time. Professor Legge tells us that the primitive _shih_ "is the
symbol for manifestation and revelation. The upper part of it is the
same as that in the older form of Ti, indicating 'what is above'; but
of the three lines below I have not found a satisfactory account. Hsue
Shan says they represent 'the sun, moon, and stars,' and that the
whole symbolizes 'the indications by these bodies of the will of
Heaven! Shih therefore tells us that the Chinese fathers believed that
there was communication between heaven and men. The idea of
revelation did not shock them. The special interpretation of the
strokes below, however, if it were established, would lead us to
think that even then, so far back, there was the commencement of
astrological superstition, and also, perhaps, of Sabian worship."
[165] Sabianism, as most readers are aware, is the adoration of the
armies of heaven: the word being derived from the Hebrew _tzaba_,
a host. Dr. Legge leaves Chinese Sabianism in some doubt, in the
above quotation; but later on he speaks of the spirits associated with
the solstitial worship, whose intercession was thus secured, "I, the
emperor of the Great Illustrious dynasty, have respectfully prepared
this paper, to inform the spirit of the sun, the spirit of the moon, the
spirits of the five planets, of the constellations of the zodiac, and of
all the stars in all the sky," and so on: and the professor adds: "This
paper shows how there had grown up around the primitive
monotheism of China the recognition and worship of a multitude of
celestial and terrestrial spirits." [166] This is ample evidence to
prove moon-worship. True, these celestial beings were "but
ministering spirits," and the "monotheism remained." There was no
_henotheism_, no worship of several _single_ supreme deities:
_One only_ was supreme. So among the Hebrews, Persians,
Hindoos, there was one only God; and yet they offered prayers and
sacrifices to heaven's visible and innumerable host. When we come
to modern China we shall find some very remarkable celebrations
taking place, which throw sunlight upon these ancient mists.
Meanwhile to strengthen our position, we may draw additional
support from each of the three great stages reached in the progress
of Chinese religion: namely, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
Dr. Edkins describes them as the moral, materialistic, and
metaphysical systems, standing at the three corners of a great
triangle. [167] The god of Confucianism is _Shang-ti_ or _Shang-te_.
And with the universal anthropomorphism "Shang-te is the
great father of gods and men: Shang-te is a gigantic man." [168]
Again "Heaven is a great man, and man is a little heaven." [169]
And now what does Confucianism say of moon-worship? "The sun
and moon being the chief objects of veneration to the most ancient
ancestors of the Chinese, they translated the soul of their great father
heaven or the first man (Shang-te) to the sun, and the soul of their
great mother earth or the first woman (the female half of the first
man) to the moon." [170] In Taoism there is no room for question.
Dr. Legge says that it had its Chang and Liu, and "many more gods,
supreme gods, celestial gods, great gods, and divine rulers." [171]
And Dr. Edkins writes: "The Taouist mythology resembles, in
several points, that of many heathen nations. Some of its divinities
personate those beings that are supposed to reside in the various
departments of nature. Many of the stars are worshipped as gods."
[172] Buddhism not only supplies further evidence, it also furnishes
a noteworthy instance of mythic transformation. Sakchi or Sasi, the
moon, is literally one who made a sacrifice. This refers to the legend
of the hare who gave himself to feed the god. The wife of Indra
adopted the hare's name, and was herself called Sasi. "The Tantra
school gave every deity its Sakti or consort, and speculation
enlarged the meaning of the term still further, making it designate
female energy or the female principle." [173] Buddhism, then, the
popular religion in China at the present day, the religion which Dr.
Farrar ventures to call "atheism fast merging into idolatry," [174] is
not free from the nature worship which deifies the moon. But
Buddhism, like most other imperfect systems, has precious gold
mixed with its dross; and at the expense of a digression we delight
to quote the statement of a recent writer, who says: "There is no
record, known to me, in the whole of the long history of Buddhism,
throughout the many countries where its followers have been for
such lengthened periods supreme, of any persecution by the
Buddhists of the followers of any other faith." [175] How glad we
should feel if we could assert the same of the Christian Church!
