853 



CONFUCIUS. 



CONGLETON, LORD. 



354 



might render the people happy; and, after sustaining many other 

 sorrows, he withdrew to the kingdom of Chin, where he lived in great 

 poverty. His doctrines however had taken root, and it was at this 

 time of adversity that his disciples were most numerous. He went 

 again to Loo, his native country, but vainly solicited to be re-employed 

 in the government. 



According to some authorities he enjoyed a few glimpses of royal 

 favour in his latter days, being sought after by the rulers of several 

 elates, and employed in high offices, which matured his knowledge 

 and experience ; but it seems more certain that his rigid principles, 

 and the 6rm uncompromising manner in which he carried them into 

 practice, always made him many enemies. His zeal endangered his 

 life more than once, but he regarde t death with a stoical eye. At 

 length, full of years, if not of honours, he retired from the worH, in 

 company wirh a few of his chosen disciples, to write or complete those 

 works which became the sacred booka of the Chinese, and which have 

 survived twenty-two centuries. He died in his seventy -third year. 

 His sepulchre was raised on the banki of the Soo river, and many of 

 In* disciples, repairing to the spot, deplored the loss of their great 

 master. The envy and hatred of his contemporaries soon passed away. 

 When peace was restored, and the empire amalgamated, his writings, 

 which had largely contributed to that happy issue, were looked upon 

 as of paramount authority in all matters ; and to mutilate, or in any 

 way to alter their sense, was held to be a crime deserving of condigu 

 puni-hinent. L'nfortunately however the obicurity of the language, 

 and tiie difficult involved nature of the written character of the 

 Chinese, rendered involuntary alterations and mistakes of the sense 

 numerous and inevitible. 



Though Confucius was left to end his life in obscurity, the greatest 

 honours and privileges were heaped upon his descendants, who have 

 exi*te<i through sixty-seven or sixty-eight generations, and may be 

 called the only hereditary nobility in China. They flourish in the 

 very district where their great ancestor was born, and in all the revo- 

 lutions that have occurred their privileges have been respected. In 

 the e .rlier part of the 18th century, under the great emperdr Kang-by, 

 the total number of descendants amounted to 11,000 males. In every 

 city, down to thosj of the third rank, styled Hien, there is a temple 

 dedicated to Confucius. The mandarins, all the learned of the land, 

 the emperor himself, are bound to do him service. This service 

 M in burning scented gums, frankincense, tapers of sandal-wood, 

 &c., and in placing fruit, wine, flowers, and other agreeable objects, 

 before a plain tablet, on which is inscribed, "0 Confucius, our revered 

 master, let thy spiritual part descend and be pleaded witu this our 

 respect, which we now humbly offer to thee." Tne ceremony is 

 precisely the same as that which every man is enjoined to observe in 

 the hall of ancestors to hi' parents, &c. 



" It w.i s the great object of Confucius," says a recent writer, "to 

 regulate the manners of the people. He thought outward decorum 

 the true emblem of excellence of heart ; he therefore digested all the 

 various ceremonies into one general code of rites, which was called 

 Le-ke, or Ly-king, &o. In this work every ritual in all the relations 

 of human life is btrictly regulated, eo that a true Chinese is a perfect 

 automaton, put in motion by the regulations of the Ly-kiug. Some of 

 the rites are moot excellent : the duties towards parents, the respect 

 due to superiors, the decorum in the behaviour of common life, &<x, 

 speak highly in favour of Confucius; but his substituting ceremony 

 for simplicity and true politeness is unpardonable. The Ly-king 

 contains many excellent maxims and inculcates morality, but it has 

 come to ug in a mutilated state, with many interpolations." (Qutzlaff, 

 * Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern.') 



In the writing-! of Coufucius the duties of husbands towards their 

 wives were slightly dwelt upon. On the other hand, the duties and 

 implicit submission of children to their parents were extended to the 

 utmost, and most rigidly inculcated. Upon this wide principle of 

 filial obedience the whole of his system, moral and political, is founded. 

 A family is the prototype of his nation ; and, instead of the notions of 

 independence and equality among men, he enforces the principles of 

 dependence and subordination as of children to parents, the younger 

 to the elder. (Dr. Morrison.) By an easy fiction the emperor stands 

 as the father of all his subjects, and is thus entitled to their passive 

 obedience ; and, as Dr. Morrison observes, it is probably (he might say 

 certainly) this feature of his doctrines which has made Confucius such 

 a favourite with all the governments of China, whether of native or 

 Tartar origin, for ao many centuries. At the same time it should be 

 obs rved that this fundamental doctrine has rendered the Chinese 

 people slavish, deceitful, and pusillanimous, and ha* fostered the 

 growth of a national character that cannot be redeemed by gentleness 

 of deportment and orderliness of conduct. 



Confucius was a teacher of morals, but not the founder of a religion. 

 Hia doctrines constitute rather a system of philosophy in the depart- 

 ment of morals and politics than any particular religious faith. 

 (DavU.) Arnauld and otrn r writers have broadly asserted that he did 

 not recognise the existence of a God. (Bayle, ' Pbilos. Diet ,' in article 

 ' Maldonat.') lu hU physics Confucius maintains that "out of nothing 

 there cannot possibly be produced anything ; that material bodies 

 inn t have existed from all eternity; that the cause ('lee,' reason) or 

 principle of things must have had a co-existence with the things them- 

 selves ; that therefore thU cause ii also eternal, infinite, indestructible, 



without limits, omnipotent, and omnipresent ; that the central point 

 of influence (strength) whence this cause principally acts is the blue 

 firmament ('Tien'), whence its emanations spread over the whole 

 universe ; that it is therefore the supreme duty of the prince, in the 

 name of his subjects, to present offerings to Tien, and particularly at 

 the equinoxes ; the one for obtaining a propitious seed-time, and the 

 other a plentiful harvest." He taught his disciples that the human 

 body is composed of two principl-s the one litfht, invisible, and 

 ascending ; the other gross, palpable, and descending : that on the 

 separation of these two principles the lii;ht and spiritual part ascends 

 into the air, whilst the heavy and corporeal part sinks into the earth. 

