The Lists of Confucius

Three Kinds

Confucius then said the following.

There are 3 kinds of profitable friendships:

1. With the upright
2. With the trustworthy
3. With the experienced

Three kinds of friendships which are detrimental:

1. With the subtly perverse
2. With the artfully pliant
3. With the subtle in speech

Three kinds of pleasure are profitable:

1. Pleasure from doing Ceremonial and Music
2. Pleasure from speaking of others’ goodness
3. Pleasure from having many wise friends

Three kinds of pleasure are detrimental:

1. Pleasure in wild bold pleasures
2. Pleasure in idling carelessly about
3. Pleasure in too jovial accompaniments of feasting

Those who wait on their superior commit 3 errors:

1. To speak before the opportunity comes to them to speak, which I call heedless haste
2. Refraining from speaking when the opportunity has come, which I call concealment
3. speaking, regardless of the mood he is in, which I call blindness."

A superior should guard against 3 things:

1. Against the lusts of the flesh in his earlier years while the vital powers are not fully developed and fixed
2. Against the spirit of combativeness when he has come to the age of robust manhood and when the vital powers are matured and strong
3. Against ambitiousness when old age has come on and the vital powers have become weak and decayed.

Such a man greatly reveres 3 things:

1. The ordinances of Heaven
2. Great men
3. Words of sages

The Classes of People According to Intellect

The inferior man does not know the ordinances of Heaven. And so he does not revere them. He is unduly familiar in the presence of great men, and scoffs at the words of sages.

They whose knowledge comes by birth are of all men the first in understanding.

They to whom it comes by study are next.

Men of poor intellectual capacity, who yet study, may be added as a yet inferior class.

The lowest of all are they who are poor in intellect and never learn.

The superior man should be mindful of 9 things:

1. Clarity in vision
2. Quickness in hearing
3. Geniality in expression
4. Respectfulness in demeanor
5. Truth in word
6. Seriousness in duty
7. Inquisitiveness of doubts
8. Self-control in anger
9. Justice and fairness when the way to success opens before him

Some have spoken of:

• ’looking upon goodness as upon something beyond their reach,’ and
• ’looking upon evil as like plunging one’s hands into scalding liquid'

I have seen the men, I have heard the sayings.

Some have spoken of:

• ’living in seclusion to work out their designs,'
• ’exercising themselves in righteous living in order to render their principles the more effective'

I have heard the sayings, I have not seen the men.

Duke King of Ts’i had his thousand teams of four. Yet on the day of his death the people had nothing to say of his goodness.

Peh-I and Shuh-Ts’i starved at the foot of Shau-yang. The people make mention of them to this day.

‘Even if your object is not wealth, it is all the same because you are changed to me.’

Is not this apropos in such cases?

Tsz-k’in asked of Pih-yu:

Tsz-Kin turned away and studied the Odes.

Another day, he asked:

I turned away and studied the Rules.