In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under
the parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand
them. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the
dead, and constitutes the unit of society.
Friendship and Humanity.
The Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by
those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms used in Chinese
Asia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in exchanging the coins of
speech. Occidental writers are prone to translate the term for the fifth
relation into the English phrase "man to man," which leads the Western
reader to suppose that Confucius taught that universal love for man, as
man, which was instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating
Confucius they often make the same mistake that some have done who read
in Terence's "Self-Tormentor" the line, "I am a man, and nothing human
is foreign to me,"[29] and imagine that this is the sentiment of an
enlightened Christian, although the context shows that it is only the
boast of a busybody and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth
relation is not universality, and, as compared to the teachings of
Jesus, is moonlight, not sunlight.
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