STUDIES IN READING

A BRIGHT CHINESE BOY

FOR many hundreds of years a story has

been handed down from father to son in China, telling how their great religious teacher and thinker, Confucius (Con-fu'-shi-us), met a mere child of a boy who could answer the most difficult questions, and who could ask the most puzzling ones. The following story has doubtless grown in the telling, just as stories do when we play "Gossip," but it makes us all pause to consider the bright boy and his unanswerable questions.

A BRIGHT CHINESE BOY

One day, some two thousand five hundred years ago, Confucius, the great teacher and philosopher of China, was riding with his friends in a carriage. He came near some children at play. Among them was one who did not join in the games.

Confucius, stopping his carriage, said, "Why is it that you alone do not play?"

The boy replied, "Play is without profit. One's clothes get torn, and they are not easily mended. In

play there is much work and no reward. It is for these reasons that I do not play." Then, dropping his head, the boy began making a play city out of bits of rock.

Confucius said, "Why do you not turn out for my carriage?"

The boy replied, "From olden times until now it has been thought best for a carriage to turn out for a city, and not for a city to turn out for a carriage." Confucius said, "You are still young in years. How is it that you are so quick?"

The boy said, "A child at the age of two years speaks and walks; a hare, three days after it is born, runs over the fields; fish, three days after their birth, swim in the rivers; what comes by nature, how can it be called quick?"

Confucius said, "I wish to have you walk with What do you think of it?"

me.

The boy answered, “A father is at home whom I am bound to serve; a loving mother is there, and her I am bound to care for; a younger brother is there whom I must teach. How have I time to go walking with you?"

Confucius said, "I have in my carriage thirty-two chess-men. What do you say to having a game with me?"

The boy replied, "If the king loves gaming, the kingdom will not be well taken care of; if scholars love it, learning will be lost; if farmers love it, they will miss the time for plowing and sowing; for these reasons I will not play with you."

Confucius said, "Can you tell, under the whole sky, what fire has no smoke, what water no fish, what is it that is too long, what is it that is too short?"

The boy replied, "A glowworm's fire has no smoke, well-water has no fish, a summer's day is too long, a winter's day is not long enough."

Then the boy, asking the sage, said, "How many stars are in the sky?"

Confucius said, "At this time ask something about the earth. We can know nothing sure about the sky."

The boy said, “Very well; will you, then, tell me how many houses are on the earth?"

The sage replied, "Come now, my boy, speak about something that is before our eyes. Why must you talk of the earth and the sky?"

"To please you," said the boy, "we will speak about what is before our eyes. How many hairs are in your eyebrows?"

Confucius smiled, but did not answer. Turning to his friends he said, "I will go home now. I need not go about teaching the people, for by and by this child can teach them." An Old Chinese Legend.

NOTES

1. The name Confucius means the "Great Teacher, Kong," and he lived from the year 550 B. C. to the year 478 B. C. He was a famous sage and philosopher who spent the most of his life as a teacher and whose moral code is preserved in the "Nine Books" on Confucianism. He is worshiped as the greatest teacher and moralist of China.