THE 
 
 ENGLISH AND FOREIGN 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY. 
 
RELIGION IN CHINA; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE THREE RELIGIONS 
 OF THE CHINESE: 
 
 WITH 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIAN 
 CONVERSION AMONGST THAT PEOPLE. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH EDKINS, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " A GRAMMAR OF THE SHANGHAI DIALECT," " OF THE CHINESE COLLOQUlAl 
 
 LANGUAGE, COMMONLY CALLED MANDARIN," " CHINA'S PLACE IN 
 
 PHILOLOGY," ''THE CHINESE CHARACTERS," ETC, 
 
 REVISED EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO. L 
 
 PATEUXOSTKB HOUSE, CHAHTNG GROSS KOAD. 
 I8 93 . 
 
The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved. 
 
(DIVERSITY) 
 
 ^v OF ./ 
 
 PEEFACE TO FOUETH EDITION. 
 
 SOME persons say that the Chinese have no religion. 
 The facts are, however, opposed to this view. They 
 show that the natives of China are not content with 
 the worship of ancestors which they have elaborated for 
 themselves. They have invited the Buddhists among 
 them, and devoted great anVl long-continued attention to 
 the establishment of a Buddhist ritual and literature 
 adapted to their own country. If they had been con- 
 tent without the beliefs and practice of religion, they 
 would not have done this. For example, the future 
 state is not in the worship of ancestors looked forward 
 to joyfully. At the best this worship is a sad and 
 solemn function, and if the extinction of the soul's life 
 is postponed by the sacrifices, extinction sooner or later 
 is to be expected. In consequence, we find many of the 
 Chinese indulging in Buddhist and Tauist reading, and 
 looking forward, if not to the Paradise of the Western 
 Heaven, at least to the condition of the immortal genii 
 who live unseen in green forests, on lofty mountains, or 
 on some distant star in heaven. 
 
 The Chinese were not satisfied with the Emperor's 
 worship of the Sovereign Euler of the Universe. They 
 had in that worship only an indirect share. In con- 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 sequence, they made Buddhist images of clay, and 
 worshipped these rather than have nothing to adore at 
 all. They also accepted the gods of the Tauists and 
 their forms of worship as a welcome supplement to the 
 coldness of the worship of ancestors. Yet the Chinese 
 cannot be said to be warm believers in either Buddhism 
 or Tauism, and they conform to the ritual of these 
 religions in a perfunctory manner. They prefer a cold 
 ritual, unsatisfactory as it is, to no worship, and the 
 religion of the country continues to be practised with 
 no zeal or earnestness of conviction on the part of 
 worshippers. 
 
 The proof of this is found in the facts adduced in the 
 work now in the reader's hands. While China remains 
 as it is it must be regarded as a revolted province of 
 the divine kingdom, in which in nearly all the families 
 the worship of ancestors takes the place of the worship 
 of God. Buddhism early saw its advantage, and pressed 
 into this great spiritual vacuum where the religious in- 
 stinct, feeling after the .divine without response, seemed 
 to invite a propaganda of foreign religious teachers. 
 Buddhism pressed forward into every province, calling 
 to its aid the feng shui superstition in each commercial 
 city. For example, above Shanghai a few miles, where 
 the river bends from the west to the north, is a pagoda 
 taken care of by a hundred priests. Their daily worship, 
 combined with the influence of the pagoda, are relied 
 on by the Shanghai native merchants to render their 
 trade prosperous. They maintain Buddhism as a help 
 to them in growing rich. Their feeling being of this 
 kind, they can have no intelligent faith in Buddhist 
 dogma. That dogma fails to give the people spiritual 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 elevation. The same merchants invite Tauist priests 
 to offer prayers for help in times of drought, flood, and 
 pestilence. The number of Tauists in the country is 
 a third or a fourth of the Buddhists. They cannot claim 
 in any efficient way to sow the field which the religious 
 instinct of four hundred millions of people presents to 
 the spiritual instructor. 
 
 The aim of this work is to show how China has at- 
 tempted to supply her own spiritual needs in past ages. 
 At the present time, when the population has increased 
 beyond all precedent, the weakness of the native re- 
 ligions is more than ever clear; and there is a most 
 manifest demand for teaching of a healthier kind, such 
 as Christian missionaries are able to give. The people 
 have industry, ingenuity, and a hundred different occu- 
 pations. They have also a salubrious climate and fertile 
 soil. The adoption of Christianity by the Chinese would 
 be for their highest benefit, and impart to them a 
 spiritual elevation which would be to them of the 
 greatest advantage in their future history. 
 
 LONDON, February i, 1893. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE history of the Chinese religions is replete with in- 
 struction. They have developed themselves from bases 
 which are entirely Asiatic. Partly of native origin, and 
 partly Indian, they have grown up quite independently of 
 Judaism and of Christianity. 
 
 The nomenclature and fundamental ideas of Confucian- 
 ism and of early Taouism are purely native, and bear tes- 
 timony to the fact of clear moral distinctions, a strong 
 appetite for legend, and a deep love of traditional religion. 
 The Buddhism of India transplanted into a colder climate 
 and adapted to the habits of a practical and unimaginative 
 people, yet bears traces through all its immense ramifica- 
 tions of Aryan origin. 
 
 To show how the tree of religion in China has gradually 
 attained its present size and shape is the object of this 
 little book. Its root is native, and its principal branch 
 has always continued so. But a mighty branch of foreign 
 origin has been grafted in the old stock. The metaphys- 
 ical religion of Shakyamuni was added to the moral 
 doctrines of Confucius. Another process may then be 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 witnessed. A native twig was grafted in the Indian 
 branch. Modern Taouism has grown up on the model 
 supplied by Buddhism. That it is possible to observe the 
 modus operandi of this repeated grafting, and to estimate 
 the amount of gain and loss to the people of China, result- 
 ing from the varied religious teaching which they have thus 
 received, is a circumstance of the greatest interest to the 
 investigator of the world's religions. This little book con- 
 tains a brief sketch of a very wide subject. Only the main 
 features could be embraced. It is hoped, however, that no 
 very important points have been entirely omitted. 
 
 If Professor Max Miiller succeeds in making the study 
 of religions as popular as he has done that of Comparative 
 Philology, the field for research presented by China may 
 soon be worked by many new investigators. Meantime 
 this book may continue to serve as a brief manual to the 
 subject it treats for some years to come. 
 
 Those interested in the progress of the Christian mis- 
 sionary enterprise have here the means of judging what 
 sort of work has to be done in China. 
 
 A / Ancestral worship is seen taking very much the place 
 I of a religion, and duty to parents needs, therefore, to be 
 placed on the Christian footing. Eeverence to heaven and 
 earth is commonly inculcated, and instead of it has to be 
 substituted the worship of the Supreme, Eternal God by 
 every human being. The duty of man to man is very fully 
 laid down. It is requisite for the Christian teacher to 
 class all human duties in subordination to the love of God. 
 The future life as presented to the eye of the popular reli- 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 gious consciousness does notr command intelligent faith, 
 because Buddhism has no confidence in its own teaching 
 on this point. The Chinese will find in the Christian doc- 
 trine of the future life that which will help them to change 
 vagueness and uncertainty for assured hope. So also with 
 redemption as taught by Buddhists. There is no solidity 
 in it. It reduces itself to abstractions and fine distinc- 
 tions in words. Its indefiniteness is in strong contrast to 
 the Christian redemption, which finding man beset with 
 evil, holds out to him the strong hand of a divine deli- 
 verer, and makes him both virtuous and happy. 
 
 Thirty-five years have gone by since China was opened. 
 Missionary progress was at first very slow. In some 
 cities many summers and winters passed before the occur- 
 rence of a single baptism. After fifteen years a thousand 
 converts rewarded the labours of the missionaries. An- 
 other fifteen years saw this number increased to ten 
 thousand. The growth of the Christian element is now 
 seen steadily advancing. 
 
 The number of points at which the work of the Pro- 
 testant missions is carried forward is rapidly increasing, 
 and the same is true of those of the Eoinish Church, 
 which count their adherents by hundreds of thousands. 
 
 Among the causes of the more frequent baptisms that 
 we hear of in most of the districts where missionaries are 
 labouring at the present time, are the greater peace of the 
 country during the last few years, and the fact that the 
 local authorities and persons of influence understand 
 better than before that the acceptance of Christianity is 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 not a crime against the law. Wrongs inflicted on Chris- 
 tians have in several instances been rectified, arid there 
 is not so much fear felt as there was that baptism must 
 involve very much suffering. 
 
 One of the concessions secured by Sir Thomas Wade in 
 the negotiations of 1 876, with Le-hung-chang, Governor- 
 General of Chile, was the posting in all public places 
 through the country of an imperial proclamation respect- 
 ing the murdering of Mr. Margary. This is found to have 
 a beneficial effect on the people, as making it their duty 
 to look on foreigners as friends. Several instances have 
 lately occurred of persons asking for baptism being led to 
 think of it through this proclamation. 
 
 We can judge best of the prospect of the spread of 
 Christianity in China by casting an eye on those districts 
 where Christian communities have been gathered. They 
 are extending themselves in many places with no small 
 rapidity. In some parts the village population has dur- 
 ing recent years shown a tendency to adopt new religious 
 ideas, combined with the prohibition of opium and 
 tobacco smoking, worship without images, and obedience 
 in regard of doctrine to some spiritual guide. In the 
 neighbourhood of Peking there are several such associa- 
 tions, all of modern origin. In some the abandonment of 
 opium-smoking is rigidly enforced. Many persons follow 
 the practice of these sects for a few months or years, and 
 then, on being urged by the Christians to join them, they 
 yield without much difficulty, saying that they did not in 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 the new association they had entered realise the good 
 they had expected. 
 
 There is a better prospect of progress in the village 
 population than in the cities, because the influence of the 
 literary class is little felt in country places. The attitude V 
 of the cultured class for the present is not favourable 
 towards Christianity, and their policy is to say nothing 
 about it. Most of the educated will read books on Western 
 science, geography, and politics with much more willing- 
 ness than on our religion. Illustrations on this subject 
 will be found in the following chapters. 
 
 The first edition of this work was published in 1859, 
 and has been long out of print. Four chapters are now 
 added. One of these chapters contains a description of 
 imperial worship. The other three are an account of a 
 journey to Woo-tai-shan, a celebrated seat of Buddhist 
 worship, and very popular place of pilgrimage. The book 
 has been revised throughout. 
 
 PEKING, October 1877. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Interest of the subject Confucius : what he did and aimed 
 at Laou-tsoo, the founder of Taouism Buddhism : dis- 
 tinguished from Brahmanism and Lamaism Early intro- 
 duction of Christianity into China Prospects of Chris- 
 tian missions in China Opium 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IMPERIAL WORSHIP. 
 
 Prayer by Shun-che at the altar of Heaven and Earth at the 
 establishment of the Manchoo dynasty Three annual 
 sacrifices at the altar of Heaven Temple and altar of 
 Heaven described Burnt sacrifice offerings and libations 
 Burning of the prayer Sacrifice to Earth Burning of 
 offerings Notions on sacrifices Worship of ancestors 
 Temple of ancestors Offerings Sacrifices to the gods of 
 grain and land 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 TEMPLES. 
 
 Confucian temple Sacrifices to Confucius Idea of these 
 temples funereal Temples to virtuous women Temple 
 to agricultural divinities Buddhist monasteries : their 
 idea : placed amidst fine scenery Teen-tae Monasticism 
 Taouist temples : idea of their construction Temples 
 of state gods Imperial lectures .... -39 
 
xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONFLICT OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN CHINA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Controversy "between the followers of Confucius and those of 
 Buddha and Taou Government protests against idolatry 
 Feeling of the Confucianists respecting idolatry Con- 
 troversies among the Confucianists themselves . . 50 
 
 / CHAPTER V. 
 
 V / 
 
 \jf HOW THREE NATIONAL RELIGIONS COEXIST IN CHINA. 
 
 ^^( /China a field for observing the conflict of moral and religious 
 V ^ ^ ideas The Chinese readily conform to three religions, 
 which are all national, although based on different prin- 
 ciples. The three religions are distinguished Confucian- 
 ism as moral-4-Taouism as materialistic Buddhism as 
 xnetaphysical^Scene in a Taouist temple All three reli- 
 gions are supported by authority 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CHINESE LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, 
 AND SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 Praise of Buddhism by the poets Monastery of Teen-tso 
 described by Taou-han Influence on the philosophy of 
 Choo-foo-tsze Doctrine of Tae-keih Mr. Cooke and 
 Commissioner Yeh Denial of Divine personality the 
 effect of Buddhism The Chinese really believe in a per- 
 sonal God Name for God Asserted identity of Bud-, 
 dhism with Confucianism Chinese latitudinarianism 
 Influence on the worship of ancestors A funeral proces- 
 \ sion Faith in a future state 67 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CHINESE LITERATURE AND SOCIAL 
 LIFE CONTINUED. 
 
 A modern Hangchow author commenting on European astro- 
 nomy, compares the European astronomers with the in-' 
 ventors of the Buddhist cosmogony A Soochow author 
 
CONTENTS. xvii 
 
 PACK 
 
 criticises Matthew Kicci and Copernicus : his views on the 
 future state : denies the Buddhist and Taouist doctrine 
 Suitableness of Christianity to his mental condition The 
 Buddhism of private life at Soochow Interior of a man- 
 darin's dwelling Common belief in a former life, and in 
 incarnations Buddhist phrases adopted into the language 
 Terms for heaven and hell, charity, retribution, &c. . 79 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONFUCIAN AND BUDDHIST NOTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 Primitive Chinese conceptions of God and of spirits Worship 
 of heaven and earth Their ideas on Divine attributes and 
 on creation Buddhist notions of God Fuh and Poosa 
 take the place of God Buddhism is atheistic . . . 91 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TAOUIST NOTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 Gods of the sea and the tides Star-gods Sublimated essences 
 of matter transformed into planets and into divinities 
 connection of alchemy and astrology Incarnations of 
 star-gods Wen-chang, Tow-moo, Kwei-sing, Pole-star, 
 stated to be identical with God Materialistic theory of 
 creation Taouist genii, Sien-jin Buddhist element iif 
 Taouist mythology Buddhist and Taouist trinity In- 
 tellectual divinities Yuh-hwang-Shangte, god of riches 
 San-kwan Liturgical works State gods . . . 105 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MORALITY OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 -~ 
 
 / Fame of the Chinese moralists What is the Confucian mo- 
 ^-" rality ? Controversy on the universal obligation to love 
 View of Mih-tsze Controversy on human nature 
 Chinese education moral Present moral condition of 
 Chinas-Moral influence of Buddhism Klaproth praises 
 Buddhism Preservation of animal life Denial of God 
 and of Divine law Buddhist almsgiving Taouist doc- 
 trine of moral retribution in this life . . 117 
 
 b 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NOTIONS ON SIN AND REDEMPTION. 
 
 PAOH 
 
 An old man's confession Confucius admitted defect in every 
 man Buddhist consciousness of sin Bodily calamities 
 retribution for sin Confucian notion of honour For- 
 giveness on repentance Buddhist notion of redemption 
 through monastic discipline Redemption consummated 
 in the Nirvana The ten vices Forgiveness on prayer 
 and fasting The mute priest Buddha as the redeemer 
 Taouist notions of sin . . . . . . 1 29 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 (/ 
 
 NOTIONS ON IMMORTALITY AND FUTURE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Silence of Confucius on immortality Taouist conceptions of 
 the soul as material tend to the denial of immortality 
 Buddhism advocates strongly the immateriality and im- 
 mortality of the soul Chinese word for soul, Shin, 
 means invisible substance What does ancestral worship 
 show ? Three phases in the Buddhist view of the future 
 state Transmigration The six states of the metempsy- 
 chosis Yen-lo-wang, the Hindoo Yama, god of death 
 The Nirvana : corresponds to our doctrine of immor- 
 tality, and yet amounts to annihilation The paradise of 
 the Western heaven The Taouist heaven of the genii 
 Star palaces Terrestrial paradises .... 142 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHINESE OPINIONS ON CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Objections to Christianity Its prohibition of ancestral wor- 
 ship Its facts denied Use of Syrian and Jewish monu- 
 ments in defence of them The morality of the Bible 
 Exclusiveness of Christianity National prejudice 
 Charge of borrowing from Buddhism .... 153 
 
CONTENTS. xix 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Numerous converts Their ideas of Protestantism Village 
 communities Schools Seminaries for native priests 
 Life of the European priests Discussion with one of 
 them They give little attention to literature . . 166 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANS, JEWS, AND WOO-WEI BUDDHISTS. 
 
 Chinese Mohammedans numerous in the north Charged by 
 the Chinese with borrowing from Buddhism Criticisms 
 on Mohammed Jews at Kai-fung-foo near to extinction 
 Woo-wei Buddhists : use no images : their sincerity . 178 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE TAIPING INSURRECTION. 
 
 Began in a religious movement Intermingling of fanaticism 
 Not impostors Their opposition to idolatry Their 
 mixed character Unpopularity Results of this move- 
 ment An interview with one of them Hope for the 
 Protestant missions Prospects of Christian conversion 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 JOURNEY TO WOO -TAI- SHAN COMMENCED. 
 
 Left Peking on day of imperial marriage Bales of cotton 
 Paved roads Monumental gateway Chinese inn 
 Loess formation Cho-chow Deification of Kwan-te 
 Slow spread of knowledge Pau-ting-foo Pilgrim Lamas 
 A fair Tricks of mules Plank bridges Manufacture 
 of earthenware jar.s Vaccination Native politeness 
 Exchange of money Lung-tsiuen-k \vaii Village com- 
 bination against robbery 20 r 
 
xx CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 JOURNEY TO WOO-TAI-SHAN CONTINUED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lung-tsiuen-kwan passed Monastery of Arshan-bolog 
 Another, Tai-loo-sze A reader of the Bible Threshing 
 oats Overshot mill Woo-tai on a cold frosty morning 
 Dara-ehe Manjoosere seated on a lion Worship of 
 Chi-chay, an ancient Chinese Buddhist Readers of 
 Mongol Monastery of the Seven Buddhas Image of 
 Ochirwani Poo-sa-ting Present from the chief Lama 
 Old relics of Buddha Temple of Ubegun Manjoosere 
 Legends View of the valley Temple of Dara-ehe 
 Sacred dance Number of Lamas at Woo-tai Soles of 
 Buddha's feet Mongol women as pilgrims Rich tem- 
 ples Daily life of Lamas 223 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 JOURNEY FROM WOO-TA&-SHAN TO PEKING. 
 
 Splendid view from top of Pei-tai Extent of the Woo-tai 
 mountains Ten thousand feet high Kanghe's panegyric 
 Thoughts of pilgrims Heng-shan, the sacred moun- 
 tain of the Confucianists Asked for our passports 
 Selling Christian books Deep clefts in the loess forma- 
 tion The Great Wall at Ping-hing-kwan Numerous 
 beasts of burden State of the people Wages Temple 
 to Laou-kiun in a pass Temple to Kwan-te A Bud- 
 dhist advertisement Great Wall towers of A.D. 1576 
 Tsze-king-kwan A beautiful valley The fruits of good 
 and bad actions are not hidden A Buddhist doctrine 
 capable of being applied to Christian teaching . . 242 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 No richer field for examination is presented to inquiring 
 men at the present time than China. The barriers of that 
 exclusiveness that have so long hindered the investiga- 
 tions of travellers, and checked the progress of Christian 
 missions and of lawful commerce, are now broken down. 
 The Chinese national spirit deliberately placed itself in 
 direct hostility to the introduction of foreign customs and 
 ideas. The great wall that forms the northern boundary 
 of the Empire is the emphatic emblem of this national 
 exclusiveness. It is so as much in its failure to attain its 
 object as in the idea of its original construction. Several 
 times has a Tartar race broken through that ineffectual 
 barrier, and conquered the country it was intended to 
 defend. The law against the entrance of foreigners and 
 freedom of trade has proved equally useless ; and China 
 is now, through its whole extent, with its vast outlying 
 dependencies, open to Europeans. Theoretically it is so, 
 but practically the city of Lhasa and its vicinity are still 
 hermetically closed to the foreigner. 
 
 The richness of the Chinese field for inquiry is increased 
 by the centuries of isolation in which the sons of Han -have 
 preferred to live. It is this circumstance that renders its 
 contributions to the history of philosophy, literature, politics, 
 
2 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 and religion likely to prove full of freshness and instruc- 
 tion. If, since the opening of Japan, the eyes of Europe 
 have been attracted to that island-empire because of the 
 intelligence and the advance in art and civilisation of its 
 inhabitants, that of China ought to be considered even more 
 worthy of careful study, because the civilisation of Japan 
 is based upon that of China. There is something that 
 fascinates the foreign eye in the more cleanly habitations of 
 the Japanese, and their more efficient police. They please 
 by the quickness with which they learn to speak foreign 
 languages, and the desire they have to acquire Western 
 knowledge. But it should always be remembered that they 
 can boast of no remarkable inventions and discoveries, such 
 as printing, papermaking, the properties of the loadstone, 
 and its use in navigation. They study the books and 
 reverence the sages and great authors of China as we do 
 those of Greece and Koine. They derived their politics, 
 religion, and educational system from the countrymen of 
 Confucius, as they are now obtaining from us a knowledge 
 of mathematics and mechanics. They must not be then 
 regarded as equal with the Chinese for those things that 
 constitute a great nation. In Eastern Asia it is only the 
 race that spoke the Sanscrit language that can compete 
 with China in the extent and depth of its influence. 
 
 If the Chinese are not so profound in philosophy or so 
 acute in philology as the ancient Hindoos, and have never 
 had a Kapila or a Pamni among them, they have far 
 excelled that people in the practical part of a nation's 
 development. In history and politics, in social economics, 
 in practical applications of science, and in useful inven- 
 tions, they are incontrovertibly superior. The Hindoos 
 have not yet learned to write history or to record facts ; 
 they have never been able to construct a political system 
 for their country capable of becoming universal and perma- 
 nent ; and after long neglecting to imitate from the Chinese 
 the art of printing, they are only now beginning to adopt 
 it from Europeans. In the practical qualities that consti- 
 tute the greatness of a nation the Chinese are superior. 
 
CHINA MISUNDERSTOOD. 
 
 There is everything, then, to ensure to inquiries into the 
 literature and social condition of China interesting results. 
 But it is necessary to limit the field of inquiry. There 
 have been many books written on that country, with a 
 chapter on everything. It is this circumstance that renders 
 them unsatisfactory to those who seek information on some 
 particular subject. For example, on the character of their 
 religions there still remains much to be said. Those who 
 have described China have spoken with some fulness of 
 detail on the Confucian system, but they have given too 
 little attention to the religions of Buddha and Taou. There 
 is room, then, for a work like the present, which sketches 
 the religious condition of the people at the present time 
 from actual observation. Space is wanting in a volume 
 like this to enter adequately into the subject. To do this 
 there is need of a book larger in dimensions, that should 
 do a little more justice to many of the questions that here 
 occur to be considered, and also attempt the narrative of 
 the birth, progress, and existing state of the religions of 
 China. 
 
 We Europeans do not yet know China. It assumes to 
 our imaginations a certain quaint and ludicrous aspect, 
 which interferes with a correct opinion of its condition. 
 The first who visited it were travellers of the Middle Ages, 
 who, even if they had not found in it a country resembling 
 iu its civilisation Europe as it then was, would have given 
 to their descriptions of it a mediaeval colouring, because 
 they were themselves mediaeval men. The picturesque 
 pages of Sir John Mandeville, and the more detailed 
 accounts of Marco Polo, told such wonderful things of 
 China, that their readers did not feel sure whether they 
 were dealing in fact or fiction. Ever since that time the 
 Western world has agreed to look at China through a 
 coloured glass, as, indeed, the inhabitants of that country 
 look at us. We see in them much that is singular and pro- 
 vocative of laughter, and they imagine that we exhibit char- 
 acteristics just as adapted to excite the sense of risibility. 
 
4 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 In acquiring a true view of a nation, there is nothing 
 more helpful than an acquaintance with its religious opin- 
 / ions. They are too intimately connected with the spiritual 
 and intellectual life of a nation not to be excellent expon- 
 ents of its true character, and too real not to demand very 
 grave consideration. The religions of India and China are 
 invested with an interest high in proportion to the advance- 
 ment in science and the arts of those who "believe them. 
 God has left these nations to the unassisted light of nature 
 and reason for an unusually long period. They have had 
 ample opportunities for doing what man by wisdom can 
 do, to find out God as He is in Himself and in His relations 
 to us. The history of all heathen religions is the history 
 of the ineffectual efforts made by mankind to seek after 
 God, to know the nature and certainty of our immortality, 
 and to devise means of salvation. There will always be, 
 as there always has been, the intermixture of priestcraft 
 and kingcraft with these religions ; but their prime element 
 is found in the natural longings and hopes of a religious 
 kind that men have. It is these that give to priests and 
 statesmen the opportunity to use popular superstitions for 
 their own advantage as engines of power. All this comes 
 i r ery clearly to view in the religions of China. 
 
 Two results will be observed to follow from a careful 
 study of the religion of the Chinese. The real life of the 
 nation will be better understood, and questions connected 
 with natural theology will receive some fresh illustrations. 
 It will be shown, by new examples, how men, who have 
 not the light of Christianity, seek for something better 
 than they possess, and how they try to satisfy themselves 
 with a substitute, extremely unsatisfactory though it may 
 be, for those truths which revelation teaches. 
 
 The most noteworthy name in all Chinese history is that 
 of Confucius. He was one of those who, unaided, except 
 by the light of calm reflection, read more clearly than 
 most the lessons conveyed in the unwritten book of God's 
 law. A true sage was Confucius, one who reasoned soberly 
 
CONFUCIUS. 5 
 
 and practically on human duty-; a man to attract towards 
 himself high veneration on account of his personal character 
 and the subjects and manner of his teaching. He lived in 
 the sixth century before Christ, a hundred years later than 
 Buddha, and a hundred years earlier than Socrates. He 
 found a religion already existing in China, with a very 
 practical system of morals, which first and last has always 
 given it its special character. No character in history is 
 less mythological than Confucius. He is no demigod whose 
 biography consists chiefly of fable, but a real person. The 
 facts of his life, the personal aspect of the man, the places 
 where he lived, the petty kings under whom he served, are 
 all known. He was a critic of the ancient books composed 
 by earlier sages. He wrote a history of the times imme- 
 diately preceding his own. He edited the national book 
 of history, the " Shoo-king." He published a collection of 
 national poetry. He attempted to give a philosophical 
 character to the ancient divining book called the "Yih- 
 king," not surely because he had any predilection for 
 divination, but because he revered the memory of the 
 celebrated men who had transmitted it. So high was his 
 respect for antiquity, that he could not think slightingly 
 of the system of divination which had been practised by 
 the best Chinese kings up to and beyond the boundary 
 line between history and fable. He also edited a work 
 upon the state religion which described the rites, popular 
 and imperial, which are to be performed to the superior 
 powers. 
 
 Confucius taught 3000 disciples^ of whom the more 
 eminent became influential authors. Like Plato and Xeno- 
 phon, they recorded the sayings of their master, and his 
 maxims and arguments, preserved in their works, were 
 afterwards added to the national collection of the sacred 
 books called the Nine Classics. ^ 
 
 There was nothing ascetic,' nothing spiritual,. in the reli- 
 gion of Confucius. The questions to which it replied were, 
 How shall I do my duty to my neighbour ? How shall I 
 
6 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 best discharge the duty of a virtuous citizen ? It attempted 
 no reply to the higher questions! How am I connected with 
 the spiritual world beyond what t see ? What is the destiny 
 of my immaterial nature? How can I rise above the 
 dominion of the passions and of the senses ? Another 
 religion attempted to reply to these inquiries, but it made 
 poor work of the answers. 
 
 Contemporary with Confucius, there was an old man, 
 afterwards known as Laou-tsoo, who meditated in a 
 philosophic mood upon the more profound necessities and 
 capacities of the^human soul. He did so in a way that 
 Confucius, the prophet of the practical, could not well 
 comprehend. He conversed with him once, but never 
 repeated his visit, for he could not understand him. Laou- 
 tsoo recommended quiet reflection. Water that is still is 
 . also clear, and you may see deeply into it. Noise and pas- 
 sion are fatal to spiritual progress. The stars are invisible 
 through a clouded sky. Nourish the perceptive powers of 
 the soul in purity and rest. A philosopher, called Chwang- 
 chow, who seconded him in these researches, was not only 
 very meditative and fond of soaring high in the region of 
 pure ideas, but was also sarcastic and controversial. He 
 threw ridicule on the want of philosophical depth exhibited 
 by Confucius,, and extolled the doctrine of Taou, the name 
 which the system of Laou-tsoo had assumed. Their followers 
 were called Taouists ; but it was not said by the leaders 
 of the new sect how their principles should be practically 
 carried out, so that their disciples were left to choose what 
 discipline and mode of operation they pleased to constitute 
 the religious life and to effect its objects. They became 
 alchemists, astrologers, and geomancers, or else they adopted 
 the hermit life. It was not till many years after that they 
 imitated, from the Buddhists, the monastic system and idol 
 worship. 
 
 It was in the first century of the Christian era that 
 Buddhism entered China from India. In obedience to a 
 dream, the Emperor Ming- te sent ambassadors to the West 
 
BUDDHISM AND BRAHMANISM. 7 
 
 to bring back a god from thence. They returned with an 
 image of Buddha; and soon after some monks from the 
 banks of the Ganges came to the Chinese court to propa- 
 gate their religion. During several centuries this new 
 faith struggled for existence and influence in the country. 
 The emperors treated it with alternate patronage and per- 
 secution. The Buddhists from India came peaceably, 
 teaching the Chinese to revere their pompous ritual and 
 their placid, benevolent, and thoughtful divinities. They 
 spread among them the doctrine of the separate existence 
 of the soul, and its transmigration into the bodies of 
 animals. They also pleased their imaginations with 
 splendid pictorial scenes of far-away worlds, filled with 
 light, inhabited by Buddhas, Bodhisattwas, and angelic 
 beings, and richly adorned with precious stones, charming 
 animals, and lovely flowers. In this way they enticed the 
 Chinese into idolatry. 
 
 The difference between Buddhism and Brahmanism con* 
 sists very much in this. The Buddhists place the popular 
 Hindoo divinities in a very humble position. They allow 
 them to exist, but they give them very little power; 
 they are made to act as listening pupils or as keepers 
 of the door to Buddha and his disciples. The common 
 Hindoos suppose these same divinities, Brahma, Seeva, 
 Shakra, &c., to have very great influence, and to be con- 
 stantly exercising a control over human affairs. They 
 erect temples specially to them, deprecating their anger, 
 and earnestly desiring their protection. The Buddhists 
 pay them no such honours. There is no terror to them 
 in the name of a god. They believe that higher power 
 belongs to Buddha, the self-elevated man. In this there 
 is one essential difference between the two religious. 
 
 There is a remarkable, though a less, distinction between 
 the Buddhism of China and of Tibet. In regard to philo- 
 sophy there is little or no difference ; but in Tibet there 
 is a hierarchy which exercises political power. In China 
 this could not be. The Grand Lama and many other 
 
8 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 Lamas in Mongolia and Tibet assume the title of " Living 
 Buddha." In him most of all Buddha is incarnate, as the 
 people are taught to think. He never dies. When the 
 body in which Buddha is for the time incarnate ceases to 
 perform its functions, some infant is chosen by the priests 
 who are intrusted with the duty of selecting, to become 
 the residence of Buddha, till, in turn, it grows up to man- 
 hood and dies. No Buddhist priest in China pretends to 
 l)e a " living Buddha," or to have a right to the exercise of 
 political power. In Tibet, on the other hand, the Grand 
 Lama, as chief of the " living Buddhas," not only holds the 
 place of the historical Buddha, long since dead, acting as a 
 sort of high-priest, he also exercises sovereignty over the 
 country of Tibet, ruling the laity as well as the clergy, and 
 being only subordinate to the lord paramount, the Emperor 
 of China. 
 
 In the study of Buddhism, the distinction between the 
 northern and southern form should be always kept in view. 
 It is to Burnouf that we owe the first clear separation of 
 these two chief parties into which the Buddhists are 
 divided. The priests of Ceylon, Birmah, and Si am have 
 their sacred books in the Pali language, which is later in 
 age than the Sanscrit. The monks of Nepaul, Tibet, China, 
 and the other northern countries where this religion is pro- 
 fessed, either preserve the books of their religion in San- 
 scrit, or have translations made immediately from Sanscrit. 
 Sanscrit is the mother of Pali, and was spoken quite late 
 in some of the mountainous kingdoms of Northern India. 
 Another great distinction is in the books themselves. The 
 fundamental books of both the great Buddhist parties 
 appear to be the same, but the northern Buddhists have 
 added many important works professing to consist of the 
 sayings of Buddha, yet in reality fictitious. They belong 
 to the school called the Great Development School, which 
 is so denominated to distinguish it from the Lesser Develop- 
 ment School, common to the north and the south. In the 
 additions made by the northern Buddhists are included the 
 
BUDDHISM. 9 
 
 fiction of the Western Paradise and the fable of Amitabha 
 and Kwan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy. These personages 
 are exclusively northern, and are entirely unknown to the 
 south of Nepaul. In the south the Hindoo traditions in 
 respect to cosmogony and mythology are adhered to more 
 rigidly ; while in the north a completely new and far more 
 extensive universe, with divinities to correspond, is repre- 
 sented to exist in the books, and is believed to exist by 
 the people. 
 
 The Buddhism of Mongolia is derived from Tibet, as 
 that of Corea, Japan, and Cochin China is from China. 
 There are no more devout adorers of the Grand Lama 
 than the Mongols, and on account of the religious pre- 
 dilections of these rude tribes, the Tartar emperors have 
 always paid great respect to the priests who follow the 
 Tibetan form <of Buddhism. Several large monasteries 
 exist at Peking and at Wbo-tae-shan, in the province of 
 Shanse, where many thousand Tibetan and Mongolian 
 lamas (the Tibetan name for monk) are supported at the 
 expense of the Government. In the countries to the east 
 of China, the translations made from Sanscrit into Chinese 
 are employed. The names of divinities are also preserved, 
 as are the schools into which the Chinese Buddhists have 
 become divided on account of their differences in opinion 
 on matters of philosophy. 
 
 All these forms of Buddhism have come from a common 
 origin. It was Shakyamuui, who, according to some autho- 
 rities, lived in the seventh century before Christ, but really 
 in the fifth, that instituted the monastic life of Buddhism 
 and the practice of public preaching. The Buddhists of 
 China very seldom now discharge the duty of public 
 preaching, but the name is kept up, and a room in the 
 monasteries is set apart for it. This great religious leader 
 lived to a ripe old age, and taught many disciples. His 
 doctrines spread rapidly during his life and after his death. 
 His remains were universally revered as eminently sacred, 
 and worthy of religious adoration. A hair, a tooth, a piece 
 
 OP THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 \^ 
 
io RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 of bone, a particle of hair in a transformed state, were pre- 
 served in temples, or had costly tombs erected over them 
 or near them. This was the origin of the pagodas of China. 
 A pagoda is an ornamental tomb erected over the remains 
 of a Buddhist priest, or intended for the safe keeping of 
 holy relics. This original design has, however, often been 
 departed from, and buildings of this sort are erected in 
 many cases as ornaments to monasteries, and because the 
 neighbours believe that in the presence of a pagoda they 
 have security from certain calamities that might befall 
 their agriculture, their trade, or their dwellings. 1 
 
 After some time Buddhism became the favourite religion 
 
 O 
 
 of the kings of India, Buddha himself, the historical person 
 distinguished with that title, belonged to the Kshatrya, or 
 royal caste, which predisposed the royal families of India 
 in his favour. But early in the Christian era the Brah- 
 nians exerted themselves to destroy the new religion that 
 had sprung up in India. They succeeded at last in driving 
 it out of Hindostan. This persecution led to the wide 
 propagation of Buddhism in the neighbouring countries. 
 When the Chinese Heuen-tsang visited the sacred places 
 of his religion, near Benares and Patna, in the seventh 
 century, he found that Buddhism had very much declined. 
 It was no long time afterwards that it almost entirely dis- 
 appeared from India. 
 
 The chapters of this work are a series of sketches, illus- 
 trative of the religious condition of the Chinese as affected 
 by the mutual relation of these three religions to each 
 other. There are other religions in China, and something 
 is also said of them ; but these three are far the most influ- 
 ential in point of numbers and social position. 
 
 Kesearches into the religions of mankind have a high 
 interest of their own; no subject out of the domain of 
 pure truth can have more. But perhaps the most impor- 
 tant circumstance in studies of this nature is the bearing 
 
 1 Many details on the subject of pagodas are collected by Mr. Milne in his 
 work "Life iu China." 
 
FOREIGN I NFL UENCE INC RE A SING. 1 1 
 
 that they have upon the future spread of Christianity. 
 These systems take the place in the belief of mankind 
 that ought to be held by the doctrines of the Bible. In 
 subverting the ancient idolatries of Europe, learned argu- 
 ments against them and apologies for Christianity were 
 written. To overthrow the religions of the East, the 
 Christian advocate there must make great use of the press. 
 The careful study of the articles of a heathen's faith, and 
 of the superstitions to which his religious susceptibilities 
 cling, becomes necessary. The work now in the reader's 
 hands is a sort of introduction to these studies in the 
 Chinese field. 
 
 England fifty years ngo opened China to the Christian 
 world. The attention of the statesman, the merchant, and 
 the man of science, is drawn to it as a country that must 
 henceforth be the scene of increased European enterprise 
 Commerce must thrive there in a growing ratio. Travellers 
 in pursuit of new information in geography, geology, and 
 natural history must be attracted there from all countries 
 where these sciences are studied with zeal. Various foreign 
 powers will struggle there for predominating influence. 
 None of these different classes of men who visit China, 
 or study it through books, can be expected to pass by its 
 religious condition; but this subject is most important of 
 all to those who desire to see the Christian faith becomin^ 
 
 O 
 
 triumphant there over all opposing systems. 
 
 Christianity was said, by some of the early Eomish mis- 
 sionaries, to have been introduced into China by the Apostle 
 Thomas. This statement, they said, there was evidence 
 for in the traditions of the Chinese. The Buddhists speak 
 of a celebrated ascetic named Tamo as having come from 
 India by sea early in the sixth century. His full name in 
 Sanscrit was Bodhidharma. There is no want of particular 
 information respecting him as to his religious opinions and 
 his biography. There were at the time 3000 Hindoos in 
 China helping to propagate the Buddhist faith. The early 
 Eomish missionaries, having very insufficient information 
 
12 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 on Chinese history and religions, caught at the name Tamo 
 as a Chinese form of the word Thomas, and the description 
 of his personal character, as a severe ascetic and worker of 
 miracles, decided them in regarding him as identical with 
 the Christian apostle. 
 
 Whether Christianity was preached in that country be- 
 fore the time of the Syrian Christians we do not know. 
 The Jews arrived there much earlier than the Nestorians. 
 If there were also teachers of Christianity, all historical 
 traces of them are wanting till the Tang dynasty. What 
 we know of the Nestorian missions extends from A.D. 636 
 to 781, the period included in the Chinese monument 
 erected by the converts of those missions, and containing a 
 short history of them, with an abstract of the Christian 
 religion. This monument, found buried in the soil two 
 centuries ago, shows that though afterwards they declined 
 and disappeared, it was not from want of zeal in the first 
 missionaries. For the first century and a half they extended 
 themselves rapidly. Their bishops and archbishops were 
 appointed from the schools in Mesopotamia, the head- 
 quarters of the missions. It was the Syrian missionaries 
 that first taught Christianity to the Mongols, and intro- 
 duced among them the art of writing. The present Mon- 
 golian alphabet, which is that used by the Manchoos in 
 China, is a modification of the Syrian. Prester John was 
 a Tartar prince, who became the neophyte of the same 
 zealous missionaries. Like the other Oriental churches, 
 the Nestorians gradually lost their ardent faith and evan- 
 gelistic enthusiasm. Their missionaries ceased to visit 
 China, arid the converts there gradually diminished, till 
 the last remains of them were lost in the troubles that in 
 the fourteenth century attended the expulsion of the Mon- 
 gols from China. Native authors speak of three foreign 
 sects as having existed in the seventh century in China : the 
 Eoman (Ta-tsin), 1 the Manicheans (Mani), and the Mahoni- 
 
 1 Some Romanist writers translate Nestorian tablet at Se-ngan-foo, prc 
 Ta-tsin, Judaea. Mr. Wylie, in his fers to render it Syria. 
 interacting and valuable notes on the 
 
ROMAN CA THOLIC MISSIONS. 1 3 
 
 medans. By the "Roman" they mean the Nestorian 
 Christians, who belonged, at the time they reached China, 
 to the Eastern Eoman Empire, and who assumed the name 
 that they found already in use in China to designate the 
 part of the world from which they came. It is curious 
 to find traces of the Manicheans in China. The word 
 Mani can mean no other religionists than they, and 
 church history tells how widely they were spread in the 
 time of Augustine. A circumstance still more curious is, 
 that Manes derived part of his system from the Buddhists. 
 So Neander tells us. Resident in Persia, he had Christi- 
 anity on the west, Buddhism on the east, and the system 
 of Zoroaster in his own locality. His religion was derived 
 from these three sources. Referring to Chinese history of 
 a time very little later, we iind notices of Ms sect, of the 
 Parsees or fire-worshippers, of Christianity in the Nestorian 
 form, and of Buddhism, existing side by side. Buddhism 
 only was become the popular faith through all China. The 
 other three were but striving for existence, and in a few 
 centuries they entirely died out. 
 
 The next attempt made to introduce Christianity was 
 by the Papal missionaries of the Mongolian period. One 
 result of the extraordinary career of Zinghis Khan was the 
 opening of the way for travellers to and fro across the vast 
 plains of Central Asia. What was impracticable while the 
 nomad races of Tartary were without a head, and while 
 Asia was split into small kingdoms, became easy of accom- 
 plishment when the short-lived empire of the Mongols was 
 formed. It was then that the Polos resided for some time 
 in China, and that our own Sir John Mandeville served as 
 a soldier for several years under the Emperor of China. It 
 was then, also, that Archbishop John of Peking, a mission- 
 ary from the Pope, attempted, during a lengthened resi- 
 dence, to establish a permanent mission in the metropolis 
 of the Grand Khan. 
 
 In the time of Queen Elizabeth, the Eoman Catholic 
 Church recommenced its efforts to propagate Latin Christi- 
 
14 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 anity in China. This time they were more successful, for 
 they made greater exertions than before. It was the age 
 for new enterprises. America and the way to India had 
 been discovered a hundred years earlier, and missions had 
 been founded in the Portuguese settlements in the East. 
 The system of Copernicus had been published to the world, 
 and Protestantism was victorious in Germany. The won- 
 derful Cathay was once more open to the knowledge of 
 Europeans, and there was a vast nation of infidels to be 
 converted to the true faith. While Catholicism was on 
 the wane in Europe, it might be extended by missionary 
 operations in Asia. The Jesuits resolved to enter on this 
 new field. Enthusiastic men have never been wanting to 
 enlist under the banner of Jesuitism. They are charmed 
 by the grandeur of its plans and the glory of the life to 
 which it invites them. The Papacy was sagacious enough 
 to see that youths of noble and self-denying zeal could 
 have assigned to them no more suitable occupation than 
 that of preaching Christianity in China and other heathen 
 lands. Hence there came a succession of men from the 
 Jesuit schools, who, for high scientific culture and devotion 
 to their religion and their order, have not been surpassed 
 by any body of missionaries in any age. The character of 
 the converts belonging to the Eomanist communion at the 
 present day in China is probably superior to what it is in 
 India and in some other heathen countries. Many among 
 them may be met with who have a good acquaintance with 
 the doctrines and facts of Christianity, and not a few have 
 suffered nobly the bitterest persecution, and have preferred 
 their religion to life. Unfortunately, Catholicism must 
 everywhere carry with it the worship of the Madonna, 
 the masses for the dead, the crucifix, and the rosary. Some 
 of the books the Jesuits have published in Chinese contain 
 the purest Christian truth ; but it is an unhappy circum- 
 stance that they must be accompanied by others which 
 teach frivolous superstition. We should be better satis- 
 fied on meeting with converts of enlightened minds and 
 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 15 
 
 apparently devout feeling, if we did not meet with many 
 more who, instead of revealing intelligence and piety, have 
 nothing to show as evidence of their Christianity but a 
 crucifix and a picture. 
 
 The prospect of the introduction of true Bible Christi- 
 anity into China is upon the whole highly favourable and 
 encouraging. The number of conversions that have taken 
 place in the free ports since the war of 1 842 will well bear 
 comparison with those of other countries where missionaries 
 labour. Among the native preachers that have been trained 
 to assist the foreign missionaries, there are some devoted men 
 and eloquent expounders of Bible truth. At Amoy, five 
 hundred converts abstain from worldly business every Sab- 
 bath-day, and meet for praise and prayer in God's house. 
 Xear to ISTingpo there are some interesting little communi- 
 ties that have sprung up amidst the village population 
 through the operations of native catechists. In the region 
 called Sanpoh, noted for the roughness of its inhabitants, 
 the labours of these men have been so far aided with the 
 blessing of God that the nucleus of two or three bodies of 
 village Christians lias been originated, which are likely to 
 thrive in respect of numbers and of zeal. In the neighbour- 
 hood of Shanghai, missionaries have frequently succeeded 
 in effecting a residence in several cities and towns. On 
 two occasions the British consul has, at the instance of 
 Chinese government officers, recalled one of his country- 
 men to Shanghai. But several residences of some months 
 in duration have been effected, and the rite of baptism has 
 been administered to converts in three cities and several 
 villages as the result of these rural efforts. At the present 
 time the work of conversion progresses in an increasing 
 ratio, and there is much reason to take a sanguine view of 
 the probable spread of Bible Christianity in China. 
 
 There is a hindrance to the Protestant missions which 
 did not meet the agents of the propaganda. The practice 
 of opium-smoking, entailing much personal suffering and 
 family wretchedness, is a great hindrance to the success of 
 
16 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 missionary efforts. The introduction of opium by foreign 
 merchants has given to the nations engaged in the traffic 
 an ill name among the Chinese. England has the greatest 
 share in the dislike that the Chinese feel for those who 
 bring opium to their shores. They remember that we 
 fought for freedom of trade in this deleterious article of 
 commerce ; and now they will remember also that it was 
 through our influence, employed in the hour of our suc- 
 cess, that their Government was induced to class it with 
 legitimate imports. These things grievously interfere with 
 our good reputation among the people of that country, and 
 lead them to feel a prejudice against our religion. Mis- 
 sionaries from Great Britain have not a fair field for their 
 efforts in China while the national honour is still stained 
 by the cultivation of the poppy and the preparation of 
 opium under the immediate direction of the Indian Go- 
 vernment. If free trade may not be interfered with, our 
 Government, at least, should not make the providing of 
 opium for the Chinese market a national act. Every 
 British missionary would rejoice if he could say to those 
 who so often ask him why his countrymen bring opium, 
 " Our nation has nothing to do with the traffic or with the 
 preparation of this drug." He could meet the questions 
 and taunts of his Chinese auditors far better if he were 
 able so to speak. 
 
 This is not the place to enter upon the opium question, 
 except to show, as has just been done, its bearing on our 
 missionary operations. On these its effects are too mis- 
 chievous and too painful not to produce depressing 
 thoughts in every missionary's mind. But a correction 
 needs to be made of the mistaken opinion, that the 
 Chinese have rendered opium contraband only for fear 
 of losing their silver. This error has been committed by 
 some who, with the means of information at their com- 
 mand, ought to have known the Chinese better. Mr. 
 Crawf urd said once at Leeds, in a lecture on China, " The 
 moral branch of the argument, as used by the Chinese, is 
 
INCREASE OF OPIUM-SMOKING. 17 
 
 a mere make-weight to assist the real one, which is, that 
 opium was robbing China of the precious metals." 
 
 These words, used by one who had been many years 
 resident in the East, were adapted to convey quite a wrong 
 impression, and to do harm in proportion to the experi- 
 ence and authority of the speaker. The reason of the 
 antipathy of the Chinese to opium is, that it injures the 
 moral character of individuals, involves them in habits 
 which dissipate the wealth of families, robs men of the 
 right government of themselves, renders them indolent 
 and sensual, and too often occasions them a wretched 
 existence and an early grave. Certainly there has been 
 quite enough in the rapid spread of opium-smoking to 
 alarm the Chinese. If such a habit had grown up in our 
 own country in as short a time, the alarm with which it 
 would have been witnessed would have been caused far 
 more by deep moral and religious sentiments than by the 
 circumstance that it would seriously affect our money 
 market. Much more must it be so with the Chinese, who 
 thoroughly understand what morality is, while they know 
 little of the modern science of political economy. 
 
 Since the preceding paragraphs were written, the opium question 
 lias gone through new phases. At the present time (December 
 1 892) the provinces of Kiangsoo, Chekiang, Fukien, Formosa, and 
 Canton are still supplied with Indian opium. The remaining fifteen 
 provinces use native opium. Three-fourths, or at least two-thirds, 
 of the demand made by China as a whole are met by the native 
 poppy cultivators. The export of Indian opium to China has some- 
 what diminished, but not much. It is thus shown that probably 
 three persons smoke opium now for one who smoked it half a cen- 
 tury ago. At present nearly half a million chests of opium are pro- 
 vided for Chinese consumption. In China the mischief is done. 
 In India the present is the time for energetic action on the part of 
 the Government. The plague is spreading, but it may be prevented 
 from doing further harm by the vigorous interference of the Indian 
 administration. If the British Government would put down opium 
 smoking in India and Burmah, the Chinese might imitate such a 
 beneficent policy, and then there would be hope for the deliverance 
 of China from the scourge. ^ 
 
 B 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IMPERIAL WORSHIP. 
 
 THE imperial worship of China is ancient, elaborate, and 
 solemn. At the establishment of each new line of em- 
 perors fresh regulations in regard to sacrifices are enjoined, 
 but it is usual to follow old precedents to a very large 
 extent. 
 
 The study of the old Chinese worship is specially inter- 
 esting, because it takes us back to the early history of the 
 Chinese people, and introduces as to many striking points 
 of comparison with the patriarchal religion of the Old 
 Testament, and with the worship of the kings of Nineveh, 
 Babylon, and Egypt. 
 
 In the year 1644, at Peking, the first of the Manchu 
 line of emperors, on the first day of the tenth lunar month, 
 proceeded to the altar of Heaven and Earth to offer sacri- 
 fice, and announce that he had mounted the throne of 
 China. 
 
 The prayer in which this announcement was made was 
 in great part as follows : 
 
 "I, the son of heaven, of the Great Pure dynasty, 
 humbly as a subject dare to make an announcement to 
 imperial Heaven and sovereign Earth. Though the world 
 is vast, God 1 looks on all without partiality. My imperial 
 grandfather received the gracious decree of Heaven, and 
 founded a kingdom in the East, which became firmly 
 established. My imperial father succeeding to the king- 
 
 1 God is here Te, a word the same place of the second personal pronoun, 
 in meaning with Shang-te, the ancient which could not be employed without 
 name for God in China, It is used in a breach of reverence. 
 
 18 
 
 
PRAYER OF THE EMPEROR SHUN-CHE. 19 
 
 dom, extended it till it grew wider and more powerful. I, 
 Heaven's servant, in my poor person, became the inheritor 
 of the dominion they transmitted. 
 
 " When the Ming dynasty was coming to its end, traitors 
 and men of violence appeared in crowds, involving the 
 people in misery. China was without a ruler. It fell to 
 me reverentially to accept the responsibility of continuing 
 the meritorious work of my ancestors. I saved the people, 
 exterminated those who oppressed them, and now, in ac- 
 cordance with the desire of all, I fix the urns of empire at 
 Yen-king at present. I am told by all that the divine 
 assistance must not be left unrecognised or repaid by in- 
 gratitude, and that I ought to ascend the throne, and 
 restore order to the ten thousand kingdoms. 
 
 " I, receiving Heaven's favour, and in agreement with 
 the wishes of the people, on this the first day of the tenth 
 month, announce to Heaven that I have ascended the 
 throne of the empire, that the name I have chosen for 
 my government is the Ta-tsing (Great Pure) dynasty, and 
 that the title of my reign is, as before, Shun-che. 
 
 " I beg reverentially of Heaven and Earth to protect 
 and assist the empire, so that calamity and disturbance 
 may soon come to an end, and the empire enjoy universal 
 peace. For this I humbly pray, and for the acceptance of 
 this sacrifice." 
 
 Officers were despatched at the same time to the Temple 
 of Ancestors, and to the altars of the spirits of Grain and 
 Land, to offer sacrifices and make similar announcements. 
 
 The chief centre of the religious solemnities embraced 
 in the imperial worship is the altar of Heaven. This is in 
 the outer city of Peking, and is distant two miles from the 
 palace. 
 
 There are two altars, the southern, which is called 
 Yuen-kew, or " round hillock," and the northern, which 
 has upon it a lofty temple, called Che-nien-tien, " temple 
 for prayers for (a fruitful) year." 
 
 Leside special occasions, such as the establishment of a 
 
20 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 dynasty, the conclusion of a successful military campaign, 
 or the accession of an emperor, there are three regular 
 services in each year. They are at the winter solstice, at 
 the beginning of spring, and at -the summer solstice. The 
 first and last of these are performed on the southern altar, 
 the second at the northern. 
 
 The spectacle is most imposing. The Emperor proceeds 
 the evening before, drawn by an elephant, and accompa- 
 nied by grandees, princes, and attendants, to the number 
 of about two thousand. He passes several hours of the 
 night within the park of the altar of Heaven, in a struc- 
 ture called Chai-kung, or Palace of Fasting, which corre- 
 sponds to the " Lodge for passing the night while upon 
 the road," mentioned 1 in the classical work " Chow-le." 
 
 Here the Emperor prepares himself by quiet thought 
 for the sacrifice. He spends the time in silence ; and, to 
 remind him of the duty of serious meditation, a copper 
 man fifteen inches high, attired as a Tauist priest, is car- 
 ried in the procession, and placed before him on his right, 
 as he sits in the fasting-hall. The image bears in its hand 
 a tablet inscribed, " Fast for three days." It is intended 
 to assist the Emperor to keep his thoughts fixed. The 
 idea is, that if there be not pious thoughts in his mind, the 
 spirits of the unseen will not come to the sacrifice. The 
 three fingers of the left hand of the image are placed over 
 the mouth, to teach silence to the monarch of three hun- 
 dred millions of people while he prepares himself for the 
 ceremony. 2 
 
 The altar of Heaven consists of three marble terraces, 
 circular, and ascended by twenty-seven steps. The upper- 
 most of the three terraces is paved with eighty-one stones, 
 arranged in circles. It is on a round stone in the centre 
 of these circles that the Emperor kneels. Odd numbers 
 
 1 Loo-tsim-che-sh'i, "road sleeping- the Ming dynasty, who gave the order 
 house." to have this image made for the pur- 
 
 2 It was Choo-tai-tsoo, founder of pose above stated, A.D. 1380. 
 
THE ALTARS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 21 
 
 only are used, and especially multiples of three and nine, 
 in the structure of this altar. 
 
 As the visitor stands on this terrace, he sees on the 
 north the chapel for preserving the tablets, beyond it a 
 semicircular wall, and farther still the buildings connected 
 with the north altar and temple. This temple is ninety- 
 nine Chinese feet in height, and has a triple roof, with 
 blue tiles.* Both altars are ascended by four nights of 
 steps, towards the four cardinal points. Behind the visi- 
 tor, a stone's throw from the altar on the south-east, is 
 the furnace for the burnt-sacrifice, in which a bullock is 
 consumed to ashes. On the south-west are three lofty 
 lantern poles, the light from which is very conspicuous 
 in the darkness of the winter night at the solstice, when 
 the kneeling crowd, headed by the Emperor, is engaged on 
 the successive terraces of the altar and the marble pave- 
 ment below in performing the prostrations appointed in 
 this the most solemn act of Chinese worship. 
 
 The two altars, with the park, three miles in circuit, 
 which surrounds them, date from A.D. 1421, when the 
 third emperor of the Ming dynasty left Nanking, and 
 made Peking the capital. At first Heaven and Earth were 
 worshipped together, according to the appointment of the 
 Emperor Tai-tsoo ; but in A.D. 1531 it was decreed that 
 there should be separate altars for Heaven and Earth. 
 
 The upper terrace of the great south altar is 220 feet in 
 diameter, and nine feet high; the second 105 feet in dia- 
 meter, and eight feet high ; the third and lowest is fifty- 
 nine feet in diameter, and eight feet one inch in height. 
 The entire height, then, is twenty-five feet two inches, but 
 the base is already raised five feet by a gradual ascent. 
 The low encircling wall is roofed with blue tiles. 
 
 In place of the green porcelain furnace on the south- 
 east for the burnt sacrifice, there was anciently an altar on 
 the south called Tae-tan. The word tan, " altar," shows that 
 in the time of the " Le-ke," one of the classics, which uses 
 this term in describing it, it was an altar, and not a furnace. 
 
 1 It has since been burnt, having been set fire to by lightning. 
 
22 . RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The altar on which the Emperor kneels, and where the 
 written prayer is burned, corresponds to the Jewish altai 
 of incense. The furnace, or rather the altar, which it now 
 represents, corresponds to the Jewish altar of burnt-offer- 
 ing. The furnace is nine feet high and seven feet wide, 
 and is placed outside the low inner wall which surrounds 
 the altar ; and when the smoke and flames are ascending, 
 and the odour of the burning flesh is spreading on every 
 side, that part of the sacrificial ceremonies takes place 
 which is called " looking at the flame " (wang liau}. 
 
 Outside of the furnace is the outer wall, distant 150 feet 
 from the inner. Beside it is the pit for burying the hair 
 and blood of the victims, a ceremony instituted apparently 
 with the idea that it would be possible in this way to con- 
 vey the sacrifice to the spirits of the earth, just as the 
 smoke and flame of the burnt- offering convey the sacri- 
 fice to the spirits of heaven. 
 
 It is impossible here to avoid seeing a striking resem- 
 blance to the Eoman sacrifices which contained the burial 
 ceremony, with a similar idea attached to it, in their wor- 
 ship of the terrestrial divinities. 
 
 This and the holocaust seem to link the Chinese sacri- 
 fices very closely with the ancient religions of the "Western 
 world. 
 
 The animals are slaughtered on the east side of the altar, 
 everything appertaining to the kitchen requiring to be upon 
 the east side. 
 
 They consist of cows, sheep, hares, deer, and pigs. 
 Horses were formerly used, but not now. 1 The house 
 where these animals are kept is on the north-west of the 
 altar, near the hall in which the musicians and dancers 
 who take part in the sacrificial ceremonies meet to prac- 
 tise for these occasions. 
 
 1 Animals offered in sacrifice must them for sacrifice. That which ia 
 
 be those in use for human food. There good for food is good for sacrifice is 
 
 is no trace in China of any distinction the principle guiding in their selec- 
 
 between clean and unclean animals, tion. 
 as furnishing a principle in selecting 
 
REVERENCE OF ANCESTORS. 23 
 
 The idea of a sacrifice is that of a banquet ; and when a 
 sacrifice is performed to the supreme spirit of Heaven, the 
 honour paid is believed by the Chinese to be increased by 
 inviting other guests. The emperors of China invite their 
 ancestors to sit at the banquet with Shang-te, the supreme 
 ruler. A father is to be honoured as heaven, and a mother 
 as earth. In no way oould more perfect reverence be 
 shown than in placing a father's tablet on the altar with 
 that of Shang-te. Yet, at the same time, another idea is 
 present: the Emperor desires, in fulfilment of the duty 
 of filial piety, to pay the greatest possible honour to his 
 parent. The natural love of parents, and the selfish wish 
 to exalt their own lineage, have doubtless often had more 
 force in the minds of emperors, when settling these mat- 
 ters, than any disinterested wish they might feel to honour 
 Heaven. But then, again, they do as they are advised. 
 The experienced and aged statesmen with whom they take 
 counsel act according to precedent, and invariably recom- 
 mend the placing of the Emperor's ancestral tablets on the 
 altar of sacrifice with that of Shang-te. To their opinion 
 the emperors have always assented. Of the five Tartar 
 dynasties that have at Afferent times ruled China, there 
 has never been one that has not accepted the Chinese 
 religion, and this not, it may be, from state reasons only, 
 but because the old religion of the Tartar races was essen- 
 tially the same as that of China. 
 
 On the upper terrace of the altar the tablet of Shang-te, 
 inscribed " Hwang-tien Shang-te," is placed, facing south, 
 immediately in front of the kneeling Emperor. The 
 tablets of the Emperor's ancestors are arranged in two 
 rows, facing east and west. Offerings are placed before 
 each tablet. 
 
