SAGE. 
 
 BY 
 
 V. C. HART, D.D. 
 
 Author of " Western China" Etc. 
 
 " Sin in a virtuous man is like an eclipse of the sun and moon ; all 
 men gaze at it, and it passes away ; the virtuous man mends, and the 
 world stands in admiration of his fall." 
 
 "Grieve not that men know you not, but be grieved that you are 
 ignorant of men." 
 
 CONFUCIUS. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS, 
 
 WESLEY BUILDINGS. 
 MONTREAL: C. W. COATES. HALIFAX: S. F. HUESTIS.
 
 Entered, according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and ninety-one, by WILLIAM BRIOOS, in the O 
 Minister of Agriculture, at Ottawa.
 
 TO THE 
 
 HONORABLE WILLARD IYES, 
 
 THE 
 
 PATRON AND FRIEND OF MY YOUTH, 
 
 TO WHOSE ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT THE AUTHOR 
 OWES MUCH OF HIS SUCCESS IN LIFE, 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE TENDERLY DEDICATED. 
 
 2005194
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 CHINA has three great religions : Confucianism, 
 Taoism, and Buddhism. Buddhism, from India, 
 was admitted the first century of the Christian era. 
 
 The three religions are often professed by the same 
 individual. Religious toleration is universal, and little 
 bitterness is manifested among the rival devotees of the 
 three Churches. This is not owing to liberality, but 
 want of earnestness and conscientious convictions. 
 
 Kung-Foo-Tsz, Latinized Confucius, is pre-eminently 
 the philosopher, teacher, and leader of China. He is 
 not only the patron saint, but the deified hero of all the 
 people. His descendants are a distinct and honored 
 class. The most famous temple of China is built over 
 his grave. 
 
 This man, who has swayed the thought of a nation 
 for eighty generations, was born five hundred and fifty- 
 one years before Christ, during the time of Lao-Tsz and 
 Buddha. He lost his father at the tender age of three ; 
 but his mother trained him with great care, and he if!
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 said to have early manifested an aptitude for learning, 
 and great reverence for the lore and religious customs 
 of his country. At the time Confucius lived China 
 was divided into many petty States, and morals were at 
 a very low ebb. He was appointed to an important 
 official position early in life. He held many public 
 trusts ; but, owing to misrule and disorders, he retired 
 to private life, and left his native State. He became a 
 public teacher, and earnestly inculcated the same ethics 
 as he sought to govern his own life by. 
 
 After many vicissitudes abroad, and in his native 
 State of Loo, he again resigned his trust. He contended 
 with poverty and sickness, and suffered keenly the 
 neglect of rulers and statesmen. In his retreat he 
 wrote and taught and edited the sacred classics. 
 
 We do not offer this little volume as an exposition 
 of the teachings of the great Sage, nor as a history of 
 Confucianism, but merely as a pointer to some of the 
 salient features of the Sage, and the religious thoughts 
 of the people, which have crystallized around his system 
 of philosophy.
 
 CONTENTS : 
 
 I., II., III., IV., V., VI. 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE 
 
 THE LITURGY 
 
 THE SACRIFICE 
 
 VII., VIII., IX. 
 
 x. 
 
 XI. 
 
 HEAVEN, EARTH, AND ANCESTORS 
 
 XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI. 
 THE SACRIFICE 
 
 11-48 
 
 - 49-74 
 
 75-80 
 
 81-90 
 
 - 91-128 
 
 ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 CONFUCIAN TEMPLE AT NANKING 
 BELL U.SEU BY THE ORCHESTRA 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 
 
 HARLEQUINS 
 
 THE THREE KINGS 
 
 SUN-GOD 
 
 RAiN-Gops .,,,,, 
 
 Frontix/iiicf 
 19 
 58 
 70 
 88 
 94 
 J04
 
 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ube Uemple anfc tbe Sacje. 
 
 MOST school children have read and heard 
 something about the great Sage called Con- 
 fucius. Many may be able to state where and when 
 he was born ; some might be able to tell us the doc- 
 trines he taught, the number of disciples he had, 
 how he lived, and how he died. 
 
 If they have not these prominent facts at their 
 fingers' ends, they at least know this much, he was a 
 great philosopher, the greatest that ever lived among 
 the Chinese, and that his philosophy is taught by 
 some millions of teachers to scores of millions of 
 black-eyed Chinese. 
 
 His tablet a painted board large or small, as 
 the case may be, standing upon a pedestal, with his 
 name written in gilt characters upon the centre of 
 the board, is worshipped by every school-boy in the 
 Empire, and in two thousand great temples by all qf 
 the mandarins of China..
 
 12 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 His classics are the Chinaman's Bible, and his 
 teachings are as familiar to millions of the common 
 people as the Lord's prayer and the ten command- 
 ments are to Christian people. 
 
 With some general idea of the character of this 
 eminent man, of the historical niche he fills in the 
 world's history, and the religious awe in which the 
 Chinese hold him and his writings, we are the better 
 prepared to enter one of his temples, behold the won- 
 derful symbols, significant of all his teachings, to 
 examine the strange liturgy used in his worship, and 
 then look in upon his devoted worshippers as they 
 offer up the great sacrifice. This present chapter 
 will be devoted to a study of the temple, and should 
 its perusal afford interest and instruction to those 
 who watch the progress of events in the land of 
 Seres, my object will be attained, and I shall feel 
 amply repaid for many hours of research into quaint 
 places and queer books. 
 
 Nanking is honored in having two fine Confucian 
 temples, one of which deserves more than a passing 
 notice. It is often pleasant to turn aside from the 
 beaten highway, enter some enchanting mountain vale 
 or glen, and trace the rippling stream which flows 
 through its shaded gorges to its fountain head, awhile 
 lingering in pleasant nooks, to study in solemn silence 
 wonders of nature. The reader will pardon a brief 
 digression from our main subject, while we look 
 upon this particular temple, giving something of its 
 history and a faithful description of the same, which
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 13 
 
 may answer for all of the Confucian temples of the 
 world. 
 
 As the traveller approaches Nanking from the 
 south-west or east, long before the massive city wall 
 is descried, a romantic hill comes into view, which 
 runs from the thickly populated streets upon the 
 south, to the city of the dead upon the north. 
 
 This little hill, half a mile within the city walls, 
 is crowned with massive buildings which are half 
 hidden by firs and pines. 
 
 The central structure is double-roofed and covered 
 with yellow porcelain tiles. The ridges are raised six 
 or more feet above the roofs and constructed of large 
 porcelain bricks. There must be near four hundred 
 feet of such ridge walls upon the roof. These yellow 
 porcelain bricks are each of different design, exhibit- 
 ing all of the known animals, and portraying, accord- 
 ing to the fancy of the artist, all of the fabulous mon- 
 sters known to Chinese mythology. 
 
 The entablature over the pillars is of cedar and 
 richly carved, detailing many historical scenes, such 
 as related to the life of Confucius and his disciples. 
 
 If we study our picture upon a fine day, having 
 the Min tombs for a distant background, the gray 
 walls upon the west, and the great city stretching 
 southward, we have a view hard to surpass in 
 interest. The hill itself which divides the city into 
 eastern and western parts, is full of historic interest. 
 From its heights trembling priests have watched 
 their sacred altars, while wild flames have devoured
 
 14 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 hundreds of temples in full sight. Through many 
 centuries it stamped its name of Yi upon the city. It 
 was not until the time of China's great Emperor Hung 
 Wu, A.D. 1368. that it attained its perfect grandeur. 
 He lived in full view of its splendid monastic halls, 
 and I have no doubt, as he was embittered against 
 Buddhism, that he favored the scheme of the 
 unprincipled prime minister Liu-ki ; a Taoist by 
 faith, who would turn the noble structure and the 
 magnificent site to the use of the Taoists. The 
 buildings were not grand enough for the minister, 
 they did not frown with sufficient scorn upon the 
 480 monasteries scattered over the city. It was 
 given out that miracles had been wrought, and that 
 a pair of bronze shears weighing a ton or more had 
 fallen from Heaven, and alighted at the identical 
 place where the lofty temple for the Pearly Emperor 
 of Heaven should be built. They may be seen by 
 the antiquarian to-day. A priest of wonderful tricks 
 was raised up to collect money from the people, who 
 did his work so well that ample funds were soon 
 gathered in for the great enterprise. In a short 
 time the temple called Chao-tien-Kung reared its 
 glittering roof majestically above every temple. For 
 nearly five hundred years great and sacred was this 
 spot, and resplendent sat the Pearly Emperor on his 
 gilded throne. It was in 1853 when the Tai Pin 
 rebels poured a motley host of half-starved long- 
 haired dare-devils into the streets of Nanking, four 
 hundred and eighty beautiful temples and thousands 
 of great idols fed the flames, and among the number
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 15 
 
 Was this famous structure. The great Tsenko-Fan, 
 who became viceroy after the rebellion, took posses- 
 sion of the site for a Confucian temple, and in 1866 
 commenced to erect for the Sage a temple which 
 should eclipse any of the order in the Empire. 
 
 The temple, with other sacred buildings connected 
 with it, including the beautiful courts, covers an 
 area of not less than eighteen acres, being 1,100 feet 
 deep and 275 feet wide. The literary chancellor 
 resides upon the east side, and near to his residence 
 is a college of high grade, and a temple consecrated 
 to the god of literature. 
 
 If this wonderful mosaic is dissected, we find that 
 the temples, gateways, ponds, courts, pavilions, walls, 
 steps, altars, terraces, and even to the trees, are 
 symbols of the Master's doctrine, or designed from 
 patterns handed down from China's greatest anti- 
 quity. 
 
 Upon the south a magnificent wall of stone and 
 brick thirty feet high screens the Sage from a vulgar 
 world. It is adorned with four mammoth charac- 
 ters, which read, "The palace wall of a myriad 
 measures " (the measure was eight cubits). This is a 
 hyperbolic expression denoting the greatness of Con- 
 fucius's teachings, founded, perhaps, upon a saying 
 of Yiu Yuan, a disciple of the philosopher, who, in 
 admiration of his doctrines, sighed and said, "I 
 looked up to them, and they seemed to become 
 higher ; I tried to penetrate them, and they seemed 
 to become firmer."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ucmple ant) tbc Sage. 
 
 THE magnificent wall described in the former 
 chapter is an attempt to represent with brick 
 and stone the solidity and grandeur of Confucius's 
 doctrine. 
 
 Within the lofty enclosure is a small park, and a 
 deep, semicircular pond, curbed', with beautifully 
 worked stones. This, in pattern, is the same as the 
 college grounds during the Chao dynasty, 700 B.C., 
 and referred to in the book of poetry written during 
 those halcyon days, as follows : 
 
 " Pleasant is the semi-circular pool, we will gather 
 the cress which grows about it." Upon the east and 
 -west sides of this classic court massive gateways, of 
 three arches each, tower above the imposing walls, 
 which are of polished gray bricks, minutely carved 
 and fretted. Four immense gilded characters are 
 written over each lintel ; those on the eastern gate, 
 extol the Sage in such language as this : " His vir- 
 tues were equal to those of Heaven and Earth." 
 The western gate has a less hyperbolic expression, 
 but sufficiently aspiring to feed the vanity of all
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 17 
 
 Chinese scholars, being as follows : " His teachings 
 permeate the past and the present." We find in 
 these sayings, which are common all over China, the 
 gist of the philosopher's claims to universal supre- 
 macy as a teacher. Heaven itself is not greater 
 than the ascended master ; he fills the whole past 
 and present. 
 
 These sacred gates are seldom opened. Twice in 
 three years the corroded bolts were drawn, when 
 there were seventy-two newly honored graduates, 
 with two literary chancellors, admitted through their 
 portals. These happy scholars, dressed in ancient 
 college costume, marched around the classic pool to 
 the music of fifes and flutes, encored by sundry 
 explosions of fire-crackers. Back of this court, 
 which, when I visited it, was a tangled mass of wild 
 grasses and flowering plants, is another much larger 
 and finer one. We ascend it by means of polished 
 marble steps, passing through a handsomely gilded 
 gateway. But who is to enter those sealed portals ? 
 Ordinary mortals such as we poor visitors ? Nay, 
 none but the Emperor, I am informed. If the son of 
 Heaven, the Emperor, were to visit the temple of the 
 Sage, he would be treated as a guest equal in dignity 
 to the master of this palace, but other mortals must 
 come as suppliants. When the magnificent tablet to 
 Confucius, and those to China's worthies, were 
 brought into the temple grounds, they and their 
 official bearers passed through this gateway. Since 
 that solemn act, it has remained bolted and locked.
 
 18 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 We enter from the east by the Chi-Kin gate, and 
 stand in a grand square court, ornamented with 
 trees and shrubs, and paved with marble slabs. 
 Upon the east are wardrobes where the officiating 
 civil mandarins don the old court dress upon 
 occasions of worship. Upon the west a row of low 
 buildings, where military mandarins repair for dress. 
 The east is the side of honor, and no military officer, 
 however high his rank, would be presumptuous 
 enough in the presence of Confucius to take the 
 place of a civil officer. Within the court we find the 
 porch and the fountain, the sacrificial house, and the 
 kitchen dedicated to the Sage. 
 
 There is a triple gateway which opens into the 
 next or grand court which faces the double-domed 
 temple. It is called the Spear Gate, and the central 
 door is never opened except to the Emperor. The 
 side doors would be opened for a Chang Yuan Senior 
 Hanlin wrangler, who has taken his degree in Pekin, 
 he being a native of Nanking. Literary ability is 
 imperial in China, and before it military prowess 
 falls empty in the dust. We enter by a side door, 
 called the gate of " Golden Sound." The great drum 
 sends forth its sonorous peals from this point upon 
 occasions of worship. The door on the west is called 
 the " Gem Resounding." The grand bell hangs by it, 
 ready to emit its silvery tones. 
 
 We pass around the building by me&ns of a stone 
 balcony, and enter by the way of the great bell. 
 Our eyes now take in a scene never to be forgotten
 
 BELL USED BV THE ORCHESTRA.
 
 20 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 as we are in the presence of Confucius's temple. 
 Three hundred feet across a magnificently paved 
 court it rears its yellow canopy, being built upon a 
 high platform of hewn stone, and so lofty that it 
 entirely obscures the temple dedicated to his 
 ancestors, which is upon a high hill. The court 
 before us is called the " Vermilion Porch," of 
 immense size, and paved with ancient slabs of white 
 or variegated marble. Upon the left of the Spear 
 Gate is a beautiful porcelain pagoda, where the 
 libations are poured out, aud where the silk roll and 
 written prayers are burnt after the sacrifice. 
 
 Upon either side leading up to the great marble 
 terrace are low buildings, containing small board 
 tablets dedicated to the memory of former worthies 
 and scholars, arranged in chronological order. 
 
 We must now ascend by the triple marble steps to 
 the Moon Terrace, which is in pattern exactly the 
 same as that used in China as far back as the days 
 of Hezekiah. Let us bow low and tread softly as 
 we approach the temple of Great Perfection, for on 
 either side are the honored tablets to one hundred 
 and forty-four of China's most gifted philosophers. 
 No marble bust speaks to the student of to-day, the 
 great past has no voice in the temple or museum ; 
 all, or nearly all, relics have passed away, never to 
 be recovered. These little tablets bear the names of 
 scholars selected from millions, and present the 
 learning and talent of one -fourth of the human race 
 for a period of 2,450 years. As the marble busts in
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 21 
 
 the Pincio of Rome or in the National Museum of 
 Naples bring vividly before us the talent and learn- 
 ing of the Ancient Western World, so do these bits 
 of gilded boards present to Eastern Asia the glory of 
 a great past. How far the literati of to-day are 
 influenced by classic history, and how much moved 
 by details of virtuous deeds of former worthies, is a 
 subject which is veiled from our inspection. 
 
 No one, having a faint outline of the political and 
 literary history of the vast period, covered by their 
 tablets, can stand a thoughtless spectator in their 
 presence. Upon either side, beginning with the 
 seventeenth century (1692 A.D.), as we advance 
 toward the enthroned Sage, we pass humble tablets, 
 resting in dusty rows upon raised shelves. They 
 are here by imperial decrees, and in many instances 
 are the tardy recognition of noble worth. All honor 
 to men who contended with poverty, who sacrificed 
 health and worldly pleasures in the pursuit of know- 
 ledge, who served their country faithfully, scorned, 
 envied and hated by unprincipled courtiers and 
 courtesans, yet remained privately virtuous, publicly 
 honest and faithful to the state. They were honored 
 and dishonored, advanced to high positions for their 
 integrity, and degraded for their inflexible hostility 
 to court intrigues and rampant vices in high places. 
 Here is one who, after eminent services to the State, 
 was allowed to die in want ; here one banished for 
 his criticism upon the State, another beheaded, others 
 tortured and hacked to pieces for their unflinching
 
 22 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 adherence to truth. There, among less noted, is the 
 tablet to Fang-hsian-yu, a prince, who could not 
 conscientiously remain in the service of the Emperor 
 after he had cruelly tortured and put to death his 
 aged father. He made the following manly and 
 memorable reply to the Emperor, who was urging 
 him to draft certain decrees, " Put me to death, if 
 you like ; I cannot draft your decrees." He was put 
 to the torture, but to no purpose. He died a heroic 
 death, and sleeps quietly under Pearl Hill, near to 
 the south gate of Nanking, a reproof to the venial 
 and truckling officials of to-day. I espy among the 
 dusty rows the name of Luh-Siu, a name revered 
 wherever known. This prince staked his life with 
 the fortunes of the losing Emperor. He was a great 
 scholar and a brave warrior, whose last act was 
 equal in bravery to that of any of the Greek heroes. 
 When all was lost, and the young Emperor was 
 about to be captured by the Mongols, he forced his 
 wife and children to throw themselves into the sea. 
 He then repaired to the ship which carried the 
 Emperor, and said to him: "Public affairs have 
 come to this crisis, it is your majesty's duty to your 
 country to die." Then he took the young monarch 
 upon his back and plunged into the sea.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TTbe Uemple anfc tbe Saoe. 
 
 MANY heroes in one way and another have laid 
 down their lives for conscientious scruples, 
 and justly merited the places of honor which later 
 generations have accorded them. 
 
