Quotes from Annping Chin

Zizhang asked, "What is keen discernment?" Confucius said, "When slanders that seep under the skin and grievances that cause pain do not drive you to an immediate response, you may be said to have keen discernment.

Measured steps" does not refer to steps that follow a rule or square. A good man, Confucius said, "is not slavish to a path others have trodden." This man is not even slavish to the path he himself has trodden, for experience would teach him that every occasion is different: the circumstances change, and they change even as the occasion unfolds. Thus, each time, he has to size up the situation and decide how to make his next move. He marks the line.

If the impulse to act correctly did not come from yourself, Confucius said to a follower, what good could it do for you? In his mind, the moral was beautiful, and it should not succumb to rules. Rules diminish its beauty and subtlety, and adherence to them is an admission of one's own moral failure.