Mencius went in. He was so much offended at finding her in that position, that he told his mother, and expressed his intention to put her away, because of 'her want of propriety.' 'It is you who have no propriety,' said his mother, 'and not your wife. Do not "The Rules of Propriety" say, "When you are about to ascend a hall, raise your voice; when you enter a door, keep your eyes low?" The reason of the rules is that people may not be taken unprepared; but you entered the door of your private apartment without raising your voice, and so caused your wife to be caught squatting on the ground The impropriety is with you and not with her.' On this Mencius fell to reproving himself, and did not dare to put away his wife.

One day, when he was living with his mother in Ch'î, she was struck with the sorrowfulness of his aspect as he stood leaning against a pillar, and asked him the cause of it. He replied, 'I have heard that the superior man occupies the place for which he is adapted, accepting no reward to which he does not feel entitled, and not covetous of honour and emolument. Now my doctrines are not practised in Ch'i:-I wish to leave it, but I think of old age, your and am anxious.' His mother said, 'It does not belong to a woman to determine anything of herself, but she is subject to the rule of the three obediences. When young, she has to obey her parents; when married, she has to obey her husband; when a widow, she has to obey her son. You are a man in your full maturity, and I am old. Do you act as your conviction of righteousness tells you you ought to do, and I will act according to the rule which belongs to me. Why should you be anxious about me?'

Such are the accounts which I have found of the mother of Mencius. Possibly some of them are inventions, but they are devoutly believed by the people of China;—and it must be to their profit. We may well believe that she was a woman of very superior character, and that her son's subsequent distinction was in a great degree owing to her influence and training'.

4. From parents we advance to be under tutors and governors. The moulding hand that has wrought upon us in the pliant years of youth always leaves ineffaceable traces upon the character. Can anything be ascertained of the instructor or instructors of Mencius? The reply to this inquiry must be substantially in the negative, though many

Mencius's instructors; and

early life.

1 All these stories are given in the notes to the preface to Mencius in the # 註集證

have affirmed that he sat as a pupil at the feet of Tsze-sze, the grandson of Confucius. We are told this by Chao Ch'i, whose words are:-'As he grew up, he studied under Tsze-sze, acquired all the knowledge taught by "The Learned," and became thoroughly acquainted with "The Five Ching," being more especially distinguished for his mastery of the Shih and the Sha1. A reference to dates, however, shows that this must be incorrect. From the death of Confucius to the birth of Mencius there were 108 years, and supposing--what is by no means probable-that Tsze-sze was born in the year his father died, he must have been 112 years old when Mencius was born. The supposition of their having stood to each other in the relation of master and scholar is inconsistent, moreover, with the style in which Mencius refers to Tsze-sze. He mentions him six or seven times, showing an intimate acquaintance with his history, but never once in a manner which indicates that he had personal intercourse with him 2.

Sze-mâ Ch'ien's account is that Mencius studied under the disciples of. Taze-sze3.' This may have been the case. There is nothing on the score of time to make it impossible, or even improbable; but this is all that can be said about it. No famous names out of the school of Tsze-sze have been transmitted to posterity, and Mencius nowhere speaks as if he felt under special obligation to any in

structor.

One short sentence contains all that he has said bearing on the point before us:-'Although I could not be a disciple of Confucius myself, I have endeavoured to cultivate my character and knowledge by means of others who were.' The chapter to which this belongs is rather enigmatical. The other member of it says:-'The influence of a sovereign sage terminates with the fifth generation. The influence of an unsceptred sage does the same.' By 'an unsceptred sage' Mencius is understood to mean Confucius; and by extending his influence all over five generations, he shows how it was possible for him to place himself under it by means of others who had been in direct communication with the Master.

We must leave the subject of Mencius's early instructors in the obscurity which rests upon it. The first forty years of his life are

長師孔子之孫子思,治儒術之道,通五經,尤長於

詩書

* See the Index of Proper Names.

,受業子思之門人

* See Book IV. Pt. II. xxii.

little more than a blank to us. Many of them, we may be sure, were spent in diligent study. He made himself familiar during them with all the literature of his country. Its classics, its histories, its great men, had received his careful attention. Confucius especially became to him the chief of mortal men, the object of his untiring admiration; and in his principles and doctrines he recognised the truth for want of an appreciation of which the bonds of society all round him were being relaxed, and the kingdom hastening to a general anarchy.

How he supported himself in Tsâu, we cannot tell. Perhaps he was possessed of some patrimony; but when he first comes forth from his native State, we find him accompanied by his most eminent disciples. He probably imitated Confucius by assuming the office of a teacher, not that of a schoolmaster in our acceptation of the word, but that of a professor of morals and learning, encouraging the resort of inquiring minds, in order to resolve their doubts and inform them on the true principles of virtue and society. These disciples would minister to his wants, though we may presume that he sternly maintained his dignity among them, as he afterwards did towards the princes of the time, when he appeared among them as a lecturer in another sense of the term. Two instances of this are recorded, though we cannot be sure that they belonged to the earlier period of his life.