 Large and small millet, panicled millet and rice, are 
 boiled as if for domestic use. Beef and pork in slices, 
 with and without condiments, are presented in the form 
 of soup. Salt fish, pickled fish, pickled slices of hares 
 and of deer, pickled onions, bamboo shoots, pickled parsley 
 
24 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 and celery, pickled pork and vermicelli, come next. The 
 condiments used in making the dishes are sesamum oil, 
 soy, salt, pepper, anise seed, and onions. 
 
 The fruits offered are such as chestnuts, sisuphus plums, 
 water chestnuts, and walnuts. 
 
 Wheat flour and buckwheat flour are made into halls, 
 with sugar in the middle, and afterwards stamped so as to 
 become flat cakes. 
 
 Three cups of tsew 1 are placed in front. Next comes a 
 bowl of soup. Then follow eight rows of basons, making 
 twenty-eight in all. They consist of fruit, basons of rice 
 and other cereals boiled, pastry, and various dishes. 
 
 Jade stone and silk offerings intended to be burnt are 
 placed behind these twenty-eight dishes. Then there is a 
 whole heifer, with a brazier on each side for burning the 
 offerings. 
 
 Behind the heifer are placed the five worshipping im- 
 plements of Buddhism, namely, an urn, two candelabra, 
 and two flower jars. 
 
 Behind these are more candelabra, and the table in the 
 south-west corner at which the Emperor reads the prayer. 
 
 On the second terrace, on the east side, the tablet of 
 the sun is placed, and also that of the Great Bear, the 
 five planets, the twenty-eight constellations, and one for 
 all the stars. On the west side is placed the tablet of 
 the moon spirit, with those of the clouds, rain, wind, and 
 thunder. 
 
 I do not know why some of the dishes are looked on as 
 unsuitable for these spirits ; but it is curious to notice that 
 four of the twenty-eight dishes used in the offerings to 
 Shang-te and to the spirits of the deceased emperors are 
 here wanting. No jade stone offerings are presented: a 
 full-grown bullock takes the place of the young heifer. 
 
 1 Tsew is, in China, either distilled mode of showing respect is employed 
 
 or not distilled. It is the Mongol in the sacrifices to the Earth spirit 
 
 and Turkish arahi and arrack, and and to the Emperor's ancestors. The 
 
 the Japanese saki. The number three wine used in sacrifices is the undis- 
 
 is expressive of honour. The same tilled. To this there is no exception. 
 
THE EMPEROR HIGH-PRIEST. 25 
 
 \^C/ 
 
 The five Buddhist implements and the gold lamps and 
 censers are all omitted. 
 
 In the offerings to the spirits of the stars, a bullock, 
 sheep, and pig, all full grown, are included. In other 
 respects the offerings are nearly the same as to the sun 
 and moon. 
 
 Twelve pieces of blue silk are burnt in honour of Shang-te, 
 and three of white in honour of the emperors. 
 
 Seventeen pieces of silk, yellow, blue, red, black, and 
 white, are burned in honour of the spirits of the heavenly 
 bodies, and wind and rain. 
 
 Several kinds of incense are used. All are composed of 
 fragrant woods ground to sawdust, and then made up into 
 bundles of sticks or pastilles of various shapes. 
 
 The Emperor is the high-priest, who acts personally or 
 by deputy in all the public sacrifices performed for the 
 sake of obtaining rain or securing freedom from calamities. 
 His position then is like that of the patriarchs in the 
 religious rites recorded in Genesis. He combines the 
 offices of chief magistrate and high priest. 
 
 The particulars of his duty as priest of the people are 
 such as offering prayer for a good year, presenting the 
 offerings, and worshipping. Besides these, he previously, 
 inspects the animals in their sheds when living, and after- 
 wards when slain and made ready for the sacrifice. 
 
 On proceeding to the robing-tent, he washes his hands 
 and puts on sacrificial robes. He then, guided by the 
 directors of the ceremonies, mounts the altar and stands 
 near the kneeling cushion, while all the princes and nobles 
 take their places on the steps and terraces of the altar or 
 on the stone pavement below. When told to kneel, he 
 kneels. "When told to light incense and place it in the 
 urns, he does so. When led to the tablets of his ancestors 
 and told to kneel before each and kindle incense sticks, 
 he does all this. He is afterwards led back to the chief 
 tablet, and there he performs the ceremony of the three 
 prostrations and nine knockings of the head. In this he 
 
26 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 is immediately imitated by the attendant worshippers in 
 their various positions. 
 
 The music, which has been in course of performance by 
 the appointed 234 musicians, stops. The Emperor is led 
 to the table on which are placed the offerings of jade and 
 silk which are to be burned. Here he kneels, having the 
 heifer behind, offers the jade and silk, and rises. The 
 officers whose duty it is to sing here interpose with a 
 song descriptive of the presentation of the bowls of food. 
 Other officers bring up these bowls, together with hot broth, 
 which last they sprinkle three times on the body of the 
 heifer. Meantime the Emperor is standing on the east 
 side of his tent. 
 
 More music is now performed, the piece being called 
 " The song of universal peace." 
 
 Upon this follows the performance of the ceremony of 
 presenting the bowls of food before the various tablets by 
 the Emperor. 
 
 Then the first cup of wine is presented, the Emperor 
 officiating. Appropriate music is performed. 
 
 The officer in charge of the prayer places it on the table 
 intended for this use, and it is there read by the Em- 
 peror. It is, at the sacrifice in February, couched in such 
 terms as the following : 
 
 " I, your subject, by hereditary succession son of heaven, 
 having received from above the gracious decree to nourish 
 and console the inhabitants of all regions, think with 
 sympathy of all men, earnestly desirous of their pro- 
 sperity. 
 
 " At present looking to the approach of the day Sin and 
 the spring ploughing, which is about to take place, I 
 earnestly look up, hoping for merciful protection. I bring 
 my subjects and servants with offerings of food in abun- 
 dance, a reverential sacrifice to Shang-te. Humbly I pray 
 for thy downward glance, and may rain be granted for the 
 production of all sorts of grain and the success of all 
 agricultural labours." 
 
MUSIC AT THE SACRIFICE. 27 
 
 The remainder of the prayer is an encomium upon the 
 deceased emperors worshipped on the same occasion. 
 
 After reading this prayer, the Emperor takes it to the 
 table for silk offerings and the jade sceptre. Here, kneel- 
 ing, he places it in a casket with the silk, and then makes 
 some more prostrations. 
 
 The second presentation of the cup of wine now takes 
 place, and after it the third, the Emperor officiating. 
 
 The music here takes the name " The song of excellent 
 peace," and " The song of harmonious peace." 
 
 The band of musicians on the pavement below, numerous 
 as it is, is no larger than that of the dancers, who move in 
 a slow step through several figures. When the songs are 
 ended, a single voice is heard on the upper terrace of the 
 altar chanting the words, " Give the cup of blessing and the 
 meat of blessing." In response, the officer in charge of the 
 cushion advances and kneels, spreading the cushion. Other 
 officers present the cup of blessing and the meat of bless- 
 ing to the Emperor, who partakes of the wine and returns 
 them. The Emperor then again prostrates himself, and 
 knocks his forehead three times against the ground, and 
 then nine times more to represent his thankful reception 
 of the wine and meat. 
 
 The assemblage of princes and nobles all imitate their 
 lord once more at this point. An officer calls, "Ke- 
 move the viands." The musicians play a piece suitable 
 to this action, and another called the "Song of glorious 
 peace." 
 
 The spirit of Heaven is now escorted home again to the 
 tablet chapel on the north of the altar. 
 
 The crier then chants the words, "Carry away the 
 prayer, the incense, the silk, and the viands, and let them 
 be reverently taken to the Tae-tan." 
 
 Tae-tan is the old classical name of the altar of burnt- 
 offering, a name still retained, while for long centuries the 
 altar has given place to a furnace. 
 
 The crier calls, " Look at the burning." The proper 
 
28 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 music is played, and the Emperor proceeds to the spot set 
 apart as most suitable for observing the burning. 
 
 The officers upon this take the tablet on which the 
 prayer is written, the worshipping tablet, the incense, the 
 silk, and the viands to the green furnace, within which 
 they are placed and burned. 
 
 At the same time the silk, incense, and viands offered 
 to the tablets of the emperors are taken to the large 
 braziers prepared for them, and there burned. 
 
 The ceremonies here terminate, and the Emperor returns 
 to the palace. 
 
 The spirit of the worship may be partly judged of from 
 the hours at which it is performed. 
 
 At the south altar it must be at midnight, because that 
 is the hour called Tsze. Tsze is the first of the twelve 
 hours, and was applied to the eleventh month, or Decem- 
 ber. The sun is at Tsze when he passes the winter sol- 
 stice. The day was divided into twelve parts, because 
 there are twelve lunations in a year. It was natural to 
 begin counting the months from the time when the sun 
 was at the lowest point. The time of the solstitial sacri- 
 fice of winter should be regulated on the principle that the 
 hour Tsze is on this account most suitable. 
 
 When the spring sacrifice takes place near the beginning 
 of the year, the time chosen at present is the first glimmer- 
 ing of the dawn. But formerly midnight was the hour. 
 
 The sun is worshipped at the Sun altar at four o'clock 
 in the morning, and the moon on the Moon altar at ten in 
 the evening. 
 
 Not having a true science of nature, the Chinese mind 
 puts circles and symbols, and the distinction of even and 
 odd numbers, in its place. Their philosophy is a numeri- 
 cal or symbolic philosophy. That learned Chinese is a 
 rare person who can divest himself of the idea that his 
 cycles of ten, of twelve, and of sixty, represent something 
 substantial in nature, and may be received as necessary 
 truth. Hence most of the Chinese are by birth and train- 
 
WORSHIP OF THE EARTH. 29 
 
 ing believers in astrology. Without it they cannot be 
 born, marry, or die. Their fortune-tellers are found to be 
 fundamentally all astrologers and believers in numerical 
 cycles, although they are classified as physiognomists, 
 phrenologists, or adepts in palmistry or geomancy. 
 
 Wherever the cycles of astrology and the distinction of 
 the male and female principle can be introduced in common 
 life, whether in medicine, the choice of sites for houses and 
 graves, going on a journey, or ordering a new suit of clothes, 
 there they will be found. 
 
 It would be in the highest degree irregular, and there- 
 fore impossible in the present state of Chinese culture, to 
 neglect, when fixing the hour of the sacrifices in which the 
 Emperor takes part, those secret laws of nature, which are 
 believed to be brought to view in the cycles of astrology. 
 
 Something may be perceived of the ideas of the Chinese 
 in regard to their sacrifices from the discussions which 
 have taken place as to whether the spirits of Heaven and 
 Earth should be worshipped together or separately. When 
 the present temple, with its three roofs, was first made in 
 the time of Yung-lo, it was not intended that there should 
 be a separate altar to Earth. Two altars were made, the 
 northern and the southern ; the united worship was per- 
 formed at the northern, and the colours of the three roofs 
 of the temple erected on it were yellow, red, and blue, 
 comprising the appropriate colours of heaven and earth. 
 A century later a discussion was instituted on the pro- 
 priety of the united worship. In consequence of this 
 discussion, and in accordance with the opinions of the 
 majority of those who were consulted, it was decreed that 
 the worship of Earth should in future be separately con- 
 ducted. The altar of Earth was constructed on the north 
 side of the inner city, in an open space beyond the walls. 
 
 The character of the Chinese imperial worship at the 
 Earth altar is substantially the same as at the altar of 
 Heaven, except that instead of the worship of star gods and 
 the sun and moon we have that of the spirits of moun- 
 tains, rivers, and seas. 
 
30 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The account given by Herodotus of the religion of the 
 ancient Persians shows that it consisted of much the same 
 usages as those now found in the Chinese imperial wor- 
 ship. The great objects of nature were adored. The 
 heavenly bodies, the mountains, and rivers, were supposed 
 to have divinities presiding over them, and to these deities 
 sacrifices were presented. 
 
 This characteristic comes clearly into view in the wor- 
 ship at the altar of Earth. 
 
 There are two terraces to the altar. One is sixty feet 
 square, and six feet two inches high. The other is 106 
 feet square, and six feet high. Only even numbers are 
 made use of in the construction of the altar. Yellow tiles 
 are employed in roofing the walls. The steps on each of 
 the four sides are eight in number. A ditch surrounds the 
 altar. It is 494 feet four inches long, eight feet six inches 
 deep, and six feet wide. 
 
 Between the altar and the ditch is a wall six feet high, 
 and two feet thick, and within it are four open gateways. 
 Outside of the north gateway, a little to the westward, is 
 the pit for burying the prayer and silk, which are offered 
 to the spirit of Earth. Beside it is the spot where the silk 
 offered to the spirits of the emperors worshipped at the 
 same time is burned. 
 
 On the upper terrace, when the sacrifice takes place, are 
 arranged the tablet of the spirit of Earth facing north, and 
 those of the emperors facing east and west. 
 
 On the lower terrace fourteen Chinese and Manchoo 
 mountains are represented by fourteen tablets, and the 
 seas and rivers of China each by four tablets. Half of the 
 mountains, seas, and rivers occupy the east terrace, and 
 half the west. The seas are simply north, south, east, and 
 west. The mountains and rivers are worshipped by their 
 names, and they are selected on account of their size and 
 sacredness. 
 
 In the sacrifice to Earth, the burial of the prayer and the 
 silk, it is to be noted, takes place at a spot on the north- 
 
BURIAL OF OFFERINGS. 31 
 
 west. The tablet, according to the present arrangement, 
 faces to the north, and the spirit, therefore, has the cere- 
 mony in sight. The west is, as being on the left hand, the 
 position of honour. The Emperor, after the presentation 
 of the three cups of wine, is directed to proceed to a cer- 
 tain station on the altar where he can conveniently observe 
 the process of burying, which here corresponds to the 
 burning of the prayer and silk in the sacrifice to the spirit 
 of Heaven. 
 
 The prayer is as follows : " I, your subject, son of heaven 
 by hereditary succession, dare to announce to How-too, 
 the imperial spirit of Earth, that the time of the summer 
 solstice has arrived, that all living things enjoy the bless- 
 ings of sustenance, and depend for it upon your efficient aid. 
 You are placed with imperial Heaven in the sacrifices which 
 are now presented, consisting of jade, silk, the chief animals 
 used for food, with various viands abundantly supplied." 
 
 The Emperors Tae-tsoo, Tae-tsung, She-tsoo, &c., are 
 reverentially appointed to be sharers in the sacrifice. 
 
 The spirit of Earth is the only spirit beside the spirit of 
 Heaven to whom in prayer the Emperor styles himself a 
 "subject." 
 
 The colour of the jade presented is yellow. The prayer 
 is written on a yellow tablet. 
 
 The twenty-eight dishes, the three cups of wine, and 
 the solitary bowl of soup are the same as at the temple of 
 Heaven. The gold lamps are wanting, as also the gold 
 censers, one pair of the candelabra, and the flower-vases. 
 
 The designation Shang-te is applied to the spirit of 
 Heaven only. 
 
 The burying of the silk is limited to the spirit of Earth. 
 In the case of the offerings to the emperors whose tablets 
 are on the altar with that of the spirit of Earth, they are 
 burnt in a brazier as at the altar of Heaven. 
 
 The musical instruments are the same for the spirit of 
 Earth as for the spirit of Heaven, viz., two kinds of stringed 
 instruments, two kinds of flutes, &c. sixty-four in all; 
 
32 . RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 but the bell is gilt for the sake of having it yellow. The 
 two hundred and four musicians and dancers, instead of 
 blue, wear black robes embroidered with figures in gold. 
 Blue, on the other hand, is the colour used in the worship 
 of Heaven. 1 
 
 The music is accompanied by words arranged in irregular 
 verse. There are six lines of poetry, four of which rhyme. 
 The poetic particle hi occurs in the middle of each line, 
 dividing it into two clauses. Each line has six, seven, 
 eight, or nine words in it. There are nine or ten pieces 
 of poetry at each sacrifice, and they are sung to as many 
 melodies with instrumental accompaniments. 
 
 When the emperor sends an officer to perform his duties 
 at the sacrifice, the details are much less complex. The 
 cup and meat of blessing, the tent, the music, and other 
 accessories are omitted. The same omissions occur if 
 the Emperor's son is deputed to perform the ceremonies. 
 These omissions clearly show that a priestly character is 
 attributed to the Emperor by virtue of his office. 
 
 The presentation of food and wine to the spirits who are 
 worshipped indicates that the Chinese idea of a sacrifice 
 to the supreme spirit of Heaven and of Earth is that of a 
 banquet. There is no trace of any other idea. The burn- 
 ing of sacrifices does not appear to have among this people 
 any notion of substitution. There is in the classics in the 
 "Shoo-king," perhaps the most important of them all, a state- 
 ment respecting the ancient Emperor Cheng-tang, B.C. 1 800, 
 to the effect that he acknowledged himself, in the name of 
 the people, to be a sinner deserving punishment, and re- 
 questing that the punishment to be inflicted on the people 
 might be inflicted instead upon him. So far as this, it 
 may be said that substitution is familiar to the Chinese in 
 connection with sacrifices. But the sense of life for life, 
 the animal dying in place of man, is not known to them. 
 
 1 Yellow and brown are both ex- soil in North China, but black is the 
 pressed by hwang. The earth colour colour of the north. The altar of 
 here meant is the light brown of the Earth is the "north altar," Pei-ian. 
 
WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 33 
 
 The imperial worship of ancestors constitutes one of the 
 most important portions of the official worship. 
 
 The imperial Temple of Ancestors is on the south-east of 
 the Woo-men, or chief gate of the palace. It is called Tai- 
 meaou, the " great temple," and is divided into three prin- 
 cipal tien or halls, and several smaller. 
 
 The front tien is used for the common sacrifice to all 
 ancestors at the end of the year. The middle tien contains 
 the most important tablets, each in its shrine. Emperors 
 and empresses are placed in pairs. They begin with the 
 grandfather of Shun-che. All face to the south. Ten 
 generations are now represented. The sacrifices on the 
 first day of the first month in each of the four seasons are 
 offered in this hall. 
 
 Confucius said that the dead are to be sacrificed to as if 
 living. There must, therefore, be clothing as well as food. 
 Chests of clothing, with all articles complete, such as mats 
 and stools, are found here carefully stored, and are pre- 
 sented with the sacrifices. 
 
 In front of this hall is a court, on each side of which 
 are secondary halls containing tablets of certain meri- 
 torious persons who are appointed to be guests at the 
 sacrificial banquets. Eelatives occupy the eastern hall, 
 and loyal officers the western. 
 
 In the court on the east is a brazier for burning the 
 prayer offered to ancestors, and the silk offered to them 
 and to the relatives. On the west is another brazier for 
 burning the silk offered to meritorious officers. At the 
 gate in front there are exhibited twenty-four ancient 
 spears. 
 
 The back hall contains the tablets of the great-grand- 
 father and grandmother of Shun-che, and of three genera- 
 tions preceding^! The book from which this account is 
 extracted was published A.D. 1721, and subsequent changes 
 in the arrangement will, of course, be found in later edi- 
 tions. 
 
 The times for sacrifice are not only the first of every 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 third month and at the end of the year, but whenever great 
 events occur. 
 
 The Emperor, when informed that the time has come for 
 inspecting the prayer, proceeds to the Paou-ho-tien or Chung- 
 ho-tien, both of them state halls in the palace. The prayer, 
 written on a yellow tablet, is presented and approved. 
 
 The sacrifices are offered in the middle and back halls 
 of the ancestral temple at the same time, in order that 
 all the imperial ancestors, remote as well as near, may 
 enjoy them. 
 
 The tablets of emperors and empresses are arranged in 
 pairs. Each has his wife with him, and husband and wife 
 are placed side by side. One set of offerings is presented 
 before each married pair. Each emperor occupies the 
 east side. On his left are placed clothing and silk. On 
 the right of the tablet of the empress there is clothing, but 
 110 silk. 
 
 Why this distinction ? Can it be that there is some- 
 thing peculiar in the silk ? Is there some ancient idea 
 connected with burnt-offerings which is not alluded to in 
 the usual doctrine, " Sacrifice to the spirits as if they were 
 living?" If this were all, why should not the silk be 
 given to .the Empress ? She would need it for clothing as 
 much as the Emperor. 
 
 Yet she shares in the silk placed near the animals, as 
 will be seen in the following plan of the offerings : 
 
 TABLET OF EMPRESS, j TABLET OF EMPEROR. Two pieces 
 
 of silk. 
 
 Three cups of wine. Table and 
 stool with 
 Two bowls of soup. clothing. 
 
 Table and Three cups of wine, 
 stools with 
 clothing. Two bowls of soup. 
 
 Twenty-eight dishes. 
 Reader's table. Pig. Cow. Sheep. 
 
 Silk. 
 Candle. Incense. Candle. 
 
PRAYER TO ANCESTORS. 35 
 
 The dishes are the same as those used in the sacrifices 
 to the spirits of Heaven and Earth. They are placed before 
 the Emperor and Empress in common. 
 
 This seems to show that the exclusion of women from 
 the social meal is not so ancient as the time when the 
 sacrifices were instituted. The Emperor and Empress can 
 have their meals together when dead, though they may not 
 when living. 
 
 The prayer is read from a table on the south-west, chosen 
 because .it is the point of greatest humility, the east being 
 the position of honour. 
 
 An officer reads the prayer upon his knees, in the name 
 of the Emperor. The prayer states the Emperor's descent 
 as son, grandson, &c., as the case may be. Then follows 
 his proper name, which is not permitted to be written o'r 
 pronounced by any of his subjects. The prayer proceeds 
 to say : " I dare announce to my ancestor that I have with 
 care, on this first month of spring (or any other of the four 
 seasons), provided sacrificial animals, silk, wine, and various 
 dishes, as an expression of my unforgetting thoughtfulness, 
 and humbly beg the acceptance of the offerings." 
 
 The prayer contains the titles of all the deceased em- 
 perors and empresses prayed to, amounting to twelve or 
 twenty words in each instance. 
 
 Six poems are sung, each to a different melody. Some 
 of the names of these airs are the same as those used at 
 the sacrifices at the altar of Heaven. Each poem has eight 
 lines of four or five words each, except the first, which has 
 twelve lines. Six of these lines have rhymes. Here fol- 
 lows a specimen : " Ah ! my imperial ancestors have been 
 able to become guests with supreme heaven. Their meri- 
 torious acts in war and peace are published in all regions. 
 I, their filial descendant, have received the decree of hea- 
 ven, and my thought is to carry out the aims of those who 
 preceded me, thus ensuring the gift of long prosperity for 
 thousands and tens of thousands of years." This is sung 
 when the Emperor presents the silk. 
 
36 RELIGION JN CHINA. 
 
 The musicians sing in the Emperor's name, and the pro- 
 nouns and other peculiar terms are so employed that if he 
 sang them he could use them as they are. This is very 
 manifest in the following poem : 
 
 " The virtue of these my ancestors has opened this 
 celestial succession. I dare to say that I, their child, 
 enjoy the complete result. The virtue I wish to make a 
 return for is boundless as bright heaven. While with 
 sedulous earnestness I make this third presentation of 
 wine, my heart rejoices." 
 
 The Emperor must not call himself " your subject." He 
 must say " your filial descendant, the Emperor." 
 
 The act of prostration embraces kneeling three times, 
 and knocking the head nine times. The same is done 
 by attendant officers, who imitate the Emperor's act. 
 This ceremony is performed first at the arrival of the 
 spirit from the shrine in which ordinarily it remains. 
 
 The meat of blessing and cup of blessing occurs in this 
 sacrifice as in that at the altar of Heaven. It is, as there, 
 not used except when the Emperor himself performs the 
 ceremony. 
 
 At the presentation of wine an officer places a cup 
 before each of the tablets representing the ancestors, male 
 and female, of the Emperor. 
 
 That an officer should read the Emperor's prayer for him 
 in his presence is peculiar, for in the service at the altar 
 of Heaven the Emperor reads the prayer himself. 
 
 After the prayer the Emperor is directed to knock his 
 head three times against the ground, which he does. 
 Upon receiving the cup and meat of blessing, he again 
 performs the full ceremony of prostrations and knockings, 
 and the same occurs again after this twice more, at the 
 removal of the viands from the tables, and before his 
 return to his palace. 
 
 This ceremony being so burdensome as to entail on the 
 Emperor the necessity of kneeling sixteen times, and 
 knocking the forehead thirty-six times against the ground, 
 
SACRIFICES TO LAND AND GRAIN. 37 
 
 is an indication of the importance attached to filial piety, 
 and to the character of the Emperor as an example of 
 virtue to all his subjects. 
 
 The burning of the prayer and silk offered to the 
 emperors shows that they and the empresses are classed 
 among the spirits that belong to heaven, and not to those 
 that belong to earth. This is important in connection 
 with the text in the book of poetry where the soul of Wen- 
 wang is said to move up and down in the presence o 
 Shang-te. The use of the word shen, " spirit/' in the name 
 shen-choo, for " tablet," and in the phrase ying-shen, " meet- 
 ing the spirit," to escort it from its shrine to the place of 
 sacrifice, implies the same thing. 
 
 At the new year a sacrifice is offered to the spirits of 
 those ancestors, male and female, whose tablets are in the 
 back hall of the Tai-meaou. On the Empress's birthday 
 the same thing takes place. 
 
 The number of musicians is two-thirds of those that 
 perform at the temple of Heaven. 
 
 Another ancestral temple of the emperors is within the 
 palace. It is called Feng-sien-tien, and is in the eastern 
 portion of the palace. Beside this there is the temple 
 at the tomb of each emperor. 
 
 A very important branch of the imperial worship is the 
 sacrifices to the gods of land and grain. The altars to these 
 spirits are on the right hand of the palace gate. Their 
 position corresponds on the right (west) to that of the 
 Temple of Ancestors on the left (east). 
 
 The altar of the spirit of land, Shay, consists of two 
 terraces, both ascended by flights of three steps. The 
 upper terrace is covered with earth of five colours. Yellow 
 occupies the middle, blue the east, red the south, white 
 the west, and black the north. 
 
 On the south-west of the altar is a spot for burying the 
 victims. The tablet to the god of land, Shay, is on the 
 terrace on the east. That to the god of grain, Tseih, is on 
 the west. Both face north. There are two tablets occu- 
 pying the position of guests ; Hea-too, called Kow-lung, 
 
38 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 looks west, and How-tseih east. The last of these was 
 superintendent of husbandry to the Emperor Yam; the 
 first was officer of Hwang-te. They represent, it may be 
 safely said, the founders or chief promoters of Chinese 
 agriculture. 
 
 The worship takes place in the middle months of spring 
 and autumn, and on occasion of important events when 
 announcements are to be made to them. 
 
 The sacrifices are the same as in the worship of ances- 
 tors and of the temple of Earth, as regards the twenty-eight 
 dishes, but a bullock, pig, and sheep are all offered, and 
 the jade and silk to be burnt are placed beyond the three 
 animals. 
 
 This account of imperial worship must here cease. I 
 will add one remark. Every impartial investigator will 
 probably admit that the ceremonies and ideas of the 
 Chinese sacrifices link them with Western antiquity. The 
 inference to be drawn from this is, that the Chinese pri- 
 meval religion was of common origin with the religions of 
 the West. But if the religion was one, then the political 
 ideas, the mental habits, the sociology, the early arts and 
 knowledge of nature, should have been of common origin 
 also with those of the West. 
 
 The argument for identity of the eastern and western 
 races of this continent thus becomes very strong, and is 
 supported by the close resemblance of a mass of common 
 linguistic roots, 1 found to be alike in sound and sense. 
 
 1 See on this subject Dr. Schlegel's "Arya Siniaca," and my "China's 
 Place in Philology." 
 
(39) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TEMPLES. 
 
 THE most conspicuous buildings in a Chinese city are the 
 yamuns and the temples. The officers of Government 
 reside and transact business in the former, and they are 
 often spacious and handsome. The temples are very 
 numerous, belonging as they do to three religions. They 
 are of all sizes and descriptions. One of those best worth 
 examining is that of Confucius. It is placed in a large area 
 ornamented with trees and water; in close connection 
 with it are the Government examination-hall, the temple 
 containing the tablets to the national sages, and that in 
 which the distinguished persons of the city are comme- 
 morated on monumental boards. 
 
 The hall of sages contains the tablets of seventy-two 
 persons ranged on each side of Confucius, and revered as 
 his most distinguished followers. On the tablets are their 
 names and titles. The sages before the time of Confucius 
 are not represented here, the temple being dedicated spe- 
 cially to this philosopher. He is called " the most holy 
 ancient sage Koong-foo-tsze." By the Jesuits this word 
 was Latinised into Confucius. On the entrance gates 
 there are inscriptions such as " The teacher and example 
 for ten thousand generations," and " Equal with heaven 
 and earth." 
 
 Sacrifices to Confucius are offered at the vernal and 
 autumnal equinoxes. Oxen and sheep are slain, and the 
 carcases, denuded of the skin, are placed upon stands in 
 front of his tablet. The mandarins are present on the 
 
40 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 occasion at three o'clock in the morning. The flesh of the 
 ox and the other animals is afterwards divided among the 
 resident literati who may desire it, and eaten by them. 
 The character of the temple is funereal. After entering 
 the gates, the visitor passes through a long avenue of 
 cypresses to the chief hall, and the tablets and the mode 
 of placing them are the same as in the funereal temples 
 raised to deceased ancestors. No image is placed to Con- 
 fucius, except very rarely, and when it is used, it is merely 
 as a statue for ornament, not as an idol for worship. The 
 tablet, however, is worshipped. It is called " the place of 
 the soul." When Confucius is worshipped, prayers are 
 not made use of; the worshipper is mute, while he pro- 
 strates himself to express his reverential respect for the 
 virtues of the sage. Those who have rank and property 
 in China join with the learned class in professing to de- 
 spise all religions but that of Confucius. They associate 
 his name with their ancient national polity, their litera- 
 ture, their system of universal morality, and, indeed, with 
 all the elements of their civilisation. So great and good 
 was he, that they regard him as infallible. Yet he him- 
 self was distinguished for humility, and would never have 
 dreamed of claiming infallibility; nor would he have 
 wished to be in that high position of dignity to which his 
 followers have raised him. 
 
 Their reverence for him takes the place of a religion. 
 Children are taught to make their bow to Confucius when 
 they enter school ; and when, years after, they appear in 
 the examination-hall to take their degrees, they repeat 
 this act of reverence. They do not, indeed, suppose him 
 to have the attributes of a god, but they pay him reli- 
 gious respect, as the embodiment of all that is sacred 
 and good. 
 
 Near the Confucian temple is a smaller edifice to the 
 memory of the virtuous women of the district. A tablet 
 is placed to each, and incense is burnt before it on certain 
 occasions. The temple to virtuous women is of much less 
 
CONFUCIAN TEMPLES. 41 
 
 pretension in size and ornament than that of Confucius 
 and the seventy-two sages. It is sometimes erected in 
 other localities. We saw one on the island of Tung-ting, 
 near Soochow, in memory of the women of that island. 
 It was on high ground, in a beautiful situation, in sight of 
 some of the other islands that stud the northern part of 
 the Tae-hoo lake. The rock on which it stands is lime- 
 stone, furnishing excellent materials for mason-work. 
 Some time since an application was made to Government 
 to prohibit quarrying for stone at this spot, as disre- 
 spectful to the temple. The request was granted. We 
 noticed that a part of the limestone was crowded with 
 fossil shells. 
 
 This visit to Tung-ting was made about 1855. Thirty 
 years after, a message was sent me from Soochow from 
 a missionary residing there, saying that a Catechist em- 
 ployed in his mission traced his acquaintance with Chris- 
 tianity to his having met me thirty years previously on 
 this island. I had given him Christian books and con- 
 versed with him. This fact shows the advantage of the 
 circulation of religious tracts in a country like China, 
 which has so many thousands of readers. 
 
 There is an agricultural temple (tan) in the neighbour- 
 hood of every Chinese city. In it is a tablet to Shin- 
 nung, the fabulous emperor who is said by the Chinese to 
 have taught their forefathers agriculture. There is another 
 to the spirits of the hills and rivers and those that preside 
 over grain. The officers visit this temple in early spring 
 to sacrifice before these tablets, and to plough a small 
 plot of adjoining ground. They do this as an example of 
 industry to the agricultural population, as an intimation 
 that the labours of the field are to commence, and as an 
 appeal to the divinities that watch over the interests of 
 the farmer for a prosperous year. 
 
 The prevailing character of. these and other temples 
 belonging to the Confucian religion is funereal. They are 
 the abodes of the dead. The name of the tablet, Shin-wei 
 
42 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 or Ling-wei, "the place of the soul," denotes that the 
 spirit is supposed to be present there. 
 
 The character of Buddhist temples is different from this. 
 They are not for the dead, but for the living. They con- 
 tain halls where images are placed to represent the 
 expositors of Buddhist doctrine addressing an auditory. 
 Buddha, who is styled " the teacher of the present world," 
 occupies the centre, and inferior personages are placed on 
 his right and left. The Buddhist temple is a residence for 
 monks who have retired from the world a monastery 
 as well as an assemblage of buildings in which images 
 are grouped to be worshipped according to their rank a 
 temple. 
 
 A funereal temple, such as that of Confucius, or of the 
 ancestors of a family, is called " meaou" while Buddhist 
 monasteries or temples are termed " sze" How numerous 
 buildings of both kinds, as well as those bearing other 
 names, are in China, every one who has travelled there 
 knows. 
 
 I have in my recollection, as I write, a town with a 
 large population built at the foot of a hill in the eastern 
 silk region of China. The hill, formed of a bright red 
 stone, is crowned with a pagoda, commanding an exten- 
 sive view. On entering the adjoining temple, the visitor 
 passes through some neatly-furnished rooms, in which he 
 sees a series of Buddhist idols of clay, with their customary 
 expression of benevolence and thoughtfulness. Beyond 
 them is a fountain dedicated to some divinity, and a cave 
 where images of the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan-yin (the 
 Kanon of the Japanese), and of her two attendants, are 
 seen set up in niches in the rock. At one end of the town, 
 in the plain below, is a ruinous temple, in much worse 
 condition than its fellow upon the hill. On each side of 
 Buddha stands a row of clay statues, representing the 
 Pevas of Hindu mythology, with their Sanscrit names 
 Here are Brahma, Indra, Shakra, and other divinities, so 
 well known in the land which boasts its 300,000,000 of 
 
CONFUCIAN TEMPLES. 43 
 
 gods. They are a part of the assembly that honours 
 Buddha by reverent attention and offerings of flowers. 
 
 Near Hoochow, a city not far from this place, I visited 
 some large monasteries, embosomed among hills, very re- 
 tired from the common haunts of men, and fit for those 
 who love rural sights and sounds. Here are quiet cells 
 where he who wishes to live in undisturbed solitude may 
 do so. On one of these hills, that of the White Magpie, 
 there is a fine view of Tae-hoo, the great lake of Soochow, 
 and the monastery is surrounded with groves of bamboo 
 and other trees. On another, the landscape embraces 
 Hoochow and the well-watered plain in which it lies. 
 The view extends to the mountainous region where the 
 peaks of Teen-muh-shan and its adjacent hills tower up to 
 4000 or 5000 feet above the level of the sea. To such 
 retreats the mandarin wearied with public business, or the 
 shopkeeper who has been unsuccessful in trade, will some- 
 times betake himself in search of the pleasures of solitude 
 for the remainder of his existence. 
 
 There are wilder regions than this to the south-west of 
 Ningpo, which have become the favourite abode of such 
 refugees from the disappointments of the world. Thou- 
 sands of Buddhist monks are here gathered in large con- 
 vents in a bleak and dreary situation, where for several 
 miles round there are no towns or villages. Here, among 
 mountains of considerable elevation, a few shepherds' cot- 
 tages are the only human habitations, except the abodes 
 of the monks. Many of these ascetics, wishing to carry 
 their self-denial to the furthest extent, are unwilling to 
 reside in the monasteries, where there would be in the 
 society of their fellow-monks some compensation for the 
 loss of worldly enjoyment. They build a hut of reeds and 
 straw in the hollows of the mountain, or in some spot 
 sheltered by groves of trees, and here they live alone, with 
 no companion but the little image of the god Buddha, and 
 no employment but the burning of incense to him or 
 chanting prayers. Their food is brought them from the 
 
44 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 neighbouring monastery, and they have no family cares, 
 and no need to seek a living by labour. The monotony of 
 their existence is only varied by an occasional visit to 
 their brethren who live in the monastery which supports 
 them, and whose rules they have to obey. 
 
 I went many years ago to this celebrated place, where 
 Chinese Buddhism is to be seen in its glory, and where 
 the style of the temples and the mode of living among the 
 monks may be observed to the best advantage. It was 
 the 1 8th of April, a fine time of year for visiting the 
 mountainous regions of China, that we found ourselves, a 
 party of three, crossing a beautiful pass on the way to 
 Teen-tae. All the morning, after sleeping in a quiet 
 monastery for in such parts of China monasteries are the 
 only inns we had been following the windings of a noisy 
 stream, running through a narrow valley. Now and then, 
 as we turned a corner, we came in sight of a pretty cas- 
 cade rushing down an abrupt face of rock. More than 
 once we crossed the stream on a bamboo raft instead of a 
 ferryboat, where the water was too deep to be forded by 
 pedestrians, and yet too shallow for oars or sculls. At 
 last we began to ascend the pass. All around were hill- 
 tops, six or eight in number, their sides covered with 
 azaleas in full bloom. The stream far below had an 
 evident partiality for the same winding curve which is 
 followed by the Wye near Chepstow. The view of the 
 neighbouring hills we thought extremely beautiful, but 
 the most striking effect was witnessed by us on reaching 
 the top of the pass, where the landscape in a moment 
 doubled itself, and we saw the upper course of the stream 
 in the valley in the direction of the celebrated Buddhist 
 retreat, to reach which was the object of our journey. 
 We thought we had never seen such a profusion of flowers 
 as were spread, growing wild, on each side of our path. 
 This pass is called Chaou-yang-ling. Leaving it, we pro- 
 ceeded for another day, and after sleeping at a wayside 
 inn, arrived in the evening at a monastery in the dis- 
 
TEEN-TAE. 45 
 
 trict of Teen-tae, called Tsing-leang-sze. The principal 
 monk was very polite, gave us good accommodation, and 
 passed much time in discussing with us the principles of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 Beyond this, as we proceeded, we found that large 
 monasteries were placed at about five miles apart all 
 through this mountainous tract of country, which is other- 
 wise inhabited only by a few cottagers. In these esta- 
 blishments the Oriental inonasticisni is seen surrounded 
 with all the attractions of natural scenery, and in the 
 temples the modes of conducting service may be witnessed 
 in the most complete and elaborate form. Near one of 
 the monasteries is a fine waterfall, sixty feet in height, 
 surmounted by a natural rock bridge. It is fourteen feet 
 long and eight inches wide, and has been well worn by the 
 steps of passers-by, who go across it to worship at the 
 shrine placed at the other end of the bridge. It is in the 
 midst of a richly -wooded dell, in which there are several 
 temples. The priests who reside in them say that they 
 hear at early morning, in the adjoining groves, what they 
 call the Lohans chanting Buddhist prayers, but they never 
 see them. In the shrine at the end of the bridge are five 
 hundred little figures cut in stone to represent the Lohans, or, 
 as they are termed in Sanscrit, the Arhans. These figures 
 are so small that they do not look more than half an inch 
 in thickness. We passed the night at Hwa-ting-sze, a 
 monastery 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It con- 
 sisted of an extensive range of buildings thatched with 
 straw, a rare thing to see in China. The principal hall 
 has in it nearly the same images in all these monasteries. 
 Buddha sits in the centre, an idol of clay, gilt over its 
 whole surface, and seated on a gigantic lotus-flower. On 
 Ids right is usually Ananda, and on his left Kashiapa, two 
 Indian disciples of Buddha. Sometimes the place of these 
 two disciples, the one the writer of the sacred books of 
 the religion, and the other the keeper of its esoteric tradi- 
 
46 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 tions, is occupied by two other representations of Buddha, 
 namely, Buddha past and Buddha future. 
 
 At Koh-tsing-sze, a very old monastery, lately rebuilt 
 at great expense, we found that there were two hundred resi- 
 dent priests. We saw there ten priests shut up together in a 
 hall dedicated to the Buddha of the western heaven. They 
 were obliged by vow to remain there for three years, 
 keeping up their melancholy chant all day and all night. 
 While some are sleeping the rest continue their mono- 
 tonous chant. We went in among them and gave them 
 some books, which they received with strong demonstra- 
 tions of pleasure. 
 
 In each of the monasteries is a large hall dedicated to 
 the five hundred Lohans, supernatural beings, who are 
 supposed to make Teen-tae their chief place of abode. 
 These halls, built to accommodate five hundred life-size 
 statues, are necessarily large. On each side of the gate- 
 way of a Buddhist temple is a tower, the one for a bell 
 and the other for a gong, which are struck on festival days, 
 on the arrival of visitors, and in services for the dead. 
 
 In the vicinity of the Koh-tsing monastery is a nine- 
 storied pagoda, of great antiquity. The pagoda is a very 
 frequent appurtenance of Buddhist temples. Its object 
 was originally to form a tomb for deceased Buddhist 
 priests, or to be a repository for relics of Buddha and 
 other venerated personages. They are now employed in 
 China as erections in honour of Buddha, and for purposes 
 of geomancy. They are supposed to ensure prosperity to 
 the neighbourhoods in which they stand. An outside 
 gallery is usually carried round each story, and to its roof 
 is attached a circle of small bells, which are rung by the 
 wind. When the wind rises and the tinkling of the bells 
 is heard, the priests say that it is the tribute of praise to 
 Buddha from inanimate nature. 
 
 In a complete Buddhist monastery, beside halls for 
 images of various divinities, there are apartments for the 
 abbot and monks, a large dining-hall, a library, reception 
 
CAUSES OF ASCETICISM. 47 
 
 rooms for visitors, and out-buildings for the culinary 
 department. 
 
 On entering the principal gate, the visitor first arrives 
 at the chapel or hall of the gods (in Chinese, teen) who are 
 subordinate to Buddha, and are represented as guarding 
 the doorway to the abode of the great hero, or teacher of 
 gods and men, as he is styled. 
 
 Passing this, there will be seen, not seldom, an imperial 
 stone monument, bearing an inscription, and protected by 
 a roof on pillars ; and immediately behind it is the great 
 hall of Buddha. 
 
 The pagoda at Koh-tsing is more than a thousand years 
 old, and the traditions of the monastery are equally 
 ancient. During so many generations as have passed 
 from the time of its foundation to the present day, there 
 have arisen not a few legends of hermits and Lohans con- 
 necting themselves with the pagoda and monastery, and 
 either residing in the woods and caves of the surrounding 
 hills, or making transient visits to them. This is true 
 indeed of all the Teen-tae region, and the tombs and 
 various relics of many celebrated Chinese Buddhists are 
 preserved there with care, and are visited with great 
 interest by travellers. 
 
 xVs we bade adieu to Koh-tsing and turned our steps 
 towards the plain, we felt that we were leaving behind us 
 a remarkable region. Among these hills, all of them high, 
 and one of them reaching an elevation of 4500 feet, several 
 thousands of monks and hermits are congregated. We 
 thought of Mount Sinai and the numerous societies of 
 Christian monks that formerly retreated there from the 
 Syrian and Egyptian cities, and who left as their memorial 
 the inscriptions that have recently become so famous. 
 We tried to gather from the comparison of Eastern and 
 Western monkery some light on the philosophy of asceti- 
 cism. On descending into the plain, we were reminded 
 that we were in the native land of the mulberry-tree and 
 the silkworm. The leaves were being gathered by women 
 
48 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 and children for the Paou-paou, " the precious ones," aa 
 the worms are affectionately termed by the country people. 
 Coming amongst a dense population, and noticing the 
 marks everywhere visible of a thriving industry, we felt 
 inclined to wonder why so many of the Chinese should 
 prefer the secluded life of a mountain hermitage or monas- 
 tery to the pleasures and activities of society. Besides the 
 other reasons that may lead men to prefer a monastery 
 among the mountains for their home, there must be some- 
 times a feeling of sincere faith in the religious opinions 
 that they have adopted, and a longing of the heart after 
 something that cannot be obtained except in religious 
 meditation. 
 
 It is time to introduce the reader to another class of 
 temples those of the Taouist religion. Some of them are 
 called Kung, palace ; and the endeavour is made in these 
 to represent the gods of the religion in their celestial 
 abodes, seated on their thrones in their palaces, either 
 administering justice or giving instruction. 
 
 In the larger Taouist temples, often called Kwan, a 
 greater number of divinities is found in the various halls 
 and side apartments of the building. The sages noted in 
 the history of the Taouist sect, the gods of the various 
 heavens spoken of in its books, the star deities, and the 
 cyclic gods, who preside over the years of the national 
 sexagenary cycle, have images to represent them according 
 to their ranks. 
 
 Besides these edifices there are temples to the State 
 gods, the god of war, and the protectors of cities and towns. 
 They are called Meaou, their character being like that of 
 the above-mentioned temples of the Confucian sect. They 
 are intended for honour to the dead, and the deceased 
 heroes and statesmen to whom they are dedicated are all 
 chosen by the Government to their places in the national 
 pantheon. Those who hold official positions in any city 
 visit these temples on certain public occasions, though it is 
 not always with a friendly intention that they thus give 
 their countenance to the sect of Taou. 
 
LECTURES A GAINST ID OLA TR Y. 49 
 
 Let the reader imagine himself, on the morning of the 
 new or full moon, wending his way to the temple dedi- 
 cated to the patron god of a Chinese city, the Ching-hwang- 
 mcaou. If early enough, he will have the opportunity of 
 witnessing an interesting ceremony. The mandarins of 
 the city are there to listen to the reading of one of the 
 imperial lectures addressed to the working classes on their 
 special duties. There are sixteen of these lectures. In 
 them the Emperor speaks to the people as a father to his 
 children ; " You ploughmen, spinners, and cultivators of 
 the mulberry-tree, should be very diligent in prosecuting 
 your respective callings. For what is the country to do for 
 food and clothing unless you are so ? " It was the Em- 
 peror Kanghe " the great Kanghe," as he is justly called 
 by the Jesuits in their letters who instituted this custom, 
 which was first put in practice in the reign of his son, 
 early in the eighteenth century. In one of the lectures, to 
 the public reading of which by the town-clerk the officers 
 of Government and a small audience listen with respect, an 
 attack is made on the idolatrous religions of the country. 
 The people are warned that they should not frequent the 
 Buddhist and Taouist temples, nor take part in the idola- 
 trous village festivals held on certain days. The imperial 
 censor calls the Buddhist priests the drones of the com- 
 munity, creatures like moths and other mischievous in- 
 sects, that thrive on the gatherings of others, while they do 
 no honest work themselves. When he has finished his 
 remarks on these two heterodox religions, the Emperor 
 proceeds to criticise certain other sects. Among them, he 
 says, is the Teen-choo-keaou (Eoman Catholic Christianity). 
 " That," he says, " is the religion of Western men. Now 
 these men from the West are clever in the mathematical 
 sciences, and on this account they are employed in the 
 astronomical tribunal to calculate eclipses and the courses 
 of the heavenly bodies. But as to their religion, it is not 
 accordant with the orthodox doctrine. You people should 
 not by any means believe in it." 
 
 D 
 
(50) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONFLICT OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN CHINA. 
 
 THE existence of three national religions in China has occa- 
 sioned a perpetual conflict of religious opinions among the 
 people of that country. Great diversities of sentiment are 
 found there upon religious subjects. Between the literary 
 class, the followers of Confucius, and the multitude, the 
 adherents of Buddha and Taou, there has always been a 
 want of cohesion. The former feel no little pride in assert- 
 ing that they never worship images. The latter defend 
 them as a useful symbolism. Fortunately for the perman- 
 ence of the Confucian system, it has always had the balance 
 of intellectual and political influence on its side. The best 
 writers have supported it in books and condemned the 
 other systems, while the Government has often persecuted 
 the Buddhists and Taouists, and even when its patronage 
 has been extended to them, its approval was given because 
 it thought that their doctrines agreed with those of the 
 great national sage. 
 
 An example was given in the preceding chapter of the 
 protests constantly repeated on behalf of the orthodox 
 Confucian government of China against the Buddhist and 
 Taouist religions, and also against Christianity. For some 
 centuries, however, the dominant party has ceased to per- 
 secute the other two national religions. It has fallen into 
 the habit of toleration, and contented itself with condem- 
 natory protests on public occasions. Catholic Christianity 
 was new, and it has been several times severely persecuted 
 by the rulers of the present dynasty. But the state of 
 public relations between Christian nations and China has 
 
THE LITERATI AND CHRISTIANITY. 51 
 
 now changed. After 1843, when foreigners went to 
 Shanghai to reside, the town-clerk quietly omitted the 
 passage referring to Christianity, when reciting in course 
 the fortnightly lectures, and he was not called to account 
 by his superiors for this polite concession to the feelings of 
 the newly-arrived residents, so reluctantly admitted to the 
 "central flowery land." 
 
 When the graduates of a province, or one of its sub- 
 divisions, meet for examination and to receive degrees and 
 other honours from the imperial examiners, copies of the 
 sixteen lectures, known as the Sacred Edict, are frequently 
 distributed among them. This is one of many modes by 
 which efforts are made, not only for the encouragement 
 of virtuous industry and moral conduct among the people, 
 but to keep up the old hostile attitude of the orthodox 
 religion, that of the Government and the scholars, against 
 other systems. 
 
 Some examples will now be given of the feelings that 
 the scholars have as individuals respecting the worship of 
 the popular divinities, the clay gods, and high-roofed 
 temples, blackened with incense- smoke, that they see 
 round their homes. I know a man of fine intellect who 
 looks with contempt on idolatry. While the mass of his 
 fellow-townsmen are willing worshippers of idols such as 
 those described, a few like him will be found in every 
 Chinese city fully sensible to the degradation of idolatry. 
 I remember, on a bright starlight Sabbath evening, holding 
 a lengthened conversation with him on the character and 
 claims of Christianity. Possessed of clear reasoning 
 powers, and naturally fond of scientific inquiries, he felt no 
 doubt or difficulty respecting the existence and character 
 of God. He freely admitted that the principal doctrines 
 of Christianity are so evident and just, that all ought to 
 believe them. From the character of his mind he was 
 prepared to accede at once to everything shown to be 
 reasonable. But those parts of Christianity which appeal 
 to a heaven-born faith in the heart, rather than to the 
 
52 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 reasoning faculties, these were a stumbling-block to him. 
 He said, for example, that the doctrine of universal de- 
 pravity is nothing different from the Chinese dogma on 
 the same subject. Many philosophers of his nation, he 
 contended, had held that in addition to the good element 
 in human nature (conscience, or the moral sense) there was 
 a gross principle, evil in its influence, residing in the 
 domain of the passions and operating through them. This 
 germ of evil is not from heaven, but springs up of its 
 own accord, in consequence of the soul's attachment to 
 matter, and grows side by side with the knowledge of good 
 and evil which is bestowed by Heaven. So also he did not 
 oppose the doctrine of the Trinity ; but when miracles and 
 the divinity of Christ were spoken of, he was reluctant to 
 accept them. They appeared to him as things hard to be 
 understood. But whatever his objections to the religion 
 of Jesus Christ, he preferred it much to the systems of 
 idolatry prevailing in his own country. He did so at least 
 theoretically, but his want of faith in idolatry did not pre- 
 vent him from giving his donation, when asked, towards 
 the expense of maintaining worship in a Buddhist mon- 
 astery. 
 
 Another instance of conflict in matters of opinion is 
 found in the method of criticising the sacred books recently 
 introduced within the Confucian school. Previous to the 
 present dynasty, an old-fashioned mediaeval philosophy 
 had ruled the minds of the literary class with a sway 
 almost as powerful as that of Aristotle over the schoolmen. 
 Choo-foo-tsze was the Coryphaeus of this philosophy. One 
 of its tendencies was atheistic ; it denied the personality 
 of God, and held that the Shang-te of the classics the 
 supreme ruler, as revered in the ancient Chinese mono- 
 theism is nothing but a principle. This principle, called 
 Le (reason), underlies all existences. All things are the 
 manifestations of it. Sometimes it is spoken of as a law of 
 a moral or intellectual kind pervading the world. At 
 other times it is nothing but a very fine material essence. 
 
CRITICAL INTERPRETATION. 53 
 
 Tliis was the conception to which the idea of God was 
 reduced by the middle-age Chinese philosophers, about the 
 time of the European schoolmen. In their hands Provi- 
 dence is nothing but the spontaneous action of a law, and 
 creation nothing but the self-originated beginning of such 
 action. This clearly is atheism. Eecent Chinese authors 
 have felt that such a system was unsatisfactory, and they 
 have returned to an older one, which regarded the person- 
 ality of God as a fundamental point ; and though it had no 
 very distinct view on the subject of creation, made such 
 statements in regard to the providence of God, as to show 
 that the early Chinese had conceptions of the Divine 
 Being far in advance of most pagan nations. Modern 
 Chinese writers, when speaking on the question, Whether 
 the God of the classics is a personal being, or a principle, 
 ask : " Can a principle become angry ? Can a principle be 
 said to approve the actions of men, and be pleased with 
 the offerings of men ? Yet these acts are ascribed to God 
 in the classical books. God, therefore, cannot be a prin- 
 ciple, but must be a personal being." 
 
 This new criticism on the interpretations of the school 
 of Choo-foo-tsze was exceedingly well timed, for the influ- 
 ence of that school had been such that not a few native 
 scholars might be properly denominated atheists or pan- 
 theists. A moderately well-read Chinese, who has not 
 imbibed the spirit of this new school, will say to the mis- 
 sionary of our purer faith : " We are worshippers of God 
 too. He is present in all nature. The world is God. When 
 we inquire into science, celestial or terrestrial, we honour 
 God." Identifying nature with God, such men find no 
 difficulty in reconciling Christian views of the Deity with 
 the cold and cheerless abstractions of such a philosophy as 
 that of Choo-foo-tsze. 
 
 Sufficient attention has not yet been given to the re- 
 markable change that has occurred in Chinese authorship 
 during the last two centuries as bearing on religion and 
 philosophy. Authors on China have limited themselves 
 
54 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 too much to the older system, which has had its day, and 
 has now given place to more rational opinions, at least 
 among the better instructed class of Chinese readers. At 
 the same time, it must be allowed that the views they 
 repudiate still hold their ground with the mass of so-called 
 Confucianists ; for in that country the opinions of a new 
 school can only become universally known after a long 
 period. The vis inertice of Chinese institutions renders 
 change difficult. In course of time probably there will be 
 a new system inaugurated in the Government examina- 
 tions, and the sentiments which the influential writers of 
 the present day call in question will perhaps be publicly 
 renounced. The multitude will wait till this is done before 
 taking the trouble to inform themselves on the particular 
 opinions of their best thinkers and authors, much more 
 before adopting them. 
 
(55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOW THREE RELIGIONS BASED ON DIFFERENT 
 PRINCIPLES EXIST IN CHINA. 
 
 THE susceptibility of the Chinese to become converts to 
 Christianity cannot be held doubtful, if their past and 
 present religious history be well considered. The study of 
 their literature, and personal observation of their customs 
 and modes of thought, lead directly to this conclusion. 
 
 The light in which the Chinese too often appear to the 
 foreign observer is that of the ludicrous and fantastical 
 almost exclusively. Next to this, they are usually repre- 
 sented as avaricious, conceited, and untruthful. Writers 
 like M. Hue prefer the comic to the real, and the pleasure 
 they take in drawing an amusing picture prevents their 
 doing justice to the good points of the national character 
 they endeavoiir to describe. The good-natured sketches 
 of Mr. Fortune, and the philosophic views of Mr. Meadows, 
 represent the country and its people much more correctly 
 than the overflowing fun and vivacity of this author would 
 allow him to do. The writer who means to be predomin- 
 antly comic will not give a fair view of any people among 
 whom he travels. He will overlook the deeper and more 
 influential elements of character, and fix his eye too much 
 on the effervescing qualities. 
 
 China presents a fine field for observing the mutual 
 influence and conflict of those ideas which have most to do 
 with the formation of character the religious and the 
 moral. We have there three great national systems exist- 
 ing in harmony. Three modes of worship, and three philo- 
 sophies underlying them, have been there for ages inter- 
 
56 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 acting on each other. Sometimes they have been in 
 conflict, but usually they have preferred a state of peace. 
 The Chinese would rather have toleration than persecution. 
 They did not drive out the intruding religion that came to 
 them from India, as the Japanese did Christianity in its 
 Roman Catholic form. Nor did Confucianism expel the 
 Taouist religion, as the Brahmans did Buddhism from the 
 land of its birth. The Chinese quietly adopted all these 
 religions, after a limited period of persecution, and now 
 they exist side by side not only in the same locality, but, 
 what is more extraordinary, in the belief of the same 
 individuals. It is quite a common thing in China for the 
 same person to conform to all the three modes of worship. 
 This flexibility is very convenient to the governing powers 
 in the State. Any divinity they may wish to have wor- 
 shipped, by the common people will be admitted at once 
 into their pantheon without difficulty. While they comply 
 with the will of their governors, they also feel superstitious 
 reverence for the new god. They believe that the Emperor 
 has the power of appointing the souls of the dead to posts 
 of authority in the invisible world, just as he does in the 
 visible. When they see the image of a newly inaugurated 
 divinity in a new temple in appropriate costume, seated 
 in his shrine like any other god, they will soon learn to 
 adore him as willingly as any of the old divinities with 
 whose names they have been long familiar. 
 
 There is a temple in a retired spot in the city of Shang- 
 hai, built to the memory of a Chinese hero who died in. 
 battle in the first English war. He fell at the capture 
 of Woosung by the British forces. He held the highest 
 military post that a Chinese can hold, that of Te-tae, the rank 
 of Tseang-keun being limited to the Manchoos. This hero, 
 Chin-te-tae, appears in the temple, carved in wood, the size 
 of life, and the likeness is said to be very good. The hon- 
 ours of deity are paid to him, and though t'here are few visi- 
 tors to the temple now, doubtless the superstitious faith of 
 the inhabitants in this new divinity assigned to them by 
 
CO-EXISTENCE OF THREE RELIGIONS. 57 
 
 Government authority, will increase with the lapse of 
 years, and his worshippers will become more numerous. 
 This at least is the common order of things in China. The 
 neighbours evidently think there is a certain sacredness 
 attaching to this new temple. It is the spot which they 
 selected to place the body of the Shanghai city magistrate 
 who was killed at the capture of that place by a rebel force 
 in 1853. After the re-entrance of the Imperialists, the 
 coffin of the slain mandarin was publicly exhibited there 
 for some days. A biography of him was written by a 
 scholar of the neighbourhood, in which he was classed 
 among the patriotic and the loyal who had died in the 
 discharge of the trust committed to them by the Emperor. 
 The best reward for such persons is considered to be the 
 bestowal of divine titles and sacrifices by command of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 The readiness with which new religious ceremonies are 
 received among the people has allowed the three religions 
 to interact very extensively on each other. It will be 
 worth while to point out instances of this interaction, and 
 also to show how they co-exist harmoniously. This will 
 be interesting to all students of the religions of the world, 
 as well as to those who have at heart the Christianisatiori 
 of the whole human race. China is the only instance of a 
 country where three powerful religions have existed to- 
 gether for ages without one of them being successful in 
 destroying the other two. 
 
 The remaining religions of China are exclusive, and those 
 who belong to them consider it their duty not to conform 
 to the rites of other systems. Of these, the Mohammedans 
 are most numerous. In the northern provinces, in many 
 cities, it is said that they often compose a third of the 
 population. Though the Chinese Mohammedans are pro- 
 bably the most lax of all believers in Islam, they keep up 
 among themselves a spirit of resistance to idolatry, refusing 
 to adore any but Chin-cTwo, "the true Lord." They did 
 not require us to take off our shoes when we entered their 
 
 (XJNIVERSl 
 
58 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 mosques, as the foreign visitor must do in India or Ceylon, 
 but they have more than once claimed fraternity with us 
 as being opposed, like them, to the worship of images. 
 
 The Eoman Catholic converts in China amount to half 
 a million; a large number in itself, but small when com- 
 pared with the remainder of the population. 
 
 Leaving these two bodies of religionists out of view for 
 the present, an attempt will now be made to show the 
 mutual influences of the three great systems that may be 
 properly called national. 
 
