The Chinese Classics (Prolegomena) - James Legge (i have read the book a hundred times TXT) 📗

better account, prosecuting his researches into the poetry, history, ceremonies, and music of the nation. Many disciples continued to resort to him, and the legendary writers tell us how he employed their services in digesting the results of his studies. I must repeat, however, that several of them, whose names are most famous, such as Tsang Shan, were as yet children, and Min Sun [2] was not born till B.C.

 

500.

 

To this period we must refer the almost single instance which we have of the manner of Confucius’s intercourse with his son Li. ‘Have you heard any lessons from your father different from what we have all heard?’ asked one of the disciples once of Li. ‘No,’ said Li. ‘He was standing alone once, when I was passing through the court below with hasty steps, and said to me, “Have you learned the Odes?” On my replying, “Not yet,” he added, “If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse with.” Another day,

 

1 ���s���Z(�v�O, �c).

2 �{�l.

 

in the same place and the same way, he said to me, “Have you read the rules of Propriety?” On my replying, “Not yet,” he added, “If you do not learn the rules of Propriety, your character cannot be established.” I have heard only these two things from him.’ The disciple was delighted and observed, ‘I asked one thing, and I have got three things. I have heard about the Odes. I have heard about the rules of Propriety. I have also heard that the superior man maintains a distant reserve towards his son [1].’

I can easily believe that this distant reserve was the rule which Confucius followed generally in his treatment of his son. A stern dignity is the quality which a father has to maintain upon his system. It is not to be without the element of kindness, but that must never go beyond the line of propriety. There is too little room left for the play and development of natural affection.

The divorce of his wife must also have taken place during these years, if it ever took place at all, which is a disputed point. The curious reader will find the question discussed in the notes on the second Book of the Li Chi. The evidence inclines, I think, against the supposition that Confucius did put his wife away. When she died, at a period subsequent to the present, Li kept on weeping aloud for her after the period for such a demonstration of grief had expired, when Confucius sent a message to him that his sorrow must be subdued, and the obedient son dried his tears [2]. We are glad to know that on one occasion the death of his favourite disciple, Yen Hui — the tears of Confucius himself would flow over and above the measure of propriety [3].

7. We come to the short period of Confucius’s official life. In the

[Sidebar] He holds office. B.C. 500-496.

year B.C. 501, things had come to a head between the chiefs of the three Families and their ministers, and had resulted in the defeat of the latter. In that year the resources of Yang Hu were exhausted, and he fled into Ch’i, so that the State was delivered from its greatest troubler, and the way was made more clear for Confucius to go into office, should an opportunity occur. It soon presented itself. Towards the end of that year he was made chief magistrate of the town of Chung-tu [4].

 

1 Ana. XVI. xiii.

2 See the Li Chi, II. Pt. I. i. 27.

3 Ana. XI. ix.

4 �����_. Amiot says this was ‘la ville meme ou le Souverain tenoit sa Cour’ (Vie de Confucius, p. 147). He is followed of course by Thornton and Pauthier. My reading has not shown me that such was the case. In the notes to K’ang-hsi’s edition of the ‘Five Ching,’ Li Chi, II Sect. I. iii. 4, it is simply said— ‘Chung-tu,— the name of a town of Lu. It afterwards belonged to Ch’i when it was called Ping-lu (����).’

 

Just before he received this appointment, a circumstance occurred of which we do not well know what to make. When Yang-hu fled into Ch’i, Kung-shan Fu-zao, who had been confederate with him, continued to maintain an attitude of rebellion, and held the city of Pi against the Chi family. Thence he sent a message to Confucius inviting him to join him, and the Sage seemed so inclined to go that his disciple Tsze-lu remonstrated with him, saying, ‘Indeed you cannot go! why must you think of going to see Kung-shan?’ Confucius replied, ‘Can it be without some reason that he has invited me? If any one employ me, may I not make an eastern Chau [1]?’

The upshot, however, was that he did not go, and I cannot suppose that he had ever any serious intention of doing so. Amid the general gravity of his intercourse with his followers, there gleam out a few instances of quiet pleasantry, when he amused himself by playing with their notions about him. This was probably one of them.

As magistrate of Chung-tu he produced a marvellous reformation of the manners of the people in a short time. According to the ‘Narratives of the School,’ he enacted rules for the nourishing of the living and all observances to the dead. Different food was assigned to the old and the young, and different burdens to the strong and the weak. Males and females kept apart from each other in the streets. A thing dropped on the road was not picked up. There was no fraudulent carving of vessels. Inner coffins were made four inches thick, and the outer ones five. Graves were made on the high grounds, no mounds being raised over them, and no trees planted about them. Within twelve months, the princes of the other States all wished to imitate his style of administration [2].