'When Kăng of Tăng made his appearance in your school, said the disciple Kung-tû, 'it seemed proper that a polite consideration should be paid to him, and yet you did not answer him-why was that?' Mencius replied, I do not answer him who questions me presuming on his ability, nor him who presumes on his talents, nor him who presumes on his age, nor him who presumes on services performed to me, nor him who presumes on old acquaintance. Two of those things were chargeable on Kăng of Tăng

The other instance is that of Chiâo of Ts'âo, who said to Mencius, 'I shall be having an interview with the prince of Tsâu, and can ask him to let me have a house to lodge in. I wish to remain here, and receive instruction at your gate.' The way of truth,' replied the philosopher, 'is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it. Do you go home

1 See Bk. VII. Pt. I. xliii.

and search for it, and you will have abundance of teachers'.' This was firmly said, yet not unkindly. It agrees with his observation:'There are many arts in teaching. I refuse, as inconsistent with my character, to teach a man, but I am only thereby still teaching him.'

5. The state of China had waxed worse and worse during the interval that elapsed between Confucius and Mencius. The elements State of China of disorganization which were rife in the times of in Mencius's time. the earlier sage had gone on to produce their natural results. One feeble sovereign had followed another on the throne, and the dynasty of Châu was ready to vanish away. Men were persuaded of its approaching extinction. The feeling of loyalty to it was no longer a cherished sentiment; and the anxiety and expectation was about what new rule would take its place.

Many of the smaller fiefs or principalities had been reduced to a helpless dependence on, or been absorbed by, the larger ones. Of Lu, Chăng, Wei, Wu, Ch'ăn, and Sung3, conspicuous in the Analects, we read but little in Mencius. Tsin had been dismembered, and its fragments formed the nuclei of three new and vigorous kingdoms, -Wei, Châo, and Han3. Ch'i still maintained its ground, but was barely able to make head against the State of Ch'in in the West, and Ch'û in the South. The struggle for supremacy was between these two; the former, as it was ultimately successful, being the more ambitious and incessant in its aggressions on its neighbours.

The princes were thus at constant warfare with one another. Now two or more would form a league to resist the encroaching Ch'in, and hardly would that object be accomplished before they were at war among themselves. Ambitious statesmen were continually inflaming their quarrels. The recluses of Confucius's days, who withdrew in disgust from the world and its turmoil, had given place to a class of men who came forth from their retirements provided with arts of war or schemes of policy which they recommended to the contending chiefs. They made no scruple of changing their allegiance, as they were moved by whim or interest. Kung-sun Yen and Chang I may be mentioned as specimens of those characters. 'Are they not really great men?' it was once asked of Mencius. 2 Bk. VI. Pt. II. xvi. ·魯, 鄭,衞, 吳,陳, 宋

1 Bk. VI. Pt. II. ii. 6.

·晉. ·魏,趙,韓.‘秦’楚.

'Let them once be angry, and all the princes are afraid. Let them live quietly, and the flames of trouble are extinguished throughout the kingdom'.'

It is not wonderful that in such times the minds of men should have doubted of the soundness of the ancient principles of the acknowledged sages of the nation. Doctrines, strange and portentous in the view of Mencius, were openly professed. The authority of Confucius was disowned. The foundations of government were overthrown; the foundations of truth were assailed. Two or three paragraphs from our philosopher will verify and illustrate this representation of the character of his times :-

'A host marches in attendance on the ruler, and stores of provisions are consumed. The hungry are deprived of their food, and there is no rest for those who are called to toil. Maledictions are uttered by one to another with eyes askance, and the people proceed to the commission of wickedness. Thus the royal ordinances are violated, and the people are oppressed, and the supplies of food and drink flow away like water. The rulers yield themselves to the bad current, or they urge their evil way against a good one; they are wild; they are utterly lost.'

'The five chiefs of the princes were sinners against the three kings. The princes of the present day are sinners against the five chiefs. The great officers of the present day are sinners against the princes. . . . The crime of him who connives at and aids the wickedness of his prince is small, but the crime of him who anticipates and excites that wickedness is great. The officers of the present day all go to meet their sovereigns' wickedness, and therefore I say that they are sinners against them".'

'Sage sovereigns cease to arise, and the princes of the States give the reins to their lusts. Unemployed scholars indulge in unreasonable discussions. The words of Yang Chú and Mo Ti fill the kingdom. If you listen to people's discourses, you will find that they have adopted the views either of Yang or of Mo. Now, Yang's principle is--"each one for himself," which does not acknowledge the claims of the sovereign. Mo's principle is "to love all equally," which does not acknowledge the peculiar affection due to a father. But to acknowledge neither king nor father is to be in the state of a beast. Kung-ming I said, "In their kitchens there is fat meat. In their

1 Bk. III: Pt. II. i.

2 Bk. I. Pt. II. iv. 6, 8.

3 Bk. VII. Pt. II. vii. 1, 4.