ITS AUTHOR; AND SOME ACCOUNT OF HIM.
1. The composition of the Chung Yung is attributed to K'ung
Chi, the grandson of Confucius [2]. Chinese inquirers and critics
are agreed on this point, and apparently on sufficient grounds.
There is indeed no internal evidence in the Work to lead us to such
a conclusion. Among the many quotations of Confucius's words and
references to him, we might have expected to find some
indication that the sage was the grandfather of the author, but
nothing of the kind is given. The external evidence, however, or
that from the testimony of authorities, is very strong. In Sze-ma
Ch'ien's Historical Records, published about B.C. 100, it is
expressly said that 'Tsze-sze made the Chung Yung.' And we have a
still stronger proof, a century earlier, from Tsze-sze's own
descendant, K'ung Fu, whose words are, 'Tsze-sze compiled the
Chung Yung in forty-nine p'ien [3].' We may, therefore, accept the
received account without hesitation.
2. As Chi, spoken of chiefly by his designation of Tsze-sze,
thus occupies a distinguished place in the classical literature of
China, it
1 中庸章句.
2 子思作中庸; see the 史記,四十七,孔子世家.
3 This K'ung Fu (孔鮒) was that descendant of Confucius, who hid
several books in the wall of his house, on the issuing of the
imperial edict for their burning. He was a writer himself, and his
Works are referred to under the title of 孔叢子. I have not seen
them, but the statement given above is found in the 四書拓餘說;--
art. 中庸. -- 孔叢子云,子思撰中庸之書,四十九篇.
may not be out of place to bring together here a few notices of
him gathered from reliable sources.
He was the son of Li, whose death took place B.C. 483, four
years before that of the sage, his father. I have not found it
recorded in what year he was born. Sze-ma Ch'ien says he died at
the age of 62. But this is evidently wrong, for we learn from
Mencius that he was high in favour with the duke Mu of Lu [1],
whose accession to that principality dates in B.C. 409, seventy
years after the death of Confucius. In the 'Plates and Notices of
the Worthies, sacrificed to in the Sage's Temples [2],' it is
supposed that the sixty-two in the Historical Records should be
eighty-two [3]. It is maintained by others that Tsze-sze's life
was protracted beyond 100 years [4]. This variety of opinions
simply shows that the point cannot be positively determined. To
me it seems that the conjecture in the Sacrificial Canon must be
pretty near the truth [5].
During the years of his boyhood, then, Tsze-sze must have
been with his grandfather, and received his instructions. It is
related, that one day, when he was alone with the sage, and heard
him sighing, he went up to him, and, bowing twice, inquired the
reason of his grief. 'Is it,' said he, 'because you think that your
descendants, through not cultivating themselves, will be
unworthy of you? Or is it that, in your admiration of the ways of
Yao and Shun, you are vexed that you fall short of them?' 'Child,'
replied Confucius, 'how is it that you know my thoughts?' 'I have
often,' said Tsze-sze, 'heard from you the lesson, that when the
father has gathered and prepared the firewood, if the son cannot
carry the bundle, he is to be pronounced degenerate and unworthy.
The remark comes frequently into my thoughts, and fills me with
great apprehensions.' The sage was delighted. He
1. 魯穆(or 繆)公.
2. 聖廟祀典圖考.
3. 或以六十二似八十二之誤. Eighty-two and sixty-two may more
easily be confounded, as written in Chinese, than with the Roman
figures.
4 See the 四書集證, on the preface to the Chung Yung, -- 年百餘歲卒.
5 Li himself was born in Confucius's twenty-first year, and if
Tsze-sze had been born in Li's twenty-first year, he must have
been 103 at the time of duke Mu's accession. But the tradition is,
that Tsze-sze was a pupil of Tsang Shan who was born B.C. 504.
We must place his birth therefore considerably later, and suppose
him to have been quite young when his father died. I was talking
once about the question with a Chinese friend, who observed:-- 'Li
was fifty when he died, and his wife married again into a family
of Wei. We can hardly think, therefore, that she was anything like
that age. Li could not have married so soon as his father did.
