WHO ARE THE PERSONALITIES AT
TEMPLE UNIVERSAL?
CONFUCIUS
The Sage of Tradition
and
Social Order
Religious Systems of the World
1892
Portions from
Confucius the Sage, and the Religion of China.
Professor James Legge
Confucius is the sage, the man of calm and practical
wisdom, inspired by the love of mankind, and inculcating
the lessons of human duty.
The Qualities of Confucius
We cannot doubt that he was well skilled in the
music of his time and country, and found in it for
himself and his followers a solace and source of
strength; but it is important to keep in mind that
he never claimed to possess any supernatural endowments.
There are passages, indeed, in Sze-ma Ch'ien's Biography
which ascribes to him a knowledge such as nobody
else possessed; but where they are most evidently
legendary, they yet come short of anything approaching
to the supernatural or miraculous.
Here is the magnificent eulogium which his grandson
pronounced on the ideal sage and king, being understood
to have had Confucius in his mind:-
"Possessed of all sagely qualities, showing
himself quick in apprehension, clear in discernment,
of far-reaching intelligence and all-embracing knowledge,
he was fitted to exercise rule; magnanimous, generous,
benign, and mild, fitted to exercise forbearance;
impulsive, energetic, firm and enduring, fitted
to maintain a strong hold; self-adjusted, grave,
never swerving from the Mean and correct, fitted
to command reverence; accomplished, distinctive,
concentrative, and searching, fitted to exercise
discrimination. Therefore his fame overspreads the
Middle Kingdom, wherever the strength of man penetrates,
wherever the heaven overshadows and the earth sustains,
wherever the sun and moon shines, wherever frosts
and dews fall, all who have blood and breath unfeignedly
honor and love him.
