Religions of Ancient China Part 1

Religions of Ancient China.

by Herbert A. Giles.

PREPARER'S NOTE

This book was published as part of the series Religions: Ancient and Modern.

The Psychological Origin and Nature of Religion, by J. H. Leuba.

Judaism, by Israel Abraham.

Celtic Religion, by Professor E. Anwye.

s.h.i.+nto: The Ancient Religion of j.a.pan, by W. G. Aston, C.M.G.

The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey, M.A.

Hinduism, by Dr. L. D. Barnett.

The Religion of Ancient Palestine, by Stanley A. Cook.

Animism, by Edward Clodd.

Scandinavian Religion, by William A. Craigie.

Early Buddhism, by Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D.

The Religions of Ancient China, by Prof. Giles, LL.D.

Magic and Fetis.h.i.+sm, by Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S.

The Religion of Ancient Greece, by Jane Harrison.

The Religion of Ancient Egypt, by W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.

Pantheism, by James Allanson Picton.

The Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria, by Theophilus G. Pinches.

Early Christianity (Paul to Origen), by S. B. Slack.

The Mythologies of Ancient Mexico and Peru, by Lewis Spence, M.A.

The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Island, by Charles Squire.

Islam, by Ameer Ali, Syed, M.A., C.I.E.

Mithraism, by W. G. Pythian-Adams.

The publishers were: Constable and Company Ltd, London; Open Court Company, Chicago. The 1918 edition was printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London.

RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA

CHAPTER I -- THE ANCIENT FAITH

Philosophical Theory of the Universe.--The problem of the universe has never offered the slightest difficulty to Chinese philosophers. Before the beginning of all things, there was Nothing. In the lapse of ages Nothing coalesced into Unity, the Great Monad. After more ages, the Great Monad separated into Duality, the Male and Female Principles in nature; and then, by a process of biogenesis, the visible universe was produced.

Popular Cosmogeny.--An addition, however, to this simple system had to be made, in deference to, and on a plane with, the intelligence of the ma.s.ses. According to this, the Male and Female Principles were each subdivided into Greater and Lesser, and then from the interaction of these four agencies a being, named P'an Ku, 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 adze, 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.

Recognition and Wors.h.i.+p of Spirits.--Early Chinese writers tell us that Fu Hsi, B.C. 2953-2838, was the first Emperor to organize sacrifices to, and wors.h.i.+p of, spirits. In this he was followed by the Yellow Emperor, B.C. 2698-2598, who built a temple for the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, in which incense was used, and first sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers. He is also said to have established the wors.h.i.+p of the sun, moon, and five planets, and to have elaborated the ceremonial of ancestral wors.h.i.+p.

G.o.d the Father, Earth the Mother.--The Yellow Emperor was followed by the Emperor Shao Hao, B.C. 2598-2514, "who inst.i.tuted the music of the Great Abyss in order to bring spirits and men into harmony." Then came the Emperor Chuan Hsu, B.C. 2514-2436, of whom it is said that he appointed an officer "to preside over the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d and Earth, in order to form a link between the spirits and man," and also "caused music to be played for the enjoyment of G.o.d." Music, by the way, is said to have been introduced into wors.h.i.+p in imitation of thunder, and was therefore supposed to be pleasing to the Almighty. After him followed the Emperor Ti K'u, B.C. 2436-2366, who dabbled in astronomy, and "came to a knowledge of spiritual beings, which he respectfully wors.h.i.+pped."

The Emperor Yao, B.C. 2357-2255, built a temple for the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, and also caused dances to be performed for the enjoyment of G.o.d on occasions of special sacrifice and communication with the spiritual world. After him, we reach the Emperor Shun, B.C. 2255-2205, in whose favour Yao abdicated.

Additional Deities.--Before, however, Shun ventured to mount the throne, he consulted the stars, in order to find out if the unseen Powers were favourable to his elevation; and on receiving a satisfactory reply, "he proceeded to sacrifice to G.o.d, to the Six Honoured Ones (unknown), to the Mountains and Rivers, and to Spirits in general. . . . In the second month of the year, he made a tour of inspection eastwards, as far as Mount T'ai (in modern Shantung), where he presented a burnt offering to G.o.d, and sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers."

G.o.d punishes the wicked and rewards the good.--The Great Yu, who drained the empire, and came to the throne in B.C. 2205 as first Emperor of the Hsia dynasty, followed in the lines of his pious predecessors. But the Emperor K'ung Chia, B.C. 1879-1848, who at first had treated the Spirits with all due reverence, fell into evil ways, and was abandoned by G.o.d.

This was the beginning of the end. In B.C. 1766 T'ang the Completer, founder of the Shang dynasty, set to work to overthrow Chieh Kuei, the last ruler of the Hsia dynasty. He began by sacrificing to Almighty G.o.d, and asked for a blessing on his undertaking. And in his subsequent proclamation to the empire, he spoke of that G.o.d as follows: "G.o.d 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 G.o.d is to bless the good and punish the bad. He has sent down calamities on the House of Hsia, to make manifest its crimes."

G.o.d manifests displeasure.--In B.C. 1637 the Emperor T'ai Mou 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 prodigy 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 circ.u.mspectly; after which the mulberry-trees soon withered and died.

Revelation in a dream.--The Emperor Wu Ting, B.C. 1324-1264, began his reign by not speaking for three years, leaving 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, he caused a 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 pheasant perched upon the handle of the great sacrificial tripod, and crowed, at which the Emperor was much alarmed.

