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Well fashioned is the bow adorned with horn ,
And swift is its recoil .
Brothers and relatives by affinity ,
Should not be treated distantly .
When you keep yours at a distance ,
The people all do the same with theirs .
What you teach ,
The people all imitate .
Those brothers who are good ,
Continue to display much generous feeling ;
But between brothers who are not good ,
Their intercourse is marked by troubles .
People who have no conscience ,
Repine against each other , each one holding his own point of view ;
One gets a place , and shows no humility —
Till they all come to ruin .
An old horse , notwithstanding , thinks himself a colt ,
And has no regard to the future .
It is like craving a superabundance of food ,
And an excess of drink .
Do not teach a monkey to climb trees ;—
[You act] like adding mud to one in the mud .
If the sovereign have good ways ,
The small people will accord with them .
The snow may have fallen abundantly ,
But when it feels the sun's heat , it dissolves .
You are not willing to discountenance [those parties] ,
And so they become [more] troublesome and arrogant .
The snow may have fallen largely ,
But when it feels the sun's heat , it flows away .
They become like the Man or the Mao ;—
This is what make me sad .
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