The Chinese Classics Part 4

6 ??.

7 ??.

8 ??, ????. See, on the length of the ancient foot, Ana. VIII. vi, but the point needs a more sifting investigation than it has yet received.

birth to Confucius, who received the name of Ch'iu, and was subsequently styled Chung-ni [1]. The event happened on the twenty-first day of the tenth month of the twenty-first year of the duke Hsiang, of Lu, being the twentieth year of the emperor Ling, B.C. 552 [2]. The birth-place was in the district of Tsau [3], of which Heh was the governor. It was somewhere within the limits of the present department of Yen-chau in Shan-tung, but the honour of being the exact spot is claimed for two places in two different districts of the department.

The notices which we have of Confucius's early years are very scanty. When he was in his third year his father died. It is related of him, that as a boy he used to play at the arrangement of 1 ??, ???. The legends say that Chang-tsai fearing lest she should not have a son, in consequence of her husband's age, privately ascended the Ni-ch'iu hill to pray for the boon, and that when she had obtained it, she commemorated the fact in the names -- Ch'iu and Chung-ni. But the cripple, Mang-p'i, had previous been styled Po-ni. There was some reason, previous to Confucius's birth, for using the term ni in the family. As might be expected, the birth of the sage is surrounded with many prodigious occurrences. One account is, that the husband and wife prayed together for a son in a dell of mount Ni. As Chang-tsai went up the hill, the leaves of the trees and plants all erected themselves, and bent downwards on her return. That night she dreamt the black Ti appeared, and said to her, 'You shall have a son, a sage, and you must bring him forth in a hollow mulberry tree.' One day during her pregnancy, she fell into a dreamy state, and saw five old men in the hall, who called themselves the essences of the five planets, and led an animal which looked like a small cow with one horn, and was covered with scales like a dragon. This creature knelt before Chang-tsai, and cast forth from its mouth a slip of jade, on which was the inscription,-- 'The son of the essence of water shall succeed to the decaying Chau, and be a throneless king.' Chang-tsai tied a piece of embroidered ribbon about its horn, and the vision disappeared. When Heh was told of it, he said, 'The creature must be the Ch'i-lin.' As her time drew near, Chang-tsai asked her husband if there was any place in the neighborhood called 'the hollow mulberry tree.' He told her there was a dry cave in the south hill, which went by that name. Then she said, 'I will go and be confined there.' Her husband was surprised, but when made acquainted with her former dream, he made the necessary arrangements. On the night when the child was born, two dragons came and kept watch on the left and right of the hill, and two spirit-ladies appeared in the air, pouring out fragrant odors, as if to bathe Chang-tsai; and as soon as the birth took place, a spring of clear warm water bubbled up from the floor of the cave, which dried up again when the child had been washed in it. The child was of an extraordinary appearance; with a mouth like the sea, ox lips, a dragon's back, &c. &c. On the top of his head was a remarkable formation, in consequence of which he was named Ch'iu, &c. See the ???, Bk. lxxviii.--Sze-ma Ch'ien seems to make Confucius to have been illegitimate, saying that Heh and Miss Yen cohabited in the wilderness (?? ). Chiang Yung says that the phrase has reference simply to the disparity of their ages.

2 Sze-ma Ch'ien says that Confucius was born in the twenty-second year of duke Hsiang, B.C. 550. He is followed by Chu Hsi in the short sketch of Confucius's life prefixed to the Lun Yu, and by 'The Annals of the Empire' (?????), published with imperial sanction in the reign of Chia-ch'ing. (To this latter work I have generally referred for my dates.) The year a.s.signed in the text above rests on the authority of Ku-liang and Kung- yang, the two commentators on the Ch'un-Ch'iu. With regard to the month, however, the tenth is that a.s.signed by Ku-liang, while Kung-yang names the eleventh.

3 Tsau is written ?, ?, ?, and ?.

sacrificial vessels, and at postures of ceremony. Of his schooling we have no reliable account. There is a legend, indeed, that at seven he went to school to Yen P'ing-chung [1], but it must be rejected as P'ing-chung belonged to the State of Ch'i. He tells us himself that at fifteen he bent his mind to learning [2]; but the condition of the family was one of poverty. At a subsequent period, when people were astonished at the variety of his knowledge, he explained it by saying, 'When I was young, my condition was low, and therefore I acquired my ability in many things; but they were mean matters [3].'

