The Chinese Classics (Prolegomena), James Legge [popular books of all time TXT] 📗

did not make their graves so in antiquity [1].’ ‘Confucius mourned for his mother the regular period of three years,— three years nominally, but in fact only twenty-seven months. Five days after the mourning was expired, he played on his lute, but could not sing. It required other five days before he could accompany an instrument with his voice [2].

Some writers have represented Confucius as teaching his disciples important lessons from the manner in which he buried his mother, and having a design to correct irregularities in the ordinary funeral ceremonies of the time. These things are altogether ‘without book.’ We simply have a dutiful son paying the last tribute of affection to a good parent. In one point he departs from the ancient practice, raising a mound over the grave, and when the fresh earth gives way from a sudden rain, he is moved to tears, and seems to regret his innovation. This sets Confucius vividly before us,— a man of the past as much as of the present, whose own natural feelings were liable to be hampered in their development by the traditions of antiquity which he considered sacred. It is important, however, to observe the reason which he gave for rearing the mound. He had in it a presentiment of much of his future course. He was ‘a man of the north, the south, the east, and the west.’ He might not confine himself to any one State. He would travel, and his way might be directed to some ‘wise ruler,’ whom his counsels would conduct to a benevolent sway that would break forth on every side till it transformed the empire.

4. When the mourning for his mother was over, Confucius remained in Lu, but in what special capacity we do not know. Probably he continued to encourage the resort of

[Sidebar] He learns music; visits the court of Chau; and returns to Lu. B.C. 527-517.

inquirers to whom he communicated instruction, and pursued his own researches into the history, literature, and institutions of the empire. In the year B.C. 525, the chief of the small State of T’an [3], made his appearance at the court of Lu, and discoursed in a wonderful manner, at a feast given to him by the duke, about the names which the most ancient sovereigns, from Hwang-ti downwards, gave to their

 

1 Li Chi, II. Sect I. i. 10; Sect. II. iii. 30; Pt. I. i. 6. See also the discussion of those passages in Chiang Yung’s ‘Life of Confucius.’

2 Li Chi, II. Sect. I. i. 23.

3 See the Ch’un Ch’iu, under the seventh year of duke Chao,— ��, �� �l����.

 

ministers. The sacrifices to the emperor Shao-hao, the next in descent from Hwang-ti, were maintained in T’an, so that the chief fancied that he knew all about the abstruse subject on which he discoursed. Confucius, hearing about the matter, waited on the visitor, and learned from him all that he had to communicate [1].

To the year B.C. 525, when Confucius was twenty-nine years old, is referred his studying music under a famous master of the name of Hsiang [2]. He was approaching his thirtieth year when, as he tells us, ‘he stood [3]’ firm, that is, in his convictions on the subjects of learning to which he had bent his mind fifteen years before. Five years more, however, were still to pass by, before the anticipation mentioned in the conclusion of the last paragraph began to receive its fulfillment [4], though we may conclude from the way in which it was brought about that he was growing all the time in the estimation of the thinking minds in his native State.

In the twenty-fourth year of duke Chao, B.C. 518, one of the principal ministers of Lu, known by the name of Mang Hsi, died. Seventeen years before, he had painfully felt his ignorance of ceremonial observances, and had made it his subsequent business to make himself acquainted with them. On his deathbed, he addressed his chief officer, saying, ‘A knowledge of propriety is the stem of a man. Without it he has no means of standing firm. I have heard that there is one K’ung Ch’iu, who is thoroughly versed in it. He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were Fu-fu Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K’ao-fu, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Heh has observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K’ung Ch’iu. After my death, you must

 

1 This rests on the respectable authority of Tso Ch’iu-ming’s annotations on the Ch’un Ch’iu, but I must consider it apocryphal. The legend-writers have fashioned a journey to T’an. The slightest historical intimation becomes a text with them, on which they enlarge to the glory of the sage. Amiot has reproduced and expanded their romancings, and others, such as Pauthier (Chine, pp. 121-183) and Thornton (History of China, vol. i. pp.

151-215), have followed in his wake.

2 �v��. See the ‘Narratives of the School,’ ���T, art �G����; but the account there given is not more credible than the chief of T’an’s expositions.

3 Ana. II. iv.

4 The journey to Chau is placed by Sze-ma Ch’ien before Confucius’s holding of his first official employments, and Chu Hsi and most other writers follow him. It is a great error, and arisen from a misunderstanding of the passage from the ������ upon the subject.

