Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/322

* CONTUCIUS. 274 CONrUCITJS. father, but the boy was most carefully educated by his mother, and trained according to the highest ideals of China. At an early age he gave evidence of his exceptional abilities and his regard for an- cient customs^ while liis thirst for learning was insatiable. When only seventeen years old he was manager for a wealthy landowner of Lu, and two years later he married. As in the ease of other great teachers, however, notably Buddha, and later, Rama Krishna of India, Confucius seems to have been little adapted for family life. He had one son, who was born in 531, and, it would seem, two daughters. After four years he parted from his wife, but doubtless with unbroken friendship on both sides. The real life work of Confucius began when he was twenty-two, and from that time till his death, a period of fifty- one years, he led the life of a teacher, migrating frequently from place to place. His conduct on the death of his mother, which occurred in 527, is significant as showing the bent of his mind. With a filial devotion vei-y rare at that epoch, he erected a large mound over her as she lay in the same grave with his father, and for twenty-seven months remained in entire seclusion. This time was probably not wasted. Doubtless his medita- tions during this period of mourning had con- siderable influence on his subsequent teachings. The eilect of his rigorous obsen'ance of the ancient ceremonial custom of mourning for parents had an efi'ect on all who knew him, and heightened their respect for his words. By the time Confucius had reached the age of thirty, he had formulated to his own satisfaction the tenets of his philosophy. In 517 he gained his first pupils of importance, and he was enabled to visit Lo-yang, the capital of the district, where he had an interview with Lao Tsz', the founder of Taoism. On liis return to Lu in the following year, he found the city in a state of anarchy, and on the expulsion of the governor, who was his friend. Confucius retired with the ex-official to the neighboring State of Tsi. Here, however, he could not find a congenial home, and he re- turned to Lu, where he remained for the next fifteen years, carefully keeping himself aloof from all factional strife, and never slackening his devotion to his mission. At last his moral worth received its reward, and at the age of fifty-two Confucius was appointed Govenior of Chung-tu, and this honor was followed by others higher still. Through the machinations of the Govenior of Tsi, however, the influence of Con- fucius in Lu was so weakened that he left the countiy after four years. For thirteen years he wandered from place to place, and did not return to Lu imtil 485, seven years before his death. These last years were spent in well- earned retirement ; but they were full of sorrow, marked by the deaths of his son and his two best- loved disciples. Yen Hui and Tsz' Lu. In 478 the teacher himself died, saddened by the fear lest he had failed to aecomplish his mission. Herein he was wrong. The news of his deatli spread throughout the land, and called attention anew to his purity of life and teaching, so that the name of Confucius has ever since been the highest and most honored in the land to which he gave his life-long devotion. By the irony of fate he was deified" after his death, and, like Buddha, Confucius, who had little belief in the super- natural, became a divinity. Confucius was, as he himself said, not a re- former, but a conserver. This is strikingly evi- dent in liis seiTices to the literature of China. Although he is sometimes called a prolific author, he was in reality but a careful though volumi- nous editor, and lie may, if tliis is clearly under- stood, .be termed the founder of Chinese litera- ture. Thus he established the canon of four of the 'five classics,' the >S'/i,i/i Ching, or Book of Poems, the Li Vhing, or Book of Rites, the I Ching, or Book of Changes (originally a eosnio- logical work), and the iS7im Ching, or Book of Historical Documents, for which Confucius is said to have composed a ]ireface, although mere- ly a list of books which the Shu Ching once con- tained now remains. His one independent work, apart from his ajiothegms which were recorded by his disciples, is the Ch'ua Tsin, or Spring and Autumn. Tliis is an extremely dry, aiinalistic history, very meagre in content and information, and altogether untrustworthy as a source of Chi- nese history, and records the events in the Prov- ince of Lu from B.C. 721 to 480. Confucius was in no real sense of the word a religious teacher. His doctrines were entirely ethical and political. His attitude toward the supernatural may be summed up in his own words: "Respect the gods! but have as little as ])ossible to do with them," and it is recorded that he spoke but seldom of four subjects — mar- vels, feats of strength, rebellions, and spiritual beings. In harmony with this attitude, he ex- presses no opinion concerning the immortality of the soul. He inculcates ever the duty, which he himself had observed so faithfully, of honor to parents and of obedience to temporal power. Ill this Avay the individual becomes absorbed in the family and the family in the State, which was regarded by Confucius as the highest con- cept on earth. For a State to be prosperous, mercy and all other virtues are necessary', and these qualities are to be manifested by the en- tire body of citizens. His teachings are, con- sequently, wholly worldly in character, and the dry maxims in which he expressed his views are permeated by a utilitarian philosophy which is devoid of any touch of idealism. His attitude toward women is the one generally current in the C'rient. Jletaphysical speculation, like religious investigation, is absent from his system, wdiich sums lip its principles in the five cardinal vir- tues — humanity, uprightness, decorum, wisdom, and truth. Confucius may perhaps be said to be China incarnate in his lack of originality: but with his devotion to the practical and his moral principles as patriot, sage, and teacher, he ranks among the foremost men that the world has ever seen. The most valuable account of Con- fucius is contained in the Lun Tii, or Pliilo- sopliieal Dialogues, which record his conversa- tions, while the fa Bsiieh, or Great Learning, and the Chung Yuvg, or Doctrine of the Mean, are important sources for the study of his system of jihilosophy. As illustrations of the maxims of Confucius, tlie following characteristic ones may be cited: Learning without thouglit is labor lost ; thought without learning is death of the mind. Riches and honor are what men desire; yet, except in accordance with right, they should not be en- joyed: poverty and degradation are what men dread; yet, except in accordance with right, Ihey should iiot be avoided. What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is