{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_2330/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_2330","id":"gutenberg_2330","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2330","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: Religion/Spirituality","China -- Religion","Paganism"],"text":"Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny\n\n\n\n\n\nRELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA\n\nby Herbert A. Giles\n\n\n\n\nProfessor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge,\nAuthor of \"Historic China,\" \"A History of Chinese\nLiterature,\" \"China and the Chinese,\" etc., etc.\n\n\nFirst Published 1906 by Constable and Company Ltd., London.\n\n\n\n     PREPARER'S NOTE\n\n     This book was published as part of the series Religions: Ancient\n     and Modern.\n\n     The Psychological Origin and Nature of Religion, by J. H. Leuba.\n     Judaism, by Israel Abraham.\n     Celtic Religion, by Professor E. Anwye.\n     Shinto: The Ancient Religion of Japan, by W. G. Aston, C.M.G.\n     The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey, M.A.\n     Hinduism, by Dr. L. D. Barnett.\n     The Religion of Ancient Palestine, by Stanley A. Cook.\n     Animism, by Edward Clodd.\n     Scandinavian Religion, by William A. Craigie.\n     Early Buddhism, by Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D.\n     The Religions of Ancient China, by Prof. Giles, LL.D.\n     Magic and Fetishism, by Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S.\n     The Religion of Ancient Greece, by Jane Harrison.\n     The Religion of Ancient Egypt, by W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.\n     Pantheism, by James Allanson Picton.\n     The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, by Theophilus G. Pinches.\n     Early Christianity (Paul to Origen), by S. B. Slack.\n     The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru, by Lewis Spence, M.A.\n     The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Island, by Charles Squire.\n     Islam, by Ameer Ali, Syed, M.A., C.I.E.\n     Mithraism, by W. G. Pythian-Adams.\n\n     The publishers were: Constable and Company Ltd, London; Open Court\n     Company, Chicago. The 1918 edition was printed in Great Britain by\n     Butler & Tanner, Frome and London.\n\n\n\n\nRELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I -- THE ANCIENT FAITH\n\nPhilosophical Theory of the Universe.--The problem of the universe has\nnever offered the slightest difficulty to Chinese philosophers. Before\nthe beginning of all things, there was Nothing. In the lapse of ages\nNothing coalesced into Unity, the Great Monad. After more ages, the\nGreat Monad separated into Duality, the Male and Female Principles in\nnature; and then, by a process of biogenesis, the visible universe was\nproduced.\n\nPopular Cosmogeny.--An addition, however, to this simple system had to\nbe made, in deference to, and on a plane with, the intelligence of the\nmasses. According to this, the Male and Female Principles were each\nsubdivided into Greater and Lesser, and then from the interaction of\nthese four agencies a being, named P'an Ku, came into existence. He\nseems to have come into life endowed with perfect knowledge, and his\nfunction was to set the economy of the universe in order. He is often\ndepicted as wielding a huge adze, and engaged in constructing the world.\nWith his death the details of creation began. His breath became the\nwind; his voice, the thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the\nmoon; his blood flowed in rivers; his hair grew into trees and plants;\nhis flesh became the soil; his sweat descended as rain; while the\nparasites which infested his body were the origin of the human race.\n\nRecognition and Worship of Spirits.--Early Chinese writers tell us that\nFu Hsi, B.C. 2953-2838, was the first Emperor to organize sacrifices to,\nand worship of, spirits. In this he was followed by the Yellow Emperor,\nB.C. 2698-2598, who built a temple for the worship of God, in which\nincense was used, and first sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers. He\nis also said to have established the worship of the sun, moon, and five\nplanets, and to have elaborated the ceremonial of ancestral worship.\n\nGod the Father, Earth the Mother.--The Yellow Emperor was followed by\nthe Emperor Shao Hao, B.C. 2598-2514, \"who instituted the music of the\nGreat Abyss in order to bring spirits and men into harmony.\" Then\ncame the Emperor Chuan Hsu, B.C. 2514-2436, of whom it is said that he\nappointed an officer \"to preside over the worship of God and Earth,\nin order to form a link between the spirits and man,\" and also \"caused\nmusic to be played for the enjoyment of God.\" Music, by the way, is said\nto have been introduced into worship in imitation of thunder, and was\ntherefore supposed to be pleasing to the Almighty. After him followed\nthe Emperor Ti K'u, B.C. 2436-2366, who dabbled in astronomy, and \"came\nto a knowledge of spiritual beings, which he respectfully worshipped.\"\nThe Emperor Yao, B.C. 2357-2255, built a temple for the worship of\nGod, and also caused dances to be performed for the enjoyment of God\non occasions of special sacrifice and communication with the spiritual\nworld. After him, we reach the Emperor Shun, B.C. 2255-2205, in whose\nfavour Yao abdicated.\n\nAdditional Deities.--Before, however, Shun ventured to mount the throne,\nhe consulted the stars, in order to find out if the unseen Powers were\nfavourable to his elevation; and on receiving a satisfactory reply, \"he\nproceeded to sacrifice to God, to the Six Honoured Ones (unknown), to\nthe Mountains and Rivers, and to Spirits in general. . . . In the second\nmonth of the year, he made a tour of inspection eastwards, as far as\nMount T'ai (in modern Shantung), where he presented a burnt offering to\nGod, and sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers.\"\n\nGod punishes the wicked and rewards the good.--The Great Yu, who drained\nthe empire, and came to the throne in B.C. 2205 as first Emperor of the\nHsia dynasty, followed in the lines of his pious predecessors. But the\nEmperor K'ung Chia, B.C. 1879-1848, who at first had treated the Spirits\nwith all due reverence, fell into evil ways, and was abandoned by God.\nThis was the beginning of the end. In B.C. 1766 T'ang the Completer,\nfounder of the Shang dynasty, set to work to overthrow Chieh Kuei, the\nlast ruler of the Hsia dynasty. He began by sacrificing to Almighty\nGod, and asked for a blessing on his undertaking. And in his subsequent\nproclamation to the empire, he spoke of that God as follows: \"God has\ngiven to every man a conscience; and if all men acted in accordance with\nits dictates, they would not stray from the right path. . . . The way of\nGod is to bless the good and punish the bad. He has sent down calamities\non the House of Hsia, to make manifest its crimes.\"\n\nGod manifests displeasure.--In B.C. 1637 the Emperor T'ai Mou succeeded.\nHis reign was marked by the supernatural appearance in the palace of two\nmulberry-trees, which in a single night grew to such a size that\nthey could hardly be spanned by two hands. The Emperor was terrified;\nwhereupon a Minister said, \"No prodigy is a match for virtue. Your\nMajesty's government is no doubt at fault, and some reform of conduct\nis necessary.\" Accordingly, the Emperor began to act more circumspectly;\nafter which the mulberry-trees soon withered and died.\n\nRevelation in a dream.--The Emperor Wu Ting, B.C. 1324-1264, began his\nreign by not speaking for three years, leaving all State affairs to be\ndecided by his Prime Minister, while he himself gained experience.\nLater on, the features of a sage were revealed to him in a dream; and\non waking, he caused a portrait of the apparition to be prepared and\ncirculated throughout the empire. The sage was found, and for a long\ntime aided the Emperor in the right administration of government. On the\noccasion of a sacrifice, a pheasant perched upon the handle of the great\nsacrificial tripod, and crowed, at which the Emperor was much alarmed.\n\"Be not afraid,\" cried a Minister; \"but begin by reforming your\ngovernment. God looks down upon mortals, and in accordance with their\ndeserts grants them many years or few. God does not shorten men's\nlives; they do that themselves. Some are wanting in virtue, and will not\nacknowledge their transgressions; only when God chastens them do they\ncry, What are we to do?\"\n\nAnthropomorphism and Fetishism.--One of the last Emperors of the Shang\ndynasty, Wu I, who reigned B.C. 1198-1194, even went so far as \"to make\nan image in human form, which he called God. With this image he used\nto play at dice, causing some one to throw for the image; and if 'God'\nlost, he would overwhelm the image with insult. He also made a bag of\nleather, which he filled with blood and hung up. Then he would shoot at\nit, saying that he was shooting God. By and by, when he was out hunting,\nhe was struck down by a violent thunderclap, and killed.\"\n\nGod indignant.--Finally, when the Shang dynasty sank into the lowest\ndepths of moral abasement, King Wu, who charged himself with its\noverthrow, and who subsequently became the first sovereign of the Chou\ndynasty, offered sacrifices to Almighty God, and also to Mother Earth.\n\"The King of Shang,\" he said in his address to the high officers who\ncollected around him, \"does not reverence God above, and inflicts\ncalamities on the people below. Almighty God is moved with indignation.\"\nOn the day of the final battle he declared that he was acting in the\nmatter of punishment merely as the instrument of God; and after his\ngreat victory and the establishment of his own line, it was to God that\nhe rendered thanks.\n\nNo Devil, No Hell.--In this primitive monotheism, of which only scanty,\nbut no doubt genuine, records remain, no place was found for any being\nsuch as the Buddhist Mara or the Devil of the Old and New Testaments.