When he was nineteen, he married a lady from the State of Sung, of the Chien-kwan family [4], and in the following year his son Li was born. On the occasion of this event, the duke Chao sent him a present of a couple of carp. It was to signify his sense of his prince's favour, that he called his son Li (The Carp), and afterwards gave him the designation of Po-yu [5] (Fish Primus). No mention is made of the birth of any other children, though we know, from Ana. V. i, that he had at least one daughter. We know also, from an inscription on her grave, that he had one other daughter, who died when she was quite young. The fact of the duke of Lu's sending him a gift on the occasion of Li's birth, shows that he was not unknown, but was already commanding public attention and the respect of the great.

It was about this time, probably in the year after his marriage, that Confucius took his first public employment, as keeper of the stores of grain [6], and in the following year he was put in charge of the public fields and lands [7]. Mencius adduces these employments in ill.u.s.tration of his doctrine that the superior man may at times take office on account of his poverty, but must confine himself in such a case to places of small emolument, and aim at nothing but the discharge of their humble duties. According to him. Confucius, as keeper of stores, said, 'My calculations must all be right:-- that is all I have to care about;' and when in charge of the public fields, he said, 'The oxen and sheep must be fat and strong and 1 ???.

2 Ana. II. iv.

3 Ana. IX. vi.

4 ??????.

5 ???, ????.

6 ???. This is Mencius's account. Sze-ma Ch'ien says ?????, but his subsequent words ??? show that the office was the same.

7 Mencius calls this office ??, while Sze-ma Ch'ien says ????.

superior:-- that is all I have to care about [1].' It does not appear whether these offices were held by Confucius in the direct employment of the State, or as a dependent of the Chi family in whose jurisdiction he lived. The present of the carp from the duke may incline us to suppose the former.

3. In his twenty-second year, Confucius commenced his labors as a public teacher, and his house became a resort for young and inquiring spirits, who wished to learn the doctrines of antiquity.

[Sidebar] Commencement of his labors as a teacher. The death of his mother. B.C. 531-527.

However small the fee his pupils were able to afford, he never refused his instructions [2]. All that he required, was an ardent desire for improvement, and some degree of capacity. 'I do not open up the truth,' he said, 'to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson [3].'

His mother died in the year B.C. 527, and he resolved that her body should lie in the same grave with that of his father, and that their common resting-place should be in Fang, the first home of the K'ung in Lu. But here a difficulty presented itself. His father's coffin had been for twenty years where it had first been deposited, off the road of The Five Fathers, in the vicinity of Tsau:-- would it be right in him to move it? He was relieved from this perplexity by an old woman of the neighborhood, who told him that the coffin had only just been put into the ground, as a temporary arrangement, and not regularly buried. On learning this, he carried his purpose into execution. Both coffins were conveyed to Fang, and put in the ground together, with no intervening s.p.a.ce between them, as was the custom in some States. And now came a new perplexity. He said to himself, 'In old times, they had graves, but raised no tumulus over them. But I am a man, who belongs equally to the north and the south, the east and the west. I must have something by which I can remember the place.' Accordingly he raised a mound, four feet high, over the grave, and returned home, leaving a party of his disciples to see everything properly completed. In the meantime there came on a heavy storm of rain, and it was a considerable time before the disciples joined him. 'What makes you so late?' he asked. 'The grave in Fang fell down,' they said. He made no reply, and they repeated their 1 Mencius, V. Pt. II. v. 4.

2 Ana. VII. vii.

3 Ana. VII. viii.

answer three times, when he burst into tears, and said, 'Ah! they did not make their graves so in antiquity [1].' 'Confucius mourned for his mother the regular period of three years,-- three years nominally, but in fact only twenty-seven months. Five days after the mourning was expired, he played on his lute, but could not sing. It required other five days before he could accompany an instrument with his voice [2].