 In view of the countless tomes, the fruit of so 
 much literary industry covering all branches of 
 knowledge known to the Chinese, in view of their 
 eminent services to the State and tried loyalty, in 
 view of the nobleness of their characters, these few 
 worthies have been enthroned near to their beloved 
 Master. 
 
 Let us be very charitable while we gaze upon these 
 crumbling worm-eaten tablets, trying to stand erect 
 under their heavy load of dust, for they surely help 
 to keep alive a faint spirit of emulation in the breasts 
 of degenerate sons. With Carlyle we may befittingly 
 say, " How beautiful to see thereby, as through a long 
 vista, into the remote time ; to have, as it were, an 
 actual section of almost the earliest past brought safe 
 into the present, and set before your eyes." 
 
 The Moon-terrace, situated in front of the temple,
 
 24 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 is reached by climbing a score of marble steps. It is 
 one hundred and fifty feet long and seventy-five feet 
 broad, faced and covered with hewn stones, and railed 
 off from the court with beautifully carved stone slabs 
 and pillars. This terrace is made especially useful 
 during the vernal and autumnal sacrifices, when the 
 framework, which is bare upon other occasions, is 
 covered with highly-colored cotton cloth, and 
 illuminated with countless lanterns. It is then that 
 may be seen the grand orchestra in all its glory, out- 
 rivalling that of any Greek or Roman theatre. 
 Under the canopy, flashing with the swaying lights 
 and scintillating torches, are one hundred and fifty 
 musicians and pantomimers, swaying in perfect har- 
 mony to lutes, drums, bells, cymbals, and many other 
 instruments, which blend their seductive strains with 
 the low chants within the temple. 
 
 The great central stairs leading to the terrace, which 
 exactly face the great tablet to Confucius, are in three 
 divisions ; the central one is covered by a monstrous 
 dragon, carved upon the face of a solid slab of white 
 marble. No person having any respect for the Sage 
 would think of ascending by the middle stairs. 
 
 The temple is upon the same elevation as the 
 terrace, and is of the same length, and ninety feet 
 deep. 
 
 One of the most imposing edifices of China devoted 
 to religious worship, now beckons us within its lofty 
 portals. 
 
 A city that can boast examination halls of sufficient
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 25 
 
 capacity to accommodate 28,000 students at one place 
 and at one time, ought not to be behind in its devotion 
 to its great Exemplar, the peerless scholar of antiquity. 
 The lower front of the temple consists of five pairs of 
 massive folding- doors, over which you may read the 
 startling sentence, "The Holy and Divine (Confucius) 
 equal with Heaven." The reader, as he peruses such 
 sentences as the above, must, by some transformation 
 of mind, divest himself of his Westernism, of his 
 matter-of-fact way of viewing things, and for the 
 time being gaze through crystal goggles half as large 
 as the face. He must remember that there is no such 
 thing as scientific truth in the Chinaman's vocabu- 
 lary. He revels in exaggerated figures of speech, 
 and when describing mental or moral worth, he uses 
 for comparison the grandest objects of nature. 
 
 To the ordinary Chinaman, Heaven is the illimit- 
 able or boundless above, to the scholar the dual forces 
 of nature the Yin and Yang the inscrutable and 
 spotless, are Heaven. With such sophistical reason- 
 ing in the Chung Yung, Confucius makes out that 
 the possessor of sincerity is the coequal of Heaven 
 and Earth. He says, " The possessor of sincerity not 
 merely completes or perfects himself, but his corre- 
 spondents, i.e., men and things, and is thus the equal 
 of Heaven and Earth." Further, he says, " Is there 
 any being or thing beyond the individual (the Sage) 
 on which he depends ? His benevolence, how active, 
 like an abyss, O what depths, like Heaven, how 
 vast."
 
 26 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 The porter tugs at the ponderous doors upon the 
 left centre, and at last swings them upon their 
 groaning sockets, and we barbarians enter and stand 
 for awhile in mute admiration of the temple's 
 majestic proportions. The silence becomes almost 
 painful ; not even the cooing of doves, nor the chat- 
 tering of magpies upon the roof are heard in the 
 mighty hall ; my echoing footsteps mock me, no 
 visage meets my glances, no likeness of anything on 
 earth or under the earth, unless perchance the con- 
 torted dragons emblazoned upon the lofty vaulted 
 canopy represent some monsters yet unknown to 
 zoology. 
 
 In the centre of the hall facing the south stands 
 a grand throne ; it is occupied by the most elab- 
 orately carved tablet I have yet seen ; it is twelve 
 feet high and six wide. Upon the centre of the 
 tablet we read : " The most holy teacher, Confucius." 
 Upon the f rontice of the caldachino is a prodigiously 
 large oblong tablet, fourteen by eight feet, with a 
 sky blue ground, covered with gold dragons, and 
 four large gilt characters. They tell us that he was 
 " The most illustrious teacher of all times." To the 
 right we are directed to an equally large and 
 beautiful motto-board having this sentence : " He is 
 the equal of Heaven and Earth." To the left is a 
 crimson-colored board, which declares that "He is 
 the greatest born among men." I stand for a few 
 moments entranced by the effect of these four 
 sentences, sentences written in two thousand temples,
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 27 
 
 sentences conveying the united testimony of 300,- 
 000,000 of our race, as to the relative position of 
 their Sage. Every dynasty from near the time of 
 Christ has lavished praise upon their idolized master, 
 and heaped up laudations, until the present dynasty 
 exhausted the Chinese language in the sentences we 
 have quoted. 
 
 In four much smaller thrones, or caldachinos, we 
 find arranged after the rules of etiquette sixteen 
 tablets, four of which are in memory of Yin-tsz, 
 Tsen-tsz, Sz-tsz, and Mung-tsz, which are accorded 
 higher honors than the others, because they represent 
 sagehood, while the others are called worthies. Here 
 we may imagine the great master as seated in the 
 midst of his most illustrious and ardent disciples, the 
 disciples looking up from their lowly places eager to 
 catch every word falling from his lips. 
 
 The four associate Sages deserve a passing remark. 
 The Sage Yin was born about 519 B.C., and was sent 
 when a mere lad to be educated by Confucius. None 
 of the philosopher's pupils loved learning as he. It 
 is recorded that when only twenty-nine years old 
 his hair turned gray, and three years later he died, 
 " perished in his summer day." Confucius said of 
 him, " He loved to learn ; he did not transfer his 
 anger ; he did not repeat a fault. Unfortunately 
 his appointed time was short, and he died. Now 
 there is none like him, I have not heard of any who 
 loved learning as he." 
 
 He was very poor, lived in a filthy lane, he used a
 
 28 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 bamboo joint for his cup, and his elbow for a pillow. 
 He did not repine, he could have secured office in the 
 government, but would not accept ; he preferred the 
 society of his master. Confucius wept sorely at his 
 death, and giving way to despair, he declared Heaven 
 had ruined him. For eighteen hundred years he has 
 received homage at the Master's side. A picture like 
 this, although not set in diamonds or gold, sparkles 
 and shines out of the dim past, revealing to us two 
 beautiful characters ; one the man of age, sedate and 
 kingly in demeanor, the other a mere youth, ardent 
 and loving ; they walked the then unbeaten path of 
 learning hand in hand. What a land, what an 
 age, to produce such men as fathered around Laotoz 
 and Confucius ! 
 
 Heaven to the philosophic Confucianist is equal to Spencer's 
 Force. An Inscrutable Power back of Nature, unrevealed and 
 unknowable.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Uemple ant> tbe Sacje. 
 
 T^ILIAL piety was the glory of the Confucian, as 
 of all later ages. Tsengtsz, the second in 
 honor, was born 506 B.C. His father, judged by 
 ordinary standards, weighed more selfishness to the 
 pound than most of the ancients. Tseng was fifteen 
 years old when he became a pupil of Confucius. He 
 was slow, but solid in his learning, and eventually 
 obtained great eminence as a scholar. He very 
 early illustrated his unselfish and loving character. 
 While a mere youth, his father ordered him to weed 
 the cucumber patch ; while doing so, I presume, he 
 used the ordinary attention of a boy of ten; the 
 result was one of the vines was broken off. His 
 father, stick in hand, came upon the lad, and nearly 
 beat him to death. 
 
 As soon as the young philosopher was able to 
 move, he repaired to his father's apartment, and 
 expressed his anxiety lest he might have hurt him- 
 self in administering the lesson. Few boys could 
 have gone further in making amends for an accident, 
 but Tseng hunted up his guitar and played a sooth- 
 ing air to set his father's mind at ease.
 
 30 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 Confucius thought that his disciple went too far 
 upon this occasion. 
 
 It is said that to his mother he was still more 
 devoted ; there existed between them such perfect 
 sympathy and oneness of thought and feeling that 
 their lives were hardly separable. 
 
 Once, when he was out upon the hills gathering 
 fire-wood, she became anxious about him, and in her 
 anxiety bit her own arm. The pain was imme- 
 diately communicated to the heart of her son, who 
 hastened home with his burden. We do not wonder 
 at what happened in after-life when he had taken a 
 wife into his mother's home. Upon an occasion the 
 mother-in-law ordered the young wife to cook her a 
 pear, and she did it so poorly that Tsengtsz divorced 
 her. No doubt Confucius applauded this as an act 
 of solid merit. 
 
 You may bow low before the name Mung-tsz, 
 which is written upon the fourth tablet, for he is 
 the first Sage after Confucius. He was born 371 
 B.C., nearly two hundred years later than his master. 
 In some respects he was the compeer of Confucius, 
 whom he reverenced inordinately. His thoughts 
 were more incisive, his criticisms upon those in high 
 places were unsparing. But his disquisitions were 
 so philosophical and clear that his opponents were 
 convinced and subdued. He was a great political 
 economist, and his enunciations swayed the actions 
 of princes and kings. He was far beyond his age as 
 a profound thinker and moralist. He was a con-/
 
 THE TEMPLE AtfD THE SAGE. 31 
 
 temporary of Plato, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Zeno, v 
 and other great men ; and as Dr. Legge has well said, 
 "When we place Mencius among them, he can look 
 them in the face. He does not need to hide a dimin- 
 ished head." 
 
 His mother was a princely woman and had the 
 sole direction of his education, as his father died 
 when he was of tender age. It is said she changed 
 her residence twice for his benefit. At first they 
 lived by a cemetery, and the young lad took to imitat- 
 ing the wailers and the funeral ceremonies to such 
 an extent that she became alarmed, and removed to a 
 home in the market-place. He now imitated the 
 salesmen, butchers, and hawkers of trinkets to such 
 an extent that she became more alarmed than ever, 
 and she moved again, but the move was from the 
 frying-pan into the fire. At last she sought a place 
 near the public school. He had found his proper 
 environment, and henceforth he imitated the scholars 
 most furiously. 
 
 His mother the model woman of China foresaw 
 his calling and destiny. Like many other boys who 
 have turned out famous men in the end, he some- 
 times neglected his books, and looked upon his 
 tasks as needless. This wise mother did not give 
 him a holiday and condone his faults, but brought 
 him to his senses by an object-lesson which he never 
 forgot. 
 
 One day he returned from school in a careless 
 mood, and stood watching his devoted mother
 
 32 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 weaving. She asked him what progress he was 
 making in his studies, he replied indifferently, " Well 
 enough." Mrs. Mung took up a knife and cut through 
 the beautiful web. This startled him, and he asked 
 the cause. 
 
 Now came the lecture. She said that she had 
 done what he was doing, that the cutting of the web 
 was like his neglect of his studies. The lecture did 
 not need repeating, yet she seems to have kept him 
 from some indiscretions in later life, such as the 
 trifling act of divorcing his wife, because he found 
 her sitting flat upon the floor, when he had hastily 
 entered her boudoir. His mother stood between the 
 unoffending wife and the irate philosopher, and again 
 administered a lesson in propriety. This second 
 great luminary in the Chinaman's Heaven owed 
 much of his greatness to his widowed mother. 
 The day is coming when such women as the mother 
 of Mencius and Agatha of later years shall help 
 to form a galaxy of Chinese heroines which shall 
 find a prominent place in the coming art gallery of 
 Cathay. 
 
 Volumes might be written about the great sages 
 and philosophers here represented, but we must for- 
 bear. We will, instead, invite you to look at the one 
 Chinese Colossus. While the mid-day light is 
 admitted but feebly from the outside world upon 
 the sacred shrine, revealing indistinctly the richly 
 carved and gilded tablet, so the light coming down 
 through twenty-four centuries reveals but partially 
 the Confucius of Lu. Out of the hazy atmosphere
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 33 
 
 which envelops every historical character of that 
 distant period, rises the grandest figure of Eastern 
 Asia. Well may we wonder from whence comes the 
 almost supernatural power which has held spell- 
 bound countless millions of our race. "All that we 
 do springs out of mystery, Spirit, invisible force," 
 might well be said of him. If we look upon him as 
 a contemporary, we fail to find him the shining peak 
 towering up into the blue ether beyond the gaze of 
 ordinary mortals, for the powers revealed in his every 
 day intercourse with men, were no greater than in 
 many others who left little to impress future gener- 
 ations. We may say of him, "Only like a little cloud 
 image, or Armida's palace, air-built, does the actual 
 body itself, spring forth from the great mystic deep." 
 It is written, " Not what I have, but what I do is rny 
 kingdom." This is true in part, but it is not the 
 whole truth ; there is an unexerted power, a force 
 back of the actions of some great men, which passes 
 on beyond what they do, and when the fame of their 
 works is remembered no more, the spirit of their life 
 lingers above the glowing horizon. 
 
 Jt may be called character, or genius, whatever 
 you like ; there is a promethean fire which radiates 
 character, where works cannot find an entrance. 
 When I read Mencius, I say, "O wonderful man ;" as 
 a mere thinker he was surely the equal of Confucius 
 When I read the writings of Confucius, something 
 behind words, style and thoughts awes me to silence 
 and bids me to do him homage. 
 3
 
 34 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 I dare not flatter myself that I have any particular 
 new words to say of the Sage not known to the ordi- 
 nary student of Chinese literature, for many pens far 
 abler than mine have faithfully described the salient 
 lineaments of China's greatest scholar. But while I 
 stand before his tablet, I cannot forego the pleasure 
 of giving him a fresh introduction to my friends. I 
 do not expect to give my readers an accurate estimate 
 of his character, although it is written in the Book 
 of Poetry, and quoted to Mencius by the king of Tse, 
 " What others have in their minds I am able to 
 measure by reflection." From his expressed views, 
 dogmas, and life, it is impossible to gain an accurate 
 measure and fit him into the world temple.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Zlemple anfc tbe Sage. 
 
 AT this distance in time no one can measure Con- 
 fucius ; his relative importance to the world 
 is seen alone in the effect of his teachings. To the 
 Chinaman he towers above every other mortal, as 
 we have already observed. At an audience of offi- 
 cials, in his day, one observed to the great officers of 
 the courts, " Tsz-Kung is greater than Confucius." 
 When the remark was reported to Tsz-Kung, he 
 said, " Let me use the comparison of a house and its 
 walls. My wall only reaches to the shoulders ; one 
 may look over it and see whatever is good in the 
 house. My master's wall is several measures high ; 
 he who finds not the door does not see the beauties 
 of the ancestral hall, nor a hundred officers of rich 
 array." Later on, in the palmy days of Mencius, a 
 conversation is reported of Tsai- Wo : " I look upon 
 Confucius as morally above Yao and Shun."* Tsz- 
 Kung chimes in, " From the birth of mankind till 
 now there has never been one like our master." 
 
 * Two Emperors who lived nearly two thousand years before 
 Confucius.
 
 36 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 Yin-Yo adds, " Is it only among men that it is so ? 
 There is the Ki-Lin, among quadrupeds; the Fung- 
 Hwang, among birds ; the Tai mountains, among 
 mountains and hills ; seas and rivers, among pools. 
 They are the same in kind. So the Sages, among 
 mankind, are also the same in kind, but they stand 
 out from their companions, and rise above the com- 
 mon level. From the birth of mankind till now 
 there never has been one so replete, so perfect as 
 Confucius." 
 
 Mencius says the disciples lingered about the grave 
 of Confucius for full three years after his death. 
 After their mourning was completed, and they had 
 their baggage in' readiness to return to their respec- 
 tive homes, they went in procession to bid good-bye 
 to the disciple beloved, whose affection for his master 
 was so great that he could not leave the sacred spot. 
 The meeting was the most memorable, perhaps, on 
 record among any band of devoted disciples ; they 
 broke down completely, and poured forth their griefs 
 until their voices failed. They went to their homes, 
 but Tsz-Kung built a house near by the grave, and 
 spent another three years in meditation by his 
 master's tomb. 
 
 Upon one occasion several disciples desired to 
 render the same homage to one of their number as 
 they accorded to Confucius, and they tried to coerce 
 Tseng to join with them. He replied that it could 
 not be done, and uttered the famous passage, " What 
 has been washed in the waters of the Kiang and
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 37 
 
 Han, and bleached in the autumn sun, O how glit- 
 tering ! Nothing can be added to it." 
 
 Every noted character in China is enveloped in 
 clouds, with silver linings, the background of which 
 is distorted. Marvels and portents waited upon the 
 advent of every man who has reached any position 
 in the State. It is not strange that we find many 
 marvels told of Confucius and his parents. We can 
 notice but a few of the references made by Chinese 
 writers. According to the classics, his father was 
 endowed with almost superhuman physical strength. 
 He was the Samson of China, and on one occasion 
 showed his marvellous powers during the siege of 
 Pi-Yang, when the irate soldiery barred the city 
 gates in his face. He was district magistrate, but 
 thought it not beneath his dignity to leap from his 
 horse and hurl the massive gates from their sockets. 
 
 If Confucius was not a giant in strength, he was 
 in stature, being nine feet and six inches in height. / 
 The founder of the Shang dynasty was nine feet / 
 high, and the founder of the Chao was ten feet, and 
 as late as the days of Mencius the noble Tsao-Kao 
 reached the comfortable height of nine feet and four 
 inches. Confucius was otherwise distinguished. He 
 had a square dyke-like rim upon the crown of his 
 head, and an enormous upturned nose. 
 
