fruitless with regard to these Israelites. We had hitherto entertained a
hope of being able to procure, in the course of our journey, a copy of
this ancient monument of the Jewish history, which the late Doctor
Geddes considered as very desirable to compare with those already in
Europe; but the hasty manner in which we travelled, and the repugnance
shewn by our conducting officers, _Chou_ and _Van_ excepted, who had
little power or influence in the provinces, to enter into any of our
views that might appear to occasion delay, prevented the fulfilment of
those hopes. It were much to be wished, that the reverend missionaries
would so far lay aside their antipathy against opinions, not exactly
coinciding with their own, and enter into such a correspondence with the
Jews, as would obtain from them, which they are no doubt possessed of,
an account of the progress made by the Chinese in civilization and arts,
since their first settling in that country, and of other particulars
noted down by them. The circumstance of their carrying with them their
code of laws, and the history of their tribes, is a sufficient proof
that they understood a written language which there can be no doubt,
they would use the utmost caution not to lose. Such an account would be
more authentic than the Chinese annals, the best of which abound in
hyperbole, and contain facts so disguised in metaphor, that it is no
easy matter to extract from them the simple truth. At all events, the
comparison of the two histories would serve to verify each other.
Although a very great similarity is observable between many of the
ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies and those in use among the Chinese,
yet there seems to be no reason for supposing that the latter received
any part of their religion from the ancestors of those Jews that are
still in the country. This, however, is not the case with regard to the
priests of Budha, who, according to the Chinese records, came by the
invitation of one of their Emperors from some part of India, near
Thibet, about the sixtieth year of the Christian era. These priests
succeeded so well in introducing the worship of Budha, that it continues
to this day to be one of the popular religions of the country; and that
no traces of the original name should remain is the less surprising, as
they could not possibly pronounce either the B or the D; beside, they
make it an invariable rule, as I have already observed, not to adopt any
foreign names.
In some part of the seventh century, a few Christians of the Nestorian
sect passed from India into China where, for a time, they were tolerated
by the government. But, having most probably presumed upon its
indulgence, and endeavoured to seduce the people from the established
religions of the country, they were exposed to dreadful persecutions,
and were at length entirely extirpated, after numberless instances of
their suffering martyrdom for the opinions they had undertaken to
propagate to the "utmost corners of the earth." When Gengis-Khan invaded
China, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, a number of
Christians of the Greek church followed his army into this country; and
they met with such great encouragement from the Tartars, that when
Kublai-Khan succeeded to the government and built the city of Pekin, he
gave them a grant of ground within the walls of the city for the purpose
of building a church, in order to retain in the empire men of so much
learning and of abilities so much superior to those of the Chinese;
who, however, on their part, have affected, in their history, to
consider the Monguls as the greatest barbarians, for turning their
horses into the apartments of the palaces, while they themselves were
contented to pitch their tents in the courts or quadrangular spaces
surrounded by the buildings. Father Le Compte, in his memoirs of China,
says, but I know not on what authority, that at the taking of the city
of Nankin the Tartars put all the Chinese women in sacks, without regard
to age or rank, and sold them to the highest bidder; and that such as,
in thus "buying the pig in the poke," happened to purchase an old, ugly,
or deformed bargain, made no ceremony in throwing it into the river. If
Father Le Compte was not the inventor of this, among many other of his
pleasant stories, it certainly tells as little in favour of the Chinese,
who must have been the purchasers, as of the Tartars; but we will
charitably suppose the thing never happened. It seems, however, that the
overthrow of the Chinese empire by the Mongul Tartars, was an event not
to be regretted by the nation at large. By means of the learned and
scientific men, who accompanied the expedition from Balk and Samarcand,
astronomy was improved, their calendar was corrected, instruments for
making celestial observations were introduced, and the direct
communication between the two extremities of the empire was opened, by
converting the streams of rivers into an artificial bed, forming an
inland navigation, not to be paralleled in any other part of the world.
It was about this period when the celebrated Venetian traveller Marco
Polo visited the Tartar Khan, then sitting on the throne of China; and
who, on his return, gave the first accounts of this extraordinary
empire; which appeared indeed so wonderful that they were generally
considered as his own inventions. His relations of the magnificent and
splendid palaces of the Emperor, of his immense wealth, of the extent of
his empire, and the vast multitudes of people, were held to be so many
fabrications; and as, in speaking of these subjects, he seldom made use
of a lower term than millions, his countrymen bestowed upon him the
epithet of _Signor Marco Millione_--Mr. Mark Million. They had no
hesitation, however, in giving credit to the only incredible part of his
narrative, where he relates a few miracles that were performed, in the
course of his journey through Persia, by some Nestorean Christians.
