ArcaMax Publishing > Books > Religion > Ten Great Religions, An Essay in Comparative Theology > Section 2
Section 2 of 15 - Table of Contents
Chapter II.
Confucius and the Chinese, or the Prose of Asia.
Sec. 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization.
Sec. 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations.
Sec. 3. Life and Character of Confucius.
Sec. 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism.
Sec. 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism.
Sec. 6. Religious Character of the "Kings."
Sec. 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese.
Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection. NOTE. The Nestorian Inscription in China
of the Eighth Century.
Sec. 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization.
In qualifying the Chinese mind as prosaic, and in calling the writings of
Confucius and his successors _prose_, we intend no disrespect to either.
Prose is as good as poetry. But we mean to indicate the point of view from
which the study of the Chinese teachers should be approached. Accustomed
to regard the East as the land of imagination; reading in our childhood
the wild romances of Arabia; passing, in the poetry of Persia, into an
atmosphere of tender and entrancing song; then, as we go farther East into
India, encountering the vast epics of the Maha-Bharata and the
Ramayana;--we might naturally expect to find in far Cathay a still wilder
flight of the Asiatic Muse. Not at all. We drop at once from unbridled
romance into the most colorless prose. Another race comes to us, which
seems to have no affinity with Asia, as we have been accustomed to think
of Asia. No more aspiration, no flights of fancy, but the worship of
order, decency, propriety, and peaceful commonplaces. As the people, so
the priests. The works of Confucius and his commentators are as level as
the valley of their great river, the Yang-tse-kiang, which the tide
ascends for four hundred miles. All in these writings is calm, serious,
and moral They assume that all men desire to be made better, and will
take the trouble to find out how they can be made so. It is not thought
necessary to entice them into goodness by the attractions of eloquence,
the charm of imagery, or the fascinations of a brilliant wit. These
philosophers have a Quaker style, a dress of plain drab, used only for
clothing the thought, not at all for its ornament.
And surely we ought not to ask for any other attraction than the subject
itself, in order to find interest in China and its teachers. The Chinese
Empire, which contains more than five millions of square miles, or twice
the area of the United States, has a population of five hundred millions,
or half the number of the human beings inhabiting the globe. China proper,
inhabited by the Chinese, is half as large as Europe, and contains about
three hundred and sixty millions of inhabitants. There are eighteen
provinces in China, many of which contain, singly, more inhabitants than
some of the great states of Europe. But on many other accounts this nation
is deeply interesting.
China is the type of permanence in the world. To say that it is older than
any other _existing_ nation is saying very little. Herodotus, who has been
called the Father of History, travelled in Egypt about 450 B.C. He studied
its monuments, bearing the names of kings who were as distant from his
time as he is from ours,--monuments which even then belonged to a gray
antiquity. But the kings who erected those monuments were possibly
posterior to the founders of the Chinese Empire. Porcelain vessels, with
Chinese mottoes on them, have been found in those ancient tombs, in shape,
material, and appearance precisely like those which are made in China
to-day; and Rosellini believes them to have been imported from China by
kings contemporary with Moses, or before him. This nation and its
institutions have outlasted everything. The ancient Bactrian and Assyrian
kingdoms, the Persian monarchy, Greece and Rome, have all risen,
flourished, and fallen,--and China continues still the same. The dynasty
has been occasionally changed; but the laws, customs, institutions, all
that makes national life, have continued. The authentic history of China
commences some two thousand years before Christ, and a thousand years in
this history is like a century in that of any other people. The oral
language of China has continued the same that it is now for thirty
centuries. The great wall bounding the empire on the north, which is
twelve hundred and forty miles long and twenty feet high, with towers
every few hundred yards,--which crosses mountain ridges, descends into
valleys, and is carried over rivers on arches,--was built two hundred
years before Christ, probably to repel those fierce tribes who, after
ineffectual attempts to conquer China, travelled westward till they
appeared on the borders of Europe five hundred years later, and, under the
name of Huns, assisted in the downfall of the Roman Empire. All China was
intersected with canals at a period when none existed in Europe. The great
canal, like the great wall, is unrivalled by any similar existing work. It
is twice the length of the Erie Canal, is from two hundred to a thousand
feet wide, and has enormous banks built of solid granite along a great
part of its course. One of the important mechanical inventions of modern
Europe is the Artesian well. That sunk at Grenelle, in France, was long
supposed to be the deepest in the world, going down eighteen hundred feet.
One at St. Louis, in the United States, has since been drilled to a depth,
as has recently been stated, of about four thousand.[9] But in China these
wells are found by tens of thousands, sunk at very remote periods to
obtain salt water. The method used by the Chinese from immemorial time has
recently been adopted instead of our own as being the most simple and
economical. The Chinese have been long acquainted with the circulation of
the blood; they inoculated for the small-pox in the ninth century; and
about the same time they invented printing. Their bronze money was made as
early as 1100 B.C., and its form has not been changed since the beginning
of the Christian era. The mariner's compass, gunpowder, and the art of
printing were made known to Europe through stories told by missionaries
returning from Asia. These missionaries, coasting the shores of the
Celestial Empire in Chinese junks, saw a little box containing a
magnetized needle, called Ting-nan-Tchen, or "needle which points to the
south." They also noticed terrible machines used by the armies in China
called Ho-pao or fire-guns, into which was put an inflammable powder,
which produced a noise like thunder and projected stones and pieces of
iron with irresistible force.
Father Hue, in his "Christianity in China," says that "the Europeans who
penetrated into China were no less struck with the libraries of the
Chinese than with their artillery. They were astonished at the sight of
the elegant books printed rapidly upon a pliant, silky paper by means of
wooden blocks. The first edition of the classical works printed in China
appeared in 958, five hundred years before the invention of Gutenberg. The
missionaries had, doubtless, often been busied in their convents with the
laborious work of copying manuscript books, and the simple Chinese method
of printing must have particularly attracted their attention. Many other
marvellous productions were noticed, such as silk, porcelain,
playing-cards, spectacles, and other products of art and industry unknown
in Europe. They brought back these new ideas to Europe; 'and from that
time,' says Abel Remusat, 'the West began to hold in due esteem the most
beautiful, the most populous, and the most anciently civilized of all the
four quarters of the world. The arts, the religious faith, and the
languages of its people were studied, and it was even proposed to
establish a professorship for the Tartar language in the University of
Paris. The world seemed to open towards the East; geography made immense
strides, and ardor for discovery opened a new vent for the adventurous
spirit of the Europeans. As our own hemisphere became better known, the
idea of another ceased to appear a wholly improbable paradox; and in
seeking the Zipangon of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus discovered the
New World.'"
The first aspect of China produces that impression on the mind which we
call the grotesque. This is merely because the customs of this singular
nation are so opposite to our own. They seem morally, no less than
physically, our antipodes. Their habits are as opposite to ours as the
direction of their bodies. We stand feet to feet in everything. In boxing
the compass they say "westnorth" instead of northwest, "eastsouth" instead
of southeast, and their compass-needle points south instead of north.
Their soldiers wear quilted petticoats, satin boots, and bead necklaces,
carry umbrellas and fans, and go to a night attack with lanterns in their
hands, being more afraid of the dark than of exposing themselves to the
enemy. The people are very fond of fireworks, but prefer to have them in
the daytime. Ladies' ride in wheelbarrows, and cows are driven in
carriages. While in Europe the feet are put in the stocks, in China the
stocks are hung round the neck. In China the family name comes first, and
the personal name afterward. Instead of saying Benjamin Franklin or Walter
Scott they would say Franklin Benjamin, Scott Walter. Thus the Chinese
name of Confucius, Kung-fu-tsee, means the Holy Master Kung;--Kung is the
family name. In the recent wars with the English the mandarins or soldiers
would sometimes run away, and then commit suicide to avoid punishment. In
getting on a horse, the Chinese mount on the right side. Their old men fly
kites, while the little boys look on. The left hand is the seat of honor,
and to keep on your hat is a sign of respect. Visiting cards are painted
red, and are four feet long. In the opinion of the Chinese, the seat of
the understanding is the stomach. They have villages which contain a
million of inhabitants. Their boats are drawn by men, but their carriages
are moved by sails. A married woman while young and pretty is a slave, but
when she becomes old and withered is the most powerful, respected, and
beloved person in the family. The emperor is regarded with the most
profound reverence, but the empress mother is a greater person than he.
When a man furnishes his house, instead of laying stress, as we do, on
rosewood pianos and carved mahogany, his first ambition is for a handsome
camphor-wood coffin, which he keeps in the best place in his room. The
interest of money is thirty-six per cent, which, to be sure, we also give
in hard times to stave off a stoppage, while with them it is the legal
rate. We once heard a bad dinner described thus: "The meat was cold, the
wine was hot, and everything was sour but the vinegar." This would not so
much displease the Chinese, who carefully warm their wine, while we ice
ours. They understand good living, however, very well, are great epicures,
and somewhat gourmands, for, after dining on thirty dishes, they will
sometimes eat a duck by way of a finish. They toss their meat into their
mouths to a tune, every man keeping time with his chop-sticks, while we,
on the contrary, make anything but harmony with the clatter of our knives
and forks. A Chinaman will not drink a drop of milk, but he will devour
birds'-nests, snails, and the fins of sharks with a great relish. Our
mourning color is black and theirs is white; they mourn for their parents
three years, we a much shorter time. The principal room in their houses is
called "the hall of ancestors," the pictures or tablets of whom, set up
against the wall, are worshipped by them; we, on the other hand, are only
too apt to send our grandfather's portrait to the garret.[10]
Sec. 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations.
