Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/87

 Family, without which the human race would become extinct. The institution of this sacrament of the contract of allegiance secures the stability and permanence of the State, without which human society and civilisation would all be destroyed and mankind would return to the state of savages or animals. I therefore said to you that the greatest thing which Confucius has done for the Chinese people is that he gave them the true idea of a State—a true, rational, permanent, and absolute basis of a State, and in giving them that, he made it a religion,—a State religion.

Confucius taught this State religion in a book which, as I told you, he wrote in the very last days of his life, a book to which he gave the name of Spring and Autumn. In this book Confucius first instituted the new sacrament of the contract of allegiance called ming fen ta yi, or the Code of Honour. This sacrament is therefore often and generally spoken of as Chun Chiu ming fen ta yi, (春秋名分大義) or simpylsimply [sic] Chun Chiu ta yi—(春秋大義) i.e., the Great Principle of Honour and Duty of the Spring and Autumn Annals, or simply the Great Principle or Code of the Spring and Autumn Annals. This book in which Confucius taught the Divine duty of loyalty is the Magna Charta of the Chinese nation. It contains the sacred covenant, the sacred social contract by which Confucius bound the whole Chinese people and nation to be absolutely loyal to the Emperor, and this covenant or sacrament, this Code of Honour, is the one and only true Constitution not only of the State