Travels in China Part 23

It certainly cannot be inferred that by the _Seres_, in any of the above quotations, was meant the same people as the present Chinese; on the contrary, the probability is that it did not allude to this nation, and that the ancients had not the least knowledge of its existence. It appears from another pa.s.sage in Pliny, that the best iron in the world was in _Seric.u.m_, and that the Seres exported it with their cloths and skins. The iron of the Chinese, as I have had occasion to observe, is remarkably bad, and all their articles of peltry are imported.

The first people that we know to have travelled into China was a colony of Jews who, according to the records kept by their descendants, and which I understood from some of the missionaries are corroborated as to the time by Chinese history, first settled there shortly after the expedition of Alexander had opened a communication with India. Nor is it at all improbable that this adventurous and industrious people were the first to carry with them, into their new country, the silk worm and the mode of rearing it, either from Persia, or some of the neighbouring countries. The Emperor _Kaung-shee_, in his observations on natural history, takes notice that the Chinese are greatly mistaken when they say that silk was an exclusive product of China, for that the upper regions of India have a native worm of a larger growth, and which spins a stronger silk than any in China. Although indeed ancient authors are silent as to the article of silk, there are grounds for supposing it was not unknown in Tangut and Kitai. Several expressions in the Bible warrant the opinion that silk was used in the time of Solomon, and the _vestes perlucidae ac fluidae Medis_ of Justin seem to convey a description of silken robes. This mode of the first introduction of silk into China is offered as mere conjecture, for which I have no other authority in support of, than what is here mentioned, with the circ.u.mstance of the Jews being settled chiefly in the silk provinces, and of their being at this time in considerable numbers near _Hang-tchoo-foo_, where they carry on the princ.i.p.al trade in this article, and have acquired the reputation of fabricating the best stuffs of this material that are made in China; nor do I know in what other way they could recommend themselves to the Chinese, so far as to have obtained the protection of this jealous government, and to be allowed to intermarry with the women of the country. It is true they have practised no underhand attempts to seduce the natives from their paternal religion, and to persuade them to embrace their own; and although they are not very famous for the cultivation of the sciences, yet they might have rendered themselves extremely useful in suggesting improvements in many of the arts and manufactures. Many of them, indeed, forsake the religion of their forefathers, and arrive at high employments in the state. Few among them, I understand, except the Rabbis, have any knowledge of the Hebrew language, and they have long been so intermixed with the Chinese, that the priests at the present day are said to find some difficulty in keeping up their congregations. So different are the effects produced by suffering, instead of persecuting, religious opinions.

One of the missionaries has given an account of his visit to a synagogue of Jews in China. He found the priests most rigorously attached to their old law: nor had they the least knowledge of any other Jesus having appeared in the world, except the son of Sirach, of whom, he says, their history makes mention. If this be really the fact, their ancestors could not have been any part of the ten tribes that were carried into captivity, but may rather be supposed to have been among the followers of Alexander's army, which agrees with their own account of the time they first settled in China. They possessed a copy of the Pentateuch and some other fragments of the Sacred Writings, which they had brought along with them from the westward, but the missionary's information is very imperfect, as he was ignorant of the Hebrew language[41].

[41] All our enquiries, in pa.s.sing the city of Hang-tchoo-foo, were fruitless with regard to these Israelites. We had hitherto entertained a hope of being able to procure, in the course of our journey, a copy of this ancient monument of the Jewish history, which the late Doctor Geddes considered as very desirable to compare with those already in Europe; but the hasty manner in which we travelled, and the repugnance shewn by our conducting officers, _Chou_ and _Van_ excepted, who had little power or influence in the provinces, to enter into any of our views that might appear to occasion delay, prevented the fulfilment of those hopes. It were much to be wished, that the reverend missionaries would so far lay aside their antipathy against opinions, not exactly coinciding with their own, and enter into such a correspondence with the Jews, as would obtain from them, which they are no doubt possessed of, an account of the progress made by the Chinese in civilization and arts, since their first settling in that country, and of other particulars noted down by them. The circ.u.mstance of their carrying with them their code of laws, and the history of their tribes, is a sufficient proof that they understood a written language which there can be no doubt, they would use the utmost caution not to lose. Such an account would be more authentic than the Chinese annals, the best of which abound in hyperbole, and contain facts so disguised in metaphor, that it is no easy matter to extract from them the simple truth. At all events, the comparison of the two histories would serve to verify each other.

