The Chinese Classics: with a translation, critical and exegetical notes, prolegomena and copious indexes: (Shih ching. English) — Volume 1Legge, James
Religion
The Chinese Classics: with a translation, critical and exegetical notes, prolegomena and copious indexes: (Shih ching. English) — Volume 1
Legge, James
China -- History; Chinese literature; Chinese literature -- Translations into English
Notwithstanding the appearance of the lin, the life of Confucius was still protracted for two years longer, though he took occasion to terminate with that event his history of the Ch'un Ch'iu. This Work, according to Sze-ma Ch'ien, was altogether the production of this year, but we heed not suppose that it was so. In it, from the standpoint of Lu, he briefly indicates the principal events occurring throughout the country, every term being expressive, it is said, of the true character of the actors and events described. Confucius said himself, 'It is the Spring and Autumn which will make men know me, and it is the Spring and Autumn which will make men condemn me [4].' Mencius makes the composition of it to have been an achievement as great as Yu's regulation of the waters of the deluge:-- 'Confucius completed the Spring and Autumn, and rebellious ministers and villainous sons were struck with terror [5].'
Towards the end of this year, word came to Lu that the duke
1 Ana. XI. xvi.
2 兗州府嘉祥縣.
3 公羊傳, 哀公十四年. According to Kung-yang, however, the lin was found by some wood-gatherers.
4 Mencius III. Pt. II. ix. 8.
5 Mencius III. Pt. II. ix. 11.
of Ch'i had been murdered by one of his officers. Confucius was moved with indignation. Such an outrage he felt, called for his solemn interference. He bathed, went to court, and represented the matter to the duke, saying, 'Ch'an Hang has slain his sovereign, I beg that you will undertake to punish him.' The duke pleaded his incapacity, urging that Lu was weak compared with Ch'i, but Confucius replied, 'One half the people of Ch'i are not consenting to the deed. If you add to the people of Lu one half the people of Ch'i, you are sure to overcome.' But he could not infuse his spirit into the duke, who told him to go and lay the matter before the chiefs of the three Families. Sorely against his sense of propriety, he did so, but they would not act, and he withdrew with the remark, 'Following in the rear of the great officers, I did not dare not to represent such a matter [1].'
In the year B.C. 479, Confucius had to mourn the death of another of his disciples, one of those who had been longest with him, the well-known Tsze-lu. He stands out a sort of Peter in the Confucian school, a man of impulse, prompt to speak and prompt to act. He gets many a check from the master, but there is evidently a strong sympathy between them. Tsze- lu uses a freedom with him on which none of the other disciples dares to venture, and there is not one among them all, for whom, if I may speak from my own feeling, the foreign student comes to form such a liking. A pleasant picture is presented to us in one passage of the Analects. It is said, 'The disciple Min was standing by his side, looking bland and precise; Tsze-lu (named Yu), looking bold and soldierly; Yen Yu and Tsze-kung, with a free and straightforward manner. The master was pleased, but he observed, "Yu there!-- he will not die a natural death [2]."'
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