This piece, like the last, is assigned to the time of king Lî.
God has reversed (his usual course of procedure) 1, And the lower people are full of distress. The words which you utter are not right; The plans which you form are not far-reaching. As there are not sages, you think you have no guidance;--You have no real sincerity. (Thus) your plans do not reach far, And I therefore strongly admonish you.
Heaven is now sending down calamities;--Do not be so complacent. Heaven is now producing such movements;--Do not be so indifferent. If your words were harmonious, The people would become united. If your words were gentle and kind, The people would be settled.
Though my duties are different from yours, I am your fellow-servant. I come to advise with you, And you hear me with contemptuous indifference, My words are about the (present urgent) affairs;--Do not think them matter for laughter. The ancients had a saying:--'Consult the gatherers of grass and firewood 2.'
Heaven enlightens the people 2, As the bamboo flute responds to the earthen whistle; As two half-maces form a whole one; As you take a thing, and bring it away in your hand, Bringing it away, without any more ado. The enlightenment of the people is very easy. They have (now) many perversities;--Do not you set up your perversity before them.
Good men are a fence; The multitudes of the people are a wall; Great states are screens; Great families are buttresses;--The cherishing of virtue
408:1 The proof of God's having reversed his usual course of procedure was to be found in the universal misery of the people, whose good He was understood to desire, and for the securing of which government by righteous kings was maintained by him. 408:2 If ancient worthies thought that persons in such mean employments were to he consulted surely, the advice of the writer deserved to be taken into account by his comrades. 409:1 During all the time of the sacrifice, the personators of the dead said not a word, but only ate and drank. To the semblance of them good men were now reduced. 409:2 The meaning is, that Heaven has so attuned the mind to virtue, that, if good example were set before the people, they would certainly and readily follow it. This is illustrated by various instances of things, in which the one succeeded the other freely and as it necessarily; so that government by virtue was really very easy.
