Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/288

260 he might get this lady into his possession, brought about the death of K&lsquo;ung Kia, and was carrying his prize in a to his own, when she  herself on the way. The K&lsquo;ung family, however, became reduced, and by-and-by its chief representative moved from undefined to undefined, where in the early part of the 6th century we meet with Shuh-liang Heih, the father of Confucius, as of the district of undefined, and an  renowned for his feats of strength and daring. There was thus no grander in than that of Confucius; and on all his progenitors, since the  of undefined passed from their, with perhaps one exception, he could look back with complacency. He was the son of Heih's old age. That, when over seventy s, and having already nine daughters and one son, because that son was a , sought an alliance with a gentleman of the Yen , who had three daughters. The father submitted to them Heih's application, saying that, though he was old and austere, he was of most illustrious descent, and they need have no misgivings about him. Ching-tsai, the youngest of the three, observed that it was for their father to decide in the case. &ldquo;You shall him then,&rdquo; said the father, and accordingly she became the bride of the old man, and in the next the mother of the. It is one of the undesigned coincidences which confirm the credibility of Confucius's, that his favourite was a scion of the Yen. Heih died in the child's third, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. Long afterwards, when Confucius was complimented on his acquaintance with many, he accounted for it on the ground of the poverty of his youth, which obliged him to acquire a knowledge of matters belonging to a mean condition. When he was five or six, people took notice of his fondness for playing with his companions at setting out s, and at postures of. He tells us himself that at fifteen his mind was set on ; and at nineteen, according to the ancient and modern practice in, in regard to early , he was ,—his wife being from his ancestral of undefined. A son, the only one, so far as we know, that he ever had, was born in the following ; but he had subsequently two daughters. Immediately after his we find him employed under the chief of the Ki  to whose jurisdiction the district of undefined belonged, first as keeper of stores, and then as  of s and s. undefined says that he undertook such mean s because of his poverty, and distinguished himself by the efficiency with which he discharged them, without any attempt to become rich. In his twenty-second Confucius commenced his labours as a. He did so at first, probably, in a humble way; but a, not of boys to be taught the elements of learning, but of young and inquiring spirits who wished to be instructed in the principles of and, gradually gathered round him. He accepted the substantial aid of his s; but he rejected none who could give him even the smallest, and he would retain none who did not show earnestness and capacity. &ldquo;When I have presented,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;one corner of a subject, and the pupil cannot of himself make out the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.&rdquo;

Two s after, his mother died, and he her in the same with his father. Some idea of what his future life was likely to be was already present to his mind. It was not the custom of antiquity to raise any over s, but Confucius resolved to innovate in the matter. He would be travelling, he said, to all quarters of, and must therefore have a mound by which to recognize his parents' resting-place. He returned home from the alone, having left his s to complete this work. They were long in rejoining him, and had then to tell him that they had been detained by a heavy fall of, which threw down the first product of their labour. He burst into tears, and exclaimed, &ldquo;Ah! they did not raise mounds over their s in antiquity.&rdquo; His affection for the memory of his mother and dissatisfaction with his own innovation on ancient customs thus blended together; and we can sympathize with his tears. For the regular period of 27 s, commonly spoken of as three s, he observed all the rules of. When they were over he allowed five more s to elapse before he would take his, of which he had been devotedly fond, in his hands. He played, but when he tried to to the accompaniment of the, his feelings overcame him. For some s after this our information about Confucius is scanty. Hints, indeed, occur of his devotion to the study of and of ; and we can perceive that his character was more and more appreciated by the principal men of undefined. He had passed his thirtieth when, as he tells us, &ldquo;he stood firm&rdquo; in his convictions on all the subjects to the  of which he had bent his mind fifteen s before. In 517undefined two scions of one of the principal in undefined joined the company of his s in consequence of the dying command of its chief; and being furnished with the means by the undefined of the, he made a visit with them to the capital of. There he examined the s of the, and studied the  which was found in its highest style at the. There, too, according to undefined, he had several interviews with undefined, the father of. It is characteristic of the two men, that the latter, a transcendental dreamer, appears to have thought little of his visitor, while Confucius, an inquiring thinker, was profoundly impressed with him. On his return to undefined, in the same, fell into great disorder. The undefined was worsted in a struggle with his s, and fled to the neighbouring of undefined. Thither also went Confucius, for he would not countenance by his presence the men who had driven their ruler away. He was accompanied by many of his s; and as they passed by the undefined, an incident occurred, which may be narrated as a specimen of the way in which he communicated to them his lessons. The attention of the travellers was arrested by a woman weeping and wailing at a. The stopped, and sent one of his followers to ask the reason of her grief. &ldquo;My husband's father&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;was killed here by a, and my husband also, and now my son has met the same fate.&rdquo; Being asked why she did not leave so fatal a spot, she replied that there was there no oppressive. &ldquo;Remember this,&rdquo; said Confucius to his disciples, &ldquo;remember this, my children, oppressive is fiercer and more feared than a.&rdquo; He did not find in undefined a home to his liking. The undefined of the was puzzled how to treat him. The was not a, and yet the  felt that he ought to give him more honour than rank could claim. Some s of the spoke of him as &ldquo;impracticable and conceited, with a thousand peculiarities.&rdquo; It was proposed to assign to him a considerable, but he would not accept it while his counsels were not followed. Dissatisfactions ensued, and he went back to undefined.

There for fifteen more s he continued in private life, prosecuting his, and receiving many accessions to his s. He had a difficult part to play with the different parties in the , but he adroitly kept himself aloof from them all; and at last, in his fifty-second , he was made chief of the of undefined. A marvellous reformation, we are told, forthwith ensued in. 