Young Marco is said to have accompanied three missionaries of the
Dominican order, sent from Venice to the capital of China, at the
express desire of Kublai-Khan; but, whether they met with little
encouragement in the object of their mission, on account of being
preceded by the Christians of the Greek church, or their zeal at that
time was less ardent than in later days, is not stated; but it seems
they did not remain long in the East, returning very soon to their
native country much enriched by their travels.
During the continuance of the Tartar government, which was not quite a
century, great numbers of Mahomedans likewise found their way from
Arabia to China. These people had long, indeed, been in the habit of
carrying on a commercial intercourse with the Chinese; which, however,
as at the present day, extended no further than the sea-ports on the
southern coast. They now found no difficulty in getting access to the
capital, where they rendered themselves particularly useful in adjusting
the chronology of the nation, and making the necessary calculations for
the yearly calendar. Having acquired the language and adopted the dress
and manners of the people, by degrees they turned their thoughts to the
extending of their religious principles, and bringing the whole country
to embrace the doctrine of their great prophet. For this end, they
bought and educated at their own expence such children of poor people as
were likely to be exposed in times of famine; and they employed persons
to pick up, in the streets of the capital, any infants that should be
thrown out in the course of the night, and who were not too much
weakened or otherwise injured to be recovered.
About the middle of the sixteenth century, several Roman Catholic
missionaries, of the order of Jesus, penetrated into the East; and the
indefatigable zeal of one of these, Francis Xavier, carried him as far
as _San-Shian_, a small island on the coast of China, where he died in
the year 1552, in consequence of the uncommon fatigues he had undergone.
His brother missionaries have calculated that he travelled, on foot, not
less than one hundred thousand English miles, a great part of which was
over mountains and desarts and forests and burning sands. Since a more
easy communication with India and China has been effected by the way of
the Cape of Good Hope, numbers of missionaries of the Catholic religion
have volunteered their services into those countries; and although the
sole object of their mission is the propagation of the Christian faith,
they find it necessary, in order to forward that object, to make
themselves useful to the government. In China, they are occasionally
employed as astronomers, mathematicians, mechanics, and interpreters.
"It must have appeared a singular spectacle," observes Sir George
Staunton, "to every class of beholders, to see men actuated by motives
different from those of most human actions, quitting for ever their
country and their connexions, to devote themselves for life to the
purposes of changing the tenets of a people they had never seen; and in
pursuing that object to run every risk, suffer every persecution, and
sacrifice every comfort; insinuating themselves, by address, by talent,
by perseverance, by humility, by application to studies foreign from
their original education, or by the cultivation of arts to which they
had not been bred, into notice and protection; overcoming the prejudices
of being strangers in a country where most strangers were prohibited,
and where it was a crime to have _abandoned the tombs of their
ancestors_, and gaining, at length, establishments necessary for the
propagation of their faith, without turning their influence to any
personal advantage."
Most of those, however, who were established in Pekin, to the spiritual
consolation of having laboured in the vineyard of the gospel not
altogether in vain (for they do sometimes gain a proselyte) add the
substantial satisfaction of not having neglected their worldly concerns.
Besides the emoluments arising from their several communities, they have
shops and houses in the capital, which they rent to Chinese. They have
also their country villas and estates, where they cultivate the vine
and other fruits, and make their own wine. The revenues of the two
Portuguese seminaries are stated to amount to twelve thousand ounces of
silver, or four thousand pounds a year. The mission _de propaganda fide_
is poor. The French Jesuits were once rich; but their property was
dissipated on the dissolution of their society. The French _missions
étrangères_ drew on their superiors at Paris before the revolution, but
since that event are reduced to a most deplorable situation. And it
seemed to me, from what I could perceive at _Yuen-min-yuen_, that they
were not much disposed to assist one another. Each nation had its
separate interest, and they were not willing to lose any opportunity of
calumniating their fellow-labourers. The French and Italians were the
most moderate and liberal; the Portuguese the most inveterate. The
missionaries of this nation appeared to be inspired with a jealousy and
hatred, more than theological, against the rest. It is said indeed that
their rich possessions, and the high situations they unworthily hold in
the board of mathematics, render them jealous of all other Europeans;
and they use every means of excluding them from the country.
