DESTINY, FATE 31 



Mencius, too ; had equal confidence in this kind of destiny. 

 In his works we read, "A man's advancement is effected, it 

 may be by others, and others may perchance stop him. But 

 to advance a man or prevent his advance is really beyond the 

 power of any man. JMy not finding in the prince of Luh 

 one who would confide in me and put my principles into 

 operation is from Heaven." (Bk. I, Pt. 2, Chapter 8, p. 3). 



Thus we see that the Sages of China believed in a con- 

 trolling Destiny — or in the words of Mathew Arnold, "There 

 is a Power not ourselves making for righteousness in the 

 Universe," — whose will is law: whose decrees are certain. 



We also find in history sporadic references to this subject 

 by Confucius. During one of his journeys we are told that 

 he was looking at the cataract a,t Lu-liang one day. It fell 

 from a great height. No scaly, finny creature could enter 

 therein. Yet Confucius saw an old man go- in, and thinking 

 that he was suffering from some trouble and desirous of 

 ending his life, bade a disciple run along the side to try and 

 save him. The old man emerged about a hundred paces 

 off, and with flowing hair went carolling along the bank. 

 Confucius followed him and said, "I had thought, Sir, you 

 were a spirit, but now I see you are a man. Kindly tell me, 

 is there any way to deal thus with water?" 



"No," replied the old man, "I have no way. There 

 was my original condition to begin with; then habit growing 

 into nature, and lastly acquiescence in destiny. Plunging 

 in with the whirl, I come out with the swirl. I accommodate 

 myself to the water, not the water to me. And so- 1 am able 

 to deal with it after this fashion." 



"What do you mean," enquired Confucius, "by your 

 original condition to begin with, habit growing into nature, 

 and acquiescence hi destiny?" 



"I was born," replied the old man, "upon dry land, and 

 accommodated myself to dry land. That was my original 

 condition. Growing up on the water, I accommodated 

 myself to the water. That was what I meant by nature. 

 And doing as I did without being conscious of any effort so 

 to do, that was what I meant by destiny." (Chuang Tzii, 

 Giles, pp. 239-240). 



Let us take the view of Chu Ko Liang, the darling 

 hero of the Chinese people, always spoken of as K'ung Ming, 

 his cognomen. He lived in the difficult and warlike ages of 

 Liu Pei and Ts'ao A.D. 150-250. Brilliant as a military 

 leader, penetrating as far south as Burmah; renowned as a 

 scholar, the author of Tactics on War : the inventor of the 

 wooden ex and running horses and the bow for shooting 