Some writers have represented Confucius as teaching his disciples important lessons from the manner in which he buried his mother, and having a design to correct irregularities in the ordinary funeral ceremonies of the time. These things are altogether 'without book.' We simply have a dutiful son paying the last tribute of affection to a good parent. In one point he departs from the ancient practice, raising a mound over the grave, and when the fresh earth gives way from a sudden rain, he is moved to tears, and seems to regret his innovation. This sets Confucius vividly before us,-- a man of the past as much as of the present, whose own natural feelings were liable to be hampered in their development by the traditions of antiquity which he considered sacred. It is important, however, to observe the reason which he gave for rearing the mound. He had in it a presentiment of much of his future course. He was 'a man of the north, the south, the east, and the west.' He might not confine himself to any one State. He would travel, and his way might be directed to some 'wise ruler,' whom his counsels would conduct to a benevolent sway that would break forth on every side till it transformed the empire.

4. When the mourning for his mother was over, Confucius remained in Lu, but in what special capacity we do not know. Probably he continued to encourage the resort of [Sidebar] He learns music; visits the court of Chau; and returns to Lu. B.C. 527-517.

inquirers to whom he communicated instruction, and pursued his own researches into the history, literature, and inst.i.tutions of the empire. In the year B.C. 525, the chief of the small State of T'an [3], made his appearance at the court of Lu, and discoursed in a wonderful manner, at a feast given to him by the duke, about the names which the most ancient sovereigns, from Hw.a.n.g-ti downwards, gave to their 1 Li Chi, II. Sect I. i. 10; Sect. II. iii. 30; Pt. I. i. 6. See also the discussion of those pa.s.sages in Chiang Yung's 'Life of Confucius.'

2 Li Chi, II. Sect. I. i. 23.

3 See the Ch'un Ch'iu, under the seventh year of duke Chao,-- ?, ???? .

ministers. The sacrifices to the emperor Shao-hao, the next in descent from Hw.a.n.g-ti, were maintained in T'an, so that the chief fancied that he knew all about the abstruse subject on which he discoursed. Confucius, hearing about the matter, waited on the visitor, and learned from him all that he had to communicate [1].

To the year B.C. 525, when Confucius was twenty-nine years old, is referred his studying music under a famous master of the name of Hsiang [2]. He was approaching his thirtieth year when, as he tells us, 'he stood [3]' firm, that is, in his convictions on the subjects of learning to which he had bent his mind fifteen years before. Five years more, however, were still to pa.s.s by, before the antic.i.p.ation mentioned in the conclusion of the last paragraph began to receive its fulfillment [4], though we may conclude from the way in which it was brought about that he was growing all the time in the estimation of the thinking minds in his native State.

In the twenty-fourth year of duke Chao, B.C. 518, one of the princ.i.p.al ministers of Lu, known by the name of Mang Hsi, died. Seventeen years before, he had painfully felt his ignorance of ceremonial observances, and had made it his subsequent business to make himself acquainted with them. On his deathbed, he addressed his chief officer, saying, 'A knowledge of propriety is the stem of a man. Without it he has no means of standing firm. I have heard that there is one K'ung Ch'iu, who is thoroughly versed in it. He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were Fu-fu Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K'ao-fu, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Heh has observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K'ung Ch'iu. After my death, you must 1 This rests on the respectable authority of Tso Ch'iu-ming's annotations on the Ch'un Ch'iu, but I must consider it apocryphal. The legend-writers have fas.h.i.+oned a journey to T'an. The slightest historical intimation becomes a text with them, on which they enlarge to the glory of the sage. Amiot has reproduced and expanded their romancings, and others, such as Pauthier (Chine, pp. 121-183) and Thornton (History of China, vol. i. pp. 151-215), have followed in his wake.

2 ??. See the 'Narratives of the School,' ??, art ???; but the account there given is not more credible than the chief of T'an's expositions.

3 Ana. II. iv.

4 The journey to Chau is placed by Sze-ma Ch'ien before Confucius's holding of his first official employments, and Chu Hsi and most other writers follow him. It is a great error, and arisen from a misunderstanding of the pa.s.sage from the ??? upon the subject.

tell Ho-chi to go and study proprieties under him [1].' In consequence of this charge, Ho-chi [2], Mang Hsi's son, who appears in the a.n.a.lects under the name of Mang I [3], and a brother, or perhaps on]y a near relative, named Nan-kung Chang-shu [4], became disciples of Confucius. Their wealth and standing in the State gave him a position which he had not had before, and he told Chang-shu of a wish which he had to visit the court of Chau, and especially to confer on the subject of ceremonies and music with Lao Tan. Chang-shu represented the matter to the duke Ch'ao, who put a carriage and a pair of horses at Confucius's disposal for the expedition [5].

