Peeps Into China Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.]

"Yes; for the treaty of June 26th, 1858, between the Chinese and British, some of the terms of which were that the Christian religion should be protected by Chinese authorities, that British subjects should be allowed to travel in the country for pleasure or business, under pa.s.sports issued by their consul, and that the Queen might acquire a building site at Peking."

"But now the religion, please, father," she said again.

"Very well; but you must pay great attention to what I say, or you will not understand. Most of the Chinese are either Confucianists, Buddhists, or Taouists, although there are also Jews and Mahometans amongst them.

At one time it is supposed that the people of China had really a knowledge of the true G.o.d, and that when they worshipped, in much the same sort of manner as did the patriarchs, Him whom they call w.a.n.g-teen, or Shang-ti, which means Supreme Ruler, they worshipped G.o.d.

"But mixing with this an idolatrous worship of departed ancestors, they nearly lost sight of the Supreme Ruler, the jealous G.o.d, Who, we know, claims all our worship.

"About the latter half of the sixth century before Christ, Confucius, a great and clever philosopher of China, who was born 551 B.C., wrote and put together books that held very moral and good maxims, afterwards called 'The Cla.s.sics.'

"He taught that men must always be obedient to those to whom they are in subjection: people to prince, child to parent, filial piety being enforced before every other duty. He was very anxious to improve the manners of the people; but women he ranked very low. Confucianism is--but perhaps you will not understand this--more a philosophy than a religion. Its followers have no particular form of worship, and no priesthood. The Pearly Emperor, Supreme Ruler, is their deity, but worship is seldom offered to him, and then only by a few.

"Although Confucius disapproved very much of idols, after he was dead many of his followers worshipped him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MANDARIN.]

"Confucianists do not believe in a future state of rewards and punishments, but think that their good and bad deeds will be rewarded here by riches or poverty, long or short life, good or bad health.

Conscience is to lead people aright, and tell them when they do wrong.

"The high mandarins and literary people are generally Confucianists; school-boys also worship an idol or tablet of the sage, in which his spirit is supposed to dwell.

"There is a temple to the honour of 'The Great Teacher' in every large town; and on great occasions, and always in spring-time and autumn, sacrifices are here offered, the Emperor himself, as high priest, presiding at these two ceremonies in Peking, the chief mandarins of his court giving him a.s.sistance. In temples of Confucius idols are very seldom to be seen.

"The Confucianists are taught that man was originally good, his nature being given by heaven, and that sin came through union of the soul with matter."

"What are mandarins, please, father?" asked Leonard.

"Chinese officials, of which there are many grades, and many in each grade, all of whom are paid by Government. To every province there is a viceroy, to every city a governor, and to the village a mandarin, who is elected to rule over it for three years; and all these, again, have many officers under them. There are also a great many military mandarins. A great mark of imperial favour is to allow mandarins, civil or military, to wear a peac.o.c.k's feather in their caps, which hangs down over the back, and the ball placed on the top shows, by its colour and material, the rank of the wearer. Soldiers fighting very bravely are often buoyed up with the hope of receiving one of these feathers.

"Mandarins, who stand in a sort of fatherly relationship towards their people, although they do not always behave like fathers towards them, look for implicit obedience from them."

"Can a mandarin be punished when he does wrong?" Leonard asked. "And what sort of dress does he wear?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MANDARIN WITH PEAc.o.c.k'S FEATHER.]

"He can be punished when he does wrong; and as well as I can remember, those mandarins that I saw, who were in high office, wore a long, loose robe of blue silk, embroidered with gold threads. This reached to their ankles, being fastened round their waists with a belt. Over this was a violet tunic, coming just below the knees, which had very wide, long sleeves, usually worn turned back, but if not, hanging over the hands."

"Will you please go on about the religion now, father?" Sybil then said.

"You had just told us that the Confucianists were taught that man was made good."

"Yes; and their worship is paid almost entirely to their ancestors, which worship they look upon as a continuation of the reverence they had been taught to show them while on earth. I will tell you more about ancestral worship presently.

"Many people, as you can well understand, were not satisfied with Confucianism as a religion, as it could not satisfy their spiritual wants, especially as the Pearly Emperor, or Supreme Ruler, generally looked upon as the highest divinity worshipped by the Chinese, might only be approached by the Emperor and his court; so another sect sprang up, having a philosopher named La-outze, who was born 604 B.C., for its founder. He thought that to grow perfect he must seclude himself from other people, and in his retirement was always looking for the Taou-le, the meaning of which you will hardly understand--the cause or the end of all things. His followers are called Taouists. This philosopher says in his book that 'it is by stillness, and contemplation, and union with Taou, that virtue is to be achieved'--Taou here meaning a principle and a way. He said that virtue consisted in losing sight of oneself, and that man should love even his enemies, and go through life as if none of his possessions belonged to himself. The Taouists say that 'Taou is without substance, and eternal, and the universe coming from him exists in the silent presence of Taou everywhere,' and that only those who become very virtuous are happy.

"La-outze is now worshipped by the Taouists as the third of a trinity of persons, called 'The Three Pure Ones.'

"He is said, when born, to have had long white hair, and is therefore represented as an old man, and called 'old boy.' The Chinese a.s.sert that his mother was fed with food from heaven, and that when he was born he jumped up into the air, and said, as he pointed with his left hand to heaven and his right hand to the earth, 'Heaven above, earth beneath: only Taou is honourable.' The Taouist trinity are supposed to live in the highest heaven; and Taouists used to spend a great deal of time in seeking for a drink that they thought would make them live for ever.