 The religions of Confucius, Buddha, and Taou are truly 
 national, because the mass of the people believe in them 
 all. They are far from feeling it inconsistent to do so. 
 Philosophers may not know what to do with a fact like 
 this ; but it is true nevertheless. Those who themselves 
 have a devoted love of truth, and feel strong convictions 
 of certain things, do not understand how any one should 
 belong to three religions at once. Hence some writers 
 have parcelled out the Chinese among these systems, 
 assigning so many millions to one and so many to another. 
 In estimating the number of Buddhists in the world, one 
 hundred and eighty millions of Chinamen are placed by 
 one author at the head of his enumeration of nations. He 
 has obtained this number by halving the whole population; 
 a process conveniently short, but far from giving a true 
 view of the case. If it serves for other races to refer every 
 individual belonging to them to some one religion, it will 
 not answer for China. Some other mode of classification 
 must be employed. The majority of the inhabitants in 
 that country comply with the worship of more than one 
 religion, believe in more than one mythology of gods, and 
 contribute to the support of more than one priesthood. 
 
 What is the cause of this indifference ? Why do they 
 care so little about finding out what is the truth and hold- 
 ing to it ? Several answers may be given to this inquiry. 
 They are superstitious, but wanting in conscientiousness. 
 They accept legends as true without examining whether 
 
THE THREE RELIGIONS DEFINED. 59 
 
 there is any good evidence for them or not. They care 
 more to have divinities that seem to meet their wants, and 
 can do for them what they wish to be done, than to have 
 truth and certainty to Test upon. This is one answer. 
 
 Another circumstance that helps to explain how it is 
 that the Chinese believe in three religions at once is, that 
 these systems are supplementary to each other. 
 
 Confucianism speaks to the moral nature. It discourses 
 on virtue and vice, and the duty of compliance with law 
 and the dictates of conscience. Its worship rests on this 
 basis. The religious veneration paid to ancestors for 
 that is the worship of this system is founded on the 
 duty of filial piety. The moral sense of the Chinese is 
 offended if they are called on to resign this custom. 
 
 Taouisrn is materialistic. Its notion of the soul is of 
 something physical, a purer form of matter. The soul it 
 supposes to gain immortality by a physical discipline, a 
 sort of chemical process, which transmutes it into a more 
 ethereal essence, and prepares it for being transferred to 
 the regions of immortality. The gods of Taouism are also 
 very much what might be expected in a system which has 
 such notions as these of the soul. It looks upon the stars 
 as divine. It deifies hermits and physicians, magicians 
 and seekers after the philosopher's stone and the plant of 
 immortality. 
 
 Buddhism is different from both. It is metaphysical. 
 It appeals to the imagination, and deals in subtle argu- 
 ment. It says that the world of the senses is altogether 
 unreal, and upholds this proposition by the most elaborate 
 proofs. Its gods are personified ideas. It denies matter 
 entirely, and concerns itself only with ideas. Most of the 
 personages adored by the Buddhists are known to be no- 
 thing but fictitious personations of some of these ideas. The 
 Buddhist worship is not reverence paid to beings believed 
 to be actually existing. It is a homage rendered to ideas, 
 and it is only supposed to be reflex in its effects. Their 
 worship is useful as a discipline, but not effectual as 
 
60 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 prayer. The Buddhist, if he can obtain abstraction of 
 mind from the world in any other mode, need not pray or 
 worship at all. 
 
 These three systems, occupying the three corners of a 
 triangle the moral, the metaphysical, and the material- 
 are supplemental to each other, and are able to co-exist 
 without being mutually destructive. They rest each on a 
 basis of its own, and address themselves each to different 
 parts of man's nature. It was because Confucianism 
 "knew God, but did not honour Him as God," that the 
 way was left open for a polytheism like that of the Budd- 
 hists. In the old books of China, God is spoken of as the 
 Supreme Euler. He is represented as exercising over 
 mankind an infinitely just and beneficent providence. 
 But the duty of prayer is not enjoined. No worship of 
 God by the people is permitted. It was only by the 
 Emperor acting vicariously for the people that the Deity 
 was adored in that country. The system of Confucius 
 wanting this, was more a morality than a religion. 
 
 Buddhism came to fill this vacancy. Individual faith 
 in God, with a rational mode of worship to accompany it, 
 could not be a result ' of the religious teaching which pre- 
 ceded it in China, nor were they inculcated by it. In 
 Buddhism, the Chinese found objects to adore of mysteri- 
 ous grandeur, and richly endowed with the attributes of 
 wisdom and benevolence. The appeal thus made to their 
 religious faith was strengthened by a pompous form of 
 worship. Processions and the ringing of bells, fumes of 
 sweet-smelling incense, prayers, chanting, and musical 
 instruments, were their aids to devotion. No wonder that 
 these additions should prove welcome to the religious 
 susceptibilities of a nation which had hitherto been re- 
 stricted within the bounds of a system almost exclusively 
 moral, and which discouraged the worship of God by the 
 mass of the people. 
 
 How Taouism meets certain other wants which the 
 other two systems fail to gratify, we will now show by an 
 
TAOUIST MEDICAL DIVINITIES. 61 
 
 illustration : It was a cold morning in January when a 
 missionary walked, on one occasion, to a temple near the 
 west gate of Shanghai. There is a medical divinity much 
 honoured who resides in this temple, to heal, as his 
 worshippers think, the ailments of those who pray to him. 
 The Taouist priest in charge addressed the foreign visitor 
 with a somewhat unexpected exhortation : " You come to 
 our country giving us good advice. Now let me address a 
 little to you. Your religion does not meet the require- 
 ments of the people. When they worship, they wish to 
 know whether they can grow rich, and recover from 
 disease; but, in the case of believing in Jesus, there are 
 no benefits of this kind to be looked for." He pointed to 
 the little image, representing some physician of a former 
 dynasty, sitting in its shrine in a dim light, just visible 
 through the opening of the curtains. "See," said he, 
 " here is the god, ready to tell the believing devotee what 
 medicine he needs, and to guarantee its healing effect. 
 Look at the inscriptions fixed on the roof above, and on 
 each side of the shrine. They describe his marvel-working 
 power." He was asked who placed those tablets there. 
 " They are," he replied, " the offerings of persons cured by 
 this divinity. In the Central Kingdom, the setting of the 
 tablets in the temples by individuals is customary, and 
 they are intended to commemorate benefits received from 
 the divinities to whom they are dedicated." A visitor 
 from a village in the country, at a distance of some miles, 
 now appeared, and went through the usual ceremonies. 
 He was asked, "Why do you not consult a physician? 
 This idol is dead wood. It cannot see or hear. Why 
 apply to it?" The devotee answered with great simpli- 
 city, '' I do not know what my disease is, how then can I 
 apply to a physician ? It is on this account that I ask the 
 god. He will heal me. I have come a long w r ay on pur- 
 pose. His fame is very widely spread." He was again 
 asked, "Will you not go to the foreign free hospital?" 
 He answered, " It is not the right time of day, and besides, 
 
62 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 I like to come here; and why should I not?" He was 
 asked again, " Do you know that this burning of incense 
 and seeking for oracular information at- an idol's shrine is 
 displeasing to God ? It is as unwise, therefore, as it is 
 unreasonable, to apply to this god to tell you what medi- 
 cine you should use." At this point the Taouist priest 
 came to the defence of his system. " You believe in Jesus. 
 We believe in our gods. Eeligions differ according to 
 place, and every country has its own divinities. We have 
 Kwan-kung, for example, the god of war, and other divini- 
 ties, holding the same place among us that Jesus does 
 among you." He was asked, "How can these supposed 
 gods benefit you ? They are but the imaginary representa- 
 tives of men belonging to your nation who long ago died/' 
 The Taouist asked in reply, "Is it not the same with 
 Jesus ? He also is long since dead. What benefit do you 
 expect from Him ?" He was then told, "We do not make 
 an image of Him, place it in a shrine, and cast lots before 
 it, expecting to learn by so doing how a disease is to be 
 cured. The parallel is not accurate. The benefit we 
 expect from Him is, that He will help us in becoming 
 virtuous, and in attaining a happy future life. The object 
 of our religious books is to free us from sin, and Jesus, 
 who still lives in heaven, is able to secure us this." The 
 reference to books led him to remark, " We have our books, 
 too, to exhort men to virtue." He took up a copy of a 
 well-known work, often distributed gratuitously in China 
 by those who devote money to the printing and circulation 
 of religious tracts among their countrymen. " This," he 
 said, " is the Kan-ying-peen (Book of Eetribution) ; all that 
 it contains is intended to make men better. It promises 
 long life to the good, and threatens all kinds of calamities 
 to the wicked. Our object is the same as yours, to make 
 men good." He was reminded that, according to the 
 doctrine of this book, happiness and misery were the 
 rewards of virtue and vice, and that this did not agree 
 with the system of divination on which his temple de- 
 
CHARACTER OF TAOUISM. 63 
 
 pended for its support; and was asked why he encouraged 
 those who frequented it to expect good from the throwing 
 of sticks on the floor, and the shaking of lots together in a 
 wooden cup, if good and ill fortune were awarded to men 
 by Heaten only according to character. To this the priest 
 of Taou replied, as he sat surrounded by his boxes of 
 medicines, arranged in pigeon-holes, with his recipe book 
 on the table before him, from which he selected the appro- 
 priate nostrum under the guidance of the oracle, " If the 
 person who comes to worship is wicked at heart, he will 
 not be heard, the oracle will fail." " But," it was remarked, 
 " if he be only virtuous, he need not come here at all The 
 great thing is to be good." 
 
 It is curious to notice how the upholders of the most 
 degrading superstitions will invariably maintain that they 
 are auxiliary to virtue, and that they rest upon the sound- 
 est principles of morality. Taouism, as it is popularly 
 believed, is one of the most abject of all the religions that 
 the world has known. There is much in it which is so 
 wretchedly mean, that the examination of it is quite dis- 
 spiriting, and the reflection often occurs Can the soul of 
 man sink so low as this ? This poor Taouist doctor gained 
 his living by a trade no more respectable than that of a 
 gipsy fortune-teller. The history of his sect is that of a 
 succession of necromancers who could call up spirits at 
 their will, of dreamers who expected to discover the art of 
 transmuting all metals into gold, and of a few philosophers 
 who, though their aspirations were a little higher, have 
 failed to lend any air of dignity to a system hopelessly 
 mean. Yet this man contended, as the conversation was 
 continued, that believers in his religion strove after virtue. 
 It was by virtue, he said, that they looked for immortality. 
 The genii who reside in forests and mountains, who have 
 left the haunts of men for ever, and escaped the necessity of 
 dying, have arrived at this good fortune by the force of their 
 goodness. He confessed, however, that in modern times 
 there are none so good as to become immortal in this way. 
 
64 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The missionary reminded him that if he really wished 
 men to be virtuous, some better method to make them so 
 might be found than the keeping open of a temple like that. 
 The idols with their gay ornaments, the hanging lanterns, 
 the burning of candles and sandal-wood, and the apparatus 
 for divination, would not promote the virtue of the com- 
 munity. They are all the work of human hands. There 
 is nothing divine in them. " Such is our custom/' observed 
 the villager. "Customs differ according to place." The 
 priest felt a little nettled, and remarked, " If you were to 
 fall into a river, Jesus would save you from drowning, I 
 suppose. He would come and draw you out of the water. 
 You honour Jesus, and it is very well for you to do so. 
 But He does not preside over China. He is not the God 
 of our country, and it would be of no use for us to pray to 
 Him." Of course neither of these two men were prepared 
 to admit what they were then told, that Jesus is the true 
 God, and that in Him is eternal life. 
 
 This incident shows how the Taouist system works 
 among the Chinese. Its appeal is made to the lower 
 wants of their nature. It invents divinities to promote 
 the physical well-being of the people. The gods of riches, 
 of longevity, of war, and of particular diseases, all belong 
 to this religion. Such a system could not fail to be 
 popular among all those whose spiritual nature has not 
 been wakened into activity. The number of such persons 
 in China is overwhelmingly vast. Their appetites are gross, 
 and Taouism has supplied to them a suitable pabulum. 
 
 We have already assigned two reasons for the existence, 
 side by side, of three national religions in China. The 
 first was, that while the people of that country are prone 
 to superstition, they neglect to inquire into evidence. 
 They have no literature of evidences corresponding to our 
 evidences of Christianity, nor have they formed their 
 notions on logic into a science. The second was, that 
 these religions address themselves particularly to different 
 parts of human nature. We shall add a thirds/These 
 
IDOLATRY UPHELD BY AUTHORITY. 65 
 
 three systems are all supported by the weight of authority. 
 Confucius professed to tread in the steps of the ancient 
 sages of his nation. It is a favourite proverb among the 
 Chinese, Kin puh joo koo, " the moderns are not comparable 
 with the ancients." Since the time of Confucius, men of 
 mark in China have lent their influence to uphold the 
 same system, and it has always been the religion of the 
 State. But while the influential authors and the emperors 
 of the successive dynasties have never deserted the Con- 
 fucian standard, many of them have shown attachment to 
 Buddhism. Last century the Emperor Keen-lung gave the 
 palace of his grandfather at Hangchow to the Buddhists to 
 be a monastery, and wrote with his own hand an inscrip- 
 tion on a monumental tablet to be placed on its roof. The 
 literature of that religion, in more than 1000 volumes, is 
 published by Government with public funds. Numberless 
 prefaces to Buddhist works have been written by emperors 
 and authors of great repute. The influence of Buddhism 
 is discernible in the productions of many of the most 
 influential writers. The Buddhist priesthood has been and 
 is recognised by many public acts of the Government. 
 Buddhism is supported as the national religion among the 
 Tibetans and Mongols, and large establishments of Lamas 
 belonging to these nations are maintained at Peking at the 
 imperial expense. 
 
 Taouism, perhaps more than Buddhism, may be con- 
 sidereH a State religion. All the State gods, such as the 
 god of war, Wen-chang the god of literature, and the very 
 numerous patron gods of cities and country towns, belong 
 to the Taouist religion, and are required by imperial edict 
 to be worshipped according to the forms of that religion. 
 The officers of Government, resident in particular cities, 
 regularly visit the temples of these State gods on certain 
 occasions. Confucianism is theoretically the only religion 
 of the State, but practically Taouisra is not less so. Besides 
 this, the influence of the philosophy of the Taouist system 
 on great writers, and the characteristically national tone of 
 
 E 
 
66 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 its legends, and of the more frivolous and nonsensical 
 portion of its doctrines, help to show that it is properly 
 described as national, and why it has come to be so. 
 
 At the present time a city cannot be without its temples, 
 nor can these temples be suitably taken care of without 
 inviting Buddhist or Taouist priests to assist. The pro- 
 tector of the city must have a temple where worship is 
 performed specially on the 1st and I5th of each month. 
 There are no persons so well adapted to undertake this 
 duty as the priests of Taou. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CHINESE LITERATURE, 
 PHILOSOPHY, AND NATIONAL LIFE. 
 
 THE reader is now invited to give his attention to some 
 sketches of the influence of Buddhism on the national life 
 of the Chinese. It has been unquestionably great. The 
 Hindoo mode of thought is more speculative and philoso- 
 phical than the Chinese. The practical Chinese mind had 
 not amused itself with visiting those subtle depths of 
 speculation which were familiar to the Hindoo. They 
 could not invent an abstract philosophy like that of 
 Buddhism, but they could follow it, and understand it 
 when translated into their language. In the early part of 
 the Christian era, translations of a vast number of philoso- 
 phical and other works were made from the Sanscrit. 
 They taught the Buddhist doctrines in an elegant form, 
 which could not fail to attract readers in a cultivated 
 nation like the Chinese. Some traces of their influence 
 will now be pointed out as found in the works of cele- 
 brated authors. 
 
 The priests of this religion are fond of fountains and 
 caves. In order to impart to them an air of sanctity, they 
 invent legends of the appearance of divine personages in 
 their neighbourhood, or attach to them some reminiscence 
 of the visits of remarkable men. The poet Soo-tung-po 
 was regarded by them as one of their best friends, though 
 he never abandoned Confucianism. To keep him in re- 
 membrance, and to show their gratitude for the verses he 
 wrote in praise of their mode of life and their doctrines, 
 they have dedicated to him more than one wayside spring 
 
68 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 where he is said to have halted on a journey. I have seen 
 some of them when travelling in the province of Chekeang. 
 They were pointed out by the resident priests as Se-yen- 
 tseuen, the spring where the poet washed his inkstone. 
 
 Another poet, nearly of the same period, was Taou-han. 
 He has described a visit to one of the most famous monas- 
 teries in China, the Teen-chuh-sze, at Hangchow. This 
 ancient establishment is, in its modern form, of most 
 magnificent dimensions. Its name is derived from that of 
 India, which was called Teen-chuh by the Chinese when 
 they first became acquainted with it (or at least when 
 their books first mention it), about the time of Christ. 
 There were about 700 priests belonging to this establish- 
 ment when I visited it twenty years ago. It is in a 
 mountain hollow about three miles from the city. A long- 
 paved road leads to it, bordered by shrubberies, and orna- 
 mented with numerous monuments to the dead, either 
 tombs, or those erections called pai low, constructed of 
 upright and horizontal slabs of granite, and sculptured with 
 the names and virtues of remarkable persons. The poet 
 sketches the appearance of the monastery as he arrived 
 there in the evening. After walking for some time up the 
 path, which was shaded by a thick overgrowth of cypresses 
 and pines, he came in sight of the temple. He describes 
 the lofty gateway, through which the visitor, passing by 
 the four gigantic guardian deities who stand as sentinels at 
 Buddha's door, enters the great court. He notices the 
 great hall where Shakyarnuni Buddha appears, enthroned 
 on a vast lotus. On each side and behind was a wilder- 
 ness of cloisters, side-rooms, sleeping-rooms, and apartments 
 for the monks according to their gradations. He passed 
 the night there, and noticed the contrast between the 
 silent groves outside, and the halls of the monastery echo- 
 ing at intervals during the night with the chanting of 
 prayers and the striking of bells. From his window he 
 saw the moon shining on the lake, and the sound of run- 
 ning brooks fell on his ear. The peculiarity of his tern- 
 
EFFECT OF BUDDHISM ON LITER A TURE. 69 
 
 porary lodging-place led him to think of the land of the 
 Brahmans. He then tells how he fell into a pleasant 
 reverie, in which the chain of cares that had wound itself 
 round him was broken, and his mind felt free to wander 
 in the realms of abstraction. 
 
 Every large monastery has its printed history, and such 
 poems as the preceding are carefully preserved in it as the 
 homage paid by literature to religion. The priests of this 
 old monastery still entertain visitors hospitably. The 
 abbot was very friendly in his manner when my com- 
 panion and I were there, so much so that he recommended 
 an adjoining piece of ground for building a Christian 
 temple. He thought that the Buddhist and Christian 
 religions might be maintained very harmoniously in this 
 close proximity to each other. He added some remarks 
 on the hostility shown by Christian missionaries to idol- 
 atry, and recommended that they should exhibit what he 
 chose to represent as a more liberal spirit, and cease from 
 their attacks upon the customs of other religions. 
 
 The influence of Buddhism on Chinese philosophy is 
 seen in the writings of Choo-foo-tsze, and other authors of 
 his time. He was a man who left a very deep and long- 
 enduring impression upon the literature of his country. 
 The most modern school of authorship has, indeed, changed 
 its tone respecting him. It charges him with an imperfect 
 system of criticism, and with yielding to Buddhist influence 
 in his peculiar philosophy and his mode of interpreting 
 the ancient books. But till recently he was considered as 
 almost a second Confucius. He was undoubtedly one of 
 China's greatest men, and was the most prominent among 
 all the authors of the middle-age period in that country. 
 Eelics of such a man are preserved with affectionate vene- 
 ration. I have seen a harp that belonged to him. It was 
 in the possession of a native gentleman, an amateur in harp 
 music. He carried it with him when travelling, as the 
 most precious of his curiosities, and played upon it to 
 amuse his friends. I heard him perform a tune intended 
 
70 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 to represent a quarrelsome discussion between a woodman 
 and a fisherman. It was a five-stringed instrument. The 
 strings were modern, but the wood looked very old. 
 Whether it had seen seven hundred summers and winters, 
 and had actually been played on by the great philosopher, 
 I will not undertake to say. But Confucius, as well as his 
 commentator, was, it is said, very fond of music. When 
 Choo-foo-tsze was a child, and just able to talk a little, a 
 noted scholar, a friend of his father, pointed to heaven and 
 said, " See, that is heaven." The child answered, " And 
 what is there above heaven?" The scholar only replied 
 by a look of astonishment at the intelligence these words 
 exhibited. At five years old he went to school, and com- 
 prehended the whole meaning of the " Book on Filial Piety" 
 at the first reading. He wrote on the margin, " If any one 
 has not this, he is not a man." When he went with other 
 children to play upon the sandy channel of a mountain 
 stream, he would leave them, and busy himself with mark- 
 ing upon the sand the eight diagrams that form the 
 basis of Chinese philosophy. When he was a young man 
 he studied with avidity the books of Buddha and Taou. 
 He did this only to increase the range of his reading. He 
 never became a convert to their opinions. They left, how- 
 ever, a marked impression upon his mind. He speaks in 
 terms of glowing admiration of one of their books the 
 " Leng-yen-king," in which there is an elaborate argument 
 to prove that none of the objects presented to us by the 
 senses are real. 
 
 This author and his contemporaries, when they read the 
 subtle treatises of the Buddhists on philosophical ques- 
 tions, felt ashamed of the simplicity of their own system, 
 and tried to impart to it an air of scientific refinement. 
 The diagrams of Fuh-he, which he had drawn on the sand 
 in his childhood, were nothing but lines, arranged parallel 
 to each other in certain varying forms. It was said by 
 sages that these diagrams contained within them the system 
 of the universe. Bare symbols may be made to mean 
 
MODERN VIEWS OF GOD. 71 
 
 anything ; and it was easy to affirm that these lines, the 
 most ancient relic of the art of writing that the Chinese 
 possess, represent the formation of the world. Confucius 
 added that the Great Extreme, or Tae-keih, was at the 
 beginning of all things, but he did not describe precisely 
 what the Great Extreme was. The school to which our 
 author belonged were not satisfied. New additions were 
 made, too abstract to be detailed here, to the doctrine of 
 the Tae-keih. 
 
 An attempt was made to define the Great Extreme. 
 Confucius probably meant by it nothing but a boundary in 
 time the commencing epoch of the gradual formation of 
 all things. Our author and his friends, fresh from the 
 perusal of works which denied the existence of matter, and 
 also that of a Supreme Creator, ventured on the assertions, 
 that the Tae-keih is identical with the ultimate reason 
 (Taou-le), and with God (Shang-te); that creation is a spon- 
 taneous process, not effected by an agent; and that there 
 is no personality in God. This was the form they chose 
 for their national philosophy. Very different it is from 
 the old Chinese system, in which no doctrine is more mani- 
 festly an article of faith than the personality of God, 
 although it does not expressly say that He was the Creator, 
 self-existent and eternal. 
 
 It was the teaching of this modern system which Com- 
 missioner Yeh brought forward iu his conversations with 
 Mr. Wingrove Cooke, as detailed in his work, " China in 
 1857-58." In the very graphic and interesting account 
 there given of the commissioner, he (Yeh) speaks some- 
 times in the character of a Chinaman of the genuine Con- 
 fucian school ; as when he says, " Tien means properly only 
 the material heaven, but it also means Shang-te (supreme 
 ruler) ; for as it is not lawful to use his name lightly, we 
 name him by his residence, which is Tien, heaven." At 
 other times he falls into the phraseology of the modern 
 school, where he says, " Shang-te and Taou-le (reason, the 
 ultimate reason) are one and the same thing." He speaks 
 
72 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 afterwards of the personage worshipped by the Taouists with 
 the title Shang-te, a priest of that religion who lived in the 
 Han dynasty : " Shang-te/' he says, " is a Taouist Taou-le" 
 This is a specimen of the facile way in which the Chinese 
 will in conversation pass over from one stand-point to 
 another, without giving the slightest intimation of their 
 doing so to the interrogator. To understand such men as 
 Commissioner Yeh, it is necessary to distinguish between 
 the different systems they are familiar with. The ancient 
 and modern Confucian philosophy must be separated, and the 
 peculiarities of Buddhism and Taouism properly considered. 
 One of Mr. Cooke's conclusions is, that "the Confucian 
 philosophy recognises only nature, self-produced, active, 
 but will-less and unintelligent." But this is the view of 
 the modern commentators on Confucius, not of Confucius 
 himself. They began to speak in this way after Buddhism 
 had taught them how to construct a system of negative 
 instead of positive doctrines. It was the Hindoo mind 
 that led the way in the hardy assertion that nature may 
 subsist without God. The philosophers of China yielded 
 to the wish to become speculators on the laws of the 
 world, and retaining the phraseology that they found in 
 Confucius, proceeded to eliminate such ideas as that of a 
 personal God and of moral retribution, as administered by 
 a person, and when they had reduced the universe as much 
 as possible to abstractions, concluded the process by 
 identifying the terms of their philosophy. This is just 
 what is done by the German when he says that reason, 
 God, knowledge, being, and thinking are identical expres- 
 sions. It is not easy to say from Mr. Cooke's narration 
 which view Yeh preferred the old doctrine of a personal 
 God, who dwells in heaven, and whose name it is not law- 
 ful to use lightly; or that of the sophistical modern school, 
 which finds nothing at the basis of nature but a principle. 
 The scholars of his nation are now forming themselves 
 into two parties, holding these opposite views, and it would 
 be interesting to have known under which banner he would 
 
DEFINITION OF SHANG-TE. 73 
 
 Lave preferred to enlist. We incline to think that he 
 would have chosen the former, according to which God is 
 known simply as the Supreme Euler, infinitely just, good, 
 and powerful. This is the real faith of the Chinese. For 
 the sake of argument, they will speculate and sophisticate, 
 or they will repeat the sophistries of others; but the 
 deeper principle of national religious faith will assert itself 
 in their more earnest moments, and they will return to a 
 more reasonable system. 
 
 Mr. Cooke arrived at another conclusion from the 
 opinions of Yeh, namely, that the Protestant missionaries 
 are wrong in using the term Shang-te for God, because it is 
 the name of a created being. If it is the name of a created 
 being, it is so only in the opinion of a modern philosophical 
 school ; but even in this case the word " created " does not 
 convey the idea contained in the corresponding Chinese 
 expressions. What they mean is rather development than 
 creation. They may speak of Shang-te being developed 
 from the ultimate principle ; but if this modern school had 
 such a dogma respecting the origin of Shang-te a subject 
 not alluded to in the old literature of the country this 
 circumstance would not necessarily render that term less 
 suitable to be used as a translation for our word God. 
 How can we expect them to have in all points correct 
 views of the Divine Being ? 
 
 The influence of Buddhism in producing modifications in 
 the philosophy of the Chinese is, although perfectly visible, 
 not acknowledged by those who have become subjected to 
 that influence. But there are not wanting very numerous 
 assertions of the most unqualified kind, that the two 
 religions are identical in their principles. For example : 
 Commissioner Yeh told Mr. Cooke that " the Taoli of Con- 
 fucius is at one with the Taoli of Buddha." There is a 
 class of books published, frequently for gratuitous distri- 
 bution as religious tracts, maintaining this view. The 
 Buddhist reasons that there is nothing real but Buddha, 
 that the mind is Buddha, and that to attain to the state of 
 
74 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 Buddha it is only necessary to watch the mind and follow 
 out our own nature. This is what a priest of that religion 
 would probably give as an answer, if asked to put in two 
 or three sentences the essential features of his system. It 
 is very common for the Confucianist who is favourably 
 disposed to Buddhism to say that in these statements the 
 term Buddha, " intelligence," is put for what he calls 
 " reason " (le) or " nature " (sing), and that they amount to 
 nothing more or less than the doctrine that human nature 
 is originally good, and that the path of reformation and 
 perfection lies in following out our nature. It is in this 
 way that they assert the identity of the Taou-le of Confucius 
 and of Buddha. 
 
 I knew a native scholar of great ability who had been 
 a Buddhist priest in his youth. Not satisfied with his 
 prospects as a member of the monkish fraternity, he 
 resolved to let his hair grow, and return to Confucianism. 
 There is no comparison between the respectability of the 
 two religions, and the scope that they afford for those who 
 have energy and enterprise. My former acquaintance was 
 ambitious, and abandoned the cloistered seclusion of a 
 monastery to try his fortune in a wider field. His Buddhist 
 reading, however, made him think favourably of that 
 religion. He said to me on one occasion, "All countries 
 have their sages. We have Confucius. Buddha was the 
 sage of India. The Mongols have the Dalai Lama, and the 
 Mohammedans Mahomet. You in the West have Jesus. 
 It is necessarily so in the arrangements of Heaven. You 
 speak of Adam in your Scriptures. He is no other than 
 our Pan-koo." 
 
 This show of liberality is very common with the Chinese 
 when conversing with foreigners upon Christianity. It 
 springs partly from politeness, which induces them to 
 admit, for the time, the equality of the religion of their 
 foreign interlocutor with their own. It comes in part, 
 also, from the circumstance that they do not claim a 
 divine character for Confucius. They regard him as 
 
'EFFECT OF BUDDHISM ON CONFUCIANISM. 75 
 
 nothing more than the wisest of men. They never speak 
 of him as God, nor do they claim inspiration for his words. 
 They can afford, then, to admit that other religions are as 
 suitable for other nations as theirs is for them, if they 
 enjoin a good morality. An ethical test is the only one 
 they know. "When the evidence of a new religion is pre- 
 sented to them, they at once refer it to a moral standard, 
 and give their approval with the utmost readiness, if it 
 passes the test. They do not ask whether it is divine, 
 but whether it is good. This tolerant mode of viewing 
 other religions is one of the effects of the introduction of 
 Buddhism into China. 
 
 The Chinese having this mode of viewing religions as 
 equally good, the difficulty often felt by the Christian mis- 
 sionary in persuading them to believe in the religion of 
 Christ will be easily perceived. He may prove its 
 divinity, but this does not go far with a latitudinarian 
 people, who give their assent equally to all systems that 
 have a good moral code. 
 
 The influence of Buddhism on Confucianism is seen 
 most palpably in the mixing of its rites with the worship 
 of ancestors. Of all religious ceremonies, the people of 
 China think this the most important. It is related of 
 some of the high officers that they will visit their ancestral 
 chapel in the morning to pass some time in self-examina- 
 tion, having the feeling that they are likely to discharge 
 this duty more faithfully in the presence of the holy tablets 
 which preserve the remembrance of their forefathers, and 
 act as a sort of guardian penates in protecting and conse- 
 crating their homes. To look upon these tablets is to a 
 Chinese like an appeal to his honour. He dares not com- 
 mit any act that will bring dishonour on his ancestral 
 name. He feels rewarded when he has done anything that 
 he is conscious is not unworthy his ancestors. It is rever- 
 ence for them that constitutes the most powerful religious 
 sentiment in his mind. 
 
 The Buddhist masses for the dead afforded the oppor- 
 
76 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 tunity of showing in a palpable manner the regard felt 
 for ancestors. The ancestral worship is simple. Simpli- 
 city marks the style of the funereal temple and the family 
 cemetery. The common eye, not satisfied with simplicity, 
 was pleased with the rich dresses, genuflexions, and pro- 
 cessions of the Buddhist monks, and especially with the 
 preparations that they undertake to make for the soul of 
 the departed in the invisible world. 
 
 These additional rites are performed in the family home, 
 not in the ancestral temple. The Hindoo metempsychosis 
 allows great scope to the fancy in imagining the condition 
 of the departed soul in the next world. I saw on one 
 occasion, at Kwun-shan, a large paper house burnt. It 
 was intended to be the residence of the deceased in Hades. 
 Kwun-shan is a city passed by the traveller on his way 
 from Shanghai westward to Soochow. The walls include 
 a much wider space than is needed by the population ; but 
 the deficiency of inhabitants is made up by a busy suburb 
 outside the gates on the river-side. A hill crowned with 
 a pagoda within the city is its principal ornament, and 
 forms a landmark for many miles round. From this hill 
 the city presents a very umbrageous aspect. The Chinese 
 are fond of trees in their cities, and this gives them a very 
 pleasant habitable appearance. 
 
 My fellow-travellers and I followed a funeral procession 
 that we met in the streets, and were admitted to the house 
 where the principal ceremonies were to be performed, with- 
 out difficulty. We went in with a crowd of other strangers 
 through the open doors, as is commonly done in China on 
 such occasions. The paper house for the departed soul 
 was near its completion. It was about ten feet high and 
 twelve feet deep. It contained a sleeping-room, library, 
 reception-room, entrance-hall, and treasury. It was fur- 
 nished with paper chairs and tables. We saw boxes of 
 paper money carried in. A paper image of the dead 
 appeared in the interior seated in state. There was a sedan 
 chair, with bearers, and also a boat and boatman, for the 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF METEMPSYCHOSIS. 77 
 
 use of the deceased in the unseen world. A table spread 
 with food was placed in front of the house. A party of 
 Buddhist priests now came forward and walked in proces- 
 sion, striking bells and chanting. As they passed round 
 the house they threw rice and wheat upon it. The family 
 came forward and worshipped their deceased mother, for 
 whose use the house was built. They wore white cotton 
 cloth and sackcloth, white cloth shoes, and white cotton 
 braid at the ends of their pigtails, instead of the usual silk 
 braid, used as a terminal decoration to that ornament. 
 The Chinese think that in mourning costume the material 
 should be uncoloured, and they therefore employ white. 
 In this they resemble the ancient Jews, who wore sack- 
 cloth, as being a coarse, uncoloured material, on occasions 
 when they desired to make an outward expression of grief. 
 After the act of worship, some shots were fired, and then a 
 light was applied to the fragile paper fabric, and in a 
 moment it was in flames. It stood in an open court 
 within the family residence. 
 
 According to the doctrine of metempsychosis we are all 
 passing through a succession of lives, some past and some 
 to come ; and the life on which we are about to enter may 
 be sufficiently like the present to allow of provision being 
 made for our comfort there in a way such as that just 
 described. Eich Confucian families in China are in the 
 constant habit of performing similar ceremonies for the 
 dead. Ex uno disce omnia. And although the individual, 
 when appealed to, will say that they are of no use, that he 
 does not believe in their efficacy, and only permits them 
 in conformity to local custom, it is quite possible that in 
 most cases, under this pretended infidelity, there may be 
 no little faith in the metempsychosis, and in the validity of 
 Buddhist rites founded on that doctrine. Men, from their 
 natural constitution, will have some belief in a future 
 state. This comes from the teaching of the internal 
 monitor, " the divinity within us that points out a here- 
 after, and intimates eternity to man." While Christians 
 
78 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 were slow to convey the truth to China's teeming multi- 
 tudes, the Buddhists seized upon their opportunity, and 
 fed with Hindoo fictions the craving after some knowledge 
 of the future life which they found among this and the 
 other nations they visited. 
 
 Faith in the Hindoo view of the future state is very com- 
 mon among the Chinese Confucianists. It does not amal- 
 gamate well with their own system. The two doctrines are 
 far from dovetailing nicely together. They know this, and 
 are not offended when the Buddhist view is denied. They 
 revere it less than the teaching of Confucius, but still they 
 have some faith in it. They conform to Buddhist cere- 
 monies, and believe to some degree that they are valid and 
 efficacious. If obliged to make their choice, they would 
 prefer the doctrine of Confucius, but since it is not expected 
 in China that a man should restrict himself to one religion, 
 they conform to both without caring for the contradiction 
 and inconsistency that such a course involves. This need 
 not surprise us, when we recollect how a faith in witch- 
 craft and fairy mythology among many of our own people 
 existed several centuries after Christianity had become the 
 national faith. 
 
( 79) 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CHINESE LITERATURE 
 AND SOCIAL LIFE Continued. 
 
 THE illustrations contained in the last chapter of the influ- 
 ence of Buddhism on the literature and national life of the 
 Chinese will now be continued by the citation of a curious 
 passage from a scientific tract published some years ago 
 at Hangchow. The author is treating upon modern Euro- 
 pean astronomy. He had read of the discovery of Uranus 
 and Xeptune, of the motion of the sun attended by his 
 planets among the fixed stars, and of the statement that 
 the fixed stars themselves are suns shining upon planetary 
 systems of their own. He is trying to comprehend this 
 for himself, and to make it plain to his reader. He first 
 takes for comparison a scene very familiar to a Chinaman's 
 eye. He imagines the hall of a rich man's mansion orna- 
 mented by a large number of hanging lanterns. They are 
 seen by the visitor as he walks under them to be hung 
 from the ceiling in lines and circles according to a regular 
 plan, but when looked at from a distance, the rows of 
 lanterns appear to cross each other in a very confused 
 manner. He does not give in his adhesion to the modern 
 European astronomy without an attempt to show how 
 much of it was known to his countrymen before. He 
 quotes ancient Chinese authors who had said that the earth 
 is round, and that it moved from west to east; that in 
 winter it travels to the north-west, and in summer to the 
 south-east, passing over the middle points of its journey at 
 the equinoxes. These things are said in very old books, 
 and we must allow the ancient Chinese all the credit they 
 
80 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 deserve for them, although, like the theories of Nicetas 
 and Pythagoras, they were not commonly believed in at 
 the time. 
 
 Not content with this, he proceeds to say that the 
 Buddhist cosmogony has anticipated the modern European 
 astronomy : " Their books speak of a great, a middle, and a 
 small universe of a thousand worlds. I used to wonder at 
 the falsity and absurdity of such descriptions of the uni- 
 verse until I read the new astronomical views of the men 
 from the West, who say that through boundless space are 
 scattered numberless nebulae made up of thickly-clustered 
 stars. They also say that the stars sprinkled over the 
 heavenly vault are so many suns, each of them having 
 several earths revolving round it. They tell us also that 
 the Milky Way is a nebula, and contains within it the sun 
 as one of its component stars. The sun is the nearest to 
 the earth of all the stars, and therefore he appears to us 
 much larger than they do. What the men of the West 
 have discovered by astronomical instruments agrees re- 
 markably with the opinions of the Buddhists. I cannot 
 but admire the sagacity of these men. By the light of 
 their wisdom they were able to discover without the use of 
 instruments the vastness of the universe. Is not their 
 sagacity far superior to that of the followers of Confucius, 
 who never imagined the existence of numberless other 
 worlds spread through the region of infinite space ? " He 
 then states that the long periods of revolution of the more 
 distant planets resemble what was said by the Buddhists 
 of the heavens in their cosmogony. In the paradise of 
 Tushita, for example, four hundred of our years make one 
 day. In that of Shiva, a thousand six hundred years of 
 our time constitute one day. 
 
 We see here the first effect of European science on the 
 mind of a scholar, himself a Confucianist, but well read in 
 Buddhist literature. Nothing can be more palpably ficti- 
 tious than the system of the world to which he refers. 
 The inventors of the cosmogony of the Northern Buddhists 
 
BUDDHIST KALPAS. 81 
 
 were metaphysicians who denied the existence of matter, 
 and when they spoke of immense assemblages of worlds in 
 various parts of space, only intended them to be the imagin- 
 ary abodes of imaginary Buddhas, partaking in no way of 
 reality. These Buddhas, with the realms over which they 
 reigned, were symbols of ideas, and nothing more. The 
 Chinese reader of their works, looking at things from his 
 practical, unimaginative point of view, will, as in this case, 
 mistake their object, and see in these ideal creations of the 
 subtle Hindoo intellect proofs of a sagacity that he thinks 
 can bear comparison with that of those European investi- 
 gators who possessed the power to discover the unknown 
 truths of nature with the genius of such men, for ex- 
 ample, as Copernicus and Newton. It is known from 
 experience that when the geological periods in the history 
 of the earth are mentioned to intelligent Chinese, they will 
 remark, " That is just like what we have read in Buddhist 
 books before." These books speak of an endless succession 
 of Kalpas, or periods of alternate formation and decay. 
 According to this view, the world is subject to incessant 
 changes under the dominion of fate. This fate is exercised 
 in agreement with the laws of moral retribution, so far as 
 it refers to living beings. In relation to the physical 
 world, it causes it to pass through four periods, those of 
 formation, conservation, decay, and destruction. As often 
 as this fourfold process is completed it begins again. This 
 system of the world occurs to the mind of the follower of 
 Confucius when he hears of the theories of modern geology. 
 The living author already quoted from says the appear- 
 ance of new stars, and the disappearance of old ones, as 
 described in Western astronomy, accords with the Buddhist 
 account of the history of worlds. 
 
 When such men read the Mosaic narrative of creation, 
 they will be likely to bring forward an objection to it 
 from modern geology. They have, then, to be met with 
 the same arguments which are addressed by defenders 
 of Divine revelation at home to those that impugn its 
 
 I 
 
82 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 authority. The Christian missionary in China must be 
 prepared to meet there cultivated men, who will oppose 
 him with the arguments of an infidel logic, just as he 
 will also find dense masses of population whose religious 
 faith consists of gross superstitions. All the opposition 
 that intellectual activity and degrading superstitions can 
 unitedly bring against Christianity will be likely to exist 
 in a country like China. This will not surprise those who 
 remember the character of the resistance made to Chris- 
 tianity in India by the educated class. Educated Hindoos 
 prefer to attack the religion of Jesus with weapons drawn 
 from the armoury of infidelity, rather than with those 
 furnished by superstition. So it will be in China in the 
 coming contest. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. 
 
 Similar instruction may be derived from another work 
 lately published by a Confucianist at Soochow. Protestant 
 missionaries are now residing in this, among other great 
 cities that are to be opened to the Christian traveller. 
 They may meet there with the writer of the work we 
 refer to, and with other men who think like him. How 
 these men think, and what opinions they hold on science 
 and religion, may be learned from a book like this. 
 
 He attacks Matthew Bicci, the first Jesuit missionary 
 in China, for teaching the Ptolemaic system of the world. 
 He states that the doctrine of nine crystalline spheres en- 
 circling the earth like the coats of an onion, the uppermost 
 of them all constantly carrying the other eight, which 
 contain the stars and planets, along with it, is absurd. He 
 also criticises Copernicus. He allows that the earth has 
 a motion round its own axis, but not round the sun. 
 
 To what this author says upon Christianity, allusion 
 will be made in a subsequent part of this work. At pre- 
 sent I shall only refer to his views on Buddhism. He has 
 a section upon supernatural beings. These include those 
 personages commonly worshipped as divinities, and also 
 the souls of ancestors. He says the worship of the gods 
 and genii of Taouism, the belief in fabulous islands whose 
 
CRITICISM ON BUDDHISM. 83 
 
 inhabitants enjoy perpetual youth, and the use of charms 
 and divination, are comparatively modern in China. He 
 proceeds to animadvert on the doctrine of hell and the 
 metempsychosis, or the "revolving wheel" of life and 
 death. It came from India, and it was when Buddhism 
 was taught, he complains, that China heard for the first 
 time of a return to life after death, of a judge of men's 
 actions in Hades, of birth into another world, and of the 
 acts of the present life being recollected in a future one. 
 All these, things come, he says, from the ever-active human 
 mind, which spontaneously believes in these doctrines, and 
 likes to put faith in various supernatural beings. Whether 
 we assert or deny them, we cannot feel sure that we are 
 right. We only know this, he thinks, that all religious doc- 
 trines and customs come out of the mind itself. His con- 
 clusion is, that men have a natural tendency to believe in 
 these things, that differences in opinion on religious matters 
 depend on the country where they exist, and that there is 
 no ground of certainty respecting them. He finds a proof 
 of his opinion in the separation of the soul at death, when, 
 according to the common Chinese doctrine, the ethereal 
 and grosser parts of the soul return to their respective 
 sources, the Yang and Yin. These are the male and 
 female principles, the two elements that pervade all nature. 
 The soul having been divided in this way, he argues that 
 it cannot be supposed capable of living again. How 
 then, he asks, can the spirits that are worshipped, and 
 whicli are popularly believed to be the souls of deceased 
 men, be really still existing? The life of man, and of 
 living things generally, depends on the union of these 
 two principles, and ceases with their separation. He 
 asserts his disbelief in the reality of the beings worshipped 
 by his countrymen as gods on this ground. It may 
 appear a very insufficient argument to us, but this is the 
 form that his thoughts take upon the subject. He rests his 
 denial of the being of the gods upon the dogma that the 
 soul cannot have an individual conscious existence after 
 
84 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 death. His countrymen suppose that the soul, like the 
 body, is compound. There is the rational soul, that which 
 thinks; the animal soul, which presides over the body; 
 and a third which is the seat of the passions. Immortality 
 is secured if these parts are kept from separating. The 
 discipline of the Taouist sect is intended to effect this. But 
 our author disbelieves in the possibility of preventing the 
 parts of the soul from becoming scattered. Yet he admits 
 that the souls of ancestors should be worshipped, because 
 otherwise the great duty of affectionate respect to parents 
 would fall into neglect. The popular divinities should 
 also be worshipped, because it is a good thing for men to 
 be controlled by a sentiment of veneration for superior 
 beings. 
 
 Surely the Christian revelation, coming to men with 
 Divine authority, and fortified by objective proofs, is re- 
 markably suited to the state of mind of this writer. 
 Buddhism does not profess a Divine origin. It is no- 
 thing but the work of the human intellect and imagina- 
 tion, operating on a large scale, such as might be expected 
 in the product of- Hindoo pantheism. It elevates philo- 
 sophy above God. It is subjective and human. It does 
 not address the Confucianist with a voice of authority as 
 from God. He looks at it, as he thinks Confucius himself 
 would have done, if it had entered China in his time. The 
 words of the great sage recur to his memory. He repeats 
 them rapidly over. " Abundant is the beneficent activity of 
 the supernatural powers." This seems to favour belief in 
 them, and reverence for them. He cites another familial- 
 extract : " Honour the supernatural powers, but keep them 
 at a distance." The sage of China thinks we should not 
 have too much faith in or reverence for the gods. There 
 is nothing certain and tangible in what we know of them. 
 Let us discharge the duties we owe to men. It will be 
 better to make up our deficiencies towards them than to 
 give our attention to beings of whom we know so little. 
 It is with these sentiments that our author closes his 
 
RELIGION IN SOOCHOW. 85 
 
 chapter upon the Kwei-shin (the gods). He is something 
 more of an unbeliever than his master, but he defers to his 
 master's teaching. He opposes one human religion with 
 the dicta of another human religion. Neither of these 
 systems claims any other authority than that of eminent 
 men for their doctrines, and the common conscience of 
 mankind for their morality. Christianity, taking higher 
 ground, resting upon Divine inspiration and external his- 
 torical evidences of its Divine source, will, it may be 
 hoped, when rightly understood by men like our author, 
 be felt to supply what the religions of his country have 
 failed to give him. He declines to believe in the gods of 
 Buddhism and Taouism, because they have been imagined 
 by the human mind, and rest on no proofs of their own. 
 Christianity has that sort of evidence and of certainty that 
 will meet his requirements, if he can be brought to under- 
 stand it. But at first, when Christianity is offered to the 
 educated Chinese, they will look at it from the Confucian 
 stand-point, and condemn it as belonging to the same class 
 of religions as Buddhism. This we shall have the oppor- 
 tunity of illustrating by extracts when we discuss the 
 present attitude of literature in that country in respect to 
 Christianity. 
 
 The city where this author resides, Soochow, had before 
 its capture by the Taipings, a population of a million two 
 hundred thousand. The wall is twelve English miles in 
 length, and there are very populous suburbs. Is he a 
 fair representative of the opinions of his fellow-citizens ? 
 The views of the scholar, sending forth a pamphlet on 
 science and religion from the seclusion of his family 
 mansion, may be expected to differ from those of the multi- 
 tudes who, bent on business or pleasure, throng the streets 
 in his vicinity. To illustrate their sentiments on the doc- 
 trines of Buddhism I will here refer to what I have seen 
 among them. A friend and I were once taken to the 
 official residence of a mandarin of the third class. He led 
 us through his suite of apartments, which were hand- 
 
86 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 somely furnished in the best Chinese style. He had a 
 large Spanish oil-painting of a lady, which, instead of 
 being hung on a wall, was covered up and kept in a cup- 
 board. He valued it very highly. In the innermost of 
 his apartments upstairs we found what seems to have 
 been the most sacred thing to him that his house con- 
 tained. It was the shrine and image of Kwan-yin, goddess 
 of mercy. On the table beside it was a copy of the book 
 of prayers used in the worship of this divinity. It was 
 not one printed in the common Chinese mode, from wooden 
 blocks, but an impression from stone tablets, on which 
 these prayers had been engraved five centuries ago by a 
 celebrated artist, and which are preserved as an important 
 antique relic in some Buddhist temple. Before the image 
 sticks of incense were burning, which had been fresh 
 lighted that morning. A follower of Confucius should not, 
 if consistent, worship Kwan-yin, nor keep her image in 
 his house. But we found that our mandarin friend had 
 the innermost corner of his residence devoted to this 
 superstition. He would profess, like his fellow-mandarins, 
 to disbelieve in the efficacy of worship of this kind, but 
 this little incident taught us that the professions of a 
 follower of Confucius are no index to his private belief. 
 Temples are to be seen in nearly every street of a Chinese 
 city ; but this is not enough to satisfy the disposition of 
 the inhabitants to practise idolatry. They will also have 
 a private chapel in their own houses if it be practicable, 
 which they may visit each morning for the performance of 
 an act of worship. 
 
 Take another example of the extent to which Buddhism 
 is believed in a city like Soochow, from the class of 
 artisans. When residing as a missionary at Shanghai, I 
 had been on one occasion denying the doctrine of a former 
 life. Popular Buddhism in China, carrying out to the full 
 the belief in the Hindoo metempsychosis, maintains a 
 previous life to account for our present one, quite as 
 strongly as it insists on our present life being followed by 
 
TRANSMIGRATION. 87 
 
 a future one of retribution. A tailor from Soochow, who 
 formed one of the audience, remarked that there must be 
 some cause for the misfortunes of our condition in this 
 life, and that that cause was in the sins of a former state. 
 It was stated to him in reply, that our present calamities 
 are the result of the sins of our ancestors, and that they 
 can be accounted for in this way, without the supposition 
 that we ourselves had lived and sinned in the person of 
 some individual of a former generation. He was then 
 asked why Kwan-foo-tsze, the deified hero of an ancient 
 dynasty, had never appeared again in times of danger to 
 save his country, and why Confucius had not been born 
 into the world afresh to restore the nation to virtue and 
 good order ? If his doctrine of a former life were true, 
 and the same person might appear in the world at different 
 periods, great men like these would not fail to be recog- 
 nised on their second arrival. He replied, that if Con- 
 fucius had not appeared among mankind a second time, 
 Kwan-foo-tsze had done so, and that not very long ago, in 
 the reign of the Emperor Kanghe. 
 
 The opinions of this artisan may be taken to illustrate 
 two things the notion that the common Chinese have of 
 another life, and that which they entertain of the incar- 
 nation of divine persons. They see a law of retribution 
 pervading the world, and human life is to their conceptions 
 so enlarged as to embrace an indefinite number of past and 
 future periods. These successive lives may be passed in 
 this world, or in heaven, or in hell, or in some intermediate 
 localities. Thus, the soul of a woman may, as a reward 
 for virtue, on entering the world a second time, inhabit 
 the body of a man. Chinese women frequently pray for 
 this. A wicked man may become, as a punishment, a 
 sheep, or an ant, or a bird. The retribution is decreed by 
 a sure but invisible and impersonal fate, the same law of 
 fate that regulates the succession of worlds, which are 
 constantly being created and destroyed afresh in the order 
 of the ever-revolving Kalpas. According to this view, the 
 
88 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 region through which the soul may wander during the 
 interminable series of lives through which it must pass 
 includes all the palaces of the gods, and of other beings 
 possessing a different nature from that of man, as also the 
 abodes of punishment for the wicked. How strongly the 
 common Chinese believe in these Buddhist opinions may 
 be shown by a reference to the fact that they trace bodily 
 calamities to sins in a former state of existence. On one 
 occasion a patient in an hospital at Shanghai, when asked 
 by a missionary if he knew himself to be guilty of sin, 
 looked significantly at his diseased foot, and asked, " How 
 can I be without sin ? I must have committed some crime 
 in a former life." 
 
 The other notion that the preceding conversation illus- 
 trates is that of the incarnation of divinities. Personages 
 like Kwan-foo-tsze, the god of war, may appear again and 
 again in successive centuries. In the event of his reap- 
 pearance, the person whose body he inhabits will be noticed 
 to have the qualities of the long-deceased hero by the more 
 sagacious of his contemporaries. The incarnation takes 
 place in such a way that the individuality of the person in 
 whom the divinity resides is not destroyed. 
 
 The Taouists, who have been servile imitators of the 
 Buddhists in very many points, adopted from them this 
 mode of increasing the importance of certain personages to 
 whom they wished to pay especial honour. They say 01 
 Laou-keun, the founder of their religion, that he was born 
 into the world several times before and after the date ot 
 his historical appearance. 
 
 The popular phraseology of the Chinese language fur- 
 nishes, on examination, abundant evidence of the very 
 extensive influence of Buddhist ideas. The Chinese speak 
 of certain localities, which they call teen tang, the " heavenly 
 paradise," and te yuh, "earth's prison," and which corre- 
 spond nearly to our terms heaven and hell. These terms, 
 not found in the books of the Confucian religion, are 
 familiar to all classes of the people. Christian mis- 
 
SECRET MERIT. 89 
 
 sionaries, in teaching the Bible doctrine of retribution* 
 make use of these names for heaven and hell, as being the 
 best equivalents they can find. The consciousness of im- 
 mortality, natural to men, has among the common Chinese 
 people been moulded into this form. When stripped of a 
 Buddhist dress, such conceptions constitute, like the other 
 parts of natural religion, a preparation for the reception of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The common notion in China of merit attaching to charit- 
 able actions, and the forgiveness of sins for the sake of 
 them, conies from Buddhism. The phrase yin kung, " invis- 
 ible merit/' is very much in use. It means merit that wins 
 the approval of invisible beings, and ensures a reward from 
 them. All acts of kindness and benevolence are thus 
 designated. The performance of a mass by Buddhist 
 priests for the rescue of a soul from one of the prisons in 
 hell is called kung tih, " merit." The distribution of money 
 and food to the poor, and the repairing of roads and bridges, 
 are spoken of as meritorious actions, which will be sure to 
 bring rewards from the unseen powers that watch human 
 conduct. Such actions are called simply haou she, " good 
 acts," a phrase which has become a synonym for alms- 
 giving. The Chinese beggar, when he calls to passers-by 
 for money, is understood to be asking charity, although he 
 says only, Tso haou she " Do a good action." He frequently 
 adds the phrase, Sew tsze sew sun "Act virtuously, that you 
 may obtain sons and grandsons." These expressions have 
 come into use because Buddhism has promulgated the idea 
 that virtue consists in exercising kindness towards those 
 who suffer. The Confucian notion of virtue is rather that 
 of doing one's duty. The Buddhist conception of it may 
 be gathered from such phraseology as this, which is univer- 
 sal in China in the speech of the common people. 
 
 Many of the most frequently used phrases for retribu- 
 tion are Buddliist, in fact all those that allude to rewards 
 and punishments in a future state. The sight of a great 
 act of wickedness will suggest to a bystander to say that 
 
90 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 the perpetrator deserves to be confined in a prison in hell, 
 eighteen stories deep. A good action is supposed to excite 
 the regard of the invisible good beings that inhabit the air. 
 In a popular romance, " The Tale of a Guitar," a young 
 wife is very assiduous in performing the offices of filial 
 piety to her husband's parents. He has deserted her and 
 them, and is living in the metropolis in the enjoyment of 
 the highest wealth and rank, the reward of his talents. 
 During his absence, a famine deprives his family at home 
 of the means of subsistence. His parents die of hunger, 
 and are buried by his wife, who had been living for some 
 time on the husks of the rice with which their lives were 
 supported. She prays at the grave, and proceeds to raise 
 over it a mound of earth with her own hands. Celestial 
 soldiers in the sky, seeing that this pious task was weari- 
 some and exhausting to her, came to her aid. For every 
 spadeful of earth that she threw on the grave, a thousand 
 more were thrown by invisible hands. Several terms are 
 employed to express an influence of this sort exerted by 
 the virtuous among mankind upon celestial beings. They 
 say Jean ying joo liiang, " the influence " on the part of 
 virtuous persons, and " its response " on the part of celestial 
 beings, are " like the sound " of a bell when struck by a 
 clapper, in the rapidity of the effect that is produced. The 
 phrase paou ying expresses protection given as a reward 
 for virtue, or in answer to prayer. 
 
 Maimed beggars appeal to the bystanders to pity them 
 on the ground that they are "at present in hell," their 
 phrase being keen tsae te yuh. In doing so, they acknow- 
 ledge themselves to be sinners of a very deep dye. Of this 
 their calamity is considered to be a proof. 
 
 These and similar notions obtained from Buddhism pre- 
 vail universally among the people of China, as shown by 
 the constant use of expressions such as those, a few of 
 which have now been given. They prove how extensively 
 Buddhism has influenced a population that is still nominally 
 Confucian. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONFUCIAN AND BUDDHIST NOTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 THIS chapter and the next will be devoted to the considera- 
 tion of the opinions the Chinese hold respecting God. 
 Intelligent men among them, who have become familiar 
 with Christianity, say that the ancient Chinese were un- 
 doubtedly more religious than the modern. The frequent 
 mention of God, under the denomination Shang-te, in the 
 earliest books of the nation, may be regarded as a proof of 
 this. I remember a Chinese, of fine intellectual appear- 
 ance, having made this statement. It was not to be 
 wondered at, he said, that the ancients, being much nearer 
 the time of Adam, should be more imbued with the spirit 
 of piety towards God, than men belonging to modern days, 
 when tradition has become obscured by time. The further 
 back we went in time, he observed, the more near to 
 coincidence would the traditions of his nation be with ours. 
 Our Chinese friend was reminded that the first princes of 
 his country were said, in the ancient books, to have wor- 
 shipped not God only, but also the spirits of mountains, 
 and rivers, and of other parts of nature. Their religion, 
 then, could not be regarded as the same with ours, because 
 they offered sacrifices to other beings beside God. But 
 these spirits, he replied, are the same that are called angels 
 in your Bible. 
 
 With all due respect to the opinion of the native scholar 
 to whom reference is here made, it is perhaps more correct 
 to regard these beings, supposed to inhabit different parts 
 of nature, as deriving their origin from the human imagi- 
 nation. The movements seen in nature, the indications of 
 
92 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 universal life which perpetually meet our eyes, suggest to 
 the observer the presence of supernatural beings. The 
 Chinese very early had the conception of powerful beings, 
 subordinate to God, regulating the course of events in the 
 physical and intellectual universe. They called them 
 shin. 
 
 There are inconsistencies in the views held by the 
 Chinese respecting the duty of worshipping God. Many 
 followers of Confucius seem to recognise this duty when 
 they offer incense to Heaven on the new and full moons. 
 On those days they proceed to the square open court round 
 which the family home is built, and there, under no cover- 
 ing but the sky, they kneel and pray, or burn incense, to 
 Heaven. Yet it is common to hear the Chinese say, that 
 Heaven should be worshipped only by the Emperor in the 
 name of the nation, and that the God of heaven is too 
 majestic and glorious for a common man to dare approach 
 Him as a worshipper. The people and the officers of 
 Government should worship the subordinate divinities that 
 preside over the cities or districts to which they belong. 
 This is the theory, but it is not strictly carried into prac- 
 tice. Some profess to worship Heaven once a year, others 
 twice a month. They often speak of adoring Heaven and 
 Earth, as if they meant two divinities by those terms. The 
 presence of gross material views in their minds leads them 
 away from the one invisible Euler to the world which He 
 governs.*" Then, having their thoughts fixed on the world 
 instead of its ' Maker, they imagine a duality of ruling- 
 powers, the two spirits of Heaven and of Earth. This is 
 favoured by the prevailing philosophy, which sees a duality 
 all through nature. Often do the Chinese argue, as they 
 think triumphantly, in a way like the following : The sun is 
 yang> the moon is yin (or light and darkness respectively). 
 Man is yctng, woman is yin. The south is ycing, the north 
 is yin. The rational soul, hwun, is yang; the physical 
 soul, pili, is yin. Heaven is yany, earth is yin. They 
 conceive that in a chain of antithetical expressions like 
 
MATERIALISTIC VIEWS OF GOD. 93 
 
 these there is contained a perfectly obvious and irrefra- 
 gable proof of their favourite dualistic philosophy. Here 
 is their weakness. It is the clinging to ancient system 
 that keeps their minds closed against truth when it comes 
 to them in a novel form. They will not go out of their 
 old-fashioned tracks of thought. It was through this mode 
 of thinking that they readily adopted the conception of two 
 ruling powers in nature, which they call Heaven and Earth. 
 Instead of saying that they worship God, they will more 
 frequently say that they worship Heaven and Earth. The 
 husbandman, at harvest, when he has gathered in his 
 sheaves, acknowledges that it is his duty to seay teen pae te, 
 to " thank Heaven and worship Earth." 
 
