XI. X. IX.

VIII.
VII.
VI.
m. iv. v.
Wallenstein’s horoscope. 4931
Credibly ascribed to Kepler.
day into twice twelve hours, and their calendars from ancient Baby- lonia. the influence of which has been preserved down to modern times, and can most palpably be recognised in astrology.
Astrology is unquestionably of Babylonian origin. It rests on
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 89
the theory that the universe is a well-ordained whole governed bv universal laws, and so the ancient sages assumed that life on earth is foreshadowed by the events in the celestial regions ; and these notions adhered to the further development of astronomy with a persistence that is truly surprising.
Even as late as the fourteenth century astronomers were still
obliged to eke out a scant living with the help of astrology, and Kepler himself had to increase his means of subsistence by casting horoscopes. But he was great enough to take the situation humor- ously, and in one of his letters we read : “This astrology is indeed a foolish little daughter, but — lieber Gott! — where would her mother, the highly rational astronomy, be, if she did not have this
4504
MEXICAN CALENDAR WHEEL.
90
CHINESE THOUGHT.
foolish offspring? People are even more foolish, so foolish in fact, that this sensible old mother must for her own benefit cajole and deceive them through her daughter’s foolish, idle talk.”*
Europe has inherited its calendar with many incidental notions and superstitions from ancient Babylon. But back of the inter- connection in historic ages there must have been a very intimate exchange of thought between the incipient civilisations of primitive China, of Babylon, and also of the American Maya. The American Maya must have brought many ideas along with them when they
CHINESE ASSIGNMENT OF ANIMALS EUROPEAN CONCEPTION OF
*--4 TO PARTS OF THE BODY. SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC
settled in their new home which testifies to the hoariness of their culture.
At the time of the discovery of America they were far behind the Spaniards in the art of warfare, but they were their superiors in a proper calculation of the calendar. They divided their year into eighteen epochs of twenty days each with five intercalary days, but they knew also that this calculation was only approximate and had the difference adjusted before Pope Gregory’s reform of the Julian calendar. But the point we wish to make here is not concerned with the sundry accomplishments of the Maya, but the remarkable
* See Carus Sterne’s article “Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler,’’ The Open Court, XIV, 405.
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
91
similarities of detail between their symbolism and that of mediaeval Europe as well as China.
In our researches we have never entered deeply into compara- tive astronomy, but judging from suggestions of scholars who have
ROMAN CALENDAR STONE IN THE MUSEUM AT WURZBURG. From Weltall und Menschheit, Vol. Ill, p. 19.
[The deities presiding over the seven days of the week are pic- tured on the top : Saturn for Saturday with sickle in hand ; Mithra the sun-god, for Sunday; Diana, the moon-goddess, for Monday; Mars,
(the Teutonic Tiu) for Tuesday; Mercury (the Teutonic Wodan) for Wednesday; Jupiter (the Teutonic Thor) for Thursday; Venus (Teutonic Frigga or Freya) for Friday. The circle represents the crude picture of the zodiac beginning at the top with Aries, and run- ning around to the left, each sign being accompanied by the initial of its name.]
made a specialty of this interesting branch of human lore, we can say positively that the Babylonian origin of the division and names of the zodiac has been firmly established. Prof. Franz Boll has col- lected all pertinent material of Greek texts and also illustrations of several ancient representations of the starry heavens in his book,
92
CHINESE THOUGHT.
Sphaera, neue griechische Texte und Untersuclningen zur Geschichte dcr Stcrnbildcr (Leipsic, Teubner, 1903). He also refers to the method prevalent in Eastern Asia, of counting hours, months, and
2038 KUDURP.U OF NAZI MARADAH, KING OF BABYLON, SON OF 20 ^
KURIGALZAR II.
[Most of the emblems are the same as in the preceding illustra- tion except that the goddess Gula is here represented in full figure in a typical attitude with both hands raised.]
years by the duodenary system of animals and points out its simi- larities to the Babylonian system (pp. 326 ff.). Our own investi-
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
93
STAR EMBLEMS REPRESENTING BABYLONIAN DEITIES. CAP OF A KUDURRU.
[We see on the top sun, moon, and planet Venus, representing the Babylonian trinity of Shamash, Sin, and Istar. These three symbols are surrounded to the right of the moon by the lamp of the god Nusku, a goose-like bird, the scorpion, a double-headed symbol of un- known significance, a loop-like emblem and a stake bearing a tablet. The outer margin shows on the top the emblem of the ancient god Ea, a goat ending in a fish, a throne and a ram-headed mace; then turning to the right, we have the emblem of Marduk, a lance on a throne and the dragon Tiamat; further down an eagle (or a falcon) perched on a forked pole, a dog (or lion), two thrones with tiaras resting on them, and another throne, beside it lying an unknown scaled monster. The forked tree is the symbol of the goddess Nidaba, a form of Istar as the harvest goddess. The same deity is sometimes represented by an ear of wheat, in Hebrew shibboleth (from shabal, “to go forth, to sprout, to grow”) ; and judging from the pictures on the monuments, worshipers carried ears of wheat in their hands on the festival of the goddess. It is the same word which was used by Jeph- tha of Gilead to recognise the members of the tribe of Ephraim who pronounced it sibboleth, because they were unaccustomed to the sibi- lant sh (Judges xii. 6). From shibboleth the Latin word Sybilla, the name of the prophetess, the author of the Sybilline oracles, is derived. Nidaba’s star is Spica (i. e., “ear of wheat,”) the brightest star in the constellation Virgo , i. e., the virgin goddess Istar.]
2031
94
CHINESE THOUGHT.
gations corroborate Professor Boll's theory, and we owe to him a number of the illustrations here reproduced.
We complete the circle of evidences as to early prehistoric con- nections, by furnishing additional instances of pictures of the zodiac among other nations, that have been isolated for thousands of years.
The names of our own zodiac are commemorated in a couplet of two Latin hexameters as follows :
“Sunt Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libraque Scorpius 1 Arcitenus2 3 Caper2 Amphora 4 Pisces,
or in English: (i) the Ram, (2) the Bull, (3) the Twins, (4) the Crab, (5) the Lion, (6) the Virgin, (7) the Balance, (8) the Scor- pion, (9) the Archer, (10) the Goat, (11) the Vase or Water-man, and (12) the Fishes.
All the zodiacs, together with their divisions into constellations, must have one common origin which can only have been in Babylon, the home of ancient astronomy. We possess among the cuneiform inscriptions of the first or second century B. C. some astronomical tablets which contain an enumeration of the Babylonian zodiac in abbreviations. They read as follows :5
1. JeJ ( ku{sarikku ))
2 . (te(rnennu))
3. Hf- Hh (ma™)
4. (Jtulukku )
5- Tr (ar“)
6. (serf})
7. ( zibanitu )
8. ( aqrabu )
9. sfc (J>a )
i°. l A} (eHZU)
11. {gu )
12.
= aries.
= taurus.
= gemini.
= cancer.
= leo.
= virgo.
=s libra.
= scorpio.
= arcitenens.
= caper.
= amphora [aquarius]. — pisces.
1 “Scorpius” is commonly called Scorpio; the change in the ending is ob- viously made on account of the meter of the verse.
2 Also commonly called Sagittarius.
3 Also known under the name Capricorn.
4 Also named Aquarius.
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
95
The identity of this series with our own and other zodiacs is most striking in the beginning, which like our own series starts with “The Ram,’’ “The Bull,” and “The Twins.”
