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 asSan-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 itnecessary, 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 haveabandoned 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 andother 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 missionde propaganda fideis poor. The French Jesuits were once rich; but their property was dissipated on the dissolution of their society. The Frenchmissions étrangèresdrew 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 atYuen-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 collecteda 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 ofCaung-sheethe 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 successorYung-chincommenced 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 lingeredout 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.
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 ofdisseminating 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 ofFo. 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 inourchurches, 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 thecause(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 totien, 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.
The large stones, or the heaps of stones, that have been appropriated for religious uses at different times, in almost every part of the world, might have been introduced, as Lord Kames supposes, from the custom among savage nations to mark with a great stone the place where their worthies were interred: that such worthies being at length deified, in the superstitious notions of their votaries, the stones that were dedicated to their memory became essential in every act of religious worship performed in honour of their new deities. The very particular homage, that for time immemorial has been paid to the memory of the dead by the Chinese, renders the above explanation extremely probable as to the origin of their altar of four stones which in their language are calledTan, and which in former times were erected on most of their high mountains; and it is singular enough that, at the present day, thetanshould be represented, upon many of the altars erected in their temples, by four loose stones placed on the four corners of the altar, as the horns were in the corners of the Jewish altars. When population increased, and the people were spread wide over the empire, the inconvenience of ascending any particular mountain must necessarily be felt, and thetanwas then transferred to places that were better suited for general accommodation. The same idea indeed is still retained in ourchurches, thealtarandhigh placebeing synonimous words. In the city of Pekin, which stands on a sandy plain, thetien-tan, or altar of Heaven; thetee-tanor altar of earth; and thesien-nong-tanor altar of ancient agriculturists, are erected upon artificial mounts within the walls of the palace; and here the Emperor continues, to this day, to sacrifice at appointed times, exclusively, as the son of Heaven, and the only being on earth worthy to intercede for his people. The same doctrine prevailed in the time of Confucius, who observes, that the distance between the all-creative power, or cause of all things, and the people is so immeasurably great, that the king or ruler, as high priest, can alone offer such a sacrifice; and that this power is best satisfied when man performs the moral duties of life; the principal of which he makes to consist in filial piety, and unlimited obedience to the will of the prince.
His religious notions and morals do him great credit, but his metaphysics are so obscure as not to be intelligible which, however, may partly be owing to the nature of the language. In his writings appears a strong predilection for a kind of fortune-telling, or predicting events by the mystical lines ofFo-shee. By the help of these lines, and the prevailing element at the commencement of the reign of a prince, he pretended to foretel the events that would take place and the length of its continuance; but, at the same time, he was cautious enough to wrap them up in such ambiguous and mysterious expressions that, like most prophecies of the kind, they might admit of a variety of interpretations. This manner of expounding the lines of Fo-shee by Confucius, the supposed system of binaryarithmetic by Leibnitz, laid the foundation of consulting future destiny, at this day universally sought after by the Chinese[43].
Predestination in all ages, and in all nations, has formed one of the leading features of religion; and, in consideration perhaps of popular opinion, has been foisted into the articles of the Christian faith, though unwarranted by any passage in the holy scriptures. It is a doctrine little calculated for the promotion of good morals, and still less so for conveying spiritual consolation. The Chinese, however, confine the influence of lots to the events of this life. It would perhaps be doing injustice to the understanding of Confucius to suppose, that he really believed in the doctrine of fatality. Being prime minister of one of the kings of China, it was necessary for him to act the politician aswell as the philosopher; and he could not fail to know, that the superstitions of the people were among the best supports of the government. He might have been aware of the folly and absurdity of such a doctrine, and yet found it prudent to enforce the observance of it; just as the Greeks thought proper to continue theirLots. These, instead of sticks, as used by the Chinese, were three stones that, according to some, were first discovered and presented to Pallas by the nymphs, the daughters of Jupiter, who rejected an offering that rather belonged to Apollo, and threw them away;—an excellent moral, observes Doctor Tytler, the learned translator of the hymns and epigrams of Callimachus, shewing that those persons who are guided by Pallas, or Wisdom, will improve the present time, without being too anxious to pry into futurity. The Greek poet, however, like the Chinese philosopher, ascribed to the possessor of the Lots, the talent of reading future destiny.
"By him the sure events of Lots are given;By him the prophet speaks the will of Heaven."Tytler.