Although a very great similarity is observable between many of the ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies and those in use among the Chinese, yet there seems to be no reason for supposing that the latter received any part of their religion from the ancestors of those Jews that are still in the country. This, however, is not the case with regard to the priests of Budha, who, according to the Chinese records, came by the invitation of one of their Emperors from some part of India, near Thibet, about the sixtieth year of the Christian era. These priests succeeded so well in introducing the worship of Budha, that it continues to this day to be one of the popular religions of the country; and that no traces of the original name should remain is the less surprising, as they could not possibly p.r.o.nounce either the B or the D; beside, they make it an invariable rule, as I have already observed, not to adopt any foreign names.

In some part of the seventh century, a few Christians of the Nestorian sect pa.s.sed from India into China where, for a time, they were tolerated by the government. But, having most probably presumed upon its indulgence, and endeavoured to seduce the people from the established religions of the country, they were exposed to dreadful persecutions, and were at length entirely extirpated, after numberless instances of their suffering martyrdom for the opinions they had undertaken to propagate to the "utmost corners of the earth." When Gengis-Khan invaded China, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, a number of Christians of the Greek church followed his army into this country; and they met with such great encouragement from the Tartars, that when Kublai-Khan succeeded to the government and built the city of Pekin, he gave them a grant of ground within the walls of the city for the purpose of building a church, in order to retain in the empire men of so much learning and of abilities so much superior to those of the Chinese; who, however, on their part, have affected, in their history, to consider the Monguls as the greatest barbarians, for turning their horses into the apartments of the palaces, while they themselves were contented to pitch their tents in the courts or quadrangular s.p.a.ces surrounded by the buildings. Father Le Compte, in his memoirs of China, says, but I know not on what authority, that at the taking of the city of Nankin the Tartars put all the Chinese women in sacks, without regard to age or rank, and sold them to the highest bidder; and that such as, in thus "buying the pig in the poke," happened to purchase an old, ugly, or deformed bargain, made no ceremony in throwing it into the river. If Father Le Compte was not the inventor of this, among many other of his pleasant stories, it certainly tells as little in favour of the Chinese, who must have been the purchasers, as of the Tartars; but we will charitably suppose the thing never happened. It seems, however, that the overthrow of the Chinese empire by the Mongul Tartars, was an event not to be regretted by the nation at large. By means of the learned and scientific men, who accompanied the expedition from Balk and Samarcand, astronomy was improved, their calendar was corrected, instruments for making celestial observations were introduced, and the direct communication between the two extremities of the empire was opened, by converting the streams of rivers into an artificial bed, forming an inland navigation, not to be paralleled in any other part of the world.

It was about this period when the celebrated Venetian traveller Marco Polo visited the Tartar Khan, then sitting on the throne of China; and who, on his return, gave the first accounts of this extraordinary empire; which appeared indeed so wonderful that they were generally considered as his own inventions. His relations of the magnificent and splendid palaces of the Emperor, of his immense wealth, of the extent of his empire, and the vast mult.i.tudes of people, were held to be so many fabrications; and as, in speaking of these subjects, he seldom made use of a lower term than millions, his countrymen bestowed upon him the epithet of _Signor Marco Millione_--Mr. Mark Million. They had no hesitation, however, in giving credit to the only incredible part of his narrative, where he relates a few miracles that were performed, in the course of his journey through Persia, by some Nestorean Christians.

Young Marco is said to have accompanied three missionaries of the Dominican order, sent from Venice to the capital of China, at the express desire of Kublai-Khan; but, whether they met with little encouragement in the object of their mission, on account of being preceded by the Christians of the Greek church, or their zeal at that time was less ardent than in later days, is not stated; but it seems they did not remain long in the East, returning very soon to their native country much enriched by their travels.

During the continuance of the Tartar government, which was not quite a century, great numbers of Mahomedans likewise found their way from Arabia to China. These people had long, indeed, been in the habit of carrying on a commercial intercourse with the Chinese; which, however, as at the present day, extended no further than the sea-ports on the southern coast. They now found no difficulty in getting access to the capital, where they rendered themselves particularly useful in adjusting the chronology of the nation, and making the necessary calculations for the yearly calendar. Having acquired the language and adopted the dress and manners of the people, by degrees they turned their thoughts to the extending of their religious principles, and bringing the whole country to embrace the doctrine of their great prophet. For this end, they bought and educated at their own expence such children of poor people as were likely to be exposed in times of famine; and they employed persons to pick up, in the streets of the capital, any infants that should be thrown out in the course of the night, and who were not too much weakened or otherwise injured to be recovered.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, several Roman Catholic missionaries, of the order of Jesus, penetrated into the East; and the indefatigable zeal of one of these, Francis Xavier, carried him as far as _San-Shian_, a small island on the coast of China, where he died in the year 1552, in consequence of the uncommon fatigues he had undergone.

