C. He is said to be the inventor of the wagon, and according to

some traditions is a rival of Fuh Hi to the honor of being regarded as the father of Chinese civilisation. Most important, however, is the fact that the Chinese calendar based upon the hexagenary cycle begins under his reign.
The first dynasty, the Hsia dynasty, still legendary in- all details, is headed by the great Yu, and, covering a space of over four cen- turies (2205-1766 B. C.), is succeeded by the Shang dynasty, also called the Yin dynasty, which ruled 1766-1122. With the Chou dynasty (1 122-249) we begin to touch historical ground. The father of its founder is Si Peh, commonly called the “Chief of the West,” and in history known by his posthumous title Wen Wang, which may be translated as “Literature King.” He is praised as a pattern of, and a martyr to royal virtues, for his stern integrity gave offence to the debauched tyrant, Chou Hsin, the last emperor of the Yin dynasty. He was thrown into prison, and while there occupied himself in his enforced leisure with the mystic symbolism of the Yih, the Book of Changes. His brother, Chou Ivung, (the Duke of Chou), and his son Fa accomplished his release by pre- senting a beautiful concubine and some horses to the tyrant who then allowed Wen Wang to return to his home on the condition that he should make war on the frontier tribes.
After Wen Wang’s death, his son Fa, best known under his posthumous title “Wu Wang” (i. e., “war king”), guided by the wise counsel of his noble uncle, the Duke of Chou, assumed the leadership of the discontented nobles of the empire, crossed the
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Huang Ho at the ford of Meng with an army, and overthrew the imperial forces in the plains of Mu. The tyrant burned himself in his palace, while the victorious Wu Wang became emperor.
The Chou dynasty governed almost nine centuries and was followed by the Ts’in dynasty (255-210 B. C.) which was of short duration. It reached its climax in Shi Huang Ti, a great conqueror,
ARCHWAY IN THE GREAT WALL.
who, for the first time, in 221 B. C., united the whole of China under his scepter and assumed the title of “Emperor." All previous sov- ereigns had been satisfied to be called “Rulers.” He governed from 237 until 210 and is known as a despiser of literature. He persecuted the literati and issued an edict that on penalty of death all the canon- ical books should be burned (213 B. G). For the protection of the
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
I5I
country against the inroads of the Tartars, whose territory forms now a part of the Chinese empire, he had the Great Wall erected through his general Meng T'ien. This is a colossal work worthy to be compared to the pyramids of Gizeh. Though more than two thousand years old, it still stands as a monument to its builders.
A Chinese historian says that one-third of the population of the empire had to be pressed into service for the completion of the work, and more than 400,000 of the laborers died from maltreatment, over- exertion, and lack of food.
THE GREAT WALL.
General Meng T'ien is supposed to be the inventor of the wri- ting-brush which replaced the cruder methods of scratching the letters on bamboo sticks with a knife. When the tyrant Shi Huang Ti died, Meng T'ien ended his life by suicide.
Tradition relates that the Great Wall was built by Shi Huang Ti as the result of a prophecy that his empire was endangered by Hu, which is the name of the Tartar tribes in the North. The prophecy was unexpectedly fulfilled to the letter through the ruin which befell his house when his second and unworthy son Hu Hai
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usurped the throne. Fu Su, the rightful heir, died in banishment, but the usurper was soon murdered (in 207 B. C.) by Chao Kao, the ambitious eunuch who had helped him to ascend the throne.
The Ts‘in dynasty was succeeded by the house of Han, whose first sovereign, Liu Pang, received universal recognition in 202 B. C.
It is not our intention to enumerate all the dynasties which have successively held the power in Cathay, but only to point out those figures among the sovereigns of the empire who are most frequently referred to in the history of Chinese civilisation. Therefore we will be brief.
The Former Han dynasty reigned from 206 B. C. till 25 A. D. and was followed by the Later Han (25-221 A. D.), also called the Western Han because its capital Lo Yang was situated in the west.
To the third century belongs the epoch of the Three Kingdoms which are Minor Han. the Wei, and the Wu. The whole empire is reunited under the Western Ts‘in (265-317 A. D.) and the Eastern Ts‘in 1317-420 A. D.), but China is again rent in twain by the division between the North and the South. Thereupon follow the Sui (589-618), theT'ang (618-907) and the Five Dynasties (907-
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923; 923-936; 936-947 ; 947-951 ; 951-960) succeeded by the Sung (960-1127), the Southern Sung (1127-1278), the Yuan (1206-1341'! and the Ming (1368-1628).
The Great Wall had been built in vain, for the Manchu, a war- like Tartar tribe, took possession of the country and have governed it to the present day.
In 1644 the Tartar army entered Peking and placed Shun Shih upon the throne, whose family adopted the name Tai Tsing, “the Great Pure Ones.” Tsung Ching, the last emperor of the van- quished Ming fled, and after wandering about for some days in
RUNG YUEN, THE COURT OF EXAMINATIONS AT PEKING.1
misery is said to have committed suicide. But there were rumors afloat, which in times of political unrest used to recur again and again, that his descendants were still living in some sequestered place, and would some day make themselves known to reclaim the throne.
The Manchu forced upon the Chinese nation that peculiar hair- dress, the queue on the shaven head, and the Tartar tunic, hut they in their turn adopted rapidly the Chinese language and civilisation, and, let it be stated to their credit, furnished the nation with several
1This and the last two pictures are reproduced from Wells Williams’s Middle Kingdom.
