When Yen Yuen died, the Master said, "Alas! Heaven is destroying me! Heaven is destroying me!"

6. HOW HWUY LOVED TO LEARN. See VI. 2, where the same question is put by the duke Gae, and the same answer is returned, only in a more extended form.

7. HOW CONFUCIUS WOULD NOT SELL HIS CARRIAGE TO BUY A SHELL FOR YEN YUEN. 1. A great chronological difficulty belongs here. Hwuy, according to the 'Family Sayings' and the 'Historical Records', must have died several years before Confucius' son, Le. Either the dates in them are false, or this ch. is spurious.—Yen Loo, the father of Hwuy, had himself been a disciple of the sage in former years. 为之椁 (i.q. char. in text), this is the idiom noticed in V. 7, 3. 为 would almost seem to be an active verb followed by a double objective. In burying, they used a coffin, called 棺, and an outer shell, without a bottom which was called 椁. 2. 吾从大夫之后, lit., 'I follow in rear of the great officers.' This is said to be an expression of humility. Confucius, retired from office, might still present himself at court, in the robes of his former dignity, and would still be consulted on emergencies. He would no doubt have a foremost place on such occasions.

8. CONFUCIUS FELT HWUY'S DEATH AS IF IT HAD BEEN HIS OWN. The old interpr. make this simply the exclamation of bitter sorrow. The modern, perhaps correctly, make the chief ingredient to be grief that the man was gone to whom he looked most for the transmission of his doctrines.