The Doctrine of the Mean. Chapter 16.

1. The Master said, "How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to them!

2. "We look for them, but do not see them; we listen to, but do not hear them; yet they enter into all things, and there is nothing without them.

3. "They cause all the people in the kingdom to fast and purify themselves, and array themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at their sacrifices. Then, like overflowing water, they seem to be over the heads, and on the right and left of their worshipers.

4. "It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'The approaches of the spirits, you cannot surmise; ‹ and can you treat them with indifference?'

5. "Such is the manifestness of what is minute! Such is the impossibility of repressing the outgoings of sincerity!"

Text source: The Doctrine of the Mean. Translated by James Legge.

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China - Ancient - Philosophy - Chinese Confucians - Chinese translation