Chapter 8 chapter 8

Confucius, as some of you may know, lived in what is called a period of expansion in the history of China—a period in which the feudal age had come to an end; in which the feudal, the semi-patriarchal social order and form of government had to be expanded and reconstructed. This great change necessarily brought with it not only confusion in the affairs of the world, but also confusion in men s minds. I have said that in the Chinese civilization of the last ,years there is no conflict between the heart and the head. But I must now tell you that in the period of expansion in which Confucius lived there was also in China, as now in Europe, a fearful conflict between the heart and the head. The Chinese people in Confucius's time found themselves with an enormous system of institutions, established facts, accredited dogmas, customs, laws_in fact, an enormous system of society and civilization which had come down to them from their venerated ancestors. In this system their life had to be carri ed forward; yet they began to feel_they had a sense that this system was not of their creation, that it by no means corresponded with the wants of their actual life; that, for them, it was customary, not rational. This sense in the Chinese people ,years ago was the awakening of what in Europe to-day is called the modern spirit_the spirit of liberalism, the spirit of enquiry, to find out the why and the wherefore of things. This modern spirit in China then , seeing the want of correspondence of the old order of society and civilization with the wants of their actual life, set itself not only to reconstruct a new order of society and civilization, but also to find a basis for this new order of society and civilization . But all the attempts to find a new basis for society and civilization in China then failed. Some, while they satisfied the head_the intellect of the Chinese people, did not satisfy their heart; heir head. Hence arose, as I said, this conflict between the heart and the head in China ,years ago, as we see it now in Europe. This conflict of the heart and head in the new order of society and civilization which men tried to reconstruct made the Chinese people feel dissatisfied with all civilization, and in the agony and despair which this dissatisfaction produced, the Chinese people wanted to pull down and destroy all civilization. Men, like Laotzu, then in China as men like Tolstoy in Europe to- day, seeing the misery and suffering resulting from the conflict between the heart and the head, thought they saw something radically wrong in the very nature and constitution of society and civilization. Laotzu and Chuang-tzu, the most brilliant of Laotzu s disciplines, told the Chinese people to throw away all civilization. Laotzu said to the people of China: "Leave all that you have and follow me; follow me to the mountains, to the hermits cell in the mountains, there to live a true life_alife of the heart, a life of immortality."

But Confucius, who also saw the suffering and misery of the then state of society and civilization, thought he recognized the evil was not in the nature and constitution of society and civilization, but in the wrong track which society and civilization had taken, in the wrong basis which men had taken for the foundation of society and civilization. Confucius told the Chinese people not to throw away their civilization. Confucius told them that in a true society and true civilization_in a society and civilization with a true basis men also could live a true life, a life of the heart. In fact, Confucius tried hard all his life to put society and civilization on the right track; to give it a true basis, and thus prevent the destruction of civilization. But in the last days of his life, when Confucius saw that he could not prevent the destruction of the Chinese civilization_what did he do? Well, as an architect who sees his house on fire, burning and falling over his head, and is convincedthat he cannot possibly save the building, knows that the only thing for him to do is- to save the drawings and plans of the building so that it may afterwards be built again; so Confucius, seeing the inevitable destruction of the building of the Chinese civilization which he conid not prevent, thought he would save the drawings and plans, and he accordingly saved the drawings and plans of the Chinese civilization, which are now preserved in the Old Testament of the Chinese Bible_the five Canonical Books known as the Wu Ching, five Canons. That, I say, was a great service which Confucius has done for the Chinese nation_he saved the drawings and plans of their civilization for them.

Confucius, I say, when he saved the drawings and plans of the Chinese civilization, did a great service for the Chinese nation. But that is not the principal, the greatest service which Confucius has done for the Chinese nation. The greatest service he did was that, in saving the drawings and plans of their civilization, he made a new synthesis, a new interpretation of the plans of that civilization, and in that new synthesis he gave the Chinese people the true idea of ​​a State_a true, rational, permanent , absolute basis of a State. But then Plato and Aristotle in ancient times, and Rousseau and

Herbert Spencer in modern times also made a synthesis of civilization, and tried to give a true idea of ​​a State. Now what is the difference between the philosophy, the synthesis of civilization made by the great men of Europe I have mentioned, and the synthesis of civilization_the system of philosophy and morality now known as Confu-cianism? The difference, it seems to me, is this. The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and of Herbert Spencer has not become a religion or the equivalent of a religion, the accepted faith of the masses of a people or nation, whereas Confucianism has become a religion or the equivalent of a religion to even the mass of the population in China. When I say religion here, I mean religion, not in the narrow European sense of the word , but in the broad universal sense. Goethe says:_" Nur saemtliche Menschen erkennen die Natur; nur saemtliche Menschen leben das Menschliche * . Only the mass of mankind know what is real life; only the mass of mankind live a true h uman life." Now when we speak of religion in its broad universal sense, we mean generally a system of teachings with rules of conduct which, as Goethe says, is accepted as true and binding by the mass of humanity, or at least, by the mass of the population in a people or nation. In this broad and universal sense of the word Christianity and Buddhism are religions. In this broad and universal sense, Confucianism, as you know, has become a religion, as its teachings have been acknowledged to be true and its rules of couduct to be binding by the whole Chinese race and nation, whereas the philosophy of Plato, of Aristotle and of Herbert Spencer has not become a religion even in this broad universal sense. That, I say, is the difference between Confucianism and the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and of Herbert Spencel—the one has remained a philosophy for the learned, whereas the other has become a religion or the equivalent of a religion for the mass of the whole Chinese nation as well a s for the learned of China.