The constellations as represented on our modern globes are so outlined as to make the figures of the symbols cover the area of the stars, and the illustrators have adroitly utilised the stars as part of the picture. This method is according to an ancient tradi- tion which can be traced back to antiquity and has produced the impression that the names of the constellations are due to the con- figuration of the stars. But while it is true that such names as “Charles’s Wain” or “the Wagon” (in China called “the Bushel,” in America “the Dipper”) is a name apparently invented on account of the configuration of the stars, the same does not hold good for other constellations and least of all for the signs of the zodiac. In ancient Babylon, or even in ancient Akkad, certain names in the starry heavens were sacred to certain deities, and the names repre- sented the several deities that presided over that part of the heavens. We must assume that in most cases the picture of a stellar configu- ration is a mere afterthought of the artist who tried to trace in it the deity or its symbol. We have in the zodiac and its names a grand religious world-conception which regards the entire cosmos as dominated by divine law, finding expression in divine power dominant according to a fixed constitution of the universe, render- ing prominent in different periods definite divine influences repre- sented as gods or archangels of some kind. Among them we notice one who appears as the omnipotent highest ruler, whose rank is analogous to a king of kings, for he governs the whole celestial world, and this highest ruler has been represented by dif- ferent nations in different ways, and by kindred nations who fol- lowed kindred ideas in a kindred way. Thus we find the similarity of the highest god among the Assyrians and the Persians, and a close examination of the post-Exilic tendencies of Jewish history in- dicates that the Asur of the Assyrians so similar to Ahura Mazda of the Persians, is in all main features the same as Yahveh of the Jews.
5 See Epping and Strassmaier, Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, Vol. V, Fas- cicle 4 (Oct. 1890, p. 351).
CHINESE THOUGHT.
96
The idea that celestial conditions govern all earthly events is brought out very strongly in the Assyrian standards, which show the highest god Asur in the most conspicuous place, and in com- paring his effigy to representations of Asur on the monuments, as well as to the modern illustrations of Sagittarius, we will be im- pressed with a strong similarity in these pictures. The Assyrian
standards commonly show Asur as standing above a bull. One very elaborate standard exhibits in addition to the god Asur, three symbols of the zodiac, which for some unknown reason, perhaps simply for the sake of symmetry, are duplicated. There are two streams of water, two bulls, and two lion heads, and it is scarcely an accident that these symbols represent the Colures in about 3500
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
97
B. C. In the middle of the fourth millennium B. C. the solstitial Colures lay in Aquarius and Leo, and the equinoctial Colures in Taurus and Scorpio.6
If the god Asur, who is represented as an archer, stands for
Sagittarius, we may assume that the two signs, Sagittarius and Scorpio were originally- one and became differentiated later on. We shall present reasons, further down, which will make this assumption probable.
See also Plunket, Ancient Calendars and Constellations, Plate VIII.
98
CHINESE THOUGHT.
Is it perhaps a reminiscence of kindred traditions when Mithra is pictured in the Mithraic monuments as slaying the divine bull? We notice in every one of the Mithra pictures the scorpion attacking the bull simultaneously with Mithra, and depriving him of his power of fecundation. Scorpio stands in opposition to Taunts and in winter nature loses its productivity. The same idea is suggested in the illustration of the crab on the kudurru pictured on page 106.
ZODIAC OF DENDERA. 4242
As to the identification of the Assyrian god Asur with the Persian Ahura, we will incidentally say that Professor Hommel goes so far as to maintain that Asur is merely the Assyrian pro- nunciation of the Elamitic “Ahura,” and corroborates his state- ment by other examples. The Honorable Emmeline Mary Plunket makes this view her own and argues with great plausibility that
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
99
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(On the next page we reproduce illustrations showing some details of this remarkable picture of the Egyptian zodiac which will serve as an evidence of the artistic elegance of the sculptor’s work.)
IOO
CHINESE THOUGHT.
an Elamite or Aryan race might have been in possession of Assyria at the time before the Semitic wave crowded the Elamites back farther north, and the Semitic settlers worshiped the god of the country in order to pacify his anger and keep on good terms with him. We know that in the same way the settlers of Samaria wor-
THE CONSTELLATION OF THE HAUNCH.*
ORION, THE SPARROW HAWK AND THE COW SOTHIS. 4209
shiped the god of the Israelites in addition to their own gods, so as not to offend the divine power that governed the land.
* * *
The constellations of the zodiac were not invented simulta-
* Reproduced from Maspero, Dawn of Civilization.
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
IOI
neously with the division of the ecliptic into twelve mansions, for many constellations of the ancient ecliptic are very irregular and
LATE ROMAN EGYPTIAN MARBLE PLAQUE.* 4243
[The center represents Apollo and Phcebe, the former with a solar halo, the latter crowned with a crescent. Surrounding this are two circles of twelve mansions each, the outer circle containing the signs of the Greek zodiac, and the inner the corresponding signs of the Egyptian zodiac. Beginning at the top the pictures run to the left as follows: Aries, cat (inner circle); Taurus, jackal; Gemini, serpent; Cancer, scarab; Leo, ass; Virgo, lion; Libra, goat; Scorpio, cow; Sagittarius, falcon; Capricorn, baboon; Aquarius, ibis; Pisces, croco- dile.]
reach in their bulk either above or below the exact path of the sun. In fact, Eudoxus, Aratus, and Hipparchus do not enumerate twelve,
* Described by J. Daressy, Recueil de travaux rel. a la philol, et a l’ arch Egypt, et Assyr., XXIII, 126 f.
IN THE FARNESIAN PALACE.
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. IO3
but only eleven constellations of the zodiac, and it seems that Libra. the Balance, is a later addition ; and yet this change also is commonly supposed to have come from Babylon. We must conclude therefore that the constellations among the starry heavens were mapped out without special reference to the ecliptic, and are older. The irregu- larity of the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic,, accordingly, would go far to prove that their names must have been imported into China before the ecliptic had finally been regulated into twelve equal mansions, each of 30 degrees.
Babylonian wisdom migrated in both directions, toward the east to China, and toward the west to Europe. It must have reached China at an early date in prehistoric times, and it has come down to us from the Greeks who in their turn received their information second hand through the Egyptians.
At every stage in this continuous transfer of ideas, the mytho- logical names were translated into those that would best correspond to them. Istar changed to Venus, or Virgo; Bel Marduk to Zeus and Jupiter, and among the Teutons to Thor or Donar, etc.
During the Napoleonic expedition some interesting represen- tations of the zodiac were discovered in the temple of the great Hathor at Dendera. They are not as old as was supposed in the first enthusiasm of their discovery for they were finished only under the first years of Nero ; but they well represent the astronomical knowledge in Egypt which looks back upon a slow development for many centuries. We notice in the transition of the zodiac from Babylon to Egypt, and from Egypt to Greece, several changes of names which are still unexplained. Sirius is identified with Orion, and the Great Bear with Typhon, etc.
The Hindu* and the Arabian zodiacs are practically the same as ours, but the Chinese zodiac shows some deviations which, how- ever, are too inconsiderable not to show plainly a common origin of the whole nomenclature.
The Arabian magic mirror, here reproduced, exhibits the twelve symbols of the zodiac in the outer circle, and the angels of the seven planets which preside also over the seven days of the week, appear
*For an illustration and description of the Hindu zodiacs see page 75.
104
CHINESE THOUGHT.
in the inner circle. 1 he center where we would expect some emblem of the sun shows the picture of an owl.
It is interesting to see how sometimes the external shape of a figure is preserved, sometimes the name. We find for instance the Archer (called Sagittarius or Arcitenus) represented as a double-
ANCIENT ARABIAN ZODIAC (13th CENT.)
[Engraved on a magic mirror. Dedicated as the inscription reads “To the Sovereign Prince Abulfald, Victorious Sultan, Light of the World.’’]
headed centaur drawing a bow in almost the same outlines on an ancient Babylonian kudurru, as in modern charts of the heavens. And it is noteworthy that in Greece, too, this centaur, in a note of Teukros, is spoken of a two-faced (SiTrpdowos). In the same way the scorpion-man holds the bow, and he again resembles the out-
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
105
lines of the scorpion, so as to indicate that the bow has taken the place of the claws. Notice further that the ancient picture of the Babylonian Sagittarius possesses two tails, one like that of a horse, the other of the same form as that of both the scorpion-man and the scorpion. All this suggests that the two emblems, Sagittarius and Scorpio which are neighbors in the zodiac, may originally have been one and were differentiated in the course of time, in order to make the mansions of equal length.
