ministers. The sacrifices to the emperor Shâo-hâo, the next in descent from Hwang-ti, were maintained in T'an, so that the chief fancied that he knew all about the abstruse subject on which he discoursed. Confucius, hearing about the matter, waited on the visitor, and learned from him all that he had to communicate1.

To the year B.C. 525, when Confucius was twenty-nine years old, is referred his studying music under a famous master of the name of Hsiang. He was approaching his thirtieth year when, as he tells us, 'he stood3' firm, that is, in his convictions on the subjects of learning to which he had bent his mind fifteen years before. Five years more, however, were still to pass by, before the anticipation mentioned in the conclusion of the last paragraph began to receive its fulfilment, though we may conclude from the way in which it was brought about that he was growing all the time in the estimation of the thinking minds in his native State.

In the twenty-fourth year of duke Châo, B.C. 518, one of the principal ministers of Lû, known by the name of Măng Hsî, died. Seventeen years before, he had painfully felt his ignorance of ceremonial observances, and had made it his subsequent business to make himself acquainted with them. On his deathbed, he addressed his chief officer, saying, 'A knowledge of propriety is the stem of a man. Without it he has no means of standing firm. I have heard that there is one K'ung Ch'iû, who is thoroughly versed in it. He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were Fû-fû Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K'âo-fû, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Hêh has observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K'ung Ch'iû. After my death, you you must

1 This rests on the respectable authority of Tso Ch'iû-ming's annotations on the Ch'un Ch'iû, but I must consider it apocryphal. The legend-writers have fashioned a journey to Tan. The slightest historical intimation becomes a text with them, on which they enlarge to the glory of the sage. Amiot has reproduced and expanded their romancings, and others, such as Pauthier (Chine, pp. 121-183) and Thornton (History of China, vol. i. pp. 151-215), have followed in his wake.

2

*師襄. See the Narratives of the School,' 卷三,

3 Ana. II. iv.

art. ; but the account there given is not more credible than the chief of T'an's expositions. The journey to Châu is placed by Sze-mâ Ch'ien before Confucius's holding of his first official employments, and Chû Hsî and most other writers follow him. It is a great error, and arisen from a misunderstanding of the passage upon the subject.

from the

左氏傳

tell Ho-chî to go and study proprieties under him. In consequence of this charge, Ho-chi 2, Măng Hsî's son, who appears in the Analects under the name of Măng Î3, and a brother, or perhaps only a near relative, named Nan-kung Chăng-shû, became disciples of Confucius. Their wealth and standing in the State gave him a position which he had not had before, and he told Chăng-shû of a wish which he had to visit the court of Châu, and especially to confer on the subject of ceremonies and music with Lâo Tan. Chăng-shû represented the matter to the duke Ch'âo, who put a carriage and a pair of horses at Confucius's disposal for the expedition".

At this time the court of Châu was in the city of Lo", in the present department of Ho-nan of the province of the same name. The reigning sovereign is known by the title of Chăng, but the sovereignty was little more than nominal. The state of China was then analogous to that of one of the European kingdoms during the prevalence of the feudal system. At the commencement of the dynasty, the various states of the kingdom had been assigned to the relatives and adherents of the reigning family. There were thirteen principalities of greater note, and a large number of smaller dependencies. During the vigorous youth of the dynasty, the sovereign or lord paramount exercised an effective control over the various chiefs, but with the lapse of time there came weakness and decay. The chiefs-corresponding somewhat to the European dukes, earls, marquises, barons, &c.-quarrelled and warred among themselves, and the stronger among them barely acknowledged their subjection to the sovereign. A similar condition of things prevailed in each particular State. There there were hereditary ministerial families, who were continually encroaching on the authority of their rulers, and the heads of those families again were frequently hard pressed by their inferior officers. Such was the state of China in Confucius's time. The reader must have it clearly before him, if he would understand the position of the sage, and the reforms which, we shall find, it was subsequently his object to introduce.

Arrived at Châu, he had no intercourse with the court or any of

1 See 左氏傅,昭公七年

‘南宮敬叔.

5 The

makes Chang-shû accompany Confucius to Châu. It

is difficult to understand this, if Chăng-shû were really a son of Măng Hsî who had died that

·洛. 敬王(B.C. 519-475).

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 Chi K'ang what he had heard from him about The Five Tis,' 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 2. 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-ma 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.

upon

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 Yâo 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 Chăng, 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 2.' 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 He has river eyes and a dragon forehead, -the very characteristics of Hwang-ti. 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 Ch'î, 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'an, 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