Zi left the court, Ji Zi was reduced to slavery, and Bi Gan, for having addressed remonstrances, was put to death. Confucius said: “Under the Yin dynasty, there were three men of perfect virtue.”
柳下惠为士师，三黜，人曰：“子未可以去乎？”曰：“直道而事人，焉往而不三黜；枉道而事人，何必去父母之邦。”
XVIII.2. Liu Xia Hui was in charge of justice; he was dismissed from his position several times. Someone said to him: — Isn’t it time to leave this country? — If I want to serve the public by observing all the rules of honesty, he replied, where will I go to not be dismissed several times? If I want to serve the public by bending the laws of integrity, why should I leave my homeland?
齐景公待孔子，曰：“若季氏则吾不能，以季孟之间待之。”曰：“吾老矣，不能用也。”孔子行。
XVIII.3. Jing, prince of Qi, preparing to receive Confucius, said to his ministers: — I cannot treat him with as much honor as the prince of Lu treats the head of the Ji family. I will treat him less honorably than the prince of Lu treats the head of the Ji family, but more honorably than he treats the head of the Meng family. Then he added: — I am old; I will not be able to put his teachings into practice. Confucius left the principality of Qi.
齐人归女乐，季桓子受之，三日不朝，孔子行。
XVIII.4. The prince of Qi and his ministers sent a band of musicians to the prince of Lu. Ji Huan Zi received them; at the palace, for three days, the care of affairs was abandoned. Confucius left.
Notes :XVIII.4. Ji Huan Zi, named Seu, was the grand prefect in the principality of Lu. Under the reign of Ding, prince of Lu, Confucius exercised the office of minister of justice. In three months, he had established the most perfect order in the government. The prince of Qi and his ministers, having learned this and fearing the power of Lu, sent a gift of eighty girls, who, dressed in magnificent clothes and mounted on richly ornamented horses, performed songs with pantomime and gave a show outside the city, near the southern gate. Huan exercised sovereign power. Prince Ding retained only an empty title. He ended up accepting the band of musicians. The prince of Lu and his ministers thus fell into the trap set by those of Qi. Fully occupied with hearing songs and seeing lascivious spectacles, their ears and eyes fascinated, they neglected public affairs and no longer respected virtuous and capable men. Confucius would have liked to address remonstrances to the prince; but he could not (or he saw that they would be ineffective). He left the country. (It was the fourteenth year of Ding’s reign, in 496 BC).
楚狂接舆歌而过孔子曰：“凤兮凤兮，何德之衰。往者不可谏，来者犹可追。已而已而，今之从政者殆而。”孔子下，欲与之言，趋而避之，不得与之言。
XVIII.5. A sage from the principality of Chu, who feigned madness, named Jie Yu, passed in front of Confucius’s carriage, singing: — O phoenix! O phoenix! How your virtue has diminished! It is no longer time to prevent your past errors with advice; but your future faults can still be prevented. Therefore, cease to appear and teach. Those who are now at the head of affairs are in great danger. Confucius descended from the carriage to speak to him. But Jie Yu went away quickly. Confucius could not converse with him.
Notes :XVIII.5. As the Zhou dynasty was declining, men of merit practiced virtue in retirement. Jie Yu said: — When society is well ordered, the phoenix appears; when it is troubled, it hides. So much does it love virtue! In what times has he come? How can he not yet fold his wings and hide? Jie Yu compares Confucius to the phoenix. He blames him for not deciding to live in retirement and claims that his virtue has greatly diminished. Your future faults can still be prevented, that is to say, it is still time to retire into private life.
长沮桀溺耦而耕，孔子过之，使子路问津焉。长沮曰：“夫执舆者为谁？”子路曰：“为孔丘。”曰：“是鲁孔丘与？”曰：“是也。”曰：“是知津矣。”问于桀溺，桀溺曰：“子为谁？”曰：“为仲由。”曰：“是鲁孔丘之徒与？”对曰：“然。”曰：“滔滔者天下皆是也，而谁以易之。且而与其从避人之士也，岂若从避世之士哉？”耰而不辍。子路行以告，夫子怃然曰：“鸟兽不可与同群，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？天下有道，丘不与易也。”
XVIII.6. Chang Ju and Jie Ni had associated to cultivate the land. Confucius, passing by them in a carriage, sent Zi Lu to ask them where the ford was. Chang Ju said: — Who is the one in the carriage holding the reins? — It is Confucius, answered Zi Lu. — Is it Confucius from the principality of Lu? replied Chang Ju. — It is him, said Zi Lu. — Since he has traveled the entire country several times, said Chang Ju, he himself knows the ford. Zi Lu questioned Jie Ni. — Who are you? said Jie Ni. — I am Zhong You, answered Zi Lu. — Are you not one of the disciples of Confucius of Lu? — Yes, answered Zi Lu. — The entire empire, said Jie Ni, is like a rushing torrent. Who will help you to reform it? Instead of following a philosopher who flees men, would you not do better to imitate the sages who flee the world and live in seclusion? Jie Ni continued to cover the seed he had sown with his harrow. Zi Lu went to report the answers of these two men to Confucius. The Master said with a tone of sorrow: — We cannot associate with animals. If I flee the society of these men, with whom will I associate? If good order reigned in the empire, I would not have reason to work to reform it.