\nGod inflicted His own punishments by visiting calamities on mankind,\njust as He bestowed His own rewards by sending bounteous harvests in due\nseason. Evil spirits were a later invention, and their operations were\neven then confined chiefly to tearing people's hearts out, and so forth,\nfor their own particular pleasure; we certainly meet no cases of evil\nspirits wishing to undermine man's allegiance to God, or desiring to\nmake people wicked in order to secure their everlasting punishment. The\nvision of Purgatory, with all its horrid tortures, was introduced into\nChina by Buddhism, and was subsequently annexed by the Taoists, some\ntime between the third and sixth centuries A.D.\n\nChinese Terms for God.--Before passing to the firmer ground,\nhistorically speaking, of the Chou dynasty, it may be as well to state\nhere that there are two terms in ancient Chinese literature which seem\nto be used indiscriminately for God. One is _T'ien_, which has come\nto include the material heavens, the sky; and the other is _Shang Ti_,\nwhich has come to include the spirits of deceased Emperors. These two\nterms appear simultaneously, so to speak, in the earliest documents\nwhich have come down to us, dating back to something like the twentieth\ncentury before Christ. Priority, however, belongs beyond all doubt to\n_T'ien_, which it would have been more natural to find meaning, first\nthe visible heavens, and secondly the Deity, whose existence beyond the\nsky would be inferred from such phenomena as lightning, thunder, wind,\nand rain. But the process appears to have been the other way, so far at\nany rate as the written language is concerned. The Chinese script, when\nit first came into existence, was purely pictorial, and confined to\nvisible objects which were comparatively easy to depict. There does not\nseem to have been any attempt to draw a picture of the sky. On the other\nhand, the character _T'ien_ was just such a representation of a human\nbeing as would be expected from the hand of a prehistoric artist;\nand under this unmistakable shape the character appears on bells and\ntripods, as seen in collections of inscriptions, so late as the sixth\nand seventh centuries B.C., after which the head is flattered to a line,\nand the arms are raised until they form another line parallel to that of\nthe head.\n\nDistinction between T'ien and Shang Ti.--The term _Shang Ti_ means\nliterally Supreme Ruler. It is not quite so vague as _T'ien_, which\nseems to be more of an abstraction, while _Shang Ti_ is a genuinely\npersonal God. Reference to _T'ien_ is usually associated with fate or\ndestiny, calamities, blessings, prayers for help, etc. The commandments\nof _T'ien_ are hard to obey; He is compassionate, to be feared, unjust,\nand cruel. _Shang Ti_ lives in heaven, walks, leaves tracks on the\nground, enjoys the sweet savour of sacrifice, approves or disapproves\nof conduct, deals with rewards and punishments in a more particular way,\nand comes more actually into touch with the human race.\n\nThus _Shang Ti_ would be the God who walked in the garden in the cool of\nthe day, the God who smelled the sweet savour of Noah's sacrifice, and\nthe God who allowed Moses to see His back. _T'ien_ would be the God of\nGods of the Psalms, whose mercy endureth for ever; the everlasting God\nof Isaiah, who fainteth not, neither is weary.\n\nRoman Catholic Dissensions.--These two, in fact, were the very terms\nfavoured by the early Jesuit missionaries to China, though not with the\nlimitations above suggested, as fit the proper renderings for God; and\nof the two terms the great Manchu Emperor K'ang Hsi chose _T'ien_. It\nhas been thought that the conversion of China to Christianity under the\nguiding influence of the Jesuits would soon have become an accomplished\nfact, but for the ignorant opposition to the use of these terms by the\nFranciscans and Dominicans, who referred this question, among others, to\nthe Pope. In 1704 Clement XI published a bull declaring that the Chinese\nequivalent for God was _T'ien Chu_=Lord of Heaven; and such it has\ncontinued to be ever since, so far as the Roman Catholic church is\nconcerned, in spite of the fact that _T'ien Chu_ was a name given at the\nclose of the third century B.C. to one of the Eight Spirits.\n\nThe two Terms are One.--That the two terms refer in Chinese thought to\none and the same Being, though possibly with differing attributes, even\ndown to modern times, may be seen from the account of a dream by the\nEmperor Yung Lo, A.D. 1403-1425, in which His Majesty relates that an\nangel appeared to him, with a message from _Shang Ti_; upon which the\nEmperor remarked, \"Is not this a command from _T'ien_?\" A comparison\nmight perhaps be instituted with the use of \"God\" and \"Jehovah\" in\nthe Bible. At the same time it must be noted that this view was not\nsuggested by the Emperor K'ang Hsi, who fixed upon _T'ien_ as the\nappropriate term. It is probable that, vigorous Confucianist as he was,\nhe was anxious to appear on the side rather of an abstract than of\na personal Deity, and that he was repelled by the overwrought\nanthropomorphism of the Christian God. His conversion was said to have\nbeen very near at times; we read, however, that, when hard pressed by\nthe missionaries to accept baptism, \"he always excused himself by saying\nthat he worshipped the same God as the Christians.\"\n\nGod in the \"Odes.\"--The Chou dynasty lasted from B.C. 1122 to B.C.\n255. It was China's feudal age, when the empire, then included between\nlatitude 34-40 and longitude 109-118, was split up into a number of\nvassal States, which owned allegiance to a suzerain State. And it is to\nthe earlier centuries of the Chou dynasty that must be attributed the\ncomposition of a large number of ballads of various kinds, ultimately\ncollected and edited by Confucius, and now known as the _Odes_. From\nthese _Odes_ it is abundantly clear that the Chinese people continued\nto hold, more clearly and more firmly than ever, a deep-seated belief in\nthe existence of an anthropomorphic and personal God, whose one care was\nthe welfare of the human race:--\n\n     There is Almighty God;\n     Does He hate any one?\n\nHe reigns in glory.--The soul of King Wen, father of the King Wu below,\nand posthumously raised by his son to royal rank, is represented as\nenjoying happiness in a state beyond the grave:--\n\n     King Wen is on high,\n     In glory in heaven.\n     His comings and his goings\n     Are to and from the presence of God.\n\nHe is a Spirit.--Sometimes in the _Odes_ there is a hint that God, in\nspite of His anthropomorphic semblance, is a spirit:--\n\n     The doings of God\n     Have neither sound nor smell.\n\nSpiritual Beings.--Spirits were certainly supposed to move freely among\nmortals:--\n\n     Do not say, This place is not public;\n     No one can see me here.\n     The approaches of spiritual Beings\n     Cannot be calculated beforehand;\n     But on no account should they be ignored.\n\nThe God of Battle.--In the hour of battle the God of ancient China was\nas much a participator in the fight as the God of Israel in the Old\nTestament:--\n\n     God is on your side!\n\nwas the cry which stimulated King Wu to break down the opposing ranks\nof Shang. To King Wu's father, and others, direct communications had\npreviously been made from heaven, with a view to the regeneration of the\nempire:--\n\n     The dynasties of Hsia and Shang\n     Had not satisfied God with their government;\n     So throughout the various States\n     He sought and considered\n     For a State on which He might confer the rule.\n\n     God said to King Wen,\n     I am pleased with your conspicuous virtue,\n     Without noise and without display,\n     Without heat and without change,\n     Without consciousness of effort,\n     Following the pattern of God.\n\n     God said to King Wen,\n     Take measures against hostile States,\n     Along with your brethren,\n     Get ready your grappling-irons,\n     And your engines of assault,\n     To attack the walls of Ts'ung.\n\nGod sends Famine.--The _Ode_ from which the following extract is taken\ncarries us back to the ninth century B.C., at the time of a prolonged\nand disastrous drought:--\n\n     Glorious was the Milky Way,\n     Revolving brightly in the sky,\n     When the king said, Alas!\n     What crime have my people committed now,\n     That God sends down death and disorder,\n     And famine comes upon us again?\n     There is no spirit to whom I have not sacrificed;\n     There is no victim that I have grudged;\n     Our sacrificial symbols are all used up;--\n     How is it that I am not heard?\n\nThe Confucian Criterion.--The keystone of the Confucian philosophy, that\nman is born good, will be found in the following lines:--\n\n     How mighty is God!\n     How clothed in majesty is God,\n     And how unsearchable are His judgments!\n     God gives birth to the people,\n     But their natures are not constant;\n     All have the same beginning,\n     But few have the same end.\n\nGod, however, is not held responsible for the sufferings of mankind.\nKing Wen, in an address to the last tyrant of the House of Shang, says\nplainly,\n\n     It is not God who has caused this evil time,\n     But it is you who have strayed from the old paths.\n\nThe Associate of God.--Worshipped on certain occasions as the Associate\nof God, and often summoned to aid in hours of distress or danger, was a\npersonage known as Hou Chi, said to have been the original ancestor\nof the House of Chou. His story, sufficiently told in the _Odes_, is\ncurious for several reasons, and especially for an instance in Chinese\nliterature, which, in the absence of any known husband, comes near\nsuggesting the much-vexed question of parthenogenesis:--\n\n     She who first gave birth to our people\n     Was the lady Chiang Yuan.\n     How did she give birth to them?\n     She offered up a sacrifice\n     That she might not be childless;\n     Then she trod in a footprint of God's, and conceived,\n     The great and blessed one,\n     Pregnant with a new birth to be,\n     And brought forth and nourished\n     Him who was Hou Chi.\n\n     When she had fulfilled her months,\n     Her firstborn came forth like a lamb.\n     There was no bursting, no rending,\n     No injury, no hurt,\n     In order to emphasise his divinity.\n     Did not God give her comfort?\n     Had He not accepted her sacrifice,\n     So that thus easily she brought forth her son?\n\n     He was exposed in a narrow lane,\n     But sheep and oxen protected and suckled him;\n     He was exposed in a wide forest,\n     But woodcutters found him;\n     He was exposed on cold ice,\n     But birds covered him with their wings.\n\nApotheosis of Hou Chi.--And so he grew to man's estate, and taught\nthe people husbandry, with a success that has never been rivalled.\nConsequently, he was deified, and during several centuries of the Chou\ndynasty was united in worship with God:--\n\n     O wise Hou Chi,\n     Fit Associate of our God,\n     Founder of our race,\n     There is none greater than thou!\n     Thou gavest us wheat and barley,\n     Which God appointed for our nourishment,\n     And without distinction of territory,\n     Didst inculcate the virtues over our vast dominions.\n\nOther Deities.--During the long period covered by the Chou dynasty,\nvarious other deities, of more or less importance, were called into\nexistence.\n\nThe patriarchal Emperor Shen Nung, B.C. 2838-2698, who had taught his\npeople to till the ground and eat of the fruits of their labour, was\ndeified as the tutelary genius of agriculture:--\n\n     That my fields are in such good condition\n     Is matter of joy to my husbandmen.\n     With lutes, and with drums beating,\n     We will invoke the Father of Husbandry,\n     And pray for sweet rain,\n     To increase the produce of our millet fields,\n     And to bless my men and their wives.\n\nThere were also sacrifices to the Father of War, whoever he may have\nbeen; to the Spirits of Wind, Rain, and Fire; and even to a deity who\nwatched over the welfare of silkworms. Since those days, the number of\nspiritual beings who receive worship from the Chinese, some in one part\nof the empire, some in another, has increased enormously. A single\nwork, published in 1640, gives notices of no fewer than eight hundred\ndivinities.\n\nSuperstitions.--During the period under consideration, all kinds of\nsuperstition prevailed; among others, that of referring to the rainbow.\nThe rainbow was believed by the vulgar to be an emanation from an\nenormous oyster away in the great ocean which surrounded the world, i.e.\nChina. Philosophers held it to be the result of undue proportions in the\nmixture of the two cosmogonical principles which when properly blended\nproduce the harmony of nature. By both parties it was considered to be\nan inauspicious manifestation, and merely to point at it would produce a\nsore on the hand.\n\nSupernatural Manifestations.--Several events of a supernatural character\nare recorded as having taken place under the Chou dynasty. In B.C. 756,\none of the feudal Dukes saw a vision of a yellow serpent which descended\nfrom heaven and laid its head on the slope of a mountain. The Duke spoke\nof this to his astrologer, who said, \"It is a manifestation of God;\nsacrifice to it.\"\n\nIn B.C. 747, another Duke found on a mountain a being in the semblance\nof a stone. Sacrifices were at once offered, and the stone was deified,\nand received regular worship from that time forward.\n\nIn B.C. 659, a third Duke was in a trance for five days, when he saw\na vision of God, and received from Him instructions as to matters then\npressing. For many generations afterwards the story ran that the Duke\nhad been up to Heaven. This became a favourite theme for romancers. It\nis stated in the biography of a certain Feng Po that \"one night he saw\nthe gate of heaven open, and beheld exceeding glory within, which shone\ninto his courtyard.\"\n\nThe following story is told by Huai-nan Tzu (d. B.C. 122):--\"Once when\nthe Duke of Lu-yang was at war with the Han State, and sunset drew near\nwhile a battle was still fiercely raging, the Duke held up his spear and\nshook it at the sun, which forthwith went back three zodiacal signs.\"\n\nOnly the Emperor worships God and Earth.--From the records of this\nperiod we can also see how jealously the worship of God and Earth was\nreserved for the Emperor alone.\n\nIn B.C. 651, Duke Huan of the Ch'i State, one of the feudal nobles to\nbe mentioned later on, wished to signalise his accession to the post of\ndoyen or leader of the vassal States by offering the great sacrifices\nto God and to Earth. He was, however, dissuaded from this by a wise\nMinister, who pointed out that only those could perform these ceremonies\nwho had personally received the Imperial mandate from God.\n\nThis same Minister is said to be responsible for the following\nutterance:--\n\n\"Duke Huan asked Kuan Chang, saying, To what should a prince attach the\nhighest importance? To God, replied the Minister; at which Duke Huan\ngazed upwards to the sky. The God I mean, continued Kuan Chung, is not\nthe illimitable blue above. A true prince makes the people his God.\"\n\nSacrifices.--Much has been recorded by the Chinese on the subject\nof sacrifice,--more indeed than can be easily condensed into a small\ncompass. First of all, there were the great sacrifices to God and to\nEarth, at the winter and summer solstices respectively, which were\nreserved for the Son of Heaven alone. Besides what may be called private\nsacrifices, the Emperor sacrificed also to the four quarters, and to the\nmountains and rivers of the empire; while the feudal nobles sacrificed\neach to his own quarter, and to the mountains and rivers of his own\ndomain. The victim offered by the Emperor on a blazing pile of wood was\nan ox of one colour, always a young animal; a feudal noble would use any\nfatted ox; and a petty official a sheep or a pig. When sacrificing to\nthe spirits of the land and of grain, the Son of Heaven used a bull, a\nram, and a boar; the feudal nobles only a ram and a boar; and the common\npeople, scallions and eggs in spring, wheat and fish in summer, millet\nand a sucking-pig in autumn, and unhulled rice and a goose in winter.\nIf there was anything infelicitous about the victim intended for God, it\nwas used for Hou Chi. The victim intended for God required to be kept in\na clean stall for three months; that for Hou Chi simply required to\nbe perfect in its parts. This was the way in which they distinguished\nbetween heavenly and earthly spirits.\n\nIn primeval times, we are told, sacrifices consisted of meat and drink,\nthe latter being the \"mysterious liquid,\" water, for which wine was\nsubstituted later on. The ancients roasted millet and pieces of pork;\nthey made a hole in the ground and scooped the water from it with their\ntwo hands, beating upon an earthen drum with a clay drumstick. Thus they\nexpressed their reverence for spiritual beings.\n\n\"Sacrifices,\" according to the _Book of Rites_ (Legge's translation),\n\"should not be frequently repeated. Such frequency is an indication of\nimportunateness; and importunateness is inconsistent with reverence. Nor\nshould they be at distant intervals. Such infrequency is indicative\nof indifference; and indifference leads to forgetting them altogether.\nTherefore the superior man, in harmony with the course of Nature, offers\nthe sacrifices of spring and autumn. When he treads on the dew which\nhas descended as hoar-frost he cannot help a feeling of sadness, which\narises in his mind, and which cannot be ascribed to the cold. In spring,\nwhen he treads on the ground, wet with the rains and dews that have\nfallen heavily, he cannot avoid being moved by a feeling as if he were\nseeing his departed friends. We meet the approach of our friends with\nmusic, and escort them away with sadness, and hence at the sacrifice in\nspring we use music, but not at the sacrifice in autumn.\"\n\n\"Sacrifice is not a thing coming to a man from without; it issues from\nwithin him, and has its birth in his heart. When the heart is deeply\nmoved, expression is given to it by ceremonies; and hence, only men\nof ability and virtue can give complete exhibition to the idea of\nsacrifice.\" It was in this sense that Confucius warned his followers not\nto sacrifice to spirits which did not belong to them, i.e. to other than\nthose of their own immediate ancestors. To do otherwise would raise a\nsuspicion of ulterior motives.\n\nAncestral Worship.--For the purpose of ancestral worship, which had been\npractised from the earliest ages, the Emperor had seven shrines, each\nwith its altar representing various forefathers; and at all of these a\nsacrifice was offered every month. Feudal nobles could have only five\nsets of these, and the various officials three or fewer, on a descending\nscale in proportion to their rank. Petty officers and the people\ngenerally had no ancestral shrine, but worshipped the shades of their\nforefathers as best they could in their houses and cottages.\n\nFor three days before sacrificing to ancestors, a strict vigil and\npurification was maintained, and by the end of that time, from sheer\nconcentration of thought, the mourner was able to see the spirits of\nthe departed; and at the sacrifice next day seemed to hear their very\nmovements, and even the murmur of their sighs.\n\nThe object of the ceremony was to bring down the spirits from above,\ntogether with the shades of ancestors, and thus to secure the blessing\nof God; at the same time to please the souls of the departed, and to\ncreate a link between the living and the dead.\n\n\"The object in sacrifices is not to pray; the time should not be\nhastened on; a great apparatus is not required; ornamental details are\nnot to be approved; the victims need not be fat and large (cf. Horace,\nOd. III, 23; _Immunis aram_, etc.); a profusion of the other offerings\nis not to be admired.\" There must, however, be no parsimony. A high\nofficial, well able to afford better things, was justly blamed for\nhaving sacrificed to the manes of his father a sucking-pig which did not\nfill the dish.\n\nReligious Dances.