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32
was careful to disclaim such The Life and Times of Yan Hui
knowledge for himself, explaining
that his own was of the secondary "Wherever could my Master go and
kind that comes, not not become educated?"
instantaneously, but from patient
study and analysis of what is good. It "The more I look at his teachings, the
may not be without significance, too, higher it rises before me; the more I try
that the author of the Doctrine of the to penetrate it, the more impenetrable
Mean, who quotes Confucius as does it become. I see it spread out
praising Yan Hui for his choice of the before me, then suddenly it is behind
Mean and adherence to the good, me; but when the Master explains, he
was himself an advocate of the puts everything in place. He has
primacy of intuition in the moral expanded me with knowledge, he has
sphere and made it a characteristic shaped me with discipline. Even if I
of the "sage" or saint. It was thus a wish to give up, I could not, for
very exalted thing that Confucius whenever I become tired of learning,
found to admire in his favourite the Masters' excellence and his
disciple: the same thing that Mencius grandeur fills my mind and I know
in later years developed as the "mind that I must follow him."
of infancy", the counter-part of the Yan Hui
natural virtue of Taoism.
It is recorded that, when Yan Confucius arrived in WEI
Hui died, Confucius broke down in about 497BC when he was 54 years
such a way as to shock or at least old. Accompanying him were several
surprise some of those about him, disciples - the ones chiefly mentioned
and his reaction generally to the as sharing in his exile were the
tragic event suggests that he not only straight laced TZE LU, his greatest
admired Hui, but also was genuinely friend; TZE KUNG, the suave
fond of him. The nature of the pupil's diplomat and YAN HUI, the most
personal feelings towards the Master brilliant of his disciples who was a
can only be surmised. That he modest, gentle person, so sparing of
profoundly respected his teaching words that even the Master did not
method is clear from a famous quite understand him, though he
passage in the Analects, where he loved him more than he loved his
also eulogizes the teaching itself as a own son.
mysterious summit, towering and
remote, which draws men on yet Four Years Old
baffles their attempts to reach it.
One day, Yan Lu who was
related to Confucius's mother Yan
Extract Five Zhengzai, was celebrating his son's
forth birthday. Confucius joined
32 Extracted from the book “Confucius” by Betty Kelen
Published by Graham Brash Pte Ltd., Singapore