In this connection we would also remind our readers of the obvious similarity between the picture of the god Asur and Sagit- tarius. But even differences are instructive and there can be no doubt that they suggest prehistoric connections between the far East and the West.
The symbol of the ancient god Ea is a goat terminating in a
THE EMBLEM OF EA. 4W8
[Babylonian Symbol of Capricorn.]
fish. The corresponding sign of the zodiac which in Europe is re- garded as a goat and called Caper or Capricorn, is considered a fish in China and called “the Dolphin.” In a similar way the division of the zodiac that was originally connected with the annual inun- dation in Babylonia, is called either Aquarius or Amphora and is represented in the Chinese zodiac as a vase ; in Western charts as a man holding an urn pouring forth water.
The astronomical knowledge of Babylon migrated west by way of Egypt and Greece, to modern Europe, and on its way east it must have reached China at a very early date.
It is not our intention to follow here all the changes which the zodiac underwent in different countries. It is sufficient to call atten- tion to the undeniable similarity of all of them. It would take
io6
CHINESE THOUGHT.
the concentration of a specialist for every change to point out the modifications which the several signs underwent in their transference
SAGITTARIUS AND SCORPIO ON A BABYLONIAN KUDURRU.
SCORPION-MAN AND SCORPION.
4241
from place to place and from nation to nation. One instance will be sufficient to show how the names with their peculiar associations
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
107
affected the interpretation of the several constellations among the different nations.
Cancer was called “the scarab” by the Egyptians, and was en- dowed with special sanctity for the deep religious significance of the scarab in Egypt is well known.
The scarab (ateuchus sacer ) is an Egyptian bug which belongs to the same family as our June bug, the cockchafer, and the tumble- bug. In habits it is most like the latter, for like her the female scarab deposits her eggs in a lump of mud which she reduces to the shape of a ball. The ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between the male and the female scarab, and had not watched how they deposited and laid their eggs, so it happened that when they wit- nessed the mysterious bug rolling a mud ball along the road, they were under the impression that the scarab renewed his existence by some mysterious means, and possessed the divine power of resur- rection from the dust of the earth. Accordingly the scarab became in Egyptian mythology the symbol of creation and immortality. The sacredness of the symbol was for a long time preserved in the ancient Christian churches, for Christ is repeatedly called “the Scarab.”
The passages on the subject have been collected by Mr. Isaac Myer, who says :9
“After the Christian era the influence of the cult of the scarab was still felt. St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, calls, Jesus, ‘The good Scarabaeus, who rolled up before him the hitherto unshapen mud of our bodies.’10 St. Epiphanius has- been quoted as saying of Christ: ‘He is the Scarabteus of God,’ and indeed it appears likely that what may be called Christian forms of the scarab, yet exist. One has been described as representing the crucifixion of Jesus. It is white and the engraving is green, and on the back are two palm branches. Many others have been found apparently en- graved with the Latin cross.”* 11
While the Babylonian, or rather Akkadian, origin of the Chi-
e Scarabs. London: D. Nutt.
10 Works, Paris, 1686. Vol. I, col. 1528, No. 1 13. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity. By Samuel Sharpe, London, 1863, p. 3.
11 An Essay on Scarabs, by W. J. Loftie, B.A., F.S.A., pp. 58, 59.
io8
CHINESE THOUGHT.
nese zodiac must be regarded as an established fact, we can not deny that it possesses some peculiarities of its own.
The Chinese begin the enumeration of their zodiac with a
CHINESE ZODIAC.
constellation called “Twin Women,” which corresponds to our Virgo. whence they count in an inverse order, (2) the Lion, (3) the Crab, (4) Man and Woman (answering to our Gemini), (5) the Bull,
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
IO9
(6) the Ram, (7) the Fishes, (8) the Dolphin ( Capricorn ), (9) the Vase {Aquarius), (10) the Bow ( Sagittarius ), (11) the Scor- pion, and (12) the Balance.
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It is noteworthy that the Chinese and Hindu zodiacs agree in representing Gemini as a man and woman, while in all Western
I IO
CHINESE THOUGHT.
almanacs they are represented as brothers which is probably due to their identification with Castor and Pollux.
The zodiac corresponds closely to the twelve mansions of the ecliptic which are called in China as follows :
i. » # 4- a 7. m a.
2 X 5. || >X- 8. X X
3 WM 6.|| M 9.
These names in a literal translation mean :
io- St
ii. Tthf.
12- fit
1. Descending misfortune,
2. Large beam,
3. Kernel sunk,
4. Quail’s head,
5. Quail’s fire,
6. Quail’s tail,
7. Longevity star,
8. Great fire,
9. Split wood,
10. Stellar era,
11. Original hollow,
12. Bride defamed.
SOUTH
THE TWELVE BRANCHES AND TWELVE CHINESE COIN REPRESENTING ANIMALS REPRESENTING THE SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR

We have translated these names for the convenience of the English reader, but must warn him that their significance has nothing to do with either the astronomical or astrological meaning of these terms.
* We will add that the usual way of symbolising the four quarters is east by the azure dragon, north by the sombre warrior, south by the vermillion bird, and west by the white tiger. Compare Mayers, Cli. R. M. II, 91.
TABLE OF THE TWELVE HOURS
ZODIACS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
Ill
RELATION TO THE ECLIPTIC
Original Hollow
Stellar Era
Split Wood
Great Fire
Longevity Star
Quail s Tail
Quail's Fire
Quail’s Head
Kernel Sunk
Large Beam
Descending
Misfortune
Bride Defamed
RELATION TO THE ZODIAC
EUROPEAN
Aquarius
Capricorn
1
j Sagittarius
Scorpio
Libra
Virgo
Leo
Cancer
Gemini
Taurus
Aries
Pisces
CHINESE
Vase
Dolphin
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Scorpion
Balance
Twin Sisters
Lion
Crab
Man and Woman
Bull
Ram
Fishes
ANIMAL NAME
Rat
Bull
Tiger
Hare
Dragon
Serpent
Horse
Lamb
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Boar
POPULAR NAME
Midnight
Hour of the Crowing Rooster
Dawn
Sunrise
Breakfast Time
Forenoon
Midday
Early Afternoon
Late Afternoon
Sunset
Twilight
Hour of Rest
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CHINESE THOUGHT.
The twelve mansions as well as the twelve double-hours are closely related to the twelve animals, the rat representing north, or midnight ; the goat, south ; the hare, east ; the cock, west.
The Chinese, like the Babylonians, divide the day into double hours which according to the notions of Chinese occultism have definite relations to the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve mansions of the ecliptic, as explained in the adjoined table.
It seems strange to us that the wise men of the prehistoric ages in Babylonia and Egypt, in China and Central America, troubled themselves so much about the zodiac and the calendar, but we will understand their solicitude when we consider that their world- conception was based upon the idea of cosmic law. They thought that the universe was dominated by conditions which were pre- determined by the events that took place in the starry heavens and would in some way be repeated in this and the nether world. This was the bottom rock on which rested their religion, their philosophy, and their ethics. The polytheistic mythology is merely the poetic exterior of this view, and the astrological superstitions that grow from it, its wild excrescences. We need not be blind to the many errors and absurdities of the ancient occultism to understand and grant the truth that underlies its system. This fundamental truth is the universality of law ; a firm belief that the world is a cosmos, an orderly whole dominated by definite leading principles ; the con- viction that our destiny, the fate of both nations and individuals is not a product of chance, but determined according to a divine plan in systematic regularity.
Occultism may now be an aberration, a survival of antiquated views, but there was a time when it was the stepping-stone of primi- tive man to a higher and deeper and truer interpretation of the world.
We would not possess astronomy to-day had not our ancestors been given to astrology, and in the same way all our science, phi- losophy and religion has grown out of the past and we are more indebted to the half-truths of the antiquated world-conception than we are commonly inclined to admit.
A THRONELESS KING AND HIS EMPIRE.
CONFUCIUS.
r I ''HE moral teacher of China, the man who gave definite form
to Chinese ethics and has molded the character of the nation, was K‘ung-tze, or K‘ung fu tze, which has been Latinised into “Con- fucius.” The word K'ung (which literally translated means “hole") is his family name, tze designates him as a philosopher, while fu is a title of respect.
