CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Confucius - Creek by James Strong & John Mcclintock

THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Confucius - Creek by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 Confucius Picture for Confucius (Latinized by the Jesuit missionaries from Cong-fu-tse or Koong-foo-tse), a Chinese reformer and moralist, was born about 551 B.C. at the village of Tseu-se, in the small kingdom of Lu (now a part of the province of Shantung), and died B.C. 479. He is said to have been a descendant of the emperor Hoang-ti, who reigned B.C. 2600. When he was three years old his father died, but his mother trained him with great care, and was rewarded by the rapid progress and filial tenderness of her son. At seventeen he was called to public life as inspector of the grain-markets. He was married at nineteen, but, according to some accounts, subsequently divorced his wife (after she had borne him a son) in order to devote himself to the study of the ancient writings, and prepare for the work of restoring the usages and doctrines of the old sages. He was soon after promoted to the office of inspector general of agriculture. At twenty-four, having lost his mother, he resigned his public employments that he might pay the respect to her memory prescribed by the ancient traditions. During the three years passed in mourning he was a diligent student. China at that period was divided into a number of feudal kingdoms but slightly under the control of the central authority, whose constant quarrels filled the land with disorder, while the social and moral condition of the people had fallen so low that the ancestral religious rites were no longer observed. To restore the proper observance of these, rather than to introduce any new religious system, was the task to which Confucius determined to devote himself. About the age of thirty he began his public teachings, making journeys through the various states of China, instructing all ranks of the people, and gaining fame and disciples, though meeting often with opposition, and even persecution, in his efforts to reform the manners and better the condition of his countrymen. When fifty-five years old he re-entered public life as prime minister of his native kingdom, Lu, with opportunity and authority to test the efficacy of his proposed means of amelioration. In three years, it is said, he brought about a complete change in its social and moral condition. His success, however, excited the jealousy of neighboring princes, and through their intrigues he was obliged to flee to the north of China. After several unsuccessful efforts to obtain office and opportunities to teach the people, he retired to the kingdom of China, where he lived in great poverty. His doctrines, however, had taken root, but his rigid principles and practice 3 made him many enemies. When full of years, in company with some chosen disciples, he retired from the world, that he might complete and arrange the works which, under the name of the King (or Books), constitute the sacred books of the Chinese, and, standing at the head of their literature, have for more than 2000 years been the recognized authority in moral and political conduct for nearly one third of the human race. Soon after the completion of these works he died, leaving a single descendant, his grandson, Tse-Tse, whose offspring, numbering A.D. 1671 about 11,000 males, mostly of the seventy-fourth generation, form a distinct caste in Chinese society, the only instance of a hereditary nobility among them. The veneration of the Chinese for Confucius amounts to worship, to which the second and third months are devoted. In every district and every department there is a temple erected in his honor (Culbertson, p. 41). The Rev. Dr. Wentworth, Methodist Episcopal missionary at Fuh-Chau, gives an account of the worship as witnessed by himself in a temple in that city, from which we make the following extracts: “The temple is one of the finest buildings in the city. It is one storied, in the form of a hollow square, with a spacious court in the center, apartments on each side, and the main temple at the end. It has a fine portico, and the roof within is sustained by columns of solid granite of enormous size. There are no idols, but ancestral tablets supply their places in the gilded shrines. In the center is that of Confucius, on the sides are those of twelve of his most celebrated disciples, six on each side. The worship of the philosopher is monopolized by the literati; and the mandarins, who are literary graduates of the highest distinction, are the only priests who officiate upon the occasion. The sacrifice takes place twice a year, in the second and eighth months. It is performed before daylight in the morning, and the common people are rigidly excluded. We were an hour too early, but better that than five minutes too late. The mandarins had not yet made their appearance. A burst of music indicated the coming of the magnates. Their first business was to get the ‘whang-kee-angs,’ ‘foreign babies,’ out of the sacred precincts, and a mandarin of high rank came to request us to go outside. We asked him to let us stand next one of the great doors on the portico outside. To this he consented. The platform was cleared and the ceremonies began. The darkness was dispelled by rows of gaudy lanterns and a forest of blazing torches. The court was filled with mandarins and their servants. Privileged spectators from the literary classes, with their attendants, crowded all the available space below. In front of the great 4 central door of the temple, on the portico, was a band of musicians, with flutes and ‘soft recorders,’ and another of boys fantastically dressed. Within were musicians chanting vocally, accompanied by the instruments without, the praises of the sage. The loud voice of a crier within the temple, and the loud response of a herald below, indicated that all was ready. Clouds of incense filled the temple, while two or three mandarins, in full official dress and caps, preceded by attendants, ascended the steps and entered the lofty doors on either side, prostrating themselves with the head to the pavement before the shrines successively, and offering the various articles placed in their hands by the attendants for that purpose to Confucius and his favorite followers. This was repeated three times in succession, the officers retiring and reentering with the same stately ceremony on each occasion. The offerings were animal and vegetable. On a broad table in front of the shrine and altar of Confucius lay shrouded the carcase of a whole ox, denuded of his skin, and on either side of him a pig and a goat. On the altar were vases of flowers and plates of cooked provisions. At one point in the ceremony an official kneeled before the shrine of Confucius at a respectful distance, and in a loud voice chanted a prayer or a hymn of praise. The ordinary chants were very simple, consisting of four notes perpetually repeated, thus: (notes shown on a scale) The last offering was material for clothing; a sort of coarse silk, in large patches, first offered bodily in the temple, and then taken down into the court and burned, that it might become spirit-silk in the other world. The Buddhists usually offer ready-made clothing, stamped on paper. The mandarins send Confucius the raw material. About the first gray streakings of the dawn of a cloudy morning the ceremonies ended, the torches were suddenly extinguished, and the officers and their retinues slowly retired” (Christian Advocate and Journal, 1859). “It was the great object of Confucius to regulate the manners of the people. He thought outward decorum the true emblem of excellence of heart; he therefore digested all the various ceremonies into one general code of rites, which was called Le-ke, or Ly-king, etc. In this work every ritual in all the relations of human life is strictly regulated, so that a true Chinese is a perfect automaton, put in motion by the regulations of the Ly- king. Some of the rites are most excellent: the duties towards parents, the respect due to superiors, the decorum in the behavior of common Life, etc., speak highly in favor of Confucius; but his substituting ceremony for 5 simplicity and true politeness is unpardonable. The Ly-king contains many excellent maxims and inculcates morality, but it has, come to us in a mutilated state, with many interpolations” (Gutzlaff, Sketch of Chinese History). In the writings of Confucius the duties of husbands towards their wives were slightly dwelt upon; the duties and implicit submission of children to their parents were most rigidly inculcated. Upon this wide principle of filial obedience the whole of his system, moral and political, is founded. A family is the prototype of the nation; and, instead of the notions of independence and equality among men, he enforces the principles of dependence and subordination — as of children to parents, the younger to the elder. By an easy fiction, the emperor stands as the father of all his subjects, and is thus entitled to their passive obedience; and, as Dr.

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