412 



CONFUCIUS 



in his fifty-fifth year, he went forth from Lu, nor 

 did he return to it till 485 or 484 B.C. 



During this long period he visited many states, 

 attended always by a company of his disciples. 

 His fame had gone before him, and many of the 

 princes would have received and supported him, 

 but he would not settle where he could not 

 obtain free course in carrying out his principles. 

 Repeatedly he and his companions were in straits, 

 and even in peril of their lives. Once they were 

 assailed by a mob, who mistook him for an officer 

 by whom they had been oppressed. But while the 

 others were alarmed, he calmly said : ' After the 

 death of king Wan, was not the cause of the right 

 way lodged in me ? While Heaven does not wish 

 this cause to perish, what can the people of K'wang 

 do for me ? ' Another time, in somewhat similar 

 circumstances, he said : ' Heaven has produced the 

 virtue that is in me ; what can any rnan do to me ? ' 

 Such was his belief concerning himself and his 

 mission. He never pretended to be anything more 

 than man, but he knew the right way, the way for 

 the individual to perfect himself, and the way for 

 the highest ruler to rule, so as to make men happy 

 and good. One of the princelets through whose 

 territory they passed aslced his disciple Tsze-lu 

 how he would describe the Master, and the disciple 

 gave him no reply. When he told the Master of the 

 question, Confucius said : ' Why did you not tell 

 him that I am a man who in his eager pursuit of 

 knowledge forgets his food, and in the joy of its 

 attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not 

 perceive that old age is coming on !' He was then 

 probably in his sixty-fifth year. 



Duke Ting of Lft died A in 495 B. C. , and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Duke Ai, who in his tenth year 

 sent a message of recall to the sage in Wei. The 

 ruler and his ministers received him respectfully, 

 but he can hardly be said to have re-entered political 

 life. Only a few more years remained to him, 

 during which he is said to have put the finishing 

 hand to his labours on the ancient writings, and 

 been specially assiduous in the study of the Yt- 

 king. He tells us himself that he reformed the 

 music to which the ancient odes were sung, and 

 digested the odes themselves, giving to the pieces 

 in the principal parts of the collection their proper 

 places. He must have occupied himself also with 

 the composition of the only classical work which is 

 assigned to his own pencil the Ch'un Ch'iu, em- 

 bracing the events in the history of Lufrom 722-481 

 B.C. The latest entry in the work is that in 

 Duke Ai's fourteenth year (481 B.C.). He died on 

 the llth day of the 4th month in 479 B.C. 



In the Confucian Analects, or memorabilia com- 

 piled soon after his death from the reminiscences of 

 his disciples, we have abundant information of the 

 Master's Sayings and Doings, and they can be 

 added to from the supplements to the Ch'un Ch'iu, 

 the Narratives of the School, portions of the Books 

 yf Ritual Usages, and the memoir by Sze-ma 

 Ch'ien. There are other works about him, but 

 all containing more or less of the legendary ele- 

 ment, evidently introduced after the Buddhistic 

 literature became known to the Chinese. Of no 

 ancient personage do we have fuller information 

 than we possess of Confucius, and no other can we 

 fashion more completely to ourselves. One whole 

 book of the Analects is occupied with his personal 

 characteristics, his deportment, his eating, his 

 dress. It shows him to us at his ruler's court, in 

 his intercourse with his disciples, in his carriage, 

 at his table, in his bed. The disciples tell us that 

 there were four things from which he was free- 

 foregone conclusions, arbitrary determinations, 

 obstinacy, and egoism ; that there were four sub- 

 jects which he avoided in talking with them 

 extraordinary things, feats of strength, rebellious 



disorder, and spirits ; that there were four things 

 which he taught them letters, ethics, leal-hearted- 

 ness, and truthfulness ; that there were three 

 things of which he seldom spoke pr9fitableness, 

 the appointments ( of Heaven ), and perfect virtue ; 

 and that there were three things in regard to 

 which he thought the greatest caution should be 

 exercised fasting (as preliminary to sacrifice), 

 ( going to ) war, and ( the treatment of ) disease. 



It is often said that Confucianism is a system of 

 morality without religion. That he was emphati- 

 cally a moral teacher is indeed true ; and his 

 greatest achievement as such was his formulating 

 the golden rule, ' What you do not Avish done to 

 yourself, do not do to others.' He acknowledges 

 in one passage that he himself failed in taking the 

 initiative in obeying it. But this high morality 

 was not without a religious sanction. If it be the 

 requirement of man's nature on a correct analysis, 

 yet that nature is the distinguishing endowment 

 conferred on man by Heaven or God, and obedi- 

 ence to its requirements is obedience to the will 

 of God. The first sentence of the Chiing Yung, 

 the treatise written by Confucius' grandson, is this : 

 ' What Heaven has conferred is the Nature ; an 

 accordance with this nature is Avhat is called the 

 Path ; the regulation of this path is Avhat is called 

 the, Teaching. 



But how is it that we do not find in the utter- 

 ances of Confucius the expressions of a fervent 

 piety, and that in his many exhibitions of the 

 character of the Chiin-tsze, his superior, model, or 

 ideal man, he does not shoAV him to us commun- 

 ing with God, confessing his own unAvorthiness, 

 and imploring his forgiveness? These defects in 

 his teaching AVC must admit. The explanation of 

 them lies probably in this, that the direct Avorship 

 of God was confined in the ancient religion of 

 China, as it still is, to the sovereign as the parent 

 and priest of the people. Speaking of the greatest 

 religious services of the ancient sovereigns, Con- 

 fucius, as is recorded also by his grandson, delivered 

 the important judgment that in those services, ' in 

 the ceremonies of the sacrifices to heaven and 

 earth, they served God.' He probably thought 

 that it was not for him as a subject to be taking 

 on his lips the Great Name ; he was, as he said, 

 merely a ' transmitter and not a maker. ' 



It has been said that Confucius discountenanced 

 prayer; but the passage referred to in support of 

 the charge is not sufficient to bear it out. Equally 

 reticent and enigmatic were his replies to the Avell- 

 known question of the same disciple about the ser- 

 vices ottered to the spirits of the departed, and 

 about death itself. He did not rise to the acknoAv- 

 ledgment of the principle enunciated by Lao-tsze, 

 that kindness is to be returned for injury, and eA'il 

 overcome Avith good, but laid doAvn to his disciples 

 the dictum fchat they should 'recompense injury 

 with justice, and return good for good.' And his 

 own special work, the Ch'un Ch'iu, is evasive and 

 deceptive ; according to Kung-yang it often ' con- 

 ceals ( the true nature of events ) out of regard to 

 the high in rank, to kinship, and to men of Avorth.' 

 The person in the past to Avhom he looked back 

 with the greatest reverence was the Duke of Chau, 

 the legislator and consolidator of the dynasty of 

 Chau (died 1105 B.C.). 



He died lamenting the failure of his life ; but he 

 was hardly gone when his merit began to be 

 acknoAvledged. Duke Ai, who had been unable 

 to follow his counsels, caused a temple to be built, 

 Avhere sacrifices, or offerings, should be presented 

 to the sage from generation to generation. In one 

 aspect of it, the brief reign of Shih HAvang-Tl, 

 the first imperial sovereign of China, was a contest 

 between him and Confucius, in Avhich the latter 

 prevailed. The first emperor of the Han dynasty, 



