[1] Bamboo-hat:—A large umbrella-shaped hat, made of bamboo, and worn by the Chinese to keep off the rain. [↑]
THE BOY OF PERFECT DISPOSITION[1]
完全之性格
THE STORY OF TSEN-TSZE, A PUPIL OF CONFUCIUS
About two thousand four hundred and twenty years [[75]]ago, Tsen-Tsze[2] was a child and lived in San-Szi Province. For twenty-one years he studied many things with the great teacher, Confucius. And the first great moral law of Confucius he obeyed, not only in his acts, but in his heart, even when beaten for a thing he did not understand.[3] And it is not on record that any other man has ever done this.
In earliest childhood, he always loved and reverenced his father and mother. In the morning when he arose he went to see his parents before he would have the morning meal.
One day Tsen-Tsze’s mother went away to visit his grandparents. When she left, she said, “Dear son, I will return in one day. You and your father will be happy for a day without me.” And he knelt[4] and bowed his head to worship his mother at parting. [[76]]
The evening came and she did not return, and Tsen-Tsze could not eat food or sleep that night from anxiety for his mother. And when the maid servant called him for the morning meal, he said, “No; I can not eat food until I see my mother’s face.” But his father said, “You must eat and go to school.”