His brother missionaries have calculated that he travelled, on foot, not less than one hundred thousand English miles, a great part of which was over mountains and desarts and forests and burning sands. Since a more easy communication with India and China has been effected by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, numbers of missionaries of the Catholic religion have volunteered their services into those countries; and although the sole object of their mission is the propagation of the Christian faith, they find it necessary, in order to forward that object, to make themselves useful to the government. In China, they are occasionally employed as astronomers, mathematicians, mechanics, and interpreters.

"It must have appeared a singular spectacle," observes Sir George Staunton, "to every cla.s.s of beholders, to see men actuated by motives different from those of most human actions, quitting for ever their country and their connexions, to devote themselves for life to the purposes of changing the tenets of a people they had never seen; and in pursuing that object to run every risk, suffer every persecution, and sacrifice every comfort; insinuating themselves, by address, by talent, by perseverance, by humility, by application to studies foreign from their original education, or by the cultivation of arts to which they had not been bred, into notice and protection; overcoming the prejudices of being strangers in a country where most strangers were prohibited, and where it was a crime to have _abandoned the tombs of their ancestors_, and gaining, at length, establishments necessary for the propagation of their faith, without turning their influence to any personal advantage."

Most of those, however, who were established in Pekin, to the spiritual consolation of having laboured in the vineyard of the gospel not altogether in vain (for they do sometimes gain a proselyte) add the substantial satisfaction of not having neglected their worldly concerns.

Besides the emoluments arising from their several communities, they have shops and houses in the capital, which they rent to Chinese. They have also their country villas and estates, where they cultivate the vine and other fruits, and make their own wine. The revenues of the two Portuguese seminaries are stated to amount to twelve thousand ounces of silver, or four thousand pounds a year. The mission _de propaganda fide_ is poor. The French Jesuits were once rich; but their property was dissipated on the dissolution of their society. The French _missions etrangeres_ drew on their superiors at Paris before the revolution, but since that event are reduced to a most deplorable situation. And it seemed to me, from what I could perceive at _Yuen-min-yuen_, that they were not much disposed to a.s.sist one another. Each nation had its separate interest, and they were not willing to lose any opportunity of calumniating their fellow-labourers. The French and Italians were the most moderate and liberal; the Portuguese the most inveterate. The missionaries of this nation appeared to be inspired with a jealousy and hatred, more than theological, against the rest. It is said indeed that their rich possessions, and the high situations they unworthily hold in the board of mathematics, render them jealous of all other Europeans; and they use every means of excluding them from the country.

From the frequent dissensions, indeed, among the different orders, and their perpetual broils, originated the persecutions which they and their proselytes suffered in China. The most violent of these disputes was carried on between the Jesuits and the Dominicans. The Jesuits endeavoured to a.s.similate their doctrines and their opinions to those of the Chinese, at least as far as they conscientiously could venture to do, in conformity to the nature of their mission; by which means, together with their apparently disinterested conduct, they soon collected a numerous set of followers, half Christians and half Pagans.

Unluckily for the cause of Christianity, a different sect of the same religion, but with principles more austere and of course less tolerant of others that deviated from their own, speedily followed the Jesuits into the East. The Dominicans, meeting with some of the half-christianized converts, soon gave them to understand that nothing less than eternal d.a.m.nation would be the lot of all such as did not forsake their ancient superst.i.tious and idolatrous practices; and especially that of sacrificing to their deceased relations in the Hall of Ancestors. The Franciscans having joined the Dominicans they represented to the Pope the abominable practices of the Jesuits, who had persuaded the Chinese they were come among them for the sole purpose of restoring their ancient religion to its original purity, as delivered by their Great Philosopher Confucius. The Pope, upon this, sent over a bull, interdicting all the missionaries in China from admitting any extraneous ceremonies or idolatrous worship, to be blended with those of Holy Catholic Church.

