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CHAPTER V.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE FIVE DUTIES AND THREE VIRTUES.

"The duties of universal obligation are five, and the virtues wherewith they are practiced are three. The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger, and those belonging to the intercourse of friends. Those five are the duties of universal obligation. Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy, these three, are the virtues universally binding. And the means by which they carry the duties into practice is singleness. "Some are born with a knowledge of those duties, some know them by study, and some acquire the knowledge after a painful feeling of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some practice them with a natural ease, some from a desire for their advantages, and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing.”

DOMESTIC HAPPINESS.

It is said in the Book of Poetry, "Happy union with wife and children, is like the music of lutes and harps. When there is concord among brethren, the harmony is delightful and enduring. Thus may you regulate your family, and enjoy the pleasure of your wife and children." The Master said, "In such a state of things, parents have entire complaisance."

"Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity, and the great exercise of it is in loving relatives. Righteousness is the accordance of actions with what is right, and the great exercise of it is in honoring the worthy. The decreasing measure of the love due to relatives, and the steps in the honor due to the worthy, are produced by the principle of propriety."

To no one but the emperor does it belong to order ceremonies, to fix the measures, and to determine the characters.

Now, over the empire, carriages have all wheels of the same size; all writing is with the same characters; and for conduct, there are the same rules.

The Master said, "Let a man who is ignorant be fond of using his own judgment; let a man without rank be fond of assuming a directing power to himself; let a man who is living in the present age go back to the ways of antiquity on the persons of all who act thus calamities will be sure to come."

BOOK IV.

MENCIUS.

LIFE OF MENCIUS.

The last of the "Four Books" is nearly as large as the other three united, and consists entirely of the writings of Mencius, Măng tsz' or Măng futsz', as he is called by the Chinese. Mencius flourished about eighty years after the death of his master, and although in estimating his character, it must not be forgotten that he had the advantages of his example, still in most respects he displayed an originality of thought, inflexibility of purpose, and extensive views, superior to Confucius, and must be regarded as one of the greatest men Asiatic nations have ever produced. An account of his life and writings has been drawn by Rémusat, in his usual clear manner, which will furnish all the data requisite.

Mencius was born about 400 B.C., in the city of Tsau, now in the province of Shantung. His father died a short time after his son's birth, and left the guardianship

of the boy to his widow Changshí. "The care of this prudent and attentive mother," to quote from Rémusat, "has been cited as a model for all virtuous parents. The house that she occupied was near that of a butcher. She observed at the first cry of the animals that were being slaughtered, the little Măng ran to be present at the sight, and that on his return he sought to imitate what he had seen. Fearful that his heart might become hardened, and be accustomed to the sight of blood, she removed to another house, which was in the neighborhood of a cemetery. The relations of those who were buried there came often to weep upon their graves, and make the customary libations. Mencius soon took pleasure in their ceremonies, and amused himself in imitating them. This was a new subject of uneasiness to Changshí; she feared her son might come to consider as a jest what is of all things the most serious, and that he would acquire a habit of performing with levity, and as a matter of routine merely, ceremonies which demand the most exact attention and respect. Again, therefore, she anxiously changed her dwelling, and went to live in the city opposite to a school, where her son found examples the most worthy of imitation, and soon began to profit by them. I should not have spoken of this trifling anecdote, but for the allusion which the Chinese constantly make to it in the common proverb, "Formerly the mother of Mencius chose out a neighborhood.'" On another occasion, her son seeing persons slaughtering pigs, asked her why they did it. "To feed you," she replied; but reflecting that this was teaching her son to lightly regard the truth, went and bought some pork and gave him.

Mencius devoted himself early to the classics, and be

came the disciple of Tsz'-sz', the grandson and not unworthy imitator of Confucius. After his studies were completed, he offered his services to the feudal princes of the country, and was received by Hwui wang, king of Wei: but though much respected by this ruler, his instructions were not regarded. He saw too, ere long, that among the numerous petty rulers and intriguing statesmen of the day, there was no prospect of restoring tranquillity to the empire, and that discourses upon the mild government and peaceful virtues of Yau and Shun, king Wăn and Chingtang, offered little to interest persons whose minds were engrossed with schemes of conquest or pleasure. He therefore, at length, returned to his own country; and in concert with his disciples, employed himself in composing the work which bears his name, and in completing the editorial labors of his great predecessor. He died about 314 B.C., aged eighty-four years.

His own treatise on political morality is divided into two parts, which together contain fourteen short chapters, as they stand arranged in the Four Books of the Chinese. After his death, Mencius was honored by public act with the title of Holy Prince of the country of Tsau, and in the temple of the literati he receives the same honors as Confucius ; his descendants bear the title of Masters of the Traditions concerning the classics, and he himself is called A-shing, which signifies the Second Saint, Confucius being regarded as the first. His writings are in the form of dialogues held with the great personages of his time, and abound with irony and ridicule directed against vice and oppression, which only makes his praises of virtue and integrity more weighty. He contests nothing with his adversaries, but while he grants their premises,