to remain in Wei, and just at this juncture the messengers from Loo arrived.5

Confucius was now in his 69th year. The world had not dealt kindly with him. In every State which he had visited he had met with disappointment and sorrow. Only five more years remained to him, nor were they of a brighter character than the past. He had, indeed, attained to that state, he tells us, in which "he could follow what his heart desired without transgressing what was right," but other people were not more inclined than they had been to abide by his counsels. The duke Gae and Ke K'ang often conversed with him, but he no longer had weight in the guidance of State affairs, and wisely addressed himself to the completion of his literary labours. He wrote a preface to the Shoo-king; carefully digested the rites and ceremonies determined by the wisdom of the more ancient ages and kings; collected and arranged the ancient poetry; and undertook the reform of music. He has told us himself, "I returned from Wei to Loo, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in the Imperial Songs and Praise Songs found all their proper place." To the Yih-king he devoted much study, and Sze-ma Ts'een says that the leather thongs by which the tablets of his copy were bound together were thrice worn out. "If some years were added to my life," he said, "I would give fifty to the study of the Yih, and then I might come to be without great faults."9 During this time also, we may suppose that he supplied Tsăng Sin with the materials of the classic of Filial Piety. The same year that he returned, Ke K‘ang sent Yen Yew to ask his opinion about an additional impost which he wished to lay upon the people, but Confucius refused to give any reply, telling the disciple privately his disapproval of the proposed measure. It was carried out, however, in the following year, by the agency of Yen, on which occasion, I suppose, it was that Confucius said to the other disciples, "He is no disciple of mine; my little children, beat the drum and assail him."10 The year B.C. 482 was marked by the death of his son Le, which he seems to have borne with more equanimity than he did that of his disciple Yen Hwuy, which some writers assign to the following year, though I have already mentioned it under the year B.C. 488.

5 See the 左傳哀公十一年

p. 12. 8 Ana, IX. xiv.

6 Ana. II. iv. 6.

9 Ana, VII, xvi.

7 See the 史記

10 Ana, XI. xvi,

In the spring of B.C. 480, a servant of Ke K'ang caught a k'e-lin on a hunting excursion of the duke in the present district of Këats'eang. No person could tell what strange animal it was, and Confucius was called to look at it. He at once knew it to be a lin, and the legend-writers say that it bore on one of its horns the piece of ribbon, which his mother had attached to the one that appeared to her before his birth. According to the chronicle of Kung-yang, he was profoundly affected. He cried out, "For whom have you come? For whom have you come?" His tears flowed freely, and he added, "The course of my doctrines is run.

Notwithstanding the appearance of the lin, the life of Confucius was still protracted for two years longer, though he took occasion to terminate with that event his history of the Ts'un Ts'ew. This Work according to Sze-ma Ts'een was altogether the production of this year, but we need not suppose that it was so. In it, from the standpoint of Loo, he briefly indicates the principal events occurring throughout the empire, every term being expressive, it is said, of the true character of the actors and events described. Confucius said himself, "It is the Spring and Autumn which will make men know me, and it is the Spring and Autumn which will make men condemn me."13 Mencius makes the composition of it to have been an achievement as great as Yu's regulation of the waters of the deluge." Confucius completed the Spring and Autumn, and rebellious ministers and villainous sons were struck with terror.'

Towards the end of this year, word came to Loo that the duke of Ts'e had been murdered by one of his officers. Confucius was moved with indignation. Such an outrage, he felt, called for his solemn interference. He bathed, went to court, and represented the matter to the duke, saying, "Ch'in Hăng has slain his sovereign, I beg that you will undertake to punish him." The duke pleaded his incapacity, urging that Loo was weak compared with Ts'e, but Confucius replied, "One half the people of Ts'e are not consenting to the deed. If you add to the people of Loo one half the people of Ts'e, you are sure to overcome." But he could not infuse his spirit into the duke, who told him to go and lay the matter before the chiefs of the three Families. Sorely against his sense of propriety, 11兗州府嘉祥縣 12 公羊傳哀公十四年. According to

Kung-yang, however, the lin was found by some wood-gatherers. 14 Men., III. Pt. II. ix. 11.

13 Mencius III. Pt. II. ix. 8.