"By him the sure events of Lots are given;By him the prophet speaks the will of Heaven."Tytler.
The Romans had also their lots to determine future events, which were a kind of wooden dice, and their priests examined the marks and interpreted the signification of the throw. And the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, made use of little sticks, notched at the ends which, like the Chinese, they threw three times in case they did not approve of the first throw. Herodotus traces the custom of predicting future events to the ancient Egyptians, and seems to think the Greeks had it from them. But is not the desire of prying into futurity to be ascribed rather to a weakness in human nature, than as a custom borrowed by one nation from another? Are we entirely free from it in modern Europe? However humiliating the reflection may be, yet it is certainly true, that men of the strongest minds and soundest judgments have sometimes, towards the close of an useful life, devoted their time to the exposition of old prophecies without meaning, or applicable only to events that were already in train to be accomplished when the prediction was made. Among many others, the greatNapier, the inventor of logarithms, might be produced as an instance of this remark. From the Apocalypse of Saint John he predicted the day of judgment; but his calculations in this instance not being founded ondataequally solid with those on which he constructed his tables, he unfortunately survived the day he had named to blush at his own weakness.
Other parts of the doctrine of Confucius were well calculated to keep alive the superstitious notions that still prevail among the multitude. He taught them to believe that the human body was composed of two principles, the one light, invisible, and ascending; the other gross, palpable, and descending; that the separation of these two principles cause the death of man; that at this awful period the light and spiritual part of the human body ascends into the air, whilst the gross and corporeal matter sinks into the earth. The worddeath, in fact, never enters into the philosophy of Confucius; nor, indeed, on common occasions is it employed by the Chinese at the present day. When a person departs this life, the common expression is,he has returned to his family. And although the body resolves itself in the course of time into its primitive elements, and becomes a part of the universe; yet, he contended, the spirits of such as had performed their duty in life were permitted to visit their ancient habitations, or such places as might be appointed for receiving the homage of their descendants, on whom they had the power of conferring benefactions. On this ground it became the indispensable duty of every good man to observe a strict obedience of the performance of sacred rites in the temple consecrated to the memory of ancestors. He maintained that all such as neglected this great branch of moral duty would be punished for their neglect, after death, by their spiritual part being deprived of the privilege of visiting the hall of ancestors; and, consequently, of the pleasure arising from the homage bestowed by their descendants. Such a system could not fail to establish a belief in good and evil genii, and of tutelar spirits presiding over families, towns, cities, houses, mountains, and other particular places. It afterwards required no great stretch of the imagination to give to these "airy nothings a local habitation and a name."
It does not appear, however, that either Confucius or any of his disciples attached the least idea of apersonal beingto the deity; nor does it seem ever to have entered into their minds to represent thegreat first causeunder any image or personification. They considered the sun, moon, stars and the elements, with the azure firmament, as the creative and productive powers, the immediate agents of the Deity and inseparably connected with him, and they offered adoration to these agents, united in one wordtien(Heaven). It cannot be supposed, after whathas already been observed in the sixth chapter, that I should lay any stress on the similarity of words in different languages, or on the analogy of their signification, in order to prove a common origin; but if the conjecture of the learned Bos be right, thatΘεοςmay be derived fromΘεεινto move forward, in allusion to the motion of the heavenly bodies which the ancient Greeks, as well as the Persians, worshipped,tiencertainly comes very near the Greek both in sound and signification; nearer it could not come in sound, as the Chinese by no effort could pronounce theΘth. The wordtiennot only signifiesheaven, but a revolution of the heavenly bodies, and is in common use both in writing and conversation forday, asye, ul, san tien, one, two, three days.
The Confucionists, like the Stoics, seem to have considered the whole universe as one animated system, made up of one material substance and one spirit, of which every living thing was an emanation, and to which, when separated by death from the material part it had animated, every living thing again returned. In a word, their conceptions of the Deity might be summed up in those two beautiful and expressive lines of Pope,
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,Whose body nature is, and God the soul."
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,Whose body nature is, and God the soul."
