In insisting upon Filial Piety the author is advocating a sacred duty that, theoretic ally at least, is binding upon every man who wears a queue. Filial Piety is the hed-rock in which everything that is best in the nation's family, social. national, snd moral life is embedded. Filial Piety is to the life of the Chinese, what the wall ramparts and battlements are te thei Moralists have been strengthening it since the dawn of their nation's history, and it has now become the national religion, and seems to be impervious to the attacks ofallinvaders, Like the wonderful banyan tree, whose lower branches send down perpendicular shoots, which in turn take root and become new stalks, so that large areas are covered with firmly root.d trunks, inseparably joined, that render the tree absolutely indifferent to the fiercest storm, so the first principles of Filial Piety, dropped from the lips of ancient kings, ineulcated by ancient mages, sung by ancient poets, and illustrated by ancient artists, hare not only firmly embedded themselves m the nation's heart, but have grown and gi en birth to other ideas, having more or Less affinity with it, till it is a growth that hasfilled the land, and now stands absolutely indifferent to all attacks. Fulixl Piety with us means a loving reverence for and a ceupeetl obedience to parents during Idhood and youth, but when the son comes of age," he forms his own plans and follows his own bent—always cherishing an affectionate regurd for his parents. Among the Chinese far other principles implied in the word and ace wrapt up in the idea. Gf course in theory a Clinese ig more virtuous thin in practice, In theory he obeys his parents with an unquestioning obedience; he dyes not travel from the ancestral home whilst they are alive; he subjects hituself to three years' mourning for them when they are dead, In practice he generally supports them while they are alive; he also worships them when they huve departed. No foreigner can penetrate within the my: teries of this cult nor fully grasp the complex intricacies of Chines- Filial Piety. Confucius insisted on its importance with all his might. Nor is there much to which a modern can take exception in the tenching of the Sage. When one asked him to, define Filial Piety, he said, It is not being disobedient." Another put the same question, He replied "Filinl Piety no a-days means the mere support of one's parents. But dogs and horses are likewise able to do something in the way of supports without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support from the other?" Itis true, he further renmrked, that "whilst 'a man's parents are alive, the son may not go abroad to a distance," nor must a filial "son, for three years, alter from the ways of his father." Ench of the "instructions is obviously open to severe criticism.
Mencius points out. tive points where son may fail in his duty in this regard, Laziness in the use of his limbs. Gambling and "diction to wine. Fondness for money und selfish attachment 10 wife and children. A tendency to listen to strange sounds and fellow strange sights, A tendency to brawling and fighting. The first theo interfere with the supp: rt of one's punts; the later two bring disgrace upon them. Many other sehoolhich Chinese boys commit to emory and more or less understand, ineulea'e the same duty. They lay down minute rules for the instructions of the young, so that a child is as familiar with his duty as a public schoolboy is with the terminations of Amo. Boys and girls who have not arrived at the age of manhood and womanhood, at the first eockcrowing must wash their hands, rinse their mouths, comb their hair, and form it into a tuft. They must then brush off the dust, tie on their bags, well supplied with perfumery, and hasten at eatly dawn to their parents to inquire if they have eaten and drank." Nor is disobedience mere peccsdillo. "For there are three thousand crimes to which the one or the other of the five kinds of punishment are attached as a penalty; and of these no one ig greater than disobedience to parents." We see therefore what forces are ab work to mould the Chinese mind from his earliest years. "From conning stich precepts the Jad is imbued with a respect for his parents that finally becomes intensified into a religious sentiment and forms as h+ increases in age his only creed—the worship of ancestors."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.