Religions of Ancient China Part 3

Debased Taoism.--This view naturally suggested the prolongation of earthly life by artificial means; hence the search for an elixir, carried on through many centuries by degenerate disciples of Taoism. But here we must pa.s.s on to consider some of the speculations on G.o.d, 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.

Spirits must exist.--Mo Tzu, a philosopher of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., 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 enquiries. 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 that 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 Hsuan, B.C.

827-781, unjustly put to death a 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 durbar, the Minister descended from heaven on a white horse, and shot the King dead before the eyes of all.

Traces of Mysticism.--Chuang Tzu, the famous philosopher of the third and fourth centuries B.C., and exponent of the Tao of Lao Tzu, has the following allusions to G.o.d, of course as seen through Taoist gla.s.ses:--

"G.o.d is a principle which exists by virtue of its own intrinsicality, and operates spontaneously without self-manifestation.

"He who knows what G.o.d is, and what Man is, has attained. Knowing what G.o.d 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 G.o.d. He is manifested in 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 G.o.d, more or less personal, whose power was the real determining factor in human events. The great general Hsiang Yu, B.C. 233-202, 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 pa.s.s is because G.o.d has deserted me."

CHAPTER IV -- MATERIALISM

Yang Hsiung.--Yang Hsiung was a philosopher who flourished B.C. 53 - A.D. 18. 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 G.o.d, he replied, "What have I to do with G.o.d? Watch how without doing anything He does all things." To another who said, "Surely it is G.o.d who fas.h.i.+ons and adorns all earthly forms," he replied, "Not so; if G.o.d in an earthly sense were to fas.h.i.+on and adorn all things, His strength would not be adequate to the task."

w.a.n.g Ch'ung.--w.a.n.g Ch'ung, A.D. 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 man alone undergo this change? . . .

That which informs man at birth is vitality, and at death this vitality is extinguished. Vitality 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 (_kuei_) to earth; therefore he is spoken of as a disembodied spirit (_kuei_), 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 as 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 must now 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 consciousness. 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 its 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 induces 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 _kuei_ "disembodied spirit" is the same as _kuei_ "to return." "At death, 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, his teeth to stones, his fat to dew, his hair to gra.s.s, while his breath returns to man."

Attributes of G.o.d.--There was a certain philosopher, named Ch'in Mi (died A.D. 226), whose services were much required by the King of Wu, who sent an envoy to fetch him. The envoy took upon himself to catechise the philosopher, with the following result:--

"You are engaged in study, are you not?" asked the envoy.

"Any slip of a boy may be that," replied Ch'in; "why not I?"

"Has G.o.d a head?" said the envoy.

"He has," was the reply.

"Where is He?" was the next question.

"In the West. The _Odes_ say,

He gazed fondly on the West,

From which it may be inferred that his head was in the West."

"Has G.o.d got ears?"

"G.o.d sits on high," replied Ch'in, "but hears the lowly. The _Odes_ say,

The crane cries in the marsh, And its cry is heard by G.o.d.

If He had not ears, how could He hear it?"

"Has G.o.d feet?" asked the envoy.

"He has," replied Ch'in. "The _Odes_ say,

The steps of G.o.d are difficult; This man does not follow them.

If He had no feet, how could He step?"

"Has G.o.d a surname?" enquired the envoy. "And if so, what is it?"

"He has a surname," said Ch'in, "and it is Liu."

"How do you know that?" rejoined the other.

"The surname of the Emperor, who is the Son of Heaven, is Liu," replied Ch'in; "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 A.D., when reverence for the one G.o.d of ancient China had been to a great extent weakened by the multiplication of inferior deities, tells a story how this G.o.d, whose name was Liu, had been displaced by another G.o.d whose name was Chang.

The _Hsing ying tsa lu_ has the following story. There was once a very poor scholar, who made it his nightly practice to burn incense and pray to G.o.d. One evening he heard a voice from above, saying, "G.o.d has been touched by your earnestness, and has sent me to ask what you require."

"I wish," replied the scholar, "for clothes and food, coa.r.s.e 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."

Good and Evil.--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 Yu Li Tzu, saying, "Is it true that G.o.d loves good and hates evil?"

"It is," replied Yu.

"In that case," rejoined Wei, "goodness should abound in the Empire and evil should be scarce. Yet among birds, kites and falcons outnumber phoenixes; among 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 man regards as evil, G.o.d regards as good, and _vice versa_? Is it that G.o.d 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 G.o.d has His likes and dislikes? From of old until now, times of misgovernment have always exceeded times of right government; and when men of principle have contended with the ign.o.ble, the latter have usually won.

Where then is G.o.d's love of good and hatred of evil?"

Yu Li Tzu had no answer to make.

The _Tan yen tsa lu_ says, "If the people are contented and happy, G.o.d is at peace in His mind. When G.o.d is at peace in His mind, the two great motive Powers act in harmony."

Where is G.o.d?--The _Pi ch'ou_ says, "The empyrean above you is not G.o.d; 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 G.o.d. Alas, you earnestly seek G.o.d 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 G.o.d is within you," St. Luke xvii. 21,--has been brought out by the philosopher Shao Yung, A.D.

1011-1077, in the following lines:--

The heavens are still: no sound.

Where then shall G.o.d be found? . . .

Search not in distant skies; In man's own heart He lies.

Conflict of Faiths.--Han Wen-kung, A.D. 768-824, the eminent philosopher, poet, and statesman, who suffered banishment for his opposition to the Buddhist religion, complains that, "of old 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. They ate 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 pa.s.sed pleasantly away, a source of satisfaction to themselves, a source of benefit to mankind.