The Jesuits, however, by their superior talents, having made themselves useful at court, and obtained the notice and protection of _Caung-shee_ the ruling monarch, and the greatest perhaps that ever filled the throne of China, treated this bull with contempt, and continued to make converts in their own way. They even obtained from the Emperor a sum of money and a grant of land, towards building a church in Pekin. And they further managed their affairs so well as to procure, from the succeeding Pope, a dispensation in favour of their mode of proceeding to convert the Chinese to Christianity. The Dominicans and Franciscans, piqued beyond measure at the success of the Jesuits, represented them to the Pope, in the strongest terms, as the greatest enemies to the Christian faith. The Jesuits, in their turn, transmitted to Rome a manifesto, signed by the Emperor himself, attesting that the ceremonies of homage to the dead, retained by the Chinese Christians, were not of a religious but a civil nature, agreeable to the long established laws of the empire, which could not, on any consideration, be dispensed with. In short, their disputes and quarrels ran so high, and proceeded to such lengths; and Bulls and Emba.s.sadors were sent from Rome, with such imperious and threatening commands for the Chinese Christians to desist from all ceremonies that were not warranted by the Catholic church, that the Emperor began to think it was high time to interpose his authority, and to interdict the Christian religion from being preached at all in his dominions. And his son and successor _Yung-chin_ commenced his reign with violent persecutions against the missionaries. He ordered many of them immediately out of the empire; others were thrown into prison[42], where they lingered out a miserable life; and some were put to death by the bow-string. Those few, who were found necessary to a.s.sist in the astronomical part of the calendar, he allowed to remain in the capital.

[42] In the year 1785, Kien Long liberated, by a public edict, twelve missionaries out of prison, who, being detected in privately seducing the Chinese from the religion and customs of the country, had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment. This edict, of which I procured a copy in Pekin, does great honour to the humane and benevolent mind of the Emperor. After stating their crime, apprehension, and trial, he observes, "Had they made known their arrival to the officers of government, they might have proceeded to the capital and found protection. But as transgressors of the law, which forbids the entrance of strangers, they have stolen into the country, and secretly endeavoured to multiply converts to their way of thinking, it became my duty to oppose a conduct so deceitful, and to put a stop to the progress of seduction. Justly as they were found to deserve the punishment to which they have been condemned, touched, nevertheless, with compa.s.sion for their imprudence, it was not without injury to my feelings that I ratified the sentence. But recollecting afterwards that they were strangers--strangers perhaps ignorant of the laws of my empire, my compa.s.sion increased for them, and humanity suffers on account of their long confinement. I will, therefore, and command that these twelve strangers be set at liberty."

Notwithstanding the persecutions that, in every reign, have been violently carried on against them by the officers of government in the several provinces, numbers of new missionaries have continued, from time to time, to steal into the country. At Macao we found two young missionaries, who had been waiting there a long time, in vain, for an opportunity of getting privately into the country. They accused the Portuguese of throwing every obstacle in their way, while pretending to afford them a.s.sistance; but, on application to the British Emba.s.sador, he found no difficulty in procuring them leave to proceed to the capital; and as one of these gentlemen had been a pupil of the celebrated La Lande, his services may probably supersede those of the right reverend bishop who at present directs the astronomical part of the important national almanack.

From the short view that has here been taken of the different people who, at various times, have gained admission into China, and some of them for no other purpose than that of disseminating their religious tenets, it may be concluded, that the primitive worship of the country has experienced many changes and innovations, especially since the ma.s.s of the people, from the nature of the language, the maxims of the government, and other circ.u.mstances, have always been kept in a state of profound ignorance. Jews, Christians, Indians, and Mahomedans, have severally met with encouragement. The Jesuits had but one obstacle to overcome, the law that directed offerings to be made to deceased relations, and by giving way to this, which they were inclined to do had they not been thwarted by the more rigorous Dominicans, they might have converted the whole nation and Christianity would have become, in all probability, the prevailing religion, instead of that introduced from India. The paraphernalia and almost all the mummeries of the Romish church, the bells, the beads, the altars, the images, the candles, the dress, and the sanctimonious deportment of the priests in the hours of devotion, their chaunting and their incense, were already made familiar to the people in every temple of _Fo_. But, as Lord Macartney has observed, "the prohibition or restriction of sensual gratifications in a despotic country, where there are so few others, is difficult to be relished. Confession is repugnant to the close and suspicious character of the nation, and penance would but aggravate the misery of him whose inheritance is his labour, and poverty his punishment. Against it also is the state of society in China, which excludes women from their proper share of influence and importance. A religion which requires that women should at stated times communicate to priests, in private, their thoughts and actions, must be particularly disgusting to a Chinese husband, who had not himself been suffered to see his wife till the day of his marriage; and who but seldom allows her afterwards to see even her near relations of another s.e.x. A religion like that of Mahomet can only be extended by violence and terror; for the natural stubbornness of men does not readily give way to novel impressions; but the mild spirit of the gospel is alone to be infused through the means of gentleness, persuasion, and imperceptible perseverance. These are the proper instruments of conversion, and peculiarly belong to the fair s.e.x, whose eloquence, on such occasions, gives charms to devotion and ornaments to truth. The earliest stages of Christianity received no small support from female agency and example; and for what shew of religion still appears in _our_ churches, we are surely not a little indebted to the piety and attendance of women." Nothing, in fact, more tended to alarm the Chinese than the imprudent practice of the Romish missionaries of seducing the Chinese women to their churches whom, as they avow in their correspondence, they sometimes coaxed out of their jewels and money; adding, by way of justification, that it was to promote the service of G.o.d.

