1. Mencius said, ＇How is it possible to speak with those princes who are not benevolent ? Their perils they count safety, their calamities they count profitable, and they have pleasure in the things by which they perish. If it were possible to talk with them who so violate benevolence, how could we have such destruction of States and ruin of Families?
仁不可为众 is to be understood as a remark of Confucius on reading the portion of the Shih-ching just quoted;—＇against a benevolent prince, like king W?n, the myriads of the adherents of Shang ceased to be myriads. They would not act against him＇. The expansion in the 日讲= ＇numerous as the adherents of Shang were, 以我周之人, 是众不可为 (=以为)众＇.
6. See the Shih-ching, III. iii. Ode III. st. 5. The ode is referred to the time of the sovereign L?, when the kingdom was hastening to ruin, and in the lines quoted, the author deplores that there was no resort to proper measures. 逝 is taken as a mere particle of transition.
CHAPTER8. THAT A PRINCE IS THE AGENT OF HIS OWN RUIN BY HIS VICIOUS WAYS AND REFUSING TO BE COUNSELED.
1. Stress must be laid always on the 不 in 不仁.
2. ＇There was a boy singing,
"When the water of the Ts＇ang-lang is clear,
It does to wash the strings of my cap;
When the water of the Ts＇ang-lang is muddy,
It does to wash my feet."
3. ＇Confucius said, "Hear what he sings, my children.When clear, then he will wash his cap-strings; and when muddy, he will wash his feet with it. This different application is brought by the water on itself."
4. ＇A man must first despise himself, and then others will despise him. A family must first destroy itself,and then others will destroy it. A State must first smite itself, and then others will smite it.
5. ＇This is illustrated in the passage of the T＇aiChia,"When Heaven sends down calamities, it is still possible to escape them. When we occasion the calamities ourselves, it is not possible any longer to live."＇