[141] Chinese literature bears unique testimony to the high consideration in which the virtue of filial devotion and reverence is held. It abounds in anecdotes exalting this virtue, holding up great exemplars of it for imitation by the Chinese youth. See Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_. [142] _The Hsiao King_ (Sacred Books of the East, vol. iii), chap. xviii. [143] _Ibid._ chap. xi. [144] Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_ (1868), p. 103. [145] _Ibid._ p. 103. [146] _China in Law and Commerce_ (1905), p. 34. [147] “The chief characteristic of Chinese society and the essence of Chinese morality is reverence for the past.”--REINSCH, _World Politics_ (1900), p. 90. [148] _The Great Learning_ (The Chinese Classics, 2d ed., vol. i), chap. iii, 5. [149] _Confucian Analects_, bk. xi, chap. xv, 3. [150] It is interesting to compare the portraiture of The Princely Man, as depicted by the pagan Chinese moralist, with that of The Prince, as portrayed by Machiavelli. [151] “The standard of excellence [in The Princely Man] is placed so high as to be absolutely unattainable by unaided human nature; and though [the author] probably intended to elevate the character of his grandfather [Confucius] to this height, and thus hand him down to future ages as a _shing jin_, or ‘perfect and holy man,’ he has in the providence of God done his countrymen great service in setting before them such a character as is here given in the _Chung Yung_. By being made a text-book in the schools it has been constantly studied and memorized by generations of students to their great benefit.”--WILLIAMS, _The Middle Kingdom_ (1883), vol. i, pp. 655 f. [152] _Confucian Analects_, bk. viii, chap. xii. [153] _The Great Learning_ (text), par. 5. [154] Quoted by Pfleiderer, _Religions and Historic Faiths_, p. 96. [155] _The Great Learning_, chap. x, 22. [156] _The Works of Mencius_, bk. vi, pt. ii, chap. xiii, 6. [157] _The Great Learning_, chap. ix, 8. [158] _Confucian Analects_, bk. xii, chap. xix. [159] _The Great Learning_, chap. x, 21. [160] _Confucian Analects_, bk. xiii, chap. xi. [161] Okakura-Kakuzo, _The Ideals of the East_ (1905), p. 239. [162] Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), vol. i, p. 265. [163] _The Works of Mencius_, bk. vi, pt. ii, chap. viii, 8. [164] _Ibid._ bk. vii, pt. ii, chap. iv, 1. [165] _Ibid._ bk. vii, pt. ii, chap. ii, 1. While denouncing the essential wickedness of war, Mencius sanctioned rebellion against a tyrannical and wicked ruler. [166] _The Great Learning_, chap. vi, 2. [167] _The Works of Mencius_, bk. iv, pt. i, chap. xx. [168] _Confucian Analects_, bk. iii, chap. iv, 3. [169] _Ibid._ bk. iv, chap. xv, 2. [170] _Ibid._ bk. vi, chap. xvii. [171] _Ibid._ bk. ix, chap. xvii. [172] _Ibid._ bk. xv, chap. xxiii. The same precept is found in bk. xii, chap. ii, of the _Analects_, and also in _The Doctrine of the Mean_, chap. xiii, 3. [173] _The Works of Mencius_, bk. vii, pt. i, chap. xvii.