After a year's stay here, Confucius went further
westwards to a certain Ts'u town (near Nan-yang Fu in Ho Nan),
passing, on his way, near the place in which Lao-tsz was born. He
soon returned to Ts'ai, where he stayed three years. It will be
observed that ever since 700 B.C. it had been the deliberate
policy of Ts'u to annex or overshadow as many of the orthodox
states as possible, so that Ts'u's undoubtedly high literary
output, in later years, is easily accounted for: in other words,
Ts'u's northern population was now already orthodox Chinese.
Moreover, it must not be forgotten that, even before the Chou
conquest, one of the early Ts'u rulers was an author himself, and
had been tutor to the father of the Chou founder: that means to
say Ts'u was possibly always as literary as China.
Meanwhile Ts'u and semi-barbarian Wu were contesting possession of
Ch'en, and the King of Ts'u tried to secure by presents the
services of Confucius, who had prudently transferred himself to a
safe place in the open country lying between Ch'en and Ts'ai The
ministers of these two orthodox states, fearing the results to
their own people should Confucius (as he seems in fact to have
contemplated) decide to accept the Ts'u offer, with a police force
surrounded the Confucian party; they were only able to escape from
starvation by sending word to the King, who at once sent a
detachment to free the sage.
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