Page:Columbia University Lectures on Literature (1911).djvu/86

72 I shall, therefore, have to confine myself to a discussion of a very few of the more important works.

The first of the four treasuries into which the Imperial Library, and with it Chinese standard Literature, is divided treats mainly of Confucius and his school. Confucius sprang from a family named K'ung, whose home was near K'ü-fóu in the present province of Shan-tung, where thousands of descen- dants still survive, with their senior, the Duke of K'ung, probably the oldest nobility in the world. His personal name was K'iu, but since he is often quoted with the epithet Fu-tzï, meaning "a philosopher," his name and title K'ung Fu-tzï has in the early Latin translations of his works been Latinized into Confucius. Being born in 551 B.C., he was almost a contemporary of Pythagoras. His life was mainly devoted to moral and social reforms among his people; and, in order to do as much good as possible in this respect, he approached the dukes and princes of his state and its neigh- bors, tendering advice wherever it was needed and acceptable, though sometimes with ill success and hampered by the prej- udices of adversaries. By the study of books containing records of past periods he had constructed a moral stand- ard, which he exemplified in his own life and which he, by teaching, persuasion, and government, tried to cause others to adopt, as long as he had the chance to prac- tise it. As magistrate in a city and district of his native state, and later as minister of justice, he enforced what he considered good behavior among the population, and a great deal of his teaching concerned the question what it is proper for the "superior man" (kün-tzï), the real gentleman, to do, or not to do. His efforts at moral reform were crowned with great success; but intrigues brought about an estrangement with his duke, which caused him to follow a wandering life for fourteen years. At the age of sixty-eight he was recalled to his native country, where he died in 479 B.C., leaving a number of disciples.