Perhaps he was about forty when Chi was born.'
smiled and said, 'Now, indeed, shall I be without anxiety! My
undertakings will not come to naught. They will be carried on and
flourish [1].' After the death of Confucius, Chi became a pupil, it
is said, of the philosopher Tsang. But he received his instructions
with discrimination, and in one instance which is recorded in the
Li Chi, the pupil suddenly took the place of the master. We there
read: 'Tsang said to Tsze-sze, "Chi, when I was engaged in
mourning for my parents, neither congee nor water entered my
mouth for seven days." Tsze-sze answered, "In ordering their
rules of propriety, it was the design of the ancient kings that
those who would go beyond them should stoop and keep by them,
and that those who could hardly reach them should stand on tiptoe
to do so. Thus it is that the superior man, in mourning for his
parents, when he has been three days without water or congee,
takes a staff to enable himself to rise [2]."'
While he thus condemned the severe discipline of Tsang,
Tsze-sze appears, in various incidents which are related of him,
to have been himself more than sufficiently ascetic. As he was
living in great poverty, a friend supplied him with grain, which he
readily received. Another friend was emboldened by this to send
him a bottle of spirits, but he declined to receive it.' You receive
your corn from other people,' urged the donor, 'and why should you
decline my gift, which is of less value? You can assign no ground
in reason for it, and if you wish to show your independence, you
should do so completely.' 'I am so poor,' was the reply, 'as to be in
want, and being afraid lest I should die and the sacrifices not be
offered to my ancestors, I accept the grain as an alms. But the
spirits and the dried flesh which you offer to me are the
appliances of a feast. For a poor man to be feasting is certainly
unreasonable. This is the ground of my refusing your gift. I have
no thought of asserting my independence [3].'
To the same effect is the account of Tsze-sze, which we
have from Liu Hsiang. That scholar relates:-- 'When Chi was living
in Wei, he wore a tattered coat, without any lining, and in thirty
days had only nine meals. T'ien Tsze-fang having heard of his
1 See the 四書集證, in the place just quoted from. For the incident
we are indebted to K'ung Fu; see note 3, p. 36.
2 Li Chi, II. Sect. I. ii. 7.
3 See the 四書集證, as above.
distress, sent a messenger to him with a coat of fox-fur, and
being afraid that he might not receive it, he added the message,--
"When I borrow from a man, I forget it; when I give a thing, I part
with it freely as if I threw it away." Tsze-sze declined the gift
thus offered, and when Tsze-fang said, "I have, and you have not;
why will you not take it?" he replied, "You give away as rashly as
if you were casting your things into a ditch. Poor as I am, I cannot
think of my body as a ditch, and do not presume to accept your
gift [1]." 'Tsze-sze's mother married again, after Li's death, into a
family of Wei. But this circumstance, which is not at all
creditable in Chinese estimation, did not alienate his affections
from her. He was in Lu when he heard of her death, and proceeded
to weep in the temple of his family. A disciple came to him and
said, 'Your mother married again into the family of the Shu, and do
you weep for her in the temple of the K'ung?' 'I am wrong,' said
Tsze-sze, 'I am wrong;' and with these words he went to weep
elsewhere [2].
In his own married relation he does not seem to have been
happy, and for some cause, which has not been transmitted to us,
he divorced his wife, following in this, it has been wrongly said,
the example of Confucius. On her death, her son, Tsze-shang [3],
did not undertake any mourning for her. Tsze-sze's disciples were
surprised and questioned him. 'Did your predecessor, a superior
man,' they asked, 'mourn for his mother who had been divorced?'
'Yes,' was the reply. 'Then why do you not cause Pai [4] to mourn
for his mother?' Tsze-sze answered, 'My progenitor, a superior
man, failed in nothing to pursue the proper path. His observances
increased or decreased as the case required. But I cannot attain to
this. While she was my wife, she was Pai's mother; when she
ceased to be my wife, she ceased to be Pai's mother.' The custom
of the K'ung family not to mourn for a mother who had been
divorced, took its rise from Tsze-sze [5].
