The Master said, "If a truly royal ruler were to arise, it would still require a generation, and then virtue would prevail."

9. A PEOPLE NUMEROUS, WELL-OFF, AND EDUCATED, IS THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 1. 仆, 'a servant', but here with the mean. in the translation. That, indeed, is the second meaning of the char. given in the dict.

10. CONFUCIUS' ESTIMATE OF WHAT HE COULD DO, IF EMPLOYED TO ADMINISTER THE GOVERNMENT OF A STATE. 朞, is to be distinguished from 期, and= 'a revolution of the year'. There is a comma at 月, and 而已可 are read together.而已does not signify, as it often does, 'and nothing more', but= 'and have', 已being已经, a sign of the perfect tense.—'Given twelve months, and there would be a passable result. In three years, there would be a completion.'

11. WHAT A HUNDRED YEARS OF GOOD GOVERNMENT COULD EFFECT. Conf. quotes here a saying of his time, and approves of it. 胜, upper 1st tone, 'to be equal to'. 胜残, 'would be equal to the violent', that is, to transform them. 去杀, 'to do away with killing', that is, which capital punishments, unnecessary with a transformed people.

12. IN WHAT TIME A ROYAL RULER COULD TRANSFORM THE EMPIRE. 王者, 'one who was a king'. The char.王is formed by three straight lines representing the three powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and a perpendicular line, going through and uniting them, and thus conveys the highest idea of power and influence. See the dict., char. 玉. Here it means the highest wisdom and virtue in the highest place. 世, 'a generation', or thirty years. See note on II. 23, 1. The old interpr. take 仁 as=仁政, 'virtuous government'—To save Conf. from the charge of vanity in what he says, in ch. 10, that he could accomplish in three years, it is said, that the perfection which he predicates there would only be the foundation for the virtue here realized.