--\"The various dances displayed the gravity of the\nperformers, but did not awaken the emotion of delight. The ancestral\ntemple produced the impression of majesty, but did not dispose one to\nrest on it. Its vessels might be employed, but could not be conveniently\nused for any other purpose. The idea which leads to intercourse with\nspiritual Beings is not interchangeable with that which finds its\nrealisation in rest and pleasure.\"\n\nPriestcraft.--From the ceremonial of ancestor worship the thin end of\nthe wedge of priestcraft was rigorously excluded. \"For the words of\nprayer and blessing and those of benediction to be kept hidden away by\nthe officers of prayer of the ancestral temple, and by the sorcerers and\nrecorders, is a violation of the rules of propriety. This may be called\nkeeping in a state of darkness.\"\n\nConfucius sums up the value of sacrifices in the following words. \"By\ntheir great sacrificial ceremonies the ancients served God; by their\nceremonies in the ancestral temple they worshipped their forefathers. He\nwho should understand the great sacrificial ceremonies, and the meaning\nof the ceremonies in the ancestral temple, would find it as easy to\ngovern the empire as to look upon the palm of his hand.\"\n\nFilial Piety.--Intimately connected with ancestral worship is the\npractice of filial piety; it is in fact on filial piety that ancestral\nworship is dependent for its existence. In early ages, sons sacrificed\nto the manes of their parents and ancestors generally, in order to\nafford some mysterious pleasure to the disembodied spirits. There was\nthen no idea of propitiation, of benefits to ensue. In later times, the\ncharacter of the sacrifice underwent a change, until a sentiment of _do\nut des_ became the real mainspring of the ceremony. Meanwhile, Confucius\nhad complained that the filial piety of his day only meant the support\nof parents. \"But,\" argued the Sage, \"we support our dogs and our horses;\nwithout reverence, what is there to distinguish one from the other?\" He\naffirmed that children who would be accounted filial should give their\nparents no cause of anxiety beyond such anxiety as might be occasioned\nby ill-health. Filial piety, he said again, did not consist in relieving\nthe parents of toil, or in setting before them wine and food; it did\nconsist in serving them while alive according to the established rules,\nin burying them when dead according to the established rules, and in\nsacrificing to them after death, also according to the established\nrules. In another passage Confucius declared that filial piety consists\nin carrying on the aims of our forefathers, which really amounts to\nserving the dead as they would have been served if alive.\n\nDivination.--Divination seems to have been practised in China from\nthe earliest ages. The implements used were the shell of the tortoise,\nspiritualised by the long life of its occupant, and the stalks of a kind\nof grass, to which also spiritual powers had for some reason or other\nbeen attributed. These were the methods, we are told, by which the\nancient Kings made their people revere spirits, obey the law, and settle\nall their doubts. God gave these spiritual boons to mankind, and the\nsages took advantage of them. \"To explore what is complex, to search\nout what is hidden, to hook up what lies deep, and to reach to what is\ndistant, thereby determining the issues for good or ill of all events\nunder the sky, and making all men full of strenuous endeavour, there are\nno agencies greater than those of the stalks and the tortoise shell.\"\n\nIn B.C. 2224, when the Emperor Shun wished to associate the Great Yu\nwith him in the government, the latter begged that recourse might be\nhad to divination, in order to discover the most suitable among the\nMinisters for this exalted position. The Emperor refused, saying that\nhis choice had already been confirmed by the body of Ministers. \"The\nspirits too have signified their assent, the tortoise and grass having\nboth concurred. Divination, when fortunate, may not be repeated.\"\n\nSincerity, on which Confucius lays such especial stress, is closely\nassociated with success in divination. \"Sincerity is of God; cultivation\nof sincerity is of man. He who is naturally sincere is he who hits his\nmark without effort, and without thinking apprehends. He easily keeps to\nthe golden mean; he is inspired. He who cultivates sincerity is he who\nchooses what is good and holds fast to it.\n\n\"It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to\nforeknow. When a State or a family is about to flourish, there are sure\nto be happy omens; and when it is about to perish, there are sure to\nbe unpropitious omens. The events portended are set forth by the\ndivining-grass and the tortoise. When calamity or good fortune may be\nabout to come, the evil or the good will be foreknown by the perfectly\nsincere man, who may therefore be compared with a spirit.\"\n\nThe tortoise and the grass have long since disappeared as instruments of\ndivination, which is now carried on by means of lots drawn from a vase,\nwith answers attached; by planchette; and by the _chiao_. The last\nconsists of two pieces of wood, anciently of stone, in the shape of the\ntwo halves of a kidney bean. These are thrown into the air before the\naltar in a temple,--Buddhist or Taoist, it matters nothing,--with\nthe following results. Two convex sides uppermost mean a response\nindifferently good; two flat sides mean negative and bad; one convex\nand one flat side mean that the prayer will be granted. This form of\ndivination, though widely practised at the present day, is by no means\nof recent date. It was common in the Ch'u State, which was destroyed\nB.C. 300, after four hundred and twenty years of existence.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II -- CONFUCIANISM\n\nAttitude of Confucius.--Under the influence of Confucius, B.C. 551-479,\nthe old order of things began to undergo a change. The Sage's attitude\nof mind towards religion was one of a benevolent agnosticism, as summed\nup in his famous utterance, \"Respect the spirits, but keep them at a\ndistance.\" That he fully recognised the existence of a spirit world,\nthough admitting that he knew nothing about it, is manifest from the\nfollowing remarks of his:--\n\n\"How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to\nthem! We look for, but do not see them; we listen for, but do not hear\nthem; yet they enter into all things, and there is nothing without them.\nThey cause all the people in the empire to fast and purify themselves,\nand array themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at\ntheir sacrifices. Then, like overflowing water, they seem to be over the\nheads, and on the right and left, of their worshippers.\"\n\nHe believed that he himself was, at any rate to some extent, a prophet\nof God, as witness his remarks when in danger from the people of\nK'uang:--\n\n\"After the death of King Wen, was not wisdom lodged in me? If God were\nto destroy this wisdom, future generations could not possess it. So long\nas God does not destroy this wisdom, what can the people of K'uang do to\nme?\"\n\nAgain, when Confucius cried, \"Alas! there is no one that knows me,\" and\na disciple asked what was meant, he replied, \"I do not murmur against\nGod. I do not mumble against man. My studies lie low, and my penetration\nlies high. But there is God; He knows me.\"\n\nWe know that Confucius fasted, and we know that \"he sacrificed to the\nspirits as though the spirits were present;\" it is even stated that\n\"when a friend sent him a present, though it might be a carriage and\nhorses, unless it were flesh which had been used in sacrifice, he did\nnot bow.\" He declared that for a person in mourning food and music were\nwithout flavour and charm; and whenever he saw anyone approaching\nwho was in mourning dress, even though younger than himself, he\nwould immediately rise from his seat. He believed in destiny; he was\nsuperstitious, changing colour at a squall or at a clap of thunder; and\nhe even countenanced the ceremonies performed by villagers when driving\nout evil spirits from their dwellings. He protested against any attempt\nto impose on God. He said that \"he who offends against God has none to\nwhom he can pray;\" and when in an hour of sickness a disciple asked to\nbe allowed to pray for him, he replied, \"My praying has been for a long\ntime.\" Yet he declined to speak to his disciples of God, of spiritual\nbeings or even of death and a hereafter, holding that life and its\nproblems were alone sufficient to tax the energies of the human race.\nWhile not altogether ignoring man's duty towards God, he subordinated\nit in every way to man's duty towards his neighbour. He also did much\ntowards weakening the personality of God, for whom he invariably\nused _T'ien_, never _Shang Ti_, regarding Him evidently more as\nan abstraction than as a living sentient Being, with the physical\nattributes of man. Confucianism is therefore entirely a system of\nmorality, and not a religion.\n\nIt is also a curious fact that throughout the _Spring and Autumn_, or\nAnnals of the State of Lu, which extend from B.C. 722 to B.C. 484, there\nis no allusion of any kind to the interposition of God in human affairs,\nalthough a variety of natural phenomena are recorded, such as have\nalways been regarded by primitive peoples as the direct acts of an\nangered or benevolent Deity. Lu was the State in which Confucius was\nborn, and its annals were compiled by the Sage himself; and throughout\nthese Annals the term God is never used except in connection with the\nword \"King,\" where it always has the sense of \"by the grace of God,\"\nand once where the suzerain is spoken of as \"the Son of God,\" or, as we\nusually phrase it, \"the Son of Heaven.\"\n\nHow to bring rain.