So early as the third century B.C., Buddhism seems to have appeared in
China, though it was not until the latter part of the first century A.D.
that a regular propaganda was established, and not until a century or
two later still that this religion began to take a firm hold of the
Chinese people. It was bitterly opposed by the Taoists, and only after
the lapse 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 Chu Hsi, of the twelfth 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, P'an Ku, and the Ruler of the
Universe; and they further appropriated the Buddhist Purgatory with all
its frightful terrors 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 are often
simultaneously summoned by persons needing religious consolation or
ceremonial of any kind.
Doubts.--In a chapter on "Doubts," by the Taoist philosopher Mou Tzu, we
read,
"Some one said to Mou, 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 Mou, 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 Mou; but if it does
not, whither does it go?
"It becomes a disembodied spirit, was the reply.
"Precisely so, said Mou. The soul is imperishable; only the body decays,
just as the stalks of corn perish, while the grain continues for ever
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, urged the
questioner; what then is the difference between them?
"That, replied Mou, 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 tills the soil. Some
lines of doggerel to this effect, based upon the Buddhist doctrine of
the transmigration of souls and put into the mouth of an ox, have been
rendered as follows:--
My murderers shall come to 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.
Fire Worshippers.--Mazdeism, the religion of Zoroaster, based upon the
worship of fire, and in that sense not altogether unfamiliar to the
Chinese, reached China some time in the seventh century A.D. The first
temple was built at Ch'ang-an, the capital, in 621, ten years after
which came the famous missionary, Ho Lu the Magus. But the lease of life
enjoyed by this religion was of short duration.
Islamism.--Mahometans first settled in China in the year of the Mission,
A.D. 628, under Wahb-Abi-Kabcha, a maternal uncle of Mahomet, who was
sent with presents to the Emperor. The first mosque was built at Canton,
where, after several restorations, it still exists. There is at present
a very large Mahometan community in China, chiefly in the province of
Yunnan. These people carry on their worship unmolested, on the sole
condition that in each mosque there shall be exhibited a small tablet
with an inscription, the purport of which is recognition of allegiance
to the reigning Emperor.
Nestorians.--In A.D. 631 the Nestorian Church introduced Christianity
into China, under the title of "The Luminous Doctrine;" and in 636
Nestorian 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 Si-ngan Fu, where it still remains, and where it
was discovered in 1625 by Father Semedo, long after Nestorianism had
altogether disappeared, leaving not a rack behind.
Manichaeans.--In A.D. 719 an ambassador from Tokharestan arrived at
the capital. He was accompanied by one Ta-mou-she, who is said to have
taught the religion of the Chaldean Mani, or Manes, who died about A.D.
274. In 807 the Manichaean sect made formal application to be allowed
to have recognised places of meeting; shortly after which they too
disappear from history.
Judaism.--The Jews, known to the Chinese as those who "take out the
sinew," from their peculiar method of preparing meat, are said by some
to have reached China, and to have founded a colony in Honan,
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
Sung dynasty; the second, during the Han dynasty; and the third, during
the Chou dynasty. The first is probably the correct account. We know
that the Jews built a synagogue at K'ai-feng Fu in A.D. 1164, where they
were discovered by Ricci in the seventeenth century, and where, in 1850,
there were still to be found traces of the old faith, now said to be
completely effaced.
Christianity.--With the advent of the Jesuit Fathers in the sixteenth
century, and of the Protestant missionaries, Marshman and Morrison, in
1799 and 1807 respectively, we 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 vivify 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 recognised by the Founder of Buddhism
in India; Mahometanism is fairly flourishing; Christianity is still
bitterly opposed.
CHRONOLOGICAL SYLLABUS
Legendary Period (Twenty-ninth Century to Tenth Century B.C.)--P'an
Ku and Creation--First Worship of Spirits--Worship of God, with
incense--Sacrifices to Mountains and Rivers--Worship of Sun, Moon, and
Stars--Institution of Ancestral Worship--God enjoys music, dancing,
and burnt offerings--God resents bad government--Revelation in a
Dream--Anthropomorphism--Fetishism--No Devil--No Hell--Terms for
God--The Character for "God" is a picture of a Man--God and Jehovah--God
in the _Odes_--Hou Chi and Parthenogenesis--Superstitions and
Supernatural Manifestations--Sacrifice--Ancestral Worship--Filial Piety.
Feudal Age (Tenth Century to Third Century B.C.)--The Influence
of Confucianism--His Agnosticism--Weakening of Supernatural
Beliefs--Consolidation of Confucianism--Human Sacrifices--Prayers for
Rain--The Philosophy of Taoism--A Rival to Confucianism--But uniting to
weaken the old Monotheistic Faith--Its Theory of Spirits--Modifications
of Taoism--The Elixir of Life--Evidences of a Spiritual
World--Mysticism.
The Empire (Third Century B.C. to modern times)--Arguments against
a Spiritual World--Attributes of God--Good and Evil--Buddhism
appears--Conflict of Faiths--Struggle between Buddhism and
Taoism--Taoism borrows from Buddhism and becomes a Religion--Mazdeism
appears--Followed closely by Mahometanism, Nestorian Christianity, and
Manichaeism--Mahometanism alone survived--Jews arrived about Eleventh
Century A.D.--Chu Hsi materialised the Confucian Canon--Henceforward
Agnosticism the rule for _literati_--Buddhism and Taoism (both debased)
for the Masses--The Jesuits arrive in the Sixteenth Century--Protestant
Missionaries date from 1799.
SELECTED WORKS BEARING ON THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA
Religion in China. Joseph Edkins, D.D.
The Religions of China. James Legge, D.D.
The Dragon, Image and Demon, or the three Religions of China. Rev. H. C.
du Bose.
Les Religions de la Chine. C. de Harbez.
The Religious System of China: Its ancient forms, evolution, history,
etc. J. J. de Groot, Ph.D.
The Sacred Books of China. James Legge, D.D.
Chinese Buddhism. Joseph Edkins, D.D.
Le Shinntoisme. Michel Revon.
End of Project Gutenberg's Religions of Ancient China, by Herbert A. Giles