476
THE HSIÂO KING.
CH. IX.
Chapter IX. The Government of the Sages[1].
The disciple Zăng said, 'I venture to ask whether in the virtue of the sages there was not something greater than filial piety.' The Master replied, 'Of all (creatures with their different) natures produced by Heaven and Earth, man is the noblest. Of all the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety. In filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one's father. In the reverential awe shown to one's father there is nothing greater than the making him the correlate of Heaven[2]. The duke of Kâu was the man who (first) did this[3].
- ↑ 'The sages' here must mean the sage sovereigns of antiquity, who had at once the highest wisdom and the highest place.
- ↑ See a note on p. 99 on the meaning of the phrase 'the fellow of God,' which is the same as that in this chapter, translated 'the correlate of God.' P. Cibot goes at length into a discussion of the idea conveyed by the Chinese character Pʽei, but without coming to any definite conclusion; and indeed Tâi Thung, author of the dictionary Liû Shû Kû, says that 'its original significancy has baffled investigation, while its classical usage is in the sense of "mate," "fellow."' The meaning here is the second assigned to it on p. 99. In the Chinese Repository we find:—'As a mark of reverence there is nothing more important than to place the father on an equality with heaven;' which is by no means the idea, while the author further distorts the meaning by the following note: 'Tʽien, "Heaven," and Shang Tî, the "Supreme Ruler," seem to be perfectly synonymous; and whatever ideas the Chinese attach to them, it is evident that the noble lord of Kâu regarded his ancestors, immediate and remote, as their equals, and paid to the one the same homage as the other. In thus elevating mortals to an equality with the Supreme Ruler, he is upheld and approved by Confucius, and has been imitated by myriads of every generation of his countrymen down to the present day.'
- ↑ It is difficult to say in what the innovation of the duke of Kâu