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CHINESE THOUGHT.
good rulers, among whom, however, Kang-Hi (1661-1722) stands foremost as a man of genius and a ruler who deserves to be ranked with Charlemagne and Frederick the Great.
The three most important epochs are the Han, the T‘ang and the Sung dynasties.
Under the Han the national, social and religious institutions have been molded and received their typically Chinese form. The founder of the Han is credited with having introduced the plan of competitive examinations for office, a kind of civil service regula- tion which is still in use ; the old classical books were recovered, re-edited, and commentated upon ; commerce was established even with distant countries, and for the first time the country enjoyed a high degree of prosperity.
Dr. Wilhelm Grube, the sinologist of Berlin, characterises this period tersely in these words : “At that time classical antiquity rose again as a phenix from the ashes of the terrible burning of the books, and the flames intended to destroy them now surrounded them with the aureole of martyrdom. No wonder that the venerable literary monuments of yore henceforth became as it were a national sanc- tuary and were regarded forever as ideal prototypes.”
The T’ang dynasty marks the golden age of Chinese literature: it produced China’s greatest poets, Li Pai, Tu Mu, and Pai Lu T'ien.
Under the Sung dynasty philosophy reached its climax in the illustrious Chou T’ze and Chu Hsi. The renown of K‘ang Hi’s reign was of a quite modern type, for he favored besides practical moral- ity the introduction of Western sciences.
CHINA’S NATIONAL NOVEL.
The period of the Three Kingdoms, which with its feudal in- stitutions greatly resembles our Middle Ages, gave rise to one of the most popular novels in China entitled “The Story of the Three Kingdoms,” taking the place which the Homeric epics held in Greece ; and we here present a number of illustrations of its main characters reproduced from a popular Chinese edition.
The most famous scene and the basis upon which the whole
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cycle of romantic events is founded, is the oath by which three heroes pledge their loyalty to the Han dynasty and to each other.
A tall man, measuring seven feet1 five inches in height, stood reading an official poster, in which the government issued a call for volunteers to fight the rebels of the Yellow Cap. His name was Liu Pei and his appellative Hsfian Teh. He was poor, but being born of the imperial family of Han, he became emperor in the course of events and as such assumed the name Chao Lieh Ti.
He read the placard and sighed ; and as he sadly turned away a loud voice behind him called out, “Why do you sigh?” Hsfian Teh turned back and saw a man eight feet tall at his side. He had the head and round eyes of a panther, a mouth like a swallow's bill, and bristles like a tiger. His voice was like the rumbling of thunder and his strength like that of a race horse.2 Hsfian Teh asked his interlocutor's name, and he answered, “T am Chang Fei and my appellative is Yi Teh. I am a butcher and a wine merchant and possess some real estate in the province of Choh Chfin. I am seeking the friendship of brave men and noticed that you were read- ing the poster. But why do you sigh?” Then Hsfian Teh told his story: “Though I have to earn a living by braiding mats and sandals of straw, I belong to the Han family and grieve at its decay.”
The two men together went to an inn, and while they were discussing over a glass of wine the advisability of going to war, a third man of gigantic stature entered, wheeling a barrow. “He stood nine feet three inches high and had a beard two feet long. His face was brown like dates, his lips were like cinnabar, his eyes the eyes of the red phenix, and his bushy brows seemed to invite silk worms to nestle there. Stern and lofty was his countenance and his bearing awful and menacing.” He joined their conference, and introduced himself as Kwan Yfi, his appellative being Chang Sheng which, however, he changed to Yfin Ch‘ang. He had slain the tyrant of his native country and was now a refugee without
*The Chinese foot is somewhat smaller than the English measure of the same name.
2 These are typical Chinese similes for the characteristics of a warlike man.
CHINESE THOUGHT.
j56
a home. He too sympathised with the tottering Han, and so the three men agreed in their patriotic convictions.
In their enthusiasm for the common cause the three men went to the orchard of Chang Fei where the peaches were in blossom. There they sacrificed a white horse to Heaven and a black cow to Earth and made a covenant for life and death, in which they pledged their allegiance to the legitimate dynasty, and swore that in all dan-
The hero of the story. The eldest of the Three Covenant Brethren, afterwards king of Shuh.
The second of the Covenant Brethren, now worshiped as Kwan Ti.
gers they would be faithful to each other unto the end. They ex- claimed: “Liu Pei, Kwan Yii, and Ch'ang Fei, though of different families, yet as we have joined in brotherhood with heart and strength to succor distress and support the weak, to show loyalty to the Kingdom, and to secure peace to the common people, care not to have been born at the same time, we would only that we might
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die together. May Imperial Heaven and Royal Mother Earth search truly our hearts, and him who proves traitor to the vow or forgets this grace may Heaven and men combine to slay.”
Then Hsiian Teh was greeted by his fellow covenanters as their elder brother, and all three went into the presence of his aged mother prostrating themselves before her on the ground, a typical Chinese act of filial piety. The offerings made at the sacrifice, consisting of money, gold and silver paper, were distributed among the villagers, of whom three hundred of the bravest men joined them in their expedition. A wealthy horse trader gave them in addition 500 ounces of silver and gold as well as a thousand pounds of steel and iron besides fifty war horses, and they began at once to manufacture arms for their little company.
