THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA.
[Illustration: LI-HUNG.]
"WILL you please tell us to-day, father, something about the religion of
the Chinese? I know they worship idols, but how do they believe in
them?" Sybil asked, as soon as their "Peep-show," as the children
continued to call their father's stories, began the next afternoon.
During the morning she had sat and read to her mother, who still felt
the motion of the vessel very much, and had therefore to lie down part
of the day.
"I will try to do so," was the answer; "but I think what you hear may
puzzle you a good deal, for they have very strange creeds."
"Did grandfather make many converts?"
"Very few indeed; but then he was one of our very first missionaries to
Peking, so was most thankful for the very little which he was enabled to
do.
[Illustration: A CITIZEN OF TIENT-SIN.]
"I remember two men for whose conversion from Buddhism he often gave
thanks. One was a citizen of Tientsin, where we landed on our way to the
capital.
"This good fellow, who was then a very questionable character, was
smoking his pipe in a most indifferent manner, when my father, through
his teacher, first addressed him. Missionaries in China, you know, have
teachers of the dialects."
"Shall you have one?"
"Of course. Well, this man would not listen at all at first, and was
very angry at my father's interference; but after a while we met him
again at Peking, and in time both he and his wife learnt to believe, and
to long for Christian baptism, before receiving which they not only left
off worshipping their family idols, but even destroyed them. A short
time ago I heard that this man had become a native lay teacher, and was
a great help to the mission, as he could, of course, always make himself
understood to his own countrymen, who were also not unlikely to be won
by his example."
"What was his name?" asked Leonard.
"Tung-Sean."
"And that of the other convert?"
"Li-Hung. He was a much older man, and was sitting, I remember, the day
we first saw him, in a field, resting from his work, and as he caught
sight of my father he began to call him all sorts of names, amongst
which was to be heard very often that of 'foreign devil.' I believe he
even looked for stones to throw at us. Your grandfather--always a very
quiet, self-possessed man--just dropped some tracts at his side,
translated into Chinese. We often saw Li-Hung again, and though he gave
us much trouble, a month before my father died he had the happiness also
of witnessing this man's conversion to the true faith."
"Grandfather must have been very pleased," Sybil said.
"He was; but I think now I have something rather interesting to tell you
of our journey from Tientsin to Peking. We went in carts drawn by two
mules, one in front of the other, and at night we slept at inns, where,
I think, you would like to hear about our sleeping accommodation. It was
winter, and as the Peking winter is cold, people there, to make
themselves warm at night, sleep on kangs. As these were different at
both inns to which we went, I will tell you about both.
[Illustration: A KANG.]
"In one the kang consisted of a platform built of brick, so much larger
than a bed that several people could sleep on it at once. A kind of
tunnel passed through the platform, which had a chimney at one end,
whilst at the other end, a little while before bed-time, a small
quantity of dry fuel was set on fire, when the flame passed through the
tunnel and out of the chimney. In this way the kang was warmed, when
felt matting was put upon it. Here we lay down, and were covered over
with a kind of cotton-wool counterpane.
[Illustration: BOATS ON THE RIVER PEI-HO AT TIENT-SIN.]
"The kang in the other inn was warmed by a little stove from underneath,
which also served in the day-time for cooking purposes, when the
bed-clothes were removed from the kang, on which mats, and even little
tables, were also sometimes put, until it became a sofa; so it was very
useful."
The children laughed.
"We are not hearing about the religion yet, though," Sybil said.
"Oh, do let us hear just a little more about Peking and Tientsin first,"
Leonard answered. "How far is Tientsin from the capital?"
"Eighty miles. And do you know what river it is on?"
Leonard considered. "It must be an important one, I should think, as it
carries things, doesn't it, from the sea-coast to near to Peking?"
"It is only a river of secondary importance, but the principal one of
the province of Pe-chili. Now for its name." Sybil referred to her map.
"The Pei-ho, of course," they exclaimed together. "And I suppose there
is ever so much traffic on it?" Leonard said; "with no end of ships to
be seen?"
