HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, 
 AND RELIGION OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. A. P. MARTIN, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 President of the Imperial Tung- Wen College, Peking, 
 
 Menibre de I'lnstitut de Droit International, 
 
 Mem. Cor. de la Societe de la Legislation 
 
 Comparee, &c., &c. 
 
 SHANGHAI : KELLY & WALSH. 
 
 THE TIENTSIN PRESS. 
 1894.
 
 TO SIR ROBERT HART, BARONET, G.C.M.G., 
 INSPECTOR -GENERAL OF IMPERIAL MARITIME CUSTOMS, 
 
 TRUSTEE AND PATRON OF 
 
 THE IMPERIAL TUNG -WEN COLLEGE, ETC., ETC., 
 THIS I!OOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF 
 A FRIENDSHIP OF FORTY YEARS. 
 
 2028011
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A Book like this, consisting of a series of 
 Papers, the slow growth of years, possesses one 
 conspicuous advantage over a work more hastily 
 written. It is not made to order; but each Essay 
 springs from the spontaneous inclination of the 
 author, and gives the results of his special studies. 
 
 The Papers in this volume fall under the 
 general heads of History, Philosophy, and Religion. 
 Some of the topics, such as International Law 
 and Diplomacy in ancient China, are so new that 
 they have never before been treated by any writer, 
 native or foreign. One or two, however, resemble 
 more or less subjects treated in the First Series;* 
 but they will in all cases be found to be characterized 
 by new views or ampler treatment. 
 
 * Hanlin Papers, Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai, 1880, reprinted 
 by Harper Brothers, New York, as The Chinese, their Education, &c.
 
 VI. 
 
 As many of these Papers originated in the 
 work of the Peking Oriental Society, an extract 
 from a Presidential Address* may be here 
 introduced, to show something of the activity 
 of that young Institution, and especially to point 
 out the scope of Oriental Studies, from a 
 Chinese stand-point. 
 
 "The last Paper of our Occidental Series was 
 read by an American Minister (Mr. Young). 
 He also, as well as Dr. Edkins and Mr. Rockhill, 
 took a leading part in bringing our Society into 
 its present shape ; but it was pre-eminently the 
 hand of the late lamented British Minister 
 (Sir Harry Parkes) that impressed upon it its 
 Oriental character. It was he who gave expression 
 to the wish that its sessions should be something 
 more than an intellectual diversion; and, like a ship 
 drawn from its element to be re-modelled and 
 re-christened, it was he who gave it a new name 
 and launched it on a new career. 
 
 We opened our sessions (i.e., those of the 
 Oriental Series) with two subjects well adapted 
 to connect China with the classical antiquity of 
 the West. The first was on the knowledge of 
 China possessed by the Romans, in the time of the 
 
 * Review of 1885-6.
 
 Vll. 
 
 Elder Pliny ; the second brought into juxtaposition 
 many choice passages of Chinese and Grecian 
 literature. These were luckily followed by the 
 production of material evidence of the intercourse 
 between Rome and China, in the shape of a treasure- 
 trove of Roman coins, which were laid on our 
 table accompanied by an exhaustive report. 
 Then came a survey of the immense domain of 
 Chinese history, followed by a study of some of 
 the most characteristic products of Chinese skill 
 in the department of keramic art. This was 
 succeeded by a Paper which afforded a specimen 
 of those profitable explorations, which it is possible 
 to combine with holiday excursions in the vicinity 
 of Peking. We had, in the meantime, an excursion 
 to the capital of the Grand Lama ; and, by a 
 coincidence not less fortunate than the find of 
 Roman coinr>, we had the presence of a man 
 who had travelled among the snow-capped 
 mountains of Thibet. Finally, we had two Papers 
 which brought us back to the subject of parallels, 
 viz., the Folk-lore of Celtic Ireland compared with 
 that of the Chinese, and the Drama of Turkey 
 compared with the histrionic art of China. 
 
 The last two Papers, I have said, bring us back 
 to the subject of parallels. Would I be far out 
 of the w r ay if I should say that the chief object
 
 Vlll. 
 
 of our Society is the drawing of parallels? 
 Let no one imagine that such an employment 
 affords but meagre scope for our faculties, 
 For is not comparison, as Aristotle has pointed 
 out in his Art of Poetry, the source of our 
 knowledge and the fountain of our aesthetic 
 pleasures? Indeed, in no other way can we 
 estimate the culture of the various nations that 
 fall within the sphere of our research. As we began 
 and closed the year with parallels, we shall 
 accordingly go on until we shall have brought 
 every phase of Oriental thought into comparison 
 with our European standards. 
 
 What grander conception can we form of the 
 
 scope of our Society ? What better demonstration 
 
 of the boundless extent of its field of investigation ? 
 
 At the risk of betraying a secret, let me say 
 
 that one of our members said to me some time 
 
 ago : " Do you not think we are holding too 
 
 many meetings ? Is there not danger that our 
 
 repertory of subjects will be exhausted ? " 
 
 Exhausted ! As well talk of exhausting the oil 
 
 wells of Baku, or the coal treasures of the British 
 
 Isles. When of late the cry was raised "Economise 
 
 your coal ; the supply is giving out," what was the 
 
 answer? "There is plenty of coal to be found 
 
 by digging deeper ! " For us, the same remedy may
 
 IX. 
 
 be resorted to against an apprehended dearth of 
 topics. When the superficial deposits are consumed, 
 then dig deeper ; and sooner will the last ton 
 of coal in British mines be raised to the surface, 
 than the last available subject be reached in the 
 domain of Oriental inquiry. 
 
 Situated in the capital of the greatest of 
 Eastern empires, we sweep within our broad 
 horizon the whole of Asia. Here, in the midst 
 of a vast accumulation of undeveloped treasures, 
 we have little reason to envy those Oriental 
 students whose lot is cast on the banks of 
 the Ganges. 
 
 To enumerate only a few of the subjects 
 that challenge investigation : Here is Philology 
 approaching us with a bundle of questions, 
 barbed and bristling like a sheaf of arrows. 
 Of these, the noblest is that of the relation of 
 the Chinese language to the other great families of 
 human speech, a question towards the solution 
 of which one of our number has led the way.* 
 
 It is scarcely a hundred years since the affinity 
 between Sanscrit and the other members of the 
 Aryan group was ascertained. That discovery, 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Eclkins.
 
 Xll. 
 
 So rich and extensive are these four grand 
 divisions of our Oriental domain that I should 
 seriously propose, if our membership would admit 
 of it, to subdivide ourselves into four sections ; 
 one of which should devote itself to Philology, 
 another to Philosophy, a third to History, 
 and the last to Poetry. 
 
 The Asiatic Society of Bengal, instituted more 
 than a hundred years ago, is still in active operation. 
 May we not hope that the Oriental Society of 
 Peking, sustained by the best culture of this small 
 but select community, and reinforced by the culture 
 of renovated China, will enjoy an equally long and 
 prosperous career ! " 
 
 I have to thank Mr. R. H. Maclay for having 
 saved me much trouble in carrying this volume 
 through the press. 
 
 W. A. P. M. 
 Peking, April i^th, 1894.
 
 PAGE. 
 I. The Study of Chinese History ... ... I 
 
 II. History of China viewed from the Great 
 
 Wall 26 
 
 III. Tartar Tribes in Ancient China ... ... 59 
 
 IV. A Hero of the Three Kingdoms ... ... 84 
 
 V. International Law in Ancient China ... ill 
 VI. Diplomacy in Ancient China ... ... 142 
 
 VII. Notes on the Confucian Apocrypha ... 173 
 VIII. Plato and Confucius ; A Coincidence ... 199 
 IX. The Cartesian Philosophy before Descartes 207 
 X. Chinese Ideas on the Inspiration of their 
 
 Sacred Books ... ... ... ... 235 
 
 XI. Stages of Religious Thought in China ... 257 
 XII. Buddhism a Preparation for Christianity... 278 
 
 XIII. Native Tract Literature in China 304 
 
 XIV. The Worship of Ancestors 327 
 
 XV. The Emperor at the Altar of Heaven ... 356 
 
 XVI. A Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Confucius... 361 
 
 XVII. The Lusiad, or The Opening of the East... 379 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 Three Famous Inscriptions 413
 
 I. 
 
 THE STUDY 
 
 OF 
 
 CHINESE HISTORY: 
 
 7MOXG the various departments into which the 
 literature of the Chinese is divided, that which 
 in my opinion will best repay the attention of 
 European scholars is their History. Yet like 
 their venerated classic, the Book of Changes, of 
 which they affirm that it can never be transported 
 beyond the seas, there is reason to fear that their 
 history is not very well adapted for exportation. 
 
 In its native form, it may find translators; but they 
 will not find readers. Its form requires to be 
 transformed; and its very substance to undergo a 
 transubstantiation, in order to adapt it to the taste 
 of our Western public. Beyond a substratum of 
 facts, there is absolutely no part of it capable of 
 surviving a transfer to the Western world. 
 
 * Read before the Oriental Society of Peking.
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In the West, the Father of History, or some of 
 his editors, prefixed the names of the Muses to the 
 several portions of his immortal work indicating 
 that the idea of beauty presided over its composition, 
 and consecrating the " art preservative of arts " to 
 the patronage of all the Sacred Nine. 
 
 In China, the conception of history is that of a 
 simple record; not that of a woik of art. 
 
 In one of the Taoist Legends, an old man, who 
 has tasted the elixir of immortality, is asked to tell 
 his age. " I count it not," he replies, " by years, but 
 "by terrestial cataclysms. As often as a continent sinks 
 into the bosom of the sea, or a new world emerges 
 from the ocean, I drop a little pebble to commemorate 
 the occurrence. The accumulation of pebbles is now 
 so great that they fill eleven chambers of my 
 dwelling." Here we have an embodiment of the 
 genius of Chinese History not a Muse stamping on 
 it the impress of divine beauty, but shrivelled age 
 like that of Tithonus, or the wandering Jew, pre- 
 serving a monotonous record of the changes that 
 -occur in the course of an endless life. 
 
 The accumulation of counters set forth in this 
 legend is an expressive emblem of the vastness of 
 China's historic treasure. In this respect, as Hegel 
 has remarked in his Philosophic der Geschichte, there 
 is a striking contrast between the two great empires
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 of Asia the Chinese having a historical literature 
 more voluminous than that of any other nation on 
 earth, and the Hindus none at all. The explanation 
 of this phenomenon, if we seek for one, will be found 
 in the fact that history is the expression of national 
 life a tissue resembling that of a living organism 
 knitting the past and present into a substantial unity. 
 Their historical literature, accordingly, more than 
 anything else, unless it be their educational system, 
 affords an index of the greatness of the Chinese 
 people. With them the worship of ancestors is only 
 an exaggerated expression of their sense of solidarity; ' 
 and history a testament, by which they convey to 
 posterity the legacy of the past. 
 
 The precautions which they take to secure and to 
 transmit the record betoken a proud consciousness 
 that their national life is too strong to be swallowed 
 up by the shifting sands of time. No less than three - 
 bureaus or colleges, each presided over by learned 
 members of the Hanlin, are charged with collecting 
 and elaborating materials for the history of each reign. 
 The bureau of Daily Record has its representatives 
 always at the side of His Imperial Majesty. Whether 
 in his palace or on a journey, or in so-called retire- 
 ment, he can no more escape the eye of these official 
 spies than Horace's trooper could outrun the 
 tormentor that mounted behind him.
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The Emperor's public acts and public documents 
 constitute the province of the Shih-lu-kuan, the 
 Bureau of contemporary History. The Kuo-she-kuan t 
 or College of Dynastic History, occupies itself with 
 the archives of the ruling house, and the biographies 
 of those who are supposed to have shed lustre on its 
 reign. 
 
 These tribunals form an essential part of the 
 machinery of government, supplying a check on the 
 extravagance of irresponsible power where no other 
 would be available the dread of being held up to 
 the execration of posterity operating quite as 
 effectually as the remonstrances of a board of censors. 
 The censors indeed are still called by a title (Yii-she) 
 which means official historian; and, though no longer 
 employed in the production of history, they are 
 wont to draw their weightiest arguments from the 
 history of -the past, and to make their most solemn 
 appeals to the history of the future. 
 
 In the palmy days of Chow, when the institutions 
 of the empire were in their infancy, a prince proposed 
 to make an excursion which had for its object 
 nothing better nor worse than his own amusement. 
 One of the censors, after vainly employing other 
 arguments to dissuade him from his undertaking, 
 solemnly admonished him that all his movements 
 were matters of history. The poor prince, startled
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 at the thought that to him there could be nothing 
 trivial that his every act was exposed to the "fierce 
 light that beats upon a throne" heaved a sigh of 
 regret, and desisted from his innocent purpose, that 
 of fishing on a neighboring lake. 
 
 In those days the historian was as stern and 
 inflexible as the Roman Censor mornm. In the sixth 
 century before our era, there lived in Shantung a 
 General, or Maire du Palais, named Ts'ue Wu-tsze. 
 Herod-like, he took possession of the wife of another; 
 his sovereign in turn deprived him of the fascinating 
 beauty. The General in revenge killed the prince; 
 and, when the Court Chronicler put on record this 
 chapter of infamies, he put him to death, and tore 
 the leaf from the Archives of State. A brother of the 
 historian renewed the record, and suffered death for 
 doing so. A leaf was again torn out, and a third 
 brother presented himself, pen in hand, to repeat the 
 tale and seal it with his blood. The tyrant, touched 
 by his martyr-like boldness, spared his life, and 
 submitted to the stigma. The incident is handed 
 down as a proof of the unflinching fidelity of ancient 
 historians, and by consequence of the trustworthiness 
 of their narratives. 
 
 In later times, the chroniclers were not so fearless. 
 One, Ch'en Lin, a man of talent, being reproached by 
 Tsao Tsao for drawing his portrait in rather sombre
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 colours, replied, while he trembled for his life 
 "Your Highness will forgive me. I was then detained 
 in the camp of your enemy, where I had no more 
 freedom of choice than the arrow shot from his 
 cross-bow." 
 
 Thackeray says of his pen : 
 
 " It never writ a flattery, 
 Nor signed the page 
 That registered a lie. " 
 
 \Yith Chinese historians, fear and flattery are 
 influences which, more than any others, deflect their 
 needle from the pole. To guard against these two 
 sources of error, the notes of every day are dropped 
 into an iron chest, which is not to be opened until 
 after the death of the reigning prince. Yet this 
 provision is not always effectual; flattery which, 
 addressed to the living, would be deemed gross and 
 disgusting, falls like music on the ears of their 
 mourning relatives. Hence it was that Octavia paid 
 Virgil so magnificently for his lines on the dead 
 Marcellus; hence too, at the close of the last reign, 
 the Empress mother welcomed with delight a 
 panegyric on the late Emperor, which made him 
 appear as a star of the first magnitude. But was not 
 the Roman Senate accustomed, by solemn vote, to 
 raise deceased emperors to the skies, whenever their 
 relations succeeded to the throne? The writers of
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 China are neither more nor less truthful than the 
 Romans; and now and then we meet among them 
 with an instance of fidelity worthy of Rome's best 
 days:-e. g.,-Wu K'o-tu, a Censor (and we must not 
 forget that his Chinese title means historian), some 
 years ago protesting against the affiliation of the 
 present Emperor to Hien Fung as an arrangement 
 that leaves his predecessor without the solace of a 
 son to sacrifice to his manes, in order to give more 
 weight to his remonstrance committed suicide at the 
 tomb of the sovereign whose cause he was seeking 
 to serve. Does not this modem instance almost 
 suffice to render credible the story of the martyr 
 chroniclers of whom we have spoken ? 
 
 Incedis per ignes 
 
 Suppositos cineri doloso ; 
 
 said Horace to Pollio, when the latter was proposing 
 to write the history of the then recent revolution. 
 Nobody knows better than the Chinese the 
 treacherous thinness of the crust that overlies the 
 lava of a dynastic eruption. With a view to guarding 
 against the perverting influence of fear and favour, 
 they accordingly wait until the last scion of an 
 imperial house has ceased to reign before compiling, 
 or rather before publishing, the history of a dynasty. 
 The history of the Mings was not published until 
 after the accession of the Manchus; and the
 
 HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 commission charged with its preparation devoted no 
 less than forty-six years to the task. Official 
 histories are always corrected by collation with 
 private memoirs, which only wait the sunset of a 
 dynasty to come forth in countless numbers and 
 shed their glow-worm light on the events of the 
 period. 
 
 In addition to these ordinary arrangements, there 
 exists an extraordinary provision for purifying the 
 stream of history. It consists in the appearance, at 
 long intervals, of sages with a divine commission to 
 revise the annals of preceding centuries, and post up 
 the doom's-day book of the empire. Of these, four 
 have appeared already, viz : 
 
 Confucius, in the 6th century, B. C ; 
 Sze Ma Ts'ien, in the 2nd century, B. C; 
 Sze Ma Kwang, in the nth century, A. D; 
 Chu Fu Tsze, a century later. 
 For the advent of the fifth, the world is 
 now on tiptoe. 
 
 Each revision reduces, of course, the quantity of 
 material; but, after all their sifting, there still remains 
 an enormous irreducible mass, in which the dead 
 past is buried rather than illustrated. 
 
 The historical works of the first of these great 
 editors, as expounded by his disciples, extend to 
 60 books, or about 20 volumes. Those of the second,
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 to 130 books. Those of the third reach the 
 portentous figure of 360. And those of the last, 
 though professing to be an abridgement, amount to 
 55 books. 
 
 The twenty-four dynastic histories, taken together, 
 foot up the tremendous total of 3266 books, or 
 1633 separate volumes. 
 
 This is sufficiently appalling, but what shall we 
 say of the mountains of undigested ores that have 
 not been subjected to the fires of the smelting 
 furnace? It may help us to form an idea of the 
 extent of these crude treasures to mention that the 
 history of the last short reign of only thirteen years 
 is spread over no fewer than one-hundred-and-fifty 
 volumes. Then there are collateral histories for that 
 period, which are also official, such as that of the 
 Taiping rebellion in 211 volumes; that of the Nienfei 
 rebellion in 160 volumes; and those of the three 
 several Mohammedan rebellions of Kashgar, 
 Kansuh, and Yunnan, not yet finished, but certainly far 
 more voluminous. If the preceding reigns were only 
 half as prolific in historical writings, the productions 
 of the present dynasty would alone more than suffice 
 to fill the library of the sea-side genius, to say nothing 
 of the twenty-four preceding dynasties. 
 
 Nor is this all. To complete the Catalogue, we 
 have still to add topographical histories without
 
 IO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 number. Each of the nineteen old Provinces has its 
 official history compiled by a commission presided 
 over by officers of the Han-lin. Each department 
 or prefecture has likewise its proper history; and this 
 gives us 200 more not volumes, but works; while, 
 descending to cities of the third order, we must 
 reckon a history of from ten to twenty volumes for 
 each of nearly two thousand districts. The sum 
 total makes a quantity so vast that the mind can no 
 more grasp it than it can conceive the distances to 
 the fixed stars. We seek in vain for a unit of 
 measure. If the manuscripts of the Alexandrian 
 library kept the fires of the caliph Omar blazing for 
 three months, how long might the histories of China 
 supply them with fuel ! Tamerlane was in the habit 
 of building pyramids of the skulls of his enemies. 
 How high a pyramid, we may ask, might be 
 constructed out of these dry bones of past ages? 
 
 In the presence of these enormous accumulations, 
 the question arises what estimate are we to form of 
 their value? 
 
 Of their value to the Chinese I need not stop to 
 speak. Their existence is proof of the esteem in 
 which they aie held, and the manner in which every 
 species of composition bristles with historical 
 allusions bears witness to the influence they have 
 exerted on the mind of the Chinese. But are these
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. II 
 
 venerable remains of any value to us? And if so, in 
 what way may they be made to contribute to the 
 literary wealth of the Western world ? 
 
 In forming an estimate, we must not forget that our 
 standard of value in the criticism of such works 
 differs as widely from that of the Chinese as a golden 
 sovereign does from productions of the native mint. 
 Ours was coined and stamped for us by no meaner 
 hand than that of Lord Bacon, who defines history as 
 "Philosophy teaching by example." It is philosophy,, 
 not science, for its data are too indefinite to be 
 made a basis for scientific deductions. Philosophy 
 lays no claim to absolute certainty, though her very 
 name proclaims her a searcher after truth. Her first 
 object is to learn; her second to teach; and if, in the 
 domain of history, she is able to draw lessons from 
 the past, it is because she has first learned the 
 meaning of those great movements which she 
 professes to expound. 
 
 Judged by this standard, the Chinese have 
 chronicles, but not histories. They have chronicles 
 composed with studied elegance and abounding in 
 acute criticism of character and events; but the whole 
 range of their literature contains nothing that can be 
 called a Philosophy of History. They have no Hegel, 
 who, after reconstructing the universe, applies his 
 principles to explain the laws of human progress; no
 
 I2 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Gibbon or Montesquieu to trace the decay of an old 
 civilisation; and no Guizot to sketch the rise of a new 
 one. They have not even a Thucidides or a Tacitus, 
 who can follow effects up to causes, and paint the 
 panorama of an epoch. 
 
 The reason is obvious. Without resorting to the 
 supposition that they are by nature deficient in the 
 philosophic faculty, we find a sufficient explanation 
 of the phenomenon in the faulty model set for them 
 by the greatest of their sages. 
 
 With them Confucius, not Sze Ma Ts'ien, is the 
 Father of History. His famous Spring and Autumn 
 is not even a book of Annals. It is a diary in which 
 all events, great and small, are strung like beads on a 
 calendar of days. This method, not to speak of the 
 extreme conciseness of his style, makes it difficult for 
 his leader to perceive the connexion of events. 
 Three disciples of his school have come to his aid 
 with commentaries; but all of them follow the order 
 of the text, chapter and verse. His continuators 
 have done the same ; and so have all his successors 
 down to our historiographers of the Hanlin, who 
 keep their daily journals and imagine they are writing 
 history.' 
 
 To have so many pens laboriously employed in 
 taking notes is a good way to collect materials; but 
 those materials require a different kind of elaboration
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 13 
 
 from any they have ever received at the hands of a 
 native author before they become History, in our 
 acceptation of the term. 
 
 ' That their History has remained in the rudimentary 
 condition in which it began its career is one more 
 instance, in addition to many others, of noble arts 
 which the Chinese originated in ancient times; and 
 which remained ever after in a state of arrested 
 development. 
 
 There are men, as Sir Lyon Play fair has lately 
 reminded us, in his presidential address before the 
 British Association, who "cannot see a forest for the 
 trees of which it is composed." 
 
 So the Chinese chronicler, bent on classifying all 
 occurrences in the order of time, fails to perceive the 
 trend of colossal movements that sweep over whole 
 nations and long centuries. His work in keeping 
 the minutes of the day is History only in the sense 
 in which the daily noting of the stars is Astronomy. 
 Thousands of diligent observers had recorded their 
 observations with apparently fruitless toil, when the 
 eye of Kepler, sweeping over the mass of facts, 
 deduced from them the ellipticity of the planetary 
 orbits. May we not hope that some master mind 
 will yet arise, who shall be capable of pointing 
 out the reign of law in this limbo of undigested 
 facts ?
 
 14 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The historian, who shall do this for China, will be 
 a native; but) in addition to the culture of the 
 Hanlin, he must possess the training of a Western 
 university. The students of history, trained in the 
 native schools, are all near-sighted. They analyze, 
 with more than microscopic penetration, particular 
 events and personal character; but they are utterly 
 incapable of broad synthetic combinations. 
 
 In proof of this, I may point to three immense 
 movements, each of which is as indispensable to the 
 understanding of the present condition of China as 
 are Kepler's three laws to the explanation of the 
 solar system. Yet no native writer appears to have 
 grasped the significance, or even formed a conception, 
 of any one of them. They are : 
 
 i. The conquest of China by the Chinese; 
 2. The conquest of China by the Tartars; 
 3. The struggle between the centripetal and 
 centrifugal forces of the empire. 
 
 To the mind of a native, the assertion that China 
 has been conquered by the Chinese would be 
 tantamount to that venerable item of political news 
 that "the Dutch have taken Holland." To him, they 
 have always been in possession, and, so for as he 
 knows, they sprang directly from the soil. But the 
 eye of a foreign scholar, trained to trace the origin of 
 nations, perceives at a glance that the Chinese were
 
 
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 1 5 
 
 a foreign race, who, clothed with the power of a 
 higher civilization, undertook the conquest of the 
 water-shed of eastern Asia, about the time the Aryan 
 Hindus undertook that of the southern Peninsula. He 
 notes the first seats of their power along the banks of 
 the Yellow River, indicating that they came from the 
 North-west, and followed* its course down into the 
 central plain. Whence they came, he may not be 
 able to affirm with certainty; but he finds two-thirds 
 of the empire, even in the classic age of Chow, still 
 in possession of savage tribes, who must be regarded 
 
 as the true autochthones. 
 
 m 
 
 He sees these gradually absorbed and assimilated by 
 the superior race, until the remnants of the aborigines 
 are driven into mountain fastnesses, where they still 
 maintain their independence, and where the conflict 
 of ages is still going on. The first chapter in the history 
 of this conflict is found in the brief account which the 
 Shu-king gives us of the subjugation of the San Miao, 
 "The three aboriginal tribes," by the Emperor Shun. 
 
 The last is not yet written; but a page still wet with 
 blood records the subjection of the Miao-tsze of 
 Kwe-cheo and the extension of Chinese sway in the 
 island of Formosa. What a theme for the pen of a 
 native scholar, if he could only. enlarge the range of / ^ 
 his mental vision so as to take in a movement of 
 such surpassing grandeur !
 
 
 
 I 6 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The second of the three great movements is, in its 
 origin, almost co-eval with the first, and runs parallel 
 with it through all the ages down to the present day. 
 To the mind of a native, the Tartar conquest suggests 
 only the successful invasion of the Manchus, the now 
 dominant race. To the wider survey of a western 
 thinker, it signifies a persistent attempt, extending 
 through thousands of years, made by barbarians of 
 whatever name on the North of China to gain 
 possession of a country made rich by the industry of 
 its civilized inhabitants. 
 
 It's first stage was an advance into the interior, in 
 771 B.C., far enough to destroy the western capital, 
 near the site of the present Si-ngan Fu, the 
 Emperor and his consort perishing in the ruins. The 
 successor of the unfortunate monarch removed his 
 court eastward, to a safer situation, in the heart of the 
 Empire. At a later period, this eastern capital was 
 also sacked by Tartars. Still later (not to follow the 
 fluctuations of the conflict), when the northern 
 half of the Empire was over-run, the court retired 
 from the banks of the Hoang Ho to those of 
 the Yang-tsze-kiang ; whence it removed still 
 further south, in tl.e vain hope of escaping the 
 Tartars, who, under Uie leadership of Kublai, effected 
 for the first time the conquest of the whole 
 Empire. 
 
 el ' i'. . ->>* l*isi*. !& frr***" 1 */<-*} 
 
 - v
 
 ., r**-r, 
 '* *f ' - ^ * <**n 
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 17 
 
 After a brief tenure, they lost their grand prize, 
 but it was reconquered by the Manchus; and for two 
 centuries and a half it has remained in their 
 possession. 
 
 The Great Wall, stretching from the sea to the 
 desert of Kansu, is a monument of this undying - 
 struggle, which, from its first inception, has been 
 essentially one long war, with only here and there a 
 fitful truce. 
 
 The successive sackings of Rome by Gaul and 
 Vandal ; the conquest of Italy by Barbarians from 
 the North; and the removal of the capital to the 
 East, are parallels that offer themselves to a European 
 student, and suggest a law in the tide of nations, viz,- 
 that the hungry hordes of the North manifest, in all 
 ages, a tendency to encroach on opulent regions more 
 favoured by the sun. 
 
 In all ages, the Tartar invaders have yielded to the 
 influence of a higher civilization; but, on the other - 
 hand, they have made adeep impression, ethnologically 
 as well as politically, on the state of China. 
 
 The Chinese have treated this subject only in a 
 fragmentary way; but, taken as a whole, in its 
 philosophy and its poetry, the conquest of China by 
 the Tartars would supply the Muse of History with 
 another of her noblest themes. 
 The two great movements, which I have now so
 
 J 8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 hastily sketched, were conflicts of races; the third 
 was a conflict of principles. The contending forces 
 were those of feudal autonomy and centralization. 
 At the dawn of the Chow dynasty, not to go further 
 back in the history, an able monarch succeeded in 
 holding the vassal Princes in check; while, under his 
 weak successors, they threw off all but the semblance 
 of subjection. This struggle for power went on for 
 eight centuries, until both combatants were swallowed 
 up by a new foe, the Emperor and his vassal 
 Princes being swept from the arena by the new 
 power of Chin, which bad grown strong in conflict 
 with the Tartars of the North ! 
 
 In this signal event, Chinese historians discern 
 nothing but the triumph of vulgar ambition; and 
 they paint its author in the darkest colours, as an 
 impious tyrant who burned the books of Confucius, 
 and slaughtered his disciples. For such unheard-of 
 cruelty, they find no better explanation than a 
 ] partiality for Taoism, coupled with a desire to destroy 
 the records of the past, in order that he might appear 
 to posterity as the author of a new era. Not one of 
 them has understood the significance ofShiffwang-ti, 
 the august title by which he proclaimed himself 
 the "first" of a new order of "autocratic sovereigns." 
 Not one of them has perceived that his motive for 
 burning the books of Confucius was to obliterate the
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 1 9 
 
 feudal system from the memory of China ; and that 
 he cut the throats of the Literati to make sure that 
 those books and their political doctrines should 
 never re-appear. 
 
 The books did re-appear ; but the feudal system, 
 once buried in the sepulchre of the slaughtered 
 scholars, has had no resurrection. It had been 
 to China the fruitful mother of ages of anarchy. 
 Since then she has gone through many revolutions; 
 but, thanks to the genius of Shi Hwang-ti, 
 she has witnessed no repetition of the sad spectacle 
 of a family of States discordant and belligerent. His 
 system of centralized power remains the bond of the 
 Empire; and the title of Hwang-ti, which he was the 
 "first" to assume, still survives as its permanent 
 expression. 
 
 This conflict, between the centripetal and centrifugal 
 forces, forms the third great subject, which the old 
 historians have not comprehended, and which waits 
 the advent of a writer of deeper insight and more 
 comprehensive grasp. Some future Hallam may 
 show the world that Feudalism, which formed such a 
 conspicuous stage in the development of modern 
 Europe, has played an equally prominent part in the 
 History of China. 
 
 Is it objected that, unhappily for the study of 
 Chinese history, its theatre is too remote to awaken
 
 2O HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 public interest in any high degree? Egypt and 
 Babylon are remote in one sense, but they are not 
 altogether alien. They are only higher up on the 
 stream that expands into the broad current of our 
 western civilization. Ancient India is remote; but 
 it forms a part of the same ethnic system with 
 ourselves, and, on that account, appeals powerfully 
 to the imagination of the European. Chinese history 
 forms a stream apart, which has not, it is said, 
 in any way affected the state of the western 
 world. 
 
 But is it true that the two streams have flowed 
 down through the tracts of time in complete 
 independence of each other ? Are they not like those 
 ocean currents which bear life and beauty respectively 
 to the Eastern shores of the Atlantic, and to those of 
 the Pacific? The Gulf-stream and the Kurosiwo, 
 though flowing through opposite hemispheres, are 
 not indifferent to each other. They are connected by 
 the pulsations of a common tide. So the civilizations 
 of China and Europe, however widely separated, 
 have each derived from the other influences as real, 
 though occult, as those that throb in the bosom of 
 the ocean. To discover their points of contact, and 
 to exhibit the proofs of mutual reaction, are among 
 the most interesting problems offered to the student 
 of Chinese history.
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 21 
 
 That the mutual influence of the two civilizations v 
 will in the future be far greater than it has ever been 
 in the past, it is easy to foresee. When China, 
 developing the resources of her magnificent domain, 
 and clothing herself with the panoply of modern 
 science, becomes, as she must in the lapse of a 
 century or two, one of the three or four great powers 
 that divide the dominion of the globe, think you 
 that the world will continue to be indifferent as to 
 the past of her history ? Xot only will some knowl- 
 edge of her history be deemed indispensable to a 
 liberal education, but, while I am in the spirit of 
 prophecy, I may as well go on to predict that her 
 language and literature will be studied in all our 
 Universities. 
 
 But why should the degree of our interest in any 
 field of intellectual investigation be measured by the 
 extent of our commercial intercourse ? If the Chinese* 
 instead of living on a globe, the dominion of which 
 they are certain to dispute with our posterity, if, I 
 say, instead of this rather startling prospect, they 
 were looking serenely down upon us from the surface of 
 the moon, would that be any reason why we should 
 feel no concern in their fortunes? If, by means of 
 :some kind of selenograph yet to be invented, the 
 moon could conve} r to us the lessons of experience 
 evolved by such a people in the course of their
 
 22 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 existence, would she not be giving us something more 
 substantial than moon-shine? 
 Of history it may be said, as of fame 
 "All that we know of it, begins and ends 
 In the small circle of our foes and friends." 
 
 To men of science, however, a well authenticated 
 statistical history ought to be welcome, even if it 
 came from the remotest limb of the Universe. The 
 archives of China do not indeed supply us with 
 tabular statements, such as would satisfy the demands 
 of Buckle and Quatrefages, but they give us the 
 nearest approach to these that it is possible to obtain 
 from distant periods of time. 
 
 In our modem observatories, the sun is made to 
 take his daily photograph ! If we possessed an un- 
 broken series of such pictures, extending back for 
 some thousands of years, what an invaluable aid it 
 would afford towards ascertaining the laws that 
 prevail in that far-off world ! Now, to the Chinese 
 chronicler, the emperor is the sun, and he has no 
 other object in writing than to give us his master's 
 daily picture. Happily, other subjects are brought in 
 as accessories that are of more interest to us than 
 the person of the sovereign. The territory is mapped 
 out as his hereditary or acquired estate; the people 
 come into view as his praedial slaves; the signs of 
 heaven, sun-spots, star-showers, and eclipses, all so-
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 2$ 
 
 precious to the man of science, are recorded as / 
 shadows on the dial of imperial destiny. 
 
 Casting a hasty glance back over the long 
 concatenation, we are struck by the fact that Chinese 
 society is far from presenting an aspect of changeless 
 uniformity. Nor have its changes been as monoto- 
 nous as those registered by our sea-side watcher. 
 The men have not always worn the bald badge of 
 subjection to a foreign yoke; nor have the women, 
 from time immemorial, hobbled about on crippled 
 feet. Time was when the gods, that greet us at 
 every corner, had not yet made their advent; when 
 books, ink, and paper, were unknown (but our 
 historians were even then taking notes, for it is they . 
 that tell us); and when China was confined to a small 
 angle of the present empire, the rest being occupied 
 by savage races. In those primitive days, even the 
 face of nature was different, the hills being covered 
 with forest, the plains with jungle, and the lowlands 
 with reedy marshes abounding in ferocious beasts. 
 
 Numerous as have been the changes through 
 which the Chinese people have passed, they have not 
 been always treading in a vicious circle. History shows 
 them to have made a general, if not a regular, advance 
 in all that constitutes the greatness of a people; so 
 that, in the 76th cycle of their chronology, their 
 domain is more extended, their numbers greater, and
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 their intelligence higher, than at any preceding epoch 
 in the forty centuries of their national existence. 
 
 We shall find too that their progress through the 
 ages has been, amid all their fluctuations, confined 
 within the lines of a fixed and well-defined social 
 organization. In the state, a jure divino monarchy 
 has, in all ages, formed the nucleus of the government; ' 
 and the supremacy of letters has been secured 
 by making learning the passport to office. < 
 In the family, the kjndred principles of unlimited 
 subjection to living parents, and of devout worship 
 to dead ancestors, appear of equal antiquity. 
 These four are the corner-stones on which the 
 social fabric reposes at the present day. 
 
 In conclusion : To those who have the language 
 and the leisure to enable them to explore its original 
 sources, I would commend the study of Chinese 
 History as alike attractive and profitable. With these 
 two conditions, we have access to masses of historic 
 lore, which we may compare, not to virgin mines, 
 but to those heaps of silver slag left by the old Greeks 
 at the mines of Laurium, from which the Germans 
 are now extracting quantities of the precious metal 
 that escaped the cruder methods of the ancients. 
 Or, to vary the figure, we may liken them to the 
 walls of the Colloseum, out of which the mediaeval 
 Pontiffs quarried stones to build the churches of Rome.
 
 STUDY OF CHINESE HISTORY. 
 
 Be not appalled by the extent of the materials 
 offered to your industry. Instead of seeking 
 distinction, as many do, by writing for the fiftieth 
 time a life of Mary Stuart or Lucretia Borgia, 
 why not appropriate some little corner of this 
 unclaimed territory, and exploit its hidden treasures ? 
 The reconstruction of the whole by any one man 
 is not to be thought of. A history, worthy of the 
 grandeur of the subject, cannot be produced otherwise 
 than by the combined efforts of many scholars.
 
 II. 
 
 CHINA 
 
 VIEWED FROM 
 
 THE GREAT WALL. 
 (A Historical Sketch). 
 
 SO study the history of Egypt, one should place 
 himself on the top of the Pyramids. For that 
 of China, there is no point of observation so 
 favorable as the summit of the Great Wall. 
 Erected mid- way between the hazy obscurity of early 
 tradition and the restless age in which we now live, 
 it commands the whole of the moving panorama. 
 So colossal as to form a geographical feature on the 
 surface of the globe, its importance to us consists in its 
 epoch rather than in its magnitude. It is to this epoch 
 that our attention will be chiefly directed ; but, from 
 this vantage ground, we shall allow ourselves a few 
 glances before and after, as far as our limit of time* 
 may permit, with the hope of conveying some faint 
 impression of the unity of Chinese History. 
 
 * First delivered as an evening lecture.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 2J 
 
 Not long after the age when Alexander swept 
 the chess-board of Western Asia, and combined its 
 numerous nationalities into one empire, Ch'in-shi, the 
 Builder of the Wall, did the same thing for the states 
 of Eastern Asia. These states constituted the Chinese 
 Empire, a country which at that early period united 
 the wealth of Persia and the culture of Greece. 
 Nominally under the sway of one Imperial House, 
 they had been for some hundreds of years virtually 
 independent, adjusting their mutual relations, and 
 waging internecine wars without interference from 
 their powerless Suzerain. In theory, their relations 
 to each other and to the head of the empire were 
 an exact counterpart of what is called the Feudal 
 System in Europe. The analogy extends even to 
 the five orders of nobility, Rung, Heo Po, Tse, Nan,' 
 which answer to Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, 
 Baron. From the earliest ages, it had been customary 
 for the founder of a new dynasty to confer these 
 dignities upon his near relatives, and to partition the 
 empire among them. This form of government is so 
 natural that it required no originality for its creation; 
 and there is little reason to suppose that mediaeval 
 Europe, in adopting it, borrowed a leaf from the 
 experience of ancient China. 
 
 While rewarding the services of kinsmen and 
 coadjutors, this system had the advantage of
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 diminishing the cares of their overlord, by allowing 
 to them the exercise of home-rule. During the first 
 generation, while personal ties were strong, it worked 
 fairly well; but, when those ties became weakened by 
 time, disintegration followed, and the Suzerain was 
 left with scarcely a shadow of power. 
 
 A further retrospect will be necessary, to enable us 
 to understand the period with which we have to deal. 
 
 The Builder of the Great Wall was preceded by 
 three dynasties of long duration, viz., 
 
 That of Hia 2205-1766 B.C. 
 ,, ,, Shang 1766-1122 ,, 
 Chow 1 1 22- 255 
 
 Looking beyond the first of these, we perceive the 
 golden glow of the morning of history. In the midst 
 of its deceptive haze, we discern two figures which the 
 Chinese have agreed to accept as models of princely 
 excellence. They are Yao and Shun, the Numa 
 Pompilius and Tullus Hostilius of the rising State. 
 
 The simplicity of that primitive society is the 
 mother of virtues, public and private. In the state, 
 Yao sets the example of an unselfish ruler; and in 
 the family, Shun is a paragon of filial sons. 
 
 Holding that a prince exists for the good of his 
 people, and sensible to the infirmities of age, Yao 
 resolves to adopt a successor, his own son being 
 unworthy of the throne. His ministers recommend
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 29 
 
 Sliun, the son of a blind peasant, who has patiently 
 borne the ill temper of his father, and who by his 
 good example has effected a complete reform in the 
 character of his family. Yao, wishing to subject him 
 to a further trial, gives him his two daughters in 
 marriage; makes him his associate in the government; 
 and, after twenty-eight years, leaves him sole occupant 
 of the throne. 
 
 The most notable event of Yao's reign is the 
 so-called "deluge,"- a series of unparalleled inundations. 
 "The waters rise," said the old Monarch, "they 
 embosom the mountains, and insolently menace the 
 sky itself. Who is there who will undertake the control 
 of these unruly floods?" Kwen undertook the task, 
 and was put to death either for inefficiency or 
 insubordination. The son of Kwen, known as Ta Yu, 
 was allowed to continue the task; and having 
 succeeded, after nine years of incredible labors, in 
 establishing a perfect system of embankments and 
 drainage, he was rewarded by the Imperial Yellow, Shun 
 giving him the preference over his own worthless 
 offspring. In the Shu-king, the most ancient book of 
 history, we find the maxim that "penalties should 
 not descend from parents to children." In this case, 
 not merely is the son held guiltless of his father's 
 fault, but the crime of the latter interposes no obstacle 
 in his way to the throne.
 
 3<D HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Ta Yu, though deemed a sage, did not continue the 
 unselfish tradition; but, by transmitting the throne to 
 'his son, "made of the empire a family estate," as the 
 chroniclers say. The imperial dignity has remained 
 hereditary, with only a solitary vestige of the ancient 
 ideal, viz,-that the Emperor has theoretically the 
 power of naming his successor ; and in fact often 
 makes the election irrespective of primogeniture. / 
 
 In the reign of Chung K'ang, the fourth in succession 
 (2159-2146), occurred an eclipse of the sun, which 
 Professor Russell, of the Imperial Tung-wen College, 
 has succeeded in identifying, after a laborious calcula- 
 tion of no fewer than thirty-six eclipses. Professor 
 Knobel, of Cambridge University, has also pronounced 
 in favor of the trustworthiness of these ancient 
 records, on the ground of astronomical data contained 
 in a kind of calendar of the Hia dynasty, fragments 
 of which have come down to our times. 
 
 The area at that period, comprehended within the 
 empire, was less than half of China proper, not a 
 foot of territory on the south of the Yang-tse having 
 been brought under its sway. The conquering tribe, 
 which formed its nucleus, seems to have entered the 
 Valley of the Yellow River from the North-west, 
 bringing with it some knowledge of letters and the 
 elements of a civilization, which enabled it to 
 overcome the savage races by whom the country
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 3! 
 
 was occupied. Some they destroyed, others they 
 absorbed; and the process of growth and assimilation ^ 
 went on for ages, until those heterogeneous elements 
 were moulded into one people, the most numerous 
 on the face of the earth. 
 
 This process of conquest and assimilation may be 
 regarded as specially the work of the First dynasty, - 
 though it was not completed for ages, nor is it wholly 
 complete at the present day. 
 
 Under the Second dynasty arose that feudal form * 
 of government, which prevailed for more than a 
 thousand years, and came to an end in the epoch of 
 the Great Wall. Of both, the records are exceedingly 
 meagre scarcely extending beyond dynastic gene- 
 alogy the occupants of the throne, with a few 
 brilliant exceptions, being so insignificant that their 
 places in the succession are represented by numerals 
 instead of names. 
 
 While the invention of letters dates from a period - 
 anterior to the First dynasty, it was not until the 
 Third that literature became an important factor in 
 human life. 
 
 King Wen and duke Chow, its founders, set an 
 example of devotion to study; and, later on, cultured 
 statesmen appeared, who strove to aggrandize their 
 native states; and philosophers, who, with broader 
 views, aimed at the reformation of the people.
 
 32 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Of the latter class, the most noted were Confucius 
 (551-479), and Mencius (372-289), both of whom 
 merit a front rank among the teachers of mankind. 
 Besides inculcating virtues of a noble type, they 
 sought by their doctrines to counteract the centrifugal 
 tendency, which was a marked feature in the political 
 movement of their day. They had never known 
 anything better than the feudal system; and, in their 
 view, the only cure for the disorders of the times was 
 to restore it to its primitive purily,-a state of things 
 in which the vassal princes, to use the expression of 
 Confucius, "revolved about the throne of Chow as 
 the constellations do around the pole of heaven." 
 . That system, the Builder of the Wall was bent on 
 eradicating; hence his hostility to the Confucian 
 School, in its principles and its professors. 
 
 The family history of this . daring innovator is 
 necessary, to explain his personal career. A remote 
 ancestor had founded the petty principality of Ch'in 
 in the North-west. He had won his spurs in conflict 
 with the Tartars; and his small fief, growing into a 
 considerable state, owed its importance to its position 
 as a barrier against the incursions of Northern nomads. 
 Many of those semi-savages became incorporated 
 with its people; and its civilization, being of a ruder 
 type than that of the other states, from a bulwark 
 it became a menace. Through five centuries it
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALT.. 33 
 
 grew steadily in power, advancing with the slow but 
 resistless force of a glacier, perpetually encroaching 
 on its neighbors until it finally absorbed them. 
 
 Its history exhibits a remarkable succession of 
 ambitious princes and able ministers. The princes 
 eventually assumed the title of king, which the 
 Wall-Builder laid down in exchange for that of 
 Emperor. They were all barbarous, the practice of 
 human sacrifices, and many other savage customs, 
 surviving among them long after they had become 
 extinct in other parts of China. They were never- 
 theless animated with one thought, and pursued one 
 policy, viz.,-the aggrandizement of their country, and 
 the ultimate conquest of the whole empire. 
 
 To this end, their barbarism proved a help rather 
 than a hindrance. It exposed them to be treated 
 with contumely by princes of greater refinement; 
 and, burning for revenge, it made them conscious that 
 they could only hope to succeed by the employment 
 of cultivated agents. They accordingly invited men 
 of talent from neighboring states to take office, and 
 establish themselves within their dominions. Six" 
 men, all of whom became noted for their share in 
 building up the rising power, were thus imported 
 from abroad, and entrusted with the reins of govern- 
 ment. They are known in history as the "Six Great 
 Chancellors of Ch'in."
 
 34 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Forsaken by its vassals, or recognized only under 
 forms of empty ceremony, the house of Chow languish- 
 ed until 255 B.C. Occupying a district in Honan, 
 which formed the special apanage of the Imperial 
 famil) r , but for a long time exercising.no control over 
 its neighbors, and centrally situated, that district was 
 described as Chung Kwo, the "Middle Kingdom;" a 
 designation which succeeding dynasties applied to 
 the whole of their dominions. In this year (255 B.C.), 
 provoked by the cabals which found a focus under 
 the shadow of a venerable throne, the King of Cli'in, 
 Great Grand-father of the Wall-Builder, entered the 
 Imperial Capital; and the dynasty of Chow, the 
 most famous in the annals of China, came to an end, 
 after a duration of 867 years. 
 
 The conqueror now performed two acts, which 
 asserted his accession to the vacant suzerainty. 
 The first was to remove to his own capital in Shense 
 nine tripods of brass, which represented the Kin Cho, 
 or nine districts of the empire, and were reverenced 
 as the chief emblem of Imperial power. The other was 
 to offer a solemn sacrifice to Shang-ti, the ''Supreme 
 Ruler," and to formally assume the character of High 
 Priest in conjunction which that of Emperor,-a two- 
 fold character which, like that of Melchizedek, has 
 always been recognized as belonging to the sovereigns 
 of China.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 35 
 
 Five of the six great vassals, who ruled over the 
 other sections of the empire, hastened to pay 
 homage to their new Lord; but one of them, the 
 Prince of Wei, being somewhat behindhand, the 
 arrogant King inflicted a terrible punishment, wasting 
 some of his lands and occupying others. The King's 
 ambition was to resuscitate the empire; not to 
 revolutionize its institutions. The vassals of Chow 
 were his vassals; and submission, not abdication, was 
 what he required. Enjoying for five years a dignity 
 to which his ancestors had aspired for many 
 generations, King Chao closed a successful reign of 
 fifty-seven years. After two brief reigns, one of 
 which had lasted only three days, his sceptre was 
 transferred to King Cheng, his great-grandson, whom 
 by anticipation we have styled Ch'in-shi, the Builder 
 of the Great Wall. 
 
 The young King, only thirteen years of age, 
 succeeded at once to two thrones, that of Ch'in, 
 the domain of his fathers, and that of Chow, or the 
 empire, which placed him on the highest pinnacle 
 of dignity that any Chinese statesman had ever 
 conceived. Was he satisfied with this double 
 heritage? If he had been, is it not probable that the 
 wheels of the new chariot would have been made to 
 run in the old track? But to credit him with planning 
 the tremendous revolution which he was destined to
 
 36 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 achieve would be to allow him a precocity and a 
 genius unexampled in history. 
 
 He was fortunate in having for guides two 
 statesmen of rare originality; but even they could 
 not have conceived the entire programme. They 
 possessed the capacity to win in every conflict with 
 his unruly vassals; and he (or his mother and 
 grand-mother, two remarkable women who acted as 
 regents) always encouraged the bold measures of his 
 chancellors. In all great revolutions, the leading 
 minds are more than one, though some one usually 
 comes to be acknowledged as the Master Spirit. In 
 this the Master Spirit was Cb/in-shi, who proved his 
 claim to the title by an eventful reign of forty years; 
 but his two chancellors bore each a leading part in 
 re-casting the destinies of the empire. 
 
 One of them was Lii Pu-we, a merchant of Chao, 
 the state with which Ch/in was most frequently at war. 
 Among the vicissitudes attending these hostilities a 
 prince, who bore the expressive cognomen of Yi Jen, 
 or "Rare Man," found himself relegated to the capital 
 of Chao as a hostage for the observance of a treaty. 
 The merchant here met the exile, and, after learning his 
 personal qualities and family history, resolved to attach 
 himself to a fortune that appeared to be at its lowest 
 ebb. Saying to himself in the language of his trade 
 Pf Jg "This is a piece of goods that can bide
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 37 
 
 its time," he set himself to bring about the restoration 
 of the prince ; and at the same time, to pave his way 
 to the throne. Whether he solicited the embassy, or 
 whether the prince selected him for it, he made his way 
 secretly to the Court of Ch'in, obtained an interview 
 with the consort of the heir-apparent, who, being 
 childless, had to accept for her husband's heir the son 
 of a concubine. The merchant convinced her of the 
 great qualities of his patron ; and she succeeded in 
 persuading her husband to adopt as successor the exile 
 who justly bore the title of Yi Jen, "The Rare." 
 
 The merchant's next move was to procure the 
 return of the hostage. But, before this could be 
 effected, a trifling incident occurred, which, however 
 unsavoury, cannot be omitted, on account of the 
 influence which it exercised on the fortunes of both. 
 The merchant's beautiful wife captivated the heart of 
 the exile; and he, with feigned reluctance, ceded his 
 marital rights. This Chinese beauty, the "Lady of 
 Handan," is said by malicious chroniclers to have 
 imported into the house of Cb/in the blood of the 
 merchant Lii, as Livia carried that of Claudius Xero - 
 into the family of Augustus Caesar; with this 
 difference,however,-that, while Augustus acknowledg- 
 ed the debt, the Prince of Cb/in ignored his obligations 
 for the child, though he never forgot his debt for the 
 surrender of the wife. Nor was the wife herself
 
 38 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 unmindful of what she owed to the complacency of 
 her merchant husband; for twenty years she 
 proved herself a main prop to his growing influence. 
 
 Succeeding his father, whose reign was perhaps the 
 shortest in history, Yi Jen, "The Rare," ruled his 
 two-fold realm as kaiser-konig for six years. The 
 Merchant of Chao became his prime-minister and 
 field-marshal. Not merely planning campaigns, but 
 executing them in person, the quondam Merchant 
 humbled refractory vassals, raised the prestige of 
 Ch'in, and confirmed its hold on the supreme power. 
 So essential did he render himself to a state not rich 
 in native talent that the son of the "Lady of Handan," 
 on mounting the throne, continued him in his double 
 office, conferred on him a marquisate of "ten 
 thousand families," and added the title of Chung-fu,. 
 "My Second Father." 
 
 Native courtiers, envious of his honors, at length 
 profiting by the intimacy of his relations with the 
 dowager-empress, his former wife, trumped up an 
 accusation of shameless impropriety. The young 
 emperor, who neither suspected such a thing, nor 
 believed it, felt compelled to remove his chancellor 
 from court, in order to shield the reputation of his 
 mother. (The story of his blood-relationship to the 
 merchant statesman is doubtless a fiction of a later 
 age, and had never reached his ears). He accordingly-
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 39 
 
 issued a decree banishing his powerful minister, and 
 the latter took his disgrace so much to heart that he 
 swallowed poison, or in Chinese phrase "took a 
 short cut" to the other world. 
 
 He had been to the young prince what Menzikoff 
 was to Peter the Great; and, to complete the parallel, 
 the tongue of slander connected each in a similar 
 manner with the elevation of an empress. 
 
 Of the many services rendered to his prince by 
 this able minister, the most signal was to provide a 
 worthy successor in the Chancellorship. This was 
 Li-sze, a native of Chu, whom he had employed as a 
 subordinate; and who, though at first another was 
 elevated to the vacant post, soon after took possession 
 of the helm. 
 
 Endowed with consummate tact and sublime self- 
 confidence, Li-sze was just the man required to convert 
 a dynastic change into a social and political revolu- 
 tion. In sagacity and courage, he was the Bismarck 
 of his day; and the task he had to perform was not 
 unlike that which fell to the lot of the eminent 
 German,-the consolidation of the power of a new 
 Imperial House, and the unification of a dissevered 
 Empire. As we shall see, he accomplished it with a 
 thoroughness unattainable by the German chancellor. 
 
 It cannot be affirmed that he was superior in 
 talents to his predecessors in office; but he was
 
 40 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 
 happier than they in being called to play the last act 
 in a long drama. Most of them had acted the part 
 of innovators. One had changed the tenure of land, 
 another had reformed the mode of collecting revenue, 
 a third had remodeled the army; and all, by introduc- 
 ing foreign methods and employing foreign agents, 
 had drawn on themselves the hostility of the natives, 
 who were naturally jealous of foreign influence. The 
 wave of opposition reached its height in the days of 
 Li-sze, and a petition was laid before the throne 
 demanding the expulsion of all foreigners. 
 
 The premier was equal to the occasion. Recounting 
 in a counter-memorial the great services rendered by 
 his foreign predecessors, he showed how his enemies, 
 to satisfy their petty spite, would force their country 
 to abdicate its destiny. 
 
 "The Tai-shan," he said, "is a great mountain, 
 because it does not spurn the grains of sand that add 
 to its height. The Hwang-ho is a great river because 
 it does not reject any rivulet that offers to swell its 
 volume." And he went on to apply these parallels 
 with such force that he not only stemmed the tide 
 of opposition for that time, but left on record for all 
 time a masterly argument for the employment of 
 men of all nations who are able to bring superior 
 gifts to the service of the State. In that day, 
 "foreigners" were those who lived on the opposite
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 4! 
 
 side of a river, or of a mountain range; to-day the 
 word means those who dwell beyond the ocean. 
 The eloquent plea of Li-sze, even at this distance of 
 time, has had some influence in preparing the 
 reigning House to welcome foreigners, who by new 
 arts and new sciences contribute to the well-being 
 of the empire. 
 
 When, in the 26th year of his reign, the emperor 
 had destroyed the last of the hostile states, he 
 resolved to signalize the event by changing the 
 imperial title. Instead of Tien Wang, the Heaven- 
 appointed King, a title made venerable by the usage 
 of nearly a thousand years, he substituted that of 
 Hoang-ti, Autocratic Sovereign; proudly prefixing 
 the syllable Shi, "The First," that he might be 
 remembered as the founder of a new order. 
 
 The change of title implied a change of policy. 
 This was nothing short of the complete abolition of 
 the feudal system, a system consecrated by immemorial 
 usage. When the hostile princes had been dethroned, 
 two of his ministers besought him to install his own 
 kindred in the forfeited dignities. Li-sze, being 
 asked for his opinion, replied that a "system which 
 had brought about the destruction of the empire 
 must itself be destroyed if the new empire was to be 
 permanent." Instead of restoring the fallen powers 
 under altered names, he recommended that- their
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 very boundaries should be obliterated, and that the 
 whole empire should be divided into thirty-six 
 provinces, whose governors should be appointed by 
 the central throne, and hold office for a limited term. 
 His suggestions were adopted, and at the same time 
 the new title was proclaimed, as expressive of the 
 altered policy. 
 
 If the overthrow of the rival principalities had cost 
 centuries of conflict, the extirpation of their traditions 
 was not likely to be attended with less difficulty. 
 The scholars of the Confucian School were without 
 exception devoted to the ancient regime, and plotted 
 incessantly for its restoration. They deemed the 
 feudal partition of the empire as sacred as a law of 
 nature; and the heavenly bodies were meted out 
 and distributed among the vassal states. The books, 
 in which that order of things was consecrated, were, 
 as Li-sze pointed out, sufficient to call it into 
 existence again. To obviate that danger, he pro- 
 posed they should be committed to the flames; and 
 so effectually was the order carried into execution 
 that very few escaped. 
 
 It was soon found that learned men, whose minds 
 
 were stored with the ancient classics, were teaching 
 
 . them from memory ; they might at any time 
 
 reproduce them in writing ; and many of them were 
 
 known to be active in sowing the seeds of dissension.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 4J 
 
 "Away with them," said the tyrant; and four hundred- 
 and-sixty of the most eminent were put to death,, 
 lest, through them, the old land-marks should be 
 made to re-appear on the new map of the empire. 
 
 Never was a political reformer more grimly in 
 earnest; nor has anyone, in the pursuit of a great 
 idea, ever shown himself more reckless of human life. 
 In these respects, he resembles the apostles of "liberty, 
 fraternity, and equality," who made use of the 
 guillotine rather than any monarch in the pages of 
 history. In some points, his consolidation of the 
 Chinese empire recalls the unification of Germany, 
 Ch'in being the Prussia of China; and her princes 
 and chancellors the Fredericks and Bismarcks, who 
 slowly prepared, and eventually accomplished, a 
 mighty revolution. But the analogy is not complete. 
 The Hapsburgs have been dispossessed, and the 
 Hohenzollerns set up in their place; but the great 
 vassals remain. 
 
 The unification of Italy offers a juster parallel, the 
 rise and growth of Sardinia answering fairly well to 
 those of Ch'in; and the incorporation of Naples, the 
 Duchies, and the Papal States, corresponding to the 
 abolition of the feudal principalities in China. The 
 unceasing efforts of the clergy to bring about the 
 resuscitation of the temporal power completes the 
 resemblance.
 
 44 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 
 Having as he supposed stamped out the embers 
 of sedition within his dominions, the Tyrant, as we 
 may fairly call him, now turned his attention to the 
 dangers threatening his empire from without. On 
 the West, the Mountains of Thibet formed a natural 
 barrier; on the South, the river Yang-tse held back 
 the barbarous tribes who inhabited its right bank; 
 on the East, the sea was a safe-guard, as the age of 
 maritime warfare had not yet arrived; but the North 
 was a quarter from which the Kings of Ch'in had 
 learned by sad experience to expect their most 
 troublesome, though not their most powerful, 
 enemies. 
 
 A strange idea now came into the head of the 
 Autocrat, that of walling them out. To have 
 attempted this before the states were united under 
 his sway would have been futile, as the discontent 
 or negligence of a neighbor would always enable an 
 invader to enter by a flanking movement. At this 
 epoch, he had no neighbors. The whole empire, from 
 the desert to the sea, was his; and he resolved to 
 construct a wall, not to supersede vigilance or 
 valor, but to render them effectual in securing 
 repose. 
 
 A million of men were sent to the frontier, some 
 laboring as masons, others serving as guards; and in 
 ten years time the work was accomplished.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 45 
 
 The length of this huge structure is 1550 miles, its 
 height and breadth varying with the necessities of 
 the ground. On the plain, it presents an imposing 
 appearance; but on mountain sides, where it has the 
 aid of natural fortifications, it often dwindles to a 
 mere embankment. 
 
 The Wall may be said to have fulfilled its purpose, 
 notwithstanding the fact that subsequent ages have 
 seen more than one d) T nasty of extra-mural Tartars 
 on the throne of China. Its object was not to 
 withstand conquest, but to prevent the marauding 
 incursions of border nomads. With this view, it 
 continues to be garrisoned, though the reigning house 
 is Tartar in origin, and extends its sway to both sides 
 of the Wall. 
 
 If the erection of this bulwark be criticised as absurd^ 
 as well may we criticise the Roman Wall, whose 
 remains are still to be seen on the North of the Tweed. 
 
 This work completed, the Imperial Builder was 
 not content to end his days in idleness. He had 
 extinguished war and smothered politics. What was 
 he to do for excitement? 
 
 He betook himself to travel ; and, among other 
 places, visited the sacred mountain Tai-shan, in 
 Shantung, offering on its summit sacrifices to Shang-ti, 
 the God of Heaven, in imitation of the founders of J 
 ancient dynasties.
 
 46 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 He -as superstitious rather than religious. Perse- 
 cutin'; Confucius on political grounds, he favored the 
 
 J rival sect of Tao, which peopled land and sea with 
 gods and fairies. Its professors invented alchemy, 
 and pursued the search for the elixir of immortality. 
 Amon <; their traditions was a belief that there were 
 islands in the eastern sea where the herb ambrosia 
 grew, a curious counterpart of the notion prevalent at 
 that time in Europe, which placed the Isles of the 
 Blessed in the Western Ocean. By the advice of a 
 Taoisi, he despatched a fleet manned by. three 
 
 J thousand boys and maidens to seek the herb in those 
 islands. Some say that, deterred by storms, the fleet 
 turned back; others, that it arrived in Japan, where 
 those youths and maidens mingled with the natives, 
 importing Chinese blood and Chinese culture. 
 
 While he was on his travels, an aerolite fell to the 
 earth, which, when discovered, bore an inscription 
 foretelling the death of the tyrant and the overthrow 
 of his family. Seeing in this only a device to excite 
 revolt, he ordered all educated men in the vicinity 
 to be slaughtered, sure thereby of bringing to 
 punishment the authors of the inscription. 
 