These few notices of K'ung Chi in his more private relations
bring him before us as a man of strong feeling and strong will,
independent, and with a tendency to asceticism in his habits.
1 See the 四書集證, as above.
2 See the Li Chi, II. Sect. II. iii. 15. 庶氏之母死 must be understood
as I have done above, and not with Chang Hsuan, -- 'Your mother
was born a Miss Shu.'
3 子上 -- this was the designation of Tsze-sze's son.
4 白,-- this was Tsze-shang's name.
5 See the Li Chi, II. Sect. I. i. 4.
As a public character, we find him at the ducal courts of Wei,
Sung; Lu, and Pi, and at each of them held in high esteem by the
rulers. To Wei he was carried probably by the fact of his mother
having married into that State. We are told that the prince of Wei
received him with great distinction and lodged him honourably. On
one occasion he said to him, 'An officer of the State of Lu, you
have not despised this small and narrow Wei, but have bent your
steps hither to comfort and preserve it; vouchsafe to confer your
benefits upon me.' Tsze-sze replied. 'If I should wish to requite
your princely favour with money and silks, your treasuries are
already full of them, and I am poor. If I should wish to requite it
with good words, I am afraid that what I should say would not
suit your ideas, so that I should speak in vain and not be listened
to. The only way in which I can requite it, is by recommending to
your notice men of worth.' The duke said. 'Men of worth are
exactly what I desire.' 'Nay,' said Chi. 'you are not able to
appreciate them.' 'Nevertheless,' was the reply, 'I should like to
hear whom you consider deserving that name.' Tsze-sze replied,
'Do you wish to select your officers for the name they may have
or for their reality?' 'For their reality, certainly,' said the duke.
His guest then said, 'In the eastern borders of your State, there is
one Li Yin, who is a man of real worth.' 'What were his
grandfather and father?' asked the duke. 'They were husbandmen,'
was the reply, on which the duke broke into a loud laugh, saying, '
I do not like husbandry. The son of a husbandman cannot be fit for
me to employ. I do not put into office all the cadets of those
families even in which office is hereditary.' Tsze-sze observed, 'I
mention Li Yin because of his abilities; what has the fact of his
forefathers being husbandmen to do with the case? And moreover,
the duke of Chau was a great sage, and K'ang-shu was a great
worthy. Yet if you examine their beginnings, you will find that
from the business of husbandry they came forth to found their
States. I did certainly have my doubts that in the selection of
your officers you did not have regard to their real character and
capacity.' With this the conversation ended. The duke was silent
[1].
Tsze-sze was naturally led to Sung, as the K'ung family
originally sprang from that principality. One account, quoted in
'The
1 See the 氏姓譜,卷一百二,孔氏,孔伋.
Four Books, Text and Commentary, with Proofs and Illustrations
[1],' says that he went thither in his sixteenth year, and having
foiled an officer of the State, named Yo So, in a conversation on
the Shu Ching, his opponent was so irritated at the disgrace put
on him by a youth, that he listened to the advice of evil
counsellors, and made an attack on him to put him to death. The
duke of Sung, hearing the tumult, hurried to the rescue, and when
Chi found himself in safety, he said, 'When king Wan was
imprisoned in Yu-li, he made the Yi of Chau. My grandfather made
the Ch'un Ch'iu after he had been in danger in Ch'an and Ts'ai. Shall
I not make something when rescued from such a risk in Sung?'
Upon this he made the Chung Yung in forty-nine p'ien.
According to this account, the Chung Yung was the work of
Tsze-sze's early manhood, and the tradition has obtained a
wonderful prevalence. The notice in 'The Sacrificial Canon' says,
on the contrary, that it was the work of his old age, when he had
finally settled in Lu, which is much more likely [2].