At this time the court of Chau was in the city of Lo [6]. in the present department of Ho-nan of the province of the same name. The reigning sovereign is known by the t.i.tle of Chang [7], but the sovereignty was little more than nominal. The state of China was then a.n.a.logous to that of one of the European kingdoms during the prevalence of the feudal system. At the commencement of the dynasty, the various states of the kingdom had been a.s.signed to the relatives and adherents of the reigning family. There were thirteen princ.i.p.alities of greater note, and a large number of smaller dependencies. During the vigorous youth of the dynasty, the sovereign or lord paramount exercised an effective control over the various chiefs, but with the lapse of time there came weakness and decay. The chiefs -- corresponding somewhat to the European dukes, earls, marquises, barons, &c. -- quarrelled and warred among themselves, and the stronger among them barely acknowledged their subjection to the sovereign. A similar condition of things prevailed in each particular State. There there [sic] were hereditary ministerial families, who were continually encroaching on the authority of their rulers, and the heads of those families again were frequently hard pressed by their inferior officers. Such was the state of China in Confucius's time. The reader must have it clearly before him, if he would understand the position of the sage, and the reforms which, we shall find, it was subsequently his object to introduce.

Arrived at Chau, he had no intercourse with the court or any of 1 See ???, ????.

2 ??.

3 ???.

4 ????.

5 The ?? makes Chang-shu accompany Confucius to Chau. It is difficult to understand this, if Chang-shu were really a son of Mang Hsi who had died that year.

6 ?.

7 ?? (B.C. 519-475) the princ.i.p.al ministers. He was there not as a politician, but as an inquirer about the ceremonies and maxims of the founders of the existing dynasty. Lao Tan [1], whom he had wished to see, generally acknowledged as the founder of the Taoists, or Rationalistic sect (so called), which has maintained its ground in opposition to the followers of Confucius, was then a curator of the royal library. They met and freely interchanged their views, but no reliable account of their conversations has been preserved. In the fifth Book of the Li Chi, which is headed 'The philosopher Tsang asked,' Confucius refers four times to the views of Lao-tsze on certain points of funeral ceremonies, and in the 'Narratives of the School,' Book XXIV, he tells Chi K'ang what he had heard from him about 'The Five Tis,' but we may hope their conversation turned also on more important subjects. Sze-ma Ch'ien, favourable to Lao-tsze, makes him lecture his visitor in the following style:-- 'Those whom you talk about are dead, and their bones are moldered to dust; only their words remain. When the superior man gets his time, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled. I have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich treasures deeply stored, appears as if he were poor, and that the superior man whose virtue is complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will [2]. These are of no advantage to you. This is all which I have to tell you.' On the other hand, Confucius is made to say to his disciples, 'I know how birds can fly, how fishes can swim, and how animals can run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the flyer may be shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today I have seen Lao-tsze, and can only compare him to the dragon [3].'

While at Lo, Confucius walked over the grounds set apart for the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth; inspected the pattern of the Hall of Light, built to give audience in to the princes of the kingdom; and examined all the arrangements of the ancestral temple and the court. From the whole he received a profound 1 According to Sze-ma Ch'ien, Tan was the posthumous epithet of this individual, whose surname was Li (?), name R (?), and designation Po-yang (??).

2 ?????.

3 See the ??, ????, and compare the remarks attributed to Lao-tsze in the account of the K'ung family near the beginning.

impression. 'Now,' said he with a sigh, 'I know the sage wisdom of the duke of Chau, and how the House of Chau attained to the royal sway [1].' On the walls of the Hall of Light were paintings of the ancient sovereigns from Yao and Shun downwards, their characters appearing in the representations of them, and words of praise or warning being appended. There was also a picture of the duke of Chau sitting with his infant nephew, the king Ch'ang, upon his knees, to give audience to all the princes. Confucius surveyed the scene with silent delight, and then said to his followers, 'Here you see how Chau became so great. As we use a gla.s.s to examine the forms of things, so must we study antiquity in order to understand the present time [2].' In the hall of the ancestral temple, there was a metal statue of a man with three clasps upon his mouth, and his back covered over with an enjoyable homily on the duty of keeping a watch upon the lips. Confucius turned to his disciples and said, 'Observe it, my children. These words are true, and commend themselves to our feelings [3].'

