1. Shun had five ministers, and the empire was well governed.

2. King Woo said, "I have ten able ministers."

3. Confucius said, "Is not the saying that talents are difficult to find, true? Only when the dynasties of T'ang and Yu met, were they more abundant than in this of Chow, yet there was a woman among them. The able ministers were no more than nine men.

19. THE PRAISE OF YAOU. 1. No doubt, Yaou, as he appears in Chinese annals, is a fit object of admiration, but if Confucius had had a right knowledge of, and reverence for, Heaven, he could not have spoken as he does here. Grant that it is only the visible heaven overspreading all, to which he compares Yaou, even that is sufficiently absurd. 则之, not simply=法之, 'imitated it', but 能与之准, 'could equalize with it'. 2. 其有成功=其所有之成功, the great achievements of his government. 文章 (see V. 12)=the music, ceremonies, &c., of which he was the author.

20. THE SCARCITY OF MEN OF TALENT, AND PRAISE OF THE HOUSE OF CHOW. 1. Shun's five ministers were 禹, superintendent of works, 稷, superintendent of agriculture, 契 (s?e?), minister of instruction, 皋陶, minister of justice, and 伯益, warden of woods and marshes. Those five, as being eminent above all their compeers, are mentioned. 2. See the Shoo-king, V.i. sect.ii.6. 乱臣, 'governing, i.e., able ministers'. In the dict., the first meaning given of 乱 is 'to regulate', and the second is just the opposite,—'to confound', 'confusion'. Of the ten ministers, the most distinguished of course was the duke of Chow. One of them, it is said next par., was a woman, but whether she was the mother of king Wa?n, or his wife, is much disputed. 3. Instead of the usual 'the master said', we have here 孔子曰, 'The philosopher K'ung said'. This is accounted for on the ground that the words of king Woo having been quoted immediately before, it would not have done to crown the sage with his usual title of 'the Master'. The style of the whole chapter, however, is different from that of any previous one, and we may suspect that it is corrupted. 才难 is a sort of proverb, or common saying, which Conf. quotes and illustrates.唐虞之际, (Yaou is called T'ang, having ascended the throne from the marquisate of that name, and Yu became the accepted surname or style of Shun.) 于斯为盛 is understood by Choo He as in the transl., while the old comm. take exactly the opposite view. The whole is obscure. 4. This par. must be spoken of King Wa?n.

4. "King W?n possessed two of the three parts of the empire, and with those he served the dynasty of Yin. The virtue of the house of Chow may be said to have reached the highest point indeed."