GREEK AXD CHINESE THOUGHT. 171 



he changed the title to "The State of Equilibrium 

 and Harmony." The meaning of these terms, 

 which are united in the title, we find explained 

 in the opening section. The treatise is the work 

 of Tzse-zse, the grandson of Confucius, and a 

 contemporary of Socrates. 



It will be perhaps better to give some extracts 

 from this treatise, and then to point out the 

 parallelism between it and the Aristotelian philo- 

 sophy. There is a good deal in the treatise which 

 is unintelligible, and a considerable portion, includ- 

 ing some eleven sections ( 48-59), which seems 

 to have been interpolated from a treatise on " Filial 

 Piety." The actual description of the perfect 

 character, though in some points it is curiously 

 like the Greek ideal, is necessarily moulded by 

 the circumstances of Chinese life, and the remains 

 of ancestor worship still show themselves, and 

 perhaps explain the atmosphere of reverence which 

 we look for in vain in Aristotle. The doctrine of 

 the Mean is, however, the main point of likeness. 

 I quote Dr. Legge's latest translation, with a few 

 verbal alterations. 



i. " What Heaven has conferred is called the Nature. 

 An accordance with this nature is called the Path [of 

 Duty]. The regulation of this path is called [the System of] 

 Instruction. 



2. "The path must not be left for an instant ; if it could 

 be left, it would not be the path." 



Here we have already a theory of Virtue as TO 



