CHAPTER 1

H?en asked what was shameful. The Master said, "When good government prevails in a state, to be thinking only of his salary; and, when bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of his salary;—this is shameful."

HEADING OF THIS BOOK.—宪问第十四, 'H?en asked—No. XIV.' The glossarist Hing Ping(邢昺) says, 'In this Book we have the characters of the Three Kings, and Two Chiefs, the courses proper for princes and great officers, the practice of virtue, the knowledge of what is shameful, personal cultivation, and the tranquillizing of the people;—all subjects of great importance in government. They are therefore collected together, and arranged after the last chapter which commences with an inquiry about government.' Some writers are of opinion that the whole book was compiled by H?en or Yuen Sze, who appears in the first chapter.

1. IT IS SHAMEFUL IN AN OFFICER TO BE CARING ONLY ABOUT HIS EMOLUMENT. H?en is the Yuen Sze of VI. 3, and if we suppose Conf. answer designed to have a practical application to himself, it is not easily reconcileable with what appears of his character, in that other place. 榖, here=禄, 'emolument', but its meaning must be pregnant and intensive, as in the transl. If we do not take it so, the sentiment is contradictory to VIII. 13, 3. K'ung Gan-kwǒ, however, takes the following view of the reply:—'When a country is well governed, emolument is right; when a country is ill-governed! to take office and emolument is shameful.' I prefer the construction of Choo He, which appears in the translation.