1566), constituted a member of the Han-lin college, and of the Board in charge of the Five Ching, which honour was to be hereditary in the family, and the holder of it to preside at the sacrifices to his ancestor1. China's appreciation of our philosopher could not be more strikingly shown. Honours flow back in this empire. The descendant ennobles his ancestors. But in the case of Mencius, as in that of Confucius, this order is reversed. No excellence of descendants can extend to them; and the nation acknowledges its obligations to them by nobility and distinction conferred through all generations upon their posterity.

SECTION II.

HIS INFLUENCE AND OPINIONS.

1. Confucius had hardly passed off the stage of life before his merits began to be acknowledged. The duke Âi, who had neglected his counsels when he was alive, was the first to pronounce his eulogy, and to order that public sacrifices should be offered to him. His disciples proclaimed their estimation of him as superior to all the sages whom China had ever seen. Before long this view of him took possession of the empire; and since the Han dynasty, he has been the man whom sovereign and people have delighted to honour.

The memory of Mencius was not so distinguished. We have seen that many centuries elapsed before his Writings were received among the Classics of the empire. It was natural that under the same dynasty when this was done the man himself should be admitted to share in the sacrifices presented to Confucius.

Acknowledgement of Mencius's merits by the government.

The emperor Shăn Tsung, in A.D. 1083, issued a patent, constituting Mencius 'Duke of the kingdom of Tsâu3,' and ordering a temple to be built to him in the district of Tsâu, at the spot where the philosopher had been interred. In the following year it was enacted that he should have a place in the temple of Confucius, next to that of Yen Yuan, the favourite disciple of the sage.

3

In A.D. 1330, the emperor Wăn Tsung, of the Yuan dynasty, made an addition to Mencius's title, and styled him 'Duke of the

1 See Morrison's Dictionary, on Mencius, character, A.D. 1068-1085.

鄒國公‘文宗, A. D.I330-1333

State of Tsâu, Inferior Sage1.' This continued till the rise of the Ming dynasty, the founder of which, Hung-wû, had his indignation excited in 1372 by one of Mencius's conversations with king Hsuan. The philosopher had said :- When the prince regards his ministers as his hands and feet, the ministers regard their prince as their belly and heart; when he regards them as his dogs and horses, they regard him as any other man; when he regards them as ground or grass, they regard him as a robber and an enemy".' To apply such names as robber and enemy in any case to sovereigns seemed to the imperial reader an unpardonable outrage, and he ordered Mencius to be degraded from his place in the temples of Confucius, declaring also that if any one remonstrated on the proceeding he should be dealt with as guilty of 'Contempt of Majesty.'

The scholars of China have never been slow to vindicate the memory of its sages and worthies. Undeterred by the imperial threat, Ch'ien Tang3, a president of the Board of Punishments, appeared with a remonstrance, saying, 'I will die for Mencius, and my death will be crowned with glory.' The emperor was moved by his earnestness, and allowed him to go scathless. In the following year, moreover, examination and reflection produced a change of mind. He issued a second proclamation to the effect that Mencius, by exposing heretical doctrines and overthrowing perverse speakings, had set forth clearly the principles of Confucius, and ought to be restored to his place as one of his assessors*.

1

#ERÀ. The has been translated ‘second-rate,' but it is by no

means so depreciating a term as that, simply indicating that Mencius was second to Confucius.

The title 亞聖

was first applied to him by Chao Ch'i. Bk. IV. Pt. II. iii. ̓錢唐

I have taken this account from 'The Sacrificial Canon of the Sage's Temples' (vol. i. proleg. p. 132). Dr. Morrison in his Dictionary, under the character, adds that the change in the emperor's mind was produced by his reading the remarkable passage in Bk. VI. Pt. II. xv, about trials and hardships as the way by which Heaven prepares men for great services. He thought it was descriptive of himself, and that he could argue from it a good title to the crown ;-and so he was mollified to the philosopher. It may be worth while to give here the concluding remarks in 'The Paraphrase for Daily Lessons, Explaining the Meaning of the Four Books' (vol. i. proleg. p. 130), on the chapter of Mencius which was deemed by the imperial reader so objectionable :-'Mencius wished that sovereigns should treat their ministers according to propriety, and nourish them with kindness, and therefore he used these perilous words in order to alarm and rouse them. As to the other side, the part of ministers, though the sovereign regard them as his hands and feet, they ought notwithstanding to discharge most earnestly their duties of loyalty and love. Yea, though he regard them as dogs and horses, or as the ground and grass, they ought still more to perform their part in spite of all difficulties, and oblivious of their persons. They may on no account make the manner in which they are regarded, whether it be of appreciation or contempt, the standard by which they regulate the measure of their grateful service. The words of Confucius, that the ruler should behave to his ministers according to propriety, and the ministers

In 1530, the ninth year of the reign of Chiâ-ching, a general revision was made of the sacrificial canon for the sage's temple, and the title of Mencius was changed into 'The philosopher Măng, Inferior Sage.' So it continues to the present day. His place is the second on the west, next to that of the philosopher Tsăng. Originally, we have seen, he followed Yen Hai, but Hûi, Tsze-sze, Tsăng, and Măng were appointed the sage's four assessors, and had their relative positions fixed, in 1267.

Estimate of Mencius by himself and by scholars.

