Once upon a time during the present dynasty there was a beggar nameil A-ut. He hedged to support his aged parents. Whenever he received food, although he himself might be famishing, he would never taste it till he had offered some to his parents. Moreover, when he received any cash, he would at once buy them some fruit and wine, Whilst his parents were satisfying their hunger, he would sin, them songs and dance' to awuse them, This continued for more than ten years, When on one occasion they fell ill, he cut some slices from his own flesh with which he made them soup, after which they both recovered. When they died he bogyed cetins, and with his own clothes he inde them " shroud, and though it was bitterly cold and he was nearly naked, he did not hesitate. When they were buried he went every night and slept at the grave. Strange to say, if it snowed, none ever fell upon him. Night and day he wept sore. Seem after this he discovered a pot of gold. He lifted this eyes by heaven and thanked the gods bat said, When my parents were alive we were poor together, now that they are gone eamnot enjoy the gol fore distributed' it among ud the widow he died. When he entered the lower world, ssedt him through the asa reward for his piety. It is interesting ice the kinl of rewards that are riven to these who excel in Fitial Piety. Tf the Chines py 4 virtue that is, flemly zrounded al life, and markedly developed in their practical life, it is this. To is cer alnly very beautiful t seen grown-up son cheerfully toiling for and g to his aged Possibly Occidentals might leaeu something fran the Chinese in this regard. With us, provided that a son when young is not ne tually disobedient, and does not Tow his parents when old to want, he may go} where he likes and do what he likes without incurring the censure of pablic opinion. The Cainese would say thet the sys em which allowed this teachys a son to ssw no. more reverence for his parents than a chick for the hen which hatched it or the calf for the cow which save it birth, Yet the system of Chinese Filial Piety is open to severe eriticivin When results and fads are tabulated I think that we may still prefer our ows. Chinese moralists
parents. China t a country where neuleate no lim to the ats such instractions would be superfluous, If the sages had said, Fathers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged," the homes throughout the empire would not have resounded with the echoes of so many cries of unhappy children, who have been unmercifully beaten by trol nts in fits of un-/ controllable passion. The parents immortalised in these "Miracles" are certainly not a very lovable lot, and son might well be excused from' cutting off slices from his own flesh in order 04 ward off death from them. To inculcate such ideals seem to us to be strictly oral, Christianity instructs a man leave his father and mother and cleave ty his wife." Confucianism requires a man to cleave to his futher and mother and expects his wife todo the same. Which is right? A keen obs-rece has remarked that the true root of the practice of Filial Piety we believe t" be a mixture of fear {and self-love—two of the most powerful motives which can act upon the human The spirits must b+ worship; account of the power which they have for evil, Every son has performed his Gli-l duties toward his father, and demands the same from his own son. That is what child-yen are for. Upon this point the popular mind is explicit. **'Teeos are reared for shade, children are r-ared for old age." "Neither parents nor children have illusions on the subject." I do not think that these statements can be questioned. Vherefore, whilst there is much in the system that may be admire, there is also much that cay be seriously challenged. Tris slowly coming into close contact with the nobler ideal of the West. Both cannot hold the field. Ancestral worship, the crown of Filial Piety, will have to zo under, or Christianity will never be triumphant in this empire, In te dosth struggle yet to come the fittest will survive. We need not hesitate to lend the attack,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.