| Zi Yi: |
The Master said, 'When one says anything, and immediately proceeds to act it out, his words cannot embellish it; and when one does anything, and immediately proceeds to describe it, the action cannot be embellished. Hence the superior man saying little, and acting to prove the sincerity of his words, the people cannot make the excellence of their deeds greater than it is, nor diminish the amount of their badness. It is said in the Book of Poetry (III, iii, ode 2, 5), "A flaw in mace of white jade may By patient toil be ground away; But for a flaw we make in speech, What can be done? 'Tis past our reach." It is said in the Xiao Ya (II, iii, ode 5, 8), "Well does our lord become his place, And high the deeds his reign have crowned." It is said to the Prince Shi (Shu, V, xvi, 11), "Aforetime, when God beheld the virtue of king Wen in the fields of Zhou, he made the great decree light on his person."' |