2. The second edict of Hung-wû, restoring Mencius to his place in the temples of Confucius, states fairly enough the services which he is held to have rendered to his country. The philosopher's own estimate of himself has partly appeared in the sketch of his Life'. He seemed to start with astonishment when his disciple Kung-sun Châu was disposed to rank him as a sage2; but he also said on one occasion'When sages shall rise up again, they will not change my words3.' Evidently, he was of opinion that the mantle of Confucius had fallen upon him. A work was to be done in his generation, and he felt himself able to undertake it. After describing what had been accomplished by the great Yü, by Châu-kung, and Confucius, he adds:-'I also wish to rectify men's hearts, and to put an end to those perverse doctrines, to oppose their one-sided actions, and banish away their licentious expressions; and thus to carry on the work of the three sages*.'

The place which Mencius occupies in the estimation of the literati of China may be seen by the following testimonies, selected from those appended by Chû Hsî to the prefatory notice of his Life in the 'Collected Comments.'

Han Yü' says, 'If we wish to study the doctrines of the sages, we must begin with Mencius.' He also quotes the opinion of Yang Tsze-yün, 'Yang and Mo were stopping up the way of truth, when Mencius refuted them, and scattered their delusions without difficulty;' and then remarks upon it :-'When Yang and Mo walked abroad, the true doctrine had nearly come to nought. Though

serve their sovereign with faithfulness, contain the unchanging rule for all ages.' The authors of the 'Daily Lessons' did their work by imperial order, and evidently had the fear of the court before their eyes. Their language implies a censure of our philosopher. There wil' ever be a grudge against him in the minds of despots, and their creatures will be ready to depreciate him.

Mencius possessed talents and virtue, even those of a sage, he did not occupy the throne. He could only speak and not act. With all his earnestness, what could he do? It is owing, however, to his words, that learners now-a-days still know how to revere Confucius, to honour benevolence and righteousness, to esteem the true sovereign and despise the mere pretender. But the grand rules and laws of the sage and sage-sovereigns had been lost beyond the power of redemption; only one in a hundred of them was preserved. Can it be said in those circumstances that Mencius had an easy task? Yet had it not been for him, we should have been buttoning the lappets of our coats on the left side, and our discourse would have been all confused and indistinct;—it is on this account that I have honoured Mencius, and consider his merit not inferior to that of Yü.'

One asked the philosopher Ch'ăng1 whether Mencius might be pronounced to be a sage. He replied, I do not dare to say altogether that he was a sage, but his learning had reached the extremest point.' The same great scholar also said: The merit of Mencius in regard to the doctrine of the sages is more than can be told. Confucius only spoke of benevolence, but as soon as Mencius opens his mouth, we hear of benevolence and righteousness. Confucius only spoke of the will or mind, but Mencius enlarged also on the nourishment of the passion-nature. In these two respects his merit was great.' 'Mencius did great service to the world by his teaching the goodness of man's nature.' 'Mencius had a certain amount of the heroical spirit, and to that there always belong some jutting corners, the effect of which is very injurious. Yen Yuan, all round and complete, was different from this. He was but a hair's-breadth removed from a sage, while Mencius must be placed in a lower rank, a great worthy, an inferior sage.' Ch'ǎng was asked where what he called the heroical spirit of Mencius could be seen. 'We have only to compare his words. with those of Confucius,' he said, 'and we shall perceive it. It is like the comparison of ice or crystal with a precious jade-stone. The ice is bright enough, but the precious stone, without so much brilliancy, has a softness and richness all its own. The scholar

2 This is probably the original of what appears in the 'Mémoires concernant les Chinois,' in the notice of Mencius, vol. iii, and which Thornton (vol. ii. pp. 216, 217) has faithfully translated therefrom in the following terms :-'Confucius, through prudence or modesty, often dissimulated; he did not always say what he might have said: Măng-tsze, on the contrary, was incapable of constraining himself; he spoke what he thought, and without the

Yang' says:-The great object of Mencius in his writings is to rectify men's hearts, teaching them to preserve their heart and nourish their nature, and to recover their lost heart. When he discourses of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge, he refers to the principles of these in the heart commiserating, feeling shame and dislike, affected with modesty and complaisance, approving and disapproving. When he speaks of the evils springing from perverted speakings, he says-"Growing first in the mind, they prove injurious to government." When he shows how a prince should be served, he says-" Correct what is wrong in his mind. Once rectify the prince, and the kingdom will be settled." With him the thousand changes and ten thousand operations of men all come from the mind or heart. If a man once rectify his heart, little else will remain for him to do. In "The Great Learning," the cultivation of the person, the regulation of the family, the government of the State, and the tranquillisation of the empire, all have their root in rectifying the heart and making the thoughts sincere. If the heart be rectified, we recognise at once the goodness of the nature. On this account, whenever Mencius came into contact with people, he testified that man's nature is good. When Au-yang Yung-shû says, that in the lessons of the sages, man's nature does not occupy the first place, he is wrong. There is nothing to be put before this. Yao and Shun are the models for ten thousand ages simply because they followed their nature. And to follow our nature is just to accord with Heavenly principle. To use plans and arts, away from this, though they may be successful in great achievement, is the selfishness of human desires, and as far removed from the mode of action of the sage, as earth is from heaven.' I shall close these testimonies with a sentence from Chú Hst himself. He says:-Mencius, when compared with Confucius, always appears to speak in too lofty a style; but when we hear him proclaiming the goodness of man's

least fear or reserve. He resembles ice of the purest water, through which we can see all its defects as well as its beauties: Confucius, on the other hand, is like a precious gem, which, though not so pellucid as ice, has more strength and solidity.' The former of these sentences is quite alien from the style of Chinese thinking and expression.

'楊氏·This is 楊時, styled 中, but more commonly referred to as

楊龜

. He was one of the great scholars of the Sung dynasty, a friend of the two Chăng. He has a place in the temples of Confucius.

greatest scholars. He has now a place in the temples of Confucius.

This was one of China's