 The prediction was not slow in being fulfilled. 
 Death overtook the proud monarch before he could 
 regain his palace, 209 B.C., when he had worn his 
 new title about twelve years. His throne fell to an
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 47 
 
 imbecile son, who in a short time lost it, together with 
 his life, being succeeded in 206 B.C. by Liu Pang, 
 the Founder of the Dynasty of Han. 
 
 Under this dynasty, the books that had been 
 burned rose from their ashes, and a faint attempt was 
 made to resuscitate the feudal states; but, though 
 then and later they were employed by political 
 agitators as "names to conjure with," the system 
 was dead. Its spirit was extinct. The people chose 
 to be devoured by one lion rather than by a 
 gang of jackals; and the sovereign, finding himself 
 in possession of autocratic power, was loth to part 
 with it. The system of centralization exists to this 
 day; and three monuments remain to remind all 
 generations that Ch'in-shi, the son of the Lady of 
 Handan, was its author. These are, 
 
 i. The Great Wall of China, which he built; 
 
 2. The title Hoang-ti, for Emperor, which he was 
 the first to adopt ; 
 
 3. The name China, which is obviously derived 
 from the House of Ch'in, which made itself 
 famous by absorbing the other feudal states. 
 
 There is no man in Chinese history whose memory 
 is execrated like that of Ch'in-shi. He is remembered 
 as Builder, Burner, and Butcher, rather than as Founder 
 of the Empire. The blood of the scholars whom he 
 butchered has given birth to sixty generations of
 
 48 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 enemies, who never cease to misrepresent his motives r 
 and to blacken his name. As he styled himself "The 
 First," they accuse him of destroying the books that 
 his pretensions might not be exposed. As a follower 
 of Tao, they charge him with seeking to reduce the 
 people to a state of ignorance, in order to govern 
 them with facility, in accordance with a maxim of 
 Lao-tse, "fill their bellies, and empty their heads." 
 The books have risen from their ashes, but the 
 many-headed hydra which he slew has never 
 re-appeared. Tyrannical and unscrupulous he 
 undoubtedly was; but there is no denying that he 
 was a statesman of far-reaching views, original in 
 plans, and unflinching in execution. 
 
 If the dynasty of Ch'in has the honor of giving to 
 China the name by which it is known in other lands, 
 that of Han, which is next in order (206 B.C. 
 203 A.D.), has bequeathed to the People the designation 
 by which they prefer to describe themselves. Nothing 
 but widely extended sway, coupled with long duration 
 and brilliant achievement, could have impressed them 
 to such an extent as to make them proud to call 
 themselves the "Sons of Han." 
 
 The name points to a district where the new 
 power sprang into being,-the banks of the River Han,v 
 in the heart jof the kingdom of Chu. That kingdom, 
 the greatest of the feudal states, had been for many
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 49 
 
 generations a formidable rival to the ambition of Ch'in; 
 and, when the latter succumbed to the unpopularity 
 consequent on the destruction of those states, the 
 butchery of scholars, the burning of books, and the 
 building of the Great Wall, the old rival naturally 
 came forward to claim the succession. A scion of 
 the House of Chu was called out of the obscurity 
 into which his family had sunk and decorated with 
 the new title of TV, Emperor, with the prefix Yi, 
 the Just or Rightful. 
 
 A figure-head and nothing more, the young 
 Pretender was supported by two generals of great 
 ability. One was Hiang Yu, a man of such influence 
 that he could handle his sovereign like a puppet, and 
 known in history as Pa Wang, the Dictator. The 
 second was Liu Pang, a bosom-friend and protege of 
 the first. 
 
 Bom of poor parents in the North of the present 
 province of Kiangsu, young Liu, with prescient 
 instinct, made his way to the Court of the new 
 Claimant, rather than attach himself to the fortunes 
 of a falling House. Welcomed by the powerful 
 Hiang Yu, and acting under his orders, he soon rose 
 to distinction. 
 
 It fell to his lot, while leading an expedition into 
 Ch'in, for the purpose of reducing to submission that 
 disorganized region, to receive the insignia of empire
 
 50 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 from the grand-son of the Wall Builder. The 
 ill-fated Prince came to his camp with a rope about 
 his neck, and with all his retinue in the garb of 
 humiliation and mourning. Some counselled Liu Pang 
 to put him to death; but, replying that it was "a shame 
 to slay an enemy who surrendered voluntarily," he 
 treated him kindly, and set him at liberty. Others 
 counselled him to place the abdicated crown on his own 
 head. The temptation was great, and few soldiers of 
 fortune would have perceived its perils. Whether 
 Liu saw them, we are not informed; but, obeying the 
 promptings of an honest heart, he kept the regalia for 
 him whom he had saluted as the Rightful Emperor. 
 
 Before they had time to reach the capital of Chu, 
 the young Prince had fallen a victim to the ambition 
 ofHiangYu. He was again urged to assume the 
 Yellow. Again he refused, but his patron's treason 
 had absolved him from further allegiance; and he 
 made a long stride towards the throne, when he 
 resolved to break with the traitor. 
 
 Doubting his ability to make head against his 
 redoubtable antagonist, he took counsel with the 
 astute Chang Liang. " Do nothing in your own name," 
 replied the. famous politician, whose advice was as 
 unerring as that of Ahithophel. "Proclaim yourself 
 the avenger of your murdered Lord, and the empire 
 will rally to your standard."
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 51 
 
 Clothing his army in the weeds of mourning, he 
 marched against his quondam friend. The usurper 
 was the better general, but Liu had the juster cause. 
 Fortune did not favor him at the outset, but he was 
 never disheartened. 
 
 On one occasion, he was attacked while crossing a 
 river, and his forces scattered to the winds; yet so 
 powerfully did his cause appeal to the loyalty of the 
 people that in a short time he found himself powerful 
 enough to besiege the usurper in a fortified city. 
 The latter got possession of Liu's family, and sent 
 him word that, unless he raised the siege, he would 
 roast his father alive. "My father," replied Liu, 
 "is yours by adoption; if you choose to roast your 
 father, send me a piece of the flesh as proof of your 
 parricide." The usurper, finding it impossible to 
 intimidate him, abandoned the city, and let the 
 captives go free. 
 
 Beaten in a great battle, Hiang Yu put an end to 
 his own life; and Liu, having no longer a rival in the 
 field, consented to assume the title of Emperor. 
 He is known as Kao Tsu, the High Ancestor, or 
 Founder of the House of Han. 
 
 He said of himself, "I owe my success to three 
 men, and each is my superior in some conspicuous 
 talent. In statecraft, I am not equal to Chang Liang; 
 in commissariat and finance, I am not to compare
 
 52 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 with Siao Ho; in the management of troops, I 
 confess the superiority of Han Sin. Where, then, 
 is my strong point ? It is in the faculty of making 
 use of others. These three heroes I, and I alone, 
 have been able to employ as tools to build my 
 throne." 
 
 From the Great Wall, looking down the stream 
 of time, \ve observe in the foreground the dynasty 
 of Han; and farther away, in diminishing perspective, 
 the numerous dynasties that have followed each 
 other to the present day. Some have been brief, 
 and others partial in extent. Five of them have 
 extended their sway over the whole of China, and 
 held possession from one to three centuries. Each 
 of these periods offers to the view some salient 
 feature,-something built into the frame-work of 
 Chinese life, and forming a permanent addition to 
 the inheritance of the Chinese people. 
 
 The Han period, as might be expected, stretching 
 over 469 years, is peculiarly rich in monuments of 
 intellectual activity. It is emphatically an era of 
 reconstruction, when the Chinese people, delivered 
 from the anarchy of the "warring states," and 
 emancipated from the tyranny of Ch'in, enter on a 
 new career. Two things concur to make it forever 
 memorable,-the revival of letters, and the introduction 
 of Buddhism.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 53 
 
 Amid the clash of arms and the strife of factions, 
 there had been small place for the cultivation of 
 learning. But when, after two or three turbulent 
 reigns, Wen Ti, a pacific prince, found himself in 
 undisputed possession (179 B.C.), a search was 
 instituted for the lost books. One after another the 
 missing woiks began to come from their hiding places. 
 No copies being found of the She and Shu, the Books 
 of Poetry and History, they were taken down from 
 the recitation of old men, who still retained a verbatim 
 recollection of their contents. Those who remembered 
 portions of the Odes were comparatively numerous; 
 but the Book of History, consisting of the relics of 
 high antiquity edited by Confucius, was reproduced 
 by one man. This was Fuh Seng, a venerable scholar, 
 who was so enfeebled by age as to be unable to 
 present himself at court; and a commission of scribes 
 repaired to his house, to write it out from his lips. 
 Many of its obscurities are supposed to be due to / 
 slips of memory and errors of hearing. 
 
 The high premium placed on lost literature 
 naturally suggested its fabrication. Spurious classics 
 appeared in great numbers. Some of them were 
 works of genius, and posterity has thought fit to 
 preserve them, though reposing no more confidence 
 in their genuineness than we do in the poems of 
 Ossian.
 
 54 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Next to the resurrection of the sacred texts, the 
 thing which sheds the most lustre on this epoch is 
 the revival of History. In this, the way was led by 
 ' Sze Ma-ts'ien (100 B.C.). Historiographer by official 
 appointment, he had the advantage of following in 
 the footsteps of a father, who had filled the same 
 office and amassed valuable materials. The great 
 work, which has procured him the title of the 
 Herodotus of China, was approaching completion, 
 when a General, for whose 'fidelity he had made 
 himself responsible, surrendered to the Khan of 
 Tartary. Sze-ma, in accordance with the barbarous 
 usage of those times, was called on to undergo the 
 penalty of death or mutilation. Rather than consign 
 past ages to oblivion and leave future ages in igno- 
 rance, he chose the latter; lived to complete his great 
 undertaking, and enjoys a well-earned immortality. 
 
 Pan Ku, who, two centuries later, held the same 
 office, is celebrated as the author of a history of the 
 first half of the Han dynasty. Dying before the 
 completion of his work, his accomplished sister Tsao 
 Ta-ku, then a widow, was entrusted by the Emperor 
 with the task of bringing it to a conclusion. In 
 learning, not behind the most eminent men of her 
 age, this lady is held up as a model for Chinese 
 women, by whom she is much admired, but only 
 sparingly imitated.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 
 
 The invention of paper by Tsai Lun, in the second 
 century B.C., contributed greatly to the multiplication 
 of books. It was itself a result of the revival of learning, 
 which created a demand for cheaper writing materials. 
 Till then, silk or bamboo tablets had been in use. 
 
 From the advent of the Wall Builder, Taoism had 
 been dominant, and Confucianism under a cloud. By 
 the revival of letters, Confucianism was again raised 
 to honor, without, however, any immediate repression 
 of the rival creed, which, throughout the Han period, 
 continued to be, with occasional fluctuations, in great 
 favor. In the year 67 A.D., under the Emperor 
 Ming Ti, the triad of religious creeds was completed 
 by the introduction of Buddhism from India. No 
 doubt the apostles of Buddhism had found their way 
 to China at an earlier date, and by this time they had 
 attracted sufficient attention to lead to an embassy 
 in quest of competent teachers. Such an embassy 
 was a natural outcome of the unsettled state of the 
 Chinese mind, agitated by the contentions of rival 
 schools of religious thought. The Emperor is said to 
 have been prompted to this measure by a dream, in 
 which he saw an image of gold representing a man 
 with a bow and two arrows. In the Chinese name 
 for Buddha, the radical is man, and the phonetic a 
 bow and arrows; and it is evident that the analysis 
 of the character gave birth to this legend. It is
 
 56 HANLIN PAPKKS. 
 
 curious to speculate what might have been the effect 
 had MingTi's embassadors gone further west, and met 
 with disciples of the young and vigorous Christianity 
 of that day. 
 
 Buddhism has profoundly affected the Chinese 
 mind, as we have shown in another paper; but it is a 
 mistake to reckon the whole population of China as 
 adherents of the Buddhist faith. It has absorbed 
 Taoism, but the educated classes, almost without 
 exception, adhere to Confucius; and even the 
 uneducated profess allegiance to the Great Master of 
 China. The truth is that, while each religion has a 
 hierarchy of its own, the faith and practice of the 
 masses rest on a mixture of all three. 
 
 In the T'ang dynasty (618-905), poetry, which 
 appeared in the rudest ages, attained its highest pitch 
 of perfection, Li Po and Tu Fu being the Pope 
 and Dryden of an age of poets. Chinese poetry 
 comprehends every variety, except the epic, its place 
 being filled by semi-poetical romances. 
 
 The Chinese theatre now secured for the first time 
 the honor of Imperial patronage, a stage being erected 
 in a pear-garden, whence actors are still described as 
 "Children of the Pear-garden." 
 
 The Hanlin Yuan, or Imperial Academy, which 
 crowns the culture of the whole empire, dates from 
 this period.
 
 A VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL. 57 
 
 The Sung dynasty (960-1278) was marked by three 
 things : 
 
 i. By the- rise of speculative philosophy, the thinkers of 
 that period being both acute and profound; 
 
 2. By expositions of Chinese texts, the most noted 
 expositor being Chu Fu-tse, from whom it is 
 heresy to dissent; 
 
 3. By the reorganization of the civil service examina- 
 tions, which the'n received their final form. 
 
 The Yuen, or Mongol, dynasty (1260-1341) is cele- 
 brated as the first dynasty of Tartar origin which 
 imposed its authority on the whole of China. The 
 dominions of Khublai were probably more extensive 
 than those of any monarch of ancient or modern 
 times. The completion by him of the Grand Canal, 
 from Peking to Hangchow, a distance of 700 miles, 
 as a monument of enterprise, stands alongside of 
 the Great Wall. 
 
 The intellectual character of the Ming dynasty is 
 chiefly marked by the formation of encyclopoedic 
 collections, and the codification of the laws. 
 
 Under the Manchu Tartar dynasty of Ts'ing, now 
 on the throne, the population of the empire has 
 attained its maximum, about 382,000,000, or China 
 alone having more than eight times that of the T'ang 
 period, when it was only 45,000,000.
 
 58 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The formation of encyclopedias and codifications r 
 begun under the Mings, has been vigorously carried 
 forward. Literary criticism is much cultivated, and 
 the refinements of style are carried to a higher point 
 than in any previous age. 
 
 Another characteristic is the cultivation of western 
 science, which was introduced under the last rulers 
 of the Ming, favored specially by the earlier 
 sovereigns of the Ts'ing,and is now actively propagated 
 in the developed form which it has attained in our 
 day. Christianity, introduced along with science, 
 promises to make at least as deep an impression on 
 the Chinese mind as that which was made by the 
 introduction of Buddhism.
 
 III. 
 
 TARTAR TRIBES 
 
 IN 
 
 ANCIENT CHINA; 
 
 f HE Great Wall, which forms the northern 
 boundary of China proper, tells of a conflict of 
 races. Extending for fifteen hundred miles 
 along the verge of the Mongolian plateau, it 
 presents itself to the mind as a geographical feature, 
 boldly marked on the surface of the globe. Winding 
 like a huge serpent over the crests of the mountains, 
 it seems (to adapt the words of Emerson) as if 
 
 "O'er it bent the sky 
 As on its friend with kindred eye, 
 And granted it an equal date 
 With Andes and with Ararat." 
 
 It divides two stages of civilization to-day, as it did 
 two thousand years ago. On one side are vast plains 
 unbroken by the plough, and occupied only by tribes 
 of wandering nomads; on the other are fields and 
 gardens, rich with the products of agricultural industry, 
 
 *From the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. xi, No. 2, 1885.
 
 '60 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Between the two, a state of perpetual hostility is 
 inevitable, unless restrained by the power of some 
 overshadowing government. This natural antagonism 
 has never failed to show itself at every point of 
 contact, the world over. Schiller hints not in his 
 poems, but in a course of historical lectures that 
 this endless strife of shepherd and cultivator was 
 foreshadowed in the conflict of Cain and Abel. 
 History, unhappily, supplies us with an abundance of 
 illustrations. Egypt fell a prey to the shepherd kings; 
 and in Asia, as in Europe, the inhospitable North has 
 always been ready to disgorge its predatory hordes 
 on lands more favored by the sun. 
 
 The Chinese of the border provinces were in the 
 earlier ages compelled to divide their time between 
 war and work, under pain of losing the fruits of their 
 labors. Like the pioneers of the Western continent, 
 they never allowed themselves to be parted from 
 their defensive weapons, and enjoyed life itself only 
 at the price of perpetual vigilance. Experience 
 proved that a line of military posts, no matter how 
 closely they might be linked together, afforded no 
 adequate security against the incursions of homeless 
 wanderers. The Great Wall was built, not as a 
 substitute for such posts, but as a supplement to them. 
 That it served its end, there can be no reasonable 
 doubt. So effectually indeed did it protect the
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 6 1' 
 
 peaceful tillers of the soil, that an ancient saying 
 describes it as the ruin of one generation and the 
 salvation of thousands. 
 
 From time to time, however, the spirit of rapine, 
 swelling into the lust of conquest, has swept over the 
 huge barrier, as an earthquake wave sweeps over the 
 artificial defenses of a seaport. It was not intended 
 or expected to guarantee the whole empire against 
 the occurrence of such emergencies. Twice has the 
 whole of China succumbed to a flood of extra-mural 
 invaders: the Mongols, under Genghis Khan, having 
 been aided in passing the Great Wall in the province 
 of Shansi by the treachery of Alakush, a Tartar chief, J 
 whose duty it was to defend it; and the Manchus, 
 who are now in possession of the throne, having 
 entered at its eastern extremity, on the invitation of 
 Wu San-kwei, a Chinese general, who sought their 
 aid against the rebel Li Tsze-ch'eng, who had 
 subverted the throne of the Mings. 
 
 Besides the three and a half centuries of Tartar* 
 domination under these two great dynasties, we find, 
 prior to the first of them, three periods of partial 
 conquest. From 907 A.D. to 1234, a large portion 
 of the northern belt of provinces passed successively 
 
 * The name Tartar is incapable of very precise definition. Throughout 
 this paper, it is applied in a general sense to all the wandering tribes of v 
 the North and West.
 
 62 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 under the sway of the Ch'i-tan and Nu-chen* Tartars; 
 and, from 386 to 532, an extensive region was 
 subjected to the Tartar hordes of Topa, under the 
 dynastic title of Pei Wei. How or where these 
 invaders passed the barrier, it is not worth while to 
 pause to enquire; the foregoing examples being 
 sufficient to show that, in a time of anarchy, some 
 friend or ally can always be found to open the gates. 
 Chung chih ch'eng ch'eng,^ says the Chinese proverb, 
 "Union is the best bulwark." Without exaggerating 
 the strength of the Great Wall, which, through a 
 large part of its extent, is far from being the imposing 
 structure which we see in the vicinity of Peking, we 
 may still affirm, in the light of history, that, had it 
 been backed by forces untainted by treason and 
 unweakened by faction, it might have proved sufficient 
 to shield the country from conquest. Wanting these 
 conditions, the wall was powerless for defense ; and, 
 notwithstanding its towns and garrisons, we have 
 before us the astounding fact that the Chinese of 
 these northern provinces have passed seven, out of 
 the last fifteen centuries, under the yo^e of Tartar 
 conquerors. 
 
 f ^-- f ^ I-* 
 
 ~5CI|^ ~7 [gjf , Nu-chen or Ju-chih also called Kin Tartars. 
 The Manchus claim them as their ancestors, the reigning house having 
 Aischin = kin (gold) for its family name. 
 
 "f 3& W& W(i $(, " United hearts form the best of bulwarks." /
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 63 
 
 Ascending the stream of history to the dynasty of 
 Han, which ruled China from 202 B.C. to 220 A.D., 
 i. e. for more than four centuries, we find ourselves 
 in presence of the same conflict. The names of the 
 opposing parties are changed; but the parties remain, 
 and the war goes on. The empire is not conquered 
 by the foreign foe; but it is kept in a state of 
 perpetual terror, by an assemblage of powerful tribes 
 who bear the collective name of Hiongnu. Bret- 
 schneider says they were Mongols nomine mutato; 
 but Ho worth, in his learned History of the Mongols, 
 pronounces them Turks, or more properly Turcomans, 
 the ancestors of the present occupants of Khiva, 
 Bokhara, and Constantinople. From the resemblance 
 of this name to Hunni, they were formerly supposed 
 ' to be the progenitors of the Magyars. So strong 
 indeed was this conviction that, a good many years 
 ago, we had the spectacle of a follower of Louis 
 Kossuth coming to China in search of his "kindred 
 according to the flesh;" actuated apparently by the 
 hope of inducing them to repeat the invasion of 
 Europe, and deliver their brethren from the yoke of 
 the Hapsburgs ! 
 
 The numerous tribes occupying the vast region 
 extending from Lake Balkash to the mouth of the 
 Amoor diverse in language, but similar in nomadic 
 habits were in the Han period combined under the
 
 64 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 hegemony of the Hiongnu, forming a confederation, 
 or an empire, rather than a single state. The Chief 
 was styled in his own language Shanyu, a word - 
 which the Chinese historians explain as equivalent 
 to Hwangti; and there can be no doubt that the 
 haughty emperors of the family of Han were compell- 
 ed to accord the sacred title to their barbarous rivals. 
 In recent times, their successors (more properly 
 successors of the Shanyu) have hesitated to concede 
 it to the sovereign of at least one European empire. 
 During the negotiation of the Austro-Hungarian 
 treaty, the Chinese Ministers objected so strenuously 
 to the assumption of Hwangti, that the heir to a 
 long line of Kaisers had to content himself with the 
 first syllable of the title, on the principle that "half a 
 loaf is better than no bread." Had his Minister been 
 well veised in Chinese history, what an advantage 
 he might have gained! He would have required no 
 other argument than the fact that the full title had 
 been given to the Chief of the Hiongnu to insure its 
 extension to the lord of their modern representatives. 
 For, in China, a piecedent is good for more than two 
 thousand years; and the supposed conne'ction, though 
 not admitted by ethnology, is, or was, sufficiently 
 reliable for the purposes of diplomacy. 
 
 During the Han and succeeding dynasties, the 
 Hiongnu weie held in check mostly by force of
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 65 
 
 arms; but the weaker emperors, like those of Rome, 
 were accustomed to send their sisters and daughters 
 across the frontier, instead of generals; flattering the 
 vanity of the barbarians, and replacing military 
 armaments by the sentimentalities of family alliance. 
 The incidents connected with these transactions have 
 supplied rich materials for poetry and romance. 
 For instance, a popular tragedy is founded on the 
 fortunes of Chao-keun, one of the many fair ladies 
 who were offered as victims to preserve the peace of 
 the borders. The Khan of Tartary, hearing of her 
 beauty, demanded her in marriage. The Emperor 
 refused to surrender the chief jewel of his harem; so 
 the Khan invaded China with an overwhelming 
 force, but he retired to his own dominions when the 
 lady was sent to his camp. Arrived at the banks 
 of the Amoor, she threw herself into its dark waters, 
 rather than endure a life of exile at a barbarian court. 
 The wars of those times would furnish materials for 
 a thrilling history. The battle-ground was sometimes 
 on the south of the Great Wall, but generally in the 
 steppes and deserts beyond. 
 
 As illustrations of the varying fortunes attending 
 the wars of the Hans and the Hiongnu, we may 
 mention the names of Li-kwang Li-ling, Sze Ma- 
 ch'ien, and Su-wu. The first of these led the aimies 
 of his sovereign against the Hiongnu for many years,
 
 66 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 in the latter part of the second century B.C. He 
 had, it is said, come off victorious in seventy battles, 
 when, in a final conflict, disappointed in his expectation 
 of capturing the Khan, he committed suicide on the 
 field of battle, though, if we may believe the record, 
 that battle was also a victory. This gives us a 
 glimpse of the style of Hiongnu warfare. They 
 were like the Parthians, "most to be dreaded when 
 in flight." That a General, contending with such a 
 foe, should destroy himself from chagrin at the results 
 of his seventy-first victory, affords us a fair criterion 
 for estimating the value of the other seventy. 
 
 Li-ling, the second of the four whose names I have 
 cited, was son* of the ill-fated Li-kwang, and appears 
 to have been born under still less auspicious stars. 
 Appointed to succeed his father, he suffered himself 
 to pursue the flying enemy too hotly, when, falling 
 into an ambuscade, his vanguard, consisting of a 
 division of five thousand men, was cut to pieces 
 before the main body could come to the rescue. 
 Li-ling, with a few survivors, surrendered at discretion. 
 His life was spared; but, to take his own description, 
 contained in some of his letters which are still 
 preserved, it was little better than a living death. 
 In addition to the privations incident to a state 
 of captivity among savage foes, he had the bitter 
 
 * Mayers says grand-son.
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 6j 
 
 reflection that, on account of his supposed treachery, 
 his nearer relations had all been put to death; and 
 that a noble friend, who had guaranteed his fidelity, 
 had been subjected to an ignominious punishment. 
 
 That noble friend was no other than the great 
 historian, Sze Ma-ch'ien. Required by a cruel decree 
 to pay the forfeit of Li-ling's alleged treachery, the 
 historian chose to submit to a disgraceful mutilation, 
 rather than lose his life ; not, as he himself says, that 
 he held life dear or feared death, but solely to gain 
 a few years for the completion of his life task, the 
 payment of a debt which he owed to posterity. He 
 lived to place the last stone on his own imperishable 
 monument; and for twenty centuries he has had 
 among his countrymen a name "better than that of 
 sons and daughters."* 
 
 Su-wu, the last of the four unfortunates, was a 
 diplomatic envoy. Having, while at the court of 
 the Grand Khan, attempted by undiplomatic means 
 to compass the destruction of an enemy, he was 
 thrown into prison, and detained in captivity for 
 nineteen years. A tender poem is extant, which he 
 addressed to his wife on parting, at the commence- 
 ment of his perilous mission.f Whether she survived 
 
 * He had become a father prior to this disgrace. 
 
 f For this and other poems relating to the Tartar Wars, see the last 
 Chapter of this Volume.
 
 68 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 to welcome his return, we are not informed; but, in 
 that case, she must have died with grief, to see him 
 accompanied by a Turkish wife. 
 
 We cannot pause longer among the romantic 
 episodes so thickly scattered through the literature 
 of the Hans. We must travel back another thousand 
 years, to arrive at the last and the principal division 
 of our subject, the Tartar Tribes in Ancient China. 
 
 We find ourselves at the rise of the third dynasty, 
 
 the famous dynasty of Chow, which occupied the 
 
 throne for over eight hundred years (1122 B.C. to 
 
 255 B.C.). We are at the dawn of letters; at the 
 
 dividing line which separates the legendary from the 
 
 historical period. The Great Wall has no existence, 
 
 but the hostile tribes are there; not Manchu or 
 
 Mongol, not Hiongnu, Hweku, or T'ukuih, but the 
 
 ancestors of all of them, under different names, 
 
 hovering, like birds of prey, on the unprotected 
 
 frontiers of a rich and tempting country. At this 
 
 epoch, the Chinese people, who had originated 
 
 t somewhere in Central Asia, were few in number, and 
 
 occupied a territory of comparatively limited extent. 
 
 They were distinguished from their neighbors chiefly 
 
 by a knowledge of letters, and by the possession of 
 
 a higher civilization. This incipient culture gave 
 
 them an immense advantage over the barbarous 
 
 tribes who surrounded them on every side and
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 69 
 
 opposed their progress. These tribes are grouped under 
 several comprehensive terms: those on the east are 
 called Yi; those on the north, Tih; those on the west, 
 Jung or Cb/iang; and those on the south, Man. The 
 original sense of these names seems to be as follows: 
 The Yi were famous archers, and were so called from 
 their " great bows." The northerners used dogs in 
 hunting and herding, and depended on fire to temper 
 the cold of their rigorous winters; "dog" and "fire" 
 are therefore combined in the ideograph by which 
 the Tih are designated. The Jung were armed with 
 spears, and this their weapon furnished the symbol 
 for their ideograph. The ideograph Ch'iang is made 
 up of the head of a goat and the legs of a man, and 
 so denotes to the Chinese imagination hideous 
 monsters, the reverse of the Greek conception of 
 
 Pan and the Satyrs ; it at the same time means 
 _^ _ t~ ' 
 
 goat-men," "goat-herds," or "shepherds," and 
 identifies them essentially with the Tih, or dog-using 
 nomads of the north. The character for Man 
 combines those for "worm" and "silk," and implies 
 that the barbarians of the south, even at that early 
 day, were not ignorant of silk-culture. 
 
 These names and characters all became more or 
 less expressive of contempt, but were without doubt 
 less offensive in their original sense. Marco Polo, 
 who followed the Tartar usage, applies the word 
 
 "
 
 JO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Man, in the form Manzi, to the whole of the Chinese 
 people. They were so called as being "southrons" 
 with respect to the people of Mongolia, and at the 
 same time objects of contempt to their conquerors. 
 
 All the tribes of the south and the east, i. e. the 
 Man and the Yi, save certain aborigines called Miao- 
 tsze, were conquered and gradually absorbed and 
 assimilated by the vigorous race whose progeny 
 peoples modern China proper. The Miao-tsze have 
 been able to retain their independence to the present v 
 day, by taking refuge in the inaccessible fastnesses of 
 mountain chains. 
 
 The barbarous tribes of the north and west, 
 however, the Tih and the Ch'iang, were never 
 permanently subdued. This was simply because 
 their lands never invited conquest. Their storm- 
 swept pastures offered the Chinese no adequate 
 compensation for the toil and danger involved in 
 such an undertaking. On the contrary, as we have 
 seen, it was the wealth and fertility of northern 
 China that tempted constantly, throughout the eight 
 hundred years of the Chow dynasty, the fierce and 
 hungry tribes of the north and west to make their 
 overwhelming incursions. These are the quarters. 
 from which conquering armies have once and agaim 
 risen up, like the sands of their own deserts, to* 
 overwhelm parts or the whole of the empire. To
 
 ^r** < 
 
 .,--'- 
 
 ^f us. ^ TV-** 
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 7 1 
 
 repel the aggressions of these troublesome neighbors 
 was the chief occupation of the Chinese armies in the 
 earliest times, as it has continued to be down through 
 all the ages. The oldest extant Chinese poetry, . 
 older than any history, shows us the Chinese vvarrior r 
 like the magic horseman of Granada, with the head 
 of his steed and the point of his lance directed 
 always towards the north as the source of danger. 
 History shows that the princes who were employed 
 to hold these enemies in check generally held in 
 their hands the destinies of the empire. And in this 
 way the northern tribes exercised for centuries, 
 throughout the third or Chow dynasty, an indirect 
 but important political influence. 
 
 To give only two examples, both from the most 
 ancient period of authentic history : The house of 
 Chow, the most illustrious of the twenty-four dynas- 
 ties, rose from a small warlike principality in the 
 mountains of the north-west; they were made strong 
 by conflict with their savage enemies, and their Chief 
 was regarded as the bulwark of the nation. Si-po,* 
 the Lord of the West, or Wen Wang, as he is now 
 called, excited by his growing power the jealousy of 
 his suzerain, the last emperor of the second or Shang 
 dynasty, and was thrown into prison by the tyrant, 
 
 * Mencius says that T'ai Wang, the grand-father of Si-po, paid tribute 
 to the Tartars.
 
 72 HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 who did not dare, however, to put him to death. In 
 the panic caused by a sudden irruption of the north- 
 men, Wen Wang was set free, and invested with even 
 greater power than he had ever possessed before. 
 To the day of his death, he remained loyal ; but his 
 son, Cheo-fa, or Wu Wang, employed his trained 
 forces, like a double-edged sword, not only to protect 
 the frontier and drive back the invaders, but also to 
 overturn the throne of his master, the last Shang 
 emperor. 
 
 After the lapse of over eight hundred years, the 
 house of Chow was replaced by the house of Cb/in 
 which had been cradled among the same mountains 
 and made strong by conflict with the same enemies. 
 During the Chow period (1122 B.C. to 255 B.C.), the 
 barbarians never cease to be a factor in the politics 
 of the empire; not merely making forays and retiring 
 with their booty, but driving the Chinese before them, 
 occupying their lands, and planting themselves in the 
 shape of independent or feudal States, as the Goths 
 and Vandals did within the bounds of the Roman 
 empire. The analogy does not stop here. Like the 
 Roman empire, China had, in the early part of the 
 Chow period, two capitals,-one in the west, near 
 Si-ngan Fu (about one hundred miles south-west of the 
 great bend of the Hoang-ho), in Shensi; and another 
 in the east, near the present K'ai-fung Fu, in Honan.
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 73 
 
 The former was sacked by the Tartars in 781 B.C., 
 just as Rome was by the Goths in 410 A.D. 
 
 The story, as given by Chinese writers, is as follows:- 
 The emperor Yiu Wang had a young consort on whom 
 he doted. One day it came into his head to give a false 
 alarm to the armies surrounding the capital, merely 
 to afford her an amusing spectacle. Beacon fires, the 
 signal of imminent danger, were lighted on all the 
 hills. The nobles came rushing to the rescue, each 
 at the head of his retainers. Finding there was no 
 real danger, they dispersed in a state of high indigna- 
 tion. The young empress had her laugh; but they 
 laugh best who laugh last, as the proverb has it. 
 Not long after this, the Tartars made a sudden attack. 
 The beacon fires were again lighted; but the nobles, 
 having once been deceived, took care not to respond 
 to the call, lest they should again be making a 
 woman's holiday. The city was taken, and the silly 
 sovereign and his fair enchantress both perished in the 
 flames. However much of the legendary there may 
 be in this narrative, the one stern fact that lies at the 
 bottom of it is the presence of a ferocious enemy 
 whom we call by the general name of Tartars. 
 
 After this calamity, the heir to the throne removed 
 his court to the eastern capital, leaving the tombs of 
 his fathers in the hands of the barbarians. In the 
 heart of the central plain, and surrounded by a
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 cordon of feudal States, the imperial throne was 
 thought to be secure. But the irrepressible foe was- 
 forcing his way to the south and east, with the slow 
 but resistless motion of a mountain glacier. A 
 hundred and thirty years later (about 650 B.C.), we 
 have the spectacle of a barbarian horde in actual 
 possession of the eastern capital, and the emperor a 
 refugee, pleading for re-instatement at the hands 
 of his vassals. As might be expected, the blame of 
 the catastrophe is again charged on a woman. That 
 woman was a barbarian, and the fact throws a strong 
 light on the position of the contending parties. 
 
 Her tribe had established itself in the rich alluvial 
 region on the southern bend of the Yellow 
 river. As enemies, they were a standing menace to 
 the capital; as friends, they might serve as its- 
 janizaries. In order to win their favor and secure 
 their fidelity, the emperor took one of their 
 princesses into his harem. Captivated by her charms, 
 he subsequently raised her to be the partner of his 
 throne. An ambitious kinsman, desirous of supplant- 
 ing the emperor on the throne, began by supplanting 
 him in the affections of his barbarian wife. Her 
 infidelity being discovered, she was sent back to her 
 kindred, where she was joined by her paramour, who- 
 stirred up the powerful clan to avenge an insult done 
 to them in her person. The emperor was easily put
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 75 
 
 to flight; but, wanting the support of the nobles, the 
 usurper's tenure of the capital was of short duration. 
 
 Subsequently the barbarians menaced the capital 
 frequently, if not constantly; and the Son of Heaven 
 was more than once compelled to appeal to his 
 vassals for succor. On one occasion, his envoys even 
 turned against him, and went over to the enemy, 
 apparently deeming it better to serve a growing than 
 a decaying power. About forty years earlier than 
 the flight of the emperor above mentioned, another 
 barbarian beauty, named Li-ki, played a conspicuous- J 
 and mischievous role at the court of Tsin-wen, the 
 greatest chief of the vassal States. Taken in battle,, 
 she captivated her princely captor, and maintained 
 by her talents the ascendancy which she at first 
 owed to her personal attractions. She induced the 
 prince to change the order of succession in favor of 
 her offspring, sowing the seeds of a family feud that 
 brought the princely house to the verge of destruc- 
 tion. Thus, by the cupidity of the Tartars, the 
 treachery of envoys, and the intrigues of Tartar 
 ladies, the throne of one emperor after another was 
 menaced and shaken, until the dynasty was brought 
 to its fall. 
 
 Of these immigrant Tartar tribes, no fewer than 
 five or six are mentioned in the Confucian Annals as / 
 having succeeded in establishing themselves in the
 
 76 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 interior of China. Two of them (called Red and 
 White, probably, like the Neri and Bianchi of 
 Florence, from the color of their clothing, or of their 
 banners) were settled within the bounds of the 
 present province of Shansi ; one in Honan ; one in 
 Chihli; and two in Shantung. How they effected a 
 settlement is not difficult to understand. In an age 
 of anarchy, when rival States were contending for the 
 hegemony, the great barons found it to their interest 
 to secure the aid of troops of hardy horsemen from 
 the northern plains, rewarding their service by grants 
 of land. The emperor sought in the same way to 
 strengthen himself against his unruly vassals. And 
 so, at last, by too great dependence on foreign 
 auxiliaries, the empire became unable to shake off its 
 helpers. 
 
 How deeply seated was the antagonism between 
 them and the Chinese may be inferred from one 
 or two examples. The emperor being about to 
 despatch a body of those hired auxiliaries to chastise 
 a disobedient subject, one of his ministers warned him 
 against a measure which would be sure to alienate 
 his friends, and strengthen the hands of the common 
 enemy. "If," said the minister, "the prince finds his 
 moral influence insufficient to secure order, his next 
 resort is to make the most of the ties of blood. But 
 let him beware of throwing himself into the arms of
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 77 
 
 a foreign invader." This counsel reminds us of the 
 remonstrance of Lord Chatham against the employ- 
 ment of savages, in the conflict with the American 
 colonies. We may add that India and China both 
 came under the sway of their present rulers through 
 the mistaken policy of depending on foreign 
 auxiliaries. 
 
 With the Chinese, it was a practical maxim that no 
 faith was to be kept with those invaders; and a 
 terrible vengeance was sometimes taken for the 
 insults and perfidy to which they were subjected.* 
 When one of the barbarian States desired to enter 
 into an alliance with Tsin, doing homage as a vassal, 
 the king at first objected, exclaiming, "the Jung and 
 the Tih have no ties or principles in common with 
 us. We must treat them as our natural enemies." 
 He yielded with reluctance, when one of his ministers 
 had shown him five good reasons for a contrary 
 course. 
 
 Another fact may be cited, which shows at once 
 the power of the barbarians and the horror in which 
 they w r ere held. In the sixth century B.C., the 
 rising civilization of China was on the point of being 
 overwhelmed by them, when a deliverer was raised 
 up in the person of Duke Hwan, of Ch'i, who turned 
 
 A S 1 State is not trifled with ." is the 
 warning given by a barbarian Chief to the Prince of Tsin.
 
 -78 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the tide at the critical moment, as Theodoric did the 
 onslaught of the Huns under Attila. How imminent 
 was the peril of the empire, and how eminent the 
 merit of the victor, is apparent from a reply of 
 Confucius to some one who supposed that he had 
 spoken disparagingly of Duke Hwan. "How could 
 I disparage Duke Hwan?" he exclaimed; "but for 
 him we should all have been buttoning our coats on 
 the left side," i.e., have been subject to the Tartars. 
 
 Thus far, we have occupied ourselves with what 
 we may call an outline of the political relations of 
 the Chinese with the northern tribes in war and in 
 peace. The ethnography of those tribes now claims 
 our attention, if only to show the impossibility of 
 arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. The doubts 
 -expressed by the best authorities as to the ethnological 
 relations of the Hiongnu have already been referred 
 <to. Conspicuous as they are in history for many 
 centuries about the commencement of the Christian 
 era, it has been much disputed whether they were 
 Turks, Mongols, or Huns. How much greater is the 
 difficulty of identification as we travel back to a 
 period where the torch of history sheds but a feeble 
 ray, or disappears in the vague obscurity of legendary 
 tradition. 
 
 In those remote ages, the guiding clue of philology 
 ifails us. And, while a few names that appear in the
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 79 
 
 less ancient literature, such as Hwe-ku and T'u-kuih,* 
 suggest the identity of the tribes that bore them 
 i with the Ouigours and Turks, there is absolutely 
 nothing to be made out of the names that meet us 
 most frequently in the earlier records. The vague 
 terms of Jung and Tib, under which were grouped 
 peoples as diverse as the tribes of North American 
 Indians, are always accompanied by some mark of 
 contempt; the character for dog being prefixed to the 
 one, and incorporated with the other. Hien-yuen, 
 another name of frequent occurrence, has the dog 
 radical in both its parts, and appears intended to 
 confound the people who bore it with a tribe of 
 dog-like apes. It would hardly be expected that 
 writers, who deny their neighbors the attributes of 
 humanity, should take an interest in depicting their 
 manners or studying their language. Accordingly, 
 we search in vain in the earlier Chinese literature for 
 any such precious fragments of those northern 
 tongues as Plautus, in one of his plays, has preserved 
 of the Carthaginian. They themselves possessed no 
 written speech; and, had they possessed it, they have 
 left us -no such imperishable monuments or relics of 
 
 * Hiongnu, T'ukuih, Hweku, Hienyuen, Huen-yu, Pei Hu, Tah-tah 
 (or Tata = Tartar), Sien-pi, Su-shen. These are only some of the 
 names that are given in a way more or less vague to the nomads of the 
 North and West.
 
 80 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 handicraft as, at this day, are throwing fresh light on 
 the origin of the Etruscans. 
 
 A vast amount of undigested information is to be 
 found in the pages of Matoanlin, relating to the 
 border tribes of the middle ages. But outside the 
 circle of the classics, the only descriptive geography 
 that has reached us from the Chow period is the 
 Shan-hai-king, a kind of Chinese Gulliver, which peop- 
 les the world with monsters of every form and fashion. 
 The older writers, in confounding numerous tribes 
 under one or a few terms, were no doubt influenced 
 by the fact that to them they all appeared under one 
 aspect, that of wandering hunters or shepherds, 
 equally rude and equally ferocious. 
 
 No one who gives attention to such subjects can 
 fail to be struck with a two-fold process that takes 
 place in the life of all nations, and most of all in that 
 of nomadic tribes. The first is what we may call the 
 stage of differentiation, through which they pass, 
 when, small and weak, they keep themselves isolated 
 from their neighbors; and even their languages 
 diverge in a short time to such a degree as to be 
 mutually unintelligible. The second is the stage of 
 assimilation, when, brought into the collisions of war 
 or the intercourse of trade, each gives and receives 
 impressions that make them approximate to a 
 common type. Thus the barbarians on the north of
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 8 1 
 
 China present in the earlier ages a boundless variety, 
 which tends, with the lapse of time, to give place to 
 unifoimity of manners, and even of physical features. 
 Rolling over the plains, as the waves over the sea, 
 their blood has been commingled; and, though their 
 names have often changed, their physical type has 
 probably remained unaltered. It is natural to raise 
 the question, What was that physical type? It has 
 not been handed down either in painting or sculpture, 
 and yet I think it is possible for us to recover it. It 
 stands before us to-day, stamped on their descendants 
 of the hundredth generation. As the Manchu and 
 Mongol are to-day, such were the Jung and the Tih, 
 co-eval with Assyria and Babylon. The beautiful 
 Aleuta,* the hapless consort of the late emperor, was 
 a Mongol; and more than two thousand years ago, 
 
 * The story of this unfortunate Princess might furnish material for a 
 romance. Her grand-father, the Grand Secretary Sai Shang-a, having 
 failed to suppress the Tai-ping Rebellion, was thrown into prison and 
 condemned to death. His son, Ch'ung Ch'i, begged to share his fate, 
 and tenderly served him in his confinement, an act of filial piety 
 which was subsequently rewarded by his elevation to the dignity of 
 Chuang-yuen, or Scholar Laureate of the Empire. So eminent is this 
 grade that his daughter was deemed a fit consort for the late Emperor 
 T'ung Chih. For two short years she enjoyed her brilliant position, 
 when, the Emperor dying, she refused food and followed him into the 
 world of spirits. 
 
 The grounds now occupied by the Tsung-li Yamtn. and the Imperial 
 College formerly belonged to her grand-father, and were confiscated on 
 his fall. Whether the hapless Empress was born there is uncertain.
 
 82 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 other princes were captivated by the beauty of the 
 daughters of the desert. The barbarians of those 
 times were probably not inferior to the Chinese in 
 form, feature, or natural intelligence, as their descend- 
 ants are not inferior in any of these respects. Indeed 
 Chinese, Manchus, and Mongols, as we see them in 
 the city of Peking, are not distinguishable except by 
 some peculiarity of costume. 
 
 Were they originally of one mould, or have the 
 lines of distinction become gradually effaced by the 
 intercourse of ages? The latter is, we think, the 
 correct hypothesis. The primitive Chinese type, 
 that imported by the immigrants who founded the 
 civilization of China, is, we believe, no longer to be 
 discerned. In the southern and central regions, it has 
 everywhere been modified by combination with the 
 aboriginal inhabitants, leading to provincial character- 
 istics, which the practiced eye can easily recognize. 
 It has undergone, we think, a similar modification in 
 the northern belt. It met here with tribes akin to 
 those of Mongolia, and gradually absorbed them, 
 and to this combination are probably due the height 
 and the stalwart physique of the Northern Chinese. 
 
 This process was going on in pre-historic times. 
 History,atits earliest dawn, shows us the unassimilated 
 fragments of those tribes; and, at the same time, 
 discloses a vast movement southward, all along the
 
 TARTARS IN ANCIENT CHINA. 83 
 
 line, checked for a time by the Great Wall, only to 
 be renewed on a more stupendous scale. We have 
 seen how small bodies infiltrated through every 
 channel; we have also seen how, organized into great 
 States, they established in China a dominion enduring 
 for centuries. We are inclined to believe that they 
 have stamped their impress on the people of this 
 region as thoroughly as the Saxons have theirs on 
 the people of England, or the Vandals theirs on that 
 part of Spain which still bears their name in the form 
 of Andalusia. 
 
 The former have made the language of the English 
 essentially Germanic; and the language of northern 
 China has been profoundy modified by Tartar 
 influence. Hence we are told by Dr. Edkins that 
 the ancient Chinese pronunciation is only to be 
 found in the Southern provinces, where in fact we 
 should look for it, in the region least affected by 
 the tide of invasion. 
 
 If you inquire for the influences to which the 
 invaders have in their turn been subjected, we answer 
 that, in all ages, they have exchanged barbarism 
 for such civilization as they found among the more 
 cultivated race.
 
 84 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A HERO 
 
 OF THE 
 
 THREE KINGDOMS. 
 
 The subject of our inquiry falls nearly at the 
 middle point of the long course of Chinese history ; 
 *>., between the second and third centuries of the 
 Christian Era. In the earliest authentic records, we 
 meet the Chinese people, then few and feeble, on 
 the upper waters of the Yellow River in the North- 
 west. Whence they came, and where they obtained 
 that civilization which secured to them the conquest 
 of Eastern Asia, we know not; but we can trace 
 their subsequent progress down that noble stream, 
 and into the heart of the great central plain. Like 
 the river itself, they gather strength as they advance, 
 until, in the epoch of which we are treating, they 
 have brought under their sway the greater part of 
 what we now know as China Proper. Like the river, 
 their progress has neither been direct nor tranquil. 
 Prom time to time they encounter thundering
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 85 
 
 cataracts, or, bursting their banks, flow on for a 
 season in divided currents, bearing different names 
 and subject to different rulers. 
 
 Such a period of division is the one at which they 
 have now arrived. 
 
 For four hundred years they have been united 
 under the sceptre of the family of Han, under whose 
 sway the empire reached an extent never before 
 attained, and rose to a pitch of splendor eclipsing 
 that of all preceding dynasties. But if Kao Tsu was 
 Augustus, Hien Ti, his degenerate successor of the 
 twenty-eighth generation, was the Augustulus of his 
 illustrious house. 
 
 The fall of the empire began in the penultimate 
 reign, with disorders in the palace and rebellions in 
 the provinces; and it crumbled to fragments in the 
 hands of the imbecile Hien Ti. Gradually the jarring 
 elements gravitate to three centres, viz : Lo Yang, 
 the capital of the Hans, near the present city of 
 Honan Fu; Nanking, on the River Yang-tse, which 
 now for the first time appears as the seat of empire; 
 and lastly, Ch'eng-tu, at present capital of the great 
 province of Szechuen. These are the seats of the 
 "Three Kingdoms," Wei, Wu, and Shu, whose 
 fortunes form the history of China for about sixty 
 years. Tsao Tsao founded the first; Sun Chuen, 
 ithe second; and Liu Pei, the third.
 
 86 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 To relate how the last of these potentates emerged 
 from a petty district in the vicinity of Peking, and 
 fought his way up to the throne after an eventful 
 struggle of more than thirty years, is the object of 
 this discourse. The first of the trio is confessedly 
 the most accomplished master of statecraft in the 
 annals of China; and the second combined the 
 qualities of soldier and statesman in a high degree; 
 but so distinct and commanding is the personality of 
 our hero that he is in no danger of being cast into 
 the shade by the subtle genius of the one or the bold 
 courage of the other. 
 
 His career divides itself into three portions, which, 
 for the sake of distinctness, we may describe 
 geographically rather than chronologically, as his life 
 in the North, in the East, and in the West; 
 Cho Cheo, forty miles from Peking, being the scene of 
 his childhood and youth ; Shantung and the borders of 
 Kiangsu, the field of his earlier and unsuccessful wars; 
 and the western provinces of Hupei and Szechuen, 
 the arena of his later conflicts and final triumph. 
 The region which he watered with the blood of his 
 foes and his friends is half as large as the Continent 
 of Europe; and, if few warriors of any age have acted 
 on a vaster theatre, those who have fought more 
 battles or experienced more vicissitudes are fewer 
 still. For the facts of the narrative, we depend on
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 87 
 
 the History of the Three Kingdoms, by Ch'en Sheo; 
 but, in sketching character, we sometimes take a 
 hint from the Romance of the same name, by 
 Lo Kwan-chung. 
 
 I. 
 
 About the year 170 A.D., when Ling Ti sat on 
 the throne of China, and when Marcus Aurelius 
 swayed the sceptre of the Caesars, a lad of ten 
 summers might have been seen in the streets of 
 Cho Cheo, peddling rush matting and straw sandals. 
 This paltry merchandise was the work of his widowed 
 mother; and its sale scarcely sufficed to procure a 
 livelihood for mother and son. Their lot was not 
 harder than that of thousands of their countrymen, 
 but the recollection of ancestral glories made them 
 feel its bitterness. The young widow could not 
 forget that her child was of princely lineage, nor did 
 she suffer him to be ignorant that he was an off-shoot 
 of the Imperial House. This one domestic lesson, 
 repeated from day to day, implanted in the bosom of 
 the boy a spirit of discontent and restless aspiration. 
 It proved at once the source of his fortunes and of 
 his misfortunes. The boy had the bearing of a 
 prince, and a face which, to the eye of a Chinese 
 Lavater, revealed a perspective of infinite possibilities. 
 
 One day a rich citizen, to whom he was offering
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 his wares, was struck by his noble and intelligent 
 countenance. "What is the name of your family," 
 asked the citizen. "Liu," replied the boy. "The 
 same as my own," said the rich man; " we are 
 kinsmen, both of us scions of the House of Han." 
 The rich man, whose name was Liu Te-jan, thereupon 
 assumed the charge of Liu Pei's education, sending 
 him to school along with his own son. In later 
 life, several prominent men belonging to the clan 
 of Liu gave him a lift for the sake of his family name, 
 notably Liu Piao, the semi-independent satrap of 
 King Cheo. 
 
 At school, Liu Pei displayed but a moderate 
 fondness for books, though it is certain, from the 
 acquaintance which he subsequently manifested with 
 military history, that his genius had led him to read 
 much in that direction. He found small pleasure in 
 the moral apothegms of Confucius and Mencius, and 
 cared still less for their pictures of the peaceful times 
 of Yao and Shun; but he dwelt with pride and 
 admiration on the exploits of Han KaoTsu (Liu Pang), 
 who, emerging from obscurity, laid the foundation of 
 the then reigning dynasty; as also on those of 
 Han Kwang Wu, who restored its falling fortunes, 
 and gave it two more centuries of life. 
 
 This last, the founder of the Eastern Han, was the 
 model which, in after years, he proposed for his own
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 89 
 
 imitation, in so far as it was possible to shape his 
 career in accordance with any historical pattern. 
 The mere fact of a grand achievement is often 
 sufficient to inspire a desire to repeat the perform- 
 ance, where anything like imitation is impossible. 
 
 "Liu Pei," says the historian, "who as a lad had not 
 been fond of study, on arriving at manhood, manifest- 
 ed a passion for dogs, horses, and fine clothes. In 
 stature above the medium height, his arms were so 
 long that he could touch his knees without stooping; 
 and his eyes so prominent that he could see the tips 
 of his ears without the aid of a mirror." He adds a 
 few touches to the picture that are less grotesque 
 and far more significant of potential greatness. 
 "Liu Pei was sparing of speech; and, while his words 
 served to conceal his thoughts, his features were a 
 mask for his emotions. He was withal modest in 
 demeanor, and uncommonly successful in winning 
 the favor of his superiors." 
 
 This last characteristic, as we shall find, stood him 
 in stead in many a dark hour. It appears indeed 
 that for Liu Pei, as for Alcibiades, it was only necessary 
 to obtain an interview with friend or foe, in order to 
 plant himself securely in his confidence. But, like 
 all the politicians of his day, he sometimes betrayed 
 such hasty confidence when the interest of the cause 
 to which he was devoted appeared to require it.
 
 HANLIN PAPERS, 
 
 Nor was it solely towards his superiors that he 
 displayed this marvellous power of winning friends. 
 His school-fellows were devotedly attached to him;. 
 and not merely his sworn brothers Kwan Yu and 
 Chang Fei, but multitudes of his companions in arms 
 were ever ready to' die for his sake. Sure mark of 
 an imperial nature, this trait did more than his- 
 martial prowess to raise the huckster of Cho Cheo 
 to the throne of his ancestors. 
 
 Once out of school, Liu Pei found himself again 
 under the necessity of exerting himself to earn a 
 living. His fondness for horses suggested the choice 
 of an occupation. Rich friends advanced the requis- 
 ite capital, and he scoured the country in search of 
 fine animals and liberal purchasers. To him this was 
 a kind of knight-errantry. He had set his heart on a 
 military career, and, in the growing disorders of the 
 period, he perceived that opportunities for gaining 
 distinction would not be slow to present themselves. 
 
 In order to make his debut in a character higher 
 than that of private trooper, he attached to himself 
 a following of young bloods, like himself impelled by 
 personal ambition, yet animated by a sincere and 
 loyal patriotism. Of these, the most noted were 
 Kwan Yu and Chang Fei, the inseparable companions- 
 of his perils and his triumphs. The heroism and 
 unselfish devotion of the former has caused him to
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 91 
 
 be deified as the God of War, and he now figures as 
 the tutelar deity of the Reigning Dynasty. 
 
 A romantic story is told of the manner in which 
 these three men, on a casual meeting, each discerned 
 the sterling qualities of the others and promptly 
 bound themselves together by a threefold cord of 
 brotherhood, stronger than death. It is of little 
 consequence whether their hearts flowed together at 
 first sight, as though each had found what he had 
 long sought ; nor does it matter whether they 
 solemnized their union by an oath and sealed it by 
 the sacrifice of a white horse, surrounded by the 
 fresh bloom of a peach garden. The fact that their 
 souls were knit together for "high emprise" has been 
 sufficient toimpress the imaginationof succeeding ages. 
 Not David and Jonathan, not Orestes and Pylades, nor 
 any other pair of sworn brothers, will afford a parallel. 
 The only fit analogy is found in the patriotic trio, 
 who met in the Vale of Griitli, to concert measures 
 for the deliverance of Switzerland from the yoke of 
 Austria: 
 
 " The patriot three that met of yore, 
 Beneath the midnight sky; 
 And leagued their hearts on Griitli's shore, 
 In the name of liberty." 
 
 Does anyone suggest that Tell and his confederates 
 were inspired by a nobler sentiment than that which
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 fired the bosoms of the sons of Han? Was it not 
 alike the love of country, whether its object was to 
 deliver their land from a foreign yoke, or to uphold 
 the throne of a rightful sovereign and to rescue the 
 people from anarchy ? 
 
 II. 
 
 For Liu Pei and his brethren, the Emperor Ling Ti 
 was the embodiment of all that was sacred. Their first 
 campaigns were in his service, directed against a body 
 of Taoist insurgents, whose badge was a yellow turban. 
 
 That magic arts and religious motives were both 
 employed to overturn the throne in 186 A.D., shows 
 how closely the China of seventeen centuries ago 
 resembled the China of to-day. In any chance 
 number of the Peking Gazette, you may read accounts 
 of the trial and execution of just such conspirators as 
 -Chang Kio, Chang Liang, and Chang Pao. The belief 
 that magic arts have power to convert bits of paper 
 -or bags of beans into soldiers is as firmly rooted now 
 as it was then. Nothing but the diffusion of science 
 can remove this source ot perpetual danger. 
 
 Liu Pei, now at the age of twenty-seven, hastened 
 to the scene of conflict at the head of his little band, 
 and offered his sword to the General in command of 
 the Imperial forces. He was accepted, and took an 
 .active part in several engagements, in one of which
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 93 
 
 he encountered the first in his long series of misfor- 
 tunes. Being struck from his horse and trampled 
 under the hoofs of the enemy's cavalry, he escaped 
 death by feigning it. For his sufferings and gallantry, 
 he was rewarded by appointment to the command of 
 a district garrison. Here an inspector of posts having 
 treated him with insolence, he is said to have caused 
 the haughty official to be bound hand and foot and to 
 have inflicted on him a chastisement of two hundred 
 blows. The loss of his commission followed, of 
 course. In the popular romance of The Three 
 Kingdoms, this act of insubordination is ascribed to 
 Chang Fei; and, to say the truth, it appears more in 
 keeping with the temper of one who earned for 
 himself the epithet of Meng, " the impetuous," than 
 with the calculating sagacity of Liu Pei. 
 
 In 190 A.D., Hien Ti succeeds to the throne. A 
 minor in years, he is held as a puppet in the grasp of 
 Tung Cho, who has made himself Mayor of the 
 Palace, or Regent of the Empire. To overthrow the 
 usurper and liberate the sovereign, Tsao Tsao now 
 takes arms. Liu Pei, with loyal heart, solicits a 
 share in this meritorious enterprise. In later years, 
 when he turns against his patron, it is from the same 
 motive. Detecting in him another usurper, he obeyed 
 the imperial mandate to compass his destruction : 
 " Not that he loved Caesar less, but Rome more."
 
 94 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 We are anticipating a little for the sake of finding 
 a key to his conduct; and now we must turn back to 
 the time when Tsao Tsao dispatches him against a 
 portion of the forces of Tung Cho. He is defeated, 
 but, as we shall see, he becomes accustomed to 
 defeat; and, like Fiederick the Second, he learns 
 generalship in the school of adversity. 
 
 KungSun-tsan, an old school-fellow, mindful of their 
 boyhood friendship, supplies him with fresh troops, 
 and sends him against Yuen Shao, who held the 
 southern section of the province of Chihli. In this 
 expedition, Liu Pei achieves his first brilliant success, 
 and is raised to a conspicuous command. 
 
 Here occurs an incident, which shows what a 
 magic influence he was able to exert over the minds 
 of men. An assassin, hired to kill him, risks his life 
 to save him, and reveals to him the plots of his 
 adversaries. We may remark in passing that, in an 
 age when assassination was much in vogue, Liu Pei 
 seems always to have scorned to invoke its 
 aid. One day, while hunting in the Imperial 
 preserves, Kwan Yu, it is said, begged to be 
 permitted to send an arrow to the heart of Tsao Tsao, 
 and rid the world of a second usurper. Liu Pei 
 refused, and, at a later day, when reproached by 
 Kwan Yu for not taking his advice, he justified his 
 couise.
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 95 
 
 By this time, the growing power of Tsao Tsao has 
 thoroughly aroused the opposition of the great barons 
 in the outlying districts. Loyalty to the imprisoned 
 monarch, jealousy of the usurping general, the dread 
 of seeing such a parasite as the Shogunate of Japan 
 fastened on the institutions of the empire, and still 
 more the contagion of example, led many of them to 
 raise the standard of revolt. Aiming at independence, 
 they generally professed to be scheming for the 
 liberation of the Emperor from the power of an evil 
 spirit, which had taken possession of his person, 
 speaking by his mouth and acting by his hand. 
 
 Of these, the most powerful was Sun Chuen, who 
 had established himself at Nanking, and who 
 ultimately succeeded in making good his claim to a 
 third of the disintegrated empire. Tsao Tsao, in the 
 name of the Emperor, held the northern division, 
 which, afler the abdication of Hien Ti, he transmitted 
 to his family. The remaining third, lying in the 
 West, was reserved by the Fates as an apanage for 
 our hero, who was still in comparative obscurity, 
 and still an adherent of Tsao Tsao. 
 
 The wars of this period resemble those that 
 followed the two Triumvirates, which terminated the 
 Roman Republic; save that their tendency was in a 
 converse direction, the Roman wars leading froip 
 trinity to unity, the Chinese from unity to trinity.*'
 
 96 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 As in most revolutions, the aspiring heads of the 
 hydra, a necessary stage in the transformation of the 
 dragon, were very numerous; the more conspicuous 
 being Yuen Shao, already mentioned, Liu Piao in 
 Hupeh, and Tao Chien in northern Kiangsu. 
 Tsao Tsao sought to strike them down in detail. 
 
 Tao Chien, Lord of Su Cho, north of the Yellow 
 river, exposed to attack from so formidable a foe, 
 implores, in the name of loyalty to the House of 
 Han, the aid of Kung Sun-tsan, or rather of Tien Kai, 
 one of his captains. The latter commissions Liu Pei 
 to give the needed succor. Liu Pei sets out at the 
 head of a little over a thousand troops. He is joined 
 en route by a strong body of Tartar cavalry, belonging 
 to one or more of those wild tribes who had from 
 time to time, even at this early age, effected a 
 settlement in China, and were scattered here and 
 there like enclaves in the provinces of the North, 
 In his further progress (and this is a melancholy 
 feature of the times), he is unexpectedly reinforced 
 by several thousands of starving peasants, who, like 
 the Tartars, follow him in expectation of food and 
 booty. 
 
 The display of force was sufficient to hold the 
 invader at bay. The Lord of Su, grateful for this 
 timely assistance, first gave Liu Pei a considerable 
 district on the West, where he was to serve as a
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 97 
 
 bulwark against further invasion; and, dying shortly 
 after, named him successor in what was virtually an 
 independent principality. Liu Pei declined the honor 
 as Caesar declined a crown ; but, when reminded of a 
 saying that "Heaven's gifts once spurned are never 
 repeated," he accepted the exalted but perilous post. 
 
 He was now one of the most prominent among 
 the rival chiefs who were contending for power, and 
 so conspicuous was his ability that Tsao Tsao made 
 overtures for reconciliation. He could easily forgive 
 Liu Pei for what appeared like treachery towards 
 himself, because it was covered by at least a pretext 
 of loyally to the throne. Accepting his terms, 
 Liu Pei was created a titular baron and regarded by the 
 powerful Regent more as an ally than a subordinate. 
 
 Instead of bringing him peace, this alliance exposed 
 him to attacks from fresh foes, the chief of whom was 
 Lti Pu, one of the most picturesque knights on the 
 chess-board of that day. Handsome, brave, and 
 unsciupulous, a man who with his own hand 
 had slain the previous Regent, he was in deadly 
 feud with the present Regent because himself an 
 aspirant for his place. 
 
 This man, at the head of a body of cavalry, taking 
 advantage of the absence of Liu Pei, swooped down 
 on the city, which he had made his headquarters, then 
 in charge of the valiant Kwan Yu. The surprise was
 
 98 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 complete, Liu Pei's family and their brave defender 
 falling into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 With the lioness and her cubs in his possession, 
 Lu Pu knew well how to entrap the lion. The menace 
 of death and of nameless indignities to those whom 
 he loved more than life, sufficed to bring him to the 
 feet of their captor. Under such circumstances, his 
 allegiance could not by any possibility be cordial. 
 He seized the first opportunity to go over to the 
 Regent, who forgave his defection, and welcomed 
 his return. But few weeks had elapsed before 
 Lii Pu tracked them to their refuge, and once more 
 pounced upon his pre} r . 
 
 Read, in the Book of Samuel, the affecting chapter 
 which depicts the grief of David and his men on 
 returning to Ziklag and finding it "burned with fire," 
 and their wives and children prisoners in the hands 
 of the Children of Amalek, and you have a picture of 
 what Liu Pei and his followers experienced, when 
 they saw the ashes of their desolated homes. Spending 
 but little time in fruitless tears, Liu Pei begged of the 
 Regent a body of the fleetest horsemen, and pursuing 
 the foe, like David, he had the satisfaction of spoiling 
 the spoiler and recovering his captives. 
 
 Thus far, Liu Pei's disasters had outnumbered his 
 successes; but the skill with which he had often been 
 able to turn defeat into victory, suddenly creating
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 99 
 
 new armies as though he possessed the Cadmus-gift 
 of causing them to spring from the bowels of the 
 earth, had brought him into dangerous prominence. 
 He knew that his fame and talents would expose 
 him to the jealousy of the Regent, and, like David in 
 -the land of the Philistines, he feigned madness, or 
 rather stupidity, in order to disarm suspicion. 
 Withdrawing from the public eye, he passed his 
 days in cultivating cabbages and peanuts. 
 
 While he is thus engaged, a kinsman of the 
 Emperor appears, bearing a robe and girdle as gifts 
 from the hand of Majesty. These gifts were 
 accompanied by a secret decree, commanding him to 
 take the life of the Regent. Appealed to as the only 
 hope of the throne, his loyalty, the passion of his 
 life, left him no room to hesitate. If he had followed 
 the fortunes of the Regent, it was because he had 
 persuaded himself that they were identical with the 
 interests of the House of Han; and, if he had at one 
 time turned against his benefactor, it was because 
 he viewed the growing power of the Regent as 
 dangerous to the State. Of this he is now convinced 
 more than ever by the piteous appeal of the Emperor. 
 
 Scarcely had the messenger departed when he 
 received a still more startling tribute to his growing 
 influence in the form of an invitation to an interview 
 with the Regent. If his heart had known the
 
 IOO HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 sentiment of fear, he must have felt it then, believing 
 that the fatal secret was either known or suspected. 
 During the interview, a thundercloud descended 
 nearly to the earth, assuming some of those fantastic 
 shapes in which Chinese recognize a manifestation of 
 the dragon. The two men, leaning over a balcony, 
 contemplated the play of the lightning. 
 
 "The dragon," said Tsao Tsao, "is the emblem of a 
 heaven-sent hero. Now tell me who, in your opinion, 
 are the heroes of the present day?" 
 
 After some stammering, Liu Pei proceeded to name 
 Yuen Shao and a few others. 
 
 "Heroes!" exclaimed the Regent; "do you call 
 such men heroes ; men limited in their mental vision, 
 and incapable of great achievements ?" 
 
 "Who, then, are heroes in your estimation ?" asked 
 Liu Pei. 
 
 "There are none but two," said the Regent, "and 
 they are not far to seek," he added, pointing signifi- 
 cantly to himself first, and then to his guest. 
 
 Liu Pei was thunderstruck. It was not the 
 language of compliment to which he had been 
 listening. He had been called to this interview by 
 the most powerful man in the empire, for the purpose 
 of soliciting his co-operation; and, from this speech, it 
 was evident that, though regarded as an ally, he 
 must in the end be treated as a rival. The effect on
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. TOI 
 
 his mind was the opposite of that intended. If he 
 Tiad hesitated for a moment what course to pursue, he 
 vacillates no longer. He resolves to strike the first 
 blow. 
 
 Before his plans come to maturity, he learns that 
 his plot has been discovered by the Regent, and 
 that some of his fellow conspirators have been put to 
 death. Henceforth there is a blood feud between 
 them, which admits of no reconciliation. 
 
 Flying to his province to put it in a state of 
 defence, he is hotly pursued by the Regent, and 
 defeated in a great battle. Their place of asylum 
 being carried by assault, his family and Kwan Yu, 
 their guardian, become a prey to the victor. Wicked 
 the victor was, but mean he was not ; and in this 
 instance, with a generosity heightened by the apparent 
 perfidy of his antagonist, he restored wives and 
 children to the fugitive chieftain, retaining Kwan Yu, 
 .and endeavoring to win him over by splendid gifts. 
 
 In this extremity, without a foot of territory, 
 alone, unfriended, Liu Pei seeks refuge with 
 Yuen Tan, one of his early comrade?. The latter, who 
 holds the city of Tsing Cho, goes out to meet him 
 with as much ceremony as if he were still at the head 
 of an army. He recommends Liu Pei to his father, 
 Yuen Shao, who is still in possession of a considerable 
 .state, and the powerful satrap marches two hundred
 
 IO2 HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 // to welcome the unlucky fugitive. Does not this- 
 remind us of Hannibal flying from court to court,, 
 everywhere welcomed by the enemies of Rome? In 
 strategy, Liu Pei was no Hannibal ; but it may be 
 doubted whether the Carthaginian general bore 
 adversity with more patience, or displayed equal 
 ability in re-organizing his shattered forces. It is all 
 but incredible what a weight his single sword could 
 throw into the scale of contending factions. A 
 character which made him a king of men, and not 
 military skill, is the key to the enigma. 
 
 While absent on a distant expedition, Liu Pei 
 learns that his patron, Yuen Shao, has been crushed 
 by his implacable enemy, the Regent. 
 
 This closes the second period of our hero's 
 adventurous life. 
 
 III. 
 
 For seventeen years he has been fighting incess- 
 antly in the three provinces of Honan, Shantung, 
 and Kiangsu. His partizans have been scattered,, 
 his allies destroyed, and now with a handful of 
 followers he strikes across the great central plain and 
 finds in King Cheo, on the borders of Hupeh, a refuge 
 with Liu Piao, a chief of his own name, and perhaps 
 a distant kinsman. Did he see beyond this tempor- 
 ary resting-place, and divine the kingdom yet to be 
 carved out among the mountains of the west?/
 
 A HKKO OF THK THKKK KINGDOMS. 103 
 
 Beginning anew at the age of forty-four, in a new 
 arena, after so many years of fruitless toil, what can 
 he be expected to accomplish ? A subordinate, a 
 guest, in a condition of absolute dependence, what 
 room is there for the formation of great designs? 
 Or, in case he were wild enough to indulge his fancy, 
 what possibility is there of his dreams being 
 converted into realities? 
 
 Yet, like ^Eneas, when he fled from burning Troy 
 and laid the foundations of the Roman State; or 
 rather, like Napoleon, who, when by English 
 intervention an Oriental empire had been snatched 
 from his grasp, returned home in a single galley to 
 make himself the master of Europe; so Liu Pei 
 proceeded to found in the West a state which is 
 admitted in history as the legitimate successor of the 
 dynasty of Han. The steps, by which he advanced 
 to this result, I shall not attempt to trace, except in 
 the faintest outline. 
 
 Liu Piao dying, his son Liu Tsung submitted to 
 the Regent; his principal officers with the men of 
 their several commands chose, however, to follow 
 the fortunes of Liu Pei, who found himself once more 
 on the top of a rising wave. With him, life was a 
 perpetual ebb and flow; and on this occasion, the ebb 
 succeeded with startling suddenness. 
 
 Encamped at Fan Cheng, on the east bank of the
 
 104 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 river Han, he heard that the army of the Regent was 
 approaching, and crossed to the other side with all 
 speed. The Regent was at his heels. His celerity 
 of movement so often took his enemies by surprise 
 as to give rise to the proverb : 
 
 "Speak of Tsao Tsao as an object of fear, 
 And while you are speaking will Tsao Tsao appear." 
 
 Liu Pei had already dispatched Kwan Yu with a 
 strong flotilla down stream, towards the river 
 Yang-tse. The soldiers who remained were mostly 
 raw recruits, ill-armed and undisciplined. With such 
 material, he dared not face about, and engage the 
 veteran batallions of his enemy. In this extremity, 
 he abandoned his army and his family to the mercy 
 of his pursuer, and, escorted by a small body-guard, 
 pushed across a bend in the river to join the fleet of 
 Kwan Yu. This is the fourth time the family of 
 Liu Pei have fallen into the hands of his enemies; but 
 it is the first occasion on which he is chargeable with 
 deserting them. Why could he not stand by them, 
 and perish in their defence? Such ignoble conduct, 
 we are tempted to exclaim, deserves nothing better 
 than perpetual defeat. But Liu Pei was not impelled 
 by craven fear. For him, it required more courage 
 to consent to live than to meet death. If he chose 
 to live, it was for a purpose which he believed to be 
 in the highest degree patriotic, the destruction of
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. IO5 
 
 the Regent; and, in addition, the gratification of his 
 thirst for vengeance. 
 
 The event justified his election. Through 
 Chu Ko-liang, the brightest genius of the age, who 
 had now become his confidential counsellor, he had 
 succeeded in forming an alliance with Sun Chuen, the 
 Lord of Nanking. The two fleets were combined for 
 a supreme effort, like that of the Greeks at the b attle 
 of Salamis. The Regent came down upon them, 
 with a naval force that might well be compared to 
 that of Xerxes. They met at a point on the Great 
 River between Han Yang and Wu Chang, known as 
 the Crimson Palisade. Boat grappled boat,-no fighting 
 at long range ; the sword and spear had to do their 
 bloody work. The issue hung long in doubtful 
 scales ; but Liu Pei's fleet, getting to windward, sent 
 fire-ships into the midst of the enemy, and a strong 
 breeze soon wrapped their flotilla in flames, and 
 
 "Tsao Tsao in a single bark 
 Where late a thousand ships were dark " 
 
 made his way to the shore, where he fell into the 
 clutches of Kwan Yu, who allowed him to escape, 
 in return for the like generosity experienced more 
 than once at his hands. 
 
 The discomfiture of Tsao Tsao is the subject of a 
 fine poem, called The Red Palisade, by Su Tung-po, 
 written on visiting the battle-ground.
 
 IO6 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Rendered master of Hupeh by this victory, Liu Pei 
 now turned his attention to the greater province 
 of Sze Chuen. Fortune was no longer fickle; the 
 hero had been proved like steel in the fires of 
 adversity, and he was now permitted to move 
 steadily on to the completion of his conquest. He 
 met, however, with two misfortunes that touched 
 him to the quick, in the death, successively, on 
 far distant fields, of his faithful brothers-in-arms r 
 Kwan Yu and Chang Fei. Their prowess and fidelity 
 had stood him in good stead, in many a dark and 
 stormy hour; but his throne was now so firmly 
 established that its props might he withdrawn with- 
 out endangering its stability. For some years, he 
 modestly styled himself the Prince of Shu, and owned 
 allegiance, as he had always done, to the Emperor, 
 who was held like a caged eagle in the grasp of his 
 inveterate enemy. 
 
 When at length the captive, broken in spirit, 
 renounced his throne in favor of the son of the 
 Regent, meanly appealing to Yao and Shun for 
 justifying precedents, Liu Pei assumed the imperial 
 title, as Restorer of the House of Han. 
 
 After this brief nariative of his checkered life, it 
 may still be asked whether Liu Pei was really a 
 great man ? To this we reply that success is often 
 a safe criterion of greatness. It is not, if it comes
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. I Of 
 
 suddenly in the shape of an unearned triumph; but,, 
 if it crowns a series of wanderings like those of 
 ^Eneas, or labors like those of Hercules, it seals its- 
 tardy favorite for immortality. Mencius says-" When 
 Heaven designs to confer the highest of offices on- 
 the object of its choice, it first proves him by hard- 
 ship and disappointment." Never was there a more 
 conspicuous illustration of this maxim than the 
 career of Liu Pei. 
 
 Of Robert Bruce it is related that six times he 
 failed in his attempts to win the throne of Scotland,, 
 when, seeing a spider succeed in attaching its thread 
 after as many unsuccessful efforts, he cast the die 
 again, and came out victorious. If in this he display- 
 ed an element of greatness, who shall deny that 
 quality to Liu Pei, whose unsuccessful essays were 
 seven times seven? 
 
 His life was a series of flights, though, as we have 
 seen, they were like those of the Parthians, some- 
 times ruinous to the pursuer. A legend, as well 
 known as that of Bruce and the spider, relates that 
 on one occasion he owed his safety to a beetle which 
 waked him, when sleeping on the ground, Justin time 
 to make good his escape. Irritated by the sting, he 
 snapped the insect in two, and threw it on the 
 ground ; but, seeing the service it had rendered, he 
 stopped long enough to reunite the fragments, and
 
 ]08 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Heaven, whose humble messenger it was, caused 
 them to grow together in such a shape as to 
 preserve a record of the incident. 
 
 When Liu Pei was approaching the walls of 
 Ch'eng-tu, one officer of the garrison said to another 
 "What can this man do against us? He has no skill in 
 the conduct of troops; and, whenever he rights, he is 
 sure to be beaten." "Liu Pei," replied the other, "is 
 generous, humane, and capable of grand enterprises. 
 He has, moreover, the faculty of making men offer 
 their lives as a willing sacrifice. He has at command 
 the subtle brain of Chu Ko-liang to plan his campaigns, 
 and the valiant arms of Chang Fei and Kvvan Yu to 
 execute them. These three men are each the chief 
 among thousands; and, with such agents, how is it 
 possible that he should fail of success?" 
 
 The success of Napoleon has been ascribed to his 
 marshals. It might as well be ascribed to his horse. 
 Was not the man who made the marshals, and 
 controlled them, greater than any one, or than all, of 
 them? And is not the fact that those three heroes 
 were attached to Liu Pei, as firmly as his head and 
 hands, a proof of his inborn imperial power? Taking 
 him all in all, I am inclined to concur in the estimate 
 given by Tsao Tsao, viz, that in the whole empire, 
 there were but two heroes of the first order, and that 
 Luc Pei was one of them.
 
 A HERO OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. 109 
 
 Inferior to his rival in military genius, he had the 
 advantage of being a better man. Dying speeches 
 are always to be received with suspicion, for, as 
 Tseng Fu-tse has said, "When the swan is dying, its 
 voice becomesmusical; and when men are about to die, ... 
 their words are virtuous." The finest maxim in the 
 proverbial literature of China was bequeathed to his 
 successor by Liu Pei. "My son," said he, calling 
 him to his bedside, "consider no good act so small 
 that you may neglect it; and no bad act so small 
 that you ma}" do it." 
 
 If he had not been great, he would have had no 
 throne to bequeath; and if he had not been good, he 
 never could have left behind him such a rule of 
 conduct. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT : Two men referred to in the 
 preceding pages call for further notice. The first, 
 Kwan Yu, has had the fortune to be made a god. 
 He was a model of fidelily, courage, and all martial 
 virtues. Receiving full justice at the hands of history, 
 Fiction also selected him for her favorite, when, in 
 the i3th century, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms 
 were made the subject of a romance in eighteen 
 volumes. Canonized in the I2th century, a thousand
 
 1IO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 years after his death, the growing popularity of this 
 work has contributed to enhance the glory of its 
 blameless hero. Kwan Yu is now worshipped as 
 the God of War, and tutelar Divinity of the Reigning 
 Dynasty. 
 
 The other, Chu Ko-liang, stands high as the type of 
 a scholar. Living alone in a straw-thatched cottage, 
 he buried himself in the study of political and some- 
 times scientific problems. Liu Pei, hearing of him, 
 paid three visits to his lowly abode, and then, 
 exclaiming that he felt like a "fish that has found 
 water," he engaged him as military adviser. 
 
 Tradition credits Chu Ko-liang with the invention 
 of automatic machines to do the work of oxen and 
 horses. They were, it is sometimes hinted by 
 native scholars, steam engines, which were tried in 
 China many ages ago, and consigned to oblivion, as 
 .noxious to society !
 
 V. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW 
 
 IN 
 
 ANCIENT CHINA.* 
 
 pHE recent treaties, by which China has been 
 brought into closer relations with the nations 
 of the West, and especially the establishment of 
 intercourse by means of permanent embassies, 
 have led Chinese statesmen to turn their attention to 
 the subject of international law.f 
 
 For them, it is a new study, involving conceptions 
 which it would hardly have been possible for their 
 predecessors to form at any time in the course of the 
 last two thousand years ; though, as we shall endeavor 
 to show, they possessed something answering to it 
 in their earlier history. 
 
 * Read at Berlin, before the Congress of Orientalists ; reprinted from 
 the International Review, January, 1883. 
 
 * f The works of Wheaton, Woolsey, Bluntschli, and others, on this 
 subject, have been translated for their use by the author of this Paper.
 
 I 12 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Their modern history commences two centuries 
 before the Christian era; and, for our purpose, it may 
 be divided into three periods. The first, extending 
 from the epoch of the Punic wars down to the 
 discovery of the route to the Indies by the Cape of 
 Good Hope; the second, comprehending three 
 centuries and a half of restricted commercial 
 intercourse; and the thiid, commencing with the 
 so-called " opium war," in 1839, and covering the 
 forty years of treaty relations. 
 
 During the first, the Chinese were as little affected 
 by the convulsions that shook the western world as 
 if they had belonged to another planet. During the 
 second, they became aware of the existence of the 
 principal States of modern Europe; but the light that 
 reached them was not yet sufficient to reveal the 
 magnitude and importance of those far-off powers. 
 Within the last period, the rude experiences of two 
 wars have made them acquainted with the military 
 strength of European nations; and the opening of the 
 Suez Canal has brought them into what they regard 
 as a dangerous proximity to formidable neighbors. 
 
 These unwelcome discoveries have led them, not 
 only to push forward their defensive armaments, but 
 to seek in fact, if not in form, to put themselves as 
 much as possible under the aegis of what may fairly 
 be called the public law of the civilized world.
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 113 
 
 Such are the steps by which China has been led to 
 accept intercourse on a footing of equality with 
 nations which, for three centuries, she had been 
 accustomed to class with her own tributaries. 
 
 Her tributaries included all the petty States of 
 Eastern Asia. Attracted partly by community of 
 letters and religion, and partly by commercial interest, 
 but more, perhaps, by the moral effect of her national 
 greatness, they rendered a voluntary homage to the 
 master of a realm so vast that, like Rome of old, it 
 has always called itself by a title equivalent to 
 orbis terranim. These vassal States had few 
 relations with each other, and it was not to be 
 expected that China, acknowledging nothing like 
 reciprocity in her intercourse with them, should 
 learn from them the idea of a community of nations 
 possessed of equal rights. 
 
 For twenty centuries she had presented to her own 
 people, as well as to her dependent neighbors, the 
 imposing spectacle of an empire unrivaled in extent, 
 whose unity had been broken only by rare intervals 
 of revolution or anarchy. During this long period, it 
 was no more possible that an international code 
 should spring up in China than it would have been 
 for such a thing to appear in Europe, had the Roman 
 empire remained undivided until the present day. The 
 requisite conditions were wanting. Where they exist,
 
 114 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 a code based upon usage, and more or less developed, 
 comes into being by the necessities of the human mind. 
 These conditions are: 
 
 ist. The existence of a group of independent States, 
 so situated as to require or favor the mainten- 
 ance of friendly intercourse; 
 
 2nd. That those States should be so related as to 
 conduct their intercourse on a basis of 
 equality. 
 
 If these conditions were conspicuously absent 
 under the consolidated empire, they were no 
 less obviously present in the preceding period, 
 accompanied by every circumstance that could favor 
 the development of an international code. 
 
 The vast domain of China proper was at that 
 epoch divided between a number of independent 
 principalities, whose people were of one blood, 
 possessors of a common civilization already much 
 advanced, and united by the additional bond of a 
 common language. 
 
 These conditions concurred in ancient Greece, and 
 the result was a rudimentary code, culminating in 
 the Amphictyonic Council, a provision for settling 
 international disputes, which suggests comparison with 
 the concert of European powers recently employed 
 in settling the question of the Greek frontier.* 
 
 "This was the latest achievement of the "concert," when the first 
 draft of this paper was written in Paris (1881).
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 11$ 
 
 In ancient China, the conditions are similar, but 
 the scale of operation is vastly more extended. 
 There is, moreover, another important difference; 
 and, with reference to the object of the present 
 essay, it deserves to be marked with special emphasis. 
 The Chinese States were not, like those of Greece, a 
 cluster of detached tribes who had together emerged 
 from barbarism, without any well-defined political 
 connection ; they were the fragments of a disintegrat- 
 ed empire, inheriting its laws and civilization, as 
 the States of modern Europe inherited those of Rome. 
 
 The period during which they rose and fell was 
 the latter half of the dynasty of Cheo, pretty nearly 
 corresponding to that extending from the birth of 
 Solon to the close of the first century after the 
 death of Alexander, which in China, as in Greece, 
 was an aye of intense political activity. The normal 
 form of government for the empire was the feudal, 
 the archetype of that which prevailed in Japan until 
 swept away by the revolution of 1868. The several 
 States were created by the voluntary subdivision of 
 the national domain by the founder of the dynasty, 
 who, like Charlemagne, by this arrangement planted 
 within it the seeds of its destruction. 
 
 The throne of each State being hereditary, a 
 feeling of independence soon began to spring up. 
 The emperors were at first able to preserve order
 
 Il6 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 by force; and, even when shorn of their power, 
 their court, like that of the Holy See in the 
 Middle Ages, continued for a long time to 
 serve as a court of appeal for the adjustment 
 of international difficulties. But at length, losing all 
 respect for authority, the feudal princes threw off 
 the semblance of subjection, and pursued without 
 restraint the objects of their private ambition. This 
 age is called by the native historians chan-kuo, or 
 that of the "warring States;" and that which preceded 
 it, characterized by orderly and pacific intercourse, 
 is described as lic-kuo, or the family of "co-ordinated 
 States." 
 
 A family of States, with such an arena and such 
 antecedents, could hardly fail to develop, in the 
 intercourse of peace and war, a system of usages 
 which might be regarded as constituting for them a 
 body of international laws. 
 
 Accordingly, if we turn to the history of the 
 period, in quest of such an indigenous system, we 
 shall find, if not the system itself, at least the 
 evidence of its existence. We find, as we have said, 
 a family of States, many of them as extensive as the 
 great States of western Europe, united by the ties of 
 race, literature, and religion, carrying on an active 
 intercourse, commercial and political, which, without 
 some recognized Jus gentium, would have been
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 117 
 
 impracticable. We find the interchange of embassies, 
 with forms of courtesy, indicative of an elaborate 
 civilization. We find treaties solemnly drawn up 
 and deposited for safe keeping in a sacred place 
 called meng-fu. We find a balance of power studied 
 and practised, leading to combinations to check 
 the aggressions of the strong and to protect the 
 rights of the weak. We find the rights of 
 neutrals to a certain extent recognized and 
 respected. Finally, we find a class of men devoted 
 to diplomacy as a profession, though, to say the 
 truth, their diplomacy was not unlike that which 
 was practised by the Slates of Italy in the days 
 of Machiavelli. 
 
 No formal text-book, containing the rules which 
 for so many centuries controlled this complicated 
 intercourse, has come down to our times. If 
 such writings ever existed, they probably perished 
 in the " conflagration of the books," which 
 sheds such a lurid light on the memory of 
 the builder of the Great Wall. The membra 
 disjecta of such an intmiationl code as we have 
 supposed are, however, to be found profusely 
 scattered over the literature of those times, in 
 the writings of Confucius and Mencius ; in those of 
 other philosophers of the last five centuries B.C; 
 in various historical records; and particularly in
 
 I I g. HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the Cheo-li, or Book of Rites, of the dynasty of 
 Chow. 
 
 The day may perhaps come when some Chinese 
 Grotius will gather up these desultory hints as 
 carefully as the illustrious Hollander did the traces of 
 international usages in Greece and Italy. To make 
 even a partial collection of the passages in Chinese 
 writers relating to this subject, would neither come 
 within the scope nor the compass of the present 
 Paper. All that I propose to myself, in addition to 
 indicating, as I have done, the existence between the 
 States of ancient China of a peculiar system of 
 consuetudinary law, is to make a few citations con- 
 firmatory of the views expressed, and throwing light 
 on some of the more interesting of the topics to 
 which I have adverted. 
 
 The clearest view of the public law which was 
 acknowledged by this group of States, after they 
 became independent, is undoubtedly to be sought for 
 in their relations to each other while subject to a 
 common suzerain. 
 
 The greater States were twelve in number, and for 
 ages that distribution of territory was regarded as no 
 less permanent than the order of the heavenly bodies. 
 It was consecrated by the science of astronomy as it 
 then existed, and an ancient map of the heavens gives 
 us a duodecimal division, with the stars of each 
 
 <+* h* -$6
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 119 
 
 portion formally set apart to preside over the 
 destinies of a corresponding portion of the empire.* 
 
 Confucius appears to allude to this in a beautiful 
 passage in which he compares the emperor, or the 
 wise man for the words have a double sense to 
 the polar star, which sits unmoved on its central 
 throne, while all the constellations revolve around it. 
 Could anything be devised more effectual than this 
 .superstitious alliance of geography and astronomy, to 
 place the territorial rights of the several States under 
 the safeguard of religion? More picturesque than the 
 Roman method of placing the boundaries under the 
 care of a special divinity, it was probably more 
 efficacious, and contributed in no small degree to 
 maintain the equilibrium of a naturally unstable 
 system, during a period which, in the West, witnessed 
 the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Persian, and - 
 Greek empires, entailing the complete obliteration 
 of most of their minor divisions. 
 
 These twelve States had a great number of lesser 
 principalities dependent on them, the whole constituting 
 
 * The names of the twelve great States are inscibecl on the horizon of 
 an azimuth instrument, made under the Mongol dynasty, circa 1320, /' 
 and still preserved in the Observatory of Peking. What can better 
 illustrate the depth of the sentiment connected with this territorial 
 division than the fact that such a souvenir, associating it with the 
 unchanging heavens, should be reproduced in the construction of an 
 astronomical instrument .fifteen centuries after the last of those States 
 had ceased to exist !
 
 120 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 a political organization as multifarious and complex 
 as that which existed in Germany under the sway 
 of the "Holy Roman Empire." As in mediaeval 
 Europe, the chiefs of these States were ranked with 
 respect to nobility in five orders, answering to duke, 
 marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, the inferior depend- 
 ing on the superior, but all paying homage to the 
 Son of Heaven, a title which was even at that early 
 period applied to the Emperor, who had a right, for 
 the common good, to command the service of all. * 
 In the annals of Lu, we find the following curious 
 entry : 
 
 " In the ninth year of his reign, the Duke met 
 in conference at Kwe-chiu the Duke of Cheo, the 
 Marquis of Chi, the Viscount of Sunn;, the Marquis 
 of Wei, the Earl of Cheng, the Baron of Hii, and 
 the Earl of Tsao." 
 
 We note here the presence of all the five orders. 
 The commentary of Tso, we may add, states the 
 object of the meeting as "the formation of a league ' 
 and the promotion of friendly relations in accordance 
 with authorized usage." 
 
 The authorized usages here referred to constituted 
 the basis of the international law of the time. They 
 were contained in part in the Cheo-li, or Book of 
 Rites of the Cheo dynasty, published by imperial 
 authority about uoo B.C., and, in a somewhat.
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 121 
 
 mutilated form, extant at the present day. This 
 Code defines the orders of nobility; prescribes a 
 sumptuary law for each, extending even to their 
 rites of sepulture ; regulates the part of each in the 
 public sacrifices; and lays down a form of etiquette to- 
 be observed in all their public meetings. It gives in 
 detail the hierarchy of officers, civil and military; 
 indicates their functions; fixes the weights and 
 measures, the mode of collecting the revenue, and the 
 modes of punishment ;-and all this mixed up with an 
 infinitude of ceremonial detail which^to us appears 
 the reverse of business-like, but which was no doubt 
 as well adapted to the character of the ancient 
 Chinese as was the ritualistic legislation of Moses to 
 that of the Hebrews. 
 
 Primarily obligatory on the immediate subjects of 
 the imperial house, this Code was secondarily binding 
 on all the vassals of the empire, by all of whom it 
 was adopted in the minutest particulars, with the single 
 exception of the State of Ch'in, in the extreme north- v/ 
 west, a State which obstinately adhered to the ritual 
 and etiquette of the earlier dynasty of Shang, and, 
 cherishing a spirit of alienation, became the secret foe 
 and ultimately the destroyer of the imperial house. 
 
 With this exception, the laws and usages of the- 
 several States were so uniform all being copied 
 from a common model that there was little occasion
 
 122 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 for the cultivation of that branch of international 
 jurisprudence, which in modern times has become so 
 prominent under the title of the "conflict of laws." 
 
 Ideas derived from the feudal system were so 
 interwoven with every part of this complicated 
 legislation that its general acceptance formed the 
 mainstay of the imperial throne. The great princes 
 styled themselves vassals; though as independent as 
 Annam and Nepaul are at the present day, and, like 
 these latter, paying formal homage only once in five 
 years.* They* accordingly looked up to the emperor 
 as the fountain of honor, and the supreme authority 
 in all questions of ceremony, if not in questions of 
 right. 
 
 Of this moral ascendency, for which we can find 
 no parallel better than the veneration which, in the 
 Middle Ages, Catholic sovereigns were wont to show 
 to the Holy See, we have a remarkable example in 
 the Kuo-yu. The emperor, Siang-wang, 651 B.C., 
 being driven by a domestic revolt from his territories 
 a small district in the center of the empire, which 
 may be compared to the Pontificial States recently 
 absorbed by the kingdom of Italy was restored to 
 his throne by the powerful intervention of the Duke 
 
 * Since this was written, Annam has become subject to France, and 
 has ceased to send tribute to China.
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 123 
 
 of Tsin. In recompense for such a signal service, the 
 emperor offered him a slice of land. The duke 
 declined it,* and asked, instead, that he might be 
 permitted to construct his tomb after the model of 
 the imperial mausoleum. The emperor, viewing this 
 apparently modest request as a dangerous assumption, 
 promptly refused it, and the duke was compelled to 
 abide by the recognized Code of Rites. 
 
 The possession of this common Code, originating in 
 the will of a common suzerain, contributed to 
 maintain for nearly a thousand years among the 
 States of China, discordant and belligerent as they 
 often were, a bond of sympathy in strong contrast 
 with the feelings they manifested toward all nations 
 not comprehended within the pale of their own 
 civilization. When, for instance, the Tartars of the 
 north-west presented themselves at the court of Tsin, 
 requesting a treaty of peace and amity, and humbly 
 offering to submit to be treated as vassals of the 
 more enlightened power, "Amity," exclaimed the 
 prince, "what do they know of amity ? The 
 barbarous savages ! Give them war as the portion 
 due to our natural enemies." Nor was it until his 
 minister had produced five solid reasons for a pacific 
 
 * According to some of the histories, he finally accepted it, when 
 balked in his loftier aspirations.
 
 124 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 policy that the haughty prince consented to accept 
 them as vassals. 
 
 In the history of those times, the curtain rises on a 
 scene of peaceful intercourse which, in many ways,, 
 implies a basis of public law. Merchants are held in 
 esteem, one of the most distinguished of the disciples 
 of Confucius belonging to that class; and a rivalry 
 subsists between the several princes in attracting 
 merchants to their States. Their wares are subjected 
 to tolls and customs; but the object is revenue, 
 not protection. 
 
 The commerce of mind reveals relations of a still 
 
 more intimate character. The schools of one State 
 
 / are often largely frequented by students from another; 
 
 and those who make the greatest proficiency are 
 
 * readily taken into the service of foreign princes. 
 
 Philosophers and political reformers travel from court 
 
 to court, in quest of patronage. Confucius himself 
 
 wanders over half the empire, and draws disciples 
 
 from all the leading States. 
 
 A century later, Mencius, with the spirit of a 
 Hebrew prophet, proclaims in more than one capital 
 his great message that "the only foundation of 
 national prosperity is justice and charity." 
 
 It was to this kind of intercourse that Ch'in, the 
 rising power of the North-west, was indebted for the 
 ascendency which it slowly acquired in the affairs of
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 125 
 
 .the empire, and which eventually placed its princes 
 in possession of the imperial throne. 
 
 The Duke Hiao (368 B.C.), conscious of the 
 backward state of his people, made proclamation to 
 the effect that any man, native or foreign, who 
 should be able to devise a new method for promoting 
 the prosperity of his dominions, would be rewarded 
 by a grant of land and a patent of nobility. 
 Shang-yang, a native of a neighboring State, a young 
 man of noble family, who, the historian says, " had 
 given much attention to legal studies," presented 
 himself, and requested an audience. The duke, 
 charmed by the clearness and originality of his ideas, 
 gave him carte blanche for putting them in practice. 
 The reforms effected were of the most thorough 
 character, and the seed was then sown of triumphs 
 achieved a century later. Further on we find Li-sze, *' 
 another foreigner, at the helm, in the same principality. 
 At this time, so great was the influx of strangers that 
 the natives, as in other lands, became jealous, and 
 made a movement to expel them. The prince was 
 disposed to yield, when the minister averted the blow 
 by laying before the throne a masterly plea for free- 
 dom of intercourse. This notable document, whose 
 good effect did not cease with the emergency that 
 gave it birth, begins by showing that the ancestors of 
 the prince had for four generations admitted foreign
 
 126 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 statesmen to the rank of confidential counsellors, 
 and concludes by comparing their policy with their 
 own majestic river, the Hoang-ho, which owes 
 \/ its greatness to the rivulets that combine to swell 
 its volume. 
 
 The personal intercourse of sovereign princes 
 forms a striking feature in the history of those times. 
 Their frequent interchange of visits indicates a degree 
 of mutual confidence which speaks volumes for the 
 public sentiment. Confidence was, indeed, sometimes 
 abused, as it has been in other countries; but such 
 intercourse was always characterized by com tes) r , and - 
 mostly by good faith. 
 
 On one occasion, when a powerful prince came 
 with a great retinue to visit the Duke of Lu,. 
 Confucius, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 adopted such precautions, and conducted the inter- 
 views with such adroitness, that he not only averted 
 what was believed to be a danger, but induced the 
 foreign prince to restore a territory which he had 
 unjustly appropriated. 
 
 A visit of the Duke of Tsin to the Duke of 
 Lu may be mentioned, as illustrating the freedom 
 and familiarity which sometimes marked this princely 
 intercourse. The host accompanied his guest as far 
 as the Yellow River. The latter, learning during a 
 parting entertainment that the former had not yet
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 127 
 
 received the Kwan-li* a rite answering somewhat 
 to the conferring of knighthood offered, then and 
 there, to confer it. It was objected that the means 
 were wanting for performing the ceremony with due 
 solemnity ; and the capital of Wei being nearer than 
 his own, the Duke of Lu proposed to proceed thither 
 for the purpose. They did so, and the rite was 
 celebrated with suitable pomp in a temple borrowed 
 for the occasion. 
 
 General meetings of the princes for the purpose 
 of forming or renewing treaties of alliance were of 
 frequent occurrence. Embracing what were then 
 regarded as all the leading powers of the earth, 
 these meetings present a distant, but not faint, 
 parallel to the great congresses of European 
 sovereigns. 
 
 The more usual form of friendly intercourse 
 between the States of China was, as elsewhere, by 
 means of envoys. 
 
 The person of an envoy was sacred ; but instances 
 are not wanting of their arrest and execution. In 
 
 / * Kwan-li literally the "cap ceremony" the formal assumption by 
 " a youth of a kind of cap distinctive of mature age. Now completely 
 disused, this was formerly one of the "four great rites," and the 
 references to it in the ancient books remind us of the pomp with which 
 the toga virilis was assumed by patrician youth at Rome. 
 Still, as between nobles, I can think of no better analogy than that 
 given in the text.
 
 128 HANLIN PAPERS, 
 
 the latter case, they were regarded as spies, and the 
 punishment inflicted on them was considered as a 
 declaration or act of war. In the former, the violence 
 was sometimes defended on the ground that the 
 envoy had undertaken to pass through the territory 
 into a neighboring State without having first obtained 
 a passport, his visit being at the same time held to 
 have a hostile object. Ordinarily, an envoy was 
 treated with scrupulous courtesy, the ceremonial 
 varying according to his own rank, or that of his 
 sovereign. Questions of precedence, which often 
 arose, were decided according to settled principles; 
 but the rules were by no means as clear and simple 
 as those enacted by the Congress of Vienna. 
 
 A dispute of this kind arising between the envoys 
 of two duchies at the court of Lu, one claimed 
 precedence on the ground that his State was more 
 ancient than the other. The minister of the latter 
 replied that his sovereign was more nearly allied to 
 the imperial family. The difficulty was happily 
 terminated without bloodshed, which was not always 
 the case with such quarrels in Europe prior to 1815. 
 The master of ceremonies reminded the litigants 
 that the placing of guests belongs to the host, and 
 gave preference to the kinsman of the emperor. 
 
 Insults to envoys were not unfrequently avenged 
 by an appeal to arms. Of this, a notable instance
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 129 
 
 was an insult given by the Prince of Chi, at one and 
 the same time, to the representatives of four powers. 
 These envoys arriving simultaneously, it was 
 observed by some wag (the court fool, perhaps) that 
 each was marked by a blemish or deformity in his 
 personal appearance. One was blind of an eye; 
 a second was bald; another was lame; and the last 
 was a dwarf. It was suggested to the duke that a 
 little innocent amusement might be made out of this 
 strange coincidence. The prince, acting on the hint, 
 appointed as attendant or introducteur to each 
 ambassador an officer who suffered from the same 
 defect. The court ladies, who, concealed by curtains 
 of thin gauze, witnessed the ceremony of introduction 
 and the subsequent banquet, laughed aloud when 
 they saw the blind leading the blind, and the dwarfs, 
 the bald, and the lame, walking in pairs. The envoys, 
 hearing the merriment, became aware that they 
 had been made involuntary actors in a comedy. 
 They retired, vowing vengeance, and the next year 
 saw the capital of Chi beleagured by the combined 
 forces of the four powers, which were only induced 
 to withdraw by the most humiliating concessions 
 on the part of the young prince, who, too late, 
 repented his indecent levity.* 
 
 * This story is derived from a comparison of the three leading 
 historians of the period, who differ only in unimportant details. 
 In an amplified form, it is to he seen on the boards of Chinese theaters 
 at the present day. The Chinese theater, like that of Greece, is, for 
 an illiterate public, the chief teacher of ancient history.
 
 I3O HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In the history of Tso, we find a rule for the 
 sending of envoys, which has its parallel in the 
 diplomatic usage of modern nations. Speaking of 
 a mission to a neighboring State, he adds: 
 "This was in accordance with usage. In all cases 
 where a new prince comes to the throne, envoys are 
 sent to the neighboring States to confirm and extend 
 the friendly relations maintained by his predecessor." 
 
 The highest function of an envoy was the negotia- 
 tion of a treaty. Treaties of all kinds known to 
 modern diplomacy were in use in ancient China. 
 Signed with solemn formalities, and confirmed by an 
 oath, the parties mingling their blood in a cup of 
 wine, or laying their hands on the head of an ox to 
 be offered in sacrifice, such documents were carefully 
 treasured up in a sacred place called Mcng-fu t 
 the "Palace of Treaties." 
 
 We are able to give, by way of specimen, the 
 outlines of a treaty between the Prince of Cheng 
 and a coalition of princes who invaded his territories 
 in 544 B.C. 
 
 PREAMBLE: The parties to the present Treaty agree 
 to the following Articles: 
 
 Article I. The exportation of corn shall not be 
 prohibited. 
 
 j Article II. One party shall not monopolize trade to 
 the disadvantage of others.
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 131 
 
 Article III. No one shall give protection to conspiracies 
 
 directed against the others. 
 Article IV. Fugitives from justice shall be surrendered. 
 
 Article V. Mutual succor shall be given in case of ./ 
 famine. 
 
 Article VI. Mutual aid shall be given in case of 
 
 insurrection. 
 Article VII. The contracting powers shall have the 
 
 same friends and the same enemies. 
 Article VIII. We all engage to support the 
 
 Imperial House. 
 
 CONCLUSION : We engage to maintain inviolate the 
 terms of the foregoing Agreement. May the gods of the hills 
 and rivers, the spirits of former emperors and dukes, and 
 the ancestors of our seven tribes and twelve states, watch 
 over its fulfillment. If any one prove unfaithful, may the 
 all-seeing gods smite him, so that his people shall forsake 
 him, his life be lost, and his posterity be cut off. 
 
 The outline of a similar convention is given by 
 Mencius. On this occasion, the great barons were 
 called together by Siao-po, Prince of Ch'i, for the 
 purpose of effecting needful reforms in 651 B.C. 
 Being a century earlier than the other, it is instructive 
 to compare the two documents. While in that of later 
 date the Imperial authority is so far gone that the 
 barons engage to uphold the Imperial House, in this 
 the authority of the Suzerain is fully recognized, 
 each article of the convention being styled an 
 " Ordinance" of the Emperor.
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 That his hold on his vassals was already much 
 weakened is, however, evident from the provisions 
 that they are not to exercise certain powers 
 of sovereignty in the way of rewards and 
 punishments without at least formal reference 
 to the " Son of Heaven." 
 
 The stipulations are partly in favor of good morals, 
 and partly to facilitate intercourse, and to raise the 
 character of the official hierarchy. 
 
 Article I. To punish the unfilial ; not to change the 
 
 succession to the throne (of each state); 
 
 and not to raise a concubine to be a wife. 
 
 Article II. To respect the virtuous and cherish talent. 
 
 Article III. To honor the aged and to be kind to 
 
 the young, and not to neglect strangers. 
 Article IV. Officers not to be hereditary; proxies not to 
 be permitted. Suitable men to be sought 
 and found. Death not to be inflicted on 
 nobles without reference to the Emperor. 
 Article V. Not to divert water-courses, nor obstruct the 
 transport of grain. Not to grant land in 
 fief without reference to the Emperor. 
 CONCLUSION : All we who are parties to this 
 Covenant agree to be at peace with each other. 
 
 "These five rules," adds the philosopher, "are openly 
 violated by the nobles of our day." 
 
 In addition to the rites of religion by which such 
 engagements were ratified, they were usually secured 
 by sanctions of a less sentimental character. As in
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 133 
 
 the West, hostages or other material guarantees 
 were given in pledge; sometimes also they were 
 guaranteed by third parties, who, directly or indirectly 
 interested, engaged to punish a breach of faith. 
 We have, for instance, one prince, demanding the 
 mother of another as a hostage. The case is instruc- 
 tive in more than one of its aspects. The Prince 
 of Tsin, calling on the Prince of Chi to recognize him 
 as his chief, and to surrender his mother as a pledge 
 of submission, the latter replies that his State was 
 created the peer of the other by the will of the 
 former Emperors, and that one who would despise 
 the patent of an Emperor was not fit to be the head 
 of a League. As to the demand for his mother as a 
 hostage, that was a proposition so monstrous that, 
 rather than submit to it, he would meet the enemy 
 under the walls of his last fortress. 
 
 At this point, the affair takes a turn which serves 
 to illustrate a procedure of frequent occurrence in 
 the history of those times. The princes of two 
 neighboring States come forward as mediators, and . 
 bring about an accommodation on less oppressive 
 conditions. 
 
 The more enlightened writers of Chinese antiquity 
 condemn the practice of exchanging hostages, 
 as tending to keep up a state of quasi hostility and 
 mutual mistrust ; and no writers of any nation have
 
 134 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 been more emphatic in insisting on good faith as a 
 cardinal virtue in all international transactions. 
 
 Says Confucius: "A man without faith is 
 like a wagon without a coupling-pole to connect 
 the wheels." Speaking of a State, he says: 
 "Of the three essentials, the greatest is good faith. 
 Without a revenue and without an army, a State may 
 still exist; but it cannot exist without good faith." 
 
 It remains to speak of the intercourse of war, 
 "Inter hostes scripta jura non valere at valere non 
 scripta" is a principle that was as well understood 
 in ancient China as among the ancient nations of 
 the Western world; and war in China was, to say 
 the least, not more brutal than among the Greeks 
 and Romans. 
 
 The command of Alexander to spare the house of 
 the poet Pindar, if it shows a degree of literary 
 culture, indicates, on the other hand, that moral 
 barbarism which asserts a right to the spoils of the 
 conquered. In China, we find the same state of 
 things; vae victis is the sad undertone in every 
 narrative of military glory, relieved, indeed, 
 by brilliant instances of generosity and mercy, 
 We find an invading chief enjoining, under penalty 
 of death, respect for the very trees that overshadow 
 the tomb of a philosopher, and at the same time 
 setting a price on the head of a rival prince.
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 135 
 
 Every military leader proclaims, like Achilles, that 
 "laws are not made for him;" yet we do not despair 
 of being able to show that laws existed in war 
 as well as in peace, even though they were 
 systematically trampled on. With this view, 
 we shall call attention to the following facts: 
 
 First: In the conduct of war, the persons and 
 property of non-combatants were required to be 
 respected. 
 
 This we infer from the praise bestowed on humane 
 leaders, and the reprobation meted out to the 
 cruel. In Chinese history, the example of those 
 who have achieved the easiest and most permanent 
 conquests is always on the side of humanity. 
 
 Second: In legitimate warfare, the rule was not to 
 attack an enemy without first sounding the drum, 
 and giving him time to prepare for defense. 
 
 The following instance goes beyond this require- 
 ment, and reminds us of the code of chivalry which 
 made it infamous to take advantage of an antagonist. 
 The Prince of Sung declined to engage a hostile 
 force while they were crossing a stream, and waited 
 for them to form in order of battle before giving the 
 signal to advance. He was beaten, and, when 
 reproached by his officers, he justified himself by 
 appealing to ancient usage. "The true soldier/' 
 said he, " never strikes a wounded foe, and always
 
 136 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 lets the gray-headed go free ; and in ancient times it 
 was forbidden to assail an enemy who was not in a 
 . ' state to resist. I have come near losing my kingdom, 
 but I would scorn to command an attack without 
 first sounding the drum." 
 
 We are not surprised to learn that the captains of 
 that age "laughed at the simplicity of the unfortunate 
 prince." 
 
 Third: A war was not to be undertaken without 
 at least a decent pretext. 
 
 These words, in fact, are almost a translation 
 of an oft-quoted maxim, She ch'uh yin ming* 
 " For war you must have a cause," which indicates that 
 passion and cupidity were held in check by public 
 opinion pronouncing its judgment in conformity 
 with an acknowledged standard of right. 
 
 Another maxim, equally well known, makes 
 the justice of the cause a source of moral power 
 which goes far to compensate the inequality of 
 physical force. 
 
 " Soldiers are weak in a bad cause, but strong in a 
 good one," said the ancient Chinese, assigning as 
 high a place to the moral element as our own poet, 
 when he says, " Thrice is he armed who 
 hath his quarrel just." 
 
 * ff tti f %
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 137 
 
 Fourth: A cause always recognized as just was the 
 preservation of the balance of power. 
 
 This principle called to arms not merely the States 
 immediately threatened, but those also which, by 
 their situation, appeared to be remote from danger. 
 
 Not to speak of combinations to resist the 
 aggressions of other disturbers of the public peace, 
 we find, 320 B.C., six States brought into line to 
 repress the ambition of Chin. This powerful 
 coalition, the fruit of twenty years' toil on the part 
 of one man, who is immortalized as the type of the 
 successful negotiator, was, we may add, after all 
 destined to fail of its object. The common enemy 
 succeeded in detaching the members of the league, 
 and in overcoming them one after another. 
 The arch of States which protected the throne of their 
 suzerain being destroyed, the conqueror swept away 
 the last vestige of the house of Cheo, which for eight 
 hundred years had exercised a feudal supremacy 
 over the princes of China. Proclaiming himself 
 instead, under the title of Shu Hwang-ti, the 
 "first of the universal sovereigns," he abolished the 
 feudal constitution of the empire, at the same lime that 
 he completed the Great Wall. His successors to the 
 present day are called Hwang-ti, and the system of 
 centralized government which he inaugurated is as 
 firmly established as the Great Wall itself.
 
 138 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 .- Theright of existence, prior to the revolution 
 just noticed, was, in general, held sacred for 
 the greater States which held in fief from the 
 Imperial Throne. 
 
 This right is often appealed to, and proves effectual 
 in the direst extremity; e.g., the Prince of Chi, 
 at the head of a strong force, enters Lu, with an 
 evidently hostile intent. Chan-hi, a minister of Lu, 
 is sent to meet him, in the hope of arresting his 
 progress. "The people of Lu appear to be very 
 much alarmed at my approach," said the prince. 
 "True," replied the minister, "the people are alarmed, 
 but the ruler is not." "Why is not the ruler also," 
 inquired the invader, "when his troops are in disorder, 
 and his magazines as empty as a bell? On what 
 does he repose his confidence that he should affect 
 to be superior to fear?" 
 
 " He rests on the grant which his fathers received 
 from the ancient emperors," said the minister. 
 He then proceeded to vindicate the rights of his 
 master, under what was recognized as the traditional 
 ' law of the empire, with such force that the prince 
 desisted from his purpose, and withdrew without any 
 further act of violence. 
 
 A similar instance, it will be remembered, has 
 been cited already in another connection, the 
 case in which a prince, after urging in vain this same
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 139 
 
 plea, the sacredness of the imperial grant was saved 
 from humiliation or extinction by the mediation of 
 neighboring powers, who recognized and were 
 determined to uphold the principle. 
 
 A third example of the kind is one in which the 
 existence of the now feeble remnant of the imperial 
 domain was itself at stake. The Prince of Chu, 
 after a victorious campaign against other foes, crossed 
 the Rubicon and entered the territories of the house 
 of Cheo, with the evident intention of seizing the 
 imperial throne. The emperor, unable to oppose 
 armed resistance, dispatched Wang Sun-man, one of 
 his ministers, to convey a supply of provisions to the 
 invading army, and to ascertain the designs of its 
 leader. The latter veiled his purpose in figurative 
 language, asking to be informed as to the "weight of 
 the nine tripods," insinuating that if not too heavy 
 he intended to carry them away. The minister, 
 without answering directly, gave the history of the 
 tripods, relating how they had been cast in bronze 
 by Ta Yu, the founder of the first great dynasty, and 
 emblazoned with a chart of the empire in relief; how 
 for fifteen centuries they had been preserved as 
 emblems of the imperial dignity; and, exposing in a 
 masterly manner the necessity of respect for that 
 venerable power to the order of the several States, 
 he concluded by saying "All this being true, why
 
 I4O HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 should Your Highness ask the weight of the tripods?" 
 The chief, struck by the force of his arguments, 
 which, like the most effective on such occasions, 
 were purely historical, renounced his nefarious 
 purpose, and retired to his own dominions. 
 
 Sixth: Finally, the rights of neutrals were 
 admitted, and to a certain extent respected. 
 
 It has been remarked that, in the wars of Greece, 
 there were no neutrals; those who desired to be 
 such, if they were so situated as to be of any weight 
 in the conflict, being always compelled to declare 
 themselves on one side or the other. This was not 
 the case in China. The neutral frequently rejected 
 the overtures of both parties, and his territories 
 interposed an effectual barrier in the way of the 
 belligerents. We have numerous instances of passage 
 being granted to troops without further participation 
 in the conflict, and one case in which a wise statesman 
 warns his master against the danger of such an 
 imprudent concession. "In a former war," said he, 
 "you granted it to your detriment; if you do so again, 
 it will be to your ruin." His chief failed to profit by 
 the warning; and the prince thus unjustly favored, 
 after destroying his antagonist, turned about and 
 took possession of the territory of his friend. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 It is, as we have intimated, quite possible that
 
 INTERNATIONAL LAW IN ANCIENT CHINA. 141 
 
 text-books on the subject of international relations 
 may have existed in ancient China, without coming 
 down to our times, just as the Greeks had books on , ' 
 that subiect, of which nothing now survives but their 
 titles. Whether this conjecture be well founded or 
 otherwise, enough remains, as we have shown, to 
 prove that the States of ancient China had a Law 
 written or unwritten, and more or less developed^ 
 which they recognized in peace and war. The Book 
 of Rites and the histories of the period attest this. 
 
 Of these histories, one was acknowledged as 
 constituting in itself a kind of international code. 
 I allude to the Spring and Autumn Annals, edited 
 by Confucius, and extending over two centuries and 
 a half. Native authors affirm that the awards of 
 praise and blame expressed in that work, often in a 
 single word, were accepted as judgments from which 
 there was no appeal, and exercised a restraining 
 influence more potent than that of armies and navies. 
 
 Chinese statesmen have pointed out the analogy 
 of their own country at that epoch with the political 
 divisions of modem Europe. In their own records 
 they find usages, words, and ideas, corresponding to 
 the terms of our modern international law ; and they 
 are by that fact the more disposed to accept the in- 
 ternational code of Christendom, which it is no Utopian 
 vision to believe will one day become a bond of peace 
 and justice between all the nations of the earth.
 
 VI. 
 
 DIPLOMACY 
 
 IN 
 
 ANCIENT CHINA.* 
 
 INTERNATIONAL diplomacy is an art new to 
 y$ the Chinese, but one for which they evince a 
 
 <> 
 
 marvellous aptitude. From the inquiry on 
 
 which we are about to enter, it will, we think, 
 be made apparent that with them it is rather the 
 revival of a lost art, an art in the creation of which 
 they can claim the distinction of precedence over 
 all existing nations. 
 
 Under that famous dynasty of Chow, when sages 
 were born, and when those books were produced 
 which rule the thought of the empire, diplomacy 
 took its rise. Akin to the spirit of war, it flourished 
 most in that period when the central power had lost 
 
 * Read before the Oriental Society of Peking.
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 143 
 
 its control, and vassal states engaged in ceaseless 
 struggles over the division of their patrimony.* 
 
 Diplomacy may be defined as the art of conducting 
 the intercourse of nations. It supposes the existence 
 of states who carry on their intercourse on a footing 
 of equality. This makes it evident why it flourished 
 in the period referred to, and why it disappeared for 
 two thousand years, to re-appear in our own day, 
 like a river that, after flowing for a time underground, 
 rises to the surface with an increase of volume. As 
 etiquette is the outgrowth of a society of individuals, ^ " 
 so diplomacy springs from a society of slates. 
 Robinson Crusoe, spending his life on a lonely island, 
 can hardly be supposed to occupy his thoughts with 
 the rules of good breeding, and, although "Monarch 
 of all he surveyed," he had no use for diplomacy. 
 
 * There are three well known works that relate to this period, viz : 
 The History of the Warring States HfB my] yF? 
 The National History of Sze-ma ch ~& . 
 
 A Romance founded on the former, called yn |PjQ M\ j 
 an expanded history of the feudal ages. 
 
 As an authority, the Romance is of no value. The National History 
 derives its materials chiefly from the same source; but, as they have been 
 passed through the seive and weighed in the balance of the great 
 author, I have taken it for my guide so far as facts are concerned, 
 reserving to myself always the right of interpretation.
 
 144 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 - The triumph of Ch'in, by which these numerous 
 States, "discordant and belligerent," were swept 
 from the arena, was the death-blow of diplomacy. 
 
 The empire was thenceforth one and indivisible, 
 from the desert of Tartary to the borders of Burmah, 
 and from the foot of the Himalayas to the shores of 
 the eastern sea. 
 
 No rival, no equal was known to exist on the face 
 of the globe. Envoys no longer sped on secret 
 missions from court to court. 
 
 Alliances ceased to be formed, because there was 
 j none whose friendship could bring strength, or whose 
 opposition could occasion danger. The outside 
 world was synonomous with barbarism, and the 
 "inner land" comprised, for the Chinese, the whole 
 of human civilization. Inferior states came with 
 tribute, and went home laden with patronizing gifts. 
 Diplomacy in any proper sense was impossible. 
 All that the Chinese of later ages could know of it 
 was a legend of the past, which connected itself 
 with a few illustrious names. 
 
 The best way to treat the subject on the present 
 occasion is, no doubt, to take up those "names," 
 and evoke from them the busy actors in a slow 
 but momentous revolution. 
 
 The revolution, which some of them endeavoured 
 to further, while others strove in vain to arrest it,
 
 
 
 /r*. 
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 145 
 
 was the rise in the north-west of an ambitious, 
 j aggressive, semi-barbarous power, which eventually 
 swallowed up its rivals, and remained sole master of 
 the field. 
 
 To trace the steps by which a petty principality, 
 the guardian of a remote frontier, advanced to such 
 eminence that all the older and more civilized states 
 combined to check its progress, forms one of the 
 most instructive chapters of Chinese history; 
 but it does not belong to the subject of this paper. 
 Of the early stages of the unfolding drama, we can 
 only remark that, as in the later stage, the principal 
 actors on the side of the growing power appear to 
 ./ have been foreigners. The princes of Ch'in, rude 
 and uncultivated as they were, displayed for the 
 most part that element of greatness, which consists 
 in the choice of the fittest instruments. These 
 they sought both at home and abroad, attracting 
 to their court men of talent from neighbouring 
 countries by the public offer of high office and great 
 rewards. 
 
 One instance out of many will suffice to illustrate 
 the effect of this policy. A young man by the 
 name of Shang-yang, who had devoted himself 
 to the study of political science, came to the court 
 of Wei, in quest of employment. The prince was 
 struck by his talents, but hesitated to take him into
 
 146 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 his service. "Kill him then," said an old minister, 
 "but by no means allow him to give his great abilities 
 to the service of a rival state." The prince did neither, 
 and Shang-yang proceeded to the court of Ch'in, 
 where he was invested with high office, and reformed 
 everything, from army discipline to land tenure. 
 It was largely through his influence that his adopted 
 country attained such power as to threaten the 
 independence of its neighbours. 
 
 , ' It was then that diplomacy came on the stage 
 as a leading factor in deciding the destiny of 
 states. In more tranquil periods, it had occupied 
 itself with matters of ceremony, missions of 
 compliment to express felicitation or condolence; or, 
 if negotiation was engaged in, it seldom rose higher 
 than the arrangement of the terms of a marriage. 
 But now the diplomat became the most conspicuous 
 figure of the age, rising above the general, because 
 generals marched as he directed; more influential than 
 princes, because the prince decided in accordance 
 with the far-sighted views of his diplomatic adviser. 
 Jove sat wrapped in his pavilion of clouds, and 
 Mercury engrossed the scene as he sped back and 
 forth on winged sandals. 
 
 If we follow some of these envoys, we shall not 
 only obtain an impression of the importance of their 
 functions, but get a clearer view of the history of the
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 147 
 
 period than any other stand-point can afford us. 
 
 The scene is that portion of China lying to the 
 north of the Yang-tse-kiang; the period of time, that 
 in which Alexander and his successors were extending 
 their conquests in western Asia. 
 
 The first diplomats to challenge our attention 
 are Su-ch'in and Chang-i. They are not, like 
 Talthybius and Eurybates,* mere heralds or post-boys, 
 whose duty it is to carry a message, and blow a 
 trumpet. They are statesmen, full of self-acting 
 energy ; and each opposed to the other in a conflict 
 that ends only with life. As in Greece, there was a 
 school of statesmanship in which they acquired 
 their arts, and above all the art of persuasion. 
 The Academus to which they resorted was a wild 
 gorge in the mountains of Honan, and the master 
 to whose instructions they listened is known to 
 posterity by no other name than that of Kwe-ku-tsze, 
 '' Philosopher of the Devil's Hollow." 
 
 I have read the books ascribed to his pen, but 
 find in them nothing that can account for the 
 eminence of his disciples; nothing even that could 
 have afforded them a suggestion of the career 
 which they pursued with such wonderful success. 
 The fact is, this lover of solitude was not a 
 
 * Compare this latter name, meaning "one who walks abroad," 
 with tfv J\ " walkers," ancient Chinese for "envoys."
 
 148 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 diplomatist, but an educator. Books were few in 
 those days, existing only in manuscript copies; 
 and the knowledge of letters, very restricted. 
 It follows that the influence of the teacher was 
 greater than it now is, when books are cheap, and 
 libraries accessible to all. 
 
 Emerging from seclusion with the full conscious- 
 ness of superior intelligence, Su-ch'in thought only 
 of carrying his wares to the most promising market. 
 That market was the court of the rude, rising power 
 of the north-west, whose princes welcomed all who 
 had anything to teach, and rewarded them with 
 unexampled munificence. He was a native of the 
 central state, and born under the immediate sway of 
 the suzerain; but he did not scruple to point out, 
 to a great vassal, the way in which he might crush all 
 lesser rivals, and possess himself of the throne of his 
 imperial master. "My wings," replied the Prince, 
 "are not sufficiently grown for so high a flight;" 
 and so he dismissed the dusty traveller, who sought 
 prematurely to embroil him with his fellow princes. 
 
