worshipping your ancestors, think how you can prove your filial piety;* in receiving your ministers, think how you can show yourself respectful; in looking to what is distant, try to get clear views; have your ears ever open to lessons of virtue;—then shall I acknowledge (and respond to) the excellence of your majesty with an untiring (devotion to your service).
Section 3.
1. Î Yin again made an announcement to the king, saying, 'Oh! Heaven has no (partial) affection;—only to those who are reverent does it show affection.* The people are not constant to those whom they cherish;—they cherish (only) him who is benevolent. The spirits do not always accept the sacrifices that are offered to them;—they accept only the sacrifices of the sincere.* A place of difficulty is the Heaven-(conferred) seat. When there are (those) virtues, good government is realized; when they are not, disorder comes. To maintain the same principles as those who secured good government will surely lead to prosperity; to pursue the courses of disorder will surely lead to ruin. He who at last, as at first, is careful as to whom and what he follows is a truly intelligent sovereign. The former king was always zealous in the reverent cultivation of his virtue, so that he was the fellow of God[1].* Now, O king, you have entered on the inheritance of his excellent line;—fix your inspection on him.'
2. '(Your course must be) as when in ascending
- ↑ This phrase is used, as here, with reference to the virtue of a sovereign, making him as it were the mate of God, ruling on earth as He rules above; and with reference to the honours paid to a departed sovereign, when he is associated with God in the great sacrificial services.
H 2
