1. Tsze-loo, following the Master, happened to fall behind, when he met an old man, carrying, across his shoulder on a staff, a basket for weeds. Tsze-loo said to him, "Have you seen my master, Sir!" The old man replied, "Your four limbs are unaccustomed to toil; you cannot distinguish the five kinds of grain:—who is your master?" With this, he planted his staff in the ground, and proceeded to weed.

2. Tsze-loo joined his hands across his breast, and stood before him.

3. The old man kept Tsze-loo to pass the night in his house, killed a fowl, prepared millet, and feasted him. He also introduced to him his two sons.

4. Next day, Tsze-loo went on his way, and reported his adventure. The Master said, "He is a recluse," and sent Tsze-loo back to see him again, but, when he got to the place, the old man was gone.

7. TSZE-LOO'S RENCONTER WITH AN OLD MAN, A RECLUSER: HIS VINDICATION OF HIS MASTER'S COURSE. This incident in this chapter was probably nearly contemporaneous with those which occupy the two previous ones. Some say that the old man belonged to She?, which was a part of Ts'oo. 1. 后, as in XI.22, 颜渊后. 丈人 is used for 'an old man', as early as in the Yih-king, dia. 师. How the phrase comes to have that signification, I have not discovered. 蓧is simply called by Choo He—竹器, 'a bamboo basket'. The 说文 defines it as in the translation—芸田器. 四体, 'the four bodies', i.e., the arms and legs, the four limbs of the body. 'The five grains' are 稻, 黍, 稷, 麦, and 菽, 'rice, millet, pannicled millet, wheat, and pulse'. But they are sometimes otherwise enumerated. We have also 'the six kinds', 'the eight kinds', 'the nine kinds', and perhaps other classifications. 2. Tsze-loo, standing with his arms across his breast, indicated his respect, and won upon the old man. 3. 食, tsze, low. 3d tone, 'entertained', 'feasted'. The dict. defines it with this meaning, 以食与人, 'to give food to people'. 5. Tsze-loo is to be understood as here speaking the sentiments of the Master, and vindicating his course.长幼之节 refers to the manner in which the old man had introduced his sons to him the evening before, and to all the orderly intercourse between old and young, which he had probably seen in the family. 何其废之,—其refers to the old man, but there is an indefiniteness about the Chinese construction, which does not make it so personal as our 'he'. So Confucius is intended by君子, though that phrase may be taken in its general acceptation. 'He is aware of that';—but will not therefore shrink from his righteous service.

5. Tsze-loo then said to the family, "Not to take office is not righteous. If the relations between old and young may not be neglected, how is it that he sets aside the duties that should be observed between sovereign and minister? Wishing to maintain his personal purity, he allows that great relation to come to confusion. A superior man takes office, and performs the righteous duties belonging to it. As to the failure of right principles to make progress, he is aware of that."