the principal ministers. He was there not as a politician, but as an inquirer about the ceremonies and maxims of the founders of the existing dynasty. Lâo Tan1, whom he had wished to see, generally acknowledged as the founder of the Tâoists, or Rationalistic sect (so called), which has maintained its ground in opposition to the followers of Confucius, was then a curator of the royal library. They met and freely interchanged their views, but no reliable account of their conversations has been preserved. In the fifth Book of the Lî Chî, which is headed 'The philosopher Tsăng asked,' Confucius refers four times to the views of Lâo-tsze on certain points of funeral ceremonies, and in the 'Narratives of the School,' Book XXIV, he tells Chî K'ang what he had heard from him about The Five Tîs,' but we may hope their conversation turned also on more important subjects. Sze-mâ Ch'ien, favourable to Lâo-tsze, makes him lecture his visitor in the following style :-Those whom you talk about are dead, and their bones are mouldered to dust; only their words remain. When the superior man gets his time, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled. I have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich treasures deeply stored, appears as if he were poor, and that the superior man whose virtue is complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will. These are of no advantage to you. This is all which I have to tell you.' On the other hand, Confucius is made to say to his disciples, 'I know how birds can fly, how fishes can swim, and how animals can run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the flyer may be shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Lâo-tsze, and can only compare him to the dragon 3.' While at Lo, Confucius walked over the grounds set apart for the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth; inspected the pattern of the Hall of Light, built to give audience in to the princes of the kingdom; and examined all the arrangements of the ancestral temple and the court. From the whole he received a profound

1 According to Sze-mâ Ch'ien, Tan was the posthumous epithet of this individual, whose surname was Li

(李),

name R (E), and designation Po-yang (1). 2 逸態 與淫志 3 See the 史記, 列傳第三, and compare the remarks

attributed to Lão-tsze in the account of the K'ung family near the beginning.

impression. Now,' said he with a sigh, I know the sage wisdom of the duke of Châu, and how the House of Châu attained to the royal sway. On the walls of the Hall of Light were paintings of the ancient sovereigns from Yao and Shun downwards, their characters appearing in the representations of them, and words of praise or warning being appended. There was also a picture of the duke of Châu sitting with his infant nephew, the king Chang, upon his knees, to give audience to all the princes. Confucius surveyed the scene with silent delight, and then said to his followers, 'Here you see how Châu became so great. As we use a glass to examine the forms of things, so must we study antiquity in order to understand the present time.' In the hall of the ancestral temple, there was a metal statue of a man with three clasps upon his mouth, and his back covered over with an enjoyable homily on the duty of keeping a watch upon the lips. Confucius turned to his disciples and said, 'Observe it, my children. These words are true, and commend themselves to our feelings 3.'

About music he made inquiries at Ch'ang Hung, to whom the following remarks are attributed :-'I have observed about Chungnî many marks of a sage. He has river eyes and a dragon forehead, -the very characteristics of Hwang-tî. His arms are long, his back is like a tortoise, and he is nine feet six inches in height, the very semblance of T'ang the Completer. When he speaks, he praises the ancient kings. He moves along the path of humility and courtesy. He has heard of every subject, and retains with a strong memory. His knowledge of things seems inexhaustible.-Have we not in him the rising of a sage ??

I have given these notices of Confucius at the court of Châu, more as being the only ones I could find, than because I put much faith in them. He did not remain there long, but returned the same year to Lû, and continued his work of teaching. His fame was greatly increased; disciples came to him from different parts, till their number amounted to three thousand. Several of those who have come down to us as the most distinguished among his followers, however, were yet unborn, and the statement just given may be considered as an exaggeration. We are not to conceive of the disciples as forming a community, and living together. Parties

1 2 3 See the 家語, 卷二, art 觀周

the Narratives of the School.'

Quoted by Chiang Yung from

of them may have done so. We shall find Confucius hereafter always moving amid a company of admiring pupils; but the greater number must have had their proper avocations and ways of living, and would only resort to the Master, when they wished specially to ask his counsel or to learn of him.

He withdraws to Chi, and returns to Lû the following year.

B. C. 515, 516.

5. In the year succeeding the return to Lû, that State fell into great confusion. There were three Families in it, all connected irregularly with the ducal House, which had long kept the rulers in a condition of dependency. They appear frequently in the Analects as the Chi clan, the Shû, and the Măng; and while Confucius freely spoke of their usurpations1, he was a sort of dependent of the Chi family, and appears in frequent communication with members of all the three. In the year B.C. 517, the duke Châo came to open hostilities with them, and being worsted, fled into Chiî, the State adjoining Lû on the north. Thither Confucius also repaired, that he might avoid the prevailing disorder of his native State. Ch'i was then under the government of a ruler (in rank a marquis, but historically called duke), afterwards styled Ching 2, who 'had a thousand teams, each of four horses, but on the day of his death the people did not praise him for a single virtue 3. His chief minister, however, was Yen Ying, a man of considerable ability and worth. At his court the music of the ancient sage-emperor, Shun, originally brought to Ch'i from the State of Ch'ăn, was still preserved.

