RELIGION
It is rather strange that the Chinese have three religions, instead of
being contented with one like most people. Confucianism is the chief
of these. It takes its name from Confucius, a wise man born in 551
B.C., who taught men to be just, to be kind to one another, and to
agree together; but he said little or nothing about how to know God and
worship Him. The most famous saying of Confucius is: “What you do not
wish done to yourself, do not do to others.” These beautiful words are
nearer to the teaching of Our Lord Jesus than any others to be found
outside the Bible, and ought to be treasured by everyone. Following in
the steps of the earlier teachers of China, Confucius taught children
to reverence their parents, and in this way he printed the spirit
of the Fifth Commandment upon the entire nation. We must remember,
however, that Confucius did not begin what is called Confucianism, he
only handed on truths which the early Chinese had learnt. Indeed some
things, such as the knowledge of God, and of a future life, he taught
less clearly than those who had gone before him.
A story is told which shows that, wise as Confucius was, he did not
know everything. One day, when out for a walk he found two boys
quarrelling. “What are you two quarrelling about?” asked the great man.
One of the boys answered, “The sun. I say that when the sun has just
risen it is nearest to us.”
“I say that it is nearest to us at noon,” insisted the other.
“When the sun rises it looks as big as a chariot wheel. When it is
high it is quite small, no larger than a saucer. It is plain that when
things are far away they look small, and when they are close to us they
look big,” said the first youth.
“When the sun rises,” objected the second boy, “it is chill and cold.
When the sun is overhead it is as hot as boiling water. Plainly it is
cold when it is far away and hot when it is near, so it is nearer to us
at noon than it is in the morning.”
When Confucius had heard each of them in turn, he did not know what
to say, so he went on with his walk and left them. Then the two boys
laughed, and one of them exclaimed: “Who are the people that say that
the Sage of the kingdom of Lo is a wise man?”
While Confucius lived, few of his fellow-countrymen would listen to
him. The princes, whom he tried to teach to govern wisely, made him
sorrowful by refusing to follow his advice. On the last day of his life
he was very sad and dragged himself about, slowly saying over and over
again to himself:
“The great mountain must crumble,
The strong beam must break,
And the wise man wither away like a plant.”
But his labours were not lost. His wise words were put into a book by
his followers, more than a hundred years after his death. Mencius, the
greatest of his disciples, carried on his work. His fame spread all
over China and far beyond it. Now there are 1500 temples in which he is
worshipped by millions of people, and so great is the honour given to
him that his followers say:
“Confucius! Confucius!
Great indeed are thou, O Confucius.
Before thee
None like unto thee!
After thee
None equal to thee.
Confucius! Confucius!
Great indeed are thou, O Confucius.”
Confucius told the Chinese people that the most precious teaching
handed down to them from long ago was that which taught them to honour
their parents and those older than themselves. But both before and
after the time of this great man, the Chinese went too far, not only
reverencing, but also worshipping the dead. Perhaps we can imagine how
this mistake crept in. They were afraid that they might forget their
loved ones. Since it was not the custom with them long ago to put names
upon gravestones, they wrote them in books and on slips of wood. These
slips of wood, or ancestral tablets, were kept most carefully, as we
have already seen, in the chief room of the house and in temples. The
Chinese believed that each person had three souls, one which went into
the unseen world at death, one which stayed in the grave, and one which
lived in the slip of wood. They also thought that the souls in tablets
or in graves depended on dutiful sons to offer food and sacrifices to
them. Girls might not make these offerings, because, when married,
they belonged to their husbands’ families. When parents had no baby
boys, they were much troubled, not having anyone to grow up and worship
their spirits, for they fear more than anything else to become ‘hungry
demons’ after death, with no one to care for their needs. Now you know
why Chinese people are anxious to have sons rather than daughters.
Fear mixes with the worship of the dead at every turn. When people are
sick or lose money or have some other trouble, they think that the
spirits in the tablets are angry, and are bringing evil upon their
home. They offer food, and burn paper clothes, houses, money, servants
and horses to please them, thinking that when burnt, those things pass
into the spirit-land, where their relatives enjoy them, and being
pleased, give up troubling those on earth.
