Religions of Ancient China-Herbert Allen Giles

0:001. The Problem of the Universe has never offered the slightest difficulty to Chinese philosophers masses. According to this, the male and female principles were each subdivided into greater

1:05and lesser, and then from the interaction of these four agencies, a being named Panku came into existence. He seems to have come into life endowed with perfect knowledge, and his function was to set the economy of the universe in order. He is often depicted as wielding a huge ads, and engaged in constructing the world. With his death, the details of creation began. His breath became the wind, his voice, the thunder, his left eye, the sun, his right eye, the moon, his blood flowed in rivers, his hair grew into trees and plants, his flesh became the soil, his sweat descended as rain, while the parasites which infested his body were the origin of the human race. Many Chinese writers tell us that Fou Sai, BC 2953-2838, was the first emperor to organize sacrifices to and worship of the spirits. In this he was followed by the Yellow Emperor,

2:11BC 2698-2598, who built a temple for the worship of God, in which incense was used, and was sacrificed to the mountains and rivers. He is also said to have established the worship of the sun, moon, and five planets, and to have elaborated the ceremonial of ancestral worship. The Yellow Emperor was followed by the Emperor Shao Hao, BC 2598-2514, who instituted the music of the Great Abyss in order to bring spirits and men into harmony. Then came the Emperor Chuan Su, BC 2514-2436, of whom it is said that he appointed an officer to preside over the worship of God and Earth in order to form a link between the spirits and man, and also caused music to be played for the enjoyment of God. Music, by the way, it said to have been introduced into worship in imitation of

3:12thunder and was therefore supposed to be pleasing to the Almighty. After him followed the Emperor Tiku, BC 2436-2366, who dabbled in astronomy and came to a knowledge of spiritual beings which he respectfully worshiped. The Emperor Yao, BC 2357-2255, built a temple for the worship of God, and also caused dances to be performed for the enjoyment of God on occasions of special sacrifice and communication with the spiritual world. After him we reached the Emperor Shun, BC 2255-205, in whose favor Yao abdicated. Before, however, Shun ventured to mount the throne, he consulted the stars in order to find out if the unseen powers were favorable to his elevation, and on receiving a satisfactory reply, he proceeded to sacrifice to God to the six honored ones, unknown, to the mountains and rivers and to spirits in general.

4:19In the second month of the year, he made a tour of inspection eastward as far as Mount to I, in modern Shang Tong, where he presented a burnt offering to God and sacrificed to the mountains and rivers. The great you, who drained the empire and came to the throne in BC 2205 as first emperor of the Sai dynasty, followed in the lines of his pious predecessors. But the emperor Kong Chai, BC 1879-1848, who at first had treated the spirits with all due reverence, fell into evil ways and was abandoned by God. This was the beginning of the end. In BC 1766, Tang, the completeer, founder of the Shang dynasty, set to work to overthrow Chui Chui, the last ruler of the Sai dynasty. He began by sacrificing to Almighty God and asking for a blessing on his undertaking, and in his subsequent proclamation to the empire,

5:21he spoke of that God as follows. God has given to every man a conscience, and if all men acted in accordance with its dictates, they would not stray from the right path. The way of God is to bless the good and punish the bad. He has sent down calamities on the house of Sai to make manifest its crimes. In BC 1637, the emperor Taimao succeeded. His reign was marked by the supernatural appearance in the palace of two mulberry trees, which in a single night grew to such a size that they could hardly be spanned by two hands. The emperor was terrified, whereupon a minister said, no progedy is a match for virtue. Your majesty's government is no doubt at fault, and some reform of conduct is necessary. Accordingly, the emperor began to act more circumspectly, after which the mulberry trees soon withered and died. The emperor Wu Ting, BC 1324-1264, began his reign by not speaking for three years,

6:29leaving all state affairs to be decided by his prime minister while he himself gained experience. Later on, the features of a sage were revealed to him in a dream, and on waking, because to portrait of the apparition to be prepared and circulated throughout the empire. The sage was found, and for a long time aided the emperor in the right administration of government. On the occasion of a sacrifice, a fesent perched upon the handle of the great sacrificial tripod, and crowed, at which the emperor was much alarmed. Be not afraid, quite a minister, but begin by reforming your government. God looks down upon mortals, and in accordance with their desserts, grants them many years or few. God does not shorten men's lives. They do that themselves. Some are wanting in virtue and will not acknowledge their transgressions. Only when God chasens them do they cry, what are we to do? One of the last emperors of the Shang dynasty, Wu Yi, who reigned BC 1198-1194, even went so far as

7:35to make an image in human form which he called God. With this image he used to play at dice, causing someone to throw for the image, and if God lost, he would overwhelm the image with insult. He also made a bag of leather which he filled with blood and hung up. Then he would shoot at it, saying that he was shooting God. By and by, when he was out hunting, he was struck down by a violent thunder cap and killed. Finally, when the Shang dynasty sank into the lowest depths of moral abasement, King Wu, who charged himself with his overthrow and who subsequently became the first sovereign of the Chao dynasty, offered sacrifices to Almighty God and also to Mother Earth. The King of Shang, he said in his address to the high officers who collected around him, does not reverence God above and inflicts calamities on the people below. Almighty God is moved with indignation. On the day of the final battle, he declared that he was

8:36acting in the matter of punishment merely as the instrument of God, and after his great victory and the establishment of his own mind, it was to God that he rendered thanks. In this primitive monotheism of which only scanty but no doubt genuine, records remain, no place was found for any beings such as the Buddhist, Mara, or the devil of the old and new testaments. God inflicted his own punishments by visiting calamities on mankind just as he bestowed his own rewards by sending Bounteous Harvests in due season. Evil spirits were a later invention, and their operations were even then confined chiefly to tearing people's hearts out and so forth for their own particular pleasure. We certainly meet no cases of evil spirits wishing to undermine man's allegiance to God or desiring to make people wicked in order to secure their everlasting punishment. The vision of purgatory, with all its horrid tortures, was introduced into China by Buddhism, and was subsequently annexed by the Taoists sometime between the 3rd and 6th

9:39centuries AD. Before passing to the firmer ground, historically speaking of the Chaodinistie, it may be as well to state here that there are two terms in ancient Chinese literature which seem to be used indiscriminately for God. One is Tien, which has come to include the material heavens, the sky, and the other is Shang-Ti, which has come to include the spirits of deceased emperors. These two terms appear simultaneously, so to speak, in the earliest documents which have come down to us dating back to something like the 20th century before Christ. Priority, however, belongs beyond out to Tien, which it would have been more natural to find meaning, first the visible heavens, and secondly the deity, whose existence beyond the sky would be inferred from such phenomena as lighting, thunder, wind, and rain. But the process appears to have been the other way, so far at any rate as the written language is concerned. The Chinese script, when it first came

