Confucius and Confucianism by Richard Wilhelm; A. P. Danton; G. F.

Danton; The Political

Philosophy of Confucianism by Leonard Shihlien Hs; The Origin and Development of the
State Cult of Confucius by John K. Shryock; Mencius by L. A. Lyall
Review by: E. Edwards
Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1933), pp. 203-
204
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African Studies
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CONFUCIUS AND CONFUCIANISM
CONFUCIUS AND CONFUCIANISM.
By
RICHARD
WILHELM. Translated
into
English by
G. F. and A. P. DANTON.
pp.
x
+
181.
Kegan
Paul,
1931. 6s.
THE POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY OF CONFUCIANISM.
By
Leonard SHIHLIEN
Hst.
pp.
xxii
+
257.
Routledge,
1932. 12s. 6d.
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE CULT OF CONFUCIUS.
By
JOHN
K. SHRYOCK.
pp.
xiii
+
298. The American Historical
Association
(The Century Co.).
New
York, London,
1932.
18s.
MENCIUS. Translated
by
L. A. LYALL.
pp.
xxviii
+
277.
Longmans,
1932. 12s. 6d.
The
abandoning
of the Confucian cult and the Confucian ideal
by
modern China
appears
to have resulted in a new and detached
view of the
sage
and his
teachings,
and the
present group
of
books,
widely
different as
they
are,
have this in common.
The late Dr.
Wilhelm,
whose death at the time when he was in
process
of
developing
a School of Chinese Studies at the
University
of Frankfort-on-the-Main is a
great
loss to
sinology,
has
given
the
student of the Confucian classics an excellent and concise
guide
to the
life and
teaching
of the
sage.
The book
includes
a translation of the
biography
of Confucius in
Ssii-ma
Ch'ien's
Shih-chi
as well as a critical
examination of the data on which the life was
based,
and should find
a
place among
those
constantly
referred to
by
all students of the
pre-Confucian
books and those of the Confucian school itself.
Dr.
Hsii's
aim is to
explain
the social and
political psychology
of
the Chinese
people
in relation to their social and
political development
and to furnish some new
points
of view in
political philosophy.
His
discussion of the sources of Confucian
political philosophy
and their
reliability
forms a useful introduction to the student of textual
criticism
which,
until
recently,
has been almost unknown in China.
For the
"
average
reader
"
referred to in the
Foreword,
Professor
Hsfi's
constant use of the Chinese terms for words which have a
generally
accepted equivalent
in
English
(li
and
yiieh,
for
example, might quite
satisfactorily
be translated "ceremonies" and "music
",
in
many
203
the items. I ventured to offer them in
the
interest of the
very
important
material,
and to further the
study
of Buddhist
sculpture
in China.
OSVALD SIREN.
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204 REVIEWS OF BOOKS
if not all
instances)
is to be
regretted.
Some inaccuracies of
phrase
are
surprising,
as for instance the statement on
p.
103 that
li
[sic1]
"
provides
a foundation for crime and lawsuits ". Dr.
Hsii
is,
none
the
less,
to be
congratulated upon
his
interpretation
of the social and
political
theories of Confucianism. Their influence on China for
twenty-five
centuries will be less
surprising
to the reader of his book
than their wholesale
rejection
at the
present juncture
when China
is
seeking
a democratic and virtuous
government.
From the theories of the Confucian
school,
we turn to the Con-
fucian cult as
practised
in China from the second
century
B.C.
till
modern times. The
worship
of the
sage
was not in the nature of an
innovation. It was an outcome of the old
ancestor-worship,
and
spread
from the
family
of Confucius to the
emperor
and to the whole
Chinese
people. Only
at certain
periods
was he
regarded
as a
god,
and since he himself refrained in his
teachings
from
any
discussion
of
spiritual beings,
this
phase
can
only
be accounted for
by
the
extending
of the cult to the uninitiated. He was at other times rather
the
patron
saint of scholars and
officials,
a
great
man and the ideal
gentleman.
Dr.
Shryock's study, though
it does not
pretend
to
exhaust the
material,
carries us far
beyond anything
that has been
done
previously
and
opens
the
way
for further
investigation
of the
available sources.
Whether or not the reader will
enjoy
Mr.
Lyall's
new
rendering
of Mencius must
depend upon
his
preference
for
things
ancient or
modern. The
present
writer confesses to
visualizing
a Chinese
Henry
Ford on
reading
of a " land of ten thousand cars
",
but for
the
general
reader,
Mr.
Lyall
is doubtless more readable than the rather stilted
text of
Legge.
A new translation should make the old
clearer,
and
it
may
be
questioned
whether the
attempt
to use a
single English
equivalent
for a
specific
Chinese term conduces to this end. One
great advantage
of the
present
version of Mencius is that the form in
which it is
presented
makes it attractive to a wider
public
than the
earlier,
annotated
versions,
intended
primarily
for students and
sinologues.
E. EDWARDS.
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