ulus already given to commerce and to travel by the opening of a monthly steam communication with China, is but a foreshadowing of what is to be. Before long telegraphic lines will place us as near to China as we are to London. On these shores thousands of Chinese youth are learning to talk and to read our language. At all the ports in China where our people reside there are schools in which our language is taught and our books are read; and recently, at the capital, the emperor has established and endowed a school for teaching the youthful members of the noble families, and the sons of the high officers, in the sciences of foreign nations, and in the English language. To show that the Chinese are still a reading, and a book making people, we have only to refer to such works as those prepared by Commissioner Lin after he was relieved from the custody of his seals of office. He obtained the assistance of a young man who had been taught in the Mission schools of Canton, and by compilation and original matter prepared many volumes, which might be called an Encyclopedia of Geography and History, with various statistics relating to foreign countries. A similar work was performed by a high officer at Ningpo, not many years since, during a period of comparative retirement from the cares of public life. Another evidence we cite in the form of a newspaper item, of the date at which we are writing: "In the city of Fuhchow there is a native publishing house, employing more than a hundred workmen. The house has issued over one thousand different publications, one of them being a book extending to forty or fifty volumes. This fact gives one an impressive idea of the literary character of the Chinese." REFLECTIONS. Confucius taught much that our own people might find a useful study. In many things the least educated Chinaman might be an example unto us. But Confucian ethics have done all that any mere philosophy or moral code is able to do for China. Christianity has put us in possession of everything that we enjoy which is superior to what our neighbors have attained. Taught by Confucius, every Chinaman is accustomed to repeat, "All between the four seas are brethren;" while in our Holy Book we read that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men." We who read the Sermon on the Mount have the Golden Rule as well as have they who read Confucius. What we would have done for ourselves in similar circumstances, we can if we choose do for the Chinese. The higher civilization, the purer enjoyments, and the glorious hopes of immortality which we enjoy, may now be placed within their reach. Were such characters as Confucius and Mencius to visit our country in these days from any foreign land, how would the nation delight to honor them! Colleges would confer upon them their highest degrees, the writings of those sages would be assigned a prominent place in all public libraries, and the countrymen of Confucius and Mencius would be treated with proper respect and consideration. It may be well to remember that when our ancestors were living in bark huts, wearing the untanned skins of animals, worshiping Woden and Thor, the Sun and the Moon, and offering human victims in sacrifice, China was the most civilized nation on the globe. No new argument need be adduced showing why we should treat with kindness the people who visit us from that empire which began its existence soon after those bands (separated by the confusion of tongues) departed their several ways from the plains of Shinar. No people capable of appreciating such sentiments as are contained in the books from which this volume has been compiled-no people who, from childhood to old age, are constantly drilled in the study and practice of such rules of etiquette as we have cited, can fail to possess many of the elements of gentlemen: and as we desire not to forfeit a right to that distinction ourselves, we will be careful not to countenance any rude or improper behavior towards others, whatever may be the language they speak. or the garments they wear. 1 INDEX. CONFUCIUS AND THE CHINESE CLASSICS. PREFACE PART I. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 1. Chinese History down to the Christian Era..................... 2. Ancient Empire of China............. 3. Life of Confucius.. PAGE. 7 15 27 44 1. What the Disciples of Confucius say of their Master .... 2. What Confucius says of himself. ..... 75 3. Eulogium-Demeanor of Confucius in his Village, in the Ancestral Temple, and in the Court..... CHAPTER II. THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. 1. Heaven Decrees, Helps, Rewards, and Punishes.. 3. The Rule of Life in One Word.. 4. The Superior Man-the beau ideal of Virtue 97 98 GOVERNMENT OF FAMILY AND STATE, 1. Self-control a prerequisite to Family Government: Family 2. What the Ruler would have his People be, he must be himself... 133 |