5 ®a»y, Bk. I.


These indiscriminating eulogies are of little value. One
incident, related in the annotations of Tso-shih on the Ch'un-Ch'iu
[1], commends itself at once to our belief, as in harmony with
Confucius's character. The chief of the Chi, pursuing with his
enmity the duke Chao, even after his death, had placed his grave
apart from the graves of his predecessors; and Confucius
surrounded the ducal cemetery with a ditch so as to include the
solitary resting-place, boldly telling the chief that he did it to
hide his disloyalty [2]. But he signalized himself most of all in
B.C. 500, by his behavior at an interview between the dukes of Lu
and Ch'i, at a place called Shih-ch'i [3], and Chia-ku [4], in the
present district of Lai-wu, in the department of T'ai-an [5].
Confucius was present as master of ceremonies on the part of Lu,
and the meeting was professedly pacific. The two princes were to
form a covenant of alliance. The principal officer on the part of
Ch'i, however, despising Confucius as 'a man of ceremonies,
without courage,' had advised his sovereign to make the duke of
Lu a prisoner, and for this purpose a band of the half-savage
original inhabitants of the place advanced with weapons to the
stage where the two dukes were met. Confucius understood the
scheme, and said to the opposite party, 'Our two princes are met
for a pacific object. For you to bring a band of savage vassals to
disturb the meeting with their weapons, is not the way in which
Ch'i can expect to give law to the princes of the kingdom. These
barbarians have nothing to do with our Great Flowery land. Such
vassals may not interfere with our covenant. Weapons are out of
place at such a meeting. As before the spirits, such conduct is