But the tree was not yet deeply enough rooted to resist accidents, and all his wise arrangements were suddenly overthrown by the caprice of the monarch, who, tired of the austere virtue of Confucius, suddenly plunged into a career of dissipation.  Confucius resigned his office, and again became a wanderer, but now with a new motive.  He had before travelled to learn, now he travelled to teach.  He collected disciples around him, and, no longer seeking to gain the ear of princes, he diffused his ideas among the common people by means of his disciples, whom he sent out everywhere to communicate his doctrines.  So, amid many vicissitudes of outward fortune, he lived till he was seventy-three years old.  In the last years of his life he occupied himself in publishing his works, and in editing the Sacred Books.  His disciples had become very numerous, historians estimating them at three thousand, of whom five hundred had attained to official station, seventy-two had penetrated deeply into his system, and ten, of the highest class of mind and character, were continually near his person.  Of these Hwuy was especially valued by him, as having early attained superior virtue.  He frequently referred to him in his conversations.  “I saw him continually advance,” said he, “but I never saw him stop in the path of knowledge.”  Again he says:  “The wisest of my disciples, having one idea, understands two.  Hwuy, having one understands ten.”  One of the select ten disciples, Tszee-loo, was rash and impetuous like the Apostle Peter.  Another, Tszee-Kung, was loving and tender like the Apostle John; he built a house near the grave of Confucius, wherein to mourn for him after his death.

The last years of the life of Confucius were devoted to editing the Sacred Books, or Kings.  As we now have them they come from him.  Authentic records of Chinese history extend back to 2357 B.C., while the Chinese philosophy originated with Fuh-he, who lived about 3327 B.C.  He it was who substituted writing for the knotted strings which before formed the only means of record.  He was also the author of the Eight Diagrams,—­each consisting of three lines, half of which are whole and half broken in two,—­which by their various combinations are supposed to represent the active and passive principles of the universe in all their essential forms.  Confucius edited the Yih-King, the Shoo-King, the She-King, and the Le-Ke, which constitute the whole of the ancient literature of China which has come down to posterity.[1] The Four Books, which contain the doctrines of Confucius, and of his school, were not written by himself, but composed by others after his death.

One of these is called the “Immutable Mean,” and its object is to show that virtue consists in avoiding extremes.  Another—­the Lun-Yu, or Analects—­contains the conversation or table-talk of Confucius, and somewhat resembles the Memorabilia of Xenophon and Boswell’s Life of Johnson.[12]

The life of Confucius was thus devoted to communicating to the Chinese nation a few great moral and religious principles, which he believed would insure the happiness of the people.  His devotion to this aim appears in his writings.  Thus he says:—­