CONFUCIAN ANALECTS

CHAPTER XII. 1. The philosopher Yû said, "In practicing the rules of propriety, a natural ease is to be prized. In the ways prescribed by the ancient kings, this is the excellent quality, and in things small and great we follow them.

2. "Yet it is not to be observed in all cases. If one, knowing how such ease should be prized, manifests it, without regulating it by the rules of propriety, this likewise is not to be done."

CHAPTER XIII. The philosopher Yû said, "When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good. When respect is shown where there is no cause for reproach, one may recover his position. If you are not ashamed of your relations, you can rely upon them."

The meaning should not be confined to that period.

12. IN CEREMONIES A NATURAL EASE IS TO BE PRIZED, AND YET IT IS TO BE SUBORDINATE TO THE END OF CEREMONIES—THE REVERENTIAL OBSERVANCE OF PROPRIETY. 1. Lǐ rules of propriety is not easily rendered in another language. There underlies it the idea of what is proper. It is original: 事之宜, “the fitness of things,” what reason calls for in the performance of duties towards superior beings and between man and man.

Our term “ceremonies” comes near its meaning here. Dào The Way/Path is here a name for Lǐ, indicating the courses or ways to be trodden by men. In the phrase original: 小大由之, the antecedent to original: 之 is not “harmony” (original: 和), but Lǐ or Dào. 2. Observe the force of the original: 亦, “also,” in the last clause, and how it affirms the general principle enunciated in the first paragraph.

13. TO SAVE FROM FUTURE REPENTANCE, WE MUST BE CAREFUL IN OUR FIRST STEPS. A different view of the scope of this chapter is taken by Hè Yǎn. According to him, it illustrates the difference.