We come at once to those celebrations which still take place in
China, and illustrate the worship of the moon. The festival of
_Yue-Ping_--which is held annually during the eighth month, from the
first day when the moon is new, to the fifteenth, when it is full--is of
high antiquity and of deep interest. Dr. Morrison says that "the
custom of civil and military officers going on the first and fifteenth
of every moon to the civil and military temples to burn incense,
began in the time of the Luh Chaon," which would be not far from
A.D. 550. Also that the "eighth month, fifteenth day, is called
Chung-tsew-tsee. It is said that the Emperor Ming-hwang, of the
dynasty Tang, was one night led to the palace of the moon, where he
saw a large assembly of Chang-go-seen-neu--female divinities
playing on instruments of music. Persons now, from the first to the
fifteenth, make cakes like the moon, of various sizes, and paint
figures upon them: these are called Yue-ping, 'mooncakes.' Friends
and relations pay visits, purchase and present the cakes to each
other, and give entertainments. At full moon they spread out
oblations and make prostrations to the moon." [176] Dennys writes:
"The fifteenth day of the eighth month is a day on which a
ceremony is performed by the Chinese, which of all others we
should least expect to find imitated among ourselves. Most people
resident in China have seen the moon-cakes which so delight the
heart of the Chinese during the eighth month of every year. These
are made for an autumnal festival often described as 'congratulating'
or 'rewarding' the moon. The moon, it is well known, represents the
female principle in Chinese celestial cosmogony, and she is further
supposed to be inhabited by a multitude of beautiful females; the
cakes made in her honour are therefore veritable offerings to the
Queen of the Heavens. Now in a part of Lancashire, on the banks of
the Ribble, there exists a precisely similar custom of making cakes
in honour of the 'Queen of Heaven,'--a relic, in all probability, of the
old heathen worship which was the common fount of the two
customs." [177] Witness is also borne to this ceremony by a
well-known traveller. "We arrived at Chaborte on the fifteenth day of the
eighth moon, the anniversary of great rejoicings among the Chinese.
This festival, known as the _Yue-Ping_ (loaves of the moon), dates
from the remotest antiquity. Its original purpose was to honour the
moon with superstitious rites. On this solemn day, all labour is
suspended; the workmen receive from their employers a present of
money, every person puts on his best clothes; and there is
merry-making in every family. Relations and friends interchange cakes of
various sizes, on which is stamped the image of the moon; that is to
say, a hare crouching amid a small group of trees." [178] And
Doolittle says: "It is always full moon on the fifteenth of every
Chinese month; and, therefore, for several days previous, the
evenings are bright, unless it happens to be cloudy, which is not
often the case. The moon is a prominent object of attention and
congratulation at this time. At Canton, it is said, offerings are made
to the moon on the fifteenth. On the following day, young people
amuse themselves by playing what is called _'pursuing_,' or
'_congratulating_' the moon. At this city [Fuhchau], in the
observance of this festival, the expression '_rewarding the moon_' is
more frequently used than 'congratulating the moon.' It is a common
saying that there is 'a white rabbit in the moon pounding out rice.'
The dark and the white spots on the moon's face suggest the idea of
that animal engaged in the useful employment of shelling rice. The
notion is prevalent that the moon is inhabited by a multitude of
beautiful females, who are called by the name of an ancient beauty
who once visited that planet; but how they live, and what they do, is
not a matter of knowledge or of common fame. To the question, 'Is
the moon inhabited?' discussed by some Western philosophers, the
Chinese would answer in the affirmative. Several species of trees
and flowers are supposed to flourish in the moon. Some say that,
one night in ancient times, one of the three souls of the originator of
theatrical plays rambled away to the moon and paid a visit to the
Lunar Palace. He found it filled with Lunarians engaged in
theatrical performances. He is said to have remembered the manner
of conducting fashionable theatres in the moon, and to have imitated
them after his return to this earth. About the time of the festival of
the middle of autumn, the bake shops provide an immense amount
and variety of cakes: many of them are circular, in imitation of the
shape of the moon at that time, and are from six to twelve inches in
diameter. Some are in the form of a pagoda, or of a horse and rider,
or of a fish, or other animals which please and cause the cake to be
readily sold. Some of these 'moon-cakes' have a white rabbit,
engaged with his pounder, painted on one side, together with a lunar
beauty, and some trees or shrubs; on others are painted gods or
goddesses, animals, flowers, or persons, according to fancy." [179]
If we turn now to Jeremiah vii. 18, and read there, "The women
knead dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings unto other gods," and remember that, according
to Rashi, these cakes of the Hebrews had the image of the god or
goddess stamped upon them, we are in view of a fact of much
interest. We are so unaccustomed to think that our peasants in
Lancashire can have anything in common with the Chinese five
thousand miles away, and with the Jews of two thousand five
hundred years ago, that to many these moon-cakes will give a
genuine surprise. But this is not all. Other analogies appear between
Buddhist and Christian rites, such as those mentioned by Dr.