 The spiritual element has been very little developed in 
 the minds of this people ; they have not had Divine revela- 
 tion to train and guide the spiritual faculties. This is the 
 cause of the confusion of ideas which the common people 
 in that country often exhibit, when they do not separate 
 between heaven and God. They are not accustomed to 
 the conception of a purely immaterial being. Their notions 
 of God are materialised. They confound Him with the 
 place where He resides, and with the world that He has 
 created. But the error of the common people is not more 
 mischievous than that opposite one of the modern philo- 
 sophical school that has identified God with an abstract < 
 principle, and maintained that there is no distinction 
 between God and le, " reason," the law of the world. 
 
 They have more easily fallen into these views, because 
 the three national religions have been occupied with ob- 
 jects very different from that of representing God as the 
 Father of the human family, who must be expected to make 
 His will known ; so that, when missionaries speak of God's 
 commands, their auditors will sometimes ask, "What are 
 God's commands ? We did not know that He had any. 
 In what way can He teach us anything ?" They have not 
 been led to look at religious truths and duties as communi- 
 cated and enjoined directly by God. This renders it hard 
 
94 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 to persuade them that idolatry is a sin, as being forbidden 
 by Divine authority. They consider idols to be symbols, 
 and nothing more. They see that it may be foolish to 
 worship them, but they do not so easily perceive that it is 
 wicked. Though they are in the habit of recognising the 
 right of a father in his family, and a king in his kingdom, 
 to issue special commands, they are not accustomed to 
 think of God as being likely to do so. The ancient 
 Chinese believed in God as a personal, active being, the 
 ruler of heaven and earth, just, powerful, and merciful; 
 but it was not to be expected that this belief and tradition 
 of theirs by itself would, through the long ages that have 
 intervened, preserve a clear knowledge of God among their 
 descendants. It has been seen that they have fallen into 
 very great errors. If the attributes of God, according to 
 the common notions of the Chinese, were examined, they 
 would prove a most manifest need of the light of revela- 
 tion. For example, let us take the omnipresence of God. 
 They object to the doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God, 
 because, if He were Divine, He would have left heaven 
 without a government when He came into our world. 
 That they should attempt to disprove the Divinity of 
 Christ in this way, shows that they have no proper con- 
 ception of the omnipresence of God. 
 
 With regard to creation, they know of no law but spon- 
 taneity and self-development in the construction of the 
 existing universe. They consider that all things have 
 come to be as they are of themselves. They do not con- 
 clude, from the marks of design and contrivance which are 
 exhibited in nature, that there must have been an intelli- 
 gent Contriver. Some other heathen nations have been 
 familiar with this argument of natural theology, but the 
 Chinese not so. All their descriptions of the origin of the 
 world are pervaded with the idea of spontaneous produc- 
 tion. When the Christian doctrine of creation is pre- 
 sented to them, and illustrations of the infinite wisdom of 
 God in it referred to, they admit them to be reasonable, 
 
ORIGIN OF THINGS SPONTANEOUS. 95 
 
 but they do not feel it to be a necessity that they should 
 resign their own idea of the spontaneous origin of the 
 universe. They do not speak of the works of nature or the 
 works of God, when gazing on the ever-moving panorama 
 which that universe offers to the eye. They prefer to 
 denominate it the " living heaven " and the " living earth." 
 " Why," they have often been asked, " should you speak of 
 those things which are dead matter fashioned from nothing 
 by the hand of God, as living beings ? Heaven and earth 
 are surely not persons?'' "And why not?'* they have 
 replied. " The sky pours down rain and sunshine. The 
 earth produces corn and grass. We see them in perpetual 
 movement, and we may therefore say that they are living." 
 
 These opinions, widely diffused among the mass of the 
 people, if not acceded to by the more intelligent, materially 
 interfere with correct views of God. The idea of Creation 
 most familiar to the Chinese mind is that there was a 
 monad at the beginning. This first atom separated into 
 two. The two atoms became four, the four were changed 
 into eight, and the eight gave origin to all things. If the 
 Chinese are asked how this process was commenced and 
 continued, they answer, that " it came of itself." 
 
 Preoccupied with this particular cosmogony, they do not 
 feel any necessity for a creating agent, nor are they led to 
 meditate on the wisdom of God as displayed in His works. 
 While, then, we find that the Confucian religion is mono- 
 theistic, recognising one Supreme Ruler, the tradition of 
 whom the Chinese had from the earliest period of their 
 history, they have been left with very insufficient notions 
 of some of the Divine attributes. This religion has failed 
 to represent the agency of God in creation and in provi- 
 dence, so clearly as to preserve the mass of the nation from 
 grossly erroneous views of the Divine nature and from the 
 neglect of prayer. A young man of the artisan class had 
 come from a neighbouring village, a few years since, to the 
 city of Shanghai, and, entering a missionary chapel, had 
 heard an address on Christianity. The auditors were in- 
 
96 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 vited to express their opinions or. the subject of religion. 
 This man was the most ready to comply. He adopted a 
 flippant style of remark indicating no little admiration of 
 his own cleverness. He had heard, he said, for seven or 
 eight years, occasionally, foreigners advocating their re- 
 ligion, and he had studied it with many other systems of 
 belief without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. He 
 was acquainted, he said, with no fewer than thirty or 
 forty religious systems, and he had discovered something 
 wrong in all of them. Christianity seemed to be good, but 
 he feared that there would be found defects in that also. 
 He allowed that our opposition to idolatry and incense- 
 burning is reasonable, and asserted that he had long given 
 them up, but he considered that he ought to adhere to the 
 worship of ancestors according to the national custom. 
 The prohibition of this observance by Christianity must 
 prevent his becoming a believer. He was recommended, 
 seeing that he could not find satisfaction in any of the 
 religions he had examined, to abandon these restless in- 
 quiries, and look to God to be instructed in answer to 
 prayer. " How," he asked, " can instruction from God 
 be obtained ? " " The foreign teacher "means," remarked 
 a bystander, volunteering an answer, "that God will 
 speak to you in a dream at night." " No," said the mis- 
 sionary, "He will teach you from His Holy Word, this 
 book. In the course you have hitherto taken, you cannot 
 expect to obtain settled convictions. Try a new method. 
 Instead of weighing with a minute accuracy the respective 
 merits of this and that system, seek your own personal 
 salvation from God, and the forgiveness of sins." " Sins ! " 
 he exclaimed, "I have no sins." He was again asked, 
 " Do you pray to and thank God for His goodness ? " 
 " No," he said. When reminded that the neglect of those 
 duties was sin, he replied again, " I do not know which 
 God (Shang-te) to believe in. There are many." He was 
 met with the reply, "There is but one God. How can 
 heaven have two suns, or a kingdom two sovereigns ? 
 
THE BUDDHIST NOTION OF GOD. 97 
 
 Surely you should worship Him. He made heaven and 
 earth." "But how," he replied, "can I know that He created 
 heaven and earth ? " He was answered, " You are not at 
 liberty to deny that the world had a Creator. This house 
 in which we are sitting must have had a builder. To 
 speak as you have done is to deprive our Maker of His 
 glory. You would do better to submit to God and seek 
 His forgiveness." He did not attempt to refute the argu- 
 ment from design, nor did he acknowledge its validity. 
 He proceeded to defend himself with weapons of another 
 kind. "You differ from the Eoman Catholics. How can 
 I tell whether you or they are right ? " The conversation, 
 as it continued in this new channel, need not be further 
 detailed. What has been given serves to illustrate, with 
 respect to the knowledge of God, the effect of the Con- 
 fucian system, which this individual professed to follow, 
 upon the very large class of persons whom he may be 
 taken to represent. 
 
 When we leave the region of Confucian thought, and 
 enter into that of Buddhism, we find the notion of God 
 appearing in a form differing from that which meets us 
 elsewhere. This religion is professedly atheistic. It 
 denies that there is an eternal God, the Creator of the 
 world. The gods that it admits the existence of are sub- 
 ject to mortality like men, and limited in their power. 
 But this atheism is that of subtle logicians, and it cannot 
 become the faith of common men. The feeling natural to 
 man that there is a Divine Power present in the universe 
 must express itself. If the activity of divine beings do 
 not exhibit itself in creation, it may do so in providence. 
 The powers attributed to the Buddhas and Bodhisattwas 
 are supposed to be exercised in answer to the prayers of 
 men, and they take the place of God in the minds of 
 common believers in that religion. 
 
 The use of the word poosa in Chinese is in some respects 
 like that of God. The lower class of people say that all 
 success in life, for example, depends on the protection of 
 
 G 
 
98 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 Poosa. This word is a shortened form of the Sanscrit term 
 Bodhisattwa. Originally it is merely a designation of a 
 class of Buddha's disciples. Their progress in knowledge 
 gives them power over nature, and they exert that power, 
 it is supposed, for the good of mankind. They are men 
 elevated to their position by wisdom. Their office is to 
 teach rather than to govern, but the power to control 
 physical nature develops itself in them spontaneously, as 
 they make progress in comprehending and exemplifying 
 the doctrine of Buddha. The Poosa feels more sympathy 
 with the lower wants of men than the Buddha does. 
 Buddha is freed from desire. He knows nothing of com- 
 mon feelings. His aim is very lofty and abstruse. The 
 disciple who is far advanced in the path of enlightenment 
 can appreciate his teaching. But the Poosa is more within 
 the reach of human sympathies. He is prayed to for 
 relief from sickness, for riches, and other benefits apper- 
 taining to the animal nature of man. Both Fuh and Poosa 
 are trusted in as God by the Chinese Buddhist. Both are 
 relied on for protection and salvation. Buddha or Fuh is 
 highest in rank, but Poosa is nearest in sympathy. They 
 are both viewed as having divine power and benevolence. 
 They are alike in pitying mankind, or seeking to save men 
 from misery, and in aiming to do so by teaching. They 
 also resemble each other in the circumstance that they are 
 both nothing but exalted human nature. They differ, 
 however, in rank. The highest of all conditions is that of 
 Buddha. There is no step beyond this except the Nirvana, 
 where personality is lost in an eternal, unchangeable state of 
 unconscious existence. It is here that the distinction dis- 
 appears between person and state, and between thought 
 and being. If Buddha does not enter at once into the 
 Nirvana, he retains his personality and his conscious 
 activity merely for the sake of mankind. But he lives 
 always upon the verge of the abyss of the Nirvana, ready 
 to sink into it the moment that his appointed work of 
 instructing and saving living beings is completed. 
 
SHAKYAMUNI AND AMITABHA. 99 
 
 The next step in the scale of being, below that of Fuh, 
 is Poosa. The person who has attained to this rank must 
 become Fuh before he can enter the Nirvana. So that he 
 is not supreme, nor absolutely perfect, nor does he exercise 
 creative power, nor is he exempt from change, nor without 
 the need of improvement, all which things are inseparable 
 from the true notion of God. Poosa is a learner at the 
 feet of Buddha, while himself a teacher of others, and Fuh 
 has still to make the transition into the Nirvana. These 
 things show that Fuh and Poosa are far from exactly 
 corresponding to the notion of God; and this will be 
 further evident from the meaning of the words Buddha 
 signifies perception, and Bodhisattwa knowledge and pity. 
 
 Such are the beings on whose power and desire to save 
 common Buddhist minds rest as they should do upon 
 God. The faith that they ought to give to Him they give 
 to them. 
 
 The principal Buddhas that they thus revere are Shakya- 
 niuni, the historical founder of their religion, and Aini- 
 tabha, who .presides in the western heaven, the paradise of 
 the Northern Buddhists. It is the image of Shakyamuni 
 that is seen occupying the centre in almost all temples of 
 this religion in China. Kneeling and bowing are the 
 attitudes of worship. Oral prayers are used or not as the 
 worshipper pleases. Though the image of this Buddha is 
 everywhere seen, yet he is not so much trusted to and 
 prayed to for the common blessings that men need as is 
 Amitabha. Amitabha is the guide of the disciple to 
 paradise. He is therefore called " the guiding Buddha " 
 Tsie-yin-fuh. His immediate providence in the salvation 
 of the disciple seems to be more recognised than that of 
 Shakyamuni. His name is very much used as a charm. 
 It is constantly heard from the lips of the hoshang or 
 monks in daily conversation, and it forms the burden of 
 their prayers while performing morning and evening wor- 
 ship in monasteries. The common phrase Oniitofuh is the 
 Chinese form of the name Amitabha Buddha, or Amida 
 
ioo RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 Buddha, as he is called in the Mongolian language. There 
 are many other Buddhas whose names are occasionally 
 mentioned, but they are much less known than these two. 
 
 Of the personages honoured with the name of Poosa, 
 Kwan-yin, the goddess of mercy, is best known. This 
 divinity is represented sometimes as male, at others as 
 female. At present, for convenience' sake, we use the 
 feminine pronoun. She is often represented with a child 
 in her arms, and is then designated the giver of children. 
 Elsewhere she is styled the "Kwan-yin who saves from 
 the eight forms of suffering," or " of the southern sea," or 
 " of the thousand arms," &c. She passes through various 
 metamorphoses, which give rise to this variety in names. 
 
 In Buddhist books, descriptions are given of what is 
 designated the true Poosa. His feelings are very benevo- 
 lent, and his pity for the victims of misery that he sees 
 prompts him to seek their rescue from their unhappiness. 
 I remember an aged Buddhist priest who had spent his 
 life from his boyhood in discharging the duties of his 
 monastery. His head bore the usual mark of admission 
 to the order of which he was a member, viz., twelve in- 
 dentations made in the skin with hot iron immediately 
 above the forehead. He said every one who instructs his 
 fellow-men in virtue is a true Poosa, and any act of real 
 charity and self-sacrifice is that of a Poosa. 
 
 So far as this Poosa is a human being animated with 
 the wish to teach and save men, but other illustrations of 
 the use of the word will show that it is oftener used, in 
 popular phraseology, as denoting powerful protectors be- 
 longing to a supernatural order of beings. Chinese 
 worshippers will sometimes say, for example, that they 
 must spend a little money occasionally to obtain the 
 favour of Poosa, in order to prevent calamities from assail- 
 ing them. I saw an instance of this at a town on the sea- 
 coast near Hangchow. The tide here is extremely destruc- 
 tive in the autumn. It is the autumn bore which rises 
 many feet in height. It often overflows the embankment 
 
K WAN-YIN. 101 
 
 made to restrain it, and produces devastation in the adjoin- 
 ing cottages and fields. A temple was long ago erected to 
 the Poosa Kwan-yin, and offerings are regularly made to 
 her, and prayers presented for protection against the tide. 
 
 About two years before the capture of Canton by the 
 English forces, Yeh-ming-chin, the governor of the pro- 
 vince to which that city belongs, was engaged in exter- 
 minating large bands of roving plunderers that disturbed 
 the region under his jurisdiction. He wrote to the Emperor 
 on one occasion a despatch in which he said that at a criti- 
 cal conjuncture in a recent contest, a large figure in white 
 had been seen beckoning to the army from the sky. It 
 was Kwan-yin. The soldiers were inspired with courage, 
 and won an easy victory over the enemy. 
 
 The principal seat of the worship of Kwan-yin is at the 
 island of Pooto. Here he (or she) takes the place of 
 Buddha, and occupies the chief position in the temples. 
 We were on our way there once from the island of Chusan, 
 when two priests begged to be allowed to proceed there in 
 the same boat. They had travelled far, and had visited 
 the cities and mountains where the Buddhist worship in 
 China is most flourishing. One of them spoke of che- 
 hwei, " wisdom." He said, in answer to our questions, that 
 it was to be obtained by prayer, and that prayer should be 
 offered for it to Kwan-yin. He was reminded that this 
 personage was altogether unreal, and was asked why he 
 should not rather pray to God for w r isdom. He could not 
 worship God, he said. Kwan-yin was the divinity to 
 whom he prayed. The claim of God to be worshipped he 
 denied, but afterwards admitted it. He asserted that 
 Buddha was the creator of heaven and earth; yet when 
 explanations were offered, he allowed, perhaps out of 
 compliment to the foreign visitor, that creation was the 
 work of God. 
 
 When the Buddhists have occasion to speak of Shang-te 
 or God as he is known to the disciples of Confucius, they 
 identify him with Indra Shakra, one of the chief Hindoo 
 gods, and assign him no higher authority or wider king- 
 
102 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 dom. This remark will illustrate some parts of the follow- 
 ing description. On the island of Pooto, sacred to Kwan- 
 yin, as already observed, there are many small caves 
 dedicated to the use of hermits, or venerated as having 
 been formerly inhabited by holy persons who pursued that 
 mode of life. In several of them, high up on a hill-side, 
 may be noticed a small figure of Buddha, intended to 
 remind the visitor of the self-denying and secluded life 
 which Buddha led. The priests who resided in the adjoin- 
 ing monastery entered into conversation with their visitor 
 from afar on the relative position of God and this self- 
 elevated hermit. God, they said, was within the limits of 
 the San-keae (the three worlds, heaven, earth, and hell), 
 but Buddha, they maintained, extended his authority 
 beyond these boundaries. They alluded to the imaginary 
 universe of the Northern Buddhists, in which the visible 
 one, the universe as known to us, occupies a small place 
 in the centre. They confine the kingdom of the gods, 
 among whom is Shang-te, to this small space. They were 
 told that the universe of which they spoke, being simply 
 the invention of former writers of their religious books, 
 could not, however vast its proportions, constitute any 
 real accession to the dominion ruled over by Buddha, nor 
 help to place him above God. God, dwelling in heaven, 
 was the true God of the world, and every world throughout 
 space was subject to Him. One of the priests in the hall 
 where this conversation took place, containing several idol 
 shrines, remarked that there were thirty-three heavens, in 
 one of which the God that foreigners worshipped resided. 
 It was stated to him in reply, that, according to the views 
 of the religion which he followed, the heavens he spoke of 
 all rested on the crown of the Sumeru mountain, but in 
 fact no such mountain existed; it was fabulous, like the 
 imaginary island of Pung-lae, in the Eastern Ocean, and the 
 abode of Se-wang-mu, the mother of the Western King. 
 This personage is a mythological queen, whom old Chinese 
 fable represented as dwelling on a summit of the Kwen- 
 
NIRVANA. 103 
 
 Inn chain in Tibet. The priest replied that the Sumeru 
 mountain certainly did exist, and it was on its summit 
 that the gods resided in their respective abodes. He was 
 informed in answer that the ships of Western men had 
 traversed the ocean in every direction, but had not dis- 
 covered this mountain. 
 
 Su means excellent. It is the Greek eu, as in evdavacria, 
 " happy death." Meru is the Persian mountain Elburz. 
 El is the Arabic article. The word Sumeru explained in 
 this way points to Persia as the source of much Buddhist 
 tradition. 
 
 From what has preceded, it appears that Buddhism is 
 atheistic, not in denying the existence of the ruler of the 
 world, or of the gods of popular mythology, but in abridg- 
 ing the power and jurisdiction of such divinities. In 
 ascribing to God a limited jurisdiction, subjection to birth 
 and death, and subordination to the Buddhas and Bodhi- 
 sattwas, they deprive Him in fact of His deity, while they 
 allow the name of God to be retained. 
 
 The true source of this bold and infatuated attempt to 
 reverse the fixed relations between God and man, the 
 Creator and the creature, is found in the spirit of Hindoo 
 philosophy. The human intellect, lifted up with pride, 
 sought by the help of philosophy to exalt itself above 
 everything that is called God. It rebelled against the 
 authority of a personal God, and preferred to exercise faith 
 only in a state, the Nirvana, where consciousness and in- 
 dividuality are lost; and life and death, thought and 
 passion, good and evil, with every other antithesis possible 
 to man, disappear in the absolute unity. It is true that 
 the Nirvana is not peculiar to Buddhism, belonging as it 
 does to other Hindoo sects. But it is here in the fiction 
 of the two states, Buddha and Bodhisattwa, and the other 
 grades beneath them, that the human mind has made the 
 most systematic attempt to reduce Deity to insignifi- 
 cance, and to raise itself above the sphere in which 
 Deity resides and reigns. We are amazed to find here 
 
104 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 the finite thinking soul audaciously imagining for itself, 
 not only an accessible region beyond the actual universe, 
 and outside of the dominions of God, but undertaking to 
 lay down a pathway with the successive steps marked, by 
 which those distant abysses of space may be traversed, 
 and the world of the senses be left for ever behind. 
 
 The form of Buddhist temples exemplifies in a striking 
 manner the relative position of Buddha and the gods. 
 Pour kings of the gods are represented in the vestibule. 
 Their office is to guard the door by which entrance is 
 obtained to the presence of Buddha. They perform no 
 more dignified duty than to act as guards and as 
 musicians to the greater personages who occupy the 
 interior of the building. The central position is that of 
 Buddha, who is seated on the lotus-flower in the attitude 
 of a teacher. His countenance expresses the union of con- 
 templation and benevolence, implying wisdom enabling 
 him to teach, and compassion inclining him to save. The 
 great Hindoo divinities, Brahma, Seeva, and Shakra, stand 
 among the auditors, and they occupy a lower position than 
 the personages called Poosa, Lohan, &c., who are scholars 
 well advanced in the doctrine of Buddha. 
 
 The intention in this arrangement is to exhibit human 
 philosophy as transcending Divine power, and personages 
 of the highest rank in the visible universe listening sub- 
 missively to the instructions of the earth-born sage. But 
 the ideas of philosophers fail to be comprehended by the 
 popular mind, and the common worshipper regards the 
 gods whom he sees in a subordinate position as servants, 
 and nothing more ; while he trusts and prays to Buddha, 
 the personation of philosophy, as a powerful divinity. He 
 must obey the impulse of his nature to adore that which 
 is divine, and he readily finds objects for his worship in 
 personages so transcendent in wisdom as those bearing the 
 title of Full and Poosa. 
 
 In the next chapter will be illustrated the notion of 
 God as held by the Taouists. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TAOUIST NOTIONS OF GOD. 
 
 THE notions which the Taouist sect have respecting God 
 and the gods deserve some examination. A sketch of 
 them will form a suitable supplement to what has already 
 been said of the views held on the same subject by 
 believers in Buddha and Confucius. 
 
 The Taouist mythology resembles, in several points, that 
 of many heathen nations. Some of its divinities personate 
 those beings that are supposed to reside in the various 
 departments of nature ; others are men made into imagin- 
 ary deities by a process of apotheosis. Among the gods 
 originally belonging to particular portions of the natural 
 world are sea and river gods, star-gods, and those that pre- 
 side over meteorological phenomena and over the produc- 
 tions of the earth. On the sea-coast are found temples 
 erected to the Spirit of the Sea, the King of the Sea, and 
 the God of the Tide. On the banks of rivers the shrines 
 of dragon-kings are common. The dragon is supposed to 
 reside partly in air and partly in water. Any remarkable 
 appearance in the sky or on the surface of the water is 
 frequently pointed to as a dragon, or a phenomenon occa- 
 sioned by the presence of a dragon. One of their divinities 
 is called " the Euler of Thunder," and another " the Mother 
 of Lightning." Many of the stars are worshipped as gods. 
 Some Greek philosophers supposed the stars to be living 
 beings, and divine. The Taouists believe in a doctrine 
 something like this. It is a characteristic instance of that 
 materialism which marks almost all Taouist doctrines. 
 The stars are regarded as the sublimated essences of things. 
 
106 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The world, for example, is made up of five kinds of matter, 
 which contain each of them an essence or elementary sub- 
 stance. As the soul is an essence of matter, the purest 
 form of matter in the body, so there are essences belonging 
 to other things, which, when very pure, obtain a life and 
 individuality of their own. They constitute the souls of 
 coarse matter. Of these there is a series of five, which 
 correspond to the five modes of subsistence found in 
 material nature, viz., metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. 
 These souls of the five elements rose, when highly purified, 
 through the air to the region of stars, and became the five 
 planets. Mercury is the essence of water, Venus of metal, 
 Mars of fire, Jupiter of wood, and Saturn of earth. The 
 fixed stars are also the essences or souls of matter, and 
 other essences, believed to wander through space, impelled 
 by an internal active life, are also called stars, although 
 not visible in the heavens. In this way the word star has 
 come to have, in the Chinese language, a meaning addi- 
 tional to the common one. A living material soul, the 
 sublimated essence of matter, is so denominated. The 
 process of thought in the materialistic philosophy of the 
 Taouists was carried a step further. These stars and 
 essences became gods. They were regarded as having 
 divine attributes. The eye of the contemplatist of this 
 school saw in the starry firmament the higher portions of 
 the vast sea of ether of which our atmosphere forms the 
 lower and grosser part. It is there that the star-divinities 
 revolve. They look down from their region of purity and 
 stillness on the world of men, and they influence the 
 fortunes of men invisibly, but most powerfully. It was by 
 carrying out this way of thinking that alchemy and astro- 
 logy became an important part of the Taouist religious 
 system. They are necessarily the two favourite sciences 
 of a materialistic religion like this. The one deals in 
 essences, the other in stars ; and they have each had an 
 extensive influence on the formation of the Taouist system 
 of divinities, as well as on the Taouist doctrine of immor- 
 
WEN-CHANG. 107 
 
 tality, and of the method of self-discipline by which im- 
 mortality is to be gained. 
 
 We may remark, by the way, that an interesting parallel III 
 may be drawn between the Chinese and the European 
 alchemy and astrology. Great light on the signification 
 and origin of these once famous studies of our mediaeval 
 period may be obtained from the studies of the same 
 kind that were pursued several centuries earlier in China. 
 There is a remarkable analogy in the double meaning of 
 our word spirit and that of the Chinese word sing (star) 
 just pointed out. The terms for soul and for essence in 
 Chinese shin and tsing are often convertible, as they are 
 in our language. In China, however, the connection of 
 alchemy and astrology as branches of one system, and that 
 a religious one, are more clearly discernible than in the 
 European history of these branches of knowledge, once 
 called sciences. 
 
 In the legendary biography of the Taouist gods, it is 
 common to say of them that a star descended and became 
 incarnate in the person of certain noted men, who thus 
 obtained their divine character. Wen-chang, the god who 
 presides over literature, is a divinity oF this kind. A 
 small constellation near the Great Bear receives this name. 
 The god who is prayed to by scholars to assist them in 
 obtaining the reward of their exertions is Wen-chang, the 
 divinity of whom we are now speaking. His representa- 
 tive in the sky is this constellation. A temple is erected 
 to him in Chinese cities apart from that dedicated to Con- 
 fucius. It may be seen built on ,an elevated earthen 
 terrace, and, if my memory serve me rightly, of six sides, 
 in imitation of the form of the constellation, which has 
 the shape of a hexagon. Wen-chang is said to have come 
 down to our world during many generations at irregular 
 intervals. Virtuous and highly- gifted men were chosen 
 from history as likely to have been incarnations of this 
 divinity, and then legends were invented stating it as a 
 fact. The regard paid to the god of literature by the class 
 
io8 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 of scholars proves that the Taouist religion has had no 
 little influence upon them, although they are professedly 
 Confucianists, and should not, as such, give their adhesion 
 to the tales of the Taouists. 
 
 Among the liturgical works used by the priests of Taou, 
 one of the commonest consists of prayers to Tow-moo, a 
 female divinity supposed to reside in the Great Bear. A 
 part of the same constellation . is worshipped under the 
 name Kwei-sing. A small temple is erected to this deity 
 on the east side of the entrance to Confucian temples, and 
 he is regarded as being, like Wen-chang, favourable to 
 literature. The word Kwei, in its written form, is a com- 
 pound character. Its component parts are two other 
 characters, Jcwei, "demon," on the left, and tow, the four 
 stars forming a trapezium in the Great Bear (so named 
 from a measuring vessel having that shape), on the right. 
 A native writer, still living at Soochow, attempts to show 
 that the whole story of the gods has sprung entirely out of 
 the human imagination. One of the proofs that he adduces 
 is the pictorial representation usually given of the divinity 
 Kwei-sing. A demon-like personage is seen kicking with 
 his foot the measuring vessel called tow. This mode of 
 portraying the divinity in question was suggested solely 
 by the meaning that happened to belong to the component 
 parts of the character Kwei, and which were arbitrarily 
 assigned many centuries before without any bearing on 
 mythology. He very justly brings forward this circum- 
 stance as evidence that popular notions respecting this 
 divinity had their source in the human imagination. 
 
 One of the twenty-eight constellations of the Chinese 
 zodiac consists of six stars curved like a bow. It is called 
 Chang, to draw a bow. Near it is a cluster of seven stars, 
 known as " the heavenly dog." Chang, one of the genii 
 of Taouist romance, is believed to be identical with the 
 star cluster of the same name, and he is represented by 
 painters and idol-makers with a bow in his hands, 
 shooting the heavenly dog. The names of the consteUa- 
 
VIEW OF A CHAPOO SCHOOLMASTER. 109 
 
 tions are much older than the mythological legends, of 
 which the story of this personage is one. So that if any 
 of the animal or human forms pictured on our celestial 
 globes as aids to the memory in recognising the stars were 
 to be appointed by priestly authority to be adored as gods, 
 such an act would be a parallel one to what the Chinese 
 Taouists have done. This gross and infatuated materialism 
 has flourished in a country that has possessed for ages a 
 cultivated literature and a highly-developed civilisation, a 
 good moral code, and a long succession of philosophers and 
 learned men. The mythology of which we are speaking 
 has been greatly expanded during modern times in China, 
 showing that nothing can be hoped for the improvement 
 of that country in the knowledge of God unless Chris- 
 tianity be introduced among its inhabitants. At the 
 period when its intellectual light has been at the highest 
 point, the most extravagant additions have been made to 
 its legendary mythology. At times when the arts and 
 literature were most prosperous, superstition increased its 
 proportions along with them, and spread amongst the 
 population a multitude of absurd fancies, wild in their 
 origin, and mischievous in their effects. 
 
 I met, on one occasion, a schoolmaster from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Chapoo. He asked if I had any books to give 
 away on astronomy and geography. Such works are 
 eagerly desired by all members of the literary class. They 
 feel a high respect for the knowledge Western men have 
 on these subjects, the result of the information given them 
 by the early Eoman Catholic missionaries on these sciences. 
 The inquiry was put to him "Who is the Lord of heaven 
 and earth ? He replied that he knew none but the pole- 
 star, called in the Chinese language Teen-hwang-ta-te 
 the great imperial ruler of heaven. It was stated to him 
 that it was a matter very much to be regretted that he 
 should hold such views as this of the Supreme Being. 
 When he was reminded of passages in the Confucian 
 classics which speak of God as the ruler of heaven, inde- 
 
1 10 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 pendent of the visible creation, he admitted that he might 
 be wrong. In the case of this man it is sufficiently evi- 
 dent that the notion of an independent, personal, spiritual 
 Being, presiding over the universe, and distinct from it, 
 had given place to a low, materialised conception of God. 
 
 The degraded notion that the Taouists have of God has 
 allowed of their representing creation as effected by a 
 material agency, instead of describing it as the work of 
 God. I once asked a Taouist priest to show me some of 
 his charms. They are pieces of paper bearing certain 
 unintelligible marks. He declined to do so, on the ground 
 that we do not believe in their efficacy. Their use was, 
 he said, to frighten away demons, who did not dare to 
 approach so wise and holy a divinity as the god of the 
 temple, in one of the apartments of which we stood. The 
 charms were sold in his name, and his protection was 
 guaranteed to those who purchased them. It was observed 
 to him that it was a groundless fancy to expect protection 
 from such a god as this, and that our faith should be 
 placed upon God the creator of all things. This priest 
 denied that creation was God's act, and maintained that 
 it was the act of a material agent which he called Ke a 
 word meaning a very pure form of matter, vapour, Ke, he 
 said, was before God, and was the creator of all things. 
 Its purer part rose and formed heaven, while its grosser 
 portion became earth, He was reminded that Ke was a 
 visible, material substance, capable of separation into parts, 
 and it must therefore itself be a created thing. He ad- 
 mitted its material character, but denied the conclusion 
 attempted to be derived from that circumstance. It was 
 explained to him further, that we in the West were 
 accustomed to think that the immaterial could produce 
 the material and visible, but the material could not be 
 the parent of the immaterial and invisible. We can con- 
 ceive of the world of matter being created by God, a 
 spiritual being ; but we cannot conceive of matter becom- 
 ing mind or soul by any process of creation or develop- 
 
TAOU1ST BELIEF IN GENII. 1 1 1 
 
 ment. He proceeded to deny that God was invisible ; and 
 the conversation diverged to other subjects. 
 
 Before Buddhism came into China, and produced a very 
 decided influence on Taouist ideas, the mythology of this 
 latter religion was somewhat scanty. Beside the doctrine 
 of Shang-te, and of the presiding spirits that dwell in vari- 
 ous parts of nature, belonging to the Confucian religion, 
 the ancient Chinese, taught by foreign visitors from Persia 
 and other countries, believed in a race of genii. They were 
 men supposed to have attained to the honours of deity by 
 their virtues. Some were fabulous persons, and others 
 historical. At the time of Tsin-she-hwang, the builder of 
 the Great Wall, about two centuries before Christ, many 
 romantic stories were current of immortal men inhabiting 
 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was supposed that, in 
 these imaginary islands, they found the herb of immortality 
 growing, and that it gave them exemption from the lot of 
 common men. That Emperor determined to go in search 
 of these islands, but some untoward event always prevented 
 him. One expedition that sailed never returned, and it 
 was reported that those engaged in it had reached the 
 islands, but were unwilling to come back, lest they should 
 lose the treasure of immortality, so that their countrymen 
 failed to secure the benefit of their discovery. The genii 
 of mountains and of such islands are terrestrial genii. 
 There is a higher class, called the celestial genii. They 
 are supposed to ascend to heaven and reside there. The 
 abodes occupied by the celestial genii are among the stars, 
 or, higher yet, in the region of pure rest. In carrying out 
 the conceptions of powerful beings inhabiting heaven as 
 thus suggested, the Tapuists obtained great help from the 
 Buddhists. They imagined various regions in the sky, 
 somewhat resembling the successive heavens of the Hin- 
 doos, and made them the residences of the new divinities 
 that they chose to add to their pantheon. In the plan of 
 a complete Taouist temple, provision is made for represent- 
 ing all the chief features of the modern mythology of that 
 religion. The apartments devoted to the superior and 
 
1 1 2 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 inferior divinities correspond to the respective heavens in 
 which they reside, and a certain number of the gods are 
 selected for representation as specimens of the whole. 
 Among these are some that resemble the Buddhas and 
 Bodhisattwas of the sister religion, while others derive their 
 origin from the ancient Chinese tales of hermits and genii. 
 There are two elements, then, in the formation of their 
 mythology the primitive Chinese and the Buddhistic. 
 The former that of the Taouists has perpetuated the 
 recollection of many fabulous and semi-fabulous indi- 
 viduals belonging to the early centuries of the nation's 
 history. Among them are not a few hermits and alche- 
 mists, men of rigid morals, and having a fondness for 
 solitude, seekers of the plant that confers immortality, 
 and students of the hidden lore of mystics and magicians. 
 Such beings are called Seen-jin, or genii. They form the 
 mass of the inhabitants of heaven. The principal divini- 
 ties are, however, Buddhistic. To Buddha correspond Teen- 
 tsun, " honoured one of heaven," and Te, " high ruler," and 
 to Bodhisattwa Tsoo, patriarch. Yuh-hwang-shang-te is 
 the highest of all personages except the San-tsing. In his 
 character as lord of the world and saviour of men he in 
 part resembles Buddha. If this Shang-te is Buddha active, 
 the San-tsing, or " three pure ones," are Buddha contem- 
 plative. They meditate on truth and doctrine, and com- 
 municate their feelings and ideas to men in language such 
 as they can understand; one of the "three pure ones " is 
 Laou-keun, the founder of the Taouist religion, in a deified 
 form. The "three pure ones "are the Taouist trinity; as 
 the " San-she Joo-lae," the " Tathagatha of the three ages," 
 are the Buddhist trinity. In each case the trinity is a 
 threefold manifestation of one historical person. That 
 historical person is, in both instances, a man deified by his 
 intellectual and moral advancement, bringing hi m a t last 
 to the summit of all excellence and power. Shaky amuni 
 was represented by the Northern Buddhists in many differ- 
 ent forms. One of the most common is the Buddha past, 
 present, and to come. Three immense images nearly alike 
 
THE TAOUIST TRINITY. 113 
 
 in form are thus designated. They are usually found in 
 the larger Chinese temples, where it is desired to have idols 
 of an imposing appearance. Little, however, is said of this 
 trinity in the Buddhist books. Perhaps the reason why it 
 has become common is not on account of any doctrinal 
 importance belonging to this trinal manifestation of Buddha, 
 but rather because an air of grandeur is thus imparted 
 to the appearance of Buddha in the hall where he is 
 worshipped. 
 
 Be this as it may, the Taouists have imitated the Bud- 
 dhists in forming a trinity having its basis in the historical 
 founder of their religion. Laou-keun, the philosopher thus 
 distinguished, is styled, when represented as divine, the 
 third person in this trinity. They say, indeed, that he was, 
 in his human form, an incarnation of the third person in 
 the San-tsing, wishing to make it appear that this trinity 
 of divine persons, which is altogether of modern invention, 
 is previous in time to Laou-keun, and in fact eternal. 
 
 The connection that the Taouist trinity has with the 
 world is, like that of Buddha, one of instruction and bene- 
 volent interference for the good of mankind. The physical 
 superintendence of the world is left to inferior divinities. 
 In the view of both these religions, contemplation is above 
 action. As a sage is esteemed a higher character than a 
 warrior, so a divinity in the intellectual sphere is greater 
 than a divinity in the physical. To save by teaching is 
 greater than to save by power. This idea is seen very 
 prominently in the grades of divinities in the Taouist 
 mythology, as it is also in those of the Buddhist. The 
 Fuh and the Poosa of the Hindoo religion are intellectual 
 gods, and their sphere is regarded as higher and nobler than 
 that of Brahma and Shakra, who rule rather in the physi- 
 cal universe. So in Taouisna, the San-tsing are instructors, 
 while Shang-te and the star-gods, the medical divinities, 
 the gods of the elements and the deified hermits, are the 
 rulers of the physical universe. 
 
 The Taouists take the Shang-te of the Confucian classics 
 
1 14 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 to be identical with Yuh-hwang-shang-te, who is the chief 
 god in their pantheon, excepting only the San-tsing. They 
 assign to him the control of the physical universe, but they 
 also make him an instructor of mankind. To connect him 
 with the human race they have identified him with an 
 ancestor of the hereditary hierarch of their religion, bearing 
 the family name Chang. This hereditary head of the 
 Taouist religion resides in the province of Keang-se, on the 
 Dragon and Tiger mountain. In humanising the Shang-te 
 of the classics, a birthday, as well as a name, has been 
 assigned to him. His birthday is kept on the ninth of the 
 first month. Very many spirits are employed by him in 
 the control of the world. Towards the end of each year, 
 these subordinate spirits, among them the kitchen-god, who 
 have been engaged through the year in watching the 
 conduct of mankind, go up to the palace of Yuh-hwang- 
 shang-te in heaven, and present their report. After a 
 certain number of days they descend again, and resume 
 their office as inspectors of the moral behaviour of men. 
 
 Among the star-gods subordinate to the supreme deity 
 of the physical universe just referred to, is a trinity known 
 as the gods of happiness, rank, and old age. Three stars, 
 or star-gods, thus designated, are among the commonest 
 subjects for carving and painting in China. 
 
 Another favourite divinity is Tsae-shin, who presides 
 over riches. He is identified with an ancient Chinese 
 statesman, and is almost universally worshipped by those 
 who engage in commercial pursuits. The extent of his 
 worship is one of the most remarkable instances of the 
 prevalence of superstition among the class of tradesmen 
 and merchants. They trace their profits and losses in 
 trade to the interference of this divinity. It is their 
 faith in this god that has led to the erection of so many 
 temples to his honour in Chinese towns and cities. 
 
 There is a very well-known triad of subordinate divi- 
 nities, called San-kwan, the " three rulers." They preside 
 over heaven, earth, and water, and it is said of them, in 
 
THE GOD OF THUNDER. 115 
 
 that part of the daily liturgical prayers which refers to 
 them, that they are the three holy men who form a unity, 
 and that they send down good and ill fortune on men and 
 save the lost. In their collective unity they are called the 
 three rulers who constitute one great god, San-kwan-ta-te. 
 
 The gods having invocations addressed to them in the 
 Taouist prayer-books include several of a rank intermediate 
 between Yuh-hwang-shang-te and San-kwan. They are 
 the spirit of the earth, the north pole-star, the lord of the 
 stars, some other star-gods, the ruler of thunder, the Bud- 
 dhist divinity Kwan-yin, and the spirits of the sun and moon. 
 
 The following is a specimen of the attributes of these 
 personages. The " father of thunder " is represented as 
 passing through many metamorphoses and filling all 
 regions with his assumed forms. While he discourses on 
 doctrine his foot rests on nine beautiful birds. Thirty-six 
 generals wait on him for orders. A certain celebrated 
 book of instruction is said to have emanated from him. 
 His commands are swift as winds and fire. He overcomes 
 demons by the power of his wisdom, and he is the father 
 and teacher of all living beings. 
 
 This description of the god of thunder is strongly tinged 
 with a Buddhist colouring, and the same is observable in 
 the characteristics of the other Taouist divinities. The 
 style in which the books of prayers are written is thoroughly 
 Buddhist. The same view is taken of the universe, of the 
 wants of men, and of the interference of divine persons to 
 remove them, as in that religion. Throughout there is a 
 slavish adherence to the foreign model. China felt reli- 
 gious wants, which it could not supply from its own think- 
 ing. The Chinese had the notion of Deity, but could not 
 unaided bring that notion into a form adapted for popular 
 worship. When the Buddhist system arrived among them, 
 they found in it a model that they could conveniently copy. 
 The Chinese and the Hindoo mythology form an ill-assorted 
 mixture. The additions made by the Taouists from this 
 foreign source to their system fit it but clumsily, and the 
 
1 16 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 proof thus becomes so much the clearer that men will have 
 gods to adore and some form of worship, and that however 
 strong this craving, it cannot be met by the unassisted 
 intellect. There must be the revelation of the true God 
 in His Son Jesus Christ, before the desire men feel to know 
 and adore the Divine can be satisfied. 
 
 A word should be added respecting the State gods of 
 China. They are very numerous; each city has its patron 
 deity. There are also tutelar gods to smaller towns. All 
 such divinities are appointed by the State. Brave and 
 loyal officers of Government, and men distinguished for 
 public and private virtues, are honoured with a charge of 
 this kind. 
 
 Among the most eminent of the State gods is Kwan-te, 
 the god of war. By a recent decree of the last Emperor 
 but one, he has been raised to the same rank with Confu- 
 cius, who was before this the occupant of the first place in 
 the State pantheon of canonised sages and great men. 
 
 Taouist priests are appointed to take charge of the 
 temples of the State gods, but their worship does not con- 
 stitute a principal part of the liturgical forms of the Taouist 
 religion. These gods are admitted into the Taouist mytho- 
 logy as divinities more or less elevated in rank, and the 
 worship of each is performed with attention only in the 
 locality over which he presides. Temples to the god of 
 war are, however, found everywhere. 
 
 It would have been interesting to inquire how far the 
 views of the Taouists on a Divine Trinity are merely the 
 result of the thinking faculties, or how far they should be 
 regarded as traditional from the early ages of our race ; or, 
 further, what reason there is to consider them a truth in 
 natural religion, at which, in some way, the human mind 
 must, in its searchings, ultimately arrive. But this inquiry 
 may be left in the hands of writers of theological books, 
 and especially of those students, rapidly increasing in 
 number, who are engaged in investigating the religions of 
 the world. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 MORALITY. 
 
 ALL the world knows that the Chinese have a system of 
 morality which, in theory, is remarkably pure. They may 
 not be a peculiarly moral people when compared with the 
 rest of mankind, but they have a better system of human 
 duty than almost any other heathen nation, ancient or 
 modern. Their sages have transmitted a multitude of 
 excellent maxims, and have reasoned on moral questions, 
 not seldom, very satisfactorily. Duty and morality are 
 what every man can understand. To inculcate them is an 
 easy task, because the appeal is made immediately to the 
 conscience which God has bestowed upon all men. We 
 cannot wonder that in Confucianism there should be found 
 a good system of morality. Conscience and reflection 
 guide at once to the discovery of it. The Jesuit mission- 
 aries, when they arrived in China, in the reign of our 
 Queen Elizabeth, were charmed with the excellent doc- 
 trines of Confucius. They found there the Golden Rule 
 of our Saviour in a slightly different form. The precept 
 of Confucius was, " Do not to others what you would not 
 that they should do to you." They also found in the 
 common conversation of the people antithetical sentences 
 and fragments of familiar poetry, exhorting to virtue and 
 warning against vice. They are in daily use among all 
 classes, from the rich and educated to the labouring poor. 
 For example: " Among the hundred virtues, filial piety 
 is the chief. Out of ten thousand crimes, adultery is the 
 worst." " Fidelity, filial piety, chastity, and uprightness, 
 diffuse fragrance through a hundred generations." They 
 
1 1 8 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 spread through Europe the fame of the Chinese sages as 
 excellent instructors in morality. Ricci thought that very 
 many of them held views so good, that he felt no doubt 
 they would be saved by the mercy of God in the next life. 
 He says this in the rare and very interesting work, " De 
 Christiana Expeditione ad Sinas," from which M. Hue has 
 drawn much of the materials for his history of Christianity 
 in China. 
 
 What is the Confucian morality on which such high 
 encomiums have been pronounced ? A follower of that 
 sage would probably reply to this question by referring to 
 the San-kang-woo-chang, " the three relations and the five 
 constant virtues." The three relations, to which belong 
 corresponding duties, are those of prince and subject, 
 father and son, and husband and wife ; the five virtues, 
 whose obligation is constant and universal, are benevo- 
 lence, uprightness, politeness, knowledge, and faithfulness. 
 Politeness includes, in the Chinese meaning of the word, 
 compliance with all social and public customs transmitted 
 by wise men and good kings. The native term for know- 
 ledge means rather the prudence gained by knowledge. 
 The word for faithfulness means both to be trustworthy, 
 and also to trust to, and refers chiefly to friendship. 
 
 According to the Confucian school, the universal obliga- 
 tion to love mankind must be carefully limited and regu- 
 lated by the social relations. It made a strong resistance 
 on this ground to a socialist theory propounded by Mih- 
 tsze, a Chinese philosopher who lived in the interval 
 between Confucius and Mencius. The form that Con- 
 fucianism, the orthodox Chinese morality, has come to 
 assume has been constantly modified by controversy. 
 This renders the historical study of it more interesting 
 than it otherwise would be. Translations hitherto made of 
 the Confucian books are somewhat dull, partly because the 
 piquancy of the native phraseology is lost by transference 
 to a foreign tongue, and in part also from the want of 
 supplemental information on the important philosophical 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL LOVE. 119 
 
 discussions that have taken place hetween rival sects, both 
 contemporary with and subsequent to the time when the 
 Chinese classics were written. 1 Mih-tsze laid stress on 
 the circumstance that love to mankind ought to be univer- 
 sal and undistinguishing. He also founded the obligation 
 to love on utilitarianism. He said, that if we all loved 
 every other man in a perfectly undistinguishing manner, 
 there would be no wars and no robbery. It is a remark- 
 able fact that a Chinese writer three or four centuries 
 before the Christian era should have these views. They 
 are contained in works of the author which are partly 
 spurious in their present form, but which are frequently 
 cited and commented on in the writings of authors belong- 
 ing to that age. The followers of Confucius made an 
 energetic opposition to the doctrines of this philosopher, 
 and insisted, as writers of the school of Butler might do 
 against Bentham, and Paley, and the socialists, that the 
 consciousness of right and wrong implanted by Heaven in 
 the human breast must be made judge in matters of duty, 
 and that the distinctions in the social commonwealth, 
 arising from the political and domestic relations of men 
 to each other, must be carefully preserved. 
 
 A striking resemblance between the discussions en 
 moral philosophy in China and in Europe is found in the 
 ambiguity attaching to the word nature in Chinese sing. 
 Bishop Butler says, when speaking of the ancient moralists 
 of Europe, that they defined virtue as consisting in the 
 following of our nature, and vice as deviating from it. 
 He defended this doctrine, and guarded it from miscon- 
 struction by pointing out the different meanings of the 
 word nature. The Confucianists have had to do the same 
 in order to protect their orthodox doctrine of duty and 
 conscience from abuse. One ancient school held that we 
 
 1 Since this was written we have tory of moral philosophy in China by 
 
 had a new translation from an able the insertion in Dr. James Legge's 
 
 scholar, long resident in China, of a translation of Mencius of considerable 
 
 much superior kind to any we had portions of the writings on ethics of 
 
 before. Much has been done to meet Seun-tsze, Mih-tsze, and Han-yii. 
 this want of information in the his- 
 
120 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 must follow our appetites, since they were natural to us. 
 Another sect maintained that we must not follow our 
 nature, our nature being bad. The orthodox party said 
 our nature is good. The cause of our wrong-doing is in 
 the passions that are born with us, and in superinduced 
 habits. 
 
 When the European reader takes in hand the little 
 "Three Character Classic," that forms the first reading- 
 book in Chinese day-schools, he finds in the opening 
 sentence the doctrine broadly stated, that man has origin- 
 ally a good moral nature jin-che-choo-sing-pun-shen 
 and he thinks he sees in it a direct contradiction of the 
 Christian doctrine of man's original depravity. If no 
 friend to Christian theology, he rejoices in the fact ; if he 
 be a friend to that theology, he will be in danger of pro- 
 nouncing a hasty condemnation on the author of the 
 sentence just quoted. It belongs to Mencius, not Con- 
 fucius, and was introduced by him into the orthodox 
 system to serve as a barrier against the tenet of Seun-tsze, 
 that the nature of man is bad. Many centuries after, dur- 
 ing the time of our Middle Ages, discussions on the moral 
 nature of man led to the adoption of new phraseology by 
 the orthodox party. They said that there is a principle that 
 leads men to do wrong, together with a principle leading 
 them to do right, which two principles grow up together. 
 The good nature is bestowed originally by Heaven, as was 
 always held by the Confucianists. The bad came from 
 the union of the soul with matter, and the existence of the 
 passions. This explanation should be remembered before 
 the Chinese doctrine, " that the nature of man is good," is 
 condemned. If we say that the good principle, sing, 
 " nature," or le, " reason," is the moral sense or conscience, 
 and the evil principle original depravity, we have a coin- 
 cidence with the Christian doctrine of which we should not 
 lose sight on account of certain differences in nomenclature. 
 
 The tendencies of the Confucian morality are seen in 
 the national system of education, in which the moral 
 
EDUCATION. 121 
 
 training of the child's mind is always put forward as the 
 chief element. There is a universal system of self-support- 
 ing day-school education in that country. Every parent 
 who has a few pence to spare in the month will educate 
 his child. Teaching is the regular profession of the 
 majority of the literati, that is, of the class who study for 
 academical degrees. The course of instruction includes 
 the reading of the Four Books, and the Five Classics, the 
 former containing the opinions of Confucius and Mencius, 
 and the latter the ancient books as collected and edited by 
 Confucius. The word for religion in Chinese is Jceaou, and 
 this is also the word for instruction. The idea of a religion 
 is in that language a system of instruction. The highest 
 character known in that country is that of an instructor. 
 The greatness of Confucius did not consist in philosophical 
 depth and originality, but in his being a moral teacher, the 
 most sincere, earnest, comprehensive, and convincing that 
 the Chinese have known. When the boy goes to school, 
 he becomes a disciple of Confucius. If he is not educated, 
 his nature will go wrong, and he will be a lawless subject 
 and a disobedient son. The end of his education is to 
 show him what virtue is, and to lead him to it. The true 
 disciple of Confucius is the filial son, the loyal subject, 
 and the kind and faithful husband. The Government 
 regards the education of the people as essential to the 
 welfare of the State. But it does not itself educate them 
 by supplying free instruction to the poor. It appoints 
 public examiners to confer degrees and other rewards on 
 successful candidates for such distinctions, and in this way 
 it stimulates and influences voluntary education. The 
 Government decides what books shall form the subject of 
 examination, and what school in philosophy and morals 
 shall be counted orthodox. Its influence on the state of 
 opinion in the country is therefore very great. More than 
 this, the Government officers are chosen, according to the 
 traditional theory, for their virtues as well as for their 
 ability. The result of the Confucian education is sup- 
 
 NIVERSITY 
 
122 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 posed to be the formation of a highly virtuous character. 
 The Emperor should choose his ministers from " the wise, the 
 good, the consistent, and the upright " words which have 
 predominantly a moral rather than an intellectual meaning. 
 
 On the whole, the Confucian morality appears to agree 
 in principle with Butler's system, while the chief energy 
 of those who have taught it has been expended in the 
 endeavour to give it practical effect on the individual, the 
 family, and the nation. 
 
 What has the result been on the Chinese of the Con- 
 fucian morality ? It has not made them a moral people. 
 Many of the social virtues are extensively practised among 
 them, but they exhibit to the observer a lamentable want 
 of moral strength. Commercial integrity and speaking the 
 truth are far less common among them than in Christian 
 countries. The standard of principle among them is kept 
 low by the habits of the people. They do not appear to feel 
 ashamed when the discovery is made that they have told 
 an untruth. Falsehood is too often a favourite weapon of 
 diplomacy in social life, and it is employed without 
 remorse. There is a palpable absence of sensitiveness on 
 this and other points which indicates the want of honour- 
 able principle in the national character. This renders the 
 nation feeble in war and open to new temptations, such as, 
 for example, the use of opium. Another cause of moral 
 weakness among the Chinese is the practice of polygamy, 
 an institution which operates as mischievously on them as 
 on other Oriental nations. The state of opinion is such in 
 that country, that in some cases the taking of a second 
 wife during the lifetime of the first is regarded as a virtue. 
 It is, for instance, the duty of a filial son to marry again if 
 lie is without children by his first wife, in order to have 
 sons who may continue the sacrifices at the ancestral tomb. 
 The chief evil attending domestic slavery in China is, that 
 it directly promotes concubinage to a vast extent. Thus 
 the Confucian morality, though good in theory, has not been 
 successful in bringing the nation to a good moral condition. 
 
MORAL EFFECTS OF BUDDHISM. 123 
 
 Some modern writers have represented the influence of 
 Buddhism on the moral character of nations as extremely 
 beneficial. It must be confessed that there is a very good 
 aim in much of the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha. He 
 says, in the " Book of Forty-two Sections : " " That which 
 causes the stupidity and delusion of man is love and the 
 desires." " Man, having many faults, if he does not repent, 
 but allows his heart to be at rest, will find sins rushing 
 upon him like water to the sea. When vice has thus 
 become more powerful, it is still harder than before to 
 abandon it. If a bad man becomes sensible of his faults, 
 abandons them, and acts virtuously, his sin will day by 
 day diminish and be destroyed, till he obtains full en- 
 lightenment." The disciple of Buddha is forbidden to 
 take part in any of the vices, and even in many of the 
 lawful enjoyments, of life. He must not take wine, nor 
 enter the married state, nor partake of animal food. He 
 must exercise a strict watch over the tongue. Minute 
 rules for self-government are given to aid in preventing 
 the disciple from every kind of wrong-doing. 
 
 Klaproth, having in view these moral precepts, and their 
 effects on the Asiatic world, speaks of Buddhism as being 
 of all religions next to Christianity in elevating the human 
 race. He says, " The wild nomads of Central Asia have 
 been changed by it into amiable and virtuous men, and 
 its beneficent influence has been felt even in Northern 
 Siberia." It is a fact that Buddhism has been spreading 
 during the last hundred years from Mongolia, where it has 
 long prevailed, into Siberia. It is not to be wondered at 
 that a literary traveller from Germany should be pleased 
 to find Buddhism extending among the .pagan hordes of 
 Siberia. He would naturally be gratified to discover in 
 those dreary regions the worship of personified ideas, and 
 the doctrine of the non-existence of matter. Perhaps it is 
 rather surprising that he did not place Buddhism on a 
 higher level than Christianity, than that he should have 
 viewed it only as second to it in point of excellence. 
 
124 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 I feel compelled, however, to take a less favourable view 
 than this sanguine traveller of the effects of Buddhism. 
 So far from deserving to be compared with Christianity, it 
 must be regarded as quite inferior to the system of Confucius 
 in its moral influence. 
 
 Good has resulted, doubtless, from the prominent exhibi- 
 tion made by Buddhism of the danger and misery of vice, 
 and the good coming from self-restraint. But much more 
 benefit would have been derived if its system of prohibi- 
 tions had rested on a better basis, and been supported by a 
 different view of the future state. The crime of killing 
 rests chiefly on the doctrine of metempsychosis, which 
 ascribes the same immortal soul to animals that it does to 
 man. Faithful Buddhists are told not to kill the least 
 insect, lest in so doing they should cause death to some 
 deceased relative or ancestor whose soul may possibly 
 animate the insect. On this account the corresponding 
 virtue is stated to be fang sheng, " to save life," constantly 
 applied by the Buddhist priests and common people of 
 China to the preservation of the lives of animals. The 
 monks are vegetarians for the same reasons ; they abstain 
 from flesh, not only to bring the appetites into subjection, 
 but just as much that they may not share in the slaughter 
 of living beings. They construct reservoirs of water near 
 the monasteries, in which fish, snakes, tortoises, and small 
 shell-fish, brought by worshippers of Buddha, are placed to 
 preserve them from death. Goats and other land animals 
 are also given into the care of monks, and it is the custom 
 at some monasteries, as at Teen-tung, near Ningpo, to feed 
 the neighbouring birds with a few grains of rice just before 
 the morning meal commences. I witnessed this upon one 
 occasion. All the monks were seated at the tables in the 
 refectory, perfectly silent, each with his bowl of rice and 
 greens before him. One of them rose, after a sort of grace 
 had been said, and brought to the door in his hand a few 
 grains of rice. These he placed on a low stone pillar 
 within sight of the birds that were waiting upon the roofs,, 
 
DEFICIENCIES OF BUDDHISM. 125 
 
 of the adjoining buildings, and knew how to act on the 
 occasion. They flew down at once with great goodwill 
 to receive their morning meal. 
 
 A morality which is so much connected with the fables 
 of the metempsychosis, confounding men and animals as 
 alike possessing immortal souls and a moral nature, should 
 not be viewed as comparable to the Confucian, which bases 
 its precepts on the consciousness of right and wrong 
 bestowed by Heaven on all men. If the Confucianists do 
 not say so much about the authority of God as we could 
 wish, they speak at least of the authority of Heaven ; and 
 this is better than the atheism of the Buddhists. The 
 Buddhist moral precepts, good as many of them are, would 
 have more power, and the true character of sin be more 
 felt by the people, if the authority of God were recognised 
 by them as the great reason for acting well, the ground of 
 moral obligation. The beneficent influence of the religion 
 of Buddha would have been much greater, had it made the 
 love and fear of God the first of all the virtues, and it 
 might then have been brought more justifiably into com- 
 parison with Christianity. The sense of moral obligation 
 cannot be strong in a system which consists very much of 
 subtle intellectual abstractions, instead of strong convictions 
 of the realities of life. In asserting the falsity of many 
 things which the common consciousness of mankind de- 
 clares to be truths in subordinating God to Buddha, and 
 denying that He is the creator and preserver of the world 
 and in sinking moral law to a position lower than the 
 teachings of the human Buddha, this system loosens the 
 hold of moral obligation upon man, and weakens the 
 dominion of conscience. 
 
