When T`ien-tzŭ had been minister three years he went back
home to rest. He had got a hundred i of gold,[2]
which he presented
to his mother. His mother said, "Where did you get this gold?"
He replied, "It is the salary I received as an official."
His mother said, "Were you three years a minister without
[having to] eat? I do not care for this way of holding office. The
filial son, in serving his parents, makes every effort to be honest,
and does not allow anything improper to come into his house.
[To be disloyal as a minister] is to be unfilial as a son.[3]
May you
get rid of it."
T`ien-tzŭ was ashamed and left. He went to the court and
returned the gold. He resigned and asked to be put in prison.
The king,[4]
considering the mother to be a worthy woman and
pleased with her sense of what was proper (i), pardoned[5]
T`ientzŭ's
fault and ordered him to come back as minister. The gold
he gave to the mother.
The Ode says,[6]
Right it is that your descendants
Should be as in unbroken strings.
It speaks of a worthy mother making her son worthy.
[7]