Confucius was born in the year 550 B. C.1 in Tsou, a township of the district of CITang-Ping, which is the modern Szu Slmi in the province Shantung.2 He is descended from a distinguished family of officers.3 His great grandfather had come from the state Sung during a feud with a powerful enemy, to seek refuge in the state Lu, and his father whose full name was K‘ung Shu Liang Ho, having had nine daughters from his first wife and a crippled son from a concubine, married again at the advanced age of seventy
1 According to Sse Ma T'sien, Confucius was born in the twenty-second year of duke Hsiang of Lu, which is the year 550 B. C. This statement is adopted by Chu Hsi in his Biography of Confucius which prefaces the stand- ard edition of the Lun Yii, but there is no unanimity as to the exact date for the commentators Ku’ Liang and Kung Yang place his birth in the year 552 B. C., and even they do not agree as to the month. Ku' Liang states that Confucius was born on the twenty-first day of the tenth month of the twenty- first year of the Duke Hsiang of Lu, which was the twentieth year of the Emperor Ling. While Kung Yang agrees in all other details, he states that it was the eleventh and not the tenth month.
2 There is no unanimity as to the place of Confucius’s birth. At present there are two towns that make rival claims for the honor. The other one not mentioned in the text is Yen Chou also situated in Shantung.
3 Details of the family history of Confucius are reported by Legge in his edition of The Chinese Classics, I, PP- 56 ff.
CHINESE THOUGHT,
1 14
STAIRWAY OF TIIE TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS AT PEKING.
A THRONELESS KING AND HIS EMPIRE. I 1 5
the youngest daughter of the Yen family, called Cheng Tsai; and when a son was born to them, they called him Ch'iu, i. e., “hill,” because, as the legend relates, the babe’s forehead bulged out in a hill-like protuberance. This K‘ung Ch'iu was destined to become the ideal of China, Confucius.
K'ung Shu, the father, died three years after the birth of his son, and the widow moved with her child to a village in the district Ch'ii Fou.
Many stories of miraculous, occurrences are told of the birth of Confucius. In one of them we are told that the marvelous ani- mal, called lin, brought a tablet to Cheng Tsai, the sage’s mother, on which this prophecy was written :
“The son of the essence of water [i. e., the principle of purity] shall come forth at the decay of the Chow [dynasty] and he shall be a throneless king.”
Most of the birthstories of the sage are of later origin and show Buddhist influence. They were invented because the followers of Confucius did not want to see their founder outdone in honors, and so they vied with Buddhist traditions in claiming a supernatural origin for their great sage as well.
Nothing is known of the childhood of Confucius except that he was distinguished by a serious disposition and showed in his games an extreme fondness for rituals and ceremonies.
At the age of nineteen he married, and when a son was born to him he called him Li, which means “carp.” He entered public service as a controller of public graneries, while his virtuous deport- ment, his admiration of the ancient sages, and his inclination to moralise, attracted general attention so as to surround him with a number of admirers who looked up to him as their master. We owe it to his disciples that his principles and moral maxims became known to posterity and were cherished by the Chinese nation. Con- fucius himself never wrote a work on his doctrines, and he character- ised himself as “a transmitter, not an originator,”4 but his faithful disciples compiled a book of reminiscences which they published under the title Lun YU, “Conversations and Sayings,” which in the English-speaking world is best known as Confucian Analects.
4 Analects, VII, 1.
CHINESE THOUGHT.
116
It has become one of the most important canonical hooks of China and is regarded as a reliable authority for rules of conduct.
In 527 Cheng Tsai, the mother of Confucius, died, and he had both his parents buried together in Fang, his father’s former home, under one tumulus.
The Confucian Analects are not a systematic treatise on ethics, but have the appearance of mere anecdotes, being sayings of the master, mostly introduced by the simple words “The Master said,’’ and sometimes mentioning the occasion on which certain sayings
of his had been uttered. Confucius was an extremely conservative man and his ideal lay in the past. The great patterns of conduct were the sages of yore, and he selected from them as models of conduct the most famous rulers, such as Yao, Shun, the Duke of Chou, and King Wan.
Confucius is frequently represented as a rationalist whose re- ligion, if it may be called so, consisted purely of practical consider- ations of life. But this is not quite true, for his belief in mysticism is fully demonstrated by his reverence for the Yih King, the canonical
A THRONELESS KING AND HIS EMPIRE. 117
book of mystic lore of China, with reference to which he said in his advanced age: “If some years could be added to my life, I would give fifty of them to the study of the Book of Changes, for then I would have avoided great errors.”
Confucius is credibly believed to be the author of an appendix to the Yih King , the Book of Changes, called “The Ten Wings,” which proves that this ancient document was to him as enigmatical as it remained to all succeeding generations.
In order to study the archives of antiquity, Confucius went to the capital of the empire, the city of Lo, where the most famous thinker of the age, Lao Tan, better known under the title Lao Tze (i. e., “the old philosopher") held the position of keeper of the archives. The story has it that these two great representatives of a radically opposed conception of life met personally, but their interview was not satisfactory to either. Lao Tze insisted on sim- plicity of the heart and expected that manners and rituals would adjust themselves, while Confucius proposed to train mankind to genuine virtue and especially to filial piety by punctilious observ- ance of the rules of propriety. The interview is recorded by Ssu Ma Hsien, and has been retold with literary embellishments by the great Taoist litterateur Chuang Tze.
Confucius taught the Golden Rule in these words :
I so pu yii, mo shi yii jen.
WMtk A.
“What ye will not have done to you, do ye not unto others.”
The fame of Confucius had gradually spread throughout the country, and the sovereign of his native state, Duke Ting of Lu, made him chief magistrate of a town in which he was to try his principles of government. Confucianists claim that he worked a marvelous reformation in the manners of the people, and so his sovereign raised him to a higher position, entrusting him first with the ministry of works, and then with the ministry of justice.
In his fifty-seventh year Confucius withdrew from public office in order to show his disapproval of the conduct of his sovereign. The Confucianist report states that a neighboring prince, the Duke
CHINESE THOUGHT.
I 18
of C h‘i, envied the Duke Ting because of his famous minister, and in order to alienate his affections from the sage, he sent to the court of Lu a present of eighty beautiful maidens and thirty spans of horses, thereby reclaiming Ting’s preference for sport and frivolities. The resignation of the sage did not, however, have the desired effect. The Duke appointed another minister of justice from among the great number of office seekers, while the sage now traveled from state to state in the hope of finding another dignified em- ployment as adviser to a ruler who would venture to introduce the principles of his system of morality, and restore the ideal of China’s glorious past in his government.
The time of his travels was a long series of disappointments to Confucius. He was received sometimes with honors and some- times with indifference, but there was no prince who was willing to give him the desired employment. His enforced leisure was well utilised in literary labors, for Confucius collected a number of writings which he deemed worthy of preservation. They con- stitute now the second portion of the canonical scriptures of China, and have as such the title King, i. e., “canon,” or “authoritative hooks.” The only original work he ever composed is a history of his native state beginning in the year 722 B. C., which is called “Spring and Autumn,” being a poetical title to indicate the suc- cession of the seasons and the events belonging thereto. He was not a historian, however, for he simply chronicled successive happen- ings without pointing out their historical connection.
The older Confucius grew the more disappointed was he that his life should have been spent in vain. We are told in the Lun Yu that he said :
“No wise ruler rises; no one in the empire will make me his master. My time has come to die.”
Saddened by the fact that his moral views were rejected by the princes of the nation, he predicted the coming of turbulent times and civil wars, events which had indeed become unavoidable through the degeneration of many petty courts and their disregard for the welfare of the people.