The legitimate ruler, the son of Ling Ti, had ascended the throne as a child, and he remained a weakling in the hands of his courtiers. Once when he had assembled the dignitaries of the em- pire in audience, a storm suddenly swept through the palace bearing away part of the hall and exhibiting under the roof an immense snake. Very soon afterwards an earthquake frightened the people, and a Taoist magician C'h'ang Chio organised the rebellion of the Yellow Caps.
Kwan Yii makes his debut in the imperial armies in a fight with Hua Hsiung, the rebel hero, which is most vividly described. The champion, Hua Hsiung, was vaunting in front of the army, and the princes were deliberating in their tent whom they should send against him. He had just slain two bold heroes opposed to him, and their hearts sank with misgiving. The general, Shao, said, “Alas, my chief generals, Yen Liang and Wen Chou, have not yet come. If we only had a man here, we need not fear Hua Hsiung.” Before he had finished speaking, from the step which led into the tent a loud voice called out, “I will go, will cut off Hua ITsiung’s head and present it before your tent.” They all looked at him and saw a man who stood nine feet in height, with a beard two feet long. His face was like brown dates and his lips like cinnabar, with eyes like the red phenix, and his bushy brows seemed to invite silkworms to nestle there. Stern and lofty was his countenance, and his bear-
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ing awful and menacing. His voice was like the peal of a great bell.3
While the stranger stood before the tent. Shao asked : “Who is this?” Rung Sun Tsan said. “This is Liu Hsiian Teh’s brother. Kwan Yu.” Shao asked, ‘-‘What rank does he hold?” Tsan re- plied, “He follows Hsiian Teh as a mounted bowman.”
Then Yuan Shu cried angrily from the tent, “Do you wish to
CHANG FEI. CHU KO LIANG.
The youngest of the Covenant The Moltke- Bismarck of Hsiien Teh,
Brethren, a brave reckless warrior. revered as the model of loyalty.
flaunt our princes with the want of a general? How is it that a common bowman dares to trifle in this presence?” But Ts‘ao Ts‘ao hurriedly stopped him saying: “He must be a brave man to speak so boldly, and methinks you would do well to try him. If he does not succeed it will be time enough to rebuke him.”
“But,” Yuan Shao objected, “if we send a mere bowman to fight. Hua Hsiung will laugh at us."
3 Note here the repetition of the description of our hero, a feature of the narrative which is also quite common in Homer.
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Ts'ao Ts'ao replied, “This man’s appearance and bearing are uncommon. How should Hua H siung know he is only a bowman?” “If I do not conquer let me be beheaded myself,” said Kwan Yii.
Upon this, Ts'ao Ts'ao heated a cup of wine to give him as he mounted his horse. “Pour out the wine,” said Kwan Yii, “I go
A baron who made himself king of the kingdom of Wu.
In history a man of strength and character, who in the story, however, plays the part of the villain.
Kwan Yii left the tent, took his swora, flew on to his horse, and the princes heard without the gate the thundering sound of drums and the clamorous shouts rising, as though the heaven was moved, as though the earth had fallen in ; it was like the shaking of lofty peaks and downfall of mountains. They all trembled with alarm, but before they could inquire what had happened, the tinkling
i6o
CHINESE THOUGHT.
bells jingled as the horse came hack into the ranks, and Yiin Ch'ang appeared with the head of Hua Hsiung and threw it on the ground. And his wine was still warm. He had done it in the time which it took the cup of wine, poured out before he started, to be cool enough to drink.4
After the suppression of the rebellion, a new danger arose in Ts'ao Ts'ao, hitherto a prominent councilor of the emperor, who usurped the power of the government. He is the villain of the story and is represented as a crafty intriguer who made himself the king of Wei. He proposes to suppress the Covenant Brethren and actually succeeds in having Kwan Yiin Ch'ang slain. He himself, however, finally dies falling a victim to his suspicion of the honesty of the skilful surgeon Hua T'o.
Dr. Hua T'o is an interesting character, a kind of Chinese yEsculapius, who according to the legend employed anesthetics long before their official introduction into European medicine. The storv relates that Ts'ao Ts'ao had been struck on the head by the spirit of a pear tree when he attempted to chop the tree down. Suffering agonies from the blow, an officer of his staff recommended to him the famous physician, saying, "Dr. Hua is a mighty skilful physician, and such a one as he is not often to be found. His administration of drugs, and his use of acupuncture and counter-irritants are always followed by the speedy recovery of the patient. If the sick man is suffering from some internal complaint and medicines produce no satisfactory result, then Dr. Hua will administer a dose of hashish, under the influence of which the patient becomes as if he were in- toxicated with wine. He now takes a sharp knife and opens the abdomen, proceeding to wash the patient’s viscera with medicinal liquids, but without causing him the slightest pain. The washing finished he sews up the wound with medicated thread and puts over it a plaster, and by the end of a month or twenty days the place has healed up. Such is his extraordinary skill.”
Without entering into accounts of the supernatural skill of the doctor, we will only state that he was called into the presence of
4 This passage is taken almost literally from the novel according to the translation of Rev. Geo. T. Candlin in Chinese Fiction, pp. 24, 26. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1898.
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Ts‘ao Ts'ao and diagnosing his case, said: “The pain in your High- ness’s head arises from some wind, and the seat of the disease is the brain, where the wind is collected, unable to get out. Drugs are of no avail in your present condition, for which there is but one remedy. You must first swallow a dose of hashish, and then with a sharp axe I will split open the back of your head and let the wind out. Thus the disease will be exterminated.’’