 Mortified by ill success, Su turned homeward, 
 vowing that the Prince of Ch'in should repent the 
 blunder of suffering him to escape, after having 
 rejected his advice. Arriving in rags, his wife and 
 his brothers' wives treated him with ill-concealed 
 disrespect. They looked on him as stark mad when,
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 149 
 
 instead of applying himself to something profitable, 
 he resumed his former studies with fresh ardour. 
 
 Su not only took pains to improve his style of 
 speaking and writing, so that his argument would 
 come with force from tongue or pen; he studied the 
 history of each of the feudal states, acquainted 
 himself with the personnel of their courts, drew maps 
 of the empire, made estimates of the population and 
 military strength of its several parts, and sketched 
 plans of hypothetical campaigns. 
 
 After two years of intense application, he set off 
 for the court of Yen, with a mind better furnished 
 than on the occasion of his first abortive attempt. 
 The capital of Yen is supposed to be represented by 
 Peking, the city where we are now assembled; 
 and here it was that Su entered on a career of 
 successful diplomacy, which extended over more than 
 twenty years, and made him for all time the type 
 of a Chinese diplomatist. His patience, with 
 him a leading virtue, was still to be sorely tried. 
 Without money or influence, he found no ready way to 
 open the doors of the great; and, for a whole year, 
 he danced attendance on numerous courtiers, 
 before he could induce anyone to procure him an 
 interview with the Prince. 
 
 That interview was decisive. Su was not the only 
 one who saw the danger to which the other states
 
 150 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 were exposed by the aggressions of Ch'in, but he was 
 the only one who saw how it could be averted. 
 In eloquent terms he set forth the urgency of 
 immediate action, and showed that the only hope of 
 successful resistance lay in the formation of an 
 alliance, which, diverting the forces of the six states 
 from the mad work of mutual destruction, would 
 turn their united strength against their common foe. 
 
 The Prince was delighted. The feasibility of the 
 scheme was no longer doubtful; and, by carrying it 
 into execution, he would secure the honour of taking 
 the lead in a patriotic movement of unparalleled 
 importance. Investing Su with the rank of envoy, he 
 despatched him with general credentials to the courts 
 of the other five powers, a precedent which the 
 Chinese ministers of our day recalled when they sent 
 Mr Burlingame on a mission to the great powers of the 
 two worlds, a precedent which they still follow in- 
 accrediting a single envoy to half the courts of Europe. 
 
 Taking in order the courts of Chao, Han, and Wei, 
 and then moving eastward to the court of Cb/i, 
 Su exposed to each his plan of mutual defence, 
 obtaining from each a pledge conditioned on the 
 adhesion of all the rest. Further south, on the 
 banks of the middle Yangtse, which then formed the 
 southern limit of the empire and of civilization, was^ 
 a power whose definite acceptance of the plan was
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 
 
 essential to its success. This was the kingdom of 
 Ch/u, occupying nearly the ground of the present 
 province of Hupeh. 
 
 Flattered by the cunning envoy with the hope of 
 becoming head of the league, the Prince of Ch'u 
 entered into it with great zeal, and sent Su 
 on his return journey, loaded with fresh honours. 
 The last link was thus added to a chain which -he 
 had been long and patiently forging, a chain strong 
 enough to keep an unscrupulous aggressor within 
 bounds, and to secure in a great measure the 
 blessings of peace to a family of states hitherto in 
 perpetual conflict. 
 
 The achievement was one, the difficulty and 
 grandeur of which it is not easy to over-estimate. 
 The man who conceived the plan, and, with steady 
 purpose, carried it through, deserved all the honours 
 that were heaped upon him. Like Prince Bismarck, 
 who, to the chancellorship of the empire, added that 
 of the kingdom of Prussia, Su held a duplicate or 
 rather a multiple office. His chief dignity was that 
 of President of the Sextuple Alliance; and, in order 
 that he might render it effective, each of the six 
 powers conferred on him the seal of a separate 
 Chancellorship. 
 
 Turning northward with a strong escort and 
 immense retinue, he came to the border of his native
 
 152 HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 state, which years before he had quitted in the guise 
 of a palmer, staff in hand. Here he was met by 
 messengers from the Emperor, who offered him a 
 banquet, and gave him a welcome on behalf of their 
 master, who, says the historian, "was alarmed at the 
 power and magnificence of his quondam subject." 
 A better explanation would be a generous acknowl- 
 edgment of the success of Su-ch'in ; or, better still, 
 a desire to make use of Su's diplomatic triumphs 
 to restore the sinking prestige of the empire, 
 menaced by the growing power of Ch'in. 
 
 What wonder that the members of his own 
 famil3 r , who had treated him so shabbily, should 
 now meet him with demonstrations of respect! 
 "How comes it," he said to his elder brother's wife, 
 who was throwing herself at his feet, "that you 
 treat me so differently to-day from the time 
 when I came home from the first journey?" 
 " Because'," said she with naive candor, "you are 
 now a great officer and have plenty of money." 
 
 Su was kind to his poor relations, and, distributing 
 money with a lavish hand, proceeded to the Court 
 of Chao. 
 
 There it was that he fixed his head-quarters; 
 not that the kingdom was great, or the prince 
 influential, but because its geographical situation was 
 such as to make it, to borrow a scientific phrase,
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 1 53 
 
 the centre of political pressure. "From this point," 
 says the historian, "by the hand of a herald, he 
 launched at the Prince of Ch'in a copy of the six-fold 
 League." Imagine the satisfaction with which he 
 submitted that document to the inspection of a 
 potentate who had rejected his services, and who 
 was now to be confined by it, as with a chain, within 
 his proper bounds! "For fifteen years," adds the 
 historian, "the armies of Ch'in did not dare to show 
 themselves beyond the mountain pass of Hanku." 
 
 What proof of success could be more striking! 
 What doubt that, during this long period, Su had 
 occasion to repeat often and again his weary circuit, 
 in order to maintain his hold on the inharmonious 
 elements which he had brought under his control ! 
 
 On the East coast of Africa, there are places 
 in which, we are told, it is impossible to induce three 
 men to go together on an errand, because each fears 
 that the other two may combine and sell him into 
 slavery. So it was with these "warring states," as 
 they are called in Chinese history. Each one 
 regarded its nearest neighbours with profound mistrust 
 and aversion. 
 
 To overcome their centrifugal tendencies, and hold 
 them together for so long a time, required a 
 combination of qualities, rarely equalled, perhaps 
 never surpassed.
 
 HANLIN PAPFRS. 
 
 The masterly arguments, by which Su had originally 
 conquered that ascendancy, are given in cxtenso 
 in the voluminous work of Sze-ma-ch'ien. They are 
 clear and eloquent, but they read more like genuine 
 state papers than like the speeches that Livy is wont 
 to put into the mouth of his heroes. 
 
 How skilfully he adapts his mode of address to the 
 disposition of each ruler! In one he kindles ambition; 
 in another he awakens jealousy, as his strongest , 
 passion, and directs it against the mighty foe. 
 He practises on the fears of others, while flattering 
 their pride; and one (the Prince of Han), who was 
 on the point of attaching himself to Ch'in, he 
 deterred effectually by employing a proverb which, 
 from that fact, has acquired an undying celebrity: 
 "Better be a chicken's head thim an ox's tail,"* 
 or, as Cassar puts it, "First in a village rather than 
 second at Rome." 
 
 Su's brother, Su-tai, was also an able diplomat, 
 and gave him effectual assistance in bringing about 
 the union of the powers. I shall have occasion to 
 refer to him again, and I only speak of him now for 
 the sake of citing a famous apologue, of which he is 
 the author. History has not preserved any of his 
 longer speeches. He was perhaps wanting in that
 
 DIPLOMACY IN AXCIKNT CHINA. 155 
 
 lofty eloquence for which the elder Su was so 
 distinguished, but he was endowed with a certain 
 homely wit that carried conviction. Discoursing with 
 one of the princes on the danger of disunion, 
 he said: "As I walked on the bank of the river, 
 I saw a bird pecking at an oyster; the oyster 
 closed its shell, and held the bird as in a vice. 
 Just then, a fisherman came along, and captured 
 both." The application was clear; whoever might 
 be represented by the foolish fowl and the equally 
 foolish shell-fish, there could be no doubt as to 
 who was the lucky fisherman. In a concise form, 
 this fable continues to be used as a proverb.* 
 It is one of those shining nuggets which, in China, 
 the departing stream of time has left so plentifully 
 scattered among its sands. 
 
 Of the elder Su, I have said enough to establish 
 his claim to tianscendent talents. What w r as the 
 League itself but a creation of genius? And its 
 maintenance for fifteen years, was it not a marvellous 
 manifestation of power? Yet, like other great men, 
 he had his weaknesses. Able in governing others, 
 he was impotent to control his own passions; 
 and to that cause, more than to any other, was due 
 
 * When bird and fish quarrel, both fall a prey. 
 
 (ii w * tt m. A n #))
 
 156 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the final overthrow of the fabric* which he had spent 
 his life in erecting. 
 
 Through jealousy and anger, he made an enemy of 
 Chang-i, who ever after sought to work his ruin; 
 and, yielding to a more tender passion, he became 
 involved in an undiplomatic intrigue with a princess of 
 Yen, flight and death being the disastrous consequence. 
 
 Chang-i, to whom we have just referred, stands 
 next, by common consent, on the list of international 
 statesmen of ancient times. In talent not much 
 inferior to Su-ch'in, his career is wanting in that unity 
 which imparts a kind of grandeur to the achievements 
 of Su. His life was divided between internal 
 administration and external politics. 
 
 As administrator and military chief, he served by 
 turns three or four states, always giving a temporary 
 preponderance to the one he served, unlike his 
 rival who served six at once, and promoted equally 
 the interests of all. 
 
 As a negotiator, he effected one or two powerful 
 alliances; but his chief claim to distinction is the skill 
 he showed in sowing discord among the members of 
 the eastern league, to avenge himself for an insult 
 received at the hand of a faithless friend. 
 
 That insult was received on the threshold of his 
 career. As Su had made an unsuccessful attempt 
 in the north-west, so Chang began by a fruitless
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 157 
 
 journey to Ch'u, in the south. In the meantime, 
 his friend had risen to eminence, and he sought to 
 join him at the court of Chao. Su, however, was as 
 yet only forging the second link of his diplomatic 
 chain. Whether he dreaded the disturbing influence 
 of a mind too original to become a tool, or whether 
 he feared that the lustre of Chang-i's talent would 
 obscure the brightness of his own, he treated him 
 with disdain, and found means to send him away 
 from the scene of his own activity. In his eagerness 
 to rid himself of a possible rival, he even supplied 
 him with money and with attendants, to escort 
 him as far as the capital of the north-western 
 kingdom. 
 
 Chang saw through the stratagem, and vowed 
 that Su should repent of it. Winning the confidence 
 of the Prince, he rose to the highest positions 
 in the state, being sometimes general, sometimes 
 diplomatic envoy, and more than once clothed 
 with the dignity of prime minister. 
 
 As head of the administration, he developed the 
 resources of the state, and prepared the way for its 
 ultimate triumph, and as a leader of troops he was 
 uniformly successful ; but it was in a third character, 
 that of diplomatist, that he performed the most 
 marvellous feats. Labouring to undo the work of 
 Su, he contrived to keep him in a state of perpetual
 
 15 8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 anxiety during his life-time; and ultimately to effect 
 the dissolution of the confederacy immediately on 
 the death of its founder. 
 
 The most remarkable incidents in his career 
 'Occurred in the kingdom of Ch'u. On his first visit, 
 which, as we have said, was unsuccessful, he had the 
 misfortune to be set upon by his enemies and badly 
 beaten. Taunted by his wife for his damaged 
 appearance, he opened his mouth and asked her to 
 see if his tongue was in its place. On her answering 
 in the affirmative, he added, "With this I shall 
 retrieve my fortunes," and he kept liis word. 
 So great, indeed, were his powers of persuasion that 
 he often disarmed hostility, and sometimes raised 
 himself to power, where he had been menaced with 
 destruction. To cite only one instance: The Prince 
 of Ch'in engaged in war with Ch'u, stirred up 
 perhaps by his minister's hatred fur the state 
 where he had suffered his first great humiliation. 
 The army of Ch'u was defeated, and Ch'in demanded, 
 as the price of peace, the cession of a coveted 
 territory in exchange for another. The worsted Chief 
 replied with a grim joke : "Give me your chancellor, 
 and I will yield the territory, without asking a 
 foot of ground in exchange." The Prince of Ch'in 
 repeated this flattering proposal to his minister, but 
 with no thought of compliance.
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 1 59 
 
 To his surprise, Chang-i replied : " I am ready ; 
 send me to the camp of the enemy." 
 
 On arrival he was thrown into prison, and menaced 
 with death ; but he had one acquaintance, whom he 
 could rely on as amicus in curia. Through this man, 
 he conveyed to the reigning beauty a hint that the 
 western prince was about to send a beautiful woman 
 as his ransom. The lady took alarm, and procured 
 his release without waiting for the ransom. 
 
 Just at that moment, the news of Sii's death came 
 to his ears, suggesting the possibility of turning 
 his temporary captivity into a veritable victory. 
 Seeking an interview with the prince, under guise of 
 thanking him for sparing his life, he sought to repay 
 his debt of gratitude by tendering the best advice he 
 was able to offer; that was that he should abandon 
 the confederacy, and throw in his fortunes with his 
 powerful neighbour. The prince desired to hear the 
 reasons for such a startling proposition ; and Chang 
 set them forth with clearness and force, concluding a 
 discourse, not inferior to Su's best speeches, with a 
 recommendation to cement the peace by accepting 
 his neighbour's son as a hostage, and giving his own 
 in exchange; and further to consolidate the 
 union, by asking in marriage a princess of Ch'in. 
 No translation can do justice to his masterly argument, 
 because it bristles all over with allusions to places
 
 l6o HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 whose names are strange to European ears, and 
 facts of history which, out of China, have no 
 significance. 
 
 But the prince, to whom it was addressed, understood 
 it. Every word took effect; how deep the effect 
 may be judged from the fact that his kinsman, 
 Ch'u-yuen, the gifted poet, tried in vain to deter 
 him from following the counsel of Chang-i. 
 
 His energetic remonstrance is not too long to give 
 in full. "Your Highness," said he, "has once and 
 again been the victim of Chang-i's deceptions. 
 When your enemy had come into your hands, 
 I took it for granted you would roast him alive. 
 Now if you have relented so far as to refrain from 
 putting him to death, why .should you go a step 
 further, and listen to his deceitful advice?" 
 
 The prince persisted, and, to make a long story 
 short, the poet, like another Ahithophel, went 
 away and drowned himself, his hapless fate being 
 commemorated by the annual festival of dragon boats. 
 
 On his way home, Chang visited the court of 
 Han, and succeeded in detaching the prince of that 
 country also from the confederacy. 
 
 Arriving at the capital of Ch'in, picture to 
 yourselves the glory of his triumphal entry. 
 He had gone forth alone and unattended, a voluntary 
 peace-offering, to be sacrificed to the resentment of
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. l6l 
 
 a hostile state. He returned leading in his train the 
 envoys of that state, and those of another hereditary 
 enemy. 
 
 The Prince of Ch'in was duly sensible of the value 
 of this service, and conferred on the hero the lordship 
 of five cities. So well had Chang-i succeeded in his 
 attempt to detach Ch'u and Han, that he resolved not 
 to desist from his undertaking until the confederacy 
 should be utterly demolished. At his request, his 
 master commissioned him to proceed successively 
 to the capitals of Chao, of Yen, and of Ch'i. 
 The histories tell us what he said to each prince; 
 how he tempered menace with flattery, so that, on 
 reading each several discourse, we are not surprised 
 that the prince, to whom it was addressed, should feel 
 impelled by ambition, as well as by prudence, to 
 follow the policy so powerfully advocated. 
 
 Thus, one by one, all of the states which Su had so 
 laboriously arrayed against Ch'in, Chang-i had the 
 satisfaction of seeing at the feet of his master, humbly 
 acknowledging the hegemony of the north-western 
 power. Recall the long negotiations that were 
 required to bring the petty states of Greece to accept 
 the hegemony of Sparta or Athens, and you can 
 appreciate the greatness of Chang-i's diplomatic 
 triumph. 
 
 For three centuries, the leadership among the
 
 1 62 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 feudal states had been the great object of ambition. 
 Four of them had enjoyed it in succession, feeling 
 satisfied with that distinction without dreaming of 
 the imperial yellow. 
 
 Ch'in was the last to erect the standard of 
 leadership, and Chang-i's diplomacy was the proximate 
 influence that led the other states to rally round it. 
 A century was yet to elapse before Ch'in became 
 bold enough to usurp the imperial throne, an event 
 which followed naturally on the destruction of the 
 most of its feudatories. But that is a history into 
 which we have no time to enter. Nor have we 
 time to pursue the fortunes of this consummate 
 master of diplomatic intrigue further than to say 
 that, losing power through the death of his patron, 
 he returned to his native state, where he was 
 invested with the honours of prime minister, 
 and died the following year. 
 
 After the death of Chang, the eastern states, one 
 ^ by one, broke away from their allegiance to Ch'in. 
 Kung Sun-yen, who all along had opposed the 
 policy of Chang-i, now that- the latter was dead, 
 exerted himself to resuscitate the confederacy, and 
 succeeded in doing so, as Chang had succeeded in 
 dissolving it, on the death of Su. Through his 
 efforts, five of them were formed into a phalanx, 
 with hostile spears pointing to the North-west.
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 163 
 
 Kung-sun, as successor to Su, received the grand seal 
 of chancellor of the union. This ephemeral success, 
 easier far than the untried enterprise of his 
 predecessor, causes him to be ranked among 
 the noted diplomatists of that troubled period. 
 We dismiss him with this brief notice, merely 
 calling attention to him as chancellor of the second 
 Eastern league. 
 
 In this second league, the principality of Chao 
 took a leading part, as it had done in the first. 
 In command of the gate of the west, its strategic 
 position was imposing; but it owed its influence in 
 the league to its good fortune in possessing the ablest 
 general and the most gifted statesman of the age. 
 The general was Lien P'o, and the statesman 
 Lin Siang-ju, of whom we shall speak only in his 
 character of envoy and negotiator. 
 
 Two incidents in his history will serve to throw light 
 on the times in which he lived. His prince possessed 
 a gem of great value, and, like the koh-i-noor, 
 unique, the envy of neighbouring potentates. 
 The Prince of Cb/in sent an embassy to offer fifteen 
 cities in exchange for it. Its owner was afraid to 
 refuse, and equalty afraid to comply, lest the other 
 party should not act in good faith. Lin, then a 
 young official in the household, said to his master :- 
 "You need not fear the loss of the gem; send me
 
 164 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 with it, and, if the cities are not surrendered, 
 I will be answerable for its safe return." 
 
 Arriving at the court of Ch'in, and appearing in 
 the presence of the prince for the purpose of offering 
 the gem, he discovered that the prince was inclined 
 to play him false, by detaining the gem, and 
 withholding at least a part of the price. On perceiving 
 this, Lin stealthily slipped the gem into the bosom 
 of a trusty servant, who, following an unfrequented 
 path, conveyed it safely home. Lin of course 
 remained at court, and, when the fact became known, 
 he offered to give his life, if required, in lieu of the gem. 
 The prince, appreciating his courage and fidelity, let 
 him go unharmed. On reaching home, he was raised 
 to high honours; and one hopes the faithful domestic 
 was not forgotten. It is related of one of the 
 crown jewels of Russia that, in a time of trouble, it was 
 once given to a servant to convey to a place of safety. 
 The servant said as he departed: "If I should be 
 slain by the way, you will find the jewel in my body." 
 He was slain, and his master, recovering his body, 
 found the jewel in his stomach. 
 
 The other incident in the life of Lin relates to a 
 ceremonious meeting of two princes. They met on 
 the common frontier, each accompanied by his 
 diplomatic adviser. In a festive humour, the prince 
 of Cb/in asked his brother prince to favour him with
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 1 65 
 
 a specimen of the music in which he was known to 
 be a proficient. The request was unsuspectingly 
 complied with, but Lin saw in it a design to treat 
 his master with indignity. "Now," said he to the 
 prince of Ch'in, "it is your turn; please beat 
 the tabour after the manner of your country." 
 The prince hesitating, he added: "If you refuse, 
 I shall spattermyblood on your royal robes, asa protest 
 against the affront you have put upon my master." 
 Hearing this, the guards rushed upon him, and were 
 about to cut him down ; but his fearless bearing held 
 them in check, and the haughty prince, not wishing 
 to bring the conference to a tragic ending, gave a 
 few beats on the tabour. The princes parted on 
 equal terms ; and Lin was raised to the highest rank in 
 the state, for having saved the honour of his master. 
 
 When Bismarck lighted his cigar in the diet 
 at Frankfort,-a privilege regarded as belonging 
 exclusively to the ambassador of Austria,-all Germany 
 was astounded at his audacity. Not less were the 
 states of China, at the boldness of Lin, in compelling 
 the mightiest prince of the empire to keep time to 
 his master's music. In either case, a trivial act was 
 clothed with a grave political significance, and 
 it required diplomatic talent of the highest order 
 to turn it to account. 
 
 Previous to this occurrence, the famous general
 
 1 66 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Lien P'o had enjoyed the first rank in his state, 
 He felt it as a personal outrage that a man, whom 
 he looked on as an upstart, should suddenly be 
 raised above him, forgetting that the statesman is 
 above the soldier, and that good diplomacy requires 
 the highest kind of statesmanship. He let it be 
 known that, wherever he should meet his rival, 
 he would insult him to his face. Lin, hearing of this 
 threat, took pains to avoid a meeting. The general, 
 remarking this, sent him a half contemptuous 
 message, asking an explanation of his strange and 
 undignified conduct, which he was not at liberty to 
 impute to fear, after the proofs he had given of 
 personal courage. Lin replied: "If I avoid 
 an encounter, it is because your life and mine 
 are indispensable to the safety of our country. 
 If Ch/in refrains from attacking Chao, it is on account 
 of us two. The Prince of Ch'in would be delighted 
 to see us fall by each other's hands." 
 
 The general was so struck with this patriotic 
 answer, and particularly with Lin's moral courage in 
 exposing himself to a suspicion of cowardice rather 
 than bring a calamity on his country, that he frankly 
 confessed himself in fault, in the ceremonious fashion 
 then in vogue. Coming to Lin's door with a rod in 
 his hand, instead of using it on Lin, he begged that it 
 might be applied to his own back. The two rushed into
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 167 
 
 each other's arms, swore to be brothers, and sealed the 
 covenant by drinking a cup of wine, mingled with 
 blood drawn from the veins of both. Who, on hearing 
 this, can fail to recall the manner in which Aristides 
 and Themistocles laid aside their deadly feud, 
 how, when Xerxes was threatening the liberties of 
 Greece, knowing that union is strength, they dug 
 a pit and formally buried their enmity, not to be 
 resurrected until the danger was past? 
 
 If I have followed the career of particular statesmen 
 with considerable detail, it is because I have thought 
 I might in that way present a more vivid picture of 
 the diplomacy of the period. Viewed from a moral 
 standpoint, that diplomacy was not above criticism. 
 It reminds us of the instructions given by Louis 
 XI to his ambassadors, when despatching them to 
 neighbouring states, "If they lie to you, you must 
 lie still more to them," and bears little resemblance 
 to the transparent candour and immaculate integrity, 
 which characterize the European diplomacy of our 
 own day; for has not diplomacy, like everything 
 else, risen above the level of former ages ? Is it not 
 a recognized maxim, in our enlightened times, that 
 honesty is the best policy? Is it not equally a maxim 
 that the advantage of each is found in the prosperity 
 of all? What representative of a European power 
 ever disguises the truth, or thinks of taking advantage
 
 l68 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of the ignorance or weakness of the power with 
 which he is called to negotiate? In fact, what is 
 diplomacy, as we understand it, but another name for 
 philanthropy ? * 
 
 Chinese statesmen of the period under review had 
 (alas !) not yet attained to this sublime conception ; 
 >& & lit ^ "let every man do his best for his own 
 master," was the maxim they openly professed, 
 a maxim often quoted to excuse deviations 
 from rectitude. 
 
 Envoys went and came on all occasions calling for 
 felicitation or condolence, and I will not assert that 
 they were too high-minded to improve the 
 opportunity to spy out the nakedness of the land; 
 or that custom forbade them, while professing peace, 
 to make preparation for war. 
 
 There existed a code of recognized rules for the 
 regulation of intercourse by means of diplomatic 
 envoys. I have touched on these in a paper on 
 Traces of International Law in Ancient China; 
 and I do not propose to repeat what I have there 
 said. My object has been rather to show diplomacy 
 in action, than to set forth either rules or theories. 
 Permit me, in conclusion, to make one or two 
 observations : 
 
 * Several of our diplomatic representatives were present at the 
 reading of this Paper.
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. 169 
 
 1. Among the privileges of ambassadors, as laid 
 down in the ancient books of China, we find no trace 
 of that convenient fiction known as extra-territoriality. 
 
 The hospitable Spaniard, in Buenos Ayres, sends 
 you a card of invitation to come to "your own house," 
 in such and such a street. So, western peoples have 
 agreed that a diplomatic envoy, as guest of the 
 nation, shall be considered as living and moving on 
 his own ground. It is a little singular that the 
 Chinese never thought of expressing their sense of 
 the inviolable sanctity of such envoys in a similar 
 manner, especially as their languge is not wanting in 
 similar fictions, dictated by courtesy or flattery. 
 
 As a principle, the sanctity of an ambassador was 
 fully admitted; but in practice, it was frequently 
 violated. Nor is that to be wondered at, in a state 
 of society in which ambassadors regarded it as their 
 main business to mingle in court intrigues. 
 
 2. In the diplomacy of ancient China, there was 
 no such thing as a minister plenipotentiary. 
 
 The sovereign always held himself free to disavow 
 the acts of his representative, whenever it might suit 
 his policy so to do. When the Chinese were first 
 confronted with that term, in their negotiations with 
 the west, they expressed some surprise, and declined 
 to accept it. "There is only one plenipotentiary 
 in the empire/' they said; "that is the Emperor."
 
 170 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 How their scruples were overcome, I shall not pause 
 to explain further than to say that it required 
 nothing less than the storming of his forts to induce 
 the Emperor to grant the title. 
 
 3. In the diplomacy of ancient China, there was 
 no such thing as a resident minister; they were all 
 envoyte extraordinaires. 
 
 But they found occasion to prolong their stay for 
 months or years; and, in many cases, they were kept 
 going back and forth so frequently as to accomplish 
 all the purposes of residence, together with the 
 additional advantage of frequent conference with 
 their chiefs. 
 
 As an example of the kind of reports they were 
 expected to make, I may mention that Su-tai, 
 the brother of the more noted Su, of whom we 
 have spoken, was once sent as ambassador to Ch'i. 
 On returning, his master desired him to report on the 
 state of that country, and the character of its prince, 
 with particular reference to the question whether he 
 was aspiring to the hegemony, or had any prospect 
 of attaining it. 
 
 As an instance of frequent and prolonged missions, 
 I may cite the case of Ch'en-chen. Being frequently 
 sent on missions to Ch/u, he was accused by Chang-i 
 of enriching himself without benefitting his chief. 
 Charged with drawing emoluments from two states,
 
 DIPLOMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA. If I 
 
 and making himself a persona grata at the foreign 
 court without, in any way, improving the state of 
 foreign relations, he defended himself successfully; 
 and I only cite the case as an illustration of the 
 point in hand. 
 
 Instances are not wanting, in which an envoy 
 enlisted in the service of the foreign state, in order 
 the better to serve the policy of his own country. 
 The final stage in the career of the elder Su may 
 be cited as an example in point. Finding himself 
 under the necessity of leaving the court of Yen, 
 to escape the consequences of a liaison which he had 
 formed with a princess, he begged the prince to send 
 him on a mission to the kingdom of Ch'i, alleging that 
 he could there promote his interests much better than 
 by remaining at home. Arriving there, he entered 
 the service of the foreign state ; and subsequently, his 
 intrigues against its welfare being detected, he was 
 bound between two chariots and torn to pieces, 
 a melancholy emblem of the empire of that day, 
 rent asunder by the opposing forces represented 
 by the Leagues of the East and West. 
 
 Su's conduct in the kingdom of Ch'i finds a pretty 
 close parallel in that of Chetardie at the court of 
 Russia, who narrowly escaped a like hideous fate.* 
 
 *In a note to the Guide Diplomatique of de Martens, 
 Volume I, page 83, we have a brief account of the incident 
 alluded to. I cite here one or two lines only : 
 
 "La Chetardie, ambassadeur de France, avail eu la principale part i 
 la revolution qui placa Elisabeth sur le trone de Russie" 
 
 " La Chetardie s'e"tait immisc dans les intrigues de cour .... 
 II ne tarda pas a s'en repentir."
 
 172 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 4. The political relations of the great states of 
 ancient China afford a remarkable analogy to those 
 of the states of modern Europe. In the former, 
 the diplomacy of the period turned on the question 
 of furthering or checking the progress of one power, 
 which appeared to aim at universal dominion. 
 Who shall say that the situation in Europe 
 may not be described under the same formula? 
 Reversing the points of the compass, a political map 
 of the one might serve, mutatis mutandis, for that 
 of the other. And who shall blame the Chinese for 
 reading the wars and alliances of modern Europe 
 in the light of their own ancient history? 
 When they read how for centuries the eyes of Russia 
 have been fixed on the imperial city of the Bosphorus ; 
 how the first Napoleon, on the eve of his disastrous 
 expedition, predicted the danger of Europe becoming J} 
 Cossack; how, in 1854, the advance of Russia was 
 checked by another Napoleon, in concert with 
 England; and how, in 1878, she was compelled, by a 
 conference of the Powers, to relinquish her prey 
 when fairly within her grasp; will they not believe 
 that their great cycle has come round again, 
 and that their own old drama is being repeated 
 on a new and grander theatre ?
 
 VII. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 4 
 
 tell us that, though Venus is 
 so much nearer than Mars, it is impossible 
 fc.5 to obtain a clear view of her surface, 
 v on account of her dazzling brightness. 
 Do we not experience a similar difficulty in 
 contemplating the great luminaries of the human race? 
 In their case, an atmosphere of myth always gathers 
 round the nucleus of history, concealing and 
 distorting their features. 
 
 This was the case with Him to whom the Western 
 world owes its deliverance from the darkness of 
 heathenism. Outside of the authentic records left 
 us by the Four Evangelists, there was extant for a 
 long time a floating mass of fable which it cost no 
 
 * Read before the Oriental Society of Peking. October, 1892.
 
 174 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 little labor to expose and suppress. It was so with 
 the wisest of the sages of Greece. How different the 
 aspect which Socrates presents in the simple narrative 
 of Xenophon from that which he is made to assume 
 in the voluminous Dialogues of Plato ! 
 
 In the latter, we know that we are not reading 
 history; yet they do contain historic elements, 
 many of the doctrines and much of the manner 
 of propounding them being derived from Socrates, 
 even if the words in which they are clothed belong 
 wholly to his eloquent disciple. 
 
 Such, too, is the case of Confucius. So great was 
 the ascendency to which he attained, within the five 
 or six centuries succeeding his death, that it became 
 the fashion to invoke his name for any document 
 for which his followers desired to conciliate popular 
 favor. 
 
 Especially was this the habit with that large 
 class of writers, the Po-tszc ( j^" -J-), whom we may 
 describe as the Sophists of China. Take up a 
 volume of Leih-tsze or Chuang-tsze, and you meet 
 with anecdotes, apologues, and discourses, put 
 forth under the name of Confucius, all of which 
 are so evidently fictitious as to suggest a querry 
 whether they were ever intended to be taken as 
 historical. These writers deal in a similar way, 
 and some of them to a much greater extent,
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 175 
 
 with the name of Hwang-ti, the Yellow Emperor, 
 a personage who belongs altogether to the realm 
 of myth. 
 
 It is no disparagement to the pains-taking and 
 conscientious authors of the Lun Yu, the Confucian 
 Memorabilia, to say that they must share with writers 
 of fiction the honor of propagating the fame of their 
 Master. They have made the world familiar with 
 the Sage, who always spoke with deliberation, and 
 acted with dignity; who had such a weakness for 
 ginger that he was "never tired of eating it ; " and who 
 was so scrupulous as to petty proprieties that 
 he "never sat down if his mat was awry." 
 To these trifling details they add that, at home, 
 he wore a tunic with one sleeve shorter than the other, 
 and slept in a night-gown fifty per cent longer than 
 his body ; that, on going to bed, he ceased to talk; 
 and, not to cite other traits of aspect and carriage, 
 the conviction is forced upon us that we have here 
 glimpses of a real man. 
 
 But turn to the outline of biography, familiar 
 to every Chinese school-boy. Passing over the 
 supernatural portents connected with his birth and 
 death, we find the statement that Confucius was 
 prime minister of Lu for three months; that, within 
 that time, he effected such a reformation that precious 
 things might be dropped in the street without risk -J
 
 176 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of misappropriation; that shepherds refrained from 
 watering their sheep before driving them to market, 
 lest they should draw more than their proper 
 weight; that prisons were empty, and tribunals idle; 
 that men were honest, and women chaste; and that 
 the little state began to acquire such a preponderance 
 that its neighbors resorted to unworthy stratagems 
 to undermine the influence of the great reformer. 
 Instead of one clever woman, such as Louis XIV 
 sent as ambassadress to Charles II, the Prince of Cb/i 
 despatched four-score ballet girls, and the Prince of 
 Lu ceased to listen to the lectures of Confucius. 
 These and other incidents, either wholly fictitious or 
 greatly exaggerated, are found in the sober pages of 
 
 Sze-ma-ch'ien, the Herodotus of China. 
 
 
 
 The Sage taught by a child. 
 Many of these incidents have been taken up and 
 further expanded by later writers. For instance, 
 the historian records that " Confucius took lessons 
 from Hiang-t'oh." Now, Hiang-t'oh was a precocious 
 child of seven years; and the record probably means 
 nothing more than that the Sage condescended to 
 take a hint from the lad, or to make use of him as an 
 illustration in teaching, as a Greater Teacher did, 
 when, his disciples contending for precedence, 
 he set a little child before them as an object lesson 
 in the graces of faith and humility.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 177 
 
 Here is a specimen of the stories that have grown 
 out of this obscure incident: 
 
 Confucius, it is said, seeing a little boy playing with 
 tiles in the street, called to him to make way for his 
 carriage. " Not so," said the boy ; "I am building a 
 city. A city wall does not give way for a cart, but a cart 
 goes round the wall." "You seem to be uncommonly 
 clever for your years," said Confucius, surprised at the 
 self-possession of the lad. "How so ?" said the lad ; 
 "a hare of the age of three days can scamper over the 
 fields, and should I not know a thing or two at the 
 age of seven years? If you will tell me how many 
 stars there are in heaven, I shall know more than I do 
 now." "Why do you inquire about things so far 
 away ?" said the Sage; "ask about something near at 
 hand, and I will answer you." "Then," said the boy, 
 "please tell me how many hairs you have in your 
 e) T e-brows." The Sage was non-plussed; and, 
 giving the lad a kindly smile, he drove silently away. 
 
 Another story, derived from the same source, 
 though of an earlier date, being found in the works 
 of Leih-tsze, is the following : 
 
 Confucius met with two boys, who were discussing 
 the question whether the sun is more distant in the 
 morning or at noon. "It appearslargerin themorning," 
 said one; "and the nearer an object is, the larger it 
 appears." "But," replied the other, "is not the sun
 
 178 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 hotter at noon than in the morning ? And does not 
 a hot object give more heat when near, than when far 
 away?" Unable to agree, they referred the matter 
 to the Sage; and he, with characteristic caution, 
 left the question undecided; or, as one version has it, 
 he was unable to decide, and the boys formed a low 
 opinion of his intelligence.* 
 
 In treating of the apocryphal literature relating to 
 Confucius, it is important to distinguish that which 
 originated before the "burning of the books" 
 from that which belongs to a later date. 
 Works that preceded that catastrophe have, of course, 
 the better chance of containing genuine traditions, 
 especially if, as in the case of Leih-tsze and 
 Chuang-tsze, they belong to the Taoist school, 
 which was not proscribed, and therefore escaped 
 the conflagration. In the writers last named, 
 the reckless use of imagination vitiates their authority. 
 In Chuang-tsze, there are more than fifty references 
 to Confucius and his disciples, not one of which 
 possesses any historical value. 
 
 * The German poet Claudius puts a similar dispute into the mouth 
 of two rustics : 
 
 Wie gross meinst du die Sonne sei ? 
 So gross vielleicht wie ein futter Hen. 
 etc., etc. 
 
 How big, asked Hans, js the sun, do you say ? 
 As big, said Sep, as a load of hay. 
 No ! no ! cried Hans, not half so big, 
 I give it the size of an ostrich egg.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 179 
 
 In works of the later period, reminiscences of the 
 Sage are far more multiplied; but their genuineness 
 is not merely questionable on account of 
 their remoteness from the times of their subject. 
 Is it not obvious that an occurrence like the 
 "fires of Ch'in," the avowed aim of which was to 
 extirpate the teachings of Confucius, would open a 
 wide field for the production of supposititious literature? 
 So well, indeed, did the tyrant succeed in his 
 purpose that only a few manuscripts escaped; and they, 
 by being hidden for generations in the walls of houses. 
 
 A Premium on Forgery. 
 
 On the accession of the Han Dynasty, when the 
 first attempt was made to wake the lost books from 
 their ashes, the same edict, which caused old men to 
 ransack their brain for pages committed to memory 
 in boyhood, encouraged others to exercise their 
 inventive faculties to produce a plausible substitute. 
 The rewards offered for discoveries of hidden 
 Classics acted as a premium on forgery. 
 
 All the circumstances of the time were adapted to 
 favor imposture. Under a new dynasty, letters 
 blossomed afresh; and the subject which appealed 
 most powerfully to the inventive faculties of the 
 learned was the huge void left by the missing books. 
 Pecuniary rewards, imperial favor, and popular
 
 l8o HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 esteem, all conspired to incite them to effort; 
 and ant inveniam aut faciam became a motto 
 with thousands of zealous scholars. 
 
 Zeal for the Confucian school, which, for a time 
 overshadowed by Taoism, now began to recover 
 its lost ground, supplied an additional motive j 
 and scholars, who wished to give currency to 
 their own ideas, did not scruple to publish them 
 under the names of the apostles of Confucianism, 
 or even under that of the great Master himself. 
 
 The Arabs of Egypt are not more expert in 
 manufacturing antique mummies than were the 
 students of Han in the construction of ancient N 
 classics. Not to speak of spurious portions foisted 
 into several of the canonical books, two at least 
 of the works now reckoned among the 
 Thirteen Classics are admitted to be of apocryphal 
 origin. These are the Li-ki, or Book of Rites, / 
 and Hiao-king, or Manual of Filial Piety. 
 
 The Book of Rites. 
 
 The former has had the good fortune to be included 
 in the Five King, for what reason it is difficult 
 to divine, unless because it professes to record 
 ritual observances which were in vogue 
 in the period covered by the other Four. 
 It enjoys, therefore, a great authority from the 
 eminence to which it has been raised.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 1 8 1 
 
 More than any other work, it has shaped 
 the external form of Chinese civilization, 
 preserving its essential unity under all vicissitudes, 
 prescribing alike official forms and private manners. 
 
 The rules of the Li-ki are not, indeed, held as 
 obligatory any more than are the rituals of the 
 Old Testament in the practice of Christendom; 
 but, never having been formally abrogated, 
 a larger proportion of them has entered into the 
 life of the modern Chinese. 
 
 The compilers of the Li-ki no doubt found 
 much genuine material drifting in a state of 
 wreckage down the stream of time, and they had 
 no hesitation in supplying from their own resources 
 whatever might be required for its reconstruction. 
 Nor did they, in any case, take pains to point 
 out the boundary between the old and the new. 
 What they discovered was at best a torso, and their 
 ambition was to present it as a complete statue. 
 
 On reading the Li-ki, you are struck by a great 
 inequality of style; parts being crabbed and 
 obscure, while other parts flow in a pellucid stream, 
 characteristic of an advanced stage of literary art. 
 Take, for example, the book entitled jFu-hing, the 
 character of a scholar, and you have an eloquent 
 exposition of the conduct becoming a man of letters. 
 Again, in the Yoh-ki, you have a rhapsody on music,
 
 1 82 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 without a single indication which might enable a 
 student to reproduce the music of the ancients. 
 Both discourses are credited to Confucius, but the 
 style is too modern by at least four centuries. 
 
 In some parts of the collection, the Sage is made 
 to appear as interlocutor in a dialogue; and 
 occasionally an incident is related as a basis for 
 moral reflexions. Such an incident is the following, 
 which I take from the Chapter called T'an-kung. 
 
 On one of his journeys, Confucius, passing 
 by the foot of a wood-covered mountain, heard 
 the voice of a woman wailing so bitterly that 
 he was moved to inquire the cause of her grief. 
 "Not long ago," she replied, "my father-in-law was 
 devoured by a tiger; more recently, my husband 
 fell a victim ; and now, my son has perished 
 in the same way. Have I not cause for sorrow?" 
 
 "But why do you live in a place infested by wild 
 beasts? " asked the Sage. " Because," said the woman, 
 "we are here free from the exactions of mandarins." 
 
 "Mark that, my children," said Confucius, 
 turning to his disciples; "oppressive officers 
 are dreaded more than tigers." 
 
 The incident is sufficiently striking, and its 
 moral is worthy of a Sage. The story of the 
 serpent-catcher, by Liu Tsung-yuen, is based on it, 
 and enforces the same moral in the elegant
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 183 
 
 diction of a later age, exerting a restraining 
 influence on the rapacity of officials, and promoting 
 a spirit of independence among the people. 
 
 In itself, the tiger story is not incredible. 
 In Oregon, I was told of a woman who had lost 
 three husbands by grizzly bears. Who can assert 
 that this remarkable facility of divorce did not 
 for her constitute on attraction to the soil 
 of the new territory ? 
 
 The Book of Filial Piety. 
 
 Like the Li-ki, the Manual of Filial Piety dates J 
 from the first century B.C.; and, like that work, 
 it is reputed to have been discovered in the wall of 
 a house belonging to a descendant of Confucius. 
 In form, it consists of a series of discourses, 
 addressed by the Sage to his disciple Tseng-tsze, 
 the one who most frequently served him as amanuensis, 
 and who now wears the proud title of 
 Ch'uen-sheng, "Transmitter of the Sage." 
 
 In style, the book bears the impress of the age of 
 its alleged discovery, being more modern by several 
 centuries than that of its reputed author. 
 It is remarkable for the fullness with which it 
 expounds the woiking of filial piety as a social 
 regulator in all the relations of life. Though the 
 Christian finds in it no sufficient substitute for the
 
 184 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 prompting and restraining influence of faith in 
 an omnipresent God, he must acknowledge that in 
 China filial piety might be made a useful auxiliary 
 to the higher sentiment. The decay of that 
 higher sentiment (if it ever existed in China) was 
 no doubt owing to the rise of polytheism ; 
 and philosophers were fain to seek in filial piety 
 a force which should serve as the prop of morality. 
 
 The state makes it the basis of its legislation ; 
 and this book, whose canonicity the state has good 
 reasons for upholding, is therefore a corner-stone in the 
 social fabric. The very phrase J[/j[ || ^=J ^ ~J\ 
 "to rule the empire by filial piety" is found in 
 the eighth Chapter; and so beautifully is the 
 idea developed in the proem that I cannot forbear 
 citing a few lines : 
 
 "One day, when the Master was at leisure and 
 Tseng-tsze in attendance, he said, "The ancient 
 Sages possessed a perfect method for governing 
 the empire, by which the people were made to live 
 in harmony without discord between high and low; 
 do you understand it?" Tseng-tsze rose and replied :- 
 "I am dull of apprehension; how should I 
 understand it?" "Sit down then," said the Master, 
 "and I will teach you. Filial piety is the root 
 of virtue, and the fountain of moral teaching. 
 It begins with due care for the bodv because
 
 f-*/ 
 
 -V ^0* 
 
 N'OTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 185 
 
 received from your parents; it culminates in 
 conduct which will make your name immortal, 
 and reflect glory on your father and mother. 
 Its beginning is the service of your parents; 
 its middle, the service of the sovereign; 
 and its end, the formation of character." 
 
 The eighteen short chapters which follow 
 do nothing more than amplify this text. They are so 
 brief and pithy that school children commit them to 
 memory, and accept them as rules of conduct for 
 their subsequent life. The effect of the doctrines, 
 thus set forth, can hardly be over-estimated; and, in 
 general, they are consonant with the teachings of the 
 Sage as given in records of unquestioned authenticity. 
 The Hiao-kmg, therefore, though apocryphal, does 
 him no injustice, unless it be in one point, viz., 
 in making conformity to tlie ordinances and even 
 the costume of the ancient Kings an obligation of 
 filial piety. It is known that Confucius was 
 somewhat conservative; but it may be affirmed that 
 he never enjoined such unreasoning submission to 
 antiquity. Did he not say that the man who for 
 three years does not depart from the way of his 
 father may be called filial, implying that he may 
 or will depart from it in a very short time? 
 And does he not teach, in the first section of the 
 Ta-hio, the Great Study, that the chief duty of a 
 Prince is to effect the renovation of his people?
 
 1 86 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 How I have longed to see the rulers of China wake 
 up to the fact that their Great Teacher never 
 intended them to be fast bound to the wheels 
 of antiquity ! 
 
 The Family Traditions. 
 
 The last of these apocryphal writings which we 
 shall notice at present is in some respects the most 
 important of all. It is the Kia-yu, or Family Traditions. 
 It appeared between two and three centuries later 
 than the Li-ki and Hiao-king; i.e., in the period of 
 the Three Kingdoms. Its fortune, though less 
 brilliant than that of those two most lucky forgeries, 
 has been such as to surpass the ambition of its 
 so-called editor. For though not, like them, set in the 
 constellation of sacred classics, it is held to be 
 "deutero-canonical ;" and, as such, it stands in the 
 Imperial catalogues at the head of Ju-kia, or orthodox 
 writers of the Confucian School. The editor, 
 Wang Suh, frankly states the object he has in view 
 in giving these Traditions to the world. "Errors are 
 rampant," he says in his preface, "and the Confucian 
 highway is overgrown with brambles. Why should 
 not I make an effort to clear it of obstructions ? 
 If no one, then, chooses to follow it, it will not be 
 my fault." 
 
 The zeal expressed in these words is not fitted to 
 inspire confidence; and, when he informs us that
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 187 
 
 he has opportunely obtained these Traditions in 
 manuscript from a descendant of the Sage in the 
 twenty-second generation, are we not disposed 
 to regard the discovery as rather too opportune f 
 Why should a member of the family of K'ung, 
 after the lapse of seven centuries, be more likely 
 to possess genuine traditions than any other of the 
 " hundred names ? " That the work as a whole 
 is spurious, is admitted by native critics. / 
 That which secures for it unrivalled popularity is: 
 
 i. Its worthy aim; 2. Its pleasing style; 
 3. Something like an element of real tradition, 
 derived from various sources; and 4. Its adroit 
 insertion and skilful amplification of authentic 
 records. 
 
 Notwithstanding its multifarious contents, it is easy 
 to separate the few grains of golden sand carried 
 down by the stream of time from the bright clay in 
 which the author has wrapped them up, with a view 
 to increasing their bulk and weight. 
 
 A Strange Monitor. 
 
 As a good example of his method, I may mention 
 the manner in which he deals with a brief notice 
 which he finds in Suin-tze (^f"j ), who lived three 
 centuries before. The passage alludes to a 
 water-vessel, which, when empty, hung obliquely; 
 when half-full, hung vertically; but, on being.
 
 l88 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 filled, turned over and spilled its contents. 
 It was said to have been placed on the right 
 of the Prince's throne as a warning against pride, 
 or fullness, which " precedes a fall." 
 
 Taking this for a text, Wang Suh expands it into a 
 discourse of considerable length, a copy of which I 
 obtained in Japan, where it had evidently been used 
 as an inscription in a princely or imperial palace.* 
 
 It is, however, in paraphrases on the Lun Yu 
 that he most frequently displays his peculiar skill. 
 A few illustrations may not be out of place. 
 
 Three Wishes. 
 
 Borrowing a hint from a passage in which Confucius 
 calls on his disciples to describe the employ which 
 each would find to his taste, our author shows 
 us the Master with three of his disciples on a hill top. 
 Enjoying the boundless prospect, he says to them: 
 " Here our thoughts fly unfettered in all directions. 
 Here you may give wing to fancy, and clothe your 
 wildest dreams in words. Now, let each of you 
 name the situation, or achievement, which would 
 most completely fill the measure of his ambition." 
 
 Tsze-lu declares for feats of prowess, choosing 
 above all things to be able with a small force to 
 humble a proud foe ; and with his own hand to 
 
 * See XVIII.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 189' 
 
 capture the leader of the opposing camp. Tsze-kung, 
 the finest talker of the School, bent on proving the 
 tongue mightier than the sword, enlarging on his 
 friend's picture of opposing armies ready to join in 
 bloody conflict, adds that it would be his ambition to 
 come between the hostile camps, to disarm them 
 both by mere force of argument, showing each 
 his true interest, and by skilful diplomacy to 
 bring about an adjustment of their differences. 
 "I should wish," he says, "no higher glory than that 
 of such a peaceful victory." 
 
 Confucius commends his eloquence, and then calls 
 on Yen Hui, his favorite disciple, the St. John of his 
 School. With unassuming modesty, Yen declines to 
 engage in competition with his arrogant companions; 
 but, when urged by the Master, he says: "My desire 
 would be to find a good Prince, who would accept 
 me for his Vizier. I would teach his people justice,, 
 propriety, and benevolence; and lead them no longer 
 to build walls, or dig moats, but to turn their weapons 
 of war into instruments of husbandry." 
 
 "Admirable," exclaimed Confucius; "such is the 
 power of virtue." 
 
 In the Memorabilia, or Lun Yu, the Sage gives his 
 suffrage to a disciple, who draws a charming picture 
 of the pleasures of idleness. Wang Suh has re-cast 
 the entire scene, in order to give it a conclusion more
 
 190 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 worthy of the nation's teacher, emphasizing the 
 sentiment expressed by Longfellow: 
 
 Were half the force that keeps the world in terror, 
 Were half the wealth that's spent on camps and courts, 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 There were no need of arsenals and forts. 
 
 To Be or Not To Be. 
 
 The famous saying of the great Agnostic 
 "We know not life, how can we know death?" 
 supplies an equally fine text for artful amplification. 
 It is accordingly expanded into the following 
 dialogue : 
 
 "Do the dead retain a conscious existence?" 
 inquired Tsze-kung. 
 
 " If," replied Confucius, " I should say they do, 
 I fear the pious and filial would neglect their living 
 parents through devotion to the dead. If, on the 
 other hand, I should say they do not, I fear that the 
 unfilial might so far disregard their duties to the 
 dead as to leave their parents unburied." 
 
 With this ambiguous answer, he closed his lips, 
 and left his disciples on the horns of a torturing 
 dilemma. 
 
 The Lesson of Running Water. 
 In the Lun Yu, we are told that the Sage, 
 looking on a running stream, exclaimed : " Behold 
 an emblem of time ; it ceases not, day or night."
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 19! 
 
 In the Traditions, Confucius was gazing intently 
 on the eastward flowing current of the Yellow 
 River. A disciple, inquiring why a superior man 
 always loves to look on the surface of a great 
 stream, he replies: "Because its flow never ceases; 
 it nourishes all living things, and yet without 
 labor. Its water is like virtue ; it seeks a low 
 place; yet cities and palaces follow its course. 
 It is like goodness, vast and inexhaustible; it is like 
 truth, going straight forward without fear, even 
 though a plunge of a hundred fathoms may be before it. 
 This is why the superior man loves to look on the 
 face of the flowing waters." 
 
 foolish Questions and Wise Answers. 
 
 In the Lun Yu, Ai Kung, Duke of Lu, asks one or 
 two questions. In the Traditions, he is made to ask 
 a score or more. Here are two, both frivolous ; 
 but they elicit wise answers : 
 
 "Will you tell me," said the Duke, "what kind of 
 crown was worn by the Emperor Shun ? " After a 
 prolonged silence, Confucius replied, but not until he 
 was urged to speak : "I was silent, because I do not 
 know what kind of garments Shun wore; but I do 
 know the principles on which he ruled his people. 
 Why should not Your Highness inquire about them?" 
 On another occasion, the Duke said to Confucius:
 
 192 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 "I have heard of a man, who, on removing to a new 
 house, forgot to take his wife. Was there ever a case 
 of greater forgetfulness?" "Yes," replied Confucius; 
 "it is that of the man who forgets himself." 
 
 Two Views of Life. 
 
 A fine story, which Wang Suh borrows from 
 Leih-tsze, is that of an old man of ninety, who, being 
 asked why, under the burdens of age, poverty, and 
 toil, he was still able to sing so merrily, replied : 
 "I have many reasons for feeling happy, but the 
 principal are these, viz: That I have come into 
 life as a man; that I have reached a good 
 old age ; and that I am now soon to be released by 
 the hand of death." 
 
 After relating this without acknowledgement, our 
 author invents one in a similar style : 
 
 Passing near a river, Confucius heard the voice of 
 weeping. Overtaking an old man, from whom the 
 voice proceeded, he inquired the cause of his 
 distress. 
 
 "They are three," replied the man; "I have failed 
 in three things, which it is now too late to mend, 
 and nothing remains but unavailing remorse. 
 
 When young, I went wandering over the world 
 in quest of knowledge; and, when I returned home, 
 my parents were dead.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 193 
 
 In mature years, I served the Prince of Ch'i ; but 
 the Prince ruined himself by pride and debauchery, 
 and I was unable to check his downward course. 
 
 In my life-time, I have had many friends,- but 
 I failed to attach them to me by a sincere and lasting 
 affection; and now, in my old age, they have all 
 forsaken me. Of these three errors, the greatest 
 was the neglect of my parents." 
 
 Yielding to a fresh transport of grief, the old 
 man threw himself into the water and perished. 
 "Mark this," said Confucius, turning to his disciples; 
 and that very day thirteen of them went home to 
 serve their parents. 
 
 In general, stories and discourses which re-appear 
 in the Traditions, display a marked improvement on 
 their originals; at least, in literary finish, though in 
 some instances "expanded gold exchanges solid 
 strength for feeble splendor." 
 
 Thus far, we have looked on the finer side of the 
 tapestry. Let us now turn to its seamy side, as it is 
 necessary to do in order to complete the evidence of 
 patch-work. 
 
 An Imaginary Niagara. 
 
 On the road from Wei to Lu, Confucius comes to 
 a cataract, thirty fathoms in height, which creates 
 a whirlpool ninety // (30 miles) in circumference,
 
 194 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 and so furious is the current that neither fish nor 
 tortoise can live in it; yet an intrepid swimmer, 
 more lucky than Captain Webb at Niagara, succeeds 
 in crossing. This passage suggests the wild fancy of 
 Chuang-tsze; and, on turning to the older writer, we 
 find it there, but less extravagant in its terms. 
 Wang Suh uses it to point a vapid moral; but he has 
 blundered in admitting it among authentic traditions. 
 
 Wise Questions and Foolish Answers. 
 
 In the Lun Yu, it is said there were four things of 
 which Confucius never spoke, viz: Fairy tales, 
 feats of strength, outrageous crimes, and the gods 
 (or the supernatural). A book exists, which takes 
 these for its subject, and bears the title -^p ^ f^J- , 
 Things of which Confucius did not Speak. 
 There are not a few pages in these alleged Traditions 
 that might be grouped under such a rubric. 
 
 One of the Princes, asking him a question in 
 Maxima and Minima, Confucius launches into a 
 dissertation on giants and dwarfs. 
 
 Prince Chao, of Cb/ou, in crossing a river, picks up 
 a floating fruit resembling a cocoa-nut, and sends a 
 messenger to learn its nature from Confucius. 
 Without the least hesitation, the omniscient Sage 
 gives the name of the fruit, and adds that the Prince 
 may eat it, as it is a fruit of good omen, which only
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 195 
 
 falls into the hands of one destined to be a leader of 
 the nations. When a disciple asks him how he 
 happens to know these facts so exactly, he replies 
 that he once heard a nursery rhyme ( jj| |g ) 
 to that effect : It was prophetic, and this he knew 
 to be its fulfilment. 
 
 In another passage, he explains the appearance of 
 a strange bird in the same way. It was called 
 Shang-yang, had only one leg, and, as he learned 
 from a childish ditty, its arrival portended a deluge 
 of rain. 
 
 These instances, with many others of the same kind, 
 may be taken as completing the evidence that the 
 so-called Traditions are a transparent fiction. 
 If I have dwelt too long on this particular work, 
 it is on account of the credit which it enjoys 
 and the influence it exerts in fixing the popular 
 ideal of the Sage. 
 
 There are other works which contain similar 
 fictions; but time fails to enumerate, not to say, 
 examine them. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the volume of these apocryhal 
 writings far exceeds that of the authentic records; 
 the gazeous envelope surrounding the luminary is 
 greater than its solid nucleus. But it may be
 
 196 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 doubted whether these fabrications, however 
 well meant, have not detracted from the essential 
 greatness of China's model wise man. 
 
 Confucius no Myth. 
 
 Let us conclude by briefly indicating a few points 
 in which the apocryphal Confucius differs from the 
 real founder of Chinese civilization; for, at this stage 
 of our discussion, I need hardly say that Confucius 
 was no myth. He is so far historical that he, and v 
 not Sze-ma, is the Father of Chinese History. 
 His words and acts were minutely noted by con- 
 temporary pens, hundreds of his pupils contributing 
 to transmit his teachings and perpetuate his memory. 
 The attempt to make him a mythical personage, 
 like Pan-ku or Nii-qua, may afford an agreeable 
 exercise for the leisure hours of an ingenious student; 
 but it can no more unsettle the received conviction 
 than Archbishop Whately's Historic Doubts 
 concerning Napoleon could relegate the Corsican 
 Conqueror to the companionship of Hercules and 
 Bacchus. But, in the double personality that goes 
 under that venerated name, it is time to point 
 out the features in which the mythical Confucius 
 differs from the historical. I limit myself to five : 
 
 The Real and the Mythical compared. 
 4 ! The real Sage was noted for modesty; the
 
 NOTES ON THE CONFUCIAN APOCRYPHA. 197 
 
 fictitious is a prig, who assumes to know everything. 
 The myth-makers, who have attempted to display 
 the universality of his knowledge, have succeeded 
 in exposing their own ignorance. 
 
 2. The real Confucius was a man of few words; v 
 his style, laconic and grave. The mythical is 
 loquacious, and often occupied with trifles. 
 
 3. The real Sage was reverential towards the 
 Supreme Power of the Universe, but agnostic 
 in spirit and practice. The Confucius of these 
 Apocryphal books is excessively superstitious, 
 drawing omens of the future from birds, beasts, 
 and the nonsensical ditties of children. 
 
 4. The real Sage, when asked if it is right to repay '</ 
 injury by injury, forbids revenge. The Apocryphal 
 is made to teach the vendetta in its most truculent 
 form, prescribing its measure for each degree of 
 relationship, the slayer of a father to be slain at 
 sight, even in the halls of an imperial palace. 
 
 5. The real Sage was humane, making humanity, 
 or love, the first of the cardinal virtues in his moral 
 system. The Apocryphal personage is cruel 
 and unjust, putting Shao Cheng-mao to death 
 for five reasons, not one of which would justify 
 .anything more severe than dismissal from office ;
 
 198 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 and cutting off the hands and feet of a mountebank, 
 who sought to amuse two princes on the occasion 
 of a public meeting. 
 
 These Apocryphal writings contain, as I 
 have said,! much that is good. They must be 
 studied to get at the sources of the later literature. 
 But would itfnot be a worthy undertaking for some 
 enlightened scholar, native or foreign, to sift these 
 heterogeneous materials, and clear the name of the 
 Great Master from all connexion with the absurd, vain, 
 and wicked things with which his memory has 
 been loaded ?
 
 VIII. 
 
 PLATO AND CONFUCIUS. 
 
 A 
 
 CURIOUS COINCIDENCE; 
 
 coincidence relates to a moot point of 
 filial duty. In China, filial piety is 
 recognized as the basis of social order. 
 By the orthodox, it is even held to supply 
 the place of religion; so that "he who serves his 
 parents at home has no need to go far away 
 to burn incense to the gods." 
 
 In the Hiao King, a well-known manual for the 
 instruction of youth, it is represented as affording an 
 incentive to the discharge of duty in all situations, 
 giving force and vitality to consciences which might 
 otherwise remain dormant. Thus, a soldier who 
 runs away is unfilial; an officer who is unfaithful to 
 his prince is unfilial; and, in general, any conduct 
 
 * From the Journal of the American Oriental Society.
 
 2OO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 that entails disgrace is unfilial, because it must of 
 necessity reflect discredit on the parents of the 
 offender. A whole system of morals is deduced 
 from this root; and casuistry finds scope in inventing 
 difficult situations and in reconciling conflicting 
 obligations. Truth is a virtue not much insisted on 
 in Chinese books; audits comparative rarit) r brings 
 into relief a class of people who vaunt their 
 frankness, and scorn to palliate or extenuate in the 
 interest of their dearest friends. They are called 
 chihjin, "straight men." 
 
 A disciple of Confucius, speaking of one of these, 
 says to the Master : " In my village, there was a 
 man renowned for truthfulness. When his father 
 had stolen a sheep, he went to the magistrate 
 and informed against him. Is his conduct 
 to be commended?" 
 
 " In my village," the Sage replies, " the duty 
 of truthfulness is understood differently, 
 a son being required in all cases to conceal the faults 
 of his father, and a father to conceal those of his son. 
 The obligations of truth are not violated 
 by this practice." 
 
 A hundred years later, the question was 
 not yet regarded as settled; or, to speak more 
 properly, as with all moral questions, the old battles 
 had to be fought over again.
 
 PLATO AND CONFUCIUS. 2OI 
 
 Mencius was the oracle of the age, and 
 one of his disciples brings up the subject by 
 stating a hypothetical case. "Suppose," he said, 
 "the father of the emperor, being a private man, 
 should commit murder. Is it the duty of the 
 Criminal Judge to seize and condemn him ? " 
 
 "Without doubt," replied Mencius. 
 
 "But then, how could the emperor endure 
 to see his father treated in that way? 
 When the wise Shun was on the throne, 
 if his villainous old father, Kuseo, had 
 committed murder, and was in danger of 
 being condemned by Kao Yao, what would 
 Shun have done?" 
 
