r virtue's sake.

Mencius.

Mo Ti.

Yang Chu.

Hsuen Tz[)u].

Yang Hsiung.

The discourses of Mencius, who followed Confucius after an interval of
a hundred years, 372-289 B.C., form another of the Four Books, the
remaining two of which are short philosophical treatises, usually
ascribed to a grandson of Confucius. Mencius devoted his life to
elucidating and expanding the teachings of the Master; and it is no
doubt due to him that the Confucian doctrines obtained so wide a
vogue. But he himself was more a politician and an economist (see
below) than a simple preacher of morality; and hence it is that the
Chinese people have accorded to him the title of The Second Sage. He
is considered to have effectually "snuffed out" the heterodox school
of Mo Ti, a philosopher of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. who
propounded a doctrine of "universal love" as the proper foundation for
organized society, arguing that under such a system all the calamities
that men bring upon one another would altogether disappear, and the
Golden Age would be renewed. At the same time Mencius exposed the
fallacies of the speculations of Yang Chu, 4th century B.C., who
founded a school of ethical egoism as opposed to the exaggerated
altruism of Mo Ti. According to Mencius, Yang Chu would not have
parted with one hair of his body to save the whole world, whereas Mo
Ti would have sacrificed all. Another early philosopher is Hsuen
Tz[)u], 3rd century B.C. He maintained, in opposition to Mencius, who
upheld the Confucian dogma, and in conformity with Christian doctrine,
that the nature of man at his birth is evil, and that this condition
can only be changed by efficient moral training. Then came Yang
Hsiung, 53-18 B.C., who propounded an ethical criterion midway between
the rival positions insisted on by Mencius and Hsuen Tz[)u], teaching
that the nature of man at birth is neither good nor evil, but a
mixture of both, and that development in either direction depends
wholly upon circumstances.

Huai-nan Tz[)u].

There is a voluminous and interesting work, of doubtful age, which
passes under the title of _Huai-nan Tz[)u]_, or the Philosopher of
Huai-nan. It is attributed to Liu An, prince of Huai-nan, who died 122
B.C., and who is further said to have written on alchemy; but alchemy
was scarcely known in China at the date of his death, being introduced