10:41into existence, was purely pictorial and confined to visible objects which were comparatively easy to depict. There does not seem to have been any attempt to draw a picture of the sky. On the other hand, the character Tien is just such a representation of a human being as would be expected from the hand of a prehistoric artist. And under this unmistakable shape, the character appears on bells and tripods as seen in collections of inscriptions, so late as the 6th and 7th centuries BC, after which the head is flattened to a line, and the arms are raised until they form another line, parallel to that of the head. The term Shang-Ti means literally supreme ruler. It is not quite so vague as Tien, which seems to be more of an abstraction, while Shang-Ti is a genuinely personal god. Reference to Tien is usually associated with fate or destiny, calamities, blessings, prayers for help, etc. The commandments of Tien are hard to obey. He is compassionate to be feared,

11:45unjust, and cruel. Shang-Ti lives in heaven, walks, leaves, tracks on the ground, enjoys the sweet savor of sacrifices, approves or disapproves of conduct, deals with rewards and punishments in a more particular way, and comes more actually into touch with the human race. Thus Shang-Ti would be the god who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, the god who smelled the sweet savor of Noah's sacrifice, and the god who allowed Moses to see his back. Tien would be the god of gods of the Psalms, whose mercy endured forever, the everlasting god of Isaiah, who fainteth not, neither is weary. These two, in fact, were the very terms favored by the early Jesuit missionaries to China, though not with the limitations above suggested, as fit and proper renderings for god, and of the two terms the great Manchu Emperor, Kyeong-Sai, chose Tien. It has been thought that the conversion of China to Christianity under the guiding influence of the Jesuits would soon

12:46have become an accomplished fact, but for the ignorant opposition to the use of these terms by the Franciscans and Dominicans, who referred this question among others to the Pope. In 1704, Clement XI published a bull declaring that the Chinese equivalent of god was Tian-Chu, lord of heaven, and such it has continued to be ever since, so far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, in spite of the fact that Tian-Chu was a name given at the close of the third century BC to one of the eight spirits. The two terms refer in Chinese thought to one and the same being, though possibly with differing attributes, even down to modern times, may be seen from the account of a dream by the Emperor Yong-Low, AD 1403-1425, in which his majesty relates that an angel appeared to him with a message from Shang-Ti, upon which the Emperor remarked, is not this a command from Tian, a comparison might perhaps be instituted with the use of god and Jehovah in the Bible.

13:50At the same time it must be noted that this view was not suggested by the emperor Kyeong-Sai, who fixed upon Tian as the appropriate term. It is probable that vigorous confusionist as he was, he was anxious to appear on the side rather of an abstract than of a personal deity, and that he was repelled by the overwrought anthropomorphism of the Christian god. His conversion was said to have been very near at times. We read, however, that when hard pressed by the missionaries to accept baptism, he always excused himself by saying that he worshipped the same god as the Christians. The Chow Dynasty lasted from BC 1122 to BC 255. It was China's feudal age when the Empire then included between latitude 34 degrees to 40 degrees, and longitude 109 degrees to 118 degrees, was split up into a number of facile states, which owned allegiance to Suserein State. And it is to the earlier centuries of the Chow Dynasty that must be attributed the

14:54composition of a large number of ballads of various kinds, ultimately collected and edited by Confucius, and now known as the Oads. From these Oads it is abundantly clear that the Chinese people continued to hold, more clearly and more firmly than ever, a deep-seated belief in the existence of anthropomorphic and personal god whose one care was the welfare of the human race. There is Almighty God. Does he hate anyone? The soul of King Wang, father of the King Wu, below, and post-tuminously raised by his son to Royal Rank, is represented as enjoying happiness in a state beyond the grave. King Wang is on high in glory in heaven, his comings and his goings are to and from the presence of God. Sometimes in the Oads there is a hint that God, in spite of his anthropomorphic semblance, is a spirit. The doings of God have neither sound nor smell.

15:58Spheres were certainly supposed to move freely among mortals. Do not say this place is not public, no one can see me here. The approaches of spiritual beings cannot be calculated beforehand, but on no account should they be ignored. In the hour of battle the God of Ancient China was as much our participator in the fight as the God of Israel in the Old Testament. God is on your side, was the cry which stimulated King Wu to break down the opposing ranks of Shang. To King Wu's father and others direct communications had previously been made from heaven with a view to the regeneration of the Empire. The dynasties of Sai and Shang had not satisfied God with their government, so throughout the various states he sought and considered for a state on which he might confer the rule. God said to King Wang, I am pleased with your conspicuous virtue, without noise and without display, without heat and without change, without consciousness of effort following the pattern of God.

17:02God said to King Wang, take measures against the hostile states, along with your brethren, get ready your grappling irons and your engines of assault to attack the walls of Song. The ode from which the following extract is taken carries us back to the 9th century BC at the time of a prolonged and disastrous drought. Glorious was the Milky Way revolving brightly in the sky, when the King said, alas, what crime have my people committed now that God sends down death and disorder, and famine comes upon us again? There is no spirit to whom I have not sacrificed. There is no victim that I have grudged. Our sacrificial symbols are all used up. How is it that I am not heard? The keystone of the Confucian philosophy that man is born good will be found in the following lines. How mighty is God, how clothed in majesty is God, and how uncertainable are His judgments. God gives birth to the people, but their natures are not

18:05constant, all have the same beginning, but few have the same end. God, however, is not held responsible for the sufferings of mankind. King Wang, in an address to the last tyrant of the house of Song, says plainly, it is not God who has caused this evil time, but it is you who have strayed from the old paths. Worshiped on certain occasions as the associate of God, and often summoned to aid in hours of distress or danger, was a personage known as How Qi, said to have been the original ancestor of the house of Chao. His story, sufficiently told in the Oads, is curious for several reasons, and especially as an instance in Chinese literature which, in the absence of any known husband, comes near suggesting the much vexed question of Partha no Genesis. She who first gave birth to our people was the lady Chiang Yuan. How did she give birth to them? She offered up a sacrifice that she might not be childless. Then she trod in a footprint of gods

19:10and conceived, the great and blessed one pregnant with a new birth to be, and brought forth and nourished him who was How Qi. When she had fulfilled her months, her firstborn came forth like a lamb, there was no bursting, no rending, no injury, no hurt, in order to emphasize his divinity. Did not God give her comfort? Had he not accepted her sacrifice so that thus easily she brought forth her son? He was exposed in a narrow lane, but sheep and oxen protected and suckled him. He was exposed in a wide forest, but woodcutters found him. He was exposed on cold ice, but birds covered him with their wings. And so he grew to man's estate, and taught the people husbandry with a success that has never been rivaled. Consequently, he was deified, and during several centuries of the Chao dynasty, was united in worship with God. O wise How Qi, fit associate of God, founder of our

20:12race, there is none greater than thou, thou gave us thus wheat and barley, which God appointed for our nourishment, and without distinction of territory, dis-inculcate the virtues over our vast dominions. During the long period covered by the Chao dynasty, various other deities of more or less importance were called into existence. The patriarchal emperor Xian Nung, BC 2338 to 2698, who had taught his people to till the ground and eat the fruits of their labor, was deified as the Tushireginius of agriculture. That my fields are in such good condition is a matter of joy to my husband men, with lutes and with drums beating, we will invoke the father of husbandry and pray for sweet rain, to increase the produce of our millet fields, and to bless my men and their wives. There were also sacrifices to the father of war, whoever he may have been, to the spheres of wind, rain, and fire, and even to a deity who watched over the welfare of silkworms. Since those days,