Such are a few of the external differences between the Chinese customs and
ours. But the most essential peculiarity of this nation is the high value
which they attribute to knowledge, and the distinctions and rewards which
they bestow on scholarship. All the civil offices in the Empire are given
as rewards of literary merit. The government, indeed, is called a complete
despotism, and the emperor is said to have absolute authority. He is not
bound by any written constitution, indeed; but the public opinion of the
land holds him, nevertheless, to a strict responsibility. He, no less than
his people, is bound by a law higher than that of any private will,--the
authority of custom. For, in China, more than anywhere else, "what is gray
with age becomes religion." The authority of the emperor is simply
authority to govern according to the ancient usages of the country, and
whenever these are persistently violated, a revolution takes place and the
dynasty is changed. But a revolution in China changes nothing but the
person of the monarch; the unwritten constitution of old usages remains in
full force. "A principle as old as the monarchy," says Du Halde, "is this,
that the state is a large family, and the emperor is in the place of both
father and mother. He must govern his people with affection and goodness;
he must attend to the smallest matters which concern their happiness. When
he is not supposed to have this sentiment, he soon loses his hold on the
reverence of the people, and his throne becomes insecure." The emperor,
therefore, is always studying how to preserve this reputation. When a
province is afflicted by famine, inundation, or any other calamity, he
shuts himself in his palace, fasts, and publishes decrees to relieve it of
taxes and afford it aid.
The true power of the government is in the literary class. The government,
though nominally a monarchy, is really an aristocracy. But it is not an
aristocracy of birth, like that of England, for the humblest man's son can
obtain a place in it; neither is it an aristocracy of wealth, like ours
in the United States, nor a military aristocracy, like that of Russia, nor
an aristocracy of priests, like that of ancient Egypt, and of some modern
countries,--as, for instance, that of Paraguay under the Jesuits, or that
of the Sandwich Islands under the Protestant missionaries; but it is a
literary aristocracy.
The civil officers in China are called mandarins. They are chosen from the
three degrees of learned men, who may be called the bachelors,
licentiates, and doctors. All persons may be candidates for the first
degree, except three excluded classes,--boatmen, barbers, and actors. The
candidates are examined by the governors of their own towns. Of those
approved, a few are selected after another examination. These again are
examined by an officer who makes a circuit once in three years for that
purpose. They are placed alone in little rooms or closets, with pencils,
ink, and paper, and a subject is given them to write upon. Out of some
four hundred candidates fifteen may be selected, who receive the lowest
degree. There is another triennial examination for the second degree, at
which a small number of the bachelors are promoted. The examination for
the highest degree, that of doctor, is held at Pekin only, when some three
hundred are taken out of five thousand. These are capable of receiving the
highest offices. Whenever a vacancy occurs, one of those who have received
a degree is taken by lot from the few senior names. But a few years since,
there were five thousand of the highest rank, and twenty-seven thousand of
the second rank, who had not received employment.
The subjects upon which the candidates are examined, and the methods of
these examinations, are thus described in the Shanghae Almanac (1852).[11]
The examinations for the degree of Keujin (or licentiate) takes place at
the principal city of each province once in three years. The average
number of bachelors in the large province of Keang-Nan (which contains
seventy millions of inhabitants) is twenty thousand, out of whom only
about two hundred succeed. Sixty-five mandarins are deputed for this
examination, besides subordinate officials. The two chief examiners are
sent from Pekin. When the candidates enter the examination hall they are
searched for books or manuscripts, which might assist them in writing
their essays. This precaution is not superfluous, for many plans have been
invented to enable mediocre people to pass. Sometimes a thin book, printed
on very small type from copperplates, is slipped into a hole in the sole
of the shoe. But persons detected in such practices are ruined for life.
In a list of one hundred and forty-four successful candidates, in 1851,
thirteen were over forty years of age, and one under fourteen years; seven
were under twenty; and all, to succeed, must have known by heart the whole
of the Sacred Books, besides being well read in history.
Three sets of themes are given, each occupying two days and a night, and
until that time is expired no one is allowed to leave his apartment, which
is scarcely large enough to sleep in. The essays must not contain more
than seven hundred characters, and no erasure or correction is allowed. On
the first days the themes are taken from the Four Books; on the next, from
the older classics; on the last, miscellaneous questions are given. The
themes are such as these: "Choo-tsze, in commenting on the Shoo-King, made
use of four authors, who sometimes say too much, at other times too
little; sometimes their explanations are forced, at other times too
ornamental. What have you to observe on them?" "Chinshow had great
abilities for historic writing. In his Three Kingdoms he has depreciated
Choo-ko-leang, and made very light of E and E, two other celebrated
characters. What is it that he says of them?"
These public-service examinations are conducted with the greatest
impartiality. They were established about a thousand years ago, and have
been gradually improved during the intervening time. They form the basis
of the whole system of Chinese government. They make a good education
universally desirable, as the poorest man may see his son thus advanced to
the highest position. All of the hundreds of thousands who prepare to
compete are obliged to know the whole system of Confucius, to commit to
memory all his moral doctrines, and to become familiar with all the
traditional wisdom of the land. Thus a public opinion in favor of existing
institutions and the fundamental ideas of Chinese government is
continually created anew.
What an immense advantage it would be to our own country if we should
adopt this institution of China! Instead of making offices the prize of
impudence, political management, and party services, let them be competed
for by all who consider themselves qualified. Let all offices now given by
appointment be hereafter bestowed on those who show themselves best
qualified to perform the duties. Each class of offices would of course
require a different kind of examination. For some, physical culture as
well as mental might be required. Persons who wished diplomatic situations
should be prepared in a knowledge of foreign languages as well as of
international law. All should be examined on the Constitution and history
of the United States. Candidates for the Post-Office Department should be
good copyists, quick at arithmetic, and acquainted with book-keeping. It
is true that we cannot by an examination obtain a certain knowledge of
moral qualities; but industry, accuracy, fidelity in work would certainly
show themselves. A change from the present corrupt and corrupting system
of appointments to that of competitive examinations would do more just now
for our country than any other measure of reconstruction which can be
proposed. The permanence of Chinese institutions is believed, by those who
know best, to result from the influence of the literary class. Literature
is naturally conservative; the tone of the literature studied is eminently
conservative; and the most intelligent men in the empire are personally
interested in the continuance of the institutions under which they hope to
attain position and fortune.
The highest civil offices are seats at the great tribunals or boards, and
the positions of viceroys, or governors, of the eighteen provinces.
The boards are:--
Ly Pou, Board of Appointment of Mandarins.
Hou Pou, Board of Finance.
Lee Pou, Board of Ceremonies.
Ping Pou, Board of War.
Hing Pou, Board of Criminal Justice.
Kong Pou, Board of Works,--canals, bridges, &c.
The members of these boards, with their councillors and subordinates,
amount to twelve hundred officers. Then there is the Board of Doctors of
the Han Lin College, who have charge of the archives, history of the
empire, &c.; and the Board of Censors, who are the highest mandarins, and
have a peculiar office. Their duty is to stand between the people and the
mandarins, and between the people and the emperor, and even rebuke the
latter if they find him doing wrong. This is rather a perilous duty, but
it is often faithfully performed. A censor, who went to tell the emperor
of some faults, took his coffin with him, and left it at the door of the
palace. Two censors remonstrated with a late emperor on the expenses of
his palace, specifying the sums uselessly lavished for perfumes and
flowers for his concubines, and stating that a million of taels of silver
might be saved for the poor by reducing these expenses. Sung, the
commissioner who attended Lord Macartney, remonstrated with the Emperor
Kiaking on his attachment to play-actors and strong drink, which degraded
him in the eyes of the people. The emperor, highly irritated, asked him
what punishment he deserved for his insolence. "Quartering," said Sung.
"Choose another," said the emperor. "Let me be beheaded." "Choose again,"
said the emperor; and Sung asked to be strangled. The next day the emperor
appointed him governor of a distant province,--afraid to punish him for
the faithful discharge of his duty, but glad to have him at a distance.
Many such anecdotes are related, showing that there is some moral courage
in China.
The governor of a province, or viceroy, has great power. He also is chosen
from among the mandarins in the way described. The only limitations of his
power are these: he is bound to make a full report every three years of
the affairs of the province, _and give in it an account of his own
faults,_ and if he omits any, and they are discovered in other ways, he is
punished by degradation, bambooing, or death. It is the right of any
subject, however humble, to complain to the emperor himself against any
officer, however high; and for this purpose a large drum is placed at one
of the palace gates. Whoever strikes it has his case examined under the
emperor's eye, and if he has been wronged, his wrongs are redressed, but
if he has complained unnecessarily, he is severely punished. Imperial
visitors, sent by the Board of Censors, may suddenly arrive at any time to
examine the concerns of a province; and a governor or other public officer
who is caught tripping is immediately reported and punished.
Thus the political institutions of China are built on literature.
Knowledge is the road to power and wealth. All the talent and knowledge of
the nation are interested in the support of institutions which give to
them either power or the hope of it. And these institutions work well. The
machinery is simple, but it produces a vast amount of happiness and
domestic virtue. While in most parts of Asia the people are oppressed by
petty tyrants, and ground down by taxes,--while they have no motive to
improve their condition, since every advance will only expose them to
greater extortion,--the people of China are industrious and happy. In no
part of the world has agriculture been carried to such perfection. Every
piece of ground in the cultivated parts of the empire, except those
portions devoted to ancestral monuments, is made to yield two or three
crops annually, by the careful tillage bestowed on it. The ceremony of
opening the soil at the beginning of the year, at which the emperor
officiates, originated two thousand years ago. Farms are small,--of one or
two acres,--and each family raises on its farm all that it consumes. Silk
and cotton are cultivated and manufactured in families, each man spinning,
weaving, and dyeing his own web. In the manufacture of porcelain, on the
contrary, the division of labor is carried very far. The best is made at
the village of Kiangsee, which contains a million of inhabitants. Seventy
hands are sometimes employed on a single cup. The Chinese are very
skilful in working horn and ivory. Large lanterns are made of horn,
transparent and without a flaw. At Birmingham men have tried with machines
to cut ivory in the same manner as the Chinese, and have failed.
Sec. 3. Life and Character of Confucius.
Of this nation the great teacher for twenty-three centuries has been
Confucius. He was born 551 B.C., and was contemporary with the Tarquins,
Pythagoras, and Cyrus. About his time occurred the return of the Jews from
Babylon and the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. His descendants have always
enjoyed high privileges, and there are now some forty thousand of them in
China, seventy generations and more removed from their great ancestor. His
is the oldest family in the world, unless we consider the Jews as a single
family descended from Abraham. His influence, through his writings, on the
minds of so many millions of human beings is greater than that of any man
who ever lived, excepting the writers of the Bible; and in saying this we
do not forget the names of Mohammed, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Luther.
So far as we can see, it is the influence of Confucius which has
maintained, though probably not originated, in China, that profound
reverence for parents, that strong family affection, that love of order,
that regard for knowledge and deference for literary men, which are
fundamental principles underlying all the Chinese institutions. His minute
and practical system of morals, studied as it is by all the learned, and
constituting the sum of knowledge and the principle of government in
China, has exerted and exerts an influence on that innumerable people
which it is impossible to estimate, but which makes us admire the power
which can emanate from a single soul.
To exert such an influence requires greatness. If the tree is to be known
by its fruits, Confucius must have been one of the master minds of our
race. The supposition that a man of low morals or small intellect, an
impostor or an enthusiast, could influence the world, is a theory which
is an insult to human nature. The time for such theories has happily gone
by. We now know that nothing can come of nothing,--that a fire of straw
may make a bright blaze, but must necessarily soon go out. A light which
illuminates centuries must be more than an ignis fatuus. Accordingly we
should approach Confucius with respect, and expect to find something good
and wise in his writings. It is only a loving spirit which will enable us
to penetrate the difficulties which surround the study, and to apprehend
something of the true genius of the man and his teachings. As there is no
immediate danger of becoming his followers, we can see no objections to
such a course, which also appears to be a species of mental hospitality,
eminently in accordance with the spirit of our own Master.
Confucius belongs to that small company of select ones whose lives have
been devoted to the moral elevation of their fellow-men. Among them he
stands high, for he sought to implant the purest principles of religion
and morals in the character of the whole people, and succeeded in doing
it. To show that this was his purpose it will be necessary to give a brief
sketch of his life.
His ancestors were eminent statesmen and soldiers in the small country of
Loo, then an independent kingdom, now a Chinese province. The year of his
birth was that in which Cyrus became king of Persia. His father, one of
the highest officers of the kingdom, and a brave soldier, died when
Confucius was three years old. He was a studious boy, and when fifteen
years old had studied the five sacred books called Kings. He was married
at the age of nineteen, and had only one son by his only wife. This son
died before Confucius, leaving as his posterity a single grandchild, from
whom the great multitudes of his descendants now in China were derived.
This grandson was second only to Confucius in wisdom, and was the teacher
of the illustrious Mencius.
The first part of the life of Confucius was spent in attempting to reform
the abuses of society by means of the official stations which he held, by
his influence with princes, and by travelling and intercourse with men.
The second period was that in which he was recalled from his travels to
become a minister in his native country, the kingdom of Loo. Here he
applied his theories of government, and tested their practicability. He
was then fifty years old. His success was soon apparent in the growing
prosperity of the whole people. Instead of the tyranny which before
prevailed, they were now ruled according to his idea of good
government,--that of the father of a family. Confidence was restored to
the public mind, and all good influences followed. But the tree was not
yet deeply enough rooted to resist accidents, and all his wise
arrangements were suddenly overthrown by the caprice of the monarch, who,
tired of the austere virtue of Confucius, suddenly plunged into a career
of dissipation. Confucius resigned his office, and again became a
wanderer, but now with a new motive. He had before travelled to learn, now
he travelled to teach. He collected disciples around him, and, no longer
seeking to gain the ear of princes, he diffused his ideas among the common
people by means of his disciples, whom he sent out everywhere to
communicate his doctrines. So, amid many vicissitudes of outward fortune,
he lived till he was seventy-three years old. In the last years of his
life he occupied himself in publishing his works, and in editing the
Sacred Books. His disciples had become very numerous, historians
estimating them at three thousand, of whom five hundred had attained to
official station, seventy-two had penetrated deeply into his system, and
ten, of the highest class of mind and character, were continually near his
person. Of these Hwuy was especially valued by him, as having early
attained superior virtue. He frequently referred to him in his
conversations. "I saw him continually advance," said he, "but I never saw
him stop in the path of knowledge." Again he says: "The wisest of my
disciples, having one idea, understands two. Hwuy, having one understands
ten." One of the select ten disciples, Tszee-loo, was rash and impetuous
like the Apostle Peter. Another, Tszee-Kung, was loving and tender like
the Apostle John; he built a house near the grave of Confucius, wherein to
mourn for him after his death.
The last years of the life of Confucius were devoted to editing the
Sacred Books, or Kings. As we now have them they come from him. Authentic
records of Chinese history extend back to 2357 B.C., while the Chinese
philosophy originated with Fuh-he, who lived about 3327 B.C. He it was who
substituted writing for the knotted strings which before formed the only
means of record. He was also the author of the Eight Diagrams,--each
consisting of three lines, half of which are whole and half broken in
two,--which by their various combinations are supposed to represent the
active and passive principles of the universe in all their essential
forms. Confucius edited the Yih-King, the Shoo-King, the She-King, and the
Le-Ke, which constitute the whole of the ancient literature of China which
has come down to posterity.[1] The Four Books, which contain the doctrines
of Confucius, and of his school, were not written by himself, but composed
by others after his death.
One of these is called the "Immutable Mean," and its object is to show
that virtue consists in avoiding extremes. Another--the Lun-Yu, or
Analects--contains the conversation or table-talk of Confucius, and
somewhat resembles the Memorabilia of Xenophon and Boswell's Life of
Johnson.[12]
The life of Confucius was thus devoted to communicating to the Chinese
nation a few great moral and religious principles, which he believed would
insure the happiness of the people. His devotion to this aim appears in
his writings. Thus he says:--
"At fifteen years I longed for wisdom. At thirty my mind was fixed in the
pursuit of it. At forty I saw clearly certain principles. At fifty I
understood the rule given by heaven. At sixty everything I heard I easily
understood. At seventy the desires of my heart no longer transgressed the
law."
"If in the morning I hear about the right way, and in the evening I die, I
can be happy."
He says of himself: "He is a man who through his earnestness in seeking
knowledge forgets his food, and in his joy for having found it loses all
sense of his toil, and thus occupied is unconscious that he has almost
reached old age."
Again: "Coarse rice for food, water to drink, the bended arm for a
pillow,--happiness may be enjoyed even with these; but without virtue both
riches and honor seem to me like the passing cloud."
"Grieve not that men know not you; grieve that you know not men."
"To rule with equity is like the North Star, which is fixed, and all the
rest go round it."
"The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to
confess your ignorance."
"Worship as though the Deity were present."
"If my mind is not engaged in my worship, it is as though I worshipped
not."
"Formerly, in hearing men, I heard their words, and gave them credit for
their conduct; now I hear their words, and observe their conduct."
"A man's life depends on virtue; if a bad man lives, it is only by good
fortune."
"Some proceed blindly to action, without knowledge; I hear much, and
select the best course."
He was once found fault with, when in office, for not opposing the
marriage of a ruler with a distant relation, which was an offence against
Chinese propriety. He said: "I am a happy man; if I have a fault, men
observe it."
Confucius was humble. He said: "I cannot bear to hear myself called equal
to the sages and the good. All that can be said of me is, that I study
with delight the conduct of the sages, and instruct men without weariness
therein."
"The good man is serene," said he, "the bad always in fear."
"A good man regards the ROOT; he fixes the root, and all else flows out of
it. The root is filial piety; the fruit brotherly love."
"There may be fair words and an humble countenance when there is little
real virtue."
"I daily examine myself in a threefold manner: in my transactions with
men, if I am upright; in my intercourse with friends, if I am faithful;
and whether I illustrate the teachings of my master in my conduct."
"Faithfulness and sincerity are the highest things."
"When you transgress, do not fear to return."
"Learn the past and you will know the future."
The great principles which he taught were chiefly based on family
affection and duty. He taught kings that they were to treat their
subjects as children, subjects to respect the kings as parents; and these
ideas so penetrated the national mind, that emperors are obliged to seem
to govern thus, even if they do not desire it. Confucius was a teacher of
reverence,--reverence for God, respect for parents, respect and reverence
for the past and its legacies, for the great men and great ideas of former
times. He taught men also to regard each other as brethren, and even the
golden rule, in its negative if not its positive form, is to be found in
his writings.
Curiously enough, this teacher of reverence was distinguished by a
remarkable lump on the top of his head, where the phrenologists have
placed the organ of veneration.[13] Rooted in his organization, and
strengthened by all his convictions, this element of adoration seemed to
him the crown of the whole moral nature of man. But, while full of
veneration, he seems to have been deficient in the sense of spiritual
things. A personal God was unknown to him; so that his worship was
directed, not to God, but to antiquity, to ancestors, to propriety and
usage, to the state as father and mother of its subjects, to the ruler as
in the place of authority. Perfectly sincere, deeply and absolutely
assured of all that he knew, he said nothing he did not believe. His power
came not only from the depth and clearness of his convictions, but from
the absolute honesty of his soul.