 It would be worse than folly to relate all that has 
 been said of the wonderful man whom we are trying 
 to portray. It is sufficient for us to know that his 
 honors have steadily increased, and that his hold
 
 38 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 upon all classes of the people has grown firmer for 
 twenty centuries, until so far as China is concerned, 
 he fills the very throne of Heaven. His utterances 
 are considered the eternal verities, his maxims more 
 treasured than all the gems of Asia ; no appeal can 
 go behind his statements ; what he said is the end of 
 
 J all controversy. What he said of ancestral worship, 
 of the family, of the State, or of any topic which 
 came within the scope of his masterly genius, has 
 
 / become family and State heir-looms. 
 
 What we gather up of his checkered life must, of 
 necessity, be fragmentary and unsatisfactory, but 
 there is enough to impress us with his great worth 
 as a statesman and philosopher. His star shone in 
 times of commotion, and when virtue and ancient 
 nobility had well nigh disappeared. 
 
 What little moral life had been kept alive by the 
 example and teachings of a few Emperors and phi- 
 losophers, was fast ebbing away. He says, " The 
 
 / highmindedness of antiquity showed itself in disre- 
 gard of small things; the highmindedness of the 
 
 / present day shows itself in wild license. The 
 
 v stupidity of antiquity showed itself in straightfor- 
 wardness ; the stupidity of the present day shows 
 
 v* itself in sheer deceit." 
 
 He looked upon himself as a providential man 
 with a grand purpose, with a mission to his fellow- 
 men. He said of himself, " Heaven produced the 
 virtue that is in me." He was not satisfied with 
 himself or any other human being. " A Sage it is
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 39 
 
 not mine to see ; could I see a princely man (or man *' 
 of virtue) that would be sufficient. A good man I 
 have not seen. Could I see one persevering (in 
 goodness) I would be satisfied. I have not seen a 
 person who loved humanity, or one who hated that s 
 which is selfish."* He confesses that he himself, 
 although in letters equal to other men, as a superior 
 man carrying into practice what he professes, " I 
 have not yet attained to." Still he thought Heaven 
 had consigned to him an extraordinary mission, and 
 that the mantle of sagehood in a manner had fallen 
 upon him. He says, " After the death of King Wen, 
 was not the cause of truth lodged in me ? If Heaven 
 had desired to let this cause of truth perish, then I a 
 future mortal should not have got such a relation to 
 that cause." Once the master broke forth, saying, 
 " Alas, no one knows me ! I do not murmur against 
 Heaven, I do not blame men, but there is Heaven ! 
 That knows me." 
 
 He subjected himself to close self-examination, he 
 probed his heart to the core ; he believed with all his 
 heart in sincerity, or he could not have said, " The 
 superior man must be watchful over himself when 
 alone. When internal examination discovers nothing 
 
 O 
 
 * He was in no sense a pessimist, he held the most exalted 
 views of human nature, and the grandest possibilities for man / 
 when properly instructed. No more hopeful man ever taught 
 his fellowmen. His whole philosophy pointed to a perfect v 
 Utopia here upon earth.
 
 40 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is 
 there to fear ? " 
 
 His discourse on righteousness, upon truth and 
 sincerity, give him a place by the side of the best 
 teachers of any age, but he falls infinitely below his 
 standard in practice. At times he seems to be in the 
 region of inspiration, and again falls to the level of 
 worldly selfishness. His utterances about humanity 
 would make love world-embracing, again he would 
 seem to confine it to family and friends. He comes 
 very near to the Golden Rule, and then fetters it in 
 practice. 
 
 He breathes out his broad catholicity in a passage 
 like this : " The man of perfect virtue, wishing to 
 establish himself, seeks also to establish others ; 
 wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to 
 enlarge others." 
 
 His perception of social relations was very clear, 
 and he raised the social platform higher than any of 
 his illustrious predecessors, and the ethical radii was 
 enlarged and clarified. 
 
 As a scholar, his fame rests more upon oral instruc- 
 tion and example than upon his writings. As a 
 philosopher, he was more ethical than religious, yet 
 his religious notions were reverent without the 
 mysticism common to his age and country.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TCbe Uemple ant) tbe Sage, 
 
 NO philosopher ever had a profounder respect for 
 man and his rights than Confucius. By regu- 
 lating his relations in the home, in communities, and 
 in the State, he fancied that the earth could be made 
 an Eden.* 
 
 Many scholars have pronounced his philosophy 
 atheistical in its tendency, because he said so 
 little of religion, and so much of education. It is 
 very evident he did not have much sympathy with 
 the prevailing religion of his day. He did not 
 understand a philosophy that confined itself to 
 ascetics and mystic doctrines, and which did not / 
 touch, except indirectly, upon the every-day duties 
 of man. His philosophy was intensely practical, - 
 and his work mainly to ameliorate the moral and 
 mental well-being of his nation. How much he 
 
 *The ruler, the father, the husband and the elder brother 
 represent the class of the employers ; the servant, the son, the 
 wife and the younger brother represent the order of the em- 
 ployed ; the duty of the former is to reign, the office of the 
 latter is to obey.
 
 42 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 thought upon spiritual subjects, we cannot positively 
 say. Only an occasional glimpse is had of the inner 
 workings of his spiritual nature, but what we see is 
 by no means unworthy of the great teacher. Sur- 
 rounded as he was by rulers and princes who had 
 broken away from the tutelage of primitive times, 
 and each striving to gain some ascendancy in the 
 state, and often at the expense of the masses, it is no 
 wonder he should press home such political ethical 
 dogmas as seemed at variance with the accepted 
 notions of statesmen and religionists. If he were alive 
 in our day, no doubt, he would be a sturdy supporter 
 /of the working classes, and an enemy of grasping mon- 
 \/opolies. It is not to the spiritual side of his nature 
 that we look for greatest development, but to the 
 moral and intellectual. The trend of his thinking was 
 upon such lines which come sooner or later to every 
 great soul. The religious inheritance of a great past 
 and the solemn questions not infrequently awoke 
 within him aspirations after spiritual truth, and he 
 cherished the firm belief that in his own philosophy, 
 J could be found the path back to virtue and true 
 religion. He was in a sense a polytheist ; like his 
 forefathers, he thought it not out of harmony to pay 
 religious homage to spirits as well as to heaven or 
 Shangti. His life and words declare he had a pro- 
 found reverence for spirits and prayer. There were 
 times, it is true, when he evaded religious topics, and 
 refused to look at any problems which touched upon 
 the future. Again in different moods, he was not
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 43 
 
 only willing, but delighted to discourse upon the gods 
 and a hereafter. He said in one of his ecstatic moods: 
 " How abundantly do spiritual beings display the 
 power that belongs to them : we look for them, but 
 see them not ; yet they are everywhere. They make 
 all the people in the empire to fast and purify them- 
 selves, and array themselves in richest dress, in order 
 to attend their sacrifices. Like overflowing water, 
 they seem to be over the heads and on the right and 
 left of their worshippers." 
 
 The book of Poetry says, " The influence of spirits 
 cannot be reckoned upon, or calculated when they 
 will come." Again, when showing how the institu- 
 tions of a ruler are rooted or grounded in his own 
 character, he says, " He presents himself with them 
 before the spiritual beings and no doubt about them 
 arises." While his philosophy and that of the great 
 teachers before his day, was monotheistic in its ten- 
 dency, the worship of spirits and demons and the 
 practice of sortilege was not considered inconsistent. 
 The heavens teemed with spirits great and small, 
 every star sparkling in the blue ether had a myriad 
 of spiritual voices. Every deep recess and mountain 
 of the globe echoed with the faint calls of demons. 
 Heaven controlled all, all was in harmony with his 
 decrees. Once when he was very sick, Tsz-Lu asked 
 if he should pray for him, he said, should prayer be 
 offered ? Tsz-Lu replied, it might. In the prayers it 
 is said, prayer had been made to the gods of the 
 upper and lower worlds. The master said, " My 
 praying has been for a long time."
 
 44 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 Just what Confucius meant by this is doubtful. It 
 might have reference to his general attitude toward 
 the gods ; or it might mean, I have been praying for a 
 long time for my recovery. The whole conversation 
 shows upon part of pupil and teacher a firm convic- 
 tion that prayer was potent, that disasters of every 
 nature, as well as sickness, might be removed by 
 fasting and prayer. 
 
 In the light of to-day, it seems sad that such a 
 mind, and a soul so noble in its aspirations, should 
 have lived and died without the clearer light of a 
 Divine revelation. He built with the material he 
 had, he formed his character in the dim spiritual 
 light of his land, and if defective at many points, as 
 a whole, it is fuller orbed and brighter than any 
 coming down to us from heathen Greece and Rome. 
 There is nothing impure found in his philosophy, 
 every utterance comes bearing unmistakable evidence 
 of a purer nature ; there were clouds, but a steady 
 light was shed about him, that gave him a more just 
 appreciation of man's nobility of character than 
 possessed by Buddha or Pythagoras. He saw a glori- 
 ous present for man, but did not project his specula- 
 tions beyond this present, he shrank from the task 
 of inquiring into the problem of his hereafter. 
 
 He was a born statesman, but too squarely built 
 for his times. He had a deeper insight into char- 
 acter, and a more just appreciation of the restraints 
 necessary for the good government of a people than 
 any of his cotemporaries, and it was fully two cen- 
 turies before his teachings were acted upon by offi-
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 45 
 
 cers and rulers. No doubt there was much prejudice 
 against the straightforwardness of his teachings, as 
 in all ages there has been a constant struggle against 
 the truth. But, at last, his wisdom and the loftiness 
 of his teachings were recognized, and both have been 
 so fully accepted by the people that they are the 
 fetich to which every Chinaman bows. His instruc- 
 tions were so thoroughly received, and the principles 
 he taught so fully accepted, that they have formed 
 the very groundwork of the social and political 
 empire for more than twenty centuries. 
 
 During all the convulsions of this long period, 
 every swing of the political pendulum has been con- 
 fined within the arc of his ethical teachings. We 
 ask, How is it China has remained an empire, and 
 her people homogeneous for so many centuries ? We 
 reply, Simply, because the standard given them by 
 Confucius was so pure, and so thoroughly accepted 
 as the rule of practice, that her integrity has been 
 maintained. 
 
 With all of his great attainments, music was not 
 neglected. He had a full appreciation of its gentle 
 suasion upon the minds of a people, and believed 
 that its use in army, upon field of battle, in palace 
 and in hut, in all the departments of public and 
 private life, would mould the people into consenta- 
 neous accord. It is recorded that once upon a jour- 
 ney he heard such ravishing notes, that for full three 
 weeks he had no relish for his food. This was 
 instrumental music, of course, for if it had been 
 vocal music, and such as may be heard to-day, I am
 
 46 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 sure he would have loathed music for three months. 
 He was fond of prostrations and rites, especially such 
 as had been handed down from remotest time. The 
 opportunity came at last, when he was fifty years 
 old, to put into practice all that he had gathered 
 from ancient writings. He was the magistrate of 
 Lu. This State soon became the envy and dread of 
 all the other States. " His precepts had been fairly 
 put in practice, and, like Solomon, his influence in 
 after ages was increased by the fact of acknowledged 
 success." It is said that he was fond of amusements, 
 and even hunted, but he shot all of his birds upon 
 the wing. He must have been very skilful with the 
 bow to have accomplished much in that way. He 
 was an adept at angling, and most likely during 
 some of his vacations, he might have been found 
 sedately seated upon a stone bridge in Lu, casting 
 the fly, for he disdained the use of the net. He was 
 peculiar in his tastes, and it took a good cook and 
 house-boy to keep him in good humor. His food 
 must be properly seasoned, and his mat must be 
 straight. All great men have their peculiarities, and 
 I am not sure that he was more idiosyncratical than 
 was Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Where shall we place him in the galaxy of heathen 
 philosophers ? He is too-many-sided to sit by the 
 side of Pythagoras, too great a moralist to be along- 
 side of Buddha. We will, for convenience, place him 
 in the centre ; and there is no fear but his common- 
 sense and erudition will make him a pleasant and 
 profitable companion for all.
 
 THE TEMPLE AND THE SAGE. 47 
 
 As a teacher, he rises to the sublimest heights ; as 
 a moralist, he leads heathen philosophy. But the 
 great aim of his life was to reform man by instruc- 
 tion ; by perfecting his knowledge, he fancied he 
 could perfect the man. I must differ with the Rev. 
 George Matheson, who says : " He pointed his coun- 
 trymen to a moral, instead of an intellectual, pathway 
 for reaching the knowledge of transcendental things. 
 Viewed in this light, he was to his own age very 
 much what Mr. Carlyle was to the generation which 
 first beheld him ; indeed, we have always been im- 
 pressed with a strong parallel between them. Both 
 had a reverence for the manifestation of force or 
 power ; both sought to recognize that power in 
 union with virtue and moral aspiration." 
 
 If ever teacher laid stress upon intellectual culture, 
 and saw through it the one hope for his people, that 
 man was Confucius. The man of knowledge was 
 the princely man, in perfecting his knowledge his 
 virtues were established. His teachings stirred the 
 intellect to its lowest depths, but left the conscience 
 unmoved. We are safe in saying, no other man ever 
 left his image upon a race so perfectly as he did 
 upon his. One has well said : " The relation of the 
 Christian code to the Chinese morality is the relation 
 of the picture to its frame. China has the frame of 
 morals, but has no picture to place within it ; it 
 wants an ideal to give beauty to its conception. 
 Christianity can supply that ideal. It reveals the 
 precepts of all virtue concentrated in a single life."
 
 48 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 The picture now within the frame is Confucius, 
 and no literati can see much beyond the picture as 
 he has been able to trace it in a philosophy which is 
 all but incomprehensible to him. To him more heads 
 have bowed and done reverence than to any other 
 mere mortal. More than one-fourth of the race 
 draws its inspiration from this teacher. All of the 
 glory of former sages seemed to gather about, and 
 centre in him, and has been reflected on through 
 every generation to the present. In a sense, the 
 intellect of China matured in him, the race-glory 
 culminated in the " Mountain of Ni." 
 
 We cannot, we dare not, treat with disrespect the 
 honored one of an empire. He sealed a nation, the 
 imprint is deep and clear, and not upon plastic wax, 
 but upon flint ; in intellect and moral character we 
 trace the lineament of his great soul. 
 
 The problem of the age will be the redemption of 
 China's Confucianized millions to Jesus Christ. For 
 these many centuries his virtues have been extolled, 
 but his faults patterned ; his sincerity and truthful- 
 ness lauded, but his insincerities and mild deceptions 
 reverently followed. His broad catholicity, benevo- 
 lence, and love have been themes for praise ; but his 
 narrowness, selfishness, and self -righteousness humbly 
 imitated. With his people the letter has been life, 
 but the spirit death. His faults have been enlarged 
 a thousand-fold in the lives of his followers, while 
 his virtues have shrivelled in the shade of their fallen 
 natures.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ZTbe Xiturgp. 
 
 IT is hardly necessary to say a liturgy presupposes 
 an object of worship, and a system of religious 
 doctrines, and not ethics merely. The more complex 
 in construction, the more elevated in sentiment, the 
 stronger its proof of representing a high state of 
 culture and moral excellence. This we see clearly 
 illustrated in the case of the Jewish liturgy. At 
 first a few prayers and readings ; as the intellectual 
 culture of the people advanced, and the religious 
 sentiments and feelings became exalted, the ritual 
 was expanded, embellished, and spiritualized. Every 
 people advanced beyond a state of barbarism has 
 had some kind of a religious cult and ritual. The 
 ancient Egyptians had their great burial service, 
 which took the spirit into Sheol with set prayers. 
 The Hindoo and Brahmin had their set prayers and 
 hymns. Buddhists have had in India, China and 
 Japan most elaborate and ornate services, to be per- 
 formed either by reading or mernoriter. The early 
 Christian Church had four distinct liturgies, the early 
 Greek Church adopted three set forms of worship, 
 4
 
 50 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 and the ancient Coptic Christians had at one time as 
 many as twelve different formulae of worship. The 
 student of the religious literature of China very soon 
 discovers that Confucianism and ancestral worship 
 are rich in liturgical services, in fact, they are most 
 complex and highly embellished. The purest classi- 
 cal expressions, like pearls from the lips of sages, 
 have been strung on this golden skein. In its beauty 
 of expression, and choice selections from the whole 
 range of literature, might be compared to the whole 
 fabric, 
 
 " The work as of a kingly palace gate, 
 With frontice- piece of diamond and gold." 
 
 The homage paid to Confucius in the temples dedi- 
 cated to his service, conforms in every particular to 
 the elaborate service found in the book of temple 
 rites. It is not natural to suppose that a people 
 should adhere to a public service, so intricate and 
 painfully exact in performance, consisting of sacri- 
 fices, prayers, prostrations and hymns of praise, with 
 no higher aim than to honor the memory of a great 
 scholar. It would be presumption in us to attempt 
 an answer to the questions which naturally arise 
 concerning a service so old and solemn as the one 
 used in connection with the stated worship of Con- 
 fucius. It has grown to its present perfection 
 through numberless additions for the past two 
 thousand years. There may be students of Chinese 
 literature who regard this liturgical service as desti-
 
 THE LITURGY. 51 
 
 tute of religious bearing, and pointless as the three 
 hundred rules of ceremony, or the three thousand 
 rules of dignity mentioned in the " Doctrine of the 
 Mean." There are others who claim to find in these 
 forms of worship much more than would be allowed 
 by the worshippers. While the idea of expiation for 
 sin, and the Eucharist, may be dimly shadowed forth 
 in the animal sacrifices and the wine and water used 
 by the officiating mandarin, there is nothing in the 
 liturgy itself or the literature of China to sub- 
 stantiate such assumption. Sin, as something to be 
 atoned for by another, or which could be atoned for 
 by the worshipper, does not find place in Confucian 
 philosophy. 
 
 There has been a great diversity of opinion among 
 western scholars as to the status of Confucianism, 
 some considering it in the light of a philosophy 
 merely, or rather a politico-ethical system, containing 
 a high standard of morality, but with scarcely 
 sufficient religious element to lift it above material- 
 ism ; another and more generous view has classed it 
 with the great religious systems of the world. The 
 Chinese, themselves being judges, would place it at 
 the head of all religions. 
 
