When the Master saw a person in a mourning dress, or any one with the cap and upper and lower garments of full dress, or a blind person, on observing them approaching, though they were younger than himself, he would rise up, and if he had to pass by them, he would do so hastily.

7. CONFUCIUS DISCLAIMS THE KNOWLEDGE ATTRIBUTED TO HIM, AND DECLARES HIS EARNESTNESS IN TEACHING. The first sentence here was probably an exclamation with reference to some remark upon himself as having extraordinary knowledge. 叩其两端, 'exhibit (叩=发动, 'to agitate') its two ends', i.e., discuss it from beginning to end.

8. FOR WANT OF AUSPICIOUS OMENS, CONFUCIUS GIVES UP THE HOPE OF THE TRIUMPH OF HIS DOCTRINES. The fung is the male of a fabulous bird, which has been called the Chinese phoenix, said to appear when a sage ascends the throne or when right principles are going to triumph thro' the empire. The female is called 凰. In the days of Shun, they gambolled in his hall, and were heard singing on mount K'e, in the time of king Wa?n. The river and the map carry us farther back still,—to the time of Fuh-he, to whom a monster with the head of a dragon, and the body of a horse, rose from the water, being marked on the back so as to give that first of the sages the idea of his diagrams. Conf. indorses these fables. 吾已矣夫,—see V. 26, and obs. how 乎and夫are interchanged.

9. CONFUCIUS' SYMPATHY WITH SORROW, RESPECT FOR RANK, AND PITY FOR MISFORTUNE. 齐, read tsze, is 'the lower edge of a garment' and joined with 衰, read ts'uy, 'mourning garments', the two char. indicate the mourning of the second degree of intensity, where the edge is unhemmed, but cut even, instead of being ragged, the terms for which are 斩衰. The phrase, however, seems to be for 'in mourning' generally. 少, up.3d tone, 'young'.