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be the posterity of Confucius and Mencius be really so, their families are probably the most ancient in the world." It would certainly be difficult to find even a Welsh pedigree to compete with them.

The contents of the book of Mencius exceed the aggregate of the other three, and the main object of the work is to inculcate that great principle of Confucius-philanthropic government. To our taste it is by far the best of the whole; and while it must be confessed to contain a great deal that is obscure, and perhaps worthless, there are passages in it which would not disgrace the productions of more modern and enlightened times. It is curious to find in the text-book of an absolute government sentences which savour much more of the rights of humanity, and a regard to the general good, than could have been expected. Nothing indeed is more remarkable, in the 'Four Books,' than the freedom with which Confucius and Mencius give their advice to kings. An instance occurs in the sixth chapter of the work under consideration. In reply to a proposition from the sovereign, that certain severe or unjust taxes should be only lightened this year, and abolished the next, Mencius replies, "This is like a man who should steal his neighbour's goods, and, on being censured, should answer, 'I will take so much less every month, and stop next year.' If you know the thing to be unjust, give it up instantly."

"The hearts of the people" are stated to be the only legitimate foundations of empire, or of permanent rule.* If, when with an equal strength (it is said) you invade a country, the people come to welcome you with supplies,

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*"This obvious truth has been much insisted on in every period of Chinese history; and, being more or less acted on, has ameliorated the condition of the people, who, though not formally represented in any legislative assembly, have always found other means of making their voice heard."-Morrison.

*

can this be on any other account than because you are about to rescue them from fire and water? but if you deepen the water and increase the fire, they will turn from you." Were any European power ever disposed to gain an influence in China by expelling the Tartars, this would be the language to hold; and as a secret association actually exists, whose object is the restoration of the Chinese dynasty, this seems to be the mode in which the end might most easily be attained. In fact, the Tartars are at all times extremely jealous of any intimate connexion arising between their Chinese subjects and foreigners; and this lies at the bottom of their rigid system of exclusion. It was prior to the Tartar conquest that Europeans had access to various commercial marts on the eastern coast, and only after that event that they were shut out in the most effectual

manner.

"He who subdues men by force (says Mencius) is a tyrant; he who subdues them by philanthropy is a king. Those who subdue by force do not subdue the heart; but those who subdue men by virtue gain the hearts of the subdued, and their submission is sincere." He at the same time explains very well the necessity for governments, as well as for the inequalities in the conditions of different orders of society. It may be questioned whether the argument could be better put than in his fourth book, where the illustration he makes use of demonstrates, at the same time, the advantages resulting from the division of labour. Let it be remembered that this was all written more than two thousand years ago. In reply to the objection that one portion of the community is obliged to produce food for the other, "Does the farmer (asked * Explained in the Commentary as tyranny. † Chap. v. sec. 4.

Mencius) weave the cloth or make the cap which he wears?-No; he gives grain in exchange. Why does he not make them himself?-It would injure his farming.Does he make his own cooking-vessels or iron implements for farming?-No; he gives grain in barter for them: the labour of the mechanic and that of the husbandman ought not to be united. Then (says Mencius), are the government of the empire and the business of the farmer the only employments that may be united ?-There are employments proper to men of superior station, as well as to those in inferior conditions. Hence it has been observed, some labour with their minds, and some with their bodies. Those who labour with their minds rule, and those who labour with their bodies are ruled." This is exactly Pope's line

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And those who think still govern those who toil."

The commentary appended to the foregoing in the Chinese work proceeds to add,-"The mutual benefit derived by these different classes from each other's exertions resembles the advantage that results to the farmer and mechanic from the exchange of their respective produce. Hence it is proved that the exemption of some from manual labour is beneficial to the whole community." It appears from the book of Mencius that the Chinese have always considered the ground as the original source of all wealth, and the principal subject of taxation. Agriculture is called the root, and manufactures and trade the branches, and hence the higher honours and attention bestowed on the former.

After the Four Books' come the 'Five Canonical Works,' called King, of each of which Confucius was either the author or compiler. 1. The Shy-king, or Book of Sacred Songs, has been described by the author of this

work in the Royal Asiatic Transactions,* as a collection of about three hundred short poems selected by Confucius himself, after rejecting the licentious pieces, which were numerous. The earliest poetry of China, like that of all other nations, appears to have consisted of songs and odes, intended occasionally to be accompanied by music. They have the following notion of the nature of poetical language:-"The human feelings, when excited, become embodied in words; when words fail to express them, sighs or inarticulate tones succeed; when these are inadequate to do justice to feeling, then recourse is had to song." The Book of Songs is divided into four portions, of which the first, the largest and most interesting, is called Kuofoong," the manners of different states;" that is, of the states into which a portion of the present empire was then divided. These had all of them a kind of feudal dependence on one sovereign, who, in order to possess himself of the best means of estimating the character and sentiments of the various people more or less under his sway, was furnished with the songs and odes most popular in each of them. This agrees in a singular manner with the following remark of a writer in the 'Spectator :' +-“I have heard," says he, "that a minister of state, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had all manner of books and ballads brought to him of what kind soever, and took great notice how much they took with the people; upon which he would, and certainly might, very well judge of their present disposition, and of the most proper way of applying them according to his own purposes." The bulk of these curious vestiges of antiquity in China do not rise beyond the most primitive simplicity; and their style and language, without the minute commentary that accompanies 4to. vol. ii., On the Poetry of the Chinese. † No. 502.

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them, would not be always intelligible at the present day. This commentary, however, explains and elucidates their meaning, and, by means of the historical associations which it serves to convey, renders these songs the favourite study of the better informed at the present remote period. Every well-educated Chinese has the most celebrated pieces by heart, and there are constant allusions to them in modern poetry and writings of all kinds.

The second and third parts of the ancient Book of Songs are said to have been composed for the purpose of being sung or recited on state occasions. They treat of the great and virtuous actions of heroes and sages, or express their sentiments. The fourth and last portion of the ancient poetical canon is called Soong, that is, eulogies or panegyrics on the ancestors of the dynasty Chow, then filling the throne, and on the great personages of antiquity. They appear to have been a species of hymn, sung before the emperor when he sacrificed as pontifex maximus (always the peculiar office of Chinese sovereigns) in the temples of Heaven and Earth, or in the hall of his ancestors. Whatever may be the real character of the Shyking on the score of poetical merit, it is at least curious as having been compiled more than twenty centuries prior to our time, and some portion of it composed at a still earlier period.*

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2. The Shoo-king, which is the next of the Five Canonical Works,' is considered by the Chinese as imperfect, and accordingly obscure in many parts, only fifty-eight sections remaining out of one hundred. The rest were perhaps destroyed in the great bonfire of books, by which the first universal emperor, Chy-hoang-ty, made himself so celebrated. The Shoo-king is a history of the deliberations between the two emperors Yaou and Shun, and those * Royal Asiatic Transactions, vol. ii. p. 422.

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