 

tell Ho-chi to go and study proprieties under him [1].’ In consequence of this charge, Ho-chi [2], Mang Hsi’s son, who appears in the Analects under the name of Mang I [3], and a brother, or perhaps on]y a near relative, named Nan-kung Chang-shu [4], became disciples of Confucius. Their wealth and standing in the State gave him a position which he had not had before, and he told Chang-shu of a wish which he had to visit the court of Chau, and especially to confer on the subject of ceremonies and music with Lao Tan. Chang-shu represented the matter to the duke Ch’ao, who put a carriage and a pair of horses at Confucius’s disposal for the expedition [5].

At this time the court of Chau was in the city of Lo [6]. in the present department of Ho-nan of the province of the same name. The reigning sovereign is known by the title of Chang [7], but the sovereignty was little more than nominal. The state of China was then analogous to that of one of the European kingdoms during the prevalence of the feudal system. At the commencement of the dynasty, the various states of the kingdom had been assigned to the relatives and adherents of the reigning family. There were thirteen principalities of greater note, and a large number of smaller dependencies. During the vigorous youth of the dynasty, the sovereign or lord paramount exercised an effective control over the various chiefs, but with the lapse of time there came weakness and decay. The chiefs —corresponding somewhat to the European dukes, earls, marquises, barons, &c. — quarrelled and warred among themselves, and the stronger among them barely acknowledged their subjection to the sovereign. A similar condition of things prevailed in each particular State. There there [sic] were hereditary ministerial families, who were continually encroaching on the authority of their rulers, and the heads of those families again were frequently hard pressed by their inferior officers. Such was the state of China in Confucius’s time. The reader must have it clearly before him, if he would understand the position of the sage, and the reforms which, we shall find, it was subsequently his object to introduce.

Arrived at Chau, he had no intercourse with the court or any of

 

1 See ������, �L���C�~.

2 ����.

3 �s�t�l.

4 �n�c�q��.

5 The �a�y makes Chang-shu accompany Confucius to Chau. It is difficult to understand this, if Chang-shu were really a son of Mang Hsi who had died that year.

6 ��.

7 �q�� (B.C. 519-475)

 

the principal ministers. He was there not as a politician, but as an inquirer about the ceremonies and maxims of the founders of the existing dynasty. Lao Tan [1], whom he had wished to see, generally acknowledged as the founder of the Taoists, or Rationalistic sect (so called), which has maintained its ground in opposition to the followers of Confucius, was then a curator of the royal library. They met and freely interchanged their views, but no reliable account of their conversations has been preserved. In the fifth Book of the Li Chi, which is headed ‘The philosopher Tsang asked,’ Confucius refers four times to the views of Lao-tsze on certain points of funeral ceremonies, and in the ‘Narratives of the School,’ Book XXIV, he tells Chi K’ang what he had heard from him about ‘The Five Tis,’ but we may hope their conversation turned also on more important subjects. Sze-ma Ch’ien, favourable to Lao-tsze, makes him lecture his visitor in the following style:— ‘Those whom you talk about are dead, and their bones are moldered to dust; only their words remain. When the superior man gets his time, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled. I have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich treasures deeply stored, appears as if he were poor, and that the superior man whose virtue is complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will [2]. These are of no advantage to you. This is all which I have to tell you.’ On the other hand, Confucius is made to say to his disciples, ‘I know how birds can fly, how fishes can swim, and how animals can run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer may be hooked, and the flyer may be shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. Today I have seen Lao-tsze, and can only compare him to the dragon [3].’

While at Lo, Confucius walked over the grounds set apart for the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth; inspected the pattern of the Hall of Light, built to give audience in to the princes of the kingdom; and examined all the arrangements of the ancestral temple and the court. From the whole he received a profound

 

1 According to Sze-ma Ch’ien, Tan was the posthumous epithet of this individual, whose surname was Li (��), name R (��), and designation Po-yang (�B��).

2 �h�A�P�]��.

3 See the �v�O, �C�����T, and compare the remarks attributed to Lao-tsze in the account of the K’ung family near the beginning.

 

impression. ‘Now,’ said he with a sigh, ‘I know the sage wisdom of the duke of Chau, and how the House of Chau attained to the royal sway [1].’ On the walls of the Hall of Light were paintings of the ancient sovereigns from Yao and Shun downwards, their characters appearing in the representations of them, and words of praise or warning being appended. There was also a picture of the duke of Chau sitting with his infant nephew, the king Ch’ang, upon his knees, to give audience to all the princes. Confucius surveyed the scene with silent delight, and then said to his followers, ‘Here you see how Chau became so great. As we use a glass to examine the forms of things, so must we study antiquity in order to understand the present time [2].’ In the hall of the ancestral temple, there was a metal statue of a man with three clasps upon his mouth, and his back covered