 The word ' death ' never enters into his philosophy; nor on common 

 occasions is it employed by the Chinese. (Barrow.) When a person 

 dies, they say " he has returned to his family." The body, it was 

 difficult to deny, resolved itself into its primitive elements, and became 

 a part of the universe ; but, according to Confucius, the spirits of the 

 good were permitted to visit their ancient habitations on earth, or such 

 ancestral halls or other places as might be appointed by their chillren 

 and descendants, upon whom, while, they received their homage, they 

 (the dead) had the power of conferring benefactions. Hence arose the 

 indispensable duty of performing sacred rites in the hall or temule of 

 ancestors ; and all such as neglecte.l this duty would be punished after 

 death by their spiritual part being deprived of the privilege of visiting 

 the hall of ancestors, and of the supreme bliss arising from the homage 

 bestowed by descendants. A belief in good and evil genii, and of 

 tutelar spirits presiding over families, houses, towns, and other places, 

 inevitably arose out of this system. It does not appear however that 

 either Confucius or any of his followers attached tbe idea of a personal 

 being or form to the Deity ; nor have the true Confucians ever repre- 

 sented the Great First Cause under any image or personification what- 

 soever. The images and idoli of China belong to other faiths. It 

 was soon found that the notions of Confucius were too abstract and 

 ideal for the mass of his countrymen, who, like the rest of mankind in, 

 nearly all ages and all countries, required something material to fix 

 their attention ami excite their devotion. 



The moral doctrines of Confucius include that capital one, which, 

 however neglected in practice, has obtained in theory the universal 

 assent of mankind; he taught his disciples "to treat others according 

 to the treatment which they themselves would desire t their hands." 

 In his doctrines there is an evident leaning to predestination or 

 fatalism, and to fortuiie-t-Uiu;, or predicting events by the mystical 

 lines of Fo-shee. With all hia defects and omissions, Coufucius was 

 however a most wonderful man. His system, without making any 

 pretension to a divine legation, still continues to prevail throughout 

 the most extensive empire in the world. Some religions may have 

 lasted as long, or longer ; but we believe no philosophic code can 

 claim anything like such a lengthened period of active practical exist- 

 ence. The Tibetan, the Buddhist, and other religions, have divided, 

 and still divide influence with it, but have never overthrown its 

 empire. The superstitious and the vulgar of all classes, from the 

 emperor on the throne to the poor sailor on board the junk, may burn 

 gilt paper and offer sacrifices to wooden idols, practise incantations, 

 and offer up prayers to the " invisible mother of heaven ; " but, at the 

 same time, they all revere the name of Confucius, and the more 

 enlightened pretend to be wholly guided by his merely philosophical 

 code. The body of hia lawa and instructions is still followed, not only 

 by the Chinese, but by Coreans, Cochin-Chinese, and other people, 

 who, taken collectively, are estimated at 400,000,000 of souls. 



The classical or sacred works written and compiled by Confucius 

 and his disciples are nine in number ; that is to say, the 'Four Books' 

 and the ' Five Canonical Books.' The first of the ' Four Books ' is the 

 ' Ta-heo,' or ' The School of Adults;' the second the 'Choong-yoong,' 

 or ' Infallible Medium ; ' the third the ' Luu-yu,' consisting of the 

 conversations and sayings of Confucius, recorded by his disciples, e^d. 

 which, according to Sir J. F. Davis, is " in all respects a complete 

 Chinese 'Boswell ' ;" and the fourth the ' Meng-tse,' which contains the 

 additions and commentary of Meug-tse, or Mencius, as he is called by 

 Europeans, who lived about a century after Confucius. The ' Five 

 Canonical Book,' all said to bo written or compiled by Confucius him- 

 self, are, the ' Shy-king,' or ' Book of Sacred Songs ; ' the ' Shoo king,' 

 which is a history of the deliberations between the ancient sovereigns 

 of China ; the ' Ly-king,' or ' Book of Rites and Ceremonies," which is 

 considered as the foundation of the present state of Chinese manners, 

 and one of the causes of their uniform unchanp;eableness ; and lastly, 

 the ' Chun-tsieu,' which is a history of the philosopher's own times 

 and of those which immediately preceded him. 



(Sir J. F. Davis, The Chinese : a General Description of China and itt 

 Inhabitants, London, 1836 ; Gutzlaff, Sketch of Chinese History, ancient 

 and modern ; Travels of the Jesuit Missionaries ; Bell (of Antermony), 

 Barrow, Staunton, &c ) 



CONGLETON, RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY BROOKE PAR- 

 NELL, LORD, was born 3rd of July 1776, and was the second son of 

 the Ri^ht Honourable Sir John Parnell, Chancellor of the Irish 

 Exchequer ; his mother was Letitia Charlotte, second daughter and 

 co-heir of Sir Arthur Brooke, of Colebrooke, in the county of Ferma- 

 nagh, Bart He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and after 

 leaving the university he spent some time abroad. His elder brother 

 having been born a cripple, and incapable of articulating, the estates 



