In brief, the system promulgated by Chu lli is a body of thought which may be called the result of Chinese reflection during fifteen hundred years, put into logical Chinese form indeed, but in reality an atnalgamation of the three systems or religions of China. It is the d.thies of Con fucius transfused with the mystical elements of Taoism and the speculations of Buddhism, though very little acknowledgment is made to any thought originating outside of the Confucian cycle. It is les: rationalistic than pantheistic!, for the cultivated Confucians believe in heaven as a bundle of la \ :11Id forces, or at least an orderly system of abstract principles and regu lafed energy, lint with no clear expression of personality. Their voluminous discussions of Spirit, Way. 'Beason, Law, are about what is formless and invisible. When a term for Cre ator is used, it is a rare word and found only in the vocabulary of scholars. There is no clear grasp of the idea of a personal Creator. _Ilan is the highest expression of the forces of the universe, and even gods and devil: fear his de termined mind. The ultimate realities are force
and law. has no immortal son] ; he is highest in the scale of existence, yet he is only one in the endless series. The station, duty, or position in life is greater than the individual, and it determines him. 'Hence, in Japan. while loyalty (not filial piety. as in China) is the loot of the system. the high sense of honor and willingness of self-effacement in the line of duty. 'Hence, also, in China the determination at all hazards to 'save the face' of everything,. and the making of form and ritual equal to sub stance and containing it. In Japan in the Twentieth Century. Chu-IIi's- system is but a memory, or at most an evanescent shadow: in Korea it is powerful. yet rather as an adjunct to political economy: in China it still holds its own. but precariously, against the assaults of the modern radical reformers, of whom Kang Yu-Wei, who in 1S99 emerged into notice as adviser to the Emperor, is the most conspicuous example and best known in the Occident.