THE HSIAO KING

OR

CLASSIC OF FILIAL PIETY.

 THE HSIAO KING
OR

CLASSIC OF FILIAL PIETY.

INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.

THE NAME OF THE CLASSIC ;

ITS EXISTENCE BEFORE
THE HAN DYNASTY; ITS CONTENTS, AND BY WHOM
IT WAS WRITTEN.

1. The Chinese character pronounced Hsiao, which we

'
translate by Filial Piety,' and which may also perform the
part of an adjective, 'filial/ of a verb, 'to be filial/ or of
an advert>> 'filially,' is one of the composite
Meaning of the
character whose meaning is suggested by the
characters

meanings of their constituent parts combined

together. It is made up of two others, one signifying
'
an old man or old age/ and beneath it the character
' *

It thus, according to the Shwo Wan,

c

signifying a son.'
the oldest Chinese dictionary (A. D. 100), presents to the
eye 'a son bearing up an old man/ that is, a child sup-
porting his parent. Hsiao also enters as their phonetical
element into at least twenty other characters, so that it
must be put down as of very early formation. The cha-
racter King has been explained in the Introduction to
the Shu King, p. 2 and the title, Hsiao King, means the
'
;

Classic of Filial Piety.'

2. Many Chinese critics contend that this brief treatise
was thus designated by Confucius himself, and that] it

received the distinction of being styled a King before

 450 THE HSIAO KING.

For the
any of the older and more important
classics.
as we now have it, we
preservation of the text
are indebted to Hsiian Bung (A. D. 713-755),
King by Con- one of the emperors of the Thang dynasty.
fucius?
In the preface to his commentary on it there
The Master " aim is seen
occurs this sentence :
'
said, My
in the Khun. Kk\u ; my (rule of) conduct is in the Hsiao
King.'" The imperial author quotes the saying, as if it

were universally acknowledged to have come from the

sage. It is found at a much earlier date in the preface
of Ho Hsiu (A. D. 129-182) to his commentary on the
Khun Kkiu as transmitted and annotated by Kung-yang.
The industry of scholars has traced it still farther back,
and in a more extended form, to a work called Hsiao King
/ifu-ming A^iieh, a production, probably, of the first cen-
tury of our era, or of the century before it. It was one of
a class of writings on the classical books, full of mysterious
and useless speculations, that never took rank among the
acknowledged expositions. Most of them soon disappeared,
but this subsisted down to the Sui dynasty (A. D. 581-618),
for there was a copy of it then in the Imperial Library. It
is now lost, but a few passages of it have been collected
from quotations in the Han writers. Among them is this :

"
'
Confucius said, If aim in dispensing
you wish to see my
praise or blame to the feudal lords, it is to be found in the
K/tun Kh\u the courses by which I would exalt the social
;

relations are in the Hsiao King." The words thus ascribed

'

to Confucius were condensed, it is supposed, into the form

in which we have them, first from Ho Hsiu, and afterwards

from the emperor Hsiian 3 un g- Whether they were really

used by the sage or not, they were attributed to him as
early as the beginning of our Christian era, and it was then
believed that he had given to our classic the honourable
name of a King.
But the existence of the Hsiao King can be traced
3.
several hundred years farther back to within less than a ;

The Hsiao King cent ury after the death of Confucius. Sze-ma
existed before
the Han dynasty.
.Oien, in his history of the House of Wei,
one of the three marquisates into which the
 INTRODUCTION. 45 j

great state of Kin was broken up in the fifth century B. c.,

tellsus that the marquis Wan received, in B. C. 407, the
classical books from Pu 3ze-hsia, and mentions the names
of two other disciples of Confucius, with whom he was on
intimate terms of friendship. There remains the title of
a commentary on the Hsiao King by this marquis Wan ;

and the book was existing time of 3hai Yung (A. D.

in the

133-192), who gives a short extract from it in one of his

treatises.

4. The recovery of our classic after the fires of Kkm will

be related in the next chapter. Assuming here that it was
recovered, we look into it, and find a con-
The contents of ^. r
the classic, and versation, or memoranda, perhaps, of several
by whom
conversations, between Confucius and
it
his dis-
was written.
ciple 3ang-^ze. The latter, however, is little
more than a listener, to whom the sage delivers his views
on Filial Piety in its various relations. There are two
recensions of the text one in eighteen chapters, and the
;

other in twenty-two. As edited in eighteen chapters, each

of them has a very brief descriptive heading. I have given
this in the subjoined translation, but the headings cannot
be traced back beyond the commentary of the emperor
Hsiian.
The saying attributed by Ho Hsiu and others to Con-
fucius would seem to indicate that he had himself composed
the work, but the reader of it sees at once that it could not
have proceeded from him. Nor do the style and method
of the treatise suggest a view which has had many advo-
cates, that it was written by Bang-jze, under the direction
of the master. There is no reason, however, why we should
not accept the still more common account, that the Hsiao
came from the school of Bang-gze. To use the words of
Hu Yin, an author of the first half of our twelfth cen-
tury :'The Classic of Filial Piety was not made by
3ang-^ze himself. When he retired from his conversation

(or conversations) with TTung-ni on the subject

of Filial

Piety, he repeated to the disciples of his own school what

(the master) had said, and they classified the sayings, and
formed the treatise.'

Gg 2
452 THE HSIAO KING.

CHAPTER II.

THE RECOVERY OF THE HSIAO KING UNDER THE HAN

DYNASTY, AND ITS PRESERVATION DOWN TO THE
PUBLICATION OF THE COMMENTARY OF THE THANG
EMPEROR HSUAN SUNG.
i. The Hsiao King suffered, like all the other Confucian

books except the Yi, from the fires of Khin. Its subse-
quent recovery was very like that of the Shu, described on
pp. 7, 8. We have in each
case a shorter and a longer

copy, a modern text and an ancient text.

In the Catalogue of the Imperial Library, prepared by
Liu Hin immediately before the commencement of our
Recovery of the Christian era,
there are two copies of the
Hsiao King. Hsi ^ o ._< the old text of the Khung family,'
which was twenty-two chapters, according to a note by
in
Pan Ku (died A. D. 92), the compiler of the documents in
the records of the western Han and another copy, which
;

was, according to the same authority, in eighteen chapters,

and was subsequently styled '
the modern text.' Immedi-
ately following the entry of these two copies, we find
Expositions of the Hsiao by four scholars/ whose sur-
'

names were ATang-sun, Kiang, Yi, and Hau. They all,'

*

says Pan Ku, had laboured on the shorter text.'

'

The copy in eighteen chapters therefore, we must pre-

The shorter or sume, had been the first recovered but of ;

modern text. h ow fl^g came about we have no account

till we come to the records of the Sui There
dynasty.
it is said that, when the Khm edict for the destruction of
the books was issued, his copy of the Hsiao was hidden
by a scholar called Yen Kih, a member, doubtless, of the
Yen family to which Confucius' favourite disciple Yen Hui
had belonged. When the edict was abrogated in a few
years, Kan, a son of Kih, brought the copy from its hiding-
place. This must have been in the second century B. C.,
and the copy, transcribed, probably by Kan, in the form
of the characters then used, would
pass into the charge of
the board of ' great scholars'
appointed to preserve the
 INTRODUCTION. 453

ancient books, in the reigns of the emperors Wan and King,

B.C. 179-141.
The copy in the ancient text was derived from the
tablets found in the wall of the Confucian house in the

The old or time of the emperor Wu (B. c. 140-87), and

text.
longer js
commonly said to have been deciphered,
as in the case of the tablets of the Shu, by Khung An-kwo.
An-kwo wrote a commentary himself on the Hsiao, which
does not appear in Hin's Catalogue, just as no mention is

made there of his commentary on the Shu. We find it

entered, however, among the books in the Sui Library with

the following note The work of An-kwo disappeared
:
'

during the troubles of the Liang dynasty (A. D. 502-556),

and continued unknown till the time of Sui, when a copy
was found in the capital, and came into the possession of
a scholar called Liu Hsiian.' Hsiian made his treasure

public, and ere long it was acknowledged by the court,

while many scholars contended that it was a forgery of
his own, and ascribed by him to An-kwo. Whatever
opinion we may form on this matter, the discovery of the
old text, and the production of a commentary on it by
Khung An-kwo, can hardly be called in question.
It might be argued, indeed, that another copy in the
old text was found in the first century B. C. In a memorial
addressed about the Shwo Wan dictionary to the emperor

An, in A. D. 121, by Hsu ATung, a son of the author, he says

that t ^ie Hsiao King which his father used was
Was another
copy in the old a copy of that presented, by a very old man
'

'

of lA' to the emperor KB.O (B.C. 86-74)'.

Many Chinese critics, and especially Wang Ying-lin
'
1
The language of the memorial is :
'
The Hsiao King
(used by my
father in the composition of his dictionary) 'was what San lao of Lu pre-
sented in the time of the emperor ao.' The San lao most readily suggests to
the reader the idea of 'three old men ;' but the characters may also mean, in
harmony with Chinese idiom, the three classes of old men,' or an individual
'
'

from those three classes.' classical passage to explain the phrase is par. 18
The
in the first section of the sixth Book in the Li Ki, where it is said
that king

Wan feasted the San lao and Wu kang, 'the three classes of old men and
five classes of men of experience,' in his royal college. The three classes of old

men were such as were over 80, 90, and 100 years respectively. It was from
a man of one of these classes that the emperor received the Hsiao in the old
 454 THE HSIAO KING.

(better known Po-hau, A.D. 1223-1296), say that

as Wang
this is a different account of the recovery of the old text

from that with which the name of Khung An-kwo is con-

nected. the two statements, as

It is difficult to reconcile

will be seen on a reference to the note below 1 ; and yet it

note this man was Khung

text. According to the account given in the next
3ze-hui and in the Books of Sui that is given as the name of the individual of
;

the Khung family, who had hidden the tablets on the appearance of the Khin
edict for the destruction of all the old books.
1
The Catalogue Raisonne of the Imperial Libraries commences its account
of the copies of the Hsiao with a description of the Old Text of the Hsiao
'

with the Commentary of Khung An-kwo,' obtained from Japan ; but the editors
give good reasons for doubting its genuineness.
There is a copy of this work in
the Chinese portion of the British Museum, an edition printed in Japan in 1732,
which I have carefully examined, with the help of Professor R. K. Douglas and
Mr. A. Wylie. It contains not only the commentary of Khung An-kwo, but
what purports to be the original preface of that scholar. There it is said that
bamboo tablets of the copy in tadpole characters,' found in the wall of
'
the
Confucius' old
'
were presented to the emperor by
lecture hall, in a stone case,'

Khung 3 z e-hui, a very old man of Lu.' The emperor, it is added, caused two
'

copies to be made in the current characters of the time by the great scholars,'
'

one of which was given to Qze-hui, and the other to General Ho Kwang, a
minister of war and favourite, who greatly valued it, and placed it
among the
archives of the empire, where it was
jealously guarded.
This account makes the meaning of the phrase 'the San lao of Lu' quite
clear ; but there are difficulties in the way of our believing that it proceeded
from Khung An-kwo. No mention is made of him in it, whereas, according to
ihe current narrations, the tablets with the tadpole characters were first de-

ciphered by him nor is the name of the emperor to whom Khung 3ze-hui
;

presented the tablets given. No doubt, however, this emperor was Ka.o, with
whom Ho Kwang was a If the preface were genuine, of course An-
favourite.
kwo was went to court with the tablets. Now, the tablets
alive after 3ze-hui
were discovered in the period Thien-han, B. c. 100-97, and ao reigned from
B. c. 86 to
74- An-kwo died at the age of sixty, but in what year we are not
told. He had studied the Shih under Shan Kung, whose death can hardly be
placed later than in B.C. 135. If An-kwo were born in B.C. 150, he would
have been more than sixty years old the age assigned to him at his death
at the accession of .Kao. I cannot believe, therefore, that the preface in the

Japanese Hsiao was written by him and if we reject the preface, we must also
;

reject the commentary before which it stands.

The text of the Hsiao in the work is nearly identical with that of Sze-m&
Kwang, mentioned below on p. 458 but to the chapters there are prefixed the
;

headings (which Kwang did not adopt), that cannot be traced farther back than
the Thang
dynasty. This might be got over, but the commentary throws no
.new light on the text. '
It is shallow and
poor,' say the editors of the Cata-
'
logue Raisonne, and not in the style of the Han scholars.' I must think with
them that Khung An-Kwo's
commentary, purporting to have been preserved in
Japan is a forgery.
 INTRODUCTION. 455

is possible that the difficulty would disappear, if the details

of the discovery and the subsequent dealing with the tablets
had come down to us complete.
Certainly, in the first century B. c. there were two copies
of the Hsiao King in the Imperial Library of Han. If those

copies, catalogued by Liu Hin, were the

actual text, pre-
sented by Yen A"an, and a faithful transcript in the current
Han characters of the ancient text discovered in the wall of
Confucius' old lecture hall, we should be able to say that
Can we tne evidence for the recovery of the Hsiao, as
rely
ft had existed during the Kau dynasty, was
fully on the
J J '
copies cata-
logued by Liu as satisfactory as we could desire but there
;

are some considerations that are in the way

of our doing so.

According to the records of Sui, after the old text came

into the possession of the court, and the differences between
it and the text earlier recovered were observed, Liu Hsiang
(B.C. 80-9), the father of Hin, was charged by the emperor
(.Oang, B.C. 32-7) to compare the two. The result of his
examination of them was that he removed from the modern
'

text what was excessive and erroneous, and fixed the number
of the chapters at eighteen.' It does not appear that pre-

viously there was any division of ./Tan's copy into chapters.

What Hsiang did in the case of the old text we are not told.
A note by Yen Sze-ku of the Thang dynasty, appended
to Hin's Catalogue, quotes from him that one chapter of'

the modern text was divided into two in the old, another
into three, and that the old had one chapter which did not

appear in the other.' This missing chapter, it is understood,

was the one beginning, 'Inside the smaller doors leading to
the inner apartments,' which I have appended, from the cur-
rent old text, to my translation of the classic as published

by Hsiian 3 un g an d yet the Sui account says that that

;

chapter was in the Hsiao of ^Tang-sun, one of the four

early commentators on the modern text.
The copies catalogued by Hin were made after the exa-
mination and revision of the two texts by his father. There
are suspicious resemblances between the style and method
of the present classic and those of the original works of
456 THE HSIAO KING.

Hsiang that have come down to us.

It is impossible to

from the want of information, what liberties he took

say,
with the documents put into his charge. The differences
between the two texts as we now have them are trivial.
I believe that the changes made in them by Hsiang
were not important but having them as they came from
;

his revision, we have them at second hand, and this has

afforded ground for the dealing with them by Ku Hsi
and others in the manner which will be described in the
next chapter.
2. I have said above (p. 450) that for the text of the
classic, the modern text, that is, as we now have it, we
are indebted to the labours of the emperor Hsiian Bung of
the Thang dynasty, Kb
1-tsun, of the AT/^ien-lung period

(1736-1795),
work on the classics and the writings
in his
on them, has adduced the titles of eighty-six
F S
Ar3cwo to different works on our classic, that appeared
the emperor between Khung An-kwo and Hsiian 3 un g-
Not a single one of all these now survives but ;

the enumeration of them shows that the most distinguished

scholars during the intervening centuries exercised their

powers on the treatise, and would keep a watch on one

another in the preservation of the text. Moreover, several
of the works continued through the Thang dynasty, and on
into that of Sung. The Catalogue of the Sui Library con-
tains the titles of nineteen in its list.
The emperor Hsiian says, in his preface, that in the
Hsuan Bung's making commentary he had freely used
of his
work. t h e commentaries of six earlier writers, whom

he names. They were, Wei Kao, Wang Su, Yii Fan, and
LiftShao, all of our second and third centuries; Lid Hsiian,
of our sixth century, who laboured on the
commentary of
Khung An-kwo, which, as I have already stated, is said
to have been discovered in his time and presented to him ;

and Lu ^T^ang, rather earlier than Liu, who dealt critically

with the commentary attributed to
Afang Khang-^ang.
'But/ says the imperial author, 'if a comment be right in
reason, why need we enquire from whom it came? We
have therefore taken those six writers, considered wherein
 INTRODUCTION. 457

they agreed and differed, and decided between their inter-

pretations by reference to the general scope of the five

(great) King. In compendious style, but with extensive

examination of the subject, we have made the meaning of
the classic clear.'

The emperor says nothing himself about the differences

between the ancient and modern texts, though we know
that that subject was vehemently agitated among the
scholars of his court. The text as commented on by him
is in eighteen chapters, which do not include the chapter
to which I have referred on p. 455 as having been in the
copy of ATang-sun in the first century B. C. It is said,
and on sufficient authority, that this chapter was excluded
through the influence of the scholar and minister Sze-ma
Kan. To each of his chapters the emperor prefixed a brief
heading or argument, which I have retained in the transla-

tion. These headings, probably, were selected by him from

a variety proposed by the scholars about the court.
The text employed in this imperial commentary might
now be considered as sufficiently secured. It was engraved,
in less than a century after, on the stone tablets of Thang,
which were completed in the year 837, and set up in Hsi-an,
the Thang capital, where they remain, very little damaged,
to this day 1 And not only so. The emperor was so
.

pleased with the commentary which he had made, that

he caused the whole of it to be engraved on four large
tablets or pillars of stone in 745. They are still to be
seen at Hst-an, in front of the Confucian College.

1
These tablets are commonly said to contain the thirteen classics (Shih-san
the Yi, the
King). They contained, however, only twelve different works,
s

Shu, the Shih, the *Tau Li, the 1 Li, the Li Ki, and the amplifications of the
Khun Khi\i, by Qo -Oiu-ming, by Kung-yang, and by Ku-liang. These form
'
the nine King.' In addition to these there were the Lun Yii, the Hsiao King,
and the R
Ya. According to Ku Yen-wu (1613-1682), the characters on the
tablets were
in all 650,252. Mr. T. W. Rhys Davids (Buddhism, p. 19) esti-
mates that our English Bible contains between 900,000 and 950,000 words.
The first Psalm, in what is called the Delegates' version, very good and con-
cise, contains 100 Chinese characters, and in our English version 130 words.
The Thang tablets, if the translator were a master of both lan-
classics of the

guages, might be rendered in English so as to form a volume not quite so large

as our Bible.
458 THE HSIAO KING.

hardly necessary to say more on the preservation

It is
In A. D. 996 the second
The work of of the Hsiao King.
HsingPing. emperor of the Sung dynasty gave orders
for an annotated edition of it to be prepared. This was
finallycompleted in 1001, under the superintendence of
Hsing Ping (932-1010), with a large critical apparatus, and
a lengthened exposition, both of the text and of Hsuan
Bung's explanation. This work has ever since been current
in China.

CHAPTER III.

CRITICISM OF THE HSIAO SINCE THE THANG DYNASTY.

i. Notwithstanding the difficulty about one chapter
which has been pointed out on p. 455, Hsiian Bung's text
was generally accepted as the representative of that in
modern characters, recovered in the second century B. c.
There were still those, however, who continued to advo-
Works on the cate the claims of the old text.'
{
Sze-ma
old text by
Kwang, a distinguished minister and scholar
ang
and Fan of the
Sung dynasty (1009-1086), presented
3u-yu. ^g '
cour t j n 1054 his Explanations of the
to
Hsiao King according to the Old Text,' arguing, in his
preface and in various memorials, for the correctness of that
text, as recovered by Liu Hsiian in the sixth century.
Fan 3 u -yu (1041-1098), a scholar of the same century,
and a collaborates of Kwang, produced,
in other things
'
towards the end of his life, an Exposition of the Hsiao
King according to the Old Text.' He says in his preface :

'

Though the agreement between the ancient and modern

texts is great, and the difference small, yet the ancient
deserves to be preferred, and my labour upon it may not
be without some little value V

1
In the Hsiao King, as now
frequently published in China, either separately
by or bound up with Kb Hsi's Hsiao Hsio, 'the Teaching for the
itself,

Young,' we find the old text, without distinction of chapters. The commen-
taries of Hsuan 3ung an(j Sze-ma Kwang, and the exposition of Fan 3"-yu,
however, follow one another at the end of the several clauses and paragraphs.
 INTRODUCTION. 459

2. But our classic had still to pass the ordeal of the scep-

Sce tical criti

** ca ^ cr ^^ c ^ sm that set m
during the Sung
cism. Views dynasty. The most notable result of this
ofJttHst. *
wag the <
Hsi o King
.

Expurgated/ pub-
lished by Ku Hsi He tells us that when he first
in 1186.
saw a statement by Hu Hung (a minister in the reign of
Kao Bung, 1127-1162), that the quotations from the Book
of Poetry in the Hsiao were probably of later introduction
into the text, he was terror-struck. Prolonged examina-
tion, however, satisfied him that there were good grounds
for Hu's statement, and that other portions of the text
were also open to suspicion. He found, moreover, that
another earlier writer, Wang Ying-//zan, in the reign of
Hsiao Bung (1163-1189), had come to the conclusion that
much of the Hsiao had been fabricated or interpolated in
the Han dynasty. The way was open for him to give
expression to his convictions, without incurring the charge
of being the first to impugn the accepted text.
The fact was, as pointed out by the editors of the Cata-
logue Raisonnd ofthe Imperial Library of the present dynasty,
that Ku had long entertained the views which he indicated
in his expurgated edition of the Hsiao, and his references
toHu and Wang were simply to shield his own boldness.
He divided the treatise into one chapter of classical text,
and fourteen chapters of illustration and commentary.
But both parts were freely expurgated. His classical text
embraces the first six chapters in my translation, and is
supposed by him to form one continuous discourse by Con-
fucius. The rest of the treatise should not be attributed
to the sage at all. The bulk of it may have come from
Bang-^ze, or from members of his school, but large inter-
polations were made by the Han scholars. Adopting the
old text, Ku discarded from it altogether 223 characters.
Attention will be called, under the several chapters, to

Some portions also are in a order from the arrangement of Hsiian

different

3ung and Using Ping, which have followed in my translation. As has been
I

already said, the difference between its text and that of the Thang emperor is
slight, hardly greater than the variations in the different recensions of our
Gospels and the other books of the New Testament.
 460 THE HSIAO KING.

some of the passages which he suppressed, and to the

reasons, generally satisfactory, which he advanced for his
procedure. Evidently he was influenced considerably by
the way in which Kk&ng 1 (1033-1107), whom he called
'his master/ had dealt with the old text of 'the Great

Learning;' but he made his innovations with a bolder

pencil and on a more extensive plan, not merely altering

the arrangement of paragraphs, and supplementing what
"

was plainly defective, but challenging the genuineness of

large portions of the treatise, and removing them without
scruple.
Under the Yuan dynasty, Wu (1249-1333), the
ATMng
Views of greatest of its
scholars, followed in the wake
Wu tfAang. of ]& Hsi, yet with the independence charac-
teristic of himself. As ATu had preferred the old text, Wu
decided and, believe, I correctly more in favour of the

modern, arguing that the copy of Khung An-kwo's text

and commentary, said to have been recovered and pub-
lished in the sixth century by Liu Hsiian, was a fabrication.
He adopted, therefore, Hsuan Sung's text as the basis of
the Hsiao
'
his revision, which appeared with the title of
King, in paragraphs and sentences
1
.' He adopted Afu's
division of the treatise into classical text and commentary.
The chapter of classical text is the same as ATu's the ;

chapters of commentary are only twelve. He discarded,

of course, the chapter peculiar to the old text, which has
been referred to more than once, united Hsiian Bung's
eleventh chapter with another, and arranged the other
chapters differently from Ku. His revision altogether had
246 characters fewer than the old text.
3. Ku
i-tsun gives the titles of nearly 120 works on our
classic that appeared after the volume of A^ang, Wu
Later works bringing its literary history down to the end
on the Hsiao. o f t h e
Ming dynasty. The scholars of the
present dynasty have not been less abundant in their
labours on it than their predecessors. Among the col-

1
The title of this work in the Catalogue of the Imperial Libraries is
'
Settle-
ment of the Text of the Hsiao
King.'
 INTRODUCTION. 46 1^

lected works of Mao Kh\-\mg

(1623-1713) is one called
*

Questions about the Hsiao King,' in which, with his usual

ability, and, it must be added, his usual acrimony, he
defends the received text. He asserts and in this he is
correct that there is no difference of any importance
between the ancient and modern texts when he asserts
;

further that there never was any such difference, what he

affirms is incapable of proof. He pours scorn on Ku Hst
and Wu AT/zang but he is not so successful in defending
;

the integrity of the Hsiao as I have allowed him to be in

vindicating the portions of the Shu that we owe to Khung
An-kwo.
The Hsiao King has always been a favourite with the
emperors of China. Before Hsiian Bung took it in hand,
the first and eighth emperors of the eastern Kin dynasty
(317-419), the first and third of the Liang (502-556), and the
ninth of the northern Wei (386-534) had published their
labours upon it. The Manchau rulers of the present dynasty
have signalised themselves in this department. In 1656 the
first emperor produced in one chapter his Imperial Com-
'

mentary on the Hsiao King,' and in 1728 the third pub-

lished a Collection of Comments' on it. Between them was
'

the long reign known to us as the Khang-hsi period (1662-

1722), during which there appeared under the direction of
the second emperor, the most distinguished of his line,
his 'Extensive Explanation of the Hsiao King,' in 100
chapters. The only portion of the text which it gives in
full is Kb Hsi's chapter of Confucian text but most of
;

the topics touched onKu's supplementary chapters,

in

added, as he supposed, by some later hand, are dealt with

in the course of the work, the whole of which will amply

repay a careful study.

4. It will have been seen that the two great scholars. Kb

Conclusion Hst and Wu AT^ang, who have taken the

regarding the greatest liberties with the text of our classic,
anTintegSy allow that there is a Confucian element in it,
of the Hsiao. wnO le,
and that more than a fifth part Q f fa e
containing, even as expurgated by -ATu, about 400 characters,
may be correctly ascribed to the sage. I agree with them
 462 THE HSIAO KING.

in this. All the rest of the treatise, to whomsoever it mav

may
be ascribed, from Bang-^ze, the immediate disciple of Confu-
cius, down to Liu Hsiang (B. C. 80-9),
took its present form
in the first century before our Christian era. The reader
will fail to see in it a close connexion between the dif-
ferent chapters,and think that the author or authors try
to make moreof Filial Piety than can be made of it. The
whole, however, is a valuable monument of antiquity, and
an exhibition of the virtue which Chinese moralists and
rulers, from the most ancient times, have delighted to cele-
brate as the fundamental principle of human virtue, the
great source of social happiness and the bond of national
}

strength and stability.

NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION.

In preparing the translation of the Hsiao King for the

present work, I have made frequent reference to four

earlier translations.
Two of them were made by myself; the one about
thirty years ago, simply as an exercise for my own im-
provement in Chinese ; the other four years ago, when
I was anxious to understand fully the Confucian teaching
on the subject of Filial Piety, but without reference to my
earlier version.
The third is a translation in the fourth volume of the
Chinese Repository, pp. 345-353 (1835), for the accuracy
of which much cannot be said. Very few notes are ap-
pended to it. The fourth is in the
'
Memoires concernant
lesChinois' (Paris, 1779), being part of a long treatise on
the Ancient and Modern Doctrine of the Chinese about
'

Filial Piety,' by P. Cibot. In a preliminary notice to his

version of our classic, he says P. Noel formerly trans-
:
'

lated the Hsiao King into Latin. Our translation will

necessarily be different from his. laboured He on the
old text, and we on the new, which the scholars of the
Imperial College have adopted. Besides this, he has
 INTRODUCTION. 463

launched out into paraphrase, and we have made it our

business to present the text in French such as it is in
Chinese.' I have not been able to refer to P. Noel's trans-

now given to the public but I had

lation in preparing that ;

hiswork before me when writing out my earliest version.

The difference between the old and modern texts is too
slight to affect the character of translations of them, but
P. Noel's version is decidedly periphrastic. The title of
his work is : SlNENSIS IMPERII LlBRI CLASSICI SEX,
'

nimirum Adultorum Schola, Immutabile Medium, Liber

sententiarum, Mencius, Filialis Observantia, Parvulorum
Schola, e Sinico idiomate in Latinum traducti a P. Fr.
Noel, S. J. (Prague, 1711).' The present version, I believe,
gives the text in English, such as it is in Chinese, more
accurately and closely than P. Cibot's does in French.
 THE HSIAO KING.

CHAPTER I.

THE SCOPE AND MEANING OF THE TREATISE.

(ONCE), when A'ung-ni was unoccupied, and

1
his
2
disciple Sang was sitting by attendance on him,
in
the Master said,
*

Shan, the ancient kings had a per-

fect virtue and all-embracing rule of conduct, through
which they were in accord with all under heaven.
By the people were brought to live
the practice of it

in peace and harmony, and there was no ill-will be-

tween superiors and inferiors. Do you know what
3ang rose from his mat, and said, How
3
it was ?'
'

1
.ffung-ni was the designation or marriage-name of Confucius.
We find it twice in the Doctrine of the Mean (chh. 2 and 30),

applied to the sage by 3ze-sze, his grandson, the reputed author

of that treatise. By his designation, it is said, a grandson might
speak of his grandfather, and therefore some scholars contend
that the Classic of Filial Piety should also be ascribed to 3 z e-sze ;
but such a canon cannot be considered as sufficiently established.
On the authorship of the Classic, see the Introduction, p. 451.
2
3ang-gze, named Shan, and styled Qze-yii, was one of the most
distinguished of the disciples of Confucius. He was a favourite
with the sage, and himself a voluminous writer. Many incidents
and sayings are related, illustrative of his
filial
piety, so that it was
natural for the master to enter with him on the discussion of that
virtue. He shares in the honour and worship still paid to Confu-
cius, and is one of his Four Assessors' in his temples.
* -

3
Both the translator in the Chinese Repository and P. Cibot
have rendered this opening address of Confucius very imperfectly.
[,]
Hh
 466 THE HSIAO KING. CH. I.

should I, Shan, who am so devoid of intelligence,

be able to know this ?
'

The Master said,

'

(It was
filial piety). / Now filial piety is the root of (all)

virtue 1 ,
and (the stem) out
of which grows (all moral)

teaching. Sit down again, and I will explain the

subject to bodies to every hair and bit

you.pOur
of skin are received by us from our parents, and we
must not presume to injure or wound them :^-this
is the beginning of filial piety. When we have esta-
blished our character by the practice of the (filial)
course, so as to make our name famous in future
ages, and thereby glorify our parents : this is the
end of filial piety. It commences with the service

The former has Do you understand how the ancient kings,

:
*

who possessed the greatest virtue and the best moral principles,
rendered the whole empire so obedient that the people lived in
peace and harmony, and no ill-will existed between superiors and
inferiors ?
'
The other :
'
Do you know what was the pre-emi-
nent virtue and the essential doctrine which our ancient monarchs
taught to all the empire, to maintain concord among their subjects,

and banish all dissatisfaction between superiors and inferiors?'

P. Cibot comes the nearer to the meaning of the text, but he has
'

neglected the characters corresponding to through which they

were in accord with under heaven,' that are expounded clearly
all

enough by Hsiian 3 un g- The sentiment of the sage is, as he has

tersely expressed it in the Doctrine of the Mean (ch. 13), that the
'
ancient kings governed men, according to their nature, with what
is proper to them/
1
'All virtue' means the five virtuous principles, the constituents
'
of humanity, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge,
and fidelity.' Of these, benevolence is the chief and fundamental,
so that Mencius says (VII, ii, ch. 16), 'Benevolence is man/ In
man's nature, therefore, benevolence is the root of filial
piety ;

while in practice filial piety is the root of benevolence. Such

is the
way in which Hsi and other Ju
critical scholars recon-
cile the statements of the text here and elsewhere with their theory
as to the constituents of
humanity.
CH. II. FILIAL PIETY IN THE SOVEREIGN. 467

of parents ;
it
proceeds to the service of the
ruler; it is
completed" by the establishment of
the character.
the Major Odes of the Kingdom,
'
It is said in
"
Ever think of your ancestor,
Cultivating your virtue V :

CHAPTER II.

FILIAL PIETY IN THE SON OF HEAVEN.

He who loves his parents will not dare (to incur

the risk of) being hated by any man, and he who
reveres his parents will not dare (to incur the risk of)
being contemned by any man
2
When the love and .

reverence (of the Son of Heaven) are thus carried to

the utmost in the service of his parents, the lessons
of his virtue affect all the people, and he becomes

1
See the Shih King, III, i,
ode 2, stanza 4. Kb. Hsi commences
his expurgation of our classic with casting out this concluding para-

graph ;
and rightly so. Such quotations of the odes and other pas-
sages in the ancient classics are not after the manner of Confucius.
The application made of them, moreover, is and
often far-fetched,

away from their proper meaning.

2
The
thing thus generally stated must be understood specially
of the sovereign, and only he who stands related to all other men
can give its full manifestation. Previous translators have missed
the peculiarity of the construction in each of the clauses. Thus
P. Cibot gives He who loves his parents will not dare to hate
:
*

any one,' &c. But in the second member we have a well-known

form in Chinese to give the force of the passive voice. Attention
is called to this in the Extensive Explanation of the
Hsiao (see p. 461): 'Wu yii jsan does not mean merely to
hate men it indicates an anxious apprehension lest the hatred
;

of men should light on me, and my parents thereby be involved

in it.'

Hh 2
 468 THE HSIAO KING. CH. III.

l
a pattern to (all within) the four seas : this is the
2
filial piety of the Son of Heaven .

Marquis of) Fu on Punishments

3
It is said in (the ,

The One man will have felicity, and the millions

'

of the people will depend on (what ensures his hap-

piness)/

CHAPTER III.

FILIAL PIETY IN THE PRINCES OF STATES.

Above others, and yet

from pride, they dwell
free
on high, without peril adhering* to economy, and;

carefully observant of the rules and laws, they are

full, without overflowing. To dwell on high without
peril is the way long to preserve nobility to be full ;

without overflowing is the way long to preserve

riches. When their riches and nobility do not leave
their persons, then they are able to preserve the
of their land and grain, and to secure the
altars

harmony of their people and men in office

4
this :

is the filial piety of the princes of states.

Chinese scholars make 'the people' to be the subjects of the

1

{ '

king, and all within the four seas to be the barbarous tribes out-
side the four borders of the kingdom, between them and the seas
or oceans within which the habitable earth was contained accord-
ing to the earliest geographical conceptions. All we have to find
in the language is the unbounded, the universal, influence of ' the
Son of Heaven/
2
The appellation Son of Heaven for
' '
the sovereign was un-
known in the earliest times of the Chinese nation. It cannot be
traced beyond the Shang dynasty.
3
See the Shu, V, xxvii, 4, and the note on the name of that
Book, p. 254.
4
In the Chinese Repository we have for this They will be :
'

able to protect their ancestral

possessions with the produce of
their lands;'
'They will make sure the supreme rank to their
CH. iv. FILIAL PIETY IN HIGH OFFICERS. 469

It is said in the Book of Poetry 1 ,

'
Be apprehensive, be cautious,
As if on the brink of a deep abyss,
As if
treading on thin ice/

CHAPTER IV. FILIAL PIETY IN HIGH MINISTERS

AND GREAT OFFICERS.

They do not presume to wear robes other than

those appointed by the laws of the ancient kings 2 ;

nor to speak words other than those sanctioned by

their speech nor to exhibit conduct other than that
;

exemplified by their virtuous ways. Thus none of

their words being contrary to those sanctions, and
none of their actions contrary to the (right) way,

families.' But it is better to retain the style of the original. The

king had a great altar to the spirit (or spirits) presiding over the
land. The colour of the earth in the centre of it was yellow ;

that on each of four sides differed according to the colours

its

assigned to the four quarters of the sky. A

portion of this earth
was cut away, and formed the nucleus of a corresponding altar
in each feudal state, according to their position relative to the

capital. The prince of the state had the prerogative of sacrificing

there. A
similar rule prevailed* for the altars to the spirits pre-

siding over the grain. So long as a family ruled in a state, so

long its chief offered those sacrifices; and the extinction of the
sacrifices was an emphatic way of describing the ruin and extinc-
tion of the ruling House.
1
See the Shih, II, v, ode i, stanza 6.
2
The of dress, to be worn by individuals according to
articles

their rank, from the sovereign downwards, in their ordinary attire,

and on special occasions, were the subject of attention and enact-
ment in China from the
earliest times. We find references to them
books of the Shu (Part II, Books iii, iv). The words
in the earliest
to be spoken, and conduct to be exhibited, on every varying

occasion, could not be so particularly described ; but the example

of the ancient kings would suffice for these, as their enactments
for the dress.
470 THE HSIAO KING. CH. V.

from their mouths there comes no exceptionable

speech, and in their
conduct there are found no
exceptionable actions.
Their words may fill all
under heaven, and no error of speech will be found
in them. Their actions may fill all under heaven,
and no dissatisfaction or dislike will be awakened by
them. When
these three things (their robes, their
words, and their conduct) are all complete as they
1

should be, they can then preserve their ancestral

1
temples : this is the filial
piety of high ministers
and great officers.

It is said in the Book of Poetry 2 ,

'
He is never idle, day or night,
In the service of the One man/

CHAPTER V. FILIAL PIETY IN INFERIOR OFFICERS.

As
they serve their fathers, so they serve their
mothers, and they love them equally. As they
serve their fathers, so they serve their rulers, and
they reverence them equally. Hence love is what
is chiefly rendered to the mother, and reverence is
what is chiefly rendered to the ruler, while both of
these things are given to the father. Therefore
when they. serve their ruler with filial piety they are
loyal when they serve their superiors with rever-
;

ence they are obedient. Not failing in this loyalty

1
Their ancestral temples were to the ministers and grand
officers what the altars of their land and grain were to the feudal
lords. Every great had three temples or shrines, in which
officer
he sacrificed to the chief of his family or clan ; to his grand-
first

father, and to his father. While these remained, the family re-
mained, and its honours were perpetuated.
2
See the Shih, III, iii, ode 6, stanza 4.
CH. vi. FILIAL PIETY IN THE COMMON PEOPLE. 471

and obedience in serving those above them, they

are then able to preserve their emoluments and
positions, and to maintain their sacrifices
l
this is :

2
the filial
piety of inferior officers .

It is said in the Book of Poetry 3 ,

Rising early and going to sleep late,

'

Do not disgrace those who gave you birth/

CHAPTER VI.
FILIAL PIETY IN THE COMMON PEOPLE.

They follow the course of heaven (in the re-

volving seasons) ; they distinguish the advantages

'
1
These officers had their
'

positions or places, and their pay.

They had also their sacrifices, but such as were private or per-
sonal to themselves, so that we have not much information about
them.
2
The Chinese Repository has here, Such is the influence of '

filial duty when performed by scholars;' and P. Cibot, 'Voila

sommairement ce qui caracte'rise la ~Pi6t6 Filiale du LettreY But
'
to use the term
'
scholar here is to translate from the standpoint
of modern China, and not from that of the time of Confucius. The
Shih of feudal China were the younger sons of the higher classes,
and men that by their ability were rising out of the lower, and who
were all in inferior situations, and looking forward to offices of

trust in the service of the royal court, or of their several states.

Below the officers' of ch. 4, three classes of Shih
'great
the

highest, middle, lowest were recognised, all intended in this

chapter. When the feudal system had passed away, the class of
'scholars' gradually took their place. Shih (-}^) is one of the

oldest characters in Chinese, but the idea expressed in its formation

is not known. Confucius is quoted in the Shwo Wan as making

it to be from the characters for one ( )
and ten
(-p).
A very
old definition of it is' The denomination of one entrusted with
affairs.'
3
See the Shih, II, iii,
ode 2, stanza 6.
472 THE HSIAO KING. CH. vil.

*
afforded by (different) soils ; they are careful of
their conduct and economical expendi- in their

ture n order to nourish their parents

.
i this is :

the filial piety of the common people.

Therefore from the Son of Heaven down to the
common people, there never has been one whose
filial piety was without its
beginning and end on
whom calamity did not come.

CHAPTER VII.

FILIAL PIETY IN RELATION TO THE THREE POWERS 2

.

The disciple 3ang said,

'
Immense indeed is the

greatness of filial piety!' The Master replied

3
,

1
These two sentences describe the attention of the people to
the various processes of agriculture, as conditioned by the seasons
and the qualities of different soils.
With this chapter there ends what ATft Hsi regarded as the only
portion of the H
siao in which we can rest as having come from Con-
fucius. So far, it is with him a continuous discourse that proceeded
from the sage. And there is, in this portion, especially when we
admit Jfu's expurgations, a certain sequence and progress, without
logical connexion, in the exhibition of the subject which we fail to
find in the chapters that follow.
2 '
'
The Three Powersis a phrase which is first found in two

of the Appendixes to the Yi King, denoting Heaven, Earth, and

Man, as the three great agents or agencies in nature, or the circle
of being.
3
The whole of the reply of Confucius here, down to the advan- '

tages afforded by earth,' is found in a narrative in the 3 -ATwan,

under the twenty-fifth year of duke ATMo c. 517), with the im-
(B.
'
portant difference that the discourse is there about ceremonies,'
and not about filial piety. Plainly, it is an interpolation in the
Hsiao, and is rightly thrown out by Kb and Wu .Oang. To my
own mind it was a relief to find that the passage was not genuine,
and had not come from Confucius. The discourse in the 3o
, which is quite lengthy, these sentences being only the com-
CH. vil. FILIAL PIETY AND THE THREE POWERS. 473
4

Yes, filial piety is the" constant (method) of Heaven,

the righteousness of Earth, and the practical duty of
Man 1 Heaven and earth invariably pursue the
.

course (that may be thus described), and the people

take it as their pattern. (The ancient kings) imi-
tated the brilliant luminaries of heaven, and acted
in accordance with the
(varying) advantages afforded
by earth, so that they were in accord with all under
heaven and in consequence their teachings, without
;

being severe, were successful, and their government,

without being rigorous, secured perfect order.

mencement of it, is more than sufficiently fanciful ;

but it is con-
ceivable that what
here predicated of filial piety might be spoken
is

of ceremonies, while I never could see what it could have to do

with filial piety, or filial piety with it. After the long discourse in
the 3 -ffwan one of the interlocutors in it exclaims,
'
Immense,
'

indeed, is the greatness of ceremonies ! the same terms with

which 3ang-jze is made to commence this chapter, saving that we
* '
have ceremonies instead of filial piety/ There can be no doubt c

that the passage is interpolated ;

and yet the first part of it is

quoted by Pan Ku (in century), in a note to Liu Hin's

our first

Catalogue, and also in the Amplification of the First Precept of the

Khang-hsi Sacred Edict (in our eighteenth century). Pan Ku may

not have been sufficiently acquainted with the 3 -A'wan to detect the
forgery ;
that Chinese scholars should still
quote the description as
applicable to piety shows how liable they are to be carried
filial

away by fine-sounding terms and mysterious utterances.

P. Cibot gives a correct translation of the first part in a note, but
it carries the sense of the text much too
adds that high, and would
bring it into collision with the prejudices of the west, and he has
preferred to hold to the more common explanation Ce :
'

qu'est
la rdgularite des monuments des astres pour le firmament, la fer-

des campagnes pour la terre, la Pi6t6 Filiale Test constam-

tilite'

ment pour les peuples!'

1
An amusing translation of this sentence is found in Samuel
' '
Johnson's Oriental Religions, China/ p. 208, beginning, Filial

Piety is the Book of Heaven!' Mr. Johnson does not say where
he got this version.
 474 THE HSIAO KING. CH. vm.

ancient kings, seeing how their teachings

l
1
The
could transform the people, set before them there-
fore an example of the most extended love, and
none of the people neglected their parents they set ;

forth to them (the nature of) virtue and righteous-

ness, and the people roused themselves to the prac-

tice of them they went before them with reverence
;

and yielding courtesy, and the people had no con-

tentions they led them on by the rules of propriety
;

and by music, and the people were harmonious and

benignant they showed them what they loved and
;

what they disliked, and the people understood their

prohibitions.
'
It is said in the Book of Poetry 2 ,

"
Awe-inspiring are you, Grand-Master Yin, O
And the people all look up to you."

CHAPTER VIII. FILIAL PIETY IN GOVERNMENT.

The Master Anciently, when the intelligent

said,
'

kings by means of piety ruled all under heaven,

filial

they did not dare to receive with disrespect the min-

isters of small states how much less would ;
they
do so to the dukes, marquises, counts, and barons !
'

Thus it was that they got

(the princes of) the myriad
states with joyful hearts
(to assist them) in the (sacri-
services to 3
ficial) their royal predecessors .

1
Sze-ma Kwang changes the character for
'teachings' here into
'
that for filial
piety/ There is no external evidence for such a
reading and the texture of the whole treatise is so loose that we
;

cannot insist on internal evidence.

2
See the Shih, II, iv, ode 7, stanza i.
3
Under the K&a
dynasty there were five orders of nobility, and
the states
belonging to their rulers varied proportionally in size.
 CH. vin. FILIAL PIETY IN GOVERNMENT. 475

The rulers of states did not dare to slight wife-

'

less men and widows how much less would they

;

slight their officers and the people Thus it was !

that they got all their people with joyful hearts

(to assist them) In serving the rulers, their prede-

l
cessors .

'
The heads of clans did not dare to slight their
servants and concubines ;
how much less would
they slight their wives and sons Thus it was that !

they got their men with joyful hearts (to assist them)
in the service of their parents.
'
In such a state of things, while alive, parents
reposed in (the glory of) their sons and, when sacri- ;

ficed disembodied spirits enjoyed their

to, their
2
offerings Therefore all under heaven peace and
.

harmony prevailed disasters and calamities did not

;

occur misfortunes and rebellions did not arise.

;

'
It is said in the Book of Poetry 3 ,

"
To an upright, virtuous conduct
All in the four quarters of the state render obedient
homage."

There were besides many smaller states attached to these. The

feudal lords at stated times appeared at the royal court, and one

important duty which then devolved on them was to take part in

the sacrificial services of the sovereign in the ancestral temple.
1
These services were also the sacrifices in the ancestral temples
of the rulers of the states and of the chiefs of clans, the feudal

princes and the ministers and great officers of chapters 3 and 4.

'
In the Chinese Repository we read here
2
Parents enjoyed :

tranquillity while they lived, and after their decease sacrifices were
To the same effect P.Cibot
offered to their disembodied spirits/ :

'
Les peres et meres e*toient heureux pendant la vie, et apres leur
mort leurs ames dtoient consoles par des Tsi (sacrifices).' I be-
lieve that I have caught the meaning more exactly.
3
See the Shih, III, iii, ode 2, stanza 2.
476 THE HSIAO KING. CH. ix.

CHAPTER IX. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SAGES 1 .

The disciple Sang said,

*
I venture to ask whether
in the virtue of the sages there was not something
greater than filial
piety/ The Master replied,
*
Of
all (creatures with their different) natures produced
by Heaven and Earth, man is the noblest. Of all
the actions of is noneman
greater than filial
there
piety. In
piety there is
nothing greater than
filial

the reverential awe of one's father. In the rever-

ential awe shown to one's father there is
nothing
greater than making him the correlate of
the
Heaven 2 . The duke of Kau was the man who
3
(first)
did this .

1
The sages' here must mean the sage sovereigns of antiquity,
'

who had at once the highest wisdom and the highest place.
2 '
See a note on p. 99 on the meaning of the phrase the fel-
low of God,' which is the same as that in this chapter, translated
'
the correlate of God.' P. Cibot goes at length into a discussion
of the idea conveyed by the Chinese character P'ei, but without

coming to any definite conclusion ; and indeed Tai Thung, author

of the dictionary Liu Shu Ku, says that 'its original significancy
has baffled investigation, while its classical usage is in the sense of
" " '

mate," fellow." The meaning here is the second assigned to

it on p. 99. In the Chinese Repository we find :
'
As a mark of
reverence there nothing more important than to place the father
is

on an equality with heaven ; which is by no means the idea, while

'

the author further distorts the

meaning by the following note :

'T'ien, "Heaven," and ShangTi, the "Supreme Ruler," seem to

be perfectly synonymous and whatever ideas the Chinese attach
;

to them, evident that the noble lord of AT^u regarded his an-
it is

cestors, immediate and remote, as their equals, and paid to the one
the same homage as the other. In thus elevating mortals to an
equality with the Supreme Ruler, he is upheld and approved by
Confucius, and has been imitated by myriads of every generation
of his countrymen down to the
present day.'
It is difficult to
say in what the innovation of the duke of ATau
CH. IX. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SAGES. 477
'

Formerly the duke of K&u at the border altar

sacrificed to Hau-^i as the correlate of Heaven,
and in the Brilliant Hall he honoured king Wan,
and sacrificed to him as the correlate of God l . The

consisted. The Extensive Explanation of the

editors of the
Hsiao say: 'According to commentators on our
classic, Shun

thinking only of the virtue of his ancestor did not sacrifice to him at
the border altar. The
sovereigns of Hsia and Yin were the first to
sacrifice there to their ancestors but they had not the ceremony of
;

sacrificing to their fathers as the correlates of Heaven. This began

with the duke of K&u..' To this explanation of the text the editors
'

demur, and consider that the noun father in the previous sen-
'

tence should be taken, in the case of the duke of -^au, both of

Hau-/i and king Wan.
1
The reader of the translations from the Shih must be familiar
with Hau-/$i, as the ancestor to whom the kings of ^au traced
their lineage, and with king Wan, as the acknowledged founder of
their dynasty inconnexion with his son, king Wu. Was any greater
honour done Hau-/i in making him the correlate of Heaven
to
than to king Wan in making him the correlate of God ? We must
say, No. As is said in the Extensive Explanation,
The words '

Heaven and God are different, but their meaning is one and the
same/ The question is susceptible of easy determination. Let
me refer the reader to the translations from the Shih on pp. 317
and 329. The tenth piece on the latter was sung, at the border
sacrifice to Heaven, in honour of Hau-^i and the
;
first four lines

of it are to the effect

'
O thou, accomplished, great Hau-^i !

To thee alone 'twas given

To be, by what we trace to thee,
The correlate of Heaven;'
while the fifth and sixth lines are

'God had the wheat and barley meant

To nourish all mankind.
None would have fathomed His intent,
But for thy guiding mind/
The seventh piece on the former page was used at the sacrifice, in
the Brilliant Hall, to king Wan, as the correlate of God/
'
The
first three lines have been versified by
478 THE HSIAO KING. CH. ix.

the states) within

consequence was that from (all
the four seas, every (prince) came in the discharge
of his duty to (assist in those) sacrifices. In the
virtue of the sages what besides was there greater
than filial piety ?
'
Now the feeling of affection grows up at the

parents' knees, and as (the duty of) nourishing those

parents is exercised, the
affection daily merges in

awe. The sages proceeded from the (feeling of)

awe to teach (the duties of) reverence, and from
(that of) teach (those of) love. The
affection to

teachings of the sages, without being severe, were

successful, and their government, without being rigo-

*
My offerings here are given,
A ram, a bull.

Accept them, mighty Heaven,

All-bountiful;'
and the sixth and seventh lines by
'
From Wan comes blessing rich ;

Now on the right

He owns those gifts to which
Him I invite.'

Since 'Heaven' and 'God' have the same reference, why are they
used here as if there were some opposition between them ? The
nearest approach to an answer to this is found also in the Exten-
sive Explanation, derived mainly from Khfan. Hsiang-tao, of the
Sung dynasty, and to the following effect Heaven (Tien) just is '
:

God (Ti). Heaven is a term specially expressive of honour,

and Hau->i was made the correlate of Heaven, because he was
remote, far distant from the worshipper. God is a term expressive
of affection, and king Wan was made the correlate of God, be-
cause he was nearer to, the father of, the duke of K,\\? Hsiang-tao
concludes by saying that the sacrifice at the border altar was an
old institution, while that in the Brilliant Hall was first appointed
by the duke of K&M. According to this view, Heaven would
approximate to the name for Deity in the absolute, Jehovah, as
explained in Exodus xv. 14; while Ti is God, 'our Father in
heaven.'
CH. ix. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SAGES. 479

rous, was effective. What they proceeded from was

the root (of filial
piety implanted by Heaven).
'

Theand duties between father and son,

relation

(thus belonging to) the Heaven-conferred nature,

(contain in them the principle of) righteousness
between ruler and subject The son derives his 1
.

life from his parents, and no

greater gift could
possibly be transmitted his ruler and parent (in
;

one), his father deals with him accordingly, and no

generosity could be greater than this. Hence, he
who does not love his parents, but loves other men,
is called a rebel against virtue and he who does ;

not revere his parents, but reveres other men, is

called a rebel against propriety. When (the ruler)
himself thus acts contrary to (the principles) which
should place him in accord (with all men), he pre-
sents nothing for the people to imitate. He has
nothing to do with what is good, but entirely and
only with what is injurious to virtue. Though he
may get (his will, and be above others), the superior
man does not give him his approval.

1
We find for this in the Chinese Repository :
'
The feelings
which ought to characterise the intercourse between father and son
are of a heavenly nature, resembling the bonds which exist between
a prince and his ministers/ P. Cibot gives '
Les rapports im- :

muable de pere et de fils de'coulent de 1'essence meme du Tien,

et offrent lapremiere ide'e de prince et de sujet ;' adding on the
former clause this note Les commentateurs ne disent que des
:
'

mots sur ces paroles; mais comment pourroient ils les bien expliquer,

puisqu'ils ne sauroient en entrevoir le sens supreme et ineffable ?

Quelques-uns ont pris le parti de citer le texte de Tao-teh King
(ch. 42), "Le T&o est vie et units' le premier a engendre*
;
le second ;

les troisieme; le trois ont fait toutes choses;"

deux ont produit le

c'est-a-dire, qu'ils ont tache d'expliquer un texte qui les passe, par
un autre ou ils ne comprennent rien/ But there is neither difficulty
in the construction of the text here, nor mystery in its meaning.
480 THE HSIAO KING. CH. x.

not so with the superior man.

1
It is He speaks,
having thought whether the words should be spoken ;

he acts, having thought whether his actions are sure

to give pleasure. His virtue and righteousness are
such as will be honoured what he initiates and does ;

is fit to be imitated ;
his deportment worthy of
is

contemplation his movements in ;

advancing or re-
tiring are all according to the proper rule. In this
way does he present himself to the people, who both
revere and love him, imitate and become like him.
Thus he is able to make his teaching of virtue suc-
cessful, and his government and orders to be carried
1
into effect .

'
It is said in the Book of Poetry 2
,

"
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Has nothing wrong in his deportment."'

CHAPTER X. AN ORDERLYDESCRIPTION OF THE

ACTS OF FILIAL PIETY.
The Master The service which a filial son
said,
'

does to his parents is as follows In his general :

conduct to them, he manifests the utmost reverence ;

in his
nourishing of them, his endeavour is to give
them the utmost pleasure when they are ill, he ;

feels the greatest anxiety; in

mourning for them
(dead), he exhibits every demonstration of grief;
in
sacrificing to them, he displays the utmost so-
lemnity. When a son is complete in these five
things (he may be pronounced) able to serve his
parents.

1
This paragraph may be called a mosaic, formed by piecing
together passages from the 3o ^wan.
2
See the Shih, I, xiv, ode stanza
3, 3.
CH. XII. THE ALL-EMBRACING RULE. 481

'
He who (thus) serves his parents, in a high
situation, will be free from pride in a low situation,
;

will be free from insubordination and among his ;

equals, will not be quarrelsome. In a high situation

pride leads to ruin in a low situation insubordina-
;

tion leads to punishment among equals quarrel-

;

someness leads to the wielding of weapons.

'
If those three things be not put away, though
a son every day contribute beef, mutton, and pork 1
to nourish his parents, he is not filial.'

CHAPTER XI. FILIAL PIETY IN RELATION TO

THE FIVE PUNISHMENTS.
The Master There are three thousand
said,
'

offences against which the five punishments are

2
directed and there is not one of them greater
,

than being unfilial.

'
When put upon a ruler, that is the
constraint
is

disowning of his superiority when the authority of ;

the sages is disallowed, that is the disowning of

(all)
law ;
when filial
piety is put aside, that is the

disowning of the principle of affection. These (three

things) pave the way to anarchy.'

CHAPTER XII. AMPLIFICATION OF 'THE ALL-

'

EMBRACING RULE OF CONDUCT IN CHAPTER I.

The Master For teaching the people to be

said,
'

affectionate and loving there is nothing better than

Filial Piety ;
for teaching them (the observance of)
propriety and submissiveness there is nothing better
than Fraternal Duty; for changing their manners

1
Compare with this the Confucian Analects, II, vii.
2
See the Shu, p. 43, and especially pp. 255, 256.

[i] ii
 482 THE HSIAO KING. CH. xm.

and altering their customs there is

nothing better
than Music ;
for securing the repose of superiors and
the good order of the people there is nothing better
than the Rules of Propriety.
The Rules of Propriety are simply (the develop-
*

ment of) the principle of Reverence. Therefore the

reverence paid to a father makes (all) sons pleased ;

the reverence paid to an elder brother makes (all)

younger brothers pleased the reverence paid to ;

a ruler makes (all) subjects pleased

1
. The rever-
ence paid to one man makes thousands and myriads
of men pleased. The reverence is paid to a few,
and the pleasure extends to many this is what is ;

"
meant by an All-embracing Rule of Conduct."

CHAPTER XIII. AMPLIFICATION OF 'THE PERFECT

VIRTUE' IN CHAPTER I.

The Master said, The teaching '

of filial
piety by
the superior man 2 does not require that he should
go to family after family, and daily see the members
of each. His teaching of filial piety is a tribute of
reverence to all the fathers under heaven ;
his

teaching of fraternal submission is a tribute of

reverence to all the elder brothers under heaven ;

his teaching of the duty of a

subject is a tribute of
reverence to all the rulers under heaven.

1
We must understand that the 'reverence' here is to be under-
stood as paid by the sovereign. In reverencing his father (or an
uncle may also in Chinese usage be so
styled), he reverences the
idea of fatherhood, and being in accord with the minds of all
'

under heaven/ his example is universally powerful. And we may

reason similarly of the other two cases of reverence
specified.
1
The ATiin-gze, or superior man/ here must be taken of the
'

'
sovereign, P. Cibot translates it
by un prince.'
CH. XV. FILIAL PIETY IN RELATION TO REPROOF. 483
'
It is said in the Book of Poetry 1 ,

"
The happy and courteous sovereign
Is the
parent of the people."
'
If it were not a perfect virtue, how could it be
recognised as in accordance with their nature by the
'

people so extensively as this ?

CHAPTER XIV. AMPLIFICATION OF 'MAKING OUR

NAME FAMOUS '

IN CHAPTER I.

The Master said, The filial piety with which the

*

superior man serves his parents may be transferred

as loyalty to the ruler the fraternal duty with which
;

he serves his elder brother may be transferred as

submissive deference to elders ;
his regulation of
his family may be transferred as good government
in any official position. Therefore, when his conduct
isthus successful in his inner (private) circle, his
name will be established (and transmitted) to future
generations.'

CHAPTER *XV. FILIAL PIETY IN RELATION TO

REPROOF AND REMONSTRANCE.
The disciple have heard your in-
Sang said,
'
I

structions on the affection of love, on respect and

reverence, on giving repose to (the minds of) our
parents, and on making our name famous I would ;

venture to ask (simple) obedience to the orders of

if

one's father can be pronounced filial piety.' The

Master replied, 'What words are these! what words
are these !
Anciently, if the Son of Heaven had
seven ministers who would remonstrate with him,

1
See the Shih, III, ii, ode 7, stanza i. The two lines of the
Shih here are, possibly, not an interpolation.
I i 2
484 THE HSIAO KING. CH. XVI.

methods of government,
although he had not right
he would not lose his possession of the kingdom ;

if the prince of a state had five

such ministers,
be equally wrong, he
though his measures might
would not lose his state if a great officer had three,
;

he would not, in a similar case, lose (the headship

if an inferior officer had a friend who
of) his clan ;

would remonstrate with him, a good name would

not cease to be connected with his character and ;

the father who had a son that would remonstrate

with him would not sink into the gulf of unrighteous
deeds 1 Therefore when a case of unrighteous con-
.

duct concerned, a son must by no means keep

is

from remonstrating with his father, nor a minister

from remonstrating with his ruler. Hence, since
remonstrance is required in the case of unrighteous
conduct, how can (simple) obedience to the orders of
'
2
a father be accounted filial
piety ?

CHAPTER XVI. THE INFLUENCE OF FILIAL PIETY

AND THE RESPONSE TO IT.
The Master '

Anciently, the intelligent kings

said,
served their fathers with filial piety, and therefore
they served Heaven with intelligence they served ;

their mothers with filial piety, and therefore they

served Earth with discrimination 3 They pursued .

1
The numbers 7, 5, 3, i cannot be illustrated by examples, nor
should they be insisted on. The
higher the dignity, the greater
would be the risk, and the stronger must be the support that was
needed.
2
Compare the Analects, IV, xviii, and the Li K\, X, i, 15.
5
This chapter as difficult to grasp as the seventh, which treated
is

of Filial Piety in Relation to ' the Three Powers/ It is indeed a

sequel to that. Heaven and Earth appear as two Powers, or as
CH. XVI. INFLUENCE OF FILIAL PIETY. 485

the right course with reference to their (own) seniors

and juniors, and therefore they secured the regula-
tion of the relations between superiors and infe-
riors (throughout the kingdom).
'When Heaven and Earth were served with intelli-
gence and discrimination, the spiritual intelligences
l
displayed (their retributive power ).
Therefore even the Son of Heaven must have
1

some whom he honours that is, he has his uncles;

of his surname. He must have some to whom he

concedes the precedence that is, he has his cousins,
;

who bear the same surname, and are older than

himself. In the ancestral temple he manifests the
utmost reverence, showing that he does not forget
his parents he cultivates his person and is careful
;

of his conduct, fearing lest he should disgrace his

predecessors.
'
When in the ancestral temple he exhibits the

a dual Power, taking the place of Heaven or God. We can in a

degree follow the treatise in transferring the reverence paid by
a son to his father to loyalty shown by him to his ruler ; but it is
more difficult to understand the development of filial piety into
religion that is here assumed and described. Was it not the

pressing of this virtue too far, the making more of it than can be

made, that tended to deprave religion during the Jf&u dynasty, and
to mingle with the earlier monotheism a form of nature-worship ?
'Correct Meaning,' makes the discrimination'
'

Hsing Ping, in his

here to bean ability to distinguish the advantages of the earth ;'

'

showing how he had the sixth and seventh chapters in his mind.
1
The Spiritual Intelligences' here are Heaven and Earth con-
'

ceived of as Spiritual Beings. They responded to the sincere

service of the intelligent kings, as Hsing Ping says, with 'the

harmony of the active and passive principles of nature, seasonable

winds and rain, the absence of epidemic sickness and plague, and
the repose of all under heaven.' Compare with this what is said
in 'the Great Plan' of the Shu, pp. 147, 148.
486 THE HSIAO KING. CH. XVII.

utmost reverence, the spirits of the departed mani-

fest themselves
1
Perfect filial piety and fraternal
.

the spiritual intelligences,

duty reach to (and move)
and diffuse their light on all within the four seas ;

they penetrate everywhere.

2
It is said in the Book of Poetry
1
,

"
From the west to the east,
From the south to the north,
There was not a thought but did him homage."

CHAPTER XVII. THE SERVICE OF THE RULER.

The Master said,

'
The superior man 3 serves his
ruler in such a way, that when at court in his pre-
sence his thought is how to discharge his loyal duty
to the utmost and when he retires from it, his
;

thought is how to amend his errors. He carries

out with deference the measures springing from his
excellent qualities,and rectifies him (only) to save
him from what are evil. Hence, as the superior
and inferior, they are able to have an affection for
each other.
*
It is said in the Book of Poetry 4 ,

"
In my heart I love him;
And why should I not say so ?

In the core of my heart I

keep him,
And never will forget him."

1
The reader will have noticed
many instances of this, or what
were intended be instances of it, in the translations from the
to

Shih, pp. 365-368, &c.

2
See the Shih, III, i, ode 10, stanza 6.
'The superior man' here can only be the good and intelligent
officer in the royal domain or at a feudal court.
4
See the Shih, II, viii, ode 4, stanza 4.
 CH. xvm. FILIAL PIETY IN MOURNING.
487

CHAPTER XVIII.
FILIAL PIETY IN MOURNING FOR PARENTS.

The Master said,

*
When a
filial son is
mourning
for a parent, he but not with a prolonged
wails,
in the movements of
sobbing ;
ceremony he pays no
attention to his appearance his words are without ;

elegance of phrase he cannot bear to wear fine

;

clothes when he hears music, he feels no

;
delight ;

when he eats a delicacy, he is not conscious of its

flavour such is the nature of grief and sorrow.
:

'
After three days he may partake of food for ;

thus the people are taught that the living should

not be injured on account of the dead, and that
emaciation must not be carried to the extinction of
life : such
the rule of the sages.
is The period of
mourning does not go beyond three years, to show
the people that it must have an end.
'
An inner and outer coffin are made ;
the grave-
clothes also are put on, and the shroud ;
and (the
'

body) is lifted (into the coffin). The sacrificial

vessels, round and square, are (regularly) set forth,

and (the sight of them) fills (the mourners) with
(fresh) distress l
. The women beat their breasts,
and the men stamp with their feet, wailing and

weeping, while they sorrowfully escort the coffin

to the grave. They consult the tortoise-shell to
determine the grave and the ground about it, and

1
These vessels were arranged every day by the coffin, while it
continued in the house, after the corpse was put into it. The
practice was a serving of the dead as the living had been served.
It is not thought necessary to give any details as to the other
different rites of mourning which are mentioned. They will be
found, with others, in the translations from the Lt Jt
 THE HSIAO KING. CH. XVIII.

there they lay the body in peace. They prepare

the ancestral temple (to receive the tablet of the
to the disem-
departed), and there present offerings
bodied spirit. In spring and autumn they offer
sacrifices, thinking of the deceased as the seasons
come round.
The services of love and reverence to parents
'

when alive, and those of grief and sorrow to them

when dead these completely discharge the funda-
:

mental duty of living men. The righteous claims

of life and death are all satisfied, and the filial son's
service of his parents is completed.'

The above is the Classic of Filial Piety, as published by the

emperor Hsiian in A.D. 722, with the headings then prefixed to the
eighteen chapters. Subsequently, in the eleventh century, Sze-ma
Kwang (A.D. 1009-1086), a famous statesman and historian, pub-
lished what he thought was the more ancient text of the Classic in

twenty -two chapters, with 'Explanations' by himself, without indi-

cating, however, the different chapters, and of course without
headings to them. This work is commonly published along with
an '

Exposition' of his views, by Fan >$u-yu, one of his contempo-

raries and friends. The differences between his text and that of
the Thang emperor are insignificant. He gives, however, one
additional chapter, which would be the nineteenth of
his arrange-
'
ment. It is as follows Inside the smaller doors leading to the
:

inner apartments are to be found all the rules (of government).

There is awe for the father, and also for the elder brother. Wife
and children, servants and concubines are like the common people,
serfs, and underlings.'