and the sacrifice that due to a scholar. Was the father a scholar, and the son a great officer, then the burial was that due to a scholar, and the sacrifice that due to a great officer. The one year's mourning was made to extend only to the great officers, but the three years' mourning extended to the emperor. In the mourning for a father or mother, he allowed no difference between the noble and the mean.”

XIX. 1. The Master said, "How far extending was the filial piety of king Woo and the duke of Chow !

2. "Now filial piety is seen in the skilful carrying out of the wishes of our forefathers, and the skilful carrying forward of their undertakings.

3. "In spring and autumn, they repaired and beautified the temple-halls of their fathers, set forth their an

On this there are very long discussions. The truth seems to be, that Chow-kung, carrying out his brother's wishes by laws of state, confirmed the titles, and made the general rule about burials and sacrifices which is described. From "this rule," &c., to the end, we are at first inclined to translate in the present tense, but the past with a reference to Chow-kung is more correct. The "year's mourning" is that principally for uncles and cousins, and it does not extend beyond the great officers, because their uncles, &c., being the subjects of the princes and of the emperor, feelings of kindred must not be allowed to come into collision with the relation of governor and governed. On the "three years' mourning," see Analects XVII. xxi,

19. THE FAR-REACHING FILIAL PIETY OF KING WOO, AND OF THE DUKE OF CHOW. 2. This definition of " filial piety " is worthy of notice. Its operation ceases not with the lives of parents and parents' parents. 3. In spring and autumn; the emperors of China sacrificed, as they still do, to their ancestors every season, Though spring and autumn only are mentioned in the text, we are to understand that what is said of the sacrifices in those seasons applies to all the others. 4. It was an old interpretation that the sacrifices and accompanying services, spoken of here, were not the seasonal services of every year, which are the subject of the preceding paragraph, but the still greater sacrifices (see one of them spoken of in Analects, III. x., xi.); and to that view I would give in my adhesion. The emperor had seven shrines, or apartments, in the hall of the ancestral temple. One belonged to the remote ancestor to whom the dynasty traced its origin. At the great sacrifices, his spirit-tablet was placed fronting the east, and on each side were ranged, three in a row, the tablets belonging to the six others, those of them which fronted the south being, in the genealogical line, the fathers of those who fronted the north. As fronting the south, the region of brilliancy, the former were called chaou, the latter, from the north, the sombre region, were called muh. As the dynasty was prolonged, and successive emperors died, the old tablets were removed, and transferred to what was called the "apartments of displaced

cestral vessels, displayed their various robes, and presented the offerings of the several seasons.

4. "By means of the ceremonies of the ancestral temple, they distinguished the imperial kindred according to their order of descent. By ordering the parties present according to their rank, they distinguished the more noble and the less. By the arrangement of the services, they made a distinction of talents and worth. In the ceremony of general pledging, the inferiors presented the cup to their superiors, and thus something was given the lowest to do. At the concluding feast, places were given according to the hair, and thus was made the distinction of years.

5. "They occupied the places of their forefathers, practised their ceremonies, and performed their music. They reverenced those whom they honoured, and loved those whom they regarded with affection. Thus they served the dead as they would have served them alive; they served the departed as they would have served them had they been continued among them.

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shrines," yet so as that one in the bright line displaced the topmost of the row, and so with the sombre tablets. At the sacrifices, the imperial kindred arranged themselves as they were descended from a "bright” emperor, on the left, and from a "sombre "one, on the right, and thus a genealogical correctness of place was maintained among them. The ceremony of "general pledging" occurred towards the end of the sacrifice. To have anything to do at those services was accounted honourable, and after the emperor had commenced the ceremony by taking a cup of blessing," all the juniors presented a similar cup to the seniors, and thus 66 5. were called into employment. They occupied their places," according to K'ang-shing, is" ascended their thrones; " according to Choo He it is "trod on-i.e., occupied-their places in the ancestral temple." On either view, the statement must be taken with allowance. The ancestors of king Woo had not been emperors, and their place in the temples had only been those of princes. The same may be said of the four particulars which follow. By "those whom they "i.e., their progenitors

"honoured" are intended their ancestors, and by "those whom they loved," their descendants, and indeed all the people of their government. The two concluding sentences are important, as the Jesuits mainly based on them the defence of their practice in permitting their converts to continue the sacrifices to their ancestors. We read in "Confucius Sinarum philosophus," --the work of Intorcetta and others, to which I have made frequent reference :-Ex plurimis et clarissimis textibus Sinicis probari potest, legitimum prædicti axiomatis sensum esse, quod eadem intentione et formali motivo Sinenses naturalem pietatem et politicum obsequium erga defunctos exerceant, sicuti erga eosdem adhuc superstites exercebant,

6.‹‹ 'By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth they served God, and by the ceremonies of the ancestral temple they sacrificed to their ancestors. He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, and the meaning of the several sacrifices to ancestors, would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm!"

XX. 1. The duke Gae asked about government.

2. The Master said, "The government of Wăn and Woo is displayed in the records,--the tablets of wood and bamboo. Let there be the men, and the government will flourish; but without the men, the government decays. and ceases.