From the frequent dissensions, indeed, among the different orders, and
their perpetual broils, originated the persecutions which they and their
proselytes suffered in China. The most violent of these disputes was
carried on between the Jesuits and the Dominicans. The Jesuits
endeavoured to assimilate their doctrines and their opinions to those of
the Chinese, at least as far as they conscientiously could venture to
do, in conformity to the nature of their mission; by which means,
together with their apparently disinterested conduct, they soon
collected a numerous set of followers, half Christians and half Pagans.
Unluckily for the cause of Christianity, a different sect of the same
religion, but with principles more austere and of course less tolerant
of others that deviated from their own, speedily followed the Jesuits
into the East. The Dominicans, meeting with some of the
half-christianized converts, soon gave them to understand that nothing
less than eternal damnation would be the lot of all such as did not
forsake their ancient superstitious and idolatrous practices; and
especially that of sacrificing to their deceased relations in the Hall
of Ancestors. The Franciscans having joined the Dominicans they
represented to the Pope the abominable practices of the Jesuits, who had
persuaded the Chinese they were come among them for the sole purpose of
restoring their ancient religion to its original purity, as delivered by
their Great Philosopher Confucius. The Pope, upon this, sent over a
bull, interdicting all the missionaries in China from admitting any
extraneous ceremonies or idolatrous worship, to be blended with those of
Holy Catholic Church.
The Jesuits, however, by their superior talents, having made themselves
useful at court, and obtained the notice and protection of _Caung-shee_
the ruling monarch, and the greatest perhaps that ever filled the throne
of China, treated this bull with contempt, and continued to make
converts in their own way. They even obtained from the Emperor a sum of
money and a grant of land, towards building a church in Pekin. And they
further managed their affairs so well as to procure, from the succeeding
Pope, a dispensation in favour of their mode of proceeding to convert
the Chinese to Christianity. The Dominicans and Franciscans, piqued
beyond measure at the success of the Jesuits, represented them to the
Pope, in the strongest terms, as the greatest enemies to the Christian
faith. The Jesuits, in their turn, transmitted to Rome a manifesto,
signed by the Emperor himself, attesting that the ceremonies of homage
to the dead, retained by the Chinese Christians, were not of a religious
but a civil nature, agreeable to the long established laws of the
empire, which could not, on any consideration, be dispensed with. In
short, their disputes and quarrels ran so high, and proceeded to such
lengths; and Bulls and Embassadors were sent from Rome, with such
imperious and threatening commands for the Chinese Christians to desist
from all ceremonies that were not warranted by the Catholic church, that
the Emperor began to think it was high time to interpose his authority,
and to interdict the Christian religion from being preached at all in
his dominions. And his son and successor _Yung-chin_ commenced his reign
with violent persecutions against the missionaries. He ordered many of
them immediately out of the empire; others were thrown into prison[42],
where they lingered out a miserable life; and some were put to death by
the bow-string. Those few, who were found necessary to assist in the
astronomical part of the calendar, he allowed to remain in the capital.
[42] In the year 1785, Kien Long liberated, by a public edict, twelve
missionaries out of prison, who, being detected in privately seducing
the Chinese from the religion and customs of the country, had been
condemned to perpetual imprisonment. This edict, of which I procured a
copy in Pekin, does great honour to the humane and benevolent mind of
the Emperor. After stating their crime, apprehension, and trial, he
observes, "Had they made known their arrival to the officers of
government, they might have proceeded to the capital and found
protection. But as transgressors of the law, which forbids the entrance
of strangers, they have stolen into the country, and secretly
endeavoured to multiply converts to their way of thinking, it became my
duty to oppose a conduct so deceitful, and to put a stop to the progress
of seduction. Justly as they were found to deserve the punishment to
which they have been condemned, touched, nevertheless, with compassion
for their imprudence, it was not without injury to my feelings that I
ratified the sentence. But recollecting afterwards that they were
strangers--strangers perhaps ignorant of the laws of my empire, my
compassion increased for them, and humanity suffers on account of their
long confinement. I will, therefore, and command that these twelve
strangers be set at liberty."
Notwithstanding the persecutions that, in every reign, have been
violently carried on against them by the officers of government in the
several provinces, numbers of new missionaries have continued, from time
to time, to steal into the country. At Macao we found two young
missionaries, who had been waiting there a long time, in vain, for an
opportunity of getting privately into the country. They accused the
Portuguese of throwing every obstacle in their way, while pretending to
afford them assistance; but, on application to the British Embassador,
he found no difficulty in procuring them leave to proceed to the
capital; and as one of these gentlemen had been a pupil of the
celebrated La Lande, his services may probably supersede those of the
right reverend bishop who at present directs the astronomical part of
the important national almanack.
