CHAPTER VII.
1. Tsze-kung asked about government. The
Master said, 'The requisites of government are that there be sufficiency of
food, sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in
their ruler.'
2. Tsze-kung said, 'If it cannot be helped,
and one of these must be dispensed with, which of the three should be foregone
first?' 'The military equipment,' said the Master.
3. Tsze-kung again asked, 'If it cannot be
helped, and one of the remaining two must be dispensed with, which of them
should be foregone?' The Master answered, 'Part with the food. From of old,
death has been the lot of all men; but if the people have no faith in their
rulers, there is no standing for the State.'
Published
by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003
by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia