[Sidebar] He learns music; visits the court of Chau; and returns to Lu. B.C. 527-517.
inquirers to whom he communicated instruction, and pursued his own researches into the history, literature, and institutions of the empire. In the year B.C. 525, the chief of the small State of T'an [3], made his appearance at the court of Lu, and discoursed in a wonderful manner, at a feast given to him by the duke, about the names which the most ancient sovereigns, from Hwang-ti downwards, gave to their
1 Li Chi, II. Sect I. i. 10; Sect. II. iii. 30; Pt. I. i. 6. See also the discussion of those passages in Chiang Yung's 'Life of Confucius.'
2 Li Chi, II. Sect. I. i. 23.
3 See the Ch'un Ch'iu, under the seventh year of duke Chao,-- 秋, 郯子來朝 .
ministers. The sacrifices to the emperor Shao-hao, the next in descent from Hwang-ti, were maintained in T'an, so that the chief fancied that he knew all about the abstruse subject on which he discoursed. Confucius, hearing about the matter, waited on the visitor, and learned from him all that he had to communicate [1].
To the year B.C. 525, when Confucius was twenty-nine years old, is referred his studying music under a famous master of the name of Hsiang [2]. He was approaching his thirtieth year when, as he tells us, 'he stood [3]' firm, that is, in his convictions on the subjects of learning to which he had bent his mind fifteen years before. Five years more, however, were still to pass by, before the anticipation mentioned in the conclusion of the last paragraph began to receive its fulfillment [4], though we may conclude from the way in which it was brought about that he was growing all the time in the estimation of the thinking minds in his native State.
In the twenty-fourth year of duke Chao, B.C. 518, one of the principal ministers of Lu, known by the name of Mang Hsi, died. Seventeen years before, he had painfully felt his ignorance of ceremonial observances, and had made it his subsequent business to make himself acquainted with them. On his deathbed, he addressed his chief officer, saying, 'A knowledge of propriety is the stem of a man. Without it he has no means of standing firm. I have heard that there is one K'ung Ch'iu, who is thoroughly versed in it. He is a descendant of sages, and though the line of his family was extinguished in Sung, among his ancestors there were Fu-fu Ho, who resigned the State to his brother, and Chang K'ao-fu, who was distinguished for his humility. Tsang Heh has observed that if sage men of intelligent virtue do not attain to eminence, distinguished men are sure to appear among their posterity. His words are now to be verified, I think, in K'ung Ch'iu. After my death, you must
1 This rests on the respectable authority of Tso Ch'iu-ming's annotations on the Ch'un Ch'iu, but I must consider it apocryphal. The legend-writers have fashioned a journey to T'an. The slightest historical intimation becomes a text with them, on which they enlarge to the glory of the sage. Amiot has reproduced and expanded their romancings, and others, such as Pauthier (Chine, pp. 121-183) and Thornton (History of China, vol. i. pp. 151-215), have followed in his wake.
2 師襄. See the 'Narratives of the School,' 卷三, art 辯樂解; but the account there given is not more credible than the chief of T'an's expositions.
3 Ana. II. iv.
4 The journey to Chau is placed by Sze-ma Ch'ien before Confucius's holding of his first official employments, and Chu Hsi and most other writers follow him. It is a great error, and arisen from a misunderstanding of the passage from the 左氏傳 upon the subject.
tell Ho-chi to go and study proprieties under him [1].' In consequence of this charge, Ho-chi [2], Mang Hsi's son, who appears in the Analects under the name of Mang I [3], and a brother, or perhaps on]y a near relative, named Nan-kung Chang-shu [4], became disciples of Confucius. Their wealth and standing in the State gave him a position which he had not had before, and he told Chang-shu of a wish which he had to visit the court of Chau, and especially to confer on the subject of ceremonies and music with Lao Tan. Chang-shu represented the matter to the duke Ch'ao, who put a carriage and a pair of horses at Confucius's disposal for the expedition [5].
At this time the court of Chau was in the city of Lo [6]. in the present department of Ho-nan of the province of the same name. The reigning sovereign is known by the title of Chang [7], but the sovereignty was little more than nominal. The state of China was then analogous to that of one of the European kingdoms during the prevalence of the feudal system. At the commencement of the dynasty, the various states of the kingdom had been assigned to the relatives and adherents of the reigning family. There were thirteen principalities of greater note, and a large number of smaller dependencies. During the vigorous youth of the dynasty, the sovereign or lord paramount exercised an effective control over the various chiefs, but with the lapse of time there came weakness and decay. The chiefs -- corresponding somewhat to the European dukes, earls, marquises, barons, &c. -- quarrelled and warred among themselves, and the stronger among them barely acknowledged their subjection to the sovereign. A similar condition of things prevailed in each particular State. There there [sic] were hereditary ministerial families, who were continually encroaching on the authority of their rulers, and the heads of those families again were frequently hard pressed by their inferior officers. Such was the state of China in Confucius's time. The reader must have it clearly before him, if he would understand the position of the sage, and the reforms which, we shall find, it was subsequently his object to introduce.
Arrived at Chau, he had no intercourse with the court or any of