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ex quibus et ex infra dicendis prudens lector facile deducet, hos ritus circa defunctos fuisse mere civiles, institutos dumtaxat in honorem et obsequium parentum, etiam post mortem non intermittendum; nam si quid illic divinum agnovissent, cur diceret Confucius- Priscos servire solitos defunctis, uti iisdem serviebant viventibus." This is ingenious reasoning, but it does not meet the fact that sacrifice is an entirely new element introduced into the service of the dead. 6. I do not understand how it is that their sacrifices to God are adduced here as an illustration of the filial piety of king Wăn and king Woo. What is said about them, however, is important, in reference to the views which we should form about the ancient religion of China. Both the old interpreters of the Han dynasty and the more eminent among those of the Sung, understand the two sacrifices first spoken of to be those to Heaven and Earth,—the former offered at the winter solstice, in the southern suburb of the imperial city, and the latter offered in the northern suburb, at the summer solstice. They think, however, that for the sake of brevity, the words for "and the sovereign earth," are omitted after "God," literally, supreme ruler." Some modern interpreters understand that besides the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, those to tutelary deities of the soil are spoken of. But these various opinions do not affect the judgment of the sage himself, that the service of one being-even of God--was designed by all those ceremonies. "Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits," pp. 50-52. 20. ON GOVERNMENT: SHOWING PRINCIPALLY HOW IT DEPENDS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE OFFICERS ADMINISTERING IT, AND HOW THAT DEPENDS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGN HIMSELF. We have here one of the fullest expositions of Confucius' views on this subject, though he unfolds them only as a description of the government of the kings Wån and Woo. In the chapter there is the remarkable intermingling, which we have seen in "The Great Learning," of what is peculiar to a ruler, and what is of universal application. From the concluding paragraphs, the transition is easy to the next and most difficult part of the Work. This chapter is found also in the "Family Sayings," but with considerable additions.

See my

1. Duke Gae. The old commentators took what I have called an "easily-growing rush" as the name of an insect (so it is defined in the

3. With the right men the growth of government is rapid, just as vegetation is rapid in the earth; and moreover their government might be called an easily-growing rush.

4. "Therefore the administration of government lies' in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means

of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.

5. "Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity, and the great exercise of it is in loving relatives. Righteousness is the accordance of actions with what is right, and the great exercise of it is in honouring the worthy. The decreasing measures of the love due to relatives, and the steps in the honour due to the worthy, are produced by the principle of propriety.

6. "When those in inferior situations do not possess the confidence of their superiors, they cannot retain the government of the people.

7. "Hence the sovereign may not neglect the cultivation of his own character. Wishing to cultivate his character, he may not neglect to serve his parents. In order to serve his parents, he may not neglect to acquire a knowledge of men. In order to know men, he may not dispense with a knowledge of Heaven.

Urh Ya), a kind of bee, said to take the young of the mulberry caterpillar, and keep them in its hole, where they are transformed into bees. So, they said, does government transform the people. This is in accordance with the paragraph, as we find it in the "Family Sayings." But we cannot hesitate in preferring Choo He's, as in the translation. The other is too absurd. 5. "Benevolence is man. We find the same language in Mencius, and in the Le-ke, XXXII. 15. This virtue is called MAN, "because loving, feeling, and the forbearing nature belong to man, as he is born. They are that whereby man is man.” 6. This has crept into the text here by mistake. It belongs to paragraph 17, below. We do not find it here in the "Family Sayings," 7. I fail in trying to trace the connection between the different parts of this paragraph. "He may not be without knowing men."----Why? "Because," we are told, "it is by honouring and being courteous to the worthy, and securing them as friends, that a man perfects his virtue, and is able to serve his relatives." "He may not be without knowing Heaven."—Why? "Because," it is said, "the gradations in the love of relatives and the honouring the worthy, are all heavenly arrangements, and a heavenly order, natural, necessary principles." But in this explanation, "Knowing men" has a

8. "The duties of universal obligation are five, and the virtues wherewith they are practised are three. The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and younger, and those belonging to the intercourse of friends. Those five are the duties of universal obligation. Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy, these three, are the virtues universally binding. And the means by which they carry the duties into practice is singleness.

9. "Some are born with the knowledge of those duties ; some know them by study; and some acquire the knowledge after a painful feeling of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some practise them with a natural ease; some from a desire for their advantages; and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same. thing."

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10. The Master said, "To be fond of learning is to be

very different meaning from what it has in the previous clause. 8. From this down to paragraph 11, there is brought before us the character of the men," mentioned in paragraph 2, on whom depends the flourishing of “government,” which government is exhibited in paragraphs 12—15. “The duties of universal obligation" is, literally, "the paths proper to be trodden by all under heaven" the path of the Mean. Of the three virtues, the first is the knowledge necessary to choose the detailed course of duty; the second, is "benevolence,' "the unselfishness of the heart =magnanimity (so I style it for want of a better term), to pursue it; the third is the valiant energy, which maintains the permanence of the choice and the practice. The last clause is, literally, "Whereby they are practised is one," and this, according to Ying-tå, means-" From the various kings downwards, in the practising these five duties, and three virtues, there has been but one method. There has been no change in modern times and ancient." This, however, is not satisfactory. We want a substantive meaning for one." This Choo He gives us. He says:-"The one is simply sincerity; "the sincerity, that is, on which the rest of the work dwells with such strange predication. I translate, therefore, the term here by singleThere seems a reference in the term to the being alone in ch. i. p. 3. The singleness is that of the soul in the apprehension and practice of the duties of the Mean, which is attained to by watchfulness over one's self, when alone. 9. Compare Analects, XVI. ix. But is there the threefold difference in the knowledge of the duties spoken of? And who are they who can practise them with entire ease? 10. Choo He observes that "The Master said " is here superfluous. In the "Family Sayings, however, we find the last paragraph followed by-"The duke said, Your words are beautiful and perfect, but I am stupid, and unable to accom

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ness.