great Yu from again arising, and a condition of happy tranquillity
being realized throughout the kingdom under their sway.
If in anything he thought himself 'superior and alone,' having
attributes which others could not claim, it was in his possessing
a divine commission as the conservator of ancient truth and rules.
He does not speak very definitely on this point. It is noted that
'the appointments of Heaven was one of the subjects on which he
rarely touched [1].' His most remarkable utterance was that which
I have already given in the sketch of his Life:-- 'When he was put
in fear in K'wang, he said, "After the death of king Wan, was not
the cause of truth lodged here in me? If Heaven had wished to let
this cause of truth perish, then I, a future mortal, should not have
got such a relation to that cause. While Heaven does not let the
cause of truth perish, what can the people of K'wang do to me
[2]?"' Confucius, then, did feel that he was in the world for a
special purpose. But it was not to announce any new truths, or to
initiate any new economy. It was to prevent what had previously
been known from being lost. He followed in the wake of Yao and
Shun, of T'ang, and king Wan. Distant from the last by a long
interval of time, he would have said that he was distant from him
also by a great inferiority of character, but still he had learned
the principles on which they all happily governed the country, and
in their name he would lift up a standard against the prevailing
lawlessness of his age.
5. The language employed with reference to Confucius by his
disciples and their early followers presents a striking contrast
with his own.

[Sidebar] Estimate of him by his disciples and their early
followers.