But that which is most surprizing is, that the enthusiastic followers of Confucius have never erected any statue to his memory, nor paid him divine honours as erroneously has been supposed. In every city is a public building, a kind of college,wherein examinations are held for degrees of office, and this building is called the house of Confucius. Here, on certain appointed days, the men of letters assemble to pay respect to the memory of their esteemed philosopher. In the great hall appropriated for this ceremony a plain tablet is erected, on which is painted an inscription, in gilt characters, to this effect: "OCong-foo-tse, our revered master, let thy spiritual part descend and be pleased with this our respect which we now humbly offer to thee!" Fruit and wine, flowers, perfumes and other articles are then placed before the tablet, during which are also burning various kinds of scented gums, frankincense, tapers of sandal wood and gilt paper. This ceremony, which in every respect is the same to that which he taught as an observance towards the manes of departed relations, they are persuaded is agreeable to the invisible spirits of those to whom it is offered, who delight in hovering over the grateful odour of flowers, of fruit, and the smoke of incense. Thus, in like manner, did the Romans on their birth-days offer flowers and fruit and wine, and burn incense to invisible spirits, whom they called thegenii,
"Funde merum genio.""Fill a glass to Genius."
"Funde merum genio.""Fill a glass to Genius."
But the priests, who, in all ages and in most nations, have been crafty enough to turn to their own account the credulity and superstitions of the people, having once established as a religious duty the offering of sweet-smelling herbs and other perfumes, found little difficulty in persuading the multitude, thatthat the tutelar spirits could eat as well as smell, and that sacrifices and meat-offerings would be acceptable to the gods. The priests of China lost no time in introducing sacrifices, even of living creatures, and offerings of corn and rice and wine and precious metals upon their altars, not however to that extent which was practised in the temples of Greece and Rome, whose gods were the most mercenary of all nations, being rarely induced to grant a favour without a fee. Nor in modern days have the monks and priests of the Catholic faith been backward in this respect particularly in sanctioning the doctrine ofcomposition for sins, for the absolution of which the rate was not even fixed in proportion to the magnitude; and what is still more astonishing, this impious practice of bargaining with the Almighty has survived the dark ages, and exists to a certain degree at this moment.
The moral and religious opinions of Confucius were, in fact, too sublime and too metaphysical to preserve their purity among a people so unprepared, as his countrymen were, to receive and cherish them. The attention of the multitude would seem, indeed, in all nations to require being fixed on something gross and material. How difficult was it for the priest and the leader of the Jews, to restrain their people from practices of idolatry. In the short absence even of Moses on Mount Sinai, they made for themselves a molten calf of gold as an object of divine worship, in imitation, probably, of what they had beheld in the temples of Egypt. The invisible god made little impression on their gross and untutored understandings. Nor was Numa more successful than Moses or Confucius, in his attempt to establish among the people the worship of an ideal or mental object of adoration. Thus also it happened with the Chinese. The sublime conceptions of their great philosopher, too refined indeed for untutored human nature, they could not comprehend. They required some visible object on which they might fix their attention. It was not enough merely to imagine that the spirits of men, who had done their duty in this life, were permitted to haunt the places where their bodies were interred, or where their surviving friends should assemble to do them honour: it was necessary to give them a form and substance. In the same manner was the purity of the Christian religion contaminated by the multitude of images that were invented in the monkish ages, when every city, town, and church, and even individuals, provided they could pay for them, had their particular patron, or tutelar saint.
Like the temples of Confucius, those of the ancient Egyptians are supposed to have been entirely free from statues; and Herodotus seems to be of opinion, that Hesiod and Homer were the first who introduced the genealogy of the gods among the Greeks; imposed names upon each, assigned their functions and their honours, and clothed them in their several forms. And we learn from Silius Italicus, that the ancient temple of Hercules at Gades had no visible type of the Deity.
"Sed nulla effigies, simulacrave nota deorum,Majestate locum, et sacro implevere timore.""No statues of the gods appear within,Nor images; but rev'rend horror round,And gloom majestic guard the sacred ground."Tytler's MS.
"Sed nulla effigies, simulacrave nota deorum,Majestate locum, et sacro implevere timore.""No statues of the gods appear within,Nor images; but rev'rend horror round,And gloom majestic guard the sacred ground."Tytler's MS.
The missionaries in their writings have endeavoured to impressthe world with an idea that the Chinese, and particularly the Confucionists, are atheists; that they disbelieve in a future state of existence; and that they are the victims of a senseless superstition. Nothing can be more unjust than such an accusation. CouldCaung-sheebe an atheist, when he inscribed with his own hands the Jesuit church in Pekin,
"To the only true principle of all things," &c.
"To the only true principle of all things," &c.
