now called Keo-fou Hien, lying to the eastward of the great Imperial canal, in
the province of Shang-tung.
Tradition asserts that his father was a descendant of the imperial family of
Hoang-ty, of the dynasty of Chang (2,000 B.C.), and the chief minister of his
native kingdom. At an early age, as is common with most who are destined to
rise to greatness, Confucius gave indisputable proof of no ordinary mental
capacity, and these budding powers were carefully developed by the training and
tuition of the ablest masters. He was still young when he made himself
acquainted with the literature of the period, and especially with the canonical
and classical books attributed to the ancient legislators Yam Chun, and others.
His amiability of temper is warmly commended, and no shadow of reproach
rests upon his moral character; except in so far as he exposed himself to censure
by divorcing his wife, after she had borne him a son, in order, it is said, “that he
might devote himself the more absolutely to his studies.” It is some excuse for
him that, at this time, he was only twenty. In the same year he was appointed
“superintendent of cattle,”—not exactly the ideal office for a philosophical
student. However his assiduity and fidelity soon secured the approbation of his
superiors; he was promoted to a more influential position; and there seemed
every probability of his attaining to the highest rank, when a sudden revolution
in the state for a time obscured his prospects.
The next eight years of his life he spent in travel, assuming the role of a religious
reformer, and everywhere gathering round him a crowd of ardent disciples,
whom he instructed in the rules and principles of his ethical system. It is said
that they numbered as many as 3,000, of whom seventy-two were specially
distinguished by their devotion to their master and their rigid observance of his
tenets. Returning to Loo, when he was about forty-three years old, he was again
called to the service of the state, and from grade to grade rose to the post of
Prime Minister, or “governor of the people.” Invested with plenary power, he
proceeded, with the ardour of an enthusiast, to realise his ideas, and rapidly
brought about a vast improvement in both the moral and physical condition of
the country. The poor were the particular objects of his care: he provided them
with plentiful supplies of cheap and good food, and released them from the
thraldom in which the nobles had held them. His energy and wisdom extended to
every department of the state; and with extraordinary fertility of resource, he
initiated measures for the extension of commerce, the improvement of the
bridges and highways, the impartial administration of justice, and the extirpation
of the robber bands which infested the mountains. But the neighbouring