第45节

on, Siddhartha was called Buddha

and he was revered as the Enlightened One who had come to

save men from their unhappy mortal fate.

The last forty-five years of his life, Buddha spent within

the valley of the Ganges River, teaching his simple lesson of

submission and meekness unto all men. In the year 488 before

our era, he died, full of years and beloved by millions of people.

He had not preached his doctrines for the benefit of a single

class. Even the lowest Pariah might call himself his disciple.

This, however, did not please the nobles and the priests and

the merchants who did their best to destroy a creed which recognised

the equality of all living creatures and offered men the

hope of a second life (a reincarnation) under happier circumstances.

As soon as they could, they encouraged the people of

India to return to the ancient doctrines of the Brahmin creed

with its fasting and its tortures of the sinful body. But

Buddhism could not be destroyed. Slowly the disciples of the

Enlightened One wandered across the valleys of the Himalayas,

and moved into China. They crossed the Yellow Sea

and preached the wisdom of their master unto the people of

Japan, and they faithfully obeyed the will of their great master,

who had forbidden them to use force. To-day more people

recognise Buddha as their teacher than ever before and their

number surpasses that of the combined followers of Christ and Mohammed.

As for Confucius, the wise old man of the Chinese, his

story is a simple one. He was born in the year 550 B.C. He

led a quiet, dignified and uneventful life at a time when China

was without a strong central government and when the Chinese

people were at the mercy of bandits and robber-barons who

went from city to city, pillaging and stealing and murdering

and turning the busy plains of northern and central China into

a wilderness of starving people.

Confucius, who loved his people, tried to save them. He

did not have much faith in the use of violence. He was a very

peaceful person. He did not think that he could make people

over by giving them a lot of new laws. He knew that the only

possible salvation would come from a change of heart, and he

set out upon the seemingly hopeless task of changing the character

of his millions of fellow men who inhabited the wide plains

of eastern Asia. The Chinese had never been much interested

in religion as we understand that word. They believed in

devils and spooks as most primitive people do. But they had

no prophets and recognised no ``revealed truth.'' Confucius

is almost the only one among the great moral leaders who did

not see visions, who did not proclaim himself as the messenger

of a divine power; who did not, at some time or another, claim

that he was inspired by voices from above.

He was just a very sensible and kindly man, rather given

to lonely wanderings and melancholy tunes upon his faithful

flute. He asked for no recognition. He did not demand that

any one should follow him or worship him. He reminds us

of the ancient Greek philosophers, especially those of the Stoic

School, men who believed in right living and righteous thinking

without the hope of a reward but simply for the peace of

the soul that comes with a good conscience.

Confucius was a very tolerant man. He went out of his

way to visit Lao-Tse, the other great Chinese leader and the

founder of a philosophic system called ``Taoism,'' which was

merely an early Chinese version of the Golden Rule.

Confucius bore no hatred to any one. He taught the virtue

of supreme self-possession. A person of real worth, according

to the teaching of Confucius, did not allow himself to be

ruffled by anger and suffered whatever fate brought him with

the resignation of those sages who understand that everything

which happens, in one way or another, is meant for the best.

At first he had only a few students. Gradually the number

increased. Before his death, in the year 478 B.C., several of the

kings and the princes of China confessed themselves his disciples.

When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the philosophy of

Confucius had already become a part of the mental make-up

of most Chinamen. It has continued to influence their lives