A THRONELESS KING AND ITIS EMPIRE. I ig
Once it happened (so Kung Yang informs us)5 that a strange creature had been killed on a hunt of the Duke Ai of Lu, and the sage was called to inspect the body and give his opinion. Confucius declared it to be that supernatural animal called Lin, the appearance of which is deemed a rare occurrence. In his despair Confucius looked upon the death of this royal beast as a bad omen and he exclaimed : “My teaching is finished indeed.”* *
It is pathetic to observe the sage’s despair at the end of his career ; but such is the fate of reformers and this saying of Con- fucius sounds very much like a literal version of Christ’s last word, “It is finished !”
Two years later Confucius felt the approach of his end. While he walked in front of his house he muttered this verse :
“Huge mountains wear away.
Alas !
The strongest beams decay.
Alas !
And the sage like grass Must fade. Alas !”
[The original is quoted from Li Ki, “The Book of Ritual.”]
These lines of complaint are the Eli Eli, lama sabachthani of Confucius. He feels forsaken and fears that his work has been in vain.
Confucius died in 478 in retirement, and his faithful followers built a tomb over his remains, mourning on the spot for three years. His most devoted admirer, Tze Kung, built a hut and lived there for three years longer.
The fame of Confucius did not spread beyond a limited circle of disciples until a new period of prosperity began to dawn on China, which took place in the rise of the Han dynasty. Kao Tsou, the first Han emperor, was an admirer of the Confucian ideal. He visited the sage’s tomb in 195 and ofifered there sacrifices to his memory. He had his books re-edited and ordered them to be care- fully preserved.
“Kung Yang is one of the three commentators of Kung Tse's historical book Spring and Autumn , the others being Tso Chi and Ku Liang.
* This is a verbatim translation of the four words wu tao ch'iung i.
u
M
fil
A
A
111
a:
m
ig
ffi
A
A
¥
120
CHINESE THOUGHT.
Further honors were heaped upon Confucius when the emperor P'ing Ti had a temple erected to his memory and raised him to the dignity of a duke, conferring on him the official name, “Duke Ni, the Perfect and Illustrious.” This occurred in the year one of the Christian era.
In 739 the Emperor Hsiian T'sung canonised him under the title “Prince of Illustrious Learning” and made him the object of veneration in the official ceremonies of the government.
Twice a year a special day is set aside for the worship of Con- fucius, and it is an established custom that at the imperial college the emperor himself attends the festival in state. Bowing his head six times to the ground, he invokes the spirit of the sage in a kneeling position with these words (quoted in Legge's translation) :
“Great art thou, O perfect sage!
Thy virtue is full ; thy doctrine complete.
Among mortal men there has not been thine equal.
All kings honor thee.
Thy statutes and laws have come gloriously down.
Reverently have the sacrificial vessels been set out.
Full of awe, we sound our drums and bells.”
In addition to the books which Confucius had compiled there are two more writings on his system of ethics, which have acquired canonical authority. Both breathe the spirit of the great master and are written in a simple direct style of pure ethics founded upon the principles of filial piety, without any reference to religious or metaphysical motives. They are the “Great Learning" ( Ta Hsiao ) and “Middle Doctrine” (Chung Yung).
Children are taught from a tender age to reverence Confucius, and every school in China possesses his picture before which teachers and scholars pay homage to the sage.
Whatever opinion we may have of Confucius, one thing stands out clearly, indicated by the great significance he holds in the his- tory of China, in Chinese literature, and in Chinese thought : viz., that he has been and still is the greatest exponent of the Chinese national character ; for his ideals as well as his attitude toward life are typically Chinese.
Confucius was a throneless king indeed, and his empire is the
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121
realm of moral aspirations wherever Chinese civilisation has taken root. The emperor, as well as the entire machinery of the Chinese government is but the organ of the Chinese spirit, — the executor
A CHILD WORSHIPING THE SAGE.
cf ideas which determine the character of the nation, and this spirit, the genius of the Chinese nation, is Confucius. His domain is the social order of the empire, the administration from the throne down
122
CHINESE THOUGHT.
to its lowliest subject, and especially the schools. Confucius is wor- shiped as the incarnation of morality.
FILIAL PIETY.
Several years ago while sauntering through the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, New York, my eye was attracted by a little Chinese store where, among other Oriental curios, were dis- played wall pendants, ornamental mottoes designed to be hung up as decorations in the sitting-rooms of the Celestials. Being inter- ested in the subject of things Chinese I secured copies of them,
Archaic. Common Script.
THE CHARACTER HSIAO.
and since they are characteristic of the spirit of Chinese moralism, I take pleasure in reproducing them here, for, indeed, our descrip- tion of Chinese thought would not be complete without a reference to Chinese ethics in which the ideal of hsiao, i. e., filial piety, plays so prominent a part.
The paper and art work of these pendants are crude enough to allow the assumption that the prints must be very cheap in China, and designed for the common people and not for the rich. Prob-
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123
ably they cost not more than one or two cents apiece in Peking or Hong Kong, and evidently serve the two purposes of instruction and ornament.
The Chinese are much more of a moralising people than we are ; for while wre dislike abstract moralising, they delight in it and do not tire of impressing upon their children the praiseworthiness of filial devotion.
The character hsiao consists of two symbols representing a child supporting an old man, which means that children should honor and care for parents in their old age, and filial piety is sup- posed to be the basis of all virtue. The moral relations are regarded
r.os9
Ornamental.
THE CHARACTER HSIAO.
Seal Style.
BOSS
as mere varieties of hsiao ; and the original significance of the word, which means chiefly the devotional attitude of a child toward his parents, includes such relations as the obedience of the subject to his ruler, of the wife to her husband, of the younger brother to his elder brother, and of any one’s relations to his superiors, including especially man’s relation to Heaven or the Lord on High, to God.
The Chinese ornament their rooms, not as we do with pictures of beauty, but with moral sayings ; and the two here reproduced
124
CHINESE THOUGHT.
are typical of the national character of the Chinese. The former of the two pendants, literally translated, reads:
x Tta ft iii
“When father | and son | combine | their efforts | mountains | are changed | into gems.’’
The saying, however, is not an admonition to parents to keep in harmony with their sons but to sons to be obedient to their parents.
The second pendant reads :
% & is] m_&
“When elder brother | and younger brother (or briefly, when brothers) ] are harmonious | in their hearts | the earth | will be changed | into an Eldo- rado.’’1
It will be noticed that the letters are pictures containing figures and Chinese characters ; and we have here the Chinese peculiarity of utilising their script for illustrations which represent scenes from well-known Chinese stories of filial devotion ; all of them being taken from a famous book called Twenty-four Stories of Filial Devotion. These stories are known to every Chinaman, for they form the most important text-book of their moral education.
The first character (fit, meaning “father”) represents Wang Ngai, who lived during the Wei dynasty (220-364 A. D.). His mother was much afraid of lightning and so during thunderstorms stood greatly in need of her son’s comfort. The story tells 11s that after her death Wang Ngai continued to show his devotion bv visiting her tomb, whenever a thunder-cap appeared on the horizon. The picture shows him bringing offerings to her grave and pro- tecting it against the fury of the thunder-god, who is seen hovering above him in the air. (No. 805a, p. 242.2)
The inscription of the second character (tse, meaning “son”) reads in one place “Tai Son’s aged mother,” and in another “Tan Hsiang’s daughter weeping over a sweet melon."
The third character (hsieh, meaning “combine”) pictures a child standing before an old gentleman. The inscription reads:
1 Literally, gold.
2 The numbers and pages in parentheses refer to Mayers, Chinese Reader’s Manual.
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125
fu
[When] father
tze
[and] sons
hsieli
combine
li
[their] efforts
shan
mountains
ch'eng
are fashioned
yii
into gems.
hsiung [When] elder brothers
ti
[and] younger brothers
t'ung
[are] harmoni- ous
hsin
[in their] hearts
t'u
the earth
fieri
is changed
chin
into an Eldorado (gold).
126
CHINESE THOUGHT.
“Keeping in his bag a crab apple he showed his devotion to his parent.” It refers to the story of Luh Sii. When a boy of six years he visited Yen Yu who gave him crab apples to eat but noticed that the child kept one in his bag for his mother. (No. 443, p. 140.)