Lao-tse, for twenty-eight years his contemporary, founder of one of the
three existing religions of China,--Tao-ism,--was a man of perhaps equal
intelligence. But he was chiefly a thinker; he made no attempt to elevate
the people; his purpose was to repress the passions, and to preserve the
soul in a perfect equanimity. He was the Zeno of the East, founder of a
Chinese stoicism. With him virtue is sure of its reward; everything is
arranged by a fixed law. His disciples afterwards added to his system a
thaumaturgic element and an invocation of departed spirits, so that now it
resembles our modern Spiritism; but the original doctrine of Lao-tse was
rationalism in philosophy and stoicism in morals. Confucius is said, in a
Chinese work, to have visited him, and to have frankly confessed his
inability to understand him. "I know how birds fly, how fishes swim, how
animals run. The bird may be shot, the fish hooked, and the beast snared.
But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts in the air, and soars
to heaven. To-day I have seen the dragon."
But the modest man, who lived for others, has far surpassed in his
influence this dragon of intelligence. It certainly increases our hope for
man, when we see how these qualities of perfect honesty, good sense,
generous devotion to the public good, and fidelity to the last in
adherence to his work, have made Confucius during twenty-three centuries
the daily teacher and guide of a third of the human race.
Confucius was eminently distinguished by energy and persistency. He did
not stop working till he died. His life was of one piece, beautiful,
noble. "The general of a large army," said he, "may be defeated, but you
cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant." He acted conformably to
this thought, and to another of his sayings. "If I am building a mountain,
and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, I
have failed of my work. But if I have placed but one basketful on the
plain, and go on, I am really building a mountain."
Many beautiful and noble things are related concerning the character of
Confucius,--of his courage in the midst of danger, of his humility in the
highest position of honor. His writings and life have given the law to
Chinese thought. He is the patron saint of that great empire. His doctrine
is the state religion of the nation, sustained by the whole power of the
emperor and the literary body. His books are published every year by
societies formed for that purpose, who distribute them gratuitously. His
descendants enjoy the highest consideration. The number of temples erected
to his memory is sixteen hundred and sixty. One of them occupies ten acres
of land. On the two festivals in the year sacred to his memory there are
sacrificed some seventy thousand animals of different kinds, and
twenty-seven thousand pieces of silk are burned on his altars. Yet his is
a religion without priests, liturgy, or public worship, except on these
two occasions.
Sec. 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism.
According to Mr. Meadows, the philosophy of China, in its origin and
present aspect, may be thus briefly described.[14] Setting aside the
Buddhist system and that of Tao-ism, which supply to the Chinese the
element of religious worship and the doctrine of a supernatural world,
wanting in the system of Confucius, we find the latter as the established
religion of the state, merely tolerating the others as suited to persons
of weak minds. The Confucian system, constantly taught by the competitive
examinations, rules the thought of China. Its first development was from
the birth of Confucius to the death of Mencias (or from 551 B.C. to 313
B.C.). Its second period was from the time of Chow-tsze (A.D. 1034) to
that of Choo-tsze (A.D. 1200). The last of these is the real fashioner of
Chinese philosophy, and one of the truly great men of the human race. His
works are chiefly Commentaries on the Kings and the Four Books. They are
committed to memory by millions of Chinese who aspire to pass the
public-service examinations. The Chinese philosophy, thus established by
Choo-tsze, is as follows.[15]
There is one highest, ultimate principle of all existence,--the Tae-keih,
or Grand Extreme. This is absolutely immaterial, and the basis of the
order of the universe. From this ultimate principle, operating from all
eternity, come all animate and inanimate nature. It operates in a twofold
way, by expansion and contraction, or by ceaseless active and passive
pulsations. The active expansive pulsation is called Yang, the passive
intensive pulsation is Yin, and the two may be called the Positive and
Negative Essences of all things. When the active expansive phase of the
process has reached its extreme limit, the operation becomes passive and
intensive; and from these vibrations originate all material and mortal
existences. Creation is therefore a perpetual process,--matter and spirit
are opposite results of the same force. The one tends to variety, the
other to unity; and variety in unity is a permanent and universal law of
being. Man results from the utmost development of this pulsatory action
and passion; and man's nature, as the highest result, is perfectly good,
consisting of five elements, namely, charity, righteousness, propriety,
wisdom, and sincerity. These constitute the inmost, essential nature of
man; but as man comes in contact with the outward world evil arises by the
conflict. When man follows the dictates of his nature his actions are
good, and harmony results. When he is unduly influenced by the outward
world his actions are evil, and discord intervenes. The holy man is one
who has an instinctive, inward sight of the ultimate principle in its
twofold operation (or what we should call the sight of God, the beatific
vision), and who therefore spontaneously and easily obeys his nature.
Hence all his thoughts are perfectly wise, his actions perfectly good, and
his words perfectly true. Confucius was the last of these holy men. The
infallible authority of the Sacred Books results from the fact that their
writers, being holy men, had an instinctive perception of the working of
the ultimate principle.
All Confucian philosophy is pervaded by these principles: first, that
example is omnipotent; secondly, that to secure the safety of the empire,
you must secure the happiness of the people; thirdly, that by solitary
persistent thought one may penetrate at last to a knowledge of the essence
of things; fourthly, that the object of all government is to make the
people virtuous and contented.
Sec. 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism.
One of the three religious systems of China is that of the Tao, the other
two being that of Confucius, and that of Buddhism in its Chinese form. The
difficulty in understanding Tao-ism comes from its appearing under three
entirely distinct forms: (1) as a philosophy of the absolute or
unconditioned, in the great work of the Tse-Lao, or old teacher;[16] (2)
as a system of morality of the utilitarian school,[17] which resolves duty
into prudence; and (3) as a system of magic, connected with the belief in
spirits. In the Tao-te-king we have the ideas of Lao himself, which we
will endeavor to state; premising that they are considered very obscure
and difficult even by the Chinese commentators.
The TAO (Sec. 1) is the unnamable, and is the origin of heaven and earth. As
that which can be named, it is the mother of all things. These two are
essentially one. Being and not-being are born from each other (Sec. 2). The
Tao is empty but inexhaustible (Sec. 4), is pure, is profound, and was before
the Gods. It is invisible, not the object of perception, it returns into
not-being (Sec.Sec. 14, 40). It is vague, confused, and obscure (Sec. 25, 21). It
is little and strong, universally present, and all beings return into it
(Sec. 32). It is without desires, great (Sec. 34). All things are born of being,
being is born of not-being (Sec. 40).
From these and similar statements it would appear that the philosophy of
the Tao-te-king is that of absolute being, or the identity of being and
not-being. In this point it anticipated Hegel by twenty-three
centuries.[18] It teaches that the absolute is the source of being and of
not-being. Being is essence, not-being is existence. The first is the
noumenal, the last the phenomenal.'
As being is the source of not-being (Sec. 40), by identifying one's self with
being one attains to all that is not-being, i.e. to all that exists.
Instead, therefore, of aiming at acquiring knowledge, the wise man avoids
it: instead of acting, he refuses to act. He "feeds his mind with a wise
passiveness." (Sec. 16.) "_Not to act_ is the source of all power," is a
thesis continually present to the mind of Lao (Sec.Sec. 3, 23, 38,43,48, 63).
The wise man is like water (Sec.Sec. 8, 78), which seems weak and is strong;
which yields, seeks the lowest place, which seems the softest thing and
breaks the hardest thing. To be wise one must renounce wisdom, to be good
one must renounce justice and humanity, to be learned one must renounce
knowledge (Sec.Sec. 19, 20, 45), and must have no desires (Sec.Sec. 8, 22), must
detach one's self from all things (Sec. 20) and be like a new-born babe. From
everything proceeds its opposite, the easy from the difficult, the
difficult from the easy, the long from the short, the high from the low,
ignorance from knowledge, knowledge from ignorance, the first from the
last, the last from the first. These antagonisms are mutually related by
the hidden principle of the Tao (Sec.Sec. 2, 27). Nothing is independent or
capable of existing save through its opposite. The good man and bad man
are equally necessary to each other (Sec. 27). To desire aright is not to
desire (Sec. 64). The saint can do great things because he does not attempt
to do them (Sec. 63). The unwarlike man conquers.[19] He who submits to
others controls them. By this negation of all things we come into
possession of all things (Sec. 68). _Not to act_ is, therefore, the secret of
all power (Sec.Sec. 3, 23, 38, 43, 48, 63).
We find here the same doctrine of opposites which appears in the Phaedo,
and which has come up again and again in philosophy. We shall find
something like it in the Sankhya-karika of the Hindoos. The Duad, with the
Monad brooding behind it, is the fundamental principle of the Avesta.
The result, thus far, is to an active passivity. Lao teaches that not to
act involves the highest energy of being, and leads to the greatest
results. By not acting one identifies himself with the Tao, and receives
all its power. And here we cannot doubt that the Chinese philosopher was
pursuing the same course with Sakya-Muni. The Tao of the one is the
Nirvana of the other. The different motive in each mind constitutes the
difference of their career. Sakya-Muni sought Nirvana, or the absolute,
the pure knowledge, in order to escape from evil and to conquer it. Lao
sought it, as his book shows, to attain power. At this point the two
systems diverge. Buddhism is generous, benevolent, humane; it seeks to
help others. Tao-ism seeks its own. Hence the selfish morality which
pervades the Book of Rewards and Punishments. Every good action has its
reward attached to it. Hence also the degradation of the system into pure
magic and spiritism. Buddhism, though its course runs so nearly parallel,
always retains in its scheme of merits a touch of generosity.
