58 



REV. ARTHUR ELW1N, ON CONFUCIANISM. 



u In the way of the superior man there are four things, to not 

 one of which have I as yet attained. To serve my father as I 

 would require my son to serve me ; To serve my prince as I 

 would require my minister to serve me ; To serve my elder 

 brother as I would require my younger brother to serve me ; 

 To behave to my friend as I would require him to behave to 

 me." 



" Shall I teach you what knowledge is ? When you know a 

 thing, to hold that you know it ; and when you do not know a 

 thing, to allow that you do not know it ; this is knowledge." 



According to Confucius, the first of all virtues, whether in a 

 son or in a subject, is filial piety. It is this which distinguishes 

 man from brutes ; it is this which recognises the true relation 

 between child and parent. " Filial piety consists in serving one's 

 parents when alive, according to propriety ; in burying them 

 when dead, according to propriety ; and sacrificing to them, 

 according to propriety." " Of all things," said Confucius, 

 "which derive their natures from heaven and earth, man is 

 the most noble ; and of all the duties that are incumbent on 

 him, there is none greater than filial obedience ; nor in 

 performing this is there anything so essential as to reverence 

 one's father ; and, as a mark of reverence, there is nothing 

 more important than to place him on an equality with heaven. 

 Thus did the Lord of Chow ; he sacrificed on the round altar to 

 the spirits of his remote ancestors, as equal with heaven ; and 

 in the open hall he sacrificed to King Wan (his father), as equal 

 with Shang-ti." This is one of the innumerable passages, 

 which enjoin the duty of ancestral worship,* which may now 

 well be called the religion of the Chinese, for Confucianist, 

 Taouist, and Buddhist, alike all rear the shrine for the ancestral 

 tablets, and worship at the graves of the departed. This 

 extract shows that, according to Confucius, a man ought to 

 place his father on an equality with God, and the following 

 incident will show that there are Chinese in our own day who 

 strive to carry this principle into practice. 



Only a few years ago a man in Canton committed a murder, 

 and a warrant was issued for his arrest ; but before he could be 

 found, his son, a young man about twenty years of age, went to 

 the magistrate and said, " I committed the murder." The son 

 was arrested, tried, and, on his own confession, condemned to 

 death. Soon all the people in Canton knew what had been 

 done, and it was the one topic of conversation in the city. 



* Journal Vict. Inst., " Ancestral Worship," vol. xxxvi, p. 67. 