 AVe have in Buddhism some of the strangest facts that 
 have ever been elicited in the history of the religions of the 
 world. We have seen it attempting to subvert the faith of 
 mankind in God, placing as a substitute on His throne a 
 self-elevated, self-purified human sage called Buddha, and 
 yet it could not prevent this personage from becoming . de- 
 
126 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 humanised, clothed with divine attributes, and so coming 
 to be worshipped as God by the multitude in all Buddhist 
 countries. So far is this the case in Mongolia, that in the 
 translation of the Bible by the Protestant missionaries into 
 the language of that country, Buddha, or, as it is called, 
 Borhan, is used for God. Now we see a fact analogous to 
 this in the department of morals. The Buddhists, when 
 they subverted the foundations of moral obligation by 
 denying the authority of Divine law, put Buddha in its 
 place. Just as Buddha in his personality took the place 
 of God, so the Buddha of the heart was a sort of substitute 
 for conscience. They say man's original nature, sing, is 
 good. It is the inborn Buddha, which belongs to every- 
 thing that has a conscious existence. It is pure and holy, 
 but is overshadowed and shut out from view by the 
 passions. Let every one search for it with introverted eye, 
 and he will need no God or idol to adore, nor any law to 
 control him. Let him uncover the veiled Buddha in his 
 own heart. He will then become his own teacher and his 
 own regenerator. In this language we see another sacrifice, 
 a very acceptable one, to human pride. It elevates man 
 by refusing to recognise the need of Divine agency in 
 restoring men to a holy moral life, and yet it is a testi- 
 mony to the existence of the inward light which God has 
 placed in all human bosoms to guide them to what is right 
 and good. 'The Buddhists, when they employ this phraseo- 
 logy, appeal to conscience after a certain indistinct man- 
 ner. They go wrong, however, as the Confucianists also 
 do, in identifying it with natural goodness ; for they thus 
 obscure its true character as the judge of right and wrong. 
 To tell men that they are naturally good, is to assume in 
 compliment to human nature a fact difficult to be proved, 
 being contradicted by all history. And it has a bad effect 
 on human character, as it is likely to induce men to look 
 leniently on their own vices, and to regard them as origin- 
 ating from without and not from within. Whatever 
 system weakens our sensitiveness to moral evil, must be so 
 
BUDDHIST KINDNESS TO ANIMALS. 127 
 
 far wrong. The feebleness of the Buddhist appeal to con- 
 science is further increased by its assigning the same 
 essentially good nature to each member of the animal 
 creation that it does to man. 
 
 We cannot, in China, see the whole effect of Buddhism 
 as a moral system, because the national conscience of that 
 country is much more Confucian than Buddhistic. The 
 worshippers of Buddha and Poosa in that country retain 
 the instructions on morality of their own sages ; and to 
 this Buddhism, than which there is not a more tolerant 
 religion in the world, makes no objection. So also it is 
 with Taouism. Both systems leave the people in posses- 
 sion of the convictions of duty produced by their Confucian 
 education. But we notice among the Chinese certain 
 popular customs and opinions that can scarcely be traced 
 to any origin except Buddhism. Carefulness in avoiding 
 the destruction of animal life is certainly, and the existence 
 of many charitable institutions for the relief of the poor, 
 the aged, and the diseased, is probably, to be ascribed to 
 Buddhism. This religion has made the Chinese charitable, 
 giving rise to almsgiving and many benevolent institutions. 
 There is usually a tinge of Buddhist phraseology in the 
 appeals made to the benevolent for the various charities 
 and schemes for public convenience so common in that 
 country. But the strong feeling, for which the Chinese 
 are noted, of duty to parents, princes, and persons in 
 superior station, they owe rather to their own national 
 system. 
 
 Among the Taouists, the book that has the most influence 
 of a moral kind upon the people is perhaps the " Kan-ying- 
 peen," or Book on Betribution. In this treatise the punish- 
 ments threatened for sin belong to the present life. They 
 are losses, diseases, early death, and every sort of misfor- 
 tune belonging to this world. The rewards of virtue are 
 temporal blessings, and in certain cases immortality and 
 transference to the abodes of the genii. But while the 
 retribution of actions is Taouist, the actions themselves are 
 
) 28 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 characterised as right and wrong entirely by the Confucian 
 standard. 
 
 Thus the most commanding position among the people 
 is held by the system of the Confucianists. The introduc- 
 tion of Hindoo idolatry with a peculiar system of religion 
 and philosophy has not lessened the power of the old 
 orthodox morality in the country. The great struggle of 
 Christianity must be with the religion that has the most 
 power. To enter on a conflict with Buddhism and Taouism 
 will be found an easier task by far than to displace Con- 
 fucius from the faith of the Chinese as a faultless model, 
 and the greatest and holiest of all moral teachers. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NOTIONS ON SIN AND REDEMPTION. 
 
 WHEN contemplating the introduction of Christianity into 
 a country, it is important to know what opinions its in- 
 habitants have upon sin and on the means of removing it. 
 The consciousness of sin and the felt need of redemption 
 undoubtedly belong to men who have no knowledge of 
 religion except that which is derived from the light of 
 nature. Some illustrations of the mode in which the 
 Chinese feel and speak on these subjects will now be pre- 
 sented. 
 
 Sometimes there are answers given by the Chinese to 
 the foreign inquirer of such a nature as to induce a doubt 
 whether they have any sense of sin whatever. A respect- 
 able person will say, " I have no sins, and why should I 
 need a Saviour ? Your doctrine is good, but it is not im- 
 portant for me to attend to it. Why think of the future 
 life ? We know nothing about it. I discharge my duties. 
 I am a filial son and a loyal citizen. I worship Heaven 
 and Earth on the first and fifteenth of every month. I 
 have nothing to reproach myself with." 
 
 I once held a conversation with an old man of seventy. 
 I asked him, " Will you become a believer in our religion ?" 
 " No," he said, " I am too old. Here is my son ; he is 
 young and can earn money; I can do no work, and should 
 be worth nothing to you." " You are greatly mistaken," 
 he was told in reply, " in supposing that to believe in our 
 religion has anything to do with earning money. It is for 
 the forgiveness of sins that we advise you to believe in 
 Jesus." His reply was, " I have no sins. I would not 
 
 I 
 
1 30 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 commit any sin. The money I owe to any one I give him. 
 If I see a neighbour's child fall, I run and help him up." 
 It was remarked to him, " Every one is a sinner ; are you 
 an exception ?" To this he answered, " When my little girl 
 had nothing to eat, and I possessed but fifteen cash (worth 
 a penny), I spent them in buying food for my father." 
 
 Such an appeal as this to acts of kindness and filial piety 
 formerly done would appear natural and perfectly satis- 
 factory to large numbers of this man's countrymen. The 
 tendency of the Confucian religion is to render those who 
 * believe in it unwilling to confess that sin is an element in 
 their daily actions. 
 
 It would not be fair to Confucianism to say that it 
 ^ denies the existence of moral evil in the conduct of every 
 man, for the Chinese sage said on one occasion that " he had 
 never seen a truly good man." But he thought that men 
 have the power to be virtuous in themselves, and that their 
 nature leads them to virtue. He teaches that " by their 
 nature they approach to goodness, but habit leads them 
 away from it." By nature sing he meant the moral sense 
 bestowed by God on every man. It is what we call con- 
 science. A Confucianist writer would, however, rather 
 describe it as a bias to virtue. Mencius, who is only 
 second in authority to Confucius himself, tried to give 
 greater distinctness to the doctrine of his predecessor by 
 prefixing to the sentence above quoted the words, " Men 
 originally have a virtuous nature." 
 
 In the moral code of the Co#ftTcian religion duties to 
 God are little mentioned, while great stress is laid on 
 duties to princes and parents. This circumstance could 
 not but materially affect the extent and depth of the popu- 
 lar consciousness of sin in China. 1 remember a patient 
 in a missionary hospital at Shanghai. He remained in one 
 of the wards for several months on account of a wounded 
 foot. He could not read, but he told many long stories 
 respecting marvellous appearances of Buddha and other 
 divinities. He remarked, when he heard the Divine nature 
 
POPULAR IDEAS OF SIN. 13: 
 
 of Christ referred to, that Jesus must be a living Buddha 
 the same designation that is applied to the Grand Lama 
 of Tibet, who is worshipped as an incarnation of Buddha. 
 He frequently expressed uneasiness of mind at not having 
 fulfilled his filial duty to his deceased father. He had 
 neglected to make provision for the customary funeral 
 rites. It was here that his consciousness of sin was 
 centred. The sphere of religious ideas in which this 
 man's thoughts revolved was Buddhist. But, though 
 he spoke of Buddha's divine power and providence, he 
 did not seem to feel himself a sinner against Buddha. 
 The worshipper of Buddha looks to him for protection and 
 instruction, but he does not pray to him for forgiveness, or 
 confess sin to him. He regards Buddha as a teacher and 
 Saviour, but not as a governor or a judge. His wounded 
 foot was proof to him of sin; but when asked what sin 
 it was of which he felt the conviction, his thoughts recurred 
 to the moral code of Confucius. He did what most of his 
 countrymen would have done in similar circumstances. 
 Instead of thinking of his transgression of God's law, he 
 recollected an omission of a duty to liis parent. Filial 
 piety is the most strongly enforced of all virtues in his 
 native country. It has overshadowed the duty of piety 
 towards God, and the national conscience has become in 
 consequence comparatively insensible to sin as committed 
 against the Supreme Governor of the world. 
 
 All calamities, personal or national, in China are re- 
 garded as proofs of sin, especially such as are sudden and 
 overwhelming. A man struck by lightning is imme- 
 diately condemned by the united voice of all who hear of 
 the catastrophe. He must have poisoned some one, or 
 have intended to do so, or he must have committed some 
 other great crime. If lightning strike a tree, the popular 
 remark made from one to another will be that there must 
 be a venomous snake concealed at its roots, and that on 
 this account the tree was singled out to be visited with the 
 retribution of Heaven. Blindness and other bodily cala- 
 
132 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 inities are also ascribed to the operation of a retributory 
 decree, the execution of which is superintended by the 
 ruling power in heaven. The charge of personal blame is, 
 however, often shifted from the present life to an imaginary 
 one that preceded it. The Buddhist doctrine of metem- 
 psychosis is conveniently used to shelter the sufferer by 
 any calamity from a charge of guilt made too direct to 
 be pleasing to an uneasy conscience. He says to himself, 
 " I must have committed some crime in a former state of 
 existence." His misfortune does not permit him to deny 
 his sin. It is evidence such as cannot be contradicted. 
 But he finds in the doctrine of a former life the means 
 of exculpating himself, so far as the present world is 
 concerned. 
 
 The notion of duty in the Confucian system being the 
 moral bond that connects man with man, instead of that 
 which connects man with God, it conies to resemble the 
 feeling of honour. The good man is called Jciun-tsze, " the 
 honourable man," while the bad man is termed seaou-jin, 
 " the little man." Mean and dishonourable actions are said 
 to be done by the latter, while all acts that imply self- 
 respect and a sense of honour are attributed to the former. 
 The law of virtue comes to be much more nearly identical 
 with the law of honour than it can be in the Christian 
 moral code, because so little is said by Confucius about 
 our duties to God. Having no revelation of a future state 
 to make use of in the inculcation of virtue, the Chinese 
 system, as taught by native authors of the highest reputa- 
 tion, is led by necessity to appeal strongly to the natural 
 sense of right and wrong implanted in man. Not claiming 
 the inspired authority of special heavenly messages for the 
 duties it enjoins, it rests upon the feeling of self-respect 
 that men have. The man who always acts by this stan- 
 dard is the ideal of virtue. " He who makes use," says a 
 Confucian author, " of reason and right to control the pas- 
 sions and the senses is an honourable man. And," he 
 continues, "he who makes use of the passions and the 
 
BUDDHIST TEACHING ON SIN. 133 
 
 senses to resist reason and right is a ' small man ; ' " that 
 is, a bad man. 
 
 The moral standard being of this sort, sin becomes an 
 act which robs a man of his self-respect, and offends his 
 sense of right, instead of being regarded as a transgression 
 of God's law. 
 
 There is another view of sin among the Chinese which 
 has come to prevail extensively through the influence of 
 Buddhism. To destroy animal life in any instance; to 
 partake of animal food; the desecration of the written 
 character, printed or manuscript, whether found on paper, 
 porcelain, or carved wood, are considered to be sinful in a 
 high degree. They are looked upon as great crimes, and it 
 is thought that they will surely provoke severe punish- 
 ment from the unseen fate that controls human actions. 
 Such opinions diminish very much from the moral weight 
 that attaches to the word sin, in Chinese tsuy. In com- 
 mon conversation the word is also used in such a way 
 as to detract from its force. The phrase, " I have sinned 
 against you," containing this word tsuy, is constantly 
 employed in the sense of " I beg your pardon," or, " You 
 greatly oblige me." 
 
 After this account of the limitations and misapplications 
 of the notion of sin in the Confucian religion, it will not 
 be expected that it can furnish a clear statement of any 
 mode by which sin is to be taken away. The follower of 
 that system says, as the Mohammedan does, sin will be 
 forgiven on reformation, and that reformation is the 
 sinner's own act. "To do wrong and not to correct the 
 wrong, that is to do wrong," is a favourite quotation from 
 the Chinese classics. If we do virtuously, say the disciples 
 of Confucius, all our past faults will be forgiven. The 
 work of self-reformation is that of men themselves. Let 
 those who have sinned against Heaven not pray for pardon, 
 or offer sacrifices to avert deserved punishment, but let 
 them show, by their sincere desire to be virtuous, the 
 genuineness of their repentance. Confucius said, when a 
 
I 3 4 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 man has sinned against Heaven, there is no need to pray. 
 He meant that there was no advantage gained by the 
 prayers and offerings, presented at the period in which he 
 lived, to the spirit who presides over the north-west corner 
 of the sky. He also said, on another occasion, " My pray- 
 ing has been long." This referred to the disposition he 
 showed in his daily conduct to do what was good. If a 
 man is virtuous and sincere, Heaven will be as much 
 pleased with him as with the man who prays. Hence, if 
 a man seek to act virtuously, he need not pray for forgive- 
 ness : he will be forgiven on the ground of the sincerity of 
 his repentance. This is the common explanation of the 
 passage, and it is authorised by Choo-foo-tsze. But some 
 good scholars understand the expression used by Con- 
 fucius as meaning that he really prayed, and that it was 
 his daily habit. 
 
 The opinion that Confucius prayed is probably the correct 
 one. The Buddhist reading of Choo-foo-tsze led him to 
 explain away realities. Confucius had an emotional nature, 
 which would prompt him to pray. 
 
 The Buddhist notion of sin is what might be expected 
 in a system where the presence and authority of a personal 
 God are not felt, and where it is not perceived that the 
 law which regulates human actions emanates immediately 
 from Him. The ideas of sin and of misfortune are very 
 much confounded. The sick man says of his disease, " It 
 is my sin," instead of saying, " It is the punishment of 
 my sin." The character ascribed to Buddha is that of a 
 Saviour, but he saves from misfortune rather than from sin. 
 When the Buddhists say, as they often do, " Great things 
 can be transformed into small, and small into nothing," 
 they mean either sin or the misfortunes that it brings ; and 
 they suppose that this will be effected by almsgiving and 
 offerings to the idols. 
 
 The pity that Buddha feels for men is excited by the 
 delusions and the sufferings in which he sees them in- 
 volved, rather than by their guilt. He takes a misan- 
 
BUDDHIST REDEMPTION. 135 
 
 thropic view of human life. He looks at it from the 
 gloomiest possible point of observation. To live is to be 
 wretched, and to die is wretchedness also, because death is 
 but the introduction to a similar life for the same soul in a 
 different body. He would rescue mankind altogether from 
 the possibility of living and dying any more. The path to 
 the Nirvana is the remedial scheme of Buddhism, and the 
 Nirvana itself is its future state. 
 
 The most glowing terms are employed to describe the 
 excellence of the Nirvana, yet when inquired into, it is 
 found to be nothing but a philosophical abstraction, the 
 boundary beyond which speculative thought found itself 
 unable to pass. It is much too high a state for the com- 
 mon Buddhist priest to indulge the hope of arriving at it. 
 One of them was once asked if he expected soon to escape 
 from the metempsychosis and enter the Nirvana. He 
 replied, " Living in this- poor temple, how could I ? To 
 attain that happiness, I must dwell on a hill and meditate 
 in solitude on the law of Buddha." " Why," he was again 
 asked, " do you not make trial of that mode of life 1" "I 
 have not," he answered, "the 'root.'" He meant the in- 
 tellectual germ or innate power or moral capacity from 
 which the Buddhist mental development could proceed. 
 His interrogator inquired of him further, " If you do not 
 reach the Nirvana, how far on the path towards it do you 
 hope to arrive ? " "I can only hope," said he, " to become 
 man again." 
 
 The feeling that the common Buddhist has of his condi- 
 tion is a humble one, if his expressions are to be trusted. 
 He looks on himself and the rest of mankind as in a 
 sunken state of degradation, from which few succeed in 
 escaping. Life is described as a vast sea. Men are tossed 
 upon the waves of this sea perpetually. There is a shore 
 which, by Buddha's help, the tempest-driven soul may 
 reach. On the rocks near large temples inscriptions are 
 carved, addressing the visitor with such words as, " This is 
 the shore," " You have but to turn back, and you are safe 
 
136 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 on this shore." Men are driven hither and thither on the 
 waves of passion, and very few escape. Only an extremely 
 small number attain to the Nirvana. The power to do so 
 is a rare gift, as rare as the endowments of high genius. 
 But it is thought that much may be done by the monastic 
 and hermit discipline to improve the condition of those 
 who adopt it in the next life. A party of women and 
 children will sometimes shut themselves in an apartment 
 of a temple for a fixed time. Their employment is to 
 repeat invocations to Buddha all day. It is Amitabha 
 Buddha, who saves in the western heaven, that is prayed 
 to on these occasions. They hope, after two or three days 
 spent in reciting prayers, to have a better position secured 
 to them in the next world, or else to enter the western 
 paradise. The majority of Buddha's worshippers hope for 
 nothing higher than to advance one or two steps in the 
 scale of existence. They do not venture to anticipate 
 absorption into the state of Nirvana, where human nature 
 escapes at length from misery. They will have to wait 
 through a long series of ages before that consummation. 
 
 The mode in which the disciplinary life of Buddhism, 
 whether solitary or monastic, is supposed to benefit men 
 is by the salutary restraint on the passions which it is said 
 to exert. The passions are our enemies. The highest 
 happiness of the soul is in tranquillity, and the agitation of 
 the feelings is the cause of the diminution of our happi- 
 ness. We should aim, therefore, at perfect rest ; and this 
 is sought after in the monastic institutions founded by 
 Buddha. 
 
 The system, as it came from the hands of Shakyamuni, 
 was more distinctly moral and less metaphysical than 
 afterwards. Much was said by him and his first followers 
 on the virtues and vices. They spoke of ten vices three 
 of the body, namely, killing, stealing, and adultery ; four 
 of the lips, slandering, reviling, lying, and words uttered 
 with a vicious intention ; and three of the mind, jealousy, 
 hatred, and folly. These constitute, then, what is meant 
 
REDEMPTION BY CHANTING PRA YERS. 137 
 
 by the word sin ; but that term loses very much of its 
 significancy when applied to the desecration of printed 
 or written paper, treading on an insect, or wasting rice- 
 crumbs. To the lower class of Buddhists, this degenerated 
 use of the word is that which most readily occurs. In the 
 early history of this religion, moral duties were felt to be 
 more important than they now are. Sometimes, even yet, 
 a healthy state of mind in regard to moral distinctions is 
 insisted on as superior to conformity with positive laws. 
 AVlien a missionary was urging that morality was above 
 forms, and that dependence on those recommended by the 
 Buddhists cannot secure salvation, one of the Chinese 
 whom he was addressing expressed his entire assent to 
 the statement, and illustrated his opinion by the story of a 
 butcher. This man, although he followed a disreputable 
 trade, to engage in which is highly criminal, was honest in 
 his dealings, and fond of reading Buddhist books, burning 
 incense, and prayer. He was taken to heaven by the great 
 divinity Kwan-yin, who came in person at an appointed 
 time and conducted him there. On the other hand, a 
 priest, who had not an honest heart, was abandoned by the 
 same divinity to become the prey of a tiger. 
 
 The forgiveness of sin is obtained, according to the 
 Buddhist notion, by chanting books of prayers and leading 
 an ascetic life. A common believer in this religion will 
 reply, that the object of his invocations and prayers to 
 Buddha is to avert misfortune, to obtain pardon for sins, 
 and to lengthen life. But this belongs to the lower class 
 of believers in Buddhism. The notion of pardon cannot 
 assume any great importance where there is no God from 
 whom to ask it. The idea of redemption in Buddhism is 
 less that of procuring pardon than of conquering the 
 sensual nature and obtaining perfect rest. It is altogether 
 a subjective process. To help this process Buddha insti- 
 tuted monastic vows, and appointed a series of employ- 
 ments. The mode in which these are now operating in 
 China may be illustrated by the following notes of aa 
 
138 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 actual conversation. I once asked an aged priest at the 
 head of a monastery if he had attained to the true fruit. 
 (The result of meditation and discipline is termed fruit.) 
 He replied, that he had not. He was again asked " Do 
 you, with the ' Diamond Book of Transcendental Wisdom, 
 hold that all things having colour and form are empty and 
 unreal, so that the objects surrounding us have no exist- 
 ence but in imagination?" His answer was, " It is diffi- 
 cult to say. Those who have attained the true fruit see 
 all things to be delusive, but others cannot do so." This 
 was an honest confession on the part of the aged monk. 
 He did not himself believe, as his religion teaches, that 
 matter is unreal, and that our senses are always deceiving 
 us ; but he thought that those who have risen into a state 
 of exalted reverie are able to discern the truth of these pro- 
 positions. I again asked him, " Are you the better for sub- 
 mitting to the tonsure and renouncing the world ?" " No," 
 said he ; " it is good to be a monk, and it is also good to be 
 a common man." " Then why," he was asked, " did you 
 become a monk at all ?" " To keep the heart at rest," he 
 said, "so that it may not be ruffled by common affairs." 
 "And have you attained that stage of advancement?" 
 " No," was his response; "but there is a priest here who 
 has done more than I have." He led me to see him. I 
 saw him in his monkish costume, sitting on a board in the 
 sunshine, his face turned towards a wall. I was informed 
 that he never spoke. He had not done so for six or seven 
 years, and was under a vow not to break silence again for 
 the whole of his life. He constantly wore the same dress, 
 and limited himself to the luxury of combing his long hair, 
 which was never cut with razor or scissors, and washing 
 his face. He ate like other priests, but scarcely ever left 
 his apartment. He could read, but never took book in 
 hand. His only employment was to mutter the prayers 
 of his religion in a low voice. I wrote on a piece of 
 paper a sentence, " Your vow not to speak is of no benefit 
 to you." He looked on the paper, read it, and gave a faint 
 
UNSHORN A SCE TICS. 1 39 
 
 smile. He refused to write any reply. I said to the septua- 
 genarian priest who had led us in, " You can exhort men 
 to repent of their sin, but he cannot." " Ah !" he replied, 
 "I am not so good as he is." Last year (1858), 1 was 
 told, the mute priest was seized in the street by one of the 
 city magistrates as he passed accidentally, with his flags, 
 gongs, and retainers. His hair hanging loose from his un- 
 shorn head gave him the appearance of a rebel, at the time 
 when the city of Sung-keang, in which the incident oc- 
 curred, was in excitement from the reported approach of 
 an insurgent force. He would have been put to death as 
 a " long-haired rebel," had not the neighbours who knew 
 him explained to the mandarin what his real character 
 was. Soon afterwards, I subsequently heard, he was found 
 sitting on his board in the sunshine, dead. Such a poor 
 imbecile as this is regarded by his fellow-Buddhists in 
 China as having adopted an effectual method of rescuing 
 himself from the corrupting and deluding influence of the 
 world, and as having found a short road to high attain- 
 ments in the path of Buddhist progress. His vow of 
 silence is an example of the methods that suggest them- 
 selves to the Oriental mind by which the unbroken rest 
 of the Nirvana may be as nearly as possible imitated, and 
 the soul be freed from the dominion of that false and mis- 
 chievous succession of sensations which come to us from 
 an imaginary thing we call matter. Such is the Buddhist 
 redemption; and the Buddha or the Poosa, who teaches 
 men the fact of their delusion and the mode of escaping 
 from it, is the Buddhist redeemer. Philosophy has at- 
 tempted many great things, but it is only in Buddhism that 
 it has attempted the salvation of the soul. In the absence 
 of a Divine Saviour, manifested in a human form, philo- 
 sophy undertook, by thought alone, to rescue men from the 
 evils that involve them, and to frame methods of discipline 
 and self-elevation that should harmonise with the denial 
 of matter and of God. Buddhism is philosophy gone mad ; 
 for it is philosophy assuming the prerogatives which can 
 only belong to a heavenly religion. 
 
140 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The aims of Taouistn are less ambitious than those of the 
 Buddhists. Its divinities are described as saving man 
 from the calamities that belong to the present life, rather 
 than as seeking to extricate him altogether from his con- 
 nection with the world. It is far from denying the validity 
 of the information given us by the senses, and the exist- 
 ence of matter. It tries to etherealise the body, and 
 transmute it to a purer form, in order that it may become 
 immortal, and capable of rising by its own energy to the 
 celestial regions. 
 
 While Buddhism speaks much of the false and the true, 
 saying that the knowledge of truth is gained when certain 
 metaphysical dogmas are understood, and while Confu- 
 cianism discourses on the right and the wrong in morals, 
 the mind of the Taouist is rather occupied with the gross 
 and the pure. It undertakes to subject man as a whole, 
 soul and body, to a process of purification. All on earth is 
 gross. All in heaven is pure. Those who employ a mode 
 of discipline for themselves, similar to those used for the 
 transmutation of gross substances into gold, and the resto- 
 ration of the body in a state of disease to a state of health, 
 will attain at last the power to rise from earth to heaven. 
 The body will lose its grossness, the soul become more 
 pure, and then the apotheosis will take place. 
 
 The idea of sin is the same in Taouism as in the system 
 of Confucius. Its classification of the virtues, and the 
 account it gives of retribution in the present life, are at 
 one with what we find in Confucianism. These two sys- 
 tems have here borrowed from the same national beliefs. 
 But there is this difference Confucius is content with the 
 reward of an approving conscience, while the other faith 
 desires as rewards of virtue, longevity, riches, health, rank, 
 and a numerous posterity. 
 
 Laou-keun, the founder of the Taouist religion, incul- 
 cated quietness and self-restraint. " Let all the passions 
 be carefully controlled." " Strength and progress are found 
 in rest." His followers interpreted this doctrine as requir- 
 
TAOUIST MEANS OF REDEMPTION. 141 
 
 ing the hermit life ; but they did not, like the Buddhists, 
 think it necessary to take a vow of celibacy, or to have the 
 head clean shaven, or to avoid the destruction of animal life. 
 
 The soul being merely a fine species of matter, the idea 
 of salvation comes to be that of relief from all sufferings 
 of body or mind. If the body can be made impregnable 
 against the attacks of disease and death, it will then be 
 like that of the immortals. In various ages there have 
 been men who have sought the plant that confers immor- 
 tality^, and found it. Others have tried to discover by 
 chemistry the process by which the baser metals are turned 
 to gold. The principal agent in this process, being a uni- 
 versal elixir, can be applied to render the body immortal. 
 
 Beyond this low view of the method of rescue for man 
 from the misery of his present state, the Taouists were 
 scarcely able to rise at all till they began to borrow 
 from Buddhism. The hermit life was a point of similarity 
 which encouraged a general imitation of the system of that 
 religion. They began to describe Laou-keun in much the 
 same manner as Buddha is described, and they invented 
 personages to correspond to Poosa. Eest and meditation 
 are the means of redemption ; and the human teacher is 
 the redeemer. That from which man is redeemed is all 
 that is gross and impure, whether belonging to the body or 
 the souL 
 
 Such a view of the results to which men have come in 
 China, with the aid of three ancient and popular religious 
 systems, on the great subjects of sin and redemption, is 
 suited to awaken deep feelings of pity in the Christian's 
 mind. And the nature of the Gospel, its adaptation to 
 human wants, and the history of its past successes, will 
 nil with sanguine hope the minds of those who seek to 
 spread the doctrine of a Divine redemption by a Divine 
 Saviour in that vast Empire. 
 
( 142 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NOTIONS ON IMMORTALITY AND FUTURE JUDGMENT. 
 
 THE notions of the Chinese people with regard to immor- 
 tality arid a judgment to come, it will be found on 
 examination, are very unsatisfactory and indefinite. The 
 knowledge of the future to be anticipated for the soul in 
 the coming life is of the highest moral importance. It is 
 not only an incentive to virtue to know that the good man 
 will be happy hereafter, but it confirms the confidence of 
 men in the principles of moral right to anticipate with 
 certainty that the inequalities in the distribution of rewards 
 and punishments noticed in the history of mankind will 
 be made to disappear when the Divine government of this 
 world shall come to be viewed as only a single scene in 
 the universal Divine government, and the happiness and 
 misery now distributed to men shall be seen to be only 
 preliminary to a universal and perfectly just award. 
 
 The Chinese sage said so little on the subject of the 
 unseen world, that the national tendency is towards un- 
 belief in regard to the immortality of the soul. The 
 unthinking accept the fables of Buddhism, but the reflect- 
 ing too often profess entire want of faith. Confucius gave 
 no distinct utterance to his disciples. He laid stress on 
 duty and virtue, but said nothing of the rewards or penalties 
 to be given for obedience or disobedience to what they 
 enjoin. 
 
 Some in China hold that the souls of the good will go 
 to a place of happiness, but not those of the common mul- 
 titude. There are Confucianists who believe this, though 
 it is properly a notion of the Taouists, and springs out of 
 
BELEIF IN GHOSTS. 143 
 
 materialistic views of the soul. The materialist finds a 
 heaven for the purified spirit of the good man in the fine 
 ether which floats round the stars, far above the gross 
 material world that constitutes our present abode ; but he 
 needs no hell for the wicked, whose souls he supposes to 
 die with their bodies. 
 
 These opinions are taught by the Taouists in China, and 
 they agree so closely with the peculiar philosophy that 
 permeates the language and ideas of the people, that 
 although not strictly Confucian, they exercise great in- 
 fluence over many professed followers of Confucius. 
 The immortality of the soul has not been discussed 
 among them extensively, and it is common to take for 
 granted that the soul is a certain small quantity of 
 vapour capable of division into parts. The custom of 
 calling to the soul, just after death, to come back, now 
 prevalent among the people, is mentioned in very ancient 
 books. 1 It must have existed for more than 2000 years. 
 The friends of the deceased go to the well, to the roof 
 of the house, to the north-west corner, with other parts 
 of the dwelling, and call to the spirit to return. " Death 
 they call the breaking of the three-inch vapour." At 
 the moment of death this portion of vapour, three inches 
 long, separating from the organisation to which it belonged, 
 escapes upward like a wreath of smoke, or a small light 
 cloud, into the region of thin air. 
 
 There is also the notion of ghosts among the Chinese ; 
 and it would seem that these imagined appearances of 
 deceased persons are to be regarded as thin material vehicles 
 for the soul, as bodies constituted of a finer matter than 
 those in which the soul previously resided. In this respect 
 the popular notion is probably the same in China as in the 
 West. Have the Chinese any conception, then, of the soul 
 
 1 It is found in the collection of memory of his friend Chii-yuen. It 
 
 poems called "Li Sau." Sung-yu, the is the "In Memoriam " of Chinese 
 
 poet, nearly B.C. 500, wrote a poem, literature. 
 "The calling back of the Soul," in 
 
144 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 as immaterial ? Have they the idea of spirit, of an 
 immaterial being inhabiting the ghost-like appearance, 
 as it inhabited the common human body, and capable 
 of a separate existence ? One would be inclined to reply 
 in the negative to this question, if we look at the pre- 
 Confucian classics only, and to say that it was the intro- 
 duction of Hindo and Persian thought that first made 
 them acquainted with the doctrine of the immateriality 
 of the soul, and led to the adoption of phrases implying 
 belief in a plurality of souls in an individual man in an 
 age anterior to Buddhism. 
 
 The doctrine of the immateriality of the soul is necessary 
 to that of the transmigration of souls. To spread their 
 opinions among the Chinese, the advocates of Buddhism 
 had to try what argument would do for the establishment 
 of the doctrine of a future state. Several books were 
 written with this object. The books themselves are lost, 
 but their names remain in old catalogues, under the titles 
 " Discussion on the Future Life," &c. The publication of 
 such works early in the Christian era indicates the con- 
 dition of native Chinese thinking on the nature and 
 destiny of the soul. Although the books which take up 
 the argument fully for the immateriality and immortality 
 of the soul on the Buddhist side are lost, the traces which 
 still remain in Chinese history of this controversy are clear 
 enough to show that the Buddhists affirmed both these 
 doctrines. Discussions were sometimes held in the pre- 
 sence of the Emperor between high officers of the Govern- 
 ment for and against the Buddhist view. It was when 
 the question of the persecution of Buddhism was brought 
 forward for consideration in the imperial council that 
 these recorded conversations took place. The fact of 
 their existence shows that the opposite view was the 
 common one in China at the time. 1 
 
 The word used for soul in these early arguments on the 
 immortality of man was shin. The term which is con- 
 
 1 They may be consulted in my "Chinese Buddhism." 
 
ANCIENT IDEA OF "SPIRIT" 145 
 
 stantly used in antithesis to it is fling, "form." The posses- 
 sion of a perceptible form characterises material objects, 
 and its absence, to the Chinese mind, defines that which 
 is immaterial. This usage of the words exists in Chinese 
 books earlier than the era of the introduction of Buddhism, 
 and it has always remained. The sense, then, belonging 
 to the term shin is a formless and invisible existence. 
 Spiritual beings inhabiting nature, in heaven or on earth, 
 powerful or weak, are, with the souls of men, included 
 under this class. But whether the soul, or any of the 
 innumerable unseen spirits called shin, be merely an at- 
 tenuated form of matter, a kind of invisible gas, filling a 
 certain space but not perceptible to the senses, or whether 
 it be a substance entirely distinct from matter viz., mind or 
 spirit, had not, so far as we know, been considered in China. 
 They had not gone further in their researches into the nature 
 of the soul than to describe it as invisible substance. 
 
 If Confucianism had favoured speculation on this and 
 kindred subjects, it must have adopted opinions antago- 
 nistic to materialism, because it is itself founded on the 
 teachings of conscience and the immutable principles of 
 morality. These would have led to a distinct preference 
 for high views on the soul's immortality and immaterial 
 nature. But Confucius was not speculative. He said 
 there were four things of which he avoided the discussion : 
 they were supernatural appearances, feats of physical 
 strength, disorderly conduct, and spirits (shin). Practical 
 in his tendencies, he had no liking for the subtleties of 
 metaphysics. Wishing to keep his footing firm on ground 
 that he felt to be safe, he declined to discourse on death 
 and its consequences. 
 
 The followers of the sage would willingly have copied 
 the example of their teacher, and have left these points 
 undiscussed, but they have not been allowed to remain on 
 neutral ground. They have had to form some opinion on 
 points where the Taouists and the Buddhists have suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining the assent of the multitude to their 
 
 K 
 
I 4 6 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 views. For example, if the modern Confucianist be asked, 
 where is the soul of the sage, he will in very few cases answer 
 that his soul perished when he died. He will prefer to say 
 that the soul of Confucius is in heaven. The idea of a future 
 state of happiness has become common among the mass of 
 the people, and the disciple of Confucius, unconsciously 
 almost, adopts the present belief, although in doing so he 
 goes further than is warranted by the express teachings of 
 the favourite sage of his country. If further questioned 
 as to the details of the residence set apart for the good, 
 he will either plead entire ignorance, which is the proper 
 Confucian answer, or he will revert to the Taouist descrip- 
 tion of heaven. 
 
 The principal support in the Confucian religion to the 
 statement that the Chinese know the fact of the future 
 state, is found in the custom of sacrificing to ancestors. 
 This existed before Confucius, from the earliest times in 
 that country. It belonged, therefore, to the primitive 
 Chinese religion, that from which the systems of Confucius 
 and of Taou were both derived. Sacrifices were offered to 
 deceased sages and the shades of ancestors, as they were to 
 the spirit of Heaven and the spirits residing in the various 
 parts of nature. The year after Confucius was dead, a 
 funeral temple was erected to his honour. His disciple, 
 Tsze-kung, stayed for six years at his tomb. In his temple 
 were buried articles of dress that he had worn, with his 
 musical instruments and books. Sacrifices were directed 
 by royal authority to be offered to him. It was not till 
 many years after that, an Emperor of the Han dynasty 
 passing the spot, a bullock was slain to be presented to 
 him as a sacrifice. It is now universal to offer a bullock, 
 with other animals, to Confucius in every Chinese city. 
 No priests are employed. It is an official act forming a 
 part of the annual duties of the city magistrate and other 
 resident officers. 
 
 This act of reverence to the manes of the national sage 
 and to the souls of ancestors is described as a continuation 
 
THE BUDDHISTIC FUTURE STATE. 147 
 
 of the respect paid to them while living. The fact that 
 this worship is paid does not require them to be spoken of 
 as divinities ; but it may be taken as proof that the soul is 
 considered still to have a certain sort of life after its 
 separation from the body. Such a custom implies that 
 they are believed to possess life, if not a high form of 
 happiness. So far from dignifying their ancestors with 
 divine attributes, or believing them to exercise a beneficent 
 providence, as would be the case if they worshipped them 
 as divine - personages, they suppose them to be less happy 
 than in their lifetime. Their happiness depends on the 
 amount of honour that is paid to them -by their worshippers. 
 The wise and the virtuous are rewarded with the immortality 
 of fame, the applause and imitation of subsequent genera- 
 tions, and with sacrifices in temples erected for their wor- 
 ship ; but according to the strict Confucian doctrine they 
 have no heaven, properly so called. The soul, if it does 
 not return to its elements and become for ever dissipated, 
 exists in a widowed and lonely state, hopeless and help- 
 less. The time of its enjoyment as a conscious individual 
 agent has passed. It is only during the period of union 
 with the body that it can be called happy, except in 
 receiving the approval and reverence of posterity. 
 
 The Christian reader who has proceeded thus far will 
 feel that there is need for the Gospel to bring life and 
 immortality to light in the land of Confucius. The system 
 of that sage declines to speak at all of the future state, and 
 it knows of no retribution except what comes in the pre- 
 sent life or in the character given to the dead by posterity. 
 
 In the Buddhist view of the future state there are three 
 phases. It will be convenient to notice them in the order 
 of their origin. 
 
 The Hindoo national doctrine of the transmigration of 
 souls forms the groundwork of Buddhism, as it does of 
 other systems originated in India. According to this view, 
 the present life of each living being is a state of retribution 
 for the past and probation for the future. Xeither the 
 
I 4 8 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 heaven nor the hell of the metempsychosis are eternal 
 states. They are liable to change, and their inhabitants to 
 death. In each of the thirty-six regions called heaven 
 there is some ruling divinity and a multitude of subordi- 
 nate persons. They are the Devas and Deva-Kings of 
 popular Hindooism. Among them figure Brahma, Seeva, 
 and Indra. The souls of men may pass into the paradise 
 of any one of these gods and become either subordinate or 
 chief. In course of time such a life must terminate, and 
 another state will be entered on. It is higher or lower in 
 the scale of honour and enjoyment in proportion to the 
 merit of the individual soul. There is the more room for 
 gradation in rewards and punishments, because there is in 
 the present world the state of animals into which souls 
 may pass, beside that of men. There are also two classes 01 
 beings, called Asura and Preta, between men and animals. 
 The Pretas are much spoken of in China as " hungry ghosts.'' 
 The three conditions of misery are those of hell, of animals, 
 and of hungry ghosts. The other three, heaven, man, and 
 Asura, are states of comparative enjoyment. 
 
 In the common notions of the Chinese at the present 
 day, the state of the soul is determined at death by Yama, 
 the Hindoo god of the dead. His Chinese name is Yen-lo- 
 wang. Not much is said of him in the Buddhist sacred 
 books, but his name is perpetually on the lips of the people 
 when death and future judgment are mentioned. Among 
 the very numerous Buddhist proper names transferred from 
 Sanscrit, a few only have become popular. Of these Yen- 
 lo-wang is one of the most familiar. He is believed to 
 determine the mode and time of death, as well as the 
 subsequent state of the soul. A common distich says, to 
 express that death is inevitable : 
 
 " Yen wang choo ting san keng sze 
 Twan puh lew jin taou woo keng." 
 
 " When King Yama has decided that a man shall die at the third 
 watch of the night, he will certainly not allow him to live till the 
 fifth." 
 
NIRVANA. 149 
 
 This is the most common view of future judgment among 
 the Chinese. The fate of men depends on the decisions of 
 Yama, the king of death. But his reign is only within the 
 lower sphere of existence, and he cannot control the man 
 who, by the effort of his own wisdom and goodness, raises 
 himself gradually higher till he passes out of the revolu- 
 tions of the wheel of life and death, and enters the region 
 of pure thought, where a much higher being, Buddha 
 himself, presides. 
 
 The second phase to be considered in the Buddhist 
 doctrine of the future state in China is that which has just 
 been alluded to. The disciples of Buddha escape by his 
 help from the six paths where the soul is exposed to a 
 constant succession of lives and deaths, into a higher 
 sphere where there is rest from change and from misery. 
 The soul proceeds on the path to the Nirvana, and there 
 becomes lost in absolute freedom from all sensations, pas- 
 sions, and thoughts. When Shakyamuni Buddha died, an 
 old man surrounded by his disciples, he was said by them 
 to have entered the Nirvana. This is a phrase used by the 
 other Hindoo sects, as well as by the Buddhists, to denote 
 the state aimed at both by philosophy and religion. It 
 expresses the triumph of the soul over matter. The consci- 
 ousness of existence is entirely lost in the Nirvana, and yet 
 it is not annihilation. For that would be a negative idea, 
 and the Nirvana is something neither positive nor negative, 
 but the perfect absence of both. None but Buddha him- 
 self enters the Nirvana at death. Other beings have to 
 wait till they become Buddha through abstraction of the 
 thinking faculties from their activity by the various modes 
 of discipline instituted for the purpose. They may 
 have to pass through thousands of lives before they 
 can attain this. The doctrine of a judgment to come 
 forms no part of the notion of the Nirvana, because it 
 does not admit of the authority, or even the existence, 
 of a supreme governor and judge. The Nirvana, which 
 amounts, in fact, to annihilation, is a fitting companion 
 
1 50 RELIGION IN C PI IN A. 
 
 to the atheism which constitutes the prime error of the 
 Buddhist creed. 
 
 The third phase of the Buddhist idea of the future state 
 in China is the paradise of the western heaven. The doc- 
 trine of the Nirvana is much too abstruse to be popular. 
 It does not come sufficiently near to popular wants to be 
 the object of an ordinary man's ambition. Those who 
 constitute the mass of Buddha's worshippers cannot enter 
 into the idea of the Nirvana. They need something more 
 gratifying to common human feelings. It was to satisfy 
 this want that the fiction of the "Peaceful Land in the 
 West " was framed. A Buddha was imagined distinct from 
 the Buddha of history, Gautama or Shakyamuni. He was 
 called Amitabha, "boundless age." ..411 who repeat the 
 invocation " Namo Amitabha Buddha," commonly read in 
 China, "Nan woo o me to fuh" (Honour to Amitabha 
 Buddha.), are assured that they will be taken at death to 
 the paradise of this personage, situated at an enormous 
 distance to the westward of the visible universe. The 
 souls of such worshippers will remain there for millions of 
 years. Their employment will be to gaze upon the coun- 
 tenance of Amitabha, to hear the singing of beautiful birds, 
 and to enjoy the magnificence of the gardens and lakes 
 which adorn his abode. 
 
 Such is the heaven of charming sights and sounds which 
 is promised as a reward to the faithful Buddhist. He can 
 find in it something more attainable than the Nirvana. 
 The ordinary worshipper may hope for it. It is secured by 
 the help of Amitabha in answer to prayer. 
 
 The paradise of the western heaven is not known only 
 to northern Buddhism, and since the Persians had para- 
 dises and spoke of Ormurd as God of boundless light, we 
 must suppose that the Buddhists borrowed the idea of the 
 Sutra of Golden Light from them, and not a little more. 
 
 In the common phraseology of the Chinese, when it is 
 said, as often occurs, of a man reputed virtuous, that he has 
 " ascended to heaven," shang teen, it is the language of the 
 
THE TAOUIST HEA YEN. 151 
 
 Taouists that is made use of. The books of that religion 
 speak of many palaces among the stars, where the gods 
 and the genii reside. To the majority of men they sup- 
 pose death to be destruction of body and soul, but the 
 virtuous few are rewarded with an abode in the paradise of 
 the genii. The tsing shin, or soul, escapes at death to 
 the region of stars, and enjoys there an immortality of 
 happiness. 
 
 The historical founder of the religion, Laou-keun, is 
 described as dwelling in the toe tsit'ig kung, " the palace of 
 exalted purity." The paradise inhabited by the first per- 
 son in the Taouist trinity is called the metropolis of the 
 pearl mountain, and its entrance, in imitation of the usual 
 Oriental style in speaking of the abode of royalty, is " the 
 golden door." The very common divinity, Yuh-te, sub- 
 ordinate to the trinity just alluded to, is enthroned in the 
 " pure pearl palace." 
 
 The stars near the north pole are preferred in legends 
 that speak of the abodes of the genii. Some of the stars 
 receive names from the gods supposed to reside in them. 
 Others take as their names the parts of a palace, as the 
 "hall of heaven," "the celestial door," &c., given them 
 doubtless in agreement with the notion that the stars are 
 the dwelling-places of the divinities who rule the world. 
 The stars were named before the Taouist nomenclature 
 was formed, but the makers of that nomenclature, belong- 
 ing to the early part of the Christian era, incorporated in it 
 all the old popular notions respecting heaven and the gods 
 which they found suitable to their purpose. 
 
 In their books the god of one of these stellar palaces is 
 often described as addressing instructions on the doctrines 
 of Taouism to a multitude of disciples. They are the 
 genii who have escaped from mortality, and it is held out 
 as the destiny of the good among mankind to become such 
 genii and ascend to heaven at death. 
 
 In early Chinese fable, the Kwun-lun mountains in Tibet 
 were a favourite region for the abodes of the genii. They 
 
152 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 are north of the Himalaya, are only second to them in 
 elevation, and were sooner known to the Chinese. A 
 female divinity, called Se-wang-moo, who plays a con- 
 spicuous part in the religious romance of that people, is 
 believed to reside on one of the highest of these mountains. 
 The heroes of Taouist mythology are often described as 
 proceeding to that spot, and residing there as in a terres- 
 trial paradise. They there become te seen, " terrestrial im- 
 mortals." They all have ascribed to them wisdom, virtue, 
 perpetual youth, and magical power. But there are de- 
 grees in these qualities. Those of inferior powers remain 
 in some mountain paradise like that of Kwun-lun, while 
 those of higher rank are transferred to the stars, having 
 become tien sien. 
 
 The Christian heart is grieved at the reflection that a 
 wise and learned nation like the Chinese should be no 
 better informed as to the future of the soul than these 
 notices show them to be. But they prove at least that 
 men, when left without the Bible, will find their way to 
 some system or articles of belief, however incongruous 
 and mistaken they may be, to satisfy the consciousness 
 of a coming life natural to all men. Their possession 
 of this consciousness is a preparation for Christianity, and 
 they will learn one day to value the truth the more in 
 proportion to the falseness and deficiencies of the beliefs 
 which they will exchange for it. 
 
tfKlVERSITT 
 
 
 FOftNl* 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHINESE OPINIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 THE religious condition of the Chinese mind may be illus- 
 trated by the mode in which Christianity is received by it. 
 
 We cannot expect that the religion of the Bible should 
 be accepted at once with a cordial and unquestioning faith 
 by the people of a country like China. It must first be 
 subjected to the criticisms that most readily occur to them. 
 The nature of those criticisms depends on the state of 
 opinion prevailing among such as use them. They have a 
 certain standard by which they form a judgment on moral 
 and religious subjects. The objections they bring against 
 Christianity are, therefore, an index to their state in regard 
 to morality and religion. 
 
 One of the commonest objections they mention against 
 Christianity is, that it does not admit of the worship o 
 ancestors. Not to worship their ancestors they regard as 
 equivalent to an entire forgetting of filial duty. Confucius 
 said that sacrifices to deceased parents should be offered in 
 compliance with propriety and ancient custom. If this be 
 neglected, as it must be by the convert to Christianity, it 
 is viewed as a great crime. A person guilty of this is puli 
 heaou, " imfilial," and nothing worse can be said of him 
 by the malice of his greatest enemies. When the Emperor 
 Yung-ching was bent on persecuting the Eoman Catholic 
 converts early in the eighteenth century, he was interceded 
 with in vain by the Jesuit mathematicians whom he em- 
 ployed in the astronomical tribunal. He told them that the 
 adoption of their religion was destructive of filial piety. 
 
154 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 They defended themselves by reminding the Emperor that 
 filial piety was expressly enjoined by Christianity as one of 
 the most solemn and binding of human duties. They also 
 stated that Christians were so far from forgetting deceased 
 parents, that they carefully preserved portraits and other 
 relics of them, and wore rings to keep them in memory. 
 It did not, however, appear to the Emperor that anything 
 could compensate for the want of sacrifices and religious 
 worship, and he declined to revoke the edict of persecution. 
 
 The Jesuit missionaries wished to allow the converts to 
 retain the practice of sacrificing to ancestors, as being a 
 civil and not a religious observance. Missionaries of other 
 orders held a different opinion. They viewed this practice 
 as unquestionably religious, and they demanded that it 
 should be entirely given up by all who professed to 
 abandon heathenism. The Pope, to whom the dispute was 
 referred, decided against the Jesuits, as he did on another 
 point. For the missionaries of that order, when they 
 pleaded with him for the adoption of the ancient terms 
 Shang-te, Teen, and Heaven, as the equivalents of the 
 word God, were unsuccessful, and the newly-invented 
 term, Teen-choo, Lord of Heaven, the favourite with the 
 other orders, was preferred by the Pope, and imposed 
 authoritatively upon the missionaries and converts. 
 
 A recent Chinese author, in an attack upon Christianity, 
 says, " The religion of the Lord of Heaven, in not permit- 
 ting men to worship the tablets of their ancestors, nor to 
 offer sacrifices to them, tends to lead away mankind from 
 the respect they have been accustomed to pay to their 
 parents and forefathers." He condemns the religion of the 
 West as being like the systems of certain ancient Chinese 
 philosophers that were condemned by contemporary Con- 
 fucianists as not orthodox. Yang and Mih, the men to 
 whose doctrines Christianity is compared, had advocated 
 universal and undistinguishing rectitude and universal 
 and undistinguishing love as the principles of their re- 
 spective systems. The followers of Confucius had said 
 
ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANITY. 155 
 
 that these doctrines were inconsistent with the duties 
 of filial piety and loyalty, which require that greater re- 
 spect and love should be rendered to some persons than to 
 others. A Christian writer had said, "The follower of 
 the Buddhist and the Taouist religions cuts himself off 
 from the discharge of his duties to princes and parents, 
 and he does not seem sensible of his duties towards 
 Heaven. Even the disciples of Confucius are not without 
 fault in this point." The Chinese critic grows angry at 
 these words. He defends the Buddhists and Taouists by 
 saying that they honour the " dragon tablet " in temples, 
 so proving their loyalty. The practice to which he refers 
 originated in times of persecution. The Buddhists were 
 compelled to place a small tablet to the Emperor imme- 
 diately in front of the principal image in their temples, so 
 that the worshipper, in bowing to the image, bowed also to 
 the Emperor. He also quotes a passage from a Buddhist 
 work, saying that to honour a thousand Pratyeka Buddhas 
 is not so good as to worship one's parents in the hall of 
 filial piety. He proceeds to defend the Confucian system, 
 and to bring coarse charges against Jesus, saying, among 
 other things, that His crucifixion was because He had 
 transgressed the laws of His country. 
 
 These and many similar remarks are found in the recent 
 work, " Hae-kwoh-too-che," usually known as " Lin's Geo- 
 graphy." The chief compiler and composer of this exten- 
 sive production a work in twenty-four volumes, and 
 which has gone through five editions in a few years was 
 AVei-yuen, who did not long survive his more celebrated 
 collaborateur, Lin-tseh-seu. Both were sincere enemies of 
 England and the English, the one showing his antipathy 
 in his acts as commissioner in the war of 1842, and the 
 other in his writings since that time. 
 
 Another mode of assaulting Christianity, common amon^r 
 the Chinese literary class, is to express disbelief in its/ 
 facts. I was visited several times by a scholar, very well 
 in formed in the books of his own country, named Chow- 
 
156 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 teen-ming. Many men of inquisitive minds visit the 
 foreign missionaries at the seaport towns where they reside, 
 hoping to gain from them some scientific information. He 
 was one of such. He was introduced by a native friend as 
 being conversant with the twenty-five histories, the great 
 collection of the annals of the successive dynasties of the 
 Chinese Empire. The conversation soon turned to the 
 subject of Christianity. He said that the narrative of the 
 death of Christ on the cross could not be earlier than the 
 Ming dynasty ; for it was then (in the sixteenth century) 
 that the Eoman Catholic missionaries entered the " Middle 
 Kingdom," and first brought information of it. England, he 
 /paid, was a new country, compared with China. Its his- 
 / ftory as a nation did not extend back more than a few 
 / centuries. We could not know the course of events so 
 I long ago as Christ was said to have lived, with any 
 certainty. It was to him quite clear that the New Testa- 
 ment could not be so old as we said, for in that case the 
 chief facts in the life of Christ must have become known 
 in China much earlier. He was informed, in reply, that 
 though the English nation had not been in existence more 
 \ ^han a few centuries, we had an extensive body of old 
 \ world literature transmitted in the ancient languages of 
 \purope and Western Asia, and of an historical value fully 
 equal to that of the classical literature of his own country. 
 It was as old in time and as well supported by critical 
 evidence. He professed assent, but with a look of in- 
 credulity on his countenance. 
 
 He was then asked if he had seen the Syrian inscription, 
 which contained evidence that Christianity had been 
 taught in China in the seventh century. This is an 
 extremely interesting monument of the early spread of 
 our religion in China through the labours of missionaries 
 of the Nestorian Church. It was found accidentally by 
 some workmen, two hundred years ago, at the city of 
 Sengan-foo, in the north-west of China. Native scholars 
 regard it as a most valuable specimen of the caligraphy 
 
NESTORIAN INSCRIPTION. 157 
 
 and composition of the Tang dynasty, that to which it 
 belongs ; but they did not know how to explain its Chris- 
 tianity till the Jesuit missionaries came to their assistance. 
 My friend said he had seen it, but he did not think that 
 the religion of this monument was Christianity. The fact 
 of Christ's death was riot clearly mentioned, and he thought 
 that the sentence in it which spoke of the division of the 
 world into four parts in the form of a cross was not an 
 allusion to Christ's death on the cross, but only to the 
 four cardinal points of the horizon. Other passages in 
 the inscription were then pointed out to him, which spoke 
 of the trinity of Persons in the Divine nature, mentioned 
 the Syrian name of God (Aloho), and the number twenty- 
 seven in speaking of the sacred books evidently referring 
 to the New Testament. Other allusions to the weekly 
 Sabbath, to the birth of the Saviour under the denomina- 
 tion Messiah in the Eoman empire of the far West, and to 
 other facts of Christianity, made it certain that no other 
 religion was described in the monument. It was thus 
 shown that his statement, that Christianity was no earlier 
 than the time when the Eoman Catholic missionaries 
 entered China, could not be sustained. It must be at least 
 as old as A.D. 781, the date of the monument. 
 
 The advocate of Christianity in China finds this cele-^ 
 brated inscription very useful in meeting opponents like 
 this man. To refer to the usual evidences, called the 
 historical, is not conclusive to such persons, ignorant as 
 they are of Judea and its history. In proving the genuine- 
 ness of the Christian Scriptures, this monument is a most 
 important stepping-stone to the era of primitive Chris- 
 tianity, and it has been much used for this object in works 
 published by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in China, 
 
 The Jewish monuments at Kai-fung-foo help in China 
 to sustain the genuineness of the Old Testament, just as 
 the one now mentioned contributes to support that of the 
 New. When this visitor asserted that we English were 
 such modern people that we could not have books so old 
 
158 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 as theirs, I took a Hebrew Bible, and told him that the 
 English were accustomed to do what the Chinese did not, 
 to learn other languages besides their own ; and that they 
 read and preserved books with as much care in the ancient 
 languages as in the modern, so that the late origin of the 
 English nation could not affect the accuracy of their 
 information on the books and events of 2000 or more 
 years ago. Our Hebrew Bible was the same as that at 
 Kai-fung-foo, except, in containing not only the Books of 
 Moses, but the remaining part of the Old Testament ; the 
 written symbols used in both were the same, and it was 
 from them that our own alphabet was derived. A com- 
 plaint was made to him that he should have rashly ques- 
 tioned the correctness of our testimony on the antiquity of 
 our books. He said, "Do not be displeased. I do not 
 wish to treat your holy religion with disrespect. We in 
 this country belong to the religion of the holy sage Con- 
 fucius, and how could I speak ill of another ? " He was 
 informed, in reply, that he should prove his regard for the 
 morality of the national sage by " showing good feeling 
 towards men from afar." To question the correctness of 
 statements made by Catholics and Protestants in China for 
 two hundred years past, respecting the origin of their reli- 
 gion, was to contradict this precept of the sage. He said that, 
 as a literary man, he studied for himself questions such as 
 this, upon the statements found in books, and endeavoured 
 to sift them as best he could. I recommended him to 
 learn foreign languages, and then he would be in a better 
 position to criticise European literature. 
 
 The same opponent, in attacking our religion, referred to 
 the difference, as he described it, in moral tone between 
 the Old and the New Testaments. On hearing from men 
 of education in heathen countries superficial opinions upon 
 the comparative excellence of the Books of God, there is a 
 strong feeling of revulsion awakened, but it is impossible 
 to force upon them the authority of God's Word simply 
 upon our testimony. They look at the book as ours, not 
 
VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 159 
 
 as His. They must be brought by patient argument to 
 admit that it is His, and they must be borne with while 
 they read and judge. Nothing in the common course of 
 things can lead an educated pagan to look on the Bible, 
 when he first sees it, as other than a human book. This 
 Chinese said he preferred the New Testament to the Old 
 very much, and threw ridicule on some parts of the Old 
 Testament. He was told that the wicked actions of men, 
 when recorded in history, are as well adapted to promote 
 virtue as their good actions. The aim of the writers in 
 the Old Testament, in all they had transmitted in their 
 works, was, to say the least, most unquestiouably to ad- 
 vance the cause of piety and virtue. If he continued to 
 regard it as a human composition, he must see in this fact 
 their perfect justification in preserving the memory of 
 wicked actions. But more than this, it was the glory of 
 history to be faithful, and in the classical books of his own 
 country the conduct of wicked men was related along with 
 that of the good. Chinese moralists did not, however, 
 consider these books unfavourable to virtue on that 
 account. They were held up as models, and universally 
 placed in the hands of youth for their moral training. It 
 had been found, that of all books the Old and the New 
 Testament were the most conducive to morality. 
 
 He did not like the high pretensions of Christianity as\ 
 the only Divine religion. He thought that the authority \ 
 of the Chinese classics was absolute for his countrymen \ 
 and himself. When the conversation turned on the ques- l 
 tion whether the soul is single or divisible into two at 
 death, he considered that its duality was certain, because / 
 it was stated in the classical books. " We have had these 
 works," he said, "for three thousand years, and number- 
 less productions of learned men in the interval from that 
 time till now. Our Confucius was several centuries earlier 
 than Jesus." 
 
 The lustre of learning and antiquity ought, in his opinion, 
 to' carry the day in favour of the religion of China. He 
 
160 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 was told, in reply, tliat the higher antiquity of Confucius 
 would not constitute a sufficient claim to superiority, 
 because Moses, the Jewish sage, was before him in time, 
 and even before Wen and Woo, the two famous Chinese 
 kings of the eleventh century B.C. "But," he retorted, 
 " our wise Emperors Yaou and Shun were earlier than 
 Moses." Our antiquity goes further yet, he was informed. 
 The date of Yaou and Shun was not earlier than about 
 2300 years before Christ, but we have Adam, Enoch, and 
 Noah, belonging to a still earlier period. He then pro- 
 ceeded, in a good-humoured manner, to show in another 
 way, since he could not rival our antiquity, the superiority 
 of the East over the West. He alluded to the fact that the 
 art of writing was borrowed by us from Asia, our alphabet 
 being derived originally from that used by the Hebrew nation. 
 f Much of the opposition the Chinese feel to Christianity 
 I comes from national prejudice. They dislike the foreigner's 
 \ religion because they dislike the foreigner himself. Many 
 Violent enemies of foreigners are found among the inferior 
 officers of Yamuns. One such opponent I met in a temple 
 at Shanghai, some years since. He began with asserting 
 that our calendar was wrong. Our months did not coincide 
 with the new and full moons, nor with the spring and neap 
 tides. He was told that our calendar was formed so as to 
 make the months agree with the motions of the sun rather 
 than of the moon, for public convenience. He then said 
 it was preposterous in us to exhort them to virtue, for they 
 had books that taught morality much earlier and better 
 than ours. All our science and learning, he said, was 
 brought from the East. Laou-keun, the Taouist philoso- 
 pher, had gone, as history recorded, to the West, and, no 
 doubt, communicated the wisdom of China to the people 
 among whom he travelled. Others had followed him. 
 Knowledge had spread from China to all the surrounding 
 nations, and it was in this way that we had become civi- 
 lised. He insisted that our statements respecting Jesus 
 were unreasonable. How could He govern the universe 
 
MODE OF ATTACKING CHRISTIANITY. 161 
 
 alone? He must have inferior divinities to assist Him. 
 We denied their existence ; but they must be needed in 
 the superintendence of the world. Our Matthew, he said, 
 for he had read some chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, 
 was a Chinese spoken of in the " Three Kingdoms " (an 
 historical romance of the second century of the Christian 
 era), whose name was nearly like the word Matthew in 
 sound. If any one became a believer in Jesus, he would 
 throw away his character for filial piety, for he would not 
 then be allowed to sacrifice to his ancestors. "When re- 
 minded that this practice, if forbidden by God, must be 
 given up, he replied that it was undoubtedly right, because 
 it was complied with by the Emperor himself. This 
 opponent was, as is clear from the account here given, not 
 good at argument. He is an example of that unreasoning 
 hostility which is often met with in China. Everything 
 foreign is looked at through the spectacles of prejudice. 
 An exclusive spirit marks the class of persons referred to, 
 which leads them to regard as ridiculous all customs and 
 opinions prevailing among the " barbarians." 
 
