CHAPTER 20

Fan Ch'e asked what constituted wisdom. The Master said, "To give one's-self earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom." He asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration;—this may be called perfect virtue."

18. DIFFERENT STAGES OF ATTAINMENT. The four之have all one reference, which must be 道 or 理, the subject spoken of.

19. TEACHERS MUST BE GUIDED IN COMMUNICATING KNOWLEDGE BY THE SUSCEPTIVITY OF THE LEARNERS. In以上, 上is read up.2d tone, a verbal word, and not the prep. 'upon', so the 下 in 以下 is also verbal as in III. 7. The中人, 'or mediocre people', may have all classes of subjects announced to them, I suppose.

20. CHIEF ELEMENTS IN WISDOM AND VIRTUE. The modern comm. take 民 here as=人, and民之义 as=人道之宜, 'what is right according to the principles of humanity'. With some hesitation, I have assented to this view, though 民 properly means 'the multitude', 'the people', and the old interpr. explain—'Strive to perfect the righteousness of the people.' We may suppose from the second clause that Fan Ch'e was striving after what was uncommon and superhuman. For a full exhibition of the phrase 鬼神, see 中庸, XVI. Here it= 'spiritual beings', manes and others. 远, up.3d tone. 远之, 'Keep at a distance from them', not 'keep them at a distance'. The sage's advice therefore is—'attend to what are plainly human duties, and do not be superstitious'. 先, and 后 are, as frequently elsewhere, verbs, 'put first', 'put last'. The old interpreters take them differently, but not so well.