Coming or Going Is Not Ours to Command

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English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

Duke Ping of Lu was about to go out. His favored attendant Zang Cang asked, ‘On other occasions you tell the officers where you are going. Your carriage is ready, but they still do not know the destination. May I ask?’ The duke said, ‘I am going to see Mencius.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

Zang Cang said, ‘Why lower your standing to visit an ordinary man first? Do you regard him as worthy? Ritual and righteousness should come from the worthy, yet Mencius's later mourning was more elaborate than his earlier mourning. Do not go to him.’ The duke agreed.

Original Chinese text

English translation

Yuezheng entered and asked the duke, ‘Why did you not go to see Meng Ke?’ The duke replied, ‘Someone told me that the later funeral rites Mencius conducted were more elaborate than the earlier ones, so I did not go.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

Yuezheng asked, ‘What do you mean by “exceeded”? Was the first funeral conducted as for a scholar and the later one as for a grandee—three ritual vessels before, five afterward?’ ‘No,’ said the duke. ‘I mean the finer coffin, outer coffin, and burial clothes.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

‘That is not a breach of rank,’ Yuezheng said. ‘The family's means had changed.’ Later he told Mencius, ‘I spoke to the duke, and he intended to visit you. His favored attendant Zang Cang dissuaded him, so he did not come.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

Mencius said, ‘Someone may help a journey begin, and someone may obstruct it. Yet whether one goes or stops is not finally within human control. That I did not meet the ruler of Lu is Heaven's doing. How could a son of the Zang family cause me not to meet him?’

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