About music he made inquiries at Ch'ang Hung, to whom the following remarks are attributed:-- 'I have observed about Chung-ni many marks of a sage. He has river eyes and a dragon forehead,-- the very characteristics of Hw.a.n.g-ti. His arms are long, his back is like a tortoise, and he is nine feet six inches in height,-- the very semblance of T'ang the Completer. When he speaks, he praises the ancient kings. He moves along the path of humility and courtesy. He has heard of every subject, and retains with a strong memory. His knowledge of things seems inexhaustible.-- Have we not in him the rising of a sage [4]?'

I have given these notices of Confucius at the court of Chau, more as being the only ones I could find, than because I put much faith in them. He did not remain there long, but returned the same year to Lu, and continued his work of teaching. His fame was greatly increased; disciples came to him from different parts, till their number amounted to three thousand. Several of those who have come down to us as the most distinguished among his followers, however, were yet unborn, and the statement just given may be considered as an exaggeration. We are not to conceive of the disciples as forming a community, and living together. Parties 1 2 3 See the ??, ??, art. ??.

4 Quoted by Chiang Yung from the 'Narratives of the School.'

of them may have done so. We shall find Confucius hereafter always moving amid a company of admiring pupils; but the greater number must have had their proper avocations and ways of living, and would only resort to the Master, when they wished specially to ask his counsel or to learn of him.

5. In the year succeeding the return to Lu, that State fell into great confusion. There were three Families in it, all connected irregularly with the ducal House, which had long kept the rulers in a condition of dependency. They appear frequently in the a.n.a.lects as the Chi clan, the Shu, and the Mang; and while Confucius freely spoke of their [Sidebar] He withdraws to Chi and returns to Lu the following year. B.C. 515, 516.

usurpations [1], he was a sort of dependent of the Chi family, and appears in frequent communication with members of all the three. In the year B.C. 517, the duke Chao came to open hostilities with them, and being worsted, fled into Ch'i, the State adjoining Lu on the north. Thither Confucius also repaired, that he might avoid the prevailing disorder of his native State. Ch'i was then under the government of a ruler (in rank a marquis, but historically called duke) , afterwards styled Ching [2], who 'had a thousand teams, each of four horses, but on the day of his death the people did not praise him for a single virtue [3].' His chief minister, however, was Yen Ying [4], a man of considerable ability and worth. At his court the music of the ancient sage-emperor, Shun, originally brought to Ch'i from the State of Ch'an [5], was still preserved.

According to the 'Narratives of the School,' an incident occurred on the way to Ch'i, which I may transfer to these pages as a good specimen of the way in which Confucius turned occurring matters to account, in his intercourse with his disciples. As he was pa.s.sing by the side of the Tai mountain, there was a woman weeping and wailing by a grave. Confucius bent forward in his carriage, and after listening to her for some time, sent Tsze-lu to ask the cause of her grief. 'You weep, as if you had experienced sorrow upon sorrow,' said Tsze-lu. The woman replied, 'It is so. My husband's father was killed here by a tiger, and my husband also; and now my son has met the same fate.' Confucius asked her why she did not remove from the place, and on her answering,' There is here no oppressive government,' he turned to his disciples, and said, 'My 1 See a.n.a.lects, III. i. ii, et al.

2 ??.

3 Ana. XVI. xii.

4 ??. This is the same who was afterwards styled ???.

5 ?.

children, remember this. Oppressive government is fiercer than a tiger [1].'

As soon as he crossed the border from Lu, we are told he discovered from the gait and manners of a boy, whom he saw carrying a pitcher, the influence of the sages' music, and told the driver of his carriage to hurry on to the capital [2]. Arrived there, he heard the strain, and was so ravished with it, that for three months he did not know the taste of flesh. 'I did not think,' he said, 'that music could have been made so excellent as this [3].' The duke Ching was pleased with the conferences which he had with him [4], and proposed to a.s.sign to him the town of Lin-ch'iu, from the revenues of which he might derive a sufficient support; but Confucius refused the gift, and said to his disciples, 'A superior man will only receive reward for services which he has done. I have given advice to the duke Ching, but he has not yet obeyed it, and now he would endow me with this place! Very far is he from understanding me [5]!'