"Yes, a good many may be seen there. I have a picture of boats on the
River Pei-ho."
"What sort of flags do Chinese boats have, father? I do not see any
hoisted here."
"The Imperial Navy is divided into river and sea-going vessels, the
former consisting of 1,900 ships, the latter of 918; and there are
188,000 sailors. Ships in the Imperial Navy generally fly a flag at the
main, on which red lines are drawn, or sometimes a tri-colour is hoisted
there instead. Red would, I suppose, be for safety, as this is the
'lucky' colour of the Chinese. At the stern of the vessel I remember
seeing the name of the official who directs and superintends the ship."
"Isn't Tientsin noted for something?" Sybil then asked.
[Illustration: MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.]
"Yes; for the treaty of June 26th, 1858, between the Chinese and
British, some of the terms of which were that the Christian religion
should be protected by Chinese authorities, that British subjects should
be allowed to travel in the country for pleasure or business, under
passports issued by their consul, and that the Queen might acquire a
building site at Peking."
"But now the religion, please, father," she said again.
"Very well; but you must pay great attention to what I say, or you will
not understand. Most of the Chinese are either Confucianists, Buddhists,
or Taouists, although there are also Jews and Mahometans amongst them.
At one time it is supposed that the people of China had really a
knowledge of the true God, and that when they worshipped, in much the
same sort of manner as did the patriarchs, Him whom they call Wang-teen,
or Shang-ti, which means Supreme Ruler, they worshipped God.
"But mixing with this an idolatrous worship of departed ancestors, they
nearly lost sight of the Supreme Ruler, the jealous God, Who, we know,
claims all our worship.
"About the latter half of the sixth century before Christ, Confucius, a
great and clever philosopher of China, who was born 551 B.C., wrote and
put together books that held very moral and good maxims, afterwards
called 'The Classics.'
"He taught that men must always be obedient to those to whom they are in
subjection: people to prince, child to parent, filial piety being
enforced before every other duty. He was very anxious to improve the
manners of the people; but women he ranked very low. Confucianism
is--but perhaps you will not understand this--more a philosophy than a
religion. Its followers have no particular form of worship, and no
priesthood. The Pearly Emperor, Supreme Ruler, is their deity, but
worship is seldom offered to him, and then only by a few.
"Although Confucius disapproved very much of idols, after he was dead
many of his followers worshipped him.
[Illustration: A MANDARIN.]
"Confucianists do not believe in a future state of rewards and
punishments, but think that their good and bad deeds will be rewarded
here by riches or poverty, long or short life, good or bad health.
Conscience is to lead people aright, and tell them when they do wrong.
"The high mandarins and literary people are generally Confucianists;
school-boys also worship an idol or tablet of the sage, in which his
spirit is supposed to dwell.
"There is a temple to the honour of 'The Great Teacher' in every large
town; and on great occasions, and always in spring-time and autumn,
sacrifices are here offered, the Emperor himself, as high priest,
presiding at these two ceremonies in Peking, the chief mandarins of his
court giving him assistance. In temples of Confucius idols are very
seldom to be seen.
"The Confucianists are taught that man was originally good, his nature
being given by heaven, and that sin came through union of the soul with
matter."
"What are mandarins, please, father?" asked Leonard.
"Chinese officials, of which there are many grades, and many in each
grade, all of whom are paid by Government. To every province there is a
viceroy, to every city a governor, and to the village a mandarin, who is
elected to rule over it for three years; and all these, again, have many
officers under them. There are also a great many military mandarins. A
great mark of imperial favour is to allow mandarins, civil or military,
to wear a peacock's feather in their caps, which hangs down over the
back, and the ball placed on the top shows, by its colour and material,
the rank of the wearer. Soldiers fighting very bravely are often buoyed
up with the hope of receiving one of these feathers.
"Mandarins, who stand in a sort of fatherly relationship towards their
people, although they do not always behave like fathers towards them,
look for implicit obedience from them."
"Can a mandarin be punished when he does wrong?" Leonard asked. "And
what sort of dress does he wear?"