The primitive religion of China or, at least, those opinions, rites, and ceremonies that prevailed in the time of Confucius, (and before that period all seems to be fable and uncertainty) may be pretty nearly ascertained from the writings that are ascribed to that philosopher. He maintains in his physics, that "out of nothing there cannot possibly be produced any thing;--that material bodies must have existed from all eternity;--that the _cause_ (_lee_, _reason_) or principle of things, must have had a co-existence with the things themselves;--that, therefore, this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible, without limits, omnipotent and omnipresent;--that the central point of influence (_strength_) from whence this cause princ.i.p.ally acts, is the blue firmament (_tien_) from whence its emanations spread over the whole universe;--that it is, therefore, the supreme duty of the prince, in the name of his subjects, to present offerings to _tien_, and particularly at the equinoxes, the one for obtaining a propitious seed-time, and the other a plentiful harvest."

These offerings to the Deity, it may be observed, were always placed on a large stone, or heap of stones, erected on the summit of a high mountain, on the supposition, probably, that their influence would be so much the greater, in proportion as they should approach the seat and fountain of creative power; like the ancient Persians who, according to Herodotus, considered the whole circle of the Heavens to be the great ruling power of the universe, to which they also sacrificed on high mountains. Thus Tacitus, in speaking of the practice of worshipping the G.o.ds on high mountains, observes, that the nearer mortals can approach the heavens, the more distinctly will their prayers be heard; and on the same principle, Seneca says, that the people always strove for the seat next to the image of the deity in the temples, that their prayers might be the better heard. Thus also Noah, after quitting the ark, built an altar on the mountain where it rested, and made a burnt-offering, whose smoke ascending to heaven was pleasing to the Lord. And Abraham was commanded to offer his only son Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moria; and Balak carried Balaam to the top of Mount Pisgah to offer a sacrifice there, and to curse Israel. Thus, indeed, all nations in their infancy adopted the natural idea of paying adoration to Heaven from high places.

The large stones, or the heaps of stones, that have been appropriated for religious uses at different times, in almost every part of the world, might have been introduced, as Lord Kames supposes, from the custom among savage nations to mark with a great stone the place where their worthies were interred: that such worthies being at length deified, in the superst.i.tious notions of their votaries, the stones that were dedicated to their memory became essential in every act of religious worship performed in honour of their new deities. The very particular homage, that for time immemorial has been paid to the memory of the dead by the Chinese, renders the above explanation extremely probable as to the origin of their altar of four stones which in their language are called _Tan_, and which in former times were erected on most of their high mountains; and it is singular enough that, at the present day, the _tan_ should be represented, upon many of the altars erected in their temples, by four loose stones placed on the four corners of the altar, as the horns were in the corners of the Jewish altars. When population increased, and the people were spread wide over the empire, the inconvenience of ascending any particular mountain must necessarily be felt, and the _tan_ was then transferred to places that were better suited for general accommodation. The same idea indeed is still retained in our churches, the _altar_ and _high place_ being synonimous words. In the city of Pekin, which stands on a sandy plain, the _tien-tan_, or altar of Heaven; the _tee-tan_ or altar of earth; and the _sien-nong-tan_ or altar of ancient agriculturists, are erected upon artificial mounts within the walls of the palace; and here the Emperor continues, to this day, to sacrifice at appointed times, exclusively, as the son of Heaven, and the only being on earth worthy to intercede for his people. The same doctrine prevailed in the time of Confucius, who observes, that the distance between the all-creative power, or cause of all things, and the people is so immeasurably great, that the king or ruler, as high priest, can alone offer such a sacrifice; and that this power is best satisfied when man performs the moral duties of life; the princ.i.p.al of which he makes to consist in filial piety, and unlimited obedience to the will of the prince.

His religious notions and morals do him great credit, but his metaphysics are so obscure as not to be intelligible which, however, may partly be owing to the nature of the language. In his writings appears a strong predilection for a kind of fortune-telling, or predicting events by the mystical lines of _Fo-shee_. By the help of these lines, and the prevailing element at the commencement of the reign of a prince, he pretended to foretel the events that would take place and the length of its continuance; but, at the same time, he was cautious enough to wrap them up in such ambiguous and mysterious expressions that, like most prophecies of the kind, they might admit of a variety of interpretations. This manner of expounding the lines of Fo-shee by Confucius, the supposed system of binary arithmetic by Leibnitz, laid the foundation of consulting future destiny, at this day universally sought after by the Chinese[43].

