| | 率性: |
孔門弟子七十之徒，皆任卿相之用，被服聖教，文才雕琢，知能十倍，教訓之功而漸漬之力也。未入孔子之門時，閭巷常庸無奇。其尤甚不率者，唯子路也。世稱子路無恆之庸人，未入孔門時，戴雞佩豚，勇猛無禮；聞誦讀之聲，搖雞奮豚，揚脣吻之音，聒賢聖之耳，惡至甚矣。孔子引而教之，漸漬磨礪，闔導牖進，猛氣消損，驕節屈折，卒能政事，序在四科。斯蓋變性使惡為善之明效也。 |
| Shuaixing: |
The seventy disciples of the school of Confucius were each of them able to creditably fill the post of a minister of state. Conforming to the holy doctrines, they became accomplished scholars, and their knowledge and skill grew tenfold. This was the result of teaching; thus latent faculties were gradually developed. Before they joined Confucius' school, they sauntered about in the streets as quite ordinary and in no wise exceptional people. The most ungovernable of all was Zilu, who is generally reported to have been a common and unsteady individual. Before he became Confucius' pupil, he wore a feather hat and a pig skin belt. He was brutal and unmannerly. Whenever he heard some reading, he tossed up his feather hat, pulled his belt, and uttered such a yell, that he deafened the ears of the worthies and sages. Such was his wickedness. Confucius took him under his guidance. By degrees he polished and instructed him. The more he advanced in knowledge, the more he lost his fierceness, and his arrogance was broken. At last he was able to govern a state, and ranked in the four classes. This is a shining example of how a man's character was changed from bad into good. |
| | 率性: |
豆麥之種，與稻梁殊，然食能去飢。小人君子，稟性異類乎？譬諸五穀皆為用，實不異而效殊者，稟氣有厚泊，故性有善惡也。殘則授不仁之氣泊，而怒則稟勇渥也。仁泊則戾而少愈，勇渥則猛而無義，而又和氣不足，喜怒失時，計慮輕愚。妄行之人，罪故為惡。人受五常，含五臟，皆具於身。稟之泊少，故其操行不及善人，猶或厚或泊也，非厚與泊殊其釀也，麴孽多少使之然也。是故酒之泊厚，同一麴孽；人之善惡，共一元氣。氣有少多，故性有賢愚。西門豹急，佩韋以自緩；董安于緩，帶弦以自促。急之與緩，俱失中和，然而韋弦附身，成為完具之人。能納韋弦之教，補接不足，則豹、安于之名可得參也。貧劣宅屋，不具墻壁宇達，人指訾之。如財貨富愈，起屋築墻，以自蔽鄣，為之具宅，人弗復非。 |
| Shuaixing: |
Beans and wheat are different from rice and millet, yet their consumption satisfies the appetite. Are the natures of low and superior men then of a different kind? They resemble the Five Grains, all have their use. There is no fundamental difference between them, only their manifestations are unlike. The fluid men are endowed with, is either copious or deficient, and their character correspondingly good or bad. The wicked have received but a small dose of kindness, the irascible, plenty of temper. If kindness be unsufficient, people do wrong, and there is not much hope for an improvement. With plenty of temper, people become violent, and have no sense of justice. Moreover, their feeling of sympathy is defective, joy and anger do not happen at the proper time, and they have baseless and irreasonable fears. Reckless men like that commit outrages, therefore they are considered bad. Man has in his body the Five Qualities and the Five Organs. If he got too little of them, or if they are too small, his actions do not attain to goodness. Man himself is either accomplished or deficient, but accomplishment and deficiency do not mean a difference of organisation. Use leaven in big, or in small quantities, and the result will be similar. In rich as well as in poor wine there is the same leaven. Good men as well as bad ones are permeated by the same original fluid. According to its greater or smaller volumen the mind of the individual is bright or dull. Ximen Bao would tighten his leathern belt, whenever he wanted to relax himself. Dongan Yu loosened his girdle strings, when he was going to rouse himself. Yet neither passion nor indolence is the right medium. However, he who wears a belt or a girdle on his body is properly dressed. When the question arises, how deficiencies can be made good by means of belts and strings, the names of Ximen Bao and Dongan Yu must be mentioned together. Houses of poor, wretched people are not in a proper state. They have holes in the walls under the roof, to which others take objection. When rich and well-to-do people build houses, they have the walls made in a way, that they find there real shelter. The whole house is in good repair, and nobody could say anything against it. |
| | 率性: |
魏之行田百畝，鄴獨二百，西門豹灌以漳水，成為膏腴，則畝收一鍾。夫人之質猶鄴田，道教猶漳水也，患不能化，不患人性之難率也。雒陽城中之道無水，水工激上洛中之水，日夜馳流，水工之功也。由此言之，迫近君子，而仁義之道數加於身，孟母之徙宅，蓋得其驗。 |
| Shuaixing: |
In Wei the land was divided in lots of a hundred mu, in Ye alone the lots measured two hundred mu. Ximen Bao irrigated his land with water from the Zhang and made it so fertile, that it yielded one bushel per mu. Man's natural parts are like the fields of Ye, tuition and education, like the water from the Zhang. One must be sorry for him that cannot be transformed, but not for a man whose character it is difficult to govern. In the streets of the city of Luoyang there was no water. It was therefore pulled up from the Luo by watermen. If it was streaming quickly day and night, it was their doing. From this point of view kindness and justice must increase manifold in him who comes into close contact with an excellent man. Mencius' mother changed her domicile, for she had ascertained this truth. |