[Illustration: A MANDARIN WITH PEACOCK'S FEATHER.]
"He can be punished when he does wrong; and as well as I can remember,
those mandarins that I saw, who were in high office, wore a long, loose
robe of blue silk, embroidered with gold threads. This reached to their
ankles, being fastened round their waists with a belt. Over this was a
violet tunic, coming just below the knees, which had very wide, long
sleeves, usually worn turned back, but if not, hanging over the hands."
"Will you please go on about the religion now, father?" Sybil then said.
"You had just told us that the Confucianists were taught that man was
made good."
"Yes; and their worship is paid almost entirely to their ancestors,
which worship they look upon as a continuation of the reverence they had
been taught to show them while on earth. I will tell you more about
ancestral worship presently.
"Many people, as you can well understand, were not satisfied with
Confucianism as a religion, as it could not satisfy their spiritual
wants, especially as the Pearly Emperor, or Supreme Ruler, generally
looked upon as the highest divinity worshipped by the Chinese, might
only be approached by the Emperor and his court; so another sect sprang
up, having a philosopher named La-outze, who was born 604 B.C., for its
founder. He thought that to grow perfect he must seclude himself from
other people, and in his retirement was always looking for the Taou-le,
the meaning of which you will hardly understand--the cause or the end of
all things. His followers are called Taouists. This philosopher says in
his book that 'it is by stillness, and contemplation, and union with
Taou, that virtue is to be achieved'--Taou here meaning a principle and
a way. He said that virtue consisted in losing sight of oneself, and
that man should love even his enemies, and go through life as if none of
his possessions belonged to himself. The Taouists say that 'Taou is
without substance, and eternal, and the universe coming from him exists
in the silent presence of Taou everywhere,' and that only those who
become very virtuous are happy.
"La-outze is now worshipped by the Taouists as the third of a trinity
of persons, called 'The Three Pure Ones.'
"He is said, when born, to have had long white hair, and is therefore
represented as an old man, and called 'old boy.' The Chinese assert that
his mother was fed with food from heaven, and that when he was born he
jumped up into the air, and said, as he pointed with his left hand to
heaven and his right hand to the earth, 'Heaven above, earth beneath:
only Taou is honourable.' The Taouist trinity are supposed to live in
the highest heaven; and Taouists used to spend a great deal of time in
seeking for a drink that they thought would make them live for ever.
Subduing evil is by some of them supposed to secure immortality to the
soul.
"Their priests are often very ignorant men, but they are believed in by
the people, and are employed by them to perform superstitious rites."
"Oh, father! Isn't it a dreadful pity that they should believe so many
things like Christians, even in a trinity, and the duty of loving one's
enemies, and only be heathens after all?"
"It is indeed; but the more we see of heathens, Sybil, the more we shall
notice how they cannot help feeling after truth and grasping some parts
of it, which seem as though they were a very necessity to religion.
These Taouist priests are often called in by the people to exorcise, or
drive away, evil spirits, to cure sick people and commune with the
dead."
"Oh, father! I do so like this Peep-show. Please tell us now about the
people of the other sect."
[Illustration: A BUDDHIST PRIEST.]
"They are the Buddhists, who also worship a trinity; indeed, Taouists
are thought to have taken that idea from them. As early as 250 B.C.
Buddhist missionaries came over from India to China, but the religion
did not really take root until an emperor named Hing, of the Han
dynasty, introduced it, in the first century of the Christian era, about
66 A.D. This emperor is said to have seen in a dream, in the year of our
Lord 61, an image of a foreign god coming into his palace, and in
consequence he was advised to adopt the religion of Buddha, when he sent
to India for an idol and some priests. Towards the end of the thirteenth
century there were more than 4,200 Buddhist temples in China, and more
than 213,000 monks. The Buddhist trinity is called Pihte, or the Three
Precious Ones: Buddha Past, Buddha Present, and Buddha Future, and
dreadfully ugly idols they are. The Buddhist's idea of heaven is
Nirvana, or rest, or more properly speaking, extinction. The Chinese
Buddhist thinks that a man possesses three souls or spirits, one of
which accompanies the body to the grave, another passes into his
ancestral tablet to be worshipped, and the third enters into one, or
all, of the ten kingdoms of the Buddhistic hell, into which people pass
after death, there to receive punishments according to the lives they
have led upon earth. From the tenth kingdom they pass back to earth, to
inhabit the form of a man, beast, bird, or insect, as they may have
deserved, unless during life a man has attained to a certain state of
perfection, when he mounts to the highest heaven, and perhaps becomes a
god or buddha. But even from the Western Paradise a spirit has sometimes
to return to earth. Should a man have been good in all the various lives
that he has lived, he is supposed to attain, I believe, to this Nirvana,
or extinction."
