But before Ke K’ang’s invitation reached Confucius an incident occurred which made the arrival of the messengers from Loo still more welcome to him.  K’ung Wan, an officer of Wei, came to consult him as to the best means of attacking the force of another officer with whom he was engaged in a feud.  Confucius, disgusted at being consulted on such a subject, professed ignorance, and prepared to leave the state, saying as he went away:  “The bird chooses its tree; the tree does not choose the bird.”  At this juncture Ke K’ang’s envoys arrived, and without hesitation he accepted the invitation they brought.  On arriving at Loo, he presented himself at court, and in reply to a question of the duke Gae on the subject of government, threw out a strong hint that the duke might do well to offer him an appointment.  “Government,” he said, “consists in the right choice of ministers.”  To the same question put by Ke K’ang he replied, “Employ the upright and put aside the crooked, and thus will the crooked be made upright.”

At this time Ke K’ang was perplexed how to deal with the prevailing brigandage.  “If you, sir, were not avaricious, though you might offer rewards to induce people to steal, they would not.”  This answer sufficiently indicates the estimate formed by Confucius of Ke K’ang and therefore of the duke Gae, for so entirely were the two of one mind that the acts of Ke K’ang appear to have been invariably indorsed by the duke.  It was plainly impossible that Confucius could serve under such a regime, and instead, therefore, of seeking employment, he retired to his study and devoted himself to the completion of his literary undertaking.

He was now sixty-nine years of age, and if a man is to be considered successful only when he succeeds in realizing the dream of his life, he must be deemed to have been unfortunate.  Endowed by nature with a large share of reverence, a cold rather than a fervid disposition, and a studious mind, and reared in the traditions of the ancient kings, whose virtuous achievements obtained an undue prominence by the obliteration of all their faults and failures, he believed himself capable of effecting far more than it was possible for him or any other man to accomplish.  In the earlier part of his career, he had in Loo an opportunity given him for carrying his theories of government into practice, and we have seen how they failed to do more than produce a temporary improvement in the condition of the people under his immediate rule.  But he had a lofty and steady confidence in himself and in the principles which he professed, which prevented his accepting the only legitimate inference which could be drawn from his want of success.  The lessons of his own experience were entirely lost upon him, and he went down to his grave at the age of seventy-two firmly convinced as of yore that if he were placed in a position of authority “in three years the government would be perfected.”

Finding it impossible to associate himself with the rulers of Loo, he appears to have resigned himself to exclusion from office.  His wanderings were over: