Confucius and Confucianism by Richard Wilhelm; George H.

Danton; Annina Periam Danton

Review by: Florence Ayscough
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 3 (Jul., 1932), pp. 636-
638
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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636 notices of books
greatly enlarged
and
places
such
as
Harappa
and
Mohenjo
daro,
together
with
a host of other sites in Baluchistan and
the Indus
Valley,
and elsewhere find themselves entered for
the first time in this revised
map.
The
production
of the
maps
has been entrusted
as
before to
Messrs. John Bartholemew and
Sons,
and it has been carried
out with the
same
skill as in
1909,
and with
even
greater
clearness of outline and
colouring.
The whole volume reflects
great
credit
on
all concerned in its
publication.
425. Anon.
Confucius
and
Confucianism.
By
Richard
Wilhelm,
late
Professor of Chinese at the
University
of Frankfurt
on
the
Main;
translated into
English by
George H,
Danton, Ph.D.,
and Annina Periam
Danton,
Ph.D.
7|
x
4f,
pp.
x
+
181. London
:
Kegan
Paul, Trench,
Trubner and
Co., Ltd.,
1931. 6s.
A
timely
and welcome
publication.
At the moment when
Confucianism,
that
system upon
which the
longevity
of the
Chinese
Empire
has
depended,
seems doomed to
annihilation,
it is well that the world should realize what is
being swept
away.
It is difficult for the Western student
to obtain the
texts of The Chinese
Classics,
translated
by Legge,
and
long
out of
print;
furthermore,
having
obtained
them,
it is
a
lengthy
process,
undertaken
by
but
a
small
minority,
to read
them from
cover to cover
;
therefore
a
concise account of
the Master and his
writings
has
long
been overdue.
English
readers must be
grateful
to Dr. Danton and his wife for
making
available the excellent handbook
prepared
by
the
late Richard
Wilhelm,
whose
premature
death is
an
irreparable
loss in the field of Chinese studies. No other
Sinologue
of the
generation
is
possessed
of the
burning
enthusiasm
which
drove Wilhelm to
labour,
even on
his death
bed,
at the work
he loved.
The book under review
opens
with
a
translation of Ssu-ma
Ch'ien's
biography
of the
Sage
;
Chapter
II is
entitled,
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CONFUCIUS AND CONFUCIANISM 637
"
Critical Examination of the Data of Sse-ma Ch'ien
;
the
Historical
Significance
of Confucius
"
;
Chapter
III is
an
interesting
discussion of
"
The Documents
containing
the
Confucian
Teachings
"
;
Chapter
IV,
in
a
way
the most
interesting
in the
book,
as
it
gives
Wilhelm's often
unorthodox
interpretation
of the Confucian
Canon,
presents
a
lively
and
sympathetic
account of the
teachings
of the
Sage
;
and
Chapter
V
gives
"
Specimens
of the Text
"
;
the
book closes with
a
bibliography by
Wilhelm and
a
supple
mentary bibliography provided by
the
translators;
un
fortunately
no
index is included. The book is
a
clear and
comprehensive
introduction to
the
study
of
Confucianism,
and should be
widely
distributed.
Numerous footnotes
regarding
various
points
of interest
are
provided by
the translators. In one of these
a
curious
error,
quite
unconnected, however,
with the
subject
under
discussion,
has
crept
in. On
page 37,
after
describing
the
chyi
lin,
one of the four fabulous
animals,
Dr. Danton
con
tinues
:
"
it is the so-called
fo dog,
so
often found in curio
shops."
As
a
matter of
fact,
the two
fantastic creatures are
quite
distinct. The ch'i
lin,
which resembles a
deer,
has been
mentioned since
early days,
and,
as
stated,
is
one of the
"
four fabulous animals
"
;
the others
being
the
lung,
the
feng,
and the kuei. The shih
tzu,
called
by Europeans
the
fo dog,
is
a
Buddhist
importation,
and its
prototype
is
probably
a
lion.
Figures
of the
fo dog
are
widely represented
in
China,
and
always
in
pairs.
The female
nurses
her
offspring through
the
tips
of her
claws,
and the male
plays
with
a
ball in
thoroughly
masculine fashion. On the low
flight
of
steps
leading
to the Ch'ien
Ch'ing Kung
in the
Forbidden
City
both animals
are
represented.
On the first tread
dogs
of
fo
roll their
variegated
ball,
and
on
the second
appear
ctii lin
who
portend
peace
and
good
fortune. See A Chinese
Mirror,
by
Florence
Ayscough, p.
316. The Tz'u Yuan
gives
full
description
of both ch'i lin and shih
tzu,
and
a
short
study
of
the latter
appears
in the
Dogs of
China and
Japan by
Collier.
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638 notices of books
It is to be
hoped
that
Confucius
and
Confucianism
will
run
through
many editions,
but before the next is
printed
the
spelling
of Chinese
names should be standardized. The
authors state that
they
use
the Wade
system,
but
they
do
not follow it
consistently.
The
surname
of the
great
Chinese
historian,
a
translation of whose work absorbs half the
book,
is
spelt, according
to
Wade, Ssu-ma,
here it
appears
as
Sse-ma.
Other
spellings
are
also inconsistent. For
instance,
we
read
on one
page
of
Liang
Ch'i
Ch'ao,
on
the next of the
same
person
as
Liang
Ch'i-chao,
and
so on.
This is
an
annoyance
which should be
remedied,
but it in no
way
detracts from the
great
value of the book.
405. Florence Ayscough.
The Culture Contacts
of the United States
and
China
:
The earliest Sino-American Culture
Contacts,
1784-1844.
By
George H. Danton.
9J
x
6J,
pp.
xiv
+133.
New York
:
Columbia
University
Press,
1931. 105. 6d.
Once,
in
discussing
the Chinese
Revolution,
I remarked
to an official
high
in the British Consular Service
:
"
Do
you
not
agree
that the
Revolution,
for weal
or
woe,
would have
been
long delayed
had it not been for the
teaching
of Protestant
missionaries ?
"
"I would
go
much
further,"
he
replied,
"
I would
say
that it would have been
long delayed
had it
not been for the
teaching
of the American missionaries."
And it is true this
judgment
of his.
"
No
single
factor has
played
a
greater part
in
producing
the late
developments
in
China than has the
widespread absorption
of those ideals
which
may
be termed
'
Americanism'."
Dr.
Danton,
of
Oberlin
College,
in
a
monograph
which is the first of
a
series,
commences
an
analysis
of this
phenomena,
and discusses the
reasons
why
"
Americanism
"
found
a
fertile soil in China.
Firstly,
as he
points
out,
both
people
are
fundamentally
democratic,
both
are more
loyal
to the State than to that
individual who
happens
to be the chief executive of the
moment.
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