 "Shun," replied the teacher, " would have taken 
 his father on his back and fled to the borders 
 of the sea. Dwelling there in obscurity, 
 and rejoicing that he had saved the life of 
 his parent, he would have forgotten that he 
 ever filled a throne." 
 
 Mencius, the St. Paul of Confucianism, who 
 formulated the doctrines of his school, goes in 
 this passage a step beyond the teachings of his 
 Master. The latter confined the duty of a child 
 toward a parent, guilty of a crime, to the passive 
 part of concealment. The former gives it an 
 active form, requiring a son, on behalf of a parent,
 
 202 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 to do all in his power to defeat the ends of justice. 
 But when, in this dilemma, he sets himself in 
 opposition to the law, he is no longer fit 
 to be a prince ; he should abdicate the throne, 
 to win the crown of filial piety ; for, according to 
 Mencius, filial duty primes all others. 
 
 A case, analogous to the first of these, 
 forms the subject of Euthyphron, one of the 
 Dialogues of Plato. Socrates, going to the court 
 of King's Bench, meets Euthyphron, and learns 
 with horror that he has come for the express 
 purpose of denouncing his own father as guilty 
 of a capital crime. 
 
 A hired laborer, having killed another in a drunken 
 brawl, the father of the accuser had him bound 
 hand-and-foot and thrown into a pit, where the next 
 morning he was found dead. Euthyphron saw in 
 the hapless victim, not a chattel or a broken tool, 
 but a fellow-man unjustly slain ; while, in the 
 murderer, he recognized, not a beloved parent, 
 but an odious criminal. 
 
 There is something chivalrous and noble in his 
 taking up the cause of humanity, in opposition to 
 the narrower claims of family. But it detracts 
 from his merit that he is fully conscious of the 
 bean rdle which he has assumed. 
 
 Socrates, who as usual expresses the sentiments
 
 PLATO AND CONFUCIUS. 203 
 
 of the author, is not dazzled by this splendid 
 instance of public virtue triumphing over 
 private feeling. After passing the ideas and motives 
 of the hero through the sieve of his dialectic, 
 he shows him that those instincts which he 
 despises are the voice of nature ; and that, 
 in spite of his assumption of superior knowledge, 
 he neither knows " what he is to believe 
 concerning the gods, nor what duty the gods 
 require of man." 
 
 " The victim," said Socrates, " must have been 
 one of your near relatives ; otherwise, you would 
 not have been able to overcome your natural 
 repugnance to denouncing your father." 
 
 " Nothing is more ridiculous," Euthyphron replied, 
 "than to suppose that it makes any difference 
 whether the victim is a relative or a stranger. 
 The whole question is, whether the homicide was 
 justifiable or not. If it was not, then it was my 
 duty to denounce the perpetrator, no matter how 
 closely connected with me ; for it would be 
 contamination to associate with such a person, 
 instead of clearing myself by denouncing him." 
 " My relations," he adds, " view this proceeding 
 as impious and unholy ; not knowing the nature 
 of the gods, nor the real distinction between, 
 things holy and unholy."
 
 204 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 "But," asked Socrates, "are you sure that you 
 understand the nature of the gods, and the 
 distinction of holy and unholy? Tell me what 
 you call holy and unholy." 
 
 " I," replied Euthyphron, " call that holy which 
 I am now doing.: namely, the denouncing of a 
 wrong-doer who commits sacrilege, murder, 
 or other grave offense, no matter whether the 
 offender be father, mother, or other relative. 
 And it would be unholy to refrain from doing so." 
 
 In support of this position, he appeals to the 
 example of Zeus, the "best and most just of 
 the gods," who chained and mutilated his fatherj 
 as a punishment for his monstrous cruelties. 
 
 Socrates repeats his demand for a definition ; 
 and Euthyphron answers that the holy is that 
 which pleases the gods, and the unholy that which 
 displeases them. 
 
 Soc. "But what rule shall poor mortals 
 have to go by when the gods are divided 
 on these questions ? " 
 
 Euth. "They are never so much divided as 
 not to be unanimous in support of the principle 
 that he who commits an unjustifiable homicide 
 ought to be punished." 
 
 Soc. "But what is to be done when they
 
 PLATO AND CONFUCIUS. 2O5 
 
 are not agreed as to the quality of a crime, 
 whether it was justifiable or not ? '' 
 
 As this is a frequent occurrence in human 
 tribunals, Euthyphron is forced to admit that 
 it might also occur in the councils of the gods ; 
 and he modifies his definition by inserting the 
 word "all," so as to make an act holy or unholy 
 according as it is loved or hated by all the gods. 
 Here Socrates pushes him into deeper water 
 by asking whether such act is holy because it is 
 loved by the gods, or loved because it is holy ? 
 
 To this, Euthyphron is unable to make any 
 s'atisfactory answer; and, after a brief skirmish on 
 other points, he drops the discussion. 
 
 Through all its mazes, Socrates had pursued him 
 as the Furies pursued Orestes, showing him that 
 the dictates of nature are the basis of our notions 
 of right and wrong; and that, to outrage our best 
 instincts as he is doing, is to fight against the gods. 
 Like the Chinese philosophers, he teaches that a 
 son is not at liberty to assume the attitude of 
 public prosecutor as against a parent. 
 
 The prolixity of the Socratic dialogue, of which 
 I hiive given only a brief outline, is in strong 
 contrast with the sententiousness of the Confucian 
 school. But, not only is the subject of discussion
 
 206 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 identical ; the name Euthyphron is singularly 
 similar to the chih jin, or "straight man," 
 of the Chinese.
 
 IX. 
 
 THE 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 DESCARTES.* 
 
 |HE chief element of interest in the researches of 
 our Society consists in exploring the intellectual 
 resources of this Empire. From this point of 
 view, ideas of recent importation possess no 
 value. As in the porcelain trade, things that bear 
 the stamp of antiquity are most esteemed, whether 
 of native growth or borrowed from distant lands. 
 
 It is not, therefore, of the role played by the 
 Cartesian philosophy in the teachings of missionaries 
 that we propose to speak, but of Cartesianism before 
 Descartes ; in other words, to inquire how far it is 
 possible to trace, in the writings of Chinese thinkers, 
 
 * Read before the Oriental Society of Peking.
 
 2O8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the outlines of a system analogous to that of the 
 eminent French Philosopher. 
 
 No better vantage ground can be found for 
 surveying the field of Chinese speculative thought. 
 It gives us something clear and precise, with which 
 to compare that which is fragmentary and 
 somewhat obscure. For the geologist, it is a great 
 advantage to be able to compare the remains of 
 hipparion with the skeleton of a horse, ratlier than 
 with the fragments of some extinct animal. 
 
 But is not that assuming, some one will exclaim, 
 that the philosophy of Descartes is not extinct ? 
 No ; it is not extinct like the cosmogonies of the 
 Timaeus. " Descartes," says Morell* (and he cites 
 Dugald Stewart in support of his opinion), 
 "has unquestionably merited the reputation of 
 standing at the head of the whole modern movement 
 of metaphysical philosophy;" and as sober a critic 
 as J. H. Lewes/f though not belonging to his School, 
 admits that "no man can dispute the title 
 of Descartes to be regarded as the father of 
 modern philosophy". 
 
 Not merely was it his breath that called it 
 into life two centuries ago ; the philosophy of the 
 
 * History of Speculative Philosophy in the Nineteenth Centurv. 
 f Biographical History of Philosophy.
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 2O<) 
 
 present day, by a sort of atavism, still bears, 
 in some of its features, the. marks of its remote 
 parentage. 
 
 A brief review of some of the doctrines of 
 Descartes will put us in a position to recognise them, 
 when we meet with them in a foreign clime 
 and at an earlier age. 
 
 He was equally distinguished in three departments 
 of intellectual activity ; and his achievements in each 
 were sufficient to win the meed of an imperishable 
 name. Newton combined mathematics and physics; 
 Bacon, physics and jurisprudence ; but, of the three 
 great men* with whom he is usually compared, 
 Leibnitz alone shares with him the honor of wearing 
 a triple crown. Each was a sovereign in the 
 three united kingdoms of metaphysics, mathematics, 
 and physical science. 
 
 Great as was Leibnitz, the influence of Descartes 
 was so obvious on the course of his speculations, 
 that it may be doubted whether his magnificent 
 genius would have unfolded in its full 
 perfection without the light of the earlier luminary. 
 Descartes, on the other hand, called no man master, 
 
 * " Descartes, Bacon, Leibnitz, Newton, les quatre grands chefs de 
 toute la philosophic moderne ". (Pcnsees de Descartes, Disc. Prelim). 
 
 "Les trois grands litres de Descartes a I'immortalitl : 
 sa ge'ome'trie, sa metaphysique, et sa physique." (ttf).
 
 2IO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 and displayed an originality unsurpassed in 
 the annals of philosophy. 
 
 According to his own declaration, the most 
 valuable thing that he carried away from the school 
 of La Fleche was "a conviction of his own 
 utter ignorance and a profound contempt for the 
 systems of philosophy then in vogue." 
 Not a bad preparation, that, for undertaking 
 and effecting a revolution in human thought ! 
 
 In mathematics, his merit is uncontested, 
 and the boon which he conferred on the world 
 in giving it that most powerful aid to research, 
 the method of analysis by the application of algebra, 
 is specially conspicuous. 
 
 In physics, he expounded the true theory of the 
 barometer, and described the crucial experiment* 
 shewing the limit of the ascent of mercury ; 
 
 * Pascal's experiment was performed in September, 1648. A letter 
 of Descartes, addressed to P. Mersenne, is extant, dated December, 
 1647, in which he alludes, with an air of unconcern, to the suggestion 
 he had given : 
 
 "J'avais averti M. Pascal d'expe"rimenter si le vif argent montait 
 aussi haul lorsqu'on est au dessus d'une montagne, que lorsqu'on est 
 tout au bas : je ne sais s'il 1'aura fait." {Pensees de Descartes). 
 
 After the experiment had been effected, he addresses a friend to 
 obtain information as to the result, and complains of Pascal for 
 withholding it. Here is what he says of his claim to priority : 
 
 " J'aurais droit d'attendre cela de M. Pascal plutot que de vous : 
 parce que c'est moi qui I'en ai avise 1 il y a deux ans et qui 1'ai assur 
 que, quoique je n'eusse pas fait cette experience, je ne doutais point 
 du succes." (id).
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 211 
 
 before Toricelli. The experiments, performed by 
 Pascal at the Tour St. Jacques, and on the 
 Puy de Dome, were suggested by him as 
 confirmations of his own theory, in opposition to 
 that of Galileo. 
 
 These are now simple things, level to the 
 comprehension of a school-boy ; but the experiments 
 that explained them made the reputation of one of 
 those philosophers, and added lustre to that of the 
 other. It is chiefly in the department of physics 
 that we shall have occasion to admire the sagacity 
 of his daring conjectures ; I allude to his discovery 
 of a supersensible world, to which he was the first 
 to give the name of Ether. 
 
 In the department of transcendental metaphysics, 
 he was treading on ground less solid, 
 like Milton's Satan in the realm of Chaos : 
 
 " O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 He swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies ". 
 
 What wonder that he left behind him no well 
 defined pathway that others are content to follow ! 
 Yet it is precisely in this region that his influence 
 has been most conspicuous. Spinoza, Leibnitz, 
 and the noble army of German transcendentalists, 
 are all his lineal offspring. Those who consider that 
 metaphysics have done nothing but obstruct the 
 progress of science, will he slow to admit this as
 
 212 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 constituting an additional claim to the gratitude 
 of mankind. "His philosophical method subsists 
 to the present day," says Lewes, a writer of the 
 Positive School ; and he adds, not without a 
 perceptible sneer " It is the method implicitly or 
 explicitly adopted by most metaphysicians in their 
 speculations on ontological subjects." 
 
 As a preparation for gauging the speculations 
 of some of the leading thinkers of China, there are 
 three things in the system of Descartes, to which 
 I beg to direct your attention, to the exclusion 
 of everything else. They are : 
 
 1. His Method. 
 
 2. His Hypothesis of a universal Ether. 
 
 3. His Theory of Vortices. 
 
 ! 
 
 His method is deductive, commencing with 
 
 general principles, and following them out to their 
 consequences. It is the opposite of induction,, 
 which, from the study of particulars, ascends to 
 generals. The one explores a river by entering 
 at its mouth, and working slowly inland against 
 the current. The other strikes boldly across 
 country for the head-waters, and then pursues their 
 downward flow. The former is the method of Bacon ;. 
 the latter, that of Descartes. Each wrote a book 
 to expound his mode of philosophizing, and each
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 21$ 
 
 believed that he was conferring on posterity 
 an invaluable instrument of investigation. 
 No two modes of proceeding could be more opposed 
 to each other; and yet, as we have shown by 
 the illustration of the river, each may lead to success. 
 
 Nothing so strikingly exhibits the force and 
 originality of the mind of Descartes as the fact 
 that, having read the books of Bacon, he rejected 
 his method, to proceed in the contrary direction ; 
 nor does anything more strikingly exhibit the 
 limitations of the human faculties than the fact that, 
 like navigators before Columbus, each of these 
 pioneers of science was only aole to look 
 on the globe on one side, while in reality it required 
 a combination of both to make out a system 
 complete and round. 
 
 As a matter of fact, each, while insisting too 
 exclusively on his own view, makes large but tacit 
 .use of the other method. From the constitution 
 of the human mind, it is as impossible that it should 
 be otherwise as it is for a worker in electricity 
 to restrict himself to the use of one fluid to the 
 exclusion of the other. Descartes' exaggerated 
 estimate of the a priori method resulted from the 
 natural tendency of a pre-eminent mathematical 
 genius ; Bacon's neglect of it was due to his 
 ignorance of mathematical science. How extensively
 
 214 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Bacon and his followers had recourse to deduction, 
 I shall not pause to point out. 
 
 It is of more importance to indicate that Descartes 
 resorted to experiment so frequently that some 
 of his admirers have made out a plausible argument 
 to claim for him the honor of being founder 
 of the experimental philosophy, an honor so 
 peculiarly belonging to the great Englishman 
 that an attempt to tear it away looks as monstrous 
 as the claim to the crown of France, so long put 
 forward by the kings of England. His apologists 
 have failed to recognize the essential difference 
 between an experiment in the hands of Bacon 
 and in those of Descartes. With the former, it 
 was the first step toward discovery ; with the latter, 
 it was the last, only resorted to for the purpose 
 of confirming a conjecture or an inference based 
 on general principles. The former was so devoted 
 to experiment, as a mode of discovery, that he 
 lost his life in making an experiment with his 
 own hands. The latter, believing himself to be 
 in possession of the fountain of truth, was so well 
 satisfied with the potential as to be comparatively 
 indifferent to the actual. " I have proved it by 
 reasoning," said he to his friends ; " try it,, 
 and you will find it so." Hence, instead of 
 putting himself to the trouble of making them,.
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 2 15 
 
 he suggested those experiments with the barometer 
 which have added brightness to the illustrious 
 name of Pascal. What a curious anticipation 
 of the case of Leverrier, divining the existence 
 of a new planet, and informing his fellow-astronomers 
 where they would find it ! 
 
 These two types of mind have existed in 
 all times. Aristotle was an experimentalist ; Plato, 
 an a priori reasoner. Yet Plato it is who states, 
 in the clearest manner, the advantages of the 
 experimental method. 
 
 " Experiment causes the world to advance in 
 a scientific way, but the neglect of it leaves progress 
 at the mercy of chance ", he says, in the Dialogue 
 of Gorgias. He saw the better way, but failed 
 to follow it. Descartes, in this, resembled Plato; 
 as he did in the whole cast of his mind, in his 
 fondness for mathematics, his lofty ontological 
 speculations, and his profound religious feeling. 
 
 I have said enough, perhaps, on the method 
 of Descartes; and, to show that I have not 
 misrepresented it, I will dismiss the topic with 
 a quotation from the Abbe Fontenelle, in which 
 his procedure is contrasted with the Baconian 
 method of Newton : 
 
 "L'un, prenant un vol hardi, a voulu se placer 
 a la source de tout ; se rendre maitre des premiers
 
 2l6 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 principes pour n'avoir qu'a descendre aux 
 phenomenes de la nature, comme a des 
 consequences necessaires. L'autre, plus timide 
 ou plus modeste, a commence sa marcbe par 
 s'appuyer sur les phenomenes pour remonter aux 
 principes inconnus."* 
 
 II. 
 
 Descartes' hypothesis of a universal fluid, 
 which he called Ether, is eminently original. v 
 The name existed from the earliest times ; he gave it 
 a sense which it had never borne before, because 
 he had a clear conception of a substance of which 
 the Greek philosophers had not even a vague notion. 
 Addison's fine lines beginning : 
 
 " The spacious firmament on high, 
 With all the blue ethereal sky " 
 show the popular sense of the word ; the same 
 in which it is employed by Homer, when he 
 apostrophizes Jove as " dwelling in Ether." 
 
 The Greeks, in accordance with their cosmical 
 system, used it for the empyrean or fiery sphere, 
 the highest of the nine, the etymology of the word 
 expressing that idea, i.e., "burning air." 
 
 * The one sought, by a bold flight, to place himself at the source 
 of all things ; to make himself master of first principles, and then 
 come down to natural phenomena as their necessary consequences. 
 The other, more timid or more modest, began with phenomena, -^ 
 in order to ascend to unknown principles.
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 217 
 
 With Descartes, neither fire nor height has 
 anything to do with the meaning of the term. 
 In his acceptation, it signifies a substance out of 
 which he supposes all the forms of matter to 
 have been evolved. 
 
 That such a substance must of necessity exist, 
 he inferred from his doctrine as to space. 
 In his view, there is no such thing as void space, 
 Not merely are the interstellar regions filled with 
 a subtile fluid different from atmospheric air, 
 but the interstices between the molecules of bodies 
 are filled with the same substance. How it acts 
 we shall see, when we come to treat of his 
 celebrated theory of vortices. 
 
 The success of the Newtonian astronomy 
 administered a soporific to the Cartesian hypothesis, 
 which kept it dormant for more than a hundred years. 
 But it only waited for the proper hand to wake 
 it from slumber. It is not a mere figure of 
 speech to say that, touched by a ray of light, 
 it sprang again to life. 
 
 Newton's theory of light was that of emission, 
 which regarded each ray as a stream of material 
 particles projected through space, as sparks fly 
 off from the anvil of a blacksmith. But that 
 theory labored under insuperable difficulties; and there 
 were striking phenomena, which it failed to explain.
 
 2l8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 One of these was that of interference, or the 
 extinction of light by the collision of two rays. 
 In 1800, Dr. Young suggested that this might be 
 accounted for, on the supposition of light being the 
 effect of a vibratory motion in some elastic medium. 
 In water, when two waves meet, at the moment 
 when one is rising and the other sinking, they 
 neutralize each other, and the surface remains level, 
 In the atmosphere, when two waves of sound meet 
 in a similar manner, the result is the loss of a note. 
 In the same way, might not darkness be produced 
 by conflicting vibrations in a luminiferous medium ? 
 Sixteen years later, Fresnel showed that 
 such a medium was required to account for the 
 phenomenon of polarisation. 
 
 What was that medium? It could be no other than 
 the subtile Ether demanded and named by Descartes. 
 The undulatory theory of light requires it. 
 Heat and electricity equally call for it. At the 
 present hour, it is admitted, without exception, by 
 men of science ; and the study of its properties 
 has lately engaged the attention of physicists of 
 great eminence. 
 
 Sir John Herschel, in his discourse on atoms, 
 refers to the ether, in which they move, as a fluid 
 which, like our atmosphere, has its elastic tension 
 heightened by pressure; a pressure, he conjectured.
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 219 
 
 of many thousands of pounds to the square inch. 
 
 Whewell, in his Bridgewater treatise, argues that 
 this ether, however attenuated, must in some degree 
 impede the free motion of the planetary bodies, 
 and eventually bring them to destruction, 
 a view which derives no little confirmation from 
 the fate of Biela's comet. 
 
 Sir William Thomson thinks he has found evidence 
 that ether is viscous, having a consistency somewhat 
 resembling shoe-maker's wax. It yields to pressure, 
 but is split or fractured by a sudden blow, 
 such as the passage of a heavy charge of electricity. 
 
 This mysterious substance, which no sense can 
 percieve, no balance weigh, and no vessel contain, 
 has taken its place securely in the world of 
 science.* 
 
 * A recent work on Physics, by Professor Daniell of Eclinburg, 
 places all the chapters on light, heat, and electricity, under the 
 common rubric of "ether waves", which appears as a running title 
 at the top of each page. There can be no better proof of the new 
 importance assumed by ether in physical science. 
 
 Professor Oliver Lodge thus describes the theory of ether, 
 in a lecture before the Royal Institution in London : 
 
 " The simplest conception of the Universe that has yet occurred 
 to the mind of man, one continuous substance filling all space, 
 which can vibrate as light, which can be parted into positive and 
 negative electricity, which in whirls (or vortices) constitutes matter, 
 and which transmits by continuity, and not by impact, every action 
 and reaction of which matter is capable. This is the modern view 
 of the ether and its functions."
 
 22O HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 III. 
 
 Descartes' Theory of Vortices, representing 
 the planets as moving in a stream of ether 
 like apples in a whirlpool, is not much of 
 an improvement on the earlier theory of hollow 
 spheres. Whewell, in his History of the 
 Inductive Sciences, points to it as a proof that, 
 though Descartes had announced the first law of 
 motion in advance of Newton, he did not fully 
 comprehend its applications ; or he would not 
 have resorted to such a clumsy contrivance as the 
 starting-point of his mecanique celeste. 
 
 But the Cartesian Vortex is not merely a huger 
 kind of maelstrom that carries the worlds on 
 its bosom ; it is also exceedingly minute, and 
 bears in its circling embrace each individual atom. 
 This is evident from his explanation of the gaseous* 
 
 * In 1881, M. Nourisson read, before the Academy of Moral 
 and;; Political Sciences in Paris, a paper on the "Discovery and 
 Demonstration of the Theory of the Barometer." From an original 
 letter of Descartes, he proves tbat the writer had a clear notion 
 of atmospheric pressure. We shall cite the same letter to show 
 how he explains the action of vortices, in separating the particles 
 of bodies : 
 
 " Imaginez 1'air comme de la laine, et lather qui est dans ses pores, 
 comme des tourbillons de vent qui se meuvent 9a et la. Et pensez 
 que ce vent qui se joue de tons cote's entre les pores empeche 
 qu'ils ne se pressent si fort 1'un centre 1'autre, comme ils le 
 pouvaient faire sans cela, car ils sont pesants." 
 
 The Professor says " qu'il ne faut pas confondre l'e"ther carte"sien 
 avec 1'^ther des philosophes grecs". (Z<? Temps , AJars, i88i~).
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 221 
 
 form of the atmosphere as due to the action 
 of tourbillons of ether, which prevent the 
 particles from coming in contact. 
 
 This view bears some analogy to the kinetic 
 theory of gases, which explains their elasticity 
 as resulting from the motion of their particles ; 
 and all, who are familiar with the recent progress 
 of molecular physics, will perceive how the minute 
 tourbillon of Descartes re-appears in the hypothesis 
 of vortex rings, now resorted to, to account 
 for the activities of atoms as centres of force. 
 The champion of this hypothesis is Lord Kelvin 
 (Sir W. Thomson), who constructed a machine 
 to illustrate the action of the vortex ring. 
 What a rehabilitation of a long neglected 
 philosopher, to find the foremost physicists of 
 our century not merely accepting his ether as 
 the basis of their theories of light and electricity, 
 but borrowing his idea of vortex motion as an 
 explanation of the constitution of matter ! * 
 
 Bearing in mind these salient points, let us travel 
 back to the fifth century before Descartes, and see 
 if we can find in China anything answering to the 
 
 * Lord Kelvin said in his Presidential address to the Royal Society, 
 November, 1893 : 
 
 " During the fifty-six years that have passed, since Faraday 
 offended physical mathematicians with his curved lines of force, 
 many workers and many thinkers have helped to build up the 
 Nineteenth Century School of Plenum, one Ether for light, heat 
 electricity, and magnetism."
 
 222 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Cartesian system. We shall occupy ourselves 
 mainly with a constellation of thinkers, who illumined 
 the middle period of the Sung dynasty. 
 
 The most noted are Cheo Lien-hi, Chang 
 Heng-chu, the two brothers Ch/eng, and Chu Hi; 
 and their names, being curiously alliterative, 
 are woven into a line of four syllables, to 
 assist the memory, Cheo, Chang, Ch'eng, Chu. 
 Of the five, the most famous in China, and the 
 best known abroad, is Chu Hi, or Chu Fu-tsze, 
 a pre-eminence due rather to his labors as expositor 
 of the canonical books than to any superior 
 acuteness in speculation. In that respect, he was 
 surpassed by several, perhaps by all of the others. 
 Chu Hi, however, was eminently endowed with 
 the judicial faculty. He presents himself to our 
 imagination as the incarnation of criticism ; 
 holding aloft the golden balance, not, like the 
 fabled goddess, with blind-fold eyes, but scanning 
 the horizon with searching gaze, ready to welcome 
 the precious metal from whatever quarter it may 
 come. Taoism and Budhism, as well as the 
 relics of Confucian antiquity, engaged his 
 attention and quickened his intellect. Like China's 
 greatest Sage, he might have said of himself: 
 "My office is to select and transmit, not to
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 223 
 
 create or invent." His stamp is accepted as the 
 hall-mark, not only for the orthodoxy of classical 
 exposition, but for any opinion admitted into that 
 huge conglomerate known as Confucian philosophy. 
 In speculation, the method of all these worthies 
 is uniform, viz., to seize a first principle, and deduce 
 its consequences. Like their countryman 
 Chang Ch'ien, the Stanley of the Yellow River, 
 they seek first to arrive at the Milky Way, 
 before exploring the course of the terrestial 
 stream believed to issue from it. Not one 
 of them ever thought of questioning nature, 
 by means of a careful induction of particulars. 
 Confucius had indeed, in one prophetic sentence, 
 laid down the maxim ^ ^jj ^ $ $J 
 "The progress of science depends on the study 
 of things ; " but the chapter, which they say the 
 Sage had written on that subject, was lost. 
 They record the fact, and expound his words; 
 but not one of them undertakes to supply the 
 place of the missing manual, by a treatise 
 de augmentis sclent iar um. To them, the example 
 of Confucius was more powerful than his solitary 
 saying ; and that saying, though embodying 
 a vital germ, remained as barren as seeds wrapped 
 in the cerements of an Egyptian mummy. 
 For, had not Confucius, like Plato, set the
 
 224 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 vicious example of indulging in speculations which 
 are susceptible of no proof? Had he not accepted, 
 at the hands of the ancients, without questioning, 
 a calculating machine called the Book of Changes,. 
 which professes, by means of diagrams resembling 
 an abacus, to grind out great truths pertaining to 
 all things in Heaven and Earth ? His followers, 
 even the bold thinkers of the Sung dynasty,. 
 have not ventured to question what the 
 Master accepted. Bound by the yoke of authority, 
 and led by a habit of the Oriental mind, 
 they have clung to the a priori method even 
 in questions susceptible of easy solution 
 by experiment. Witness that preposterous 
 classification of elements, which includes such 
 an organic substance as wood, and omits 
 atmospheric air. Witness again their blundering 
 enumeration of the five senses, which 
 includes the heart among the organs of sense, 
 and omits the sense of touch. May not the 
 omission in the first case be accounted for on the 
 supposition that the functions of air, as a component 
 of bodies, were too subtile to strike the attention 
 of the ancients, from whom they received the 
 formula ; and that the authors of the other 
 classification omitted the sense of feeling, from 
 inability to find a special organ to which to refer it ?
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 22$ 
 
 With us, chemical analysis has long since 
 abolished the four elements, which our forefathers 
 regarded as pillars of the universe ; but in China, 
 until recently, no analysis has been applied. 
 It inspires us with a feeling akin to contempt to see 
 philosophers resting their world-moving levers 
 on a hypothesis as baseless as that of a numerical 
 relation between the elements, the planets, 
 and the cardinal points of the compass, which, 
 curiously enough, they make five. 
 
 Their method was at fault; it was the deductive 
 method of Descartes plus the bondage of ancestral 
 tradition. 
 
 It is concisely expressed in a passage* of 
 Chang Heng-chu "To know Nature, you must 
 know Heaven. If you have pushed your science 
 so far as to know Heaven, then you are at the 
 source of all things. Knowing their evolution, 
 
 *In the Best Thoughts of the Five Philosophers ^ff -? iff HI , 
 
 a work compiled by Chu Fu-tsze and subsequently enlarged by the 
 addition of his own best thoughts, this passage occurs as Chang's 
 
 answer to a question as to ^- mn f the Study of Nature : 
 
 Jtf Jl M Jff
 
 226 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 you can tell what ought to be and what 
 ought not to be, without waiting for anyone 
 to inform you." 
 
 This is precisely the mental attitude of Descartes, 
 who, with the substitution of 'God' for 'Heaven,' 
 would have accepted the formula for his own. 
 Descartes, however, examined his premises, a thing 
 which our Chinese philosophers no more dared 
 to do than the Hebrew priests to open the ark 
 of the convenant. Yet, is it more surprising 
 that they should entertain irrational opinions than 
 that Descartes should believe that the 
 actions of brute animals are purely automatic, 
 or that Bacon should believe in witchcraft ? 
 
 We have said enough to show that these Chinese 
 thinkers, though less rigorous in its application, 
 employed substantially the method of Descartes ; . 
 it is time to show that they held the same 
 conception of Ether as that for which the illustrious 
 Frenchman has obtained such deserved renown. 
 
 Chang, the writer last quoted, was born in 
 J the year 1020, a little more than a century before 
 the advent of Chu Hi. He is the author 
 of a small treatise entitled Chng Meng, 
 " Right Discipline for Youth." Its leading aim 
 is moral instruction ; but, with that kind of 
 thoroughness so characteristic of the Chinese,
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 
 
 227 
 
 he begins with the origin of the universe : 
 
 " The immensity of space, though called the great 
 
 void, is not void, but filled with a subtile substance.* 
 
 * Chang's celebrated treatise, Cheng Mfng, jl- |f|* forms the 
 fifth Volume, or 3& , of the <fefc jS3 ~jr A? , or Grand 
 
 li* " J-J-- *- X X ' t " 
 
 Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For convenience sake, I bring together, 
 in the following paragraphs, all the passages in it bearing on the 
 nature and origin of matter : 
 
 ; 
 
 It 
 &
 
 228 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In fact, there is no such thing as a vacuum. 
 Therefore, the Holy Sage, in speaking of Nature 
 and Nature's laws, comprehended the whole in 
 the transformations of an organizing principle." 
 
 Here we have brought bcibie us the old question 
 of a vacuum or a plenum, so much discussed 
 by the sophists of Greece ; and our author 
 resolves it, in a truly Cartesian manner, 
 by denying the existence of a vacuum and filling 
 all space with Ether. 
 
 With Chang-tsze, as with Descartes, this Ether is 
 the primordial stuff out of which matter was formed; J 
 but he goes a step further than the Frenchman 
 ventured, and adds that into Ether all forms of 
 matter are destined to return. *His words are 
 
 * The text of this and the preceding quotation is found in the 
 foregoing Note. As to the literal accurary of the rendering here given, 
 
 I have some doubt. It makes jjjtfj the subject of J3 f which is 
 liable to more than one objection. If, however, jfitfj be taken as 
 an adjective, the general meaning amounts to the same thing. 
 "Being freed from obstruction, it becomes divine," i.e., developes 
 a divine energy, in virtue of which the " pure becomes transformed 
 (or returns) into the gross." This giyes, it is true, no distinct idea 
 of personality, or what Plato calls eternal mind ; but it does imply 
 the inherence of a divine power. Ch'eng-tsze says, in commenting 
 
 on this passage: "Spirit and matter, jjjjjj |p^ f are one and 
 
 inseparable. To say that the divine spirit exists outside of matter, 
 or that matter exists outside of the divine spirit, is to make two things 
 of one." This is not atheism, but pantheism.
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 229 
 
 " Within the immensity of space, matter is alternately 
 concentrated and dissipated, much as ice is 
 congealed or dissolved in water." 
 
 This conception, in all its fullness, we find 
 presented in a recent work on The Unseen Universe t 
 ascribed to Professors P. G. Tate and Balfour 
 Stewart, in which the hypothesis is advanced that 
 matter may disappear by reverting to the 
 state of ether, in preparation for re-appearing 
 in a new creation. Science, however, knows of 
 no force capable of evoking it from its grave. 
 At this point, we must call in the intervention of 
 a Deity, to save us from the impossible idea of 
 a defunct universe. Is it not what Horace calls 
 
 Nodus tali vindioe dignus f 
 
 The consideration of this change of state brings 
 us to what I have called the dynamics of ether. / 
 By Descartes this is comprehended in his theory 
 of vortices, a term by which he described 
 certain whirls and eddies of an attenuated fluid, 
 which he represented as required, not only to 
 maintain the planets in motion, but to keep the 
 particles of air from coming in contact with each other, 
 and so changing into a solid. 
 
 The whirling and grinding of that primitive 
 element, he believed to result in the production
 
 230 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of the grosser forms of matter ; and he professed 
 to point out the exact way in which the 
 three leading forms, the gaseous, the liquid, 
 and the solid, are actually generated. 
 
 The modern physicist, who holds the dynamic 
 theory of the molecule, entertains substantially 
 the same view, however he may differ from 
 Descartes as to details of the creative process. 
 Curious as it is to see an obsolete theory / 
 revived 'in the heyday of western science,, 
 it is more curious to meet with it in China more 
 than eight centuries agone. 
 
 Not only does Chang-tsze agree with Descartes 
 in making ether the primordial element, 
 which condenses into matter, but he and his 
 fellows seem to have hit on vortex motion as an 
 explanation of the mode of condensation : 
 
 " The great void," he says, " is rilled with a pure 
 fluid. Since it is pure, it offers no obstruction to 
 movement ;" or, to translate into the language 
 of modern physics, " In a frictionless fluid, the 
 original motion is maintained without alteration." 
 
 He adds: "There being no obstruction 
 to movement, a divine force converts the 
 pure into the gross." 
 
 The Chinese philosopher, no more than the 
 Frenchman, can explain the creation of matter,
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 
 
 231 
 
 without invoking the aid of a divine force. 
 That he meant God in a proper sense, 
 we shall not assert ; all that we insist on is 
 that he attempts to explain the process by a 
 theory of vortices. 
 
 A citation or two from other writers may serve 
 to throw light on a view which they held 
 in common. Cheo Lien-hi, a contemporary of 
 Chang-tsze, is known as the author of a diagram . 
 of cosmogony.* He begins with a single ring 
 or circle, of uniform whiteness. This represents 
 ./the uniform, primitive ether. Then follows a circle 
 partly dark, which shows the original substance 
 
 * Cheo's diagram of cosmogony forms the first chapter of the 
 yp jgl * HE or Minor Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. It begins 
 
 with the statement that "This (the diagram) shows the evolution 
 I of matter out of Chaos, its motion producing light, and its rest 
 darkness," i.e., the dual principles. The comment of Chu Fu-tsze 
 adds that " In Heaven and Earth, there is nothing besides motion 
 and rest." 
 
 Jtf IK 
 
 9 ft ft 
 
 z 
 

 
 232 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 differentiated into two forms, the Yin and the Yang, 
 the meaning of which suggests night and day 
 as the souce from which the symbolism was derived. 
 
 Speaking of this diagram, Chu Fu-tsze says 
 "It shows how the primitive void is transformed 
 into matter ;" and he goes on to describe the process. 
 " The two forces," he says, " mo lai mo ch'il, 
 grind back and forth in opposite directions; 
 and the detritus resulting from their mutual friction / 
 is what we call matter."* 
 
 We may smile at the rudeness of the illustration ; 
 but is it not very similar to that of Descartes, 
 who describes the particles of ether as cubes, 
 which, in the course of revolution, get their 
 angles rubbed off, and thus give birth to matter ? 
 
 * The above passage is from his book on jfjf ^|[ > Matter and 
 
 Force; and, in this, he sets forth his idea of vortex motion, and its 
 result in the production of matter. 
 
 ~?T ti ra ta sfr rft tHr TIT vas ?s RA,, -r- 
 
 if
 
 CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY BEFORE DESCARTES. 233 
 
 I have not cited these passages for their intrinsic 
 
 merit, but for the sake of their resemblance 
 to the vortex theory of Descartes. So similar 
 
 are they, both in substance and in imagery, 
 that one might almost take them for different 
 versions of the same original. 
 
 The Chinese are held to have borrowed much 
 (some say even their written language) from India 
 or Babylon. Whence did they obtain 
 their conceptions of ether and of vortices? 
 Whatever analogies may be found in other 
 countries, it is certain that their theory on 
 this subject springs from the most ancient 
 of their own sacred books.* 
 
 On the other hand, is it certain that Descartes 
 borrowed nothing from them ? Is it not possible 
 that some fragment of Chinese philosophy, translated 
 by Jesuit missionaries, may have fallen into his 
 hands, while a student at the College of La Fleche ? 
 
 If this could be shown to have been the fact, 
 we should have to acknowledge an obligation 
 to the extreme Orient, of which we have hitherto 
 
 * The character inscribed in the first circle of Cheo's diagram is 
 J|t Change, the name of the Book of Changes. It means 
 
 transformation, and its use here is an acknowledgment that this theory 
 of transformation is drawn from that ancient work. The other 
 philosophers equally extol that venerable book as the source of their 
 wisdom. Its different parts date back from 1200 to 2800 B.C.
 
 234 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 entertained no suspicion. We should have to 
 confess that the philosophic movement, which rose 
 in France and swept over the whole of Europe, 
 drew its first impulse from Chinese thinkers of 
 the nth century. 
 
 Until that can be proved, we must still 
 concede to Descartes the honor of originality ; 
 but it may heighten our respect for the 
 Chinese to know that they have had thinkers, 
 whose speculations are not unworthy to be 
 compared with those of the "Father of Modern 
 Philosophy."
 
 x. 
 
 CHINESE IDEAS 
 
 OF 
 
 INSPIRATION/ 
 
 BEFORE entering on the treatment of this 
 subject, there are two or three remarks 
 to be made by way of definition. 
 
 In the first place, the word " inspiration," 
 as applied to the notions of the Chinese, 
 must be taken with considerable latitude, as 
 expressing their conceptions of an ultimate 
 authority, which pervades and lies behind their 
 Sacred Books, as the source and basis of their 
 teachings. 
 
 Secondly, as their Sacred Books belong to- 
 three leading schools of religious thought, not 
 to speak of numberless alloys, it is not to be 
 supposed that the views of these schools on the 
 
 * Read before the American Oriental Society at Princeton, 
 October 23rd, 1890.
 
 236 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 subject of inspiration coincide more closely than 
 on other matters in regard to which they are 
 in fact widely divergent. It is hardly possible 
 c that the materialism of the Taoist, the idealism 
 vof the Buddhist, and the ethical sadduceeism 
 of the Confucianist, should hold much in common 
 on the subject of inspiration. We shall accordingly 
 point out the peculiar form which the idea 
 of inspiration assumes in connection with each 
 of them. 
 
 Third!)', while the high social development 
 of the Chinese, their vast numbers, and their 
 long history, give value to any elements of their 
 fundamental beliefs, in order to be of interest 
 to us, these must be taken at a date prior to their 
 contact with Christianity. 
 
 I. 
 
 To begin with Taoism : Indigenous to China, 
 its root idea is the belief in the possibility 
 of acquiring a mastery over matter, so as to change 
 its forms at will, and thus protect ourselves 
 against decay and death. Obscurely hinted at 
 by its great founder in the Metrical Manual 
 of 5,000 words which he is believed to have 
 bequeathed to his successors, the latter have 
 deduced from that Manual the extravaganzas
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 237 
 
 of alchemy, the transmutation of metals,, 
 and the elixir of immortality. 
 
 Those who have attained immortality constitute 
 a pantheon, ruling over the material world, 
 and presiding over the destinies of man. Material 
 in its origin, this school gradually evolved 
 a system of belief strikingly analogous to 
 the so-called "spiritualism," which not long ago 
 attracted so much attention in our Western 
 World. 
 
 Instead, however, of regarding all spirits 
 as indiscriminately ferried over to the farther 
 shore, it considers that those of the profane 
 multitude, not being sufficiently concentrated 
 to resist the inroads of decay, vanish into air and 
 cease to be ; while a favored few, by dint of 
 persevering effort, subdue their animal nature, 
 and weave its fibres into a compact unity that 
 defies destruction. A favorite analogy to illustrate 
 this process is their theory of the evolution of gold, 
 which, as they believe originally a base metal, 
 passes upward through a succession of forms, 
 all liable to tarnish or corrode, until it reaches a 
 state in which its perfected essence remains forever 
 unchangeable. The diamond, a gem of "purest 
 ray serene," smiling at the sharpest steel, 
 and mocking the hottest fire, is another symbol
 
 338 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 much used ; and it might have done much to 
 confirm their faith in this theory, had their science 
 gone far enough to connect the gem that shines 
 in immortal splendor with the fossilized carbon 
 that lies hidden in the bosom of the earth, 
 or with those evanescent forms of vitalized carbon 
 that beautify its surface. 
 
 The happy few, as precious as gold and as 
 rare as the diamond, who attain to immortality, 
 do not leave their bodies behind them, 
 like cast-off clothing; nor would their bodies 
 cause the boat of Charon to draw a deeper 
 draught, for the body itself is transformed and 
 becomes a " spiritual body," with changed 
 qualities and new powers. Its qualities are 
 such in general as we ascribe to spirit ; 
 its powers are limited only by the stage of its 
 progress, a progress that rises from sphere to 
 sphere without a bound. 
 
 Among the acquired powers of these immortals, 
 one which occupies a leading place is that of 
 spiritual manifestation. These sien-jin, or genii, 
 as they are called, are of various grades ; 
 and all of them are capable of renewing their 
 intercourse with human beings, among whom 
 they walk invisible. It is seldom that they 
 re-appear in their primitive shape ; but they
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 239 
 
 frequently make their presence felt through the 
 intervention of suitable media. 
 
 A favorite medium is the human body, in a 
 hypnotic condition ; and through such, when 
 properly invoked, the genii are wont to speak 
 to mortals, as Apollo spoke through the Delphic 
 Priestess. Their oracles in such cases relate, 
 in general, to the cure of disease, or the 
 conduct of family affairs. In early times, they 
 aspired to the direction of affairs of state ; 
 but the detection of numerous impostures brought 
 them into discredit, and their influence is now 
 restrained to a humbler sphere, though it is 
 still real, and by no means to be despised. 
 
 Another medium is the fulon, an instrument 
 which we may describe as a magic pen. 
 It consists of a vertical stick, suspended like 
 a pendulum from a cross-bar. The bar is 
 supported at each end by a votary of the genii, 
 care being taken that it shall rest on the 
 hand as freely as an oscillating engine does 
 on its bearings. A table is sprinkled with meal, 
 and, after becoming invocation, the spirit 
 manifests his presence by slight irregular 
 motions of the pen or pendulum, which leaves 
 its trace in the meal. These marks are 
 deciphered by competent authorities, who make
 
 240 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 known the response from the spirit world. 
 
 This will be recognized as an early form 
 of planchette. In the Far East, it has been 
 in vogue for more than a thousand years ; 
 and there is as yet no sign that it " has 
 had its day." Not merely Taoists by profession, 
 but scholars, who call themselves Confucian, 
 believe in it with a more or less confiding faith. 
 When they resort to it with a serious purpose, 
 they usually get an answer which they accept 
 bond fide, whether it meet their wishes or 
 oppose them. Often, however, they call in the 
 magic pen to supply diversion for the late hours 
 of a convivial party ; and in such cases, 
 they tell me, they are sometimes surprised by 
 the result, an invisible person evidently joining 
 the festive circle, and solving or creating 
 mysteries. 
 
 Skeptical as are the Chinese literati, no one 
 that I have seen doubts the genuineness of 
 some of the communications so obtained. 
 I have had such sent to me from a distant 
 place, with the assurance that they were obtained 
 through the magic pen at the altars of the gods ; 
 and, whatever I may have thought on the subject, 
 I could not doubt that the sender believed 
 in them.
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 24! 
 
 Where such credulity renders the public mind 
 as susceptible to impressions as the meal does 
 a writing-table, it is obvious that revelations 
 for the purpose of religious instruction are to be 
 expected. The fact is that the magic pen is one of 
 the most prolific sources of religious literature. 
 Mahomet claimed credit for the Koran, on 
 the ground that it was brought leaf by 
 leaf from Paradise by the angel Gabriel. 
 The hierophants of China are wont to impose 
 on the credulity of their countrymen, by 
 ascribing their own teachings to revelations 
 made by means of planchette. 
 
 Some of these so-called revelations are 
 deservedly popular, on account of the beauty 
 of their style and the excellence of their subject 
 matter ; and they are held in special reverence, 
 as worthy expressions of the mind of 
 deified Sages. 
 
 To this category belong : 
 
 1. The Kan-ying-pien, a treatise on retribution, 
 derived by this method from no less a personage 
 than Lao-tse, the great founder of the Taoist sect. 
 
 2. The Kio-shi-king, or world-waking appeal 
 of Kwan-ti, tutelar god of the reigning dynasty. 
 
 3 The Yin-chi-wen, or Book of Rewards and 
 Punishments.
 
 242 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Others might be added, but I forbear to cite them, 
 because they " attain not to the first three." 
 
 The last cited is ascribed to Wen-ch'ang, the god 
 of letters, a Taoist deity much in favor with 
 scholars of the Confucian School ; for, wide apart 
 as they are in fundamental principles, the dividing 
 lines of the three sects are now well-nigh 
 obliterated. Each borrows deities from the other, 
 and priests of one are found in charge of temples 
 that belong to the other; a result, not so much 
 due to rapprochement in their authorized teachings, 
 as to a chronic confusion in the popular mind. 
 
 II. 
 
 Buddhism, as the stronger faith, has " drawn 
 the cover to its own side," adopting many Taoist 
 usages, and, among them, the practice of procuring 
 spiritualistic revelations. In vain do the orthodox 
 denounce it, as tending to corrupt the canon, 
 and as derogatory to the dignity of the deities 
 invoked ; the practice continues to flourish. 
 
 Of the extent to which it is carried, you may 
 judge from the following indignant protest, which 
 I translate from the Siu Che Yao Yen, a practical 
 guide for the Buddhist priesthood : 
 
 " In these latter days, men's minds are superficial 
 and false. There is nothing that they do not
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 243 
 
 counterfeit. Even in the dissemination of good 
 books, they resort to falsehood to aid their 
 circulation. Their own rude language, which 
 has no meaning more than skin-deep, they palm off 
 as revealed through the magic pen, thus imposing 
 on the ignorant. 
 
 "They mostly father their effusions on \Ven-ch'ang 
 and Lii-tsu; less frequently, on Kwan-ti. Only think 
 of it : In case of ordinary books or pictures, 
 to falsify the authorship is held as an odious crime. 
 How much more hateful the crime of adulterating 
 the teachings of gods and sages ! When 
 book-shelves are loaded with fabrications, 
 the circulation of the genuine article is impeded. 
 Instances of this kind of outrage on Holy Names 
 are too frequent to enumerate. 
 
 "Recently some cases of a truly extraordinary 
 character have come to light. Shameless forgeries 
 are put forth as books of Buddha ! Buddha himself 
 is sometimes invoked to indite a commentary, 
 and even Taoist genii are called on to reveal 
 an exposition of Buddhist classics. Then we have 
 lists of Buddha's titles, purporting to emanate 
 from spirit revelations. The blunders of these 
 books go without castigation, and falsehood gains 
 strength day by day. Formerly moral tracts were aids 
 to virtue ; to-day they are used to mislead mankind."
 
 244 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Here follows a list of spurious books, ending 
 with the remark that " names of men and places, 
 though formed on Sanscrit models, are so clumsily 
 constructed that their rough angles pierce through 
 the thin disguise ; and the more extended 
 a discourse, the more thoroughly does the 
 fabricator succeed in exposing his imposture." 
 
 To note the adoption of this Taoist practice 
 by a section of Buddhism is not foreign to our 
 subject, because it is Chinese in origin ; but, to 
 ascend the stream and treat of inspiration from 
 the stand-point of orthodox Buddhism would lead us 
 away from China. It would carry us into 
 the world of Hindoo mysticism, where Shakyamuni 
 laid the foundation of his conquering creed. 
 
 Suffice it to say that, to the Buddhist, there is 
 no form of existence higher than Buddha, 
 no authority above that of Buddha. He does not 
 look beyond Buddha to an all-pervading spirit, 
 as Christians look through Christ up to the Father 
 of Spirits. For him, Buddha is ultimate ; and, as 
 the name signifies supreme intelligence, so all 
 believers accept the utterances of Buddha as truth 
 not to be called in question. With them, the only 
 possible question is that touching the authenticity 
 of those utterances, in other words, respecting 
 the proper contents of the Buddhistic canon.
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 245 
 
 How much of that canon fell from the lips 
 of Shakya, and how far the teachings of his followers 
 are deducible from his original revelations, 
 are questions of serious import ; or rather they 
 would become such, if once the spirit of critical 
 inquiry were fairly aroused. If, among the 
 heterogeneous materials composing the canon 
 as acknowledged by one or other of the schools, 
 the spurious utterances ascribed to Buddha were 
 sifted from the genuine, there would remain 
 but a very small residuum. Among his subordinates, 
 the degree of authority conceded to each is 
 decided according to their grade of intelligence 
 or rank in the canonical hierarchy ; but no spiritual 
 influence emanating from a higher source is 
 admitted. This is true of primitive or atheistic 
 Buddhism ; but in Buddhism, as modified by time, 
 and by contact with other creeds, we find a 
 superintending and enlightening influence from 
 the spirit of Buddha freely acknowledged. 
 
 III. 
 
 The ideas of Confucianists in regard to inspiration 
 differ widely from those of both the preceding 
 schools. They are the ideas, not of a sect, 
 ,but of the bulk of the Chinese people. 
 
 When the three schools are named in series,
 
 246 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the Ju, or Confucian, stands at the head ; 
 but when the Confucian is spoken of by itself, 
 it is generally described as ta-kiao, the great, 
 universal, or catholic school. Its tenets form the 
 bed-rock of Chinese civilization, whatever may 
 be the complexion of the over-lying soil. 
 The yellow of Buddhism and the black 
 of Taoism may be everywhere detected, 
 but they form only a superficial tinge on the 
 original background. Every Buddhist or Taoist 
 , (outside of the priesthood) is, first of all, 
 a Confucianist ; but the converse is by no 
 means true, the more educated Chinese 
 in general rejecting both the other sects, 
 and speaking disrespectfully of their claims, 
 though not altogether exempt from their 
 influence. Hence a common error in estimating 
 the number of Buddhists on the globe ; 
 for, unlike Burmah and Siam, where Buddhism 
 is established by law, the intellectual culture 
 of China flows apart from Buddhism ; 
 and, in China, the priesthood of Buddha, 
 with but few redeeming exceptions, 
 has sunk to the condition of an ignorant and 
 despised caste. 
 
 The canon of Confucianism is, therefore, 
 pre-eminently the canon of China ; and, to find
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 247 
 
 what views the Chinese hold as to its inspiration, 
 we have in the first place to turn to the 
 canon itself. 
 
 The canon consists, if we reject the enumeration 
 of thirteen books as too wide, and accept that 
 of nine as more exact, of two classes of works : 
 the pre-Confucian, and the post-Confucian. 
 The Li-ki, or Book of Rites, is classed with the 
 former, though compiled under the dynasty of 
 
 ' Han, because it professes to preserve the traditions 
 of an earlier age. Held in high esteem, 
 it is nevertheless deemed somewhat apocryphal. 
 
 ^ The other four pre-Confucian books were all 
 edited by the great Sage, and issued with 
 his imprimatur. 
 
 They contain such fragments of antiquity, 
 historical, poetical, and philosophical, as 
 he thought worth while to preserve. 
 Among them there is not much of unity to be 
 discerned " in member, joint, or limb ; " 
 and, as a whole, they are not regarded as 
 emanaling /rom a supernatural source. 
 
 There are, however, in this collection, 
 two sketches of a rudimentary philosophy, for 
 which a supernatural origin is distinctly claimed. v 
 One of these is a table of mystic symbols,
 
 248 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 from which the diagrams of the Book of 
 Changes were subsequently evolved. 
 
 This was, according to tradition, in the reign 
 of Fu-hi, 2800 B. c., brought up from the waters 
 of the Yellow River on the back of a beast, 
 which was "half horse and half alligator;" 
 signifying, if we admit a grain of truth in 
 the legend, that the first eight diagrams, 
 which form the basis of the sixty-four in the 
 Book of Changes, were suggested by the 
 mysterious markings on the carapace of a tortoise. 
 That the figures on the shell of a .tortoise were 
 employed in divination is attested by history, 
 princes keeping sacred shells in temples erected 
 for the purpose. The shell only ceased to be 
 consulted, when the ampler book became 
 known and accepted as a treasury of 
 divine oracles. 
 
 The other fragment of direct revelation 
 is an outline of natural and political 
 philosophy called the Hung Fan, or 
 "Great Plan." It is said to Jiave been 
 brought to the Emperor Yu, from the waters 
 of the river Loh, by a monster somewhat 
 similar to that which figures in the 
 preceding legend.
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 249 
 
 Both stories were indorsed by Confucius, 
 if the Appendix to the Book of Changes be 
 his work ; and the highest scholars of China 
 continue to receive them as true beyond 
 a question. 
 
 Leaving the barbarous age in which tortoise 
 and dragon are messengers of the gods, 
 we come to a more rational period, when man 
 ^ becomes the medium through which the Will 
 of Heaven is revealed. This view is first 
 enunciated in the Book of Odes (circa 1000 B. c.), 
 in a passage often cited, and one which remains 
 in use as a popular formula : " Heaven, having 
 given life to men, raised up princes to rule 
 them and teachers to instruct them,"- 
 a statement which, with all the light of 
 our developed Christianity, it is not easy to 
 improve upon. 
 
 The general conception, of teachers providentially 
 raised up,, became at length restricted to that 
 of certain eminent men who were looked on 
 as infallible guides. They were called sheng-jin, 
 a phrase commonly rendered "holy men," 
 but one which expresses unerring wisdom 
 rather than holiness. They were numerous in 
 remote antiquity, inventors of arts sharing the 
 honor along with the founders of human society.
 
 250 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Thus Fu-hi, who instituted marriage, was a 
 sheng-jin ; Hwang-ti, who invented medicine, 
 was a sheng-jin ; Tsang-kie, the inventor of letters, 
 and Ta-nao, the author ot the most ancient 
 calendar, are also venerated as sheng-jin ~ 
 In later ages, such paragons of wisdom became 
 few, the advent of one being heralded by 
 presages of an unmistakable character. 
 
 None of those above named ever claimed 
 the credit of a divine mission, but posterity 
 agreed to honor them with that exalted title* 
 The sage of sages is Confucius. He makes 
 no direct claim to inspiration, and always 
 speaks of himself with becoming modesty. 
 According to himself, there are virtues 
 to which he has not attained, and there 
 is knowledge that lies beyond his range. 
 Yet he evinces at times a sublime consciousness 
 of a peculiar mission. When in peril, he exclaims : 
 " If it be the will of Heaven to preserve my 
 doctrine for the benefit of mankind, what power 
 can my enemies have over me ? " At other times, 
 confident of the truth of his teachings, he appeals, 
 not to the people of his own day, but to the 
 judgment of sages that are to appear in distant ages. 
 
 His teaching was from Heaven, but it was not 
 imparted to him in a supernatural way. "How,"
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 25! 
 
 he exclaims, " does Heaven speak, what is the 
 language it addresses to men ? The seasons follow 
 their course, and all things spring into life, 
 \/1this is the language of Heaven." In his view, 
 it was the province of the sage to interpret Nature, 
 not merely as she lives in the forms of^matter, 
 but as she breathes in the soul of man. 
 
 This idea of the sheng-jin, or sage, had begun 
 to take shape in the dawn of Chinese civilization. 
 Confucius, who did more than any other to fix 
 the forms of that civilization by a wise selection > 
 of the best traditions, seized on the idea as 
 one of essential importance, and gave it precision, 
 without in so many words laying claim to the 
 character. 
 
 His grandson, Kung-kie, half a century later, 
 gave the world a theory of ethics, based, like that 
 of Aristotle, on the assumption that good 
 is a middle term between two evils. Unlike 
 the Stagyrite, he gives free scope to a fervid 
 imagination, and draws a glowing picture of 
 concrete good in the character of the sheng-jin, 
 or perfect man. The passage is an eloquent 
 apotheosis of wisdom and virtue, for which his 
 great ancestor confessedly served as a human model. 
 
 Not only has posterity permitted Confucius 
 to remain on that exalted pedestal, but each
 
 252 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 generation has contributed to raise him higher. 
 
 A few extracts from this treatise will serve 
 to exhibit the Sage as expounder of the 
 Will of Heaven : 
 
 "None but the most sincere is able to exhaust 
 the capabilities of his own nature. By so doing, 
 he aids the work of heaven and earth, and takes 
 his place as third among the powers of the 
 universe." 
 
 " He who possesses this perfect sincerity attains 
 to prophetic foresight. This quality, therefore, 
 partakes of the divine." 
 
 " Great is the Holy Sage (or sheng-jin") ; 
 all the books of all the rites wait for him 
 to fulfill them." 
 
 " He can appeal to the gods above, because 
 he knows Heaven ; and to the wise of coming times, 
 because he knows men." 
 
 " He speaks, and none hesitate to believe ; 
 he acts, and none fail to approve." 
 
 " His fame overflows the boundaries of China, 
 and extends to barbarous peoples. Wherever ship 
 or chariot can go, wherever sun and moon give 
 light, wherever frosts and dews descend, there is 
 no one who has blood and breath, who does not 
 honor and love such a man. Therefore, he is said 
 to be the equal of Heaven."
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 253 
 
 This description of the ideally perfect man, 
 drawn as it was from the teaching and example 
 of Confucius, caused him to be accepted in that 
 character. Mencius, the St. Paul of Confucianism, 
 its last and greatest apostle, confirmed the judgment 
 of the author of The Mean. His words are : 
 " From the time that human life appeared on earth 
 down to this day, the world has seen no man 
 like Confucius ; " and his estimate of China's 
 greatest teacher has been ratified by all succeeding 
 ages. 
 
 In the process of time, speculative thought 
 attained a higher development; and, in the theory 
 of the universe which it produced, the sheng-jin 
 holds a definite place. Heaven, earth, and man, -' 
 form a triad of agents, as hinted already in the 
 Doctrine of the Mean ; the first representing 
 self-acting spirit ; the second, plastic or passive 
 matter ; the third, man ; a child born of their 
 union, a microcosm or epitome of the 
 universe, his soul reflecting the pure spirit 
 of Heaven, and his body composed of the gross 
 elements of earth. For the Sage it is reserved 
 to connect the two in a perfect union. Accordingly 
 we see, in all the temples of Confucius, a 
 central inscription just over the shrine of 
 the spirit tablet : Yu t'ien ti wei ts'an,
 
 ,254 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 " He forms a triad with heaven and earth." 
 
 The conception is obviously pantheistic. 
 In the person of the Sage, the dual powers find 
 their harmony completed. He receives no spoken 
 communication, and asks no illuminating influence ; 
 but, embodying in its highest degree the spiritual 
 essence of both, he becomes thereby an infallible 
 expositor of the universe, a law-giver to the 
 human race. It is said of him, " He speaks, , 
 and his word is law to the world ; he acts, 
 and his conduct is an unerring example." 
 
 It is in this light that the Chinese, 
 without exception, are accustomed to look on 
 the last of their Sages. He is not a god, 
 but a perfect man ; not a prophet who utters 
 occasional oracles, but, in word and deed, a 
 constant manifestation of ideal excellence. 
 He does not speak in the name of a higher power ; 
 but, if that power were conceived as speaking, 
 it could add nothing to the authority of the Sage. 
 
 How near this conception approaches to the 
 Hindoo view of Buddha, as the perfect 
 embodiment of intelligence and virtue, needs not 
 to be pointed out. In the Confucian system, 
 however, there is a Heaven above the Sage; 
 while, in the Buddhist, there is none. 
 
 It follows that everything that bears the seal
 
 CHINESE IDEAS OF INSPIRATION. 255 
 
 of such an authority is sacred in the highest degree. 
 The verbal text of his books is not to be 
 altered, no matter what faults may be detected 
 by rational criticism. Thus, incomplete and 
 pleonastic expressions, the errors of ancient 
 copyists, are faithfully reproduced, much as our 
 Hebrew Bibles reproduce the 'ay in suspensum,' 
 and other errors of transcription. 
 
 This superstitious reverence for the letter of 
 the canon symbolizes and fosters that unprogressive 
 conservatism which has become the unenviable 
 distinction of the Chinese race. 
 
 Confucius, it ought to be said, and his great 
 disciple Mencius, lend no countenance to 
 such unreasoning worship of antiquity. 
 The latter says boldly, " It were better to have 
 " no books than to be bound to believe all that 
 our books contain," referring, it is thought, 
 to the Shoo, the canonical book of ancient history. 
 And Confucius lays it down, as the first duty 
 of a ruler, to aim at the " renovation of his people." 
 
 In conclusion, it would hardly be pertinent 
 to raise the question whether the views of 
 inspiration, which we have been considering, are 
 favorable or adverse to the adoption of Christianity. 
 The great Sage, so far from arrogating definitive 
 completeness for his own system, leads his
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 disciples to expect the appearance of sheng-jin 
 in coming ages. Xor is the advent of such 
 Heaven-sent teachers limited to China. 
 There is, therefore, nothing to prevent a sound 
 Confucian accepting Christ as the Light of the 
 World, without abandoning his faith in Confucius 
 as a special teacher for the Chinese people. 
 " Confucius //w.s Christ" is a formula to which he 
 has no insuperable objection ; but the man, who 
 approaches him with such an alternative as 
 " Christ or Confucius," is not likely to meet with 
 a patient hearing. 
 
 As a matter of fact, native Christians continue 
 to believe in the mission of Confucius, much as 
 converted Jews do in that of Moses.
 
 XI. 
 
