1. Mencius said,"Words which are simple, while their meaning is far-reaching, are good words.Principles which, as held, are compendious, while their application is extensive, are good principles.
2. 穿=穿穴, "to make a hole through". 逾=逾墙, "to jump over a wall". The two together are equivalent to"to play the thief".
3. "Thou", is a style of address greatly at variance with Chinese notions of propriety. It can only be used to the very young and the very mean. A man will revolt from it as used to himself, and "if he be careful to act so that men will not dare to speak to him in this style, he will go nowhere where he will not do righteousness". —This is rather farfetched.
4. 餂,—"to lick with the tongue". To find an antecedent to the之, we must understand the person,who is spoken to; or before whom silence is kept;or, perhaps, 之merely gives effect to the verb in the general sense of "to gain some end".
CHAPTER 32. AGAINST AIMING AT WHAT IS REMOTE, AND NEGLECTING WHAT IS NEAR. WHAT ARE GOOD WORDS AND GOOD PRINCIPLES.
1. 不下带,—see the Book of Rites, I, Pt, II, iii. 14.The ancients did not look at a person below the girdle,so that all above that might be considered as near,beneath the eyes. The phrase=近言, "words which are near", i.e.,
The words of the superior man do not go below the girdle, but great principles are contained in them.
2."The principle which the superior man holds is that of personal cultivation, but the kingdom is thereby tranquillized.
3."The disease of men is this:—that they neglect their own fields, and go to weed the fields of others,and that what they require from others is great, while what they lay upon themselves is light."
