Confucius was born in the year 551 B.C., and died at the age of seventy-three, after a strenuous career, devoted partly to politics, partly to teaching, and partly to literary research. His own view of his life and achievements was that of a disappointed man. On one occasion he cried out, "Alas! there is no one who knows me." On another, he bewailed the non-appearance of the phœnix, a bird always to be found in countries where right principles prevail; he also complained that divine revelations, such as had occurred in the case of the Eight Diagrams and the River Plan, were no longer vouchsafed. "It is all over with me!" he cried in despair; for he probably believed in both the above manifestations, and regretted that nothing of the kind had been reserved for his own generation. Dr Legge's grand contributions to our knowledge of the Canon are occasionally marred by comments which are out of place in a purely exegetical work. In reference to the above, he inserts four words: "Confucius endorses these fables"—words likely to give great offence to a Confucianist. It is as though a Confucian translator Against these pessimistic utterances may be set the eulogy pronounced by the historian, Ssŭ-ma Ch‘ien (second and first centuries B.C.): "When reading the works of Confucius, I have always fancied I could see the man as he was in life; and when I went to Shantung I actually beheld his carriage, his robes, and the instrumental parts of his ceremonial usages. There were his descendants practising the old rites in their ancestral home; and I lingered long, unable to tear myself away. Countless are the princes and prophets that the world has seen in its time; glorious in life, forgotten in death. But Confucius, though only a humble member of the cotton-clothed masses, remains among us after many generations. He is the model for such as would be wise. By all, from the Son of Heaven down to the meanest student, the supremacy of his principles is fully and freely admitted. He may indeed be pronounced the divinest of men." There is extant a collection of the sayings and doings of Confucius, as recorded by his disciples, which may be compared with portions of the four Gospels, inasmuch as we here find illustrated, sometimes vividly, the chief points of interest in his daily life and teaching; and it is from this source (the
Nor was it only Confucius himself who held this view as to the divine character of his mission. After throwing up high office in his own native State of Lu, because his prince had accepted a present of eighty (one writer says only six) beautiful dancing-girls and was neglecting the administration of affairs, Confucius in a dejected mood set out on his travels. On arriving at the frontier of the Wei State, the warden in charge of the gate expressed a wish to meet the renowned sage, urging that when men of mark passed that way he was never denied the privilege of seeing them. He was accordingly introduced by the disciples; and when he came out he said, "My friends, why are you distressed by your Master's loss of office? The world has long been without right doctrines; now God is going to use him as a bell." On a different plane, but still suggestive of something unusual in the personality of Confucius, is the following anecdote. Travelling along in a carriage, with a disciple in attendance, he came to a river, and sent the disciple to a couple of men working in the A disciple being stricken with leprosy, Confucius went to inquire after him. He did not go into the What was that which Confucius describes as the will of God, about which we are told in one passage that he did not care to speak? The word ming, here rendered by "will," or "command," also means "fate, destiny"; and there would be a serious claim for some such translation as "necessity" (Gr. ἀνάγκη), if ming were always found, as it is sometimes found, used alone, without the prefix of "God" (T‘ien ming). The "necessity" of Greek philosophers has been defined as "a constraint conceived as a law prevailing throughout the material universe and within the sphere of human action"; it is never associated with any lawgiver, but proceeds from the natural constitution of things. It is quite clear, however, that whenever ming stands by itself in the ancient classical literature of China, it is elliptical for T‘ien ming, the will, or decree, of God understood; just as, with us, the Word stands for Christ, the Messiah, known to the Jews as the Word of God. There is one example which seems, but only seems, to militate against the above conclusion. A disciple mentions the following saying, which he states that he has heard, as some conjecture, from the lips of Confucius: "Life and death have their ming; riches and honours are in the hands of God." Now the first sentence looks as though it were "Life and death are matters of destiny"; that is, that they are events predetermined by the mysterious power or agency, not God, which we call Destiny or Fate. But here The Golden Age of China, with its perfectly virtuous, semi-divine rulers, threw a lasting spell over the imagination of Confucius. It may partly have been a case of distance lending enchantment, for some of the great Emperors of antiquity lived as long before his date as Confucius himself lived before ours; to us they are dimly seen, legendary beings, but to him they were moving, sentient heroes, drawing inspiration from on high. "Great indeed," he exclaims, "as a ruler, was the Emperor Yao; how majestic was he!" Then, in an afterthought, comes the reverential corrective: "It is only God who is really great: Yao took Him as his model."
