THE JOSS-HOUSE, CHINESE IMMIGRATION AND CHINESE THEOLOGY
In Chinatown--Conception of God--The Joss House--Chinese Mottoes--The
Joss a Chinaman--Greek and Egyptian Ideas of God--Different Types of
Madonnas--Chinese Worship and Machine Prayers--The Joss-House and
the Christian Church--Chinese Immigration--Chinamen in the United
States--A Plague Spot--Fire Crackers and Incense Sticks--The Lion and
the Hen--The Man with Tears of Blood--Filial Piety--The Joss--Origin
of the World--Creation of Man--Spirits of the Dead--Ancestral
Rites--The Chinese Emperor--What Might Have Been--The Hand of God.
Our study of Chinatown and the civilisation of the country of the
Yellow Dragon, as seen in the City of the Golden Gate, has thus far
brought us in contact with the social and business life of the Chinese
and their amusements; but we are now to visit one of their temples of
worship, the Joss-House. And here the real man will be revealed; for
it is in religious services and ceremonies and beliefs that we get a
true knowledge of a race or a nation. The conception of God which you
have is the key to your character. If your views of Deity are low and
ignoble you will not achieve any greatness in the world; but if on the
other hand you invest the Being Whom you worship with noble attributes
and look upon Him as just and holy, a God of mercy and judgment, your
breast will be animated with grand thoughts and lofty ideals will
impel you to the performance of heroic deeds. The word Joss, which we
use for a Chinese idol or god, seems to be derived from the Portugese,
Dios, or rather it is the Pidgin English of Dios. A Joss-House then is
a Chinese idol or god-house. We are now standing before such a place
of worship. This is on the corner of Kearney and Pine Streets, and
is built of brick, and as we look up we see that it is three stories
high. There is a marble slab over the entrance with an inscription
which tells us that this building is the Sze-Yap Asylum. Let us enter.
The lower story, we find, is given up to business of one kind or
another connected with the Sze-Yap Immigration Society. This, we note,
is richly adorned with valuable tapestries and silken hangings, and
the rich colours attract the eye at once. If you wish to sit down you
can, and enjoy the novelty of the scene. For here are easy chairs
which invite you to rest. In your inspection of the place you venture
to peer into the room back of this, and you perceive at once that
there is the lounging place of the establishment. You see men on
couches perfectly at ease and undisturbed by your presence, smoking
cigarettes or opium, the Chinaman's delight. If you desire to
penetrate further into the building you will come to the kitchen where
the dainty dishes of the Chinese are cooked; but you retreat and
ascend a staircase in the southeast corner of the first room, and
soon you are in the Joss-House proper. This second story is devoted
exclusively to religious purposes. The room to which you are now
introduced is about thirty feet square, and as you look around you
perceive the hangings on the walls and the rich decorations of the
ceiling. Here are placards on the walls, which, your guide will tell
you, if you are not conversant with the Chinese tongue, bear on them
sentences from the writings of Confucius, Mencius, and others, with
exhortations to do nothing against integrity or virtue, to venerate
ancestors and to be careful not to injure one's reputation in the eyes
of Americans;--all of which is most excellent advice, and worthy of
the attention of men everywhere. You then cast your eyes on the gilded
spears, and standards and battle-axes standing in the corners of the
Temple, and as you look up you almost covet the great Chinese lanterns
suspended from the ceiling. Your eyes are finally directed to the
altar, near which, and on it, are flowers artificial and natural. At
the rear in a kind of a niche in the Joss or god. The figure of this
deity was like a noble Chinaman, well-dressed, with a moustache, and
having in his eyes a far-away expression. He wore a tufted crown,
which made him look somewhat war-like. It is but natural that this
Joss should be a blind man. The Greek gods and goddesses have Greek
countenances. The idolatrous nations fashion their deities after their
own likeness. And what are these but deified human beings? It is so in
Greek and Roman mythology. The Egyptian Osiris is an Egyptian. It is
true that some of the ancients outside of Hebrew Revelation had a
better conception of God than others. Even in Egypt where birds and
beasts and creeping things received divine honors there were scholars
and poets who had an exalted idea of the Deity, as witness the Poems
of Pentaur. This is true also of some of the Greek Poets who had a
deep insight into divine things. It is not a little interesting to
note also that artists of different nations paint the Madonna after
the style of their own women. Very few of the pictures in the great
art galleries are after the style of face which you see in the Orient.