Ts‘ao Ts‘ao flew into a great rage, and declared that it was a plot aimed at his life ; to which Dr. Hua replied, “Has not your Highness heard of Kwan Yu’s wound in the right shoulder? I scraped the bone and removed the poison for him without a single sign of fear on his part. Your Highness's disease is but a trifling affair; why, then, so much suspicion?"
“You may scrape a sore shoulder-bone,” said Ts‘ao Ts‘ao,
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“without much risk ; but to split open my skull is quite another matter. It strikes me now that you are here simply to avenge your friend Kwan Yu upon this opportunity.” He thereupon gave orders that the doctor should be seized and cast into prison.
There the unfortunate surgeon soon afterwards died, but be- fore very long Ts‘ao Ts'ao himself succumbed to his illness. His son Ts'ao P‘ei succeeded him on the throne of Wei and then forced the weak emperor to abdicate in his favor.
This was the time for Hsiian Teh to come to the front. He now claimed the empire as a descendant of the house of Han and held his own as long as he had at his side Chu Ko Liang, the ablest strategist and diplomat of the age, a Moltke and Bismarck in one person. This statesman was the main support of the emperor, but when he died, the empire was lost.
Under the rule of the child-emperor the general Tung Clio had for some time been omnipotent, but he misused his power in the most outrageous way, torturing and executing the worthiest persons while he himself was banqueting with the horror-stricken magistrates of the government. Then a beautiful slave girl of Wang Yiin named Tiao Ch'an devised a plan to rid the empire of the monster. She entered the house of the bloodthirsty general and by her artful be- havior excited the passion of both son and father. Her intrigue succeeded, and General Tung Clio fell a victim to his son’s jealousy.
The story is full of thrilling episodes and extends over a period of seventy-nine years. It relates the tragic end of the house of Han and the division of the empire into the three kingdoms of Wei in the north, Wu in the east, and Shuh in the west. After the death of Hsiian Teh, his son ascended the throne, but he was too weak to assert himself and finally succumbed to Ts‘ao Mao, king of Wei, the grandson of Ts'ao Ts'ao, who again united the three kingdoms and established the Wei dynasty.
The author of the “Three Kingdoms” is Lo Kuan Chung, but nothing is known of him, and his name is but an empty word. The story itself takes the place of a national epic, for all its characters are living presences in the imagination of the people. Kwan Yiin Ch'ang has become identified with popular Chinese deities. He is
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worshiped as the god of war, Kwan Ti.but is invoked by all people in any of the different affairs of life, and there is no town or village but possesses a temple in his honor. Chu Ko Liang, the great statesman and general, is still considered the model of loyalty, and his name has become an emblem of faithful performance of duty in office.
Professor Giles says: “If a vote were taken among the people of China as to the greatest among their countless novels, the ‘Story of the Three Kingdoms’ would indubitably come out first,”
A mandarin’s household.
and the Rev. George T. Candlin in his Chinese Fiction speaks of its author Lo Kwan Chung in these terms : “This writer is great. He loves his characters, they are living and distinct, each has his individuality and separate portraiture: Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, subtle, treach- erous ; Kwan Yiin Ch‘ang, brave, generous ; Ch'ang Fei, rasb, coarse, but true; Hsuan Teh, thoughtful, kingly. They are men; loving, hating, striving, boastful, magnanimous, often doing generous deeds, always their hearts throbbing with strong human passion. Then, how he has contrived to image all the life and all the manners of the
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age ! How fond he is of incidents and genealogies, and with what loving tenderness of reiterated mention he dwells on this and on that! Hsia Hou Tun swallowing his own eyes, Yu Chi's priest- craft, Hua To’s magic in surgery, Rung Min's harp, Yun Ch'ang’s sword, Lu Pu’s spear, and the famous horse, Red Hare, that ‘would go a thousand li in a day and cross water and mount hills as though on even ground.’ ”
SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
China differs widely in its habits, history, language, literature, tradition, and religion from any one of the European races in the
a mandarin’s banquet.
Old World as well as in America and Australia. The contrast be- tween rich and poor, scholarly and illiterate, the powerful and the wretched, is mild in Europe and even more so in America when compared to the social differences of China. Yet even the common people have a high regard for culture, and China is governed by an intellectual aristocracy called the mandarins, that have to pass very severe state examinations and must first of all he scholars or literati.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM. 165
It may be a mistake, but it is none the less a fact, that governors and generals must prove to the Commission of Examinations, not that they are familiar with civics or warfare, but that they know the classics, write a good style and can compose poetry.
The large masses of the population are very poor, and there are
ENTRANCE TO THE ESTATE OF A WEALTHY MANDARIN.
The characters of the inscription on top read “filial piety” and “chastity.”
everywhere innumerable individuals who are almost constantly on the point of starvation. This is a condition produced by the lack of system prevailing in China, for there are no high roads in the country, no means of an easy exchange of commodities, no good
1 66
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money of intrinsic value, etc. The hungry proletarians do not know how to seek relief from their troubles, and so they band themselves together in secret societies whose avowed aim consists in the resti- tution of the good old times as they are supposed to have been under the Ming dynasty.
