256 



EEV. F. STORES TCRXER_, B.A., ON MENCIUS. 



the slightest knowledge of those remote regions. Three cen- 

 turies later, when Buddhism entered China, these two isolated 

 worlds began to hold intercourse ; but in the time of Mencius,. 

 China with the regions occupied by savage races on her borders and 

 the Eastern Sea were a world apart. And this China was but a 

 fraction of the China of the present day ; it extended about 1,000 

 miles from longitude 110° nearly to the Pacific coast ; and some 

 700 or 800 miles north and south of the Yellow Eiver. Pekim^,. 

 Shanghai, and Canton were outside Mencius's map of China. 

 This region was divided into about a dozen large, and perhaps a 

 hundred small states called kingdoms, dukedoms, and baronies. 

 Politically, its condition was like that of Europe in the feudal 

 age. AVar w^as the chief and best loved employment of the 

 petty monarchs and nobles; who were practically independent^ 

 though nominally all subjects of the one and only sovereign, who 

 by Divine right reigned over the whole world — not by virtue of 

 fabulous descent from the gods, but selected on account of his 

 merits to be ruler of all under heaven. Two such dynasties 

 had passed away, Confucius and Mencius lived under the third,, 

 the Chow dynasty, which, however, in their time possessed only 

 a small territory and was surrounded by larger states, nominally 

 vassals, but really independent, and eacli of them aspiring to 

 swallow up all the rest and achieve the throne of the world. 

 War, then, was the life-work of all the governing classes. Tlie 

 nobles, riding in chariots, tlie common soldiers marching in 

 ranks, armed with spears and bows, advanced to the sound of 

 drums, and retreated when the gongs were struck. A winter 

 campaign was in the natural order of things. Cities were walled 

 round to resist sieges. But the people were civilised: they 

 tilled the ground, bred horses, cattle and sheep, wove wool and 

 silk ; they had books and schools ; they smelted metals and 

 engraved jewels ; they worshipped a Supreme Puler, and spiritual 

 beings animating mountains and rivers, and with these the 

 spirits of their deceased parents and ancestors. In this feudal 

 China, Confucius and after him Mencius, travelled from court 

 to court teaching the doctrines of the ancient sages, and trying 

 to win the kings and lords whom they visited to imitate the wise 

 and benevolent monarchs of the past. 



One remarkable difference between the careers of Confucius 

 and Mencius is this — Confucius had no rivals, no opponents, 

 never engaged in controversies. The liistorian, Sz-ma Ts'm 

 relates a story of his meeting with Laou-Tsze, the founder of 

 Taouism, at the Court of Chow ; but the story is doubted. 

 Whether it is true or not, there was no disputing ; Laou-Tsza 