Hence there are Dutch Madonnas, and Italian and French and English
types. There were no worshippers in the Joss-House at the hour when I
visited it. Worship is not a prominent feature of Chinese religious
life. The good Chinaman comes once a year at least, perhaps oftener,
and burns a bit of perforated paper before his Joss, in order to show
that he is not forgetful of his deity. This bit of paper is about
six inches long and two inches wide. He also puts printed or written
papers in a machine which is run like a clock. Well, this is an easy
way to say prayers. And are there not many prayers offered, not
merely by Chinamen, that are machine prayers, soulless, heartless,
meaningless, and faithless, and which bring no answer? But how simple,
how beautiful, how sublime, the golden Prayer which the Divine Master
taught His disciples! Lord, teach us how to pray. If the noble Liturgy
of the Church is properly rendered,--for it is the expansion of the
Lord's Prayer,--there will be no machine-praying, and the answer to
prayer will be rich and abundant. The contrast between the worship
of the Joss and the worship of the true God in a Christian Church is
striking and affords reflection. The former is of the earth earthy,
the latter transports the devout worshipper to the throne of the Most
High. There is no fear that the religion of the Joss-House will ever
usurp the religion of the Christian altar. Men have expressed the fear
that if the Chinese came in overwhelming numbers to America they would
endanger the Christian faith by their idolatry. But would this be
true? Has Christianity anything to dread? What impression has the
Joss-House made all these years on the life of San Francisco outside
of Chinatown? None whatever, except to make the reflecting man value
the Christian faith with its elevating influences and its blessed
hopes all the more. It is a mistake then to exclude Chinamen from our
shores on the ground that they will do harm to Christianity. On the
contrary the Church will do them good. The Gospel is the leaven which
will be the salvation of heathen men. Did it not go forth into the
Gentile world on its glorious mission, and did it not convert many
nations in the first ages? Has it lost its potency to-day? No! It is
as powerful as ever to win men from their idols and their evil lives.
The question of Chinese immigration is a large one. It has its social
and its political aspects. It is found all along the Pacific coast
that Chinamen make good and faithful servants. The outcry against them
as competing with white laborers and artisans is more the result of
political agitation for political purposes than good judgment. Where
they have been displaced on farms, in mills, in warehouses, in
domestic life, white men and women have not been found to take their
places and do the work which they can do so well. Under the Geary Act
immigration has been restricted and the numbers of the Chinese in the
United States have been gradually decreasing. In the year 1854 there
were only 3,000 Chinese in the City of San Francisco; but even then
there was agitation against them. It was Governor Bigler who called
them "coolies," and this term they repudiated with the same abhorrence
which the negro or black man has for the term "nigger." They kept on
increasing, however, until in 1875 there were in the whole State of
California 130,000. Of this number 30,000 were in San Francisco.
To-day there are only about 46,000 in California and there are not
more than thirty thousand of these in the City of San Francisco. There
are only 110,000 Chinese altogether in the United States proper. Even
the most ardent exclusionist can see from this that there is nothing
to dread as to an overwhelming influx that will threaten the integrity
and existence of our civilisation. The labour-question and the
race-question and the international question, aroused by the presence
of the Chinese within our borders, will from time to time cause
agitation and provoke discussion and heated debate and evoke oratory
of one kind or another; but the question which should be uppermost in
the minds of wise statesmen is how shall they be assimilated to our
life? How shall we make them Christians? The answer will be the
best solution of the whole matter, if it has in mind the spiritual
interests of the Chinaman and of all other heathen on our shores.