And can a people be justly accused of a disbelief in a state of future existence, when the whole nation, of what sect soever, presents its offerings at stated seasons to thespiritsof its departed ancestors? Does the ejaculation, "Let thy spiritual part descend and be pleased with this our respect which we now humbly offer to thee!" convey any such supposition? And of all others, the missionaries ought to have been the last to accuse the Chinese of senseless superstitions. Surely it is not more repugnant to reason, nor less consonant with human feelings, to offer grateful gifts to the manes of deceased parents and friends, than to fall down before the Virgin Mary and the thousand saints whom caprice or cabal have foisted into their calendar, and of whose history and actions even their votaries are totally ignorant? Chinese superstition, in this respect is, to say the worst of it, an amiable weakness. If the supposition be allowed that beings who have departed this life may possess an influence over remaining mortals, it is surely more natural to address those whose care and kindness had already been felt, than those of whom we have no further knowledge than the name. There is perhaps no stronger incentive to virtuousactions, nor a more effectual check against vicious pursuits, than the idea that the departed spirit of a beloved parent may continue to watch over and direct our conduct. The Chinese, at all events, are not illiberal in their superstitions: they made not the least difficulty in allowing the corpse of one of our artists, who died atTong-tchoo, though a Christian and consequently in their opinion a heretic, to be deposited in the midst of their public burying ground. With as little reason does an angry missionary complain of the dresses and ceremonies of their priests, as they certainly borrowed nothing from the Catholics, who, on their part, are much indebted to the heathen Greeks for a great part of the paraphernalia of their own religion. "There is no country," says he, "where the devil has so successfully counterfeited the true worship of the holy church. These priests of the infernal spirit wear long loose gowns, exactly resembling those of some of the fathers of the church; they live in temples like so many monasteries, and they chaunt in the same manner as with us."
Another religion, much better calculated to gain popularity, sprung up about the time of, or very shortly after, the death of Confucius. A man of the name ofLao-Kung, having travelled into Thibet, became in part acquainted with the worship of the priests of Lama, which he thought would suit his countrymen, and might also be the means of raising his own reputation. He accordingly established a sect, under the name ofTao-tze, or "Sons of Immortals." He maintained, like Epicurus, that to live at his ease and to make himself happy were the chief concerns of man: that, to seize the present moment,regardless of the past and of that to come, was the business of life,
"Carpe diem, quàm minimum credula postero.""——Swift the fleeting pleasure seize,Nor trust to-morrow's doubtful light."
"Carpe diem, quàm minimum credula postero.""——Swift the fleeting pleasure seize,Nor trust to-morrow's doubtful light."
But as ills would come, and disease and death seemed to be the common lot of mankind, the beverage of immortal life was a glorious idea to hold out to mortal man. In fact, immortality was one of the attributes of theDelai Lama, who is supposed never to die; the soul of the reigning Lama passing immediately into the person of his successor. This doctrine, a branch of the Metempsycosis, was converted byLao-Kunginto the art of producing a renovation of the faculties in the same body, by the means of certain preparations taken from the three kingdoms of nature. The infatuated people flew with avidity to the fountain of life. Princes even sought after the draughts that should render them immortal, but which, in fact, brought on premature death. Numerous instances are said to be on record, wherein the eunuchs have prevailed on the sovereign to swallow the immortal liquor which seldom failed to dispatch him. Father Trigault, who was in Pekin when the Tartars took possession of it, speaking of the propensity of the upper classes for the beverage of life, observes, "Even in this city, there are few of the magistrates or eunuchs or others in office free from this insanity; and as there are plenty who wish to learn the secret, there is no want of professors." This seems to be the only species of alchemy to which the Jesuits have said the Chinese are addicted. The preparation of theliquor of life is their philosopher's stone; and, in all probability, is composed of opium and other drugs which, by encreasing the stimulus, gives a momentary exhilaration to the spirits; and the succeeding languor requiring another and another draught till at length, the excitability being entirely exhausted, the patient "puts on immortality."