While the standard of morality is comparatively high, while there is a great respect for learning, for authority, for ideals of all noble ambitions, education is not so much low as one-sided. Knowl- edge of natural forces or of any practical kind is almost absolutely absent, and the study of the literature of ancient China, the only knowledge that is deemed worthy and great, costs much time and renders mandarins frequently unfit for practical business.
The religions of China are not lacking in noble aspirations and might have become factors for good. But the uncritical state of mind which is produced by a one-sided education — it is not a lack of education but rather an over-education — renders the Chinese ex- tremely superstitious, so as to make Buddhist and Taoist priests vie in their efforts to promote the general credulity. The literati as a rule are simply followers of Confucius, whose doctrines are a system of morality based upon the principle of authority, otherwise neither affirming nor denying any religious truths as to God, the soul, and an after life.
THE THREE RECOGNISED RELIGIONS.
Kircher’s large work on China contains a picture which ex- cellently represents the religious conditions of the Celestial Empire. It has been copied from a Chinese drawing which is not at our dis- posal, but must have been made more than two centuries ano. viz., before the appearance of Kircher’s book.
We see here, seated in the heaven, the three great teachers, recognised as the highest authorities of truth : Buddha in the center, Confucius at his right, and Lao Tze at his left. Confucianism is the recognised State religion, if religion it can be called. Taoism, represented by Lao Tze, is the indigenous faith of China, while Buddhism is the hope for salvation, a doctrine that has been brought to the country by Indian missionaries.
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THE THREE GREAT TEACHERS OF CHINA.
CHINESE THOUGHT.
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The dragon, the symbol of heaven, representing divine power and authority, stands in the center of the picture (f). It is the coat of arms of the government, and it here carries on its back the shell of the tortoise, which is mysteriously connected in the old traditions of China with the invention of writing. The dragon seems to ad- dress Confucius, and if this attitude is intentional it can only mean that it communicates to the sage the mysteries of the Yih King, the Book of Changes.
Above Confucius we see three sages (d, d, d,) : above Lao Tze a crowned hero (e), holding in his hand a sword and dressed in a coat of mail. The former seem to represent the great authorities of the Confucian school, Wen Wang, Wu Wang, and Chou Rung (the duke of Chou) ; the military divinity must be Kwan Ti, the god of war.
Underneath Confucius we have a general and a soldier (g, g,) as personifications of the government, representing the mailed fist of Chinese paternalism.
Underneath Lao Tze there are his disciples Chwang Tze, Lieh Fuh Tze, and Liu Ngan, the great Taoist philosophers (h).
At the bottom of the picture we see lower divinities rising from the waves of the sea. One of them, on the left-hand side (l), offers up a gem; another one, the ruler of the deep (i) carries a trident, while the middle figure in the group, on the right (k) is the naga- raja, producing from the bottom of the ocean the Avatamsaka Books and behind him is an attendant (m).
While in Europe and America every one is expected to have one religion only, in China a man may follow Confucius, have faith in Buddha, and believe in Lao Tze at the same time.
Japan is in this respect like China, only that Taoism is replaced by Shintoism, and the latter, a kind of nature-cult combined with idealised patriotism, is the State religion. Every family takes part in the several Shinto festivals, private as well as public. In school- life Confucius is revered, and in both countries, China and Japan, there is scarcely a house which has not a Buddhist shrine for the satis. faction of the deeper yearnings of the soul.
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There is a universality in this religious system which it is diffi- cult for us to understand, but is after all quite natural.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
The Western foreigners with their practical science might have come to the rescue of the Chinese, and for a while it seemed as if they would become the leaven that should leaven the dough of this stagnant civilisation. Adam Schaal, a German Jesuit, gained the ear of Shun Chih, and Kang Hi, the glorious son of the latter, introduced many important reforms at the instigation of Father Ricci and others. But an unlucky star rose over the Jesuit missions. Jealousies between the Dominicans and the Jesuits led to quarrels on subjects concerning the Jesuit policy of yielding to the Chinese the right to regulate their mundane affairs according to their own notions. The Jesuits did not condemn Confucius as a pagan and infidel but suffered him to be regarded as a great moral teacher. They further translated the word God according to the ancient Chinese fashion by “Shang Ti,” “the Lord on High,” thus indicating that the ancient Chinese authorities had not been absolutely bare of divine grace. The pope decided against the Jesuits, but the Dom- inicans had little reason to enjoy their victory, for the Chinese authorities, little relishing the Dominican spirit, proscribed Chris- tianity and drove even the Jesuit converts into exile.
Among the Protestant missionaries we must mention Gutzlaff, a native Pomeranian, as especially successful. He was not an edu- cated man, not a scholar, and scarcely a European. His books betray a gross ignorance in many respects but show a great zeal for the cause of Christianity. In spite of his shortcomings he must have been a remarkable man, a missionary genius, for the traces of his activity can be recognised in the Tai Ping rebellion. He certainly must have understood how to render Christianity palatable to the Chinese. If we can trust the reports of MM. Callery and Yvan he was a Chinese half-breed, and thus Christianity naturally assumed in him a Chinese character.