 Before sentence is passed, it might be well to 
 determine what beliefs constitute a religion. The 
 more orthodox would say, a religion demands a feel- 
 ing of reverence toward a Creator and Ruler, with 
 acts of worship toward which that feeling leads. It 
 has been said by one that religion is " A sense of
 
 52 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 absolute dependence." Plato says, " Becoming as like 
 God as possible." Schelling, " Union of the infinite 
 with the finite." Spinoza, " Merging of men in the 
 universaj substance through intelligent love." The 
 newest definitions from certain sources would admit 
 Confucianism to high standing among the world 
 religions. Spencer tells us that " Religion belongs to 
 the sphere of the feelings, is grounded in the 
 emotional nature of man. It does not consist in the 
 body of intellectual dogmas out of which religious 
 systems are constructed, but it essentially consists in 
 the feelings that are awakened in mankind toward 
 an inscrutable power variously and imperfectly con- 
 ceived as the Infinite Being, the Spirit of the uni- 
 verse, the Source of all things." The great apostle of 
 Positivism, Mr. Harrison, says, " There are always 
 in some sort these three elements belief, worship, 
 conduct." 
 
 From the foregoing definitions can we admit Con- 
 fucianism to the family of religions ? It may not 
 have quite as clear conceptions of a Divine Being as 
 Buddhism or Taoism, but infinitely more than Posi- 
 tivism or Evolutionism. Suppose we take the three 
 words, belief, worship, and conduct all are ready to 
 admit that Confucianism has a faith, and that wor- 
 ship and conduct as the Chinaman understands such 
 are not wanting. We may safely accord it the place 
 the Empire has given it, and consider it par excel- 
 lence the one universal religion of the people. A 
 religion that enfolds in its flowing robes both Taoism
 
 THE LITURGY. 53 
 
 and Buddhism, and extends to its followers the privi- 
 lege of belonging to a dozen sects, so long as the 
 rites to ancestors and Confucius are not neglected. 
 I cannot look upon the ritual as a service wholly 
 confined to the worship of Confucius, although he be 
 the central figure, or the medium through which the 
 prayers are made. Back of his teachings, as I have 
 already made mention, and which is accepted by the 
 most enlightened scholars of China, is a recognized 
 cause, a Disposer of all events whom Confucius called 
 Heaven. By virtue of his perfection, he is consid- 
 ered by his followers as linked in some mysterious 
 manner to this cause, and deserving of equal honors. 
 Did he not say in the " Doctrine of the Mean," " The 
 sage is able to assist the transforming and nourishing 
 powers of heaven and earth, and that he may with 
 heaven and earth form a trinity ?" Confucian phi- 
 losophy, like that of Spencer's, leads man to acknow- 
 ledge an unknowable cause, a silent power. Confu- 
 cius says, "Does Heaven speak?" The four seasons 
 pursue their courses, and all things are produced. 
 Does Heaven say anything ? If we take the char- 
 acter Tien, which means either the material heavens 
 or the Power above, we find it is made up of Ta, 
 great, and Yih, one, above it literally, Great One. 
 There is an older form of the character, which has 
 merely a ball like the sun above great, which to the 
 infant race of China could not have expressed more 
 than the great ball, or sun. 
 
 This character Tien has come to mean the Hea-
 
 54 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 venly Power, and which the Chinese declare to be 
 greater than all gods. Three great powers are re- 
 cognized Heaven, Earth and Man which constitute 
 a trinity. Back of matter is an ever-active force 
 controlling all events. Mencius is far bolder than 
 his Evolutionist brethren of to-day, and startles us 
 with the pregnant declaration, that, "He who has 
 exhausted his own mental force will know his own 
 nature ; consequently, knowing his own nature, he 
 will know Heaven." "To conserve one's mental 
 being and nourish the nature (or life), therefore, is to 
 serve Heaven." Confucius says, " Heaven gave us 
 this nature, and a life in conformity with this (per- 
 fect) nature is called the path (perfect way)." There 
 are three words in the Chinese language forever 
 upon the lips of scholars and religionists, which in 
 their highest significance none but the perfect man 
 can fully comprehend. They are Tao-Teh-Tien 
 of moral rectitude or right reason, perfect virtue, 
 and heaven. None but the perfect man can walk 
 in the path of moral rectitude, that path leads the 
 sincere man to Teh, perfect virtue. If we are curious 
 enough to dissect this wonderful character, Teh, we 
 shall find it formed of three words or characters, 
 which separately mean : straight, going, and the 
 mind or heart. We have, then, literally the mind 
 made perfect. Then the mental and moral man is 
 elevated to his highest sphere. Such attainment 
 unlocks to him the decrees and gifts of Tien 
 Heaven. Man is exalted in his nature, and in the
 
 THE LITURGY. 55 
 
 perfecting of it he attains sagehood, a being to the 
 Chinese perfect in wisdom and holiness ; and by 
 virtue of such perfection he is co-ordinate with 
 Heaven. 
 
 The most perfect representative of Teh virtue- 
 that ever lived was Confucius, and the being made 
 equal to heaven in perfection is worthy of universal 
 worship. Something like the above may be the ratio* 
 cination by which the scholar reaches the astounding 
 conclusion that the worship of Confucius is the 
 worship of heaven, or vice versa. 
 
 Contemporary with the sage was Lao Tsz, the 
 founder of Taoist philosophy. In his philosophy Tao 
 is the equal of Tien in the Confucian, and more. 
 The path of moral rectitude is Logos, the Divine 
 Being. Man does not in his system hold the relation 
 to the Eternal Energy as in the Confucian. His 
 system was evolutionistic in spirit, and the eighty- 
 one manifestations of Tao represent so many progres- 
 sive epochs. These two systems were antagonistic, 
 as might be expected. That of Laotsz made the 
 eternal Tao, the invincible, unknowable force of 
 nature, the All, and man's relation in the universe 
 infinitely subordinate. The Confucian exalted the 
 perfect man the sage to the co-ordinate of Heaven. 
 Religious philosophy touched its high-water mark in 
 the speculations of these profound thinkers. From 
 the nameless Tao, the all mystery of the one, we have 
 the present polytheistic Taoists ; from the other we 
 have humanity .enthroned as God, and receiving
 
 56 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 homage from au empire. No doubt Confucianism 
 is greatly atheistic in its tendency, but there still 
 lingers in the atmosphere of the system an idea of a 
 supramundane being who presides over the destinies 
 of men. It has much in common with Comte's 
 Realism, and not so far removed from Evolutionism as 
 would seem at first sight. If we combine the two 
 we have Confucianism very fairly represented, hu- 
 manity deified, and an Unknowable Energy. 
 
 What has been written may clear the way a little 
 to a better understanding of the doctrines expressed 
 in the ritual, and the significance of the great sacrifice.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE Liturgy i.s unequalled for complexity, and is 
 in some of its parts, perhaps, the oldest extant. 
 The orchestra in its make-up is almost, if not exactly, 
 the same as in the golden era of music, far back in 
 the days of the great Chao Kung, who was contem- 
 porary with Samuel, flourishing from the best accounts, 
 a couple of hundred years before Apollo's great poet 
 with lyre in hand wandered in the cool glades of los, 
 " The blind old man who dwells in Chios' rocky isles." 
 At that early date, incredible though it may 
 seem, sacrifices in which a ritual was used, were 
 offered to the Five Rulers (gods of planets), a custom, 
 if we may trust Chinese authorities, which prevailed 
 B.C. 2225. Such service was performed either by 
 king, prince, or minister, and consisted largely of 
 animal sacrifices, sortilege, music, prostrations, and 
 dress. Nearly the same kind of musical instruments 
 then existed, and were religiously preserved to the 
 days of Confucius, and are now beaten, thrummed 
 and blown in his honor twice each year. Robes of
 
 ^ 
 
 Cr 
 
 *&&> 
 
 ^ 
 
 2?-- 
 
 y\& 
 
 'D 
 
 -^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 MUSICAL INSTKUMENT.
 
 THE LITURGY. 59 
 
 the same pattern, sacrificial vessels of the same 
 material and shape, and praise songs not materially 
 changed, are still reverently preserved and periodi- 
 cally used. While I gazed upon the grand orchestra, 
 which nearly filled all the available space of the 
 Moon-terrace, and listened to the symphony of many 
 instruments, and the low prolonged notes of precentor 
 and singers, it was no great stretch of the imagina- 
 tion to fancy myself in the plain of Dura, surrounded 
 by nobles, and a vast company of worshippers, led by 
 the king's grand band, and among the strains mingled 
 those of the " cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, 
 dulcimer, and all kinds of mu.sic." 
 
 Although Mencius, three hundred years before 
 Christ, had enrolled Confucius among the Sages, 
 designating him one of a trinity, we have no evi- 
 dence that he was actually worshipped for more than 
 a century afterwards. The three great blessings 
 bestowed upon the Empire by these three Sages are 
 graphically described in a passage from the Tang- 
 Wen-Chang. " In ancient times Yu restrained the 
 great floods, and gave peace to all under heaven. 
 Chao Kung subdued the savages of the West and 
 expelled the ferocious animals, and the people had 
 rest. Kungtsz (Confucius) wrote the Spring and 
 Autumn (annals of kings) and rebellious officers and 
 robber sons were frightened." Tradition points to a 
 period when much of China was flooded, and the 
 honor of regulating the desolating waters is accorded 
 to the fabulous Emperor Yu. The next step was to
 
 60 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 subdue the land and give rest to the civilized por- 
 tions : this was accomplished by Chao. The third 
 epoch was that of the triumph of literature, and 
 accomplished by Confucius. By his writings, good 
 government had its advent. Three stages led toward 
 that Utopia which was the dream of the great teacher. 
 First, the Empire was made habitable ; second, 
 savages and wild beasts were brought into subjec- 
 tion ; third, good government was secured. 
 
 It was B.C. ]95 that the Emperor Kaoti was 
 returning in triumph from an incursion into rebel- 
 lious territories: by chance the imperial cortege 
 passed through Lu, the native state of Confucius, 
 and as the grave of the scholar was neared, either 
 from former vow or the inspiration of the moment, 
 a halt was made, and what was called the Tai-Lao, 
 great sacrifice, consisting of an ox, sheep, and pig, 
 was offered. Thus by imperial example originated 
 that worship which has grown into the present mag- 
 nificent service. 
 
 Up to this time fortune had not specially smiled 
 upon the Sage, for it was but a few years previous 
 to this that the monster Chi destroyed all of classic 
 literature that could be found, and the best scholars 
 of China were sacrificed in hecatombs to appease his 
 jealousy. 
 
 The fact that the Emperor had bowed at the 
 philosopher's grave, and rendered to him the highest 
 honors accorded to any god, was sufficient to attract 
 the whole realm toward the sacred place, and hence-
 
 THE LITURGY. 61 
 
 forth we find the circle of his glory expanding, so 
 that in a short period the whole Empire reverently 
 accepted him as the one worthy of universal homage. 
 From the above date to the year 1 A.D., learning 
 made rapid strides towards recovery. Besides 
 recovering its former condition, it displayed much 
 energy in new fields. At this early date, competitive 
 examinations were instituted, a custom which has 
 prevailed without interruption until the present ; 
 paper and ink were manufactured, and in the year 1 
 Confucius was titled, and his family honored. It 
 now became popular to make pilgrimages to the 
 home and grave of the Sage. 
 
 In the year 50, the Emperor Minti with all of his 
 ministers went in procession to the Imperial College, 
 and made an offering of a dog and wine to Confucius. 
 It was not singular to make an offering of a dog, 
 however strange and repulsive such an act might 
 seem to us ; to the Chinese it symbolized perfect 
 faithfulness. Confucius's fame was now equal to 
 that of the founder of the state of Lu, and destined 
 very soon to eclipse his glory and attract all honor 
 to himself. 
 
 It was in the year 75 that the same monarch, with 
 his grandees and son, repaired to the ancestral hall 
 of Confucius to study the classics, and there he en- 
 rolled seventy-two of the Sage's disciples as worthy 
 of worship. In the year 110 A.D., the Emperor 
 Angti made a tour of inspection, and went as far as 
 the home of the Sage at Chuili, made suitable sacri-
 
 62 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 fice, and conferred upon his family the title of duke. 
 The year 149 the Emperor Wangti issued a solemn 
 decree that marble slabs be put up in the temples to 
 de6ne the sacrifices and the government of ceremonies. 
 The sacrifices to Confucius should henceforth be 
 uniform in time and offerings, money should be fur- 
 nished from the imperial exchequer for each service, 
 which should be in the spring and autumn, enough 
 to purchase a dog, or sheep, pig, with wine and rice. 
 As early as 170 the Emperor Lingti made a decree 
 that Confucius should be raised to the same dignity 
 as the tutelary gods of the State. The next Emperor, 
 eight years after, had portraits of Confucius and his 
 seventy-two deified disciples painted and hung in 
 the palace gate. The study of the classics had now 
 become popular, and Yintsz, Confucius's most beloved 
 disciple, was made his associate, and sacrifices were 
 offered in the Palace of Learning at Peking. 
 
 It was in the fifth century that the common people 
 turned toward the Sage, and would have enrolled 
 him as their favored god if they had been permitted 
 to do so by the State. Even women frequented his 
 temple at Nanking and besought his favor upon 
 their behalf. This breach of etiquette was requited 
 by the issuing of a decree strictly forbidding women 
 to visit his temple. In 476, Wuti, who was after- 
 wards a zealous Buddhist, decreed that in connection 
 with the solsticial sacrifices there should be music, 
 praise songs and pantomime or dancing, as in ancient 
 times, A decided advance was made about 508 ; it
 
 THE LITURGY. 63 
 
 was then, for the first time, that colleges and temples 
 were erected to Confucius in the different walled 
 cities of China. Such a step was a radical departure, 
 as heretofore his worship had been confined to the 
 capital and his native State. The small stream had 
 become a mighty river; the indigent scholar and 
 despised official now eclipses in the number of his 
 devotees any deified hero of ancient times. 
 
 At first wooden images of Confucius and his asso- 
 ciates were set up in the temples, but in the tenth 
 century clay figures were substituted. The founder 
 of the Min dynasty, 1368, made great changes; a 
 back track was taken, the great sacrifice was pro- 
 scribed, and performed in honor of the Emperor. 
 Clay figures were substituted with the present wood 
 tablets. Titles were abolished, and he was called, 
 simply, the "Ancient Teacher Confucius," but the 
 number of musicians and minuet movers were in- 
 creased. 
 
 This could not continue. Upon the advent of the 
 present Tartar dynasty a revolution set in, and 
 unheard-of honors were conferred upon the Sage. 
 The decrees have been rigidly enforced, and temples 
 have been built all over the Empire. 
 
 The services have been somewhat changed ; for- 
 merly one prostration of four kotows or head-knock- 
 ings made one worship, of which there were seven at 
 each sacrifice, i.e., seven prostrations and twenty- 
 eight kotows. At present there are twenty-one pros- 
 trations of three kotows each, or sixty-three kotows
 
 64 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 at each full service. It has been no inconsiderable 
 task to find titles for the scholar. Nine times his 
 countrymen have sat in solemn conclave over the 
 vexed subject. By some fortuitous circumstances 
 the year one saw the Sage deified by imperial man- 
 date. He now became " Duke Ni, the Diffuser of 
 Transforming Doctrines." The second, in the fifth 
 century, and as follows : " Father Ni, the Sage of 
 Literature;" the next, about the same era, and reads 
 thus: "Prince of the Kingdom of Tsao;" he \\as 
 also titled "Father Ni, the ancient Wise man." 
 Then he was known as the " Former Sage," " Trans- 
 former of Literature," " Royal Transformer of Litera- 
 ture." The present dynasty has capped the climax 
 words are now exhausted "The Perfect Sage, 
 the ancient scholar Confucius." 
 
 We have seen that a man not honored in his own 
 day, but rather neglected, dying enshrined in the 
 hearts of a few humble followei's, has risen step by 
 step in the eyes of his countrymen, and the sphere 
 of his doctrines increased through more than twenty 
 different dynasties, until to-day the highest honors, 
 the most elaborate worship is accorded him by one- 
 fourth of the world. The names and honors of his 
 contemporaries in other countries are nearly or quite 
 forgotten, the institutions which they helped to found 
 passed beyond reclaim, their great thoughts awaken 
 in their countrymen no response, but here honors are 
 increased as the years roll by, the institutions he 
 helped to create are as perfect as 2200 years ago,
 
 THE LITURGY. 65 
 
 and the great living thoughts that burdened the 
 philosopher are interwoven into the every-day mental 
 food of Eastern Asiatics. 
 
 From the time the little mite of a fellow, bundled 
 in frocks and pants, waddles to the village school, 
 until he takes the highest degrees in the provincial 
 or imperial colleges, even through the whole cycle of 
 his existence, he thinks of, and endeavors to act out 
 Confucius among his admiring comrades. There is 
 no name so dear to him ; to all appearance he lives, 
 moves, and has his being of thought along the path 
 trodden by his master. The higher his station may 
 be in civic life, the more he is bound by ancient 
 customs and conventionalities to pattern after him. 
 
 The newly-appointed Viceroy, ere he assumes the 
 duties of his high station, marches in solemn proces- 
 sion to the temple of the Sage, makes his offering 
 and pours out his libation. 
 
 In the growth of the liturgy other honored names 
 have disappeared, and the one name and person 
 attracted as a magnet universal praise. 
 
 The whole field of literature has freely surren- 
 dered its classic gems to coronate him the intellectual 
 king. 
 
 Prose and poetry have vied to weave a garland of 
 sufficient beauty for their victorious guardian saint.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WHILE there are a great number of prostrations 
 and mute actions connected with the render- 
 ing of the regular liturgical service, the music is con- 
 sidered a chief attraction. However low the present 
 musical attainments of the Chinese may be, they 
 have great faith in these peculiar instruments which 
 represent every resonant sound known to them, and 
 look back with much pride to those days when men's 
 hearts were softened, and the most ferocious beasts 
 were tamed by the strains extracted from just such 
 clumsy instruments as are pointed out to me upon 
 the Moon-terrace. 
 