According to the Narratives of the School,' an incident occurred on the way to Ch'î, which I may transfer to these pages as a good specimen of the way in which Confucius turned occurring matters to account, in his intercourse with his disciples. As he was passing by the side of the Tâi mountain, there was a woman weeping and wailing by a grave. Confucius bent forward in his carriage, and after listening to her for some time, sent Tsze-lû to ask the cause of her grief. You weep, as if you had experienced sorrow upon sorrow,' said Tsze-lû. The woman replied, 'It is so. My husband's father was killed here by a tiger, and my husband also; and now my son has met the same fate.' Confucius asked her why she did not remove from the place, and on her answering, 'There is here no oppressive government,' he turned to his disciples, and said, 'My

is the

1 See Analects, III. i. ii, et al. 2景公. 3 Ana. XVI. xii. ·晏嬰. same who was afterwards styled 晏平仲

This

children, remember this. Oppressive government is fiercer than a tiger ''

As soon as he crossed the border from Lû, we are told he discovered from the gait and manners of a boy, whom he saw carrying a pitcher, the influence of the sages' music, and told the driver of his carriage to hurry on to the capital 2. Arrived there, he heard the strain, and was so ravished with it, that for three months he did not know the taste of flesh. I did not think,' he said, 'that music could have been made so excellent as this 3.' The duke Ching was pleased with the conferences which he had with him, and proposed to assign to him the town of Lin-ch'iû, from the revenues of which he might derive a sufficient support; but Confucius refused the gift, and said to his disciples, 'A superior man will only receive reward for services which he has done. I have given advice to the duke Ching, but he has not yet obeyed it, and now he would endow me with this place! Very far is he from understanding me!'

On one occasion the duke asked about government, and received the characteristic reply, 'There is government when the ruler is ruler, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son.' I say that the reply is characteristic. Once, when Tsze-lû asked him what he would consider the first thing to be done if entrusted with the government of a State, Confucius answered, 'What is necessary is to rectify names". The disciple thought the reply wide of the mark, but it was substantially the same with what he said to the marquis Ching. There is a sufficient foundation in nature for government in the several relations of society, and if those be maintained and developed according to their relative significancy, it is sure to obtain. This was a first principle in the political ethics of Confucius.

Another day the duke got to a similar inquiry the reply that the art of government lay in an economical use of the revenues; and being pleased, he resumed his purpose of retaining the philosopher in his State, and proposed to assign to him the fields of Nî-ch'î. His

1 See the 家語,卷四,art正論解. I have translated, however, from the

Lî Chî, II. Sect. II. iii. 10, where the same incident is given, with some variations, and without 3 Ana. VII. xiii. * Some of these are related in the 'Narratives of the School ;'-about the burning of the ancestral shrine of the sovereign, and a one-footed bird which appeared hopping and flapping its wings in Ch'î. They are plainly fabulous, though quoted in proof of Confucius's

saying when or where it occurred. 2 See the 說苑,卷十九,P.13.

sage

wisdom. This reference to them is more than enough.,,X‡.

• Ana. XII. xi.

7 Ana. XIII. iii.

chief minister Yen Ying dissuaded him from the purpose, saying, 'Those scholars are impracticable, and cannot be imitated. They are haughty and conceited of their own views, so that they will not be content in inferior positions. They set a high value on all funeral ceremonies, give way to their grief, and will waste their property on great burials, so that they would only be injurious to the common manners. This Mr. K'ung has a thousand peculiarities. It would take generations to exhaust all that he knows about the ceremonies of going up and going down. This is not the time to examine into his rules of propriety. If you, prince, wish to employ him to change the customs of Ch'î, you will not be making the people your primary consideration 1.'

I had rather believe that these were not the words of Yen Ying, but they must represent pretty correctly the sentiments of many of the statesmen of the time about Confucius. The duke of Ch'i got tired ere long of having such a monitor about him, and observed, 'I cannot treat him as I would the chief of the Chi family. I will treat him in a way between that accorded to the chief of the Chî, and that given to the chief of the Măng family.' Finally he said, 'I am old; I cannot use his doctrines 2.' These observations were made directly to Confucius, or came to his hearing 3. It was not consistent with his self-respect to remain longer in Ch'i, and he returned to Lû 1.

6. Returned to Lû, he remained for the long period of about fifteen years without being engaged in any official employment. It He remains was a time, indeed, of great disorder.

without office in

Lũ, B.C. 516–501.

The duke

Châo continued a refugee in Ch'i, the government being in the hands of the great Families, up to his death in B. C. 510, on which event the rightful heir was set aside, and another member of the ducal House, known to us by the title of Ting 5, substituted in his place. The ruling authority of the principality became thus still more enfeebled than it had been before, and, on the other hand, the chiefs of the Chî, the Shû, and the Măng, could hardly keep their ground against their own officers. Of those latter, the two most conspicuous were Yang Hû, called also Yang Ho', and

1 See the 史記,孔子世家, p. 2

2 Ana. XVIII. iii.

makes the first observation to have been addressed directly to Confucius.

3 Sze-mâ Ch'ien

4 According to

the above account Confucius was only once, and for a portion of two years, in Ch'i. For the refutation of contrary accounts, see Chiang Yung's Life of the Sage.

5

定公