SBE 3: The Hsiâo King: Chapter I. The Scope and Meaning of the Treatise

THE HSIÂO KING.

CHAPTER I.

THE SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE TREATISE.

(ONCE), when Kung-nî 1 was unoccupied, and his disciple Ȝăng 2 was sitting by in attendance on him, the Master said, 'Shin, the ancient kings had a perfect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct, through which they were in accord with all under heaven. By the practice of it the people were brought to live in peace and harmony, and there was no ill-will between superiors and inferiors. Do you know what it was 3?' Ȝăng rose from his mat, and said, 'How

1, and (the stem) out of which grows (all moral) teaching. Sit down again, and I will explain the subject to you. Our bodies--to every hair and bit of skin--are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them:--this is the beginning of filial piety. When we have established our character by the practice of the (filial) course, so as to make our name famous in future ages, and thereby glorify our parents:--this is the end of filial piety. It commences with the service

Cultivating your virtue 1."'

 

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Footnotes

465:1 Kung-nî was the designation or marriage-name of Confucius. We find it twice in the Doctrine of the Mean (chh. 2 and 30), applied to the sage by Ȝze-sze, his grandson, the reputed author of that treatise. By his designation, it is said, a grandson might speak of his grandfather, and therefore some scholars contend that the Classic of Filial Piety should also be ascribed to Ȝze-sze; but such a canon cannot be considered as sufficiently established, On the authorship of the Classic, see the Introduction, p. 451.

465:2 Ȝăng-ȝze, named Shăn, and styled Ȝze-yü, was one of the most distinguished of the disciples of Confucius. He was a favourite with the sage, and himself a voluminous writer. Many incidents and sayings are related, illustrative of his filial piety, so that it was natural for the master to enter with him on the discussion of that virtue. He shares in the honour and worship still paid to Confucius, and is one of his 'Four Assessors' in his temples.

465:3 Both the translator in the Chinese Repository and P. Cibot have rendered this opening address of Confucius very imperfectly. 466:1 'All virtue' means the five virtuous principles, the constituents of humanity, 'benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, and fidelity.' Of these, benevolence is the chief and fundamental, so that Mencius say's (VII, ii, ch. 16), 'Benevolence is man.' In man's nature, therefore, benevolence is the root of filial piety; while in practice filial piety is the root of benevolence. Such is the way in which Kû Hsî and other critical scholars reconcile the statements of the text here and elsewhere with their theory as to the constituents of humanity.

467:1 See the Shih King, III, i, ode 2, stanza 4. Kû Hsî commences his expurgation of our classic with casting out this concluding paragraph; and rightly so. Such quotations of the odes and other passages in the ancient classics are not after the manner of Confucius. The application made of them, moreover, is often far-fetched, and away from their proper meaning.