Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/476

 lore has piled example upon example showing how a child, a youth or an adult should act under certain given circumstances.

These " Five Principles " may be called the five beatitudes of Confucianism, and while their author would probably prefer to word them differently, the following is the way they work out in actual Korean life:

(1) Blessed is the child who honours his parents, for he in turn shall be honoured by his children.

(2) Blessed is the man who honours his King, for he will stand a chance of being a recipient of the King's favour.

(3) Blessed are the man and wife who treat each other properly, for they shall be secure against domestic scandal.

(4) Blessed is the man who treats his friend well, for that is the only way to get treated well himself.

(5) Blessed is the man who honours his elders, for years are a guarantee of wisdom.

Then there are minor ones which are in some sense corollaries of these five, as, for instance :

Blessed is the very chaste woman, for she shall have a red gate built in her front yard, with her virtues described thereon, to show that the average of womanhood is a shade less virtuous than she.

Blessed is the country gentleman who persistently declines to become prime minister, even though pressed to do so, for he shall never be cartooned by the opposition and incidentally shall have no taxes to pay.

Blessed is the young married woman who suffers patiently the infliction of a mother-in-law, for she in turn shall have the felicity of pinching her own daughter-in-law black and blue without remonstrance.

Blessed is the man who treats his servant well, for instead of being squeezed a hundred cash on a string of eggs he will be squeezed only seventy-five.

Korean lore abounds in stories of good little boys and girls who never steal bird's-nests, nor play "for keeps," nor tear