CONTENT OF CHINESE EDUCATION 35 



and abounding in sententious dialogues and monologues. It is to 

 Confucius what Boswell's work is to Johnson. From it comes all we 

 really know about the great moralist, contemporary with Ezra, whose 

 mission was to teach duty towards one's fellowmen. The Analects are 

 the pattern of Chinese wisdom literature. 



The last of the ' Four Books/ bearing the name of Mencius (371- 

 288 B.C.), is as large as the other three combined, and constitutes, ac- 

 cording to some critics, the most vital reality in all Chinese literature. 

 Its seven sections record the sayings and doings of a man to whose 

 genius and devotion is due the triumph of Confucianism. Coming to 

 maturity upward of a century after the death of Confucius, he studied 

 under the latter's grandson, K'ung Chi, and though of course profiting 

 greatly by the example and stimulus of the earlier sage, in most 

 respects he displayed an originality, resoluteness and breadth superior 

 to Confucius, and must be ranked as one of the greatest men Asia has 

 produced. He served various native princes as minister in their sev- 

 eral states and spent the last twenty years of his life in teaching and 

 in completing the work which has been such a power in the land. Liv- 

 ing at a time when feudal princes were squabbling over rival systems 

 of federation and imperialism, he strove to inculcate the gentle virtues 

 of the golden age. While his criterion was that of Confucius, his 

 teachings were more practical and dealt rather with man's well-being 

 from the view-point of political economy. His assertion of the re- 

 spective duties and prerogatives of subject and ruler is said to be prior 

 to that of any western writer, and in the Middle Kingdom has always 

 been an incentive and guide in defending the rights of the people 

 against the injustice of rulers, and an encourager to those who have 

 governed justly. His dialogues with the great personages of his time 

 abound with irony and ridicule against vice and oppression. Witness 

 the following example, cited by Williams: 



The king of Wei, one of the turbulent princes of the time, complained to 

 Mencius how ill he succeeded in making his people happy and his kingdom 

 nourishing. "Prince," said the philosopher, "you love war; permit me to 

 draw a comparison from thence; two armies face each other; the charge is 

 sounded, the battle begins, one of the parties is conquered; half of its soldiers 

 have fled a hundred paces, the other half has stopped at fifty. Will the latter 

 have any right to mock at those who have fled further than themselves ? " 



"No," said the king; "they have equally taken flight, and the same dis- 

 grace belongs to both." 



" Prince," says Mencius quickly, " cease then to boast of your efforts as 

 greater than your neighbors'. You have all deserved the same reproach, and 

 not one has a right to take credit more than another." Pursuing then his 

 bitter interrogations, he asked, " Is there a difference, O king ! between killing 

 a man with a club or with a sword ? " " No," said the prince. " Between him 

 who kills with the sword, or destroys by an inhuman tyranny ? " " No," 

 again replied the prince. 



" Well," said Mencius, " your kitchens are burdened with food, your sheds 

 are full of horses, while your subjects, with emaciated faces, are worn with 

 misery, or die of hunger in the middle of the fields or in the deserts. What 