Notes :XVIII.6. Formerly, on the borders of the principalities of Chu and Cai (in present-day Henan), two scholars who led a private life had associated to cultivate their fields. Their names have not been transmitted to posterity. The annalists called one Ju, who stops and does not leave rest, and the other, Ni, who stays at the bottom of the water and never emerges.
子路从而后，遇丈人，以杖荷苴，子路问曰：“子见夫子乎？”丈人曰：“四体不勤，五谷不分，孰为夫子？”植其杖而耘。子路拱而立，止子路宿，杀鸡为黍而食之，见其二子焉。明日，子路行以告，子曰：“隐者也。”使子路反见之，至则行矣。子路曰：“不仕无义。长幼之节，不可废也。君臣之义，如之何其废之。欲洁其身，而乱大伦。君子之仕也，行其义也，道之不行，已知之矣。”
XVIII.7. Zi Lu, traveling with Confucius, stayed behind and lost sight of him. He met an old man who, with a stick, carried a basket on his shoulder to gather grass. He asked him if he had seen his master. The old man said to him: — You neither move your feet nor your hands; you don’t even know how to distinguish the five kinds of grain. Who is your master? Then, having planted his stick in the ground, he pulled up grass. Zi Lu joined his hands and waited. The old man invited him to spend the night in his house. He killed a chicken, prepared millet, and served food to his guest. He also presented his two sons to him. The next day, Zi Lu left and told this to Confucius. The Master said: — This is a hidden sage. He ordered Zi Lu to go see him again. When Zi Lu arrived, the old man had already left. Zi Lu said to his two sons: — To refuse office is to neglect a duty. If it is not permitted to neglect the respect due to those who are older than us, does anyone have the right not to fulfill the important duties of a subject towards his prince? In wanting to keep himself unstained, he would violate the great laws of social relations. The sage accepts office to fulfill his duty to serve his prince. Good order does not reign; that is what we have known for a long time.
Notes :XVIII.7. The old man said to Zi Lu: — Now is the time to engage in fieldwork. You undertake distant journeys following your master. What use is this to the men of our time? Who knows your master? The five kinds of grain are two kinds of panicled millet, beans and peas, wheat and barley, rice. The five social relations are those that exist between the prince and the subject, between the father and the son, between the elder brother and the younger brother, between the husband and the wife, between friends.
逸民，伯夷、叔齐、虞仲、夷逸、朱张、柳下惠、少连。子曰：“不降其志，不辱其身，伯夷、叔齐与？”谓柳下惠、少连：“降志辱身矣。言中伦，行中虑，其斯而已矣。”谓虞仲、夷逸：“隐居放言，身中清，废中权。” “我则异于是，无可无不可。”
XVIII.8. Yi Min: Bo Yi, Shu Qi, Yu Zhong, Yi Yi, Zhu Zhang, Liu Xia Hui, Shao Lian lived as ordinary people. The Master said: — Did not Bo Yi and Shu Qi maintain their resolution unwaveringly for fear of sullying themselves? Confucius said that Liu Xia Hui and Shao Lian bent their resolution and humbled themselves; that their language had been in accordance with right reason, and their conduct in agreement with common human feeling; that they had had that good, and nothing more. He said that Yu Zhong and Yi Yi had lived in seclusion, giving advice with excessive freedom; but that they had practiced the purest virtue, and that the sacrifice of dignities was permitted to them because of the circumstances. “For me,” he added, “I am not of the opinion of these sages; I neither reject nor accept anything absolutely.”
太师挚适齐，亚饭干适楚，三饭缭适蔡，四饭缺适秦，鼓方叔入于河，播鼓武入于汉，少师阳、击磬襄入于海。
XVIII.9. Tai Shi Zhi went to the principality of Qi. Ya Fan Gan went to the principality of Chu. San Fan Liao went to the principality of Cai. Si Fan Que went to the principality of Qin. Gu Fang Shu entered the bank of the Yellow River. Bo Gu Wu entered the bank of the Han. Shao Shi Yang and Ji Qing Xiang entered the sea.
Notes :XVIII.9. The emperor and all the princes had musicians who played during their meals, to excite them to eat. The musical pieces and the directors of music were different for the different meals. As the Zhou dynasty declined, music fell into decay. Confucius, returning from Wei to his homeland, restored music. From then on, all the musicians, from the first to the last, perfectly knew the rules of their art. The authority of the prince of Lu became weaker and weaker; the three sons of Huan seized power and exercised it arbitrarily. Then all the musicians, from the director in chief to the last, were wise enough to disperse in all directions. They crossed the rivers and passed the seas, fleeing far from their troubled homeland.
周公谓鲁公曰：“君子不施其亲，不使大臣怨乎不以。故旧无大故，则不弃也。无求备于一人。”
XVIII.10. Zhou Gong, instructing the prince of Lu, said to him: — A wise prince does not neglect those who are united to him by blood. He ensures that the great officers cannot complain of not being employed. Unless there is a serious reason, he does not reject the members of the old families who have served the state from generation to generation. He does not demand that an officer possess all talents and qualities by himself.
周有八士：伯达、伯适、仲突、仲忽、叔夜、叔夏、季随、季娲。
XVIII.11. The Zhou dynasty had eight remarkable men: Bo Da, Bo Shi, Zhong Tu, Zhong Hu, Shu Ye, Shu Xia, Ji Sui, Ji Wa.
Notes :XVIII.11. In prosperous times, at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty, eight men of great talent and rare virtue appeared, who were called the eight remarkable men. They were born of the same mother, two at a time from the same womb.