The duke Ting, surprised at what he saw, asked whether his rules could be employed to govern a whole State, and Confucius told him that they might be applied to the whole kingdom. On this the duke appointed him assistant-superintendent of Works [3], in which capacity he surveyed the lands of the State, and made many improvements in agriculture. From this he was quickly made minister of Crime [4], and the appointment was enough to put an end to crime. There was no necessity to put the penal laws in execution. No offenders showed themselves [5].

 

1 Ana. XVII. v.

2 �a�y, Bk. I.

3 �q��. This office, however, was held by the chief of the Mang Family. We must understand that Confucius was only an assistant to him, or perhaps acted for him.

4 �j�q�F.

5 �a�y, Bk. I.

 

These indiscriminating eulogies are of little value. One incident, related in the annotations of Tso-shih on the Ch’un-Ch’iu [1], commends itself at once to our belief, as in harmony with Confucius’s character. The chief of the Chi, pursuing with his enmity the duke Chao, even after his death, had placed his grave apart from the graves of his predecessors; and Confucius surrounded the ducal cemetery with a ditch so as to include the solitary resting-place, boldly telling the chief that he did it to hide his disloyalty [2]. But he signalized himself most of all in B.C. 500, by his behavior at an interview between the dukes of Lu and Ch’i, at a place called Shih-ch’i [3], and Chia-ku [4], in the present district of Lai-wu, in the department of T’ai-an [5]. Confucius was present as master of ceremonies on the part of Lu, and the meeting was professedly pacific. The two princes were to form a covenant of alliance. The principal officer on the part of Ch’i, however, despising Confucius as ‘a man of ceremonies, without courage,’ had advised his sovereign to make the duke of Lu a prisoner, and for this purpose a band of the half-savage original inhabitants of the place advanced with weapons to the stage where the two dukes were met. Confucius understood the scheme, and said to the opposite party, ‘Our two princes are met for a pacific object. For you to bring a band of savage vassals to disturb the meeting with their weapons, is not the way in which Ch’i can expect to give law to the princes of the kingdom. These barbarians have nothing to do with our Great Flowery land. Such vassals may not interfere with our covenant. Weapons are out of place at such a meeting. As before the spirits, such conduct is unpropitious. In point of virtue, it is contrary to right. As between man and man, it is not polite.’ The duke of Ch’i ordered the disturbers off, but Confucius withdrew, carrying the duke of Lu with him. The business proceeded, notwithstanding, and when the words of the alliance were being read on the part of Ch’i,— ‘ So be it to Lu, if it contribute not 300 chariots of war to the help of Ch’i, when its army goes across its borders,’ a messenger from Confucius added, ‘And so be it to us, if we obey your orders, unless you return to us the fields on the south of the Wan.’ At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the prince of Ch’i wanted to give a grand entertainment, but Confucius demonstrated that such a thing would be

 

1 ����, �w�����~.

2 �a�y, Bk. I.

3 ����.

4 ����.

5 ���w��, ������.

 

contrary to the established rules of propriety, his real object being to keep his sovereign out of danger. In this way the two parties separated, they of Ch’i filled with shame at being foiled and disgraced by ‘the man of ceremonies;’ and the result was that the lands of Lu which had been appropriated by Ch’i were restored [1].

For two years more Confucius held the office of minister of Crime. Some have supposed that he was further raised to the dignity of chief minister of the State [2], but that was not the case. One instance of the manner in which he executed his functions is worth recording. When any matter came before him, he took the opinion of different individuals upon it, and in giving judgment would say, ‘I decide according to the view of so and so.’ There was an approach to our jury system in the plan, Confucius’s object being to enlist general sympathy, and carry the public judgment with him in his administration of justice. A father having brought some charge against his son, Confucius kept them both in prison for three months, without making any difference in favour of the father, and then wished to dismiss them both. The head of the Chi was dissatisfied, and said, ‘You are playing with me, Sir minister of Crime. Formerly you told me that in a State or a family filial duty was the first thing to be insisted on. What hinders you now from putting to death this unfilial son as an example to all the people?’ Confucius with a sigh replied, ‘When superiors fail in their duty, and yet go to put their inferiors to death, it is not right. This father has not taught his son to be filial; to listen to his charge would be to slay the guiltless. The manners of the age have been long in a sad condition; we cannot expect the people not to be transgressing the laws [3].’

At this time two of his disciples, Tsze-lu and Tsze-yu, entered the employment of the Chi family, and lent their influence, the former especially, to forward the plans of their master. One great cause of disorder in the State was the fortified cities held by the three chiefs, in which they could defy the supreme authority, and were in turn defied themselves by their officers. Those