he did so, but they would not act, and he withdrew with the remark, "Following in the rear of the great officers, I did not dare not to represent such a matter."15

In the year B.C. 479, Confucius had to mourn the death of another of his disciples, one of those who had been longest with him,— the well-known Tsze-loo. He stands out a sort of Peter in the Confucian school, a man of impulse, prompt to speak and prompt to act. He gets many a check from the master, but there is evidently a strong sympathy between them. Tsze-loo uses a freedom with him on which none of the other disciples dares to venture, and there is not one among them all, for whom, if I may speak from my own feeling, the foreign student comes to form such a liking. A pleasant picture is presented to us in one passage of the Analects. It is said, "The disciple Min was standing by his side, looking bland and precise; Tsze-loo (named Yew), looking bold and soldierly; Yen Yew and Tsze-kung, with a free and straightforward manner. The master was pleased, but he observed, 'Yew there!-he will not die a natural death.'"16

This prediction was verified. When Confucius returned to Loo from Wei, he left Tsze-loo and Tsze-kaou17 engaged there in official service. Troubles arose. News came to Loo, B.C. 479, that a revolution was in progress in Wei, and when Confucius heard it, he said, "Ch'ae will come here, but Yew will die."18 So it turned out. When Tsze-kaou saw that matters were desperate he made his escape, but Tsze-loo would not forsake the chief who had treated him well. He threw himself into the melee, and was slain. Confucius wept sore for him, but his own death was not far off. It took place on the 11th day of the 4th month in the following year, B.C. 478.19

Early one morning, we are told, he got up, and with his hands behind his back, dragging his staff, he moved about by his door, crooning over,

"The great mountain must crumble;

The strong beam must break;

And the wise man wither away like a plant."

15 See the+, and Analects, XIV. xxii.

16 Ana. XI. xii.

17子羔 by surname Kaou (高), and name Chae (柴). 18 See the 左傳

哀公十五年

of Confucius, in loc.

19 See the 左傳哀公十六年, and Keang Yung's Life

After a little, he entered the house and sat down opposite the door. Tsze-kung had heard his words, and said to himself, "If the great mountain crumble, to what shall I look up? If the strong beam break, and the wise man wither away, on whom shall I lean? The master, I fear, is going to be ill." With this he hastened into the house. Confucius said to him, "Ts'ze, what makes you so late? According to the statutes of Hea, the corpse was dressed and coffined at the top of the eastern steps, treating the dead as if he were still the host. Under the Yin, the ceremony was performed between the two pillars, as if the dead were both host and guest. The rule of Chow is to perform it at the top of the western steps, treating the dead as if he were a guest. I am a man of Yin, and last night I dreamt that I was sitting with offerings before me between the two pillars. No intelligent monarch arises; there is not one in the empire that will make me his master. My time has come to die." So it was. He went to his couch, and after seven days expired.20

Such is the account which we have of the last hours of the great philosopher of China. His end was not unimpressive, but it was melancholy. He sank behind a cloud. Disappointed hopes made his soul bitter. The great ones of the empire had not received his teachings. No wife nor child was by to do the kindly offices of affection for him. Nor were the expectations of another life present with him as he passed through the dark valley. He uttered no prayer, and he betrayed no apprehensions. Deep-treasured in his own heart may have been the thought that he had endeavoured to serve his generation by the will of God, but he gave no sign. "The mountain falling came to nought, and the rock was removed out of his place. So death prevailed against him and he passed; his countenance was changed, and he was sent away."

10. I flatter myself that the preceding paragraphs contain a mɔre correct narrative of the principal incidents in the life of Confucius than has yet been given in any European language. They might easily have been expanded into a volume, but I did not wish to exhaust the subject, but only to furnish a sketch, which, while it might satisfy the general reader, would be of special assistance to the careful student of the classical Books. I had taken many notes of the manifest errors in regard to chronology and other matters in the

20 See the Le Ke, II. Pt. I. ii, 20.

"Family Sayings," and the chapter of Sze-ma Ts'cen on the K'ung family, when the digest of Keang Yung, to which I have made frequent reference, attracted my attention. Conclusions to which I had come were confirmed, and a clue was furnished to difficulties. which I was seeking to disentangle. I take the opportunity to acknowledge here my obligations to it. With a few notices of Confucius' habits and manners, I shall conclude this section.

