1. A high officer asked Tsze-kung, saying, "May we not say that your Master is a sage? How various is his ability!"

2. Tsze Kung said, "Certainly Heaven has endowed him unlimitedly. He is about a sage. And, moreover, his ability is various."

3. The Master heard of the conversation and said, "Does the high officer know me? When I was young, my condition was low, and therefore I acquired my ability in many things, but they were mean matters. Must the superior man have such variety of ability? He does not need variety of ability. "

4. Lauo said, "The Master said, 'Having no official employment, I acquired many arts.'"

6. ON THE VARIOUS ABILITY OF CONFUCIUS:—HIS SAGEHOOD NOT THEREIN. 1. According to the 周礼, the大宰was the chief of the six great officers of state, but the use of the designation in Conf. times was confined to the states of Woo and Sung, and hence the officer in the text must have belonged to one of them. See 注疏, in loc. The force of 与 is as appears in the transl. 2. 与 is responded to by Tsze-kung with 固, 'certainly', while yet by the use of 将 he gives his answer an air of hesitancy. 纵之, 'lets him go', i.e., does not restrict him at all. The officer had found the sagehood of Conf. in his various ability;—by the 又, 'moreover', Tsze-kung makes that ability only an addit. circum. 3. Conf. explains his possess. of various ability, and repudiates its being essen. to the sage, or even to the Keun-tsze. 4. Laou was a disciple, by surname K'in (琴), and styled Tsze-K'ae (子开), or Tsze-chang (子张). It is supposed that when these conversations were being digested into their present form, some one remembered that Laou had been in the habit of mentioning the remark given, and accordingly it was appended to the chapter. 子云 indicates that it was a frequent saying of Confucius.