Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/404

 392 CHINESE LITERATURE

rather than submit to the new dynasty. In consequence of his father's death he steadily declined to enter upon a public career, and gave up his life to study and teach- ing. He was the author of commentaries upon the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, and of other works; but none of these is so famous as his Family Maxims, a little book which, on account of the author's name, has often been attributed to the great commentator Chu Hsi. The piquancy of these maxims disappears in translation, owing as they do much more to literary form than to subject-matter. Here are two specimens :

" Forget the good deeds you have done ; remember the kindnesses you have received."

" Mind your own business, follow out your destiny, live in accord with the age, and leave the rest to God. He who can do this is near indeed."

His own favourite saying was

"To know what ought to be known, and to do what ought to be done, that is enough. There is no time for anything else."

Three days before his death he struggled into the an- cestral hall, and there before the family tablets called the spirits of his forefathers to witness that he had never injured them by word or deed.

LAN TING-YUAN (1680-1733), better known as Lan Lu- chou, devoted himself as a youth to poetry, literature, and political economy. He accompanied his brother to Formosa as military secretary, and his account of the expedition attracted public attention. Recommended to the Emperor, he became magistrate of P'u-lin, and dis- tinguished himself as much by his just and incorrupt administration as by his literary abilities. He managed,

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