We find thus, in the Tao-te-king, the element afterwards expanded into the
system of utilitarian and eudaemonic ethics in the Book of Rewards and
Punishments. We also can trace in it the source of the magical tendency in
Tao-ism. The principle, that by putting one's self into an entirely
passive condition one can enter into communion with the unnamed Tao, and
so acquire power over nature, naturally tends to magic. Precisely the same
course of thought led to similar results in the case of Neo-Platonism. The
ecstatic union with the divine element in all nature, which Plotinus
attained four times in his life, resulted from an immediate sight of God.
In this sight is all truth given to the soul. The unity, says Plotinus,
which produces all things, is an essence behind both substance and form.
Through this essential being all souls commune and interact, and magic is
this interaction of soul upon soul through the soul of souls, with which
one becomes identified in the ecstatic union. A man therefore can act on
demons and control spirits by theurgic rites. Julian, that ardent
Neo-Platonician, was surrounded by diviners, hierophants, and
aruspices.[20]
In the Tao-te-king (Sec.Sec. 50, 55, 56, etc.) it is said that he who knows the
Tao need not fear the bite of serpents nor the jaws of wild beasts, nor
the claws of birds of prey. He is inaccessible to good and to evil. He
need fear neither rhinoceros nor tiger. In battle he needs neither cuirass
nor sword. The tiger cannot tear him, the soldier cannot wound him. He is
invulnerable and safe from death.[21]
If Neo-Platonism had not had for its antagonist the vital force of
Christianity, it might have established itself as a permanent form of
religion in the Roman Empire, as Tao-ism has in China. I have tried to
show how the later form of this Chinese system has come naturally from its
principles, and how a philosophy of the absolute may have degenerated into
a system of necromancy.
Sec. 6. Religious Character of the "Kings."
We have seen that, in the philosophy of the Confucians, the ultimate
principle is not necessarily identical with a living, intelligent, and
personal God. Nor did Confucius, when he speaks of Teen, or Heaven,
express any faith in such a being. He neither asserted nor denied a
Supreme God. His worship and prayer did not necessarily imply such a
faith. It was the prayer of reverence addressed to some sacred,
mysterious, unknown power, above and behind all visible things. What that
power was, he, with his supreme candor, did not venture to intimate. But
in the She-King a personal God is addressed. The oldest books recognize a
Divine person. They teach that there is one Supreme Being, who is
omnipresent, who sees all things, and has an intelligence which nothing
can escape,--that he wishes men to live together in peace and brotherhood.
He commands not only right actions, but pure desires and thoughts, that we
should watch all our behavior, and maintain a grave and majestic demeanor,
"which is like a palace in which virtue resides"; but especially that we
should guard the tongue. "For a blemish may be taken out of a diamond by
carefully polishing it; but, if your words have the least blemish, there
is no way to efface that." "Humility is the solid foundation of all the
virtues." "To acknowledge one's incapacity is the way to be soon prepared
to teach others; for from the moment that a man is no longer full of
himself, nor puffed up with empty pride, whatever good he learns in the
morning he practices before night." "Heaven penetrates to the bottom of
our hearts, like light into a dark chamber. We must conform ourselves to
it, till we are like two instruments of music tamed to the same pitch. We
must join ourselves with it, like two tablets which appear but one. We
must receive its gifts the very moment its hand is open to bestow. Our
irregular passions shut up the door of our souls against God."
Such are the teachings of these Kings, which are unquestionably among the
oldest existing productions of the human mind. In the days of Confucius
they seem to have been nearly forgotten, and their precepts wholly
neglected. Confucius revised them, added his own explanations and
comments, and, as one of the last acts of his life, called his disciples
around him and made a solemn dedication of these books to Heaven. He
erected an altar on which he placed them, adored God, and returned thanks
upon his knees in a humble manner for having had life and health granted
him to finish this undertaking.
Sec. 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese.
It were easy to find defects in the doctrine of Confucius. It has little
to teach of God or immortality. But if the law of Moses, which taught
nothing of a future life, was a preparation for Christianity; if, as the
early Christian Fathers asserted, Greek philosophy was also schoolmaster
to bring men to Christ; who can doubt that the truth and purity in the
teachings of Confucius were providentially intended to lead this great
nation in the right direction? Confucius is a Star in the East, to lead
his people to Christ. One of the most authentic of his sayings is this,
that "in the West the true Saint must be looked for and found." He has a
perception, such as truly great men have often had, of some one higher
than himself, who was to come after him. We cannot doubt, therefore, that
God, who forgets none of his children, has given this teacher to the
swarming millions of China to lead them on till they are ready for a
higher light. And certainly the temporal prosperity and external virtues
of this nation, and their long-continued stability amid the universal
changes of the world, are owing in no small decree to the lessons of
reverence for the past, of respect for knowledge, of peace and order, and
especially of filial piety, which he inculcated. In their case, if in no
other, has been fulfilled the promise of the divine commandment, "Honor
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee."
In comparing the system of Confucius with Christianity, it appears at once
that Christianity differs from this system, as from most others, in its
greater completeness. Jesus says to the Chinese philosopher, as he said to
the Jewish law, "I have not come to destroy, but to fulfil." He fulfils
the Confucian reverence for the past by adding hope for the future; he
fulfils its stability by progress, its faith in man with faith in God, its
interest in this world with the expectation of another, its sense of time
with that of eternity. Confucius aims at peace, order, outward prosperity,
virtue, and good morals. All this belongs also to Christianity, but
Christianity adds a moral enthusiasm, a faith in the spiritual world, a
hope of immortal life, a sense of the Fatherly presence of God. So that
here, as before, we find that Christianity does not exclude other
religions, but includes them, and is distinguished by being deeper,
higher, broader, and more far-reaching than they.
A people with such institutions and such a social life as we have
described cannot be despised, and to call them uncivilized is as absurd in
us as it is in them to call Europeans barbarians. They are a good,
intelligent, and happy people. Lieutenant Forbes, who spent five years in
China,--from 1842 to 1847,--says: "I found myself in the midst of as
amiable, kind, and hospitable a population as any on the face of the
earth, as far ahead of us in some things as behind us in others." As to
the charge of dishonesty brought against them by those who judge the whole
nation by the degraded population of the suburbs of Canton, Forbes says,
"My own property suffered more in landing in England and passing the
British frontier than in my whole sojourn in China."
"There is no nation," says the Jesuit Du Halde, "more laborious and
temperate than this. They are inured to hardships from their infancy,
which greatly contributes to preserve the innocence of their manners....
They are of a mild, tractable, and humane disposition." He thinks them
exceedingly modest, and regards the love of gain as their chief vice.
"Interest," says he, "is the spring of all their actions; for, when the
least profit offers, they despise all difficulties and undertake the most
painful journeys to procure it" This may be true; but if a Chinese
traveller in America should give the same account of us, would it not be
quite as true? One of the latest writers--the author of "The Middle
Kingdom"--accuses the Chinese of gross sensuality, mendacity, and
dishonesty. No doubt these are besetting sins with them, as with all
nations who are educated under a system which makes submission to
authority the chief virtue. But then this writer lived only at Canton and
Macao, and saw personally only the refuse of the people. He admits that
"they have attained, by the observance of peace and good order, to a high
security of life and property; that the various classes are linked
together in a remarkably homogeneous manner by the diffusion of education;
and that property and industry receive their just reward of food, raiment,
and shelter." He also reminds us that the religion of China differs from
all Pagan religions in this, that it encourages neither cruelty nor
sensuality. No human victims have ever been offered on its altars, and
those licentious rites which have appeared in so many religions have never
disgraced its pure worship.
The Chinese citizen enjoys a degree of order, peace, and comfort unknown
elsewhere in Asia. "He can hold and sell landed property with a facility,
certainty, and security which is absolute perfection compared with the
nature of English dealings of the same kind."[22] He can traverse the
country for two thousand miles unquestioned by any official. He can
follow what occupation he pleases. He can quit his country and re-enter it
without a passport. The law of primogeniture does not exist. The emperor
appoints his heir, but a younger son quite as often as an elder one. The
principle that no man is entitled by birth to rule over them is better
known to the three hundred and sixty millions of China than to the
twenty-seven millions of Great Britain that they have a right to a trial
by their peers.[23] The principle of Chinese government is to persuade
rather than to compel, to use moral means rather than physical. This rests
on the fundamental belief in human goodness. For, as Mr. Meadows justly
observes: "The theory that man's nature is radically vicious is the true
psychical basis of despotic or physical-force government; while the theory
that man's nature is radically good is the basis of free or moral-force
government." The Chinese government endeavors to be paternal. It has
refused to lay a tax on opium, because that would countenance the sale of
it, though it might derive a large income from such a tax. The sacred
literature of the Chinese is perfectly free from everything impure or
offensive. There is not a line but might be read aloud in any family
circle in England. All immoral ceremonies in idol worship are forbidden.
M. Hue says that the birth of a daughter is counted a disaster in China;
but well-informed travellers tell us that fathers go about with little
daughters on their arms, as proud and pleased as a European father could
be. Slavery and concubinage exist in China, and the husband has absolute
power over his wife, even of life and death. These customs tend to
demoralize the Chinese, and are a source of great evil. Woman is the slave
of man. The exception to this is in the case of a mother. She is absolute
in her household, and mothers, in China, command universal reverence. If
an officer asks leave of absence to visit his mother it must be granted
him. A mother may order an official to take her son to prison, and she
must be obeyed. As a wife without children woman is a slave, but as a
mother with grownup sons she is a monarch.
Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection.
Two extraordinary events have occurred in our day in China, the results of
which may be of the utmost importance to the nation and to mankind. The
one is the Tae-ping insurrection, the other the diplomatic mission of Mr.
Burlingame to the Western world. Whatever may be the immediate issue of
the great insurrection of our day against the Tartar dynasty, it will
remain a phenomenon of the utmost significance. There is no doubt,
notwithstanding the general opinion to the contrary, that it has been a
religious movement, proceeding from a single mind deeply moved by the
reading of the Bible. The hostility of the Chinese to the present Mantchoo
Tartar monarchs no doubt aided it; but there has been in it an element of
power from the beginning, derived, like that of the Puritans, from its
religious enthusiasm. Its leader, the Heavenly Prince, Hung-sew-tseuen,
son of a poor peasant living thirty miles northeast of Canton, received a
tract, containing extracts from the Chinese Bible of Dr. Morison, from a
Chinese tract distributor in the streets of Canton. This was in 1833, when
he was about twenty years of age. He took the book home, looked over it
carelessly, and threw it aside. Disappointed of his degree at two
competitive examinations, he fell sick, and saw a vision of an old man,
saying: "I am the Creator of all things. Go and do my work." After this
vision six years passed by, when the English war broke out, and the
English fleet took the Chinese forts in the river of Canton. Such a great
national calamity indicated, according to Chinese ideas, something rotten
in the government; and such success on the part of the English showed
that, in some way, they were fulfilling the will of Heaven. This led
Hung-sew-tseuen to peruse again his Christian books; and alone, with no
guide, he became a sincere believer in Christ, after a fashion of his own.
God was the Creator of all things, and the Supreme Father. Jesus was the
Elder Brother and heavenly Teacher of mankind. Idolatry was to be
overthrown, virtue to be practised. Hung-sew-tseuen believed that the
Bible confirmed his former visions. He accepted his mission and began to
make converts All his converts renounced idolatry, and gave up the worship
of Confucius. They travelled to and fro teaching, and formed a society of
"God-worshippers." The first convert, Fung-yun-san, became its most ardent
missionary and its disinterested preacher. Hung-sew-tseuen returned home,
went to Canton, and there met Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, who was
induced by false charges to refuse him Christian baptism. But he, without
being offended with Mr. Roberts, went home and taught his converts how to
baptize themselves. The society of "God-worshippers" increased in number.
Some of them were arrested for destroying idols, and among them
Fung-yun-san, who, however, on his way to prison, converted the policemen
by his side. These new converts set him at liberty and went away with him
as his disciples. Various striking phenomena occurred in this society. Men
fell into a state of ecstasy and delivered exhortations. Sick persons were
cured by the power of prayer. The teachings of these ecstatics were tested
by Scripture; if found to agree therewith, they were accepted; if not,
rejected.
It was in October, 1850, that this religious movement assumed a political
form. A large body of persons, in a state of chronic rebellion against the
Chinese authorities, had fled into the district, and joined the
"God-worshippers." Pursued by the imperial soldiers, they were protected
against them. Hence war began. The leaders of the religious movement found
themselves compelled to choose between submission and resistance. They
resisted, and the great insurrection began. But in China an insurrection
against the dynasty is in the natural order of things. Indeed, it may be
said to be a part of the constitution. By the Sacred Books, taught in all
the schools and made a part of the examination papers, it is the duty of
the people to overthrow any bad government. The Chinese have no power to
legislate, do not tax themselves, and the government is a pure autocracy.
But it is not a despotism; for old usages make a constitution, which the
government must respect or be overthrown. "The right to rebel," says Mr.
Meadows, "is in China a chief element of national stability." The
Tae-ping (or Universal-Peace) Insurrection has shown its religious
character throughout. It has not been cruel, except in retaliation. At the
taking of Nan-king orders were given to put all the women together and
protect them, and any one doing them an injury was punished with death.
Before the attack on Nan-king a large body of the insurgents knelt down
and prayed, and then rose and fought, like the soldiers of Cromwell. The
aid of a large body of rebels was refused, because they did not renounce
idolatry, and continued to allow the use of opium. Hymns of praise to the
Heavenly Father and Elder Brother were chanted in the camp. And the head
of the insurrection distinctly announced that, in case it succeeded, the
Bible would be substituted in all public examinations for office in the
place of Confucius. This would cause the Bible to be at once studied by
all candidates for office among three hundred and sixty millions of
people. It would constitute the greatest event in the history of
Christianity since the days of Constantino, or at least since the
conversion of the Teutonic races. The rebellion has probably failed; but
great results must follow this immense interest in Christianity in the
heart of China,--an interest awakened by no Christian mission, whether
Catholic or Protestant, but coming down into this great nation like the
rain from heaven.
In the "History of the Ti-Ping Revolution" (published in London in 1866),
written by an Englishman who held a command among the Ti-Piugs, there is
given a full, interesting, and apparently candid account of the religious
and moral character of this great movement, from which I take the
following particulars:--
"I have probably," says this writer,[24] "had a much greater experience
of the Ti-Ping religious practices than any other European, and as a
Protestant Christian I have never yet found occasion to condemn their form
of worship. The most important part of their faith is the Holy Bible,--Old
and New Testaments, entire. These have been printed and circulated
gratuitously by the government through the whole population of the Ti-Ping
jurisdiction." Abstracts of the Bible, put into verse, were circulated and
committed to memory. Their form of worship was assimilated to
Protestantism. The Sabbath was kept religiously on the seventh day. Three
cups of tea were put on the altar on that day as an offering to the
Trinity. They celebrated the communion once a month by partaking of a cup
of grape wine. Every one admitted to their fellowship was baptized, after
an examination and confession of sins. The following was the form
prescribed in the "Book of Religious Precepts of the Ti-Ping
Dynasty":--[25]
_Forms to be observed when Men wish to forsake their Sins_--"They must
kneel down in God's presence, and ask him to forgive their sins. They may
then take either a basin of water and wash themselves, or go to the river
and bathe themselves; after which they must continue daily to supplicate
Divine favor, and the Holy Spirit's assistance to renew their hearts,
saying grace at every meal, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and obeying all
God's commandments, especially avoiding idolatry. They may then be
accounted the children of God, and their souls will go to Heaven when they
die."
The prayer offered by the recipient of Baptism was as follows:--
"I (A. B.), kneeling down with a true heart, repent of my sins, and pray
the Heavenly Father, the great God, of his abundant mercy, to forgive my
former sins of ignorance in repeatedly breaking the Divine commands,
earnestly beseeching him also to grant me repentance and newness of life,
that my soul may go to Heaven, while I henceforth truly forsake my former
ways, abandoning idolatry and all corrupt practices, in obedience to
God's commands. I also pray that God would give me his Holy Spirit to
change my wicked heart, deliver me from all temptation, and grant me his
favor and protection, bestowing on me food and raiment, and exemption from
calamity, peace in this world and glory in the next, through the mercies
of our Saviour and Elder Brother, Jesus, who redeemed us from sin."
In every household throughout the Ti-Ping territory the following
translation of the Lord's Prayer was hung up for the use of the children,
printed in large black characters on a white board:--
"Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, forgive all our sins that we have
committed in ignorance, rebelling against thee. Bless us, brethren and
sisters, thy little children. Give us our daily food and raiment; keep
from us all calamities and afflictions; that in this world we may have
peace and finally ascend to heaven to enjoy everlasting happiness. We pray
thee to bless our brethren and sisters of all nations. We ask these things
for the redeeming merits of our Lord and Saviour, our heavenly brother,
Jesus. We also pray, Heavenly Father, that thy will may be done on earth
as in heaven: for thine are all the kingdoms, glory, and power. Amen."
The writer says he has frequently watched the Ti-Ping women teaching the
children this prayer; "and often, on entering a house, the children ran up
to me, and pulling me toward the board, began to read the prayer."
The seventh day was kept very strictly. As soon as midnight sounded on
Friday, all the people throughout; Ti-Pingdom were summoned to worship.
Two other services were held during the day. Each opened with a doxology
to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Then was sung this hymn:--
"The true doctrine is different from the doctrine of this world;
It saves men's souls and gives eternal bliss.
The wise receive it instantly with joy;
The foolish, wakened by it, find the way to Heaven.
Our Heavenly Father, of his great mercy,
Did not spare his own Son, but sent him down
To give his life to redeem sinners.
When men know this, and repent, they may go to Heaven."
The rest of the services consisted in a chapter of the Bible read by the
minister; a creed, repeated by the congregation standing; a prayer, read
by the minister and repeated by the whole congregation kneeling. Then the
prayer was burned, the minister read a sermon, an anthem was chanted to
the long life of the king; then followed the Ten Commandments, music, and
the burning of incense and fire-crackers. No business was allowed on the
Sabbath, and the shops were closed. There was a clergy, chosen by
competitive examination, subject to the approval of the Tien-Wong, or
supreme religious head of the movement. There was a minister placed over
every twenty-five families, and a church, or Heavenly Hall, assigned to
him in some public building. Over every twenty, five parishes there was a
superior, who visited them in turn every Sabbath. Once every month the
whole people were addressed by the chief Wong.
