1. Tsze-loo said, "The prince of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?"

2. The Master replied, "What is necessary is to rectify names."

3. "So, indeed!" said Tsze-loo. "You are wide of the mark. Why must there be such rectification?"

4. The Master said, "How uncultivated you are, Yew! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve."

2. THE DUTIES CHIEFLY TO BE ATTENDED TO BY A HEAD MINISTER;—A LESSON TO YEN YUNG. 1. 先有司,—comp. VIII.4, 3. The 有司 are the various smaller officers. A head minister should assign them their duties, and not be interfering in them himself. His business is to examine into the manner in which they discharge them. And in doing so, he should overlook small faults. 2. 人其舍诸,—comp. 山川其舍诸, in VI. 4, though the force of 舍 here is not so great as in that ch. Conf. meaning is, that Chung-kung need not trouble himself about all men of worth. Let him advance those he knew. There was no fear that the others would be neglected. Comp. what is said on 'knowing men', in XII. 22.

3. THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF NAMES BEING CORRECT. 1. This conversation is assigned by Choo He to the 11th year of the duke Gae of Loo, when Conf. was 69, and he returned from his wanderings to his native state. Tsze-loo had then been some time in the service of the duke Ch'uh of Wei, who it would appear, had been wishing to get the services of the sage himself, and the disciple did not think that his Master would refuse to accept office, as he had not objected to his doing so. 2. 名 must have here a special reference, which Tsze-loo did not apprehend. Nor did the old interpr., for Ma Yung explains the 正名 by 正百事之名, 'to rectify the names of all things'. On this view, the reply would indeed be 'wide of the mark'. The answer is substantially the same as the reply to duke King of Ts'e about govern. in XII. 11, that it obtains when the prince is prince, the father father, &c; that is, when each an in his relations is what the name of his relation would require. Now, the duke Ch'uh held the rule of Wei against his father; see VII. 14. Conf., from the necessity of the case and peculiarity of the circumstances, allowed his disciples, notwithstanding that, to take office in Wei; but as the time of this conversation, Ch'uh had been duke for nine years, and ought to have been so established that he could have taken the course of a filial son without subjecting the state to any risks. On this account, Conf. said he would begin with rectifying the name of the duke, that is, with requiring him to resign the dukedom to his father, and be what his name of son required him to be. See 翼注, in loc. This view enables us to understand better the climax that follows, tho' its successive steps are still not without difficulty. 正名乎,—乎 maybe taken as an exclamation, or as= 'is it not?' 4. 阙如,—阙 is used in the same sense as in II. 18. The phrase= 'is putting-aside-like', i.e., the sup. man reserves and revolves what he is in doubt about, and does not rashly speak. 6. 'Proprieties' here are not ceremonial rules, but = 'order', what such rules are designed to display and secure. So, 'music' is equivalent to 'harmony'. 中, 3d tone, is the verb; 不中= 'do not hit the mark'.

5. "If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.

6. "When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music will not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.

7. "Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks maybe carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires, is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect."