"RISE OF CONFUCIUS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglas R K)

birth of the son, who was destined to achieve such everlasting fame.

Report says that the child was born in a cave on Mount Ne, whither Ching-tsai
went in obedience to a vision to be confined. But this is but one of the many legends
with which Chinese historians love to surround the birth of Confucius. With the same
desire to glorify the Sage, and in perfect good faith, they narrate how the event was
heralded by strange portents and miraculous appearances, how genii announced to
Ching-tsai the honor that was in store for her, and how fairies attended at his nativity.

Of the early years of Confucius we have but scanty record. It would seem that
from his childhood he showed ritualistic tendencies, and we are told that as a boy he
delighted to play at the arrangement of vessels and postures of ceremony. As he
advanced in years he became an earnest student of history, and looked back with love
and reverence to the time when the great and good Yaou and Shun reigned in

"A golden age, fruitful of golden deeds."

At the age of fifteen "he bent his mind to learning," and when he was nineteen
years old he married a lady from the state of Sung. As has befallen many other great
men, Confucius' married life was not a happy one, and he finally divorced his wife, not,
however, before she had borne him a son.

Soon after his marriage, at the instigation of poverty, Confucius accepted the
office of keeper of the stores of grain, and in the following year he was promoted to be
guardian of the public fields and lands. It was while holding this latter office that his son
was born, and so well known and highly esteemed had he already become that the
reigning duke, on hearing of the event, sent him a present of a carp, from which
circumstance the infant derived his name, Le ("a carp"). The name of this son seldom
occurs in the life of his illustrious father, and the few references we have to him are
enough to show that a small share of paternal affection fell to his lot. "Have you heard
any lessons from your father different from what we have all heard?" asked an inquisitive
disciple of him. "No," replied Le, "he was standing alone once when I was passing
through the court below with hasty steps, and said to me, 'Have you read the Odes?' On
my replying, 'No yet,' he added, 'If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to
converse with.' Another day, in the same place and the same way, he said to me, 'Have
you read the rules of Propriety?' On my replying, 'Not yet,' he added, 'If you do not learn
the rules of Propriety, your character cannot be established.'" "I asked one thing," said
the enthusiastic disciple, "and I have learned three things. I have learned about the
Odes; I have learned about the rules of Propriety; and I have learned that the superior
man maintains a distant reserve toward his son."

At the age of twenty-two we find Confucius released from the toils of office, and
devoting his time to the more congenial task of imparting instruction to a band of
admiring and earnest students. With idle or stupid scholars he would have nothing to
do. "I do not open the truth," he said, "to one who is not eager after knowledge, nor do I
help any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner
of a subject, and the listener cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my
lesson."

When twenty-eight years old Confucius studied archery, and in the following