"Be not afraid," cried a Minister; "but begin by reforming your government. G.o.d looks down upon mortals, and in accordance with their deserts grants them many years or few. G.o.d does not shorten men's lives; they do that themselves. Some are wanting in virtue, and will not acknowledge their transgressions; only when G.o.d chastens them do they cry, What are we to do?"

Anthropomorphism and Fetis.h.i.+sm.--One of the last Emperors of the Shang dynasty, Wu I, who reigned B.C. 1198-1194, even went so far as "to make an image in human form, which he called G.o.d. With this image he used to play at dice, causing some one to throw for the image; and if 'G.o.d'

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 G.o.d. By and by, when he was out hunting, he was struck down by a violent thunderclap, and killed."

G.o.d indignant.--Finally, when the Shang dynasty sank into the lowest depths of moral abas.e.m.e.nt, King Wu, who charged himself with its overthrow, and who subsequently became the first sovereign of the Chou dynasty, offered sacrifices to Almighty G.o.d, 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 G.o.d above, and inflicts calamities on the people below. Almighty G.o.d is moved with indignation."

On the day of the final battle he declared that he was acting in the matter of punishment merely as the instrument of G.o.d; and after his great victory and the establishment of his own line, it was to G.o.d that he rendered thanks.

No Devil, No h.e.l.l.--In this primitive monotheism, of which only scanty, but no doubt genuine, records remain, no place was found for any being such as the Buddhist Mara or the Devil of the Old and New Testaments.

G.o.d 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 wis.h.i.+ng to undermine man's allegiance to G.o.d, 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, some time between the third and sixth centuries A.D.

Chinese Terms for G.o.d.--Before pa.s.sing to the firmer ground, historically speaking, of the Chou dynasty, it may be as well to state here that there are two terms in ancient Chinese literature which seem to be used indiscriminately for G.o.d. One is _T'ien_, 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 doc.u.ments which have come down to us, dating back to something like the twentieth century before Christ. Priority, however, belongs beyond all doubt to _T'ien_, 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 lightning, 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 into 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 _T'ien_ was 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 sixth and seventh centuries B.C., after which the head is flattered to a line, and the arms are raised until they form another line parallel to that of the head.

Distinction between T'ien and Shang Ti.--The term _Shang Ti_ means literally Supreme Ruler. It is not quite so vague as _T'ien_, which seems to be more of an abstraction, while _Shang Ti_ is a genuinely personal G.o.d. Reference to _T'ien_ is usually a.s.sociated with fate or destiny, calamities, blessings, prayers for help, etc. The commandments of _T'ien_ are hard to obey; He is compa.s.sionate, to be feared, unjust, and cruel. _Shang Ti_ lives in heaven, walks, leaves tracks on the ground, enjoys the sweet savour of sacrifice, 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 G.o.d who walked in the garden in the cool of the day, the G.o.d who smelled the sweet savour of Noah's sacrifice, and the G.o.d who allowed Moses to see His back. _T'ien_ would be the G.o.d of G.o.ds of the Psalms, whose mercy endureth for ever; the everlasting G.o.d of Isaiah, who fainteth not, neither is weary.

Roman Catholic Dissensions.--These two, in fact, were the very terms favoured by the early Jesuit missionaries to China, though not with the limitations above suggested, as fit the proper renderings for G.o.d; and of the two terms the great Manchu Emperor K'ang Hsi chose _T'ien_. It has been thought that the conversion of China to Christianity under the guiding influence of the Jesuits would soon have 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 for G.o.d was _T'ien 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 _T'ien Chu_ was a name given at the close of the third century B.C. to one of the Eight Spirits.

The two Terms are One.--That 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 Yung Lo, A.D. 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 _T'ien_?" A comparison might perhaps be inst.i.tuted with the use of "G.o.d" and "Jehovah" in the Bible. At the same time it must be noted that this view was not suggested by the Emperor K'ang Hsi, who fixed upon _T'ien_ as the appropriate term. It is probable that, vigorous Confucianist 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 G.o.d. 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 wors.h.i.+pped the same G.o.d as the Christians."

G.o.d in the "Odes."--The Chou dynasty lasted from B.C. 1122 to B.C.

255. It was China's feudal age, when the empire, then included between lat.i.tude 34-40 and longitude 109-118, was split up into a number of va.s.sal States, which owned allegiance to a suzerain State. And it is to the earlier centuries of the Chou dynasty that must be attributed the composition of a large number of ballads of various kinds, ultimately collected and edited by Confucius, and now known as the _Odes_. From these _Odes_ 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 an anthropomorphic and personal G.o.d, whose one care was the welfare of the human race:--

There is Almighty G.o.d; Does He hate any one?

He reigns in glory.--The soul of King Wen, father of the King Wu below, and posthumously raised by his son to royal rank, is represented as enjoying happiness in a state beyond the grave:--

King Wen is on high, In glory in heaven.

His comings and his goings Are to and from the presence of G.o.d.

He is a Spirit.--Sometimes in the _Odes_ there is a hint that G.o.d, in spite of His anthropomorphic semblance, is a spirit:--

The doings of G.o.d Have neither sound nor smell.

Spiritual Beings.--Spirits were certainly supposed to move freely among mortals:--

Do not say, This place is not public; No one can see me here.