"What a wonderful belief!" Sybil said. "So they cannot believe at all in
the immortality of the soul?"
"No, they do not."
"I should like to see a Buddhist priest very much," Leonard said.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO A BUDDHIST MONASTERY.]
"I dare say you will see a good many when you get to China. They live
together in monasteries, sometimes in great numbers, and these
monasteries are prettily situated, surrounded by lakes and gardens. They
consist of a number of small buildings, to the principal of which is a
large entrance, that has inscriptions on either side of the gateway."
[Illustration: A MONASTERY.]
"Are the priests very good men?" asked Leonard.
[Illustration: A GONG.]
"Very often, I am afraid, just the reverse; but this is not to be
wondered at, for criminals in China, to escape from justice, will
sometimes shave their heads, and seek refuge by becoming Buddhist
priests. When they take their vows--some taking nine, some twelve--for
each one a cut is made in their arms to help them to remember it. Some
of the vows resemble the commandments setting forth our duty towards our
neighbour. A Buddhist priest, in China, wears a wide turn-over collar;
when he officiates he often dresses in a yellow robe made of silk or
cotton, but he is only allowed to wear silk when he does officiate. At
other times his garments are of white or ash colour, or he wears a long,
grey cowl with flowing sleeves. Buddhist priests shave all their hair
two or three times a month. They think it is of great use to repeat
their classics very often to the gods, and keep an account of the number
of times they say them on their beads. I fancy they use brooms wherewith
to sprinkle holy water. There are four special commandments for
Buddhists, both priests and people: not to destroy animal life, not to
steal, not to speak falsely, and not to drink wine. In monasteries the
refectories of the priests are very large, and they have all to sit at
dinner, so that the abbot, who is at their head, can see their faces.
They are called to breakfast and dinner by a gong, where they have to
appear in their cowls. Gongs are very much used in China, and are to be
seen at all the temples. When the priest, who presides, comes in, they
all rise, and putting their hands together, say grace. After the food
has been so blessed, some is put outside as an offering to the fowls of
the air. During dinner the priests may not speak, and on the walls of
the refectory are boards, on which are written warnings, such as not to
eat too quickly; also the rules of the monastery."
"That would not have done for you, Leonard, when you thought you would
be late for school, and gobbled your dinner anyhow," said Sybil.
"How many gods have the Chinese?" asked Leonard.
[Illustration: WORSHIP IN A LAMASARY, BUDDHIST TEMPLE.]
"So many that it would be impossible to say, and the Celestials (as the
Chinese are often called, from naming their country the Celestial Land)
are not particular how they worship them; Taouists, for instance,
worshipping those who are peculiarly Buddhist divinities, and Buddhists
invoking, in return, their gods. Indeed, the three religions have so
borrowed from one another, and people have believed so much as they
liked, that the Chinese themselves often do not know to which religion
they belong, and are either all or none, pretty well as they choose. The
Buddhism of China is not at all the pure Buddhism, and has been much
corrupted by its professors."
"Who was the founder of Buddhism?"
"An Indian prince, of beautiful character, born 620 B.C., and called
Shakyamuni Buddha, who left wealth and luxury to go about relieving
suffering wherever he found it. After he died his followers believed
that he was transformed into a god, having three different forms."
"Tell us some of the gods, please."