How much soever we may find ourselves disposed to censure the absurdity of the Chinese beverage of life, we are not a great way behind them in this respect, or thePerkinses, theSolomons, theVelnos, and theBrodums, with an innumerable host of quacks, whose indecent advertisements disgrace our daily prints, would not derive their subsistence, much less rise to affluence, by the credulity of Englishmen; for many of these pests of society are foreigners, too contemptible in their own country to meet with encouragement. What conclusion would a Chinese be apt to draw of our national character, if he had only a smattering of our language, just sufficient to enable him to read these daily effusions that are forced upon public notice[44]? And what must he think of the reveries of Condorcet, and of his English disciples, whose monstrous doctrines (under the abused name of philosophy) would persuade him that sleep was a disease! That
"Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath,Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,Chief nourisher in life's feast"——
"Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath,Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,Chief nourisher in life's feast"——
was a bodily infirmity, which theperfectibility of the human mind(so happily commenced by the French subversion) would completely eradicate! Let us not altogether condemn the ignorant, perhaps designing, priests ofTao-tse, and the still more ignorant multitude, when the strong and enlightened mind of aDescartescould amuse itself with the fanciful hope of being able to discover the secret of prolonging the life of man far beyond the usual limits which seem to be assigned to the human species.
Consistent with the principle of "taking no thought for the morrow," the priests ofLao-Kungdevoted themselves to a state of celibacy, as being more free from cares than the incumbrances which necessarily attend a family connexion; and the better to accomplish this end, they associated in convents. Here they deal out to their votaries the decrees of the oracle agreeably to the rules prescribed by Confucius; and they practice also a number of incantations, magic, invocations of spirits, and other mystical rites that are probably as little understood by themselves as by the gazing multitude. In performing these magic tricks they march in procession round the altar, on which the sacred flame is supposed to be kept perpetually burning, being a composition of wax and tallow mixed up with sandal wood shavings and other perfumes; they chaunt in unison a kind of recitative, and they bow their heads obsequiously every time they pass before the front of the altar. The greatGongis struck at intervals, accompanied by tinkling sounds emitted by gently striking small metal plates suspended in a frame as in the plate of musical instruments. Their temples are crowded with large and monstrous figures, some made of wood, some of stone, and others of baked clay daubed overwith paint and varnish, and sometimes gilt. To such figures however they do not seem to pay any kind of homage. They are intended merely to represent the good and evil genii under the various passions to which human nature is liable. The good genii, or pleasing affections, are placed on one side of the temple, and their opposites on the other. Thus the personifications of mirth and melancholy, love and hatred, pleasure and pain, are contrasted together. The conditions of men are also represented, and their figures opposed to one another. In this light at least they appeared to us; though the priest atTong-tchooinformed us they were intended to pourtray the different characters of the monks that had belonged to the monastery. In some temples also are met with the statues of such Emperors or ministers of state as had shewn themselves favourable to any particular convent. If, for instance, a great man should occupy the apartments of a temple and at his departure leave a considerable sum of money, the priests, out of gratitude, would place his image in a niche of the temple. In looking into one of these edifices a stranger would be apt to conclude that they were Polytheists, which I do not understand to be the case. Like the saints of the Catholics the greatFo, of whom I shall presently speak, withPoo-sa,Shing-moo, and many others, are considered only in the light of agents and intercessors, or as emanations of one creating, destroying, and renovating power, whose good providence has divided itself into a number of attributes for the better government of the universe[45].
Next to this religion of the immortals, was introduced anotherof nearly the same growth which, from being patronized by the court, soon became no less popular than the former. The priests ofFo, coming by invitation from India, imported with them a great portion of the Hindu mythology, which some learned men have supposed to be the origin from whence the Polytheism of Egypt and Greece had its source; and others the direct contrary. Be that as it may, the affinity seems to be too strong not to ascribe them to a common parent; and the representations and the histories of many of the gods of these nations were imported, in all probability, with the religion ofFo, from India into China. This will better appear by comparing a few as they are observed in the different nations.
TheBudhaof the Hindus was the son ofMa ya, and one of his epithets isAmita: theFoof China was the son ofMo-ya, and one of his epithets isOm-e-to; and, in Japan, whose natives are of Chinese origin, the same godFois worshipped under the name ofAmida. I could neither collect from any of the Chinese what the literal meaning was ofOm-e-to, nor could I decypher the characters under which it is written, but it appeared to be used as a common ejaculation on most occasions, just as we Europeans are too apt to make a familiar and impious use of the name of God. Perhaps it might not seem inconsistent in considering it to be derived from the Hindu mystic wordOm.