On one occasion the duke asked about government, and received the characteristic reply, 'There is government when the ruler is ruler, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son [6].' I say that the reply is characteristic. Once, when Tsze-lu asked him what he would consider the first thing to be done if entrusted with the government of a State, Confucius answered, 'What is necessary is to rectify names [7].' The disciple thought the reply wide of the mark, but it was substantially the same with what he said to the marquis Ching. There is a sufficient foundation in nature for government in the several relations of society, and if those be maintained and developed according to their relative significancy, it is sure to obtain. This was a first principle in the political ethics of Confucius.

Another day the duke got to a similar inquiry the reply that the art of government lay in an economical use of the revenues; and being pleased, he resumed his purpose of retaining the philosopher in his State, and proposed to a.s.sign to him the fields of Ni-ch'i. His 1 See the ??, ??, art. ???. I have translated, however, from the Li Chi, II. Sect. II. iii. 10, where the same incident is given, with some variations, and without saying when or where it occurred.

2 See the ??, ???, p. 13.

3 Ana. VII. xiii.

4 Some of these are related in the 'Narratives of the School;'-- about the burning of the ancestral shrine of the sovereign ?, and a one-footed bird which appeared hopping and flapping its wings in Ch'i. They are plainly fabulous, though quoted in proof of Confucius's sage wisdom. This reference to them is more than enough.

5 ??, ??, ??.

6 Ana. XII. xi.

7 Ana. XIII. iii.

chief minister Yen Ying dissuaded him from the purpose, saying, 'Those scholars are impracticable, and cannot be imitated. They are haughty and conceited of their own views, so that they will not be content in inferior positions. They set a high value on all funeral ceremonies, give way to their grief, and will waste their property on great burials, so that they would only be injurious to the common manners. This Mr. K'ung has a thousand peculiarities. It would take generations to exhaust all that he knows about the ceremonies of going up and going down. This is not the time to examine into his rules of propriety. If you, prince, wish to employ him to change the customs of Ch'i, you will not be making the people your primary consideration [1].'

I had rather believe that these were not the words of Yen Ying, but they must represent pretty correctly the sentiments of many of the statesmen of the time about Confucius. The duke of Ch'i got tired ere long of having such a monitor about him, and observed. 'I cannot treat him as I would the chief of the Chi family. I will treat him in a way between that accorded to the chief of the Chi, and that given to the chief of the Mang family.' Finally he said, 'I am old; I cannot use his doctrines [2].' These observations were made directly to Confucius, or came to his hearing [3]. It was not consistent with his self-respect to remain longer in Ch'i, and he returned to Lu [4].

6. Returned to Lu, he remained for the long period of about fifteen years without being engaged in any official employment. It [Sidebar] He remains without office in Lu, B.C. 516-501.

was a time indeed of great disorder. The duke Chao continued a refugee in Ch'i, the government being in the hands of the great Families, up to his death in B.C. 510, on which event the rightful heir was set aside, and another member of the ducal House, known to us by the t.i.tle of Ting [5], subst.i.tuted in his place. The ruling authority of the princ.i.p.ality became thus still more enfeebled than it had been before, and, on the other hand, the chiefs of the Chi, the Shu, and the Mang, could hardly keep their ground against their own officers. Of those latter, the two most conspicuous were Yang Hu [6], called also Yang Ho [7], and 1 See the ??, ????, p. 2.

2 Ana. XVIII. iii 3 Sze-ma Ch'ien makes the first observation to have been addressed directly to Confucius.

4 According to the above account Confucius was only once, and for a portion of two years, in Ch'i. For the refutation of contrary accounts, see Chiang Yung's Life of the Sage.

5 ??.

6 ??.

7 ??.

