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CONFUCIUS AND HIS MISSION.
NOVEMBER, 1888.]
grandees of the Cheu dynasty and nothing more. In the hundred pictures the conception of the Sung dynasty appears, and here the accessories are in keeping. Art was then improved. The philosophy of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, had followed the poetry of the seventh, eighth and ninth. Together they had completed the ideal of antiquity. Men such as Confucius and Lau-tan obtained a conventional treatment in accordance with their historical importance. Here lies the difference between the Confucius of the Han dynasty artist, and that of the Sung dynasty.
Another of the hundred pictures represents Confucius as enquiring respecting ancient music from an officer of the Chow kingdom, named Chang-bung. Confucius is on the right, as guest. Behind the host is a table on which are placed a musical stone and a bell. To the right of Confucius is a boy with a harp. Near to him two pupils of Chang-hung are placed by the artist to fill the picture on that side. They are listening to the conversation. Another pupil adjusts the musical stone. The remainder are variously occupied on the left with a harp or a book. The conversation convinces Changhung that Confucius is a sage of the highest rank. He mentions his opinion to a friend, and remarks that the ancient kings were in manner complaisant and obliging. "They sought knowledge from every source and carefully retained it. They searched into the nature of things without ever resting. Is not Confucius a sage of the same rank as they ?" To this his friend replied, "The good usages of the ancient sages were sunk into disrepute. The ceremonial and the music of Yau and Shun were in a state of decay. The aim of Confucius was to restore them." Confucius heard this and said, "I am not a sage. I dare not take to myself this honour. I am only one who is fond of ceremonies and music." In the Chow dynasty the chief musician was also the chief educator. It was, therefore, natural that Confacius should attribute to music a first-class importance. When he heard performed the ancient music of the emperor Shun, it is said that he was deeply affected. For three days afterwards he could not distinguish the special flavour of animal food. The fact is that the traditions which had reached China, of the rule of wise kings of antiquity, were pervaded by
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the notion of the mild force of example and the power attendant on a good and pure life. The ancient kings renovated their contemporaries by music as well as by moral teaching, and their high character as regenerators of society is understood to spring from the possession of a mild harmonizing genius of which the musical faculty was the outward sign. The ancient idea of a model government is, with the Chinese, neither commercial nor military, but moral. The ideal Governor is a civilizer, who wins the hearts of the nation by justice and benevolence.
After serving the State as Chief Minister until he was 57 years of age, Confucius retired, and occupied himself with editing the classics. In the ancient poetry he found the glorious example of Wen-wang carefully elaborated. The body of words were combined in this ideal with high moral wisdom. Such a man might be a model for prince and people. So also were Yau and Shun, Yu and Tang, examples of the highest class as men, as kings and as sages. Confucius felt his mission to be the preservation of the words, works, and historical significance of these men, for the benefit of posterity. His eye rested on the past. He was by temperament conservative. He felt a supreme dislike for bad moral conduct, for tyranny, for crime and all breaking away from good tradition. With this in his mind he undertook to edit the classics. His official life and his travels had prepared him for this. He had good opportunities, and he did what he could with the documents he was able to consult.
When Confucius undertook to edit the
classics, with the purpose of perpetuating the good example and teaching of the great men of antiquity, he found that there were five subjects to be treated. These were history, poetry, ceremonies, music and divination. The history he had to preserve was the royal chronicle of the time of Yau and Shun, 2356 to 2205 B.C.; the chronicle of the Hia dynasty, 2205 to 1766 B.C.; that of the Shang dynasty, 1766 to 1122 R.C.; and that of the Chow dynasty, 1122 B.C. to his own times. The poetry he found in existence was partly royal, or official, and partly popular. So far as it was official, it was written by official poets, for use on occasions of sacrifices, banquets, marriages and