Very little can be gathered from reliable sources on the personal appearance of the sage. The height of his father is stated, as I have noted, to have been ten feet, and though Confucius came short of this by four inches, he was often called "the tall man." It is allowed that the ancient foot or cubit was shorter than the modern, but it must be reduced more than any scholar I have consulted has yet done, to bring this statement within the range of credibility. The legends assign to his figure "nine-and-forty remarkable peculiarities," a tenth part of which would have made him more a monster than a man. Dr Morrison says that the images of him, which he had seen in the northern parts of China, represent him as of a dark swarthy colour. It is not so with those common in the south. He was, no doubt, in size and complexion much the same as many of his descendants in the present day.

of

But if his disciples had nothing to chronicle of his personal appearance, they have gone very minutely into an account of many his habits. The tenth book of the Analects is all occupied with his deportment, his eating, and his dress. In public, whether in the village, the temple, or the court, he was the man of rule and ceremony, but "at home he was not formal." Yet if not formal, he was particular. In bed even he did not forget himself; "he did not lie like a corpse," and "he did not speak." "He required his sleeping dress to be half as long again as his body." "If he happened to be sick, and the prince came to visit him, he had his face to the east, made his court robes be put over him, and drew his girdle across them."

He was nice in his diet,-"not disliking to have his rice dressed fine, nor to have his minced meat cut small." "Anything at all

四十九表

2 Chinese and English Dictionary, char. L. Sir John Davis also mentions seeing a figure of Confucius, in a temple near the Po-yang lake, of which the complexion

was quite black.' (The Chinese, vol II. p. 66).

gone he would not touch." "He must have his meat cut properly, and to every kind its proper sauce; but he was not a great eater.' "It was only in wine that he laid down no limit to himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it." "When the villagers were drinking together, on those who carried staves going out, he went out immediately after." There must always be ginger at the table, and "when eating, he did not converse." "Although his food might be coarse rice and poor soup, he would offer a little of it in sacrifice, with a grave respectful air.'

"At

"On occasion of a sudden clap of thunder, or a violent wind, he would change countenance. He would do the same, and rise up moreover, when he found himself a guest at a loaded board." the sight of a person in mourning, he would also change countenance, and if he happened to be in his carriage, he would bend forward with a respectful salutation." "His general way in his carriage was not to turn his head round, nor talk hastily, nor point with his hands." He was charitable. "When any of his friends died, if there were no relations who could be depended on for the necessary offices, he would say, 'I will bury him.""

The disciples were so careful to record these and other characteristics of their master, it is said, because every act, of movement or of rest, was closely associated with the great principles which it was his object to inculcate. The detail of so many small matters, however, does not impress a foreigner so favourably. There is a want of freedom about the philosopher. Somehow he is less a sage to me, after I have seen him at his table, in his undress, in his bed, and in his carriage.

SECTION II.

HIS INFLUENCE AND OPINIONS.

1. Confucius died, we have seen, complaining that of all the princes of the empire there was not one who would adopt his principles and obey his lessons. He had hardly passed from the stage of life, when his merit began to be acknowledged. When the duke death, he pronounced his eulogy in the words, "Heaven has not left to me the aged man. There is none now to

Homage rendered to Confucius by the emperors of China.

Gae heard of his

assist me on the throne. Woe is me! Alas! O venerable Ne!" Tszekung complained of the inconsistency of this lamentation from one who could not use the master when he was alive, but the duke was probably sincere in his grief. He caused a temple to be erected, and ordered that sacrifice should be offered to the sage, at the four seasons of the year.2

The emperors of the tottering dynasty of Chow had not the intelligence, nor were they in a position, to do honour to the departed philosopher, but the facts detailed in the first chapter of these prolegomena, in connection with the attempt of the founder of the Ts'in dynasty to destroy the monuments of antiquity, show how the authority of Confucius had come by that time to prevail through the empire. The founder of the Han dynasty, in passing through Loo, B.C. 194, visited his tomb and offered an ox in sacrifice to him. Other emperors since then have often made pilgrimages to the spot. The most famous temple in the empire now rises over the place of the grave. K'ang-he, the second and greatest of the rulers of the present dynasty, in the 23d year of his reign, there set the example of kneeling thrice, and each time laying his forehead thrice in the dust, before the image of the sage.

In the year of our Lord 1, began the practice of conferring honorary designations on Confucius by imperial authority. The emperor Pings then styled him-"The duke Ne, all-complete and illustrious."4 This was changed, in A.D. 492, to-"The venerable Ne, the accomplished Sage."5 Other titles have supplanted this. Shunche, the first of the Man-chow dynasty, adopted, in his second year, A.D. 645, the style," K'ung, the ancient Teacher, accomplished and illustrious, all-complete, the perfect Sage;"7 but twelve years later, a shorter title was introduced,-"K'ung, the ancient Teacher, the perfect Sage." Since that year no further alteration has been made.

At first, the worship of Confucius was confined to the country of Loo, but in A.D. 57 it was enacted that sacrifices should be offered to him in the imperial college, and in all the colleges of the principal 1 Le Ke, II. Pt. I. iii. 43. This culogy is found at greater length in the

immediately

after the notice of the sage's death. 2 See the 聖廟祀典圖考卷一, art. on Confucius. I am indebted to this for most of the notices in this paragraph, 3 平帝 5文聖尼 6順治 7 6順治 大成至聖

4 成宣公 文宣先師孔子

8至聖先師孔子