Kung-shan Fu-zao [1]. At one time Chi Hwan, the most powerful of the chiefs, was kept a prisoner by Yang Hu, and was obliged to make terms with him in order to obtain his liberation. Confucius would give his countenance to none, as he disapproved of all, and he studiously kept aloof from them. Of how he comported himself among them we have a specimen in the incident related in the a.n.a.lects, XVII. i.-- 'Yang Ho wished to see Confucius, but Confucius would not go to see him. On this, he sent a present of a pig to Confucius, who, having chosen a time when Ho was not at home, went to pay his respects for the gift. He met him, however, on the way. "Come, let me speak with you," said the officer. "Can he be called benevolent, who keeps his jewel in his bosom, and leaves his country to confusion?" Confucius replied, "No." "Can he be called wise, who is anxious to be engaged in public employment, and yet is constantly losing the opportunity of being so?" Confucius again said, "No." The other added, "The days and months are pa.s.sing away; the years do not wait for us." Confucius said, "Right; I will go into office."' Chinese writers are eloquent in their praises of the sage for the combination of propriety, complaisance and firmness, which they see in his behavior in this matter. To myself there seems nothing remarkable in it but a somewhat questionable dexterity. But it was well for the fame of Confucius that his time was not occupied during those years with official services. He turned them to better account, prosecuting his researches into the poetry, history, ceremonies, and music of the nation. Many disciples continued to resort to him, and the legendary writers tell us how he employed their services in digesting the results of his studies. I must repeat, however, that several of them, whose names are most famous, such as Tsang Shan, were as yet children, and Min Sun [2] was not born till B.C. 500.

To this period we must refer the almost single instance which we have of the manner of Confucius's intercourse with his son Li. 'Have you heard any lessons from your father different from what we have all heard?' asked one of the disciples once of Li. 'No,' said Li. 'He was standing alone once, when I was pa.s.sing through the court below with hasty steps, and said to me, "Have you learned the Odes?" On my replying, "Not yet," he added, "If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse with." Another day, 1 ????(??, ?).

2 ??.

in the same place and the same way, he said to me, "Have you read the rules of Propriety?" On my replying, "Not yet," he added, "If you do not learn the rules of Propriety, your character cannot be established." I have heard only these two things from him.' The disciple was delighted and observed, 'I asked one thing, and I have got three things. I have heard about the Odes. I have heard about the rules of Propriety. I have also heard that the superior man maintains a distant reserve towards his son [1].'

I can easily believe that this distant reserve was the rule which Confucius followed generally in his treatment of his son. A stern dignity is the quality which a father has to maintain upon his system. It is not to be without the element of kindness, but that must never go beyond the line of propriety. There is too little room left for the play and development of natural affection.

The divorce of his wife must also have taken place during these years, if it ever took place at all, which is a disputed point. The curious reader will find the question discussed in the notes on the second Book of the Li Chi. The evidence inclines, I think, against the supposition that Confucius did put his wife away. When she died, at a period subsequent to the present, Li kept on weeping aloud for her after the period for such a demonstration of grief had expired, when Confucius sent a message to him that his sorrow must be subdued, and the obedient son dried his tears [2]. We are glad to know that on one occasion the death of his favourite disciple, Yen Hui -- the tears of Confucius himself would flow over and above the measure of propriety [3].

7. We come to the short period of Confucius's official life. In the [Sidebar] He holds office. B.C. 500-496.

year B.C. 501, things had come to a head between the chiefs of the three Families and their ministers, and had resulted in the defeat of the latter. In that year the resources of Yang Hu were exhausted, and he fled into Ch'i, so that the State was delivered from its greatest troubler, and the way was made more clear for Confucius to go into office, should an opportunity occur. It soon presented itself. Towards the end of that year he was made chief magistrate of the town of Chung-tu [4].

1 Ana. XVI. xiii.

2 See the Li Chi, II. Pt. I. i. 27.

3 Ana. XI. ix.

4 ???. Amiot says this was 'la ville meme ou le Souverain tenoit sa Cour' (Vie de Confucius, p. 147). He is followed of course by Thornton and Pauthier. My reading has not shown me that such was the case. In the notes to K'ang-hsi's edition of the 'Five Ching,' Li Chi, II Sect. I. iii. 4, it is simply said-- 'Chung-tu,-- the name of a town of Lu. It afterwards belonged to Ch'i when it was called Ping-lu (??).'