Confucius had one favourite disciple, named Hui, who leaned upon him more than any of the others, and was never at any time a doubter or questioner of his Master's wisdom and divine mission. Of him Confucius said that for three months there would be nothing in his mind contrary to perfect virtue; that with a coarse platter of food, a gourd to drink out of, and a slum to live in—which would mean wretchedness to others—Hui would still be contented and happy; that he never let the sun go down upon his wrath (cf. Ephesians iv. 26); and was never twice guilty of the same lapse in conduct. But Hui died young, and in his grief Confucius cried out, "God is destroying me! God is destroying me!" At this the disciples who were with him remonstrated, saying, "Master, your grief is excessive." "My grief excessive?" cried Confucius. "If I am not to mourn bitterly for this man, for whom should I mourn?" "There are three things," said Confucius, of which the superior man stands in awe. He stands in awe of the will of God. He stands in awe of great
One more example of T‘ien as understood by Confucius. He was protesting against the value of words as compared with deeds, and was applying the rule to his own individual case, when a disciple objected, saying, "If you, Master, do not speak, what shall we, your disciples, have to record?" Confucius said, "Does God speak? The four seasons pursue their courses, and all things are regularly produced; but does God say anything?" We will now transfer our attention more closely to the "spirits," which, as we have already seen, play such an important part in the earlier books of the Confucian Canon. From the sources available, it seems impossible to decide whether the recognition of a Supreme Being preceded or followed the belief that the souls of human beings enjoy continued existence after death. In regard to the relative importance of serving God and serving man, Confucius has often been blamed for setting man before God; but it should always be remembered that his interpretation of true service to God was embodied in right and proper performance of duty to one's neighbour. The idea of personal service to God Himself, as understood by the Jewish patriarchs, is Again, when a disciple applied for guidance in serving the spirits of the dead, Confucius said, "Until you are able to serve men, how can you expect to serve their spirits?" The same questioner would have heard the Master's views on death; but Confucius said, "Until you understand life, how can you possibly understand death?" We have, however, some interesting remarks on the supernatural world, which Confucius himself volunteered, without any pressure from an inquirer. "How abundantly," he said, "do spiritual beings make their presence manifest among us! We look for them, but do not see them; we listen for them, but do not hear them; yet they enter into all things, and there is nowhere where they are not. They cause all the people in the world to fast, and to put on their best clothes, in order to take part in the sacrifices. Then they seem to pass in waves, now over the heads, now at the very sides of the worshippers." In support of this, Confucius here quotes three lines from the Odes, his hearers being, of course,
B.C. 500-300
Cannot be known beforehand;
All the less, then, should they be slighted.
