CONFUCIUS. The real name of Confucius was Keeng-foo.tse the Jesuit missionaries gave it the latinised form in which we use it.
According to some authorities, Confucius lived five centuries and a half, and, according to others, only four centuries and a half, before the Christian era. There is a difference of opinion as to the place of his birth, but that honour is now generally given to the state of Loo, within the district now called Keo-fow Hieu, a little to the eastward of the great canal in Shen•tung province, where he was educated, and where he married in the nineteenth year of his age. He was the only son of a woman of illustrious birth. His father, who had several other eons by another wife, held a high government office, but dying some three years after his birth, seems to have left the future philo sopher very indifferently provided for. Marvellous stories are toll of his love of study when a child, and of his early proficiency in learning and philosophy. The Chinese also record a little fact that may interest phrenologi•ts, namely, that Coufueius's head was remarkable for the elevation of its crown. 11i3 object in acquiring knowledge was to turn it practically to the purposes of good government, laud he accordingly devoted hunelf exclusively to moral and political science. He divorced his wife after she had borne him a son, "in order," say the Jesuits, who excuse this part of his conduct. "that he might attend to his studies with -greater application." Mien ho thought himself sufficiently qualified to instruct the barbarous age in which ho ho quitted his solitude for the courts of princes. China was not then united under one emperor : this (mien did not take place until two or three centuries after the philosopher's death. But when Confucius began his mission there seem to have been as many indepeudeot kiuge in China as there were in England under the Saxon hepterchy. From the vast extent of the country, each of these states or kingdoms WAS probably as large as all England put together. The Chinese were not then more pacific than the rest of mankind the neighbouring states made war upou each other, and every part of the Celestial empire was in Its turn deluged with blood. Not long before the birth of Confucius
the horrors of internal warfare had been augmented by some of the belligerents calling in the foreign aid of the Tartans; but when the philosopher commenced his travels a powerful interwelonal confederacy had been formed, under which the whole of China was comparatively tranquil. lie journeyed through these various states in a condition of simplicity and poverty, devoting hitneelf to the instruction of all ranks iu his precepts of virtue and social order. Ills proselytes gradually increased, and he at length reckoned as many as 3000 disciples, of whom seventy-two were more particularly distinguished by their devotion to their master, and ten were so well grounded in all sorts of knowledge that they were called, by way of excellence, ' the ten wise men.' In his visits to the different princes he endeavoured to prevail upon them to establish a wise and peaceful adminittratiou. His wisdom, his birth, his popularity, recommended him to the patronage of the kings, but his laudable designs were frequently thwarted by envy and interest. After many wanderings and disappointments he became prime minister, with a recognised authority to carry his theories into practice in his native country Loo. At this time he was fifty-five years old. In three years he is said to have effected a thorough change iu the moral condition of the kingdom. The happi nessa and prosperity created by the philosophic prime minister excited the jealousy of the neighbouring kings; the sovereign of Loo was soon luduced to abaudou his benefactor, and Confucius was obliged to fly to the northern parts of China. Ho was subsequently repulsed at three different courts, to which he applied for office in order that he might render the people happy ; and, after sustaioing many other sorrows, he withdrew to the kingdom of Chin, where he lived in great poverty. His doctrines however had taken root, and it was at this time of adversity that his disciples were most numerous. He went again to Loo, his native country, but vainly solicited to be re-employed in the government.