The fourth character ( li, meaning “strength”) illustrates the story of Hwang Hiang who, as a boy of seven, after his mother’s death devoted himself unweariedly to his father's comfort. In summer he fanned his pillow, in winter he kept it warm. (No. 217, pp. 69-70.)
The fifth character (slum, meaning “mountain”) represents Kiang Keh, a Chinese Anchises of about 490 A. D. Once he res- cued his mother during a disturbance of the peace by carrying her many miles on his shoulders. Behind the fugitives in the center of the character rages the spirit of rebellion and in the right-hand corner is seen a deserted house. (No. 255, p. 80.)
The sixth character ( ch‘cng , meaning “fashioning, shaping, transforming”) illustrates the story of Wu Meng who exposes him- self to the bites of mosquitoes lest his mother lie stung by them. The picture of the hero of the story lying naked on a couch is not very clear in the reproduction, but the comfort of his mother, re- clining in an easy chair finds a distinct expression. (No. 808, p. 260.)
The last character (yii) of the first series is remarkable in so far as it stands for the only instance of a woman’s being praised for filial devotion. It represents Ts‘ui She who nursed at her own breast her toothless old mother-in-law who was incapable of taking other nourishment. (No. 79m, p. 238.)
The first character of the second pendant ( lisiung , meaning “elder brother”) relates to Wang Siang, whose stepmother felt an appetite for fresh fish in winter. He went out on the river, lay down on the ice, warming it with his own body, and caught a couple of carp, which he presented to her. (No. 816, p. 241.)
The next character (ti, “younger brother”) shows the famous Emperor Yao in the center and before him his successor Shun, the pattern of filial as well as royal virtues. The elephant, one of the animals that helped him plow the fields, is visible above Shun on
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127
the right-hand side. William Frederick Mayers in his Chinese Reader's Manual (No. 617, p. 189) says about him:
“Tradition is extremely discordant with reference to his origin and descent. According to the Main Records of the five Emperors, his personal name was Ch‘ung Hwa, and he was the son of Ku Sow, a reputed descendant of the emperor Chwan Hii. (He had also the designation Yii, which is by some referred to a region in modern Ho-nan, but by others to the territory of Yu Yao, in modern Che- kiang, with one or the other of which it is sought to connect him.) His father, Ku Sow (lit. ‘the blind old man’) on the death of Slum’s mother, took a second wife, by whom he had a son named Siang ; and preferring the offspring of his second union to his eldest son, he repeatedly sought to put the latter to death. Shun, however, while escaping this fate, in no wise lessened his dutiful conduct toward his father and stepmother, or his fraternal regard for Siang. He occupied himself in ploughing at Li Shan, wrhere his filial piety was rewarded by beasts and birds who spontaneously came to drag his plough and to weed his fields. He fished in the Lui Lake and made pottery on the banks of the Yellow River. Still his parents and his brother sought to compass his death ; but although they endeavored to make him perish by setting fire to his house and by causing him to descend a deep well, he was always miraculously preserved. In his twentieth year, he attracted by his filial piety the notice of the wise and virtuous Yao, who bestowed upon him his two daughters in marriage, and disinherited his son Chu of Tan, in order to make Shun his successor upon the throne. In the 71st year of his reign (B. C. 2287), Yao associated his protege with him in the government of the empire, to which the latter succeeded on the death of Yao in B. C. 2258.”
The character thing, which means “agree,” refers to Meng Tsung of the third century A. D., whose mother loved to eat bam- boo shoots. While he was sorrowing because they do not sprout in winter, the miracle happened that in spite of the frost the bamboos began to put forth their sprouts, and so he was enabled to fulfil his mother’s desire. (No. 499, p. 155.) The picture shows a table on which the dish of bamboo sprouts is served, the face of his mother
128
CHINESE THOUGHT.
hovering above it. On the right hand Meng Tsung sits sorrowing; the left-hand stroke is a sprouting bamboo stick.
Yen-Tze, the hero of the next story, depicted in the character “heart," is said to have ministered to his mother's preference for the milk of the doe by disguising himself in a deer skin and mingling with a herd of deer in the forest, where he succeeded in milking a doe and in spite of robbers, represented as attacking him on either side, he carried his mother’s favorite food safely home in a pail. (No. 916, p. 276.)
The character fu, “earth,” depicts the touching story of the sacrifice of Yang Hiang, who saw a tiger approaching his father and threw himself between him and the beast. (No. 882, p. 266.) In the reproduction it is difficult to recognise the crouching tiger, which forms the stroke through the character.
The next to the last character ( pien , meaning “changes”) refers to Min Sun, a disciple of Confucius. Mayers says; “His stepmother, it is recorded, having two children of her own, used him ill and clothed him only in the leaves of plants. When this was discovered by his father, the latter became wroth and would have put away the harsh stepmother, but Min Sun entreated him saying: ‘It is better that one son should suffer from cold than three children be motherless!’ His magnanimous conduct so impressed the mind of his stepmother that she became filled with affection toward him." (No. 503, p. 156.)
The last character (chin, meaning “gold”) bears the inscription “With mulberries he shows his filial devotion to his mother." It il- lustrates the story of Ts‘ai Shun who during the famine caused by the rebellion of Wang Meng (25 A. D.) picked wild mulberries in the woods and brought the black ones to his mother while he was satisfied with the unripe yelow ones. The picture shows a robber watching the boy. In China even criminals have respect for the devotion of children to their parents. So in recognition of his filial piety the robber made him a present of rice and meat.
We here reproduce a series of illustrations representing the twenty-four well-known stories of filial devotion, which, however, we regret to say are not by a Chinese illustrator but by one of the
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most remarkable artists of Japan, Hokusai, the painter of the poor. Crude woodcut reproductions of these pictures are known all over the country of the rising sun.
They represent (beginning always with the picture in the right- hand upper corner and proceeding downward) :
CHINESE THOUGHT.
130
i. Shun, the person mentioned above destined to become the son-in-law and successor of Emperor Yao, assisted in his plowing by an elephant.
2. Tseng Shen, a disciple of Confucius. The picture illustrates a miraculous event. When he was gathering fuel in the woods,
A THRONELESS KING AND HIS EMPIRE. 1 3 1
his mother, in her anxiety to see him, bit her finger ; and such was the sympathy between the two that he was aware of his mother's desire and at once appeared in her presence. (No. 739, p. 223.)
3. Wen Ti, natural son of Kao Tsu, founder of the Han dynasty, succeeded to the throne after the usurpation by the Empress Dow- ager in 179 B. C. When his mother fell sick he never left her apartment for three years and did not even take time to change his apparel. He is also famous as a most humane monarch.
4. Min Sun, maltreated by his stepmother, has been mentioned above. (No. 503, p. 156.)
5. Chung Yeo, another disciple of Confucius, famous for his martial accomplishments, who died a hero's death in the suppression of a rebellion. He used to say: “In the days when I was poor I carried rice upon my back for the support of those who gave me birth ; and now, for all that I would gladly do so again, I cannot recall them to life!” (No. 91, pp. 29-30.)
6. Tung Yung was too poor to give his father a decent burial. So he bonded himself for 10,000 pieces of cash to perform the fu- neral rites with all propriety. “When returning to his home, he met a woman who offered herself as his wife, and who repaid the loan he had incurred with 300 webs of cloth. The pair lived happily together for a month, when the woman disclosed the fact that she was no other than the star Chih Nii,1 who had been sent down by the Lord of Heaven, her father, to recompense an act of filial piety ; and saying this she vanished from his sight.” (No. 691, p. 210.)
7. The story of Yen-Tze, who while dressed in a deer-skin, is here pictured as meeting a robber. (No. 916, p. 276.)
8. Kiang Iveli asking the robber chief’s permission to allow him to carry away his mother. (No. 255, p. 80.)
9. Lull Sii (who lived in the first century of the Christian era), was liberated by his jailer, when imprisoned for complicity in a conspiracy, on account of the devotion he showed toward his mother. (No. 443, p. 140.)
