According to some authorities he enjoyed a few glimpses of royal favour in his latter days, being sought after by the rulers of several states, and employed iu high offices, which matured his knowledge and experience; but it seems more certain that his rigid principles, and the firm uncompromising manner in which he carried them into practice, always made him many enemies. His zeal endangered his life more than once, but he regarded death with a stoical eye. At length, full of years, if not of honours, he retired from the world, in company with a few of his chosen disciples, to write or complete those works which became the sacred books of the Chinese, and which have survived twenty-two centuries. He died in his seventy-third year. His sepulchre was raised on the banks of the Soo river, and many of his disciples, repairing to the spot, deplored the loss of their great master. The envy and hatred of his contemporaries soon passed away. When peace was restored, and the empire amalgamated, his writings, which had largely contributed to that happy issue, were looked upon as of paramount authority in all matters ; and to mutilate, or in any way to alter their sense, was held to be a crime deserving of condign puui-hment. Unfortunately however the obscurity of the language, and the difficult involved nature of the written character of the Chinese, rendered involuntary alterations and mistakes of the sense numerous and inevitible.
Though Confucius was left to end his life in obscurity, the greatest honours and privileges were heaped upon his descendants, who have exited through sixty-seveu or sixty-eight generations, and may be called the only hereditary nobility in China. They flourish in the very district where their great ancestor was born, and in all the revo lutions that have occurred their privileges have been respected. In the e irlier part of the 18th century, under the great emperor Kang-hy, the total uumher of descendants amounted to 11,000 males. In every city, down to these of the third rank, styled Hien, there is a temple dedicated to Confucius. The mandarins, all the learned of the laud, the emperor himself, are bound to do him service. This service consi-ts in burning scented gums, frankincense, tapers of sandal-wood, &c., and in placing fruit, wine;flowers, and other agreeable objects, before a plain tablet, on which is inscribed, Confucius, our revered master, let thy spiritual part descend and be pleased with this our respect, which we now humbly offer to thee." The ceremouy is precisely the same as that which every man is enjoined to observe in the hall of ancestors to his parents, &c.
" It was the great object of Confucius," says a recent writer, "to regulate the manners of the people. He thought outward decorum the true emblem of excellence of heart ; he therefore digested all the various ceremonies into one general code of rites, which was called Le-ke, or Ly-king, &c. In this work every ritual in all the relations of human life is strictly regulated, so that a true Chinese is a perfect automaton, put in motion by the regulations of the Ly-kiug. Some of the rites are most excellent : tho duties towards parents, the respect due to superiors, the decorum in the behaviour of common life, &c., speak highly in favour of Confucius ; but his substituting ceremony for simplicity and true politeness is unpardonable. The Ly-king contains many excellent maxima and inculcates morality, but it has como to us hi a mutilated state, with many interpolations." (Gutzlaff, Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern.') In the writings of Confucius the duties of hosbands towards their wives were slightly dwelt upon. On the other hand, the duties and implicit submission of children to their parents were extended to the utmost, and most rigidly inculcated. Upon this wide principle of filial obedience the whole of his system, moral and political, is founded. A family is the prototype of his nation ; and, instead of the notions of independence and equality among men, he enforces the principles of dependence and subordination—as of childreu to parents, the younger to the elder. (Dr. Morrison.) 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 probably (he might say certainly) this feature of his doctrines which has made Confucius such a favourite with all the governments of China, whether of native or Tartar origin, for so many centuries. At the same time it should be observed that this fundamental doctrine has rendered the Chinese people slavish, deceitful, and pusillanimous, and has fostered the growth of a national character that cannot be redeemed by gentleness of deportment and orderliness of couduct.
Confucius was a teacher of morals, but not the founder of a religion. His doctrines constitute rather a system of philosophy iu the depart ment of morals and politics than any particular religious faith. (Davis.) Arnauld and other writers have broadly asserted that he did not recognise the existence of a God. (Bayle, 'Philos. Diet in article ' Maldouat.') In his physics Confucius maintains that "out of nothing there cannot possibly be produced anything ; that material bodies must have existed from all eternity; that the cause (' lee,' reason) or principle of things must have had a co-existence with the things them selves; that therefore this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible, without limits, omnipotent, and omnipresent ; that the central point of influence (strength) whence this cause principally acts is the blue firmament (' Tien'), whence its emanations epread over the whole universe; that it is therefore the supreme duty of the prince, in the name of his subjects, to present offerings to Tien, and particularly at the equinoxes ; the one for obtaining a propitious seed-time, and the other a plentiful harvest." He taught his disciples that the human body is composed of two principles—the one light, invisible, and ascending ; the other gross, palpable, and descending : that on the separation of these two principles the light and spiritual part ascends into the air, whilst the heavy and corporeal part sinks into the earth. The word death' never enters into his philosophy; nor on common occasions is it employed by the Chiuese. (Barrow.) When a person dies, they say "he has returned to his family." The body, it was difficult to deny, resolved itself into its primitive elements, and became a part of the universe ; but, according to Confucius, the spirits of the good were permitted to visit their ancient habitations on earth, or such ancestral balls or other places as might he appointed by their children and descendants, upon whom, while they received their homage, they (the dead) had the power of conferring benefactions. Hence arose the indispensable duty of performing sacred rites iu the hall or temple of ancestors ; and all euch as neglected this duty would be punished after death by their spiritual part being deprived of the privilege of visiting the hall of ancestors, and of the supreme bliss arising from the homage bestowed by descendants. A belief in good and evil genii, and of tutelar spirits presiding over families, houses, towns, and other places, inevitably arose out of this system. It does not appear however that either Confucius or any of his followers attached the idea of a personal being or form to the Deity ; nor have the true Confucians ever repre sented the Great First Cause under any image or personification what soever. The images and idols of China belong to other faiths. It was soon found that the notions of Confucius were too abstract and ideal for the mass of his countrymen, who, like the rest of mankind in nearly all ages and all countries, required something material to fix their attention and excite their devotion.