IN order to obtain a clear notion of our subject, it is desirable to explain
who Confucius was, and the condition of the social life amid which he
lived.
If the reader will look at the map, he will be surprised to see that the
China of those days was practically confined to the valley of the Hwang
Ho, (which means "Yellow-River "), taken in its broadest sense. I mean
that the river which is commonly spoken of as " China's Sorrow/' has at
different periods entered the sea through channels both north and south of
its present course ; has, in fact, taken temporary possession of other river
valleys and channels. The China of Confucius' time was, then, confined
to the tract of country east of the Great Bend, where the river leaves
Tartary for good ; and was enclosed or bounded north and south by the
most outerly of those streams which have at any time been connected with
the Yellow River system.
We know very little of China previous to Confucius' time (sixth century
before Christ), but what little we do know was sifted for us and transmitted
by Confucius. We may sum it up in a few words. The written character
in an antique form had certainly existed for several thousand years, but it
is quite uncertain how many : the best authorities say 3,000, that is 5,000
from now. Very recent discoveries in Babylonia have revealed to us
original Sumerian cuneiform records on a wholesale scale, written in clay, and dating at least 5,000 years back ; but there are no such original ancient records in China, nor is there any trace of the Chinese ever having written in clay, still less of there being any connection between Chinese and those western hieroglyphs which preceded cuneiform. Several dynasties had existed, and the rulers of these had shifted their capitals from time to time according to the vagaries of the Yellow River. One of their chief cares was to deal with the havoc wrought or threatened by the floods which resulted from these fluvial irregularities. But although the earliest Chinese literature reaches -back 4,000 years, the older records are so brief and laconic that we derive no satisfactory mental picture from them.
In the time of Confucius the imperial power had dwindled down almost
to nothing, and the appanage States of the vassal princes, most of which
had been conferred originally upon kinsmen of the King (for the more
modern title of hwang-ti or " Emperor," which in those days applied to the
Supreme God, and thence only by extension to past Emperors, had not
yet assumed its present definite form), were almost independent. The
condition of China was, in fact, almost exactly like that of France before
Louis the Eleventh broke the power of the vassal dukes and counts ; and
the position of the Chinese King, as a moral head over all men, was not
unlike the present position of the Pope as the moral head of Christendom: he was towards the end as much a prisoner as a monarch ; his temporal sway was almost reduced to his immediate surroundings, and the whims of feudatories, coupled with the infiltration of barbarian customs, were gradually corrupting the old polity. Not only were the vassal principalities, dukedoms, and counties insubordinate in relation to the King, but their own counts, barons, and squires were equally presumptuous towards themselves ; and it was into this chaotic condition of society and policy, where each clever man was fighting for his own hand alone, that Confucius was ushered at his birth.