10. The story of Ts‘ui She, nursing her husband’s mother.
1 The star Vega, a in Lyre. The fairy story which the Chinese tell in connection with this star is given on page 77.
CHINESE THOUGHT.
132
11. Wu Meng (No. 868, p. 260), exposing himself to mos- quitoes.
12. Wang Siang, thawing the ice to catch carp.
13. The story of Kwoh K‘u, who “is said to have lived in the second century A. D., and to have had an aged mother to support,
A THRONELESS KING AND HIS EMPIRE.
1 33
besides his own wife and children. Finding that he had not food sufficient for all, he proposed to his wife that they should bury their infant child in order to have the more for their mother’s wants ; and this devotedness was rewarded by his discovering, while engaged in digging a pit for this purpose, a bar of solid gold which placed him above the reach of poverty, and upon which were inscribed the words : ‘A gift from Heaven to Kwoh K‘u ; let none deprive him of it!’ ” (No. 303, p. 95.)
14. Yang Hiang offering himself to the tiger. (No. 882, p. 2 66.)
15. Clio Show-ch'ang searched fifty years for his mother who had been divorced from his father. Having succeded in his purpose he served her the rest of her life. (No. 81, pp. 26-27.)
16. Yu K‘ien-low, ministering unto his sick father. (No. 950, p. 286.)
17. Lao Lai-Tze plays like a child with his parents who suffer from senile childishness.
18. The same story is told of Ts'ai Shun as of Tseng Shen, viz., that he was recalled from a distance by a sensation of pain which visited him when his mother bit her own finger. During the troubles ensuing upon Wang Mang’s usurpation, A. D., 25, when a state of famine prevailed, he nourished his mother with wild berries, retaining only the unripe ones for his own sustenance. On her death, while mourning beside her coffin, he was called away by attendants who exclaimed that the house was on fire ; but he refused to leave the spot, and his dwelling remained unharmed. As his mother had been greatly alarmed, in her lifetime, whenever thunder was heard, he made it his duty, after death, to repair to her grave during thunderstorms, and to cry out: “Be not afraid, mother, I am here!’’ (No. 752, p. 226.) Our illustration depicts him meeting a hunter in the woods who gives him a piece of venison.
19. Huang Hiang, fanning his father’s bed.
20. Kiang She in conjunction with his wife devoted himself to waiting upon his aged mother, in order to gratify whose fancy he went daily a long distance to draw drinking water from a river and to obtain fish for her table. This devotedness was rewarded by a miracle. A spring burst forth close by his dwelling, and a pair of
134
CHINESE THOUGHT.
carp were daily produced from it to supply his mother’s wants. (Xo. 256, p. 81.)
21. Wang Ngai comforting the spirit of his mother in a thunder- storm.
22. Ting Lan “flourished under the Han dynasty. After his
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135
mother's death he preserved a wooden effigy representing her figure, to which he offered the same forms of respect and duty as he had observed toward his parent during life. One day, while he was absent from home, his neighbor Chang Shuh came to borrow some household article, whereupon his wife inquired by the divining-slips whether the effigy would lend it, and received a negative reply. Hereupon the neighbor angrily struck the wooden figure. When Ting Lan returned to his home he saw an expression of displeasure on the features of his mother’s effigy, and on learning from his wife what had passed, he took a stick and beat the aggressor severely. When he was apprehended for this deed the figure was seen to shed tears, and facts thus becoming known he received high honors from the State.” (No. 670, p. 204.)
23. Meng Sung reaping bamboo shoots for his mother in winter.
24. Hwang T‘ing-Kien (a celebrated poet of the Sung dynasty), performs menial services in ministering to his parents. (No. 226, P- 73-)
Some of the stories seem silly to us : a pickax would have done better service in breaking the ice than the method of thawing it up with one’s own body and catching cold ; a mosquito-net would have proved more useful than feeding the insects with the blood of a devoted child, etc. Moreover the stolidity of parents in accepting sacrifices of children with equanimity and as a matter of course is to our sense of propriety nothing short of criminal. Still, it will be wise for us whose habits of life suffer from the opposite extreme, viz., irreverence for authority or tradition in any form, to recog- nise that all of them are pervaded with a noble spirit of respect for parents, which though exaggerated is none the less touching and ought to command our admiration.
THE CHINESE PROBLEAI.
CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS.
rTAHE Chinese are industrious, modest, easily satisfied, and meek.
They are at a disadvantage in warfare and politics ; but the main struggle for survival will be decided, not by guns and diplo-
ISLAND IN THE YANGTZE RIVER.
matic treaties, hut by sociological conditions ; and when the Chinese people will be drawn into the great whirlpool of the world's com- mercial interests, we shall discover that they will soon make their influence felt, and the probability is that their very virtues, their
PAGODA OF PEKING.
Characteristic of China as exhibiting the state of decay into which public buildings are suffered to fall.
138
CHINESE THOUGHT.
frugality and tenacious industrial habits will make them obnoxious to the white man, who kindly offers himself to bear the burden of governing the yellow race.
China is an interesting country. The landscapes are beautiful ; its mountains are rich in coal and ores ; its plains are as fertile as the prairies of Illinois, perhaps more so ; its national traditions are curious ; and it is probable that some time the currents of Chinese nationality and Western civilisation will be intermingled. China will be opened to Western civilisation, and perhaps the Chinese too will slowly but steadily gain a foothold in the territories of the West.
IMPERIAL PALACE IN THE TIGER MOUNTAINS.
It is difficult to predict the result, but one thing is sure, that while Western civilisation is bound to upset and revolutionise China, the Chinese will in their turn affect the habits, opinions, and the entire social and racial constitution of Western culture. There is never an action without reaction. The Chinese are not pugnacious, they are not conquerors like the Saxons, but they possess qualities that in the struggle for existence are of greater importance still, viz., en- durance, persistence, plodding patience, and industrious habits.
The Rev. R. Morrison was one of the most prominent Christian
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missionaries and a close student of Chinese language, literature, history, and customs. His opinion of the Chinese, as given in the conclusion of his book A View of China for Philological Purposes , is remarkable for its correctness and justice which is best evinced in the fact that the statement, though made almost a century ago
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(viz., in 1817), might have been written yesterday and not a word of it would lose its force. Since the works of Mr. Morrison have presumably become inaccessible to most of our readers, we deem it opportune to quote his views in full.
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REV. R. MORRISON’S VIEWS.
“In China there is much to blame, and perhaps something from which to learn. A good writer1 has remarked that the Christian spirit is very different from what may be called the heroic spirit;
THE PAGODA OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE AT PEKING.
it is of a more tame, gentle, and submissive cast. It is matter of regret how little, in this particular, it has moulded the public feeling of Europe, and how much we yet overvalue a high, proud spirit,
'Archdeacon Paley.
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with a bold disregard of consequences, and prefer it to a rational, meek, unaspiring, and humble spirit. Nothing can be more un- Christian than the stern resentment of insults cherished by Euro- peans.
“The Chinese teach contempt of the rude, instead of fighting with them. And the man who unreasonably insults another, lias public opinion against him, whilst he who bears and despises the affront, is esteemed.
“The Chinese are fond of appealing to reason. They have their ‘men of a high-spirited sense of right,’ and who manifest a bold adherence to it, but still such characters are at great pains to show that reason is on their side. They have no conception of that sullen notion of honor, that would lead a man to prefer being shot, or shooting somebody else, rather than explain and prove the truth and reasonableness of his words and actions.
“Even the Government is at the utmost pains to make it appear to the people, that its conduct is reasonable and benevolent on all occasions. They have found by the experience of many ages that it is necessary. To make out the argument, they are not nice about a strict adherence to truth ; nor are their reasons or premises such that Europeans would generally admit ; but granting them their own premises and statement of facts, they never fail to prove that those whom they oppose are completely in the wrong.
“A Chinese would stand and reason with a man, when an Eng- lishman would knock him down, or an Italian stab him. It is need- less to say which is the more rational mode of proceeding.
