BARBLESS HOOKS—CONFUCIUS 453 
time in angling, but used no baits, as his object was not to 
catch fish,’’ 1 
But the greatest Sage of them all, Confucius, whose philo- 
sophy has for 2400 years permeated, perhaps even dominated, 
public polity and private action, was not as one of these. 
Humane, practical, and a sportsman, ‘‘ The Master angled, 
but did not use a net: he shot, but not at birds perching,”’ 
which Legge2 in a note kindly expands into ‘“ Confucius 
would only destroy what life was necessary to him!’’ Since 
netting in his era (c. 500 B.C.), as now, held the field, or rather the 
water, the touch of the philosopher’s sole device being the rod 
implies a compliment, confirmed by the context, to his humane 
sportsmanship. 
To Mr. Yen’s statement as to the importance of fish, marine 
or freshwater, as a staple of subsistence in China can be added 
the evidence as regards ancient times collated by Werner,? later 
times by Du Halde,# and modern times by Williams,® Gray, 
and Dabry de Thiersant.?7 While they agree with the rest of 
the world in the economic necessity of fisheries, the people, 
and especially the epicures of China, differ profoundly from the 
European or American in ichthyic appreciation. 
As the Greeks and Latins at times saw not eye to eye as to 
the palatal primacy of certain fishes, the people of the Middle 
Kingdom eat not, and never ate, tooth to tooth with those of 
the West. To the Sinitic opsophagist his salmon, indeed most 
of the deep sea fishes, appeals not at all. 
“We delight,’”’ says Mr. Yen, “in eating those of the finny 
tribe whose meat is soft and fine, and they are caught for the 
most part in rivers, brooks, lakes, ponds, and the surface of 
the ocean. On the other hand, there are products of the sea 
which are regarded by us as delicacies of the table, but which 
have little or no consumption in the West. Just to mention 
1 See Ibid., No. 34. 
2 Legge, seis Classics, I. p. 67. 
3 Op. cit., p. 2 
4j.B.du ‘Yalde,. Description géographique (etc.) del’Empire de la Chine (etc.), 
Paris, 1735. 
. ‘Op. cit., vol. II. p. 780, ff. 
8 J. H. Gray, China (London, 1878), vol. II., 291-301. 
7 Op. cit., passim. 