21:17the number of spiritual beings who receive worship from the Chinese, some in one part of the empire, some in another, has increased enormously. A single work published in 1640 gives notices of no fewer than 800 divinities. During the period under consideration, all kinds of superstition prevailed, among others, that referring to the rainbow. The rainbow was believed by the vulgar to be an emanation from an enormous oyster away in the Great Ocean which surrounded the world, i.e., China. Philosophers held it to be the result of unduperportions in the mixture of the two cosmogonical principles, which when properly blended produced the harmony of nature. By both parties, it was considered to be an inauspicious manifestation, and merely to point at it would produce a sword on the hand. Several events of a supernatural character are recorded as having taken place under the Chao dynasty. In B.C. 756, one of the feudal dukes saw a vision of a yellow serpent which descended

22:21from heaven and laid its head on the slope of a mountain. The duke spoke of this to his astrologer who said, it is a manifestation of God, sacrifice to it. In B.C. 747, another duke found on a mountain, a being in the semblance of a stone. Sacrifices were at once offered, and the stone was deified and received regular worship for that time forward. In B.C. 659, a third duke was in a transfer five days when he saw a vision of God and received from him instructions as to matters then pressing. For many generations afterwards, the story ran that the duke had been up to heaven. This became a favorite theme for romancers. It is stated in the biography of a certain thing, Po, that one night he saw the gate of heaven open and beheld exceeding glory within which shown into his courtyard. The following story is told by Sae Nang Su, D. B.C. 122,

23:23once when the duke of Lu Yang was at war with the Han state and sunset drew near while a battle was still fiercely raging, the duke held up his spear and shook it at the sun, which forthwith went back three zodiacal signs. From the records of this period, we can also see how jealously the worship of God and earth was reserved for the emperor alone. In B.C. 651, duke Huan of the Ch.E. state, one of the feudal nobles, to be mentioned later on, wished to signalize his ascension to the post of Doyenne, or leader of the Vassal states, by offering the great sacrifices to God and to earth. He was, however, dissuaded from this by a wise minister who pointed out that only those could perform these ceremonies who had personally received the imperial mandate from God. The same minister is said to be responsible for the following utterance. Duke Huan asked Huan Chong, saying, to what should a prince attach the highest importance? To God replied the minister,

24:26at which Duke Huan gazed upwards to the sky. The god I mean continued Huan Chong is not the imlimitable blue above, a true prince makes the people his god. Much has been recorded by the Chinese on the subject of sacrifice, more indeed than can be easily condensed into a small compass. First of all, there were the great sacrifices to God and to earth, at the winter and summer solstices respectively, which were reserved for the son of heaven alone. Besides what may be called private sacrifices, the emperor sacrificed also to the four quarters and to the mountains and rivers of the empire, while the feudal nobles sacrificed each to his own quarter and to the mountains and rivers of his own domain. The victim offered by the emperor on a blazing pile of wood was an ox of one color, always a young animal. A feudal noble would use any fetted ox, and a petty official a sheep or a pig. When sacrificing to the spirits of land and of grain,

25:28the son of heaven used a bull, a ram, and a boar. The feudal nobles only a ram and a boar, and the common people, scallions and eggs in spring, wheat and fish in summer, millet and suckling pig in autumn, and unhold rice and goose in winter. If there was anything in felicitous about the victim intended for God, it was used for how chi. The victim intended for God required to be kept in a clean stall for three months. That for how chi required to be perfect in its parts. This was the way in which they distinguished between heavenly and earthly spirits. In primeval times we are told sacrifice is consisting of meat and drink, the latter being the mysterious liquid, water, for which wine was substituted later on. The ancients roasted millet and pieces of pork. They made a hole in the ground and scooped the water from it with their two hands, beating upon an earth-em-drum with a clay drumstick. Thus they expressed their reverence for spiritual

26:30beings. Sacrifices, according to the Book of Rights, legs translation, should not be frequently repeated. Such frequency is indicative of opportunitiveness, and opportunitness is inconsistent with reverence. Nor should they be at distant intervals. Such infrequency is indicative of indifference, and indifference leads to forgetting them altogether. Therefore the superior man, in harmony with the course of nature, offers the sacrifices of spring and autumn. When he treads on the dew which has descended as horfrost, he cannot help a feeling of sadness which arises in his mind, and which cannot be ascribed to the cold. In spring, when he treads on the ground, wet with the rains, and do's that have fallen heavily, he cannot avoid being moved by a feeling as if he were seeing his departed friends. We meet the approach of our friends with music and escort them away with sadness, and hence at the sacrifice in spring, we use music, but not at the sacrifice in autumn. Sacrifices is not a thing common to a man from

27:33without. It issues from within him, and has its birth in his heart. When the heart is deeply moved, expression is given to it by ceremonies, and hence only men of ability and virtue can give complete exhibition to the idea of sacrifice. It was in this sense that Confucius warned his followers not to sacrifice to spirits which did not belong to them, i.e. to other than those of their own immediate ancestors. To do otherwise would raise a suspicion of ulterior motives. For the purpose of ancestral worship, which had been practiced from the earliest ages, the Emperor had seven shrines, each with his altar representing various forefathers, and at all of these a sacrifice was offered every month. Fudal nobles could have only five sets of these, and the various officials, three or fewer, on a descending scale in proportion to their rank. Petty officers and the people generally had no ancestral shrine, but worshiped the shades of their forefathers as best they could in their houses and cottages. For three days before sacrificing

28:37to ancestors, a strict vigil and purification was maintained, and by the end of that time, from sheer concentration of thought, the mourner was able to see the spirits of the departed, and at the sacrifice next day seemed to hear their very movements and even the mourner of their size. The object of the ceremony was to bring down the spirits from above, together with the shades of ancestors, and thus to secure the blessing of God, at the same time to please the souls of the departed, and to create a link between the living and the dead. The object in sacrifices is not to pray, the time should not be hastened on, a great apparatus is not required, ornamental details are not to be approved, the victims need not be fat and large. C.F. Horus. O.D. Roman III. 23. Immunis. Erum. Etc. A profusion of the other offerings is not to be admired. There must, however, be no parsimony. A high official, well able to afford better things,

29:43was justly blamed for having sacrificed to the means of his father, a suckling pig, which did not fill the dish. The various dances displayed the gravity of the performers, but did not awaken the emotion of delight. The ancestral temple produced the impression of majesty, but did not dispose one to rest in it. Its vessels might be employed, but could not be conveniently used for any other purpose. The idea which leads to intercourse with spiritual beings is not interchangeable with that which finds its realization in rest and pleasure. From the ceremonial of ancestor worship, the thin end of the wedge of priestcraft was rigorously excluded. For the words of prayer and blessing and those of benediction to be kept hidden away by the officers of prayer of the ancestral temple and by the sorcerers and recorders is a violation of the rules of propriety. This may be called keeping in a state of darkness. Confucius sums up the value of sacrifices in the following words.

