His philosophy is not deep, but its general tendency is good, affecting strongly the usual mtercourses of life. It is thoroughly practical and terrestrial, and it avoids theology and meta physics and all those subjects that Confucius could not make clear by example and apply rigidly as rules of life. He never attempted to solve questions that he considered beyond his reach. Fast and hard rules of morality and action he made to govern the intercourse of the human race; and in this sense he tied China to a system for hundreds of years. He oc cupied himself altogether with the problems of this world and let the next take care of itself. From the Christian point of view, therefore, there is nothing spiritual about the work of Confucius. His attitude toward spiritual ques tions he has put clearly upon record: "To give one's self up earnestly to the •duties incumbent upon men and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be considered wisdom." His teachings have left China more materialistic and less spiritual than is any of the other great nations. While he instilled morality and national and individual honesty, yet more than 24 centuries of his teachings have not driven superstition and ignorance out of the land, nor improved the government, nor raised the condition of the masses of the people, nor driven illiteracy out of the nation. They have retarded the progress of democracy in a people, in spirit, essentially democratic, and they have encased the national spirit in a hard shell of rules and conventionality from which it has just begun to make spasmodic efforts to free itself. The thinking people have, however,
begun to realize dimly that his philosophy is, in many ways, unsuited to an age in which the spirit of all progressive government is ex pressed by the will of the people. Since the overthrow of the monarchy, candidates for public offices are no longer required as formerly to pass a rigid examination in the "nine classics." As the teachings of Confucius gave their strong sanction and support to the despotic form of government which ruled China, almost uninterruptedly for more than 30 centuries, the royal family and the nobility naturally gave to it an importance that it did i not intrinsically possess. They saw to it that there were magnificent shrines erected to Con fucius in every city, town and community throughout the Chinese Empire, and that his priests were specially honored, so that they became one of the mightiest forces in the direction of the life of China. However honest they may have been in the fulfilment of their great duties and obligations, they have hung upon the chariot wheels of progress.
Bibliography.— Douglas, (Confucius and Taoism) (London 1879); Dvorak, (Chinas Re ligionen, Band 1, Confucius und seine Lehre) (Miinster 1895) ; Haug, (Confu.clus der Weise Chinas) (Berlin 1880) ; Legge, J., (Chinese Classics) (London 1861); Loomis, A., (Con fucius and the Chinese Classics) (San Fran cisco 1867) ; Plath, J. H., (Confucius und seine Schiller: Leben und Lehren) (4 parts, Munich 1869-74) ; Smith, A. H., (Chinese Characteristics) (New York 1900).