a-days the phoenixes and unicorns also hide their benevolent and wise heart under a common plumage and ordinary fur, and have neither a single horn nor five colours as a distinctive mark, so that our people know them no more, than the jade in the stone was known. How can we prove that? By a reference to the plants, which at the commencement of the Yung-p'ing period1 were always presenting omens. When the emperor Hsiao Ming Ti was manifesting his kindness, all sorts of omens happened at the same time. At the Yuan-ho and Chang-ho epochs,2 when Hsiao Chang Ti's virtue was shining, perfect harmony pervaded the world, and auspicious omens and strange things corresponded. Phoenixes and unicorns came forth one after the other, and were observed on many occasions, much more than at the time of the Five Emperors. This chapter was already completed, therefore I could not mention it then.3

It might be objected that arguing on omens, I have declared that the phoenix and the unicorn are hard to know, and that the omens of our age cannot be distinguished, whether, therefore, the phoenixes and the unicorns attracted now by Hsiao Chang Ti could not be known?-I say that according to the "Records on the Five Birds "4 there are big birds in the four regions and the centre which, when they roam about, are accompanied by all the other birds. In size, and the colour of the plumage they resemble a phoenix, but are difficult to know indeed.

Since the omens of our age do not allow of distinction, how can we find them out? By the government of the empire. Unless the virtue of the reigning emperor equalled that of Yü, we would not perceive phoenixes and unicorns with our own eyes. The omens of Yu were undoubtedly genuine, and Yao's excellence is evident. Under Hsiao Hsüan Ti the world enjoyed a still more universal peace than at the time of Yao and Shun, as far as ten

1

Style of the reign of the Emperor Ming Ti, 58–76 a.d.

2 Styles of the Emperor Chang Ti, 84-87 and 87-89.

3 This chapter must have been written prior to 84 A.D., so that the auspicious reign of the Emperor Chang Ti could not yet be referred to. The author made this addition later i. e. after 89, for it was not before this year that the emperor received his posthumous title Hsiao Chang Ti.

4 By the Five Birds perhaps the Five Phoenixes "Wu Feng," five different kinds of phoenixes, which differ by their colours, are meant. The " Feng" is red,

the "Yuan chu" yellow, the "Luan" blue, the "Yü tsu" purple, and the “Ku” white. Whereas "Feng" and "Luan" are still used as names for the phoenix, one understands by "Yuan chu" a kind of peacock or pheasant, by “Yü-tsu” a kind of duck, and by "Ku" the snow-goose or swan.

thousand Li, people were anxious for reforms and progress, and the moral laws found an echo everywhere. Affected by this state of things, the benevolent birds and animals made their appearence, only the size, the colour of the hair, the feet and the wings of those auspicious creatures were not always the same. Taking the mode of government and the intelligence of the rulers as a criterion for the various omens, we find them all to be genuine. That means that they are hard to know, but easy to understand.

The sweet dew may also serve us as a key. The sweet dew is produced by the harmonious fluid, it has no cause in itself which could make it sweet; this can only be done by the intervention of the harmonious fluid. When the harmonious fluid appears, the sweet dew pours down, virtue permeates everything, and the various omens come forth together. From the Yung-ping down to the Chang-ho period the sweet dew has continually been falling. Hence we know that the omens are all true, and that phoenixes and unicorns are likewise all genuine.

CHAPTER XXXI.

The Forming of Characters (Shuai-hsing).

Speaking of human nature one must distinguish good and bad characters. The good ones are so of themselves, the wicked can be instructed and urged on to do good. A sovereign or a father seeing that his subjects or sons have good characters, provides for them, exhorts them, and keeps them out of the reach of evil. If the latter come into contact with it, they assist and shield them, and try to win them back to the cause of virtue. It is by the transition of virtue into wickedness and of wickedness into virtue that the characters are formed.

The duke of Shao admonished King Chêng saying:-" Now you for the first time carry out Heaven's decree. Oh! you are like a youth with whom all depends on his first years of life."1

By youth is meant the age up to fifteen. If a youth's thoughts are directed towards virtue, he will be virtuous to the last, but if his propensities tend to badness, he will end badly.

2

The Shiking says "What can that admirable man be compared to?" The Tso-chuan answers, "He is like boiled silk; dyed with indigo, it becomes blue; coloured with vermilion, it turns crimson." A youth of fifteen is like silk, his gradual changes into good or bad resembling the dying of boiled silk with indigo and vermilion, which gives it a blue or a red colour. When these colours have once set, they cannot be altered again. It is for this reason that Yang Tse3 wept over the by-roads and Me Tse1 over boiled

1 Shuking, The Announcement of Shao V, Bk. XII, 18-19. Wang Chung reads

於戲“ alas!” instead of 嗚呼

2 Shiking I, Bk. IV, Ode IX, 2 where we read now

何以予之 can he give?" instead of "what can he be compared to?"