Since the accession of the Tartar princes to the throne of China, the court religion, or at least the Tartar part of the court, which before adhered to the tenets of Confucius, has been that ofFoorBudha. The priests are numerous, mostly dressed in yellow gowns, live in a state of celibacy in large convents or temples, which the Chinese callPoo-ta-la, evidently derived fromBudha-laya, or habitation ofBudha, this name being adopted by the Tartars, which the Chinese have been under the necessity of following as nearly as their organs of speech would admit. They wear a sort of chapelet round their necks, consisting of a number of beads. In some of their ceremonies they march, like theTao-tses, in procession round the altar, counting their beads, repeating at every beadOm-e-to-fo, and respectfully bowing the head. The whole string being finished, they chalk up a mark, registering in this manner the number of their ejaculations toFo. This counting of their beads was one of the ceremonies that very much exasperated the missionaries.
TheGanesaof the Hindus, theJanusof the Romans, and theMen-shin, or guardian spirit of the door of the Chinese, are obviously one and the same deity. Sometimes he is painted with a club in one hand, and a key in the other, representing the protector of the house. On almost every door in China, where the inhabitants profess the religion ofFo, is drawn the figure ofMen-shin, or otherwise the two characters of this word, agreeing exactly with what Sir William Jones has observed of the new town of Gayá in Hindostan, "that every new built house, agreeably to an immemorial usage of the Hindus, has the name ofGanésasuperscribed on its door: andin the old town his image is placed over the gates of the temples."
TheVishnuof the Hindus, riding on an eagle, and sometimes attended by an eagle, has been considered as theJupiterof the Greeks; and theLui-shinof the Chinese, or spirit of thunder, is figured under a man with the beak and talons of an eagle, sometimes surrounded with kettle drums, carrying in one hand a batoon and in the other a flame of fire. TheOsirisof the Egyptians, from whence the Greeks had theirJupiter, comes still nearer to theLui-shinof the Chinese. When represented as the emblem of the sun, he was drawn under the figure of a man with an eagle's beak, carrying in his hand a batoon on which was painted an eye. The ingenious and fertile imagination of the Greeks separated the emblem from the god, and made the bird of prey the attendant of the divinity, which the Egyptians and the Chinese united under one symbol. It is a curious coincidence of opinion, if it be not founded on fact, that the Chinese should assign the same reason for giving an eagle's face to theirLui-shin, that Pliny has for the consecration of that bird toJupiter, namely, that no instance was ever known of an eagle being destroyed by lightning. The Chinese have also an observation with regard to this bird, which has been made by other nations, and which is, that the eagle, in a thunder storm, always mounts above the clouds.
TheVarunaof the Hindus, riding on a fish, theNeptuneof the Greeks, and the ChineseHai-vang, or king of the sea,reposing on the waves, with a fish in his hand, are unquestionably one and the same personage.
The giantBriareus, with his hundred hands, is truly in China of a most stupendous and colossal stature, being commonly from fifty to sixty feet in height, and sometimes as tall as eighty feet. But the largest of all their deities is a woman of the family ofPoo-sa[46], apparently a personification of nature. This goddess is modelled in a variety of ways; sometimes she is to be found with four heads, and forty or fifty arms, the heads looking towards the four cardinal points of the compass, and each arm holding some natural product of the earth subservient to the use of man. Sometimes each arm produces several smaller arms, and on the head stands a pyramidal groupe of smaller heads. Van Braam mentions his having seen a statue of this goddess that was ninety feet high, having four heads and forty-four arms. It is no uncommon thing to meet with temples in ruins, in the midst of which these monstrous gods and goddesses are seen entire, exposed to the elements. It seems the inferior temples are generally upheld by the voluntary gifts of the people; and that, whenever any unusual calamity befals a town or village, such as severe famine, epidemic disease, inundations, or the like, whose dire effects cease noton repeated applications to the protecting saint, by way of punishing the gods, they literally pull down the temple over their heads, and leave them sitting in the open air. The grotesque and barbarous manner of representing the manifold powers of nature, or the goddess of nature, by a plurality of heads and hands in one idol, is by no means favourable to the supposition of a refined or superior understanding in the people who adopt them into their religious worship. It can be considered only as a very short step beyond the conceptions of savages, who have no other idea than that of supplying by number, or a repetition of the same thing, what may be wanting in power. The same figure, with numerous arms, appears in the Hindu temples that are excavated out of solid granite mountains, the most ancient and among the most wonderful monuments of art and persevering labour that have hitherto been discovered on the face of the globe, the fountain perhaps from whence the arts, the sciences, and the religious mysteries of the Egyptians and the Greeks derived their origin.
