THE HARVARD CLASSICS EDITED BY CHARLES W ELIOT LI. U V IN TWO VOLVMKt t CONFUCIAN • HKBRKW WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES Copyright, 1910 The Bible text in this volume of the Books of Job, MANUFACTURED IN I!. S. A. CONTENTS The Sayings or Confucius •.... 5 Eoclesiastes: Ok, The Pbeachek 339 INTRODUCTORY NOTE The name Confucius is tht latinized form of the Chinest characters, K'ung Foo-tsse, meaning "Tht master, K'ung." The bearer of this name was born of an ancient and distinguished family in the district of Tsow, in the present province of Shentung, China, B. C. 551. His father was a soldier of refutation and governor of Tsow, but not a man of wealth. Confucius married at nineteen, and in his early manhood held a minor office; but within a few years he became a public teacher, and soon attracted numerous disciples. Rising in reputation, he was invited to the court of Chow, -where he investigated tht traditional ceremonies and maxims of the ruling dynasty: and in the following year visited another state where he studied the ancient music. When he was nearly fifty, in the year 500 B. C., he again tooh office, becoming w turn chief magistrate of the town of Chung-loo, Assistant-Superintendent of Worhs to the Ruler of Loo, and finally Minister of Crime. In spite of almost miraculous efficiency, he lost the support of his ruler in 496 B, C.; and until his death in 478 B. C., he wandered from slate to slate, sometimes well-treated, sometimes enduring severe hardships, always saddened by the refusal of the turbulent potentates to be guided by his beneficent counsels. A'o sooner was he dead, however,'than his wisdom was recognized by peasant and emperor alihe; admiration rose to veneration, veneration to worship. Sacrifices were offered to him, temples built in his honor, and a cult established which has lasted almost two thousand years. Confucius did not regard himself as an innovator, but as the conservator of ancient truth and ceremonial propriety. He dealt with neither theology nor metaphysics, but with moral and political conduct. The Lun Yu, Analects or Sayings of Confucius, were probably compiled, says Legge, "by the disciples of the disciples of the sage, mahing free use of the written memorials concerning him which they had received, and the oral statements which they had heard, from their several masters. And we shall not be far wrong, if we determine its date as about the beginning of the third, or the end of the fourth century before Christ." |