 The lutes and lyres are immense, and when a pro- 
 fessional sits down to either, the most delicate tones 
 are produced. There are men who devote all their 
 time and talents to the rendering of a few plaintive 
 pieces upon them. 
 
 One has said that, " Eight centuries before the 
 existence of the son of Antiope, and of the famous 
 singer of Thrace, it is recorded that the inimitable
 
 THE LITURGY. 67 
 
 Kwei said to the Emperor Chun, ' When I touch the 
 stones, which compose my King, and make them 
 send forth a sound, the animals range themselves 
 around me and leap for joy.' " 
 
 The ancient music, according to Chinese writers of 
 every age, " could call down spirits from the ethereal 
 regions ; raise up the manes of departed beings ; 
 inspire men with the love of virtue, and lead them 
 to the practice of their duty." There are a number of 
 praise songs which have been used at different times 
 to extol the virtues of Confucius which I must omit. 
 The two which are given represent the attitude of 
 the worshippers to the great teacher, and show very 
 conclusively that from the Emperor down there is 
 the most servile obedience to their Sage. 
 
 We shall see that the worshippers have perfect 
 faith in the virtue of their musical service, even to 
 the extent of bringing the spirit of Confucius down 
 to the feast prepared for him. I have no doubt that 
 the scholars of China firmly believe that in some 
 mysterious manner he is really present during the 
 time of worship. 
 
 The following song, which is sometimes used, was 
 accepted by a special decree in 1647. It was, no doubt, 
 in use many centuries before that date, but not in the 
 Canon by Imperial mandate. 
 
 It consists of six verses of thirty-two characters 
 each. The first verse is called Hsien, and is acted 
 and chanted by the whole orchestra, after the spirit 
 of Confucius has been invoked by the officiating 
 scholar :
 
 68 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 HSIEN. 
 
 O how great was the perfect Sage ! 
 
 Exalted were his virtues, merits vast ; 
 
 Thou the diffuser of literature and reformer of morals, 
 
 To thee all kings shall come and do reverence. 
 
 Thy precepts are everywhere the standard, 
 
 And they do illume this Imperial p'alace ; 
 
 Here are sacrificial vessels of purest kind, 
 
 And the awe-inspiring drum and bell. 
 
 LING. 
 
 Enlightener of the Emperor and his people, 
 The pattern handed down from former sages ; 
 Exalted mountain, O how lofty ! 
 How can we attain such heights ? 
 The ceremonies are perfect and music harmonious, 
 The sacrificial vessels are perfectly pure. 
 And are in accord with antiquity's pattern, 
 Even after usage the thrice-poured wine. 
 
 ANG. 
 
 O how perfect the holy teacher ! 
 
 Of illustrious endowments, gifts of Heaven ; 
 
 A wooden-tongued bell for all ages, 
 
 And perfect example to officials. 
 
 Clear is the wine and of purest kind, 
 
 Look upon the holders of the feathery plumes ; 
 
 Let great peace endure forever, 
 
 And superior men be raised to high stations. / 
 
 KING. 
 
 He was a moral king, how great ! 
 
 The true course of all things by him was declared ; 
 
 Upward we gaze, and lo, he is before us, 
 
 His spirit is present in this place.
 
 THE LITURGY. 69 
 
 The wine is poured into the golden jars, 
 
 It is both clear and sweet ; 
 
 Now we the offering make, the sacrifice is complete, 
 
 Yet how dare we rejoice in the service done. 
 
 HSIEN. 
 
 precious fountain, 'deep and limpid pool, 
 Oh ! exalted one, how very dreadful ; 
 
 Pleased thou art with our offerings Sage of transforming 
 
 doctrines, 
 
 In like manner are the ten Wise Ones. 
 Beat now the golden drums and resound the bells, 
 Declare the feast brought to an end ; 
 The skein of service is now complete, 
 To thee thou great Exemplar of Yao and Shun. 
 
 HSIEN. 
 
 How resplendent is this palace of learning, 
 The whole world comes to render thee homage ; 
 Thou fashioner and guide of elder sons, 
 
 1 (Emperor) am a person of no importance. 
 But consider thou my many noble scholars, 
 Who serve with such great merit ; 
 
 Let my reign be one of great peace, 
 
 Tributes once in three years and vassals once in five may come. 
 
 The song used in every Confucian temple through- 
 out China is nearly the same as the above in con- 
 struction, but differs widely in its quotations from 
 the ancient classics. It is performed in Nanking 
 twice each year spring and fall by an orchestra of 
 thirty-six singers, thirty-six musicians, and thirty-six 
 harlequins or actors.
 
 HARLEQUINS.
 
 THE LITUEGY. 71 
 
 While the great sacrifice goes on, this remarkable 
 song, consisting of one hundred and ninety-two char- 
 acters, is played, sung, and acted at intervals. China's 
 classic lore has surrendered its choicest gems to en- 
 rich this song, and her musical talent has exhausted 
 its domain to meet the requirements of the occasion. 
 Praise songs existed more than three thousand years 
 ago, and were performed with instrumental music 
 upon state occasions. Confucius said, " I returned 
 from Wei to Lu and the music was reformed, and 
 the imperial panegyrics were rectified, so that each 
 had its proper place." 
 
 The moral influence of music was held in high 
 estimate by the ancients, its educational effects were 
 considered to be very great. The Master told his 
 disciples that a man destitute of philanthropic feel- 
 ings had nothing to do with music. He had great 
 reverence for the simple strains of antiquity. Sim- 
 plicity was his watchword. 
 
 " The men of ancient times in matters of etiquette 
 and music were plain, while at the present day in 
 music and etiquette they are fine gentlemen ; I follow 
 the ancients in such things." 
 
 The admiring sons of the Sage have followed his 
 instructions, and have kept to the good old orthodox 
 ways. Instruments of the same pattern as were 
 thrummed in China when the early shepherds of 
 Chaldea played to their flocks, are found in Confucian 
 temples The same strains which delighted the 
 philosopher when on earth, are now used to enchant
 
 72 CONFUCIANISltf. 
 
 his spirit from above. While he indulges mortals 
 for a brief moment with his presence at his feast, 
 strains of music fill his temple, then his soul is dis- 
 missed to the unknowable Heaven, wafted by music, 
 Heaven's great gift to man. 
 
 At Nanking we have a most beautiful and valuable 
 collection of instruments. 
 
 The marshal's baton is of satin figured with costly 
 velvet. There are fifteen kinds of instruments, 
 three bells, one very large, two drums, the magnificent 
 Ku crowned with a phosnix. There are immense 
 lutes and lyres, of numberless strings. There are six 
 wind instruments, some of them very curious. 
 Besides, there are cymbals, and two peculiar instru- 
 ments to start and stop the orchestra. 
 
 The rendering of so much music, and the acting of 
 the 192 characters by the dancers, who hold pheasant 
 feathers, and small reeds with six orifices each, is, 
 without doubt, about as complex a service as the 
 human mind is able to execute. 
 
 In the execution of the following song, 384 different 
 positions are taken by the dancers or harlequins, 
 while one character is sung two positions are 
 assumed. Whose imagination but that of a China- 
 man's could invent such a number of mute actions ? 
 
 PRAISE SONG. 
 
 CHAO. 
 
 Oh ! how great was Confucius, 
 Pre-eminent in wisdom and first in knowledge ! 
 With heaven and earth he forms a trinity ;
 
 THE LITURGY. 73 
 
 He is the teacher of all mankind ; 
 
 He was the fulfilment of a lucky omen, a unicorn to take 
 
 away evil. 
 
 Let the golden chords in harmony resound, 
 And sun and moon take up the strains, 
 For he is pure as Heaven and Earth. 
 
 SIEN. 
 
 We forever cherish his illustrious merits, 
 Which are like to symphonies of gems and gold. 
 Among mortals never was one like him born, 
 Oh ! how wonderful the Great Perfection ! 
 The ancient chargers and sacrificial tables are here, 
 For spring and autumn feasts ; 
 Here is purest wine already poured out, 
 And its fragrance now ascends. 
 
 The rites are now performed without a fault, 
 
 And we again ascend to the hall and offer the sacrifice ; 
 
 Drums and bells in harmony sound ! 
 
 Faultless are the wine jars and vessels of clay. 
 
 Oh, how dreadful, yet how condescending ! 
 
 Praise to his eminence and accomplishments ; 
 
 His ceremonies were transforming and his music uncorrupt, 
 
 And in them are manifest his high merit. 
 
 su. 
 
 Of old, yea in ancient days, 
 Our forefathers gave us the example. 
 Skin caps and sacrificial viands, 
 How harmonius was their music ! 
 Only as heaven could instruct the people, 
 Just so in time opportune was given the Sage, 
 The social relations to set in order, 
 Even to this time he is a resounding bell.
 
 74 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 Yl. 
 
 The ancient wise men had the saying, 
 
 Blessed are those who sacrifice after the pattern. - 
 
 His college halls are in all places, 
 
 Who shall dare to be irreverent ? 
 
 The ceremonies are finished, we proclaim and remove the 
 
 sacrifices ; 
 
 Be not careless, defile them not. 
 Our music is the gift of heaven, 
 And our pulse is from the plain of Chung Yuon. 
 
 TEH. 
 
 He is like the mountains Fu and Yi so lofty ; 
 
 Like the majestic rivers Chu and Sz. 
 
 Toward him we aim and would reach his virtues, 
 
 And would have his illimitable ever-flowing and enriching 
 
 graces. 
 
 Oh ! how refulgent are the offerings, 
 How veiy, very bright, 
 To him the transformer of mankind, 
 To him the nurturer of all our colleges !
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Ube Sacrifice. 
 
 OACRIFICE among the Chinese dates from the 
 O beginning of their institutions. It was and 
 / has ever been one of the chief pillars of State. A 
 brief inquiry into its origin and development cannot 
 fail to interest the student of comparative religions. 
 
 Since the dissevered branches or roots of mankind 
 were planted in different sections of the world, if 
 such be the fact, each branch has developed its ori- 
 ginal stock of religious ideas, according to certain 
 spiritual lines of thought, more or less in harmony 
 with each other, maintaining in a great measure in 
 after growth a likeness to the primitive ideal. 
 
 The philologist is not startled to find in the dif- 
 ferent languages of the earth words to express more 
 or less clearly similar spiritual ideas, neither the 
 ethnologist to find from Thibet to Patagonia, from 
 China to Peru and Mexico, almost identical religious 
 customs, in some more, and in others less perfectly 
 developed. 
 
 In China, happily, we are not compelled to trust
 
 76 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 to rock-fragments, demolished towers and altars, or to 
 religious hymns difficult of translation, for our guid- 
 ance to the innermost sanctum of their religious life. 
 We have, at our hand, classics authenticated and 
 well understood, and innumerable living costumes, 
 which take us in pleasing companionship back to 
 the age of Terah. 
 
 Their spiritual inheritance is traced in these as 
 clearly as the geologist unfolds the successive growths 
 of the earth's crust. 
 
 The Chinese look back to the sources of their 
 sacred institutions with profound awe. A people 
 who consider it a crime to mutilate the written 
 page, may safely be left to guard most scrupulously 
 the text of the laws which, for more than a hundred 
 generations, has been for government and people a 
 prized palladium. The holy documents to which the 
 people appeal are, on the whole, reverent and pure. 
 The wheat may be buried in much chaff, the golden 
 sands may be exceedingly small, but there is wheat 
 and gold, there are germinal truths in age-worn 
 texts, which have been handed down with as much 
 care as the Vedic hymns. 
 
 A great savant has said, " No doubt the solid rock 
 of the human heart must be the same everywhere ; 
 some of the pillars even, and the ancient vaults, may 
 be the same everywhere, wherever there is religion, 
 faith, or worship." 
 
 Although there have been declensions and fearful 
 moral cataclysms since China's golden era, we are
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 77 
 
 safe in saying that the present civil and religious 
 v pillars were founded 2200 B.C. All later develop- 
 ments have been in harmony with well-defined lines 
 which were drawn before the days of Confucius. 
 
 We find described in those ancient records the 
 same distinctive traits of character, identical political 
 and social ideas, the same exalted notions of state 
 and family government, and inordinate reverence 
 for the dead. Is it possible that four thousand years 
 ago there lived a people in China possessing the 
 same manners and morals, and the same exclusive 
 spirit as to-day ? A passage in the Liki, which is 
 the Chinaman's Leviticus, bears conclusive evidence 
 of the fact ; it speaks to us as from the mouth of the 
 last generation, instead of ninety generations ago. 
 " Will the prince forsake his kingdom ? Will he not 
 say, How can I forsake the tutelary gods ? The 
 great officer will say, How can I forsake my ances- 
 tral hall? The scholar will say, How can I leave 
 the graves of my forefathers ? The prince will die 
 for the State gods, the great official will lay down his 
 life for his people, the scholar will die for his graves." 
 To-day's customs are exactly parallel to the senti- 
 ments contained in this quotation. 
 
 ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 It were worse than fruitless to attempt the dis- 
 covery when and whence the State sacrifices ; both 
 history and tradition are silent touching these rites.
 
 78 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 Like many other religious customs among this sin- 
 gular people, they bear the stamp of originality. 
 Just the stock of spiritual truth possessed by the 
 founders of Chinese civilization, no one can speak 
 with authority ; but one thing is sure, rites existed at 
 the dawn of their civilization, and not greatly differ- 
 ing from those found among monarchies of Western 
 Asia. 
 
 It is difficult to properly appreciate the present 
 condition of the people without constant reference 
 to their early condition ; it is also impossible to inter- 
 pret the obscure utterances of the past, except by 
 present ideas and customs. The classics such as 
 the Shu, Shi, Liki and Yi are saturated with state- 
 ments of this and similar religious ceremonies, but 
 they are destitute of logical connection and philoso- 
 phical harmony. 
 
 The ancient texts have been commented on by 
 many native writers, their meaning elucidated as far 
 as possible; but no one has been bold enough to 
 attempt the explanation of their origin. Nothing 
 satisfactory can be found in these ancient books, and 
 there are no monuments of antiquity, no traditions, 
 no customs which point to any outside source for 
 their original religious customs. While we have 
 abundant proof of such rights existing at the foun- 
 dation of civilized life in Eastern Asia, we have not 
 any evidence to show that they were direct from the 
 descendants of Noah. We have, perhaps, the same 
 right to presume they came through such source as 
 similar rights in Egypt, Peru and Mexico.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 79 
 
 Chinese history does not pretend to conduct us 
 beyond the time of Yao, 2250 B.C. An impenetrable 
 cloud veils all before that period. To be sure, we 
 have long epochs, and mythological rulers fitted into 
 those dreamy kalpas, but no one, not even the 
 Rationalists, put any value upon these fancies of 
 remote times. China, unlike Egypt and Assyria, is 
 destitute of stone monuments, not having any older 
 than 850 B.C., and these only valuable as describing 
 a hunting scene. 
 
 One of the oldest references to a religious service 
 is found in the Shu. It states that when Shun was 
 called to take the throne by his predecessor Yao, 
 " That he examined the gem-adorned revolving 
 sphere, and the jewelled transverse (tube), that he 
 might procure the favor of the Seven Directors" 
 sun, moon and five planets. After this he made a 
 special offering to the Supreme Ruler (highest ruler 
 in the political pantheon), and made a sacrifice to 
 the Six Honored Ones ; he also made offerings to the 
 hills and streams and visited the temples'of all the 
 Gods. 
 
 Here we have the germs of what John Fisk 
 would call cosmic and anthropomorphic theism. At 
 the dawn of this ancient civilization, star and planet 
 deities were sacrificed to, ghosts inhabiting hills and 
 streams were propitiated, and ancestors worshipped. 
 After the lapse of four thousand years, the same kind 
 of sacrifices are offered and for the same purposes. 
 
 The tendency, however, has been to withdraw the
 
 80 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 honors once given to the objects of nature, and the 
 indwelling divinities, and direct them more and 
 more to Laotsz and Hu Hwang Shangti, who to the 
 Rationalists and the great mass of the people are 
 immeasurably greater than other spiritual beings. 
 The anthropomorphic tendency, as seen in ancestral 
 worship, has not been less active. There has been a 
 gradual relaxing of homage to the rulers of pre- 
 historic times, with an increase of honors to 
 Confucius. When we reach the innermost thoughts 
 of the people, we find the native religious elements 
 revolve around these two personalities as representa- 
 tive deities. 
 
 To comprehend the relation the right of sacrifice 
 holds in the political system, it may be necessary to 
 direct our attention for a time to the objects wor- 
 shipped. China, as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece 
 and Rome, has a pantheon of deities as diverse in 
 characteristics as the imaginations of man. Some 
 have attempted to prove from the ancient classics 
 and the "present State religion that the ancient 
 Chinaman was a monotheist. Whatever he may 
 have been previous to historic times, surely it is hard 
 to convince the most casual reader and observer that 
 such was the case.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Ifoeaven. 
 
 WE are not to speak of the deities introduced 
 by Buddhism, or the numberless gods added 
 to the hosts of antiquity, but those which, from the 
 dawn of Chinese civilization, have received stated 
 attention with sacrifice. 
 
 The first object sacrificed to was, without doubt, 
 Tien, or Heaven, which we claim to be identical with 
 Shangti. These two terms are of common occur- 
 rence in the classics, and express in the largest 
 measure possible to the Chinese mind, Supreme 
 Being. The words of Charles Kingsley may not be 
 altogether inapplicable to the youthful race cradled 
 upon the banks of the Yellow River : " Those simple- 
 hearted forefathers of ours looked around upon the 
 earth, and said within themselves, 'Where is the 
 All-Father, if All-Father there be? Not in the 
 earth, for it will perish ; nor in the sun, moon and 
 stars, for they will perish too. Where is he who 
 abideth forever?' 
 