--In the famous Commentary by Tso-ch'iu Ming on the\n_Spring and Autumn_, which imparts a human interest to the bald entries\nset against each year of these annals, there are several allusions to\nthe Supreme Being. For instance, at a time of great drought the Duke of\nLu wished, in accordance with custom, to burn a witch and a person in\nthe last stage of consumption; the latter being sometimes exposed in the\nsun so as to excite the compassion of God, who would then cause rain\nto fall. A Minister vigorously protested against this superstition,\npointing out that the proper way to meet a drought would be to reduce\nthe quantity of food consumed, and to practise rigid economy in all\nthings. \"What have these creatures to do with the matter?\" he asked. \"If\nGod had wished to put them to death, He had better not have given\nthem life. If they can really produce drought, to burn them will only\nincrease the calamity.\" The Duke accordingly desisted; and although\nthere was a famine, it is said to have been less severe than usual.\n\nIn B.C. 523 there was a comet. A Minister said, \"This broom-star sweeps\naway the old, and brings in the new. The doings of God are constantly\nattended by such appearances.\"\n\nUnder B.C. 532 we have the record of a stone speaking. The Marquis of\nLu enquired of his chief musician if this was a fact, and received the\nfollowing answer: \"Stones cannot speak. Perhaps this one was possessed\nby a spirit. If not, the people must have heard wrong. And yet it\nis said that when things are done out of season, and discontents and\ncomplaints are stirring among the people, then speechless things do\nspeak.\"\n\nHuman Sacrifices.--Human sacrifices appear to have been not altogether\nunknown. The _Commentary_ tells us that in B.C. 637, in consequence of\na failure to appear and enter into a covenant, the Viscount of Tseng was\nimmolated by the people of the Chu State, to appease the wild tribes\nof the east. The Minister of War protested: \"In ancient times the six\ndomestic animals were not offered promiscuously in sacrifice; and for\nsmall matters, the regular sacrificial animals were not used. How then\nshould we dare to offer up a man? Sacrifices are performed for the\nbenefit of men, who thus as it were entertain the spirits. But if men\nsacrifice men, who will enjoy the offering?\"\n\nAgain, in B.C. 529, the ruler of the Ch'u State destroyed the Ts'ai\nState, and offered up the heir apparent as a victim. An officer said,\n\"This is inauspicious. If the five sacrificial animals may not be used\npromiscuously, how much less can a feudal prince be offered up?\"\n\nThe custom of burying live persons with the dead was first practised in\nChina in B.C. 580. It is said to have been suggested by an earlier\nand more harmless custom of placing straw and wooden effigies in the\nmausolea of the great. When the \"First Emperor\" died in B.C. 210, all\nthose among his wives who had borne no children were buried alive with\nhim.\n\nPraying for Rain.--From another Commentary on the _Spring and Autumn_,\nby Ku-liang Shu, fourth century B.C., we have the following note on\nPrayers for Rain, which are still offered up on occasions of drought,\nbut now generally through the medium of Taoist and Buddhist priests:--\n\n\"Prayers for rain should be offered up in spring and summer only; not in\nautumn and winter. Why not in autumn and winter? Perhaps the moisture of\ngrowing things is not then exhausted; neither has man reached the limit\nof his skill. Why in spring and summer? Because time is pressing and\nman's skill is of no further avail. How so? Because without rain just\nthen nothing could be made to grow; the crops would fail, and famine\nensue. But why wait until time is pressing, and man's skill of no\nfurther avail? Because to pray for rain is the same thing as asking a\nfavour, and the ancients did not lightly ask favours. Why so? Because\nthey held it more blessed to give than to receive; and as the latter\nexcludes the former, the main object of man's life is taken away. How\nis praying for rain asking a favour? It is a request that God will do\nsomething for us. The divine men of old who had any request to make to\nGod were careful to prefer it in due season. At the head of all his high\nofficers of State, the prince would proceed in person to offer up his\nprayer. He could not ask any one else to go as his proxy.\"\n\nPosthumous Honours for Confucius.--Before leaving Confucius, it is\nnecessary to add that now for many centuries he has been the central\nfigure and object of a cult as sincere as ever offered by man to any\nbeing, human or divine. The ruler of Confucius' native State of Lu was\nprofoundly distressed by the Sage's death, and is said to have built a\nshrine to commemorate his great worth, at which sacrifices were offered\nat the four seasons. By the time however that the Chou dynasty was\ndrawing to its close (third century B.C.), it would be safe to say\nthat, owing to civil war and the great political upheaval generally, the\nworship of Confucius was altogether discontinued. It certainly did not\nflourish under the \"First Emperor\" (see _post_), and was only revived in\nB.C. 195 by the first Emperor of the Han dynasty, who visited the grave\nof Confucius in Shantung and sacrificed to his spirit a pig, a sheep,\nand an ox. Fifty years later a temple was built to Confucius at his\nnative place; and in A.D. 72 his seventy-two disciples were admitted\nto share in the worship, music being shortly afterwards added to the\nceremonial. Gradually, the people came to look upon Confucius as a\ngod, and women used to pray to him for children, until the practice was\nstopped by Edict in A.D. 472. In 505, which some consider to be the date\nof the first genuine Confucian Temple, wooden images of the Sage were\nintroduced; in 1530 these were abolished, and inscribed tablets of wood,\nin use at the present day, were substituted. In 555 temples were placed\nin all prefectural cities; and later on, in all the important cities\nand towns of the empire. In the second and eighth months of each\nyear, before dawn, sacrifices to Confucius are still celebrated with\nconsiderable solemnity and pomp, including music and dances by bands of\neither thirty-six or sixty-four performers.\n\nMencius and Confucianism.--Mencius, who lived B.C. 372-289, and devoted\nhimself to the task of spreading and consolidating the Confucian\nteachings, made no attempt to lead back the Chinese people towards their\nearly beliefs in a personal God and in a spiritual world beyond the ken\nof mortals. He observes in a general way that \"those who obey God are\nsaved, while those who rebel against Him perish,\" but his reference is\nto this life, and not to a future one. He also says that those whom God\ndestines for some great part, He first chastens by suffering and\ntoil. But perhaps his most original contribution will be found in the\nfollowing paragraph:--\n\n\"By exerting his mental powers to the full, man comes to understand his\nown nature. When he understands his own nature, he understands God.\"\n\nIn all the above instances the term used for God is _T'ien_. Only in one\nsingle passage does Mencius use _Shang Ti_:--\"Though a man be wicked, if\nhe duly prepares himself by fasting and abstinence and purification by\nwater, he may sacrifice to God.\"\n\nCh'u Yuan.--The statesman-poet Ch'u Yuan, B.C. 332-295, who drowned\nhimself in despair at his country's outlook, and whose body is still\nsearched for annually at the Dragon-Boat festival, frequently alludes to\na Supreme Being:--\n\n     Almighty God, Thou who art impartial,\n     And dost appoint the virtuous among men as Thy Assistants.\n\nOne of his poems is entitled \"God Questions,\" and consists of a number\nof questions on various mysteries in the universe. The meaning of the\ntitle would be better expressed by \"Questions put to God,\" but we are\ntold that such a phrase was impossible on account of the holiness of\nGod and the irreverence of questioning Him. One question was, \"Who has\nhanded down to us an account of the beginning of all things, and how\ndo we know anything about the time when heaven and earth were without\nform?\" Another question was, \"As Nu-ch'i had no husband, how could she\nbear nine sons?\" The _Commentary_ tells us that Nu-ch'i was a \"divine\nmaiden,\" but nothing more seems to be known about her.\n\nThe following prose passage is taken from Ch'u Yuan's biography:--\n\n\"Man came originally from God, just as the individual comes from his\nparents. When his span is at an end, he goes back to that from which\nhe sprang. Thus it is that in the hour of bitter trial and exhaustion,\nthere is no man but calls to God, just as in his hours of sickness and\nsorrow every one of us will turn to his parents.\"\n\nThe great sacrifices to God and to Earth, as performed by the early\nrulers of China, had been traditionally associated with Mount T'ai, in\nthe modern province of Shantung, one of China's five sacred mountains.\nAccordingly, in B.C. 219, the self-styled \"First Emperor,\" desirous\nof restoring the old custom, which had already fallen into desuetude,\nproceeded to the summit of Mount T'ai, where he is said to have carried\nout his purpose, though what actually took place was always kept a\nprofound secret. The literati, however, whom the First Emperor had\npersecuted by forbidding any further study of the Confucian Canon, and\nburning all the copies he could lay hands on, gave out that he had been\nprevented from performing the sacrifices by a violent storm of rain,\nalleging as a reason that he was altogether deficient in the virtue\nrequired for such a ceremony.\n\nIt may be added that in B.C. 110 the then reigning Emperor proceeded\nto the summit of Mount T'ai, and performed the great sacrifice to God,\nfollowing this up by sacrificing to Earth on a hill at the foot of\nthe mountain. At the ceremony he was dressed in yellow robes, and was\naccompanied by music. During the night there was light, and a white\ncloud hung over the altar. The Emperor himself declared that he saw\na dazzling glory, and heard a voice speaking to him. The truthful\nhistorian--the Herodotus of China--who has left an account of these\nproceedings, accompanied the Emperor on this and other occasions; he\nwas also present at the sacrifices offered before the departure of the\nmission, and has left it on record that he himself actually heard the\nvoices of spirits.