30:49By their great sacrificial ceremonies, the ancients served God. By their ceremonies in the ancestral temple, they worshipped their forefathers. He who should understand the great sacrificial ceremonies and the meaning of the ceremonies in the ancestral temple would find it as easy to govern the empire as to look upon the palm of his hand. Immediately connected with ancestral worship is the practice of filial piety. It is in fact on filial piety that ancestral worship is dependent for its existence. In early ages, sons sacrificed to the means of their parents and ancestors generally in order to afford some mysterious pleasure to the disembodied spirits. There was then no idea of propitiation, of benefits to ensue. In later times, the character of the sacrifice underwent a change until a sentiment of, do-ut-desk, became the real main spring of the ceremony. Meanwhile, Confucius had complained that the filial piety of his day only meant the support of

31:52parents. But, argued the sage, we support our dogs and our horses, without reverence, what is there to distinguish one from the other. He affirmed that children, who would be accounted filial, should give their parents no cause of anxiety beyond such anxiety as might be occasioned by ill health. Filial piety, he said again, did not consist in relieving the parents of toil, or in setting before them wine and food. It did consist in serving them while alive according to the established rules, imberying them when dead according to the established rules, and in sacrificing to them after death, also according to the established rules. In another passage, Confucius declared that filial piety consists in carrying on the aims of our forefathers, which really amounts to serving the dead as they would have been served if alive. Divination seems to have been practiced in China from the earliest ages. The implements used were the shell of the tortoise,

32:53spiritualized by the long life of its occupant, and the stalks of a kind of grass, to which also spiritual powers had for some reason or other been attributed. These were the methods, we are told, by which the ancient kings made the people revere spirits, obey the law, and settle all their doubts. God gave these spiritual boons to mankind, and the sages took advantage of them. To explore with his complex, to search out what is hidden, to hook up what lies deep, and to reach to what is distant, thereby determining the issues for good or ill of all events under the sky, and making all men full of strenuous endeavor, there are no agencies greater than those of the stalks and the tortoise shell. In BC 2224, when the Emperor Shun wished to associate the great you, with him in the government, the latter begged that recourse might be had to divination, in order to discover the most suitable among the ministers for this exalted position. The Emperor refused, saying that his choice had already been confirmed by the body of ministers,

33:58the spirits too have signified their ascent, the tortoise and grass having both concurred, divination, when fortunate, may not be repeated. Sincereity, on which Confucius lays such a special stress, is closely associated with success in divination. Sincereity is of God, cultivation of sincerity is of man. He who is naturally sincere, is he who hits his mark without effort, and without thinking at her hands. He easily keeps to the golden mean, he is inspired. He who cultivates sincerity is he who chooses what is good and holds fast to it. It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to forno. When a state or a family is about to flourish, there are sure to be happy omens, and when it is about to perish, there are sure to be unpropicious omens. The events portended are set forth by the divining grass and the tortoise. When calamity or good fortune may be about to come, the evil or the good

35:01will be foreknown by the perfectly sincere man who may therefore be compared with the spirit. The tortoise and the grass have long since disappeared as instruments of divination, which is now carried on by means of lots drawn from a vase, with answers attached, by planche and by the chow. The last consists of two pieces of wood, anciently of stone, in the shape of the two halves of a kidney bean. These are thrown into the air before the altar in a temple, Buddhist or Taoist it matters nothing, with the following results. Two convex sides uppermost mean a response in differently good. Two flat sides mean negative and bad. One convex and one flat side mean that the prayer will be granted. This form of divination, though widely practiced at the present day, is by no means of recent date. It was commonly Jews date, which was destroyed BC 300 after 420 years of existence.

36:03End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of religions of ancient China by Herbert Giles This Libbervox recording is in the public domain, recording by Marianne. Chapter 2 Confucianism Under the influence of Confucius, BC 551-479, the old order of things began to undergo a change. The sage's attitude of mind towards religion was one of a benevolent agnosticism, as summed up in his famous utterance, respect the spirits, but keep them at a distance. That he fully recognized the existence of a spirit world, though admitting that he knew nothing about it, is manifest from the following remarks of his. How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to them? We look for, but do not see them, we listen for,

37:05but do not hear them, yet they enter into all things and there is nothing without them. They cause all the people in the empire to fast and purify themselves, and array themselves in their richest dresses, in order to attend at their sacrifices. Then, like overflowing water, they seem to be over the heads and on the right and left of their worshipers. He believed that he himself was, at any rate, to some extent, a profit of God, as witness his remarks when in danger from the people of Guang. After the death of King Wen, was not wisdom lodged in me. If God were to destroy this wisdom, future generations could not possess it, so long as God does not destroy this wisdom, what can the people of Guang do to me? Again, when Confucius cried, Alas, there is no one that knows me, and a disciple asked what was meant, he replied, I do not murmur against God, I do not grumble against men, my studies lie low,

38:09and my penetration lies high, but there is God, he knows me. We know that Confucius fasted. And we know that he sacrificed to the spirits, as though the spirits were present. It is even stated that, when a friend sent him a present, though it might be a carriage and horses, unless it were flesh which had been used in sacrifice, he did not bow. He declared that for a person in mourning, food and music were without flavor and charm, and whenever he saw anyone approaching who was in mourning dress, even though younger than himself, he would immediately rise from his seat. He believed in destiny, he was superstitious, changing color at a squal or at a clap of thunder, and he even countenanced the ceremonies performed by villagers when driving out evil spirits from their dwellings. He protested against any attempt to impose on God. He said that, he who offends against God has none to whom he can pray, and when in an hour of sickness a disciple asked to be

39:12allowed to pray for him, he replied, My praying has been for a long time. Yet he declined to speak to his disciples of God, of spiritual beings, or even of death and a hear-after, holding that life and its problems were alone sufficient to text the energies of the human race. While not altogether ignoring Man's duty towards God, he subordinated it in every way to Man's duty toward his neighbor. He also did much towards weakening the personality of God, for whom he invariably used Tien, never Shang-Ti, regarding him evidently more as an abstraction than as a living sentient being, with the physical attributes of Man. Confucianism is therefore entirely a system of morality and not a religion. It is also a curious fact that throughout the spring and autumn, or annals of the state of Lu, which extend from BC 722 to BC 484, there is no allusion of any kind to the interposition of God

40:13in human affairs, although a variety of natural phenomena are recorded, such as have always been regarded by primitive peoples as the direct acts of an angered or benevolent deity. Lu was the state in which Confucius was born, and its annals were compiled by the sage himself, and throughout these annals the term God is never used except in connection with the word King, where it always has the sense of, by the grace of God, and once, where the Sussan-Arain is spoken of as the Son of God, or as we usually phrase it, the Son of Heaven. In the famous commentary by Cao Qiu Ming in the spring and autumn, which imparts a human interest into the bald entries, set against each year of these annals, there are several allusions to the supreme being. For instance, at a time of great drought, the duke of Lu wished, in accordance with custom, to burn a witch and a person in the last stage of consumption, the latter being sometimes exposed in the Son so as to excite the compassion of