 " Then they lifted up their eyes, and saw, as they 
 6
 
 82 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 thought, beyond sun and moon and stars, all 
 which changes and will change the clear blue sky, 
 the boundless firmament of heaven. ' That never 
 changed ; that was always the same. The clouds 
 and storms rolled far below it, and all the bustle of 
 the noisy world ; but the sky was still as bright and 
 calm as ever. The All-Father must be there, un- 
 changeable in the unchanging heaven; bright and 
 pure and boundless, like the heavens ; and, like the 
 heavens, too, silent and far off.' " 
 
 Tien has the idea of vastness and omnipotence, 
 while Shangti conveys the idea to judge, to rule, 
 majestic as a potentate. These terms convey to the 
 Chinese mind an indefinite knowledge of a being 
 possessed of attributes similar to those of Jehovah. 
 Nowhere are they addressed or spoken of as Creator, 
 except in a secondary sense. They are the most 
 glorious products of creation, and primes inter pares 
 at the head of rulers. The creation itself is a series 
 of evolutions. From the apex less universal primor- 
 dial spirit, proceeded Taiki, the great apex or primus 
 mobile. From this hovering spirit came forth the 
 Liangyi-dual powers of nature. Thence came the 
 four forms called Sz-Siang, from which sprung the 
 Pa-kwa eight elements, out of which were evolved 
 the sun, moon, stars, heaven, earth and man. 
 
 Although Tien and Shangti hold the highest posi- 
 tion in the pantheon, other deities are endowed with 
 similar powers. If we examine scores of passages in 
 the Chinese classics in which the word Tien, or
 
 HEAVEN. 83 
 
 Heaven, occurs, we find that Heaven and the Emperor 
 of China are correlated as father and son. 
 
 Suppose we take up the Shu there are thirty- 
 nine passages in which the term Shangti is used; 
 we find that, except in one or two instances, they 
 refer to China's Emperor, who is Heaven's vicegerent 
 on earth. In Chinese philosophy, Heaven and earth 
 are considered counterparts. The empire to the 
 ancient Chinaman was the whole world, and square, 
 bounded on all sides by vast seas. The Emperor was 
 absolutely responsible for its good government. The 
 Emperor was assisted by a certain number of boards 
 and ministers. Shangti, as exponent of Heaven, ruled 
 by exactly the same number of boards and ministers. 
 Thus the government of Heaven was a transcript of 
 that of the earth. Spiritual things were interpreted 
 by the earthly. 
 
 Deity, then, to the Chinaman is an emperor, ruling 
 the celestial world as the Emperor does this. His 
 government exceeds, naturally, in glory the earthly, 
 as the sun, moon and stars are more glorious than 
 the earth. The good found on earth has its root or 
 origin in heaven, the evil from the bowels of the 
 earth. 
 
 These ideas are not foreign to the speculations of 
 men like Plato and Swedenborg, who find correspon- 
 dences or symbolical resemblances in everything in 
 the natural world to that of the spiritual. 
 
 The rulers of the invisible world are sacrificed to 
 by the Emperor of China, by means of the assessor-
 
 84 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 ship of their federal head, Hao-Tseh, who alone is 
 able by his relationship to link the earthly to the 
 heavenly. 
 
 From beginning to end Chinese civilization is 
 saturated with the spirit of ancestral worship, with 
 two distinct lines, one for the throne, and one for the 
 people. The King of Chao (1000 B.C.) sings, "I 
 have brought ray offerings, a ram, and an ox, may 
 Heaven accept them. Do I not day and night revere 
 the majesty of Heaven ? " 
 
 The evening before the winter solstice, the Emperor 
 took his seat in the State car which was drawn by 
 an elephant, escorted by a vast concourse of gran- 
 dees, princes, and musicians to the Temple of 
 Heaven. He first went to the Palace of Fasting, 
 where he prepared himself by meditation for his 
 sacred duty. This act would draw the spirits from 
 above to the solemn feast. To assist him, he gazed 
 upon a bronze image made in the form of a Taoist 
 priest. At midnight, the sacrificial animals were 
 burnt ; while the fires glared upon the midnight 
 darkness, and the smoke of incense ascended, the 
 Emperor, led as a child by the master of ceremonies, 
 went through the forms of worship of which he was 
 wholly ignorant. 
 
 The sacrifice to Heaven was not confined absolutely 
 to a particular time ; a change of emperors, the occa- 
 sion of his marriage, suitable offerings were presented 
 at the altar. Sometimes after a great victory cap- 
 tives were freely sacrified ; in time of famine, pesti-
 
 HEAVEN. 85 
 
 lence, or anything of national importance, offerings 
 were made. 
 
 THE EARTH. 
 
 The rites in reference to the worship of the earth 
 were as binding and as sacred as to Heaven. They 
 were conducted in a similar manner and generally 
 upon the same day and by the same person, the 
 Emperor, who has always assumed the relation of 
 Pontifex Maximus, went in person to propitiate the 
 ruling powers above and below. He, as Son of 
 Heaven, was responsible for the evils which might 
 afflict the earth during his reign. 
 
 The earth was worshipped at the square altar (the 
 altar being in the form of the earth) situated upon 
 the north side of the city. Do not think that this 
 great sacrifice was made to the earth itself, by no 
 means, but to Prince Tsih, the prime minister of the 
 Emperor Shun, who taught the infant race the art of 
 agriculture. The same objects were offered as to 
 Heaven or Shangti. 
 
 As we enter the intricate mazes of this religious 
 system, we find as representatives of the upper and 
 lower world, two rulers of co-ordinate power, the 
 second of whom we know to be the great progenitor 
 of the family or Cheu, 2250 B.C., and the first. May 
 we not say with Canon McLatchie, "Shangti, the 
 representative of Heaven, is none other than Fu-Hsi ?" 
 If this be so, and I have no reason to doubt the 
 statement, from foundation to capstone, the religion
 
 : 86 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 
 
 of China is ancestral worship in some form. All of 
 the elements, and all of the affairs of the universe 
 are guided and controlled by the spirits and ghosts 
 of departed sages. 
 
 FORMER EMPERORS. 
 
 Upon the first day of the New Year, the Emperor 
 repaired to the great temple dedicated to monarch s 
 and kings. All of the representative rulers of the 
 , nation were here remembered by tablets, and received 
 the same kind of homage and sacrifices as Heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 ANCESTORS. 
 
 This may not be considered a great sacrifice like 
 that to the three objects we have already men- 
 tioned, still it is so ancient and universal that I 
 have concluded to make mention of it here. From 
 ' remotest times the Chinese worshipped and sacrificed 
 to their dead. Unfilial, indeed, would be the son who 
 should refuse to sacrifice before the tablets and at the 
 graves of his ancestors. Away back at the dawn of 
 Chinese civilization, the people were enthusiastic in 
 this service. At a very early date effigies of the 
 departed were set up in the house or ancestral hall, 
 later clay images, then the present tablet. Every 
 family of consequence has a hall, elaborate and costly, 
 according to the wealth of the clan, where the tablet 
 to the founders and the heads of each family and 
 sacrificial vessels are protected. Four times each
 
 HEAVEN. 87 
 
 year sacrifices were made by the head or heads of 
 the clan, and upon festal occasions the halls were 
 swept and the graves beautified. The hold it has 
 upon the national life is simply amazing ; it is the 
 greatest obstacle missionaries have to contend with ; 
 its vitality as a custom is greater than that of all 
 religious customs combined ; other forms of idolatry 
 may be dispensed with, but this never. 
 
 It is required that the descendant who is qualified 
 to make the sacrifice shall fast and purify himself, 
 think intently upon the forms and virtues of the 
 departed, that at the time of sacrifice he may wor- 
 ship the departed as though present. 
 
 FOUR SEASONS. 
 
 For thirty centuries the thrones of China have 
 been bound by certain regulations called Yueh Ling- 
 monthly observances. For exactness they excel any- 
 thing found among any other heathen people ; they 
 were and are as much a part of the national polity 
 as the Levitical observances were to the Jews. Who 
 among this people first mapped out the starry heaven, 
 defined the sun's course through the constellations, 
 separated the seasons from each other by the sun's 
 flight through the zodiac, and who gave to each moon 
 its particular relation to the heavenly bodies, is more 
 than the wisest Chinaman can tell. Should the 
 regulations of one month be broken, confusion and 
 disaster would fall upon the Empire.
 
 
 THE THREK KINGS.
 
 89 
 
 The four seasons have each a ruling spirit, a deified 
 emperor and an associate minister. Besides the four 
 emperors, there is a fifth who rules eighteen days 
 during each of the seasons. While the Chinese New 
 Year varies from year to year, the beginning of 
 spring, summer, autumn and winter never vary. 
 When the sun is in conjunction with a certain star, / 
 spring is declared opened, and the god of winter 
 yields up his throne to the god of spring. So on 
 through the seasons, the stars index the changes of 
 the heavenly government. Thus each season partakes 
 of the character of its ruler. Near the temple to 
 Mars, in the north of Nan-king, may be found a 
 small temple to the Sang- Wang three kings three 
 immense sitting statues occupy a prominent place. 
 Two of the figures are partially clothed with leaves, 
 the third is dressed with beautiful garments, and has 
 a square crown upon his head. 
 
 The central god holds the famous Pa Kwa in his 
 hand, which gave to China more than Arabic blessing, 
 for from its mysterious combinations language and 
 knowledge in every department have originated. 
 This figure I am told is Fu Hsi, the head of the race. 
 He was deified in primitive times and made emperor 
 of spring. His throne is in the planet Jupiter. His 
 associate is Mao-Mung, his grandson. At his left 
 sits a grave dignified being called Shin-Nung, the 
 Chinese Esculapius, who holds a receptacle for 
 medicine in both hands. His throne is in the planet 
 Mars. He rules over summer. To the right sits the
 
 90 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 beautifully clothed figure called Hsien-Yuon, Yel- 
 low Emperor, who ruled China 2597 B.C. He 
 clothed and civilized the people. He occupies the 
 zenith or centre of the universe, and rules eighteen 
 days out of each season. 
 
 This is said to have been originated by Fu Hsi 
 2952 B.C., from marks he found upon a dragon, 
 horse and the tortoise. 
 
 The rulers of autumn and winter are not in the 
 temple, but receive equal homage with those men- 
 tioned. The one ruling autumn resides in the planet 
 Venus ; the one governing winter has his throne in 
 the planet Mercury.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ube Sacrifice. 
 
 N'OT unlike the ancient Greek Naiads who pre- 
 sided over rivers, springs, wells and fountains, 
 there were with the Chinese deities whose functions 
 were to superintend not only these, but the atmos- 
 phere as well. 
 
 Heat and cold, as the ruling gods of the atmosphere, 
 received attention along with the more important 
 ones. 
 
 The source of heat and cold was not understood, 
 but somehow the ancient Chinaman made the dual 
 principles of nature responsible for the heat of 
 summer and cold of winter; the Yang was the 
 source of heat, and Yin of cold. The god of heat 
 was sacrificed to in the middle of spring, when he 
 was supposed to assume his sway.' This god received 
 homage at mid-day at the south or eastern part of 
 the city. The god of cold was propitiated during the 
 eighth moon, north of the city, and at night. I have 
 not been able to find any names for these deities 
 other than heat and cold.
 
 92 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 SUN WORSHIP. 
 
 China was not behind other primitive races in its 
 homage to the sun. The same reasons which led the 
 ^ Assyrian to fall prostrate before Shemesh, and the 
 v/Indian to sing of the glories of Taruna, and the 
 Andaman Islanders to worship the bright orb, 
 induced the semi-savages of North China to exult in 
 his gorgeous risings and settings. There are sun- 
 myths in abundance, but none which would throw 
 any clearer light upon those earlier periods. Any- 
 thing, of course, which corroborates the testimony of 
 other nations upon this or any other religious custom 
 cannot be devoid of interest. It is no unusual occur- 
 rence to meet with tracts upon the walls of shops, 
 or inns, or temples, which have cuts of the sun-god, 
 and poetical effusions, retailing marvellous cures to 
 those who have sacrificed to the bright luminary. 
 
 China has not produced many muses to weave her 
 religious ideas into poetic form. The genuine literary 
 man slaves over musty prose and pedantic essays, 
 such as may lead him to the head of the list when 
 under shadow of the annual or triennial tripos. His 
 imagination seldom revels with cloud-genii and star- 
 spirits ; such fantasies are relegated to the ignorant 
 religionist, whose idea of nature are as childish to 
 him as those of the North Arnercan Indian. It is 
 stated in the gravest manner possible, that in ancient 
 times there were ten suns, nine of these were shot 
 from the heavens by Hao-yi with bow and arrows.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 93 
 
 At that time there was no night, and the people were 
 scorched. 
 
 The sun was worshipped at stated times by the 
 Emperor at an altar called Wang-Kung, near to his 
 residence. At this distance in time it is impossible 
 to say how much attention was given to this inter- 
 esting feature of nature worship. The little sheet 
 tracts I have met with representing sun-worship 
 often have different images, as an emperor with 
 diadem and halo around the head, or a crowned per- 
 sonage holding a child which has a circle in its hands 
 which contains a cock ; again, a tract may be seen 
 having three great circles at the top. The goddess 
 of Mercy is seated in the central circle, at the left is 
 the sun-god with a halo about his head which is 
 enclosed in a larger circle. 
 
 A person of less dignity stands near, holding an orb 
 which flashes jets of light. The moon-goddess is in 
 the right-hand circle, and holds a blank ball. I have 
 seen the sun-god represented among clouds, clad in 
 armor, holding a sword in each hand, crown upon 
 head, ruddy face, and in full flight. The god and 
 goddess are found in the temple of the Three Kings, 
 and worshipped at stated times. 
 
 The sun is worshipped the first day of the second 
 month, and again upon the nineteenth day of the 
 eleventh month. His birthday falls upon the nine- 
 teenth day of the third month. 
 
 We are told the moon-goddess was the wife of an 
 ancient emperor, she took the medicine of immortality
 
 SUN-GOD,
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 95 
 
 and was translated to the moon. She receives 
 homage the middle of the eighth month. v 
 
 SACRIFICE TO THE MOON. 
 
 The sun receives general homage three times each 
 year ; the worship is very simple, incense being the 
 chief offering ; the service is performed by males 
 alone. The moon is sacrificed to once each year, the 
 offerings are numerous, and made by women, assisted 
 by men. 
 
 It is woman's homage to the Queen of Night, and 
 is done with the whole heart. No time or expense 
 is spared in preparation. Weeks before the joyful 
 occasion the fancy shops groan with mammoth 
 pagodas of incense ; with fairy castles and palaces 
 wrought of bamboo and many-colored tissue paper, 
 and unnumbered devices made out of slim sticks of 
 incense bound compactly with bright tinted paper. 
 
 While the moon received homage thousands of 
 jrears ago, the present elaborate form of worship, 
 merely dates from the Tang dynasty, 713 A.D. 
 
 Upon the evening of the fifteenth day of the 
 eighth moon, when at her full, just as she appears 
 above the horizon, three hundred millions of people 
 gather about their simple altars. Each house, even 
 if a matted shed, if woman be there, has its extem- 
 porized altar and offerings in an open place, where 
 the moonbeams may greet them. The rich make a 
 great display of lanterns and decorated pagodas,
 
 96 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 brightly illuminated. A giant rabbit made from 
 mud, gaudily painted, is often carried in procession 
 through the streets. A wire protruding from its 
 mouth bears a paper, upon which is painted a full 
 moon. The evening I witnessed this singular and 
 most interesting service was one of dazzling splendor, 
 such as China is noted for at this season of the year. 
 The moon rose above a fleecy bank of clouds, which 
 were tinged with rosy hues, gradually shading into 
 blackness. 
 
 It was eight o'clock when she shone with bewitch- 
 ing grace over the great city of Nanking, not the 
 faintest breeze rustled the great mulberry leaves ; all 
 was silent as though for the first time the brignt 
 goddess had appeared to mortal sight to awe man 
 and beast into religious silence. The smoke from 
 thousands of little altars, laden with incense, in 
 garden, roadside and temple court, wreathed houses 
 and trees in a film half ether and half cloud, just 
 enough of semblance to enrich and beautify every 
 object touched by the magic beams of the goddess. 
 Soon the fields, door-yards and courts, were aglow 
 with tapers, as one by one, male and female, went 
 forth and prostrated themselves before their rudely 
 constructed altars. To satisfy curiosity, I descended 
 into an adjoining garden, and visited the altar in the 
 centre of a turnip patch. 
 
 One of Devoe's oil cases greeted my vision, with a 
 rough mat spread over it. Upon the mat were ar- 
 raqged two pewter candlesticks, between which was
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 97 
 
 a small receptacle, into which was thrust a bunch of 
 incense sticks, bound together by several strips of 
 brightly tinted paper. The incense and burning 
 tapers lighted up a space tive yards in diameter, and 
 clearly revealed the plan of construction and every 
 article of sacrifice. In front of the altar was a vessel 
 laden with wheaten cakes, flat and immaculately 
 round, to resemble the moon ; there lay in another 
 vessel a number of opened pomegranates, whose pink 
 seeds fairly glistened under the glowing incense. A 
 piece of lotus root eighteen inches long upon the 
 case, some samshu in wine cups, and a set of chop- 
 sticks completed the feast-table spread for Wo Chen.* 
 
 The poor inmates of the mat shanty stood near 
 their offerings, which, although not costly, repre- 
 sented as much affection as the laden altars of the 
 rich, who spend hundreds of dollars to propitiate 
 Luna to shine bright beams of blessing upon their 
 homes. 
 
 The sun-god is a colossal image, draped with gaudy 
 robes and mitred. In his concealed hands he bears 
 a circle which encloses a cock. To the left there is a 
 youthful-appearing guard who bears a flaming globe. 
 The moon-goddess, if any thing, is more tastily dressed; 
 her head is decorated with pendent pearls, her 
 covered hands support a white rabbit, a circle is con- 
 nected to the image by means of spiral clouds. The 
 circle represents the moon, and it is partially filled 
 with trees and a temple. 
 
 * Moon-goddess. 
 
 7
 
 98 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 The sun-god governs the east and south, and the 
 moon-goddess the north and west. To worship the 
 sun go to the east, the moon to the west. Life comes 
 from the east, the home of the gods ; the dead go to 
 the west, the elysium for the departed spirits. The 
 east is more honored than the west, the east side of 
 the house is most sacred. Temples, graves and 
 houses, as far as possible, face the south or east. 
 