There is indeed a plague spot in Chinatown, the social fester,
which can and ought to be removed. But this is true of American San
Francisco as well as of Chinatown. What, we may ask, are the men and
women of as beautiful a city as ever sat on Bay or Lake or Sea-Shore
or River, doing for its purgation, for its release from moral
defilement and "garments spotted with the flesh?" This indeed is one
of the searching questions to be asked of any other City, such as New
York, Chicago, St. Louis, London, Paris, Cairo, Constantinople, as
well as San Francisco. Among the other noticeable things in the
Joss-House were two immense lanterns, as much for ornament as for
utility. Then I saw a big drum and a bell, used in some of the
processions of the Temple; for the Chinese take special delight in
noises, indeed the more noise the better satisfied they are. During
my visit some of the Joss-House attendants were shooting off fire
crackers; and I was told that this was an acceptable offering to the
Chinese god. One who was selling small, slender incense sticks, said
that you could burn them to drive away the devil, an excellent purpose
certainly. He also said they were good to keep moths away. Doubtless
in the Chinese mind there is a connection between moths and evil
spirits; but you smile at all such puerilities. They belong to the
childhood of the world and not to the beginning of the twentieth
century. Among other creatures which they venerate are chickens and
lions. They invest the lion with divine attributes on account of his
majesty and power. But the chicken? Well, it is a gentle creature. It
is the embodiment of motherhood and it speaks of care, not only to
the Chinaman's understanding, but to ours also. The Divine Teacher,
greater than Confucius, said: "How often would I have gathered thy
children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings!"
Will China, now waking out of the sleep of centuries, allow Him to
gather her children together under the wings of His Cross? "And ye
would not." Oh, what pathos in these few words! But doubtless they
will. Many during the war of the Boxers were "gathered" unto Him,
emulating the zeal and courage and faith of the martyrs of the early
days of the Church. As the hen is sacred in the eyes of the Chinaman,
sacred as the peacock to Juno or the ibis to the Egyptians, they swear
by her head, and an oath thus taken may not be broken.
One of the images which I saw in the Joss-House was pointed out as
the God of the Door; and how suggestive this title and this office!
Another figure, on the right side of the altar, which attracted my
attention particularly was that of Toi Sin. He was dressed somewhat
like a mandarin, and his head was bared, while tears as of blood were
on his cheeks. He lived some three hundred years after the Advent of
Christ; and owing to his disobedience to his parents, for which he was
punished in his conscience, and otherwise, he grieved himself to death
and wept tears of blood. His image, I was told, is placed in all
Temples as a warning to children. It is a forceful lesson, and it is a
timely warning. The one thing that is characteristic of a Chinaman is
his filial piety. This filial piety was admired in all ages. It
was inculcated in the old Hebrew Law and enforced with weighty
considerations. It was a virtue among the Greeks as well as other
peoples of the Gentile world; and I wonder not that when the heroes
who captured Troy saw Aeneas carrying his aged father Anchises on his
shoulders and leading his son, the puer Ascanius, by the hand, out of
the burning city, they cheered him and allowed him to escape with
his precious burden. A Chinaman is taught by precept and example to
venerate his parents and to give them divine honors after death.
Should a Chinese child be disobedient he would be punished severely
by the bamboo or other instrument, and he would bring on himself the
wrath of all his family. This strong sense of filial piety has done
more for the stability and perpetuity of the Chinese Empire than ought
else. It is a great element of strength and it leads to respect for
customs and to the observance of maxims. Especially are burial places
held in sacred esteem, and as they contain the ashes of the fathers
they must not be disturbed or desecrated. In this respect we might
emulate the Chinese, for they are a perfect illustration of the
old precept, "Honour thy father and thy mother," which, in a busy,
independent age, there is danger of forgetting. But we look with no
little interest on the Joss above the altar, the Chinese god. His name
is Kwan Rung, and I am informed that he was born about two hundred
years after the beginning of the Christian era. Such is the person who
is worshipped here. That he may not be hungry food is placed before
him at times, and also water to drink. It is a poor, weak human god
after all, a dying, dead man. How different the Creator of the ends
of the earth, Who fainteth not neither is weary! The Chinese have no
conception of the true God. They cannot conceive of the beauty and
power and compassion of Jesus Christ until they are brought into the
light of the Gospel. But what is Chinese theology? What do they teach
about the origin of the world and man and his destiny. The scholars
tell us that the world was formed by the duel powers Yang and Yin, who
were in turn influenced by their own creations. First the heavens were
brought into being, then the earth. From the co-operation of Yang and
Yin the four seasons were produced, and the seasons gave birth to the
fruits and flowers of the earth. The dual principles also brought
forth fire and water, and the sun and moon and stars were originated.
The idea of a Creator in the Biblical sense is far removed from the
Chinese mind. Their first man, named Pwanku, after his appearance, was
set to work to mould the Chaos out of which he was born. He had also
to chisel out the earth which was to be his abode. Behind him through
the clefts made by his chisel and mallet are sun and moon and stars,
and at his right hand, as companions, may be seen the Dragon, the
Tortoise and the Phoenix as well as the Unicorn. His labours extend
over a period of eighteen thousand years. He grew in stature at the
rate of six feet every day, and when his work was finished he died.
