Ch'in murdered his ruler P'ing-kwoh.' The circumstances in which the murder took place are sufficient, I am sure, to make us pronounce it a case of justifiable homicide. Hea Ch'ing-shoo's mother, a widow, was a vile woman, and was carrying on a licentious connexion with the marquis of Ch'in and two of his ministers at the same time. The things which are related about the four are inexpressibly filthy. As the young man grew up, he felt deeply the disgrace of his family; and one day when the marquis and his ministers were feasting in an apartment of his mother's mansion, or rather of his own, for he was now the Head of the clan, he overheard them joking about himself. He is like you,' said the marquis to one of his companions. 'And he is also like your lordship,' returned the other. The three went on to speculate on what share each of them had in the youth, till he could no longer contain himself, and made a violent attack upon them. The ministers made their escape, and the marquis had nearly done so too, when, as he was getting through a hole in the stable, an arrow from the young man's bow transfixed him. So he died, and the Ch'un Ts'ëw records the event as if it had been an atrocious murder! The poor youth met with a horrible fate. In the following year, the viscount of Ts'oo, himself flaunting the usurped title of king, determined to do justice upon him. Aided by the forces of other States, he invaded Ch'in, made a prisoner of Hea Ch'ing-shoo, and had him torn in pieces by five chariots to which his head and his four limbs were bound. This execution is coldly related in xi. 5 by 'The people of Ts'oo put to death Hea Ch'ing-shoo of Ch'in.' The text goes on to tell that the viscount entered the capital of Ch'in, and restored the two ministers, partners in the marquis's adultery, who had made their escape to Ts'oo; the whole being worded, according to Tso, 'to show how he observed the rules of propriety!'

What are we to think from the Ch'un Ts'ëw of Confucius ?

4. It remains for me, having thus set forth the suppressions, the concealments, and the misrepresentations which abound in the Ch'un Ts'ëw, to say a few words on the view which we must take from it of Confucius as its author or compiler. Again and again I have spoken of the triviality of the Work, and indicated my opinion of its being unworthy of the sage to have put together so slight a thing. But these positively bad characteristics of it on which I have now enlarged demand the expression of a sterner judgment.

1 See vol. IV. Pt. I. xii. ode IX.

The appointment of historiographers, at whatever period it first took place, was intended, no doubt, to secure the accurate record of events, and Confucius tells us, Ana. XV. xxv., that 'even in his [early] days a historiographer would leave a blank in his text,' that is, would do so rather than enter incorrectly anything of which he was not sure. I have mentioned on p. 45 the exaggerated idea of his duty which was cherished and manifested by Tung Hoo the grand-historiographer of Tsin; and in Tso's Chuen on IX. xxv. 2, we have a still more shining example of the virtue which men in this office were capable of displaying. There three brothers, historiographers of Ts'e, all submit to death rather than alter the record, which they had made correctly, that 'Ts'uy Ch'oo of Ts'e murdered his ruler Kwang,' and a fourth brother, still persisting in the same entry, is at last let alone. These instances serve to show the idea in which the institution originated, and that there were men in China who understood it, appreciated it, and were prepared to die for it. Such men according to Confucius' testimony were no more to be found in his time. According to the testimony of a thousand scholars and critics, it was because of this fact,-the few faithful historiographers in the past and the entire want of them in the present, -that the sage undertook the revision of the Ch'un Ts'ëw of Loo. Might not the history of the institution in that ante-Christian time be adduced as a good illustration of what Lord Elgin once said, that 'at all points of the circle described by man's intelligence, the Chinese mind seems occasionally to have caught glimpses of a heaven far beyond the range of its ordinary ken and vision?"

Well-we have examined the model summary of history from the stylus of the sage, and it testifies to three characteristies of his mind which it is painful to have thus distinctly to point out. First, he had no reverence for truth in history,-I may say no reverence for truth, without any modification. He understood well enough what it was, the description of events and actions according as they had taken place; but he himself constantly transgressed it in all the three ways which I have indicated. Second, he shrank from looking the truth fairly in the face. It was through this attribute of weakness that he so frequently endeavoured to hide the truth from himself and others, by ignoring it altogether, or by giving an imperfect and misleading account of it. Wherever his prejudices were concerned, he was liable to do this. Third, he had more 1 See Letters and Journals of James, eighth Earl of Elgin, p. 392.

sympathy with power than with weakness, and would overlock wickedness and oppression in authority rather than resentment and revenge in men who were suffering from them. He could conceive of nothing so worthy of condemnation as to be insubordinate.2 Hence he was frequently partial in his judgments on what happened to rulers, and unjust in his estimate of the conduct of their subjects. In this respect he was inferior to Mencius his disciple.