[43] The government even grants licences to certain persons, under the abused name of astronomers, who pretend to predict events, and cast out evil spirits by a charm, consisting of some character written by them, according to the supposed prevailing planet. The national almanack, not less minute in its predictions than those of Francis Moore or Vincent Wing, or even Partridge, points out the changes of the weather in every month, with the lucky and unlucky days for undertaking most of the important concerns of life. And that the fallacy of these is not detected, may afford less matter for surprize, on recollection that, in the wise and enlightened countries of Europe, and among very intelligent people, the state of the weather is pretended to be predicted by the phases of the moon, that is to say, they will prognosticate a change of weather to happen at the new moon, or the first quarter, or the full, or the last quarter, or, at all events, three days before, or three days after one or other of these periods; so that the predictor has, at the least, eight and twenty days out of a lunar revolution, in favour of his prediction being right, and the whole lunation is only twenty-nine and a half. He has also another great advantage: the accidental coincidence of one single prophecy with the event, establishes his fame for ever, whilst his blunders are either overlooked, or considered only as those of the person, and not the defect of the science.

Predestination in all ages, and in all nations, has formed one of the leading features of religion; and, in consideration perhaps of popular opinion, has been foisted into the articles of the Christian faith, though unwarranted by any pa.s.sage in the holy scriptures. It is a doctrine little calculated for the promotion of good morals, and still less so for conveying spiritual consolation. The Chinese, however, confine the influence of lots to the events of this life. It would perhaps be doing injustice to the understanding of Confucius to suppose, that he really believed in the doctrine of fatality. Being prime minister of one of the kings of China, it was necessary for him to act the politician as well as the philosopher; and he could not fail to know, that the superst.i.tions of the people were among the best supports of the government. He might have been aware of the folly and absurdity of such a doctrine, and yet found it prudent to enforce the observance of it; just as the Greeks thought proper to continue their _Lots_.

These, instead of sticks, as used by the Chinese, were three stones that, according to some, were first discovered and presented to Pallas by the nymphs, the daughters of Jupiter, who rejected an offering that rather belonged to Apollo, and threw them away;--an excellent moral, observes Doctor Tytler, the learned translator of the hymns and epigrams of Callimachus, shewing that those persons who are guided by Pallas, or Wisdom, will improve the present time, without being too anxious to pry into futurity. The Greek poet, however, like the Chinese philosopher, ascribed to the possessor of the Lots, the talent of reading future destiny.

"By him the sure events of Lots are given; By him the prophet speaks the will of Heaven."

Tytler.

The Romans had also their lots to determine future events, which were a kind of wooden dice, and their priests examined the marks and interpreted the signification of the throw. And the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, made use of little sticks, notched at the ends which, like the Chinese, they threw three times in case they did not approve of the first throw. Herodotus traces the custom of predicting future events to the ancient Egyptians, and seems to think the Greeks had it from them. But is not the desire of prying into futurity to be ascribed rather to a weakness in human nature, than as a custom borrowed by one nation from another? Are we entirely free from it in modern Europe? However humiliating the reflection may be, yet it is certainly true, that men of the strongest minds and soundest judgments have sometimes, towards the close of an useful life, devoted their time to the exposition of old prophecies without meaning, or applicable only to events that were already in train to be accomplished when the prediction was made. Among many others, the great _Napier_, the inventor of logarithms, might be produced as an instance of this remark. From the Apocalypse of Saint John he predicted the day of judgment; but his calculations in this instance not being founded on _data_ equally solid with those on which he constructed his tables, he unfortunately survived the day he had named to blush at his own weakness.

Other parts of the doctrine of Confucius were well calculated to keep alive the superst.i.tious notions that still prevail among the mult.i.tude.

