UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA CONFUCIANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY G BETWEEN 1662 and 1796 two of China's greatest emperors occupied the throne, with a short intervening reign, each of them for over sixty years. These one hundred and twenty years may be said to have been chiefly devoted to the extension of learning and the glorification of Confucianism. A prodigious amount of literature was produced under the direct patronage of these two monarchs. Besides dictionaries and encyclopædias of various kinds, a vast collection of commentaries upon the Confucian canon was published in 1675, filling no less than one hundred and twenty large volumes.] Everything, in fact, was done which, in the words of the Sacred Edict (1670), would tend to "get rid of heterodoxy and exalt the orthodox doctrine." Yet, during a considerable part of this period of Confucian revival, Roman Catholic missionaries were not only tolerated, but even honored. Such treatment, according to the Paraphrase of the Sacred Edict, was not for any value attached to the religion they taught, which was stigmatized as unsound, but solely because they understood astronomy and mathematics, and were usefully employed in reforming the Chinese calendar. In 1795 the great emperor Chien Lung, who had received Lord Macartney, abdicated, and three years later he died. He was succeeded by his fifteenth son, known to us as the Emperor Chia Ching, from whose accession may be dated the turning of the tide. The new ruler proved to be dissolute and worthless. In 1803 he was attacked while riding in a sedan-chair through the streets of Peking, and had a narrow escape. This was found to be the result of a family plot, and many of the imperial clansmen suffered for their real or alleged share in it. Ten years later a band of assassins, belonging to a well-known secret society, very nearly succeeded in murdering him in his own palace. The effect of these attempts was to develop the worst sides of his character; he became a mere sensualist, and even gave up the annual hunting expedition, which had always been associated with Manchu energy. Such a man was not likely to do much for the auvancement of the great teaching which was founded upon such obligations as filial piety and duty towards one's neighbor. Some few valuable works, aiding to elucidate, the Confucian canon, were published during his reign, but there was no more the same imperial stimulus manifesting itself under a variety of forms, such as welcome |