 The homage paid to the sun is spasmodic at the 
 present time, no holy fire burns upon his altar, and 
 few votaries wax eloquent in his praise. The holy 
 enthusiasm which stirred the hearts of religionists in 
 India and Persia never thrilled the. phlegmatic nature 
 of the Chinaman. It may not be proved that sun- 
 worship was universal throughout the Empire, but it 
 must have been largely the religion of the northern 
 and central parts. If the language be an index, and 
 the unchanging symbols tell us anything, they tell 
 us that at the very dawn of national life, back of 
 Pusa,"^ back of Shen,* back of Ti, back of Tien,\\ in 
 the silent workings of nature, there was spirit life, 
 the du'd forces of which were manifested through 
 the sun and moon. 
 
 t A Buddha. j Spirit. Ruler. || Heaven.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 WORSHIP OF THE STARS. 
 
 NO doubt the very earliest worship paid to the 
 stars, as to the sun and moon, was merely the 
 extension of Fetichism. They were looked upon as 
 objects of surpassing glory, and not remote from the 
 earth. Even as late as the thirteenth century of the 
 Christian era, China's greatest philosopher estimated 
 the distance of the sun from the earth to be merely 
 four thousand miles. Surrounded by the sparkling 
 gems of night, which, seen in an Asiatic sky so near, 
 and weird, no wonder the ancient Chinaman looked 
 upon them as incarnating superhuman energies, some 
 blissful, others baneful. He very soon began to separ- 
 ate good and bad stars. Another step, which was as 
 natural as any in the series, was to assign different stars 
 to deified emperors or illustrious ancestors. Every 
 sage was given his particular star for residence, where 
 he might enjoy the fruition of his perfect earth-life. 
 The idols worshipped in temples are supposed to
 
 100 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 have their higher dual spiritual life in some star or 
 planet. The literary man points proudly to the 
 quarter of the starry vault where reside his divinities. 
 Sages, heroes, emperors, and mighty officers are 
 thought to watch from their bright thrones the 
 affairs of us poor mortals, visiting us with blessings 
 or disasters, as they may be inclined. The place 
 where the stars were worshipped was called Yiu- 
 tsung. Among the Taoists these star divinities were 
 divided into nineteen Boards, of which there were 
 three hundred and sixty-eight gods. 
 
 GODS OF RAIN AND DROUTH. 
 
 The weather deities are not of least importance. 
 The dragon heads the list. A city of any considerable 
 size is sure to have one or more temples dedicated to 
 the king of dragons. There are four great dragons 
 which are located at the four quarters of the world, 
 and one at the zenith. The one in the north is 
 termed the black dragon ; in the west, white ; in the 
 south, red ; in the zenith, yellow. The dragon who 
 presides over the east is called the green dragon, and 
 from his position is entitled to the most regard. 
 The west, east, north and zenith dragons are sacri- 
 ficed to for rain. The zenith dragon is called the 
 " King Dragon," and the temples are dedicated to 
 him. Besides these dragon-gods there are associate 
 divinities, who preside over rain, snow, wind and 
 clouds, and the city-god, which is the Rhadamanthus 
 of the Greeks.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 101 
 
 There are lesser deities which hold posts as 
 intermediaries, who look well after frost, hail, and 
 thunder. 
 
 It is no small task for the officials to keep the gods 
 in good humor, and thus protect the Empire from 
 floods and drouth. They are often at their wits' end, 
 and are obliged to call in the aid of the arch-sorcerer 
 of the world, called the " Master of Heaven," the 
 Taoist pope. He is supposed to have authority over 
 all spirits, demons, and baneful influences. The 
 dragons, together with the gods of rain, wind and 
 clouds, are sacrificed to twice each year in the dragon 
 temple, and at as many times as the state of the 
 weather may demand. 
 
 In some of the temples tablets are used to represent 
 the several deities, in others images, generally to the 
 number of twenty-four. The sacrifice is not what is 
 termed the great sacrifice, simply a goat and pig with 
 sundry small articles. An extraordinary occasion 
 would call for the offering up of an ox. In case of 
 flood or drouth, a fast is proclaimed, and the higher 
 officials of the district assemble at the Dragon temple 
 for worship. If praying for rain, the prayers will be 
 offered with increased fervency until showers descend. 
 Some months since I visited a singular service at the 
 Dragon temple of Nanking. The temple was found 
 destitute of images, except some very small ones, 
 placed there by a Buddhist priest, who had been hired 
 to keep the place in order. Near the centre was 
 found a small baldichino containing a beautifully
 
 102 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 carved tablet dedicated to the " King Dragon." Here 
 were assembled from all parts of the city a brilliant 
 array of officials ; among the number were the pro- 
 vincial treasurer, grain commissioners, two magis- 
 trates, sheriffs, and lesser lights. They had already 
 prayed eight days and were becoming alarmed at 
 the obstinancy of the dragon, for withholding the 
 much coveted showers. When the assembly broke 
 up one of the officials entered into a conversation 
 with the writer, during which he asked if I could 
 tell when it would rain. He was much surprised 
 when I said, " To-morrow there will be rain or snow." 
 How could I tell ? I pointed out to him the low 
 clouds, and called his attention to the condition of 
 the atmosphere. It turned out as I supposed ; snow 
 fell before morning, and an abundance of rain 
 the next day. So a prophet was among them. It 
 may seem very strange to us that high officials at 
 this late date should be so servile to ancient cus- 
 toms, and stoop to such acts of gross idolatry. It 
 may be more surprising when I say it would be im- 
 possible to hold any representative station as an 
 officer in China without directly or by proxy ob- 
 serving all such religious rites. The Mohammedan 
 officials leave their religious scruples among their 
 relatives, while abroad upon the Emperor's business. 
 The common people would rise in arms against any 
 official who might have the temerity to treat with 
 contempt any of the ancient usages. A very few 
 years ago the noted Viceroy of Shangtung and Chili,
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 103 
 
 Li-Hung Chang, was called upon to bow before a 
 lizard, and to entreat the dragon to send rain. 
 What can be expected from a government bound 
 hand and foot by such superstitious customs ? 
 
 A DRAGON MYTH. 
 
 The Chinese say temples were first erected to the 
 dragon in the reign of Tai-Tsung, 629 A.D. It came 
 about in this way. In the midnight slumbers of his 
 Imperial Highness, in the palace at Kin-Ho, the 
 dragon appeared to him, bearing a petition. He said 
 to the dreaming monarch, " I have sinned a grievous 
 sin, because of the vast amount of rain I have let fall 
 upon the earth. For this reason Shangti, the 
 Celestial Emperor, has sent an order to your prime 
 minister to slay me to-morrow just past noon. I 
 beseech your ' Terrestrial Highness ' to speak to the 
 minister that I be not slain." The Emperor promised 
 to withhold the hand of his minister and save his life. 
 The next day the Emperor kept his minister by him 
 engaged in a game of chess until past noon. Just 
 then the minister fell into a deep slumber, and his 
 spirit, obeying the mandate of the Celestial Emperor 
 Shangti went forth anti slew the old dragon. 
 The dragon's spirit descended into sheol, where he 
 instituted a suit against the Emperor Tai-Tsung for 
 breaking his promise. 
 
 The Emperor fell sick, and to all appearances died, 
 his spirit, which had left the body, was in sheol with
 
 RAIN-GODS.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 105 
 
 the spirit of the dragon, who demanded restitution 
 for his life. The ruler of sheol was called upon to 
 act as umpire. His decision was, the Emperor's 
 spirit should return to its body, and further in 
 behalf of the dragon, the Emperor should build a 
 temple to him and set up his ima^e to be worshipped. 
 
 PRAYER FOR RAIN. 
 
 BY VICEROY CHANG, OF CANTON '(1886). 
 Translated by Dr. Chalmers, of Canton. 
 
 To the Spirit of the South Sea : 
 
 1 " Whose domain stretches over the four-gulfed sea, 
 Whose blessings extend to the hundred Yueh ! 
 
 2 Thirty thousand miles own thy sway in majesty and glory 
 
 bright as a mirror ; 
 
 Ninety teeming towns share thy gifts of substance and 
 clothing, scattered from clouds. 
 
 3 When thou givest the rain-drops transformed from moon- 
 
 light the manifold creatures all revive ; 
 When thou sendest the ripple of morn and eventide, the 
 
 parched fishes straightway rise. 
 But now 
 
 4 The autumn sun blazes and burns ; 
 Our people's crops languish and die. 
 
 5 Questioning the Hyads, they know not their time ; 
 Looking to the Ocean, he heaves a deep sigh. 
 
 6 The weeds rise up and the sweat flows down, while the 
 
 people's gathered sheaves are rare ; 
 
 The plough is sped and the sickle put in, but Government's 
 saving measures are spent.
 
 106 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 7 This air of blight conies doubtless through a wicked and 
 
 perverse administration ; 
 
 The officer in charge hides not from thy rebuking and 
 punishing inspection. 
 
 8 With care he seeks a favorable decree for his little people : 
 At last he begs an effectual blessing through thy great grace. 
 
 9 Our world is but just delivered from dire alarms and war ; 
 His majesty is evermore beset by incessant griefs and toils. 
 
 10 Last year there were ruinous floods, this time it is ruinous 
 
 drought. Why is this Ling-nan doubly punished ? 
 In the north there is ceaseless sunshine. 
 Why is the Middle Land alone distressed ? 
 
 11 This can hardly agree with the fitness of things. Methinks 
 
 it should powerfully work on the pity of Shen ; 
 
 12 Till he quietly turns round nature to the rainy side, sweep- 
 
 ing away the Imp of Drought, till he quickly causes 
 
 enriching showers 
 
 On the thirsty land, irrigating again the withered plants. 
 Oh ! Alas ! 
 
 13 Our victims that are prepared for floating or sinking will 
 
 happily be accepted as the sincere worshipper's service. 
 The song that is sung of watering and blessing will surely 
 
 be fulfilled according to the honest husbandman's hope. 
 Mayest thou enjoy the offerings ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 FOUR CARDINAL POINTS. 
 
 ESIDES the deities mentioned in my former 
 articles, which receive regular homage, are the 
 gods of the four quarters. These lesser divinities 
 dwell in mountains, forests, streams, valleys, hills 
 and mounds. Five very important gods have special 
 charge of five sacred peaks found in Shang-Tung, 
 Hu-Nan, Shen-Si, Chi-Li and Ho-Nan. There are 
 also a great number of sacred peaks, which former 
 emperors visited triennially, and made the great 
 offering. If the Emperor cannot go in person he 
 delegates some high official to represent him at the 
 ancient altars made sacred by a thousand libations. 
 
 Any forest, the rendezvous of monsters, which 
 would be liable to injure the people, or the scene of 
 any miraculous power, good or bad, must receive 
 the same attention as the sacred mountains. 
 
 The great streams subject to erratic action, whirl- 
 pools, rocky points dangerous to shipping, must be 
 propitiated by sacrifice of some kind. Valleys where
 
 108 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 demons lodge, or where good spirits manifest their 
 blessed influences, are visited by high officials, to 
 quell the turbulent spirits, and propitiate the favor 
 of the good ones. All of the gods of the earth are 
 under the supervision of the Son of Heaven the 
 Emperor -.and must be looked after. 
 
 KINDS OF SACRIFICE. 
 
 The sacrifice was of two kinds, propitiatory and 
 eucharistic. The chief incentives to worship among 
 the Chinese are fear and desire of gain. The idea 
 of salvation from sin is wholly foreign to their reli- 
 gious systems. It could hardly be expected that a 
 people destitute of any traditions concerning the fall 
 of man, and who regard good and evil as the acci- 
 dents of training, should have any rite similar to the 
 expiatory rites of the Jews. 
 
 The Chinese live in mortal fear of all the powers 
 visible and invisible which are over them, and make 
 it the serious business of their lives to see that they 
 are placated. 
 
 The more powerful for good or evil the beings to 
 be propitiated and thanked, the more costly the ser- 
 vice must be. He believes that such invisible spirits 
 as concern themselves in his life may be bribed with 
 presents or offerings. Every sacrifice must be per- 
 formed strictly according to the rites, or no blessing 
 will follow. If a wicked man should sacrifice as 
 dictated, he would be blessed. The service has 
 nothing to do with moral character; provided the
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 109 
 
 necessary rules be. observed, nothing farther is de- 
 manded. 
 
 The offerings were of three kinds : Tai-Lao, Shan- 
 Lao, and San-Sen. The first consisted of a horse or 
 bullock, a goat and a pig, with fruits and vegetables. 
 The second, simply a goat, pig, and cock, a carp and 
 minor articles ; sometimes a dog was offered. The 
 third, a pig's head, carp, rice, and small articles. 
 The first was anciently offered by the Emperor or 
 prince to Heaven and earth and to the tutelary gods. 
 Offerings could be made at any time. Should the 
 Emperor go forth upon a journey, the book of Rites 
 says, he first sacrificed to Shangti and the State 
 gods, and his own ancestors. It is written, " When 
 
 O ' 
 
 the Son of Heaven shall go forth to war, he shall 
 sacrifice to Shangti, make an offering to the State 
 gods, and worship his ancestors ; and, before going 
 into battle, he shall worship the god Ma, or Mars. 
 After the battle, an offering of the slain was made to 
 Ma. Prisoners were taken to the capital, and sacri- 
 ficed to Shangti, to the State gods, and to the 
 Emperor's ancestors. The present Mars is called 
 Fuh-Tsen. Sacrifices were generally offered outside 
 of the city gates upon round and square altars, the 
 round for Heaven, sun, rnoon and stars, the square 
 for the earth. 
 
 VICTIMS AND VESSELS. 
 
 None but well-favored creatures, and of certain 
 colors, could be offered. The horns of the bullock
 
 110 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 sacrificed to heaven should not be larger than an 
 acorn, and soft like the silken cocoon ; that for the 
 ancestral temple might have horns long enough for 
 a handgrasp. Bullocks for other services might 
 have horns a foot in length. No animal with young 
 should be offered to heaven. 
 
 The gods were to be feasted, and the animals must 
 be well-favored. The bullock should have a large 
 foot; the pigs must be fat, bristles stiff; the sheep 
 must have soft wool ; the dog should be sleek ; the 
 pheasant wide-toed ; the hare fat, and eyes like the 
 one in the moon. The horse and dog were also sacri- 
 ficed in ancient times, but not now. 
 
 The vessels were costly, or cheap, according to the 
 rank of the worshippers. Gold and jade vessels are 
 spoken of in the classics, but those in general u.se 
 were of much cheaper material. They were not to 
 be borrowed, and when worn out should be buried. 
 They could not be put to any profane use, or removed 
 from their own halls. The thrones of the State 
 gods were upon the right, and those of the ancestral 
 temple upon the left. 
 
 SANCTITY OF THE INSTITUTION. 
 
 While the institution is held as sacred, there is 
 very little solemnity observed by the rank and file 
 of worshippers. The Chinese see very little signifi- 
 cance in the victims, altar, and libations. They are 
 not typical. No great soul-stirring idea sways the
 
 THE SACRIFICE. Ill 
 
 hearts of the kneeling presenters and officials. These 
 rites are observed as a matter of course, because 
 they form part of an ancient patrimony. They are 
 not retrospective, neither typical of any future bless- 
 ing. No guilt to be removed, no nation to be 
 redeemed merely customs grown sacred by age. 
 Before offerings were made, the worshippers had 
 recourse to sortilege by means of the tortoise shells 
 and millfoil. 
 
 The Liki says : " Wise kings, whenever they wor- 
 shipped the gods of Heaven and earth, always re- 
 sorted to divination ; they dared not profane Shangti, 
 they dared not displease the sun and moon." Con- 
 fucius regarded this rite as first in importance. 
 
 In founding an estate, the prince or representative 
 of the house, should first erect the ancestral hall. 
 The Emperor, in founding a capital and court, must 
 first provide for his predecessors and ancestors, then 
 erect his palaces. The departed were considered 
 more worthy and of far greater importance than the 
 living. Confucius says, " One oblation is of more 
 value than the recitation of the three hundred poems, 
 the oblation not to be compared with an offering, 
 and no service equal to the sacrifice to Shangti." 
 Carelessness in the service could not be tolerated. 
 If the robes were worn out they must be burned, 
 and when the tortoise slips were worn thin they 
 must be buried. The Liki mentions sundry direc- 
 tions for the great official ; one was, that he should 
 not remove the sacrificial vessels when he went
 
 112 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 abroad. In the land of his sojourn he^ should erect 
 an altar and mourn for his country. For three 
 moons he must dress in coarse garments, white skirts, 
 and white cap. He could not wear his embroidered 
 collar, leathern shoes and white do^-fur. He must 
 ride upon a long-maned, uncombed hor.se. He should 
 not eat sacrificed meats, and should not say, I am 
 suiltless. Serving-maids could not wait by his 
 
 o o / 
 
 couch. The manner of observing the feasts varied 
 from dynasty to dynasty. At certain periods the 
 sacrificial victims were cooked and eaten, well sea- 
 soned with plenteous potions of strong wine. Then 
 they were offered uncooked, and at the end of the 
 sacrifice the victims were cut up into small pieces 
 and distributed, as at the present time. At certain 
 sacrifices queens and princesses assisted. The mother 
 of the Emperor Kiang of Yuan attended upon the 
 Emperor at a certain sacrifice, to move the tender 
 mercies of Shangti, when he petitioned Heaven for 
 a son. The woman could sacrifice to a departed 
 husband, as the younger brother to the elder. The 
 chief clansman stood between the living and the 
 dead, as a high priest. The higher we rise in the 
 social life the broader the relationship, until we 
 reach the throne of the Son of Heaven, who repre- 
 sents the whole family of man under Heaven, and, 
 as the father for the family, is able to be an assessor 
 with the departed for all men. He is the only one 
 able to appease Heaven, and serve all of the gods. 
 This upward gradation, ever widening, connects
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 113 
 
 society upon an immutable basis in the perfect 
 blending of the earthly and spiritual relationships. 
 
