Analects 8.20

The Analects (論語), BOOK VIII. T'AI-PO 泰伯第八

舜有臣五人、而天下治。武王曰、予有亂臣十人。孔子曰、才難、不其然乎、唐虞之際、於斯爲盛、有婦人焉、九人而已。三分天下有其二、以服事殷、周之德、其可謂至德也已矣。

1. Shun had five ministers, and the empire was well-governed.

2. King Wu said, "I have ten able ministers."

3. Confucius said, "Is not the saying that talents are difficult to find, true? Only when the dynasties of T'ang and Yu met, were they more abundant than in this of Chau, yet there was a woman among them. The able ministers were no more than nine men.

4. "King Wan possessed two of the three parts of the empire, and with those he served the dynasty of Yin. The virtue of the house of Chau may be said to have reached the highest point indeed."

James Legge (1861), Confucian Analects, The Chinese Classics vol. 1 (1861; 2nd ed. 1893) — public domain.

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Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.