226
On the Misery of Soldiers 226

_Part III. Greater Odes of the Kingdom._

BOOK I. DECADE OF KING WAN.
Celebrating King Wan 228

[_Book II is omitted_]

BOOK III. DECADE OF TANG.
King Seuen on the Occasion of a Great Drought 231

_Part IV. Odes of the Temple and Altar._

BOOK I. SACRIFICIAL ODES OF CHOW.
Appropriate to a Sacrifice to King Wan 235
On Sacrificing to the Kings Woo, Ching, and K[']ang 236

THE WISDOM
OF CONFUCIUS

[_Translated into English by William Jennings_]

PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES

_j_, as in French.

_ng_, commencing a word, like the same letters terminating one.

_ai_ or _ei_, as in _aisle_ or _eider_.

_au_, as in German, or like _ow_ in _cow_.

_e_, as in _fete_.

_i_ (not followed by a consonant), as _ee_ in _see_.

_u_ (followed by a consonant), as in _bull_.

_iu_, as _ew_ in _new_.

_ui_, as _ooi_ in _cooing_.

_h_ at the end of a name makes the preceding vowel short.

['] in the middle of a word denotes an aspirate (h), as _K[']ung_
= _Khung_.

INTRODUCTION

The strangest figure that meets us in the annals of Oriental thought is
that of Confucius. To the popular mind he is the founder of a religion,
and yet he has nothing in common with the great religious teachers of
the East. We think of Siddartha, the founder of Buddhism, as the very
impersonation of romantic asceticism, enthusiastic self-sacrifice, and
faith in the things that are invisible. Zoroaster is the friend of God,
talking face to face with the Almighty, and drinking wisdom and
knowledge from the lips of Omniscience. Mohammed is represented as
snatched up into heaven, where he receives the Divine communication
which he is bidden to propagate with fire and sword throughout the
world. These great teachers lived in an atmosphere of the supernatural.
They spoke with the authority of inspired prophets. They brought the
unseen world close to the minds of their disciples. They spoke
positively of immortality, of reward or punishment beyond the grave. The
present life they despised, the future was to them everything in its
promised satisfaction. The teachings of Confucius were of a very
different sort. Throughout his whole writings he has not even mention