should give their
parents no cause of anxiety beyond such anxiety as might be occasioned
by ill-health. Filial piety, he said again, did not consist in relieving
the parents of toil, or in setting before them wine and food; it did
consist in serving them while alive according to the established rules,
in burying them when dead according to the established rules, and in
sacrificing to them after death, also according to the established
rules. In another passage Confucius declared that filial piety consists
in carrying on the aims of our forefathers, which really amounts to
serving the dead as they would have been served if alive.

Divination.--Divination seems to have been practised in China from
the earliest ages. The implements used were the shell of the tortoise,
spiritualised by the long life of its occupant, and the stalks of a kind
of grass, to which also spiritual powers had for some reason or other
been attributed. These were the methods, we are told, by which the
ancient Kings made their people revere spirits, obey the law, and settle
all their doubts. God gave these spiritual boons to mankind, and the
sages took advantage of them. "To explore what is complex, to search
out what is hidden, to hook up what lies deep, and to reach to what is
distant, thereby determining the issues for good or ill of all events
under the sky, and making all men full of strenuous endeavour, there are
no agencies greater than those of the stalks and the tortoise shell."

In B.C. 2224, when the Emperor Shun wished to associate the Great Yu
with him in the government, the latter begged that recourse might be
had to divination, in order to discover the most suitable among the
Ministers for this exalted position. The Emperor refused, saying that
his choice had already been confirmed by the body of Ministers. "The
spirits too have signified their assent, the tortoise and grass having
both concurred. Divination, when fortunate, may not be repeated."

Sincerity, on which Confucius lays such especial stress, is closely
associated with success in divination. "Sincerity is of God; cultivation
of sincerity is of man. He who is naturally sincere is he who hits his
mark without effort, and without thinking apprehends. He easily keeps to
the golden mean; he is inspired. He who cultivates sincerity is he who
chooses what is good and holds fast to it.

"It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to
foreknow. When a State or a fa