CHAPTER VII.
FILIAL PIETY IN RELATION TO THE THREE POWERS 2.
The disciple Ȝăng said, 'Immense indeed is the greatness of filial piety!' The Master replied 3,
1. Heaven and earth invariably pursue the course (that may be thus described), and the people take it as their pattern. (The ancient kings) imitated the brilliant luminaries of heaven, and acted. in accordance with the (varying) advantages afforded by earth, so that they were in accord with all under heaven; and in consequence their teachings, without being severe, were successful, and their government, without being rigorous, secured perfect order.
1 could transform the people, set before them therefore an example of the most extended love, and none of the people neglected their parents; they set forth to them (the nature of) virtue and righteousness, and the people roused themselves to the practice of them; they went before them with reverence and yielding courtesy, and the people had no contentions; they led them on by the rules of propriety and by music, and the people were harmonious and benignant; they showed them what they loved and what they disliked, and the people understood their prohibitions.
'It is said in the Book of Poetry 2,
"Awe-inspiring are you, O Grand-Master Yin,
And the people all look up to you."'
Footnotes
472:2 'The Three Powers' is a phrase which is first found in two of the Appendixes to the Yî King, denoting Heaven, Earth, and Man, as the three great agents or agencies in nature, or the circle of being.
472:3 The whole of the reply of Confucius here, down to 'the advantages afforded by earth,' is found in a narrative in the Ȝo Kwan, under the twenty-fifth year of duke Khâo (B.C. 517), with the important difference that the discourse is there about 'ceremonies,' and not about filial piety. Plainly, it is an interpolation in the Hsiâo, and is rightly thrown out by Kû and Wû Khăng. To my own mind it was a relief to find that the passage was not genuine, and had not come from Confucius. The discourse in the Ȝo Kwan, which is quite lengthy, these sentences being only the commencement 473:1 An amusing translation of this sentence is found in Samuel Johnson's 'Oriental Religions, China,' p. 208, beginning, 'Filial Piety is the Book of Heaven!' Mr. Johnson does not say where he got this version.
474:1 Sze-mâ Kwang changes the character for 'teachings' here into that for 'filial piety.' There is no external evidence for such a reading; and the texture of the whole treatise is so loose that we cannot insist on internal evidence.
474:2 See the Shih, II, iv, ode 7, stanza i.