REV. ARTHUR ELWIN, ON CONFUCIANISM. 



67 



Communications. 

 Bev. F. Storrs Turner, B.A., writes : — 



Mr. Elwin h t as crowded within his brief sketch of Confucius as 

 much accurate and valuable information as could be got within 

 the limit ; but I would point out that if he had been able to 

 prepare for it by a description of the historical background the 

 biography would have been more vivid, and our impression of 

 the man much increased. It is difficult for an Englishman 

 rightly to appreciate Confucius. His reverence for antiquity 

 is offensive to our belief in progress ; his rigid scrupulosity in 

 matters of court etiquette, social usage, and religious ritual, 

 seems to us pharisaical ; and his remarkable reticence in respect to 

 the great realities of religion has caused him to be suspected of 

 agnosticism. But to understand Confucius one must study the 

 history of his world. The first thing we shall learn is that his 

 world was not our world. For him and for his people during two 

 thousand years before, our world did not exist. Egypt, Assyria, 

 Babylon, Persia, Greece, Borne, were utterly unknown. Three or 

 four thousand miles of mountainous countries like Tibet, of water- 

 less deserts like Gobi, and of vast uncultivated steppes, over which 

 roamed nomad tribes of savage warriors, Huns, Scythians, Tartars, 

 Mongols, divided Eastern Asia from Western Asia, as effectually as 

 the Atlantic hid America from Europe. Confucius did not know 

 the name " China," the place he knew was " all under heaven," i.e., 

 the world. This being so, those ancient books which he possessed 

 were the only Bible he had ; and it was impossible for him to 

 conceive of any other literature, any other civilisation, any other 

 religion, than those of the " black-haired race." Moreover, the 

 history he knew began with the tradition of an age of righteousness 

 and peace, when saintly kings ruled ; whereas he lived in an age 

 •of general misrule, war, oppression and misery. The annals which 

 we can read are full of battles and sieges. In the courts, assassina- 

 tions, conspiracies, revolutions, were the rule rather than the 

 exception. Fathers killed their sons and sons their fathers. Lust 

 and incest polluted the palaces. It seemed as if morals and religion 

 were dying. In such a time was Confucius sent into the world, as 