It was customary in ancient China for the Emperor, at the end of each year, to distribute among the princes calendars showing the first day of each moon in the ensuing year. These were kept in the ancestral temple of the State; and on the first of every one of the following twelve moons they were brought out and the day was proclaimed, suggesting a comparison with the Latin word Kalendae, which meant the day Confucius, when staying in the Wei State, was consulted by its ruler as to a military expedition which was about to be undertaken. He replied, "Matters which are concerned with sacrificial ceremonies are those with which I am familiar; as to military affairs, I know nothing about them." He then ordered his chariot and promptly quitted a territory where the arts of peace were to be subordinated to the art of war. "A bird," he exclaimed, "chooses the tree upon which it will roost; the tree does not choose the bird." In the intimate conversations of Confucius with his disciples we do not come across any direct reference to divination; but from an essay composed by his grandson and disciple we learn that the reeds and the tortoise-shell were still employed, as we have already seen. We find allusions to fasting, which is mentioned, together with war and sickness, as one of three topics in regard to which Confucius exercised the greatest caution. We are told that "when fasting, he made a point of wearing clean clothes, always of linen cloth; he did not eat the same food as usual, nor would he sit in his accustomed place." It appears that fasting and purification were practised for about ten days before the performance of the Confucius being at another time very ill, a disciple asked leave to pray for him. "Is that usual?" he inquired. "It is," replied the disciple. "The Book of Prayer says, 'Pray to the spirits in heaven above and earth below.'" "In that case," said Confucius, "I have already been praying for a long time." The question of mourning, as a rite, received some attention from Confucius. "Just as in festive ceremonies," he said, "it is better to be sparing than extravagant, so in mourning ceremonies it is better to be sincere than punctilious." Again: "Authority without mercy, ceremonial without reverence, mourning
It has always been the rule in China to wear mourning for parents, nominally for a space of three years, actually for twenty-seven months. Attempts to shorten this trying period have been made, but without success. An Emperor of the second century B.C. asked with his dying breath that the people might not be forced to observe the very inconvenient ceremonies of national mourning prescribed upon a demise of the throne, but be allowed to marry and
A Confucian dogma, often attributed to Confucius, and also with more reason to Mencius, who, as we shall see, was its chief exponent, asserts that all men are born good. This is in direct antagonism to that Christian dogma which is based upon the fall of man as related in the book of Genesis, and teaches that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth (ch. viii. 21). The germ, however, of the Chinese view is much older than Confucius. It is found in the Odes; and the utmost we can really claim is that Confucius accepted any and all of the doctrines in the work which passed through his hands as editor. For he once said to his disciples, "My children, why do you not study the Odes? They stimulate the mind. They teach observation. They warn against hatred. From them you learn, at home, to serve your father, abroad, to serve your prince; from them you can also learn the names of many birds, beasts, and plants." He one day asked his son, "Have you learnt the Odes?" and on receiving the answer, "Not yet," proceeded to say that until the young man had done so, It is probable that few tasks will be found so impracticable as the effort to wean the Chinese people, soaked, so to speak, in the authority of centuries, from this belief in the natural goodness of mankind, to another belief, in exactly opposite terms, which peoples this world with successive generations of little children born in sin. 1 This doctrine of original purity, coupled with the practice of ancestral worship, together form an important cleavage, not easy to be bridged over, between Christianity and Confucianism. Points of contact, however, between these two religions, if I may now
The more practical character of Confucianism as contrasted with Christianity is abundantly manifest. Confucius was entirely in sympathy with human weaknesses, and did not put man's faith to too severe a test. He would have echoed such sentiments as "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone"; but such poetical commands as to turn the other cheek to the smiter, or to give up your cloke to the enemy who has just succeeded in obtaining your coat, would find no place in his teachings. On the other hand, his concessions to humanity may be regarded by some as stretching the gift of charity of heart to breaking point. For instance, he declared There is in Chinese a word which is used of Confucius and of three or four of the other great men of remote antiquity, such as the Emperors Yao and Shun. It signifies a human being who, by the grace of God, is divinely good and intuitively wise, and therefore an infallible exponent of right and wrong. Our nearest English equivalent is perhaps "inspired." Confucius himself discusses the term (Chung Yung, xx.) as follows: "Truth is that which God is, and man attains to. He who is an embodiment of truth hits his mark without taking aim, apprehends without thought, and naturally and easily strikes the right path. Such a man is inspired." Confucius disclaimed any right to this exalted title, although, as we have seen, he did at times regard himself as an instrument of the Almighty. He says