In the writings of Confucius the duties of husbands towards their wives were slightly dwelt upon; the duties and implicit submission of children to Uieir par- ents were most rigidly inculcated. Upon this wide principle of filial obedience the whole of his system,* moral and political, is founded. A family is the pro- totype of the nation ; and, instead of the notions of in- dependence and equality among men, he enforces the principles of dependence and subordination — as of chUdren to parente, the younger to the elder. By an easy fiction, the emperor stands as the father of all his subjects, and is thus entitled to their passive obedience ; and, as Dr. Morrison observes, it is prob- ably (he might say certeinly) this feature of his doc- trines which has made Conjoins such a fovorite with all the govemmento of China, whether of native or Tartar origin, for so many centuries. At the same time, it should be observed that this fundamental doc- trine has rendered the Chinese people slavish, deceit- fol, and pusillanimous, and has fostered the growth of a national character that cannot be redeemed by gen- tleness of deportment and orderliness of conduct.
Confocius was a teacher of morals, but not the founder of a religion. His doctrines constitute rather a system of philosophy in the department of morals and politics than any particular religious foith (Da- vis). Amauld and other writers have broadly assert- ed that he did not recognise the existence of a God (Bayle, Diet, in art. MtudonaC), In his physics Con- focius maintains that ** out of nothing there cannot be produced anything ; that material bodies must hl^re existed fh)m all eternity ; that the cause or principle of things must have had a co-existence with the things themselves ; that therefore this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible."
The system of Confhcius is essentially ethical and political, and cannot be called a religion or a philoso- phy. He disclamis originality in doctrine. His ob- ject was to re-establish the ancient adttu of China, and to mould the manners of her people by minute regulations, embodying the usages of the past, and digested into one general code of rites (Xt-H), in which the proper ritual for all the relations of life is pre- scribed. To the influence of this code may be referred the automatic character of Chinese life. While many of his doctrines are deserving of high praise, and may justly claim to rank, in a moral point of view, above the ethics of Greece and .Borne, they foil short of the elevation and ameliorating power of the Mosaic and Christian codes, which the encyclopiedist writers of
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the eighteenth century aaserted were equalled, if not furpaased by them. To show the falsity of such statement, we need only contrast the results achieved by the development of the two systems, starting from what has been claimed to be cognate doctrinal bases. Founding his system upon the duty enjoined in the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, Conftidus incul- cates in such wise dependence and subordination, first of children to parents, then of citizens to the emperor, the representative father of the state, as to give to the imperial power that despotic cast which, while it has made him so great a favorite with all govemmente in China, native or Tartar, has nevertheless undoubtedly tended to check progress and make the people deceit- ful and pusillanimous, though the long-continued ex- istence of their nationality vindicates the promise ma4e by God of long life to those who honor their parenta, for this injunction, it would seem, the Chinese obey beyond all nations of the earth. His celebrated max- im of negative reciprocity, " What you would not wish done to yourself, that do not to others" {AnaL xv, 23), fitly contrasts the immobile, selfish spirit of Confu- cianism, limited in its aims to China only, with the active reciprocity of Clirist's golden rule, whose pro- gressive spirit embraces all the world.
Whether Confticius recognised the existence of a personal God has been questioned, though the religious ceremonies observed by him, and certain expresdons otUa (AnaL iii, 18, and xiv, 13)— "He who offends against Heaven has none to whom he can pray," ** But there is Heaven that knows me" — an uiged as proofs that he did (see prefkce to the Amer. ed. of the recent translation by Dr.Legge). He maintained tliat ex mkih nikUJUj and consequently that matter is eter- nal; that the cause or principle of things had a coex- istence with the things themselves, and therefbre also is eternal, infinite, indestructible, omnipotent, and omnipresent, having the blue firmament (Tien) as the centnd pohit; therefore offerings, particularly at the equinoxes, should be made to Tien. Neither Confb- dus nor his true followers have ever represented the Great First Cause by any image. "The images and idols of China belong to other fidths.** The doctrine of the soul's immortidity is implied in the worship paid to ancestors, and the absence of the word death fhym his philosophy. When a person dies, the Chhiese say "he has returned to his fiunUy." The spirits of the good were, according to him, permitted to visit their ancient habitations on earth, or such ancestral halls or places as were appointed by their descendants, to re- ceive homage and confer benefactions. Hence the duty of performing sacred rites in such places, under the penalty, in the case of those who, while living, neglect such duty, of their spiritual part being de- prived after death of the supreme bliss flowing fh>m the homage of descendanto. The aim of the living should be the attainment of perfect virtue by the ob- servance of the five fundamental laws of the relation between ruler and subject, parents and children, hus- band and wife, friends and brothers, and the practice of the five cardinal virtues— humanity, justice, order, rectitude, and sincerity, or good faith.**