 The day for sacrifice was written over the treasury 
 door, public notices were communicated to the repre- 
 sentative officials, and the decree of the imperial 
 ancestor was formally made known. The Emperor 
 prepared himself for the solemn occasion by fasting 
 and purification. The people held themselves in 
 reverential awe, mourners ceased their wailing, and 
 mourning garments were laid aside. The roads were 
 cleansed, and torches placed along the way where the 
 procession was expected to pass. The king's robes were 
 in the image of Heaven, sun, moon, and stars. He 
 wore a crown having twelve strings of pendants 
 according to the months of Heaven. He rode in a 
 chariot painted in all the primary colors. The 
 sacrificial animals were purified for three months. 
 The Emperor could have seven temples, one altar, and 
 one terrace. One of these temples is called Tiao, and 
 dedicated to the remotest ancestor of his race. The 
 sacrifice to heaven was called Fan-Chai. It was a 
 burnt-offering.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 SACRIFICE TO CONFUCIUS. 
 
 THE semi-annual festivals in honor of Confucius 
 occur during the second and eighth moons. 
 A few days before the joyful occasions the officers 
 delegated to put the temples and courts in order pay 
 them a flying visit. The temples and grounds are 
 given a thorough cleansing, the first for half a year. 
 The magistrate, whose duty it is to furnish the sacri- 
 ficial victims, presents his yamen-runners * with a 
 few cash, and gives explicit orders that they secure, 
 and take to the literary chancellors a bullock, with 
 goats, and pigs, as required. 
 
 The yamen-runners, instead of purchasing the 
 desired quadrupeds, proceed in a body to the market 
 and demand from the butchers, in the name of the 
 officials, the required animals. The money received 
 from the official is religiously divided among these 
 hungry human wolves. The bullock will be just as 
 small and lean as the butchers dare to send, and the 
 
 * Servants in the employ of officials,
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 115 
 
 other animals small and scrubby. The musical 
 instruments are dusted and hurried forward to their 
 proper locations. The musicians are out in force for 
 rehearsal. The many-tinted lanterns, and of various 
 designs, are closely hung, and immense flambeaux 
 made from twisted and braided bamboo splints are 
 fastened to pillars and posts. 
 
 Mothers, dressed in brightest colored silks and 
 satins, lead forth their little sons and daughters-in- 
 
 O 
 
 law to view the temples and courts the day before 
 the feast. 
 
 It is the only share the poor women of China have 
 in this national sacrifice. Woman owes nothing to 
 Confucius. He never spoke a word in her favor ; he 
 left her in the same condition she had been for ages. 
 The Five Relations inculcated by Confucian philo- 
 sophy (1) Ruler and subject, (2) father and son, (3) 
 husband and wife, (4) elder brother and younger, (5) 
 friend and friend have forever dethroned woman 
 from her high sphere in life. The second and third 
 relations make her an irresponsible being. Her life 
 at a very tender age is transferred by betrothal to a 
 strange family. To serve that family as filial piety 
 requires, means explicit obedience, even to surrender 
 body, mind and soul to infamy, ignorance, and every 
 kind of superstition, if so required, and she is without 
 any adequate redress. 
 
 Late in the afternoon the Literary Chancellor, who 
 resides near the temple, repairs to the sacrificial 
 pavilion. He orders three sticks of incense to be
 
 116 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 stuck in the ground before the bullock, after which 
 he prostrates himself before the victim. It is thought 
 that by this simple ceremony a spiritual influence 
 takes possession of the animal, and when offered up, 
 the communicated spirit will enter the soul of an 
 infant. This infant is fated to become a great liter- 
 ary man. 
 
 The sacrifice must be made before daylight. It is 
 considered of far more honor to worship at this early 
 hour than by day. The chief officer of the city 
 should lead the service. He is entirely ignorant of 
 it, and is led by the master of ceremonies from point 
 to point. 
 
 THE VISIT. 
 
 At two o'clock a.m., my companion, Rev. Mr. 
 Leaman, brought to my room his old square lantern, 
 and announced the hour for our departure. Within 
 five minutes we were upon the highway, softly 
 treading over the unevenly brick-paved walk. The 
 dogs from the nearest cottages gave ominous growls 
 as we passed, otherwise oppressive silence reigned 
 under a starless heaven. The great city was quiet 
 as the graveyards upon our immediate left, no torch, 
 no flickering taper, save the one in our lantern could 
 be seen. We picked our way by thorny hedges, by 
 heaps of broken, half-decayed bricks, across tattered 
 and broken bridges, by malarial ponds and reeking 
 cesspools, by the Potter's field, and thriving gardens 
 fattened by the many cesspools which we managed
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 117 
 
 to escape by watching our steps by the glimmer of 
 our dying glow-worm. In a few moments the temple 
 of the great sage rose as a small island from the sea 
 of thick darkness. 
 
 It was not until our footsteps gained the level of 
 the temple, that the muffled hum of a thousand 
 voices greeted our ears. We walked slowly along 
 the south end of the high temple wall, until we came 
 to the common, before the gate to the magnificent 
 avenue which leads to the side entrances to the 
 temple court. For the first we came in contact with 
 a single living being since we left our home. Here, 
 inextricably mixed, were ponies, mules, sedan-chairs, 
 smoking retainers, and upon the outskirts finely 
 dressed gentleman who were intent upon making 
 their way to the Confucian court. Our taper was 
 extinguished, and in another moment we were 
 carried along by the strong flow of humanity into 
 the vast court. 
 
 As a bevy of mandarins arrived, torch-bearers 
 met them, and swung their blazing brands right 
 and left and in front, and on either side of them, 
 as they were led to their proper apartments. Each 
 official puts on a sacrificial robe ere he takes his 
 stand before the great steps in front of the temple. 
 The Moon-terrace was the most brilliant spectacle 
 imaginable. Its whole length, one hundred and 
 fifty feet, was radiant with flashing torches and a 
 thousand lanterns. The musicians, dressed in ancient 
 costume, sauntered carelessly among giant lutes and
 
 118 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 harps, many of them bearing flutes, pipes, and reed- 
 organs. The harlequins, dressed most fantastically, 
 rallied here and there upon the broad terrace, bear- 
 ing aloft light reeds and long pheasant feathers, just 
 as their ancestors had done three thousand years ago. 
 
 A great throng filled the vast court, terrace and 
 temple, and swayed aimlessly hither and thither as 
 the smaller officials came or retired. All who took 
 part in the service wore robes of ancient pattern. 
 The managers, called Tsan-li-sen, stood at their sev- 
 eral posts, upon the terrace, and from those points 
 they gave direction to the complex service with won- 
 derful dexterity. The side temples were first visited, 
 and the tablets to philosophers and scholars were 
 solemnly worshipped, then the beautiful temple dedi- 
 cated to Confucius's family was entered by the pre- 
 senter and mandarins, who offered up a pig, goat, 
 and other eatables. The liquid notes of the whis- 
 tlers, and the shrill cries of the chief managers, who 
 stood upon the open terrace, rose clear above the din 
 of struggling crowds within and without. 
 
 Hundreds of people rushed after the mandarins at 
 every change in the service. The doors were blocked 
 by noisy young men and undergraduates, who 
 seemed bent on having as much fun out of the ser- 
 vice as possible. Where we stood, only the flashing 
 of torches occasionally revealed our faces and cos- 
 tumes. We were closely sandwiched between the 
 boys or young men near the great doors opening 
 into Confucius's hall.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 119 
 
 Our presence was, however, known to hundreds, 
 but little attention was given to us except by the 
 few near by. The worship at the side temple was 
 brief, and not very reverent. The spectators could 
 not enter the temple in the rear of the one dedicated 
 to the Sage. While the sacrifice proceeded crowds 
 pushed and surged through the wide doors, intent 
 upon seeing every performance. Within, all was 
 weird and imposing. The sacrifices lay before the 
 several altars, and the smoking tapers revealed the 
 red and yellow tablets in the gilded shrines. The 
 prayers, written upon yellow paper, lay upon the 
 elevated stand to the west of the central altar. 
 
 One of the managers bowed before it, and, in a 
 shrill voice, with great rapidity, chanted the prayer 
 for the occasion. The official all the while kneeled 
 at the altar, where he had been placed by the master 
 of ceremonies. 
 
 A great uproar in front of Confucius's temple was 
 the signal for a general stampede ; the worship at 
 that point was, of course, the chief attraction of the 
 fete. The crowds fell back, and, as of one mind, 
 rushed through corridors and open verandas to the 
 front of the great terrace. We followed, and, with 
 
 O 
 
 no little elbowing, found a most eligible place to view 
 the ceremony near the great doors which opened 
 directly upon the sacrifices. The high officials, civil 
 and military, to the number of twenty or thirty, 
 were drawn up on either side of the central marble 
 steps. The viceroy, or his legate, is the proper
 
 120 CONFtJCIAttlSM. 
 
 person to officiate ; upon this occasion he was repre* 
 sented by the provincial treasurer. 
 
 Each mandarin stood in position according to 
 rank. The vast court in the rear of the glittering 
 phalanx of officials was almost deserted, and save 
 the movements of a few torch-bearers, all was quiet. 
 The crowd was cowed into solemn reverence in the 
 presence of so many dignitaries.
 
 CHAPTER xvi. 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 TOWERING above the phalanx of officials, men- 
 tioned in the preceding chapter, upon the 
 great marble terrace stood seventy-two singers and 
 harlequins, arranged in perfect order, and still back 
 of these and upon both wings, awaited the spectators 
 in breathless silence. The Tsan-li-sen, eight or more 
 in number, as managers extraordinary, directed every 
 movement. At the proper moment a shrill voice 
 came from the darkness, and instantly the great 
 doors in front of the sacrificial victims swung upon 
 their sockets. Before the next word of command 
 was given, there was an opportunity for the writer 
 to enter the temple and examine the animals, which 
 were on a large tray before the great altar in front 
 of Confucius. The ox, which was very poor and old, 
 and had long twisted horns quite contrary to direc- 
 tions given in the Book of Rites rested in a kneel- 
 ing posture, with the head thrust between its fore- 
 legs. It was undressed, unlike the pig and goat on
 
 122 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 either side, which were closely shaven ready to be 
 cut up. In front of the triple-tray containing the 
 victims, upon a long, narrow table, were arranged 
 in sacrificial dishes, a great variety of vegetables, 
 cereals and fruits, viz., celery, beans of different 
 kinds, grasses, the water-shield, rice-gruel, dates, 
 plums, thorn-apples, hazel-nuts, filberts pomegranates, 
 oranges, pears, and condiments. Besides, I noticed in 
 bowls the blood of the sacrificial animals. 
 
 While the last touches were given to the arrange- 
 ments within the dimly-lighted temple, low monot- 
 onous strains rose from the orchestra and were 
 wafted gently into the sanctuary of China's sage. 
 The chief manager, amid profound silence advanced 
 to the balustrade upon the left of the grand stairway, 
 between the officials and the orchestra. The lutes, 
 harps, drums, cymbals, pipes and bells ceased to 
 reverberate, as he cried as only an Asiatic can, " Let 
 the central temple doors be thrice opened and shut." 
 This done, he next cried, " Offer up the hair and 
 blood." After this solemn act which I watched 
 very closely there was a song of invocation to the 
 god Confucius by the orchestra. All of the musical 
 instruments blended in harmony with the low chants 
 of the dancers, as the following words rose clear 
 from many trained voices, " Oh, how great was Con- 
 fucius, pre-eminent in wisdom and first in know- 
 ledge." The appointed official was now led by one 
 of the managers up the side stairway into the temple. 
 By direction he bowed before the sage's tablet, and
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 123 
 
 held before it for a time sticks of smoking incense. 
 This was the first great act of the worship, and he 
 returned from whence he came. 
 
 " The harmony of nature may be broken, 
 But the sun and moon remain undimmished, 
 The air itself is transformed as it comes and goes, 
 But the virtues of sages and philosophers are immortal." 
 
 The master of ceremonies now put the whole 
 company of obese mandarins through a smart knee- 
 drill of three prostrations and nine head-knockings. 
 While this was going on, the great song to Confucius 
 was played and acted by the orchestra. The second 
 time the chief manager directed the same official to 
 be led into the temple. This service consisted in 
 making the ancient offering of a roll of silk. I was 
 told confidentially some days after, by the young 
 literati who had charge of this part of the service, 
 that there was a great fraud perpetrated in this act, 
 for there were barely two or three feet of silk, 
 scarcely enough for a cap for the Sage, while there 
 should have been enough for a grand robe. Being a 
 little emboldened by this confession, I asked the 
 bright young man, " if the bullock died a natural 
 death or was sacrificed." He replied that it was 
 killed, for the officials were interested in its flesh, for 
 each one received a portion for dinner the next day. 
 The same official is led up a third time, after another 
 knee-drill. He bows in silence before the great 
 tablet while the presenter chants a prayer, as follows:
 
 124 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 " As thou hast said, Confucius, ' The great beams, 
 and even the mountains of Tai may crumble away.' 
 Yet, through the successive dynasties of Han, Sung 
 and Min, even to this hour the doctrines of Confucius 
 have increased in splendor, and the ancestors of the 
 King have been more and more honored. The 
 master's precepts are revered in family and village 
 schools, and in college halls. Rivers and mountains 
 oppose not his sway. The books of Poems, Rites, 
 Spring and Autumn, to this very hour of Mao (4 a.m.) 
 we are rigorously teaching. We humbly offer up 
 this prayer with all things here prepared. We 
 worship thee with the sweet fumes of incense." 
 When the prayer was ended, three cups of water 
 were handed to the official, who made an offering 
 of them. He returned to the ranks, and the same 
 kind of prostrations and knockings were renewed. 
 For the fourth and fifth times the official was led up 
 and the cups of water presented. The sixth and 
 seventh times the consecrated wine was drunk and 
 the spirit of Confucius dismissed to his abode on 
 high. Prostrations were renewed at the foot of the 
 terrace. The reciter of prayers, the manager of the 
 silk, and the one who offered the libations, went 
 together to the porcelain furnace-pagoda with their 
 respective elements, and offered them up by fire to 
 Confucius The great fete was declared at an end. 
 From some thousands of temples, bullocks, goat's and 
 pigs had been simultaneously offered. China, from 
 the great wall to the Indies, and from the Pacific to
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 125 
 
 Thibet, had watched over the tablet of a scholar, and 
 renewed her idolatrous devotion to genius. 
 
 The officers disrobed, and, before the first glimmer 
 of daylight, were borne away upon the shoulders of 
 their faithful retainers. 
 
 The victims were carried amid shouts and derisive 
 laughter and obscene bandying to the kitchen of the 
 god. Here they were cut into small pieces, to be sent 
 to the different officials of the city. Literary men 
 crowded about the butchers and begged for small 
 bits of the consecrated animals. No pen can describe 
 the fearful want of reverence everywhere exhibited 
 the moment the service was ended. Reverence is a 
 long robe, which is put on and off at will. Heart 
 reverence is unknown in the Middle Kingdom. 
 Spiritual devotion is meaningless, except as a means 
 to an end. Hearts sterile as the Sha-Moh gather 
 around the sacrifices, stand by the dying, follow the 
 funeral course ; even the dripping tears speak of 
 nothing tender or of agony everflowing. Idolatry is 
 flinty, it hardens every devotee. It is frigid, and 
 stiffens with frost every warm and tender religious 
 sentiment. Nothing good can come out of false 
 worship. 
 
 The last act in this nocturnal drama was the 
 picture of two humble missionaries as they step from 
 darkness into the fading glare of dying torches by the 
 marble stairway. As we did so, the swaying crowd 
 sent up a deafening howl of "Foreign devils!" The 
 din of tramping thousands upon the marble-flagged
 
 126 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 courtyard, and the blood-curdling oaths of screeching 
 underlings were drowned by the mighty shout that 
 went up when, as one man, they cried, " Beat the 
 devils!" 
 
 We drop the curtain, but in so doing send up ar> 
 emphatic prayer that He, who now rides forth for 
 the world's conquest, may give speedy victory to His 
 few brave and earnest soldiers, battling against prin- 
 cipalities and powers in the greatest heathen Empire 
 of the world. 
 
 RESULTS OF HIS TEACHINGS. 
 
 (a) Confucius sanctioned and confirmed sky- 
 worshipping, or, as we may say, Astrolatric Fetish- 
 ism. 
 
 (6) He re-enunciated the ethical teachings of his 
 nation, and made into a living code the almost 
 desuetude maxims of the ancients. 
 
 (c) He was the first teacher of his country to 
 formally define the law of reciprocity. He said, 
 " What you do not want done to yourself, do not 
 do to others." 
 
 (d) He exalted the family and strengthened the 
 authority of the State. 
 
 (e) Reforms followed in the State where his system 
 was tried. 
 
 (/) The whole Empire has been affected and 
 .directed by his philosophy.
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 127 
 
 DEFECTS OF HIS TEACHINGS. 
 
 (a) While he recognized in Heaven an all-per- 
 vading force, he also recognized other co-ordinate 
 powers. A Divine Being, as Creator, he did not 
 know. 
 
 (6) The subjects of psychology and eschatology 
 were studiously avoided. 
 
 (c) The presence and heinousness of sin is not 
 touched upon. 
 
 (d) Rewards and awards are wholly in this life, 
 in the form of additional blessings to the good, and 
 dire calamities to the evil. 
 
 fe) Suffering and death, as a matter of course, 
 are unexplained. 
 
 (/) No mediator known, no expiation taught. 
 
 (g) Prayer as understood by us is foreign to his 
 system. 
 
 (h) Polygamy and divorce are sanctioned. 
 
 (i) The system of social life as taught makes 
 woman a mere chattel, and children cannot exercise 
 any will contrary to their parents. Subjects are mere 
 menials in relation to their superiors. 
 
 (j ) Filial piety embraces all the practical ethics 
 of the system, and it leads to the deification of 
 emperors by their successors, and parents by their 
 phildren.
 
 128 CONFUCIANISM. 
 
 (&) It is a scheme opposed to progress. Its trust is 
 in antiquity. It holds out no incentive to unlock the 
 mysteries of the world. It does not hold out any 
 hope, and does not proffer comfort to suffering 
 humanity. 
 
 (I) It encourages self-inflation, and deifies genius.
 
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