Duke Jing of Qi owned four thousand horses (in ancient China, a team of four horses was called a “si”; thus, one thousand si equals four thousand horses), enjoying immense wealth and luxury. Yet on the day he died, the people could find no virtue in him to praise. Bo Yi and Shu Qi…
The Master said, “In serving a ruler, attend to your duties with reverence first, and place your salary second.”
The Master said, “The noble person is steadfast in principle but not rigidly bound by petty fidelity.”
The Master said, “The noble person cannot be fully known through small matters, yet can be entrusted with great responsibilities; the petty person cannot be entrusted with great responsibilities, yet can be understood through small matters.”
The Master said, “The noble person takes righteousness as his substance, practices it through ritual propriety, expresses it with humility, and completes it through trustworthiness. Truly a noble person!”
The Master said, “The determined scholar and the humane person will never seek to preserve their life at the expense of benevolence (humaneness); they would rather sacrifice their life to fulfill humaneness.”
Someone asked, “What about repaying resentment with virtue?”The Master replied, “Then what would you use to repay virtue? Repay resentment with uprightness, and repay virtue with virtue.”
The Master said, “A thoroughbred horse is praised not for its strength, but for its virtue.”