Ji Kangzi asked, “Which of your disciples is most eager to learn?” Confucius replied, “There was Yan Hui, who was truly eager to learn – but unfortunately, he died young! Now there is no one like him.”
The Master said, “Hui is not the one who helps me advance – there is nothing in my words that he does not accept with delight.”
When speaking of Yan Hui, Confucius said, “What a pity! I saw him constantly advancing – I never saw him stop.”
Confucius said, “The one who never shows laziness when I speak to him – is it not Yan Hui?”
Yan Hui sighed deeply and said, “The more I look up to the Master’s Way, the higher it appears; the more I delve into it, the firmer it becomes. Just when I think I see it ahead of me, suddenly it seems to be behind. My teacher guides people skillfully and step by step:…
The Master said:“Yan Hui was such a person –he chose the Doctrine of the Mean.Whenever he grasped even a single point of goodness,he held it close to his heart with unwavering devotion and never let it go.”
Yu the Great and Hou Ji lived in times of peace. Yu passed by his own home three times while controlling floods but never entered; Hou Ji tirelessly taught farming to feed the people. Confucius praised them.
When the crown prince of Teng (later Duke Wen of Teng) was traveling to Chu, he passed through Song and went to see Mencius.
8.5 Master Zeng said, “Clever, yet not ashamed to consult those less clever than himself; widely gifted, yet not ashamed to consult those with few gifts; having, yet seeming not to have; full, yet seeming empty; offended against, yet never contesting – long ago I had a friend whose ways were such as this.”