' TEE ETHICS OF CONFUCIUS. 97 



honoring tlie dead lias created the impression among foreigners 

 that the Chinese worship their dead. "Ancestral worship" is 

 commonly spoken of as an established fact ; but it is entirely a 

 mistake. They do not worship their dead in any legitimate sense. 

 The ceremony of restoring the graves is not unlike in nature and 

 answers much the same sentiment as our annual Ceremony of dec- 

 orating the graves of our soldier dead. We strew flowers upon 

 graves and construct monuments in marble or bronze over the 

 tombs of our distinguished dead, and yet we do not worship them. 

 If a Chinaman, witnessing these observances with us^ wrote to 

 his friends that the Americans worship their dead and erect idols 

 over their tombs, it would be a similar error to that we perpetuate 

 in our books regarding the Chinese ceremonies in honor of their 

 dead. Ancestral tablets are hung upon the walls of Chinese 

 homes much as painted portraits are upon ours, not to be wor- 

 shiped, but to keep in perpetual memory the departed. The 

 desire to be thus honored after death is why Chinamen are so 

 anxious to leave sons. It is also why those dying in foreign lands 

 are so careful to have their bones taken back to their native homes. 

 They wish to be remembered when they are gone, and only sons — 

 dutiful sons — will see that the graves of their fathers are kept 

 green. It is the most striking feature of Chinese character — 

 their great respect for their fathers. In all business enterprises, 

 in poverty or in wealth, the Chinese look to their fathers for 

 counsel and example. This amounts with them to a positive pas- 

 sion, and is the greatest obstacle in the way of the introduction 

 of modern methods and appliances. What was good enough for 

 their forefathers is good enough for them. If anything new is 

 offered, they dismiss it with the belief that, if it had been neces- 

 sary, their fathers would have had it. They are not an inventive 

 people, and use to-day the same pattern of plow and hand-made 

 goods of all sorts they did a thousand years ago. The same cut 

 of coat, build of boats, architecture, everything remains now as it 

 was at the time when history with them first began. Filial affec- 

 tion is deep-rooted in their natures, and no one questions the pro- 

 priety of it. Here, at least, Kung has impressed himself upon his 

 people. 



Fourth Relation ; Brother to Brother. — The patriarchal 

 plan of family government leaves but little scope for individuality 

 in the members of a household. Estates are entailed from one 

 generation to another intact. All the members of a family par- 

 take of the resources in common, and are supposed to perform 

 their share of the labor. But they own nothing in severalty. 

 This removes the most fruitful source of fratricidal conflict. No 

 quarreling over division of property, and no cutting off of one in 

 favor of another heir at law, for all remain in equal possession of 



VOL. XL. — 9 