Just before he received this appointment, a circ.u.mstance occurred of which we do not well know what to make. When Yang-hu fled into Ch'i, Kung-shan Fu-zao, who had been confederate with him, continued to maintain an att.i.tude of rebellion, and held the city of Pi against the Chi family. Thence he sent a message to Confucius inviting him to join him, and the Sage seemed so inclined to go that his disciple Tsze-lu remonstrated with him, saying, 'Indeed you cannot go! why must you think of going to see Kung-shan?' Confucius replied, 'Can it be without some reason that he has invited me? If any one employ me, may I not make an eastern Chau [1]?'

The upshot, however, was that he did not go, and I cannot suppose that he had ever any serious intention of doing so. Amid the general gravity of his intercourse with his followers, there gleam out a few instances of quiet pleasantry, when he amused himself by playing with their notions about him. This was probably one of them.

As magistrate of Chung-tu he produced a marvellous reformation of the manners of the people in a short time. According to the 'Narratives of the School,' he enacted rules for the nouris.h.i.+ng of the living and all observances to the dead. Different food was a.s.signed to the old and the young, and different burdens to the strong and the weak. Males and females kept apart from each other in the streets. A thing dropped on the road was not picked up. There was no fraudulent carving of vessels. Inner coffins were made four inches thick, and the outer ones five. Graves were made on the high grounds, no mounds being raised over them, and no trees planted about them. Within twelve months, the princes of the other States all wished to imitate his style of administration [2].

The duke Ting, surprised at what he saw, asked whether his rules could be employed to govern a whole State, and Confucius told him that they might be applied to the whole kingdom. On this the duke appointed him a.s.sistant-superintendent of Works [3], in which capacity he surveyed the lands of the State, and made many improvements in agriculture. From this he was quickly made minister of Crime [4], and the appointment was enough to put an end to crime. There was no necessity to put the penal laws in execution. No offenders showed themselves [5].

1 Ana. XVII. v.

2 ??, Bk. I.

3 ??. This office, however, was held by the chief of the Mang Family. We must understand that Confucius was only an a.s.sistant to him, or perhaps acted for him.

4 ???.

5 ??, Bk. I.

These indiscriminating eulogies are of little value. One incident, related in the annotations of Tso-s.h.i.+h on the Ch'un-Ch'iu [1], commends itself at once to our belief, as in harmony with Confucius's character. The chief of the Chi, pursuing with his enmity the duke Chao, even after his death, had placed his grave apart from the graves of his predecessors; and Confucius surrounded the ducal cemetery with a ditch so as to include the solitary resting-place, boldly telling the chief that he did it to hide his disloyalty [2]. But he signalized himself most of all in B.C. 500, by his behavior at an interview between the dukes of Lu and Ch'i, at a place called s.h.i.+h-ch'i [3], and Chia-ku [4], in the present district of Lai-wu, in the department of T'ai-an [5]. Confucius was present as master of ceremonies on the part of Lu, and the meeting was professedly pacific. The two princes were to form a covenant of alliance. The princ.i.p.al officer on the part of Ch'i, however, despising Confucius as 'a man of ceremonies, without courage,' had advised his sovereign to make the duke of Lu a prisoner, and for this purpose a band of the half-savage original inhabitants of the place advanced with weapons to the stage where the two dukes were met. Confucius understood the scheme, and said to the opposite party, 'Our two princes are met for a pacific object. For you to bring a band of savage va.s.sals to disturb the meeting with their weapons, is not the way in which Ch'i can expect to give law to the princes of the kingdom. These barbarians have nothing to do with our Great Flowery land. Such va.s.sals may not interfere with our covenant. Weapons are out of place at such a meeting. As before the spirits, such conduct is unpropitious. In point of virtue, it is contrary to right. As between man and man, it is not polite.' The duke of Ch'i ordered the disturbers off, but Confucius withdrew, carrying the duke of Lu with him. The business proceeded, notwithstanding, and when the words of the alliance were being read on the part of Ch'i,-- ' So be it to Lu, if it contribute not 300 chariots of war to the help of Ch'i, when its army goes across its borders,' a messenger from Confucius added, 'And so be it to us, if we obey your orders, unless you return to us the fields on the south of the Wan.' At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the prince of Ch'i wanted to give a grand entertainment, but Confucius demonstrated that such a thing would be 1 ??, ????.