To injure none by thought or word or deed, (iii. 16782, 16796.) Two persons will hereafter be exalted And he who is not rich and yet can give. Bear railing words with patience, never meet Reviling for reviling, smite not him. (v. 1028.) Who smites thee; let thy speech and acts be gentle. (v. 1270, 9972.) If thou art wise, seek ease and happiness In deeds of virtue and of usefulness; And ever act in such a way by day That in the night thy sleep may tranquil be; In calm serenity. So ply thy task Throughout thy life, that when thy days are ended, Esteem that gain a loss which ends in harm; (v. 1248.) (v. 1451.) Do naught to others which if done to thee (v. 1517.) He who lets slip his opportunity, And turns not the occasion to account, (xii. 3814.) Enjoy thou the prosperity of others, Be active now, (xii. 3880.) While thou art young, and time is still thine own. This very day perform to-morrow's work, This very morning do thy evening's task. (xii. 6534.) This is the sum of all true righteousness (xiii. 5571.) Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh; Practice sobriety and self-control; Amass that wealth which thieves cannot abstract, Nor tyrants seize, which follows thee at death, (xiii. 12084.) THE birth of Confucius is believed to have occurred in the year 551 B. C. "Of the parents of the Sage we know but little, except that his father, Shuh-leang Heîh, was a military officer, eminent for his commanding stature, his great bravery, and immense strength, and that his mother's name was Yen Ching-tsai. The marriage of this couple took place when Heîh was seventy years old, and the prospects, therefore, of his having an heir having been but slight, unusual rejoicings commemorated the birth of the son, who was destined to achieve such everlasting fame. . Of the early years of Confucius we have but scanty record. It would seem that from his childhood he showed ritualistic tendencies, and we are told that as a boy he delighted to play at the arrangement of vessels and at postures of ceremony. As he advanced in years he became an earnest student of history, and looked back with love and reverence to the time when the great and good Yaou and Shun [sovereigns of the legendary dawn of Chinese history] reigned in 'A golden age, fruitful of golden deeds.' "At the age of fifteen 'he bent his mind to learning,' and when he was nineteen years old he married a lady from the state of Sung. As has befallen many other great men, Confucius's married life was not a happy one, and he finally divorced his wife, not, however, before she had borne him a son. "Soon after his marriage, at the instigation of poverty, Confucius accepted the office of keeper of the stores of grain, and in the following year he was promoted to be guardian of the public fields and lands. At the age of twenty-two we find Confucius released from the toils of office and devoting his time to the more congenial task of imparting instruc tion to a band of admiring and earnest students." From about the age of thirty until his death the career of Confucius may be described as that of an itinerant teacher and reformer. He journeyed from court to court of the struggling, ephemeral states which composed the troubled empire, offering counsel to the rulers in turn and sometimes holding important offices for a season, but having little success on the whole. He had faithful disciples who adhered to him throughout, and his fame as a sage grew great even in his lifetime. He died in 478 B. c. at the age of seventy-three. "There is nothing spiritual in the teachings of Confucius. He rather avoided all references to the supernatural. In answer to a question about death, he answered, 'While you do not know life, how do you know about death.' Life, then, was his study, and life as represented by man as he exists." ROBERT K. DOUGLAS, "Confucianism and Taouism.' SIXTEEN CONFUCIAN MAXIMS. (From "Confucianism and Taouism," by Robert K. Douglas.) Towards the close of the seventeenth century the Emperor K'ang-he . . . issued sixteen maxims, founded on the teachings of the Sage [Confucius], for the guidance of the people, whose morality "had for some time been daily declining, and whose hearts were not as of old." He thus summed up, as it were, all the essential points in the Confucian doctrine, and thus he wrote: 1. Esteem most highly filial piety and brotherly submission, in order to give due prominence to the social relations. 2. Behave with generosity to the branches of your kindred, in order to illustrate harmony and benignity. 3. Cultivate peace and concord in your neighbourhoods, in order to prevent quarrels and litigations. 4. Recognise the importance of husbandry and the culture of the mulberry-tree, in order to ensure a sufficiency of clothing and food. |