 STAGES OF .RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 
 IN 
 
 CHINA.* 
 
 RELIGION consists of two elements, thought 
 and feeling. Its thought is directed toward 
 the mysterious problems of existence. In this 
 aspect, ever_religion that emanates from 
 human thought is, to a certain extent, to be 
 regarded as a philosophy,; hence worthy of 
 careful study, not as throwing light, which 
 to us would be valuable, on the question 
 of human destiny, but as throwing light on human 
 character, on national character, and the relations 
 of nations to each other. 
 
 The religious experience of the Chinese people, 
 the elements forming their religious beliefs, 
 constitute the subject which I have to discuss. 
 No theme could, perhaps, be of greater interest, 
 
 * Stenographic report of an address before the American Society 
 of Comparative Religion, New York, 1891.
 
 258 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 partly on account of the multitude of people who are 
 affected by these views, partly on account of the vast 
 antiquity of their civilization, and also because 
 that great people have been segregated by 
 mountain chains and ocean breadths from 
 intercourse with the rest of mankind, to a very 
 large extent, for the greater part of their national 
 existence. 
 
 In order that our lessons may be of value, 
 it will be important that we should take them 
 out of the stream, at a point prior to the influx 
 of Christianity ; for Christianity has to some 
 extent aftected the modes of thought of that 
 people beyond the pale of Christian communities, 
 which, for the last three hundred years, have 
 been growing up in that land. The systems, of which 
 I have to speak, date back far beyond that time. 
 
 The missionary, thoughtful and accustomed 
 to study the field upon which he is entering, 
 is somewhat like a scientific farmer who 
 studies and analyzes the soil into which 
 he intends to cast the precious seed. He may 
 find that that soil was produced by the 
 disintegration of many kinds of rocks, some 
 deposited from water, others thrown up by the 
 action of internal fires, others yet affected 
 by atmospheric influences. We find, in a similar
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 259 
 
 -manner, the mental soil of China composed 
 of three leading elements, which have been 
 commingled and brought into interaction in such 
 a way as to present to the superficial observer 
 a homogeneous aspect. These are known as 
 the three religions, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist. 
 
 Before attempting to point out their interaction, 
 which, after all, is the objective point, allow 
 me briefly to sketch the leading characteristics 
 of each, as they rise successively before our eyes. 
 I shall not be able to go into detail in our 
 allotted time, nor would it be desirable, inasmuch 
 as I have in mind the distinct object of pointing 
 out only a few salient features by which these 
 religions have acted upon each other. 
 
 The Confucian system did not originate with 
 Confucius. He said: "I am an editor, not 
 an author." He took the records of remote 
 antiquity and sifted them, in such wise, however, 
 as to exert in a most effective manner the influence 
 of an editor, giving to the readers of all succeeding 
 ages only that which he wished to produce its 
 effect on the national mind. We consequently date 
 Confucianism from the beginning of his records, 
 from the time of Yao and Shun, his favorite 
 models of virtue, twenty-two centuries before 
 the Christian era. Viewed as a religion, it presents
 
 260 HAN'LIN PAPERS. 
 
 two leading features : The first is the worship 
 of Shang-ti ; the second is the worship of the 
 spirits of men under the title of ancestors. 
 
 Shang-ti signifies the Supreme Ruler. Coming 
 before us in some of the most ancient books 
 extant in any language, the name suggests 
 at once the Jehovah of the Christian Scriptures, 
 the Lord, the Most High, who was worshipped 
 not only by those who are recognized in the canon 
 of Scripture as possessing the guidance of inspiration, 
 but by such men as Melchizedek, the King 
 of Salem, who was both king and priest. We find 
 the earliest sovereigns of China combining 
 this double function of king and priest, signalizing 
 their accession, especially in the case of founders 
 of dynasties, by going to mountain tops, 
 the highest points approaching to heaven, 
 and there offering up burnt sacrifices to the 
 King of Heaven, by whom kings reign and 
 princes decree justice. 
 
 If there were any doubt as to the lofty spiritual 
 conception connected with this grand object 
 of worship of the one alone to whom all kings 
 and princes were recognized as accountable, 
 we may find it in a single passage among 
 many scores that I might cite to you if I only 
 had time.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 26 1 
 
 The founder of the dynasty of Chow, 
 eleven hundred years before the Christian era, 
 is leading a small army to attack the powerful 
 host which upholds the throne of a tyrant. 
 On the battle-field, before the critical engagement, 
 he addresses an eloquent harangue to his soldiers, 
 in which he points upward and says : "The Most 
 High God, the Supreme Ruler, is looking down 
 upon you. Let not your hearts waver." ' 
 
 The worship of Shang-ti, the Most High (for that 
 is almost a literal translation of the name)/ 
 continues to the present day, the sovereign now 
 on the throne acting, as did his predecessors 
 of four thousand years ago, as high priest 
 for the empire. On an altar within the walls 
 of Peking, he offers up burnt sacrifices to the 
 Supreme Being. From the earliest days, however, 
 this worship was impure. We find no point 
 in Chinese history where it was not mingled 
 with the worship of subordinate deities, nature- 
 gods, gods of the hills and rivers ; and that 
 intermixture not only continues to the present day, 
 but it has been largely increased, as I shall have 
 .occasion to show, by the influence of 
 other religions, more or less corrupting the 
 comparative purity of the primitive ideas. 
 
 Confucius was himself strongly inclined to
 
 262 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 agnosticism. In his intimate conversations with 
 his disciples, he refuses to give them any positive 
 statement in regard to the things beyond the reach 
 of human sight. He said: "We know not life: 
 how can we know death, or what lies beyond 
 the grave ? We are unable properly to render 
 service to our living parents ; how should 
 we know how to render fitting service 
 to those who have passed into the other 
 world?" Yet he enjoined service to those 
 who have passed into the other world as the 
 cardinal duty in his religious system ; and it is that,, 
 more than anything else, which makes it a 
 religion, potent and living to this day. 
 The worship or the Supreme Ruler, grand 
 as it is, is nevertheless like a ray of the 
 sun falling upon an iceberg, so far as 
 its influence on the public mind is concerned.. 
 It is limited to the emperor and to a few 
 remarkable and august manifestations of public 
 ritual; but you do not find it in the household. 
 You do not find it on the lips of the people.. 
 You do not find that God in that form has 
 taken up his abode with men. He is still far 
 remote, on the summit of an icy Olympus, 
 as it were, although to a certain extent dimly 
 perceived by the mind of the Chinese nation.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 263 
 
 Taoism rose next. The founder of Taoism 
 preceded Confucius; but, by a kind of paradox, 
 his religion is of later date. The founder of 
 Taoism goes by the name of Lao-tse, 
 which signifies the "Old Philosopher," probably 
 because he was old when Confucius was young, 
 they being contemporaries. The Taoist system 
 is not found clearly developed in the only book 
 which has been transmitted to us from the 
 hand of Lao-tse, and the authenticity of which 
 has been to a large exent questioned. 
 His followers, however, deduced from the obscure 
 hints contained in that book two ideas, or rather, 
 one idea, which afterward subdivided itself 
 into two. The one idea was that, -by persistent 
 effort, we may acquire a mastery over matter 
 in such a way as to command all its potencies, 
 and employ them in accomplishing objects which 
 would seem far beyond the reach of human 
 power, unless it were elevated by a process 
 of discipline. 
 
 The matter thus spoken of is subjectively that 
 of our own bodies, the discipline of which would 
 result in a possible immortality, and objectively 
 the material objects surrounding us, but chiefly 
 the elemental forms, the careful study of which 
 would enable man finally to transmute the baser
 
 264 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 metals into gold, and to accomplish many things 
 which have the air of miracle. You perceive how 
 naturally from this root spring the two 
 fundamental ideas of alchemy, the transmutation of 
 metals into gold, and the attainment of immortality. 
 These came forward under the influence of 
 perhaps the two leading desires which 
 characterize human existence, the first to be 
 rich, the second to live long, or to live forever, 
 in order to enjoy wealth. 
 
 This 'system has, however, a close relation to 
 what preceded it, as a cause and explanation 
 of the energy with which it took hold of the 
 human mind. I have just said that Confucius 
 was something of an agnostic. He dealt largely 
 in negations, refused to give any light beyond 
 the grave, or to hold out any hope of 
 immortality, although that is to some extent 
 implied in the formal worship of ancestors. 
 The longing of the human mind for a future 
 life sought satisfaction in the Taoist conception 
 of a possible immortality, which was to be 
 conquered by a long and laborious discipline, 
 and which could not be the heritage of the many, 
 but which might become the possession of a few. 
 
 This system, at the same time, imparted a 
 kind of life to all nature, making every form
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 265 
 
 of matter instinct with an inextinguishable 
 divine essence, which is capable of assuming 
 personality. In this way, it peopled the world 
 with a new Pantheon of gods, fairies, and genii. 
 The term genii we usually employ as a translation 
 for shen-sien or sien-jin (both forms being used), 
 which is the word the Taoists apply to their 
 adepts, those who obtain the precious gift, 
 the elixir of immortality. This view may be 
 illustrated by the following lines from a 
 Chinese poem : 
 
 "A prince the draught immortal went to seek, 
 And finding it he soared above the spheres ; 
 In mountain caverns he had dwelt a week 
 Of human time it was a thousand years." 
 
 The Taoist system, deifying, as it were, matter, 
 being essentially materialistic, laid hold upon 
 the sublime conception of Shang-ti, the ruler 
 of the universe, and incorporated it into the 
 material world. Not only so; having arrived at 
 
 tit f) ft I 
 
 B # * 
 
 =f -b ^L ^ 
 
 * H * fill 

 
 266 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the idea of the five elements, it subdivided the 
 idea of the supreme ruler, and made five gods, 
 each a god of a special element. Thus it corrupted 
 the idea of God ; and it has been one of the most 
 fruitful sources of religious corruption in the 
 history of the Chinese mind, introducing a 
 multitude of favorite idols, nature-gods of material 
 origin, which continue to be worshipped to the 
 present day. 
 
 The Buddhist system came in, as you are aware, 
 early in the Christian era, the emperor Ming Ti 
 having sent a mission to India to bring Buddhist 
 priests and books from that country in the 
 year 66 A.D. The occasion for the introduction 
 of Buddhism was, on the one hand, the eclipse 
 of Confucianism, and, on the other, the religious 
 thought, or phases of thought, stimulated and 
 introduced by Taoism. The defects of both were 
 supposed to be supplied by the stronger, 
 more intellectual, and more spiritual creed of India. 
 
 The eclipse of Confucianism was not caused 
 by the ascendancy of a rival creed. 
 It was caused by a political revolution. 
 The builder of the Great Wall rose up in his 
 might, conquered the rival kings, and resolved 
 that he would extirpate the feudal system. 
 He was made to believe that, without extirpating
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 267 
 
 the books of Confucius, he never could eradicate 
 that system ; and that, though he might 
 overthrow one state after another, yet after 
 he should pass away the system would again 
 spring from the pages of the Confucian books. 
 He resolved to burn the books ; and then, 
 lest these books should be reproduced from the 
 memory of able scholars, he put them to death, 
 and thus flattered himself that he had swept 
 away Confucianism from the face of the earth, 
 and with it the whole of the feudal system. 
 It was during this eclipse of Confucianism, 
 which lasted for about two centuries, that the 
 emperor Ming Ti sent his embassy to India. 
 
 The Chinese people, having got the idea of 
 immortality from Taoism, were at first fired with 
 it; but, disappointed that through that system 
 there was no hope for any but a very few, 
 they were fascinated with a report they had', 
 heard of a blessed religion in India, which offered 
 salvation to all. Hence the Emperor sent his 
 embassy to India and introduced this new religion, 
 which had perhaps, to some extent, already found 
 its way into China, and begun to exert 
 some influence; but which, from that day, 
 became a potent factor in the development of 
 the Chinese mind, and continues to the present day
 
 268 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 to be the leading religious influence in that country. 
 
 I may here mention, as an illustration 
 of the position which Buddhism acquired and 
 holds in China, that I hold in my hand 
 a document never given to the world in the 
 English language, nor, so far as I know, in any 
 other Western language, showing that if, in the year 
 66, an Emperor was so impressed with Buddhism 
 as to send an embassy to India to jntroduce it 
 into China, fourteen centuries later another 
 Emperor was so much influenced by it as to send 
 an embassy to bring Buddhist Classics from Thibet. 
 
 This Paper is A Eulogy on the Sacred 
 Books of Thibet, by the Emperor Yung-loh,* 
 1412 A.D. It reads as follows: 
 
 " In our opinion, Julai Buddha was manifested 
 for one great purpose, viz. : To reveal the 
 profound mysteries of the Three Collections 
 and Twelve Categories. All that is needed 
 to point out his meaning, and transmit his teaching, 
 is therefore extant. 
 
 "From the time when this doctrine flowed into 
 the Central Land, its meaning has been expressed 
 in translations for the instruction of the multitude ; 
 
 * The text of this Eulogy and Hymn was obtained from a Thibetan 
 Lama in Peking, by Professor Pander, of the Imperial College, 
 and translated by Dr. Martin.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 269 
 
 but, excepting scholars of the highest order of 
 intelligence, very few have been able to understand 
 it, and those who have got hold of its essential 
 principles are not many. 
 
 "Now the government of the heart, and 
 improvement of the conduct, are means to the 
 attainment of virtue. By heart is to be understood 
 that pure intelligence which comprehends mysteries, 
 and sheds its light upon the obscure. It embraces 
 every variety of truth, and omits nothing. 
 The way to learning lies through a sea of books;, 
 yet, if we trace all principles to their root' and source, 
 we come back to the heart alone. 
 
 " If we study this doctrine, and examine 
 its evidence, it rises above all that is most excellent ; 
 it stands forever unmoved, and there is nothing 
 hid from its light. Verily it is a bridge of safety 
 that reaches to the end of the world, a flaming 
 torch that shines in the midst of uncertain 
 pathways. 
 
 "We, having come to the throne of this Great 
 Empire, and receiving the charge of this vast 
 inheritance, call to mind the tender care bestowed 
 on our education by our Imperial Parents. 
 The virtuous toil, by which they founded their 
 family, cannot be repaid; but, in memory of it; 
 we sent envoys to the West to bring the Sacred
 
 270 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Books of Thibet, which we have caused to be 
 printed and distributed gratuitously, as an example 
 of zeal in recommending and propagating 
 the Faith, in the hope that every living soul 
 may obtain happiness thereby. 
 
 "Of those who do this, the merit is more than 
 words can express. As to those who are 
 lost in the mazes of error, bound by the 
 cords of original sin, blindly rushing on and 
 not knowing whither they go, if they do not 
 examine this doctrine, they will never be 
 able to attain substantial good or return to the 
 ways of truth. To act out this sentiment 
 by giving succor to those that are sinking in 
 the whirlpool, is to share the compassionate 
 disposition of Julai Buddha. 
 
 "We take this for the subject of a'hymn of praise, 
 which may be placed as a preface in front of those 
 books, and serve to add wings to their circulation 
 forever." 
 
 IfymnC 
 
 Julai has set forth the principles of righteousness ; 
 The voice of his law fills the universe ; 
 Worlds many as the sands of Ganges 
 Are every one full of it.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 271 
 
 He transforms the race of men, 
 So that they may all become models of virtue ; 
 Those who are as water spilt upon the dust 
 Are lifted above the waves of sense. 
 
 Passing through the experiences of countless kalpas, 
 He has opened wide the gate of happiness ; 
 The misguided ones who cleave to earthly show 
 Every one become perfectly illuminated ; 
 And as long as there is one who is not illuminated, 
 Julai swears that he will not enter Nirvana.* 
 
 We have pity on the crowds of men, 
 
 And for that reason spread abroad the words of Julai ; 
 
 With deep sincerity submitting to the Faith, 
 
 We desire that all men should, along with us, 
 
 Experience the felicity of Bodisatwas.t 
 
 Our first object is to recompense the [great love 
 
 of our parents, 
 
 The next is to deliver men from the way of bitterness, 
 That they may together rise to the highest intelligence ; 
 That, the overflowings of desire being repressed, 
 They may attain to victorious excellence of heart, 
 Escaping calamities to come. 
 
 v * Buddha is defined as "Supreme Intelligence, ready to enter 
 Nirvana." While hovering on its verge, he (Julai) is conceived as 
 acting as a compassionate Saviour, which he could not be after 
 entering that state of endless repose. The same is said of Kwan-yin, 
 the Goddess of Mercy. 
 
 j- Boddhisatwa is the penultimate stage ; i.e., next to Buddhaship.
 
 272 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Julai spread abroad the doctrine of occult causes, 
 And published it under Indian skies 
 A phcenix who spoke the speech of Magadha, 
 Most perfect beyond thought or expression. 
 
 He is like the beating of a drum to awaken the 
 
 four quarters, 
 
 All who have ears may hear him ; 
 Those who hear him awake, 
 And, fixed in purpose, no more turn back, 
 Nor ever again fall into the wheel of change. 
 
 To bear our testimony to the venerated Lord 
 
 of the World, 
 
 We have composed this hymn of praise ; 
 Its poetic merit is not worth speaking of, 
 But may it redound to the good of souls ! 
 
 Various doctrines are alluded to in this Paper, 
 only one or two of which I will touch upon. 
 I have already referred to the full and bounteous 
 offer of salvation and immortality made by 
 Buddhism, as furnishing a very powerful attraction 
 in contrast to the meagre promises of Taoism 
 and the cold negations of Confucianism, which 
 preceded. This was connected with the doctrine 
 of the transmigration of souls, which was common 
 to almost all Indian creeds.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 273 
 
 The Indian philosophy regarded transmigration 
 as something amounting to a physical necessity; 
 maintaining that it is absolutely impossible for a man 
 to extinguish his being ; that he has, as it has been 
 expressed, come into this world without his own 
 choice, and will go into the next without his own 
 choice, and thence go on in a succession of changes 
 forever. This succession of changes is described 
 under the figure of a wheel, the urn of destiny* 
 or wheel of fate, which is represented as revolving 
 rapidly and dropping out human souls to be born 
 again in the form of man, or of some higher 
 or lower being, there being six categories in all, 
 according to the Buddhist division. The view 
 of human life, taken by the founder of the faith, 
 was pessimistic. All change is evil, and, to escape 
 from this series of changes, constitutes happiness; 
 and he devised a method for that purpose. 
 
 In the Northern School of Buddhism, especially 
 in its popular phase, we seldom meet with this idea. 
 We meet more frequently with the idea that, 
 to rise in the scale of being, is happiness. 
 Shakyamuni had in his system no heaven. 
 The Northern Buddhism, which has prevailed 
 in China, has a heaven, borrowed, it may be, 
 from the Christian's Paradise. It has, presiding 
 over it, a Goddess of Mercy, borrowed, perhaps, .
 
 274 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 from the Catholic conception of the Mother 
 of Jesus Christ. Many other ideas present 
 a parallel, I shall not say a travesty, 
 of Christianity. 
 
 We are asked particularly to point out 
 the relation and interaction of these three systems, 
 which we have thus briefly sketched. You have 
 noted that they rose one after the other, 
 each of them introduced by a felt want, and that 
 each was preceded by a yearning of the human 
 soul for something better ; consequently, 
 in a religious point of view, each one may be 
 considered as an advance upon that by which 
 it was preceded. They were a long time 
 antagonistic, sometimes even inciting bloody 
 persecutions; but at this day they have become 
 comparatively quiescent, like active chemicals, 
 which, being brought into juxtaposition, exert for 
 a time their various qualities, but which soon 
 become inert, until they are brought into contact 
 with some more energetic reagent. We shall 
 find that reagent in Christianity. 
 
 A remarkable illustration of the quiescence 
 of these long active and conflicting systems 
 is found in the fact that there are, in some parts 
 of China, little shrines or temples, where 
 the three religions are seen represented by their
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 275 
 
 founders, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao-tse, 
 all sitting side by side, and receiving at one 
 and the same time the homage of worshippers 
 who acknowledge all three. 
 
 You might object that it would be a strange mind 
 that would acknowledge and swallow all these 
 creeds; yet there are many who assert that the three 
 creeds are identical, if you could only get down to the 
 bottom. In fact, nothing is more contradictory. 
 The Confucian system is essentially ethical ; 
 the Buddhist system is pure idealism, as pure as 
 that of Berkeley or Hegel ; and the Taoist system 
 is materialistic, beginning with gross matter. 
 How is it possible that three systems so utterly 
 divergent should ever be reconciled? The fact is, 
 they are irreconcilable. Each one presents some 
 one thing which meets a human want, but 
 reconciliation there is none ; peace, union, harmony, 
 there cannot be, though a truce, a permanent truce, 
 seems at present to exist between them. 
 
 The question may be raised " What benefit 
 has each one of these conferred upon the Chinese 
 people ? " Each one has enlarged and widened 
 the speculative thought and religious conceptions 
 of the people. Confucianism gave them, or at least 
 preserved for them, and preserves to the present 
 day, the grand idea of the Supreme Ruler ; and it
 
 276 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 bears witness, too, to the doctrine of immortality, 
 in the duty of worshipping departed spirits. 
 But this is faint, very faint, in comparison with 
 the religious teaching of the other two sects. 
 Buddhism has been especially potent in instilling 
 ideas, which are so nearly akin to those propagated 
 by Christianity, as to prepare the way for the 
 introduction of another system.* 
 
 Buddhism, no doubt, vastly enlarged the area 
 of Chinese conceptions. To borrow a mathematical 
 illustration, the religious ideas of the Chinese 
 were limited, before the introduction of Buddhism; 
 to two dimensions, to something that may be 
 described as a "flat-land," with length and breadth, 
 but no height. Buddhism gives it height, soaring 
 up to the heavens and developing the conception 
 of the universe, the grandeur of which, perhaps, 
 nothing can exceed. Is it possible that, after 
 this universe of three dimensions, we shall have 
 one of four dimensions? Mathematicians tell us 
 that, with space of four dimensions, it is possible 
 to do many things which cannot be done 
 without it. There is, in my view, room for 
 the fourth dimension, or (to drop the figure) 
 there is room for a fourth stage in the 
 progression, one which China is waiting for. 
 
 * See next Paper.
 
 STAGES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN CHINA. 277 
 
 Christianity alone can supply the defects of all 
 the systems, and present one harmonious unity. 
 If I were to express in one word what 
 Christianity is to confer upon China, it would be 
 this : Not a God seated far away, upon some 
 remote Olympus, as in the Confucian system ; 
 not a God inherent in matter, as in the Taoist 
 system ; not a God, as in the Buddhist system, 
 who has risen from the ranks of the disciples 
 of virtue, a mere deified man; but God, the Spirit 
 of the universe, in Christ Jesus, coming into 
 the human soul, taking up his abode there, 
 and working by his Holy Spirit a regenerating 
 influence, such as none of these creeds ever 
 exerted, and of which they have presented 
 only a faint and dim prophecy. This I believe 
 to be the mission of Christianity; and I believe 
 the Chinese, though it may be unconsciously, 
 are waiting for it, and reaching out after it.
 
 XII. 
 BUDDHISM 
 
 A PREPARATION FOR 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. * 
 
 IF late we have heard much about the science 
 of comparative religion. To studies of that 
 kind, as Professor Max Miiller is careful 
 to admit, our modern missionaries have 
 contributed valuable materials. It was a graceful 
 admission of this, on the part of New York 
 University, recently to elect to its chair of 
 comparative religion the Secretary of one 
 of our most prominent missionary societies. 
 No renunciation of the claims of Christianity was 
 required, as a qualification for the duties of his chair.. 
 The pre-eminent qualifications of the professor 
 elect consisted in the fact that long experience 
 had made him familiar with the actual state of 
 all existing religions ; that he had studied their 
 
 * Chinese Recorder (May, 1889).
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 279 
 
 history, and had given proof of his ability to 
 discuss their merits with fairness and in a most 
 attractive style. "Impartial, not neutral" is the 
 motto which Dr. Ellin wood might have taken 
 for his series of lectures. 
 
 This expresses the ground which the Christian 
 missionary should occupy on the same subject, 
 with his mind open to all that is good in 
 ethnic systems, doing them on all occasions full 
 justice, borrowing from them freely to enrich 
 his own presentation of the truth, as the Hebrews 
 adorned themselves with precious things borrowed 
 from their friends among the people of Egypt. 
 
 " Embrace the truth where'er 't is found, 
 On Christian or on heathen ground " 
 
 are the words of Watts, the most evangelical 
 of poets. They express the true spirit of Christian 
 eclecticism, the spirit with which I desire that we 
 should approach our subject this evening.* 
 
 Viewed from our standpoint, the religion which 
 above all others has a right to claim serious study, 
 in comparison with Christianity, is Buddhism. 
 It has been brought forward of late as a rival 
 to Christianity, not merely by its traditional 
 votaries, but by poets and philosophers f 
 
 * Addressed originally to an Association of Missionaries in Peking, 
 f Arnold and Schoppenhaur.
 
 28o HAN'LIN PAPERS. 
 
 educated in the schools of Christendom. 
 The poet has purloined the ornaments of the 
 daughters of Zion to deck an Eastern beauty, 
 and the philosopher has endeavoured to persuade 
 Western thinkers that their highest wisdom is 
 to sit at the feet of the gymnosophists of India. 
 
 One scarcely knows which is the more 
 formidable assault on the foundations of our faith, 
 whether the gospel would be more discredited 
 by being set forth as plagiarizing in part from 
 the traditions of India, or by being proven to be 
 a less effectual remedy for human woe than the 
 pessimism of Shakyamuni. 
 
 There is a lawsuit now pending in the courts 
 of England, in which a claimant seeks to oust the 
 present occupant of a great estate by proving that 
 he belongs to an older branch of the family, and that 
 his title ante-dates the other by more than a century. 
 
 In the forum of the world, the contest for 
 priority of title to the traditions referred to is 
 of infinitely higher moment. After the learned 
 investigations of Dr. Kellogg, it can scarcely be 
 said of it adhuc sub judice Us est ; and yet it is 
 one of those cases in which defeat is never 
 acknowledged, in which, in fact, we may expect to 
 see the old pretensions advanced again and again with 
 as much confidence as if they had never been refuted.
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 28 1 
 
 It is not my intention to go into this question 
 at length, on the present occasion ; but I may 
 say, in passing, that a new and weighty authority 
 has come forward to challenge the validity of the 
 Buddhistic claims. I mean the Bishop of Colombo. 
 
 Allow me to quote a few paragraphs from 
 his Paper in the Nineteenth Century, 
 (July, 1888) :- 
 
 "We must distinguish," he says, in speaking 
 of Buddhism, "two very different sources of 
 information, only one of which I shall hereafter 
 speak of as historical. The one source is the 
 Tipitaka* or threefold collection of sacred books, 
 which forms the canon of Southern Buddhism ; 
 these I call the books of 250 B. C. 
 
 "The other source is the Biographies of Buddha 
 and the Lalita Vistara, which are of uncertain 
 date, between the first and sixth centuries. 
 These last are the sources of Arnold's Light 
 of Asia. . . . When anything is included in 
 them, which is conspicuous by its absence from 
 the Tipitaka (i.e., which, had it been believed, 
 must have been inserted), such is certainly a 
 later fabrication ; such are most of the points 
 that bear any resemblance to Christianity, 
 for example, the miraculous birth. Immeasurably 
 
 * Usually written Tripitaka.
 
 282 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 superior, for historical purposes, are the Pitakas 
 to the connected biographies, which belong to 
 various dates posterior to the Christian era ; 
 unreasonable indeed it is to treat the latter as 
 history at all 
 
 "We have been led to the only source of 
 history, the Pitakas. The resultant biography 
 of Gautama * shows nothing supernatural ; 
 and nothing which, in those days, was strange. 
 The life of Gautama contains nothing more strange 
 than does the life of Shakespeare." 
 
 Thus far, the Bishop shows conclusively 
 the unhistorical character of much of that 
 material which Sir Edwin Arnold has woven 
 into his beautiful poem. As a poet, he had an 
 unquestionable right to employ it; but it behooves 
 all serious thinkers to beware how they accept 
 poetry in place of history .f 
 
 * This is the name for Buddha, in general use in Ceylon and 
 Burmah. 
 
 j- Dr. Eitel, who has made a special study of Buddhism, 
 summarizes his conclusions in these words : 
 
 " There is not a single Buddhist manuscript that can vie in 
 antiquity and authority with the oldest codices of the gospels. 
 The most ancient Buddhist classics contain but few details of 
 Buddha's life, and none whatever of those above-mentioned peculiarly 
 Christian characteristics. Nearly all the above-given legends, 
 that refer to events that happened many centuries before Christ, 
 cannot be proved to have been in circulation earlier than the 5th or 
 6th century after Christ." (Eitel's Three Lectures on Buddhism). 
 
 Dr. Eitel points to early Nestorian Missions as what he calls 
 "the precise source" of these "apparently Christian elements."
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 283 
 
 That Buddhism borrowed much in subsequent 
 ages is incontestable, and that Christianity 
 borrowed something is highly probable* ' 
 Professor Rhys-David asserts that Buddha 
 himself has been canonized as a Christian Saint.* 
 
 The fact is that the. resemblances between the 
 two great religions of the East and West lie 
 far deeper than the external habiliment of poetical 
 tradition, or the superficial analogies of religious 
 orders and religious ritual. They are traceable 
 in the general development and practical 
 doctrines of both. 
 
 Some of their practical doctrines we shall bring 
 into comparison in the sequel. Of the analogies 
 to be observed in their historical development, 
 I may, in passing, be permitted to indicate one 
 or two. Both are found to pursue a course 
 exactly the reverse of that mapped out in a 
 celebrated dictum of Auguste Comte ; their initial 
 stage was not far removed from positivism, 
 and yet both evolve a spiritual universe ; 
 
 * He says: "It is a curious part of the history of the legend 
 of Buddha that it should have been adapted into a Christian form 
 by a father of the Christian Church. The hero of it has been 
 entered in the Roman calendar, and is ordered to be worshipped . 
 as a Saint on every 2;th of November, under the title of St Josaphat. 
 How this came about has been told by Professor Max Miiller in 
 his Paper on the Migration of Fables, in the "Contemporary Review'" 
 for July, 1870."
 
 284 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 one burst the bonds of Hindu caste, the other 
 broke down the walls of Jewish isolation, 
 and each stretched forth its hand to the nations 
 with the ofter of a new evangel. In spirit as 
 wide apart as in geographical situation, they have 
 gradually approached each other, so that they 
 have come, in the course of ages, to occupy the 
 same ground in both senses, and each to lend 
 a tinge to the other. For the objects of our 
 present inquiry, it matters little how inconsistent 
 the Buddhism of one country or of one age 
 may be with that of another ; what we have to 
 do is to estimate its effects. 
 
 No religion has ever shown itself so plastic 
 as that of Buddha, not only chameleon-like, 
 taking its hue from its surroundings, 
 but promulgating at different times doctrines 
 contradictory and self-destructive. Beginning as a 
 philosophy of self-discipline, it developed into a 
 religious cult. At the outset professing atheism 
 pure and simple, in the end it brought forth a 
 pantheon of gods ; and, most wonderful of all, 
 raised a denier of God's existence to the throne 
 of the Supreme. After such changes in doctrine, 
 it is hardly surprising that a system, which 
 preferred poverty to riches, and deserts to cities, 
 should in later times seize the revenue of States
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and place its mendicant friars on the throne 
 of kings. The controversialist, who has to confront 
 Buddhism as an opposing force, may make the 
 most of its contradictions and errors; but for 
 ourselves, on the present occasion, we have only 
 to inquire whether or not Buddhism, under any 
 or all of its phases, in this country,. 
 has done good or evil. 
 
 In the present it may even be an obstruction, 
 but that does not prove that its past influence 
 has been otherwise than beneficent. The Western 
 farmer, when he first breaks up his prairie lands,, 
 finds his plough impeded at every step by the 
 strong roots of wild grasses; but he knows that 
 it was those grasses; growing up year after year 
 through centuries, that accumulated the rich loam 
 in which he plants his corn. 
 
 Let us analyze the mental soil of China and 
 find what elements Buddhism has contributed, 
 to make it ready for the higher cultivation of 
 our Christian epoch. 
 
 The fundamental requisites of all religious 
 teaching are two, viz. : 
 
 1. A belief in God; i.e., in some effective 
 method of divine government. 
 
 2. A belief in the immortality of the soul j 
 i. e . } in a future state of being, whose condition
 
 2 86 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 is determined by our conduct in the present life. 
 
 These cardinal doctrines we find accepted 
 everywhere in China. There are, it is true, 
 those who deny them ; but such are Confucianists, 
 not Buddhists ; and I do not hesitate to affirm 
 that, for the general prevalence of both, 
 China is mainly indebted to the agency of 
 Buddhism. When, in the first century of our era, 
 *he missionaries from India arrived in this 
 country, in what condition did they find the 
 mind of the people with reference to these two 
 great questions ? 
 
 They found a Supreme God recognized in the 
 books, but practically withdrawn from the homage 
 of the masses, because he was considered as 
 too exalted to be approached by anyone except 
 the lord of the empire. The people took refuge 
 in the worship of natural objects and of human 
 heroes ; not one of all their deities taking any 
 strong hold on their affections, or entering deeply 
 into their spiritual life. 
 
 In regard to the hope of a future existence, 
 the state of things was not better. The worship 
 of ancestors maintained a shadowy faith in 
 something like ghosts, but it seldom amounted 
 to a potent conviction. The absence of such 
 a conviction showed itself in the eagerness with
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 287 
 
 which men laid hold on the faint hope held 
 out by Taoist alchemy, that some medicine 
 might be discovered which would vanquish death. 
 The few enthusiasts seen on mountain tops, 
 seeking for the elixir vitae, and stretching their 
 hands and eyes towards heaven, were they not 
 rather touching proofs of a universal want, 
 than evidences of any well-grounded faith? 
 
 In fact, it was the deep consciousness of a want 
 in both respects that rendered the introduction 
 of Buddhism so easy. It found an "aching void" 
 in the human heart, and it filled it with such 
 poor materials as it possessed. 
 
 Let us see how it filled the void made by 
 the want of a knowledge of God. Instead of their 
 gods of the hills and streams, it brought to the 
 Chinese a portion of the Hindu pantheon ; 
 and, instead of their materialistic conceptions, 
 it raised them to a belief in the powers of a 
 spiritual universe infinitely more grand than this 
 visible world. In that universe Buddhas and 
 Bodisatwas held sway, not limited to any hill 
 or city, but extending to all places where 
 their devout worshippers called for succour. 
 Buddha, though in theory already passed into 
 the blessedness of an unconscious Nirvana, 
 was popularly held to be the actual lord of the
 
 288 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 universe. Divinities of the next grade, 
 called Bodisatwas, were believed to have the 
 forces of nature at command, and to be actively 
 engaged in the work of blessing mankind. 
 
 The superiority of these Buddhist divinities 
 over those which they displaced, consists chiefly 
 in the fact that they possess a moral character. 
 By virtue, they have risen in the scale of being 
 in a progression, bounded only by that sublime 
 height on which Buddha sits wrapped in solitary 
 contemplation. Their human kindness rendered 
 them attractive, and the most popular of all is the 
 Goddess of Mercy, of whom it is said that she 
 declined to enter the bliss of Nirvana, and 
 preferred to hover on the confines of this world 
 of suffering, in order that she might hear the 
 prayers of men and bring succour to their 
 afflictions. What wonder this attribute of divine 
 compassion should win all hearts ? 
 
 To make it more effective, the Buddhists of China, 
 taking, as I have no doubt, a hint from the 
 homage paid to the Mother of our Lord, 
 have clothed it with the beauty and tenderness 
 of woman. Kwan-yin, who holds in her arms 
 an infant child, and who stretches a thousand 
 hands to help the needy, is the favourite object of 
 Chinese devotion. She is called briefly P'u-sah,
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 289 
 
 and, in most parts of the empire, that term is 
 employed to express the idea of a vigilant and 
 merciful Providence. K'ao Pu-sah ch'ih fan 
 means "The food we eat comes from God." 
 Missionaries, in their talks to the people, 
 sometimes begin with this admission, employing 
 for God the accepted term, however 
 objectionable in its origin, in order to lead 
 the people to higher views and a purer faith. 
 Providence is also commonly ascribed to Buddha. 
 The reigning Emperor is so called, as representing 
 the providence of the Supreme Deity. 
 The "blessing" and "protection" of Buddha 
 are phrases in familiar use. In a set of verses, 
 to which I shall have occasion to refer again, 
 the abbot of a monastery in the Western Hills 
 ascribes the fruits of the earth to the goodness 
 of Buddha.* The verses read : 
 
 "The production of a grain of rice is as great a 
 
 work as the creation of a mountain. 
 Had it not been for the power of Buddha, where 
 
 should we have found our food ? 
 If we sincerely remember how near to us is Buddha, 
 then we may dare to accept the nourishment that 
 heaven and earth afford." 
 
 * The volume from which I copied these and other stanzas 
 is in manuscript.
 
 39O HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Our question relates to Buddhism in China ; 
 but it may not be out of place to indicate that 
 a similar transformation of the original conception 
 of Buddha has taken place in other countries, 
 especially in those that belong to the Northern 
 School. In Japan, Amitaba is endowed 
 with the attributes of Preserver and Redeemer. 
 In Mongolia, the same is true of Borhan (a name 
 which I take to be derived from Buddha and 
 Arhan) ; and missionary translators have not 
 hesitated to accept it as a fitting expression for 
 God, in the rendering of our Holy Scriptures. 
 In Nepaul, Adi-Buddha is [adored as the supreme 
 and living god. A hymn, which I translate 
 from the French* (which in turn is taken 
 from an English translation of Hodgson), 
 addresses him thus : 
 
 1. "In the beginning there was nothing; all was 
 
 emptiness, and the five elements had 
 
 no existence. 
 
 Then Adi-Buddha revealed himself under 
 
 the form of a flame of light. 
 2. He is the great Buddha who exists of himself. 
 3. All things that exist in the three worlds have their 
 
 cause in him; he it is who sustains their being. 
 
 From him, and out of his profound 
 
 meditation, the universe has sprung into life. 
 
 * Tour du monde, Voyage au Nepal, 1 888.
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 2<)I 
 
 4- He is the combination of all perfections; 
 
 the infinite one, who has neither bodily 
 
 members nor passions ! 
 
 All things are his image, yet he has no image. 
 5. The delight of Adi-Buddha is to make happy 
 
 all sentient creatures. 
 
 He tenderly loves those who serve him ; 
 
 His majesty fills the heart with terror ; 
 
 He is the consoler of those who suffer." 
 
 Who will deny that this is a noble psalm 
 of praise ; that the sublime ascriptions which 
 it contains are worthy to be laid as an offering 
 at the feet of Jehovah ? The only error in it, 
 so far as I can perceive, is that it is addressed 
 to Adi-Buddha, a rather serious defect you will say, 
 as that honor is given to another which is due 
 to God alone. I shall not at present go into 
 the refinements of metaphysics, and reply that 
 it matters little by what name God may be called, 
 provided that which is predicated of him be 
 agreeable to truth. Nor shall I assert what Pope 
 appears to imply that the same Divine Being, 
 under different names, is 
 
 " In every age 
 In every clime adored, 
 By saint, by savage, and by sage, 
 Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."
 
 292 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 But I will say that a people who have derived 
 these ideas from the teachings of Buddhism 
 do appear to be in a state of comparative readiness 
 for the message of an apostle of the true faith, 
 proclaiming " Him whom ye ignorantly worship, 
 declare I unto you." 
 
 Let us see if the same kind of preparation is to be 
 discovered in the notions entertained in regard 
 to the soul. 
 
 In China, prior to the arrival of Buddhism, 
 there existed on this subject, as we have said, 
 a melancholy void. 
 
 The school of Confucius offered to the longing 
 anxious heart the idea of a shadowy existence, 
 accompanied by a recommendation to be perfectly 
 indifferent to it. Its teaching was essentially 
 that of the Sadducee, who said "There is 
 no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." 
 
 The school of Tao taught that the soul is 
 a material essence, capable of being concentrated 
 / by discipline, as the diamond is condensed 
 by fiery forces; and that it may thus be rendered 
 indestructible. To this state few, very few, 
 could hope to attain ; and the masses of mankind 
 were given over to despair. When both schools 
 had failed to throw their light beyond the grave, 
 Buddhism came in like an evangel of hope,
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 293 
 
 teaching that immortality is man's inalienable 
 inheritance, and not the inheritance of man only, 
 but of every sentient creature ; that all are 
 connected by the links of an endless chain, 
 moving onward in unceasing procession, 
 either on an ascending or descending scale ; 
 that the reality of the next stage of being is 
 more certain than the existence of the material 
 objects by which we are surrounded ; that the 
 soul is an immaterial essence, which the 
 transformations of matter have no power 
 to destroy ; and finally, that the weal or woe 
 of the future life depends on the conduct 
 of each individual during this present state 
 of probation. 
 
 How thoroughly this teaching has permeated 
 the Chinese mind may be inferred from the tact 
 that it is set forth in its pure Buddhistic garb v 
 in one of the most popular text-books employed 
 for instruction in the primary schools of Peking. 
 I refer to the -^ ^jjf $| ^ (Liu Yen Tsa Tzii). 
 It says : " The glory and happiness of the present 
 life are fruits that spring from seeds planted 
 in a former state. If the present life is hungry, , 
 cold, and bitter, the fountain of evil is to be 
 traced to the sins of a former state of 
 existence."
 
 294 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The materializing views of Taoism are condemned 
 (to quote only one example) in the following 
 verses from another book ( JU ^ pjf fj ^ Jjg 
 
 *):- 
 
 "Ye who studyjthe doctrine of Tao, 
 And strive to prepare the elixir of immortality, 
 Do you not reflect that the elements of immortality v 
 
 are within you ? 
 
 Do you not know that the elixir of life is within you ? 
 For soul and spirit, they are the root 
 
 and fountain." 
 
 In the same book, there are verses which 
 represent a princess as announcing her resolution 
 to adopt a religious life, and with many tears 
 exhorting her parents to do the same. She says : 
 
 "If a man live to a hundred years, his life is as a dream; 
 Glory and wealth pass away like a flash of gunpowder. 
 I beg my father and mother to give themselves 
 
 to works of piety, 
 To worship Buddha, to read the holy books, and move 
 
 the heart of Heaven; 
 
 To store up good works, to confirm your own virtues, 
 And escape from a sea of bitterness, a world of dust 
 
 and turmoil. 
 Owing to your good deeds in a former state, you now 
 
 possess the sovereignty of hills and rivers. 
 If, standing on your present height, you still strive 
 
 upward,
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 295 
 
 Praying the gods to write your names on the roll 
 
 of the purple mansion, 
 You may come to enjoy the blessedness of heaven, 
 
 and rise above the estate of men." 
 
 The book from which these last passages 
 are taken is a metrical biography of the Goddess 
 of Mercy. 
 
 I do not go into the recondite lore of great 
 libraries, but draw my proofs from manuals 
 of the family and of the common school, in order 
 to show what doctrines are actually in possession 
 of the popular mind. That they teach the supreme 
 importance of a life to come, there is no denying. 
 Their best views are vitiated by mixture with 
 the errors of metempsychosis. But is not this 
 so far a preparation for receiving a better hope 
 from Him who " brought life and immortality 
 to light ? " 
 
 Having thus pointed out the service which 
 Buddhism has rendered, by conferring on the 
 Chinese the blessing of a stronger faith in the 
 two doctrines that lie at the root of all religion, 
 let us next inquire into its influence in bringing 
 about those states of mind which are described 
 as the Christian graces. For want of time, 
 I purposely refrain from going into an examination 
 of the Buddhist decalogue, or in any other way
 
 296 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 entering into a general comparison of Buddhist 
 and Christian ethics. The side of ethics, with 
 which we have to do at present, is that which 
 looks heavenward; i.e., religion in its practical 
 aspect. 
 
 Our Christian ethics, in their religious hearings, 
 are beautifully summarized by the Apostle Paul 
 in the three graces of " Faith, Hope, and Charity." 
 Has Buddhism anything answering to these ? 
 If it has, it differs in that respect from all other 
 pagan religions. In the old religions of Greece 
 and Rome, the things signified were so utterly 
 unknown that these three words acquired a 
 new signification in passing into Christian use. 
 As for the early religions of this country, 
 they have nothing to show under any of the 
 three rubrics, neither Faith, nor Hope, 
 nor Charit) 7 , in a religious sense, as including 
 love to God. Is it not, then, claiming for 
 Buddhism a great approximation to our divine 
 system to assert that it possesses all three ? 
 To make this apparent, let us take them 
 up in order. 
 
 The faith, which figures so conspicuously in 
 Buddhism, might be defined, as in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, as " the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 297 
 
 It keeps in view the realities of the unseen world, 
 and supplies the place of sight and of reason too, 
 to no small extent. The place assigned to it is, 
 as with us, at the head of the list. In a publication 
 by a learned priest of Ningpo, it is called 
 "the mother of virtues" (fg g ^ fg flr). 
 
 Our abbot of the Western Hills gives it an 
 equally exalted position ; and, like St. James, 
 he connects it with " works," as proof of 
 its genuineness. He says : " To be a Buddhist, 
 faith has always been considered the first 
 requisite ; but faith without works is vain." 
 
 Can anything show more clearly than 
 this antithesis that the word is used 
 in a sense identical with its Christian 
 usage ? 
 
 From this peculiar prominence of the grace of 
 faith, it almost follows as a matter of course that 
 the adherents of the faith should be called 
 "believers." We are not, therefore, surprised to 
 find the term Sin Shi (f|f it), "believers," in 
 general use. Shan Nan Sin Nil (i|^ JJ ^pf ~^c), 
 "honest men and believing women/' is a frequent 
 phrase, which tells its own story as to 
 the proportion of believers in the two 
 sexes.
 
 298 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Hope is a grace which Buddhism makes prominent, 
 without having a word for it. Of the emphasis 
 which it lays on the hope of immortality, 
 I have already spoken in treating of that cardinal 
 doctrine. Hope implies the expectation of some 
 kind of gain or benefit. Now the constant 
 endeavour of the devout Buddhist, is it not to 
 secure the rewards of the life to come by 
 working and suffering in this present world ? 
 In Chinese Buddhism, that which kindles hope 
 and quickens effort in the highest degree, 
 is it not the prospect of entrance into the happy 
 land (lH 1^ "tit -!^) > ^ e P ure or sm l ess l an d 
 (Ji& dt) the ^> or Paradise of the West? 
 This is the Buddhist's hope of heaven. 
 
 On the place of charity in the Buddhist scheme, 
 I need not dilate. Love to being, in the broadest 
 sense, is enjoined by precept ; it was exemplified 
 in the life of the founder, and it finds expression 
 in every phase of Buddhist religious life. 
 Compassion (j| ^) is the form which it chiefly takes. 
 The loftier form of adoring love for divine 
 perfection, as in our Christian system, is less 
 frequent, but not wholly wanting. Is it not charity 
 to men that our abbot expresses, when he says 
 " My desire is to pluck every creature that is 
 endowed with feeling out of this sea of misery?'
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 299 
 
 And is it not something very like love to God, 
 when he says " In your walks, meditate on 
 Buddha ; call to mind his refulgent person ; 
 at every step, pronounce his name, and beware 
 that you deceive not your own heart ? " 
 
 It follows, from what we have seen, that Buddhism 
 must have made an immense addition to the 
 religious vocabulary of the Chinese people. 
 For the jargon of its Sanskrit prayers, and for a 
 multitude of theological terms, imported bodily 
 from India, I have no word of praise or apology ; 
 but, within the domain of pure Chinese, 
 it is safe to affirm that Buddhism has enriched 
 the language, as it has enlarged the sphere of 
 popular thought. 
 
 It has given the Chinese such ideas as they 
 possess of heaven and hell ; and of spiritual beings, 
 rising in a hierarchy above man, or sinking in 
 moral turpitude below man. It has given them 
 all their familiar terms relating to sin, to good works, 
 to faith, to repentance ; and, most important of all, 
 to a righteous retribution, which includes the awards 
 of a future life. 
 
 Not one of these words or phrases conveys to 
 the Chinese the exact idea required by the 
 teachings of Christianity; yet, as a matter of fact, 
 the first teachers of Christianity, on coming to this-
 
 3OO HAXLIN PAPERS. 
 
 country, seized on these terms as so much 
 material made ready to their hand, sprinkling 
 them with holy water, and consecrating them 
 to a new use. 
 
 Matteo Ricci soon renounced the Buddhist garb; 
 but no missionary, Papal or Protestant, has ever 
 abandoned the Buddhist terminology. 
 
 Half the churches in Rome are built of 
 stones taken from the temples of Paganism; 
 and some of them, such as the Pantheon and 
 the Ara Cceli, continue to be known by their 
 old names. So half the doctrines of Christianity 
 are introduced to the Chinese* in a dress 
 t borrowed from Buddhism. It could not be 
 otherwise; and this fact, taken alone, 
 appears almost decisive in favour of the 
 affirmative side of the question under 
 discussion. 
 
 If the eloquent Saurin is right in asserting 
 that God's purpose in bringing Judea under 
 the domination of Greece was, by the introduction 
 of the Greek language, to provide a more perfect 
 vehicle for the revelations of the new dispensation, 
 is it going too far to suggest that Buddhism has 
 had a similar mission ? Has it not, in this country, 
 prepared a language for the communication
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 30 1 
 
 of divine truth ? * Has it not also prepared 
 the mind of the people to receive it, by importing 
 a stock of spiritual ideas, and by cultivating their 
 spiritual sense ? 
 
 But, however sympathetic may be our mental 
 attitude in regard to it, we must admit that 
 its mission is fulfilled; and that, for the future, 
 the highest service it can render will be to supply 
 a native stock on which to graft the vine of Christ. 
 By giving the Chinese an example of a foreign 
 creed winning ils way and holding its ground 
 in spite of opposition, it has prepared them 
 to expect a repetition of the phenomenon. 
 
 * The following are some of the Buddhistic terms and phrases, 
 which occur most frequently in Christian books : 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 Devil. 
 
 Soul. 
 
 Life to come. 
 
 New birth. 
 
 Inanimation. 
 
 Advent. 
 
 Rescue. 
 
 State of misery. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Shore of safety. 
 Sin. 
 
 Repentance. 
 Submissive trust. 
 Earnestness. 
 To read prayers. 
 To preach. 
 
 Infinite mer <T- 
 
 To feel the vanit y of the world - 
 
 The happy land.
 
 3O2 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 As Buddhists (and though professing to be 
 Confucians), they are nearly all more or less tinged 
 with Buddhism ; they are taught to believe that 
 their present form of faith is not final, and to look for 
 a fuller manifestation in an age of higher light. 
 The magistrates very generally look on 
 1 Christianity as a species of Buddhism ; and will not 
 this prepare both them and the people more 
 readily to accept Christianity as the fulfilment 
 of their expectation ? 
 
 Postscript. In the discussion that followed 
 the reading of this Paper, a doubt was expressed 
 whether in point of fact missionaries had found their 
 converts prepared in the school of Buddhism. 
 
 A typical case is given in detail by Dr. Edkins, 
 .in his work on Chinese Buddhism (pages 3 66 etseq}. 
 
 The present writer has found such preparation 
 to be a fact in several instances. 
 
 After the above was in print, I met with 
 a book by Professor Rhys David on Buddhism, 
 and Christianity, which contains the following : 
 
 " In it (Buddhism), we have an ethical system, 
 but no law-giver ; a world without a creator, 
 a salvation without eternal life, and a sense of evil, 
 but no conception of pardon, atonement, 
 .reconciliation, or redemption."
 
 BUDDHISM A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 303 
 
 Sir Monier Williams states the negative 
 features of the Buddhist creed in terms 
 not less forcible and explicit. " Buddhism," he says, 
 "has no creator, no creation, no original germ 
 of all things, no soul ot the world, no personal, 
 no impersonal, no supermundane, no antemundane 
 principle." 
 
 Of original and classic Buddhism, this is strictly 
 true ; and the defects of the root affect more or less 
 all the branches. Still it is very instructive 
 to remark how, in the popular Buddhism with 
 which I am dealing, man's religious instincts 
 triumph over the obstacles created by an atheistic 
 philosophy, so that Buddhism has become 
 pre-eminently the religious discipline of Eastern 
 Asia.* 
 
 *The assumption by Buddhism of a distinctly religious character 
 is primarily due to the school of Mahayana, which Eitel describes as 
 "a later form of the dogma, one of the three phases of its 
 development, characterized by an excess of transcendental speculation, 
 and not known to Southern Buddhism." 
 
 The Buddhists of Japan are beginning to agitate the question 
 whether the Mahayana rests in any degree on the authority of 
 Shakyamuni.
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE NATIVE TK ACT- LITER ATTIRE 
 
 OF 
 
 CHINA* 
 
 HlfHE more practical subjects suitable for such 
 occasions have been pretty well exhausted 
 by my predecessors. One speaker has told 
 you what attitude you should observe 
 towards the native religions ; another, the kind 
 of censorship you should exerise over the 
 productions of your press ; and a third has laid 
 down such lucid rules for the composition of 
 tracts that there is no longer any mystery on 
 the subject. With such a guide, it would seem 
 that the dullest intellect ought to be able 
 to produce a book as readily as a tailor 
 can make a suit of clothes when supplied with 
 a pattern. A Roman critic, however, after laying 
 down his code of composition, adds that 
 a pre-requisite is the "consent of Minerva." 
 
 * Read before the North China Tract Society, in Peking.
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 305 
 
 Tu nihil invita dices faciesve Minerva, 
 i.e., brain power is a first condition. As the 
 author of Hudibras says 
 
 " For all the rhetorician's rules 
 Teach nothing but to name his tools." 
 
 For me it remains, not to lay down rules, 
 but to point you to certain examples from 
 the examination of native tracts, to borrow a side 
 light, which may perhaps prove useful alike to 
 composers and distributors of that kind of literature. 
 
 The word "tract," in its more general sense, 
 signifies a treatise on any subject. In the special 
 sense, which the activity of our Tract Societies 
 has brought into use, it means a small book in 
 which the sanctions of religion are brought 
 forward in support of morality. Its aim is to 
 enlighten the human mind, and to purify the 
 widening stream of human life. 
 
 That the people of this ancient empire, 
 who have anticipated us in so many discoveries, - 1 
 and in every kind of social experiment, 
 should have gone before us in the creation of a 
 tract-literature, is not surprising. In China, 
 as in most other countries, one of the earliest 
 uses of written speech was to extend the 
 influence of good men, by causing their words 
 to reach a wider circle, beyond the bounds of
 
 306 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 their personal intercourse, which in space is 
 limited to a few miles, and in time to 
 a few years. 
 
 For the same reasons, one of the first applications 
 of the art of printing, in which China was six 
 / hundred years in advance of Europe, was to 
 multiply tracts ; and the aggregate mass of its 
 publications in this department has, in the course 
 of ten centuries, attained an enormous development. 
 To enumerate even the most popular of them 
 would necessitate the recitation of a long catalogue ; 
 and to offer an outline criticism of each would 
 be an endless task. They fall, however, 
 into certain well-defined categories, such as : 
 
 1. Those which inculcate morality in general. 
 
 2. Those which persuade to the practice of 
 particular virtues. 
 
 3- Those which seek to deter from particular 
 vices. 
 
 4. Those that are written in the interest of 
 particular religions or divinities. 
 
 One or two in each class, as types of the whole, 
 is all that time will permit us to mention. 
 
 In the first class, a leading place might properly 
 be assigned to the discourses of Confucius and 
 Mencius, and to numerous treatises of later
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 307 
 
 philosophers ; but, as we are accustomed to make 
 a distinction between scriptures and tracts, these, 
 or at least those first mentioned, are to be 
 regarded as the sacred scriptures of the Chinese. 
 
 With us, many tracts consist almost entirely 
 of scripture passages, selected and arranged. 
 In the native literature of the Chinese, 
 similar tracts may be found in great numbers. 
 
 One such is called the Ming Sin Pao Kien 
 ( fjj jfr S flg ) Mirror of the Heart. 
 It contains a choice collection of the best sayings 
 of the best men this country has produced. 
 Those sayings are gems, neatly cut, highly polished, 
 and sparkling with the light of truth. 
 In other tracts, they may be differently arranged; 
 but everywhere they shine with the mild 
 radiance of wisdom and virtue. 
 
 A collection of this kind, called Ming Hien Ki 
 ( 2g lj ^ ) , Sayings of the Wise, is a great 
 favorite in Peking. It differs from the tract 
 last named in drawing its wise saws chiefly from 
 modern sources. It opens with the noble maxim : 
 "Only practice good works, and ask no questions 
 about your future." The first chapter ends with 
 the encouraging assurance : " Human desires can 
 .be broken off; Heaven's laws can be observed." 
 
 Another maxim gives the general tenor of its
 
 3O8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 teachings : " All things bow to real worth j 
 happiness is stored up by honesty." Every sentence 
 is a proverb ; and though, like the Hebrew proverbs, 
 there are many that inculcate thrift and worldly 
 wisdom, there are not a few that rise to a higher 
 level. Its religion is unhappily of a very colourless 
 description, contrasting strongly with the doctrine 
 of direct responsibility to a living God, 
 which pervades the proverbs of the Jews, 
 making their religion the most practical of their 
 concerns. The idea of direct responsibility is not 
 indeed altogether wanting, though in this class 
 of tracts it is not sufficiently insisted on. In this, 
 and in nearly all similar collections, we find 
 the warning that 
 
 "The gods behold an evil thought, 
 As clearly as a flash of lightning ; 
 And whispers uttered in a secret place, 
 To them sound loud as thunder." 
 
 The Family Monitor of Chu Po-lu 
 is so well known that I give no citations. 
 It sets forth an admirable system of precepts 
 for the ordering of a household, in which 
 children are brought up with judicious severity, 
 and servants treated with considerate tenderness, 
 purity and honor being vital elements of the 
 domestic atmosphere.
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 309 
 
 The Ti Tzu Kuei ($fa ^ jft ), or Guide to the 
 Young, though less known, is a book of a 
 higher order. Composed almost in our own 
 times, in imitation of the far-famed Trimetrical 
 Classic, it surpasses its model, and shows that, 
 if we may judge by words alone, China still 
 possesses contemporary Sages. In the second 
 chapter, entitled Truth and Virtue, we find a 
 doctrine too rarely taught in Chinese 
 books : 
 
 "In every word you utter, 
 Let truth be first; 
 Deceit and falsehood, 
 How can you endure ! 
 
 Do not lightly speak 
 
 Of what you do not certainly know ; 
 
 Things not right, 
 
 Do not lightly promise; 
 
 If you do promise, 
 
 Whether you go forward or go back, 
 
 You are equally in fault." 
 
 Here is a neat definition : 
 
 "To do wrong without intention 
 Is an error; 
 
 To do wrong with purpose 
 Is a crime."
 
 310 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The author adds : 
 
 "Your errors, if you correct them, 
 End in no error ; 
 If you hide or cloak them, 
 You add one sin more." 
 
 The four tracts that I have mentioned emanate 
 from the school of pure Confucianism. They are 
 not irreligious, for they everywhere admit 
 the supremacy of a vague power called Heaven, 
 They admit, further, that that power, whatever 
 it may be, is not indifferent to human conduct. 
 
 Does not the venerable Book of Changes, 
 the most ancient of the canonical writings, expressly 
 declare that 
 
 "On those who store up righteousness, 
 Heaven sends down a hundred blessings ; 
 And on those who store up ill-desert, 
 Heaven sends down a hundred woes." 
 
 This sentence re-appears in all these tracts ; 
 and the doctrine of a providential retribution, 
 unfailing for the good, unrelenting for the evil, 
 is affirmed, amplified, and illustrated, as a cardinal 
 truth which no man can doubt. By this school 
 it is taught, as it was by the Saducees of Judea, '*' 
 without reference to hopes or fears connected 
 with a belief in a life to come. The certainty
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 3! I 
 
 of prosperity in this world as the reward of virtue, 
 and of shame and suffering as the penalty of vice, 
 is the motive most constantly appealed to, 
 though it should not be forgotten that, in a passage 
 already quoted, a sublimer conception is set forth : 
 11 Only do good, and ask no questions as to your 
 future destiny," assuring us that some among 
 the moralists of the pure Confucian school 
 might unite with us in the petition of Pope's 
 Universal Prayer 
 
 "What conscience tells me should be done, 
 
 Or warns me not to do, 
 This, teach me more than hell to shun, 
 That, more than heaven pursue." 
 
 The experience of moralists in China coincides, 
 however, with that of the west in showing that 
 the theory of virtue as its own reward is too refined 
 for the mass of mankind. One, here and there, 
 who is moulded of purer clay, may be seized 
 with that kind of passion for virtue, which, without 
 a figure, we call Platonic, Plato himself having set 
 the example ; but the great majority are so 
 constituted that to them virtue has no charms 
 aside from happiness. Nor is this of necessity 
 an ignoble sentiment ; for, in this case, what God 
 has joined together it may not be possible for man
 
 312 HAN LIN PAPERS. 
 
 to put asunder, happiness always following in 
 the footsteps of virtue, as shadow follows substance. 
 Are we not told that even Moses had "respect 
 to the recompense of reward ? " 
 
 When Buddhists imported from India a distinct 
 notion of a future life, their doctrine 
 of transmigration was first adopted by 
 the Taoists, and afterwards accepted by many 
 who never ceased to call themselves disciples 
 of Confucius ; and all parties felt that an 
 immense reinforcement was added to the sanctions 
 of morality. Instead of the shadowy idea of a 
 vicarious recompense, reserved for one's posterity 
 in some remote age, comes the conviction that 
 each individual soul, sooner or later, inevitably 
 reaps the reward of its deeds; a conviction which 
 took so strong a hold on the public mind as 
 to become the foundation for a mixed school of 
 moral teaching. 
 
 In the tracts of this mixed school, Confucianism 
 may in some cases be the leading element, 
 Taoism or Buddhism in others; but the most 
 powerful argument to incite to good, and deter 
 from evil, is always the certainty of retribution 
 in a future life. 
 
 The two most celebrated tracts in this 
 department, if not in the whole cycle of
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 313 
 
 Chinese literature, are distinctly on the subject of 
 retribution. They are the Kan Ying P'ien 
 
 (l&&n)> and the Fm C/ W&i ( ^ fig ). 
 