41:17God who would then cause rain to fall. A minister vigorously protested against this superstition, pointing out that the proper way to meet a drought would be to reduce the quantity of food consumed and to practice rigid economy in all things. What have these creatures to do with the matter, he asked? If God had wished to put them to death, he had better not given them life, if they can really produce drought, to burn them will only increase the calamity. The duke, accordingly, de-sisted, and although there was a famine, it is said to have been less severe than usual. In BC 523 there was a comet. A minister said, this broom star sweeps away the old and brings in the new, the doings of God are constantly attended by such appearances. Under BC 532 we have the record of a stone-speaking. The marquee of Lu inquired of his chief musician if this was a fact and received the following answer. Stones cannot speak, perhaps this one was

42:19possessed by a spirit. If not, the people must have heard wrong. And yet it is said that when things are done out of season and discontents and complaints are stirring among the people, then speechless things do speak. Human sacrifices appear to have been not altogether unknown. The commentary tells us that in BC 637 in consequence of failure to appear and enter into a covenant, that this count of, saying, was emulated by the people of the true state to appease the wild tribes of the East. The minister of war protested. In ancient times the six domestic animals were not offered promiscuously in sacrifice, and for small matters the regular sacrificial animals were not used. How then should we dare to offer up a man? Sacrifices are performed for the benefit of men, who thus as it were entertain the spirits, but if men sacrifice men, who will enjoy the offering? Again, in BC 529 the ruler of the true state destroyed the eye state and offered up the heir

43:25apparent as a victim. An officer said, this is inauspicious. If the five sacrificial animals may not be used promiscuously, how much less can a futile prince be offered up? The custom-abarying life persons with the dead was first practiced in China in BC 580. It was said to have been suggested by an earlier and more harmless custom of placing straw and wooden effigies in the mausolea of the great. When the first emperor died in BC 210, all those among his wives who had born no children were buried alive with him. From another commentary on the spring at autumn by Kuh Luyang Xu, 4th century BC, we have the following note on prayers for rain, which are still offered up on occasions of drought, but now generally through the medium of Taoist and Buddhist priests. Prayers for rain should be offered up in spring and summer only, not in autumn and winter. Why not in autumn and winter? Because the moisture of growing things is not then exhausted.

44:30Neither has man reached the limit of his skill. Why in spring and summer? Because time is then pressing and man's skill is of no further avail. How so? Because without ranges then nothing could be made to grow. The crops would fail and famine ensue. But why wait until time is pressing and man's skill is of no further avail? Because to pray for rain is the same thing as asking a favor, and the ancients did not lightly ask favors. Why so? Because they held it more blessed to give than to receive, and as the latter excludes the former, the main object of man's life is taken away. How is praying for rain asking a favor? It has a request that God will do something for us. The divine men of old who had any request to make to God were careful to prefer it in due season. At the head of all his high officers of state, the prince would proceed in person to offer up his prayer. He could not ask anyone else to go as his proxy. Before leaving Confucius, it is necessary

45:36to add that now for many centuries he has been the central figure and object of a cult as sincere as ever offered by man to any being human or divine. The ruler of Confucius's native state of Lu was profoundly distressed by the sage's death, and is said to have built a shrine to commemorate his great worth, at which sacrifices were offered at the four seasons. By the time however that the chow dynasty was drawing to its close, third century BC, it would be safe to say that, owing to civil war and the great political upheaval generally, the worship of Confucius was altogether discontinued. It certainly did not flourish under the first emperor, C. Post, and was only revived in BC 195 by the first emperor of the Han dynasty who visited the grave of Confucius in Shang-tung and sacrificed to his spirit a pig, a sheep, and an ox. 50 years later, a temple was built to Confucius at his native place, and in AD 72, his 72 disciples were admitted

46:37to share in the worship, music being shortly afterwards added to the ceremonial. Gradually, the people came to look upon Confucius as a god, and women used to pray to him for children until the practice was stopped by edict in AD 472. In 5.05, which some considered to be the date of the first genuine Confucian temple, wooden images of the sage were introduced. In 1530, these were abolished and inscribed tablets of wood in use at the present day were substituted. In 555, temples were placed in all prefectural cities, and later on in all the important cities and towns of the empire. In the second and eighth months of each year, before dawn, sacrifices to Confucius are still celebrated with considerable solemnity and pomp, including music and dances by bands of either 36 or 64 performers. Mencius, who lived BC 372 to 289, and devoted himself to the task of

47:37spreading and consolidating the Confucian teachings, may no attempt to lead back the Chinese people towards their earlier beliefs in a personal god and in a spiritual world beyond the ken of mortals. He observes in a general way that those who obey God are saved while those who rebel against him perish, but his reference is to this life and not to a future one. He also says that those whom God destans for some great part, he first chasens by suffering in toil, but perhaps his most original contribution will be found in the following paragraph. By exerting his mental powers to the full, man comes to understand his own nature. When he understands his own nature, he understands God. In all the above instances, the term used for God is ten, only in one single passage does mencius shong tea. Though a man may be wicked, if he duly prepares himself by fasting and abstinence and purification by water, he may sacrifice to God. The statesman poet Chiu Yuan BC 332 to 295, who

48:47drowned himself and despair at his country's outlook and whose body is still searched for annually at the Dragon Boat Festival, frequently alludes to a supreme being. Almighty God, Thou who art impartial and does to point the virtuous among men as thy assistance. One of his poems is entitled God Questions and consists of a number of questions on various mysteries in the universe. The meaning of the title would be better expressed by questions put to God, but we are told that such a phrase was impossible on account of the holiness of God and the irreverence of questioning him. One question was, who has handed down to us an account of the beginning of all things, and how do we know anything about the time when heaven and earth were without form? Another question was, as newtji had no husband, how could she bear nine sons? The commentary tells us that newtji was a divine maiden, but nothing more seems to be known about her. The following prose passage is taken from Chiu Yuan's biography.

49:51Man came originally from God just as the individual comes from his parents. When his span is at an end, he goes back to that from which he sprang. Thus it is that in the hour of bitter trial and exhaustion there is no man but calls to God, just as in his hours of sickness and sorrow every one of us will turn to his parents. The great sacrifices to God and to earth, as performed by the early rulers of China, had been traditionally associated with Mount Tai in the modern province of Xantong, one of China's five sacred mountains. Accordingly in BC 219, the self-styled First Emperor desirous every story in the Old Custom, which had already fallen into desuatuid, proceeded to the summit of Mount Tai, where he is said to have carried out his purpose, though what actually took place was always kept a profound secret. The literati, however, whom the First Emperor had persecuted by forbidding any further study of the Confucian canon and burning all the copies he could lay hands on, gave out that he had been

50:55prevented from performing the sacrifices by a violent storm of rain, alleging as a reason that he was altogether deficient in the virtue requisite for such a ceremony. It may be added that in BC 110, the then-raining emperor proceeded to the summit of Mount Tai and performed the great sacrifice to following this up by sacrificing to earth on a hill at the foot of the mountain. At the ceremony he was dressed in yellow robes and was accompanied by music. During the night there was light and a white cloud hung over the altar. The emperor himself declared that he saw a dazzling glory and heard a voice speaking to him. The truthful historian, the hero-dotus of China, who has left an account of these proceedings, accompanied the emperor on this and other occasions. He was also present at the sacrifices offered before the departure of the mission and has left it on record that he himself actually heard the voices of spirits. End of chapter 2

