Lietse (5)

1 Lobbied again and again by Ju scholars, Duke Ai of Lu finally agreed to invite Confucius as minister. The duke however, had some doubt for unknown reason. So, he invited Yan He to discuss this appointment.

2 He asked Yan He, “I want to appoint Confucius as minister. Do you think that he can save us from the situation of economic depression and weakness?”

3 Yan He’s answer was straight and clear. “No. Never do it. Confucius likes vanity and is good at flashy words. What’s more he cannot seize the key points of affairs, and always hover over trivia. He isn’t helpful in solving our problems.

4 His theory is nothing but affectation and oppression to human nature. He uses nature-betrayal conduct to boast his deceptive aptitude while he doesn’t know that it is improper model to cover human nature and cultivate dishonesty. Soul is covered and disguised so spirit and conduct is distorted. In this case, how to govern country and educate people?

5 Don’t care others’ recommendation. What you need to do is to close your eyes to consider if his theory fits your personality? If you feel it difficult to carry out, others must have difficulty too. So, how can you entrust him to look after people? Country must be messy in his hands.

6 In general, it never is a good way to educate people by asking them to diverge from truth and worship affectation and deception. For the sake of offspring, I hope you will give up this appointment. His school actually can’t benefit the governance of the country.”