in one passage (Lun Yü, vii.), "As for the inspired One more testimonial from a similar source (Chung Yung, xxxi.). "All-embracing and vast, Confucius is like the sky. Deep-centred, he is like the abyss. He appears, and the people all revere him; he speaks, and the people all believe him. Therefore his fame overspreads the Middle Kingdom, and extends to the barbarous tribes. Wherever ships and carriages reach; wherever the strength of man penetrates; wherever the sky covers and the earth supports; wherever the sun and moon shine; wherever frosts and dews fall—all who have blood and breath unfeignedly love and honour him. Hence it is said, He is the peer of God." After the death of the Master, the torch of While fully recognizing the sincerity and value of the efforts of the earlier disciples to keep alight what was to them the sacred flame of Confucianism, it must be freely admitted that the firm hold which these doctrines took upon the imagination of the Chinese people, and which has been maintained with extraordinary persistence through some twenty-three centuries past, would never have been brought about but for the genius and labours of Mencius, who now enjoys the title of the Second Inspired One, bestowed upon him in A.D. 1330. Born almost exactly a century after the death of Confucius, he devoted his life to the glorification of Confucianism; and if he ventured to lead his hearers into new lines of thought, the foundations on which these lines rested were always to be found in the bed-rock laid by his
Allusions to the will of God are frequent. The capture of a city, or the continuance of a princely line are alike dependent upon the will of God. Calamities and blessings are traced to the same source. "When the empire is well governed," says Mencius, "right prevails, and good men triumph over the wicked; when it is badly governed, might prevails, and the strong triumph over the weak. Such are the dispensations of God; but those who obey God are saved, while those who disobey perish." In one instance, Mencius quotes a statesman (I Yin) who flourished in the eighteenth century before Christ, and who is reported to have said, "When God created mankind, His plan was that those who possessed intuitive wisdom should enlighten those who were capable only of acquiring wisdom; and that those who possessed intuitive enlightenment should enlighten those who were capable only of acquiring enlightenment." This must mean that God conveyed His will by means of chosen vessels, that is, inspired men, or prophets. Mencius held that all earthly honours came not from man, but from God. The prince was the "Everything depends," says Mencius, "upon the will of God; therefore a man should accept submissively whatever can properly be ascribed thereto (ut melius quicquid erit pati). He who understands what is meant by the will of God will not place himself under a tottering wall. Death in the discharge of one's duties may properly be ascribed to the will of God; but death in gyves and fetters cannot be so ascribed." Still upholding the belief in an anthropomorphic God, as described in our first lecture, Mencius taught that man was created in God's own image. "Our physical bodies," he said, "in regard to shape and appearance, are of the nature of God; but a man must be divinely inspired before he can adequately sustain that nature." Man's mental and moral qualifications, too, did not, according to Mencius, reach him by chance, but were specially conferred. The term used for God by Mencius is T‘ien; there We have seen that the belief in the existence of spirits finds its first expression in the worship of ancestors. In the presence of death, primeval man in China must have sought for some explanation of the body, just now full of life and movement, then, suddenly, an inert mass. Aided by dreams, in which the dead so often reappear, he must gradually have come to regard the body as matter informed by a vital essence, the separation of which produced the phenomenon of death. As time went on, a spirituality associated with thunder, wind, rain, rivers, trees, and mountains, gradually crystallized into beings susceptible of propitiation and able to confer benefits upon mankind. "Wherever the superior man passes," says Mencius, "he civilizes; and he leaves behind him an atmosphere of spirituality;" that is, an influence of a divine character, Among those spirits whose development seems to have followed most closely upon the recognition by the people at large of a Supreme Being, must be mentioned the tutelary spirits of the land and of grain. In this connexion, there is a remarkable statement by Mencius, illustrating a well-known attitude of primitive peoples towards their gods or fetishes, which are so often discarded when found to be inefficient. "The people," said Mencius, "are of the first importance; the spirits of the land and grain come next; the sovereign is of less account. If a prince abuses his position in regard to the spirits of the land and grain (that is, if he is a bad ruler), he is deposed and another is put in his place. On the other hand, if the sacrificial victims have been perfect, the sacrificial grain clean, and the sacrifices offered at the proper season;—then, if a drought should follow, or a flood, the spirits of the land and grain would be deposed and others put in their places." No utterances of Mencius are of more importance, 74:1 Dr Legge has "to keep aloof from them," which would be equivalent to "have nothing to do with them." Confucius seems rather to have meant "no familiarity." 84:1 "Original sin, with which all mankind, descended from fallen Adam by natural generation, are universally infected from their conception and birth." Parkhurst on Romans v. 12. 88:1 Kindly suggested by Prof. James Ward.
In wondrous and ceaseless ways!
Footnotes