The writer of this work describes his attendance on morning prayers at
Nan-king, in the Heavenly Hall of the Chung-Wang's household. This took
place at sunrise every morning, the men and women sitting on opposite
sides of the hall. "Oftentimes," says he, "while kneeling in the midst of
an apparently devout congregation, and gazing on the upturned countenances
lightened by the early morning sun, have I wondered why no British
missionary occupied my place, and why Europeans generally preferred
slaughtering the Ti-Pings to accepting them as brothers in Christ. When I
look back," he adds, "on the unchangeable and universal kindness I always
met with among the Ti-Pings, even when their dearest relatives were being
slaughtered by my countrymen, or delivered over to the Manchoos to be
tortured to death, their magnanimous forbearance seems like a dream. Their
kind and friendly feelings were often annoying. To those who have
experienced the ordinary dislike of foreigners by the Chinese, the
surprising friendliness of the Ti-Pings was most remarkable." They
welcomed Europeans as "brethren from across the sea," and claimed them as
fellow-worshippers of "Yesu."
Though the Ti-Pings did not at once lay aside all heathen customs, and
could not be expected to do so, they took some remarkable steps in the
right direction. Their women were in a much higher position than among the
other Chinese; they abolished the custom of cramping their feet; a married
woman had rights, and could not be divorced at will, or sold, as under the
Manchoos. Large institutions were established for unmarried women. Slavery
was totally abolished, and to sell a human being was made a capital
offence. They utterly prohibited the use of opium; and this was probably
their chief offence in the eyes of the English. Prostitution was punished
by death, and was unknown in their cities. Idolatry was also utterly
abolished. Their treatment of the people under them was merciful; they
protected their prisoners, whom the Imperialists always massacred. The
British troops, instead of preserving neutrality, aided the Imperialists
in putting down the insurrection in such ways as this. The British
cruisers _assumed_ that the Ti-Ping junks were pirates, because they
captured Chinese vessels. The British ship Bittern and another steamer
sank every vessel but two in a rebel fleet, and gave up the crew of one
which they captured to be put to death. This is the description of another
transaction of the same kind, in the harbor of Shi-poo: "The junks were
destroyed, and their crews shot, drowned, and hunted down, until about a
thousand were killed; the Bittern's men aiding the Chinese on shore to
complete the wholesale massacre."[26]
It is the deliberate opinion of this well-informed English writer that the
Ti-Ping insurrection would have succeeded but for British intervention;
that the Tartar dynasty would have been expelled, the Chinese regained
their autonomy, and Christianity have been established throughout the
Empire. At the end of his book he gives a table of _forty-three_ battles
and massacres in which the British soldiers and navy took part, in which
about four hundred thousand of the Ti-Pings were killed, and he estimates
that more than two millions more died of starvation in 1863 and 1864, in
the famine occasioned by the operations of the allied English, French, and
Chinese troop's, when the Ti-Pings were driven from their territories. In
view of such facts, well may an English writer say: "It is not once or
twice that the policy of the British government has been ruinous to the
best interests of the world. Disregard of international law and of treaty
law in Europe, deeds of piracy and spoliation in Asia, one vast system of
wrong and violence, have everywhere for years marked the dealings of the
British government with the weaker races of the globe."[27]
Other Englishmen, beside "Lin-Le" and Mr. Meadows, give the same testimony
to the Christian character of this great movement in China. Captain
Fishbourne, describing his visit in H.M.S. Hermes to Nan-king, says: "It
was obvious to the commonest observer that they were practically a
different race." They had the Scriptures, many seemed to him to be
practical Christians, serious and religious, believing in a special
Providence, thinking that their trials were sent to purify them. "They
accuse us of magic," said one. "The only magic we employ is prayer to
God." The man who said this, says Captain Fishbourne, "was a little
shrivelled-up person, but he uttered words of courageous confidence in
God, and could utter the words of a hero. He and others like him have
impressed the minds of their followers with their own courage and
morality."
The English Bishop of Victoria has constantly given the same testimony. Of
one of the Ti-Ping books Dr. Medhurst says: "There is not a word in it
which a Christian missionary might not adopt and circulate as a tract for
the benefit of the Chinese."
Dr. Medhurst also describes a scene which took place in Shanghae, where he
was preaching in the chapel of the London Missionary Society, on the folly
of idolatry and the duty of worshipping the one true God. A man arose in
the middle of the congregation and said: "That is true! that is true! the
idols must perish. I am a Ti-Ping; we all worship one God and believe in
Jesus, and we everywhere destroy the idols. Two years ago when we began we
were only three thousand; now we have marched across the Empire, because
God was on our side." He then exhorted the people to abandon idolatry and
to believe in Jesus, and said: "We are happy in our religion, and look on
the day of our death as the happiest moment of life. When any of our
number dies, we do not weep, but congratulate each other because he has
gone to the joy of the heavenly world."
The mission of Mr. Burlingame indicated a sincere desire on the part of
the sagacious men who then governed China, especially of Prince Kung, to
enter into relations with modern civilization and modern thought. From the
official papers of this mission,[28] it appears that Mr. Burlingame was
authorized "to transact all business with the Treaty Powers in which those
countries and China had a common interest," (communication of Prince Kung,
December 31, 1867). The Chinese government expressly states that this step
is intended as adopting the customs of diplomatic intercourse peculiar to
the West, and that in so doing the Chinese Empire means to conform to the
law of nations, as understood among the European states. It therefore
adopted "Wheaton's International Law" as the text-book and authority to be
used in its Foreign Office, and had it carefully translated into Chinese
for the use of its mandarins. This movement was the result, says Mr.
Burlingame, of the "co-operative policy" adopted by the representatives in
China of the Treaty Powers, in which they agreed to act together on all
important questions, to take no cession of territory, and never to menace
the autonomy of the Empire. They agreed "to leave her perfectly free to
develop herself according to her own form of civilization, not to
interfere with her interior affairs, to make her waters neutral, and her
land safe" (Burlingame's speech at San Francisco). There is no doubt that
if the states known as the "Treaty Powers," namely, the United States,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, North Germany,
Russia, Spain, and Sweden, will loyally abstain from aggression and
interference in China and respect her independence, that this great
Empire will step forth from her seclusion of fifty centuries, and enter
the commonwealth of nations.
The treaty between the United States and China of July 28, 1868, includes
provisions for the neutrality of the Chinese waters; for freedom of
worship for United States citizens in China, and for the Chinese in the
United States; for allowing voluntary emigration, and prohibiting the
compulsory coolie trade; for freedom to travel in China and the United
States by the citizens of either country; and for freedom to establish and
attend schools in both countries.
We add to this chapter a Note, containing an interesting account, from
Hue's "Christianity in China," of an inscribed stone, proving that
Christian churches existed in China in the seventh century. These churches
were the result of the efforts of Nestorian missionaries, who were the
Protestant Christians of their age. Their success in China is another
proof that the Christianity which is to be welcomed there must be
presented in an intelligible and rational form.
* * * * *
NOTE.
The Nestorian Inscription in China.[29]
In 1625 some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a
house, outside the walls of the city of Si-ngau-Fou, the capital of the
province of Chen-si, found buried in the earth a large monumental stone
resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to
preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and
illustrious men. It was a dark-colored marble tablet, ten feet high and
five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese,
and also some other characters quite unknown in China.
* * * * *
Several exact tracings from the stone were sent to Europe by the
Jesuits who saw it. The library of their house at Rome had one of the
first, and it attracted numerous visitors; subsequently, another
authentic copy of the dimensions of the tablet was sent to Paris, and
deposited at the library in the Rue Richelieu, where it may still be
seen in the gallery of manuscripts.
This monument, discovered by chance amidst rubbish in the environs of
an ancient capital of the Chinese Empire, excited a great sensation;
for on examining the stone, and endeavoring to interpret the
inscription, it was with surprise discovered that the Christian
religion had had numerous apostles in China at the beginning of the
seventh century, and that it had for a long time flourished there. The
strange characters proved to be those called _estrangelhos_, which were
in use among the ancient inhabitants of Syria, and will be found in
some Syriac manuscripts of earlier date than the eighth century.
* * * * *
_Monument of the great Propagation of the Luminous Doctrine in the
Central Empire, composed by Khing-Tsing, a devout Man of the Temple of
Ta-Thsin._
1. There has always been only one true Cause, essentially the first,
and without beginning, supremely intelligent and immaterial;
essentially the last, and uniting all perfections. He placed the poles
of the heavens and created all beings; marvellously holy, he is the
source of all perfection. This admirable being, is he not the _Triune_,
the true Lord without beginning, _Oloho_?
He divided the world by a cross into four parts. After having
decomposed the primordial air, he gave birth to the two elements.
Chaos was transformed, and then the sun and the moon appeared. He made
the sun and the moon move to produce day and night. He elaborated and
perfected the ten thousand things; but in creating the first man, he
endowed him with perfect interior harmony. He enjoined him to watch
over the sea of his desires. His nature was without vice and without
error; his heart, pure and simple, was originally without disorderly
appetites.
2. But Sa-Thang propagated lies, and stained by his malice that which
had been pure and holy. He proclaimed, as a truth, the equality of
greatness, and upset all ideas. This is why three hundred and
sixty-five sects, lending each other a mutual support, formed a long
chain, and wove, so to speak, a net of law. Some put the creature in
the place of the Eternal, others denied the existence of beings, and
destroyed the two principles. Others instituted prayers and sacrifices
to obtain good fortune; others proclaimed their own sanctity to deceive
mankind. The minds of men labored, and were filled with anxiety;
aspirations after the supreme good were trampled down; thus perpetually
floating about they attained to nothing, and all went from bad to
worse. The darkness thickened, men lost their sight, and for a long
time they wandered without being able to find it again.
