[Sidebar] His ancestry.
themselves, and the pride of antiquity which enters largely as an element into their character. If such a pride could in any case be justified, we might allow it to the family of the K'ung, the descendants of Confucius. In the reign of K'ang-hsi, twenty-one centuries and a half after the death of the sage, they amounted to eleven thousand males. But their ancestry is carried back through a period of equal extent, and genealogical tables are common, in which the descent of Confucius is traced down from Hwang-ti, in whose reign the cycle was invented, B.C. 2637 [1].
The more moderate writers, however, content themselves with exhibiting his ancestry back to the commencement of the Chau dynasty, B.C. 1121. Among the relatives of the tyrant Chau, the last emperor of the Yin dynasty, was an elder brother, by a concubine, named Ch'i [2], who is celebrated by Confucius, Ana. XVIII. i, under the title of the viscount of Wei. Foreseeing the impending ruin of their family, Ch'i withdrew from the court; and subsequently he was invested by the emperor Ch'ang, the second of the house of Chau, with the principality of Sung, which embraced the eastern portion of the present province of Ho-nan, that he might there continue the sacrifices to the sovereigns of Yin. Ch'i was followed as duke of Sung by a younger brother, in whose line the succession continued. His great-grandson, the duke Min [3], was
l See M�©moires concernant les Chinois, Tome XII, p. 447 et seq. Father Amiot states, p. 501, that he had seen the representative of the family, who succeeded to the dignity of 衍聖公 in the ninth year of Ch'ien- lung, A.D. 1744. The last duke, not the present, was visited in our own time by the late Dr. Williamson and Mr. Consul Markham. It is hardly necessary that I should say here, that the name Confucius is merely the Chinese characters 孔夫子 (K'ung Fu-tsze, 'The master K'ung') Latinized.
2 啟.
3 愍公.
followed, B.C. 908, by a younger brother, leaving, however, two sons, Fu-fu Ho [1] and Fang-sze [2]. Fu Ho [3] resigned his right to the dukedom in favour of Fang-sze, who put his uncle to death in B.C. 893, and became master of the State. He is known as the duke Li [4], and to his elder brother belongs the honour of having the sage among his descendants.
Three descents from Fu Ho, we find Chang K'ao-fu [5], who was a distinguished officer under the dukes Tai, Wu, and Hsuan [6] (B.C. 799- 728). He is still celebrated for his humility, and for his literary tastes. We have accounts of him as being in communication with the Grand- historiographer of the kingdom, and engaged in researches about its ancient poetry, thus setting an example of one of the works to which Confucius gave himself [7]. K'ao gave birth to K'ung-fu Chia [8], from whom the surname of K'ung took its rise. Five generations had now elapsed since the dukedom was held in the direct line of his ancestry, and it was according to the rule in such cases that the branch should cease its connexion with the ducal stem, and merge among the people under a new surname. K'ung Chia was Master of the Horse in Sung, and an officer of well-known loyalty and probity. Unfortunately for himself, he had a wife of surpassing beauty, of whom the chief minister of the State, by name Hwa Tu [9], happened on one occasion to get a glimpse. Determined to possess her, he commenced a series of intrigues, which ended, B.C. 710, in the murder of Chia and of the ruling duke Shang [10]. At the same time, Tu secured the person of the lady, and hastened to his palace with the prize, but on the way she had strangled herself with her girdle.
An enmity was thus commenced between the two families of K'ung and Hwa which the lapse of time did not obliterate, and the latter being the more powerful of the two, Chia's great-grandson withdrew into the State of Lu to avoid their persecution. There he was appointed commandant of the city of Fang [11], and is known
1 佛父何.
2 魴(al. 方) 祀.
3 I drop here the 父 (second tone), which seems to have been used in those times in a manner equivalent to our Mr.
4 厲公.
5 正考甫; 甫 is used in the same way as 父; see note 3.
6 戴, 武, 宣, 三公.
7 See the 魯語, and 商頌詩序; quoted in Chiang Yung's (工永) Life of Confucius, which forms a part of the 鄉黨圖考.
8 孔父嘉.
9 華督.
10 殤公.
11 防.
in history by the name of Fang-shu [1]. Fang-shu gave birth to Po-hsia [2], and from him came Shu-liang Heh [3], the father of Confucius. Heh appears in the history of the times as a soldier of great prowess and daring bravery. In the year B.C. 562, when serving at the siege of a place called Peh-yang [4], a party of the assailants made their way in at a gate which had purposely been left open, and no sooner were they inside than the portcullis was dropped. Heh was just entering; and catching the massive structure with both his hands, he gradually by dint of main strength raised it and held it up, till his friends had made their escape.
Thus much on the ancestry of the sage. Doubtless he could trace his descent in the way which has been indicated up to the imperial house of Yin, nor was there one among his ancestors during the rule of Chau to whom he could not refer with satisfaction. They had been ministers and soldiers of Sung and Lu, all men of worth, and in Chang K'ao, both for his humility and literary researches, Confucius might have special complacency.