Dwelling on the similarity of language used by the Christian
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS ON THE YANGTZE RIVER.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
Tai Ping rebels and Gutzlaff 's sermons, this remarkable missionary is thus characterised by MM. Callery and Yvan:
“M. Gutzlaff had the art of inspiring the Chinese people with the greatest confidence. He was of a middle stature, and tolerably stout ; his prominent eyes sparkled beneath thick lashes, which were overshadowed by long black and bushy eye-brows. His face, with features the reverse of angular, and its light olive complexion, seemed to belong to that variety of the human race which we call the Mongol. In his Chinese dress, he was so exactly like a native, that he could have gone through the streets of the walled city of Canton without being recognised.
“One evening, during our stay in China, we spoke of him to the mandarin Pan-se-tchen, who was much attached to him, and one of us expressed his astonishment at finding in a European the char- acteristics of the Chinese race. The mandarin quietly replied :
“ ‘Nothing can be more natural. Gutzlaff’s father was a native of the Fo-Kien settled in Germany.’
“This fact appears to us so extraordinary, that we should hesi- tate to relate it if Pan had not assured us that M. Gutzlaff himself was his authority.
“At all events, whether his origin was Chinese or not, M. Gutz- laff perfectly knew how to adapt himself to the ideas of a people who are at once sensual and mystical. Pie founded in China a sort of secret society called the “Chinese ETnion,” the object of which was the conversion of the Chinese to Christianity by the Chinese themselves.”
The Chinese are not naturally averse to Christianity. If either the Jesuit fathers or men like Gutzlaff had had their way, China might by this time have become in the former case Roman Catho- lic, in the latter Protestant Christian. Christianity in China has become entangled with politics, and the Christian religion is re- garded by the Chinese as the religion of the red-haired devils, the barbarians, the immoral foreigners who import opium and ridicule the most sacred traditions of the nation. Christianity as commonly presented to the Chinese is not the Christianity of Jesus, but West- ern Christianity of some sort or other, and to all outer appearance
\J2
CHINESE THOUGHT.
the rupture with Chinese tradition is more important than the moral- ity of the Christian faith. A great number of Western missionaries seem to think that they must change the Chinese into Europeans, otherwise their conversion would not be complete, and thus they fail in their efforts toward Christianising the country. As an instance of the wrong methods of missionarising I quote a passage from the Rev. Hampden C. DuBose's book The Dragon, Image, and Demon, where he describes the Chinese institution of preserving the family traditions in ancestral halls, forming sacred centers for family life, and though family traditions are sacred to us, our Christian mis-
PROCESSION OF LADIES TO THEIR ANCESTRAL HALL.
sionaries proposed to destroy them as pagan in China and request converts to renounce them. DuBose says (pp. 81 ff.) :
“These buildings are not so conspicuous as the idol temples, but they are very numerous, as any family or clan may have its temple, generally marked by the funeral cedar. Here the ‘spirit tablets’ of departed forefathers are kept, ‘containing the simple leg- end of the two ancestral names carved on a board,’ and ‘to the child the family tablet is a reality, the abode of a personal being who exerts an influence over him that cannot be avoided, and is far more to him as an individual than any of the popular gods. The gods are to be
THE CHINESE PROBLEM. 1 73
feared and their wrath deprecated, but ancestors represent love, care, and kindly interest.' If the clan do not own an ancestral hall, there is ‘in every household a shrine, a tablet, an oratory, or a domestic temple,’ according to the position of the family. It is a grand and solemn occasion when all the males of a tribe in their dress robes gather at the temple, perhaps a great ‘country seat,’ of the dead, and the patriarch of the line, as a chief priest of the family, offers sacrifice.
“In these halls the genealogical tables are kept, and many of the Chinese can trace their ancestry to ten, twenty, thirty, and some- times even to sixty generations. These registers are kept with great care, and may be considered reliable.
“Much property is entailed upon these ancestral halls to keep up the worship, but as this expense is not great, all the family have shares in the joint capital, and the head of the clan sometimes comes in for a good living. At baptism converts to the Christian faith re- nounce their claim to a share in this family estate because of its idol- atrous connections.
“ ‘Should a man become a Christian and repudiate ancestral worship, all his ancestors would by that act be consigned to a state of perpetual beggary. Imagine, too, the moral courage recpiired for an only or the eldest son to become a Christian, and call down upon himself the anathemas not only of his own fami’y and friends, but of the spirits of all his ancestors.’
“When we preach against this form of paganism it seems as heathenish to the Chinese, as if at home we taught a child to disobey his father and despise his mother. ‘It forms one of the subtlest phases of idolatry — essentially evil with the guise of goodness — ever established among men.' ”
If Christian missionaries cannot find a way in which they can make it possible for converts to continue to honor their ancestors, if they are bent on destroying everything properly Chinese and attempt to change their converts into imitations of European cul- ture and habit, they do not deserve success and we cannot hlame the Chinese Government for regarding them as a public nuisance.
The author is not opposed to missions, nor does he believe that
174
CHINESE THOUGHT.
all the missionaries of China are guilty of the errors here censured. He knows several missionaries and cherishes the highest respect for them. He has corresponded with some of them, who he believes are a credit to their country and to the faith which they promulgate. The fact remains nevertheless that there are great numbers of mis- sionaries who are not moved by the right spirit and among them those who are pious Christians, yet lacking in tact, lacking in edu- cation, lacking in wisdom, who exercise perhaps the most injurious influence and hurt both the cause of their religion and of the country whence they come.
