CONTENT OF CHINESE EDUCATION 33 



planation of their meaning is given. ' The Four Books ' require two 

 years even for a clever scholar, while to include the ' Five Classics ' ex- 

 tends the cheerless task to four or five years even for the cleverest, 

 though a total of seven would perhaps strike the average. During this 

 period of mental daze, the scholar is ' a pig in the woods ' ; his en- 

 trance on study is ' lifting the darkness,' and to teach a beginner is 

 ' to instruct darkness/ Such phrases depict reality. The method of 

 instruction and the characteristics of the teacher are the same as have 

 already been noted. 



The texts which are thus swallowed whole to await a deferred 

 digestion are forever taken as models of correct composition and with 

 their commentaries are regarded as embracing about all there is to 

 know. ' The Four Books ' contain digests of the moralizings of 

 Confucius (551-478 B.C.) as gathered by his disciples, and consist of 

 ' The Great Learning/ ' The Doctrine of the Mean,' ' Confucian 

 Analects' and the 'Words of Mencius' (371-288 B.C.). 



Confucius, the Aristotle of Asia, produced as a self-confessed 

 ' transmitter and not a maker ' a ' system of ethics or of anthropology ' 

 in which man, his relations to family, society, the state and heaven 

 are fully discussed and the attributes and conduct of the i Princely 

 Man ' elaborated in detail. The leading features of the Confucian 

 doctrine are ' subordination to superiors and kind upright dealing with 

 our fellow men.' The foundations of political morality are found in 

 private rectitude. Though containing some exceptionable dogmas, 

 these writings as compared with those of Grecian and Eoman sages 

 are good in their general tendency, and in adaptation to the life of 

 the time eminently practical. The defects and errors of Confucianism 

 are, briefly stated, ' the production of a character which is essentially 

 mundane in spirit, the development of the passive rather than of the 

 active virtues, the suppression of individuality, and the evil effects of 

 neglecting the study of nature.' 



The ' Great Learning,' Ta Hsileh (or ' Learning for Adults,' 2,000 

 words), was, prior to Chii Hsi in. the eleventh century, a section of 

 the ' Book of Kites.' It discusses the duties and privileges of the 

 princely or superior man, and has been styled a ' system of social per- 

 fectionating ' or ' politico-ethical treatise.' Its authorship is un- 

 known, but usually the first of its eleven chapters is attributed to 

 Confucius, while the rest is due to the compilers, expanders and anno- 

 tators through whose hands it has come. The portion supposed to 

 have come directly from the master himself contains the following 

 well-known climax: 



The ancients, desiring to manifest great virtue throughout the empire, 

 began with good government in their own states. For this, it was necessary 

 first to order aright their own families, which in turn was preceded by culti- 



VOL. LXVIII. — 3. 