From the short view that has here been taken of the different people
who, at various times, have gained admission into China, and some of
them for no other purpose than that of disseminating their religious
tenets, it may be concluded, that the primitive worship of the country
has experienced many changes and innovations, especially since the mass
of the people, from the nature of the language, the maxims of the
government, and other circumstances, have always been kept in a state of
profound ignorance. Jews, Christians, Indians, and Mahomedans, have
severally met with encouragement. The Jesuits had but one obstacle to
overcome, the law that directed offerings to be made to deceased
relations, and by giving way to this, which they were inclined to do had
they not been thwarted by the more rigorous Dominicans, they might have
converted the whole nation and Christianity would have become, in all
probability, the prevailing religion, instead of that introduced from
India. The paraphernalia and almost all the mummeries of the Romish
church, the bells, the beads, the altars, the images, the candles, the
dress, and the sanctimonious deportment of the priests in the hours of
devotion, their chaunting and their incense, were already made familiar
to the people in every temple of _Fo_. But, as Lord Macartney has
observed, "the prohibition or restriction of sensual gratifications in a
despotic country, where there are so few others, is difficult to be
relished. Confession is repugnant to the close and suspicious character
of the nation, and penance would but aggravate the misery of him whose
inheritance is his labour, and poverty his punishment. Against it also
is the state of society in China, which excludes women from their proper
share of influence and importance. A religion which requires that women
should at stated times communicate to priests, in private, their
thoughts and actions, must be particularly disgusting to a Chinese
husband, who had not himself been suffered to see his wife till the day
of his marriage; and who but seldom allows her afterwards to see even
her near relations of another sex. A religion like that of Mahomet can
only be extended by violence and terror; for the natural stubbornness of
men does not readily give way to novel impressions; but the mild spirit
of the gospel is alone to be infused through the means of gentleness,
persuasion, and imperceptible perseverance. These are the proper
instruments of conversion, and peculiarly belong to the fair sex, whose
eloquence, on such occasions, gives charms to devotion and ornaments to
truth. The earliest stages of Christianity received no small support
from female agency and example; and for what shew of religion still
appears in _our_ churches, we are surely not a little indebted to the
piety and attendance of women." Nothing, in fact, more tended to alarm
the Chinese than the imprudent practice of the Romish missionaries of
seducing the Chinese women to their churches whom, as they avow in their
correspondence, they sometimes coaxed out of their jewels and money;
adding, by way of justification, that it was to promote the service of
God.
The primitive religion of China or, at least, those opinions, rites, and
ceremonies that prevailed in the time of Confucius, (and before that
period all seems to be fable and uncertainty) may be pretty nearly
ascertained from the writings that are ascribed to that philosopher. He
maintains in his physics, that "out of nothing there cannot possibly be
produced any thing;--that material bodies must have existed from all
eternity;--that the _cause_ (_lee_, _reason_) or principle of things,
must have had a co-existence with the things themselves;--that,
therefore, this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible, without
limits, omnipotent and omnipresent;--that the central point of influence
(_strength_) from whence this cause principally acts, is the blue
firmament (_tien_) from whence its emanations spread over the whole
universe;--that it is, therefore, the supreme duty of the prince, in the
name of his subjects, to present offerings to _tien_, and particularly
at the equinoxes, the one for obtaining a propitious seed-time, and the
other a plentiful harvest."
These offerings to the Deity, it may be observed, were always placed on
a large stone, or heap of stones, erected on the summit of a high
mountain, on the supposition, probably, that their influence would be so
much the greater, in proportion as they should approach the seat and
fountain of creative power; like the ancient Persians who, according to
Herodotus, considered the whole circle of the Heavens to be the great
ruling power of the universe, to which they also sacrificed on high
mountains. Thus Tacitus, in speaking of the practice of worshipping the
gods on high mountains, observes, that the nearer mortals can approach
the heavens, the more distinctly will their prayers be heard; and on the
same principle, Seneca says, that the people always strove for the seat
next to the image of the deity in the temples, that their prayers might
be the better heard. Thus also Noah, after quitting the ark, built an
altar on the mountain where it rested, and made a burnt-offering, whose
smoke ascending to heaven was pleasing to the Lord. And Abraham was
commanded to offer his only son Isaac on a mountain in the land of
Moria; and Balak carried Balaam to the top of Mount Pisgah to offer a
sacrifice there, and to curse Israel. Thus, indeed, all nations in their
infancy adopted the natural idea of paying adoration to Heaven from high
places.