He taught them to believe that the human body was composed of two principles, the one light, invisible, and ascending; the other gross, palpable, and descending; that the separation of these two principles cause the death of man; that at this awful period the light and spiritual part of the human body ascends into the air, whilst the gross and corporeal matter sinks into the earth. The word _death_, in fact, never enters into the philosophy of Confucius; nor, indeed, on common occasions is it employed by the Chinese at the present day. When a person departs this life, the common expression is, _he has returned to his family_. And although the body resolves itself in the course of time into its primitive elements, and becomes a part of the universe; yet, he contended, the spirits of such as had performed their duty in life were permitted to visit their ancient habitations, or such places as might be appointed for receiving the homage of their descendants, on whom they had the power of conferring benefactions. On this ground it became the indispensable duty of every good man to observe a strict obedience of the performance of sacred rites in the temple consecrated to the memory of ancestors. He maintained that all such as neglected this great branch of moral duty would be punished for their neglect, after death, by their spiritual part being deprived of the privilege of visiting the hall of ancestors; and, consequently, of the pleasure arising from the homage bestowed by their descendants. Such a system could not fail to establish a belief in good and evil genii, and of tutelar spirits presiding over families, towns, cities, houses, mountains, and other particular places. It afterwards required no great stretch of the imagination to give to these "airy nothings a local habitation and a name."

It does not appear, however, that either Confucius or any of his disciples attached the least idea of a _personal being_ to the deity; nor does it seem ever to have entered into their minds to represent the _great first cause_ under any image or personification. They considered the sun, moon, stars and the elements, with the azure firmament, as the creative and productive powers, the immediate agents of the Deity and inseparably connected with him, and they offered adoration to these agents, united in one word _tien_ (Heaven). It cannot be supposed, after what has already been observed in the sixth chapter, that I should lay any stress on the similarity of words in different languages, or on the a.n.a.logy of their signification, in order to prove a common origin; but if the conjecture of the learned Bos be right, that Te?? may be derived from Tee?? to move forward, in allusion to the motion of the heavenly bodies which the ancient Greeks, as well as the Persians, worshipped, _tien_ certainly comes very near the Greek both in sound and signification; nearer it could not come in sound, as the Chinese by no effort could p.r.o.nounce the T _th_. The word _tien_ not only signifies _heaven_, but a revolution of the heavenly bodies, and is in common use both in writing and conversation for _day_, as _ye, ul, san tien_, one, two, three days.

The Confucionists, like the Stoics, seem to have considered the whole universe as one animated system, made up of one material substance and one spirit, of which every living thing was an emanation, and to which, when separated by death from the material part it had animated, every living thing again returned. In a word, their conceptions of the Deity might be summed up in those two beautiful and expressive lines of Pope,

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and G.o.d the soul."

But that which is most surprizing is, that the enthusiastic followers of Confucius have never erected any statue to his memory, nor paid him divine honours as erroneously has been supposed. In every city is a public building, a kind of college, wherein examinations are held for degrees of office, and this building is called the house of Confucius.

Here, on certain appointed days, the men of letters a.s.semble to pay respect to the memory of their esteemed philosopher. In the great hall appropriated for this ceremony a plain tablet is erected, on which is painted an inscription, in gilt characters, to this effect: "O _Cong-foo-tse_, our revered master, let thy spiritual part descend and be pleased with this our respect which we now humbly offer to thee!"

Fruit and wine, flowers, perfumes and other articles are then placed before the tablet, during which are also burning various kinds of scented gums, frankincense, tapers of sandal wood and gilt paper. This ceremony, which in every respect is the same to that which he taught as an observance towards the manes of departed relations, they are persuaded is agreeable to the invisible spirits of those to whom it is offered, who delight in hovering over the grateful odour of flowers, of fruit, and the smoke of incense. Thus, in like manner, did the Romans on their birth-days offer flowers and fruit and wine, and burn incense to invisible spirits, whom they called the _genii_,

"Funde merum genio."

"Fill a gla.s.s to Genius."

But the priests, who, in all ages and in most nations, have been crafty enough to turn to their own account the credulity and superst.i.tions of the people, having once established as a religious duty the offering of sweet-smelling herbs and other perfumes, found little difficulty in persuading the mult.i.tude, that that the tutelar spirits could eat as well as smell, and that sacrifices and meat-offerings would be acceptable to the G.o.ds. The priests of China lost no time in introducing sacrifices, even of living creatures, and offerings of corn and rice and wine and precious metals upon their altars, not however to that extent which was practised in the temples of Greece and Rome, whose G.o.ds were the most mercenary of all nations, being rarely induced to grant a favour without a fee. Nor in modern days have the monks and priests of the Catholic faith been backward in this respect particularly in sanctioning the doctrine of _composition for sins_, for the absolution of which the rate was not even fixed in proportion to the magnitude; and what is still more astonishing, this impious practice of bargaining with the Almighty has survived the dark ages, and exists to a certain degree at this moment.

