RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY
We have noted previously that the decoration of Oriental porcelain
is largely bound up in mythology, nay, more, it is largely connected
with religion. The religions of China must therefore receive some
attention from those who would really understand the beauty of the
decorations used by the Chinese. China possesses three principal
religions, of which two are national--Confucianism and Taoism--one
imported from India--Buddhism. Although Confucianism may be said to be
the official religion of the Court, of the functionaries, and of the
learned, it is not a religion in the sense which we attach to the word.
Confucius was the reformer of the ancient national religion, which was
really fetishism. It is a code of practical morality based upon the
duties and obligations of mankind, and respect for both ancestors and
antiquity. Idols such as images of gods and spirits are put on one
side. Confucius recognised implicitly the existence of a God creator
of the world--Chang-ti, the Emperor Supreme, or Thien, the Heaven; the
Emperor alone as "Son of Heaven" was, as it were, the priest, acting
in the name of all his people, addressing to the Creator of the world
prayers and thanksgivings, at the winter and summer solstices and at
the spring equinox.
Not alone does the God of Heaven partake of these ceremonies in the
Imperial worship, but the goddesses of the earth, and the various
genii of the waters, of the mountains, and stars, and the Imperial
ancestors. No images are made of these, and they are only represented
on the altars by tablets on which are their names. Confucianism orders
respect and veneration for ancestors, who ought to be cherished and
treated as if they were living, so that the ancestral worship was an
incessant witness of gratitude and thanks, which has become the only
real religion of the followers of Confucius in China.
Confucius was born in 551 B.C. After his death the gratitude of the
sovereigns and the admiration of the peoples gave him a rank almost
divine. Every city built temples to him, not as a god whom they
worshipped, but as a man whom they venerated as a benefactor, and as
the master respected by the nation as a great saint in civil life.
There are not to be found many images or pictures on Oriental porcelain
of Confucius or his followers, for the reason stated that Confucius
simply settled a system of morality.
TAOISM.
Taoism differs from the doctrines of Confucius in that it is a gross
religion made of superstitious local beliefs in fetishes and demons
curiously amalgamated with the higher metaphysical doctrines of the
philosopher Lao-tseu, who was born 604 B.C. He included nearly all of
the old Chinese religions, which Confucius had reformed by taking away
its superstitions. This he did in order to fight more advantageously
against the reforms of Confucius. In reality, this religion agrees
with others; we may say that all the doctrines of all the religions
make a great difference between the beliefs of the common people and
those of philosophers and of learned men, for in the higher sense
the doctrines of Lao-tseu and his eminent disciples were able to be
maintained without danger of comparison against those of Confucius or
the most illustrious thinkers of ancient India. Taoism in its popular
form recognised a supreme God creator of the world, similarly named to
the God recognised by Confucianism, Thien, Heaven, or Tien-kong, God
of Heaven, but above him he places a Trinity called the "Three Pures,"
really the "Three Pure Ones," of whom Lao-tseu was one, representing
the spirit of knowledge or of wisdom. Below this Trinity is found a
multitude of gods, genii, demons, spirits of Heaven, of the earth,
of the sea, of the waters, of the mountains, of the rivers, of the
provinces, of the cities, of the villages, &c., all designated under
the collective name of Chens, "spirits." For the most part these are
ancient heroes, literary men or philosophers deified; hence the gods,
such as the eight immortals, are often found as images, or used as
decorations, upon vases and other pieces of Oriental porcelain. We give
two figures as illustrations.
BUDDHISM.
The earliest history of Buddha is an account of his death written
in the Pali language, four centuries B.C. Neither this, nor any of
the other histories ranging through the ages to our own times is an
authentic story of his life and work--it is simply a legend more
or less embellished. The mythology is as follows: Gautama, named
Siddhârtha, the highly gifted son of a Thâkur, or noble of the Rajput
tribe, quitted his father's house in order to meditate upon the evil
in the world--upon its origin and its extirpation. He went to ask the
advice of two Brahmins who were renowned for their piety, but they were
unable to satisfy his yearnings for a higher life. He rested, it is
true, faithful to their doctrines--the fundamental truths which they
taught--transmigration of souls with a final emancipation, but he saw
that their asceticism led only to the enfeebling of the higher powers
of the mind, so he decided to find some place where he might find peace
in meditation. After a long period spent in reflection, he decided
to quit his refuge and preach his faith. He found in Benares, in the
"Woods of the Gazelles," his first disciples, and accompanied by them
he journeyed through Western Bengal, during forty-five years, honoured
by princes, loved by the people, in whose language he preached, till
he died of old age probably about 477 B.C. You will note, later, the
_mille cerfs_ decoration of Chinese porcelain made in remembrance of
this beginning of Buddhism.
[Illustration: CHINESE POTTERY, ENAMELLED IN COLOURS.
Paô-yueh-kouang, Goddess of the Moon. Tien-kong, God of the Sun.
]
Buddha taught four truths. First, of evil. Birth, sickness, and death
produce pain, so does the separation from those we love and the
desire to secure what we cannot obtain. These joined to the knowledge
of existence are the causes of evil. Second, of the origin of evil.
The influence of the outside world--suggestion from outside--leads
to covetousness and all that sensuality brings. Third, of the end
of evil. This is only accomplished by the complete suppression of
ardent desires--self-abnegation. Fourth, of the method of suppression.
Abstention from humiliating and unprofitable self-indulgence in any
form on the one side, and the renunciation of any belief in torture
which is ruinous and vain as a means of spiritual growth. Every being
is subject to evil, nature in each is essentially the same. Gods,
demons, men, and animals are only different degrees of existence.
Humanity is the best condition, for only man can attain salvation, he
only can obtain deliverance. Regeneration operates only after death and
is regulated by the actions done during life. The process is secret,
and only step by step, higher and higher, does knowledge of truth
lead onwards through the path of salvation to the place eternal--the
Nirvana. Only in this blessed abode does the soul rest free from the
obligation of being born again, of suffering without cessation the
miseries of life.
Buddhism flourished in India during many centuries, especially in
the third century B.C., when in the reign of king Açoka, it became
missionary, but about 1100 A.D. it was banished from that country and
spread through Eastern Asia, where it has at the present time more
than four hundred millions of believers. In China there are eighteen
principal sects of this religion, so that it is not surprising that
the Chinese Buddhists should commemorate upon their porcelain gods,
goddesses, and religious ceremonies of various types, especially as it
adopted local superstitions and legends, and lent pomp and _éclat_ to
the worship of the dead. Its pliancy and activity are still marvellous.
IV
PORCELAIN
CLASSED