Subduing evil is by some of them supposed to secure immortality to the soul.

"Their priests are often very ignorant men, but they are believed in by the people, and are employed by them to perform superst.i.tious rites."

"Oh, father! Isn't it a dreadful pity that they should believe so many things like Christians, even in a trinity, and the duty of loving one's enemies, and only be heathens after all?"

"It is indeed; but the more we see of heathens, Sybil, the more we shall notice how they cannot help feeling after truth and grasping some parts of it, which seem as though they were a very necessity to religion.

These Taouist priests are often called in by the people to exorcise, or drive away, evil spirits, to cure sick people and commune with the dead."

"Oh, father! I do so like this Peep-show. Please tell us now about the people of the other sect."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A BUDDHIST PRIEST.]

"They are the Buddhists, who also worship a trinity; indeed, Taouists are thought to have taken that idea from them. As early as 250 B.C.

Buddhist missionaries came over from India to China, but the religion did not really take root until an emperor named Hing, of the Han dynasty, introduced it, in the first century of the Christian era, about 66 A.D. This emperor is said to have seen in a dream, in the year of our Lord 61, an image of a foreign G.o.d coming into his palace, and in consequence he was advised to adopt the religion of Buddha, when he sent to India for an idol and some priests. Towards the end of the thirteenth century there were more than 4,200 Buddhist temples in China, and more than 213,000 monks. The Buddhist trinity is called Pihte, or the Three Precious Ones: Buddha Past, Buddha Present, and Buddha Future, and dreadfully ugly idols they are. The Buddhist's idea of heaven is Nirvana, or rest, or more properly speaking, extinction. The Chinese Buddhist thinks that a man possesses three souls or spirits, one of which accompanies the body to the grave, another pa.s.ses into his ancestral tablet to be worshipped, and the third enters into one, or all, of the ten kingdoms of the Buddhistic h.e.l.l, into which people pa.s.s after death, there to receive punishments according to the lives they have led upon earth. From the tenth kingdom they pa.s.s back to earth, to inhabit the form of a man, beast, bird, or insect, as they may have deserved, unless during life a man has attained to a certain state of perfection, when he mounts to the highest heaven, and perhaps becomes a G.o.d or buddha. But even from the Western Paradise a spirit has sometimes to return to earth. Should a man have been good in all the various lives that he has lived, he is supposed to attain, I believe, to this Nirvana, or extinction."

"What a wonderful belief!" Sybil said. "So they cannot believe at all in the immortality of the soul?"

"No, they do not."

"I should like to see a Buddhist priest very much," Leonard said.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE TO A BUDDHIST MONASTERY.]

"I dare say you will see a good many when you get to China. They live together in monasteries, sometimes in great numbers, and these monasteries are prettily situated, surrounded by lakes and gardens. They consist of a number of small buildings, to the princ.i.p.al of which is a large entrance, that has inscriptions on either side of the gateway."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MONASTERY.]

"Are the priests very good men?" asked Leonard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GONG.]

"Very often, I am afraid, just the reverse; but this is not to be wondered at, for criminals in China, to escape from justice, will sometimes shave their heads, and seek refuge by becoming Buddhist priests. When they take their vows--some taking nine, some twelve--for each one a cut is made in their arms to help them to remember it. Some of the vows resemble the commandments setting forth our duty towards our neighbour. A Buddhist priest, in China, wears a wide turn-over collar; when he officiates he often dresses in a yellow robe made of silk or cotton, but he is only allowed to wear silk when he does officiate. At other times his garments are of white or ash colour, or he wears a long, grey cowl with flowing sleeves. Buddhist priests shave all their hair two or three times a month. They think it is of great use to repeat their cla.s.sics very often to the G.o.ds, and keep an account of the number of times they say them on their beads. I fancy they use brooms wherewith to sprinkle holy water. There are four special commandments for Buddhists, both priests and people: not to destroy animal life, not to steal, not to speak falsely, and not to drink wine. In monasteries the refectories of the priests are very large, and they have all to sit at dinner, so that the abbot, who is at their head, can see their faces.

They are called to breakfast and dinner by a gong, where they have to appear in their cowls. Gongs are very much used in China, and are to be seen at all the temples. When the priest, who presides, comes in, they all rise, and putting their hands together, say grace. After the food has been so blessed, some is put outside as an offering to the fowls of the air. During dinner the priests may not speak, and on the walls of the refectory are boards, on which are written warnings, such as not to eat too quickly; also the rules of the monastery."

"That would not have done for you, Leonard, when you thought you would be late for school, and gobbled your dinner anyhow," said Sybil.

"How many G.o.ds have the Chinese?" asked Leonard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WORSHIP IN A LAMASARY, BUDDHIST TEMPLE.]

"So many that it would be impossible to say, and the Celestials (as the Chinese are often called, from naming their country the Celestial Land) are not particular how they worship them; Taouists, for instance, worshipping those who are peculiarly Buddhist divinities, and Buddhists invoking, in return, their G.o.ds. Indeed, the three religions have so borrowed from one another, and people have believed so much as they liked, that the Chinese themselves often do not know to which religion they belong, and are either all or none, pretty well as they choose. The Buddhism of China is not at all the pure Buddhism, and has been much corrupted by its professors."

"Who was the founder of Buddhism?"

"An Indian prince, of beautiful character, born 620 B.C., and called Shakyamuni Buddha, who left wealth and luxury to go about relieving suffering wherever he found it. After he died his followers believed that he was transformed into a G.o.d, having three different forms."

"Tell us some of the G.o.ds, please."