This book was an epiphany when I encountered it years ago (glad it's still in print so I can give a copy here and there to special people). Dunno how much Confucius there is behind Pound's translation, but what he writes here is haiku about purpose, vision, honor, decency and integrity.Oh yes, Pound was a lunatic on more than a few counts (most notably, his affiliation with Fascism and and Nazism), but he's still one of the finest English authors of the 20th century.I originally pinned the following quote from this book on Nixon...though it's just as applicable to the current crop of amoral politicians and CEOs:"When the head of state of family thinks first of gouging out an income, he must perforce do it through small men; and even if they are clever at their job, if one employ such inferior characters in state and family business the tilled fields will go rack swamp and ruin and edged calamities will mount up to the full.... This is the meaning of: A state does not profit by profits"