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Perfect Virtue
By peace | December 4, 2007
Hsien asked what is shameful. The Master said,”When good government prevails in a State, to be thinking only of salary; and when bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of salary — this is shameful. When the love of superiority, boasting, resentments and covetousness are repressed, this may be deemed perfect virtue.”
The Master said:
Virtue & Intelligence
Only the individual possessed of the most entire sincerity that can exist under Heaven can adjust the great invariable relations of mankind, establish the great fundamental virtues of humanity, and know the transforming and nurturing operations of Heaven and Earth. Does this individual depend on any being or anything beyond himself?
Call him man in his ideal; how earnest is he! Call him an abyss; how deep is he! Call him Heaven; how vast is he!
Who can know him, except he who is indeed quick in apprehension, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and all-embracing knowledge, possessing all heavenly virtue?
Leaving virtue without proper cultivation; not thoroughly discussing what is learned; not being able to move towards what is right; and not being able to change what is not good — these things cause me concern.
Specious words confound virtue. Want of forbearance in small matters confounds great plans.
To have faults and not to reform them, this indeed should be pronounced having faults.
I will not be concerned by men not knowing me. I will be concerned by my own lack of ability.
There may be those who act without knowing why, but I do not do so. Hearing much and selecting what is good and following it, and seeing much and keeping it in memory — this is the second style of knowledge.
Benevolence: is to love all men. Knowledge: is to know all men. Employ the upright and put aside all the crooked; in this way, the crooked can be made to be upright.
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