Former Collection 5 (nos. 181–222)前集

To boast of your achievements and show off your writing is to be a person by leaning on outside things. Such people do not know that when the ground of the mind is bright and clear and has not lost what was there at the start, then even without an inch of merit or a single written word, there is a place where one stands upright and squarely as a person.

If you would steal a little leisure in the midst of business, you must first take hold of a handle while you are at leisure. If you would take stillness in the midst of noise, you must first set up a master within the stillness. Otherwise you cannot help shifting with each circumstance and falling over with each turn of the times.

Do not darken your own heart. Do not use up other people's goodwill. Do not drain the strength of things to the bottom. With these three you can set up a heart for heaven and earth, set up a destiny for the living, and make good fortune for your descendants.

For holding office there are two sayings: "Only fairness gives rise to clear sight, and only honesty gives rise to authority." For keeping a household there are two sayings: "Only forgiveness makes feelings calm, and only thrift makes what you have enough."

When you live in a place of wealth and honor, you should know the aches of the poor and lowly. When you are young and strong, you should think of the bitterness of the old and failing.

Do not keep yourself too white and clean. You must swallow down some share of filth and stain. Do not be too sharply clear in dealing with people. You must take in and hold all their good and bad, their wisdom and their folly.

Make no enemy of the small person. The small person already has their own match. Flatter no noble person. The noble person grants no private favors to begin with.

The sickness of giving rein to desire can be cured, but the sickness of clinging to one's own reasoning is hard to cure. A blockage caused by things can be removed, but a blockage caused by moral argument is hard to remove.

Your grinding and polishing should be like gold refined a hundred times. What is finished in haste is no deep cultivation. Your undertakings should be like a crossbow of a thousand jun. One who shoots lightly will never have great merit.

Better to be one the small person shuns and slanders than one the small person flatters and delights in. Better to be one the noble person reproves and corrects than one the noble person quietly covers for.

One who loves gain strays outside the way and the right, so their harm shows itself and is shallow. One who loves a name creeps inside the way and the right, so their harm is hidden and runs deep.

They do not repay another's kindness however deep it was, yet they repay a grudge however slight. They do not doubt another's evil though it was hidden, yet they doubt another's goodness though it was plain to see. This is the height of harshness and the far edge of meanness, and it should be closely guarded against.

When a slanderer attacks a scholar, it is like a scrap of cloud covering the sun: before long it clears of itself. When a flatterer fawns on a person, it is like a draft through a crack soaking into the skin: the harm is never felt.

There are no trees on the high, steep parts of a mountain, but where the valley bends around, grass and trees grow thick. There are no fish where the current runs fast, but where the pool gathers deep, fish and turtles come together. Conduct pitched too high and a heart that is narrow and hasty are things the noble person guards against again and again.

Those who build merit and finish great work are mostly open-hearted, well-rounded scholars. Those who ruin a matter and miss the moment are always stubborn, contrary people.

In living in the world, do not take pains to be the same as the crowd, and do not take pains to differ from it either. In doing your work, do not make people dislike it, and do not set out to make them delighted with it either.

Though the day has gone down, the evening glow is brilliant still. Though the year draws to its close, the orange and the tangerine smell sweeter still. So on the last stretch of the road, in their late years, the noble person should rouse their spirit a hundredfold.

The hawk stands as though dozing and the tiger walks as though sick, and this is exactly how they seize and devour a person. So the noble person does not let their sharpness show and does not flaunt their gifts, and only then has the strength to shoulder what is great and heavy.

Thrift is a fine virtue, but carried too far it becomes meanness and pinching, and it wounds the graceful way instead. Yielding is a fine practice, but carried too far it becomes cringing politeness and fussy caution, and mostly comes out of a calculating heart.

Do not fret when things go against you. Do not rejoice when your heart is pleased. Do not count on a long peace. Do not shrink back because the beginning is hard.

Where the pleasure of wine and feasting comes often, it is not a good household. Where the habit of gaudy sound and color runs strong, it is not a good scholar. Where thoughts of name and position weigh heavy, it is not a good servant of the state.

