The Master said, "The leaving virtue without proper cultivation; the not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to move towards righteousness of which a knowledge is gained; and not being able to change what is not good:—these are the things which occasion me solicitude."

HEADING OF THIS BOOK.—述而第七. 'A transmitter, and—Book VII.' We have in this book much information of a personal character about Confucius, both from his own lips, and from the descriptions of his disciples. The two preceding books treat of the disciples and other worthies, and here, in contrast with them, we have the sage himself exhibited.

1. CONFUCIUS DISCLAINS BEING AN ORIGINATOR OR MAKER. 述=传旧而已, 'simply to hand down the old'. Comm. say the master's language here is from his extreme humility. But we must hold that it expressed his true sense of his position and work. Who the individual called endearingly 'our old P'ang' was, can hardly be ascertained. Choo He adopts the view that he was a worthy officer of the Shang dynasty. But that individual's history is a mass of fables. Others make 老彭 to be Laou-tsze, the founder of the Taou sect, and others again make two individuals, one this Laou-tsze, and the other that 彭祖.

2. CONFUCIUS' HUMBLE ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF. 识, here by most scholars read che, up.3d tone, 'to remember'. 之refers, it is said, to理, 'principles', the subjects of the silent observation and reflection. 何有于我哉, cannot be—'what difficulty do these occasion me?' but=何者能有于我, as in the transl. 'The language', says Choo He, 'is that of humility upon humility'. Some insert, in their expl., 此外 before何—'Besides these, what is there in me?' But this is quite arbitrary. The profession may be inconsistent with what we find in other passages, but the inconsistency must stand rather than violence be done to the language. Ho An gives the singular exposition of 郑康成 (about A.D.150-200)—'Other men have not these things, I only have them.'

3. CONFUCIUS' ANXIETY ABOUT HIS SELF-CULTIVATION:—ANOTHER HUMBLE ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF. Here again, comm. find only the expressions of humility, but there can be no reason why we should not admit that Confucius was anxious lest these things, which are only put forth as possibilities, should become in his case actual facts. 讲is in the sense explained in the Dict. by the terms 习and 究, 'practising', 'examining'.