Confucianism is even less deserving the name of a religion than Shinto. It consists chiefly in a set of moral teachings, of narrow application and mostly of a political nature. Confucius, avoiding all metaphysical abstractions and devotional rhapsodies, confined himself to the much more practical field of morals and politics. But his disciples and commentators, especially during the middle ages, expanded his doctrines and added ideas {131} more or less religious. Thus developed, it became a sort of religious system, the only one believed by the old samurai or warrior classes. Confucius, its founder, was born in the year 551 B.C., in the state of Lu, province of Shantung, China. He was an earnest student of the older Chinese classics, and one of the most learned men of his time. He gathered round him a circle of young men, whom he instructed, like Socrates, by questions and answers. He died in 478 B.C. No other human teacher has had more disciples or exerted a wider and stronger influence. From its birthplace in China Confucianism spread to Korea, where it soon became, and still continues to be, the predominant faith. From Korea it advanced to the Japanese archipelago, where for many hundred years it has had much to do with shaping and molding the character of the people. Confucianism has undergone many modifications. At first a comparatively simple system of ethics and politics, it has expanded until to-day it is a complicated philosophico-religious system. The basal principles of Confucian ethics are the "five relations." These are: sovereign and minister; father and son; husband and wife; elder brother and younger brother; friend and friend. I have named them in the order of their importance. The duty of loyalty is above that of filial {132} obedience, while the relation of husband and wife is inferior to both of these. We will briefly consider each of these relations separately. The duty of a minister, or servant, to his prince, or sovereign, is the first duty of man, and is emphasized to an extreme degree. In order to discharge this obligation to the feudal lord or emperor, one must, if necessary, give up everything: house, lands, kinsmen, name, fame, wife, children, society--all. And Japanese history is filled with instances of retainers who have counted their lives, their families, their all, as less than nothing when compared with their duty to their lord. Loyalty is the one idea which dominates all others in the Confucianism of Japan. Thus it has exerted an influence hardly second to Shinto in inculcating loyalty to the emperor and to Japan, and making the people fanatically patriotic.