The Master said, "The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety. He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man."

14. THE WAY TO WARD OFF RESENTMENTS. 责, it is said, is here 'to require from', and not 'to reprove', but the one meaning passes insensibly into the other.

15. NOTHING CAN BE MADE OF PEOPLE WHO TAKE THINGS EASILY, NOT GIVING THEMSELVES THE TROUBLE TO THINK. Comp. VII. 8.

16. AGAINST FRIVOLOUS TALKERS AND SUPERFICIAL SPECULATORS. Choo He explains难矣哉 by 无以入德而将有患害, 'they have no ground from which to become virtuous, and they will meet with calamity'. Ho An gives Ch'ing K'ang-shing's explanation:—终无成, 'they will never complete any thing'. Our nearly literal translation appears to convey the meaning. 'A hard case', i.e., they will make nothing out, and nothing can be made of them.

17. THE CONDUCT OF THE SUPERIOR MAN IS RIGHTEOUS, COURTEOUS, HUMBLE, AND SINCERE. 质, is explained by Choo He by 质干, 'the substance and stem'; and in the 备旨 by 基址, 'foundation'. The antecedent to all the之is 义, or rather the thing, whatever it be, done righteously.