"For me my elder brethren stay,
And angels beckon me away,
And Jesus bids me come."
The Buddhists are full of tricks by which to get presents out of the
people.
Once a year they cause a great feast to be made, and for whom? For the
poor? No. For beasts? No. For children? No. For themselves? No. You will
never guess. For ghosts! The priests declare that the souls of the dead
are very hungry, and that it is right to give them a feast. A number of
tables are set out, spread with all kinds of dishes. No one is seen to
eat, nor is any of the food eaten; but the priests say the ghosts eat the
spirit of the food. When it is supposed the ghosts have finished dinner,
the people scramble for the food, and take it home, and no doubt the
priests get their share.
The dead are supplied with money as well as with food, and that is done
by burning gilt paper; clothes are sent to them by cutting out paper in
the shape of clothes, (only much smaller,) and by burning the article;
and even houses are conveyed to the dead by making baby-houses and
burning them.
As an instance of the deceits of the priests, I will tell you of two
priests who once stood crying over a pour woman's gate. "What is the
matter?" inquired the woman. "Do you see those ducks?" the priests
replied; "our parents' souls are in them, and we are afraid lest you
should eat them for supper." The foolish woman out of pity gave the ducks
to the cunning priests, who promised to take great care of the precious
birds; but, in fact, they ate them for their own supper.
The Buddhist priests may be known by their heads close shaven, and their
black dress. The priests of Taou have their hair in a knot at the top of
their heads and they wear scarlet robes. There are no priests of
Confucius; and this is a good thing.
All the religions of China are bad, but of the three the religion of
Confucius is the least foolish.
There can be no doubt which of the three religions of China is the least
absurd.
The religion of Taou teaches men to act like mad-men.
The religion of Buddha teaches them to act like idiots.
The religion of Confucius teaches them to act like wise men, but without
souls.
THE EMPEROR.--There is no emperor in the world who has as many subjects
as the Emperor of China: he has six times as many as the Emperor of
Russia.
Neither is it possible for any man to be more honored than this emperor;
for he is worshipped by his people like a god. He is called "The Son of
Heaven," and "Ten Thousand Years;" yet he dies like every other child of
earth. His sign is the dragon, and this is painted on his flags, a fit
sign for one who, like Satan, makes himself a god.
Yet the emperor is also styled "Father of his people," and to show that
he feels like a father, when there is a famine or plague in the land, he
shuts himself up in his palace to grieve for his people; and by this
means he gets the love of his subjects.
Once a year, too, this great emperor tries to encourage his people to be
industrious by ploughing part of a field and sowing a little corn; and
the empress sets an example to the women, by going once a year to feed
silk worms and to wind the balls of silk.
The emperor wears a yellow dress, and all his relations wear yellow
girdles.
But the relations of the emperor are not the most honorable people in the
land: the most learned are the most honorable. Every one in China who
wishes to be a great lord studies day and night. One man, that he might
not fall asleep over his books, tied his long plaited tail of hair to
the ceiling, and when his head nodded, his hair was pulled tight, and
that woke him.
But what is it the Chinese learn with so much pains?
Chiefly the books of Confucius, and a few more; but in none of them is
God made known: so that, with all his wisdom, the Chinaman is foolish
still. The words of the Bible are true.
"The world by wisdom knew not God." Yet to know God is better than to
know all beside.
There is a great hall in every town where all the men who wish to be
counted learned meet together once a year. They are desired to write, and
then to show what they have written; and then those who have written
well, and without a mistake, have an honorable title given to them; and
they are allowed to write another year in another greater hall; and at
last the most learned are made mandarins.
What is a mandarin? He is a ruler over a town, and is counted a great
man. The most learned of the mandarins are made the emperor's
counsellors. There are only three of them, and they are the greatest men
in all China, next to the emperor.
There are many poor men who study hard in hopes to be one of these three.
This is the greatest honor a Chinaman can obtain. But a Christian can
obtain a far greater, even the honor of a crown and a throne in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.
The mandarins are all of the religion of Confucius, and despise the poor
who worship Buddha.
ANIMALS AND TREES.--Once there were lions in China, but they have all
been killed; there are still bears and tigers in the mountains and
forests on the borders of the land.
There are small wild-cats, which are caught and fastened in cages, and
then killed and cooked. There are tame cats, too, with soft hair and
hanging ears, which are kept by ladies as pets.
There are dogs to guard the house, and they too are eaten; but as they
are fed on rice only, their flesh is better than the flesh of our dogs.
The dogs are so sensible that they know when the butcher is carrying away
a dog that he is going to kill him, and the poor creatures come round him
howling, as if begging for their brother's life.
The pig is the Chinaman's chief dish; for it can be fed on all the refuse
food, and there is very little food to spare in China.
There are not many birds in China, because there is no room for trees.
Only one bird sings, and she builds her nest on the ground; it is a bird
often heard singing in England floating in the air,--I mean the lark.
In most parts of China men carry all the burdens, and not horses and
asses.
A gentleman is carried in a chair by two men: and a mandarin by four. Yet
the emperor rides on horseback.