Medhurst. "The very titles of their intercessors, such as 'goddess of
mercy,' 'holy mother,' 'queen of heaven,' with the image of a virgin,
having a child in her arms, holding a cross, are all such striking
coincidences, that the Catholic missionaries were greatly stumbled
at the resemblance between the Chinese worship and their own,
when they came over to convert the natives to Christianity." [180] It
is for the philosophical historian to show, if possible, whether these
Chinese ceremonies are copies of Christian or Hebrew originals; or
whether, many of our own Western forms with others of Oriental
character, are not transcripts of primitive faiths now well-nigh
forgotten in both East and West. The hot cross buns of Good Friday,
at first sight, have little relevancy to moon worship, and those who
eat them suppose they were originated to commemorate the
Christian Sacrifice; but we know that the cross was a sacred symbol
with the earliest Egyptians, for it is carved upon their imperishable
records; we know too that _bun_ itself is ancient Greek, and that
Winckelmann relates the discovery at Herculaneum of two perfect
buns, each marked with a cross: while the _boun_ described by
Hesychius was a cake with a representation of _two horns_.
Incredible as it may seem to some, the cross bun in its origin had
nothing to do with an event with which it is in England identified; it
probably commemorates the worship of the moon. In passing from
China, we may also note the influence of that sexuality of which we
have spoken before. Dr. Medhurst remarks: "The principle of the
Chinese cosmogony seems to be founded on a sexual system of the
universe." [181]
Dr. Prichard tells us that among the Japanese "sacred festivals are
held at certain seasons of the year and at changes of the moon."
Also, "It appears that _Sin-too_, or original Japanese religion, is
merely a form of the worship of material objects, common to all the
nations of Northern Asia, which, among the more civilized tribes,
assumes the aspect of mythology." [182]
From Asia we come to Africa, and to Egypt, that wonderful land
with a lithographed history at least five thousand years old; a land
that basked in the sunshine of civilization and culture when nearly
the whole world without was in shadow and gloom. The mighty
pyramid of Gizeh still stands, a monument of former national
greatness, and a marvel to the admirer of sublimity in design and
perfection in execution. "The setting of the sides to the cardinal
points is so exact as to prove that the Egyptians were excellent
observers of the elementary facts of astronomy." [183] But they
went farther. Diodorus says: "The first generation of men in Egypt,
contemplating the beauty of the superior world, and admiring with
astonishment the frame and order of the universe, judged that there
were two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the sun and the
moon, the first of which they called _Osiris_, and the other _Isis_."
[184] This passage is proof that the Greeks and Romans had a very
limited acquaintance with Egyptian mythology; for the historian
was indubitably in error in supposing Osiris and Isis to be sun and
moon. But he was right in calling the sun and moon the first gods of
the Egyptians. Rawlinson says: "The Egyptians had two moon-gods,
Khons or Khonsu, and Tet or Thoth." [185] Dr. Birch has translated
an inscription relating to Thoth, which reads: "All eyes are open on
thee, and all men worship thee as a god." [186] And M. Renouf
says: "The Egyptian god Tehuti is known to the readers of Plato
under the name of Thoyth. He represents the moon, which he wears
upon his head, either as crescent or as full disk." [187] The same
learned Egyptologist tells us that Khonsu or Chonsu was one of the
triad of Theban gods, and was the moon one of his attributes being
the reckoner of time. [188] Of the former divinity, Rawlinson
relates an instructive myth. "According to one legend Thoth once
wrote a wonderful book, full of wisdom and science, containing in it
everything relating to the fowls of the air, the fishes of the sea, and
the four-footed beasts of the mountains. The man who knew a single
page of the work could charm the heaven, the earth, the great abyss,
the mountains and the seas. This marvellous composition he
inclosed in a box of gold, which he placed within a box of silver; the
box of silver within a box of ivory and ebony, and that again within
a box of bronze; the box of bronze within a box of brass; and the
box of brass within a box of iron; and the book, thus guarded, he
threw into the Nile at Coptos. The fact became known, and the book
was searched for and found. It gave its possessor vast knowledge
and magical power, but it always brought on him misfortune. What
became of it ultimately does not appear in the manuscript from
which this account is taken; but the moral of the story seems to be
the common one, that unlawful knowledge is punished by all kinds
of calamity." [189] There is also a story of the moon-god Chonsu,
which is worthy of repetition. Its original is in the _Bibliotheque
Nationale_ at Paris, and for its first translation we are indebted to
Dr. Birch, of the British Museum. [190] A certain Asiatic princess
of Bechten, wherever that was, was possessed by a spirit. Being
connected, through her sister's marriage, with the court of Egypt, on
her falling ill, an Egyptian practitioner was summoned to her aid.
