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XVIII.1. Wei Zi left the court, Ji Zi was reduced to slavery, Bi Gan, for having offered remonstrances, was put to death. Confucius said: « Under the Yin dynasty, there were three men of perfect virtue. »
柳下惠为士师，三黜，人曰：“子未可以去乎？”曰：“直道而事人，焉往而不三黜；枉道而事人，何必去父母之邦。”
XVIII.2. Liu Xia Hui was in charge of justice; he was several times dismissed from his office. Someone said to him: — Has the time not yet come to leave this country? — If I wish to serve the public by observing all the rules of honesty, he replied, where shall I go so as not to be dismissed several times? If I wish to serve the public by bending the laws of probity, what need have I to leave my homeland?
齐景公待孔子，曰：“若季氏则吾不能，以季孟之间待之。”曰：“吾老矣，不能用也。”孔子行。
XVIII.3. Jing, prince of Qi, preparing to receive Confucius, said to his ministers: — I cannot treat him with as much honour as the prince of Lu treats the head of the Ji family. I shall treat him less honourably than the prince of Lu treats the head of the Ji family, but more honourably than he treats the head of the Meng family. Then he added: — I am old; I shall not be able to put his teachings into practice. Confucius left the principality of Qi.
齐人归女乐，季桓子受之，三日不朝，孔子行。
XVIII.4. The prince of Qi and his ministers sent to the prince of Lu a troupe of female musicians. Ji Huan Zi received them; at the palace, for three days, the care of affairs was abandoned. Confucius went away.
Notes: XVIII.4. Ji Huan Zi, named Seu, was a great prefect in the principality of Lu. Under the reign of Ding, prince of Lu, Confucius held the office of minister of justice. In three months, he had established the most perfect order in the government. The prince of Qi and his ministers, having learned of it and fearing the power of Lu, sent as a gift a troupe of eighty girls who, dressed in magnificent garments and mounted on richly adorned horses, performed songs with pantomime, and gave themselves as a spectacle outside the city, near the southern gate. Huan exercised sovereign power. Prince Ding retained no more than an empty title. He ended by accepting the troupe of female musicians. The prince of Lu and his ministers thus fell into the trap laid by those of Qi. Wholly occupied with hearing songs and watching lascivious spectacles, their ears and eyes fascinated, they neglected public affairs and no longer had any esteem for virtuous and capable men. Confucius would have wished to address remonstrances to the prince; but he could not (or rather, he saw that they would have been without effect). He left the country. (This was the fourteenth year of the reign of Ding, in 496 BC.)
楚狂接舆歌而过孔子曰：“凤兮凤兮，何德之衰。往者不可谏，来者犹可追。已而已而，今之从政者殆而。”孔子下，欲与之言，趋而避之，不得与之言。
XVIII.5. A sage of the principality of Chu, who feigned madness, named Jie Yu, passed before Confucius's carriage, singing: — O phoenix! O phoenix! How thy virtue is diminished! It is no longer time to prevent thy past wanderings by counsel; but thy future faults can still be forestalled. Cease then to come forth and to teach. Those who are now at the head of affairs are in great danger. Confucius got down from his carriage to speak to him. But Jie Yu went off at a rapid pace. Confucius could not converse with him.
Notes: XVIII.5. The Zhou dynasty being in decline, men of merit practised virtue in retirement. Jie Yu said: — When society is well ordered, the phoenix appears; when it is troubled, it remains hidden. So much does it love virtue! Now, in what times has it come? How is it that it does not yet fold its wings and hide? Jie Yu compares Confucius to the phoenix. He blames him for not deciding to withdraw into retirement, and claims that his virtue has greatly diminished. "Thy future faults can still be forestalled," that is to say, there is still time to withdraw into private life.
长沮桀溺耦而耕，孔子过之，使子路问津焉。长沮曰：“夫执舆者为谁？”子路曰：“为孔丘。”曰：“是鲁孔丘与？”曰：“是也。”曰：“是知津矣。”问于桀溺，桀溺曰：“子为谁？”曰：“为仲由。”曰：“是鲁孔丘之徒与？”对曰：“然。”曰：“滔滔者天下皆是也，而谁以易之。且而与其从避人之士也，岂若从避世之士哉？”耰而不辍。子路行以告，夫子怃然曰：“鸟兽不可与同群，吾非斯人之徒与而谁与？天下有道，丘不与易也。”
XVIII.6. Chang Ju and Jie Ni had joined together to till the soil. Confucius, passing by them in his carriage, sent Zi Lu to ask them where the ford was. Chang Ju said: — Who is the one in the carriage holding the reins? — It is Confucius, replied Zi Lu. — Is it Confucius of the principality of Lu? Chang Ju went on. — It is he, said Zi Lu. — Since he has travelled several times through the whole country, said Chang Ju, he himself knows the ford. Zi Lu questioned Jie Ni. — Who are you? said Jie Ni. — I am Zhong You, replied Zi Lu. Jie Ni said: — Are you not one of the disciples of Confucius of Lu? — Yes, replied Zi Lu. — The whole empire, said Jie Ni, is like a torrent rushing headlong. Who will help you to reform it? Instead of following a philosopher who flees men, would you not do better to imitate the sages who flee the world and live in retirement? Jie Ni went on covering with his harrow the seed he had laid in the earth. Zi Lu went to report to Confucius the answers of these two men. The Master said with an accent of sorrow: — We cannot keep company with the animals. If I flee the society of these men, with whom shall I keep company? If good order reigned in the empire, I should have no reason to labour to reform it.