The moral and religious opinions of Confucius were, in fact, too sublime and too metaphysical to preserve their purity among a people so unprepared, as his countrymen were, to receive and cherish them. The attention of the mult.i.tude would seem, indeed, in all nations to require being fixed on something gross and material. How difficult was it for the priest and the leader of the Jews, to restrain their people from practices of idolatry. In the short absence even of Moses on Mount Sinai, they made for themselves a molten calf of gold as an object of divine worship, in imitation, probably, of what they had beheld in the temples of Egypt. The invisible G.o.d made little impression on their gross and untutored understandings. Nor was Numa more successful than Moses or Confucius, in his attempt to establish among the people the worship of an ideal or mental object of adoration. Thus also it happened with the Chinese. The sublime conceptions of their great philosopher, too refined indeed for untutored human nature, they could not comprehend. They required some visible object on which they might fix their attention. It was not enough merely to imagine that the spirits of men, who had done their duty in this life, were permitted to haunt the places where their bodies were interred, or where their surviving friends should a.s.semble to do them honour: it was necessary to give them a form and substance. In the same manner was the purity of the Christian religion contaminated by the mult.i.tude of images that were invented in the monkish ages, when every city, town, and church, and even individuals, provided they could pay for them, had their particular patron, or tutelar saint.

Like the temples of Confucius, those of the ancient Egyptians are supposed to have been entirely free from statues; and Herodotus seems to be of opinion, that Hesiod and Homer were the first who introduced the genealogy of the G.o.ds among the Greeks; imposed names upon each, a.s.signed their functions and their honours, and clothed them in their several forms. And we learn from Silius Italicus, that the ancient temple of Hercules at Gades had no visible type of the Deity.

"Sed nulla effigies, simulacrave nota deorum, Majestate loc.u.m, et sacro implevere timore."

"No statues of the G.o.ds appear within, Nor images; but rev'rend horror round, And gloom majestic guard the sacred ground."

Tytler's MS.

The missionaries in their writings have endeavoured to impress the world with an idea that the Chinese, and particularly the Confucionists, are atheists; that they disbelieve in a future state of existence; and that they are the victims of a senseless superst.i.tion. Nothing can be more unjust than such an accusation. Could _Caung-shee_ be an atheist, when he inscribed with his own hands the Jesuit church in Pekin,

"To the only true principle of all things," &c.

And can a people be justly accused of a disbelief in a state of future existence, when the whole nation, of what sect soever, presents its offerings at stated seasons to the _spirits_ of its departed ancestors?

Does the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, "Let thy spiritual part descend and be pleased with this our respect which we now humbly offer to thee!" convey any such supposition? And of all others, the missionaries ought to have been the last to accuse the Chinese of senseless superst.i.tions. Surely it is not more repugnant to reason, nor less consonant with human feelings, to offer grateful gifts to the manes of deceased parents and friends, than to fall down before the Virgin Mary and the thousand saints whom caprice or cabal have foisted into their calendar, and of whose history and actions even their votaries are totally ignorant? Chinese superst.i.tion, in this respect is, to say the worst of it, an amiable weakness. If the supposition be allowed that beings who have departed this life may possess an influence over remaining mortals, it is surely more natural to address those whose care and kindness had already been felt, than those of whom we have no further knowledge than the name. There is perhaps no stronger incentive to virtuous actions, nor a more effectual check against vicious pursuits, than the idea that the departed spirit of a beloved parent may continue to watch over and direct our conduct.

The Chinese, at all events, are not illiberal in their superst.i.tions: they made not the least difficulty in allowing the corpse of one of our artists, who died at _Tong-tchoo_, though a Christian and consequently in their opinion a heretic, to be deposited in the midst of their public burying ground. With as little reason does an angry missionary complain of the dresses and ceremonies of their priests, as they certainly borrowed nothing from the Catholics, who, on their part, are much indebted to the heathen Greeks for a great part of the paraphernalia of their own religion. "There is no country," says he, "where the devil has so successfully counterfeited the true worship of the holy church. These priests of the infernal spirit wear long loose gowns, exactly resembling those of some of the fathers of the church; they live in temples like so many monasteries, and they chaunt in the same manner as with us."

Another religion, much better calculated to gain popularity, sprung up about the time of, or very shortly after, the death of Confucius. A man of the name of _Lao-Kung_, having travelled into Thibet, became in part acquainted with the worship of the priests of Lama, which he thought would suit his countrymen, and might also be the means of raising his own reputation. He accordingly established a sect, under the name of _Tao-tze_, or "Sons of Immortals." He maintained, like Epicurus, that to live at his ease and to make himself happy were the chief concerns of man: that, to seize the present moment, regardless of the past and of that to come, was the business of life,

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."