3. Then our Triune God communicated his substance to the very venerable
Mi-chi-ho (Messiah), who, veiling his true majesty, appeared in the
world in the likeness of a man. The celestial spirits manifested their
joy, and a virgin brought forth the saint in Ta-Thsin. The most
splendid constellations announced this happy event; the Persians saw
the splendor, and ran to pay tribute. He fulfilled what was said of old
by the twenty-four saints; he organized, by his precepts, both families
and kingdoms; he instituted the new religion according to the true
notion of the Trinity in Unity; he regulated conscience by the true
faith; he signified to the world the eight commandments, and purged
humanity from its pollutions by opening the door to the three virtues.
He diffused life and extinguished death; he suspended the luminous sun
to destroy the dwelling of darkness, and then the lies of demons passed
away. He directed the bark of mercy towards the palace of light, and
all creatures endowed with intelligence have been succored. After
having consummated this act of power, he rose at midday towards the
Truth. Twenty-seven books have been left. He has enlarged the springs
of mercy, that men might be converted. The baptism by water and by the
Spirit is a law that purifies the soul and beautifies the exterior. The
sign of the cross unites the four quarters of the world, and restores
the harmony that had been destroyed. By striking upon a piece of wood,
we make the voice of charity and mercy resound; by sacrificing towards
the east we indicate the way of life and glory.
Our ministers allow their beards to grow, to show that they are devoted
to their neighbors. The tonsure that they wear at the top of their
heads indicates that they have renounced worldly desires. In giving
liberty to slaves we become a link between the powerful and weak. We do
not accumulate riches, and we share with the poor that which we
possess. Fasting strengthens the intellectual powers, abstinence and
moderation preserve health. We worship seven times a day, and by our
prayers we aid the living and the dead. On the seventh day we offer
sacrifice, after having purified our hearts and received absolution for
our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to
name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts. It is
called the Luminous Religion.
5. Learning alone without sanctity has no grandeur, sanctity without
learning makes no progress. When learning and sanctity proceed
harmoniously, the universe is adorned and resplendent.
The Emperor Tai-Tsoung illustrated the Empire. He opened the
revolution, and governed men in holiness. In his time there was a man
of high virtue named Olopen, who came from the kingdom of Ta-Thsin.
Directed by the blue clouds, he bore the Scriptures of the true
doctrine; he observed the rules of the winds, and traversed difficult
and perilous countries
In the ninth year of Tching-Kouan (636) he arrived at Tehang-ngan. The
Emperor ordered Fang-hi-wen-Ling, first minister of the Empire, to go
with a great train of attendants to the western suburb, to meet the
stranger and bring him to the palace. He had the Holy Scriptures
translated in the Imperial library. The court listened to the doctrine,
meditated on it profoundly, and understood the great unity of truth. A
special edict was promulgated for its publication and diffusion.
In the twelfth year of Tching-Kouan, in the seventh moon, during the
autumn, the new edict was promulgated in these terms:--
The doctrine has no fixed name, the holy has no determinate substance;
it institutes religions suitable to various countries, and carries men
in crowds in its tracks. Olopen, a man of Ta-Thsin, and of a lofty
virtue, bearing Scriptures and images, has come to offer them in the
Supreme Court. After a minute examination of the spirit of this
religion, it has been found to be excellent, mysterious, and pacific.
The contemplation of its radical principle gives birth to perfection
and fixes the will. It is exempt from verbosity; it considers only good
results. It is useful to men, and consequently ought to be published
under the whole extent of the heavens. I, therefore, command the
magistrates to have a Ta-Thsin temple constructed in the quarter named
T-ning of the Imperial city, and twenty-one religious men shall be
installed therein.
* * * * *
10. Sou-Tsoung, the illustrious and brilliant emperor, erected at
Ling-on and other towns, five in all, _luminous_ temples. The primitive
good was thus strengthened, and felicity flourished. Joyous solemnities
were inaugurated, and the Empire entered on a wide course of
prosperity.
11. Tai-Tsoung (764), a lettered and a warlike emperor, propagated the
holy revolution. He sought for peace and tranquillity. Every year, at
the hour of the Nativity (Christmas), he burnt celestial perfumes in
remembrance of the divine benefit; he prepared imperial feasts, to
honor the _luminous_ (Christian) multitude.
* * * * *
21. This stone was raised in the second year of Kien-Tchoung of the
great dynasty of Thang (A.D. 781), on the seventh day of the moon of
the great increase. At this time the devout Ning-Chou, lord of the
doctrine, governed the luminous multitude in the Eastern country.
Such is the translation of the famous inscription found at Si-ngau-Fou,
in 1625. On the left of the monument are to be read the following words
in the Syriac language: "In the days of the Father of Fathers,
Anan-Yeschouah, Patriarch _Catholicos_." To the right can be traced,
"Adam, Priest, and Chor-Episcopus"; and at the base of the inscription:
"In the year of the Greeks one thousand nine hundred and two (A.D.
781), Mar Yezd-bouzid, Priest and Chor-Episcopus of the Imperial city
of Komdam, son of Millesins, priest of happy memory, of Balkh, a town
of Tokharistan (Turkistan), raised this tablet of stone, on which are
described the benefits of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers
in the kingdom of the Chinese. Adam, Deacon, son of Yezd-bouzid,
Chor-Episcopus; Sabar-Jesu, Priest; Gabriel, Priest, Archdeacon, and
Ecclesiarch of Komdam and Sarage."
* * * * *
The abridgment of Christian doctrine given in the Syro-Chinese
inscription of Si-ngau-Fou shows us, also, that the propagators of the
faith in Upper Asia in the seventh century professed the Nestorian
errors.
Through the vague and obscure verbiage which characterizes the Chinese
style, we recognize the mode in which that heresiarch admitted the
union of the Word with man, by indwelling plenitude of grace superior
to that of all the saints. One of the persons of the Trinity
communicated himself to the very illustrious and venerable Messiah,
"veiling his majesty." That is certainly the doctrine of Nestorius;
upon that point the authority of the critics is unanimous.
History, as we have elsewhere remarked, records the rapid progress of
the Nestorian sects in the interior of Asia, and their being able to
hold their ground, even under the sway of the Mussulmans, by means of
compromises and concessions of every kind.
Setting out from the banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, these ardent
and courageous propagators of the Gospel probably proceeded to
Khorassan, and then crossing the Oxus, directed their course toward the
Lake of Lop, and entered the Chinese Empire by the province of Chen-si.
Olopen, and his successors in the Christian mission, whether Syrians or
Persians by birth, certainly belonged to the Nestorian church.
Voltaire, who did not like to trouble himself with scientific
arguments, and who was much stronger in sarcasm than in erudition,
roundly accuses the missionaries of having fabricated the inscription
on the monument of Si-ngau-Fou, from motives of "pious fraud." "As if,"
says Remusat, "such a fabrication could have been practicable in the
midst of a distrustful and suspicious nation, in a country in which
magistrates and private people are equally ill-disposed towards
foreigners, and especially missionaries, where all eyes are open to
their most trivial proceedings, and where the authorities watch with
the most jealous care over everything relating to the historical
traditions and monuments of antiquity. It would be very difficult to
explain how the missionaries could have been bold enough to have
printed and published in China, and in Chinese, an inscription that had
never existed, and how they could have imitated the Chinese style,
counterfeited the manner of the writers of the dynasty of Thang,
alluded to customs little known, to local circumstances, to dates
calculated from the mysterious figures of Chinese astrology, and the
whole without betraying themselves for a moment; and with such
perfection as to impose on the most skilful men of letters, induced, of
course, by the singularity of the discovery to dispute its
authenticity. It could only have been done by one of the most erudite
of Chinese scholars, joining with the missionaries to impose on his own
countrymen."
"Even that would not be all, for the borders of the inscription are
covered with Syrian names in fine _estranghelo_ characters. The forgers
must, then, have been not only acquainted with these characters, but
have been able to get engraved with perfect exactness ninety lines of
them, and in the ancient writing, known at present to very few."
"This argument of Remusat's," says another learned Orientalist, M.
Felix Neve, "is of irresistible force, and we have formerly heard a
similar one maintained with the greatest confidence by M. Quatremere,
of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and we allow
ourselves to quote the opinion of so highly qualified a judge upon this
point. Before the last century it would have been absolutely impossible
to forge in Europe a series of names and titles belonging to a
Christian nation of Western Asia; it is only since the fruits of
Assemam's labors have been made public by his family at Rome, that
there existed a sufficient knowledge of the Syriac for such a purpose;
and it is only by the publication of the manuscripts of the Vatican,
that the extent to which Nestorianism spread in the centre of Asia, and
the influence of its hierarchy in the Persian provinces could have been
estimated. There is no reason to suppose that missionaries who left
Europe in the very beginning of the seventeenth century could have
acquired a knowledge which could only be obtained from reading the
originals and not vague accounts of them."
The sagacity of M. Saint Martin, who was for a long time the colleague
of M. Quatremere, has pointed out in a note worthy of his erudition,
another special proof, which is by no means to be neglected.
"Amongst the various arguments," he says, "that might be urged in favor
of the legitimacy of the monument, but of which, as yet, no use has
been made, must not be forgotten the name of the priest by whom it is
said to have been erected. The name _Yezd-bouzid_ is Persian, and at the
epoch when the monument was discovered it would have been impossible to
invent it, as there existed no work where it could have been found.
Indeed, I do not think that, even since then, there has ever been any
one published in which it could have been met with.
"It is a very celebrated name among the Armenians, and comes to them
from a martyr, a Persian by birth, and of the royal race, who perished
towards the middle of the seventh century, and rendered his name
illustrious amongst the Christian nations of the East." Saint Martin
adds in the same place, that the famous monument of Si-ngau-Fou, whose
authenticity has for a long time been called in question from the
hatred entertained against the Jesuit missionaries who discovered it,
rather than from a candid examination of its contents, is now regarded
as above all suspicion.
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