I have written these sentences about Confucius with reluctance, and from the compulsion of a sense of duty. I have been accused of being unjust to him, and of dealing with him inhumanly.3 Others have said that I was partial to him, and represented his character and doctrines too favourably. The conflicting charges encourage me to hope that I have pursued the golden Mean, and dealt fairly with my subject. My conscience gives no response to the charge that I have been on the look-out for opportunities to depreciate Confucius. I know on the contrary that I have been forward to accord a generous appreciation to him and his teachings. But I have been unable to make a hero of him. My work was undertaken that I might understand for myself, and help others to understand, the religious, moral, social, and political condition of China, and that I might see and suggest the most likely methods of accomplishing its improvement. Nothing stands in the way of this improvement so much as the devotion of its scholars and government to Confucius. It is he who leads them that causes them to err and has destroyed the way of their paths.

5. The above sentence leads me to the last point on which I proposed to touch in this section,-the influence which the Ch'un Ts'ew has had on the successive governChinese governments and the people.) ments of China and on the Chinese people at large. And here I will be brief.

Influence of the Chun Ts'ëw on)

A great part of the historical literature of the country continues still to be modelled after our Classic and the Chuen of Tso. Immediately after the Chow dynasty the name of Ch'un Ts'ëw was given to a species of Work having little affinity with that of Confucius. We have the Ch'un Ts'ëw of Leu Puh-wei, the chief minister of Ts'in, Luh Këa's Ch'un Ts'ëw of Ts'oo and Han,1 and many others, which were never held in great repute. In the after Han dynasty, how

2 See the Analects, VII. xxxv. 3 See a review of my 1st volume, in the Edinburgh Review, April, 1869.

:呂不韋,呂氏春秋陸賈楚漢春秋. See Chaou Yih's first chapter

on the Ch'un Ts'ëw, where he gives the names of a score of these Works.

ever, there was composed the 'Chronicles of Han,2 on the plan of the Ch'un Ts'ëw. Histories of this kind received in the Sung dynasty the name of 'General Mirrors,' and 'General Mirrors, with Summary and Details,3 the summary corresponding to the text of the Ch'un Ts'ëw, and the details to the Chuen. Down to the present dynasty Works have been composed with names having more or less affinity to those; and in reading them the student has to be on the watch and determine for himself how far the details bear out the statement of the summary. Such Works as the 'Digest of the History of the Successive Dynasties' are more after the plan of the text of the Ch'un Ts'ëw, but they become increasingly complex and difficult of execution with the lapse of time and the iucreasing extent of the empire.

But the influence of the Ch'un Ts'ëw on the literature of China is of little importance excepting as that influence has aided its moulding power on the government and character of the people; and in this respect it appears to me to have been very injurious. The three defects of Confucius which have left their impress so clearly on his Work have been painfully conspicuous in the history of the country and the people down to the present day. The teachings of Mencius, bringing into prominence the lessons of the Shoo and the She concerning the different awards of Providence, according as a government cherished or neglected the welfare of the people, have modified the extreme reverence for authority which was so remarkable in Confucius; but there remain altogether unmitigated the want of reverence for truth, and the shrinking from looking fairly at the realities of their condition and relations. And these are the great evils under which China is suffering at the present day. During the past forty years her position with regard to the more advanced nations of the world has been entirely changed. She has entered into treaties with them upon equal terms; but I do not think her ministers and people have yet looked this truth fairly in the face, so as to realize the fact that China is only one of many independent nations in the world, and that the 'beneath the sky,' over which her emperor has rule, is not all beneath the sky, but only a certain portion of it which is defined on the earth's surface and

2漢紀, composed by 荀悦 at the command of the emperor Hëen (獻帝)

3 E. g.,

Sze-ma Kwang's 資治通鑑, and Choo He's 通鑑綱目綱目 means a net,-the

rope by which the whole is drawn together and the eyes or meshes of which it is composed.

歴代統

表

can be pointed out upon the map. But if they will not admit this, and strictly keep good faith according to the treaties which they have accepted, the result will be for them calamities greater than any that have yet befallen the empire. Their lot has fallen in critical times, when the books of Confucius are a very insufficient and unsafe guide for them. If my study of the Ch'un Ts'ëw help towards convincing them of this, and leading them to look away from him to another Teacher, a great aim of my life will have been gained.