Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 341

1341.

Biographical Notice of Mencius.

327

One of their

This decree threw men of letters into consternation. number, named Tseën-tang, president of one of the supreme courts, resolved to sacrifice hinself for the honor of Mencius. He drew up a memorial, in which, after quoting the passage entire, and explaining the true sense in which it should be understood, he described the empire such as it was in the time of Mencius, and the deplorable condition to which petty tyrants had reduced it by their incessant wars with one another, and all against the lawful authority of the princes of the Chow dynasty.

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'It is of this sort of sovereigns,' said he in conclusion, that Mencius has spoken, and not of the son of Heaven. What, after so many centuries, shall it now be imputed to him as a crime? I die, since such is the command; but posterity will hallow my death.' After having drawn up this appeal, and made ready his coffin, Tseën-tang repaired to the palace, and being arrived at the outer gates: 'I come,' said he to the guards, 'to present a petition in favor of Mencius; here is my memorial;' and then exposing his breast, added, 'strike, I know your orders.' Instantly one of the guards wounds him with an arrow, and taking the petition, transmits it to the emperor, who had already been informed of what had hap- pened. The emperor read the appeal attentively, and approved or feigned to approve it. He gave orders to heal the wound which Tseën-tang had received; and decreed that the name of Mencius should remain in possession of all the honors he had enjoyed. I have thought it proper to relate this anecdote as showing at the same time the fanaticism of the class of men of letters, and the veneration which attends the name of our philosopher.

His book being, as I have said, an integral part of the Four Books, must be learned entire by those who submit to the examinations and aspire to literary honors. It is, of course, one of those which has been most often reprinted. Thousands of editions exist, with and without commentaries. Numberless men of letters have devoted themselves to elucidating and explaining it: it has twice been trans- lated into Mantchou; and the last version, revised by the emperor Keënlung, forms, with the text, three of the six volumes of which the Mantchou-Chinese copy of the Four Books in the Royal Library is composed. Father Noel has included Mencius in the Latin tran- slation that he has made of "The six classic Books of the Chinese empire," but we look in vain in this translation for any of those qualities which we have remarked in the style of Mencius; and the meaning is too often lost in a verbose and fatiguing paraphrase.