 A favourite mode of attacking Christianity is to re- 
 present it as derived partly from Buddhism and partly 
 from the system of Confucius. "Why should you speak 
 of heaven and hell?" an opponent will often say to 
 the missionary; "we have that doctrine already. It 
 is Buddhist, and it is nothing new to us." In fact, the 
 Chinese have very minute descriptions of hell torments. 
 The pictorial representations of them common among 
 the people often reminded me of some of the plates in 
 " Foxe's Book of Martyrs," and of Roman Catholic illus- 
 trated books for the use of the poor in Ireland. If descrip- 
 tions containing variety and severity of torture were all 
 that was requisite to constitute the doctrine of future 
 punishments, the Chinese Buddhists have it among them 
 in a very terrible form. This being the state of the case, 
 and the missionary being compelled to use the Buddhist 
 names for heaven and hell, objectors say that he is teach- 
 
 L 
 
162 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 ing them Buddhism. He then refers to the authority of 
 Jesus as the Divine Eevealer of the future state, and the 
 certainty that marks His teaching as compared with the 
 baseless statements of Hindoo mythology, a purely human 
 and fictitious system, not capable of bearing a moment's 
 careful scrutiny. 
 
 A Chinese work, published in the last century by im- 
 perial authority, criticises one or two Christian books. It 
 is a catalogue raisonne of Chinese works in the Emperor's 
 library, with descriptive notes on all such as appeared to 
 call for criticism. Very few Christian books have been 
 allowed to remain in the imperial library, the greater 
 number having been burnt long since by order of Govern- 
 ment. One or two, however, remain. The critic speaks 
 of some by the celebrated Jesuits, Matthew Kicci and 
 Adam Schaal. He says of the " Twenty-five Sentences," a 
 tract by Eicci, published in Chinese about the time of 
 James I., that much of it is stolen from the Buddhists, but 
 that the style of its composition is not so good as theirs. 
 He adds that in the West Buddhism was the only religion 
 they had. The Europeans adopted its ideas, and put them 
 forth in an altered form. When they entered China they 
 saw the books of Confucius, and began to borrow from 
 them not a little, in order to impart an air of literary 
 elegance to what they gave out as their own. With this 
 new help, he proceeds to say, they extended their system 
 in new works, and began to boast that it was superior to 
 the three religions of China. 
 
 The critic then gives his readers a description of a 
 second work by Eicci, " The True Account of the Eeligion 
 of God." As a supplement to this treatise, Eicci has col- 
 lected passages from the Chinese classics which speak of 
 the existence and providence of God. The critic says this 
 was because the missionary felt conscious that he must not 
 attack the religion of Confucius. Eicci also undertook to 
 confute the Buddhists ; but in the opinion of the imperial 
 critic, his views differ very little from the Buddhist belief 
 
CRITICISM OF CATHOLIC WORKS. 163 
 
 respecting heaven and hell, and the metempsychosis. He 
 adds, that in regard to mankind being under a law of 
 change, which compels us to live, to die, and afterwards to 
 live again, and our also being under a law of retribution, 
 which apportions happiness and misery to men according 
 to their merit, there is little difference between the two 
 religions. If the Christians did not believe in the metem- 
 psychosis, the forbidding to slay animal life, and the obli- 
 gation of celibacy, it was because they wished to keep near 
 the doctrine of Confucius. Some of the Christian books 
 are, he says, like the liturgical works of the Buddhists, 
 while, others resemble those that treat of the contempla- 
 tive life. 
 
 He concludes a long criticism on Catholic books by 
 observing that the Europeans are profoundly versed in 
 astronomy and calculation, and cunning in mechanical con- 
 trivances ; but when they come to speak of morals and 
 religion, they are very heretical Their writings on these 
 subjects did not deserve to be placed in the list of books 
 forming the national literature. They had, however, been 
 included in the catalogue of new works contained in the 
 history of the Ming or last Chinese dynasty, made by com- 
 mand of the Tartar emperors. The compiler of that work 
 had thought proper to class them among the books of the 
 Taouist religion. In the new arrangement they were 
 transferred to the class of books known as the miscella- 
 neous division. So far the critic. 
 
 This style of remark on foreign books translated into 
 Chinese is very significant. It shows in the true light the 
 feeling that literary men in that country entertain respect- 
 ing them. The Jesuit missionaries laboured hard in the 
 production of good treatises on science and religion in the 
 language of that country. Though their books on science 
 are sought after and valued, those upon Christianity are 
 scarcely considered worthy of a place in the national 
 literature. Perhaps, however, their real influence is greater 
 than Confucian writers are ready to admit. They may 
 
164 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 have helped, by their account of God, in His nature and 
 attributes, to render the modern generation of scholars 
 more willing to return to the doctrine of a personal 
 God, and to abandon the notion, so prevalent before the 
 Koman Catholics arrived, that He is nothing but an 
 abstraction. 
 
 Wei-yuen, the author before referred to, compares 
 Mohammedanism and Christianity, and thinks they have 
 both derived many of their peculiarities from Brahmanism 
 or Buddhism. He had been reading the translation of the 
 Bible by the Protestant missionaries, and he believes that 
 he finds there evidence of inconsistency and folly greater 
 than existed in those two Hindoo religions. The prohibi- 
 tion of image-worship excites his indignation. Sacrifices 
 to ancestors are forbidden, and yet the image of the mother 
 of Jesus is adored by the Christians, and the cross is 
 hung up in their dwellings. Why, he asks, do they trans- 
 gress the law of their own religion ? 
 
 The criticisms of this and other authors are very numer- 
 ous. Some of them are extremely foolish, and prove 
 nothing but the ignorance of those who made them. The 
 Chinese easily fall into errors on this subject, and all others 
 relating to foreign nations. There is nothing they so much 
 need as the constant and widely-extended supply of in-, 
 telligence on the world beyond them. It must be long 
 before Christianity can become well understood by them. 
 Missionary efforts must be greatly increased, and the 
 agency of the press must be well worked, before they will 
 be freed from many wild misconceptions. It is constantly 
 said in China, that medicine in the form of pills is admini- 
 stered to all Christian converts ; and that when a person 
 is dying, his eyes are taken out by the priest. One writer 
 sees in the works of healing performed by Jesus something 
 similar to the cures effected by Hwato, a celebrated Chinese 
 physician who lived in the third century, but entirely fails 
 to notice that their object was to prove anything v-'th 
 regard to the character of Jesus Christ. It never occurred 
 
NEED OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING. 165 
 
 to him to consider what a miracle is for. He therefore 
 refuses to rank Jesus with the sages who have limited 
 themselves to moral teaching. In that country a far wider 
 diffusion of knowledge respecting the facts and doctrines of 
 Christianity is needed to put the natives in a position to 
 judge of its claims as the only Divine religion. 
 
166 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STATE OF ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 THE state of Eoman Catholic missions in China deserves to 
 be studied by those who are interested in the spread of 
 scriptural Christianity in that country. These missions 
 have met with great success. Abbe* Hue, in his work on 
 Christianity in China, has given an interesting account of 
 their commencement and progress to the reign of Kanghe. 
 Many persons of rank became converts, and chapels and 
 churches multiplied fast in the cities and villages. When 
 times of persecution arrived and court favour was with- 
 drawn, doctors of literature and masters of arts ceased to 
 tread in the steps of Seu-kwang-ke and other Christian 
 converts holding high office in the State. At present the 
 work of the missions lies much with the humbler classes. 
 There are indeed men of property among the converts still, 
 but they are not known beyond the community to which 
 they belong. In days of persecution, during the present 
 century, there have been not a few among these men who 
 have courageously endured banishment to Western Tartary, 
 or loss of property, for the sake of their religious belief. 
 
 The introduction of the Protestant religion has induced 
 the European Catholic missionaries, who are about three 
 hundred in number, to give certain precautionary directions 
 to their converts ! They have told them that the religion 
 of the English is only three hundred years old ; that their 
 own is the true and ancient form of Christianity ; and that 
 salvation is only to be found within the pale of the 
 Catholic Church. Catholic converts frequently meet Pro- 
 testant missionaries, and state to them that their religion 
 
CATHOLIC TEACHING. 167 
 
 began with King Henry VIII. of England. He commenced 
 it because he was not allowed by the Pope to divorce his 
 wife. Such is the account of Protestant Christianity 
 which has been industriously disseminated far and wide 
 among the converts in the province of Keangnan, with the 
 istate of whom I have had the opportunity of becoming 
 best acquainted. 
 
 Among the converts sometimes met with are inquiring 
 men, fond of reading. Such a person came on one occa- 
 sion to seek an interview with a missionary, who had 
 recently arrived in his boat, in one of the interior cities in 
 that province. He stated, in the conversation that then 
 ensued, that he had read many Buddhist and Taouist 
 books, although the " spiritual fathers " recommended the 
 converts not to do so. He did not like this restriction, 
 and, feeling confidence in himself that he could distinguish 
 the true from the false, he did not fear to read them. He 
 was asked his opinion on the Buddhist doctrine, that all 
 things are mere emptiness, and exist only in imagination. 
 He had evidently read Buddhist statements of this sort 
 with the impression that they are metaphorical and not 
 to be taken literally, for he answered that it was quite 
 correct to hold that all in the world is vanity and a dream. 
 He then inquired if it was true that a king of England 
 separated from the Church of Eome because he was not 
 permitted to marry as he pleased. He was informed that 
 the king did so, but it was on a different account that the 
 people separated. The reason of their separating was, that 
 they had become convinced from the Scriptures that they 
 ought to do so. He then asked when our English religion 
 really began, and was told that there had been a Christian 
 Church in Britain from the second century, and that it 
 was then and for long after quite independent of Eome 
 and the Pope. He replied, that he could not see how this 
 could be, his information being entirely different. He was 
 also surprised to learn that celibacy for all priests was only 
 required, for the first time in the Eomish Church in the 
 
j 68 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 eleventh century. He had read the books of the early Jesuit 
 missionaries, Eicci, Jules Aloni, and others, but not any of 
 the writings of the Apostles. No translation of the Scrip- 
 tures has ever been published in China by the Catholics. 
 
 Although a professed Christian, he appeared to believe 
 in many Buddhist legends. He regarded Kwan-yin as a 
 real personage, the daughter of a certain king, as stated in 
 one of the fictitious accounts of that divinity. The mis- 
 sionary, seeing that he was to a considerable extent a 
 believer in Buddhism, advised him not to read the books 
 of that system, but ineffectually ; for he said he felt no 
 danger, and wished, for curiosity's sake, to examine various 
 religious systems. 
 
 In the province of Keangsoo the converts are very 
 numerous. They have been so ever since the i/th century, 
 when the prime minister, Zi-ko-lau, adopted Christianity 
 and translated Euclid. He was a native of Shanghai, the 
 chief port of Kiang-soo. 1 A great portion of the converts are 
 villagers. A small chapel is erected in villages and hamlets, 
 usually in a retired situation. Service is held here on Lord's- 
 day mornings. After this service, the poor are allowed by a 
 dispensation from the Pope to work in the fields or at their 
 other employments. Those whose worldly circumstances 
 are good abstain from work on the Lord's-day. Foreign 
 priests visit these village stations four or five times in a 
 year. In their absence the service is conducted by natives. 
 When these Eoman Catholic villagers are asked who it is 
 that forgives sins, they will frequently reply, the priest. 
 If the inquiry be made through whom it is that they ex- 
 pect to be saved in heaven, some will say, through the aid 
 of Mary; others, through the merits of Jesus Christ. 
 They are taught to repeat the creed and a small catechism 
 composed in a plain, unadorned style. On the walls of 
 the chapels are hung fourteen pictures representing the 
 sufferings of our Lord, after the usual manner of Eoman 
 Catholic edifices. The altar is ornamented with artificial 
 
 1 In 1858. 
 
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. 169 
 
 flowers and such-like appendages. Sometimes the relics 
 of a martyr are preserved in the altar. There is often a 
 school in connection with these village chapels. The 
 ordinary converts residing at the country stations are 
 generally civil to foreign visitors, but if native ordained 
 priests happen to be there, they are very hostile in their 
 manner to those whom they find to be Protestants. They 
 are able to speak a little Latin, taught them at Macao or 
 at some of the seminaries for training native priests in the 
 interior of the country, and they resort to that medium of 
 expressing their ideas when they do not wish the neigh- 
 bours to hear what is said in conversation. When engaged 
 in discussion on questions of theological controversy, they 
 usually prefer the Latin language. 
 
 In North China, when the converts in any heathen village 
 raise half the money themselves for a church, the European 
 priests find the other half, and a church is accordingly built. 
 
 The Catholics have not a few well-conducted schools 
 in China. That at Zi-ka-wei is well known to those who 
 have visited Shanghai. It is seven miles from that place. 
 Many of the pupils are taught the art of moulding images 
 in clay, sculpture, &c. It caused us some painful reflec- 
 tions to see them forming images of Joseph and Mary and 
 other Scripture personages, in the same way that idol- 
 makers in the neighbouring towns were moulding Buddhas 
 and gods of war and riches, destined too to be honoured in 
 much the same manner. With such exceptions as this, 
 we could not help admiring the arrangements of the school, 
 which appeared to be large and efficient. There is a hand- 
 some modern chapel in connection with it. 
 
 Another school that I saw with a friend at Ningpo was 
 one of great interest. It was a school for deserted children 
 of the female sex. There were seventy of them at the time 
 enjoying its privileges. The buildings were new and very 
 extensive. They were in an open situation outside the 
 south gate of the city. Seven French Sisters of Mercy 
 conducted the school. They received us most kindly, and 
 
170 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 permitted us to inspect the whole establishment. They 
 appeared to be much attached to the children, whose 
 apartments were well supplied with crucifixes and pictures 
 of the Virgin. The sisters wore their regular costume of 
 black serge, which looked very uncomfortable and unsuited 
 to tfre season, the hot weather not having terminated at 
 the time of our visit. They showed us the graves of some 
 of their companions in the adjacent garden. They in- 
 formed us that they did not employ native schoolmasters 
 or schoolmistresses to instruct the children in reading, but 
 they learned the Chinese written character themselves, 
 and then taught their scholars. This is a proof of no little 
 resolution and energy on the part of the sisters, for the 
 acquirement of the art of reading Chinese is difficult, and 
 it is the custom in Protestant and Catholic schools for 
 boys to obtain native aid in teaching the pupils to read the 
 native books. The sisters proved to us their competence by 
 reading some passages in a simple Chinese style from the 
 Christian class-books used in the school. Attached to the 
 establishment is a free dispensary for the neighbouring poor. 
 To assist in the training seminaries for native priests is 
 one of the most important duties of the Catholic mission- 
 aries. A large number only can meet the wants of their 
 numerous stations, scattered through all the eighteen pro- 
 \ vinces of the Empire. Most of the pupils in the seminaries 
 I are received when very young. The consequence often is, 
 that on growing up they are unwilling to submit to the 
 restraints which the life of a priest would impose on them. 
 I knew one who after receiving his education wished to 
 marry, and not to become a priest. The European mis- 
 sionary in charge of the seminary frustrated his hopes by 
 inducing his intended wife to enter a nunnery. He left 
 the Catholics after this, and entered the employment of 
 Protestant missionaries as a teacher of the language. For 
 this occupation his knowledge of Latin was of some advan- 
 tage. He still continued to pray to Mary, although he 
 professed attachment to Protestant views in most respects. 
 
CATHOLIC CONVERTS. 171 
 
 He was asked why he did not give up the worship of the 
 Virgin ; to this he replied, that he could not abandon it 
 without a great sacrifice of feeling, having been always 
 accustomed to it. " But," he was informed, " every being 
 except God is forbidden to be worshipped." " In honour- 
 ing the mother," he said, " I honour the Son." " You may 
 honour her," said the missionary, "but you should not 
 pray to her. She cannot hear prayers and answer them, 
 as God can, and as Jesus can." In answer to this he 
 related an anecdote, which led him, as he stated, to place 
 great trust in Mary: When at the seminary he had been 
 accused of a crime, of which the real perpetrator was one 
 of his fellow-pupils. He prayed to Mary that the true 
 criminal might be discovered in seven days, and his own 
 reputation vindicated. The prayer was answered within 
 the necessary time, and he felt such confidence ever after 
 in the efficacy of prayers to the Virgin, that he could not 
 think of omitting them in his morning and evening devo- 
 tions. It was suggested to him that he ought to refer the 
 interference on his behalf that had occurred to the pro- 
 vidence of God, not to that of the Virgin. We were never 
 told in Scripture to pray to her, nor could we expect her 
 to answer prayer. He replied, that in this instance his 
 prayer, which had been remarkably answered, was ad- 
 dressed to Mary and not to God. "So," said the mis- 
 sionary, " may the sailor say of his prayer to Teen-how, the 
 ' heavenly queen.' He supposes that goddess to preside 
 over the sea, and he supplicates her protection from 
 storms. To her he ascribes his safety, though he ought to 
 refer it to the providence of God." "But," he replied, 
 " Mary is the mother of Jesus, and has intercessory power 
 with God, which Teen-how-shing-moo, ' the holy mother, 
 queen of heaven,' has not. Jesus honoured His mother," 
 he added, " on the cross, and we must honour her also." 
 His attention was drawn to the second commandment, 
 which forbade the worship of all images; but he would 
 not admit the inconsistency of the worship of Mary's 
 
i/2 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 image with this commandment, because the kind of wor- 
 ship offered to her was different from that offered to God. 
 
 The numbers of the native Catholic community in China 
 were kept up previously to the last fifteen years by teach- 
 ing within the community itself. Few converts, compara- 
 tively, were made from the surrounding heathen. The 
 successive persecutions instituted by the Government 
 checked the aggressive efforts of the missions, and chilled 
 the zeal of those who were contemplating the adoption of 
 the Catholic faith. As the missionaries arrived from 
 Europe, they were conveyed secretly into the interior, 
 under the care of converts, and passed their time after- 
 wards entirely in the society of the members of the com- 
 munity. Strangers were not permitted to know of their 
 presence. The boatmen or chair-bearers who conducted 
 them from place to place were native Christians. So also 
 were their servants at the residences provided for them. 
 On their reaching any station to perform their official 
 duties, information was quickly communicated to all the 
 residents who regarded them as their spiritual guides, and 
 they then assembled to receive their blessing. It was and 
 is indispensable on their entering the presence of the 
 European priest, that they should perform a prostration 
 before him. No one outside of the community was 
 allowed to see the foreign priest till he had gone through 
 a course of instruction under the native catechists and 
 priests. When a heathen was ready for baptism he might 
 have an interview with the "spiritual father from the 
 Western Ocean," but not usually sooner. This circumspec- 
 tion was rendered necessary by the state of the laws in 
 China, which did not then permit the entrance of foreigners 
 into the interior of the country. Very irksome was the 
 restraint under which foreign priests were placed, for it 
 was not considered safe for them to be noticed by any eyes 
 except those of trusted friends. Sometimes when a 
 rumour was spread of their presence in a walled city, they 
 were conveyed in a sedan chair out of the gate, and 
 
OPINION AMONG CONVERTS. 173 
 
 brought in again by the gate on the opposite side of the 
 city. This was done to induce the belief that they had 
 taken their departure. They usually, however, avoided 
 cities altogether, and remained in the country, where 
 accommodations were provided for them under the super- 
 intendence of the converts. They were liable to ejection 
 at any moment from their temporary lodging-place, should 
 suspicion be excited and inquiry be made for them. Hue 
 speaks, in his "Travels in Tartary and Tibet," of the 
 enjoyment occasioned to him and his companion by their 
 sense of freedom when they had passed beyond the Great 
 Wall into Tartary, because there they could allow them- 
 selves to be seen without fear of capture. In these cir- 
 cumstances the gathering-in of new converts was neces- 
 sarily left to the zeal and efficiency of the native converts. 
 I had a discussion on one occasion with a shopkeeper 
 who was on the point of becoming a Eoman Catholic. 
 He was strongly prejudiced against Protestantism. He 
 insisted, that in propagating a religion it was essential to 
 have a visible earthly chief from whom to receive orders. 
 Our system was defective, because it was a system without 
 a head. It was stated to him that Christ was our Head, 
 and that we did not need any man to wield supreme 
 power in our religion, just as in the religion of Confucius 
 it was not found requisite to have any person at the head 
 of it. As to his assertion that our religion could not be 
 spread without submission to some visible head, he should 
 recollect that the religions of Buddha and Confucius were 
 able to subsist in China in the same circumstances. He 
 then inquired what authority we had to preach. He was in- 
 formed that men are miserable, and in need of the Gospel to 
 render them happy. Any one that knew the Gospel might 
 preach it, and how could it be wrong to try to save men ? 
 He remarked, that if men undertook this office they ought 
 at least to be self-denying enough to refrain from marriage. 
 A passage was pointed out to him in the Gospel of Mat- 
 thew, which showed that the Apostle Peter had a wife; 
 
174 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 but he observed that he could not know the book to be 
 correct. He was recommended to take it and examine it 
 for himself; and he might ask his priest if it was a book 
 to be trusted. He declined to do this, and insisted that 
 Protestants were in the wrong. 
 
 A few days after this, at a town not far from the scene 
 of this discussion, I had an unexpected opportunity of 
 ascertaining the strength of the Eomanists in country 
 places in the province of Keangsoo. The Shanghai river, 
 before it reaches that city, at twenty miles south of it, 
 bends to the westward. Our boat, after proceeding up the 
 stream fifteen miles beyond this point, turned up a broad 
 canal which entered it by its right bank. In that great 
 alluvial plain canals are very numerous. They need no 
 locks or sluices, the land being level, and if their course 
 be followed, towns having a large population are found on 
 the banks of all of them. They are the market-towns for 
 the produce of the neighbouring country, consisting of 
 wheat, rice, cotton, beans, indigo, and other articles. On 
 arriving at one of them, at a short distance from the 
 junction of the canal with the river, we went ashore with 
 Testaments and tracts for distribution among the respect- 
 able inhabitants of the town. While thus employed, a 
 French priest unexpectedly made his appearance, calling 
 
 himself Pere . One or two native Eomanists had 
 
 noticed our arrival, and proceeded to report the fact to 
 this priest. After a few words of ceremony, he asked us 
 why we came there. He was informed that we wished to 
 teach the heathen inhabitants of the town the truths of 
 Christianity and the folly and wickedness of their super- 
 stition. He replied, that he had resided there for many 
 years, and it was not right of us to interfere with his 
 labours. In answer to our inquiries, he stated that there 
 were about 200 Christians under his care, while there 
 were 7000 or 8000 inhabitants in the town. We then 
 stated, that the pagan proportion of the population being 
 so large, there was great need of the public preaching of 
 
RENCONTRE WITH A FRENCH PRIEST. 175 
 
 the Gospel there, and we understood that he and his 
 fellow-missionaries did not teach in public. Could it be 
 wrong for the doctrine of salvation to be proclaimed there ? 
 He said that this was not wrong ; but what authority had 
 we to teach at all? He was reminded of the Saviour's 
 commission to His disciples, " Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature." A crowd of inter- 
 ested listeners had collected around us, while this dialogue 
 proceeded in the dialect of the place. The priest, observ- 
 ing the attention which they paid to it, turned to them 
 and said, " I have long been residing here ; you can trust 
 me. Do not listen to a new doctrine which comes to you 
 without authority. You should not believe in the teach- 
 ing of these new-comers." He was requested not to be 
 angry with us for trying to do good to the heathen. He 
 then complained that a passage occurred in a book pub- 
 lished by Protestant missionaries which spoke disparagingly 
 of the Roman Catholic faith. He was, however, unable to 
 state in what book he had seen it, or what had been said. 
 The passage had been shown to him several years before, 
 and he had forgotten the particulars. I expressed regret that 
 liis memory did not serve him better, and offered him wha.t 
 books I had for examination, that he might convince him- 
 self there was nothing in them derogatory to the Catholic 
 religion. He declined this, and soon afterwards retired. 
 
 The Catholic missionaries find themselves in a position 
 of difficulty from their not having the same literary stand- 
 ing that distinguished their predecessors in China in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Perhaps it is thought 
 that there is no need for new efforts in science, since the 
 Chinese Government has ceased to employ Jesuits to super- 
 intend the preparation of the calendar and to calculate 
 eclipses and the places of the heavenly bodies. At any 
 rate, the modern missionaries write no new works on 
 science or religion, but content themselves with the use of 
 the old ones. Fully occupied with pastoral work, they 
 seem to devote little attention to literature, so that they 
 
176 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 fail to obtain that place in public estimation that was 
 held by many of the Jesuits whose names illustrate the 
 early annals of the Catholic mission in China. It would 
 be an advantage to them in more ways than one if they 
 had among them men of learning and literary ability. 
 The Chinese are very reluctant to read what is not com- 
 posed in an elegant style, and it is important to meet the 
 taste of the readers, as well as can be done, by putting 
 into their hands such works as will not offend their sense 
 of literary propriety. A good knowledge of the written 
 language is needed to give facility in conversation with 
 the educated, and in preparing new works. The old 
 scientific treatises of their predecessors are based on obso- 
 lete theories, and need to be superseded by newer and 
 better. They taught the Ptolemaic system of the universe, 
 instead of that of Copernicus and Newton. The natural 
 philosophy promulgated by Eicci supposed the four ele- 
 ments fire, air, earth, and water to be the original 
 principles of all natural objects. Great changes have 
 occurred in the mathematical sciences since the translations 
 of the early Jesuit missionaries were published in China. 
 With their present want of attention to these things, the 
 Eomanist missionaries cannot acquire the statics that they 
 would otherwise have, and fail to exert an infiuence on 
 that large class of persons in China who know anything 
 of the student life. 
 
 Since the last paragraph was written, a change has taken 
 place. Men of scientific and literary attainments have 
 been sent to reinforce the Catholic missions in China. 
 P6re Zottoli has published an elegant translation of the 
 Chinese classics in the Latin tongue. A meteorological and 
 magnetic observatory has been established at Zi-ka-wei 
 for many years now. There is a zoological collection, and 
 a qualified naturalist is in charge. 
 
 Under the new treaty now in force, according to which 
 foreigners have the right of visiting whatever part of the 
 country they please, as might have been expected, new 
 
POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 177 
 
 energy lias been infused into the Catholic missions. The 
 missionaries have been able to abandon their strict incog- 
 nito, and adopt new measures for increasing the number of 
 their converts. Permission is enjoyed to travel and reside 
 in all parts of the country, and this permission is practi- 
 cally so interpreted as to render legal the longer or shorter 
 stay which the Romanist missionaries make in rotation at 
 the stations under their charge. 
 
 They will scarcely attempt again to obtain power at 
 court and among the literary class in China. They suc- 
 ceeded remarkably at first by this policy. But it was 
 dangerous to trust to court favour. They felt the reaction 
 to be very severe when honour and power were exchanged 
 for the storm of persecution. Their scientific attainments 
 kept them in their places in the imperial tribunal of 
 astronomy till 1822. The last Jesuits employed at Peking 
 were then sent from that city to Macao, and they were 
 desired to return home, the services of foreign astronomers 
 being no longer required by the Son of Heaven. Report 
 says that the last three Jesuits who received the emolu- 
 ments of office as servants of the Chinese Emperor, wanted 
 the power to make themselves valued as men of scientific 
 ability. 
 
 This is another instance of the results of the worldly 
 policy of the Jesuits. Their first splendid successes have 
 almost invariably been followed by ignominious failure. 
 
 They have prospered better in the more spiritual part of 
 their work in China, Wliile the scientific treatises written 
 by the early Jesuits are, except the translation of Euclid, 
 becoming useless on account of their obsolete and erroneous 
 principles, the converts they made among the poor have 
 transmitted to their descendants a faith more or less 
 enlightened in the Catholic form of Christianity. At 
 the present time there are many instructed and zealous 
 members of their community, mixed, as might be ex- 
 pected, with not a few nominal Christians of a much 
 inferior kind. 
 
 M 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANS, JEWS, AND WOO-WEI BUDDHISTS. 
 
 THE number of Mohammedans in China is much larger 
 than that of the Catholics, or any other of the smaller 
 religious communities in that country. They have been 
 there during a very long period, for some of them arrived 
 within a century after the era of Mahomet. But it was 
 principally in the Sung and Ming dynasties, A.D. 1000 to 
 A.D. 1600, that the colonies of these religionists entered 
 China. 
 
 They are most numerous in the North of China, where in 
 some parts they form a third of the population. Their 
 mosques are called tsing-chin-sze, " pure and true temple." 
 The name of their sect is Hwei-hwei, which is derived from 
 the race name Ouigour. They call God Choo, "Lord," or 
 Chi n-choo, "true Lord." In race they are predominantly 
 Turkish and Peisians. The Ouigurs are the eastern Turks. 
 
 Their avoidance of pork keeps them distinct from the 
 other Chinese, and the habit they have in some northern 
 cities of placing the words Hwei-hwei, " Mohammedan," or 
 Kiau-mun, " religious sect," on their shop signs and over 
 their doors, is an indication that they wish to be exclusive, 
 and not to be regarded as one with the rest of the nation. 
 This spirit of exclusiveness, and the opposition they always 
 express to the idolatry prevailing among their neighbours, 
 has not prevented them from entering into the service of 
 the Government. The road to office is not in China closed 
 to adherents of particular religions. There is no Test Act 
 there. Eoman Catholics as well as Mohammedans have 
 held high office in China. But there are many duties to be 
 
CHINESE MOHAMMEDANISM. 179 
 
 performed by those who occupy most Government offices 
 which would be an effectual bar to the acceptance of such 
 offices by a conscientious Christian. The sacrifices to 
 Confucius, the worship of the State gods, and many public 
 acts which are encouragements to idolatry, direct and 
 indirect, cannot be omitted by the resident officers in a 
 Chinese city. Yet it is difficult in China to resist tha 
 temptation to imitate the tolerant and latitudinarian spirit! 
 of the Confucian system. The Chinese love, not uniform- V 
 ity, but conformity. Sects that have when they entered \ 
 China been very exclusive, have gradually adopted they 
 plausible liberality of the followers of Confucius, who may 
 conform to the customs of other religions without at all 
 compromising their consistency. Conscientiousness has no 
 high value among them. It is not reckoned so good as the 
 politeness that admits the excellences of other systems. 
 
 The mosques are erected in the Chinese style of archi- 
 tecture, mixed with Western peculiarities. The principal 
 hall for preaching and praying is provided with a pulpit, 
 and has five naves or aisles, separated by three rows of 
 pillars. It is ornamented with Arabic and Chinese inscrip- 
 tions painted on monumental boards. Behind it is the 
 chamber for holding the sacred books. Service is performed 
 every Friday at two o'clock. 
 
 Xot much use is made of translations among them. The 
 Koran is read in Arabic, with which the native Moollahs 
 are familiar. This language, as well as Persian, is studied 
 in the schools attached to the mosques. The knowledge of 
 the principal features of their religion is obtained by 
 Chinese readers from treatises of greater or less extent in 
 language of the country. 
 
 They keep up the practice of circumcision. This is 
 made indispensable to admission to their religion. But 
 they are certainly not so attentive to daily prayer as other 
 Mohammedans. I have met with many of them who 
 altogether neglect this habit. 
 
 They sp^ak of Jesus under the name Urh-sah ; but they 
 
180 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 will not allow that He is more than one of the 48,000 
 prophets, or of the six great prophets, that preceded Ma- 
 homet. Of course they deny His divinity. Wei-yuen, a 
 Chinese author already cited, in giving an account of the 
 Mohammedan religion, says that Adam, the first man, 
 receiving the commands of the true Lord ; transmitted them 
 to Seth ; Seth to Noah ; Noah to Ibrahim ; Ibrahim to 
 Ishmael ; Ishmael to David ; and David to Urh-sah. Urh- 
 sah died, and with him the line of tradition was broken. 
 The orthodox faith was lost. Heresies sprang into vigor- 
 ous life. But after 600 years Mahomet was born. He 
 alone stands in the highest rank, while Noah, Abraham, 
 Moses, David, and Jesus occupy the second class. When 
 Mahomet was born, the words "Prophet of Heaven" 
 were seen inscribed on his breast. He wrought many 
 miracles, but his greatest work was to correct and repub- 
 lish the inspired revelation from the true Lord, which had 
 been corrupted during the long period of time between 
 Jesus and Mahomet. 
 
 The Chinese Mohammedans appear to be very much cut 
 off from their co-religionists, but some of them, taking their 
 passage by steamer, now make the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
 Yet the same Chinese author says that every believer in 
 this religion is bound to do so. To whatever country he 
 may belong, he must, once at least in the course of his 
 life, make the journey to worship at the Prophet's tomb, 
 and touch the sacred stone. 
 
 He condemns the Mohammedans for borrowing from the 
 Buddhists, a fault of which they have not been more guilty 
 than the Christians, whom he charges with the same crime. 
 The Mohammedans, he says, are like the followers of Con- 
 fucius in worshipping God; but they have copied their 
 prayers and their abstinence from different kinds of food, 
 their notions upon retribution in a future life, almsgiving, and 
 such-like unimportant teachings, from the Buddhists. They 
 were added as supplemental to doctrines of a higher class, 
 and they certainly, so he thinks, do no harm to mankind. 
 
JEWS A T KAI-FUNG-FOO. 181 
 
 He points out what he considers faults and inconsis- 
 tencies in Mahomet. He had given his daughter to his 
 elder brother's son in marriage. This appears to the 
 Chinese to be unnatural and sinful. It has been the 
 invariable custom in China, since a thousand years be- 
 fore the birth of our Saviour, to abstain from intermar- 
 riage with a family having the same surname, even though 
 there should be no relationship. The Mohammedans 
 compare the prophets to a tree. They are the stem, 
 branches, leaves, and flowers, while Mahomet is the fruit. 
 He then ought to be perfect in wisdom and in virtue. 
 We do not find this to be true, says the Chinese critic. 
 When he went into the market-place of Medina and saw 
 slayers of oxen there, he asked them why they did not 
 change their trade. " Because," they replied, " we have 
 no other means to gain a living." " Slay sheep," said he, 
 " instead of oxen." They did as he advised them, and thus 
 acting, they resembled an ancient king of Tse, who was 
 so affected by the sight of an ox trembling at the prospect 
 of death, that he ordered the animal to be spared and a 
 sheep slain instead. Mencius, the well-known Chinese 
 sage, was a witness of this incident, and condemned the 
 king. Our Chinese author concludes that Mahomet, not 
 being able to perceive that the life of sheep was equally 
 valuable with that of oxen, could not be perfect in 
 wisdom. 
 
 The little colony of Jews at Kai-fung-foo is fast declin- 
 ing, and has no influence in the country. They have 
 almost forgotten their national traditions. I had oppor- 
 tunities some years since at Shanghai of conversing with 
 three individuals of this community. One of them was an 
 educated man, a literary graduate, who would be well 
 acquainted with the state of opinion among his fellow- 
 religionists. It appeared by his statements that the know- 
 ledge of a future state, and of the prophecies respecting the 
 Messiah, have almost died out among them. It was not 
 without reason, therefore, that the Jews of England and 
 
1 82 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 America have recently attempted to open a communication 
 with theLx for the purpose of educating some of their 
 youths in Europe, inquiring into their condition, and, if 
 possible, improving it. They number in all only 200 
 individuals, and are the solitary remnant of the Jewish 
 colonies in China. The last among them that could read 
 Hebrew died nearly a century ago. They evince no wish 
 to recover the knowledge of that language, nor do they 
 seem to have any idea of a future revival of their condition, 
 which could occur only in the case that the Emperor may 
 be induced to command their synagogue, called, after the 
 Mohammedan style, " the temple of the pure and true," to 
 be rebuilt at the public expense. 
 
 The Jews have conformed not a little to the opinions of 
 the Chinese, as is shown by the inscriptions on their 
 tablets, as well as by the melancholy fact that they have 
 no notion, except a Chinese one, of a future state. For 
 God they use the word teen, " heaven," without making 
 any effort to keep the distinction between the material 
 firmament and the Euler of heaven prominent before the 
 minds of their people. They say on one of their monu- 
 mental inscriptions: "Although between us and the 
 doctrine of Confucius there are differences of no great 
 importance, yet the object of the establishment of our 
 religion and theirs is the same. They are intended to 
 inculcate reverence for Heaven, veneration for ancestors, 
 loyalty to the prince, and piety to parents, the five human 
 relations and the five constant virtues." The whole of this 
 phraseology is Chinese, instead of being Jewish. This 
 says little for the independence and confident faith in the 
 Divine origin of their religion that ought to distinguish 
 the posterity of Abraham. 
 
 One or two things they retain of their national charac- 
 teristics, namely, reverence for the law and the seventh- 
 day Sabbath. They had, till their synagogue was destroyed, 
 an autumn festival, when they walked in procession round 
 the hall of the synagogue, taking the rolls of the law with 
 
MOHAMMEDANS IN THE CHINESE ARMY. 183 
 
 them. It was called the festival for the circulation of the 
 law. They had till recently twelve copies of the Penta- 
 teuch ; but with some of these they parted, and they were 
 brought to England a few years since. They do not appear 
 to be very ancient copies. They have also many single 
 sections of the law, and books containing the genealogy of 
 their families. They were originally a large colony of 
 seventy families, and they had communication with their 
 brethren in Persia and in other cities of China. It was \ 
 apparently in the Han dynasty, according to the opinion 
 of some, B.C. 200 to A.D. 220, that they first entered China, \ 
 but they had new accessions from Persia at a much later } 
 period. 
 
 The Mohammedans in China regard the Jews as almost 
 a sect of their own religion. Their abstinence from pork, 
 and the peculiarity of their origin and their religious belief, 
 lead to this. The Jews distinguish themselves by the 
 name Teaou-kin-keaou, " the sect of those that pluck out 
 the sinew," and also by the colour of their turban or dis- 
 tinctive cap; at least, the Mohammedans say that their 
 own turban is white, while that of the Jews is blue. Yet 
 the Mohammedans in Peking wear a blue cap at their 
 religious services The common costume of both sects in 
 China is the national Chinese dress ; so that this distinc- 
 tion is only obvious in the religious attire of the Moollah 
 and others of the two sects when they appear in their 
 appropriate costume. 
 
 The Mohammedans are most numerous in the north and 
 west and at Canton. During the long siege of Shanghai 
 by an imperial army a few years since, I conversed with 
 some Mohammedans from the province of Sze-chuen, the 
 most westerly part of China. They insisted that the 
 Christian religion was like their own. When they enter 
 the Chinese army they are, of course, allowed to retain 
 their own religious views and the practice with regard to 
 diet to which they are accustomed. They feel a unity with 
 us on the subject of opposition to idolatry, the worship of 
 
184 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 the one true God, and the doctrines of repentance and 
 future retribution. 
 
 To judge from those I have met in the south, the Mo- 
 hammedans of China are less bigoted than those of other 
 lands. This is the natural result of their living in a 
 latitudinarian country, and it renders the prospect of their 
 conversion to Christianity more promising than that of the 
 followers of Islam elsewhere. 
 
 One of the most interesting among the minor sects in 
 China is that called the Woo-wei-keaou. It is an offshoot 
 from Buddhism. The words Woo-wei mean " non-action." 
 These words are in China a favourite philosophical phrase, 
 used by all schools of a contemplative or mystic tendency. 
 The Taouists, who spoke of the Eternal Reason which 
 underlies all existences, held that it could be understood 
 and the perfection of our nature reached only by rest, by 
 stillness physical and mental, by abstaining from external 
 methods of improvement, and by disbelief in their efficacy. 
 This they called Woo-wei, "to do nothing." The esoteric 
 Buddhists made use of the same term. They said that the 
 worship in temples, the use of idols and particular vest- 
 ments and ceremonies, was useless : real progress would be 
 made much more effectually by the abstraction of the mind 
 from outward things, and the turning of the soul inwards 
 on itself. This was the principle of Tamo or Bodhidharma, 
 and his followers, the founc^r of the esoteric sects of 
 Chinese Buddhism. 
 
 The sect we are now describing was originated by men 
 whose thoughts also led them in this direction. They 
 were mystics who avoided the common idolatry of the 
 country because they regarded it as mischievous. They 
 say that the universe is a great temple. The fragrance of 
 flowers is the incense of Nature to Buddha. The singing 
 of birds is music spontaneously performed to the honour 
 of Buddha. The roaring of the sea and the rushing sound 
 of the winds is the voice of prayer and praise ascending to 
 the same divinity. There is no need of an idol. Heaven 
 
OBJECTION TO ANIMAL FOOD. 185 
 
 and earth are the image of Buddha, present always and 
 everywhere. This description reminds us of such passages 
 in our poets as 
 
 " Tis a cathedral boundless as our wonder, 
 
 Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply; 
 Its quire the winds and waves, its organ thunder, 
 Its dome the sky." 
 
 This sect does not figure in the national literature. Its 
 name is not mentioned in books ; and the treatises of its 
 founders and their disciples are not known beyond the 
 boundaries of the community that regards them with reli- 
 gious faith. It does not excite the attention of the literary 
 class in the country, like the Buddhist and Taouist 
 religions, or like Mohammedanism and Christianity. Its 
 professors are humble in station, possessing little mental 
 culture, mild in manner, and decided in their religious 
 convictions. 
 
 This sect has grown up and spread itself during the last 
 three centuries in the eastern provinces of China. Its 
 founders were persecuted as revolutionists in the province 
 of Shantung, and some of them were crucified by the local 
 authorities. 
 
 I was conversing on one occasion at Shanghai with a 
 knot of Chinese on some of the doctrines of Christianity, 
 when a follower of this religion interposed a question : 
 "Is it not a sin to eat animal food? It is wrong to take 
 life." Instead of meeting him with a direct answer, I 
 inquired of him why fowls and swine were created, if not 
 to serve as food for mankind. He did not assent to the 
 doctrine that these animals were created to be eaten, for 
 his sect is strictly vegetarian; but the rest of the by- 
 standers expressed their approval of it. He then asked if 
 eating beef was not unquestionably a great sin, because 
 oxen plough the soil. He was reminded that if it is un- 
 grateful to use oxen that plough for food, there are very 
 large numbers of them that do not plough, and these cannot 
 
1 86 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 be shielded from death on this ground. Besides, he "was 
 told, Confucius has oxen offered to him in sacrifice, and he 
 also ate beef; so that, though it is a common notion in 
 China that beef should not be used for food, it was not 
 supported by the example of the man whom his country- 
 men venerate as the wisest of their sages. He was then 
 asked if he worshipped images. " No," he said, " we 
 adore the Buddha of empty space." "Why," we in- 
 quired, "should you pay your homage to him? He is 
 not in the position of emperor or father to you. Why 
 do you not worship God, who is both your emperor 
 and your father?" He asked, in reply, for informa- 
 tion as to how God should be adored. He was told, by 
 feeling reverence for Him and addressing Him in prayer. 
 He then remarked that the sect to which he belonged had 
 two leaders who were put to death by crucifixion, This, 
 lie said, was a point of resemblance between their religion 
 and our own. He was informed that the death of Jesus 
 differed from that of others who had been crucified, in the 
 circumstance that it was borne voluntarily for the salvation 
 of others. It is the habit of the Chinese of all religions to 
 seek out resemblances between their system and that of 
 others, and when they have discovered such resemblances, 
 they proceed to assert that the principles of the two 
 systems are identical. 
 
 In the halls used for worship by this sect there is a 
 tablet set up, dedicated to heaven, earth, prince, parent, 
 and teacher. Small loaves of bread, or balls of glutinous 
 rice, are placed before this tablet, and also cups of tea ; and 
 the names Bread-religion and Tea-religion, by which this 
 sect is also known, have thus arisen. 
 
 I once asked a believer in the Woo-wei-keaou how he 
 performed his religious duties. He said he would feel no 
 objection to show us. He then took his seat on a stool in 
 a cross-legged attitude. At first he sat tranquil, with 
 his eyes closed; but gradually he became extremely 
 excited, though without speaking. His chest heaved, his 
 
VEGETARIAN CONVERTS. 187 
 
 breathing became violent, his eyes shot fire he seemed to 
 be the subject of demoniacal possession. I stood expect- 
 in- some oracular utterance from him ; but after remain- 
 
 O ' 
 
 ing in this excited mood for some minutes, he suddenly 
 brought it to a termination, left the stool on which he had 
 been sitting, arid resumed conversation as rationally as 
 before. The bystanders said that this man was able to 
 cause his soul to go out of his body and return when he 
 pleased. This was their explanation of the phenomenon 
 we had witnessed. 
 
 The simple sincerity of the followers of this religion 
 has attracted the attention of European missionaries. They 
 exhibit more depth and reality in their convictions than is 
 common in other sects in China. This, added to their 
 firm protest against idolatry, has led to their being re- 
 garded with interest by foreigners, and to some efforts to 
 instruct them in Christianity. Among the Protestant 
 converts are some of these men, but they have not all 
 been persuaded to give up their vegetarian habits. They 
 had been so long accustomed to a vegetable diet that 
 animal food was extremely distasteful to them. They 
 were informed that Christianity laid down no law as to 
 food, and that they might continue to be vegetarians, it' 
 they desired it, so that they did not retain their old 
 >pinions that to partake of other fare was sinful, and a 
 vegetable diet both meritorious and the only lawful one. 
 
 The books of this sect are in the form of dialogue or 
 of narrative. The principal speakers and actors are the 
 three founders. They are written after the common 
 Buddhist model. The teacher enters into discussion with 
 his disciples, or with some opponents of the doctrines 
 professed by him, and the doctrines to be communicated 
 are brought forward in a conversational form. 
 
 The late origin of this sect, and its extensive propaga- 
 tion among the villages of Eastern China, shows that there 
 are still some remains of life in Buddhism. In the 
 orthodox Buddhism there is the appearance of unreality 
 
1 88 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 and want of earnest faith in the majority of the monks. 
 They adopt the peculiar garb and discipline of their sect 
 merely as a profession to gain a living by. When they 
 enter on the monkish life, they of course abandon their 
 secular occupations. For an hour or two in the day they 
 are engaged in chanting their sacred books, and are idle 
 for the rest of their time, except when called to perform 
 services for the dead or on occasion of the great festivals. 
 Such men contrast unfavourably with believers in a 
 religion like the Woo-wei-keaou, who continue their 
 respective crafts, wear the common dress of the country, 
 and show strong faith in their religious creed. 
 
 The ruling classes in China, however, refuse to give 
 them credit for religious earnestness, and have never 
 ceased to represent them as a political sect. They were 
 persecuted as such by the last native Chinese dynasty, 
 and they are still described as a secret political society in 
 the Sacred Edict, where the people are warned by the 
 Emperor against false and dangerous sects. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE TAIPING INSURRECTION. 
 
 Ix bringing these chapters to a close, some reference to 
 the recent Christian insurrection in China cannot be 
 omitted. When that remarkable movement commenced 
 twenty-four years ago, the Western world was astonished 
 to hear that Christianity was the adopted creed of a power- 
 ful rebel party that was waging war in China against the 
 reigning Tartar dynasty. Credible accounts were received, 
 of the most interesting kind, of the existence of a body of 
 mountaineers and others in the hilly districts near Canton, 
 who met for prayer to " the Heavenly Father " in the name 
 of Jesus, read Christian books, and made strenuous exer- 
 tions to propagate their opinions. Attacked by persecu- 
 tion, they met in lonely places, but afterwards took up 
 arms to defend themselves. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt the truth of these accounts. 
 The informant from whom Mr. Hamberg derived the 
 materials of his narrative, the best history published of the 
 early part of the movement, appeared to be a sincere and 
 simple-minded Christian. He was a cousin of Tae-ping- 
 wang, the rebel leader, and spoke the same dialect, the 
 Hakka, used in parts of Canton province, and also in 
 Zvwangse. Several missionaries knew him during many 
 months, and felt convinced that he was a speaker of the 
 truth. According to his testimony, there can be no reason- ' 
 able doubt that this insurrection began in strong religious 
 impressions derived from reading the Scriptures and tracts 
 published by Protestant missionaries and Protestant native 
 converts. 
 
190 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 In the mind of Tae-ping-wang and his first followers, a 
 fanatic element very early united itself to the religions 
 element. This led them into excesses from which they 
 would probably have been preserved if missionaries had 
 had access to them. They felt the power of Christian 
 truth. They were impressed deeply by the doctrine of the 
 atonement, the divine mission of Christ, the sin of idolatry, 
 &c. But they were without guidance in comprehending 
 the use of the Old Testament in Christian times. They 
 wanted sober and enlightened explanations, such as would 
 have prevented their deducing from the books of Moses 
 that sacrifices are to be offered to the Trinity, that a war- 
 spirit is needed to put down idolatry, and is a proper ac- 
 companiment of Christianity, and that the polygamy of 
 patriarchal times is a model for imitation now. 
 
 The good that would have resulted from sincere faith 
 such it must have been in our Bible and the religion it 
 teaches, was very much counteracted and overborne by the 
 unhappy intrusion of that enthusiasm which led Tae-ping- 
 wang not only to draw these conclusions from the Old 
 Testament, but to believe himself inspired. This led him 
 to regard himself as the divinely-appointed Emperor of 
 China, and changed into a fierce warrior one who would 
 otherwise have been a zealous preacher of Christianity. 
 There was no hope after he took this step that he would 
 submit to have his opinions criticised and corrected, even 
 if Christian missionaries could have obtained the oppor- 
 l unity of conversing with him. He was at the head of an 
 army that reverenced him as honoured with revelations 
 from God, and as specially commissioned to occupy the 
 throne of a new dynasty in China. He would not now 
 become the humble disciple of foreigners. He, and such of 
 his followers as were animated by the same fanaticism as 
 himself, would rather have died than give up the objec- 
 tionable articles of their creed. The same fanatic energy 
 that gave them their first successes and nerved them to 
 accomplish their triumphant march to Nanking, kept 
 
TAE-PING-WANG. 191 
 
 them faithful to their adopted religious belief to the 
 last. 
 
 Although many critics of Chinese matters have preferred 
 to call these men blasphemers and impostors, their prefer- 
 ence has come from a view of the subject mucli more 
 difficult to support than that here given. That Tae-ping- 
 wang should have put forward pretensions to be the 
 brother of Jesus Christ is much to be deplored. It was 
 caused by fanaticism and want of proper instruction. It 
 should be considered that he was just emerging from 
 heathenism, and it could not fail to be difficult for him to 
 transfer himself completely into the Christian sphere of 
 thought. Whether he may fairly incur the charge of wilful 
 blasphemy on his assuming such titles as those which are 
 found in the rebel proclamations, is not easy to say. How 
 was it with Mahomet in his claim to a divine mission ? 
 
 To read the books written by him is to become con- 
 vinced that he was sincere, so far as he knew it, in the 
 acceptance of Christianity In the work called the " Three 
 Character Classic," he describes the creation of the world 
 by God, and sketches the history of the Israelites. He 
 then proceeds to relate the mission of Jesus, the Son of 
 God, into the world, His death on the cross for the salva- 
 tion of mankind, His resurrection and ascension, with His 
 parting injunction to the twelve Apostles to propagate 
 His doctrine and the book containing it through the whole 
 world. He further states, that in the earliest ages the 
 worship of God was practised by the Chinese as in foreign 
 countries, and condemns the emperors who had helped to 
 introduce the Taouist and Buddhist superstitions among 
 the people whom they governed. It was Tsin-she-hwang 
 who, a little jnore than two centuries before Christ, was 
 ensnared by the belief that then began to prevail in the 
 existence of genii and of a method by which immortality 
 for the body may be attained. He was imitated by Han- 
 woo-te. Ming-te, their successor on the throne of China, 
 was as assiduous in the encouragement of the Buddhist 
 
192 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 religion as they had been in promoting the Taouist. He 
 reserves his severest censure for Hwei-te, of a much later 
 period, the eleventh century of our era. This monarch 
 had given the ancient Chinese name Shang-te to a Taouist 
 divinity Yuh-hwang. " Now," he says, " Shang-te, God, is 
 the Great Father of the whole world. His name is most 
 honourable, and it has been in use a long series of years. 
 Who is Hwei-te that he should dare to -change it ? " He 
 then adds that a deserved retribution overtook him for the 
 part he took in spreading the practice of idolatry. It was 
 on this account that he was captured by the Tartars, his 
 foes, and, with his son, died in imprisonment. 
 
 Although the book does not close without those fana- 
 tical pretensions that show themselves in so many places 
 in the writings of this man, there is enough to make plain 
 that he understood something of the Christian doctrine of 
 God, and of the salvation of mankind through the death 
 of Christ, as also that he had become sensible of the mis- 
 chief flowing from the introduction of idolatrous religion 
 into China. 
 
 In judging of the sincerity of these insurgents, who 
 baptized one another in the name of the Trinity, and 
 called themselves Christians, it ought to be remembered 
 that the greater part of their adherents did not belong to 
 the original nucleus of earnest, religious, or fanatical men 
 through whose enthusiastic courage Tae-ping-wang won so 
 many battles and took so many cities. Multitudes after- 
 wards joined them ui a far inferior mould of character, 
 some impressed by force, others invited by hopes of 
 plunder. The Christianity of such men was non-existent, 
 and they were not fair examples of those who began the 
 movement, nor were they such good soldiers. Many of 
 the first adherents of this party had died. Those whose 
 hair had not been shaven for seven years, who were the 
 private friends of the chief at the beginning, who joined 
 him in religious meetings, marched with him to the field, 
 and knew him intimately, before he shut himself up 
 
THE TAIPING INSURGENTS. 193 
 
 in seclusion within the walls of his palace, had mostly 
 disappeared. The character of the rebel army became on 
 this account necessarily much less religious than it was, 
 although they still maintained imperfectly the forms of 
 Christian worship and the observance of a Sabbath. 
 
 The Christian insurgents in China never had the confi- 
 dence of any part of the nation. Their religious character 
 was one reason of the unpopularity of their cause. If they 
 had been crafty impostors, they would have chosen some 
 other watchword than that of Christianity. Instead of 
 fighting in the name of Shang-te (God) and of Yay-soo 
 (Jesus), they would have waged war in the name of their 
 ancestors, or they would have inscribed on their banners 
 the titles of some of the national gods. But they chose 
 for their religion one that must of necessity be extremely 
 distasteful f o most of their countrymen. Nothing could 
 be further removed from the sympathies of the influential 
 part of native society than a course like this. Their books 
 were constantly spoken of as yaou shoo, "goblin books;" 
 and they themselves were, as might be expected, never 
 honoured with any more respectful appellations than 
 thieves and robbers. Their profession of Christianity did 
 not obtain for them any better reputation among those 
 who give the tone* to society, and have influence and pro- 
 perty. With the adoption of a religious creed coming 
 from a foreign source, and introduced by the barbarians 
 themselves at Canton within a few years back, they resigned 
 in the estimation of their countrymen all title to be con- 
 sidered patriots. This party had by the Chinese never 
 been regarded as patriotic, and nowhere was there ex- 
 hibited the intention or desire to co-operate with them in 
 effecting a revolution, except on the part of those who 
 had nothing in character or property to lose by it. 
 
 The power of this party, then, did not consist in any 
 sympathy felt with them, beyond the actual limits of the 
 districts that they occupied. Their courage was admitted 
 to be superior to that of the imperialist soldiers. Their 
 
 N 
 
194 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 discipline is favourably spoken of by some of those natives 
 who witnessed it for its rigour and for its moral tone. 
 The fact that they had a sort of Christian worship did not 
 win them favour with the general population. 
 
 Now that this insurrection has disappeared by the de- 
 struction of the actors in it, it may be asked what have 
 been its results ? It shows that there is a susceptibility in 
 the Chinese mind to receive Christian doctrine for which 
 we were before far from giving them credit. 
 
 They are, as a nation, usually represented as having 
 only sordid aims in life, and as almost incapable of feeling 
 reverence for God or curiosity respecting the future state. 
 We see, by the history of this insurrection, that there are 
 many among the Chinese who are prepared to receive 
 these and other religious tenets in the spirit of an earnest 
 and practical faith. They have shown themselves capable, 
 to a degree unexpected by the rest of mankind, of a re- 
 ligious enthusiasm ardent enough to increase their 
 bravery as fighting men, and make them capable of sub- 
 mitting to a self-denying discipline, such as cannot be very 
 agreeable to a people trained in national habits like those 
 of the ordinary Chinese. They are too slothful and sensual 
 to consent to such a discipline with much satisfaction, 
 were they not affected by an enthusiasm to which they 
 have not been accustomed. There is hope, then, that the 
 Chinese as a nation may take up the religion of the 
 Bible with strong faith, and propagate it by their own 
 exertions. 
 
 We also see in this movement the effect of the distri- 
 bution in that country of Bibles and Christian tracts. A 
 reading population, such as there exists, can receive the 
 knowledge of Christianity in this way without the pre- 
 sence of the living teacher. They reprinted some Chris- 
 tian treatises with slight alterations, and composed others 
 modelled on those prepared by foreigners. One of the 
 most important of their publications is an elaborate 
 treatise by the late Dr. Medlmrst, on the Attributes of 
 
WANG-FUNG-TSING. 195 
 
 God, composed at Batavia more than fifty years ago. 
 The fact that they published many parts of the Scriptures 
 is a striking one, and is strange to account for on any 
 hypothesis but that those who did so were sincere believers 
 in the book. No political prophet could have foretold that 
 a body of revolutionists in China would have spread their 
 opinions by the printing and circulation of Christian books. 
 We never expect to hear of Hindoos or Malays, when 
 commencing a warlike movement, adopting Christianity 
 and resolving to propagate it. To show that the effect of 
 these books, and of the religion they teach, has been some- 
 thing more than ordinary on the moral condition of these 
 people, I shall detail an interview with a former follower 
 of Tae-ping-wang, who was met by myself and others at 
 Shanghai. His name was Wang-fung-tsing. He had come 
 into the city to join the rebel force that then held it ; but 
 he soon left them, dissatisfied with the state of affairs pre- 
 vailing among his new friends. He conversed with me in 
 one of the Protestant chapels, and told us that he had been 
 baptized by Dr. Gutzlaff, seven years before. A convert 
 at Hongkong had taken him in hand to instruct him in 
 Christianity, had supplied him with a little money, and 
 recommended him to unite himself to Dr. Gutzlaff 's Chris- 
 tian Union. He became a member of that body till the 
 death of its founder. He then proceeded, by the advice of 
 his old friend, the convert, in search of other members of 
 the Christian Union, who had then joined Tae-ping-wang, 
 and were engaged in organising an armed opposition 
 against the Government. He joined them in time to be 
 with the Taiping army on its march through the interior 
 provinces to the important city of Woochang-foo. Favoured 
 by a shower of snow, they took possession of that city, with 
 the two adjoining ones, Hanyang and Hankow, and then 
 descended the Yang-tsze-keang to Xanking. From this 
 point he returned to Hongkong, and afterwards found his 
 way to Shanghai. He told us, in answer to inquiries, that 
 
196 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 there was the administration of baptism in the Taiping 
 army to men and women, old and young, by sprinkling. 
 They had the Lord's Supper every month, and not upon the 
 Sabbath-day. At this ceremony they used wine made from 
 grapes a curious circumstance, seeing that grape wine is 
 seldom made in China and showing plainly the anxiety of 
 these Christians to maintain as exactly as they know how the 
 creed and practice of Christianity. They admit new appli- 
 cants to baptism after not more than a day's instruction. 
 Twenty-four elders, or cliang-laou, have assigned to them 
 the office of preaching. There are also priests who super- 
 intend the sacrifices. The practice of offering sacrifices 
 they have unquestionably adopted from reading the Old 
 Testament without guidance as to what parts of it are 
 and what are not intended for imitation by Christians. 
 He told us that he met several men who had been 
 baptized by Dr. Gutzlaff, holding posts of influence in 
 the Taiping official staff. He denied, when asked, that 
 he smoked opium, saying that it was forbidden strictly in 
 the regulations of Tae-ping-wang. When the question 
 was repeated, he replied, " How could I tell a lie, who am 
 a disciple of Jesus ?" 
 