He declared that she had a demon, with which he himself was
unable to cope. Thereupon the image of the moon-god Chonsu was
despatched in his mystic ark, for the purpose of exorcising the spirit
and delivering the princess. The demon at once yielded to the divine
influence; and the king of Bechten was so delighted that he kept the
image in his possession for upwards of three years. In consequence
of an alarming dream he then sent him back to Egypt with presents
of great value. Whatever evil powers the moon may have exerted
since, we must credit him with having once ejected an evil spirit and
prolonged a royal life.
Returning to Thoth, we find the following valuable hints in the great
work of Baron Bunsen:--"The connection between Tet and the moon
may allude, according to Wilkinson, to the primitive use of a lunar
year. The ancients had already remarked that the moon in Egyptian
was masculine, not feminine, as the Greeks and Romans generally
made it. Still we have no right to suppose a particular moon-god,
separate from Thoth. We meet with a deity called after the moon
(Aah) either as a mere personification, or as Thoth, in whom the
agency of the moon and nature become a living principle. We find
him so represented in the tombs of the Ramesseum, opposite to
Phre; a similar representation in Dendyra is probably symbolical.
According to Champollion he is often seen in the train of Ammon,
and then he is Thoth. He makes him green, with the four sceptres
and cup of Ptah, by the side of which, however, is a sort of Horus
curl, the infantine lock, as child or son. In the inscriptions there is
usually only the crescent, but on one occasion the sign _nuter_
(god) is added. In the tombs a moon-god is represented sitting on a
bark, and holding the sceptre of benign power, to whom two
Cynocephali are doing homage, followed by the Crescent and Nuter
god. Lastly, the same god is found in a standing posture,
worshipped by two souls and two Cynocephali." [191]
With these "dog-headed" worshippers of the moon may be
associated another animal that from an early date has been
connected with the luminaries of the day and night. We saw that the
Australian moon-myth of Mityan was of a native cat. Renouf says:
"It is not improbable that the cat, in Egyptian _maeu_, became the
symbol of the Sun-god, or Day, because the word maeu also means
light." [192] Charles James Fox, with no thought of Egyptian, told
the Prince of Wales that "cats always prefer the sunshine." The
native land of this domestic pet, or nuisance, is certainly Persia, and
some etymologists assign _pers_ as the origin of _puss_. Be this as
it may, the pupil of a cat's eye is singularly changeable, dilating
from the narrow line in the day-time to the luminous orb in the dark.
On this account the cat is likened to the moon. But in Egypt feline
eyes shine with supernatural lustre. Mr. Hyde Clarke tells us that
"the mummies of cats, which Herodotus saw at Bubastis, attested
then, as they do now, to the dedication of the cat to Pasht, the moon,
and the veneration of the Egyptians for this animal. The cat must
have been known to man, and have been named at least as early as
the origin of language. The superstition of its connection with the
moon is also of pre-historic date, and not invented by the Egyptians.
According to Plutarch, a cat placed in a lustrum denoted the moon,
illustrating the mutual symbology. He supposes that this is because
the pupils of a cat's eyes dilate and decrease with the moon. The
reason most probably depends, as before intimated, on another
phenomenon of periodicity corresponding to the month. Dr. Rae
has, however, called my attention to another possible cause of the
association, which is the fact that the cat's eyes glisten at night or in
the dark. It is to be observed that the name of the sun in the Malayan
and North American languages is the day-eye, or sky-eye, and that
of the moon the night-eye." [193] Our own daisy, too, is the _day's
eye_, resembling the sun, and opening its little pearly lashes when
the spring wakes to newness of life.
The Nubians "pay adoration to the moon; and that their worship is
performed with pleasure and satisfaction, is obvious every night that
she shines. Coming out from the darkness of their huts, they say a
few words upon seeing her brightness, and testify great joy, by
motions of their feet and hands, at the first appearance of the new
moon." [194] The Shangalla worship the moon, and think that "a
star passing near the horns of the moon denotes the coming of an
enemy." [195] In Western Africa moon-worship is very prevalent.