Of Tsze-sze in Pi, which could hardly be said to be out of
Lu, we have only one short notice,-- in Mencius, V. Pt. II. iii. 3,
where the duke Hui of Pi is introduced as saying, 'I treat Tsze-sze
as my master.'
We have fuller accounts of him in Lu, where he spent all the
latter years of his life, instructing his disciples to the number of
several hundred [3], and held in great reverence by the duke Mu.
The duke indeed wanted to raise him to the highest office, but he
declined this, and would only occupy the position of a 'guide,
philosopher, and friend.' Of the attention which he demanded,
however, instances will he found in Mencius, II. Pt. II. xi. 3; V. Pt.
II. vi. 4, and vii. 4. In his intercourse with the duke he spoke the
truth to him fearlessly. In the 'Cyclopaedia of Surnames [4],' I find
the following conversations, but I cannot tell from what source
they are extracted into that Work.-- 'One day, the duke said to
Tsze-sze, "The officer Hsien told me that you do good without
1 This is the Work so often referred to as the 四書集證, the full
title being 四書經註集證. The passage here translated from it will
be found in the place several times referred to in this section.
2 The author of the 四書拓餘說 adopts the view that the Work was
composed in Sung. Some have advocated this from ch. xxviii. 5,
compared with Ana. III. ix, 'it being proper,' they say, 'that Tsze-
sze, writing in Sung, should not depreciate it as Confucius had
done out of it!'
3 See in the 'Sacrificial Canon,' on Tsze-sze.
4 This is the Work referred to in note 1, p. 40.
wishing for any praise from men;-- is it so?" Tsze-sze replied,
"No, that is not my feeling. When I cultivate what is good, I wish
men to know it, for when they know it and praise me, I feel
encouraged to be more zealous in the cultivation. This is what I
desire, and am not able to obtain. If I cultivate what is good, and
men do not know it, it is likely that in their ignorance they will
speak evil of me. So by my good-doing I only come to be evil
spoken of. This is what I do not desire, but am not able to avoid.
In the case of a man, who gets up at cock-crowing to practise
what is good and continues sedulous in the endeavour till
midnight, and says at the same time that he does not wish men to
know it, lest they should praise him, I must say of such a man,
that, if he be not deceitful, he is stupid."'
Another day, the duke asked Tsze-sze, saying, 'Can my state
be made to flourish?' 'It may,' was the reply. 'And how?' Tsze-sze
said, 'O prince, if you and your ministers will only strive to
realize the government of the duke of Chau and of Po-ch'in;
practising their transforming principles, sending forth wide the
favours of your ducal house, and not letting advantages flow in
private channels; if you will thus conciliate the affections of the
people, and at the same time cultivate friendly relations with
neighboring states, your state will soon begin to flourish.'
On one occasion, the duke asked whether it had been the
custom of old for ministers to go into mourning for a prince
whose service and state they had left. Tsze-sze replied to him,
'Of old, princes advanced their ministers to office according to
propriety, and dismissed them in the same way, and hence there
was that rule. But now-a-days, princes bring their ministers
forward as if they were going to take them on their knees, and
send them away as if they would cast them into an abyss. If they
do not treat them as their greatest enemies, it is well.-- How can
you expect the ancient practice to be observed in such
circumstances [1]?'
These instances may suffice to illustrate the character of
Tsze-sze, as it was displayed in his intercourse with the princes
of his time. We see the same independence which he affected in
private life, and a dignity not unbecoming the grandson of
Confucius. But we miss the reach of thought and capacity for
administration which belonged to the Sage. It is with him, how-
1 This conversation is given in the Li Chi, II. Sect. II. Pt. ii, 1.
ever, as a thinker and writer that we have to do, and his rank in
that capacity will appear from the examination of the Chung Yung
in the section iv below. His place in the temples of the Sage has
been that of one of his four assessors, since the year 1267. He
ranks with Yen Hui, Tsang Shan, and Mencius, and bears the title
of 'The Philosopher Tsze-sze, Transmitter of the Sage [1].'