“Were the religious and moral writings of Europeans consid- ered by a person living in China, as a faithful delineation of their character, how much would he be mistaken ! And on the other hand, if he formed his opinion from the follies and vices recorded in the daily papers, whilst he would form a quite opposite opinion, it would be equally unfair. We should guard against judging of the whole by a part only. The European student must not consider what the Chinese teach, and what they do, as always the same. Their moral maxims are as ineffectual in regulating their hearts and conduct as the moral maxims of Christendom are with respect to
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Europeans. This, knowing what is right, and doing what is wrong, can be accounted for only on the principle that human nature is depraved, or fallen from its original purity and rectitude.
“The millions of China, whom, on principle, we must recognise as children of the same Almighty Father (for God hath made of one blood all nations of men), are rendered by the strong arm of power, exerted by the magistrate, the parent, or guardian, more afraid of telling truth than Europeans. They are vastly prone to prevari-
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cate, to deceive, to lie. Superstition and idolatry usurp the place of true religion ; and, Chinese, like the rest of mankind, are in- clined to be satisfied with external observances, instead of religious and moral rectitude.
“The affairs of Europe are of comparatively no importance whatever to China ; and on the other hand, the affairs of China do not much concern Europeans. There exists mutual indifference.
* Pailoo gates are memorial structures built in honor of worthy widows or persons who have distinguished themselves by filial piety or other virtues. Pai means tablet, and loo, any building with an upper story.
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“The Greeks and Romans were the ancestors of Europeans. The scenes of their battles ; the situation and antiquities of their cities ; the birth-place of their poets, historians, legislators, and orators, all possess an acquired interest in the minds of those whose education has led them to an early acquaintance with them. But it would be difficult for a Chinese of the best talents and education, to acquire in the years of manhood, a similar interest.
TOMBS NEAR PEKING.
“The Chinese also can point out the scenes of battles where thousands fought and died ; the situation of splendid courts ; the tombs of monarchs ; the abodes of historians, moralists, and poets, whose memory is dear to them, and which interest their hearts in the antiquities of their fathers. But what they look on with interest and pleasure, can certainly have few charms for a foreigner, who is excluded from all their families, and passed from Peking to Canton
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in a boat, under military escort.2 Still from this to deny that the country does not possess any of the charms of Europe, does not seem a fair conclusion. If the reality of things is to be judged of by the feelings of the inhabitants of a country, every region of the world, and every state of society, would in its turn assume the place of high superiority. Europe, which is the most scientific portion of the globe, is not yet free from selfish and narrow prejudices; and to a person placed on the Eastern verge of the Asiatic Continent, who hears little of the nations of Europe, but the distant rumor of their perpetual wars, with all their advantages, they appear still as rancorous against each other, as if they possessed no great principles of equity and justice to appeal to, or were too selfish and barbarous to do so.
“There are certainly not many things in which the Chinese are worthy of imitation : there is, however, one benevolent cause, which a Chinese would never think of opposing, but which has yet to struggle with much unreasonable opposition in modern Europe, viz., that of making education as general as possible, and giving to moral science a decided preference to physical science, in the education of youth ; to honor virtue more than talent. It is painful to hear a smattering of astronomy and geography together with a little music, drawing, and dancing, which can be of very little use in the regu- lation of the heart and life, considered of great value, whilst instruc- tion in relative and religious duties, on which depend the peace and happiness of families and of nations, is lightly esteemed. To utter a moral or religious sentiment anywhere but in the pulpit is esteemed perfectlv insufferable. Every benevolent Englishman must wish to see the reasoning faculty more called into exercise, than it generally is amongst the poor of his own country, and to hear duty to parents, with a rational and religious self-control, quite as much honored in general conversation as those attainments and accomplishments, which may confer elegance on a dwelling and give grace to a person, but which have no influence on the springs of human action, morally considered, nor feed the sources of real heart-felt human bliss.
“The writer, however, means not to insinuate, that in morals
This was in 1817.
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CHINESE THOUGHT.
we are inferior to the Chinese; he believes the fact to be very far the reverse. Their advantages indeed have not been equal to ours ; and our public morals are still greatly below what our acknowl- edged standards require. As, ‘Fas est ab hoste doccri’ so probably in some things, nations denominated Christian, may yet learn from heathens. As Confucius taught, our dislike of a man’s vices should never be carried to such a height as to make us blind to what is really good about him.
“The good traits in the Chinese character, amongst themselves, are mildness and urbanity ; a wish to show that their conduct is
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reasonable, and generally a willingness to yield to what appears so; docility; industry; subordination of juniors; respect for the aged, and for parents; acknowledging the claims of poor kindred: these are the virtues of public opinion, which, of course, are, in particular cases, often more show than reality. For on the other hand, the Chinese are specious, but insincere, jealous, envious, and distrustful to a high degree. There is amongst them a considerable prevalence of skepticism ; of a Sadducean, and rather Atheistical spirit ; and their conduct is very generally such as one would natu-
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rally expect from a people whose minds feel not that sense of Divine Authority, nor that reverence for the Divine Majesty and Goodness, which in Sacred Scripture is denominated the ‘Fear of God.’ Con- science has few checks but the laws of the land ; and a little frigid ratiocination, on the fitness and propriety of things, which is not generally found effectual to restrain, when the selfish and vicious propensities of our nature may be indulged with present impunity. The Chinese are generally selfish, cold-blooded, and inhumane.
“Perhaps the behavior of no people amongst themselves and towards foreigners is exactly the same. With the Chinese it is exceedingly different. When interest or fear do not dictate a dif- ferent course, they are to strangers, haughty, insolent, fraudulent and inhospitable. A merchant will flatter a foreign devil (as they express it), when he has something to gain from him; then he can be servile enough ; particularly if he is not seen by his own country- men ; for the presence of a menial servant of his own nation will make him more on his guard in yielding his fancied superiority. Europeans are secluded from general intercourse with natives of different ranks ; which affords great facilities to merchants and na- tive domestics to combine and impose upon them, which they usually do. Few instances of gratitude or attachment have ever occurred on the part of servants to their European masters. The Chinese study to get the better of those with whom they have to contend, by bringing the other party into a dilemma, like the king in chess, who is reduced to checkmate ; and they become apprehensive, when their opponents maintain calmness and an apparent indifference ; they remember their own maxim, ‘Fie that has reason on his side, need not talk loudly.’
“Love to one's own country is perfectly compatible with benev- olent feelings to all mankind; and the prosperity of this nation, with the prosperity of that. It seems quite a mistake to think that attachment to one’s own people is manifested by a violent dislike of others.
“Will the day ever come when the various tribes of men shall live together as brothers? When they shall not hurt, nor destroy each other any more? When truth and knowledge shall universally
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prevail ? Let us still cherish the pleasing hope, that so desirable a state of society will finally exist, and whilst cherishing this hope, every serious mind will readily join in the King of Israel’s Prayer to the Almighty, ‘O God let thy ways be known upon the Earth, and thy saving health amongst all nations.’ ”
So far Mr. Morrison ; and we must bear in mind that he, as a missionary of the Church militant, is confessedly hostile to Chinese institutions, but he deems it advisable to learn from the enemy and to recognise their virtues. It would be interesting to contrast his
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views with those of an equally fairminded Chinese scholar. We do not believe that any Asiatic would look upon the Christian nations as God-fearing, and if he did, he would presumably distinguish be- tween their theories and practice, between their religious doctrines and their deeds, their professed principles and the policy which they actually pursue. Perhaps he. too, would come to the conclusion that the glaring contradiction in their character can be explained only as due to the general depravity of mankind.
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GLIMPSES OF CHINESE HISTORY.
The history of China is distinguished by an uninterrupted con- tinuity and antedates the oldest of the modern nations of Europe by more than three thousand years. It begins with a legendary period at the head of which in the mists of myth stands the founder of Chinese civilisation, Fuh Hi, whose reign is counted from 2852 to 2737 B. C.
Among the first “Five Rulers,” so styled, the one who is best known and, after Fuh Hi, most frequently referred to,' is Huang Ti, the “Yellow Emperor.” His reign begins with the year 2697 B.