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Confucianism the typical

to that of Neo-Platonism. This was largely influenced by the permanent introduction of Buddhism into China in the first century (A.D. 65). Lao-tzu was assimilated to Buddha. Images were made of three Taouist Holy Ones. The doctrine of future punishment became a powerful engine in the hands of the priests. Ancestral worship was no longer a fellowship of the family, but a service of fear for the averting of evil. Subordinate Gods were multiplied as representatives of the powers of nature and charged with the interests of human life. Even within the last half century the God of war (Kwan-tî) has been made equal to Confucius. And though these are not properly Taouist deities their temples are in charge of Taouist priests.

While this practical degeneration of Taouism as a religious system proceeded, the moral teaching of Taouism still retained wide influence; and 'The book of rewards and punishments,' a collection of moral aphorisms of great beauty, is said to be at present the most popular religious book in China.

(c) Confucianism.

The system of Lao-tzu, though it was a necessary philosophical embodiment of the fundamental Chinese conception of an absolute order of

things, was alien from the practical character of the people. So far as it obtained acceptance, it was with select thinkers as a speculative system or with the mass of people as a system of magical powers. The latter aspect is, as we have seen, that which has been most permanent. It was supposed that the wise man obtained command over the spirits of earth and heaven by which he was surrounded, and in virtue of this imaginary power of its priests Taouism still maintains its hold on China. The system of Confucius however is the most complete expression of the national character. Confucius is the only statesman who has fashioned a ‘religion'; and he sought it in the establishment of an earthly order. He declined to entertain the questions, Whence? Whither? The life of this world was, he held, sufficient to occupy men.

Ke Loo asked about serving the spirits of the 'dead. The Master said: While you are not able 'to serve men, how can you serve their spirits? 'Ke Loo added: I venture to ask about Death. 'He was answered: While you do not know life, 'how can you know about death?' (Analects xi. 11). So there were four things which the Master 'taught, letters, ethics, devotion of soul, truthful'ness' (id. 24). Through these he endeavoured to shape an external order which should at once

develop and restrain human powers; and he held that perfect virtue consists in the manifestation of gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnest'ness and kindness' (Analects xvii. 6).

The foundation of the system of Confucius lay in the assumption, of which there were traces in the older writings, that man is born good, 'born 'for righteousness' (Analects vi. 17; cf. Mencius vii. 1, 15; vi. (1), 2, 1 f.). 'The great man,' said Mencius, who was the victorious apostle of Confucianism, is he who does not lose his childs'heart' (iv. 2, 13); and while he recognised the complexity of the constitution of man, he affirmed that man was capable of recognising a sovereign law within. To follow this and not some chance impulse is, he shews with a vigour and decision not unworthy of Butler, to follow Nature (vii. 1, 17). In this sense 'benevolence is man' (vii. 2, 16); and the highest is within the reach of. all.

At the same time both Confucius and Mencius recognised that men are liable to go astray under the influence of circumstances. They have need therefore of learning the lesson of past experience (Analects xv. 30), and of submitting to discipline and government. Hence followed the paramount

but needs discipline.

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importance attached by Confucianists to education and the ceremonial of life; and it would be difficult to find anywhere a more harmonious view of the whole ordering of conduct in the state and in the family and in personal intercourse than that which is given in the Li Kî ('A collection of the Rules of Propriety or Ceremonial Usages'). It is easy to disparage the observances as simply formal and external, but they witness to the intimate relation of the outward to the inward, and foreshadow in some sense the sacramental aspects of the world and life which Christianity has revealed. In a most pregnant saying, Confucius shewed that he looked beyond the impressions of sense. "The Master 'said: "It is according to the rules of propriety" 'they say; "It is according to the rules of 'propriety" they say. Are gems and silk all that 'is meant by propriety?

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It is Music" they say.

"It is Music" they say;

Are bells and drums all

that is meant by Music?' (Analects xvii. 11.)

The regulation of life was indeed designed to express justly the five relations,' between parent and child, ruler and ruled, brethren, husband and wife, friends, which, as they underlie all society, must be duly regarded for the maintenance of the well-being of a state. The classic

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Filial piety.

of Filial piety' (Hsido King: S. B. E. iii. 465–488) describes in a short compass and in a most impressive form the foundation of Chinese life. The services of love and reverence to parents 'when alive, and those of grief and sorrow to 'them when dead:-these completely discharge 'the fundamental duty of living men' (c. xviii.). In a wider sense Filial piety commences with the service of parents; it proceeds to the service ' of the ruler; it is completed by the establishment ' of the character' (c. i.). For in spirit Filial piety was held to extend to all the duties of life; and, more than this, it is in essence the constant 'method of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth and 'the practical duty of Man,' the comprehensive law of all being. Thus Chinese Society was organised on a principle of absolute dependence. Since the child, the citizen, owes everything to the past, he renders to the past in acknowledgement of the debt, and to the elder as representing it, complete obedience. The Master said: I am not one 'who was born in the possession of knowledge: I 'am one who is fond of antiquity and earnest in 'seeking it there' (Analects vii. 19). The result has been stability and stationariness.

Confucius, like Lao-tzů, left the old religion. undisturbed. He himself carefully observed the