52:02Chapter 3 of Religions of Ancient China by Herbert Giles This Libravox recording is in the public domain, recording by Mirian. Meanwhile, other influences had been helping to divert the attention of the Chinese people from the simple worship of God and of the powers of nature. The philosophy associated with the name of Lao Zhu, who lived nobody knows when, probably about BC 600, which is popularly known as Taoism, from Tao, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and unthinkable principle on which it is based, operated with Confucianism, though in an opposite direction, in dislimining the old faith while putting nothing satisfactory in its place. Confucianism, with its shadowy monotheistic background, was at any rate a practical system for everyday use, and it may be said to contain all the great ethical truths to be found in the teachings of Christ. Lao Zhu, harped upon a doctrine of inaction

53:05by virtue of which all things were to be accomplished, a perpetual accommodation of self to one's surroundings, with the minimum of effort, all progress being spontaneous and in the line of least resistance. Such a system was naturally far better fitted for the study where the fact of it has always remained, than for use in ordinary life. In one of the few genuine utterances of Lao Zhu, which have survived the wreck of time, we find an illusion to a spiritual world. Unfortunately, it is impossible to exactly say what the passage means, according to Han Fei, died BC 233, who wrote several chapters to elucidate the sayings of Lao Zhu, the following is the correct interpretation. Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish, i.e. do not overdo it. If the empire is governed according to Tao, evil spirits will not be worshipped as good ones. If evil spirits are not worshipped as good ones, good ones will do no injury. Neither will the sages injure the people,

54:10each will not injure the other, and if neither injures the other, then there will be mutual profit. The latter portion is explained by another commentator as follows. Spirits do not hurt the natural. If people are natural, spirits have no means of manifesting themselves, and if spirits do not manifest themselves, we are not conscious of their existence as such. Likewise, if we are not conscious of the existence of spirits as such, we must be equally unconscious of the existence of inspired teachers as such, and to be unconscious of the existence of spirits and of inspired teachers is the very essence of Tao. In the hands of Lao Zhu's more immediate followers, Tao became the absolute, the first cause, and finally, one in whose obliterating unity all seemingly opposed conditions of time and space were indistinguishably blended. This one, the source of human life, was placed beyond the limits of our visible universe, and in order for human life to return

55:12thither at death and to enjoy immortality, it was only necessary to refine away corporeal grossness according to the doctrines of the Lao Zhu. Later on, this one came to be regarded as a fixed point of dazzling luminosity, in remote ether, around which circled forever and ever, in the supremeest glory of motion, the souls of those who had successfully passed through the ordeal of life, and who had left the slew of humanity behind them. The final state is best described by a poet of the 9th century AD. Like a whirling water wheel, like rolling pearls, yet how are these worthy to be named? They are but illustrations for fools. There is the mighty axis of earth, the never-resting pole of heaven, let us grasp their clue, and with them be blended in one beyond the bounds of thought, circling forever in the great void, and orbit of a thousand years. Yes, this is the key to my theme. This view naturally suggested the prolongation of earthly

56:20life by artificial means, hence the search for an elixir carried on through many centuries by degenerate disciples of Taoism. But here we must pass on to consider some of the speculations on God, life, death, and immortality indulged in by Taoist philosophers and others who were not fettered, as the Confucianists were, by traditional reticence on the subject of spirits and an unseen universe. Mo Tzu, a philosopher of the 4th and 5th centuries BC, was arguing one day for the existence of spirits with a disbelieving opponent. All you have to do, he said, is to go into any village and make inquiries, from of old until now the people have constantly seen and heard spiritual beings, how then can you say they do not exist? If they had never seen nor heard them, could people say they existed? Of course, replied the disbeliever, many people have seen and heard spirits, but is there any instance of a properly verified appearance? Mo Tzu then told a long story of how King Hussuan,

57:24BC 827-781, unjustly put to death the minister, and how the latter had said to the king, if there is no consciousness after death this matter will be at an end, but if there is, then within three years you will hear from me. Three years later, at a grand du bar, the minister descended from heaven on a white horse and shot the king dead before the eyes of all. Chuang Tzu, the famous philosopher of the third and fourth centuries BC, and exponent of the Tao of Lao Tzu, has the following illusions to God, of course, as seen through Taoist glasses. God is a principle which exists by virtue of its own intrinsicality and operates spontaneously without self-manifestation, he who knows what God is and what man is has attained. Knowing what God is, he knows that he himself proceeded therefrom. Knowing what man is, he rests in the knowledge of the known, waiting for the knowledge of the unknown. The ultimate end is God. He is manifested

58:28in the laws of nature. He is the hidden spring. At the beginning of all things, he was. Taoism, however, does not seem to have succeeded altogether any more than Confucianism, in altogether estranging the Chinese people from their traditions of a god, more or less personal, whose power was the real determining factor in human events. The great general, Xiyang Yu, BC 233-2202, said to his charioteer, at the battle which proved fatal to his fortunes, I have fought no fewer than seventy fights and have gained dominion over the empire, that I am now brought to this pass is because God has deserted me. 3 4. of Religions of Ancient China by Herbert Giles This Librevox recording is in the public domain, recording by Marianne.

59:31Yang Xuyong was a philosopher who flourished BC 53-818. He taught that the nature of man at birth is neither good nor evil, but a mixture of both, and that development in either direction depends wholly upon environment. To one who asked about God, he replied, what have I to do with God? Watch how without doing anything, he does all things. To another who said, surely it is God who fashions and adorns all earthly forms, he replied, not so. If God in an earthly sense were to fashion and adorn all things, his strength would not be adequate to the task. Wang Xuyong, AD 27-97, denies that men after death live again as spiritual beings on earth. Animals, he argues, do not become spirits after death. Why should men alone undergo this change? That which informs man at birth is vitality, and at death this vitality is extinguished.

1:00:33Vitality is produced by the pulsations of the blood. When these cease, vitality is extinguished, the body decays and becomes dust. How can it become a spirit? When a man dies, his soul ascends to heaven and his bones return, quay, to earth. Therefore he is spoken of as a disembodied spirit, quay. The latter word really meaning that which has returned. Vitality becomes humanity just as water becomes ice, the ice melts and is water again. Man dies and reverts to spirituality. The spirits which people see are invariably in the form of human beings, and that very fact is enough of itself to prove that these apparitions cannot be the souls of dead men. If a sack is filled with grain it will stand up, and is obviously a sack of grain, but if the sack is burst and the grain falls out, then it collapses and disappears from view. Now, man's soul is enfolded in his body

1:01:34as grain in a sack. When he dies, his body decays and his vitality is dissipated. And if when the grain is taken away, the sack loses its form, why, when the vitality is gone, should the body obtain a new shape in which to appear again in the world? The number of persons who have died since the world began, old, middle aged, and young, must run into thousands of millions, far exceeding the number of persons alive at the present day. If every one of these has become a disembodied spirit, there must be at least one to every yard as we walk along the road, and those who die now must suddenly find themselves face to face with vast crowds of spirits filling every house and street. People say that spirits are the souls of dead men. That being the case, spirits should always appear naked, for surely it is not contended that clothes have souls as well as men. It can further be shown not only that dead men never become spirits, but also that they are without consciousness by the fact that before birth they are without

