entire sympathy with the mass of their people. It is the
distinction

[Sidebar] General appreciation of Confucius.

of this empire that education has been highly prized in it from the
earliest times. It was so before the era of Confucius, and we may
be sure that the system met with his approbation. One of his
remarkable sayings was,-- 'To lead an uninstructed people to war
is to throw them away [3].' When he pronounced this judgment, he
was not thinking of military training, but of education in the
duties of life and citizenship. A people so taught, he thought,
would be morally fitted to fight for their government. Mencius,
when lecturing to the ruler of T'ang on the proper way of
governing a kingdom, told him that he must provide the means of
education for all, the poor as well as the rich. 'Establish,' said he,
'hsiang, hsu, hsio, and hsiao,-- all those educational
institutions,-- for the instruction of the people [4].'

1 2 See the ¤j²M³q§¨÷¤Q¤G.
3 Ana. XIII. xxx.
4 Mencius III. Pt. I. iii. 10.


At the present day, education is widely diffused throughout
China. In few other countries is the schoolmaster more abroad,
and in all schools it is Confucius who is taught. The plan of
competitive examinations, and the selection for civil offices only
from those who have been successful candidates,-- good so far as
the competition is concerned, but injurious from the restricted