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II. THE LIFE AND TIMF_ OF CONFUCIUS. 49
XIV. 42 is also referred. Sometime later, at an interview
with Duke Ling, the Duke questioned him concerning
tactics in war. Declining to answer such enquiries, the
very next day he shook the dust of Wei from his feet,
and returned to Ch'6n, XV. I. where he spent the year.
B. C. 492.
About this time the way seemed to be opening for our
voluntary exile to return to end his days in his own native
State. The self-indulgence of Duke Ting of Lu had not
made for length of days, and he had now been dead three
years. Neither did the chieftain, Chi Huan _ ,_, who
had tempted the Duke to his destruction, come to his
deathbed with a mind conscious of its own rectitude.
Remorseful of his conduct he charged his successor, Chi
K'ang _ _, to recall Confucius. Had Chi K'ang acted
as desired the Sage would now have returned home, but
yielding to his advisers, Chi K'ang sent instead for one of
the sage's disciples, by name Jan Ch'iu _lI _, It is to this
period that the expression of longing to leturn ill V. _I is
attributed.
The year following, 49t, along with a number of his
disciples, he left Ch'6n and went into Ts'ai _, a small
barony controlled by the dukedom of Ch'u _:, modern
Hupehand Hunan. The "Family Sayings "(_;j_ _ V. 2o),
which book is the most ancient life of Confucius, says that
certain officers of Ch'_n and Ts'ai, fearing that Confucius
would proceed to Ch'u, increase its already dominant
power, and endanger the safety of Ch'&n and Ts'ai,
succeeded in bringing the Sage and his companions in this
journey to a condition of starvation. The disciples were