into tears, he added, "The course of my doctrine is run, and I am
unknown."

"How do you mean that you are unknown?" asked Tsze-kung. "I don't
complain of Providence," answered the Sage, "nor find fault with men
that learning is neglected and success is worshipped. Heaven knows me.
Never does a superior man pass away without leaving a name behind him.
But my principles make no progress, and I, how shall I be viewed in
future ages?"

At this time, notwithstanding his declining strength and his many
employments, he wrote the _Ch'un ts'ew,_ or _Spring and Autumn Annals_,
in which he followed the history of his native state of Loo, from the
time of the duke Yin to the fourteenth year of the duke Gae, that is, to
the time when the appearance of the K'e-lin warned him to consider his
life at an end.

This is the only work of which Confucius was the author, and of this
every word is his own. His biographers say that "what was written, he
wrote, and what was erased, was erased by him." Not an expression was
either inserted or altered by any one but himself. When he had completed
the work, he handed the manuscript to his disciples, saying, "By the
_Spring and Autumn Annals_ I shall be known, and by the _Spring and
Autumn Annals_ I shall be condemned." This only furnishes another of the
many instances in which authors have entirely misjudged the value of
their own works.

In the estimation of his countrymen even, whose reverence for his every
word would incline them to accept his opinion on this as on every
subject, the _Spring and Autumn Annals_ holds a very secondary place,
his utterances recorded in the _Lun yu_, or _Confucian Analects_, being
esteemed of far higher value, as they undoubtedly are. And indeed the
two works he compiled, the _Shoo king_ and the _She king_, hold a very
much higher place in the public regard than the book on which he so
prided himself. To foreigners, whose judgments are unhampered by his
recorded opinion, his character as an original historian sinks into
insignificance, and he is known only as a philosopher and statesman.

Once again only do we hear of Confucius presenting himself at the court
of the duke after this. And this was on the occasion of the murder of
the duke of T'se by one of his officers. We must suppose that the crime
was one of a gross nature, for it raised Confucius' fiercest anger, and
he who never wearied of singing the praises of those virtuous men who
overthrew the thron