The missionary problem is perhaps the gravest complication in China, but the hatred of the Chinese is not directed against Christianity as such but against the religion of the Western for- eigners. It is true there are passages in the New Testament that are extremely offensive to the Chinese, for instance Luke xiv. 26 :
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
A broad interpretation of these words might surmount the diffi- culty, but Christianity as commonly preached to the Chinese implies a rupture with their most sacred traditions, an abandonment of ancestor worship, i. e., the established forms in which family tra- ditions are kept up. It further implies a contempt for Confucius and the institutions of the sages of yore together with the national character of the Chinese. Thus, only the lowest dregs of the nation are converted and most of them for sinister purposes. Sometimes these converts are criminals who thereby seek to shield themselves against the severity of the law ; for as many missionaries in pious innocence accept the statements of their converts in good faith, it happens that burglars and thieves are baptised and then protected bv the interference of European consuls against the prosecution of the Chinese authorities which is ingeniously assumed to be instituted on account of their faith.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
175
WESTERN INSOLENCE.
In addition to the missionary problem there is the commercial problem which serves to render the social conditions still more in- tolerable to the poor. The Western trader is exempt from Chinese jurisdiction, and although this is a necessity both in the interest of Western residents and in consideration of the barbaric methods of punishment as well as the summary ways of dispensing justice in China, it increases the hatred of foreigners in a high degree. Think of it : a Chinaman cannot defraud a foreigner without being severely punished ; but if a Chinaman be cheated by a European or perhaps an American trader, he has no redress whatever. The wronged Chinaman can go to the ambassador or minister of the nation to whom the man who heat him or cheated him, belongs, but the am- bassador has been sent to protect his countrymen, not to sit in court over them and punish them. He is apt to hear and accept the state- ment of his countryman and cares very little whether or not the plaintiff goes away satisfied.
The Chinese are upon the whole very reliable in business ; even the coolie laborer keeps his word, and Chinese merchants stick to their contract though it may be merely oral, even when by an un- foreseen change of circumstances they should he the losers.
Maltreatment of the Chinese at the hands of Europeans is very common. A captain who in a German port had whipped a Chinese deckhand so mercilessly that the latter tore himself loose, and jumping over board drowned himself, declared before court that Chinese hands must receive the barbarous punishments to which they are accustomed in China, otherwise they would have no re- spect for their superiors. No investigation would be held if sim- ilar accidents or deaths on account of cruel treatment occurred in Chinese waters. A young bank employee whom the writer met in traveling endorsed these views most emphatically. He said: “If a Chinaman does not at once make room for me in the street I would strike him with my cane in the face.” “And that goes unpunished?” I ventured to ask him. “Should I break his nose or kill him, the worst that can happen would be that he or his people would make
CHINESE THOUGHT,
A CHINESE COURT SCENE. s"
It is not an unusual occurrence that the sons of criminals beg the judge to be allowed to take upon themselves the punishment that is to be inflicted upon their fathers.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM
1 77
STREET OF THE FOREIGN AMBASSADORS AT PEKING.
CHINESE THOUGHT.
178
complaints to the Consul, who might impose the fine of a dollar for misdemeanor, but I could always prove that I had just cause to beat him.”
The Chinese are possessed of extraordinary patience, but if their patience is exhausted, their rage knows no limits. The in- dignation of the Chinese against foreigners has been smouldering for a long time and the ambassadors at Peking received many warn- ings, but they could not believe that the meek Pekingese would ever dare to attack them.
Under such conditions it is all hut impossible that the Chinese people should have any respect, let alone love or admiration, for Western civilisation ; and yet on the other hand it is quite natural that a great rebellion should break out which was at the same time a national Chinese reaction against the Tartar tyrants and a Chris- tian movement such as was the Tai Ping rebellion.
THE TAI PING REBELLION.
The rebellion in China, which broke out in 1850 and was finally suppressed in 1864 bv General Gordon, was the product of all the factors that oppose the present Chinese Government. It was national Chinese as opposed to the Tartar usurpers; it was Christian, but it was a Chinese Christianity after the fashion of Gutzlaff, not dressed in European broadcloth, and using the terms of the Protestant trans- lation of the New Testament. There were several leaders at the head of the movement, but two were of special prominence, Tien Teh (Heavenly Virtue), a person who claimed to be a descendant of the ancient Ming dynasty, and Hung Hsiu Ch'iian, a Christian who called himself Tien Wang, or Heavenly King. The former was nominally the emperor-elect of the rebels, but he seems to have been a mere figure-head, and after his death the latter, the real soul of the rebellion, became the acknowledged head of all.
The Tai Ping rebellion might have succeeded had not the Eng- lish Government, trying to ingratiate itself with the Chinese author- ities, offered their best general to help them to suppress the Tai Ping. The fact seems strange at first sight that a Christian nation should suppress a Christian movement in China with bayonets and
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
179
guns; but we must bear in mind that the Christianity of the Tai Ping rebels, not being the Europeanised Christianity of the English missionaries, was regarded as spurious, and thus the English gov- ernment cherished grave doubts as to the advantages which she would reap if in the place of the hated Tartar dynasty the Chinese would be governed by a Christian, but none the less a Chinese ruler. An indigenous dynasty would probably pursue a policy that would be more hostile to foreign traders than the Tartar dynasty was, who
TIEN TEH, THE PRETENDER OF THE TAI PING REBELLION. 3‘9
on this occasion might be taught how useful to them an English alliance would be. On the other hand, Christian China would have a claim to considerations such as no one thinks of granting the old pagan China.
