Confucianism, the religion taught by Confucius, a great philosopher who lived about five hundred years before the birth of Christ—is the religion of the Emperor, of the large body of officials, and of the educated classes generally. This system is mainly moral and practical, in opposition to the spiritual and the speculative. It teaches mankind to perform certain duties; for instance, to honor and serve one’s parents, to be obedient and deferential towards one’s elders, to be loyal to one’s lawful sovereign and to live harmoniously with one’s wife. These precepts are expanded and extended so that they are adapted to all the requirements of modern society. Confucius never taught the existence of God, for he felt that he did not know anything about Him; nor did he advance any theories concerning heaven and hell. He simply taught men to love goodness for its own sake. But this lofty philosophy, however it might have suited the character of the philosopher and his personal disciples, never was popular in the sense that people generally accepted it and practised it. Still the Chinese have a real reverence for Confucius and his precepts, and, excepting the few who are professed Buddhists and Taoists, will call themselves Confucianists, although they may not understand all that this master taught, and in spite of the fact that they worship gods of the other systems of religion. The gods of the Confucianists, pure and simple, are heaven and earth, the spirits of the winds and of the five great mountains, the household gods (answering to the Penates of the Romans) and one’s ancestors.