Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/154

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THE CHINESE EMPIRE

names on her long roll of famous men, viz. Confucius and Mencius. These are the Latinised forms of the Chinese K'ung-fu-tz and Meng-fu-tz. K'ung and Meng are surnames in everyday use. Fu-tz is master. Confucius alone is the Sage, Mencius is recognised as of secondary rank, though Western students of philosophy seem inclined to reverse the native verdict. In 551-479 B.C., the era of Confucius, China was a conglomerate of feudal states owning allegiance, as actual as is usual under such circumstances, to the house of Chou. What is known of the teaching of the Sage has come to us in the form of table-talk, gathered up and put on record by the band of young men who followed him about from place to place receiving his doctrine. It is worthy of note, surely, that the classic literature of China is absolutely devoid of anything offensive to good taste. Its morality is of a high, if artificial, order, and what the Chinese are is in spite, not in consequence of, the teachings of antiquity. Confucius did not write books; the only writings with which he is credited are the Annals of Lu, his native state. He died, after a life full of vicissitudes, at the age of seventy-three. His lineal descendants are Dukes till the present day. Mencius (372-289 B.C.) was also a native of the ancient state of Lu, and he, like Confucius, was dead some hundreds of years before posterity admitted them to the honourable places they now hold in the national esteem.

Missionary Operations.— Shantung was early visited (1851-53) by Carl F. Gutzlaff, in the course of his extended coasting tours, undertaken in a native junk, for the purpose of distributing the Scriptures. In 1860 Mr. Holmes of the American Southern Baptist Mission settled in Chefoo with his family, a colleague, Mr. J. B. Hartwell, settling in Tengchow the following year. In 1861 Chefoo was threatened by one of the hosts of marauders called into existence by the success of the Taipings. Mr. Holmes, with Mr. Parker of the American Episcopal Mission, volunteered to intercede with the rebels,