persons whom Confucius styles the ancient kings (rulers of petty nations or states), whose maxims are quoted by him as the models of perfection. Their notions of good government are founded on certain principles, sufficiently good in themselves, and "which being observed, there is order;—if abandoned, there is anarchy." "It is vain to expect (they add) that good government can proceed from vicious minds." Here again one is occasionally surprised (as in the precepts of Confucius and Mencius themselves) to meet with maxims which could be hardly anticipated as the groundwork of a mere Asiatic despotism. They rather prove, in fact, that, if administered and preserved in strict accordance with its theory, the government of China is based in a great measure on public opinion.* When the people (in the Shoo-king) rise against the tyranny of him with whom the Hea dynasty closed, they are justified by the maxim, that "the people's hearts and Heaven's decree are the same;" which is nothing else, in fact, than vox populi vox Dei.

We have before had occasion to notice the account contained in the Shoo-king of a general inundation (by some identified with the universal deluge), whose waters were drained off by the exertions of the great Yu in the course, it is said, of nine years. This, together with other circumstances attending the Chinese account of the event, leads rather to the inference that it was only an aggravation of those fearful inundations to which the extensive country watered by the Yellow River (descending at once from the hills of Tartary into an immense alluvial plain) is even now constantly liable. There is, indeed, fair ground for concluding that the course of that great

* A philosopher of some celebrity left behind him these three maxims regarding government :-"First, to choose proper men; secondly, to consult the wishes of the people; thirdly, to act according to the times."

stream near the sea has, at some remote period, been changed, and that it must once have emptied itself into the gulf of Pechely, north of the Shantung promontory.* The unparalleled quantity of mud which its waters hold in suspension is now forming deposits, impeding its exit into the sea, and annually causing inundations by throwing the stream back upon the flat country. It is more than possible that the choking of the ancient embouchure caused the deluge of Yaou; and a second deluge may be caused by the stoppage of the present exit.

3. The Book of Rites, Ly-king which is the next in order, may be considered as the foundation of the present state of Chinese manners, and one of the causes of their uniform unchangeableness. Exterior forms were highly estimated by the earliest teachers of the country, on the ground of their being calculated to soften men's manners, and restrain their natural proneness to excess and violence. They observed that, the tempers and dispositions of all being different, the Ly (or rules of propriety in relation to external conduct) became necessary in order to harmonize such opposite characters, and reconcile their differences. Hence it has been the constant endeavour of Chinese moralists and rulers to stifle everything like passion in its birth, and to reduce all to a tranquil dead level. The ceremonial usages of the country are com

* In the book of Mencius it is stated (chap. v. sec. 4) that Yu, in the course of eight years, removed the obstacles which choked several rivers, so that they flowed into the sea, and that he opened a vent for others into the Keang. Mr. Collie, the Protestant missionary, who translated the Four Books, remarks that (according to this account) the country had been overflowed from the creation of the world down to the period in question, and that the water was put into proper channels by human efforts. "These circumstances (he adds) deserve the consideration of such persons as have supposed that the Chinese writers alluded to the universal deluge." Mr. Collie seems quite right, except in the supposition that the inundation was primæval: it was more likely to be accidental.

monly estimated to amount to three thousand, as prescribed in the ritual; and one of the Six Boards or tribunals at Peking, called Ly-poo, is especially charged with the guardianship and interpretation of these important matters, which really form a portion of the religion of the Chinese.

4. The Chun-tsieu, a history of his own times and of those which immediately preceded them, was the last, and perhaps, strictly speaking, the only, original work of Confucius. Its object appears to have been to afford warnings and examples to the rulers of the country, reproving their misgovernment, and inculcating the maxims of the "ancient kings" for their guidance. This work commences about 750 years before our era, and concludes with the events which immediately preceded the death of the philosopher. Having been commenced in spring and concluded in autumn, the Chun-tsieu derives its name from this circumstance; and such are the fanciful names frequently given by the Chinese to their literary productions. We believe that this work has never yet been wholly translated into any European language. The opinion given by Père Prémare of the Chinese histories in general is perhaps the real reason why they do not bear the labour or expense of a detailed version. In ultimo gradu pono historicos, non quòd male scribunt, sed quia non admodum curo scire facta quæ referunt-" I rank their historians the last in order, not on account of any intrinsic inferiority, but because I do not take the same interest in the facts which they relate."

5. The last that we have to notice of the Canonical Works is the Ye-king, which is a mystical exposition of what some consider as a very ancient theory of creation, and of the changes that are perpetually occurring in nature, whence the name of the work. The system may

doubtless be extremely ancient in its origin, but little can be gathered from the Ye-king, the most oracular of performances; and this philosophy has been greatly added to in later times by the commentator Choo-tsze, and others who flourished in the eleventh century of our era, when the learned dynasty of Soong governed China. The arithmetic diagrams of Fo-hy, as we find them in the Yě-king, bear some resemblance to the mystical numbers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who, although he enlarged the bounds of science, appears to have allowed his speculations to be perverted by dreams of mysterious virtue in certain numbers and combinations. In the same way the Chinese make use in divination, and various other branches of their mock philosophy, of the Pa-kua, or eight diagrams of Fo-hy, which, if they mean anything, may be supposed to represent a system of binary arithmetic. Chinese philosophers speak of the origin of all created things, or the premier principe matériel (as it has been called in French translations) under the name of Tae-keih. This is represented in their books by a figure, which is thus formed:

On the semidiameter of a given

circle describe a semicircle, and on

the remaining semidiameter, but on

the other side, describe another semi

circle. The whole figure represents

the Tae-keih, and the two divided

portions, formed by the curved line,

typify what are called the Yang

and Yin; in respect to which, this Chinese mystery bears a singular parallel to that extraordinary fiction of Egyptian mythology, the supposed intervention of a masculo-feminine principle in the development of the mundane .* The Tae-keih is said to have produced the Yang and *This idea seems to have been very general. "In a mysterious

egg.

Yin, the active and passive, or male and female principle, and these last to have produced all things. The Heaven they call Yang, the Earth Yin,—the Sun is Yang, the Moon Yin, and in the same manner the supposed analogy is carried throughout all nature. One might sometimes be led by their definitions of the Tae-keih, to suppose it an intelligent being; but the general drift of the system is plainly material, as it does not discriminate between the creature and the Creator. This dogma of materialism, however ancient it may be in its first origin, became especially cultivated, or, according to some, originated in China, during the Soong dynasty, which preceded the Mongol Tartar conquest. The learning and science of the Chinese, such as it was, being then much in vogue, some celebrated commentators on the ancient books appeared about that time, the most famous of whom was the Choo-tsze before named. At length, under Yoong-lo, of the Ming dynasty, and in the fourteenth century, a joint work was composed, by name Sing-ly-tá-tseuen, or a complete exposition of nature, in which the mystery of a Tae-keih was fully treated of. Choo-tsze thus expressed himself:-" The celestial principle was male, the terrestrial female: all animate and inanimate nature may be distinguished into masculine and feminine; even vegetable productions are male and female, as, for instance, there is female hemp, and male and female bamboo. Nothing exists independent of the Yin and Yang." Although the Chinese do not characterise the sexes of plants, and passage of the Yajur-veda, Brahma is spoken of, after his emanation from the golden egg, as experiencing fear at being alone in the universe he therefore willed the existence of another, and instantly he became masculo-feminine. The two sexes thus existing in one god were immediately, by another act of volition, divided in twain, and became man and wife. This tradition seems to have found its way into Greece; for the Androgyne' of Plato is but another version of this Oriental mythus."-The Hindoos, vol. i. p. 166.

VOL. II.

C