The mountains were formed from his head, his breath produced the wind,
and the moisture of his lips the clouds. His voice is the thunder,
his limbs are the four poles, his veins the rivers, his sinews the
wave-like motions of the earth, his flesh the fields, his beard the
stars, his skin and hair herbs and trees, his teeth bones, his marrow
metals, rocks and precious stones, his sweat rain, and the insects
clinging to his body become men and women. Ah, how applicable the
memorable line of Horace!
Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
In regard to the spirits of the dead the Chinese believe that they
linger still in the places which were their homes while alive on
earth, and that they can be moved to pleasure or pain by what they see
or hear. These spirits of the departed are delighted with offerings
rendered to them and take umbrage at neglect. Believing also that the
spirits can help or injure men they pray to them and make offerings to
them. From this we can understand the meaning and object of ancestral
rites. In these rites they honour and assist the dead as if they were
alive still. Food, clothing and money are offered, as they believe
they eat and drink and have need of the things of this life. Even
theatrical exhibitions and musical entertainments are provided on the
presumption that they are gratified with what pleased them while in
the body. Now as all past generations are to be provided for, the
Chinese Pantheon contains myriads of beings to be worshipped.
But think, what a burden it becomes to the poor man who tries
conscientiously to do his duty to the departed!
Now this ancestral worship leads to the deduction that it is an
unfilial thing not to marry and beget sons by whom the line of
descendants may be continued. Otherwise the line would cease, and the
spirits would have none to care for them or worship them.
The Chinese view of rulers or Kings is also striking. According to the
belief prevalent regarding government, Heaven and Earth were without
speech. These created man who should represent them. This man is none
other than the Emperor their vicegerent. He is constituted ruler over
all people. This accounts for three things; first, the superiority
which the Chinese emperors assume over the kings and rulers of other
countries; secondly, for the long-lived empire of China, it being
rebellion against Heaven to lift up one's self against the Emperor;
and in the third place it explains to us why divine honours are paid
to him. He is a sacred person. He is in a certain sense a god. The
view is similar to that entertained by the Roman Emperors, who, in
inscriptions and on coins employed the term Deus, and at times exacted
divine honours. As we turn from the Joss-House and walk away from this
bit of heathendom in the heart of an active, stirring, prosperous,
great American city with its Christian civilisation and its Christian
Churches and its Christian homes, we cannot but ask ourselves what
would have been the history of the Pacific States, of California with
its nearly eight hundred miles of coast, if the Chinese had settled
here centuries ago? If they had been navigators and colonizers like
the Phoenicians of old, like the Greeks and Romans, if they had had
a Columbus, a Balboa, a Cabrillo, a Drake, the whole history of the
country west of the Rocky Mountains might have been totally different.
Millions of Chinamen instead of thousands might now be in possession
of that great region of our land, and great cities like Canton and
Fuchau, Pekin and Tientsin, might rise up on the view instead of
San Diego and Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco, with their
idolatry and peculiar life and customs. Another question may be asked
here by way of speculation. What would have been the effect of Chinese
occupation of the Pacific coast on the Indians of all the region
west of the Rocky Mountains? Would the followers of Confucius have
incorporated them into their nationality, supplanted them, or caused
them to vanish out of sight? What problems these for the ethnologist!
Doubtless there would have been intermarriages of the races with new
generations of commingled blood. And what would have been the result
of this? There is a story which I have read somewhere, that long
years ago a Chinese junk was driven by the winds to the shores of
California, and that a Chinese merchant on board took an Indian maiden
to wife and bore her home to the Flowery Kingdom, and that from
this marriage was descended the famous statesman Li Hung Chang.
But whatever the fortunes of the Indians, or the Chinese in their
appropriation of the Pacific coast, it would not have been so
advantageous to civilisation, to the progress of humanity. It would
have been loss, and a hindrance to the Anglo-Saxon race destined now
to rule the world and to break down every barrier and to set up the
standard of the Cross everywhere for the glory of the true God. His
hand is apparent in it all. He directs the great movements of history
for the welfare of mankind, and He controls the destinies of nations
for the advancement of His Kingdom!