 Each bears the name of a Taoist divinity, 
 one going under the auspices of Lao-tse, 
 the other under those of Wen-ch'ang. One sets 
 out with the declaration that "Happiness and 
 Misery never enter a door until they are 
 invited by the occupant of the house." 
 " They are the reward that follows good and evil, 
 as surely as a shadow follows a moving body." 
 The other begins with a statement that its 
 beatified author practise/d virtue through no fewer 
 than seventeen lives or stages of existence before 
 he attained to perfect felicity. Starting from this 
 point, each unfolds its text with admirable skill, 
 building a rainbow arch of virtues, with one foot 
 resting on the earth, and the other lost in the 
 blue of heaven ; while the vices are depicted 
 in fiery colors, on a back-ground of utter darkness. 
 While on this branch of the subject, a very 
 vulgar tract ought to be noticed, which has perhaps 
 a wider currency than either of the preceding. 
 Like them, the Yii Lih Ch'ao Chuan 
 
 ( EE #4 $$ ft )> or Strin & S Pear!s > 
 
 is devoted to the doctrine of retribution. 
 Instead, however, of insisting on true morality,
 
 31.4 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 this treatise spends its force in clothing 
 the infernal world with imaginary horrors. 
 They are drawn in such colors that 
 they are not Dantesque, but grotesque. 
 The letter-press is accompanied by pictorial 
 illustrations, in which one sees a soul in the process 
 of being sawn in twain, or pounded in a mortar ; 
 a bridge from which sinners are precipitated into 
 a field of up-turned sword points ; a cauldron of 
 boiling water in which they stew and simmer 
 for ages ; then a bed of ice on which they freeze 
 for an equal period ; together with other scenes 
 equally adapted to bring a wholesome doctrine 
 into contempt. 
 
 An idea, to which this gross view of retribution 
 naturally gives rise, is that of opening a 
 debit-and-credit account with the chancery of 
 Heaven. Such account books form a distinct class 
 of tracts. On one side are ranged all conceivable 
 bad actions, each stamped with its exchange 
 value according to a fixed tariff. The Chinese 
 moralist has not, like Tetzel, gone so far as to 
 convert this numerical valuation into a sale of 
 indulgences, but we may be sure that the ingenuity 
 of the reader does not fail to find out a way 
 
 " To atone for sins he has a mind to, 
 By doing things he's not inclined to."
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 315 
 
 The artifice of keeping with one's heart such 
 an account-current is one which, if properly 
 conducted, might end in the practice of virtue. 
 Franklin tried something of the kind with success,, 
 and he tells us that it enabled him to make 
 such proficiency in the grace of humility that 
 he grew proud of it. 
 
 Among tracts of the second category those 
 that inculcate particular virtues I may mention 
 first of all the Hiao-king ( ^ $jlg ) , or Book 
 of Filial Duty. More ancient than any of its 
 class, it is also more venerated, being referred 
 to Confucius himself, whose discourses on the 
 subject were taken down by one of his most 
 eminent disciples. Its origin is no doubt 
 apocryphal, but its fullness and perfection give it 
 the weight of a classic, while the simplicity 
 and beauty of its style make it specially attractive 
 to the young, for whose instruction it was composed. 
 
 The teachings of the book culminate in the grand 
 idea that filial piety, as the first of virtues, may be 
 made a rule and regulator for the entire conduct ' 
 of life. Every act has reference to our ancestors ; 
 good acts reflect honor, and bad acts bring disgrace 
 on the name of our progenitors. The process 
 of reasoning is somewhat similar to that which \l 
 makes the love of God the law of a Christian life:.
 
 316 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 "but how feeble the sentiment that attaches itself 
 to the moss-covered monuments of dead ancestors, 
 in comparison with love to a living God, whom we 
 are privileged to call our Father in Heaven ! 
 
 As in China all social, political, and 
 even religious obligations center in the 
 duty of filial piety, that cardinal virtue is, 
 as might be expected, the theme of innumerable 
 hortatory compositions. Some of them are 
 excellent from every point of view ; but not 
 a few are tinged with extravagance, extolling 
 the merits of children who have saved the life 
 of an invalid parent by giving medicine mixed with 
 their own blood, or broth made of their own flesh. 
 
 There is one, and that the most popular 
 of all, which sinks to a depth of silliness quite 
 beyond anything attained by Mother Goose. 
 I refer to the stories of the Four-and-Tvventy 
 Filial Children. 
 
 One of those worthies is held in remembrance 
 because, when his parents had lapsed into second 
 childhood, he, at the age of three score and ten, 
 dressed himself in parti-coloured vestments, 
 and acted the clown to make them laugh. Another, 
 when a little boy, was seen lying on the ice ; 
 and, when questioned as to his object, replied 
 that he "wished to melt it to catch a fish
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 317 
 
 for his mother." One of them, hearing a physician 
 
 ft 
 
 commend the virtues of milk freshly drawn 
 from the teats of a wild deer, disguised himself 
 as a deer in order to procure the precious beverage 
 for his invalid mother. One of them, on the 
 occurrence of a thunder storm, always threw 
 himself on his mother's grave, saying "Mother, 
 your boy is with you, do not be afraid.'' The other 
 stories are equally foolish, and some of them 
 positively wicked; yet Chinese artists vie with 
 each other in embellishing this precious nonsense, 
 and the greatest men of China make a merit 
 of writing out the text for engraving on wood. 
 
 Is it not probable that these exaggerated views . u^u. 
 of filial piety have had a tendency to dwarf 
 other virtues, and to distort the moral character 
 of the Chinese people ? The duty of speaking 
 the truth, for instance, so much insisted on by us 
 of the West, is seldom touched on by the moral ' 
 writers of China. While the foundation stone 
 is neglected by these builders, what masses of 
 wood, hay, and stubble, do they put in its 
 place ! 
 
 It would be easy to load a cart with separate 
 treatises on the duty of showing respect to written 
 or printed paper. Absurd as are the rhapsodies 
 which Chinese scholars indite on this subject,
 
 3l8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 may they not teach a lesson to our tract 
 distributors, the lesson not to show disrespect 
 to their own cargoes of printed paper, by selling 
 too cheaply, or giving too lavishly ? 
 
 Then we have exhortations in equal quantity 
 to compassion for brute animals. The radical 
 sentiment is just and praise-worthy, but the writers 
 rush into extremes as before ; and, instead of 
 nourishing a well-poised, active humanity, 
 they make a merit of emancipating birds and 
 fish, and of succouring ants that are struggling 
 in the water. Under the influence of this literature, 
 a society has been formed in Peking for the release 
 of captive sparrows ; but I have yet to hear that 
 any society has been organized for the suppression 
 of the sale of little children, a traffic which is 
 openly carried on in all the cities of China ! 
 Our own Cowper wept over a dead hare, and wrote 
 the lines 
 
 " I would not count upon my list of friends } 
 A man who wantonly set foot upon a worm." 
 
 But his pity was not exhausted by such 
 manifestations. He admitted man among the 
 objects of his compassion, and sounded the 
 note of anti-slavery long before the abolition of 
 the trade in slaves :
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 319 
 
 " Fleecy locks and black complexion 
 Cannot forfeit nature's claim ; 
 Skins may differ, but affection 
 Dwells in white and black the same." 
 
 Against particular vices there are numerous tracts 
 which are earnest and powerful. In some, 
 the enormities of infanticide are set forth ; 
 some denounce the folly of gambling ; others deal 
 in scathing terms with licentious practices of 
 every description ; and still others dissuade 
 from opium-smoking, drunkenness, and the like. 
 
 Tracts of a distinctly religious type are neither 
 so abundant, nor so highly esteemed, as those 
 that aim to mend the morals of mankind. 
 Yet they are not wanting; one meets every day 
 with little pamphlets commending the worship of 
 particular divinities. Here is one that points out 
 the way to obtain the favor of Chang Sien, 
 the greatest of the Taoist genii, who rewards 
 his worshippers with the blessing of offspring. 
 And here is another which consists chiefly of 
 prayers to Kuan-yin, the goddess of mercy. 
 The prayers are in Sanscrit, and utterly 
 unintelligible to those who use them. 
 
 Of polemics there are very few, indeed I have 
 only seen one or two of modern origin. 
 The earlier ages teemed with them ; and the literati,
 
 320 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 by inserting in every collection of Kn-wen, 
 Han Yu's ferocious onslaught on Buddhism, 
 seek to keep alive a feeling of animosity against 
 the Indian creed. Time, however, is a great 
 peace-maker. The conflicting elements, that once 
 threatened to turn this celestial empire into 
 primeval chaos, have gradually subsided into 
 a stable equilibrium. The founders of the 
 Three Religions may now be seen side-by-side 
 in the same shrine, called San Kiao T'ang, 
 in loving union, like that of Liu Pei and his 
 adopted brothers. 
 
 Antagonistic and mutually destructive, their 
 teachings may be found mixed together in most 
 of the tracts of which we have been 
 speaking. In one of them, in a conspicuous 
 place, at the head of a list of good actions, 
 stands the injunction Kwang Hing San Kiao, 
 "Spread far and wide the Three Religions." 
 Philosophers tell us of a time, happily far in the 
 .future, when earth shall no more be the scene 
 of terrific storms, when north wind and south 
 wind shall cease to contend for the mastery, 
 because the atmosphere no longer receives sufficient 
 heat from the sun to disturb its repose. It is the 
 heat of conviction that engenders controversy. 
 Where that has ceased, is there not reason
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 321 
 
 to suspect that faith has lost its vitality, 
 and that sincere convictions no longer exist ? 
 
 In ancient Rome, the gods of the conquered 
 nations came trooping into the capital; and all of 
 them, in the lapse of time, were seated in 
 friendly conclave in the pantheon of Agrippa. 
 They were at peace, because they were dead. 
 Lucian, in his satirical dialogues, deals with 
 dead gods as well as with dead men ; 
 but those dead gods were galvanized into life 
 by the contact of Christianity. Christ came into 
 their midst, and, at his touch, their dry bones 
 began to shake, and they rose up to do battle 
 against the Lord of Life. History repeats itself, 
 and what we have seen in Rome, is now taking 
 place in China. The calm of ages is disturbed, 
 and the heat of controversy begins to 
 show itself anew; but the only polemics 
 from the pagan camp are those in which 
 the adherents of the Three Religions combine 
 in a vituperative attack on that arrogant creed 
 which claims for itself the homage of the 
 world. 
 
 Inert as are the creeds of paganism, in comparison 
 with the undying energies of our Holy Faith, 
 it would be wrong to infer that they are 
 either active for evil, or powerless for
 
 322 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 good. To those who have not the sun, 
 star-light is oftentimes a precious guide. 
 
 In looking over a vast variety of native tracts, 
 we are struck by the fact that authors of all the 
 schools agree in seeking to fortify their 
 moral teachings by the sanctions of religion. 
 Even the Confucianists ascribe to their canonical 
 books the authority of inspiration. Chu Fu-tsze, 
 sceptical as he was on most subjects, admitted the 
 claim of the Confucian teachings to a superhuman 
 origin. Later writers naturally sought to invest 
 their productions with the sanctity derived 
 from an inspired source. The two other creeds 
 peopled the heavens with deified mortals. 
 With them it was easy to hold communication, 
 and from them oracular responses were obtained. 
 If the divinities deigned to give prescriptions for 
 the cure of measles or toothache, why not for 
 the maladies of the human mind ? The medium 
 of response was planchette, an instrument known to 
 the Chinese a thousand years before it began to make 
 a figure in Europe. I have myself seen effusions in 
 faultless verse, fresh from the pens of deified spirits. 
 
 In connecting religion with morals, these writers 
 agree with us ; for what a feeble thing would 
 be a moral propaganda unaided by the fervor 
 of religious faith !
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 323 
 
 One of the literary lights of the English firmament 
 defines religion as " morality touched by emotion." 
 The definition is neither logical nor complete ; 
 but it hits in happy phrase one feature of a 
 union formed by two distinct things. Morality, 
 to borrow the imagery of a Hebrew poet, springs 
 up out of the earth, and religion looks down 
 from Heaven. Morality is the body, cold and 
 beautiful until religion, which is its soul, enters into 
 it and gives it life; or, in the words of Mr. Arnold, 
 " touches it with emotion." 
 
 The love of God is religion ; the love of man, 
 morality. The two must be combined, in order 
 to give the highest effect to an enterprise like that 
 of our Tract Societies. The assertion may sound 
 strange, but it is true nevertheless, that morality 
 is our supreme object. If men were to persist 
 in the debasing practices inseparable from 
 heathenism, would we deem it worth while 
 to substitute the names of Jehovah and Jesus 
 for those of Kwanti and Buddha ? 
 
 We should not fail to recognize how much 
 has been done by the agency of native tracts 
 to prepare the way for the tractarian crusade, 
 in which we are now embarked. It is owing 
 to them that our efforts in this direction meet with 
 a respectful welcome. It is owing to them that we
 
 324 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 find the people in possession of religious ideas, 
 to serve as roots on which to graft the branches 
 of the true vine. Let us, on our part, cultivate 
 a sympathy for all that is good in native books 
 and native methods, and endeavor to learn 
 from them something that may enable us more 
 efficiently to carry on our own enterprise. 
 
 That which we may study with most advantage 
 is their mode of communicating instruction 
 on religious and moral subjects. No missionary 
 should undertake the composition of a Christian 
 tract, without having first made himself acquainted 
 with a wide range of native tracts. Not only 
 may he learn from them how to treat his subject 
 in a style at once concise and lucid, respectable 
 in the eyes of the learned, yet not above 
 the comprehension of the vulgar, what is more, 
 he may learn from them the spiritual wants 
 of the audience whom he proposes to 
 instruct. 
 
 A weakness of the native tract lies in the fact 
 that, for the most part, elegant as it may be, 
 it contains nothing but what everybody knows. 
 We, in the preparation of our tracts, can draw on 
 resources that lie beyond the reach of native 
 authors. In addition to the inestimable treasures 
 of Revealed Truth, we have Geography, History,.
 
 NATIVE TRACT-LITERATURE OF CHINA. 325 
 
 Astronomy, Physics, to communicate, not to speak 
 of our improved systems of mental and moral 
 philosophy. 
 
 These sciences are not only powerful for the 
 overthrow of superstition, they are essential 
 to the understanding of religious truth. Every new 
 tract ought to contain more or less on these subjects; 
 and some tracts should be entirely devoted to them, 
 and to the religious applications of which they are 
 so readily susceptible. Would it not be well 
 for our Tract Societies to prepare a series not 
 of text books, for that task has been undertaken 
 by another association but of primers, which, 
 along with religious truth, shall impart the elements 
 of science ? By acting on this principle, 
 our publications will be made in the highest 
 sense an educational agency. They will command 
 the respect of the better classes, and not only 
 win them away from grovelling superstitions, 
 but lead high and low away from the Light 
 of Asia to him who is the Light of the World. 
 
 Note. The Sacred Edict ( fjg || j|f =/|| ), 
 containing the Maxims of Kang Hi, amplified 
 by Yung Cheng, is too large a work to be classed 
 with tracts, unless each chapter be regarded 
 as a tract on a special subject. Nothing, since 
 the discourses of Mencius, gives a better view
 
 326 
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of the kind of morals inculcated by the head 
 of the nation, morals which harmonize in a 
 wonderful manner with the teachings of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The Ts'ai Ken Tan ( |g ffi |g ) is a little 
 treatise full of deep thought, and shows to- 
 advantage the blending of the three schools. 
 I add a list of well-known tracts, mostly those 
 above referred to : 
 
 
 
 
 
 fg 
 
 it 
 
 These and many others may be had in collections, 
 such as
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE WOKSIIIP 
 
 OF 
 
 ANCESTORS. * 
 
 
 FT 11 1 . < 
 
 , I were called on to name the most serious 
 
 impediment to the conversion of the Chinese, 
 I should without hesitation point to the 
 worship of ancestors. Gathering into itself 
 all that is deemed most sacred in family or state, 
 it rises before us like a mountain barrier, 
 hoary with age, and buttressed on the bed-rock 
 of the empire. 
 
 Strong in faith, the missionary may summon 
 it to surrender in the words of the prophet 
 "Who art thou, O great mountain ! Before 
 Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." 
 But if he employs no other tactics than those 
 of direct and undisguised attack, he will have to 
 look to the distant future for the fulfilment of 
 his expectations. 
 Chinese legend tells us of a man who, 
 
 * Read at the Decennial Conference of Missionaries in .Shanghai, 1890.
 
 328 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 feeling annoyed by the presence of a hill 
 in front of his dwelling, resolved to remove the 
 obstacle, instead of shifting his habitation. 
 After exhausting his own life in the enterprize, 
 he bequeathed the task to his posterity, who, 
 after many generations, saw its accomplishment. 
 His procedure is cited as an illustration of 
 perseverance, but not of wisdom. 
 
 A better example of the latter is afforded by 
 the construction of the first railway tunnel through 
 the Alps. When the engineers of France and 
 Italy desired to unite the railway S)'stems of the 
 two countries, they found themselves confronted 
 by an Alpine range. To drive a tunnel through 
 its bowels would involve many years of delay, 
 and the expenditure of an immense capital. 
 What was to be done in the meantime? 
 
 Seeking out the lowest available pass, they ran 
 a spiral track up the mountain side, and approached 
 the summit by a gradual ascent. The two 
 countries were connected by rail, and the road 
 itself yielded the funds for the construction of a 
 shorter route. Is there not in this a lesson for 
 the missionary, who is called to build in China a 
 highway for the Lord, and to make His paths 
 straight? Has he not some latitude for the 
 exercise of discretion ? And is there not still room
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 329 
 
 for the wise adaptation of means to ends in 
 contending with this giant difficulty? 
 
 We think there is; but, before proceeding to 
 indicate the means for overcoming it, it will not 
 be out of place to take a survey of the ground, 
 with a view to ascertaining the length and breadth 
 of the obstacle in question. 
 
 I. 
 
 The worship of ancestors springs from some of 
 the best principles of human nature. The first 
 conception of a life beyond the grave was, 
 it is thought, suggested by a desire to commune 
 with deceased parents. And, if it is natural that 
 children should follow them with their thoughts 
 and affections, is it not equally natural that they 
 should seek to call them back by the offering of 
 such things as they require while living? 
 
 How touchingly Virgil depicts the devotion of 
 ucEneas to his aged father ! Not only does he 
 bear him on his shoulders through the flames of 
 Troy, but, when Anchises dies in the course of 
 the voyage, the pious hero celebrates games in J 
 his honor, and offers libations to his spirit. 
 He even follows his father to the nether world, 
 in order to consult him as to the future of the 
 Roman State.
 
 
 330 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In this last proceeding, the Roman epic treads 
 in the footsteps of its Greek prototype; for had 
 not Ulysses penetrated the region of Cimmerian 
 darkness, to find and consult the shade of Laertes? 
 
 Earlier than the earliest of these dates, far back 
 at a period anterior to the calling of Abraham, 
 we find the worship of ancestors existing in China 
 as an organized and established cult. 
 
 The earliest recorded instance of it is the rite 
 of adoption, by which Shun, the son of a blind 
 peasant, is received into the family of the Emperor 
 Yao, and acknowledged as heir to the throne, 
 2,200 B. C. 
 
 Of the ceremonial employed on this occasion, 
 we have no details; the statement that the 
 "concluding rites" were performed in the temple 
 of Wen Tsu, the ancestor of Yao, is all that the 
 historian has vouchsafed to communicate. Yet, how 
 much is implied in this laconic record ? 
 
 It implies, on the part of Yao, an announcement 
 to the spirits of his forefathers of his purpose to 
 effect a change in the line of succession. On the 
 part of Shun, it implies a reverential acceptance 
 of Yao's ancestors in place of his own, and the 
 assumption in their presence of vows of fidelity 
 in the discharge of his high functions. 
 
 When the Emperor, now on the throne, was
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 33! 
 
 adopted as the son of his uncle Hien Fung, 
 a similar ceremony was performed by proxy 
 in the temple of the deceased sovereign. 
 On that occasion, a fanatical censor, Wu K'o-tu, 
 protested against the affiliation to Hien Fung; 
 contended that it was doing dishonor to the last 
 Emperer Tung Chili, to leave him without a son; 
 and, in order to give emphasis to his remonstrance, 
 he sealed it with his blood, sacrificing his life before 
 the tomb of the latter sovereign. 
 
 This occurrence, illustrating as it does what 
 took place 4,000 years ago, is of itself sufficient 
 to prove that in the China of to-day the worship 
 of ancestors is not a dead form, but a living faith. 
 
 Not only is the adoption of an heir to the 
 throne thus formally announced to the ancestors 
 of the reigning house ; every case of regular 
 succession is solemnly notified by a similar 
 ceremonial. 
 
 The occupant of the throne holds himself 
 responsible to those from whom he received it ;. 
 and there are numerous instances in the history 
 of this country in which a sovereign rejects 
 humiliating conditions, offered by an enemy, 
 with the indignant exclamation " How could I 
 dare to face my ancestors, were I to submit to 
 such disgrace?" The force of such a motive,
 
 33 2 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 fortified by the precedents of a hundred 
 generations, it is not easy to overestimate. 
 Not longer ago than last year, we saw it 
 resorted to as affording a solemn sanction to an 
 oath taken by the Emperor of Japan. 
 On granting to his people a new Constitution, 
 he swore by his ancestors to maintain it inviolate. 
 This, the Mikado learned from the Chinese ; 
 why did he not learn from them that their 
 homage is not restricted to their personal ancestors ? 
 Over and above them all, they recognize a Divinity, 
 whom they call Shang Ti, the ruler supreme, and 
 king of kings. To him their ancestors are 
 subordinate, and in his high court they are held 
 to be ministering spirits. At the Temple of 
 Heaven, the tablet of Shang Ti occupies the 
 central space, while those of deceased sovereigns 
 are ranged on either hand, in humble 
 acknowledgment that " by him kings reign, and 
 princes decree justice." 
 
 In the Shu King, the oldest of the books of 
 liistory, there are numerous references to the cult 
 of ancestors, but I refrain from citing more than 
 one or two additional. 
 
 In the 1 2th century before our era, Wu Wang 
 overturned the house of Shang, and founded 
 the dynasty of Chow. In the terrible indictment
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 333 
 
 which, tojustify his rebellion, he brings against 
 the degenerate occupant of the throne, he begins 
 by charging him with neglecting the service 
 of Shang Ti and sudordinate deities, and even 
 neglecting to sacrifice at the altars of his own 
 ancestors. 
 
 In a second manifesto, he refers to his deceased 
 father Wen Wang, and adds " If I gain the victory,. 
 it will not be through my own prowess, but through 
 the merits of my father. If I am beaten, it will not 
 be from any fault in my father, but solely from 
 the want of virtue in me." 
 
 He warns his soldiers that " if they are brave, 
 they will be rewarded publicly in the temple 
 of his ancestors; but if cowardly, they will be slain 
 at the altars of the earth-gods." 
 
 Such was the place held by the worship 
 of ancestors at the dawn of history, along with 
 that of Shang Ti and a host of inferior divinities. 
 And at the present day, no one can visit 
 the magnificent monuments of the Ming Emperors, 
 or witness the vast sums expended on the mausolea 
 of the reigning House, without a profound conviction 
 that the cult of ancestors has lost nothing of its 
 ancient sanctity. 
 
 Scarcely a month has elapsed since the reigning 
 Emperor and the Dowager Empress made a solemn
 
 334 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 pilgrimage to the tombs of their fathers ; the former 
 to report in person his marriage and full accession 
 to imperial power, the latter to give account 
 of her exercise of delegated authority during her 
 long regency. What stronger proof could be 
 required of the important position which 
 the worship of ancestors still occupies in the 
 religion of the State ? 
 
 It is not, however, as might be inferred from our 
 references to historical precedent and official 
 usage, an observance restricted to the ruling 
 classes. It forms, without doubt, the leading 
 element in the religion of the people. 
 
 It is, in fact, the only form of religion which 
 the government takes the trouble to propagate 
 among its subjects. This it does, not merely 
 by upholding the authority of those classical books 
 in which it is consecrated, but by giving to the 
 worship of ancestors a prominent place in the 
 popular teaching of morality enjoined on the 
 magistrate of every district. 
 
 In the collection ot discourses known as the 
 Sacred Edict, a large space is assigned to the duties 
 of filial piety. This work was composed by 
 Yung Cheng, the first of the persecuting Emperors, 
 on themes taken from the maxims of K'ang Hi; 
 and, in imitation of Christian preaching, required
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 335 
 
 to be expounded to the people, partly with a view 
 to checking the spread of Christianity. It takes 
 the worship of ancestors for granted as the basis 
 of morals, and does not treat the subject in detail; 
 but it is significant that, while it denounces 
 Buddhism and Taoism, as well as Christianity, 
 it insists on the service of one's parents as better 
 than that of the gods. 
 
 The second of the discourses makes the " building 
 of a family temple for the worship of ancestors, 
 and the founding of a family school for the 
 instruction of the young" to be the principal ways 
 in which the rich can manifest a fellow feeling 
 for their kindred. An official comment, at the end 
 of the seventh discourse, says "If, instead of 
 worshipping the gods, you will serve and honor 
 your parents ; and if, instead of giving alms 
 to Buddhist and Taoist monks, you will succour 
 your kindred and assist your neighbors, false 
 doctrines will of themselves cease to be believed." 
 This is what is required to be proclaimed in the 
 hearing of the people, twice in each revolving moon. 
 
 Two maxims, that take the form of proverbs, 
 express the spirit of these instructions. The first 
 is that " To stay at home and serve your parents 
 is better than to go far to offer incense at a sacred 
 place." The other, that " It is better to offer
 
 33^ HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 a chicken to your living parents than an ox to your 
 dead ancestors," not disparaging the latter class 
 of duties, but insisting on the paramount obligation 
 of the former. 
 
 Every household has somewhere within its doors 
 a small shrine, sometimes resembling a cupboard, 
 sometimes representing a miniature temple. 
 Here are deposited the tablets of ancestors, 
 and of all deceased members of the family 
 who have passed the age of infancy. 
 
 Each clan has its ancestral temple, which forms 
 a rallying point for all who belong to the common 
 stock. In these, as in the smaller shrines of the 
 household, the objects of reverence are not images, 
 but tablets, slips of wood inscribed with the name 
 of the deceased, together with the dates of birth 
 and death. In these, according to popular belief, 
 dwell the spirits of the dead. Before these ascends 
 the smoke of daily incense ; and, twice in the 
 month, offerings of fruits and other eatables 
 are presented, accompanied by solemn 
 prostrations. 
 
 In some cases, particularly during a period 
 of mourning, the members of the family salute 
 the dead, morning and evening, as they do the living; 
 and on special occasions, such as a marriage 
 or a funeral, there are religious services of a more
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 337 
 
 elaborate character, accompanied sometimes 
 by feasts and theatrical shows. 
 
 Besides worship in presence of the representative 
 tablet, periodical rites are performed at the family 
 cemetery. In spring and autumn, when the 
 mildness of the air is such as to invite excursions, 
 city families are wont to choose a day for visiting 
 the resting places of their dead. Clearing away 
 the grass, and covering the tombs with a layer 
 of fresh earth, they present offerings and perform 
 acts of worship. This done, they pass the rest 
 of the day in enjoying the scenery of the country. 
 
 In all these observances, whether as practiced 
 by the rulers of the State or by their humbler 
 subjects, there is unquestionably a large inter- 
 mixture of superstition and idolatry. Yet, there is 
 also in them much that may claim our approving 
 sympathy. 
 
 They tend strongly to cherish some of the better 
 sentiments of humanity, binding together the 
 members of a family or clan, as the roots 
 of a tree hold in compact unity the grains of sand, 
 which might otherwise be dissolved and swept 
 away by flowing waters. Meeting at the shrine 
 of a common ancestor, the widely severed members 
 are reminded of their blood relationship; and it is 
 perhaps owing to this that the tender appellations
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of brother and sister find among the Chinese 
 a wider application than among us. 
 
 Nor is this recognition of kindred an empty 
 form. The more prosperous are accustomed 
 to show kindness in many ways to their less 
 favored relatives. From time to time, we hear 
 of the endowment of clan schools, clan cemeteries, 
 and clan refuges for the aged poor ; the aim 
 of these laudable charities being to secure that no 
 child who bears the family name shall be deprived 
 of that best of birth-rights a right to the advantages 
 of education, that no aged person shall suffer 
 the pangs of hunger, and that no one, when his 
 race is run, shall want the honors of a decent burial. 
 
 What Fan-wen-cheng-kung did for his kindred at 
 Soochow is done every day by some rich man in 
 some part of the empire. It detracts something 
 from the credit of this munificence that it is 
 always followed by marks of Imperial favor; 
 but it cannot be denied that the existence 
 of such an institution, as the family temple, 
 has a powerful tendency to foster the sentiments 
 that lead to these acts of generosity. 
 
 To be a member of such a fraternity exerts, 
 moreover, a moral influence of no mean quality 
 on every man who is capable of the sentiment 
 of self-respect. By every meeting with his kindred,
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 339 
 
 and by every act of worship, he is reminded that 
 their ancestors are his; that the good name of 
 the founders of the family is in some sort 
 entrusted to his keeping; and that, if he may 
 not add to its lustre, he is bound to refrain 
 from staining it by disgraceful conduct. Poor he 
 may be, but he still possesses a conscious dignity 
 as the offspring of such parentage. 
 
 The restraining influence of this feeling is 
 enhanced by the fact that those who are guilty 
 of infamous crimes are liable to the pains of 
 excommunication, a sentence of terrible import, 
 and one which it requires immense fortitude in a 
 Christian to incur, as he must, by refusing to join 
 in the worship of his ancestors. 
 
 If the system of ancestral worship is tinged 
 with idolatry and complicated with the absurdities 
 of geomancy, it must, as an offset, be credited 
 with having rendered at least one important 
 service to the cause of religion. Notwithstanding 
 their proclivity to scepticism, it has done much 
 to keep alive, among the Chinese people, 
 a conviction that the soul survives the decay 
 of the body. Every rite implies or affirms it. 
 
 The souls of the departed are invited to partake 
 of the finer essences of viands destined to supply 
 a feast a kind of agape for their living kindred.
 
 34 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 They are addressed as still retaining consciousness 
 and affection in full measure. 
 
 The philosopher Han Wen-kung distinguished 
 himself by opposition to Buddhism, a religion 
 which has done much to strengthen the spiritual 
 beliefs of the Chinese people. Yet this doubter 
 betrays, in a touching manner, his latent faith in 
 a conscious existence after death. Among his 
 remains is found a letter, full of feeling, 
 addressed to a deceased nephew. In that epistle 
 he recounts recent changes in the family,, 
 just as he might have done in writing to a 
 relation across the seas, and appears to look 
 forward to joining him beyond the grave. 
 He does indeed give passing expression to 
 doubts and fears, but for all that he still clings 
 lovingly to the better hope. 
 
 Confucius, by his silence on this point, 
 left room for both hope and doubt. 
 In answer to one of his disciples, he said 
 "We know not life; how can we know death?"" 
 And to another " If we fail in our service to 
 the living, how can we expect to render 
 acceptable service to the dead ? " He is even 
 reported to have weighed the consequences of a 
 decision, and to have hesitated to give it, 
 "If I should say the soul does survive,
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 34! 
 
 I fear that persons of pious temperament might 
 forsake their living parents in order to serve their 
 dead ancestors ; if, on the other hand, I should 
 say the soul does not survive, I fear the unfilial 
 might throw away the bodies of their parents 
 and leave them unburied." The Sage did not 
 decide the question ; but the worship of ancestors, 
 which he enjoined on his disciples, strongly 
 disposes all his followers to incline to the side 
 of faith in a future life. 
 
 II. 
 
 In contemplating this system, with its three-fold 
 tendency 
 
 1. To strengthen the bonds of family union, 
 and stimulate to active charity ; 
 
 2. To cherish self-respect, and impose moral 
 restraint ; 
 
 3. To keep alive a sort of faith in the reality 
 of a spirit-world ; 
 
 let us ask ourselves whether, if we had the power 
 by a pen-stroke to sweep it all away, we 
 should dare to incur the responsibility 
 of doing so ? 
 
 Let us then, instead of proposing to abolish the 
 system, ask ourselves the further question, 
 whether it is not capable of being modified in
 
 342 HANLIX PAPERS. 
 
 such a way as to bring it into harmony with the 
 requirements of the Christian Faith ? 
 
 This is a question of the gravest import for 
 every missionary body that is free to act ; 
 to those, I say, that are free to act, because from 
 some their freedom of action has been taken away 
 by the intervention of an Infallible Authority. 
 If there is no question more grave in its import, 
 there is none, the consideration of which requires 
 more care, in order to free the mind from the 
 influence of prejudice, and to distinguish the 
 essentials of substance from the disguises of form. 
 
 In dealing with this as a practical question, there is, 
 as I conceive, but one rule by which the missionary 
 is bound to be guided, viz., to avoid giving 
 countenance to anything that can fairly be 
 construed as idolatry, a thing forbidden alike by 
 the letter and by the spirit of our 
 Christian Scriptures. That ancestral worship, 
 as commonly practiced, is liable to objection on 
 this ground, I am far from denying; but I maintain 
 that its objectionable features are its excrescences, 
 not its essence. To prune oft such excrescences, 
 preserving the good and eliminating the evil, 
 I believe to be altogether feasible ; and, if so, 
 is not that preferable to the quixotic attempt to- 
 destroy the system, root and branch ?
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 343 
 
 Let us examine the matter with reference to 
 this single point. 
 
 The word "worship" must not be taken as 
 evidence. It signifies etymologically nothing more 
 than to assign worth to an object. In the antiquated 
 English of our Scriptures, it is often used to 
 indicate a respectful salutation, and it is still used 
 as a honorific appellation in our law courts 
 and masonic fraternities. Equally vague and 
 comprehensive are the Chinese words which it 
 represents ( ^ , $ , and gg ) . The essential 
 elements of ancestral worship are three, posture, 
 invocation, and offerings ; and these are nearly 
 the same, whether the worship is performed at 
 the family shrine, or at the tombs of the deceased. 
 
 The posture is always that of kneeling, 
 alternated with prostrations, in the worship 
 of the most exalted divinity there is no 
 other ; but it does not in itself form 
 an act of idolatry, because the same posture is 
 employed to show respect to the living. 
 Children fall on knees and face before their 
 parents ; subjects before their sovereign ; 
 officials of every rank before those above them; 
 and common people before their magistrates. 
 Beggars in the street assume that attitude in 
 asking alms.
 
 344 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Considered as a mode of salutation, it merits our 
 contempt as a fit expression of the abject condition 
 of most oriental nations; but it is not sinful, 
 and we have no right to place it under the ban 
 of ecclesiastical censure. As a mark of respect to 
 the dead, is there any reason for seeing in it 
 anything more than a continuation of the sentiments 
 with which they were regarded while living ? 
 
 It is not merely those who are ancestors in 
 the ascending line who are thus honored ; 
 the same demonstrations are made to all who 
 stand nearer than the worshipper to the root 
 of the genealogical tree, and they are sometimes 
 rendered to those of equal grade. I have 
 seen a Russian widow kneel in the street, 
 and bow her head in the dust before 
 the coffin that contained the remains of 
 her husband. In that act, there was nothing 
 idolatrous, or even religious, the deceased not 
 being a calendar saint. Why should the same 
 posture be construed in a different sense, when 
 enjoined by Chinese rites ? 
 
 Whether the invocation is an act of idolatry 
 depends on the attributes ascribed to the deceased. 
 If, as often happens, they are looked on as tutelar 
 powers, to whom the family is indebted for peace 
 and prosperity, the ascription of this kind
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 345 
 
 of patronage detracts from the honor that belongs 
 to God alone, and is so far tinged with idolatry. 
 
 The ascription of such attributes is not, however, 
 universal, even among those who are unenlightened 
 by the teachings of Christianity. In many of the 
 forms laid down in the books, these objectionable 
 features do not exist; and where they do exist, 
 their omission would leave the service intact. 
 
 The following are some of the occasions on which 
 formal addresses are made to the spirits of ancestors. 
 When a youth dons the cap of manhood, he is 
 taken to the ancestral temple, where his father 
 invokes for him the guardian care of his forefathers, 
 "that he may be a complete man, and not fall 
 below their standard of excellence." The rite is 
 extremely impressive, and it would lose nothing 
 of its solemnity, if, in lieu of the invocation of 
 the dead, the blessing of the living God were 
 invoked. 
 
 When a son or daughter is betrothed, the parents 
 simply notify their ancestors, much as they do 
 their living kindred, but without asking for tutelar 
 care. When a youth goes to fetch home his bride, 
 the father " reverentially announces the fact to his 
 ancestors, with offerings of fruits and wine." 
 The same is done in case of a bride departing 
 for her new home.
 
 346 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom 
 presents his wife to his ancestors as a new member 
 of the family, and invokes for her their " paternal 
 blessing." 
 
 In none of the forms connected with funerals 
 is there any petition for blessing or protection, 
 the language being that of a simple announcement, 
 accompanied by an expression of profound sorrow. 
 But in the periodical services at the family 
 cemetery, this objectionable element shows itself, 
 the worshipper saying "We have come to sweep 
 your tombs to show our gratitude for your 
 protecting care, and now we beseech you to accept , 
 our offerings and make our posterity prosperous 
 /&j and happy." With the alteration of a few words, 
 these so-called prayers would be reduced to mere 
 expressions of natural affection. If, after such 
 retrenchment, they are still in contravention 
 of Christianity, then must we not condemn that 
 most pathetic effusion of a filial heart Cowper's 
 
 . 
 
 address to his mother's picture ? 
 
 '<*" 
 
 " My mother, when I knew that thou wast dead, 
 Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? 
 Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, 
 Wretch even then, life's journey just begun ? " 
 
 In Hernani, that noble tragedy of Victor Hugo, 
 
 one of the most impressive scenes is an act 
 

 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 347 
 
 of worship at the tomb of an ancestor. 
 
 Don Carlos, afterwards Charles V, on the eve 
 of election to the throne of the German Empire, 
 enters the mausoleum of Charlemagne at 
 Aix la Chapelle, and, throwing himself on his knees 
 before the tomb of the great monarch whom he 
 claims for ancestor, pours out this prayer : 
 
 " Pour into my heart something of thy own 
 sublime spirit ; speak, for thy son is waiting to hear. 
 Thou dwellest in light ; oh, send some rays upon 
 his pathwa) 7 ." 
 
 This, it may be said, is poetry, not religion ; 
 while the worship of the Chinese is religion, with 
 very little poetry. 
 
 The third essential of Chinese ancestral worship 
 is the offering. 
 
 This has, I confess, an idolatrous aspect; but it is 
 the object of worship, not the offering, that 
 constitutes idolatry. In our native land, no one 
 finds fault with the presentation of floral offerings 
 at_ funerals, or at the graves of the departed; 
 and, if it is legitimate to deck a grave with flowers, 
 why is it not so to offer fiuits or meats ? The idea 
 of offering food to the dead is not in accordance 
 with our habits of thought, but it cannot be denied 
 that such offering may be made the vehicle 
 of an innocent and beautiful sentiment. It means
 
 ' 
 
 HANI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 that the spirit still remembers its kindred, and 
 joins them in their commemorative feast. 
 
 Are we entitled, from the absence of these usages 
 among ourselves, to forbid them among the 
 Chinese ? If so, what are we to say to the recent 
 practice of setting apart a special day for the 
 decoration of our soldiers' graves ? 
 
 Thus we find that, of the three essentials 
 of ancestral worship, no one of necessity implies 
 an act of idolatry. It follows therefore that, 
 instead of being compelled to condemn the system 
 as a whole, we are left at liberty to deal with it 
 in detail, according to the dictates of Christian 
 prudence. Even after eliminating everything that 
 partakes of idolatry, there will still remain much 
 that is repugnant to our ways of thinking and feeling. 
 
 The practice of keeping up any kind of connection 
 with the dead is, we confess, out of harmony 
 with our Protestant theology. It sternly 
 discountenances prayers to, or for, the dead. 
 It glories in its logic, and sings, or used to sing, 
 such cheerful effusions as this : 
 
 " The living know that they must die, 
 But all the dead forgotten lie ; 
 Their memory and their sense are gone, 
 Alike unknowing and unknown ; 
 They have no part in all that's done, 
 Beneath the circuit of the sun." 
 *r 

 
 o 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 349 
 
 
 
 This is a dreary creed, and borrows its expression 
 from that older dispensation under which the hope 
 of immortality was faint and uncertain. Far more 
 humane is the Catholic custom of keeping alive 
 their affections by praying for the dead. 
 Many a time I have had a little billet come to me 
 from beyond the sea, informing me of the decease 
 of some member of a family known to me, 
 and concluding with the request " Priez pour elle," 
 or " Priez pour lui," a request that always touches 
 me deeply. I never comply with it, but I confess 
 that I should like to do so. To breathe a prayer 
 for the repose of a soul is a very different thing 
 from the opus operatum of a vicarious mass. 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson was as sturdy a Protestant 
 as any of us ; yet, for twenty-eight years, he tells 
 us, he never failed to offer a daily prayer for the soul 
 of his beloved Hetty. The poet Coleridge was, in 
 his later life, a champion of orthodoxy ; yet, in his 
 epitaph, written by himself a few days before 
 his death, he says : 
 
 " Stop, Christian passer-by ; stop, child of God, 
 And read with gentle breast, Beneath this clod 
 A poet lies, or that which one seemed he. 
 O lift a thought in prayer for S. T. C." 
 
 These are sporadic expressions of what, since 
 that day, has become a wide-spread feeling.
 
 
 
 35 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The violence that attended their rupture with 
 the Roman church unavoidably carried Protestants 
 to an opposite extreme, leading them to abandon 
 many graceful observances, in themselves as innocent 
 as the painted windows which Puritan soldiers 
 took such pleasure in smashing. Now that a 
 reaction is setting in, relaxing the severity of 
 Puritan theology, is it incumbent on us to 
 extinguish, among our converts, expressions of natural 
 affection, by which they seek to bind themselves 
 to those who have gone betore? In a matter 
 of this kind, is it not admissible to have one rule 
 for the West and another for the East, as the 
 broad-minded apostles in the early church 
 relaxed the stringency of Jewish practice in 
 favor of gentile converts? The venerable usages 
 of a civilized people should be judged by their 
 own merits, and it is to be borne in mind that 
 our aim is not to Europeanize the Chinese, 
 but to make them Christians. 
 
 If it be objected that the tendencies of the 
 system are to be guarded against, the human 
 mind being liable almost unconsciously to transform 
 a ghost into a God, I admit the tendency, and 
 acknowledge the necessity for preventive measures. 
 But is it not better, by the exercise of a wise 
 forbearance, to keep the way open for counteractive
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 351 
 
 teaching, than, by proclaiming an uncompromising 
 conflict, to close the ears of the better class to 
 all good influences? 
 
 A missionary relates that a catechism, which he 
 was distributing, was always well received and 
 often perused with interest as far as a question 
 on ancestral worship. It was then thrown down 
 with a gesture of disgust, because what the reader 
 deemed the most sacred of moral duties was 
 abruptly forbidden. 
 
 Protestant missions in China are still in the 
 morning of their existence. Some of them have 
 shown sufficient independence to reconsider the 
 decision of a Pope as to the word to be employed 
 for the name of God, reverting to the usage of 
 those early pioneers, who understood 
 the wants of the people and the demands 
 of the times. I should like to see them 
 reconsider another of the decisions of 
 the same infallible authority, viz., that which 
 condemned the worship of ancestors, as if the 
 forms of reverence with which Chinese are taught 
 to honor their dead were not as consonant with 
 reason and Scripture as the worship of that pantheon 
 of saints, whom Rome has seen fit to canonize. 
 
 There is good reason for believing that, by 
 those two decisions but chiefly by the latter
 
 35 2 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 China was lost to the Church of Rome, 
 a loss immense, and perhaps irreparable, to our 
 common Christendom. 
 
 For a time, the great K'ang Hi appeared inclined 
 to become the Constantine of this empire, 
 patronizing missionaries and encouraging them in 
 their efforts to convert his people. But when the 
 Apostles of the Faith became divided into hostile 
 camps, and when the Head of the Church 
 condemned the party which he had favored, 
 the Emperor turned his back upon the cross. 
 It was not long before his successors were seen 
 trampling that sacred symbol in the dust. 
 
 The quiet obedience with which the losing party 
 submitted to a decree that ordered them to assail 
 an impregnable battery in front, instead of taking it 
 by a flank movement, is worthy of all praise : 
 
 " Theirs not to make reply ; 
 Theirs not to reason why ; 
 Theirs but to do and die, 
 Even though they knew 
 Some one had blundered." 
 
 From that day to this, they have toiled with 
 sublime fidelity, but without the slightest prospect 
 of regaining their lost ground. For them there 
 is no alternative but to obey orders, and to 
 persevere in their hopeless task.
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 353 
 
 Happily Protestants are not bound by any such 
 arbitrary authority. The magnificent opportunity 
 thrown away by the Popes is not likely to offer 
 itself in the experience of any denomination of 
 Protestants. It would be folly for them to trim 
 their sails with a view to catching the breath of 
 imperial favor; but is it folly to seek to conciliate 
 the literati, who are the real rulers of the empire ? 
 
 About a year ago, two eminent officials, 
 with whom I was conversing, introduced the 
 subject of missionary methods. (One of them, 
 now deceased, was President of the highest of 
 the Six Boards). 
 
 .They took it for granted that the various Societies 
 would persist in their efforts to convert the 
 people ; but they anticipated for them but a 
 small measure of success, while proceeding on 
 their present lines. 
 
 The facility with which bad characters find 
 admission to the fold, the readiness of missionaries 
 to hold a shield over the heads of their erring 
 converts, and, lastly, their rejection of ancestral 
 worship, formed the staple of the criticism. 
 "Why," they asked, insisting specially on the 
 third point, "cannot Christian missionaries adopt / 
 this native institution as did the propagators of 
 Buddhism ? " I answered that" For myself (and
 
 354 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 I wish I could have answered for all the teachers of 
 Christianity), I do not object to ancestral worship 
 as a system, but solely to those parts of it 
 v which ascribe divine attributes to the souls 
 of the dead." 
 
 If any considerable body of missionaries were 
 
 to take up this position, they might, I believe, 
 
 initiate a movement which would in a few years 
 
 result in more success than has been achieved 
 
 thus far by the united or disunited efforts of all. 
 
 How many of those, who are disposed to accept 
 
 the higher truths of the gospel, draw back when 
 
 they find that in marriage they must conform to 
 
 unrecognized and repulsive rites, while they are 
 
 required to renounce the sacred privilege of 
 
 presenting their brides to their ancestors in the 
 
 family temple ! How many are precluded from 
 
 embracing Christianity, by holding a pecuniary 
 
 interest in lands connected with a temple of 
 
 ancestors ! But, not to enumerate classes, 
 
 does not every man, who feels the value of family 
 
 ties, as soon as he begins to weigh the claims 
 
 of Christianity, at once throw into the other 
 
 scale his duty to his progenitors, living or dead; 
 
 and is it not a thousand to one that his incipient 
 
 convictions will be stifled before they ripen into 
 
 practical conversion ?
 
 THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS. 355 
 
 As long as missionaries manifest a determination 
 to pluck the keystone out of China's social fabric, 
 so long will the innumerable clans that form the 
 nation, rallying round the altars of their forefathers, 
 form an impenetrable phalanx, barring at every 
 point the ingress of a disintegrating doctrine. 
 As long as the neophyte is called on, like Caius 
 Torranius, to prove his devotion by betraying 
 his fathers, so long will the Christian community 
 continue to be a despised caste, apart from the 
 life of the people, and receiving accessions 
 chiefly from pariahs, who set no value on 
 family connections. 
 
 In conclusion, I respectfully suggest that 
 we refrain from any direct or indiscriminate 
 attack on the native mode of honoring ancestors ; 
 and that we leave the reformation of the system 
 to the influence of Divine Truth, when it gets 
 a firmer hold on the national mind. * 
 
 * This modest suggestion was, I am sorry to say, received with 
 strong expressions of disfavor ; yet many missionaries have assured 
 me that they concur in the general sentiment of the Paper. 
 It is republished in the hope that a calm perusal, outside of an 
 excited assembly, will result in the accession of many suffrages.
 
 XV. 
 
 THE EMPEROR AT THE ALTAR 
 
 OF 
 
 HEAVEN* 
 
 1HE Roman Emperors always associated with 
 their other titles that of Pontifex Maximus ; 
 and the Sovereigns of China have from time 
 immemorial acted as High Priests of the / 
 empire. 
 
 It was in that capacity that His Majesty 
 Kuang Hsu officiated at the Temple of Heaven 
 on the 22nd December, 1887, for the first time, 
 on the occasion of the solstitial sacrifices. / 
 On the previous day, he proceeded to the Temple 
 with great pomp, accompanied by the grandees 
 of the Court, three elephants harnessed 
 to as many chariots appearing in the procession. 
 Having prepared himself by a night spent 
 in fasting and meditation to approach the presence 
 
 * This brief Note, sent originally to a local newspaper, appears- 
 worth preserving, as a concise view of a great subject.
 
 THE EMPEROR AT THE ALTAR OF HEAVEN. 357 
 
 of the King of Kings, he prostrated himself 
 nine times before a tablet inscribed with the name 
 of Shang Ti, and offered an ox, the bones of 
 the victim being consumed in a furnace. 
 
 As to the herd of common gods, the Emperor 
 can make and unmake them at will. He even 
 assumes to decide whether a living Buddha shall 
 or shall not have the privilege of re-appearing 
 in another body ; but in the presence of Shang Ti, 
 the master of China's millions abases himself 
 in the dust, and confesses himself a subject of law. 
 
 When the Taiping rebellion was at its height 
 in 1853, the Emperor Hien Fung repaired 
 to the Altar of Heaven, confessed his sins, 
 and implored on behalf of his suffering people 
 the compassion of the Sovereign of the Universe. 
 By this act, he acknowledged that he ruled 
 by delegated authority, and that he was answerable 
 for its proper use. 
 
 The same idea is impressively set forth by a row 
 of iron censers, ranged around the foot of the altar. 
 In these, it is not strips of mimic gold that are 
 consumed, nor sticks of incense, but long lists 
 of the names of criminals condemned to death, 
 the- smoke and flame rising up to Heaven, appealing 
 for ratification or for vengeance to the Supreme 
 Court of the Universe.
 
 358 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The Emperor is a monotheist, because there is 
 only one God sufficiently exalted to be to him an 
 object of worship in the highest sense; for, though 
 he does worship at the shrines of other divinities, 
 to none but Shang Ti does he employ the humble 
 style of a servant, and he, if not the only worshipper 
 of Shang Ti, is the only one who is permitted 
 to make use of the prescribed ritual. For any 
 one else to presume to imitate that ritual would be 
 an act of high treason, as it could have but one 
 meaning, that of an intention to usurp 
 the prerogatives and to seize the throne 
 of the sovereign. The only instance of this which 
 we have on record except in cases of overt 
 rebellion is that of the Prince of Ch'in erecting 
 an altar to Shang Ti, some 2,500 years ago. >/ 
 The act betokened a disposition on his part 
 to seize the falling crown of the Chows, 
 which one of his 1 descendants actually accomplished. 
 The Chow Emperor in the meantime tolerated 
 the abuse, because he lacked the power to punish 
 so great a vassal. 
 
 The antiquityfof this Imperial rite is not the least 
 interesting of its features. It goes back to the first of 
 the Three Dynasties, to a date when Melchisedek 
 combined with his kingly office that of "Priest 
 of the Most High God." In that day, there was-
 
 THE EMPEROR AT THE ALTAR OF HEAVEN. 359 
 
 no Buddhism, no Taoism ; but, whether that 
 primitive worship connects itself with a purer 
 form of partriarchal faith, or whether, as Emerson 
 expresses it 
 
 " Up from the heart of nature came, 
 Like the volcano's tongue of flame " 
 
 I shall not undertake to determine. 
 
 The idea of the offerings on this occasion is that 
 of a banquet, in which the spirit of the Supreme 
 J condescends to accept entertainment at the hand 
 of a mortal. He is accompanied by eight imperial 
 guests, the ancestors of the officiating sovereign, 
 who, like Wen Wang in the Book of Odes, 
 are regarded as favoured guests in the Court 
 of Heaven. 
 
 The august pageant is withheld from eyes profane; 
 and of course all foreigners in Peking are officially 
 invited to be absent. 
 
 I do not, accordingly, profess to give you the 
 observations of an eye-witness ; though I have 
 perhaps as good a right to do so as certain war 
 correspondents have had, to depict a battle-scene, 
 when they have viewed the smoke at a distance.
 
 360 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 I have seen the altar ; and I have at this moment 
 the ritual of the day before my eyes. But it would 
 not add much to the interest of my readers to have 
 a libretto of the nine pieces of sacred music, 
 or an inventory of the subordinate offerings which 
 accompany the Fan Niu, or ox of burnt sacrifice.
 
 XVI. 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB 
 OF 
 
 CONFUCIUS. 
 
 [HE dust of the great Sage reposes near 
 the place of his birth, at Chu Fu, in the 
 Province of Shantung. For twenty-three 
 centuries, official offerings have been made 
 to his manes ; and emperors, princes, and scholars, 
 have repaired to his sepulchre to do him homage. 
 Yet Chu Fu is not to China what Mecca is to the 
 Mohammedan world; not that Confucius is less 
 esteemed than the Founder of Islam, but because 
 the pilgrimage to his tomb is not enjoined 
 as a religious duty. 
 
 Ten days would have sufficed to carry me 
 to the sacred spot; but, as I desired first to visit 
 an ancient colony of Jews in the central Province 
 of Honan, I spent four weeks wandering through
 
 362 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the heart of China before arriving there, and thence 
 I proceeded to Shanghai, by way of the Grand Canal 
 and the river Yangtse.* 
 
 On the 2nd of February, 1866, I set out from 
 Peking on what was then a route unfrequented 
 by Europeans ; but so few are the changes that 
 have taken place in the interior of that most 
 conservative of empires, that my narrative, 
 which is now for the first time given to the public,f 
 is as true to the life as if its date were of yesterday. 
 No new canal has been excavated, and no railway 
 constructed in that region. 
 
 Kai-fung Fu is the abode of the Jewish colony, 
 and one of the ancient capitals, lying 1,500 li 
 (or 500 miles) to the south-west of Peking ; 
 I engaged a cart, drawn by two mules, to carry 
 me to that point in fifteen days. 
 
 Bestowing in it my baggage and a servant, 
 I accompanied the vehicle on horseback, taking 
 pains to keep in sight. As these carts have no 
 springs, this mode of travelling by cart is to be 
 recommended, on the score of comfort ; the chief 
 drawback being exposure to wind, dust, and cold. 
 
 * For my observations on the Jews, with notes of that part of my 
 travels, see Hanlin Papers, Volume I (Kelly & Walsh), reprinted 
 under the title of Tht Chinese, 6r., by the Harpers, New York, 
 f In the Independent, 1890.
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 363 
 
 My driver, being liable to a fine for loss of time, 
 made it a point to rouse me from my bed 
 before day-light, and to continue on the road 
 far into the night, sometimes covering a distance 
 of forty-five or fifty miles. In the morning, 
 the cold was intense; so that, as I trotted along, 
 the icicles formed on my beard, and tinkled 
 like a chime of bells. My servant, Yung-an, 
 " Everlasting Peace," who was snoring in the cart, 
 had a better time. So indifferent are the Chinese 
 to jolting that the master always takes the cart, 
 and puts his attendant on horseback. 
 
 In less than a week, my horse becoming lame, 
 I sold him for a song, and soon became reconciled 
 to the snug berth of Yung-an, taking long walks 
 to stretch my stiffened limbs. 
 
 After a full month of this luxurious mode of 
 motion, I had to descend to a humbler vehicle, 
 because the road became so narrow that it would 
 accommodate only one wheel. My wheel-barrow, 
 the common conveyance in that region, 
 was pushed by one man and drawn by another, 
 the passengers balancing each other by sitting 
 on opposite sides, when they did not choose 
 to walk. 
 
 Some of these barrows were fitted with mast 
 and sail, so that, when the wind was fair,
 
 364 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 the driver had nothing to do but hold the helm 
 and "keep her steady." 
 
 Coming to a spur of the mountains, our ship of 
 the plains had to be abandoned. I might have 
 continued my journey on foot, as I had become 
 accustomed to walking ; but, for the sake of 
 expedition, I hired post-horses, and soon found 
 myself at the bank of the Grand Canal. 
 For comfort, commend me to a Chinese canal-boat. 
 With no passengers and no noise, if you are not 
 pressed for time, you have no occasion to wish 
 for smoky steamer, or rattling railway. 
 
 Except in the capital of Honan, I failed to 
 find, on this long journey, any thing that could 
 be called a decent lodging - place. The larger 
 inns were caravansaries, like those of Western 
 Asia, for the entertainment of camels ; the smaller, 
 offering accommodations for foot passengers only. 
 Not one of them is more than one story in height ; 
 and all have floors of earth, with a divan of 
 brick or wood which serves for bed at night 
 and sofa by day. The guest provides his own 
 bedding, and his food too, if he is nice on 
 that point. 
 
 Many of them are kept by Mohammedans, 
 as I learned to my cost. One day, when my 
 servant had set the table, and I was about to
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 365 
 
 begin my breakfast with a slice of ham,, 
 the inn-keeper appeared, and implored me by all 
 that was sacred to abstain from pork, for his sake, 
 if not for my own. Sending it away, 
 I addressed myself to a piece of corned beeL 
 To this the host also objected, saying that the 
 cow was a sacred beast; and it is so in Southern 
 China. To spare his feelings, I said I would 
 break my fast on bread and butter. " Not on butter, 
 I beseech you," he exclaimed; " butter, too, 
 is forbidden. My dishes have not been greased 
 with it for five years." Swallowing my dry 
 morsel with a cup of tea, I left the place, 
 resolving the next time to ascertain the religious 
 faith of my inn-keeper before unpacking my cart. 
 
 In places, the country had been swept by 
 hordes of rebels, and it was scarcely possible to 
 obtain, for any price, a chicken or an egg, 
 while rice was out of the question, 
 and coarse millet the only available food. 
 In one place, the inn was too poor to afford a 
 candlestick ; but, by way of substitute, the 
 inn-keeper showed me a trick which would have 
 delighted the economical Diogenes. Cutting a 
 turnip in half, he turned the flat side down, and, 
 thrusting into it a bamboo chopstick " There's your 
 candlestick," he said, in a tone of triumph.
 
 366 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 My candle, supported on that sharp stick, 
 gave as good a light as if it had rested on silver. 
 In most of these inns, the whited walls serve 
 the double purpose of ledger and visitor's book, 
 the names of lodgers being scrawled there, along 
 with various effusions in prose or verse. In one was 
 a pasquinade on Lady Shen, the wife of the 
 Prefect, who must have been a remarkable woman 
 to exercise a " reign of terror over her husband, 
 and, through him, over the whole district." 
 In another, I read in verse this sad confession 
 of an opium smoker : 
 
 "For a time, I dallied with the lamp and pipe; 
 Pleasure became disease, and I sought in vain for antidotes. 
 Now, in poverty and pain, 
 I am glad to consume the ashes from another's pipe." 
 
 His experience may be taken as that of 
 a large class. At a third, I read a satire 
 on a noted general, who had been beaten by the 
 English, ending with the query 
 
 " When he fights and runs away, 
 Is it fight, or is it play?" 
 
 To these rude verses add rude pictures, not always 
 decent, and you have an idea of the embellishment 
 of our wayside hotels. As an index of the state 
 of morals, I may mention that, in many places,
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 367 
 
 singing girls were importunate in offering their 
 services, which were not confined to music. 
 
 Away from great cities, the people always 
 exhibited a friendly and unsuspicious disposition. 
 " He speaks our language," they said ; " if his 
 whiskers were shaven off, he would be as good 
 looking as we are." They asked me not from what 
 country, but " from what Province " I came ; 
 and occasionally inquired whether I was Tartar 
 or Chinese. In one case, the most learned man 
 in a village, after talking with me in the evening, 
 came back in the morning to say that he had not 
 been able to find the name of my country in his 
 Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. I inquired 
 the date of the work, and found it was two hundred 
 years old. 
 
 Arriving late and starting early, I usually escaped 
 annoyance at the hands of the curious; but where I 
 stopped for Sunday, their curiosity knew no bounds. 
 Gathering in immense throngs, they would force 
 themselves into my inn, breaking down doors 
 and windows, and were only appeased when I came 
 out and placed myself on view. When I spoke 
 .to them on the truths of religion, they listened 
 respectfully, and they were always glad to get 
 a few tracts, though but few were able to read them. 
 One man said he had received a Bible from
 
 368 HAXI.IN PAPERS. 
 
 a foreigner, but remembered only one word of its 
 contents; that, he said, was the name "Jehovah." 
 That name, I told him, was the subject of the whole 
 book ; and it served me for an excellent text. 
 
 Except in the districts affected by rebellion, 
 the people appeared well fed and well dressed ; 
 and the absence of beggars testified to the comfort 
 of their social condition. In one village, every man 
 wore two hats, one superposed upon the other. 
 Before noting it down as a custom of the country, 
 I learned on inquiry that those people were coming 
 home from a fair, where each had provided himself 
 with a new hat for the New Year, to begin 
 the next day. 
 
 The next day, they wore only the new one; 
 the shops and gateways were adorned with new 
 inscriptions on fresh red paper ; everybody appeared 
 in bright apparel; and the streets were thronged 
 with people paying visits of ceremony. 
 My inn-keeper threw himself at my feet and 
 wished me a Happy New Year, expecting and 
 receiving the usual cumshaic, or gift, the word 
 -4 meaning gold dust. My servant performed the same 
 ceremony, and then asked my permission to offer 
 the prescribed token of respect to his mother. 
 She was far away; but, turning his face toward 
 Peking, he bowed his head to the earth nine times,
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 369 
 
 and wished her long life, a beautiful expression 
 of that filial feeling which has created the worship 
 of ancestors, and made it a living force among 
 the Chinese people. 
 
 In China, a city always has a wall; and it is 
 sometimes called a large city, when it has very few 
 inhabitants. After leaving Peking, I passed through 
 more than twenty cities, of four grades in political 
 importance, Pao-tingand Kai-fung, with a population 
 of one and two hundred thousand, respectively, 
 being the largest. Isolated farm houses were 
 nowhere to be seen, the people all congregating 
 in villages for convenience and mutual protection. 
 The country is thus deprived of its beauty ; 
 and what Akenside calls "The mild dignity of 
 private life" is practically unknown. Through 
 the greater part of the region that came under my 
 view, the population was sparse compared with that 
 of the sea coast, though the soil is extremely fertile. 
 
