In order to understand the standpoint of Confucius, we must realize the times in which he lived and his peculiar temperament. He was living in an age of decline. The great days of Chou Dynasty had gone, morals were dissolving. In one word, Chinese cultural life had reached a critical period of transition. Cus toms and institutions, morals and and beliefs, which had hitherto been accepted and acted upon blind. ly, were now subject to the ruth onslaughts of rational criticism called for justification. 'The schools of Lao-tse, Confucius, and the Legists came upon the' scene, and brought with them widely different programmes of reconstruction, Cone fucius and company were chi apologists of the old order; they took account of stock, they idealized ancient rulers and ancient manners, and they dreamed of turning the seething torrent of their times back to them. Confucius had unbounded admiration for Chou Kung, especially for the wonderful system of rites and ceremonies he had created. He used to tell his disciples, "For some time I have seen Chou Kung in my dreams," which indicates that ho did Sometimes seo Chou Kung in his dreams, although he could never have seen him in his waking hours How can we account for this almas pathological desire to Chow Kung? The truth is that Cone fucius was born with a genius for ceremony fed a "ceremonial animal as' a child of tender already found pleasure in' the practice of moot rites. Is it any, wonder that when such a child grew into man, he should grow in eonvi tion that the panacea for the diseases of the social organism was none other than ceremony'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.