"what

3 Yang Chu, the philosopher of egoism. The story referred to here is told in Lieh Tse VIII, 10v. A sheep had been lost on by-roads. When Yang Chu heard of it, he became thoughtful and changed countenance. No mention is made of his having wept. Wang Chung seems to have quoted from Huai Nan Tse XVII, 25 v, who expressly mentions Yang Tse's weeping.

4 Me Ti, the philosopher of altruism. We read in his works:-Mê Tse chap. 3, p. 4 (What colours) and in the Lü-shih-ch'un-chiu chap. 2, No. 4, p. 8 (Colouring) that Me Tse witnessing the dying of silk said, heaving a sigh, "Dyed blue, it turns blue, and dyed yellow, it turns yellow" and then he goes on to explain, how

silk. They were sorrowful, because men having gone astray from the right path cannot be transformed any more. Human nature turns from good into bad, and from bad into good only in this manner. Creepers growing amidst hemp, stand upright without support by themselves. White silk yarn placed amongst dark, becomes black without boiling. Creepers are not straight by nature, nor is the black colour an attribute of silk yarn. The hemp affording support, and the dark silk lending the colour, creepers and white silk become straight and black. Human nature bears a resemblance to creepers and silk yarn. In a milieu favourable to transformation or colouring, it turns good or bad.

Wang Liang and Tsao Fu were famous as charioteers:-out of unruly and vicious animals they made good ones. Had they only been able to drive good horses, but incapable of breaking bad ones, they would have been nothing more than jockeys and ordinary equerries. Their horsemanship would not have been remarkable nor deserving of world-wide fame. Of Wang Liang the saying goes that, when he stepped into a chariot, the steeds knew no exhaustion. Under the rule of Yao and Shun people were neither seditious nor ignorant. Tradition says that the people of Yao and Shun might have been invested with fiefs house by house, whereas those of Chieh Kuei were worthy of death door by door. The people followed the way prescribed by the three dynasties. That the people of the holy emperors were like this, those of the wicked emperors otherwise, was merely the result of the influence of their rulers, not of the people's original nature.

The covetous hearing of Po Yi's fame became disinterested, and the weak resolute. The news of Liu Hsia Hui's reputation made the niggardly generous and the mean liberal. If the spread of fame alone could bring about such changes, what then must be the effect of personal intercourse and tuition?

The seventy disciples of the school of Confucius were each of them able to creditably fill the post of a minister of state. Con

man also takes the colour of his environments, especially of those with whom he has intercourse, wherefore "colouring" is a very serious affair. Nothing is said about his having shed tears.

1 So excellent were they all.

2 The last emperor of the Hsia dynasty, the type of a tyrant.

3 Po Yi and Shu Chi, two brothers famous for their disinterestedness in refusing to ascend the throne of their father, lest the other should be deprived of it. Mayers No. 543.

4 An official of the State of Lu famous for honesty and upright character, often mentioned by Confucius.

forming to the holy doctrines, they became accomplished scholars, and their knowledge and skill grew tenfold. This was the result of teaching; thus latent faculties were gradually developed. Before they joined Confucius' school, they sauntered about in the streets as quite ordinary and in no wise exceptional people. The most ungovernable of all was Tse Lu, who is generally reported to have been a common and unsteady individual. Before he became Confucius' pupil, he wore a feather hat and a pig skin belt. He was brutal and unmannerly. Whenever he heard some reading, he tossed up his feather hat, pulled his belt, and uttered such a yell, that he deafened the ears of the worthies and sages. Such was his wickedness. Confucius took him under his guidance. By degrees he polished and instructed him. The more he advanced in knowledge, the more he lost his fierceness, and his arrogance was broken. At last he was able to govern a state, and ranked in the four classes. This is a shining example of how a man's character was changed from bad into good.

Fertility and sterility are the original nature of the soil. If it be rich and moist, the nature is good, and the crops will be exuberant, whereas, if it be barren and stony, the nature is bad. However, human efforts:-deep ploughing, thorough tilling, and a copious use of manure may help the land, so that the harvest will become like that of the rich and well watered fields. Such is the case with the elevation of the land also. Fill up the low ground with earth, dug out by means of hoes and spades, and the low land will be on a level with the high one. If these works are still continued, not only will the low land be on a level, but even higher than the high land. The high ground will then become the low one. Let us suppose that the human natures are partly good, partly bad; as the land may be either high or low. By making use of the good effects of education goodness can be spread and generalized. Reformation being pushed on and instruction persevered in, people will change and become still better. Goodness will increase and reach a still higher standard than it had before, just as low ground, filled up with hoes and spades, rises higher than the originally elevated ground.

Tse2 though not predestinated thereto, made a fortune. His capital increased without a decree from Heaven which would have

1 The four classes, into which the ten principal followers of Confucius were divided. Cf. Analects XI, 2.

2 A disciple of Confucius, whose full name was Tuan Mu T'se alias Tse Kung, possessed of great abilities. He became a high official.