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If. THE LIFE AHD TIMES OF CONFUCIUS. _ |
Yang fu _ I_ ,_1=, Hupeh. On the way an eccentric
individual met his carriage crying that the virtue of the
phoenix, meaning Confucius, had departed, and urging
him to give/ap his futile idea of reforming the age. XVIII.
5. King Chao was apparently impressed with the wisdom
of our Sage and proposed to appoint him to the extensive
territory of Shu Sh_ _= _]:, but his Prime Minister
reminded the King that formerly W_n and Wu from a
dominion of a hundred li had risen to the sovereignty of
the Empire, and suggested that with followers like Tz_
Ktrng, Yen Hui and Tzfi Lu, a man of such ability
as 'Confucius might advance his own interests to the
detriment of Ch'u. The king died before the end of the
year, and Confucius returned to Wei.
Duke Ling, who four years previously had gone to
his grave, had disowned and expelled his son K'uai Wai
j_] I[_ from the "St_atein consequence of a plot in which
he was conceined to kill his notorious mother, or stepmother,
Nantz_. K'uai Wai's son Ch'u (_ alias _),
had been appointed successor by his grandfather and
was now holding out against his own father, who was
seeking to regain his inheritance, in which attetilpt he
was ialfimately successful. On the arrival of Corducius
Tzff Lu, Who apparently had preceded him, niet his
•Master with the remark that Duke Ch'u was waiting to em-
ploo¥him. Confucius, however, felt that he could no more
supt_rt ,the sonagainst his father, than he could approve
_he acti6n of tlie father against his mother Nantzfi, and
in :_6nsdquence declined the honor. Chutz_ assigns XIII.
3, 7-tothis pir.riod; anit VIH. 14 also appears to be con-