during the prevalence of the feudal system. At the commencement
of the dynasty, the various states of the kingdom had been
assigned to the relatives and adherents of the reigning family.
There were thirteen principalities of greater note, and a large
number of smaller dependencies. During the vigorous youth of the
dynasty, the sovereign or lord paramount exercised an effective
control over the various chiefs, but with the lapse of time there
came weakness and decay. The chiefs --corresponding somewhat
to the European dukes, earls, marquises, barons, &c. -- quarrelled
and warred among themselves, and the stronger among them
barely acknowledged their subjection to the sovereign. A similar
condition of things prevailed in each particular State. There there
[sic] were hereditary ministerial families, who were continually
encroaching on the authority of their rulers, and the heads of
those families again were frequently hard pressed by their
inferior officers. Such was the state of China in Confucius's time.
The reader must have it clearly before him, if he would
understand the position of the sage, and the reforms which, we
shall find, it was subsequently his object to introduce.
Arrived at Chau, he had no intercourse with the court or any
of

1 See ¥ª¤ó¶Ç, ¬L¤½¤C¦~.
2 ¦ó§Ò.
3 ©sÅt¤l.
4 «n®c·q¨û.
5 The ®a»y makes Chang-shu accompany Confucius to Chau. It is
difficult to understand this, if Chang-shu were really a son of
Mang Hsi who had died that year.
6 ´.