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III -- TAOISM\n\nLao Tzu.--Meanwhile, other influences had been helping to divert the\nattention of the Chinese people from the simple worship of God and of\nthe powers of nature. The philosophy associated with the name of Lao\nTzu, who lived nobody knows when,--probably about B.C. 600--which is\npopularly known as Taoism, from Tao, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and\nunthinkable principle on which it is based, operated with Confucianism,\nthough in an opposite direction, in dislimning the old faith while\nputting nothing satisfactory in its place. Confucianism, with its\nshadowy monotheistic background, was at any rate a practical system for\neveryday use, and it may be said to contain all the great ethical truths\nto be found in the teachings of Christ. Lao Tzu harped upon a doctrine\nof Inaction, by virtue of which all things were to be accomplished,--a\nperpetual accommodation of self to one's surroundings, with the minimum\nof effort, all progress being spontaneous and in the line of least\nresistance. Such a system was naturally far better fitted for the study,\nwhere in fact it has always remained, than for use in ordinary life.\n\nIn one of the few genuine utterances of Lao Tzu which have survived the\nwreck of time, we find an allusion to a spiritual world. Unfortunately,\nit is impossible to say exactly what the passage means. According to Han\nFei (died B.C. 233), who wrote several chapters to elucidate the sayings\nof Lao Tzu, the following is the correct interpretation:--\n\n\"Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish (i.e. do not\noverdo it).\n\n\"If the empire is governed according to Tao, evil spirits will not be\nworshipped as good ones.\n\n\"If evil spirits are not worshipped as good ones, good ones will do no\ninjury. Neither will the Sages injure the people. Each will not injure\nthe other. And if neither injures the other, then there will be mutual\nprofit.\"\n\nThe latter portion is explained by another commentator as follows:--\n\n\"Spirits do not hurt the natural. If people are natural, spirits have\nno means of manifesting themselves; and if spirits do not manifest\nthemselves, we are not conscious of their existence as such. Likewise,\nif we are not conscious of the existence of spirits as such, we must be\nequally unconscious of the existence of inspired teachers as such; and\nto be unconscious of the existence of spirits and of inspired teachers\nis the very essence of Tao.\"\n\nAdumbrations of Heracleitus.--In the hands of Lao Tzu's more immediate\nfollowers, Tao became the Absolute, the First Cause, and finally One in\nwhose obliterating unity all seemingly opposed conditions of time and\nspace were indistinguishably blended. This One, the source of human\nlife, was placed beyond the limits of our visible universe; and in order\nfor human life to return thither at death and to enjoy immortality, it\nwas only necessary to refine away corporeal grossness according to the\ndoctrines of Lao Tzu. Later on, this One came to be regarded as a fixed\npoint of dazzling luminosity, in remote ether, around which circled for\never and ever, in the supremest glory of motion, the souls of those who\nhad successfully passed through the ordeal of life, and who had left the\nslough of humanity behind them.\n\nThe final state is best described by a poet of the ninth century A.D.:--\n\n     Like a whirling water-wheel,\n     Like rolling pearls,--\n     Yet how are these worthy to be named?\n     They are but illustrations for fools.\n     There is the mighty axis of Earth,\n     The never-resting pole of Heaven;\n     Let us grasp their clue,\n     And with them be blended in One,\n     Beyond the bounds of thought,\n     Circling for ever in the great Void,\n     An orbit of a thousand years,--\n     Yes, this is the key to my theme.\n\nDebased Taoism.--This view naturally suggested the prolongation of\nearthly life by artificial means; hence the search for an elixir,\ncarried on through many centuries by degenerate disciples of Taoism. But\nhere we must pass on to consider some of the speculations on God, life,\ndeath, and immortality, indulged in by Taoist philosophers and others,\nwho were not fettered, as the Confucianists were, by traditional\nreticence on the subject of spirits and an unseen universe.\n\nSpirits must exist.--Mo Tzu, a philosopher of the fourth and fifth\ncenturies B.C., was arguing one day for the existence of spirits with a\ndisbelieving opponent. \"All you have to do,\" he said, \"is to go into\nany village and make enquiries. From of old until now the people have\nconstantly seen and heard spiritual beings; how then can you say they do\nnot exist? If they had never seen nor heard them, could people say that\nthey existed?\" \"Of course,\" replied the disbeliever, \"many people have\nseen and heard spirits; but is there any instance of a properly verified\nappearance?\" Mo Tzu then told a long story of how King Hsuan, B.C.\n827-781, unjustly put to death a Minister, and how the latter had said\nto the King, \"If there is no consciousness after death, this matter will\nbe at an end; but if there is, then within three years you will hear\nfrom me.\" Three years later, at a grand durbar, the Minister descended\nfrom heaven on a white horse, and shot the King dead before the eyes of\nall.\n\nTraces of Mysticism.--Chuang Tzu, the famous philosopher of the third\nand fourth centuries B.C., and exponent of the Tao of Lao Tzu, has the\nfollowing allusions to God, of course as seen through Taoist glasses:--\n\n\"God is a principle which exists by virtue of its own intrinsicality,\nand operates spontaneously without self-manifestation.\n\n\"He who knows what God is, and what Man is, has attained. Knowing what\nGod is, he knows that he himself proceeded therefrom. Knowing what Man\nis, he rests in the knowledge of the known, waiting for the knowledge of\nthe unknown.\n\n\"The ultimate end is God. He is manifested in the laws of nature. He is\nthe hidden spring. At the beginning of all things, He was.\"\n\nTaoism, however, does not seem to have succeeded altogether, any more\nthan Confucianism, in altogether estranging the Chinese people from\ntheir traditions of a God, more or less personal, whose power was the\nreal determining factor in human events. The great general Hsiang Yu,\nB.C. 233-202, said to his charioteer at the battle which proved fatal\nto his fortunes, \"I have fought no fewer than seventy fights, and have\ngained dominion over the empire. That I am now brought to this pass is\nbecause God has deserted me.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV -- MATERIALISM\n\nYang Hsiung.--Yang Hsiung was a philosopher who flourished\nB.C. 53 - A.D. 18. He taught that the nature of man at birth is neither\ngood nor evil, but a mixture of both, and that development in either\ndirection depends wholly upon environment. To one who asked about God,\nhe replied, \"What have I to do with God? Watch how without doing\nanything He does all things.\" To another who said, \"Surely it is God who\nfashions and adorns all earthly forms,\" he replied, \"Not so; if God in\nan earthly sense were to fashion and adorn all things, His strength\nwould not be adequate to the task.\"\n\nWang Ch'ung.--Wang Ch'ung, A.D. 27-97, denies that men after death live\nagain as spiritual beings on earth. \"Animals,\" he argues, \"do not become\nspirits after death; why should man alone undergo this change? . . .\nThat which informs man at birth is vitality, and at death this vitality\nis extinguished. Vitality is produced by the pulsations of the blood;\nwhen these cease, vitality is extinguished, the body decays, and becomes\ndust. How can it become a spirit? . . . When a man dies, his soul\nascends to heaven, and his bones return (_kuei_) to earth; therefore he\nis spoken of as a disembodied spirit (_kuei_), the latter word really\nmeaning that which has returned. . . . Vitality becomes humanity, just\nas water becomes ice. The ice melts and is water again; man dies\nand reverts to spirituality. . . . The spirits which people see are\ninvariably in the form of human beings, and that very fact is enough of\nitself to prove that these apparitions cannot be the souls of dead men.\nIf a sack is filled with grain, it will stand up, and is obviously a\nsack of grain; but if the sack is burst and the grain falls out, then it\ncollapses and disappears from view. Now, man's soul is enfolded in his\nbody as grain in a sack. When he dies his body decays and his vitality\nis dissipated; and if when the grain is taken away the sack loses its\nform, why, when the vitality is gone, should the body obtain a new shape\nin which to appear again in the world? . . . The number of persons who\nhave died since the world began, old, middle-aged, and young, must run\ninto thousands of millions, far exceeding the number of persons alive at\nthe present day. If every one of these has become a disembodied spirit,\nthere must be at least one to every yard as we walk along the road; and\nthose who die must now suddenly find themselves face to face with vast\ncrowds of spirits, filling every house and street. . . . People say that\nspirits are the souls of dead men. That being the case, spirits should\nalways appear naked, for surely it is not contended that clothes have\nsouls as well as men. . . . It can further be shown not only that dead\nmen never become spirits, but also that they are without consciousness,\nby the fact that before birth they are without consciousness. Before\nbirth man rests in the First Cause; when he dies he goes back to the\nFirst Cause. The First Cause is vague and without form, and man's soul\nis there in a state of unconsciousness. At death the soul reverts to its\noriginal state: how then can it possess consciousness? . . . As a matter\nof fact, the universe is full of disembodied spirits, but these are not\nthe souls of dead men. They are beings only of the mind, conjured up\nfor the most part in sickness, when the patient is especially subject to\nfear. For sickness induces fear of spirits; fear of spirits causes the\nmind to dwell upon them; and thus apparitions are produced.\"\n\nAnother writer enlarges on the view that _kuei_ \"disembodied spirit\" is\nthe same as _kuei_ \"to return.\" \"At death, man's soul returns to heaven,\nhis flesh to earth, his blood to water, his blood-vessels to marshes,\nhis voice to thunder, his motion to the wind, his sleep to the sun and\nmoon, his bones to trees, his muscles to hills, his teeth to stones, his\nfat to dew, his hair to grass, while his breath returns to man.\"\n\nAttributes of God.--There was a certain philosopher, named Ch'in Mi\n(died A.D. 226), whose services were much required by the King of Wu,\nwho sent an envoy to fetch him. The envoy took upon himself to catechise\nthe philosopher, with the following result:--\n\n\"You are engaged in study, are you not?\" asked the envoy.\n\n\"Any slip of a boy may be that,\" replied Ch'in; \"why not I?\"\n\n\"Has God a head?\" said the envoy.\n\n\"He has,\" was the reply.\n\n\"Where is He?\" was the next question.\n\n\"In the West. The _Odes_ say,\n\n     He gazed fondly on the West,\n\nFrom which it may be inferred that his head was in the West.\"\n\n\"Has God got ears?\"\n\n\"God sits on high,\" replied Ch'in, \"but hears the lowly. The _Odes_ say,\n\n     The crane cries in the marsh,\n     And its cry is heard by God.\n\nIf He had not ears, how could He hear it?\"\n\n\"Has God feet?\" asked the envoy.\n\n\"He has,\" replied Ch'in. \"The _Odes_ say,\n\n     The steps of God are difficult;\n     This man does not follow them.\n\nIf He had no feet, how could He step?\"\n\n\"Has God a surname?\" enquired the envoy. \"And if so, what is it?\"\n\n\"He has a surname,\" said Ch'in, \"and it is Liu.\"\n\n\"How do you know that?\" rejoined the other.\n\n\"The surname of the Emperor, who is the Son of Heaven, is Liu,\" replied\nCh'in; \"and that is how I know it.\"\n\nThese answers, we are told, came as quickly as echo after sound. A\nwriter of the ninth century A.D., when reverence for the one God of\nancient China had been to a great extent weakened by the multiplication\nof inferior deities, tells a story how this God, whose name was Liu, had\nbeen displaced by another God whose name was Chang.\n\nThe _Hsing ying tsa lu_ has the following story. There was once a very\npoor scholar, who made it his nightly practice to burn incense and pray\nto God. One evening he heard a voice from above, saying, \"God has been\ntouched by your earnestness, and has sent me to ask what you require.\"\n\"I wish,\" replied the scholar, \"for clothes and food, coarse if you\nwill, sufficient for my necessities in this life, and to be able to\nroam, free from care, among the mountains and streams, until I complete\nmy allotted span; that is all.\" \"All!\" cried the voice, amid peals of\nlaughter from the clouds. \"Why, that is the happiness enjoyed by the\nspirits in heaven; you can't have that. Ask rather for wealth and rank.\"\n\nGood and Evil.--It has already been stated that the Chinese imagination\nhas never conceived of an Evil One, deliverance from whom might be\nsecured by prayer. The existence of evil in the abstract has however\nreceived some attention.\n\nWei Tao Tzu asked Yu Li Tzu, saying, \"Is it true that God loves good and\nhates evil?\"\n\n\"It is,\" replied Yu.\n\n\"In that case,\" rejoined Wei, \"goodness should abound in the Empire\nand evil should be scarce. Yet among birds, kites and falcons outnumber\nphoenixes; among beasts, wolves are many and unicorns are few; among\ngrowing plants, thorns are many and cereals are few; among those who eat\ncooked food and stand erect, the wicked are many and the virtuous are\nfew; and in none of these cases can you say that the latter are evil and\nthe former good. Can it be possible that what man regards as evil, God\nregards as good, and _vice versa_? Is it that God is unable to determine\nthe characteristics of each, and lets each follow its own bent and\ndevelop good or evil accordingly? If He allows good men to be put upon,\nand evil men to be a source of fear, is not this to admit that God has\nHis likes and dislikes? From of old until now, times of misgovernment\nhave always exceeded times of right government; and when men of\nprinciple have contended with the ignoble, the latter have usually won.\nWhere then is God's love of good and hatred of evil?\"\n\nYu Li Tzu had no answer to make.\n\nThe _Tan yen tsa lu_ says, \"If the people are contented and happy, God\nis at peace in His mind. When God is at peace in His mind, the two great\nmotive Powers act in harmony.\"\n\nWhere is God?--The _Pi ch'ou_ says, \"The empyrean above you is not God;\nit is but His outward manifestation. That which remains ever fixed in\nman's heart and which rules over all things without cease, that is\nGod. Alas, you earnestly seek God in the blue sky, while forgetting Him\naltogether in your hearts. Can you expect your prayers to be answered?\"\n\nThis view--\"For behold, the kingdom of God is within you,\" St. Luke\nxvii. 21,--has been brought out by the philosopher Shao Yung, A.D.\n1011-1077, in the following lines:--\n\n     The heavens are still: no sound.\n     Where then shall God be found? . . .\n     Search not in distant skies;\n     In man's own heart He lies.\n\nConflict of Faiths.--Han Wen-kung, A.D. 768-824, the eminent\nphilosopher, poet, and statesman, who suffered banishment for his\nopposition to the Buddhist religion, complains that, \"of old there was\nbut one faith; now there are three,\"--meaning Confucianism, Buddhism,\nand Taoism. He thus pictures the simplicity of China's ancient kings:--\n\n\"Their clothes were of cloth or of silk. They dwelt in palaces or in\nordinary houses. They ate grain and vegetables and fruit and fish and\nflesh. Their method was easy of comprehension: their doctrines were\neasily carried into practice. Hence their lives passed pleasantly away,\na source of satisfaction to themselves, a source of benefit to mankind.\nAt peace within their own hearts, they readily adapted themselves to\nthe necessities of the family and of the State. Happy in life, they were\nremembered after death. Their sacrifices were grateful to the God of\nHeaven, and the spirits of the departed rejoiced in the honours of\nancestral worship.\"\n\nHis mind seems to have been open on the subject of a future state. In a\nlamentation on the death of a favourite nephew, he writes,\n\n\"If there is knowledge after death, this separation will be but for a\nlittle while. If there is no knowledge after death, so will this sorrow\nbe but for a little while, and then no more sorrow for ever.\"\n\nHis views as to the existence of spirits on this earth are not very\nlogical:--\n\n\"If there is whistling among the rafters, and I take a light but fail to\nsee anything,--is that a spirit? It is not; for spirits are soundless.\nIf there is something in the room, and I look for it but cannot see\nit,--is that a spirit? It is not; spirits are formless. If something\nbrushes against me, and I grab at, but do not seize it,--is that a\nspirit? It is not; for if spirits are soundless and formless, how can\nthey have substance?\n\n\"If then spirits have neither sound nor form nor substance, are they\nconsequently non-existent? Things which have form without sound exist in\nnature; for instance, earth, and stones. Things which have sound without\nform exist in nature; for instance, wind, and thunder. Things which have\nboth sound and form exist in nature; for instance, men, and animals.\nAnd things which have neither sound nor form also exist in nature; for\ninstance, disembodied spirits and angels.\"\n\nFor his own poetical spirit, according to the funeral elegy written\nsome two hundred and fifty years after his death, a great honour was\nreserved:--\n\n     Above in heaven there was no music, and God was sad,\n     And summoned him to his place beside the Throne.\n\nHis friend and contemporary, Liu Tsung-yuan, a poet and philosopher like\nhimself, was tempted into the following reflections by the contemplation\nof a beautiful landscape which he discovered far from the beaten\ntrack:--\n\n\"Now, I have always had my doubts about the existence of a God; but this\nscene made me think He really must exist. At the same time, however,\nI began to wonder why He did not place it in some worthy centre of\ncivilisation, rather than in this out-of-the-way barbarous region, where\nfor centuries there has been no one to enjoy its beauty. And so, on the\nother hand, such waste of labour and incongruity of position disposed me\nto think that there could not be a God after all.\"\n\nLetter from God.--In A.D. 1008 there was a pretended revelation from God\nin the form of a letter, recalling the letter from Christ on the neglect\nof the Sabbath mentioned by Roger of Wendover and Hoveden, contemporary\nchroniclers. The Emperor and his Court regarded this communication with\nprofound awe; but a high official of the day said, \"I have learnt (from\nthe Confucian Discourses) that God does not even speak; how then should\nHe write a letter?\"\n\nModern Materialism.--The philosopher and commentator, Chu Hsi, A.D.\n1130-1200, whose interpretations of the Confucian Canon are the only\nones now officially recognised, has done more than any one since\nConfucius himself to disseminate a rigid materialism among his\nfellow-countrymen. The \"God\" of the Canon is explained away as an\n\"Eternal Principle;\" the phenomena of the universe are attributed to\nNature, with its absurd personification so commonly met with in Western\nwriters; and spirits generally are associated with the perfervid\nimaginations of sick persons and enthusiasts.\n\n\"Is consciousness dispersed after death, or does it still exist?\" said\nan enquirer.\n\n\"It is not dispersed,\" replied Chu Hsi; \"it is at an end. When vitality\ncomes to an end, consciousness comes to an end with it.\"\n\nHe got into more trouble over the verse quoted earlier,\n\n     King Wen is on high,\n     In glory in heaven.\n     His comings and his goings\n     Are to and from the presence of God.\n\n\"If it is asserted,\" he argued, \"that King Wen was really in the\npresence of God, and that there really is such a Being as God, He\ncertainly cannot have the form in which He is represented by the clay\nor wooden images in vogue. Still, as these statements were made by the\nProphets of old, there must have been some foundation for them.\"\n\nThere is, however, a certain amount of inconsistency in his writings on\nthe supernatural, for in another passage he says,\n\n\"When God is about to send down calamities upon us, He first raises up\nthe hero whose genius shall finally prevail against those calamities.\"\n\nSometimes he seems to be addressing the educated Confucianist; at other\ntimes, the common herd whose weaknesses have to be taken into account.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V -- BUDDHISM AND OTHER RELIGIONS\n\nSo early as the third century B.C., Buddhism seems to have appeared in\nChina, though it was not until the latter part of the first century A.D.\nthat a regular propaganda was established, and not until a century or\ntwo later still that this religion began to take a firm hold of the\nChinese people. It was bitterly opposed by the Taoists, and only after\nthe lapse of many centuries were the two doctrines able to exist side\nby side in peace. Each religion began early to borrow from the other. In\nthe words of the philosopher Chu Hsi, of the twelfth century, \"Buddhism\nstole the best features of Taoism; Taoism stole the worst features of\nBuddhism. It is as though one took a jewel from the other, and the loser\nrecouped the loss with a stone.\"\n\nFrom Buddhism the Taoists borrowed their whole scheme of temples,\npriests, nuns, and ritual. They drew up liturgies to resemble the\nBuddhist _Sutras_, and also prayers for the dead. They adopted the\nidea of a Trinity, consisting of Lao Tzu, P'an Ku, and the Ruler of the\nUniverse; and they further appropriated the Buddhist Purgatory with all\nits frightful terrors and tortures after death.\n\nNowadays it takes an expert to distinguish between the temples and\npriests of the two religions, and members of both hierarchies are often\nsimultaneously summoned by persons needing religious consolation or\nceremonial of any kind.\n\nDoubts.--In a chapter on \"Doubts,\" by the Taoist philosopher Mou Tzu, we\nread,\n\n\"Some one said to Mou, The Buddhist doctrine teaches that when men die\nthey are born again. I cannot believe this.\n\n\"When a man is at the point of death, replied Mou, his family mount upon\nthe house-top and call to him to stay. If he is already dead, to whom do\nthey call?\n\n\"They call his soul, said the other.\n\n\"If the soul comes back, the man lives, answered Mou; but if it does\nnot, whither does it go?\n\n\"It becomes a disembodied spirit, was the reply.\n\n\"Precisely so, said Mou. The soul is imperishable; only the body decays,\njust as the stalks of corn perish, while the grain continues for ever\nand ever. Did not Lao Tzu say, 'The reason why I suffer so much is\nbecause I have a body'?\n\n\"But all men die whether they have found the truth or not, urged the\nquestioner; what then is the difference between them?\n\n\"That, replied Mou, is like considering your reward before you have put\nin right conduct for a single day. If a man has found the truth, even\nthough he dies, his spirit will go to heaven; if he has led an evil life\nhis spirit will suffer everlastingly. A fool knows when a thing is done,\nbut a wise man knows beforehand. To have found the truth and not to have\nfound it are as unlike as gold and leather; good and evil, as black and\nwhite. How then can you ask what is the difference?\"\n\nBuddhism, which forbids the slaughter of any living creature, has wisely\nabstained from denouncing the sacrifice of victims at the Temple of\nHeaven and at the Confucian Temple. But backed by Confucianism it\ndenounces the slaughter for food of the ox which tills the soil. Some\nlines of doggerel to this effect, based upon the Buddhist doctrine of\nthe transmigration of souls and put into the mouth of an ox, have been\nrendered as follows:--\n\n     My murderers shall come to grief,\n     Along with all who relish beef;\n     When I'm a man and you're a cow,\n     I'll eat you as you eat me now.\n\nFire Worshippers.--Mazdeism, the religion of Zoroaster, based upon the\nworship of fire, and in that sense not altogether unfamiliar to the\nChinese, reached China some time in the seventh century A.D. The first\ntemple was built at Ch'ang-an, the capital, in 621, ten years after\nwhich came the famous missionary, Ho Lu the Magus. But the lease of life\nenjoyed by this religion was of short duration.\n\nIslamism.--Mahometans first settled in China in the year of the Mission,\nA.D. 628, under Wahb-Abi-Kabcha, a maternal uncle of Mahomet, who was\nsent with presents to the Emperor. The first mosque was built at Canton,\nwhere, after several restorations, it still exists. There is at present\na very large Mahometan community in China, chiefly in the province of\nYunnan. These people carry on their worship unmolested, on the sole\ncondition that in each mosque there shall be exhibited a small tablet\nwith an inscription, the purport of which is recognition of allegiance\nto the reigning Emperor.\n\nNestorians.--In A.D. 631 the Nestorian Church introduced Christianity\ninto China, under the title of \"The Luminous Doctrine;\" and in 636\nNestorian missionaries were allowed to settle at the capital. In 781\nthe famous Nestorian Tablet, with a bilingual inscription in Chinese and\nSyriac, was set up at Si-ngan Fu, where it still remains, and where it\nwas discovered in 1625 by Father Semedo, long after Nestorianism had\naltogether disappeared, leaving not a rack behind.\n\nManichaeans.--In A.D. 719 an ambassador from Tokharestan arrived at\nthe capital. He was accompanied by one Ta-mou-she, who is said to have\ntaught the religion of the Chaldean Mani, or Manes, who died about A.D.\n274. In 807 the Manichaean sect made formal application to be allowed\nto have recognised places of meeting; shortly after which they too\ndisappear from history.\n\nJudaism.--The Jews, known to the Chinese as those who \"take out the\nsinew,\" from their peculiar method of preparing meat, are said by some\nto have reached China, and to have founded a colony in Honan,\nshortly after the Captivity, carrying the Pentateuch with them. Three\ninscriptions on stone tablets are still extant, dated 1489, 1512, and\n1663, respectively. The first says the Jews came to China during the\nSung dynasty; the second, during the Han dynasty; and the third, during\nthe Chou dynasty. The first is probably the correct account. We know\nthat the Jews built a synagogue at K'ai-feng Fu in A.D. 1164, where they\nwere discovered by Ricci in the seventeenth century, and where, in 1850,\nthere were still to be found traces of the old faith, now said to be\ncompletely effaced.\n\nChristianity.--With the advent of the Jesuit Fathers in the sixteenth\ncentury, and of the Protestant missionaries, Marshman and Morrison, in\n1799 and 1807 respectively, we pass gradually down to the present day,\nwhere we may well pause and look around to see what remains to the\nmodern Chinese of their ancient faiths. It is scarcely too much to\nsay that all idea of the early God of their forefathers has long since\nceased to vivify their religious instincts, though the sacrifices to\nGod and to Earth are still annually performed by the Emperor.\nAncestor-worship, and the cult of Confucius, are probably very much\nwhat they were many hundreds of years ago; while Taoism, once a pure\nphilosophy, is now a corrupt religion. As to alien faiths, the Buddhism\nof China would certainly not be recognised by the Founder of Buddhism\nin India; Mahometanism is fairly flourishing; Christianity is still\nbitterly opposed.\n\n\n\n\nCHRONOLOGICAL SYLLABUS\n\n\nLegendary Period (Twenty-ninth Century to Tenth Century B.C.)--P'an\nKu and Creation--First Worship of Spirits--Worship of God, with\nincense--Sacrifices to Mountains and Rivers--Worship of Sun, Moon, and\nStars--Institution of Ancestral Worship--God enjoys music, dancing,\nand burnt offerings--God resents bad government--Revelation in a\nDream--Anthropomorphism--Fetishism--No Devil--No Hell--Terms for\nGod--The Character for \"God\" is a picture of a Man--God and Jehovah--God\nin the _Odes_--Hou Chi and Parthenogenesis--Superstitions and\nSupernatural Manifestations--Sacrifice--Ancestral Worship--Filial Piety.\n\nFeudal Age (Tenth Century to Third Century B.C.)--The Influence\nof Confucianism--His Agnosticism--Weakening of Supernatural\nBeliefs--Consolidation of Confucianism--Human Sacrifices--Prayers for\nRain--The Philosophy of Taoism--A Rival to Confucianism--But uniting to\nweaken the old Monotheistic Faith--Its Theory of Spirits--Modifications\nof Taoism--The Elixir of Life--Evidences of a Spiritual\nWorld--Mysticism.\n\nThe Empire (Third Century B.C. to modern times)--Arguments against\na Spiritual World--Attributes of God--Good and Evil--Buddhism\nappears--Conflict of Faiths--Struggle between Buddhism and\nTaoism--Taoism borrows from Buddhism and becomes a Religion--Mazdeism\nappears--Followed closely by Mahometanism, Nestorian Christianity, and\nManichaeism--Mahometanism alone survived--Jews arrived about Eleventh\nCentury A.D.--Chu Hsi materialised the Confucian Canon--Henceforward\nAgnosticism the rule for _literati_--Buddhism and Taoism (both debased)\nfor the Masses--The Jesuits arrive in the Sixteenth Century--Protestant\nMissionaries date from 1799.\n\n\n\n\nSELECTED WORKS BEARING ON THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA\n\nReligion in China. Joseph Edkins, D.D.\n\nThe Religions of China. James Legge, D.D.\n\nThe Dragon, Image and Demon, or the three Religions of China. Rev. H. C.\ndu Bose.\n\nLes Religions de la Chine. C. de Harbez.\n\nThe Religious System of China: Its ancient forms, evolution, history,\netc. J. J. de Groot, Ph.D.\n\nThe Sacred Books of China. James Legge, D.D.\n\nChinese Buddhism. Joseph Edkins, D.D.\n\nLe Shinntoisme. Michel Revon.","title":"Religions of Ancient China","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":13525}