68 



REV. ARTHUR ELWIN, ON CONFUCIANISM. 



he believed, to stem the flood of wickedness, and to restore the 

 good old days of peace. 



Seen against the darkness of this background, the life of 

 Confucius is bright with noble heroism, stedfast purpose, clear- 

 sighted wisdom, and, it seems to me, a profound religious faith. 

 He did not teach theology, for he had none to teach ; but he openly 

 professed that his message was from heaven ; and his loyal fulfil- 

 ment of his mission, in self-sacrifice, poverty and reproach, is the 

 evidence of the sincerity of his belief. And what was his message 1_ 

 In essence it was just this : " Be good. Heaven has made you 

 capable of being good. Be good sons and good fathers, good 

 husbands and good wives, good kings and good servants of your 

 kings ; brothers be good, friends be good." It was the simplest 

 message, but mighty in its appeal to conscience as the divinely- 

 given nature. For the sake of this we may well tolerate what 

 seems to us an excessive devotion to forms and ceremonies. 

 Confucius did not think it excessive. In the Book of Bites, it is 

 said — 



(1) Of all the methods for the good ordering of men, there is 

 none more urgent than the use of ceremonies. Ceremonies are of 

 five kinds, and there is none of them more important than sacrifice. 

 Sacrifice is not a thing coming to a man from without, it issues 

 from within him, and has its birth in his heart. When the heart is 

 deeply moved expression is given to it by ceremonies. . . . 



(2) The sacrifices of such men have their own blessing ; not 

 indeed what the world calls blessing. Blessing here means per-' 

 fection ; it is the name given to the complete and natural discharge 

 of all duties. 



The quotation from the " Filial Piety Classic " is apparently 

 decisive against me ; but this document is not one of the Four 

 Books, and its authority therefore is not quite the highest. Again, 

 the translation is open to question. In his version, Dr. Legge does 

 not use the word "equal," but instead says "correlate."* Kang-hi's 

 great dictionary supports Legge ; it does not explain the character" 

 as meaning equal, but as "pair," "couple," "opposite." The 

 members of a pair or couplet may be equal or unequal. For 

 instance, the dictionary gives "husband and wife" as an illustration, 



* Religions, p. 79. 



