Coming now to Politics we find that on Government and other matters connected with the State, the Confucian writings contain many opinions closely resembling those of Lao-tzŭ. Thus in the Lun-yü, Book xv., Confucius is represented as saying—“May not Shun be instanced as having governed efficiently without exertion? What did he do? He did nothing but gravely and reverently occupy his imperial seat.” Here the very expression of the Tao-tê Ching is used—無爲而治—and Dr. Legge has, I think, rightly translated wu-wei by “without exertion.”[10] So also in the Shu King it is said of King Wu, after his war with Shou was finished, that “he had only to let his robes fall down, and fold his hands, and the empire was orderly ruled.”[11] Other passages in the Lun-yü show us that Confucius also disliked war, and the petty squabbles into which the ambitious feudal chiefs of his time were constantly falling. Again, Lao-tzŭ has been greatly reproached by Confucianists and others for declining to continue in office under the kings of Chow, but he went little farther in this respect than his more fortunate disciple who was more earthly wise though less politically consistent. Each kept his precious gem secreted for years, but there was this difference, that Confucius was eager for a bidder who would please him, and Lao-tzŭ seeing there was no chance of a suitable bidder preferred to keep his gem. Not only, however, did Confucius himself abstain for a considerable time from active official life, but he also commended those of the past and some of his contemporaries who had retired into privacy during evil times, and his approbation of Ning-wu’s conduct is expressed in language worthy of Lao-tzŭ.[12] Besides, Confucius had the utmost contempt for the mandarins and chiefs of his time, and regarded them as either utter villains or as mere nobodies.[13] Again, just as Lao-tzŭ teaches that the ruler must first correct himself, making the purity of his own inner life his first and greatest care and then cultivating moral excellence in his family, so Confucius repeatedly teaches the same doctrine and illustrates it by the example of the ancients. Like ruler like people, is a maxim with him. If the sovereign be wicked the people also will be wicked, and if he be good they also will be good.[14] Lao-tzŭ says that government must be conducted by uprightness or rectitude (正). So Confucius says that to govern means to rectify, and in another passage he depicts the evil results of a government which is not conducted in uprightness. Another political doctrine which is stated expressly in the Tao-tê Ching is that capital punishment is the work of a superhuman agent and that no one on earth can safely act as proxy for that agent. Through all the Confucian writings also there runs the idea that it is Heaven or the Upper Ruler that is offended with wicked states, rebellious chiefs, or oppressive rulers, and that all national rewards and punishments come from the same source.