Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/84

 of the Old Dispensation in China before his time instituted the sacrament of marriage, Confucius, in giving this new, wider, and more comprehensive application to the law of the gentleman in the State religion which he taught, instituted a new sacrament. This new sacrament which Confucius instituted, instead of calling it li—the Law of good manners, he called it ming fen ta yi, which I have translated as the Great Principle of Honour and Duty or Code of Honour. By the institution of this ming fen ta yi or Code of Honour Confucius gave the Chinese people, instead of a Family religion, which they had before—a State religion.

Confucius, in the State religion which he now gave, taught that, as under the old dispensation of what I have called the Family religion before his time, the wife and husband in a family are bound by the sacrament of marriage, called Chou Kung Chih Li, the Law of good manners of the Duke of Chou—to hold their contract of marriage inviolable and to absolutely abide by it, so under the new dispensation of the State religion which he now gave, the people and their sovereign in every State, the Chinese people and their Emperor in China, are bound by this new sacrament called ming fen ta yi—the Great Principle of Honour and Duty or Code of Honour established by this State religion—to hold the contract of allegiance between them as something sacred and inviolable and absolutely to abide by it. In short, this new sacrament called ming fen ta yi, or