A man named Wang had sickness in his family and his business was not
good. A priest told him that his father’s spirit, which lived in a red
and green tablet, was angry with him, and he must offer paper money,
incense and other things to pacify it. He offered these things, and
fruit, chickens, cakes and pork besides; but all to no purpose, things
went just as badly as ever. At last, after spending all his money in
this way, he lost faith in the priest and in the tablet. “My father was
not unkind to me when he was alive,” said he, “why should his spirit
plague me so wickedly when he is dead?” About this time he first heard
the Gospel, and in despair of finding comfort elsewhere, began to go to
church. He heard that he had a Father in Heaven, and found peace and
gladness in His service. This worship of the spirits of the dead is the
real religion of China; all the rest of their beliefs are things added
on. The fear of those who have gone into the unseen world hangs like a
weight upon the people, who are said to spend millions of money every
year in trying to please the spirits of their relatives.
Sad as this is, we ought to remember that there is something beautiful
and right hidden beneath all that is wrong in this worship, and that is
the desire of the Chinese people to reverence and obey those who have
gone before them. When they have learned to serve God, what is wrong
will pass away, and perhaps they will teach us all to understand the
real meaning of the Fifth Commandment better than we have yet done.
In spite of the good in it, Confucianism has been a failure, because it
has not taught men and women and children to know the one true God, who
alone can help them to follow the teaching of Confucius and be just and
kind and obedient.
Taoism, as it is called, is the second religion of China. Its founder
is called Lao-tsze or ‘old boy.’ It is said that he was old and wise
and had white hair when he was born. After serving his country for
a time, he gave up his post and travelled towards the west. At the
frontier pass of Han Kuh, the officer in charge of the gate stopped
the traveller, and knowing that he was a wise man, persuaded him to
write down some of his teaching in a book. Taoism takes its name from
Tao, the truth, or the way, the first syllable in the name of the
Tao-teh-king, the famous volume which Lao-tsze wrote; but what is now
called Taoism does not follow the teaching of this book.
‘The Heavenly Master,’ or pope of the Taoists, lives in the
Dragon-tiger mountain in Kiangsi. He has rows of jars, in which the
people think he keeps evil spirits shut up, like the Djinn whom the
fisherman of the _Arabian Nights_ found sealed in a copper vessel.
There are Taoist priests in every city of China, who sometimes may be
seen in red and yellow robes with a curious topknot of yellow wood tied
into their hair, going through strange rites, or cracking a whip with
a long lash to frighten away demons. The Taoist god most feared by the
people is the Kitchen God, who they think goes up to heaven once a
year, and tells what each member of the family has been doing during
the twelve months.
Buddhism, which is an Indian religion, entered China in 217 B.C., and
was welcomed by the emperor of that time. It was afterwards persecuted,
but later spread over the country. Now, practically all the people
are Buddhists, as well as Confucianists and Taoists. The teaching
of Confucius, as we have already seen, leaves men and women without
a Saviour or strength to do the good they know. That is why, when
Buddhism came into the land, the Chinese welcomed it, hoping that it
might aid them. But though Buddhism tells men to be true, pure, humble,
courageous, it does not lead them, any more than did Confucianism,
to a personal God, who might help them to do what they were told was
right. It leaves them to their own efforts and points to no one able
to save from sin. It tells people that if they conquer their bodies
and give up doing wrong things, not taking life or eating animal food,
they will after death be born again in a new and higher life. If, when
born again, they do still better, they will be born still higher, until
at last they enter Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven, “as the dewdrops slip
into the shining sea.”
If, on the other hand, people do wrong things, the Buddhists say they
will be born again as lower animals, dogs, rats or creeping snakes.
There are many idols connected with these religions, and everywhere
you may see people going to the temples to burn incense and paper
money, and to offer gifts of food. They do not go regularly, as people
go to church in Christian lands, but on idols’ birthdays or when they
themselves are in trouble.
Year by year more of the people turn from their own religions to the
peace and happiness of serving God. In Our Lord Jesus Christ they find
forgiveness of sins, and for the first time strength to follow all that
is good in the teaching of their own ancient Sages.