1:02:37consciousness. Before birth man rests in the first cause. When he dies, he goes back to the first cause. The first cause is vague and without form, and man's soul is there in a state of unconsciousness. At death the soul reverts to his original state. How then can it possess consciousness? As a matter of fact, the universe is full of disembodied spirits, but these are not the souls of dead men. They are beings only of the mind conjured up for the most part in sickness when the patient is especially subject to fear. For sickness introduces fear of spirits. Fear of spirits causes the mind to dwell upon them, and thus apparitions are produced. Another writer enlarges on the view that, que, disembodied spirit, is the same as que, to return. At death a man's soul returns to heaven, his flesh to earth, his blood to water, his blood vessels to marshes, his voice to thunder, his motion to the wind, his sleep to the sun and moon, his bones to trees, his muscles to hills,

1:03:41his teeth to stones, his fat to-do, his hair to grass, while his breath returns to man. There was a certain philosopher named Chin Mi, died AD 226, whose services were much required by the King of Wu, who sent an envoy to fetch him. The envoy took upon himself to chastise the philosopher with the following result. You are engaged in study, are you not, ask the envoy? Any slip of a boy may be that replied to him, why not I? Has God ahead said the envoy? He has was the reply. Where is he was the next question? In the west, the oats say he gazed fondly on the west, from which it is to be inferred that his head was in the west. Has God got ears? God sits on high reply to him, but here's the lolly. The oats say, the crane cries in the marsh, and its cry is heard by God. If he had not ears, how could he hear it?

1:04:45Has God feet asked the envoy? He has replied to him, the oats say, the steps of God are difficult, this man does not follow them. If he had no feet, how could he step? Has God a surname inquire the envoy? And if so, what is it? He has a surname, such in, and it is, you. How do you know that, rejoin the other? The surname of the emperor, who is the son of heaven, is Liu, replied to him, and that is how I know it. These answers we are told, came as quickly as echo after sound. A writer of the ninth century AD, when reverence for the one God of ancient China had been to a great extent weakened by the multiplication of inferior deities, tells a story of how this God, whose name was Liu, had them replaced by another God whose name was Chang. The sing-ying-sai-lu has the following story. There was once a very poor scholar, who made it his nightly practice to burn incense and pray to God. One evening he heard a voice from above, saying, God has been touched by your earnestness

1:05:51and has sent me to ask what you require. I wish reply the scholar, for clothes and food, of course, if you will, sufficient for my necessities in this life, and to be able to roam, free from care, among the mountains and streams, until I complete my allotted span. That is all. All cried the voice amid peals of laughter from the clouds. Why, that is the happiness enjoyed by the spirits in heaven. You can't have that. Ask rather for wealth and rank. It has already been stated that the Chinese imagination has never conceived of an evil one, deliverance from whom might be secured by prayer. The existence of evil in the abstract has however received some attention. Wei Tao Tzu asked Yutli Tzu, saying, is it true that God loves good and hates evil? It is replied you. In that case, rejoined Wei, goodness should abound in the empire and evil should be scarce. Yet among birds, kites and falcons outnumber phoenixes,

1:06:54among beasts, wolves are many and unicorns are few. Among growing plants, thorns are many and cereals are few. Among those who eat cooked food and stand erect, the wicked are many and the virtuous are few. And in none of these cases can you say that the latter are evil and the former good. Can it be possible that what mayhem regards as evil, God regards as good, and vice versa? Is it that God is unable to determine the characteristics of each, and lets each follow its own bent and develop good or evil accordingly? If he allows good men to be put upon, and evil men to be a source of fear, is not this to admit that God has his likes and dislikes? From old until now, times of misgovernment have always exceeded times of right government, and when men of principle have contended with the ignoble, the latter have usually won. Where then is God's love of good and hatred of evil? You lead to had no answer to make. The Tan Yanzai Lu says,

1:07:54if the people are contended and happy, God is at peace in his mind. When God is at peace in his mind, the two great motive powers act in harmony. The Paichiao says, the Imperian above you is not God, it is but his outward manifestation. That which remains ever fixed in man's heart, and which rules over all things without cease, that is God. Alas, you earnestly seek God in the blue sky, while forgetting him altogether in your hearts. Can you expect your prayers to be answered? This view, for behold the Kingdom of God is within you, St. Luke, Chapter 17, verse 21, has been brought out by the philosopher Shaoyong AD 1011-1077 in the following lines. The heavens are still no sound. Where then shall God be found? Search not in distant skies, in man's own heart he lies. Han Wen Kong AD 768-824, the eminent philosopher, poet and statesman,

1:09:00who suffered banishment for his opposition to the Buddhist religion, complains that, of all there was but one faith, now there are three, meaning Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. He thus pictures the simplicity of China's ancient kings. Their clothes were of cloth or of silk, they dwelt in palaces or in ordinary houses, the eight grain and vegetables and fruit and fish and flesh. Their method was easy of comprehension, their doctrines were easily carried into practice, hence their lives passed pleasantly away, a source of satisfaction to themselves, a source of benefit to mankind. At peace within their own hearts, they readily adapted themselves to the necessities of the family and of the state. Happy in life, they were remembered after death. Their sacrifices were grateful to the God of heaven, and the spirits of the departed rejoiced in the honors of ancestral worship. His mind seems to have been open on the subject of a future state,

1:10:01an lamentation on the death of a favorite nephew he writes, if there is knowledge after death, the separation will be but for a little while, if there is no knowledge after death, so will this sorrow be but for a little while, and then no more sorrow forever. His views as to the existence of spirits on this earth were not very logical. If there is whistling among the rafters and I take a light but fail to see anything, is that a spirit? It is not, for spirits are soundless. If there is something in the room and I look for it but cannot see it, is that a spirit? It is not, spirits are formless. If something brushes against me and I grab it it but do not seize it, is that a spirit? It is not, for if spirits are soundless and formless, how can they have substance? If then spirits have neither sound nor form nor substance, are they consequently nonexistent? Things which have form without sound exist in nature, for instance earth and stones, things which have sound without form exist in nature,

1:11:04for instance wind and thunder, things which have both sound and form exist in nature, for instance men and animals, and things which have neither sound nor form also exist in nature, for instance disembodied spirits and angels. For his own poetical spirit, according to the funeral elegy written some 250 years after his death, a great honor was reserved. Above in heaven there was no music and God was sad and summoned him to his place beside the throne. His friend and contemporary Liu Song Yuan, a poet and philosopher like himself, was tempted into the following reflections by the contemplation of a beautiful landscape which he discovered far from the beaten track. Now, I have always had my doubts about the existence of a God, but this scene made me think he really must exist. At the same time however, I began to wonder why he did not place it in some worthy center of civilization rather than in this out of the way barbarous region,

1:12:08wherefore centuries there has been no one to enjoy its beauty. And so, on the other hand, such waste of labor and incongruity of position disposed me to think that there could not be a God after all. In AD 1008 there was a pretended revelation from God in the form of a letter, recalling the letter from Christ on the neglect of the Sabbath mentioned by Roger of Windover and Holviden, contemporary chroniclers. The emperor and his court regarded this communication with profound awe, but a high official of the day said, I have learnt from the Confucian discourses that God does not even speak. How then should he write a letter? The philosopher and commentator Chu Tsai, AD 1030 to 1200, whose interpretations of the Confucian canon are the only ones now officially recognized, has done more than anyone since Confucius himself to dissimilate a rigid materialism among his fellow countrymen. The God of the canon is explained away as an eternal principle.