But the most common of all the female deities in China is theShing-moo, or holy mother, or rather the mother ofperfect intelligence[47]. This lady is the exact counterpart of the IndianGangaor goddess of the river, theIsisof the Egyptians, and theCeresof the Greeks. Nothing shocked the missionaries so much on their first arrival in China as the image of this lady, in whom they discovered, or thought they discovered, the most striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. They found her generally shut up with great care in a recess at the back part of the altar, and veiled with a silken screen to hide her from common observation; sometimes with a child in her hand, at other times on her knee, and a glory round her head. On hearing the story of theShing-moothey were confirmed in this opinion. They were told that she conceived and bore a son while yet a virgin, by eating the flower of theLien-wha(theNelumbium) which she found lying upon her clothes on the bank of a river where she was bathing: that, when the time of her gestation was expired, she went to the place where she had picked up the flower and was there delivered of a boy; that the infant was found and educated by a poor fisherman; and, in process of time, became a great man and performed miracles. Such is her story, as told by the Chinese priests. When the image of this goddess is standing, she generally holds a flower of the Nelumbium in her hand; and when sitting, she is usually placed upon the large peltate leaf of the same plant.
The Egyptian Lotos, not that esculent plant from the use of which theLotophagihad their name, but another of a very different genus consecrated to religious purposes, is said[48]to have been ascertained from a statue ofOsiris, preserved in the Barberini palace at Rome, to be that species of water lilly which grows in abundance in most parts of the eastern world, and which was known to botanists under the name ofNymphæa Nelumbo; but I understand it is now considered as a newgenus, distinguished under a modification of its former specific name, by that ofNelumbium. This plant, however, is no longer to be found inEgypt. The two species that grow, at present, on the banks and canals of the Nile are totally different, which furnishes a very strong presumption that, although a sacred plant and cultivated in the country, it might nevertheless be of foreign growth. In China, few temples are without some representation of the Nelumbium; sometimes theShing-moois painted as standing upon its leaves in the midst of a lake. In one temple I observed the intelligent mother sitting upon the broad peltate leaf of this plant, which had been hewn out of the living rock. Sometimes she holds in her hand a cornucopia filled with the ears of rice, of millet, and of the capsule or seed-vessel of the Nelumbium, these being articles of food which fall to the share of the poorest peasant. This very beautiful water lilly grows spontaneously in almost every lake and morass, from the middle of Tartary to the province of Canton; a curious circumstance, when we consider the very great difficulty with which it can be preserved, even by artificial means, in climates of Europe, whose temperature are less warm and less cold than many of those where, in China, it grows in a state of nature, and with the greatest degree of luxuriance. On the heights of Tartary it is found in an uncultivated state where, in winter, the thermometer frequently stands at, and generally far below, the freezing point. But here the roots strike at the bottom of very deep waters only, a circumstance from which we may perhaps conclude, that the plant may rather require uniformity of temperature, than any extraordinary degree either one way or other. Not only the seed of the Nelumbium, which is a kind of nut nearly as large as an acorn, but the long roots, jointed likecanes, furnish articles of food for the table. In the capital, during the whole summer season, the latter are sliced and laid on ice, and in this state serve as part of the desert; the taste differs very little from that of a good juicy turnip, with a slight degree of astringency.
There is something so very striking and remarkable in this plant, that it is not surprizing the Egyptians and the Indians, fond of drawing allusions from natural objects, should have considered it as emblematic of creative power. The leaves of the succeeding plant are found involved in the middle of the seed, perfect, and of a beautiful green. When the sun goes down, the large leaves that spread themselves over the surface of the water close like an umbrella, and the returning sun gradually unfolds them. Now, as these nations considered water to be the primary element, and the first medium on which creative influence began to act, a plant of such singularity, luxuriance, utility and beauty, could not fail to be regarded by them as a proper symbol for representing that creative power, and was accordingly consecrated by the former toOsirisand toIsis, the emblems of the sun and moon, and by the latter toGanga, the river goddess, and to the sun. The coincidence of ideas between those two nations, in this respect, may be drawn from that beautiful Hindu hymn, addressed to Surya or the sun, and translated by Sir William Jones—