About two thousand four hundred and twenty years ago, Tsen-Tsze [8] 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. [9] 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 [10] and bowed
his head to worship his mother at parting.
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.”
“I can not eat food or study books until my mother comes,” said
Tsen-Tsze, and word was sent his teacher who said, “You are not quite
wise, Tsen-Tsze. If your mother should die, would you then no longer
study? I hope to see you soon at school.”
At midday his mother came. Then he had food, and went to school and
studied his lessons.
When he came home from school, he always went to see where his parents
were before going to play. At meal time he would not take food until
his father and mother began eating. When he met an old person on the
street, he uncovered his head and stood aside respectfully to let him
pass before he went on.
These and all other customs of courtesy were observed and honored by
Tsen-Tsze. At school he studied his lessons faithfully, and never left
tasks unfinished. Every day he asked his teacher, “Have I done any
wrong to-day?”—so great was his desire to know the right and to do all
that he knew.
One day Tsen-Tsze’s father beat him with a long Kia-Tsa (stick). [11]
When he got up from the floor he came and took his father’s hand and
asked, “Father, did I do wrong? Tell me what it was.” But his father’s
face was red with anger, and he would not explain.
Tsen-Tsze went out to the schoolroom and took his music box and came
again before his father’s face, and sat down on the floor and played
and sang to him. He sang,
“Every father loves his son,
Of this all men are sure.
Each child will need the stick sometimes,
To keep his nature pure.”
And he said, “I read in history about many famous men who were great
because they were gentle. I hope I shall be like them. History says
their fathers gave them the stick when young.” But the anger had not
all left his father’s face, and he brought him a cup of tea and said,
“Father, are you thirsty?”
Then he took his father’s hand and went to the garden where the birds
were singing. He put a flower on his father’s breast and asked,
“Father, do you like that? I do.”
All this caused Tsen-Tsze’s father to think, and in his heart he said,
“This boy is not like other children of his age.” And so long as he had
life, he never beat his son again.
Tsen-Tsze became a great scholar and finished all his studies when he
was only twenty-five years old. And he was a wise and good man.
His own generation and all the generations of man that have come after
him have studied about him, and have wished to be as he was.