 The cities were in most cases empty fortresses, 
 their streets here and there spanned with honorary 
 portals, or pai-lows. One was inscribed to a father 
 and son, who had both risen to the rank of Cabinet 
 Minister ; another recorded the fact that one family 
 had, for four generations, given a Viceroy to some 
 Province of the Empire ; a third was in honor 
 of a widow, and bore the legend
 
 37 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 " Her virtue was as pure, and her heart as cold, as ice." 
 This does not imply that chastity 
 
 " Pure as the icicle that hangs on Dian's temple " 
 
 is at all rare. It only means that Lady Ping, 
 being left a widow at an early age, had resisted 
 all temptations to marry again. Such portals are 
 erected at private expense, but not without 
 a license from the emperor, which it costs 
 something to obtain. 
 
 A similar portal, spanning the road-way near a 
 humble hamlet, informs the passengers that 
 " Here were born six or seven famous kings 
 of the Dynasty of Shang" (i.e., between three 
 and four thousand years ago). It was amusing 
 to note that the names of these kings were 
 not given, but that of the public-spirited donor 
 was duly recorded. By the "six or seven kings," 
 I was reminded of an incident told 
 me by a captain in our navy. Being in a 
 foreign port, a party of nobles were inspecting 
 the ship, when the quarter-master, touching his 
 cap, said quietly " Please, Sir, one of them kings 
 has fallen down the hatch-way." 
 
 This reference to antiquity also reminds me that 
 I passed through a deserted city, whose walls of 
 baked clay were in good condition, though their
 
 J 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 371 
 
 facing of brick had been removed. It had been 
 the capital of Chao, a small but warlike State in 
 the feudal period, when Babylon was in her glory. 
 Fancy could conjure up the armies that had issued 
 from those silent gates ; and the Chinese, who 
 have a dread of ghosts, though they pass through 
 it in day-time, always give it a wide berth 
 at night. 
 
 Another spot of antiquarian interest was the 
 town of Yang-ku, which is supposed to have been 
 the site of an astronomical observatory in the 
 reign of Yao, 2,300 B. C. At present, it contains 
 nothing snggestive of science. 
 
 Situated in a fertile plain, with a range of bills, 
 in shape like the arc of an ellipse, to bring the 
 fung-shui influence to a focus, Chu Fu, the goal 
 of my pilgrimage, is deemed equally favorable 
 for the birth or the burial of great men. 
 Trade, it has none, living on the emoluments 
 which a grateful nation has thought fit to confer 
 on the greatest of its benefactors. A lineal 
 descendant of the Sage has here his palace, with 
 the title of Duke and ample domains. 
 Twelve of the nearer branches of the family, 
 and sixty of the more remote, have likewise been 
 provided for by imperial bounty. 
 
 The city is in the form of a rectangle,
 
 372 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. 
 One end of the enclosure is occupied by the 
 temple of Confucius ; and the tomb, which is 
 outside of the city, is connected with it by an 
 avenue of stately cedars. This avenue bears the 
 name of S hen Tao, the "Spirit Road," meaning that 
 the spirit of the Holy Man, when invoked with 
 proper rites, passes through these trees, back and 
 forth between tomb and temple. He has a temple 
 in every city of the empire, and his effigy is 
 adored in every school-room in the land. 
 His worship is accordingly not localized; and hence, 
 but little zeal is shown to make the pilgrimage 
 to this holy city. Yet the tomb and temple are 
 both on such a scale of magnificence as to be 
 worthy of an empire whose most sacred traditions 
 are here embodied. 
 
 The temple is a vestibule to the tomb, and we 
 shall visit that first. 
 
 On the last day of February, just as the sun 
 was rising, I presented myself at the great gate; 
 but, as the porters saw me approaching, they closed 
 it in my face. That meant nothing more than 
 a demand to be paid' for opening it. 
 A red card thrust through a crevice, and a promise 
 of cum-shaw, proved to be an "open sesame;" 
 and the great shrine stood full before me.
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 373 
 
 The moon being at the full, a company of young 
 men in rich attire were paying their devotions 
 to the spirit of their illustrious ancestor. 
 I was politely requested to amuse myself in some 
 of the adjoining courts, until the service should 
 be completed. It was not long, chiefly consisting 
 of the k'o-tow, or nine prostrations, accompanied 
 by a repetition of the titles of the Sage, in form 
 something like a hymn of praise. 
 
 In the meantime, I entered a spacious court paved 
 with stone and studded with sculptured pai-lows, 
 or honorary gate-ways, that lead nowhere. From 
 this, I passed into another of equal extent, which 
 had a little canal meandering through it, excavated 
 for the sole purpose of giving occasion for a dozen 
 or more beautiful bridges of shining marble. 
 A third court contained a solemn grove of funereal 
 cypress, some of the trees being of enormous size, 
 and their deep shade being profoundly impressive. 
 One of them, it is alleged, was planted by the Sage 
 himself, more than two thousand years ago. 
 
 Beyond these, in another court, stood a forest 
 of granite columns, range on range, each covered 
 with laudatory inscriptions, and sheltered by 
 a pretty pavilion. Each column had been erected 
 by a sovereign of the empire ; and some of them, 
 dating as far back as the dynasties of Han, Tsin,
 
 374 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 and Wei (from fifteen to twenty centuries), were so 
 defaced by time as to be illegible. The habit of 
 taking printed copies from the stone had helped 
 to obliterate the inscriptions. Some, of later 
 dynasties, were more distinct. One by Ch'eng Hua, 
 1465 A.D., particularly attracted my attention. 
 It styled Confucius the "Heart of Heaven,, 
 without whom we should have been wrapped 
 in one unbroken night." Expatiating on his virtues, 
 it concludes with a hymn of praise. , 
 
 The library was a wooden tower, four or five 
 stories in height, in the finest style of Chinese 
 architecture. Instead, however, of being filled with 
 books, it is tenanted by innumerable pigeons ;. 
 and, if it ever contained books, there is now no trace 
 of them. 
 
 The central shrine, where I had seen the 
 descendants of the Sage at their devotions, 
 resembles the Confucian temple at Peking, but is 
 vaster in its proportions. Like all of its kind, 
 it consists of a long hall, rising in one story to 
 a great height. In this, however, the front pillars 
 are of stone instead of wood ; and a more important 
 difference is the fact that here the Sage and his 
 principal disciples are represented by statues of 
 stone, while elsewhere they have only tablets 
 inscribed with their names. The statues are not
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 375 
 
 the work of a Pheidias ; and the simple tablets, 
 which even here are the chief objects of adoration, 
 are far more impressive. 
 
 The tablet of Confucius bears on it the inscription 
 " The seat of the spirit of the most holy ancient 
 Sage, Confucius." 
 
 Numerous inscriptions on gilded tablets, 
 some fixed in the vaulted roof, others pendant 
 from the ceiling, set forth the Sage's virtues in 
 phrases like the following : 
 
 " The model teacher of all ages." 
 
 " With Heaven and Earth he fmyns a trinity." 
 
 " His virtue is equal to that V^hp n an d Earth." 
 
 " He exhausted the possibilitiepWwature." 
 
 " Of all the Sages, he was the grand consummation." 
 
 " His holy soul was sent down from Heaven." 
 
 The tablets of seventy-two, out of his three 
 thousand disciples, who became conspicuous for 
 wisdom and virtue, are ranged on either hand, 
 each in a separate shrine ; while in niches, 
 around the walls, are to be seen the tablets 
 of some of his eminent followers of later times, 
 all participating in the cloud of incense offered 
 to the great Master. 
 
 Attached to this building are several others, less 
 conspicuous, one of which is devoted to the memory
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of the father of Confucius, of whom nothing is 
 known, except that he died too early to influence 
 the character of his famous son. A shrine to the 
 "Holy Mother" pays deserved honor to the 
 woman who trained and taught China's teacher. 
 His ancestors for five generations all have places 
 of honor, and wear the posthumous title of prince, 
 though in life they were poor and unknown. 
 
 The most curious of these collateral shrines is one 
 to the " Holy Lady, the wife of the Sage." As she 
 was divorced, it suggests the dilemma that, if put 
 away for cause, she does not deserve a shrine ; 
 if without cause^pfcage was not worthy of his. 
 
 A well, wher^iie Sage is said to have drawn 
 water, and a hall, filled with portraits on stone 
 of himself and his disciples, were the last objects 
 of interest that I had time to inspect. 
 
 On my way to the city gate, I noticed a gilded 
 inscription on a marble arch at the entrance 
 of a street, informing the passer-by that "This is 
 Poverty Lane, where Yen Hui, the favorite disciple, 
 formerly dwelt." He died young, but left behind 
 him the invaluable example of love of study 
 and contempt for luxury. 
 
 Beyond the gate, pursuing for half a mile the 
 graceful curves of the "Spirit Road," I came to a 
 column marking a limit, where riders are required
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS. 377 
 
 to dismount and proceed on foot to the entrance 
 of the Campo Santo. The wall of the holy ground 
 encloses a space of about ten acres, shaded by 
 great trees and filled with tombs of the Sage's 
 descendants, excepting an area of two or three 
 acres on the side facing the city, which is occupied 
 by a mound so large that it might be described 
 as a hill. This is the Sage's tomb. 
 The earth of which it is formed is a more 
 enduring monument than brick or stone ; 
 and a few spadefuls are added every year, 
 so that, with the flight of time, the hillock may 
 yet- become a mountain. A paved court and a 
 granite column comprise all that art has done in 
 the way of embellishment. 
 
 On one side, an old tree leaning on crutches 
 informs you that it was planted by the hand of 
 Tze-kung, one of the most eminent in the 
 inner circle of the Sage's school ; and near it, a 
 tablet marks the site of a lodge in which this 
 devoted disciple passed six years, watching by the 
 grave of his master. The very grass that grows 
 within this enclosure is sacred, and supposed to be 
 endowed with powers of divination much beyond 
 that which we attribute to witch hazel. 
 It gives rise to a brisk trade, which I 
 encouraged by buying a bundle of stalks
 
 378 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 (forty-nine in number, viz., 7x7); not that I cared 
 to learn from them the secrets of futurity, but to 
 prove that I had won the honors of a hadji. 
 
 Though he has a temple in every city, 
 Confucius is not deified. The honors paid to him 
 are purely commemorative, and he is never 
 invoked in the character of a tutelar divinity. 
 The homage rendered to him is not, therefore, 
 a direct obstacle to the acceptance of the 
 Chistian Faith.* 
 
 * For an account of the family of Confucius, and particularly of his 
 Ducal representative, see Hanlin Papers (First Series), or the edition 
 by Harpers under title of The Chinese, &c.
 
 XVII. 
 
 THE LUSIAD 
 
 AND THE OPENING OF 
 
 THE EAST.* 
 
 fHE near approach of the fourth centennial 
 of the discovery of America carries our 
 thoughts back to what we may call 
 the heroic age of maritime adventure. 
 In that line of enterprise, the Portuguese were 
 the forerunners and the rivals of Spain. The fame 
 of Diaz, who, five years before, had penetrated 
 to the southernmost extremity of Africa, had 
 doubtless much to do with the resolution of 
 Columbus to steer for the West ; and the success of 
 the latter impelled the Portuguese in turn to 
 attempt to eclipse his renown by five years later 
 opening the way to the East. 
 
 The accomplishment of that undertaking is 
 the subject ot the Lusiad. We take up the poem 
 of Camoens as a literary study, deserving, as a work 
 
 * Yale Review, December, 1890.
 
 380 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 of genius, a liberal share of that attention which is 
 accorded to the world's great epics ; but, aside from 
 its literary merit, it challenges our consideration 
 for the light which it throws on the canvas 
 of history. It illuminates the track of Vasco da 
 Gama with a phosphorescence that is not 
 momentary ; and it affords us glimpses of Africa, 
 which ought to be of special interest at an hour 
 when Stanley is revealing the mysteries of the 
 Upper Congo, and when three European nations 
 are contending for the possession of that Eastern 
 Coast along which Vasco was the first to sail. 
 
 The poem connects itself with China, not merely 
 by describing the voyage that opened the way 
 to her seaboard, but by the curious fact that it was 
 written in part during the author's temporary 
 sojourn in the south of that empire, about 330 years 
 ago. Nor is its bearing on Japan of less importance. 
 Not only does the poet allude to the early efforts 
 made by St. Xavier and others to evangelize those 
 islands, it is not improbable that he visited them 
 himself, as an active traffic was at that time carried 
 on by his countrymen between Japan and their new 
 colony in China. It is to be regretted that this 
 old poem, which deals with the earliest authentic 
 periplus of Africa, and with the opening of the 
 three great empires of Asia, has not commanded
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 381 
 
 to a greater degree the attention of studious men. 
 Its date, only the length of a human life from 
 the first landing of the Portuguese on the coast 
 of Malabar, and only half that distance from their 
 arrival at Canton, forms an ^important epoch 
 well suited for catching the spirit of the age, 
 and conveying to posterity the impressions produced 
 on the mind of a poetic observer, by one of the 
 most startling revolutions in human history. 
 A Chinese statesman, whose work I recently read, 
 describes it trom his stand-point as a greater change 
 for China to find herself face to face with the 
 great nations of the West, than anything that 
 has occurred in her history since the Builder of 
 the Great Wall abolished the Feudal States. 
 
 The terms in which Camoens depicts the 
 impressions made on him by the unbarring of 
 the gates of the Orient are equally strong and much 
 more poetical. The adventurous expedition of the 
 Argonauts to the Euxine, in quest of the golden 
 fleece, he represents as quite cast into the shade 
 by the exploit of his countrymen in doubling the 
 " Cape of Storms," and crossing the Indian sea. 
 Even the invasion of India by Alexander 
 and the fabled conquest of India by Bacchus are, 
 in his estimation, eclipsed by the triumphs of 
 Lusitanian arms.
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 He says but little of China, and that little 
 mostly wrong, his admiring gaze resting chiefly 
 on the ephemeral dominion founded by his 
 people in the south of Asia. Could his vision 
 have taken a wider sweep, looking with prophetic 
 foresight down on the unfolding centuries, 
 his patriotic pride might have suffered by the 
 revelation ; but would not a nobler sentiment 
 have supplied its place, leading him to hail the 
 rise of British power in India, and the renovation 
 through Western influence of the two independent 
 empires of Eastern Asia ? That he felt the 
 grandeur of his theme, limited as was his faculty 
 of prevision, does it not prove that he was 
 indeed an inspired vatesf 
 
 It is somewhat singular that, in the whole of 
 his ten cantos, Camoens makes not the most 
 distant allusion to Columbus, though there can 
 be no doubt that the maritime enterprise of the 
 Portuguese was greatly stimulated by the success 
 of his daring voyage. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Columbus aimed at the same 
 objective as the Portuguese navigators ; and, in the 
 view of Camoens, his voyage was a failure, the 
 long, wild shore that barred his way to Japan, China, 
 and India, being a discovery of utter insignificance, 
 in comparison with the opening of a water-way
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 383 
 
 to the richest, most populous, and (at that time) 
 most civilized nations of the earth. 
 
 Nor does he allude to the mariner's compass. 
 Indispensable as a guide to the westward sailing 
 fleet of Queen Isabella, the needle had little to 
 do with the success of the Portuguese. 
 Their voyage, portentous as it was in length, was 
 after all nothing more than a prolonged cabotage,* 
 or coasting voyage. At every point where they 
 entered a port, their first inquiry was for pilots 
 to conduct them to the next. 
 
 Daring beyond all precedent as was that long 
 expedition, in which they four times crossed the 
 equator, and drew a girdle round the African 
 continent which thenceforth hung like a pendant 
 from the belt of their king, it lacks the sublimity 
 that attaches to the triumphs of science. 
 Courage and skill are qualities which they displayed 
 in a conspicuous degree ; but the manner in which 
 Columbus divined the existence of a new way to 
 the East, if not that of a new world in the West, 
 was little less marvellous (considering the time) 
 than Leverrier's prognostication of a planet outside 
 of the orbit of Uranus. 
 
 * It reminds us of the leading part which Portugal took in maritime 
 commerce, to find in common use a French word derived from the 
 Portuguese Cabo, a headland, and the English word Capstan from 
 the Portuguese Cabre siante, a standing goat.
 
 384 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 " Long lay the ocean paths from man concealed, 
 Light came from heaven, the magnet was revealed. 
 Then first Columbus with the mighty hand 
 Of grasping genius weighed the sea and land, 
 When, sudden as creation burst from naught, 
 Sprang a new world through his stupendous thought." 
 
 In Genoa, one sees a magnificent statue of 
 Columbus, who is represented as pondering the 
 figure of a globe, and solving the problem of ages. 
 That, however, is a recent work, a tardy homage 
 to make amends for the want of early recognition. 
 Not only did the men of his time fail to 
 encourage his undertaking ; when it was crowned 
 with success, they failed to appreciate the 
 grandeur of his achievement. No Italian or 
 Spanish bard of that day celebrated it in any 
 considerable poem that has come down to our times. 
 It is an English poet of recent date, who extols 
 it in the noble lines which I have cited ; and it was 
 reserved for an American, almost of our own 
 times, to make it the subject of an epic poem. 
 Alas ! the Columbiad of Joel Barlow, grand as is 
 its theme, is wanting in the sacred fire that burns 
 in every stanza of the immortal Camoens. 
 More inspiring than a hundred Columbiads will be 
 the great celebration of 1892 ! 
 
 But it is time to come to a closer examination
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 385 
 
 of the poem before us. In the composition of the 
 Lusiad, we discover three leading elements : 
 
 1. A historic narrative. 
 
 2. Numerous patriotic episodes. 
 
 3. Mythologic machinery. 
 
 The consideration of these will prepare us 
 to appreciate, in conclusion, the characteristics 
 of the poet, and the fortunes or rather misfortunes 
 of the man. 
 
 I. 
 
 The action centres in Vasco da Gama and his 
 adventurous voyage. The poet, who was a poet 
 of some renown before he took up this weighty 
 theme, selected the exploit of Vasco as the most 
 signal event in the history of his people. He was 
 right ; for, as their long wars with the Moors 
 culminated in carrying the war into Africa, so their 
 pertinacious conflict with the seas reached its climax 
 in the opening of the way to India and the East. 
 
 " The discovery of the East," says a Portuguese 
 critic with pardonable partiality, " supplied Camoens 
 with a theme not less grand than that which the 
 Crusades gave to Tasso ; " and its consequences, 
 he asserts, were even superior in importance. 
 Certain it is that few poets have been so fortunate
 
 386 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 in the choice of a subject for the Epic Muse. 
 His hero, in character, is less distinct and striking 
 than Achilles, or even than Godfrey of Boulogne ; 
 but he compares favorably with the pious yEneas. 
 It must not be forgotten that not Achilles, 
 but the siege of Troy ; not the Count of Bouillon, 
 but the conquest of the Holy Land ; not the son 
 of Anchises, but the founding of Rome, were the 
 real subjects of those three great Epics. 
 
 So lofty is the subject of the Lusiad, and at the 
 same time so comprehensive, that it may well 
 dispense with the special attractions of a single 
 hero. Vasco, clad in a weather-beaten tarpaulin 
 enthroned on his quarter-deck, trumpet in hand, 
 making the voice of command ring out above 
 the loar of angry winds, is, at all events, a noble 
 figure ; though, unlike the impiger iracundus Achilles, 
 a trifle monotonous. 
 
 Our poet is not writing history, though his subject 
 is eminently historical ; and it would not be fair to 
 exact from him a strict conformity to facts, 
 any more than to bring Tasso to book for his 
 account of the exploits of Tancred and Rinaldo. 
 A poet does not relish a simple ascent in a captive 
 balloon. He must be free to rise as high, and roam 
 as far, as the divine afflatus may carry him, before 
 returning to terra firma. It ought, however, to be
 
 387 
 
 set down to the credit of Camoens that he 
 distinguishes pretty clearly between fact and fiction. 
 The latter, as it appears in his Cantos, always bears 
 some mark of its aerial origin; and the former 
 is related so truthfully that, were other records 
 wanting, a pretty fair account of Portuguese 
 maritime adventure might be made out from this 
 poem alone. 
 
 Its sins are more those of omission than of 
 exaggeration. It passes almost in silence over 
 the remarkable performance of Bartholomew Diaz, 
 who doubled the Cape of Storms ; and it touches 
 but lightly on other enterprises of the reigns of John 
 and Manuel. An abortive attempt to reach India, 
 made under the former of these kings, is, however, 
 duly recorded. Allow me to condense the narrative, 
 and give it in my own prosaic version. 
 
 "Johannes, our thirteenth king, eager to clothe 
 himself with fame eternal, attempted that which 
 mortal man had never essayed; that was to find 
 the limit of the rosy East." "The same," 
 said Gama, "is now the object of our quest."* 
 " His messengers, passing through Spain, France, 
 and Italy, took ship in the port of Parthenope 
 (Naples), a city subject to many masters, and now 
 
 * When he says this, he is still on the East Coast of Africa.
 
 388 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 a gem in the Spanish crown. Sailing through the sea 
 of Sicily, they touch on the shore of sandy Rhodes. 
 Thence they gain the coast on which great Pompey 
 fell. They proceed to Memphis and lands watered 
 by the overflowing Nile ; ascending beyond Egypt 
 as far as Abyssinia, where the holy rites of Christ 
 continue to be observed, they next cross the 
 Erythrean waves, which Israel of old passed over 
 without the aid of ships. Having completed the 
 circuit of Arabia, they enter the Persian Gulf,* 
 where the memory of Babel and its confusion still 
 abides. There the Euphrates mingles with the 
 Tigris, both famed for springing from the fountains 
 of an earthly Paradise. Thence through the waves 
 of an ocean which Trajan never dared to pass, 
 they go in search of the pure waters of the 
 Indus, a search," said Gama, " whose history is 
 not yet finished." 
 
 " They saw there strange peoples, strange manners, 
 and many monsters ; but, alas ! from wanderings 
 so wide, it was not easy to recall their feet. 
 They died there, and there they rest ; and not 
 one of them returned to his beloved home." 
 "It appears," continued Gama, "that heaven 
 was reserving this arduous enterprise as a 
 reward for the merit of our King Manuel. 
 
 * Thus far, they seem to have gone from the upper Nile by land.
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 389 
 
 Manuel, in succeeding to the throne of John, 
 inherited his lofty thoughts. In accepting the 
 sceptre of the land, he accepted also the task of 
 conquering the sea." 
 
 Here begins the narrative of Gama's expedition, 
 which he himself is represented as relating to the 
 Moorish King of Melinda. We shall follow him 
 in outline, at the risk of being a little prolix. 
 
 A vision of the old man of the Ganges invites 
 the King of Portugal to a conquest, which already 
 forms the subject of his waking and his sleeping 
 thoughts. His counsellors approve the undertaking, 
 showing that the heart of the nation is in it. 
 He names Gama for his admiral, who replies : 
 " For thee, O King, I am ready to face sword, 
 fire, and snow. It pains me that I have but one life 
 to offer in the service of my Lord." The King 
 assigns him four ships of war, and he places 
 his brother Paolo in command of one of them. 
 When ready to put to sea (July 8th, 1497), 
 their last act is to march in solemn procession, 
 preceded by a thousand monks, to a little church 
 at the water's edge, and there receive the Viaticum, 
 as if they were going to certain death. The parting 
 scene is heart-rending, wives, mothers, sisters, 
 fathers, tenderly reproaching the hardy adventurers 
 for seeking death in foreign climes; but not
 
 390 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 one of them loses heart. Of each, it could be 
 said 
 
 Illi robur et aes triplex 
 
 Circa pectus erat. 
 
 Passing Madeira, they turn to the south,, 
 sighting the Canaries and the coast of Morocco- 
 Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, and Mandingo land, 
 are referred to as well known, the latter as 
 producing gold. The great rivers Senegal and 
 Gambia are mentioned ; the Niger is alluded to,, 
 but not named. A reference to the Congo is 
 of special interest. 
 
 " Leaving," he says, " the rough Mount of Lions 
 and a headland, to which we gave the name of Cape 
 of Palms, we plunged into a vast gulf (Gulf of 
 GuineaJ. The greatest kingdom there is that of 
 Congo, by us converted to the faith of Christ. 
 Through this there flows, long and bright, a river 
 called the Zaire, never seen by any of the ancients." 
 
 He continues : 
 
 " We now see opening before us a new celestial 
 hemisphere, bestudded with new stars. Traversing 
 that region over which Apollo passes twice in each 
 year, we see the northern bears, in spite of Juno,, 
 bathe themselves in the waters of Neptune." 
 
 "It were long to tell of wonders of the sea,, 
 which mortal men do not understand ; for I have
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 391 
 
 seen things which rude mariners, guided only by 
 experience, hold for certain, but which men 
 of science boldly deny. I have seen that living 
 light, which mariners take for the apparition 
 of a Saint, in time of tempest.* Nor was it less 
 a miracle to see the clouds, through a long tube, 
 suck up the uplifted waters of the sea. But when 
 the trombe gives back its floods, no taste of salt 
 remains. Let the wise in learning see what secrets 
 still remain hidden in the heart of nature ! " 
 
 "Five times the moon has renewed her horn 
 when, from the main-top, a seaman sharp of sight 
 cries Land!" 
 
 Here, for the first time, they go on shore; 
 and, by means of the astrolabe, "a new 
 instrument,! invention of a subtle brain," they 
 ascertain the height of the sun, and find the place 
 to lie to the south of Capricorn. The natives 
 of this region, he describes as "bestial, brutish, 
 and ill-disposed. From them, no knowledge could 
 we gather of India, our goal." 
 
 From this point, probably within the limits 
 of the present British colony, sailing five days 
 
 * St. Elmo's fire, an appearance produced by the escape of 
 electricity from projecting points of the rigging. 
 
 f The astrolabe was not "new," though its use in navigation 
 probably was so.
 
 392 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 through seas which, forgetful of Diaz, he speaks 
 of as " never plowed by any other keel," they 
 reach the Cape of Storms, henceforth called Cape 
 of Good Hope. " Here, turning our prow to seek 
 the burning median line, the antarctic pole remains 
 behind us; and we pass the point of land (ilho), 
 which a former fleet had sought and found, and made 
 the limit of its discoveries," a disparaging allusion 
 to one of the greatest achievements in the history 
 of maritime exploration. 
 
 From this, their course lay over new ground ; and, 
 more anxious than before to obtain a pilot, 
 after sailing a little distance on the Eastern coast, 
 the}'- go on shore "a second time," probably at Port 
 Elizabeth or Algoa Bay. They meet a kindly 
 welcome and receive supplies of food; but, 
 adds Gama, " for want of a common tongue, none 
 of my companions could gather any hint of the 
 places we were seeking." 
 
 On Christmas they entered a spacious harbor, 
 to which, from the day, they gave the name of Port 
 Natal. Here they found fresh food and fresh water, 
 but the Admiral repeats : " Yet, withal, no sign 
 of India we find, the people being dumb to us." 
 
 Slowly working northward against a powerful 
 current as far as Sofala, they are cheered by the 
 sight of sails, betokening a higher social state than
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 393 
 
 they had before met with on the coast of Africa. 
 Hopes are kindled anew of gaining information, 
 or of finding a pilot ; and they are not wholly 
 disappointed. The natives know a few words 
 of Arabic enough to tell us of a rich realm 
 to the north " whence come ships as large as ours, 
 and whose people have skins like ours, the color 
 of day-light:' 
 
 The place indicated was Mozambique, a Moslem 
 State, whose capital was built on an island 
 near the coast. Here Vasco and his people came 
 near falling victims to the treachery of the Arabs. 
 Not ignorant of the hostility of the Portuguese 
 to the faith of Islam, these Arabs, receiving them 
 with a show of friendship, endeavor to draw them 
 into an ambuscade. The fire-arms and prowess 
 of the Europeans are, however, too much for them ; 
 and the whole population of the little island betake 
 themselves to the mainland, leaving their houses 
 and property a booty to the victor. 
 
 Foiled in one stratagem, the petty king resorts 
 to another. With humble submission, he begs 
 for peace, and offers a pilot, who knows the way 
 to India, a gift as dangerous as that of the Trojan 
 horse. Vasco, whose wisdom is less conspicuous 
 than his valor, accepts the pilot, and entrusts 
 the fleet to his guidance, little suspecting that he
 
 394 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 has instructions to cause them to perish in the sea, 
 or to deliver them into the hands of some powerful 
 enemy. 
 
 In answer to Gama's questions, the pilot imparts 
 much correct information regarding India and its 
 people, as also touching the east coast of Africa, 
 along which they were then creeping. Learning 
 that, at no great distance to the north, there is an 
 island called Quiloa, inhabited by Christians, Vasco, 
 as the traitor foresaw, gives orders to head for 
 that place. 
 
 Through good luck or divine favor they are 
 carried past by strong winds, and the pilot informs 
 them of another island still further to the north, 
 where Moslems and Christians dwell together in 
 unity. Gama makes for the place and finds 
 it to be Mombasa, a place which has recently 
 acquired fresh prominence in connection with the 
 East African colonization schemes of the English 
 and Germans. 
 
 Learning caution from experience, he dispatches 
 a couple of messengers to reconnoitre and report, 
 before venturing into the harbor. These messengers, 
 who curiously enough belong to a body of 
 condemned criminals brought along to be employed 
 on dangerous errands as en/ants perdus, making a 
 favorable report, Gama prepares to cross the bar.
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 395 
 
 As providence would have it, he fails to strike 
 the channel, and so, says the poet, "escapes a 
 second sriare more dangerous than the first;" 
 for, once within the bar, the fleet would have 
 been at the mercy of the Moors, who were plotting 
 its destruction. Discovering the meditated treachery, 
 Gama proceeds further to the north, until, falling in 
 with coasting vessels, he is conducted to Melinda, 
 another island nearly under the equator. 
 Here he is entertained so royally by the king, 
 and served so loyally by the people, though 
 king and people are alike Moslems, that one 
 suspects the bloody collision at Mozambique of 
 having been brought about by Portuguese aggression; 
 and the treacheries, attempted there and at Mombasa, 
 of being poetic fictions, introduced to vary the 
 monotony of perils by sea. 
 
 The former pilot having thrown himself into the 
 sea and escaped to land, Vasco here obtains 
 another, who conducts him faithfully through storm 
 and calm to the port of Calicut (not Calcutta) 
 on the coast of Malabar. This was his final goal, 
 the crown of his great achievement. 
 
 Europe and India were henceforth inseparably 
 linked ; and each was astonished to find itself in 
 communication with the other, though their 
 slow -sailing craft required a year or more to
 
 39^ HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 complete the voyage. What would they have 
 thought, had some prophet foretold that in days to 
 come the East and West would be linked together 
 by a submarine cable, over which electric messages 
 would course to and fro, in less than the twinkling 
 of an eye ! Perhaps their surprise would not have 
 been greater than it really was, for our capacity for 
 astonishment has, like other faculties, its limits ; 
 it can take in but one object at a time, 
 and men who believed that the earth is flat could 
 not have been more surprised, had they been told of 
 other worlds suspended in the sky, than they 
 actually were at seeing men who had sailed round 
 the earth and proved it to be a globe. 
 
 The glory of being the first circumnavigators 
 fairly belongs to the Portuguese ; for not only 
 was Magellan a Portuguese in Spanish service, 
 as Camoens takes pains to inform us, but the honor 
 of having led the way should be awarded to 
 Gama himself. When all the zones except the 
 frigid had been twice crossed, and a pathway found 
 across the Indian occean, but few links remained 
 to complete the chain. 
 
 In Calicut, Gama finds on the throne a Zamorin, 
 some of whose ministers are Mohammedans. 
 The old feud is not slow to break out. 
 New perils and new treacheries beset the Europeans.
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 397 
 
 Gama is allured on shore and detained as a 
 hostage for the surrender of his fleet ; but, by 
 dint of skill and courage, he secures his liberty, 
 and, seizing some of the natives by way of 
 reprisal, and to serve as living proof of his 
 successful vo} age, he weighs anchor for his distant 
 home. On his arrival, he is honored not merely 
 as the discoverer of a new route for commerce, 
 but as the founder of anew empire; for, with the 
 unscrupulous morals of those times, discovery was 
 always regarded as the forerunner of conquest. 
 
 This terminates the direct narration. The progress 
 of conquest in India, and the extension of maritime 
 adventure to China and Japan, are related in 
 episodes. To Japan the poet gives but a single 
 stanza, in which he speaks of the triumphs of the 
 Faith, St. Francis Xavier having already completed 
 his wonderful mission. To China, though the name 
 occurs more than once, he devotes no more than 
 two stanzas. 
 
 " Here, set China, whose proud empire, 
 Famed for its ample lands and wealth untold, 
 Extends its domain from the burning tropic 
 To the frigid zone." 
 
 " Behold its Wall, a structure huge past all belief; 
 Between two realms it forms the bound, 
 A monument of princely power, pride, and wealth'
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 This is true of the extent of the empire in the 
 days of Kublai ; but it speaks little for the knowledge 
 of a poet, who is believed to have written these 
 lines in China itself, that he should not have 
 known that Tartary was at that time independent 
 and at war with the dynasty of Ming. What shall 
 we say of the next quatrain, in which he gives 
 the leading feature of the state policy of China? 
 
 " The king who rules this people is not born a prince ; 
 Nor does the throne descend from sire to son ; 
 But they always choose for sovereign 
 A man who is famed for wisdom and for virtue." 
 
 Is this an echo from the days of Yao and Shun, 
 who set aside their own sons and chose successors 
 from among the people ? Or, is it an allusion to 
 the founder of the dynasty of Ming, who certainly 
 was not "born a prince?" Or, is it an obscure 
 statement of the fact that, in theory, the Emperor 
 of China possesses at all times the power of 
 naming his successor, irrespective of the order 
 of consanguinity ? It reads, however, as if the poet 
 were describing China as an elective monarchy, 
 such as was the empire of Germany, or the kingdom 
 of Poland ; and it must have been so understood 
 by his earlier readers. But, is it conceivable that 
 he could have spent a week not to say a year
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 399 
 
 in China without learning that, as a matter of fact, 
 the throne is strictly hereditary, though not limited 
 to the line of primogeniture ? 
 
 II. 
 
 We come now to what, for want of a better 
 designation, I have chosen to call the poet's patriotic 
 episodes. Camoens is not a servile imitator, and his 
 use of a model is always redeemed by striking 
 evidence of originality. It is, nevertheless, amusing 
 to remark how he not only conforms the action 
 of his poem to that of the yneid, but follows Virgil 
 in his deviations from the main line of his story. 
 His longer episodes betray a studied correspondence 
 with those of the earlier Epic. 
 
 As ^Eneas, at the request of Dido, relates the story 
 of the fall of Troy, so Gama describes the wars of 
 Portugal, at the desire of the king of Melinda. 
 The one begins Regina jubes; the other, Mandas 
 me O ReL One tells a tragic tale of ruin ; 
 the other, a history of triumph and expansion. 
 The story is too long for one sitting, 
 though the whole of a balmy night, on the 
 waters of an equatorial sea, is given to it. 
 It is accordingly resumed before another audience, 
 on the waters of another sea, on this occasion the 
 Minister of Malabar being auditor, and Paolo, 
 not Vasco, narrator.
 
 4OO HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 When Virgil wishes to reveal the future glory of 
 his country, he transports his hero to the Elysian 
 fields, and makes him hear it in prophecy from the 
 lips of his father Anchises ; in this, following the lead 
 of Homer, who makes Ulysses penetrate the world 
 of shades, in order to learn from Laertes the secrets 
 of the future. Camoens is not more of a plagiarist 
 than the Bard of Mantua, when he carries his hero 
 to an enchanted isle, where a sea nymph and a 
 goddess, one after the other, sing the coming 
 conquest of the East. Here again he puts the 
 prophetic narrative into the mouth of two, instead 
 of one as in the ancient Epics, the idea 
 being not merely that of relief from monotony, 
 but that of expansion befitting an empire whose 
 marvellous growth had stretched beyond the 
 flight of the Roman eagle. 
 
 Besides these, there are minor episodes too 
 numerous to mention. At the slightest suggestion, 
 the thought of the poet wanderer takes wing, and 
 revisits his native hills. The fervor of his affection 
 for that terra amada, breathing as it does through 
 every Canto, imparts a peculiar charm to the 
 whole poem. 
 
 The " patriot passion, " like other passions, 
 is liable to dazzle the eye and warp the judgment ; 
 but, if untinged with hatred of other countries.
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 401 
 
 it is always amiable, and often the prolific mother of 
 glorious achievements. He who is destitute of 
 such a sentiment deserves the malediction of 
 another patriotic poet : 
 
 " Living, to forfeit fair renown, 
 And doubly dying to go down 
 To the vile dust from which he sprung." 
 
 The want of it, in the case of one of England's most 
 gifted sons, imparts a repulsive element to the finest 
 productions of his genius. 
 
 To the countrymen of Camoens, the chief 
 attraction of the Lusiad, I can affirm without 
 hesitation, is found in these patriotic episodes. 
 They find in them not the details, but the spirit of 
 their history, the characters of their great men, 
 the triumphs of their people, glorified by the touch of 
 a pencil of unfading light. It is said that, while 
 engaged in the siege of Colombo, the weary soldiers 
 were wont to revive their courage by singing those 
 stanzas in which Camoens extols the exploits of the 
 first Lusitanian conquerors. Of the martial poet, 
 may it not be said, as truly as of the* Scottish 
 chieftain, that 
 
 " One blast upon his bugle horn 
 Was worth a thousand men."
 
 402 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Bugle tones prevail through these portions of our 
 poet's work, but they are interspersed with passages 
 plaintive and tender, tales of love and sorrow. 
 What, for example, in the whole range of literature, 
 can exceed the pathos of the story of Inez de Castro, 
 whom the king, returning from a campaign, 
 caused to be taken from her tomb and seated on 
 the throne to receive the homage of his subjects, 
 in order to fulfill a vow that he would 
 make her his queen ? This incident, borrowed 
 from Camoens, forms the subject of one of 
 Mrs. Hemans' most touching poems. 
 
 In the opening of these historical digressions, 
 the poet invokes the aid of Calliope ; and of all 
 of them it may be affirmed that the elevation 
 and force of his style are not unworthy of the 
 Muse of Epic Poetry. 
 
 III. 
 
 The third component of this great poem is its 
 supernatural machinery. 
 
 Here it is impossible to accord any portion of 
 that praise, which we have freely bestowed on the 
 poet's narrative of facts. He is not to be blamed 
 for adhering to the traditionary belief that the 
 employment of supernatural agents is essential to the 
 creation of an Epic. Had not Virgil woven the old 
 mythology, like a silver thread, into the texture
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 403 
 
 of his jEneid disguising and embellishing that 
 which would otherwise have been coarse and 
 repulsive ? And if Virgil, why not Camoens ? 
 The answer is obvious. That which was silver to 
 the Roman had become dross in the days of the 
 Portuguese poet. The old mythology was dead; 
 and to mingle its faded shreds with the fresher 
 elements of Christian poesy was a blemish, 
 not a beauty. 
 
 The servility (for there is no weaker word to 
 express it), with which Camoens has done this, is 
 truly pitiable ; and the effect is decidedly comical. 
 Venus is chosen as the patroness of Vasco, 
 apparently because she had been the tutelary 
 divinity of ^Eneas. Bacchus, instead of Juno, 
 plays the rdle of persecuting power, his reason 
 for doing so being simply the fear that the 
 Portuguese might eclipse the fame of his own 
 expedition to India. 
 
 Jove, as of old, summons the parliament of 
 Olympus, and despatches Mercury to announce 
 his decrees. Neptune, Tethys, Amphitrite, and the 
 Nereids, continue to rule the waves, and favor or 
 obstruct the voyage, as they are gained over by 
 one party or the other. 
 
 All this nonsense is set forth in language of 
 exquisite beauty. One could enjoy it thoroughly,
 
 404 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 if he could only forget its glaring anachronism. 
 The theology of [Christianity refuses to blend with 
 the mythology of paganism ; and their forced union 
 produces a turbid compound, like the mixture of 
 oil and water. 
 
 To enhance this incongruity at the epoch of 
 this composition Christian theology was dominant 
 in the policy of nations far more than it now is. 
 The struggle with Islam had been a question of 
 life and death for all Europe, but especially for the 
 states of the Iberian peninsula, which did not 
 succeed in ridding themselves of the incubus until 
 after a conflict of nearly eight centuries. 
 To them, every contact with people of another faith 
 took the form of a crusade. The world was to 
 be conquered for Christ, in a carnal as well as 
 a spiritual sense. 
 
 This is set forth as the leading aim of Vasco's 
 voyage. In the exordium, " The glorious memory 
 of kings who spread the faith " stands conspicuous 
 as a leading theme ; and, in some form or other, 
 it is repeated on almost every page. With this end 
 in view, the adventurers take the holy communion 
 before embarking. Yet, it is a pagan deity to whom 
 they look for protection, in the perils of the sea. 
 At Mombaqa, Gama prays for succor :
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 405 
 
 " O guardian divine, take thought of those 
 Who, failing thee, have none to guard them ; 
 Vouchsafe to show the land we seek, 
 Since solely for thy service do we sail abroad." 
 
 Now, to whom is this prayer addressed, and in 
 whose service do they brave the dangers of the deep? 
 The poet answers 
 
 " The lovely Dione heard these touching words, 
 
 And, moved thereby, she brought the needed aid." 
 Such passages are innumerable, and the unseemly 
 jumble of religions never fails to produce an 
 impression akin to burlesque. 
 
 Dante makes abundant use of heathen gods, 
 but he puts them in his Inferno. Milton uses them, 
 but he employs them as Satan's retinue. 
 Tasso, who wrote a century later than Camoens, 
 makes no use of pagan mythology except in the 
 way of allusion. With him, the Blessed Virgin and 
 the holy saints take the place of gods and 
 goddesses, a usage which, even in our age, could 
 not offend the taste of Protestant or Catholic. 
 How much his poem would have gained in the 
 beauty of consistency, had Camoens committed the 
 voyage of discovery to the patronage of the mother 
 of Christ, with the aid of the holy angels, 
 the abortive opposition being led by Satan and 
 spirits of evil !
 
 406 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Judged by the Lusiad as his opus magnum, 
 the question rises How does Camoens rank as 
 a poet ? It is a weakness of all poets, and of some 
 who are not poets, to think highly of their own 
 genius. From this, the author of the Lusiad was 
 not exempt. If, at a feast of poets, he had been 
 called on to choose his place, I am not sure that 
 he would not have had the assurance, like Piron, 
 to march out at the head of the company. 
 Witness one of his closing stanzas, in which he 
 says to the king 
 
 " In such high strains my Muse shall sing of thee, 
 That all the world shall Alexander see, 
 Nor of Achilles need he envious be " 
 
 alluding to the saying of the Macedonian, that, of all 
 the heroes of antiquity, the one he most envied 
 was Achilles, because he had a Homer to celebrate 
 his victories. Camoens was no Homer, nor even a 
 Virgil. Without the creative genius of the one, 
 or the sustained dignity and faultless grace of the 
 other, he yet possesses high qualities which assure 
 him no mean place among the masters of Epic song. 
 Of course, he does not approach anywhere near to 
 our Milton, of whom it was happily said
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 407 
 
 " The force of nature could no further go, 
 To form a third she joined the other two." 
 
 He does not even rise above the author of 
 Jerusalem Delivered; because, as the Portuguese 
 assert, it was his misfortune to precede Tasso, 
 and to be the first of the moderns to produce a 
 genuine Epic poem. 
 
 The poet of the Crusades acknowledges Camoens 
 as a kindred spirit ; and, in terms that recall the 
 speech of Alexander, he praises the fortune of Gama 
 in having for his poet il buono Luigi. 
 
 " And now the Muse of Luis de Camoens 
 Extends her glorious flight 
 Far beyond that of your white-winged ships." 
 
 There are poets whose fancy forms their speech 
 and clothes their thoughts in a robe of many colors. 
 Their separate words are aglitter with bright 
 images, gleaming like the facets of a diamond, 
 or like a falling shower lit up by sunbeams. 
 The diction of Camoens is not of this description. 
 Its beauties are, however, of a noble order, 
 not unlike the massive grandeur of a Doric structure, 
 which spurns the ornament of sculptured ' flowers. 
 In force and fervor, it reminds us ot a swollen river, 
 rather than a babbling brook, a torrent of majestic 
 eloquence, by which the mind of the reader is 
 irresistibly borne away.
 
 408 HAXLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In his opening invocation to the Muses of the 
 Tagus, alluding to the humble minstrelsy of his 
 early days, he prays : 
 
 " Give me now a voice sublime and lofty, 
 A style both grand and flowing ; 
 A sort of sonorous fury ; 
 Not like the rustic reed, or sylvan flute, 
 But trumpet-toned to sing the scenes of war." 
 
 Such was his ideal ; and who shall say that his 
 performance falls below it ? 
 
 It is, in fact, the sustained elevation of his style 
 that most strikes the attention of a reader. 
 No poet, ancient or modern, surpasses him in 
 skill to " build the lofty rhyme." 
 
 His marvellous facility sometimes betrays him into 
 negligence. Faulty stanzas are not rare ; because, 
 to Camoens, as to all such fertile minds, 
 the labor limae was irksome. A kindred fault, into 
 which he often falls, is excessive diffuseness. 
 One grows weary of broad fields spread over 
 with a thin covering of cloth of gold. Happily his 
 gold is not all in the form of superficial gilding. 
 Many of'his couplets and single lines (mostly at the 
 end of a stanza) possess the weight and compactness 
 of solid nuggets ; or rather, of minted coins, 
 which, to this day, provide a currency of proverbs 
 for those who use his tongue.
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 409 
 
 The eight-lined stanza the Ottava Rima of the 
 Italians he wisely chose in preference to any other 
 measure, as equally adapted to the genius of 
 his language and the nature of his subject. 
 He was not, however, the first to import it into 
 Portugal. To an earlier poet, Sa-e-Miranda, 
 belongs that distinction ; but Camoens has the 
 honor of connecting it inseparably with the glory 
 of his country. 
 
 The language, to the use of which he was 
 born, was to our poet a precious inheritance, 
 a circumstance which ought not to be overlooked 
 in the enumeration of his natural advantages. 
 Harsh in comparison with the dulcet tones of Italy, 
 or even with the more polished lingua castellana, 
 the Portuguese is characterized by a certain wild 
 energy superior to either ; while it possesses in a 
 high degree that sonorousness which Cicero describes 
 by ore-rotundo, and Dante by the expressive term 
 rimbombo. Take, for example, the following 
 passage : 
 
 " A disciplina mtlitar prestante, 
 Nao se apprende, Senhor, na phantasia, 
 Sonhando, imaginando, ou estudando ; 
 Senao vcndo, tratando, c pelejando" 
 
 Does not the alliterative roll of the last two lines 
 rival that of the best of our Latin hymns ?
 
 410 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 In fact Camoens claims, with no little pride, 
 that his national speech is "Latin in the least corrupt 
 of its modern forms." Portuguese is not, however, 
 a direct offshoot of Latin ; but rather a dialect 
 of the Spanish, standing related to the Castilian 
 of the upper Tagus, much as low Dutch does to 
 the German ' of the upper Rhine. The nations 
 that settled on the sea-coast, near the embouchure 
 of both rivers, distinguished themselves above their 
 neighbors by the boldness of their maritime 
 enterprise. Their dominions, at first confined to 
 a strip of coast, expanded to the dimensions of 
 empires ; and their dialects, originally a kind of 
 patois, rose to the dignity of cultivated languages. 
 Both nations imbibed the spirit of freedom from 
 the waves of the wide-rolling deep ; and, in the 
 rough, strong tones of both tongues, one hears 
 the echo of the sea resounding on their 
 storm-beaten shores. 
 
 V. 
 
 We come, in the last place, to take a parting 
 glance at the fortunes of the man who, as poet, 
 soldier, and adventurer, embodied in his own 
 person the spirit of his people. 
 
 Born in 1525, the young hidalgo was early 
 introduced at court, where, scarcely arrived at man's 
 estate, he conceived a romantic passion for one
 
 THE LUSIAD AND THE OPENING OF THE EAST. 4! I 
 
 of the maids of honor, the beautiful Donna 
 Catharina. All great poets have had such passions. 
 Petrarch had his Laura, Dante his Beatrice, 
 Tasso his Leonora ; and it was in Catharina that 
 Camoens found the woes and the bliss of his 
 existence. It was to her that he addressed many 
 of those minor effusions which, for tenderness 
 and elegance, are not unworthy to compare with 
 those of Laura's lover. 
 
 Happy in having his affection reciprocated, 
 he was less happy in being sent into exile on that 
 account. Nor was that his only experience of 
 the hardships of banishment. Exiled again in 
 later life to the Colony of Macao, his eventful 
 story connects itself with China as well as India. 
 
 After fighting the Moors in Morocco and 
 losing an eye in battle, he enlisted for India, 
 whether from chagrin or ambition it is not 
 easy to conjecture. This much is certain, that, 
 during an absence of sixteen years, through perils 
 by sea and conflicts on land, he remained faithful 
 to his early flame, and was inconsolable on hearing 
 of her death. The passion of Dante for his beautiful 
 mistress was not more pure or noble ; nor, 
 to complete the parallel, were the wanderings 
 and sufferings of the Florentine more pitiable or 
 more painful than those of Camoens,
 
 412 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Returning from India with his completed Epic, 
 on which he had been building rhymes, 
 while others had been amassing wealth, he failed 
 to win at court the favor he so confidently expected. 
 In extreme penury, he retired to a convent, 
 where his last sigh was breathed into the ear of a 
 sympathizing monk, and where he owed the 
 distinction of a grave-stone to the charity of a 
 stranger. 
 
 Rest thee, noble Bard; and let it comfort thee, 
 in thy elysium of fame, that a grateful posterity 
 has sought to make amends for the ingratitude 
 of thy fellows ! 
 
 The poem, which, when ship-wrecked on the 
 coast of Cochin-China, buffeting the w r aves, 
 he bore to land as his only treasure, has survived 
 the storms of three centuries, and serves to 
 form the speech and cultivate the heart of successive 
 generations on both sides of the Atlantic. The 
 sceptre of India has long since slipped from the 
 hands of Portugal ; but in Brazil, of which he 
 scarcely deigns to speak, there is now rising a 
 greater empire, and the Lusiad of Camoens will 
 continue to be the favorite Classic of its growing 
 millions.* 
 
 * Pelos Portuguezes preferido a todos, says a countryman of the Poet. 
 There are two or three translations of the Lusiad into English, 
 but the writer has not seen them ; and, of Portuguese editions, he is not 
 -acquainted with any but that of Lopes de Moura.
 
 APPENDIX* 
 
 THREE 
 
 FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 
 I. 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS WATER VESSEL. 
 
 text of the inscription describes the vessel, 
 and relates a visit of Confucius to the temple 
 in which it was preserved. It is also 
 embellished by a pictorial representation of 
 the Sage and his disciples. For the photographie 
 reproduction of it, , I am indebted to my friend 
 Dr. McCartee, formerly Professor in the University 
 of Tokio, Japan. He obtained it from a native 
 photographer, and has not been able to trace the 
 inscription to its original place in Japan. 
 
 That it came from one of the palaces, there can be 
 no doubt, from the nature and design of this 
 document. 
 
 Of the wonderful vessel, ascribed to Duke Chow, 
 of China, I had previously heard, and made 
 unsuccessful efforts to obtain a picture or diagram 
 of it. The Japanese picture is a fancy drawing, 
 attached to a text borrowed from China, 
 and is of no value, not fulfilling the hydrostatic 
 conditions stated in the text. The text is found 
 in the Family Traditions of Confucius, a work which, 
 
 * Referred to as Chapter XVIII.
 
 4^4 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 though semi-apocryphal, contains some grains of 
 traditional history. In this case, the germ of the 
 narrative, which is much expanded, is the existence 
 of such a vessel, and the fact of its having been 
 seen by Confucius. 
 
 The Family Traditions dates from the Han, 
 but the vessel is made the subject of a discourse 
 by Suen Ching, who lived two centuries earlier. 
 A Chinese archeologist of some note asserts that 
 the mysterious vessel was preserved in the Capital 
 at Loyang, until the end of the Han period, 
 when it was lost or destroyed in the overthrow 
 of the dynasty. 
 
 The inscription is as follows : 
 
 " In the temple of Duke Huan of Lu, Confucius 
 saw a vessel hanging obliquely. What is this vessel, 
 he inquired of the temple-keeper. It is, replied the 
 latter, what is called the Guardian of the Throne. 
 I have heard, said Confucius, of the Throne-guarding 
 vessel. When empty, it hangs obliquely ; when half 
 full, it comes to an erect position ; and when filled to 
 the brim, it suddenly turns over and spills its 
 contents. Wise Princes looked on it as the best 
 of monitors, and always had it placed by the side 
 of the Throne. 
 
 Turning to his disciples, he said : Pour in water and 
 try it. They did so. When half full, it became erect ;
 
 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 415 
 
 and when full, it turned over. The Master heaved 
 a sigh and said: Alas! Is there anything which, 
 when full, is not overturned? Is there not, 
 asked Tsze Lu, a way to preserve that which is full 
 from being overturned ? 
 
 The Master replied: For eminent talent, the 
 safe-guard is in affected ignorance. For exalted 
 merit, the safe-guard is in modest self-abnegation. 
 For great courage, the safe-guard is an aspect of 
 timidity. And for wealth, such as he possesses who 
 owns all within the Four Seas, the safe-guard 
 is humility. Thus, things are preserved by loss, 
 i.e., by affecting the opposite." 
 
 I conclude this notice with two remarks. 
 
 1. In Chinese, fullness ( Q j^f) is a synonym 
 for pride ; and, as " pride comes before a fall," 
 the vessel, which, when full, turned over 
 and spilled its contents, was an impressive 
 warning against pride and ruin. As such, it was 
 named the Guardian of the Throne, and kept in the 
 Throne Room at Loyang, as we are expressly told. 
 The pictorial scene, presented in this inscription, 
 was no doubt an ornament in the Throne Room 
 of the Emperors of Japan. 
 
 2. The reverence with which the vessel was 
 regarded, and the air of mystery that surrounded it, 
 shows that the ancient Chinese were more addicted
 
 416 
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 to moralizing than to physical investigation. 
 With our knowledge of the centre of gravity and 
 the principles of hydrostatics, it is easy to construct 
 a vessel which will fulfill all the conditions of the 
 problem ; still it is disappointing that the Japanese 
 artist has given us a common cylindrical bucket, 
 instead of the true figure of the vessel seen by 
 Confucius in the temple of Lu. 
 
 INSCRIPTION. 
 
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 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 417 
 
 II. 
 A HYMN TO THE CHUZENGI WATERFALL. 
 
 NOTE. I first became acquainted with this 
 beautiful poem, by reading it on the monolith 
 overlooking the cataract. On mentioning it to the 
 Rev. Dr. Knox of Tokio, he kindly procured for me 
 a rubbing, from which this translation is made. 
 The author is a man of genius, well known in Japan. 
 The poem is in excellent Chinese. 
 
 Of all under heaven, the sunlight mountains take the lead 
 
 in scenery; 
 And of all their scenery, the crown is the Kegonotaki 
 
 Waterfall. 
 How great is the true God, who created these cliffs and 
 
 chasms, 
 
 And, between the two, made a place for this great lake ! 
 The lake has a gap in one corner, like the fabled gap in 
 
 the corner of the sky ; 
 Through this, the water rushes with violence, takes wings, 
 
 and flies, 
 
 And the cataract hangs suspended. 
 At the first plunge it leaps a thousand yards, and then leaps 
 
 ten thousand more. 
 Its angry roaring shakes the earth, and thunders echo from 
 
 the sky. 
 
 Is it water or not water, snow or not snow, 
 Which in wild confusion scatters these pearly gems ?
 
 41 8 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 Struck by a gust from the foot of the fall, 
 
 They dissolve into smoke in the slanting sunbeams that 
 
 peep over the mountain tops. 
 The beholder's eye is dazzled with rainbow hues, and his 
 
 ear deafened by the thundering roar; 
 It chills the stoutest heart. 
 Its strength is like that of Meng-k'o, whose spirit blended 
 
 heaven and earth ; 
 Its rapidity is like that of Hiang-yu, 
 Who in the battle of Chii-lu slew men and horses ten 
 
 thousand thousand. 
 
 Of a truth, the universe has no finer spectacle. 
 Alas! that the poet who descended from another sphere 
 
 is no more; and that there is none to inherit his 
 
 genius.* 
 How can I, with unblushing face, dare to indite these 
 
 verses ? 
 I have heard that, of the Books of Buddha, the Kegono 
 
 is the most esteemed ; t 
 Its name is not unfittingly bestowed on this wondrous 
 
 Waterfall. 
 
 NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 This Kegonotaki Waterfall has long been famed; 
 but recently the Brotherhood of Heart-Sincerity have 
 proposed to set up a monument on its brink. 
 I accordingly offer them this Inscription. 
 
 (Signed) Chogen. 
 nth Year of Meiji (1878). 
 
 * Li Tai-po, described as ^Ra f|l| . 
 
 tss mm
 
 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 419 
 
 INSCRIPTION. 
 
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 J! 
 
 fit 
 
 M ffi'W 
 A: * A S 
 
 
 
 ii ci 
 
 B B2 
 
 -_^ ^ .^ it _, Y* 'Li* 
 
 TJif. 1x7 Hrff (iH/ III'' 1 ' 
 
 >gf XA *EL 3 f^ fyiz 
 
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 Oi 
 
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 420 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 III. 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON THE PORCELAIN PAGODA OF NANKING. 1 
 (From the Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society). 
 
 This great pagoda, built on the finest site of 
 a famous mountain, being happily preserved, 
 and displaying a sincere reverence for the 
 teachings of Buddha, which open our intelligence, 
 proclamation is made as follows : 
 
 At the south gate of Kingling (Nanking), where 2 
 precious things are collected, when the wind 
 moves, the bells send forth wonderful tones, 3 
 ever rejoicing in the rebuilding of Asoka's tower, 
 the renovation of Buddha's idea, and the 
 manifestation of imperial reverence. 
 
 Do you with the whole heart repeat the 
 praises of Amida Buddha, with reverence and 
 understanding, asking yourself "What in reality 
 was I in the beginning ? " This phrase, do you 
 think you understand? 
 
 It is to know whence came the inward 
 consciousness of one's own heart, and what it is 
 
 I. This Pagoda, erected about 1,420, and rightly deemed a Wonder 
 of the World, was destroyed by the Taiping rebels about 1860. 
 
 2. The name of a place taken in its first meaning. 
 
 3. Or, in the reign of Yung-loh, the characters being taken in 
 a double sense.
 
 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 421 
 
 to say "I know what I know, and whether my 
 goodness is thorough." 
 
 Truly this is my heart's most marvellous point. 4 
 Its nature, what and whence? Its original aspect, 
 have you realized ? This, to compare with other 
 books, is called "having the pure spirit unobscured." 5 
 What this says it originally was, do you fully 
 apprehend ? To be obscured or unobscured, 
 is not that the shadow of self-knowledge ? 
 
 You must not resist, and in your haste foolishly 
 let go, your heart's original. Is not this (original) 
 really the Buddha of the West? His rainbow 
 glories and the relics of his body have been 
 transmitted to this eastern land, so that men 
 may seek happiness, and know the fountain of 
 understanding. 
 
 The relics and their rainbow light, all men can 
 plainly see. Earlier and later dynasties may differ ; 
 but the tower and its stores firmly abide, 
 the same through all ages. The Emperor's merit 
 is infinite in building this most noted Pagoda, 
 to repay the grace of Buddha. 
 
 4. The symbol of the dual powers, or mundane egg, is here 
 introduced into the text as the original of human nature. 
 5. A phrase from Chu Fu-tse's Commentary on the Ta Hio 
 
 (**)-
 
 422 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
 The relic's precious light is true beyond a doubt. 
 The first right principle is the boundless presence 
 of Buddha's person. To know this is truly to be 
 " unobscured." It is what we men originally possess, 
 and no one is without it. 
 
 Therefore, it is said the wise differ from the 
 common herd, in being free from error; 
 yet, in our original perceptions, what difference is 
 there between the good and evil ? 
 
 You must have no obstacle to your knowledge 
 before you can understand the grace of Buddha, 
 and his boundless renovating purpose. 
 
 Therefore, this is called "The Tower of the 
 Temple of Gratitude," "The Tower of Buddha's 
 Hidden Relics." 
 
 The Tower is sublime in height ; through its 
 good luck, its relics, even till now, have not 
 lost their light. 
 
 Of old, Asoka's faith erected 84,000 pagodas ; 
 but the Princes of Han and Tsin sometimes built 
 and sometimes destroyed. 
 
 A HYMN OF PRAISE. 
 
 1. The spiritual mountain of our ancient Buddha is 
 
 neither far nor near, 
 When heart is not divided from heart. 
 All ye who are grounded in faith, 
 Awake and ascend the spiritual mountain, and gain 
 
 merit in this Pagoda.
 
 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 423 
 
 2- His body formed a crystal tower, containing seven 
 
 precious things. 
 He was torn from his mother's side and sat in a 
 
 lotus-flower, filling the world with fragrance. 
 Genii, Buddhas, and Bodisatwas had previously awaked. 
 The reflection of their early light took shape in his 
 
 person. 
 
 3. Of old, some are spell-bound, and some awake; 
 The spell-bound are hard to renew and convert. 
 Good and evil originate in the human heart ; 
 But high and low are always the work of fate. 
 4. If you penetrate the original of man, right and wrong 
 
 are empty names ; 
 
 If you awake to a sense of gratitude, your heart is good, 
 And you get the full-orbed light of a better life. 
 5. The Buddhas of all lands are ready to save the world, 
 But men's hearts do not receive the light. 
 If only a touch of spiritual consciousness awakes, 
 It is like the ringing of a morning bell. 
 (j. May harmonious winds and gentle waves propel 
 
 your boat ! 
 On the hill-tops of either shore, you hear the voice 
 
 of birds. 
 The matin-bells of the ancient cloister anticipate the 
 
 morning sun, 
 
 Which causes this crystal Pagoda to gleam with 
 auspicious light.
 
 424 
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
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 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 425 
 
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 426 
 
 HANLIN PAPERS. 
 
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 THREE FAMOUS INSCRIPTIONS. 427 
 
 NOTE. There is no certain indication of the 
 authorship of the first of these compositions ; 
 but it must have been either written or authorized 
 by the Emperor Yung-loh, who erected the famous 
 Tower on which it was inscribed, as an expression 
 of gratitude to his Grand-mother. 
 
 The second is without doubt the composition of 
 that Emperor. Both contain grateful allusions to 
 his parents, and are not unlike in style. 
 
 The text is probably not free from errors.
 
 DC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
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