"A god of rain; a god of wind; a god of thunder; a god of wealth, the
latter worshipped very much by tradesmen; a god of thieves; a goddess of
thunder; a guardian goddess of women and little children, called Kum-fa,
whose ten attendants watch over children, helping them to eat, and
teaching them to smile and walk; a god of wine; a god of fire; a goddess
of mercy; a goddess of sailors; a goddess of children, called 'Mother';
a god of the kitchen; a god of measles, a god of small-pox. Then the
Confucianists worship two stars, who are supposed to look after
literature and drawing, the former called the god of literature. And
besides household gods belonging to every family, there are a god of the
passing year, and numerous others. Many of the gods are deified persons
who once lived on earth."
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE MOON, PEKING.]
"What a number!" Sybil said. "But who, then, is the great Lama? You have
not told us anything about him yet, and I heard you speaking about him
the other day."
"There is another form of Buddhism, called Lamaism, and this, though it
prevails principally in Thibet and Mongolia, has also its followers in
Peking. The Great Lama, or Living Buddha, is the head of this."
"And he is a living man?"
"Yes; but his soul is said never to die; therefore, when he dies it is
supposed to pass into an infant whom the priests select by a likeness
that they trace to the late Lama. I one day saw worship going on in a
Lama temple."
"Have you a picture of it, father?" Leonard asked, who was getting a
little tired of these descriptions, which Sybil liked so much.
"Yes, and I think it a very good one. In the centre, facing the
worshippers, is a very large idol indeed of Buddha. To the right and
left of the temple are smaller idols. Some gods in temples do not
receive worship, but guard the doors. Incense is burning in front; the
high priest, to the right, is lifting up his hands in adoration, whilst
the people offer scented rods and tapers to Buddha. As they light their
offerings they kow-tow, or hit their heads upon the floor. This is the
Chinese way of reverent, respectful salutation. The devotees are grouped
in squares.
"Then I forgot to tell you that the Sun and Moon are also worshipped.
Whilst in Peking, I went to a temple of the Moon. It was on the day of
the autumnal equinox, when, at six o'clock in the evening, a very solemn
sacrifice is offered, and the great ladies of the capital meet to burn
their tapers. I approached this temple by a long avenue of beautiful
trees. The temple was large; but I noticed that more women than men had
come to attend the ceremonies."
"I thought the Chinese were clever people," Sybil said; "if so, how can
they believe in so many gods?"
"They have been trained to do so. They feel, I suppose, that they must
offer worship, and until a real knowledge of the true God can be planted
in their midst, they will remain slaves to idolatry. Many of the more
enlightened heathen, I believe, only regard their idols as
representations of the Deity they are feeling after, and not really as
the Deity Himself; although I fear many of the simpler sort, in
different degrees, regard their idols with great religious awe. Then,
many a Chinaman, again, will so often seem to have no religion at all!"
"Is it very difficult to teach the Chinese, father?"
"It is very difficult to find words, in their language, clearly to bring
home to them the great truths of the Bible; and Confucius having for
nearly twenty centuries held such a sway over their minds, they do not
care to listen to new teachers."
"I am so glad the Bible is now translated into Chinese, and that you are
taking some copies out with you. But how old these people must be!"
"The Chinese are a very ancient race, and had a literature 700 years
before Christ. They are very fond and proud of their country."
"Do Taouists and Buddhists believe in, and read, the writings of
Confucius?"
"To a great extent."
"And are there many Christians in China now?"
"The Church Missionary Society, at her six chief stations of Hong-Kong,
Foo-Chow, Ningpo, Hang-Chow, Shaou-hing, and Shanghai, now numbers 4,667
native followers, and 1,702 communicants, of whom nine are native
clergymen and 174 native Christian teachers. In China altogether there
are 40,000 Christian adherents. But what are these, when we think that
this vast empire alone contains 400,000,000 people, one-third of the
human race?"
"They will listen to you, father," Sybil said, looking up very brightly.
Sybil was a child who thought that there was nobody, except her own
mother, in the whole world to compare with her father.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]