Merolla says: "They that keep idols in their houses, every first day
of the moon are obliged to anoint them with a sort of red wood
powdered. At the appearance of every new moon, these people fall
on their knees, or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, 'So
may I renew my life as thou art renewed.'" [196]
H. H. Johnston, Esq., F.Z.S., F.R.G.S., who had just returned from
the region of the Congo, related the following curious incident
before the Anthropological Institute, in January, 1884. It looks
remarkably like a relic of ancient worship, which gave the fruit of
the body for the sin of the soul, and committed murder on earth to
awaken mercy in heaven! "At certain villages between Manyanga
and Isangila there are curious eunuch dances to celebrate the new
moon, in which a white cock is thrown up into the air alive, with
clipped wings, and as it falls towards the ground it is caught and
plucked by the eunuchs. I was told that originally this used to be a
human sacrifice, and that a young boy or girl was thrown up into the
air and torn to pieces by the eunuchs as he or she fell, but that of late
years slaves had got scarce or manners milder, and a white cock was
now substituted." [197]
The Mandingoes are more attracted to the varying moon than to the
sun. "On the first appearance of the new moon, which they look
upon to be newly created, the Pagan natives, as well as
Mahomedans, say a short prayer; and this seems to be the only
visible adoration which the Kaffirs offer up to the Supreme Being."
The purport of this prayer is "to return thanks to God for His
kindness through the existence of the past moon, and to solicit a
continuation of His favour during that of the new one." [198] Park
writes on another page: "When the fast month was almost at an end,
the Bushreens assembled at the Misura to watch for the appearance
of the new moon; but the evening being rather cloudy, they were for
some time disappointed, and a number of them had gone home with
a resolution to fast another day, when on a sudden this delightful
object showed her sharp horns from behind a cloud, and was
welcomed with the clapping of hands, beating of drums, firing
muskets, and other marks of rejoicing." [199] The Makololo and
Bechuana custom of greeting the new moon is curious. "They watch
most eagerly for the first glimpse of the new moon, and when they
perceive the faint outline after the sun has set deep in the west, they
utter a loud shout of 'Ku?!' and vociferate prayers to it." [200] The
degraded Hottentots have not much improved since Bory de St.
Vincent described them as "brutish, lazy, and stupid," and their
worship of the moon is still demonstrative, as when Kolben wrote:
"These dances and noises are religious honours and invocations
to the moon. They call her _Gounja_. The Supreme they call
_Gounja-Gounja_, or _Gounja Ticquoa_, the god of gods, and place him
far above the moon. The moon, with them, is an inferior visible god
--the subject and representation of the High and Invisible. They
judge the moon to have the disposal of the weather, and invoke her
for such as they want. They assemble for the celebration of her
worship at full and change constantly. No inclemency of the
weather prevents them. And their behaviour at those times is indeed
very astonishing. They throw their bodies into a thousand different
distortions, and make mouths and faces strangely ridiculous and
horrid. Now they throw themselves flat on the ground, screaming
out a strange, unintelligible jargon. Then jumping up on a sudden,
and stamping like mad (insomuch that they make the ground shake),
they direct, with open throats, the following expressions, among
others, to the moon: '_I salute you; you are welcome. Grant us
fodder for our cattle and milk in abundance_.' These and other
addresses to the moon they repeat over and over, accompanying
them with dancing and clapping of hands. At the end of the dance
they sing '_Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!_' many times over, with a variation of
notes; which being accompanied with clapping of hands makes a
very odd and a very merry entertainment to a stranger." [201] In
reality they hold a primitive watch-night service; their welcome of
the new moon being very similar to our popular welcome of the new
year. Nor should it be omitted that the ancient Ethiopians
worshipped the moon; and that those who lived above Meroe
admitted the existence of eternal and incorruptible gods, among
which the moon ranked as a chief divinity.
Descending the Nile and crossing the Mediterranean, we come to
Greece.
"The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set." [202]
Yes, Pericles and Plato, Sophocles and Pheidias, are dust; and much
of their nation's pristine glory has "melted into the infinite azure of
the past": but the sun shines as youthful yet as on that eventful day
when unwearied he sank in ocean, "loth, and ere his time:
"So the sun sank, and all the host had rest
From onset and the changeful chance of war." [203]