He now had an opportunity of putting his principles of government to the test, and the result partly justified his expectations.  He framed rules for the support of the living, and for the observation of rites for the dead; he arranged appropriate food for the old and the young; and he provided for the proper separation of men and women.  And the results were, we are told, that, as in the time of King Alfred, a thing dropped on the road was not picked up; there was no fraudulent carving of vessels; coffins were made of the ordained thickness; graves were unmarked by mounds raised over them; and no two prices were charged in the markets.  The duke, surprised at what he saw, asked the sage whether his rule of government could be applied to the whole state.  “Certainly,” replied Confucius, “and not only to the state of Loo, but to the whole empire.”  Forthwith, therefore, the duke made him Assistant-Superintendent of Works, and shortly afterwards appointed him Minister of Crime.  Here, again, his success was complete.  From the day of his appointment crime is said to have disappeared, and the penal laws remained a dead letter.

Courage was recognized by Confucius as being one of the great virtues, and about this period we have related two instances in which he showed that he possessed both moral and physical courage to a high degree.  The chief of the Ke family, being virtual possessor of the state, when the body of the exiled Duke Chaou was brought from T’se for interment, directed that it should be buried apart from the graves of his ancestors.  On Confucius becoming aware of his decision, he ordered a trench to be dug round the burying-ground which should enclose the new tomb.  “Thus to censure a prince and signalize his faults is not according to etiquette,” said he to Ke.  “I have caused the grave to be included in the cemetery, and I have done so to hide your disloyalty.”  And his action was allowed to pass unchallenged.

The other instance referred to was on the occasion, a few years later, of an interview between the dukes of Loo and T’se, at which Confucius was present as master of ceremonies.  At his instigation, an altar was raised at the place of meeting, which was mounted by three steps, and on this the dukes ascended, and having pledged one another proceeded to discuss a treaty of alliance.  But treachery was intended on the part of the duke of T’se, and at a given signal a band of savages advanced with beat of drum to carry off the duke of Loo.  Some such stratagem had been considered probable by Confucius, and the instant the danger became imminent he rushed to the altar and led away the duke.  After much disorder, in which Confucius took a firm and prominent part, a treaty was concluded, and even some land on the south of the river Wan, which had been taken by T’se, was by the exertions of the Sage restored to Loo.  On this recovered territory the people of Loo, in memory of the circumstance, built a city and called it, “The City of Confession.”