People of the world take what suits their heart for joy, and are led by that joy-loving heart into a place of pain instead. The scholar who has seen through takes what goes against their heart for joy, and in the end the bitter heart turns and brings joy back.

One who sits in a place filled to the brim is like water about to spill and not yet spilling: not one more drop must be added. One who stands in a place of danger is like a branch about to break and not yet broken: not one more press must be laid on.

Look at people with a cool eye. Listen to words with a cool ear. Meet what moves you with cool feeling. Think through the reason of things with a cool heart.

A person of humanity has a wide and easy heart, so their fortune is thick and their good days are long, and in every matter they make an air of ease and space. A mean person has cramped and hurried thoughts, so their fortune is thin and their blessing short, and in every matter they make a cramped little scheme.

When you hear ill of someone, do not hate them at once. It may be that a slanderer made it up to vent their anger. When you hear good of someone, do not draw close to them in haste. It may be that you are helping a crafty person on their way up.

One whose temper is hasty and whose heart is coarse will not finish a single thing. To one whose heart is mild and whose spirit is calm, a hundred blessings gather of themselves.

Do not be harsh in employing people. Be harsh, and those who were trying their best go away. Do not be loose in making friends. Be loose, and those who offer flattery come.

Where the wind blows slant and the rain drives hard, you must plant your feet firmly. Where the flowers are heavy and the willows lovely, you must set your eyes high. Where the road is dangerous and the path is steep, you must turn your head back early.

A person of honor must carry it with a mild heart, and only then do they not open the road to quarreling. A scholar who has won fame must follow it with the virtue of modesty, and only then do they not open the gate to envy.

When a gentleman of rank holds office, not even a letter may be without measure. They should make themselves hard to approach, and so shut off any opening for favor seeking. When they live in the country, they should not set themselves up too high. They should make themselves easy to see, and so thicken old friendships.

The great must be feared, for in fearing the great one loses all reckless and idle thought. The common people must be feared too, for in fearing the common people one loses the habit of throwing one's weight about.

When something goes a little against you, think of those who are worse off than you, and your resentment melts away of itself. When your heart grows a little slack, think of those who are better than you, and your spirit rouses itself of itself.

Do not promise lightly when gladness lifts you. Do not fly into anger because you are drunk. Do not start many things because you are in high spirits. Do not leave the end unfinished because you are tired.

One who reads well must read until their hands and feet begin to dance, and only then do they not fall into the fish trap and the snare. One who observes things well must observe until heart and spirit melt together, and only then are they not stuck fast in outward shapes.

Heaven made one person wise so that they might teach the foolishness of the many, and the world instead flaunts what it is good at in order to show up what others lack. Heaven made one person rich so that they might relieve the hardship of the many, and the world instead trades on what it has in order to look down on the poverty of others. Truly these are people who invite the punishment of heaven.

What has the perfected person to ponder, and what have they to worry about? The foolish person neither knows nor schemes. With either of them one can discuss learning, and with either of them one can build merit. Only with the middling person, whose thought and knowledge grow one layer thicker and whose guessing and suspicion grow one layer thicker with it, is it hard to set a hand to anything together.

The mouth is the gate of the heart, and if the mouth is not guarded tightly, the true workings all leak away. The will is the feet of the heart, and if the will is not held in strictly, it runs off down every crooked path.

One who reproaches another should look for what is blameless within the blame, and then feelings stay calm. One who reproaches themselves should look for the blame within what seems blameless, and then their virtue advances.

Children are the seed of grown people, and a promising student is the foundation of a minister of state. If the fire does not reach them at this time and the casting is not pure, then in later days, when they go out into the world and stand at court, they will never become a vessel of any worth.

The noble person does not fret when they meet with trouble, yet at a feast they grow the more watchful and careful. They are not afraid when they meet the powerful and mighty, yet before one who has no one to lean on their heart aches instead.

The peach and the plum are lovely, but how can they match the firm constancy of the green pine and the dark cypress? The pear and the apricot are sweet, but how can they match the clear fragrance of the yellow citron and the green orange? Truly one may know that what is rich and dies young falls short of what is plain and lasts, and that early brilliance falls short of late ripening.