 The effect of this interview was to strengthen our im- 
 pressions of the extent to which the imitation of Christian 
 practices was carried by these people, and also of the 
 height of the moral standard that they set for themselves. 
 The ordinary Chinese do not assume this high tone in 
 vindication of their veracity. 
 
 But a prolonged state of war is most prejudicial to moral- 
 ity, and the greater part of the Tae-ping-wang forces, re- 
 cruited as they are indiscriminately from the population of 
 the regions through which they pass, of course do not share 
 any earnest faith in religious doctrines to which they are 
 obliged to conform, but which they do not really under- 
 stand or believe. 
 
 This movement in favour of Christianity, originated and 
 
ERRORS OF THE TAIPING MOVEMENT. 197 
 
 carried on by the Chinese themselves, was injured by the 
 political aims which were combined with it. It was the 
 error of half-enlightened minds to believe themselves called 
 to overthrow, by force of arms, the Government that perse- 
 cuted them and the idolatry which Christianity had taught 
 them was a sin against God. Many of their countrymen 
 have wondered at their crusade against images. When 
 describing the mode of operation pursued by the adherents 
 of Tae-ping-wang, they praised them for their discipline, 
 and their avoidance of petty thefts and other excesses 
 commonly practised by the soldiers in the pay of the 
 Government ; " but," they added, " they show an extra- 
 ordinary hostility to the idols. They kill poosa" They 
 showed no mercy to the images of the gods. We could 
 have excused their iconoclastic tendencies if they had not 
 also undertaken to accomplish a political revolution. By 
 this course they have done harm to the cause of Christianity 
 in China, and have given its enemies an opportunity to 
 misrepresent it. We will hope that when the Chinese 
 shall again take up our religion in an earnest manner, they 
 will eschew other aims, and receive it as a spiritual king- 
 dom, and not in the spirit of Fifth Monarchy Men. In 
 this case the enthusiasm they have shown will be again 
 exhibited, and will produce the happiest results. China 
 is not so incapable of change as is thought by most persons. 
 Her population is not so exclusively devoted to a gross 
 and sensual life as to be proof against impressions of a 
 religious nature. That the Chinese are capable of warmer 
 religious feelings than was thought possible has been 
 proved. There is, then, encouragement to be derived from 
 the story of the Christian insurrection by those who are 
 interested in missionary labours in China. 
 
 There need be no fear for the ultimate success of Pro- 
 testant missions there, when we have had so recent an 
 example of the effect of the distribution of books. The first 
 agents of Protestant societies who went to China to teach 
 Christianity met with very little apparent fruit of their 
 
1 98 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 labours. Few converts joined them. Much opposition 
 was excited against them. They sowed the seed of truth 
 in a hard soil, in the time of wintry winds and unkindly 
 influences. Now, however, it has been shown that effects 
 have followed which they had not anticipated. Not only 
 have their books been widely circulated by the machinery 
 they themselves organised, but for several years past a 
 native Chinese party, in the midst of anarchy and inter- 
 necine war, diffused Christian truths in an extensive 
 series of publications which they widely scattered through 
 the country. The Christian atonement was in this way 
 made known over regions much broader in extent than 
 could be reached by the agencies set on foot by Euro- 
 pean missionaries. After making all the necessary de- 
 ductions for imperfect instruction, the mingling of Chris- 
 tianity with political designs, &c., there still remains 
 good reason to hope that not a few of the Kwangse 
 insurgents could deservedly be called Christians. At 
 any rate, when they at last died by the sword, if such 
 is to be their fate, there were many sincere, brave, 
 and stalwart upholders of what they believed to be 
 Christianity, who met death with an unflinching courage 
 worthy of the name, and by the hands of far worse men 
 than themselves. 
 
 The converts under the immediate care of the Protestant 
 missionaries differ widely in character from the men we 
 have been considering. Remaining where they received 
 instruction, and where they became professed Christians, 
 they are under no temptation to adopt revolutionary views 
 or to imbibe the terrible war-spirit to which fanaticism has 
 so often given birth. They are learning that calm, en- 
 lightened, and domestic Christianity which spreads its 
 silent influence in private life, converting first individuals, 
 then families, then whole villages and larger communities. 
 Christianity must in China be national to be powerful. It 
 must take hold on the hearts of the people, and they must 
 teach it every man to his brother, before our Protestant 
 
THE PROTESTANT CONVERTS. 199 
 
 missions there can be said to have gained their object. 
 But while these evangelistic operations are so recent, it is 
 far better that the native congregations of Christians should 
 remain under the supervision of the foreign missionaries 
 than that the converts should be left entirely to them- 
 selves. That they have among them the elements of self- 
 support, and possess a vitality that must ensure progress, 
 is shown by the considerable number of catechists and 
 preachers that have, in consequence of a few years' training 
 on the part of the missionaries, become their helpers in 
 teaching the doctrine of salvation. The Protestant converts 
 were in 1859 still not many more than 1000. These 
 were the remaining fruits of sixteen years' labour by about 
 a hundred missionaries at the five treaty ports. In 1877 
 they were about 10,000, and they are now, in 1892, about 
 40,000. While few in numbers, it is better for them not 
 to be thrown entirely on their own resources. They might 
 fall into error, as did the Kwangse Christians, who began 
 so well and so zealously with reading the Scriptures and 
 prayer-meetings. It was in an evil hour that they decided 
 to take up arms. There was no one to tell them that our 
 religion is peaceful, and that the weapons of our warfare 
 are not carnal. The zeal of these men, which, untempered 
 by an enlightened prudence, led them to the brink of 
 destruction, would have wrought wonders for the spread 
 of Christianity if rightly directed. Among the lessons we 
 may learn by their history is this, that in prosecuting the 
 task of evangelising China, there needs to be careful 
 instruction added to the possession of the Word of God. 
 The Bible needs an expositor, and zeal needs a wise regu- 
 lating prudence. We may still hope for those Chinese 
 who shall incline to receive the Gospel, that the intelli- 
 gence of the national mind will in due time give them 
 knowledge, and that the enthusiasm exhibited in their 
 religious history will give them zeal When these qualities 
 are combined they will produce a development of Chinese 
 Christianity such as will bear a proportion to the very pro- 
 
200 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 minent position that China holds among the nations of the 
 East. As great as they have been in the arts and in litera- 
 ture, in education and in politics, so great may we expect 
 them to become in the exhibition of an intelligent practical 
 Christianity, when, in God's providence, and by His gracious 
 influence upon their hearts, they come to accept it. 
 
 The preceding examination of the religious state of the 
 Chinese has shown that that in which they are deficient is 
 not so much a system of morality as in clear and correct 
 notions on God, redemption, and immortality. Only Divine 
 revelation can meet this want, and Christianity, the religion 
 of the Bible, must therefore eventually become the religion 
 of China. In this instance the light of Scripture prophecy 
 blends with the pre-intimations afforded by reason. They 
 alike forbid us to doubt that Christian missions in that 
 country can fail to be ultimately successful. But what is 
 the probability that large masses of the population will 
 soon become Christian ? Is any lengthened period likely 
 to intervene before our religion shall come to be in any 
 sense national? The difficulty of answering these ques- 
 tions suggests the words of the world's Eedeemer, " It is 
 not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the 
 Father hath put in His own power." 
 
 Yet, certainly, the great political and social changes 
 recently begun are in favour of Christianity. It is now a 
 tolerated religion. Foreigners may teach it, while natives 
 may profess it. The two idolatrous religions prevalent in 
 the country are sufficiently worn out and weak to render 
 the victory of Christianity not very difficult. If the fol- 
 lowers of Confucius are self-sufficient and proud, their, 
 want of faith in Buddhism, and the circumstance that their 
 own religion fails to satisfy the spiritual wants of man, 
 favour the hope that they will accept Christianity. The 
 universal use of one written language and of the art of 
 printing are an immeasurable advantage to missionary 
 operations, which ought not to be omitted in enumerating 
 the circumstances favourable to the spread of Christianity. 
 
C 201 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 JOURNEY TO WOO-TAI-SHAN IN 1 8/2 COMMENCED 
 PEKING TO LUNG-TSIUEN-KWAN. 
 
 THE excitement connected with the Emperor's marriage 
 had been intense, and had arrived at a climax the night 
 before our departure for Woo-tai-shan, when the bridal 
 procession took place. The Chinese Government expects 
 011 such an occasion from the metropolitan population not 
 joy but reverence. The Emperor and Empress are to be 
 regarded as a sort of divinities, and as the most distant 
 approach to familiarity is to be avoided, no one is allowed 
 to be in the streets, perfect silence is maintained, and 
 orders are even issued that none must look from the 
 houses lining the route while the procession is passing. 
 If a light were to be seen in any house it would call down 
 instant punishment on the householder. Yet multitudes 
 were looking out from the darkness of their dwellings on 
 the street everywhere illuminated by red paper lanterns. 
 For Peking society was agitated to the centre. Who 
 would like to miss seeing this the most striking of all 
 processions ? 
 
 Singularly the new Empress's grandfather, Sai-shanga, 
 has reappeared on this occasion as if from the grave. 
 Many years ago he had been appointed generalissimo to 
 conquer the Taiping rebels. Having failed, he was pro- 
 scribed and deprived of all his influence and official duties. 
 He was long supposed to be dead. Now unexpectedly he 
 has returned to notice in connection with his grand- 
 daughter's elevation. 
 
 Since then the imperial husband and wife are both 
 
202 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 dead, and China has entered on a new period of infant 
 sovereignty. 
 
 We left .Peking October 16, 1872, at half-past ten A.M., 
 having been delayed by the shoeing of the mules. Only 
 their front feet are shod. Five packed mules constituted 
 our cavalcade with a pony. We were three in number, one 
 American, Dr. Wheeler, now the agent of the American Bible 
 Society in China, and two English missionaries, Eev. James 
 Gilrnour and myself, with a native catechist and a servant. 
 Two muleteers, speaking the Siuen-hwa dialect, which is 
 much the same as that of Shanse, completed our number. 
 At this time we may expect in North China uninter- 
 ruptedly fine weather. We can be more sure of the 
 absence of rain than in an English October. What seem 
 to be rain clouds pass away, and week after week goes by 
 with unchanging sunshine. October is eminently a month 
 for tourists in this part of the world. 
 
 Our train passed along the 120 feet wide streets of 
 Peking to avoid jostling the crowds which throng some of 
 the narrower thoroughfares. Going by the gate called 
 Hata-men we took an inclined road to Choo-she-kow, in 
 the centre of the Chinese city, and from that point pro- 
 ceeded westward to the execution ground and the gate 
 known as Chang-ye-men. These five miles of continuous 
 traffic before leaving the city give a considerable impres- 
 sion of the activity of life and trade in this metropolis. 
 
 We were pleased to notice proof of a good cotton 
 harvest in several long trains of camels, bearing two- 
 hundredweight bags of cotton from Pau-ting-foo, which 
 met us on the way. Four days distant from Peking, this 
 large cotton region forms a most valuable element in the 
 wealth of the province, and supplies the population of 
 North Chihle and Shanse with blue cotton gowns in sum- 
 mer and wadded clothing in winter. What an advantage 
 to grow cotton at home, the inhabitants having so much 
 need of it in the cold winters, when they require not only 
 their long gowns and jackets, but their stockings, trousers, 
 
PAVED ROADS. 203 
 
 shoes, teapot covers, door curtains, coverlids, cushions, mat- 
 tresses, and chair and cart covers ! Cotton is woven for the 
 outside, and stuffed in the inside of all these articles. 
 
 "We wonder what they did formerly without cotton, for 
 they have only had it a few centuries. When we remem- 
 ber the skins of innumerable flocks of sheep and goats 
 scattered over the plains of Mongolia and the mountains 
 of each of the northern provinces of China, we see how it 
 was. But they have more comfortable clothing now, and a 
 much larger population to clothe, than in those old times. 
 
 Leaving the Chang-ye-men, we found ourselves upon the 
 busy stone street which for twenty le, or seven miles, con- 
 ducts the traveller towards the bridge Loo-kow-chiau. It 
 is at certain seasons of the year the scene of immense 
 traffic. The coal supplied to Peking from Fang-shan and 
 Ta-an-shan come this way, as also lime from Hwei-chang, 
 and all the traffic of the west and south-west. Sometimes 
 it presents to the eye an almost continuous stream of 
 camels, mules, and donkeys. Many a slip do they make 
 on the worn stones of this causeway. When a stone sinks 
 below its neighbours, nothing is done to replace it or to 
 fill the vacancy. To repair an imperial road or ruin with- 
 out an imperial order would be regarded as presumption 
 and as a punishable offence. So the holes in the road are 
 stumbled over in all weathers by each new train of loaded 
 animals, as they have been for very many summers and 
 winters, and no one ventures to murmur. Year after year, 
 while new generations slowly succeed the old, the mischief 
 goes on increasing. Good vegetable gardens flank the 
 causeway. 
 
 A handsome pai-lwu, or public archway, forms a terminus 
 to this stone road. Three miles more of travelling over a 
 waste tract, which was at some distant time perhaps 
 desolated and changed to a wilderness by a flood of the 
 rivers now at hand, bring the traveller to the bridge. We 
 noticed that there are 280 stone lions on the parapets 
 of the bridge, and that there were elephants pushing with 
 
204 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 their trunks and tusks at the ends of the parapets to keep 
 the fabric firm. Chinese symbolism loves to make the 
 stronger animals subservient to man, and to represent 
 them as laying aside entirely their natural fierceness 
 under his renovating influence. The bridge crosses what 
 is now a broad and rapid stream. The water coming from 
 the hills is abundant and very muddy. The swelling tide 
 rushing down the river channel looks as if it could do 
 mischief. It might, if larger, break its banks. We were 
 soon to see with our own eyes what it can do. 
 
 It was late, and we stopped for the night at the busy 
 town, Chang-sin-tien. Taking our lodging in an inn, a 
 stroll from the night's quarters brought us to the locality 
 injured by last year's inundation on the east of the town, 
 which lies north and south. There was here a good strip 
 of land, consisting, till the summer of 1871, of rice fields. 
 The river, a mile to the north, supplied water for the 
 cultivation. The outbreak of the river occurred just at 
 this point, and the rice lying low, the whole of it was 
 covered by a broad swollen stream which rushed on to 
 the south-west. It laid a deposit of stones and sand over 
 the rice fields to the depth of three and four feet. This 
 deposit is a mile wide at the point we visited, and pro- 
 ceeds for eight miles farther, having completely destroyed 
 farming operations all the way till it reaches another river. 
 In the summer of the previous year I saw the river soon 
 after it broke through, a mile and a quarter below the 
 bridge. We walked along the sands to the spot. The 
 land we then saw under the rushing current, strewn with 
 the remains of trees and cottages, was the same which we 
 were now examining. The villagers who conversed with 
 us looked unhappy. One had lost a hundred mow, or 
 seventeen acres, of good land, and had thirty mow remain- 
 ing. Another who lives a few miles to the south told me 
 the next day that he had lost fifty mow, worth to him as 
 many taels of silver per annum. Of course he looked the 
 picture of sorrow. This frightful devastation leads the 
 
A CHINESE INN. 205 
 
 Chinese, who are witnesses and victims of it, to pray to 
 Heaven and the gods for their protection. 
 
 At the gate of Chang-sin -tien was posted a proclamation 
 from the military authorities, warning the people that at 
 the review of artillery near the bridge conducted by great 
 officers sent from Peking each year, they are not to raise the 
 prices of vegetables on account of the arrival of the soldiers, 
 nor are they to pick up cannon-balls or make disturbances. 
 
 Our inn was very full of mule sedans and baggage 
 animals. Fresh from Peking, and not having taken a 
 journey for a long interval, everything diverted us. The 
 inscriptions on our sleeping-room walls, written by pass- 
 ing travellers, were of the usual style. They were such as 
 Ki slung man tien yue, jen tsi pan chiau shwang (" Cock- 
 crow is heard in the straw-thatched inn in the moonlight ; 
 footsteps are seen on the wooden bridge in the frost"). 
 These two lines are very popular, and deserve to be so. 
 They are evidently by some true poet. The words are 
 few and excellently chosen. They make up a pair of 
 pictures, one of the interior, the other of the exterior, of 
 the traveller's lodging-place, remarkable for their brevity 
 and effectiveness. The bad verses made by scribblers it 
 is best to say nothing about. They would disfigure the 
 narrative as much as they do the walls of mine host's 
 furnished apartments. 
 
 October i jth. To-day we were detained by rain, which 
 does sometimes fall in October. Left at eleven A.M., and 
 reached Lieu-le-ho in the evening. This is an important 
 place, as being the point from which the lime and coal of 
 the western hills are conveyed to Tientsin. On the way 
 to it our road began to pierce hills of loess, that dry, fine, 
 uniform brown mould, with vertical cleavage whenever 
 it is undisturbed, which distinguishes North China and 
 forms the basis of its soil, as also that of Southern Mon- 
 golia and Manchooria for several thousands of miles. It 
 is found on both sides of the Tai-hang mountain range, 
 across which we go into Shanse. If only found inside 
 
206 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 the mountains, it might be called a lake deposit, but it 
 lines the mountains on their eastern slopes just as much, 
 and covers over in many places hills of granite and lime- 
 stone in such a fashion that Richthoven's hypothesis of 
 dust-storm agency seems the best. In positions on the 
 plain, such as we saw to-day, where unstratified masses of 
 loess form uniform heaps of a fine mould eminently suit- 
 able for agriculture, Pumpelly's hypothesis of lake and 
 river deposit seems inapplicable. The proper place for 
 that hypothesis would seem to be the beds of old lakes, 
 such as the valleys and plains of Shanse. The vertical 
 cleavage of which Eichthoven speaks occurs everywhere in 
 the regions occupied by this formation. 
 
 We crossed the Tsing-ho, which comes out of the hills 
 near Loo-kow-chiau, and noticed that it followed the line 
 of road for some miles on the left. There is a bridge 
 similar to that already mentioned, having elephants and 
 lions on its parapet, at Liang-hiang, a city with a pagoda. 
 The crops are good on the plain. The autumn wheat is 
 springing, and there is a large quantity of it sown. Before 
 reaching Lieu-le-ho we travelled along a broad stone cause- 
 way for nearly a mile. The large collection of water from 
 brooks and hidden springs at Lieu-le-ho is the cause of 
 this. Some of the rivers, as the Tsing-ho and Hwun-ho, 
 flow down valleys among the mountains, and so reach the 
 plain. Others rise from springs not far from the foot of 
 the mountain range. (The same is true of some of the 
 streams in the south part and beyond it.) The boats at 
 Lieu-le-ho take upwards of four hundredweight of coal or 
 lime. They bring back wheat and other cereals. The 
 town has five hundred houses. 
 
 October i8th. Went on to Clio- chow to breakfast. 
 When nearing that city we ferried over the Ku-ma-ho, a 
 river which this year is very full. It comes from Kwang- 
 chang, north-west of Yu-chow, and running eastward it 
 passes the western imperial tombs on the north and pro- 
 ceeds to Cho-chow. A busy scene. Crowds of passengers 
 
CHO-CHOW. 207 
 
 filled the ferryboats. On them also were placed the 
 burdens of the mules, which were coaxed to walk across 
 through the water. A large party of soldiers, armed with 
 foreign rifles and bayonets, passed at the same time. They 
 were, they said, searching the roads for bandits. They 
 carry their rifles each of them horizontally on their 
 shoulders and a banner in the other hand. A red-balled 
 officer was in charge of this detachment, or was travelling 
 with them. Sellers of new dates and pastry were plying 
 their trade on the river banks. Now and then a foolish 
 donkey would fall behind his companions and hesitate to 
 cross the river with them. The half-naked pilots had 
 then the task of persuading the beast to proceed. 
 
 Fish abounds at Cho-chow. We had the celebrated 
 Le-yu (carp) for breakfast. A short walk from the ferry 
 brought us to a handsome bridge, at the north end of which 
 is a lofty open arch spanning the way. Its inscriptions 
 state that the bridge and causeway are 2000 feet in length. 
 It was erected by a public-spirited magistrate within 
 the last half-century. The wall and gates of Cho-chow 
 are imposing. Within the north gate are two pagodas of 
 the Sung dynasty. The northern can be ascended by a 
 staircase in the very thick and substantial walls. They 
 are five stories high. The south pagoda has a carving of 
 Buddha in relief on each face. 
 
 As we passed on to Sung-lin-tien, six miles, and Kau- 
 pei-tien, fifteen miles, we noticed on the road indications 
 that we were in a country of old traditions. Who in 
 China has not heard the story of Lieu-pei, who, in A.D. 
 221, succeeded in making himself Emperor of Western 
 China by the aid of Choo-ko-liang, the wisest of coun- 
 sellors, and Kwan-yun-chang, the most loyal of heroes ? 
 It was a pleasure to the emperors and literati of the Sung 
 dynasty to exalt these men to a higher place in history 
 than they had held before. They made of one a model of 
 an emperor who, belonging to the Han imperial family, 
 showed in the struggle for power patience, sagacity, and 
 
208 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 perseverance. The Manchoo dynasty has followed them in 
 investing Kwan-te with honours, and encouraging his 
 worship as god of war and the embodiment of loyal and 
 military virtues. A monument on the roadside informs 
 the traveller that the adjoining village is the home of 
 Lieu-pei. Another indicates the former home of Chang- 
 fei, his faithful friend and follower. It is the ancient 
 Low-sang, "the mulberry of the tower." The village of 
 Chang-fei close by is also marked by a monument. Near 
 it was the well from which the same old worthy drew 
 water. So says tradition. 
 
 Arriving at Sung-lin-tien, six miles from Cho-chow, we 
 struck the Yu-chow road from the west. At fifteen miles 
 we reached Kau-pei-tien. Here we were among the last 
 of the cotton crops, interspersed with fields of young 
 wheat. The cotton plants are kept short by the growers 
 that the yield of cotton may be increased. They are only 
 eighteen inches high. 
 
 Saturday, October iqth. This morning we left the city of 
 Ting-ling on our right. It has a small well-built wall. 
 South of it was a monument to Tan-tae-tsi of the contend- 
 ing states (Chan-kwo), B.C. 300. He belonged to the Yen 
 kingdom, in the modern province of Chihle. He publicly 
 invited able men to his service, and at the locality indi- 
 cated by the monument entertained a hero, King-ke, in a 
 tower called Hwang (yellow) kin (cloth, i.e., as here meant, 
 turban} tai (tower). This hero undertook to assassinate 
 the prince of Tsin, father of the Emperor, who burned the 
 books. He wished thus to show his loyalty to the prince 
 of Yen. While approaching with drawn sword to carry 
 out his fell design he was attacked and slain by the ser- 
 vants of the King of Tsin. 
 
 We now passed the Ku-ma-ho, a river which flows from 
 Kwang-chang, east of the Tsi-king-kwan, cuts the Great 
 Wall, leaves the imperial western cemetery on the south, 
 and proceeds by Lai-shui and Ting-ling, south of Cho-chow, 
 to the lakes. We crossed it at Peiho, thirteen miles from 
 
SLOW SPREAD OF^KNOWLEDGE. 209 
 
 Cho-chow. The water was here too deep to allow the 
 mules to take over their burdens, which were intrusted 
 to the ferrymen. The mules as they crossed were 
 nearly swimming on account of the great depth of the 
 water caused by the late floods. After breakfasting at 
 Ku-cheng, a small town chiefly noteworthy for its inns, 
 which are numerous, a little north of An-su, the city where 
 we were expecting to stay during Sunday, we arrived at 
 Pai-ta-tsun, a village with a handsome pagoda belonging 
 to it. An-su is a busy town with a northern suburb a mile 
 long, and having many monuments in honour of the most 
 respected inhabitants. The Catholics have a school and 
 mission twenty-three Chinese miles west from the city. 
 They are spoken of as having a staff of bishop and clergy, 
 schools for children of varying ages, church, and houses 
 used as residences. 
 
 Sunday, October 2oth. My companions went out to dis- 
 tribute books and speak to the people. Having an ailment 
 which prevented walking, I stayed in the inn to receive 
 visitors. Soon there came some representatives of very 
 good families. I spoke of the Christian religion and of 
 the motion of the earth. After explaining the roundness 
 of the earth and its diurnal and annual revolution, I asked 
 them if they believed in it. The more talkative hesitated ; 
 the quietest said, "Yes, we do." On asking if they had heard 
 of " Cheng-cha-pi-ki," a work in three volumes published 
 by the Emperor's first envoy to Europe, Pin-chun, now 
 deceased, they replied that they had not. A work like 
 this, elegantly written in prose and poetry, fails to reach 
 far in Chinese society. The Chinese conductors of the 
 book trade do nothing to push the circulation of new 
 works. A few hundred copies are sold in Peking ; that is 
 all. A few years hence it may be reprinted by some rich 
 antiquarian in a distant city. None of my visitors had 
 heard of the motion of the earth. Our teaching permeates 
 slowly among the reading class through the general poverty 
 of the people, the deadness of trade, the want of news- 
 
 o 
 
210 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 papers, the stagnation of ideas, and the absence of rapid 
 and regular traffic. The innkeeper also came to ask for 
 books, and told me the position of my visitors. 
 
 We found an odious peculiarity in An-su. Singing 
 girls with guitars infest the quarters of travellers, and 
 seem to be an institution in all the inns. They enter the 
 doors of rooms uninvited, and if complaint is made to mine 
 host, he laughs, and says it is impossible to prevent it. He 
 is probably bribed to display this indifference. All the 
 evening we heard their singing in the rooms in our vicinity 
 with the guitar accompaniment. The singing was not 
 good. It is merely a pretence by which to gain admit- 
 tance to the inns. They say, " I wish to go and sing," and 
 then enter with the air of professionals. In one of the 
 most famous dramatised tales a Chinese girl, distinguished 
 for filial piety and other virtues, begs her way to the 
 capital in search of her lost husband with her guitar. On 
 arriving she finds him distinguished for his scholarship, a 
 Chwang-yuen, a court favourite, and his fortune made. 
 This very popular story has surrounded with much respec- 
 tability the notion of a girl singing with a guitar. But in 
 the present day it is a sort of badge of the unprincipled to 
 sing to the guitar. 
 
 Monday, October 2ist. To-day we arrived at mid-day at 
 Pau-ting-foo after first crossing the Tsau river, we taking 
 a boat and the mules fording with their loads. Long 
 before reaching the city we heard distant firing. This was 
 at the Kin-tai, "golden tower,'"' a review ground on the 
 south-west of the city, the usual position for the military 
 drill of cities. When cities are large and have available 
 space within the walls, the exercise ground is inside. The 
 walls of Pau-ting are only four English miles in circuit. 
 It is small for its rank as chief city of the province, and 
 will probably soon be reduced to the rank of an ordinary 
 department. The governor-general since the Tientsin 
 massacre has been ordered to remain nine months of 
 the year at that far larger and more influential emporium. 
 
PILGRIM LAMAS. 2 1 1 
 
 A few years more may show the Government that even 
 for the winter the residence of the governor-general at 
 Pau-ting is not needed. Tientsin will then become the 
 capital of the province. As we passed through Pau-ting 
 the wall was under repair. We met an American friend 
 in an inn. He was on his way from Kalgan and Yu-chow 
 to Tientsin, and had come by Kwang-chang and Foo-too-yu 
 to the north-west. 
 
 Leaving this city, we changed our route to westward. 
 As in the morning, the land appeared very productive. In 
 addition to the cultivation of cotton, wheat, and other 
 cereals, the people spin and weave. They also make new 
 paper out of old, an art which is much practised all over 
 this province. We stopped for the night at Pei-poo, and 
 here we were said to be 500 U (i 60 miles) from Woo-tai 
 This is the ordinaiy route of Lamas from Peking, and 
 along the road may occasionally be seen more than usually 
 devout pilgrims prostrating themselves on the ground all 
 the way to the sacred mountain. Their idea is this: 
 Woo-tai is the favoured region of the Buddhas and of Man- 
 joosere, its great Bodhisattwa. To bow down and fall at 
 full length before the images is meritorious. To do this 
 all along the road must be far more meritorious. The pil- 
 grim says to himself : " I will make a vow. I will there- 
 fore prostrate myself at every third step. Though the 
 distance is long, I shall arrive in a month, two months, or 
 three, and I can walk back without prostrations on my 
 return." It is only the Mongols that do this. We do not 
 hear of the Chinese making this sort of painful pilgrimage. 
 The Mongols are willing on account of their reverence for 
 Woo-tai-shan and a wish to conform to a fashion that has 
 grown up among them. The Chinese, however, have their 
 cages of spiked nails, in which they stay three months 
 without once coming out, and unless that imprisonment is 
 easier to endure, we have in it an equivalent. 
 
 We came on to Wan-hien to breakfast. It is a small 
 city, with no people within the walls. Soon after we 
 
212 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 passed Ma-er-shan, a hill standing alone in the plain with 
 temple and pagoda upon it. It is shaped like a horse's ear, 
 and is therefore called Ma-er-shan. Beyond it, to the west 
 ten le, is Tang-hien, the residence of the Emperor Yau 
 before he came to the throne. Near it flows the Tang 
 river. From the river and country he is called Tang-yau. 
 His mother lived at a neighbouring hill. But are we in 
 these days to respect any old traditions ? The merciless 
 critics of ancient China are not willing to leave anything 
 remaining of that curious fabric of grandeur and dry 
 details which the Chinese call early history. The temple 
 where Tang-yau is worshipped at present is farther south 
 on the Koo-kwan route, and we shall not be near it. 
 
 At Tang-hien we found the people collected from all 
 the country round at a fair. The street was crowded. 
 There were at least three thousand buyers, sellers, and 
 lookers-on, clad chiefly in wadded cotton jackets and 
 leather or cotton trousers. Announcing our books for sale 
 at the usual unremunerative prices, we were beset with 
 eager purchasers, and at dusk we closed our account with 
 a heap of cash amounting to a dollar and a half, which 
 represents a very large number of separate selling trans- 
 actions. That night, probably, in every village round, our 
 books would be read by the flickering flame of the little 
 oil lamp, with its tiny wick of rush pith, which has served 
 the Chinese for so many ages. In out-of-the-way places 
 candles are not to be had. After not many years, perhaps, 
 the people here will all be using petroleum brought by 
 railway from West China, where it abounds. It will be 
 burned probably in iron lamps made by Shanse artisans 
 following American models, and sold at a shilling a piece, 
 a price which the people may be far better able to give 
 then than now. If, however, they have to wait fifty years 
 for such an improvement, it is very lamentable, and so 
 much the worse for the people, who now certainly have 
 very dark houses at night, except at a wedding, when 
 candles made of mutton-fat brighten the scene. 
 
ROADSIDE SCENES. 213 
 
 We had a reminder that many Lamas pass this way in 
 Tibetan inscriptions on the walls of the inn. 
 
 We have been travelling on limestone at Wan-hien, and 
 apparently sandstone at Tang-hien. We began to meet 
 stoneware jars going on carts to Pau-ting-foo. They sell at 
 1 300 cash each, or a little more than a dollar. They stand 
 in houses to hold water, and are called shui-kang. 
 
 Wednesday, October 2$d. Left Tang-hien at three A.M., 
 and reached Ta-yang-tien at nine, forty le distant. The road 
 is agreeably interspersed with pretty villages. The poplar 
 grows abundantly, and forms a very graceful feature in the 
 scenery. The brown soil is relieved by its tapering form 
 and white bark, which is remarkably contrasted with its 
 dark green leaves. Here may be seen houses of stone 
 built up like fortresses. There, a team of heavy drays 
 laden with cotton, corn, or large hangs of stoneware. Here 
 a boy looks down from a bank forty feet high with mingled 
 curiosity and fear, as he notices strange people with light 
 eyes and large beards riding past. Who they are he knows 
 not. He registers it in his memory as an unexplained 
 wonder. We have now entered the hilly country. Clear 
 streams of mountain water, tasting slightly of lime, pass 
 over a sandstone bottom. Fine beds of cabbages swelling 
 Into a globular shape are now seen. They are not like the 
 oblong Shantung cabbage called hwang-ya, " yellow bud," 
 but like our home cabbages. They abound in Shanse. 
 Date trees, their leaves all dropped, good beans, sweet 
 potatoes, and the Chinese yam, frequently meet the eye ; 
 with, here and there, an old barn partly ruined and open 
 to the weather, but secured against storms by large bundles 
 of straw and kau-liang stalks stuffed into holes, evidently 
 adapted to induce the observant traveller to moralise on 
 the faults of the lazy owner. 
 
 Our mules, walking at a rate not exceeding three miles 
 an hour, enjoy the approach of the hilly country, for they 
 are accustomed to climb, to plant the foot carefully between 
 stones, to turn round at a sharp angle, to go up steep paths, 
 
214 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 to wade through rivers, and occasionally to be a little tricky 
 and upset their riders. If in dusty soil the' mule puts his 
 forefeet down and kneels, let the rider know that he is 
 bent on having a roll in that soft bed ; and if he can get 
 him up again without losing his seat on the animal's back, 
 let him do so. 
 
 We crossed the Tang-ho river soon after leaving Ta-yang- 
 tien. It flows through the Great Wall at Tau-ma-kwan 
 to Ho-kien-foo, a prefecture to the south-east. There was 
 a wooden plank bridge placed just below the junction of 
 the river with the Siau-tsing-ho, a stream whose valley we 
 now entered and ascended for several miles, crossing the 
 river in various places, the water not reaching above half- 
 way up the mules' legs. Leaving this valley, we mounted 
 by successive terraces a tract of high country, presenting to 
 our view everywhere nothing but broad and well-culti- 
 vated surfaces of loess. At length at Ke-yu wo reached 
 the bed of another stream, the Sha-ho, the third river we 
 have seen to-day. The first was the Tang-ho, deep and 
 rapid, rushing swiftly over stones and sand, which we saw 
 but once. The second was the Siau-tsing-ho, which we 
 crossed six times while travelling as many miles. At 
 each ford there is a plank bridge for foot passengers, among 
 whom are many Lamas on pilgrimage. The planks are 
 placed loose on strong piles, that they may be easily 
 removed at the swelling of the river in summer and at its 
 freezing in winter. The piles and planks are all removed 
 when a flood is expected. The eight miles of high loess 
 country which we passed before reaching the Sha-ho 
 may to some extent illustrate the probable origin of 
 that formation. They appear to me to be an immense 
 sandhill eight miles wide, lying between two rivers, and 
 formed, as sandhills are, by wind. The winds of a few 
 years suffice to heap up sandhills round the walls of 
 Peking, between the buttresses, to the height of ten, 
 twenty, or more feet. So, probably, the ancient dust 
 which forms the loess formation, and the excellent agri- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF STONEWARE JARS. 215 
 
 cultural qualities of which have been described by Bich- 
 thoven, was blown against the barrier consisting of the 
 mountain ranje, Tai-hang-shan, at the roots of which 
 we now \vere. On the new stratum each year various 
 grasses and other plants grew. The vertical hollow tubes 
 now seen were formed by these plants forcing their way 
 up to the air and light above. The result was such heaps 
 of that foimation as we crossed to-day. Since then the 
 rivers have been quietly undermining both the loess heaps 
 and the sandstone, limestone, or granite on which they 
 rest, and have carried away vast quantities of earth and 
 stone to the plains on the east. Eichthoven has seized 
 on the right idea for explaining how hills of this kind 
 were formed. 
 
 In the Sha-ho valley we found what we had been ex- 
 pecting to see the manufactory for large water-jars. It is 
 at a place called Wa-le, or " tile village." Here we saw the 
 process. The clay is called kan-tsi-too, and is found close by. 
 The kiln is cut in a loess hill which stands isolated in the 
 valley. At the bottom of the kiln, which is excavated at 
 the east end of the hill, is a long large furnace. Over it is 
 spread a network of iron bars, and on this rests a pile of 
 new jars, large and small, to the height of fifteen feet. 
 The jars are placed carefully one over another in readiness 
 to be fired. Xext to the firing-house on the west were 
 storehouses for jars kept in stock. These storerooms are 
 cut deep into the loess, and their roofs and side walls are 
 supported by wooden framework on the principle adopted 
 in coal mines. Xext was the potter's room, where two 
 men sit, the potter and his assistant. The potter sits on a 
 low stool with a large round flat stone before him, which 
 revolves from right to left horizontally. He places his lump 
 of softened clay, of a dark colour, \vell kneaded, on the flat 
 stone. Inserting his fist in the lump, while the stone re- 
 volves, a sort of flower-pot shape is given to it. He gradu- 
 ally enlarges the hollow made by his fist till it becomes 
 the interior of a two feet high and eight inches wide jar. 
 
2 1 6 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The quantity of clay needed for a jar of a required size is 
 previously known. He also uses in moulding a flat oblong 
 piece of wood and also a round piece. By these he com- 
 pletes the moulding of the jar, which shows gutters 
 parallel with the base, which are not ornamented, and 
 can scarcely be intended for any use. The wheel is turned 
 by the agency of another man who is placed a few feet 
 distant, and draws a handle in and out horizontally. 
 This turns a wheel near the ground, round which is 
 wrapped a band of hemp. The band turns the potter's 
 wheel on which is placed the moulding board. The jar 
 was made in about five minutes, and a hundred can be 
 made in a day. Large quantities stood in the vicinity 
 ready for sale. Jars spoiled in making are used in build- 
 ing cottages. We saw several huts whose walls were thus 
 constructed. The working wheel is called the water- 
 wheel, shui-lun; the other is the dry wheel, kan-lun. 
 the boy who drives is the chiau kan lun ts'i till. This 
 word chiau is the same that is used in turning a capstan 
 on canals when boats are drawn by ropes over a break- 
 water to reach another level. 
 
 Coal is brought twenty le down a valley which de- 
 bouches at Wa-le near the pottery. It is anthracite, and 
 not equal to that of the mines near Peking. We passed 
 the night at Ke-yu. 
 
 Thursday, October 2^th Wang-Tcwai. This morning 
 we saw signs of the inundation of last summer. Many 
 trees lay on the sands of the Sha-ho, up which we were 
 now travelling westward towards the pass Lung-tsiuen- 
 kwan. Willows, poplars, and date trees abound in this 
 valley. The people are beginning to carry away the 
 fallen trees, some of which are dead and others still 
 green. 
 
 We were glad to find that vaccinators come to these 
 mountain valleys in the spring. They charge 400 cash for 
 girls and 800 for boys. The people will allow their little 
 girls to take small-pox rather than pay as much for them 
 
NA TIVE POLITENESS. 2 1 7 
 
 as for boys. A curious fact this, indicating a contempt for 
 girls, which, though highly discreditable, is felt by the 
 parents. In the village where we made the inquiry, about 
 four hundred are vaccinated every spring. The fee for 
 each is ninepence on the average. How much better taken 
 care of are our own poor in England, who get vaccination 
 for nothing, and will be fined if they neglect it ! 
 
 We were told that ying-tai or tsoo-po-tsi, known among 
 us as goitre, occurs 200 le to the north of these valleys near 
 Kwang-chang, but is very rare in this part, perhaps 
 because the country here is open and the valleys wide. 
 The great width of our valley is also a preservative against 
 sudden floods. We noticed loess lying in many places in a 
 thick deposit on sandstone or limestone. The road led us 
 over several hills consisting of these three formations. 
 
 Friday, October 2$th. We slept last night at Foo-ping, 
 a city built on the banks of the Sha-ho. We went in by 
 a small gate, and reached an inn, where, as we lay, we could 
 hear the rushing sound of the river a few rods away. At 
 places like this the traveller must expect very small rooms 
 and close quarters. One would not suppose that in a poor 
 inn in a far-off place the people would care much for the 
 rules of politeness, but wherever the Chinaman goes he 
 takes these rules with him. As I took a cup of tea care- 
 lessly from the inn boy with my hand over it, he checked 
 me, saying good-naturedly that a cup of tea should always 
 be taken with both hands placed beneath, otherwise there 
 is a want of respect. How many times do we offend un- 
 consciously the native notion of what ceremony requires, 
 when an inn waiter in a little mountain town is piqued at 
 the want of respect shown in an act such as this ! 
 
 In the plains meals are paid for according to what is 
 asked for by the dish. Each dish is charged. But among 
 the mountains there is a fixed rate for a meal, the same 
 for men and for animals. The rate is 140 cash, or about 
 threepence, for each person or animal. This includes lodging. 
 The mules receive straw but no corn from the inn. The 
 
218 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 owner is expected to bring corn with him. The food 
 supplied for men is of a homely kind. No other can be 
 provided, so that travellers having a dainty palate had 
 better not go or carry a cook with them. 
 
 Silver begins to be 10 per cent, dearer. A tael only 
 brings 1500 copper cash, instead of 1650.* The scale used 
 subtracts 8 per cent, per tael on the weight, and the 
 number given for a hundred is 99. In this way it will be 
 found that the custom in regard to exchange goes against 
 the traveller in every particular. In Peking we receive 
 98 for a hundred. In Cho-chow and Ansi we had only 96. 
 We use the market scale, while the people prefer the old 
 smooth scale or Lau-kwang-kwang. One thing we were 
 saved from on the route we took. There was no counting 
 of 660 to the thousand. The system of counting 165 one 
 tiau, 325 two tiau, and so on, is said to have been intro- 
 duced by Chang-si-kwei of the Tang dynasty, subjugator 
 of Corea. In South China 1000 copper cash count as a 
 thousand. In the north 500, and in some places 660, are a 
 thousand. The system of calling 660 a thousand exists 
 south and east of Peking, but not to the west. 
 
 Noon, at Lu-ying-poo. We came on forty le to this 
 place. There is a large inn here. Bituminous coal is 
 used, and is brought from a place forty le east of Woo-tai 
 city. Four hundred cash a picul is paid for it here, or 
 a little more than a shilling. The prosperity of the inn, 
 which appeared evident from extensive building operations 
 going on at present, depends on the traffic along the road, 
 which consists of cotton bales and cotton cloth going to 
 Shanse, and wool, water, and tobacco coming back again. 
 It is on the trade route between Pau-ting-foo and the 
 north part of Shanse, including Kwei-hwa-cheng. Coal is 
 here called ski-tan, " stone charcoal." Ironware comes from 
 Yu-hia, 300 le distant. Leaving the Sha-ho after following 
 it ten le, we went up the valley of another stream, the 
 Wan-nien-chiau-ho, which flows down its channel rapidly 
 through boulders, pebbles, and sand. 
 
CHINESE TRAVELLING. 219 
 
 In the evening we were at Lung-tsiuen-kwan. There is 
 a fort below the pass, and it is here that customs are 
 collected. As we entered the collectors asked us to pay 
 duty. They spoke in a bold and noisy tone. I said to an 
 old man who showed the most violence of demeanour) 
 " Do not be violent. We are going to an inn to stay the 
 night. Come there and look at our passports." They 
 then ceased to be noisy, and never appeared at the inn. 
 Some more sagacious person perhaps told them that to 
 demand duty from foreigners is irregular. 
 
 We found evidence to-day that, though we had stopped 
 a Sunday on the road and were travelling very slowly, we 
 were going faster than many Chinese would do, for a party 
 came up to us at noon that had passed us a day from Peking. 
 Seventy le (twenty-three miles) a day contented them. A 
 dissolute young man in a mule sedan was chief of the 
 cavalcade. He seemed to have been made an invalid by a 
 vicious life. As we stayed both a day at An-su and half a 
 day at another town, we had gained one day in six as 
 compared with the Chinese travellers ; yet we were im- 
 patient and they were contented. The first point with the 
 Chinese is not to be made uncomfortable; with the Anglo- 
 Saxon the object is not to be slow. 
 
 Our course now lay up a valley with vast granite boulders. 
 It reminded us of the Nan-kow Pass near Peking. The 
 water has immense force when increased by its depth. 
 The hydraulic pressure thus caused works great destruc- 
 tion. We saw its effects in the Siau-tsing-ho. An idol 
 shrine, image, table, and offerings had been placed under 
 a steep cliff. Helpless as Dagon the idols looked on the 
 sand, leaving in their original station on a ledge of the 
 rock no trace to show where they were formerly, except 
 some rude painting made by devotees on the cliff. 
 
 A cross inscribed on walls and stones excited our 
 curiosity. It is for the protection of the harvest. The 
 villagers form a club for mutual aid against robbery. A 
 watch is kept by the members in succession. If a thief 
 
220 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 is caught, he is brought before the club for punishment. 
 A mark, such as the character +, is inscribed on the walls 
 of enclosed lands guaranteed by the club. If any villager 
 refuses to join the society, his land is not marked, and he 
 has no guarantee against robbery. 
 
 We were now beneath the Great Wall in a little fort. 
 Here we passed a night in an inn. In the morning we 
 were detained till gun-fire, which takes place at dawn. 
 The gates are not opened till then. 
 
 Saturday, October 26th. Breakfast at Shi-tsui at eleven. 
 This morning we went through the pass called Lung- 
 tsiuen-kwan, which is very steep and high. On the top 
 of the hill we found oatmeal and potatoes ready boiled for 
 travellers. They are excellent after a steep walk up the 
 hill. 
 
 Foo-ping is in the province of Chihle. At Lung-tsiuen- 
 kwan we left that province and entered the department of 
 Tai-yuen-foo in Shanse. The wall separating Shanse and 
 Chihle dates from the time of the contending states, Chan- 
 kwo, B.C. 300. When the Chau kingdom separated itself 
 from the Yen kingdom by a wall, Shanse was Chau, and 
 Chihle was Yen. Afterwards, in the time of Tsin-shi- 
 hwang, B.C. 220, of Sui-yang-te, A.D. 500, and of the Ming 
 dynasty, particularly when extensions and repairs of the 
 various boundary walls were made, this branch would 
 receive attention. Such strength as it has now is owing 
 to the exertions of the Ming dynasty to keep itself in 
 security against the Mongols. Tsin-shi-hwang was the 
 greatest builder among many builders who lived before 
 him and after him. Like them, he found that mountain 
 barriers formed the natural boundary of their country, and 
 like them he thought it best to fortify the passes. The 
 forts and gates at the passes were the essential idea. The 
 ancient rulers of China thought, however, as the Romans 
 thought in Britain, that a continuous wall to connect these 
 forts should be built to impart an air of greater strength 
 and security. Tsin-shi-hwang only extended further the 
 
WORSHIP OF LOCAL DEITIES. 221 
 
 ideas of earlier rulers when he ordered Meng-kwa to build 
 a wall all the way from Shan-hai-kwan, on the sea-coast, 
 to the western end of Shense, west of the Yellow Elver. 
 Lung-tsiuen-kwan is not so important as Tsi-king-kwan 
 and Ku-yung-kwan farther to the north. When armies 
 have invaded the province of Chihle, they have come by 
 Ku-yung-kwan on the Kalgan road in three cases out of 
 ten, and by Tsi-king-kwan near the imperial tombs in 
 seven cases out of ten. This is partly caused by the 
 easier travelling on the road which leads from Kwang- 
 chang (and Yu-chow higher up) down the valley of the 
 Ku-ma-ho to Tsi-king-kwan. Once past that fort, and a 
 rapid descent down a good road brings the traveller to the 
 productive plains of Yu-chow and Pau-ting-foo. 
 
 The country now known as the Pau-ting-foo depart- 
 ment was a battle-field for two centuries between the 
 Tang and early Sung dynasties. Chen-ting-foo was the 
 middle capital of the Kie-tan kingdom at a still earlier 
 time. North China under that Tartar dynasty had then 
 three capitals, one of them in Mongolia. 
 
 At Lung-tsiuen-kwan we were probably 1000 feet higher 
 than at Pa-ta-ling, the top of the Nan-kow Pass. It is 
 twenty le from the fort to the top of the pass. At Nan- 
 kow the distance is forty-five. The steep rises much more 
 rapidly at Lung-tsiuen-kwan. 
 
 A steep mountain, or any mountain at all remarkable, 
 is supposed to have a special local spirit, who acts as 
 guardian. The Chinese Government provides for maintain- 
 ing certain sacrifices to the deities of mountains on a large 
 scale for the Empire. But among the people the same 
 religious belief exists, and leads them to worship the 
 spirits of certain mountains in small shrines or temples on 
 the roadside. In one such shrine on the way up to the 
 top of the pass were placed five small tablets of wood. 
 On the middle one was inscribed the " tablet of the spirit 
 of the mountain." On the left were a tablet to the 
 spirits of the five roads, and another to the spirit of local 
 
222 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 fever. On the right side were a tablet to the Tsiang- 
 kiun named Peh, and to the spirits of water, grass, and 
 corn. Tsiang-kiun is a military title corresponding to our 
 " general." 
 
 Near this temple was another to a divinity, Liow-wang, 
 who is in these regions prayed to for rain. Both shrines 
 were newly repaired and gaudily painted. 
 
 Not far away, and lower down the mountain, was a 
 temple to Kwan-yin, who was called on the inscribed 
 tablets, Ling-ying-fo, "the efficacious, prayer-answering 
 Buddha." On both sides of the road were numerous 
 tablets set up by admiring devotees. Here follow sundry 
 specimens of the sentences inscribed on them: Kwang-kio, 
 "wide perception;" Me-yew, "secret aid;" Hwa yu man 
 feng, "Flowers fall like rain over the whole mountain;" 
 Tsi Jiang poo too, "The ship of mercy universally saving;" 
 Woo-poo-ying, " Never-failing efficacy;" Kiovj-lcoo, "Saves 
 from misery;" Nan hai ta shi, " Great teacher of the 
 Southern Sea." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 JOURNEY TO WOO-TAI-SHAN CONTINUED FROM 
 LUNG-TSIUEN-KWAN TO WOO-TAI. 
 
 AFTER crossing the Tai-hang-ling, the summit of which 
 separates the provinces of Chihle and Shanse, we soon 
 passed a Laina monastery called Arshan-bolog, 1 " the temple 
 of the fountain of the genii." It was originally an ordinary 
 Buddhist temple in the hands of Chinese priests or hos- 
 Jiangs, and was founded in the reign of Wan-leih. When 
 the Emperor Kanghe, of the Tartar dynasty, passed this 
 way on the road to Woo-tai to worship there the images 
 adored by the Lamas, he observed that the idols in this 
 temple were broken and neglected. He was angry at the 
 priests and gave it in charge to Lamas. There are now 
 twelve Lamas there, who all came from Eastern Mongolia. 
 This incident and the handsome style of the buildings 
 show how great was the attachment of that Emperor to 
 the Buddhist religion. Yet at one period in his life he 
 was, say the Jesuits, nearly converted to Christianity. 
 He was probably a man open to impressions, easily 
 wrought upon, but not capable of being induced to aban- 
 don the traditional etiquette of emperors by adopting the 
 religion of the scholars from the Western Ocean. 
 
 The descent was slow and slightly inclined. We soon 
 ?ame to another handsome temple occupied by more than 
 a hundred Lamas, who rushed out with great eagerness to 
 see us. The temple is called Tai-loo-sze, " temple of the 
 foot of the terraces," i.e., of Woo-tai. Twelve of the 
 Lamas are Mongol and the rest Chinese. 
 
 The valley leading to Shi-tsui goes south-west and con- 
 
 1 Arshan is the Sanscrit rLhi, borrowed with Buddhism. Bolog is fotis, 
 fountain. 
 
224 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 tinues its descent to Woo-tai city. We were to take a 
 turn in a nearly opposite direction at Shi-tsui conducting 
 us up the valley of a stream which fifty miles to the north 
 flows past the monasteries of Woo-tai. 
 
 We met a crowd of travellers at Shi-tsui. The inn was 
 large and a good meal was provided. Among other things 
 there were sweet cakes made of flour, sugar, and a little 
 sesamum oil. They taste something like shortbread. 
 Hear this, ye Scotchmen; you can still enjoy in China the 
 luxuries of home. There was also a dish of celery. The 
 market was busy and the buyers and lookers-on numerous. 
 A merchant came forward and said, "I have read your 
 books." To the answer, "What book?" he replied, "The Old 
 Testament." Of this he had completed the perusal of two 
 volumes (in all there are three). He showed himself to be 
 tolerably familiar with Genesis. He had received the 
 book from a friend who had obtained it from a Bible 
 Society's colporteur. I gave him other books. 
 
 We noticed in passing forward up the long Woo-tai 
 valley the special customs of the' people. As we are now 
 high above the zone of wheat cultivation, oats are extremely 
 common. A flail is used to thresh with. Two men stand 
 opposite to each other, each with a flail, and beat the oats 
 right lustily. The part held in the hand is round, while 
 the flying stick is constructed of plaited willow forming an 
 oblong flat piece of basketwork. The oatmeal is usually 
 eaten in the form of rnaccaroni or as porridge in a rice bowl 
 
 We passed an overshot mill which was at work pressing 
 oil. The stream, which, to increase and steady its force, is 
 collected in a dam, is directed upon a large vertical 
 wooden wheel. Eound its circle are several small troughs 
 which the stream fills with water. The weight of the 
 water turns the wheel. A horizontal wheel is attached 
 which revolves by means of cogs. The axle of this 
 horizontal wheel is an upright shaft, which goes through 
 the floor of a room above, and there turns the stone which 
 presses out the oil 
 
A MONGOL LAMA. 225 
 
 North of the mill, advancing up the valley of the little 
 stream which joins the Siau-tsing-ho at Woo-tai city, we 
 found it necessary to ford the little river frequently. Many 
 of the Lama pilgrims are pedestrians, and for them trees are 
 laid across the stream. Mules ford by crossing the water, 
 which is broad and shallow. The bridges consist of two, 
 three, or four trees, sometimes slightly flattened with a 
 hatchet, but oftener they are left in their original round 
 .shape. Travellers are expected to have good nerves and 
 not to grow giddy on slight occasions. The soles of 
 Chinese shoes, being of cloth, are good for stepping along 
 a prostrate tree laid across a stream. 
 
 We passed several monasteries as darkness came on and 
 afterwards. We were now near the Nan-tai, the southern- 
 most of the five mountain peaks which make up Woo-tai. 
 It was too dark to make inquiries. We proceeded steadily 
 onward till we reached the town of Tai-hwai. Here, at 
 a quarter to seven P.M., we arrived, and found an inn 
 belonging to a monastery, where lodging was given to us. 
 A visitor, who was a Mongol Lama, came in to see us 
 while our evening meal was preparing. He belonged to 
 the Harchin tribe. He took tea willingly, offered his 
 snuff bottle, and professed friendship. This we reciprocated, 
 and stated our belief in the common brotherhood of man- 
 kind. To this he cordially assented, for Buddhism, as 
 held either by Lamas or Hoshangs, teaches its votaries to 
 look on universal brotherhood as a great truth. He was 
 elegant in manner, and wished to consider himself as our 
 friend in future. He could not read Mongol nor expound 
 Tibetan, and is therefore without depth. 
 
 Sunday, October 2^th Tai-hwai-Jciai. A cold frosty 
 morning. I went out to look at our surroundings. A few 
 Lamas were stirring at an early hour, and were rapidly 
 moving along the street in the cold air. Bound the town 
 smoke began to rise from the various monasteries. Traffic 
 was proceeding north, west, and south from our little town 
 along the valleys that lie in those directions. Half a mile 
 
 p 
 
22 6 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 to the north stands Poo-sa-ting on an eminence, the resi- 
 dence of the chief Lama, and the richest and largest 
 Lamasery. Beyond it towers up above its neighbour 
 summits the North Tai. 
 
 Over the south gate of the little town of Tai-hwai there 
 is a small temple to Hormosda Tingri and Dara-ehe. Both 
 are known to Chinese Buddhism, but in China it is not 
 usual to place Yu-hwang-shang-te (Hormosda) in a temple 
 as guardian of a city gate. We were now in Lama-land, 
 and must expect to see arrangements peculiar to Lama 
 Buddhism. Hormosda was in this case just a Chinese 
 Yu-hwang. He faced south. Dara-ehe is the Mu-fo 
 (mother Buddha) of the Chinese, and Ehe Borhan of the 
 Mongols. 1 She has a Bodhisattwa's diadem, or, as the 
 Mongols call it, a tidem. On all of its five leaves there 
 was a picture of Buddha. On each side of her is seen a 
 tall branch of flowers, in this instance the lotus, reaching 
 to her head. On her forehead is a spot or small elevation 
 which the attendant Lamas told us sends forth a hair 
 which, when Dara-ehe wishes, goes out for thousands of 
 miles in an instant. This is an instance of the magical 
 miracle in which the Buddhist imagination indulges itself 
 without limit. For what object is the hair extended ? To 
 vhow the power of the goddess, in order that the worshippers 
 may be filled with reverence for her. We conversed for 
 some time with three or four Lamas in a court beside this 
 temple, who kindly entertained us with tea. We discoursed 
 on their religion and ours. They received our books gladly. 
 
 I afterwards walked to the Shoo-siang-si, a monastery 
 standing on the north-west of the town and south-west 
 from Poo-sa-ting. A party of Mongol women, youths, and 
 men were just entering, pilgrims visiting each principal 
 shrine in rotation that they might prostrate themselves in 
 each. Such in the Middle Ages was a great part of Chris- 
 tian worship even in England. They proceeded to the 
 great hall of Manjoosere, patron deity of Woo-tai. Here 
 
 1 She belongs to the Sivaistic element in Buddhism. 
 
WORSHIP OF CHI-CHAY. 227 
 
 he is seen as a large gilt figure seated on an immense lion. 
 The lion is many coloured. The name Slwo-siang means 
 image of Maujoosere or Wen-shoo. Eound the image 
 just mentioned is a representation of Tien-tai, constructed 
 of moulded figures, Buddhist personages, trees, &o., occupy- 
 ing three sides of the hall. It is erected on a high dais of 
 "brickwork and reaches to the ceiling. The object is to 
 give in successive landscapes, amid rockwork and marine 
 scenery, the history of the celebrated Buddhist establish- 
 ments at Tien-tai in the province of Che-kiang. 
 
 Lohans appear here to the number of five hundred. 
 Some of them appear floating on the waves of the Southern 
 Sea, others are seen on clouds and mountains. Near a 
 temple of Yu-hwang appears Tamo the Indian patriarch, 
 Bodhidharma, with his pupil Sheng-kwang, standing be- 
 fore him. The pupil, a Chinese Buddhist, holds in his 
 right hand his own left arm, which he has just cut off near 
 the shoulder as a sign of his devotion and dominion over 
 the body. This is said to have taken place in the fifth 
 century. Beyond this group sits the Buddhist sage Chi- 
 diay, with Lohans near him and four Yakshas raging round 
 him, who fail to disturb his tranquillity. Among native 
 Buddhist authors his writings have been perhaps the most 
 extensive in influence. The priest who showed me these 
 things was very frank and communicative. Two other 
 Chinese priests led me into a room to take tea. The room 
 showed signs of comfortable living and also of some 
 literary industry. A manuscript on the table contained 
 a collection of tracts on the doctrine which is " not dark," 
 meaning Buddhism. When I told them of our religion, 
 the abandonment of nionasticism, heart-worship instead of 
 image- worship, and the history of Jesus, they assented. 
 Buddhism is an extremely tolerant religion. 
 
 October 28th. The Hosliangs in Woo-tai are almost all 
 Shanse men. Natives of the south could not, they say, 
 live in so cold a region as Woo-tai ; nor could Northern 
 Buddhists live in the south. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
228 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 The Lamas at Woo-tai are, if Mongols, almost ex- 
 clusively from Eastern Mongolia, indicating the import- 
 ance of that region in regard to wealth and population. 
 We are surprised at the large number of Lamas who can 
 read the Mongol writing. In Peking they can usually 
 read only the Tibetan character. Here they receive our 
 books cheerfully. Yet it is probable that in Peking if 
 the number of the Mongols who can read were told it would 
 not be small. They are more reticent and retiring there than 
 here, because in that city a foreign costume is no rarity. 
 
 On the east side of the valley from Shoo-siang-si is a 
 monastery called Kwang-an-si. It has been recently re- 
 paired and decorated. Eed and green paint and yellow 
 silk and satin have been used in profusion. Hollow brass 
 images, life-size, were very abundant and seemed quite 
 new. We visited three tiens or chapels all richly fitted. 
 Tibetan pictures of the favourite mythological scenes and 
 personages of the Lama religion hung on the walls. Out- 
 side these chapels were stone and slate tablets com- 
 memorating the work of restoration and chronicling the 
 gifts of Mongol princes. Among them were the names 
 of the Kalka-hans or chief princes, and several southern 
 Wangs or princes. 
 
