The Master said, “People of the south have a saying: ‘A person without constancy cannot even become a shaman or physician.’ How excellent this saying is!”He then quoted the Book of Changes: “If one does not maintain his virtue consistently, he will surely bring shame upon himself.”The Master added, “Such a person need not…
The way of supreme sincerity enables one to foresee the future.When a state is about to flourish, auspicious signs surely appear;when a state is about to perish, monstrous omens surely arise.These are revealed in the milfoil stalks and tortoise shells,and manifested in one’s bodily movements and demeanor.When fortune or misfortune is about to arrive…
Mencius said: “When people in the world talk about ‘human nature’, they are really just talking about the ‘inherent patterns’ of things. And these patterns are fundamentally rooted in ‘natural course and inherent tendencies’. What we dislike about cleverness is that it often forces artificial interpretations. But if the wise acted like Yu the…
7.35 When the Master was very ill, Zilu asked leave to perform the Rite of Expiation.