[147] “The chief characteristic of Chinese society and the essence of Chinese morality is reverence for the past.”—Reinsch, World Politics (1900), p. 90.
[148] The Great Learning (The Chinese Classics, 2d ed., vol. i), chap. iii, 5.
[149] Confucian Analects, bk. xi, chap. xv, 3.
[150] It is interesting to compare the portraiture of The Princely Man, as depicted by the pagan Chinese moralist, with that of The Prince, as portrayed by Machiavelli.
[151] “The standard of excellence [in The Princely Man] is placed so high as to be absolutely unattainable by unaided human nature; and though [the author] probably intended to elevate the character of his grandfather [Confucius] to this height, and thus hand him down to future ages as a shing jin, or ‘perfect and holy man,’ he has in the providence of God done his countrymen great service in setting before them such a character as is here given in the Chung Yung. By being made a text-book in the schools it has been constantly studied and memorized by generations of students to their great benefit.”—Williams, The Middle Kingdom (1883), vol. i, pp. 655 f.
[152] Confucian Analects, bk. viii, chap. xii.
[153] The Great Learning (text), par. 5.
[154] Quoted by Pfleiderer, Religions and Historic Faiths, p. 96.
[155] The Great Learning, chap. x, 22.
[156] The Works of Mencius, bk. vi, pt. ii, chap. xiii, 6.