1:13:14The phenomena of the universe are attributed to nature with its absurd personification so commonly met with in Western writers, and spirits are generally associated with the preferred imaginations of sick persons and enthusiasts. Is consciousness dispersed after death, or does it still exist, said an inquirer? It is not dispersed replied Chu Tsai, it is at an end, when vitality comes to an end, consciousness comes to an end with it. He got into more trouble over the verse quoted on page 16. King Wen is on high, in glory in heaven, his comings and his goings are to and from the presence of God. If it is asserted, he argued that King Wen was really in the presence of God, and that there really is such a being as God, he certainly cannot have the form in which he is represented by the clay or wooden images in vogue. Still, as these statements were made by the prophets of old, there must have been some foundation for them.

1:14:15There is, however, a certain amount of inconsistency in his writings on the supernatural, for in another passage he says, when God is about to send down calamities upon us, he first raises up the hero whose genius shall finally prevail against those calamities. Sometimes he seems to be addressing the educated Confucianist, at other times the common herd, whose weaknesses have to be taken into account. 5. 5. Religions of Ancient China by Herbert Giles This Libervox recording is in the public domain, recording by Mirian. 5. Buddhism and other religions So early as the 3rd century BC, Buddhism seems to have appeared in China, though it was not until the latter part of the first century AD that a regular propaganda was established, and not until a century or two later still that this religion began to take a firm

1:15:16hold of the Chinese people. It was bitterly opposed by the Taoists, and only after the laps of many centuries were the two doctrines able to exist side by side in peace. Each religion began early to borrow from the other. In the words of the philosopher Chute Sai, of the 12th century, Buddhism stole the best features of Taoism, Taoism stole the worst features of Buddhism. It is as though one took a jewel from the other, and the loser recouped the loss with a stone. From Buddhism the Taoists borrowed their whole scheme of temples, priests, nuns and ritual. They drew up liturgies to resemble the Buddhist sutras, and also prayers for the dead. They adopted the idea of a trinity consisting of Lao Tzu, Pan Kuh, C.P.7, and the ruler of the universe, and they further appropriated the Buddhist purgatory with all its frightful tears and tortures after death. Nowadays it takes an expert to distinguish between the temples and priests of the two religions, and members of both hierarchies

1:16:19are often simultaneously summoned by persons needing religious consolation or ceremonial of any kind. In a chapter on doubts by the Taoist philosopher Mu Tzu, we read, someone said to the Mu, the Buddhist doctrine teaches that when men die they are born again, I cannot believe this. When a man is at the point of death replied Mu, his family mount upon the house top and call to him to stay, if he is already dead, to whom do they call? They call his soul, said the other. If the soul comes back the man lives answered Mu, but if it does not, where there does it go? It becomes a disembodied spirit was the reply. Precisely so said Mu. The spirit is imperishable, only the body decays, just as the stocks of corn perish while the grain continues forever and ever. Did not Lao Tzu say, the reason why I suffer so much is because I have a body. But all men die whether they have found the truth or not,

1:17:22urge the questioner, what then is the difference between them? That replied Mu, is like considering your reward before you have put in right conduct for a single day. If a man has found the truth, even though he dies, his spirit will go to heaven. If he has led an evil life, his spirit will suffer everlastingly. A fool knows when a thing is done, but a wise man knows beforehand. To have found the truth and not to have found it, are as unlike as gold and leather. Good and evil, as black and white. How then can you ask what is the difference? Buddhism, which forbids the slaughter of any living creature, has wisely abstained from denouncing the sacrifice of victims at the temple of heaven and at the Confucian temple. But backed by Confucianism, it denounces the slaughter for food of the ox which kills the soil. Some lines of doggerel to this effect, based upon the Buddhist doctrine of the trans-migration of souls, and put into the mouth of an ox have been rendered as follows. My murderer shall come to

1:18:28the grief, along with all who relish beef. When I'm a man and you're a cow, I'll eat you as you eat me now. Mazdiism, the religion of Zoraster, based upon the worship of fire, and in that sense not altogether unfamiliar to the Chinese, reached China sometime in the 7th century AD. The first temple was built at Zhong-An, the capital in 621, 10 years after which came the famous missionary Hu Lu the Magus. But the lease of life enjoyed by this religion was of short duration. Muhammadins first settled in China in the year of the mission AD 628, under Wab-Abbi-Kapja, a maternal uncle of Muhammad who was sent with presence to the emperor. The first mosque was built at Canton, where after several restorations it still exists. There is at present a very large Muhammadin community in China, chiefly in the province of Yunnan. These people carry on their

1:19:28worship unmolested, on the sole condition that in each mosque there shall be exhibited a small tablet with an inscription, the report of which is recognition of allegiance to the reigning emperor. In AD 631, the Nestorian Church introduced Christianity into China under the title of the luminous doctrine. And in 636, the story of missionaries were allowed to settle at the capital. In 781, the famous Nestorian tablet, with a bilingual inscription in Chinese and Syriac, was set up at Tsai-Nyang-Gfu, where it still remains, and where it was discovered in 1625 by Father Samedo, long after Nestorianism had altogether disappeared, leaving not a rack behind. In AD 719, an ambassador from Tokaristan arrived at the capital. He was accompanied by one Tao Mutshi, who was set to have taught the religion of the Caldient Mani, or Manis, who died about AD 274. In 806, the Manichian sect made a formal application to be allowed to have recognized places of

1:20:34meeting, shortly after which they too disappeared from history. The Jews, known to the Chinese as those who take out the sinew from their particular method of preparing meat, are set by Samedo have reached China and have founded a colony in Honon shortly after the captivity, carrying the Pentateuch with them. Three inscriptions on stone tablets are still extant, dated 1489, 1512, and 1663 respectively. The first says the Jews came to China during the Song Dynasty, the second during the Han Dynasty, and the third during the Chao Dynasty. The first is probably the correct account. We know that the Jews built the synagogue at Kiai Fengfu in AD 1164, where they were discovered by Risi in the 17th century, and where in 1850 there were still to be found traces of the old faith, now said to be completely effaced. With the advent of the Jesuit fathers in the 16th century, and of the Protestant missionaries, Marshman and Morrison in 1799 and 1807 respectively,

1:21:39we pass gradually down to the present day, where we may well pause and look around to see what remains to the modern Chinese of their ancient faiths. It is scarcely too much to say that all idea of the early god of their forefathers has long since ceased to verify their religious instincts, though the sacrifices to god and to earth are still annually performed by the emperor. Ancestor worship and the cult of Confucius are probably very much what they were many hundreds of years ago, while Taoism, once a pure philosophy, is now a corrupt religion. As to alien faiths, the Buddhism of China would certainly not be recognized by the founder of Buddhism in India, Muhammadinism is fairly flourishing, Christianity is still bitterly opposed. End of chapter 5