Notes: XVIII.6. Formerly, on the borders of the principalities of Chu and Cai (in present-day Henan), two scholars who led a private life had joined together to cultivate their fields. Their names have not been handed down to posterity. The annalists called the one Ju, He who stops and does not leave his repose, and the other Ni, He who stays at the bottom of the water and never emerges.
子路从而后，遇丈人，以杖荷苴，子路问曰：“子见夫子乎？”丈人曰：“四体不勤，五谷不分，孰为夫子？”植其杖而耘。子路拱而立，止子路宿，杀鸡为黍而食之，见其二子焉。明日，子路行以告，子曰：“隐者也。”使子路反见之，至则行矣。子路曰：“不仕无义。长幼之节，不可废也。君臣之义，如之何其废之。欲洁其身，而乱大伦。君子之仕也，行其义也，道之不行，已知之矣。”
XVIII.7. Zi Lu, travelling with Confucius, lagged behind and lost sight of him. He met an old man who, by means of a staff, carried on his shoulder a basket for gathering grass. He asked him whether he had seen his master. The old man said to him: — You move neither feet nor hands; you do not even know how to distinguish the five kinds of grain. Who is your master? Then, having driven his staff into the ground, he pulled up grass. Zi Lu joined his hands and waited. The old man invited him to spend the night in his house. He killed a chicken, prepared millet, and served food to his guest. He also presented to him his two sons. The next day, Zi Lu went off and related this to Confucius. The Master said: — He is a sage who lives hidden. He ordered Zi Lu to go and see him again. When Zi Lu arrived, the old man had already gone. Zi Lu said to his two sons: — To refuse office is to fail in a duty. If it is not permitted to neglect the regards due to those who are older, how should one fail to fulfil the important duties of a subject toward his prince? In wishing to keep himself without stain, he would violate the great laws of social relations. The sage accepts office in order to fulfil the duty he has of serving his prince. Good order does not reign; this is what we have known for a long time.
Notes: XVIII.7. The old man said to Zi Lu: — Now is the time to give oneself to the labours of the fields. You undertake distant journeys in the train of your master. What use does it bring to the men of our age? Who even knows your master? The five kinds of grain are two sorts of panicled millet, beans and peas, wheat and barley, rice. The five social relations are those which exist between prince and subject, between father and son, between elder brother and younger brother, between husband and wife, between friends.
逸民，伯夷、叔齐、虞仲、夷逸、朱张、柳下惠、少连。子曰：“不降其志，不辱其身，伯夷、叔齐与？”谓柳下惠、少连：“降志辱身矣。言中伦，行中虑，其斯而已矣。”谓虞仲、夷逸：“隐居放言，身中清，废中权。”“我则异于是，无可无不可。”
XVIII.8. Yi Min (men who lived in retirement): Bo Yi, Shu Qi, Yu Zhong, Yi Yi, Zhu Zhang, Liu Xia Hui, Shao Lian lived as simple private individuals. The Master said: — Did not Bo Yi and Shu Qi hold unswervingly to their resolution for fear of defiling themselves? Confucius said that Liu Xia Hui and Shao Lian bent their resolution and lowered themselves; that their language had been in accordance with right reason, and their conduct in agreement with the common sentiment of men; that they had had this much good, and nothing more. He said that Yu Zhong and Yi Yi had lived in retirement, given counsel with excessive freedom; but that they had practised the purest virtue, and that the sacrifice of dignities was permitted to them because of the circumstances. « As for me, he added, I am not of the sentiment of these sages; I neither desire nor reject anything absolutely. »
太师挚适齐，亚饭干适楚，三饭缭适蔡，四饭缺适秦，鼓方叔入于河，播鼓武入于汉，少师阳、击磬襄入于海。
XVIII.9. Tai Shi Zhi went off into the principality of Qi. Ya Fan Gan went off into the principality of Chu. San Fan Liao went off into the principality of Cai. Si Fan Que went off into the principality of Qin. Gu Fang Shu withdrew to the bank of the Yellow River. Bo Gu Wu withdrew to the bank of the Han. Shao Shi Yang and Ji Qing Xiang withdrew to the seashore.
Notes: XVIII.9. The emperor and all the princes had musicians who played during their meals, to rouse them to eat. The pieces of music and the directors of music were different for the different meals. The Zhou dynasty coming to decline, music fell into decadence. Confucius, returning from Wei to his homeland, restored music. From then on, all the musicians, from the first to the last, knew perfectly the rules of their art. The authority of the prince of Lu became weaker and weaker; the three sons of Huan seized power and exercised it arbitrarily. Then all the musicians, from the chief director to the last, were wise enough to scatter in all directions. They crossed the rivers and passed the seas, fleeing far from their troubled homeland.
周公谓鲁公曰：“君子不施其亲，不使大臣怨乎不以。故旧无大故，则不弃也。无求备于一人。”
XVIII.10. Zhou Gong, instructing the prince of Lu, said to him: — A wise prince does not neglect those who are united to him by blood. He takes care that the great officers cannot complain of not being employed. Except for a grave reason, he does not cast off the members of the old families who have served the State from generation to generation. He does not require that one officer alone possess all talents and all qualities.
周有八士：伯达、伯适、仲突、仲忽、叔夜、叔夏、季随、季娲。
XVIII.11. The Zhou dynasty had eight remarkable men: Bo Da, Bo Shi, Zhong Tu, Zhong Hu, Shu Ye, Shu Xia, Ji Sui, Ji Wa.
Notes: XVIII.11. In prosperous times, at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty, there appeared eight men of great talent and rare virtue, who were called the eight remarkable men. They were born of the same mother, two at a time from the same birth.
