Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/32

 virtuous, patriotic, and brave, exterminating the tyrant of the preceding dynasty, and scattering the wealth and provisions which hee had accumulated among a starving people. About this time, B.C. 1121, foreign ambassadors came, from the modern Cochin-China, to court, presenting a white pheasant to the emperor: on returning they missed their way, when the prime minister furnished them with a "south-pointing chariot," by means of which they reached their own country after a year's journey. Thus we see that the polarity of the needle was known and applied to useful purposes in China, at that early period.

In the twenty-first year of the emperor Ling, of the third dynasty, B.C. 549, Confucius was born, in the state of Loo, now the province of Shan-tung. He had a remarkably high forehead, on which account his name was called Kew, or "hill." One of the nobles of his native state, when on his death-bed, addressed his posterity, saying, "Confucius is a descendant of the sages, and must certainly understand human nature; when I am dead, let my children repair to him for instruction." When Confucius was in the Chow country, he went to Laou-tsze, to enquire about propriety. Laou-tsze said, "a clever merchant conceals his stock, and appears empty; so an advanced scholar puts on the appearance of stupidity." Confucius, addressing his disciples, said, "There is something remarkable about Laou-tsze." When he was nearly fifty years of age, the ruler of his native state. Loo, employed him to govern a certain district: he had not been thus engaged above a year, when the surrounding nobles began to imitate him. His sovereign said, "Had I not better follow your example in the government of the Loo