 October 2Qth. While Mr. Gilmour went up to the 
 mountain top, Dr. Wheler and I found a path on the 
 eastern ascent leading to a monastery from which a fine 
 view is obtained of the whole valley, here presenting a 
 beautiful and busy scene. Large droves of camels are seen 
 grazing over the valley. The bazaar close to Poo-sa-ting is 
 full of life. Mongols are constantly here buying from the 
 Chinese shopkeepers. The great monastery Poo-sa-ting 
 stretches its immense length along a conspicuous hill just 
 above. In the same group were some Tibetan monasteries 
 where more than a hundred Lamas from Eastern and West- 
 ern Tibet permanently reside. A boy Lama of ten years 
 went with us as compagnon de voyage. We were amused at 
 his tricks. When we spoke to Lamas he stayed at a dis- 
 
VISIT TO THE CHIEF LAMAS RESIDENCE. 229 
 
 tance too far for recognition by them. He was afraid not of 
 us but of them. He talked freely enough in their absence. 
 
 To the north of Poo-sa-ting, a mile or more up the 
 valley, we visited the monastery of the Seven Buddhas. 
 The Buddhas here referred to are six legendary and one 
 historical that is, Shakyamuni himself and the six who 
 are said to have preceded him. They are placed from 
 west to east in the order of time. 
 
 Here we also saw a large figure of Ochirwani with three 
 eyes and five skulls on his head. He held in his hand a 
 vadjra, apparently a short sceptre, but really a symbol of 
 magical power. It is believed to be thrown by the genius 
 of the thunderstorm, and is therefore sometimes called a 
 thunderbolt. This vadjra is the characteristic of the image. 
 In Mongol this Sanscrit word has become ockir, and hence 
 the word Ochirwani. Behind the skulls are five wheels 
 and five flames. He is one of the Hindoo Devas, and is 
 regarded as having unconquerable strength, which is sym- 
 bolised by the vadjra, in Chinese kin-kang, "diamond," 
 " what cannot be broken." He belongs to the same class 
 as the four great heavenly kings found in the entrance 
 hall of Chinese monasteries. 
 
 Behind Ochirwani was Shakyamuni, with Manjoosere 
 and Samantabhadra beside him. Near them was a picture 
 of Aryabolo, otherwise known as goddess of mercy. 
 
 We went in the afternoon to the chief Lama's temple, 
 the Poo-sa-ting, built on the flat top of a hill about 400 
 feet high. There is a flight of 109 broad stone steps at 
 the south end. A well-clad Lama at the gate informed 
 us that the chief Lama was employed in preparing for the 
 cham-karail, or sacred dance, and could not see visitors. 
 He lives in the south-east part of the monastery. We 
 proceeded along the whole range of buildings to the north. 
 At the back of the halls of the images were long ranges of 
 lodging-rooms for Lamas, forming quite a little town, for 
 a crowd of them congregates here as at Yung-ho-kung in 
 Peking. Many Mongol women are seen in this part, pro- 
 
2jo RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 bably all belonging to pilgrim parties, who find quarters 
 in rooms provided for them. Many ranges of buildings 
 have upper and lower verandahs. Elsewhere are seen 
 Tibetan houses with their small square windows in the 
 upper part of a strong high wall. Among the pilgrims 
 and resident Lamas there was great eagerness for our 
 Mongol catechism and tracts. 
 
 Eeturning to the chief entrance, we found that the secre- 
 tary and other chief attendants of the Jasah Lama, as the 
 abbot is called (jasali means governing), were prepared to 
 receive us in their apartments in front of his residence. 
 Our entertainers were Tibetans, speaking fluently both 
 Chinese and Mongol. They treated us to tea with milk, 
 the soo-tai-cliay of the Mongols. An elderly man with a 
 long beard named Pan, and another, both from Lassa, had 
 a good deal of conversation with us. They will soon 
 return to their country. They knew well that India, the 
 land south of the Ghoorka country, belongs to England, 
 but did not seem to be aware of Hue and Gabet's visit to 
 Tibet. The room was arranged as a Chinese room, with 
 heated dais or kang, and cupboards opposite. It was kept 
 warm further by a charcoal or coke fire without smell, and 
 standing on a brass bason. A kettle is here kept hot for tea. 
 The hot air ascending turns a praying wheel which is sus- 
 pended for the purpose from the ceiling. We intrusted to 
 our entertainers books for the abbot, namely, the Old and 
 New Testament in Mongol, with catechism and tracts. He 
 sent us in return by the hands of Pan Lama two bundles 
 of Tibetan incense with several sentences of complimentary 
 expressions, such as, "were we comfortable in our inn," "had 
 we a pleasant journey /'and "how long we would stay?" The 
 incense is in bundles of twelve sticks, twenty inches long. 
 
 The Poo-sa-ting was formerly called Chen-yung-yuen, 
 "temple of the true face," which dated from the fourth 
 century. The Tartar Emperor of the clay, Hiau-wen-te, 
 caused twelve temples to be erected round the monastery 
 of the Han Emperor Ming-te, then in existence, and sent 
 
INSCRIPTIONS ON DOORS. 231 
 
 officers periodically to worship Buddha there. This gives 
 an antiquity to the Poo-sa-ting of fourteen hundred years, if 
 we do not take a change in name to be a disturbance of its 
 identity. Nothing is now known respecting the locality of 
 the other eleven temples, or of the original monastery erected 
 in the Han dynasty, whose name was Ta-fow-ling-tsiow-si. 
 
 Ashoka, monarch of all India, a little before the time of 
 Alexander the Great, is said to have caused the spirits and 
 demons of the air, the Kwei-shen, to erect 84,000 pagodas in 
 all countries to receive the relics of Buddha. Among them 
 was one at Woo-tai. Formerly there was some building 
 which connected itself with this tradition. We did not 
 learn anything of it. Three of the 84,000 relics were in 
 China. I have seen one in the province of Che-kiang, in a 
 temple near IsTingpo. I wished to see another at Woo-tai, 
 but was not successful. 
 
 At the doors of houses where Lamas live it is usual to 
 write lucky sentences in the Chinese fashion. They are 
 translated into Mongol from Chinese. Here follow some 
 specimens : 
 
 " May your age be the same as that of the pines in the 
 southern mountains." 
 
 "May your happiness abound as the waters of the 
 Eastern Sea." 
 
 " Xasu anu umun agola ne narasun adeli l 
 Boyin anu jagon dalai ne usu metu." 
 
 The Chinese reads : 
 
 " Foo joo tung hai chang liow shui, 
 Show pe nan shan poo lau sung." 
 
 Sentences of this kind keep poetical sentiments before 
 the eye, and they may thus have a softening and refining 
 effect on the mind, but they aid superstition as bein<T 
 founded on the doctrine of luck, and promoting its hold on 
 the people. 
 
 An old and young Lama came to our inn, the latter 
 a boy of fifteen. He had been at Woo-tai four years. 
 
 1 See note on page 241. 
 
232 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 They live in the temple of Hormosda Tingri, a short way 
 down the southern valley. The boy is from the Ordos 
 country and has seen there the tomb of Genghis Khan. 
 Agriculture is practised in the Ordos country, but not by 
 members of his family. His brother attends to sheep and 
 horses in preference. I gave him a book to learn to read 
 from. The old Lama said he would find some schoolmaster 
 or bakshi to instruct him. We learned from these Lamas 
 that we had passed the Ehen-omai l in coming to Tai-hwai 
 on Saturday evening. It is an exhibition in a cave, near 
 which is a temple, twenty Chinese miles south of the town. 
 This morning (Tuesday) went to the temple of the 
 Ubegun Manjoosere west of Poo-sa-ting. It is a mile up 
 the side of a mountain. The image is that of an old 
 man, one form assumed by Manjoosere, having a white 
 beard three inches long. He is placed in a small shrine. 
 Heaps of small silk kerchiefs on his hands and knees, 
 placed there by enthusiastic worshippers, prevented the 
 figure from being well seen. Bound the hall from floor 
 to ceiling were ten thousand figures of Manjoosere, in- 
 dicating the multiform shapes he assumes in his efforts to 
 save men. In the great hall behind, Manjoosere appears 
 again in company with Samantabhadra and Kwan-yin. He 
 there wears the crown of a Bodhisattwa over the oyster- 
 shell cap of a Buddha, and with no beard. All these per- 
 sonages are supposed to assume various metamorphoses. 
 Manjoosere carries a bow in his left hand and a sceptre in 
 his right. In colour he may be red, white, black, green, or 
 yellow. He very commonly has in his left hand a flower. 
 When he is painted with eight hands, they hold a small 
 umbrella, a thunderbolt, a wheel, and other things. If not 
 seated on a lion he sits on a lotus dais with bare feet 
 crossed, the soles turned up. He appears frequently, so it 
 is believed, to the inhabitants of the valley, taking the 
 shape of a blind man, a shepherd, a Lama, or some other 
 personage. Once he appeared as a poor girl who left her 
 
 1 Womb of Buddha's mother. 
 
LOCAL LEGENDS. 233 
 
 hair to be buried at the spot now known as Wen-shoo-fa-ta, 
 "the tomb of Manjoosere's hair." It is on the Chung-tai, 
 "central terrace." In the reign of Wan-leih (sixteenth 
 century) this tomb was repaired and the hair seen. It was 
 of a golden hue and emitted a many-coloured light. In 
 the twelfth century a shepherd named Chau-kang-pe saw 
 a strange priest enter the Na-la-yen cave on the Tung-tai 
 and leave an umbrella there. He erected a tomb in which 
 to bury it. Not far from this tomb a woman with white 
 hair v/as seen once washing her rice bowl. A monk named 
 Ming-sin asked her whence she came. She replied, "I have 
 come from Chung-tai begging food." Then in a moment 
 she disappeared, and nothing was seen but a remarkable 
 light illuminating the grove and the valley. A girl 
 belonging to the adjoining city of Tai-chow refused to be 
 married, and ran away to a spot called the " Cliff of Mercy," 
 also at the Tung-tai. Here she ate the leaves of a certain 
 plant and drank dew. Her father and mother came and 
 tried to compel her to go home and be married. She then 
 threw herself from the cliff, but when in mid-air she took 
 wing and fled into the upper regions. 
 
 Woo-tai is a large place. The valleys, caves, springs, 
 rocks, brooks, tombs, gardens, images, are numberless. A 
 legend is attached to most of them, and the marvellous 
 things said to have been seen and done are all produced 
 by the magic power of Manjoosere, the patron god of the 
 mountain. The fountain where the silver-haired old 
 woman appeared is known as the Wen-shoo-se-po-che, 
 "the fountain where Manjoosere washed his rice bowl" 
 It is his presence that causes this whole region to appear 
 to the inhabitants to be instinct with legend. The maid 
 that would not marry was a metamorphosis of Manjoosere. 
 
 The five colours are distributed among the five moun- 
 tains, and the flowers that grow on the Nan-tai are said to 
 have the same five colours. These flowers are dried to 
 make medicine of, and visitors to Woo-tai purchase little 
 packets- to bring away with them. They make a little tea 
 
234 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 by infusing them in hot water, and think that they do 
 them good. If the partaker does not perceive any benefit 
 to his own health by these medicines, he consoles himself 
 with the reflection that others are more successful in 
 obtaining powerful aid from Manjoosere, by which their 
 bodily ailments are cured. This was the way in which 
 the matter was represented to me by a Liang Lama, a friend 
 of mine at the Yung-ho-kung, who had himself brought 
 some packets of medicine with him from Woo-tai. 
 
 The view of the sacred valley from the temple of the 
 Aged Manjoosere is very fine. Just in front is the Poo-sa- 
 ting. Up the north valley several other monasteries are 
 seen. Beside them winds the road which leads up the 
 Hwa-yen-ling. The pass of this name crosses a shoulder 
 of the North Tai and East Tai. Up the steep the road is 
 seen to bend circuitously. Next day we were to leave 
 Woo-tai by this route. To the south lay the little town of 
 Tai-hwai, where our inn was, and in the near neighbour- 
 hood of Poo-sa-ting was a cluster of monasteries, the 
 Mongol bazaar, and a collection of buildings looking like a 
 small town, where the animals belonging to travellers and 
 to the monasteries are taken care of. These groups of 
 buildings lent variety to the valley, which, on account of 
 the brown appearance of the stunted autumn grass, needed 
 this relief where it was not pierced by a silvery rushing 
 brook which flows from the north down the valley till 
 hidden by the hills of the southern landscape. To the 
 west the view looks towards the North Tai ; to the east 
 the East Tai is visible. 
 
 We went on to the Dara-ehin-sum, " the temple of the 
 mother Buddha." The worship of this divinity was intro- 
 duced in the Tang dynasty, when Sivaism entered the 
 Buddhist religion. The Hindoos, who from that time 
 forward carne to China arid Tibet, seem to have been all 
 propagators of Sivaistic Buddhism. It was from the 
 seventh to the fifteenth century, anterior to Lamaism, and 
 subsequent to the .contemplative school, the clian-wicn, that 
 
IMAGE OF DARA-EHE. 235 
 
 this form of the Buddhist religion flourished. The festival 
 of the hungry ghosts, the magical movements of the hands, 
 the use of iron and bronze mirrors, with Sanscrit charms, 
 and an image of the Buddha mother upon them, belong to 
 this age. We were now to see a temple specially devoted 
 to the honour of Dara-ehe. There were two image halls. 
 The first represented the twenty- one metamorphoses of 
 Dara, all in sitting shape, arms and chest bare. The 
 long right arm touches the lotus-flower dais on which 
 she sits. A large hau-Tcwang (literally "hairy glory," in 
 allusion to the parallel hair-like rays which are repre- 
 sented upon it) forms a back screen for her body, and a 
 coloured circle for her head. She assumes at pleasure 
 the favourite five colours. Her head-dress is usually 
 that of five tufts with a top-knot; but in this hall she 
 wore the Poosa crown of six leaves. On her left is in 
 every instance a standing flower. Behind her were the 
 three Buddhas, past, present, and future. They hold the 
 place of honour, while Dara-ehe is most prominent. New 
 images, when introduced into the temples of Northern 
 Buddhism, could not push out the older ones. They 
 could only be placed in front of them or near them. 
 
 In the other principal hall was Buddha, and in an ante- 
 room Tsung-kaba, the founder of Lamaism, who lived only 
 four hundred years ago. His form is repeated in several 
 large pictures. The stools and cushions for daily worship 
 were all arranged here, this being the hall for morning and 
 evening prayer. 
 
 A Lama, whom I met at Kalgan five years previously, 
 presented himself at this temple. He says that he has led 
 here a moderately happy life for four years. When I saw 
 him formerly he was employed by an American missionary 
 at Kalgan as teacher of the Mongol language. I think 
 he looks back with satisfaction to his more varied and 
 interesting life at that place. 
 
 The observance of the sacred dance, " Cham l harail," at 
 
 1 Cham, a Tibetan word, "to dance." 
 
236 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 Woo-tai, a masquerade of Hindoo gods going in procession, 
 is after the model employed at Yung-ho-kung in Peking. 
 At Poo-sa-ting there are first ten days of chanting, from the 
 6th to the 15th. The dance and masquerade are on the 
 last two days. The books used are the Kongso. The 
 performers are about sixty in number, and they practise 
 their parts for two months beforehand. 
 
 The Lama from Kalgan told me that at Woo-tai it is the 
 custom for boy Lamas to wear red. When young men 
 they put on tsi, or purple-brown clothing; when old they 
 wear yellow. He thinks there are two thousand Mongol 
 Lamas in Woo-tai; others think there are not more than 
 seven hundred. Statistics are difficult to procure on 
 account of the floating character of the population. Lamas 
 are fond of wandering, and, if of frugal habits, can easily 
 obtain a hospitable reception in temples. They flock in 
 crowds to Woo-tai, and prostrate themselves at the various 
 shrines with great apparent fervour. Of Buddhist priests, 
 Chinese by birth, there are several hundreds. Then there 
 are also many Chinese Lamas. The fashion is, when the 
 Chinese become Lamas, for them to chant Tibetan prayers, 
 and to have in their temples the same images and costumes 
 which are customary in Tibet. 
 
 I gave the Kalgan Lama at his request a Mongol Tes- 
 tament. He wished it for some friend. He is himself 
 greatly injured by opium smoking. 
 
 Lamas coming on pilgrimage swell the number of 
 resident Mongols greatly. So also the Mongol laity are 
 very fond of visiting Woo-tai, especially women, to worship 
 the images. We noticed some of them at the pagoda 
 south of Poo-sa-ting. This pagoda is in appearance like 
 that within the Ping-tseh-men of Peking. It consti- 
 tutes a striking object on entering the Woo-tai valley from 
 the south. It has at its base an impression of the soles of 
 Buddha's feet cut in a block of marble and facing out- 
 wards. His hands, also cut in the marble, are seen near. 
 More than three hundred praying wheels are attached to 
 
PILGRIM PURCHASES. 237 
 
 this Dagoba. The devotee mounts a few stone steps and 
 walks round the monument, touching the bells. We 
 noticed Mongol women pushing each wheel as they 
 walked round in token of respect to Buddha. They were 
 each followed by a Mongol attendant. Farther up was a 
 small shrine with images, which was reached by a flight of 
 stone steps. Woo-tai then, like Rome, has its Santa Scala, 
 which it is a merit to mount. 
 
 One pilgrim from the Ordos country had a pistol hang- 
 ing at his belt. In answer to my inquiry he said it was a 
 preservative against thieves. He asked for money. I 
 thought it best not to give him any, for he seemed to be 
 well dressed and well fed. On the broad plateau, with 
 no tents or persons in sight, it might be less safe to refuse 
 him. It seems very inconsistent with Lama doctrine to 
 wear a pistol at all. The true Lama ought not to be will- 
 ing to take life even in self-defence. 
 
 The Mongol pilgrims buy the sacred books of their 
 religion in the bazaar. They are in Mongol and Tibetan, 
 and are brought from Peking. They also purchase bells, 
 praying wheels and beads, the vadjra or diamond sceptre, 
 held in the right hand while the bell is in the left, 
 trumpets and pictures of divinities. The beads are of 
 wood, glass, seeds, or precious stones. The pictures are 
 oil paintings, representing Buddhas, Bodhisattwas, Lo- 
 hans, the Sahigolsen, or Protectors of the Law, several of 
 the Hindoo gods, some Chinese divinities, and the altars 
 of several Buddhas and other personages. These altars 
 are large terraces, made square inside and circular outside. 
 The image of the divinity to be worshipped is in the centre. 
 Four large pai-lows or triumphal arches constitute a chief 
 feature. They mark the four quarters of the horizon. 
 The altar is large or small When large it is the platform 
 or terrace on which Lamas or Hoshangs perform acts of 
 worship, and is provided with tables for offerings, cushions, 
 lamps, coloured hangings, and canopies. When the Emperor 
 orders prayers to be made for rain, at Peking these altars or 
 
238 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 tan are improvised by the use of movable furniture in a 
 short space of time in front of temples, to be used for as 
 many day s as required. According to the Lama notion the 
 tioto-mandal x represents the city where each divinity sits 
 in state in Buddha's land. Sometimes the hoto-mandal 
 supports offerings in front of the image of Buddha. 
 
 The pilgrims are also conducted to see each marvel in 
 the various temples. At the back of the large Dagoba is 
 a revolving library, turned by two men, entering at the 
 floor beneath it. It is sixty feet high and has eight sides. 
 The Chinese copy of the Ganjur is inside it. The visitor 
 sees the whole vast wheel turning slowly from east to 
 west. All praying wheels should turn in the direction in 
 which the sun moves. There was before the time of the 
 Taipings a revolving library like this in the Ling-yin 
 monastery at Hangchow ; I saw it about twenty years ago. 
 There is also one at the Yung-ho-kung in Peking. 
 
 The Mongol women are fond of buying. They appear 
 in the shops discussing with the bazaar men the prices 
 of articles. Almost everything they can need in tents is 
 to be purchased here. The head-dresses of the women 
 vary with their tribe. Pearls, coral, and silver are very 
 profusely used by them, and often cover the whole head. 
 Their black hair is put up in large rings, one, two, or 
 more in number, and varying in position according to the 
 recognised usage of their tribes. 
 
 The Mongol women are very kind to strangers, and give 
 the impression to travellers on their grassy wilds that they 
 are less selfish than the Chinese. They part readily with 
 milk and cheese, and will rise in the middle of the night 
 to give up their bed to some footsore wayfarer. They 
 keep a light burning in their tents, which serves a double 
 purpose. It is an offering to the household gods and a 
 wayrnark to travellers. The traveller pushes the tent 
 door aside, enters, stirs the fire, and makes his meal while 
 
 1 In Sanscrit-, man is " to worship ; " is a loan from Sanscrit. Martial uses 
 mandari, "a town," "a temple." mandrel for a chess-board. 
 Jloto, in Mongol, is a " city. " Mandal 
 
DAILY LIFE OF LAMAS. 239 
 
 the inmates are in bed in the interior of the tent. In this 
 abounding hospitality the Mongol women are animated 
 partly by natural kindness of disposition, partly by religious 
 motives. Being very fervent Buddhists, they believe that 
 good actions are meritorious, and will be the means of 
 bringing upon them and on their families great happiness. 
 
 The Mongol women rejoice in fast riding, and may be 
 seen on their ponies with their husbands on their native 
 plateaux riding neck to neck without ever showing signs of 
 a desire to fall behind. 
 
 Each tent has its little images. They are Shakyarnuni 
 Borhan, founder of Buddhism, Geser Han, champion of 
 Buddhism, Galiu Ejin, god of fire, the spirit who presides 
 over cookery and the safety of the home. 
 
 Their devotion to their religion renders them very will- 
 ing to give up their sons to be Lamas, and also induces 
 them to make long pilgrimages to Peking and Woo-tai in 
 order to worship the sacred images and relics of their 
 divinities. 
 
 The richest monastery in AYoo-tai is the Hung-tsiuen-si. 
 It has a copper temple among its curiosities. The Poo-sa- 
 ting is also very rich. It has landed estates supposed to 
 bring into the treasury several tens of thousands of taels 
 annually. The lands of the monasteries are in Shanse, 
 but also in Pau-ting-foo, Chen-ting-foo, &c., belonging to 
 the metropolitan province. A large sum is conferred each 
 winter by the Emperor on the Tibetan chiefs of the monas- 
 tery during their visit to Peking, where they appear at the 
 Xew Year festivities. 
 
 The daily life of most Lamas must be regarded as 
 monotonous. Their duties are chiefly reading prayers. 
 Some are engaged in instructing young Lamas, taking care 
 of buildings and property, arranging for special days of 
 worship, and study of their own department of Buddhist 
 theology. More than half the houses in Tai-bwai belong to 
 them. The proprietorship of our inn was in a monastery, 
 to which belonged a Lama who was constantly riding 
 
240 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 about on a pony, engaged in matters connected with 
 property. I saw one Lama printing a book of prayers 
 from cut blocks, probably brought from Peking. The 
 innkeeper who entertained us told me there are a thousand 
 Mongol Lamas and two thousand Chinese Lamas and 
 Hoshangs in Woo-tai. We saw many of them repeating 
 prayers men-writer with beads in their hands. They 
 appeared to have the outward form of devotion. But our 
 arrival disturbed their equanimity not a little. In a 
 temple where there are about a hundred Tibetans we saw 
 two of the same nation prostrating themselves with zeal. 
 Another still more zealous entered, who, not content with 
 striking his forehead, laid his whole body flat on the 
 ground. He went very near the image in order to do 
 this. He repeated this act of humility, and then turned 
 round to look at us as we stood at a side door. A minute 
 afterwards he came across the hall to feel our clothing 
 with a smile on his face. While feeling the foreign 
 garments with his fingers he still continued his recitation 
 of prayers or charms. We were surprised at the little 
 real devotion manifested in the behaviour of this out- 
 wardly zealous Lama. 
 
 Woo-tai is a favourite place for burial. On the hill- 
 sides the graves are exceedingly numerous. Cemeteries 
 in the plain, in the vicinity of the monasteries, are also 
 not rare. To be buried in so sacred a spot is considered 
 great good fortune. The Gegens of the Yung-ho-kung 
 monastery in Peking are brought here to find a final 
 resting-place. White tombs, enclosing an urn which 
 contains the ashes of the departed, are everywhere 
 seen. 
 
 Should the follower of Confucius go to Woo-tai, he will 
 find his favourite sage occupying a comparatively insigni- 
 ficant position. In the temple over the north gate of Tai- 
 liwai there is an image of the great sage. It is very small, 
 and stands beside a larger one of Wen-chang, god of litera- 
 ture. On the south side is Chen-woo, who is a legendary 
 
IMPERIAL CONNECTION WITH WOO-TAI. 241 
 
 protector of the faithful Taouist from pestilence and other 
 calamities. 
 
 The Ming emperors went frequently to Woo-tai; the 
 present line less frequently. But Kanghe interested him- 
 self greatly in this seat of Buddhism. The imperial lodge 
 where he resided is still there, but in a ruinous state. The 
 description of Woo-tai in four volumes, which he caused 
 to be written, is in full sympathy with Buddhism, and 
 says not a syllable in condemnation of it. The object 
 kept in view in maintaining the monasteries is, that 
 prayers may be offered by the monks for the prosperity 
 of the Emperor and the State. 
 
 Note to p. 231. Nasu, years, age ; anu, marks the nominative ; 
 umun, front, south ; agola, mountains ; ne, genitive case ; narasun, 
 pine ; adeli, the same ; boyin, happiness ; jagon, east ; dalai, sea ; 
 iisu, water ; metu, mode, Anu is the a of penna ; agola is goris, 
 hill ; ne is the genitive in ae, as in pennae; adeli is idem; boyin i.s 
 a Sanscrit loan ; jagon, east, a region of daylight ; dalai is da.\a.a<r-rj ; 
 usu is our water, vSwp from ved^ our wet ; with metu our words 
 manner and method are connected. 
 
(2 4 2) 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 JOURNEY FROM WOO-TAI-SHAN TO PEKING BY WAY 
 OF TSZE-KING-KWAN. 
 
 October 30^/1, 1872. Rose at cockcrow and left the " clear 
 and cool Woo-tai." Our course lay by the north valley 
 and up the winding Hwa-yen-ling. The view became 
 very fine as we ascended. Poo-sa-ting kept in view all the 
 way up to the top. From that point the North and East 
 Tai may be easily reached. The ascent is gradual, and is 
 uniformly over a brown grassy sod all the way. Much 
 snow was lying on the north face of the various moun- 
 tains. There is ice there which does not melt in the 
 hottest summer on the side of Chung-tai. On the top 
 above it is a white pagoda. On Pei-tai the view is of 
 overwhelming grandeur, as Mr. Gilmour told us, who 
 ascended it yesterday, from the accumulation of peaks of 
 more or less altitude all round. Next to Heng-shan the 
 North Tai is the highest peak in this part of Shanse, and 
 in fact through the province. Hence the large number of 
 visible peaks, presenting the appearance of a vast waving 
 sea of mountains, which impresses the observer at the top 
 of the North Tai. Like it in grandeur is the scene from 
 the East Tai, where at sunrise the sea can be seen far 
 away on the east. The five mountains are called terraces 
 because they are flat on the top. According to the theory 
 of Pumpelly the valleys are all cut out gradually by the 
 action of water from the plateau, which anciently extended 
 far to the southward of its present limits. I'he Chung- 
 tai, Pei-tai, and Tung-tai are linked in one; and perhaps 
 also the Se-tai and Nan-tai. The only deep valley is 
 
THE WOO-TAI MOUNTAINS. 243 
 
 probably that by which we entered this sacred seat of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 The height of Woo-tai-shan is 10,000 feet, according to 
 llichthoven. The monasteries must then be 7000 or 8000 
 feet. The same traveller says that oats are cultivated to 
 within 2000 feet of the summit. In support of this 
 estimate it should be remembered that snow and ice 
 remain near the top of the mountain on the north side all 
 the year round. It seems therefore just to reach the suow- 
 line. The top of the Pei-tai is a square flat space about four 
 le in circuit. The ascent to the top from the valley of the 
 monasteries is forty le in length. The lesser Woo-tai-shan 
 on the north-east is also stated to be io ; ooo feet high. 1 
 
 The mass of mountains called Woo-tai-shan are five 
 hundred le in circuit. The Poo-to river, rising at Ta-ying 
 and winding south and east past Woo-tai city into the 
 province of Chihle, forms their west and south boundary. 
 On the north the Confucian mountain, Heng-shan, over- 
 tops them in altitude; on the east the Tai-hang chain, 
 marked by the south extension of the Great Wall, forms 
 the natural limit. 
 
 The north, south, east, and west branches are all con- 
 nected with the Chung-tai as their centre. Such is the 
 native idea. The Nan-tai is the most beautiful, having a 
 southern slope, which nourishes a sufficient number of 
 flowers and shrubs to lead to its being called Kin-sieu- 
 feng, " the embroidered mountain." 
 
 The top of the South Nan-tai is a le in circuit, and 
 convex in shape; that of Tung-tai is three le, and 
 that of Se-tai two Le in circuit. Perhaps as the Chinese 
 accounts make the circuits of the five mountain summits 
 exactly one, two, three, four, and five le, they are open to 
 question. Nature does not shape the dimensions of her 
 mountain-tops quite so methodically as this. 
 
 1 Mr. William Hancock a few years said, about 10,000 feet. He found snow 
 afterwards ascended this mountain, congealed into ice at about 8000 feet ou 
 and estimates the height to be, as here the north side in autumn weather. 
 
244 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 One may easily imagine an enthusiastic Buddhist look- 
 ing on Woo-tai with pride from this pass. "This," he 
 would say, " is the ' cool and clear mountain/ where for 
 nearly two thousand years our monks have never ceased 
 to recite their prayers. It is one of the three most note- 
 worthy Buddhist mountains. But neither Ngo-mei in 
 Sze-chwen, nor Poo-to in the Eastern Ocean, can compare 
 with it in the number of its monasteries, monks, and 
 pilgrims. Here emperors order prayers to be made for 
 their mothers and for the people. Kanghe himself was 
 a frequent pilgrim at these shrines, commemorating his 
 visits by monumental inscriptions at the chief temples. 
 It is a fit spot for the professors of that religion which 
 teaches purity of conduct and mercy to all living beings, 
 which aims at ascetic self-denial and encourages sage 
 meditation, which leads men to virtue, and calls them 
 away from the companionship of vice. Well may those 
 find a rest here who struggle after a pure life, far from the 
 dusty world, where care, vice, and distraction perpetually 
 reign. On that southern eminence our Manjoosere has 
 on many occasions specially appeared, in the hope of 
 persuading men to almsgiving and benevolence, to a 
 victory over the animal nature by the monastic life, to 
 the patient endurance of insults and wrong, to quiet medi- 
 tation and lofty aspirations after superhuman wisdom." 
 
 Kanghe, when he visited the mountain, thought in this 
 way about it. Though a Confucianist, he looked com- 
 placently on this nest of monasteries high up among the 
 clouds. Such men have a habit of believing in two re- 
 ligions at once. His father is said to have died a Buddhist. 
 
 The panegyric on the ascetic life expressed in the pre- 
 ceding paragraph is all extracted from his edicts. Yet 
 neither he nor his father ever thought seriously of becom- 
 ing a Hoshang or a Lama, or of retiring like Charles V. to 
 some monastery as a refuge in old age. 
 
 When the Mongol Lama arrives at the same spot, his 
 feelings will perhaps be different. By the sight of Woo- 
 
EXPECTATIONS OF PILGRIMS. 245 
 
 tai his mind is filled with indistinct conceptions of the 
 greatness of Borhan. Woo-tai is a chosen seat of Borhan, 
 and therefore he must prostrate himself when at last he 
 conies in sight of it. This he will do amid the wide scene 
 of mountain ranges which meet the eye, while the north 
 wind blows cold on his hack. He will prostrate himself 
 before the sacred valley as a holy place, to see which is 
 both a great "happiness and a great merit. To him, as to 
 the Mongol laity, Borhan is the possessor of boundless 
 power and mercy. If he be religiously disposed, he goes 
 to Woo-tai as to a spot where, by the fulfilment of vows, 
 the offering of gifts, and the reciting of prayers and charms, 
 he may obtain any desired form of happiness. 
 
 And what do those Mongol women expect as the result 
 of their pilgrimage ? You meet them in the bazaar traf- 
 ficking with the bazaar-keepers, going the round of the 
 temples to worship, pushing the praying wheels, or mounted 
 on camels on their way home. They must each have an 
 object. Probably it is some special matter, some trouble 
 of their own, from which the mighty Borhan will free 
 them for the asking, or it is an impulse which leads them 
 to make this journey with an indefinite notion that it will 
 be good for them, or it is doing as others do, in accordance 
 with a custom which to them has the obligation of a law, 
 or it is a wish to visit a mountain where Buddha has made 
 every inch of ground sacred by his presence, where the 
 images, the priests, the worship, the temples, the tombs, 
 are all more holy than elsewhere. 
 
 As we went down the pass in order to strike the plain of 
 the Poo-to river, we saw Heng-shan on the north-west, a 
 mountain very striking for its lofty horizontal line. To 
 judge from its appearance, as we saw it, it might have a 
 very broad flat surface at the top. The shepherds whom 
 we met said it was higher than Woo-tai. Annual worship 
 is offered here by officers whom the Emperor deputes to 
 keep up an old practice. The worship of mountains was 
 an element in the ancient Persian religion, before the in- 
 
246 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 troduction of the Magian system, and it is described in 
 Herodotus. 
 
 Our course was down a rapid descent. In the evening 
 we were at the bottom, sixty le from Woo-tai, and just on 
 the edge of the plain, at a village called Tung-shan-te, 
 " foot of the east hill." Here we were two hundred and 
 forty le (eighty miles) from Tai-tung and forty from the 
 town called Ta-ying. Both are to the north. Wolves are 
 spoken of as being very fierce here ; two or three persons 
 in the village are said to have been not long since bitten 
 by them. Wheat begins to be grown a little way out on 
 the plain. The plain here is in fact a broad valley. 
 
 Thursday, October 31 st. This morning we left our quar- 
 ters at six, and crossed the plain in a north-easterly 
 direction to Ta-ying. A great road passes down it lead- 
 ing to Tai-chow and other cities, and bearing south-west. 
 The river which runs through this valley is the Poo-to, 
 which, rises near Ta-ying and pursues its windings by 
 Tai-chow to the south-west, afterwards bending round to 
 the south-east and entering the province of Chihle near 
 Chen-ting-foo. 
 
 The loess formation here begins again, and occurs across 
 the valley, forming hills which stand isolated, and also 
 clothing the hollows of the mountains at their base. 
 
 Being on a great road, we met many muleteers bringing 
 loads from Peking. Some knew our muleteers and greeted 
 them. One as a mark of friendship gave my driver two 
 newly-baked cakes, which, without a word of needless 
 comment, were duly accepted and enjoyed. 
 
 At Ta-ying it was market-day. A crowd of people 
 pressed into our inn. As soon as we had arrived, a mili- 
 tary officer from Ping-hing-kwan heard of us, and came to 
 our inn to see who we were. I went out to meet him. A 
 rather stern man on a horse stood in the inn-yard sur- 
 rounded by the crowd and his underlings. After the first 
 questions, I asked him for protection from the crowd, that 
 would not allow us leisure to have our breakfast. He said 
 
SELLING CHRISTIAN BOOKS. 247 
 
 it was natural that the crowd in a new place should wish 
 to see us. He would himself like to look at any ping-Ten 1 
 we might have with us. He referred to our passports, 
 which would be proof of our right to be here. I produced 
 mine, which he read on his horse and returned to me. I 
 said my two companions also had similar documents. He 
 replied that one was enough for him to inspect; he had 
 while riding past just corne in to see who we were. Here 
 the catechist began to speak, when he said, " Oh, it is you 
 that have brought these people here." This he said in a 
 not very agreeable tone. I therefore called to the catechist 
 that he should bring some books to give to the officer; 
 they were graciously accepted, and given to a follower to 
 carry. The officer then turned his horse towards the inn 
 gate, and ordered his attendants to drive all the intruders 
 out of the yard. On his leaving immediately after, it 
 might have been supposed that the attendants would make 
 some attempt to expel the crowd; but nothing was fur- 
 ther from their ideas; they made no effort of the kind. 
 The burden of controlling the crowd must fall on us, and 
 we adopted the simple plan of selling books. We were 
 too crowded in the inn. It was necessary for us to go into 
 the street, each with a pile of books, to draw away a part of 
 the idle onlookers. The innkeeper and his satellites would 
 then be able to prosecute their duties. In the street sell- 
 ing the books was preferable to giving, because the crowd 
 was thus prevented from disorderly snatching. At a market 
 or a fair it is essential to sell our Christian books if we 
 would secure order. 
 
 When you meet a small knot of Chinese alone, they 
 will not, as a rule, buy books, but they will take them 
 thankfully if given. In a crowd, however, the laws of the 
 human mind make a man willing to part with a sum of 
 money for his book. He is excited. One man excites 
 another. Example is infectious. If a man sees one buy 
 he wishes also to buy. The Chinese become different in a 
 
 1 Both words mean "hold in the hand ;" hence "evidence," "proof." 
 
248 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 crowd to what they are when alone ; they become eager 
 to buy what in other circumstances they would not care 
 for in very many cases I saw them borrowing money 
 rather than not buy. The excitement is too great for 
 them. 
 
 A Buddhist priest carefully examined a copy of Mark's 
 Gospel. He thought much of it and decided to buy. 
 Having no money, he went to a shop to borrow some. 
 Coming back, he noticed that Acts was thicker than Mark, 
 and wished to exchange. Although his money was two cash 
 short, he was allowed on the ground of benefit of clergy. 
 
 Another, after buying Luke, notices that it is labelled 
 volume three. He wishes to change it for a Testament, as 
 being a complete book, but is anxious not to pay more 
 money. The unreasonableness of this is pointed out to 
 him. He presses the exchange on the ground that Luke 
 is imperfect. At last he brings the extra money and re- 
 ceives the Testament. 
 
 One poor man with a sickly-looking face came to ask 
 for medicine to cure him of opium. He was told that we 
 had none, but here was a book exhorting the victims of 
 opium to abandon the habit, and containing a good recipe. 
 "That," said he, "is the book I want." Others, hearing 
 that this book is for sale for four small coins, seize it with 
 avidity and carry it away exulting. The misery produced 
 by opium is a lasting and everywhere present evil. Much 
 opium is made from poppies grown on the hills in this 
 part of Shanse. 
 
 We came on in the afternoon thirty more le to Ping- 
 hing-kwan, a pass in the inner Great Wall. We first 
 came to a fort. It is on a loess hill with large fissures in it- 
 seventy or eighty feet deep. Some of the party went up 
 the hill, and others proceeded by a path at the bottom of 
 one of the fissures; consequently they speedily became 
 separated by a considerable difference in altitude. We 
 were for some time in a difficulty to find each other. One 
 calamity will soon follow another. The petty officers of a 
 
THE LOESS FORMATION. 249 
 
 Jiiun-kie, a military mandarin, came forward to insist that 
 the mules and their riders should all go to the yamen of 
 their superior for examination. This was declined, and an 
 answer was given that it was necessary for us first to go to 
 an inn. In half an hour we met again at an inn outside of 
 the north gate of the fort. The mandarin underlings did 
 not again appear. 
 
 Friday, November ist. Starting before daylight, we left 
 the neighbourhood of the fort, and ascended the pass above 
 us to the Great Wall. The wall is here very dilapidated, 
 and a mere frame of thin spars serves for a gate. A few 
 rods of wall on the east side were ready to sink on occa- 
 sion of the next rainfall. A decayed tower on one or two 
 of the neighbouring heights indicated how little of the 
 work of Tsin-shi-hwaug now remains. The wall maintains 
 a decent appearance only where it has been placed in repair 
 within a few centuries, as on the roads leading from Mon- 
 golia to Peking. Yet the Ping-hing-kwan might be well 
 protected, for on the north side of it we came down a valley 
 in the loess formation eight or ten miles in length, and in 
 many parts the road is very narrow and flanked by deep 
 fissures. These fissures would form a perfect bar to the 
 progress of invaders if the road were fortified. They are 
 evidently made by water loosening the loess, which then 
 falls in avalanches. In one place a broad gorge is crossed 
 by a bridge which rests on a thin wall of friable soil 
 five or six feet thick. Below is an arched water-way for 
 the water of the fissure to escape by. Thirty feet above 
 this arch is the road along the narrow wall. It is 
 strengthened with stones above, but a part is cracked, and 
 unless soon repaired, only three or four feet in the width of 
 the road will be left. 
 
 In many parts the road winds round the edge of a 
 precipice at the end of one of the fissures. The action of 
 water perpetually tends to lengthen the fissure. Damp 
 rises from the bottom and rain falls on the top; the 
 whole structure is disturbed, and a new piece of the loess 
 
250 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 falls. Then the road is broken in upon, and the people 
 widen it on the other side by cutting away a new portion 
 of the loess. The windings of the road, like those of a 
 river, are in this way constantly growing larger. The 
 sight from the fissure's top will shake weak nerves. You 
 look down sixty, eighty, or a hundred feet of perpendicular 
 depth. The loess is usually a fine mould, uniform in texture 
 and very light, but occasionally strata of gravel occur, and 
 also calcareous nodules. The gravel would come by water 
 action during the time of deposition of the loess. The 
 loess rests on various kinds of rocks, as if blown on them 
 after they had assumed their present position. 
 
 We are now on a higher country than yesterday. Our 
 position is at the back of the ridge we crossed at Ping- 
 hing-kwan. No wheat grows here. Oats, kau-liang, and 
 black beans are the common produce of the soil. The land- 
 tax is three fen per mow, or about tenpence an acre. 
 
 At mid-day we had to brave the pressure of another 
 crowd, violently anxious to see the strangers feed. It was 
 a market-day. The place was named Tung-ho-nan, " the 
 Eastern Honan" (honan, "south of river"). We took 
 advantage of the presence of the crowd to sell a few 
 books. 
 
 In the afternoon we came eastward along a beautiful 
 valley to the city of Ling-kiow, which we reached after 
 travelling thirteen miles. The valley was evidently an 
 old lake, the waters of which found their exit at the 
 south-east corner. On each side are loess terraces of 
 moderate height, and beyond them rocky hills. It is 
 the valley of the Tang-ho, the same river we crossed at 
 Tang-hien, near Pau-ting-foo. In many parts the valley 
 is left for pasture. We saw feeding there goats, sheep, 
 oxen, donkeys, horses, and pigs, all in harmony. 
 
 Saturday, November 2d. This morning we left at six 
 A.M. the valley of Ling-kiow, where yesterday afternoon 
 we sold a large number of books. Our road lay over 
 the Yun-tsai-ling, "pass of many-coloured clouds." The 
 

 STATE OF AGRICULTURE AND WAGES. 
 
 rock is limestone, which tends to form the most picturesque 
 perpendicular crags and summit pinnacles, chiselled out, as 
 local legend would say, by the hand of some giant or 
 fairy, but in fact by the dissolving power of rain-water, 
 continued through unnumbered years. The limestone is 
 worked two miles away from the road. Though so late in 
 the year, we noticed one blue flower among the abundant 
 grasses. 
 
 No small amount of traffic goes over this pass towards 
 Kwang-chang. "We were now not far to the north of 
 Tau-ma-kwan, a pass by which the Tang river, whose 
 name remains from the time of the Emperor Yau, B.C. 
 2500, flows into the great plain of Chihle. 
 
 Beached Chau-pai at the breakfast hour. Poverty marks 
 the appearance of the people. Prices are as follows : 
 Wages, 60 copper cash 1 per day and three meals ; cotton 
 cloth, 40 cash per foot ; unspuii cotton, 250 cash per catty ; 
 oatmeal, 30 cash per catty; wheat flour, 60 cash; suit of 
 clothes, including hat, shoes, and hose, 4000 cash, or twelve 
 shillings of English money nearly. The tax on land pro- 
 duce is 440 cash for oats, 370 for tall millet, 280 for 
 buckwheat. Miscellaneous products are 140. Fuel, 
 mountain brushwood, dry straw, and grass can be had 
 for the gathering. No potatoes or wheat are grown here. 
 There are cabbages and melons. In Peking a labourer 
 gets one pound or thereabouts a month, if not found in 
 food. In England a labourer possesses many comforts 
 which the Chinese workman cannot afford. 
 
 In the afternoon we crossed another mountain pass, Yi- 
 ma-ling, or " horse-stage pass," to Ai-ho, " Artemisia river." 
 The rock was limestone throughout, and there was the 
 same appearance of cathedral-like architecture in the erect 
 precipices, very various in colour and appearance, beside 
 which the road wound. On the western ascent the valley 
 was covered with minute stones for several miles. These 
 
 1 At present 140x3 cash are exchanged go to an English pound. A catty is a 
 for a tael of silver, and nearly five taels ^ound and one-third in weight. 
 
252 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 are all fragments of limestone rock reduced to a small 
 size by water action. In parts large boulders occurred. 
 On the east side of the pass there were traces of iron in 
 red sand and red-coloured limestone. A red hill south of 
 the pass seemed to be the spot where the iron might be 
 found. The road was cut through some strata of mould 
 and gravel which seemed to have been gathered the 
 mould from loess hills not far off, and the gravel from the 
 rocks above the deposit. 
 
 The Chinese never fail to erect temples in passes ; they 
 are intended to protect travellers from evil influences, 
 robbers, and attacks from wild animals. I entered a 
 temple dedicated to Lau-kiun, founder of Taouism. On 
 the walls were painted twenty-five metamorphoses of this 
 personage, consisting of scenes in his life, of course chiefly 
 imaginary. 
 
 Sunday, November $d. Came last night to a village 
 where we are perched on one of the undulations of the 
 loess formation. In front of us is a little river and a wide 
 reach of cultivated land to the south. It is a branch of 
 the valley of the river called Ku-ma-ho, along which we 
 are now to travel eastward to Tsze-king-kwan. The situa- 
 tion of the village is picturesque. Brooks of pure water 
 irrigate the region for several months in the year. In 
 summer, say the people, these rivulets dry up, and they 
 are great sufferers from drought. They are then obliged 
 to draw water from very wide and deep wells. There is 
 no goitre here, probably because the country is both high 
 and open. 
 
 The fields are all ploughed in November to be in readi- 
 ness for the millet, which is sown in spring. The country 
 is too high for wheat. Winnowing and threshing are pro- 
 ceeding vigorously. The people use a flail w r hose flying 
 piece, of strong, flat basketwork, is two feet by five inches 
 in size. 
 
 Visited a village a mile to the eastward. Went into a 
 temple of Kwan-te, god of war. The pictures on the walls 
 
PICTURES OF KWAN-TE. 253 
 
 were scenes from the " Komance of the Three Kingdoms," 
 A.D. 200, the time when Kwan-te, god of war, flourished. 
 This hero was strong enough, and had sufficient energy 
 and martial fire, to take a man's head off as he sat on his 
 horse. In one case the body of one of his enemies re- 
 mained (so the painter represented it) sitting on the horse 
 when the head was on the ground at the feet of Kwan-te's 
 steed. The conventional face of K\van-te is very red and 
 very decided, honest, and brave. The eyes are long, narrow, 
 and much deflected. 
 
 In answer to an inquiry if they smoked opium, the 
 people who pressed into the temple said they did not. 
 They were then reminded that although they did not 
 smoke opium, this temple was a witness that they had a 
 fault of another kind. They forgot God who gave them 
 the ploughing ox, the millet, the land, and the homes and 
 families which made them happy. 
 
 Our sleeping and living room at this village was not 
 good. It was used as a barn and a storing house for 
 mules' loads in wet weather. There was a large kang at 
 one end which we occupied. 
 
 Not finding wheat, flour, or mutton, we regaled ourselves 
 with white rice and sardines which had come in the 
 baggage of some of our party. In these regions oatmeal 
 is the staple of the people, and animal food is a rarity 
 which the poor never see except at a wedding, a funeral, 
 at the Xew Year, or at the feasts in the fifth and eight 
 months. 
 
 Monday, November ^th, 1872. Leaving Ai-ho in the 
 dark, w r e continued our home journey partly on the river 
 bed and partly through roads in the loess to Kwang-chang. 
 Here I filled a small bottle with a specimen of loess to 
 cany home for analysis. Kwang-chang is less important 
 than Ling-chiow, but is in a valley of remarkably fine 
 scenery. Limestone continues to be the prevailing rock. 
 
 The road from Yu-chow to Pau-ting passes by this city. 
 Our course lay on the south side through an extensive 
 
254 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 suburb. Here I noticed a large wooden tablet over the 
 door of a retired mandarin, sixty years of age. It was 
 presented to him by Wo-jen and Kia-cheng, two chief 
 secretaries at court. He had long served the Government 
 in conjunction with these well-known officers of State, and 
 this was the way in which they had shown their friend- 
 ship and respect. His office was a tai-cliau of the Han- 
 lin-yuen. In Peking such a testimonial of regard would 
 probably have been placed in the house of the person so 
 honoured, and its position would be in the centre of the 
 visitor's hall, under the roof facing the south. In these 
 parts, as at Siuen-hwa-foo, it is the fashion to place them 
 outside of the house, over the door facing the street a 
 position preferred in Peking by physicians for exhibiting 
 monumental tablets presented by grateful patients. 
 
 A little farther I noticed an advertisement issued by a 
 Buddhist priest, stating that his temple needing repairs, it 
 was his duty to solicit donations. The work of restoration 
 was now complete, and the announcement was hereby 
 made of the re-opening of the temple on certain days, three 
 in number, on which occasion he respectfully invited con- 
 tributors and others to be present. Those who had not 
 already given were urged to do so on the ground that 
 money should in itself be despised, and that great happi- 
 ness would be secured by giving, or, as he expressed it, 
 they should give that they might enlarge the field of their 
 happiness, yi kwang foo tien. The dedication is called 
 Jcai-kwang, " open light," a phrase which refers to the open- 
 ing of the eyes of the image. 
 
 Outside of the town on the east was a Tung-yo-miau, or 
 " temple to the spirit of the eastern mountain," i.e., Tai- 
 shan in Shantung. Beside it stands a pagoda of five stories. 
 
 Passing down the valley, our mules crossed the river 
 Ku-ma-ho, at first by wading; then, when the river 
 became deeper, the mules crossed by bridges. The valley 
 became narrow, and its scenery, as the sun shone through a 
 mist, was very fine. The white spray of the rushing river 
 
TOWERS FOR ARCHERS. 255 
 
 shone upon by the sunlight was in lovely contrast to the 
 dark waters beneath. The limestone cliffs cast a deep 
 shadow. Above them were the towers of the inner Great 
 Wall appearing at frequent intervals. Beneath flows the 
 river, threading its way through a wide dry strand, over- 
 spread with white and blue pebbles of limestone, large and 
 small. Over them, once in every few years, comes down 
 with overwhelming force a torrent from the mountains, 
 which brings a new supply of stones, pebbles, and sand, 
 which disturb all marks, obliterate all paths, and per- 
 manently raze the old bed. 
 
 We breakfasted at Foo-too-yu. The road from Yu-chow 
 to Pau-ting-foo goes this way to the southward. Our course 
 is east. Thirty towers are seen here, all belonging to the 
 Great Wall. They are on both sides of the river, and 
 would form a convenient refuge for soldiers armed with 
 bow and arrow, but would be of no use in modern warfare. 
 One of my fellow-travellers and I mounted one of these 
 towers by holes in the bricks. They are intended to be 
 ascended by ladders. The tower is built with three arched 
 passages from east to west; there are four arched win- 
 dows on the east and west sides, and three on the north 
 and south. Upwards of twenty arches, large and small, 
 meet the eye on entering. The structure is square, com- 
 pact, and strong. Below there are four tiers of hewn 
 granite stones ; above large bricks are used. The top is 
 castellated. We ascended and found there a brick plat- 
 form twenty feet from the ground and surrounded by a 
 castellated parapet. An inscription of the Ming dynasty 
 let into the wall stated that the erection of the tower was 
 completed in the fourth year of Wan-leih, A.D. 1576, and 
 is therefore three centuries old. Any such towers in the 
 Great Wall near Peking may therefore be ascribed to the 
 Ming dynasty with safety. It is not necessary to suppose 
 that these square strong -looking structures have lasted 
 through the summer rains and winter winds and snow- 
 storms of two thousand years. Two great periods of 
 
256 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 rebuilding and fortifying the more important forts and the 
 more important portions of the wall have occurred, each 
 after a Tartar dynasty. The Sui dynasty, following the 
 Northern Wei, a Turkish race in the sixth century, thought 
 it well to fortify the boundaries of the Empire on its north 
 side. So the Ming also, after expelling the Mongols, deter- 
 mined to produce an impression on the Tartar hordes by 
 the same appearance of an impassable barrier. 
 
 These towers are erected at each end of the plank bridge 
 by which the Ku-ma is here crossed, and are also seen 
 crowning the crags east and west as far as the eye can reach. 
 
 From Foo-too-yu we proceeded towards "Iron Pass" 
 (Tie-ling), the road over which was repaired thirty years 
 ago. The officer who superintended the work has erected a 
 monument in commemoration of it; its date is 1835. In 
 crossing this pass we also proceeded through a broad loess 
 formation. We then came to the banks of the Ku-ma 
 and followed it all the way to Tsze-king-kwan. This river 
 is crossed in several places by bridges so constructed as to 
 be movable at pleasure. Shrubs, twigs, bean stubble, fresh 
 branches, and straw are laid across prostrate trunks of 
 trees, which rest on inclined posts struck as piles into the 
 river bottom. All are removed when the summer rains 
 are approaching, for fear of their being carried away. 
 Land-tax in this neighbourhood is eight or nine tow of the 
 produce per mow; in bad years it is reduced to three or 
 four tow. 1 In the evening \ve stayed at Ta-yai-yu, " pass 
 of the pagoda cliff." We passed the night in a partly 
 ruined building. The large gaps made by bad weather 
 coming from the north were partially covered by some 
 rush mats. It rained during the night. Venturing out in 
 the dark was found to be dangerous by one of our party, 
 who slipped on some soft mud and kissed his mother earth. 
 
 Among our visitors in the evening were some men who 
 had heard of the visit of the Eev. W. C. Burns to a town in 
 this neighbourhood, Pan-pi-tien, several years ago, and had 
 
 1 A tow is ten pints. This amounts to sixty pints per acre. 
 
THE GREAT WALL. 257 
 
 seen books which he distributed at that time. This was 
 an interesting reminiscence of a man whose example of 
 devotion and self-denial was of the highest type. 
 
 November $th. Left late on account of the rain. Here 
 and there we met laden mules. Some carried wine, others 
 cotton, or bags of sugar, or drugs, or pine wood, or cloth. 
 We also saw many herds of sheep and goats feeding. 
 Their bleat often reached the ear from far away, mingling 
 with the jingle of the mules' bells. One pedestrian had 
 gone to Kwang-chang to sell some merchandise, and was 
 now returning with his yoke over his shoulder to his home 
 at Yu-chow. Another having a heavy pack on his shoulder 
 sat on a stone on the roadside immediately in front of 
 another stone, against which he supported the pack while 
 he rested himself. 
 
 We now saw the last of the Great Wall. In many 
 places it had dwindled to a mere heap of unhewn stones. 
 But at Tsze-king-kwan we saw it in its best condition. As 
 we approached, it became a very conspicuous object, mount- 
 ing lofty heights, and presenting everywhere a castellated 
 appearance. It is here built carefully with stone below 
 and bricks above. Tsze-king-kwan is imposing. Inscrip- 
 tions of the reign of Wan-leih abound. Several times 
 hostile armies have come into Chihle by this route. It is 
 much easier than that of Nan-kow. No vast beds of 
 boulders like those at Ku-yung-kwan have here to be 
 crossed. Great exertions have been made therefore to 
 fortify it. In one inscription over the north gate of the 
 fort it is called King nan te ye hiung kwan, "the first 
 strong pass south of the capital." There are more than 
 two hundred families in the fort. The walls and gates are 
 strong and lofty. Customs officers are posted here, who 
 were somewhat troublesome. They demanded transit 
 duty. This we declined, on the ground that we were not 
 merchants, but foreigners travelling with passports and 
 without goods. After loudly vociferating for ten minutes 
 
 that we must pay, they let us alone. 
 10 
 
258 RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 On the south side of the fortress we found ourselves at 
 the top of a rapidly descending mountain road leading 
 through a most beautiful valley ornamented among other 
 things with persimmon trees. These with their bright red 
 fruit constitute a lovely feature in October both here and 
 in North China generally, especially in hilly regions. The 
 trees are larger, some of them, than the largest apple and 
 pear trees, being thirty or forty feet high. There is a 
 strong astringent element in the fruit when young. When 
 quite soft and ripe, the astringent flavour deserts the pulp 
 but remains in the rind. The persimmon is preserved dry 
 by the Chinese, and in this form lasts till spring. The 
 leaves fall before the fruit, and the trees we saw were at 
 the time nearly bare of them. 
 
 We stopped for refreshment at a small inn on the road- 
 side, and enjoyed the view of the valley, richly coloured 
 with autumn leaves, filling the eye with beauty before they 
 fall to the earth and become again a part of that soil from 
 which they were formed. 
 
 We descended fast from this spot, and took notice of the 
 rapid change in level from Tsze-king-kwan to the Yu-chow 
 plains. There we were fifteen hundred feet higher than 
 the plain, and yet we were apparently on a level with the 
 Kwang-chang valley. Eichthoven went this way to Woo- 
 tai, and doubtless the rapid elevation of level he here 
 witnessed formed a large part of the elevation he assigns to 
 Woo-tai-shan. A little river followed the road for some 
 miles. The valley is bounded by lofty heights, among 
 which many limestone crags are seen deeply indented by 
 the rain-storms of bygone ages. My muleteer pointed to 
 one of these limestone mountains, and with some enthusi- 
 asm said, Che shan shi tsai chang ti yeu ya, " This mountain 
 has certainly grown into a very rare and elegant form." 
 But his attention was at once recalled from the poetry of 
 nature to certain perverse exhibitions of temper on the 
 part of one of his animals, which made it necessary for 
 him to crack his loud whip, and urge him on by words 
 
A RAGGED POPULATION. 259 
 
 which the animal seemed to understand. At the bridges 
 the river is thirty yards wide. Here and there it is diver- 
 sified by faded green willows. Wheat and cotton now 
 begin to appear. In the upper valley of the Kii-ma these 
 crops are unknown. The field for the botanist seems ex- 
 tensive in the valley which we traversed this afternoon. 
 A great variety of trees and plants grow there. The 
 acacias which overshadowed our inn and the temple near 
 it were very fine specimens of their kind. Over the 
 valley were various other trees shining in their autumn 
 beauty. 
 
 The people begin to look better dressed. In some of the 
 mountain districts the clothing of many of them is insuffi- 
 cient. A young man of twenty-nine, whose habiliments 
 were somewhat ragged, told me he had no wife, not being 
 able to pay for one. Many other young men, he said, 
 whom he knew, were in the same position. A boy of 
 fifteen stood behind him also raggedly clothed. This lad, 
 though so poor, had had five years' schooling. Their ordi- 
 nary food was, they said, millet. They have neither oats 
 nor wheat. 
 
 West of the Tsze-king-kwan, " purple twig pass," there 
 are granite mountains as indicated by immense boulders in 
 the river bed. They are rounded by constant attrition, 
 and that very roundness attests their hardness. They 
 present an irritating impediment to the rushing river, 
 causing it to increase its dash and its spray as it roars past 
 them. Eemarkable veins of quartz were noticeable in some 
 of these large blocks. Some crossed others at right angles, 
 others at any and all angles. Now we were to enter again 
 a region of softer and more pliable stone. 
 
 The Chinese passion for terse sentences arranged in 
 couplets reaches even the mountains. There was there as 
 everywhere a temple to Kwan-te. The words written on 
 the door were Shan men pu so tai sine feng, " The temple 
 door needs not to be locked; wait, and the snow will 
 seal it up. In the old monastery why use a lamp ? the 
 
2 6o RELIGION IN CHINA. 
 
 moon shines into it." At the head of a list of subscribers 
 to the temple funds was the sentence, Yin kwo puh mei, 
 " Cause and effect (literally, * fruit ') are not concealed from 
 observation." The idea intended to be conveyed in this 
 obscure sentence is that virtue, almsgiving, and love to 
 mankind cannot fail of recognition and reward. Or it 
 may be that by this list it is intended to commemorate 
 the charitable acts of the persons named. 
 
 Buddhism makes much of this doctrine of cause and 
 effect, and asserts confidently that moral retribution 
 attends all actions, good or bad, with the regularity of a 
 fixed law. 
 
 Like other things in Buddhism, the doctrine is capable of 
 being utilised in Christian teaching among a people to 
 whom it is familiar. It is an example of the preparation 
 for Christianity which we owe to the doctrinal system 
 both of Buddhism and Confucianism, and in a less degree 
 to Taouism also. 
 
 
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