学而第一 礼之用 和为贵

子曰:“父在,观其志;父没,观其行;三年无改于父之道,可谓孝矣。”
Confucius remarked, “When a man's father is living the son should have regard to what his father would have him do; when the father is dead, to what his father has done.

A son who for three years after his father's death does not in his own life change his father's principles, may be said to be a good son.”

有子曰：“礼之用，和为贵。先王之道，斯为美。小大由之，有所不行。知和而和，不以礼节之，亦不可行之。”

A disciple of Conficius remarked, "in the practice of art, what is valuable is natural spontaneity.

According to the rules of art held by the ancient kings it was this quality in a work of art which constituted its excellence; in great as well as in small things they were guided by this principle.


But in being natural there is something not permitted.
To know that it is necessary to be natural without restraining the impulse to be natural by the strict principle of art, --that is something not permitted."