Sir George Bonham visited the rebels and gave an account of their character which seems to . have had much weight with the British Government. He says:
i8o
CHINESE THOUGHT.
“I found the insurgents had established a kind of government at Nankin, consisting, in the first place, of Taeping, the Sovereign Ruler, who is supposed by the believers of the new sect (if such do really exist) to hold the position or rank, either spiritually or in a corporeal sense, of younger brother of Our Saviour. There was little attempt at mystery as to Taeping's origin on the part of the insurgents, — it was admitted by several parties that he was a literary graduate of Canton province, who, being disappointed in his literary
PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKING.* 344
honors, took to what the Chinese are in the habit of calling ‘strange doctrine,' that is, he studied the missionary tracts, copies of which were procured, there can be little doubt, from the late Dr. Gutzlafif’s Union. Taeping and his small nucleus of adherents then embarked in this insurrection, and, after three years’ perseverance and general success, they ended by capturing Nankin and Chin-Keang, where we found them now in full force. Under this Sovereign Ruler are the five princes above alluded to, first and second ministers, and a
* The famous tower, commonly counted among the seven wonders of the world, was destroyed by the Tai Ping Rebels who saw in it a monument of idolatry and regarded it as an abomination in the eyes of God.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM. iSl
host of so-called mandarins — most of whom are Cantonese. I should not estimate their force of real fighting men at less than 25,000; though I believe that of the original number who started from Kouang-Si, not more than 7000 are now with Taeping.”
Sir George Bonham translates also the answer which the leader of the Tai Ping rebels gives to the English embassy sent to him, and this answer, though full of benevolence for the English, leaves no doubt that according to the ancient Chinese tradition he, the Tai Ping Emperor, regards all nations as his subjects.
PUNISHMENT OF SYMPATHISERS WITH THE TAI PING.
“The Heavenly Father, the Supreme Lord, the Great God, in the beginning created heaven and earth, land and sea, men and things, in six days ; from that time to this the whole world has been one family, and all within the four seas brethren ; how can there exist, then, any difference between man and man ; or how any dis- tinction between principal and secondary birth?1 But from the time that the human race has been influenced by the demoniacal agency which has entered into the heart of man, they have ceased to acknowl- edge the great benevolence of God the Heavenly Father in giving and
CHINESE THOUGHT.
182
sustaining life, and ceased to appreciate the infinite merit of the ex- piatory sacrifice made by Jesus, our Celestial Elder Brother, and have, with lumps of clay, wood, and stone, practised perversity in the world. Hence it is that the Tartar hordes and Elfin Huns so fraudulently robbed us of our Celestial territory (China). But, happily, our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother have from an early date displayed their miraculous power amongst you Eng- lish, and you have long acknowledged the duty of worshiping God the Heavenly Father and Jesus our Celestial Brother, so that the truth has been preserved entire, and the Gospel maintained.
“But now that you distant English ‘have not deemed myriads of miles too far to come,’ and acknowledge our sovereignty, not only are the soldiers and officers of our Celestial dynasty delighted and gratified thereby, but even in high heaven itself our Celestial Father and Elder Brother will also admire this manifestation of your fidel- ity and truth. We therefore issue this special decree, permitting you, the English chief, to lead your brethren out or in, backwards or forwards, in full accordance with your own will or wish, whether to aid us in exterminating our impish foes, or to carry on your com- mercial operations as usual ; and it is our earnest hope that you will, with us, earn the merit of diligently serving our royal master, and, with 11s, recompense the goodness of the Father of Spirits.
“Wherefore we promulgate this new decree of (our Sovereign) Taeping for the information of you English, so that all the human race may learn to worship our Heavenly Father and Celestial Elder Brother, and that all may know that, wherever our royal master is, there men unite in congratulating him on having obtained the de- cree to rule.
“A special decree, for the information of all men, given (under our seals) this 26th day of the 3d month of the year Kweihaou (1st May, 1853), under the reign of the Celestial dynasty of Taeping."
* * *
The friendship of the Chinese authorities with the British Gov- ernment soon began to subvert the confidence of the Chinese in their rulers, and the secret societies again increased in power, finding supporters even among the highest mandarins and princes of im-
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
183
perial blood. Emperor Ivwang Hsu1 was suspected of being a friend of Western civilisation, and the late Empress Dowager Hsi Tai Hou favored the partisans of national traditions.
According to the rules of filial piety so deeply engraved on the hearts of the Chinese people, the highest virtue is obedience to parents. Thus it happens that the Emperor’s first duty is respect for the wishes of his mother, or of her who stands in the relation of mother to him. This is the reason why the Empress Dowager so long as she lived, was de facto ruler of China.
The Empress knew that the dangers which threaten the throne of the Tartar dynasty through the secret societies at home were more serious than the threats and attacks of the Western powers. She seems to have saved the throne by allying herself with the secret societies against the Powers and thus demonstrating to her subjects that the Tartars are solid with the Chinese against the foreign devils. An alliance with the Powers, or merely a friendly entente with them, might have roused the slumbering lion and made an end of the Tai Tsing dynasty.
THE YELLOW PERIL.
China possesses a peculiar attraction which is not so much a problem of tbe past as of the future. Western civilisation in its constant expansion has taken possession of five continents. It not only retains Europe, but it has found a new home in both Americas. It has settled Australia and sways the fate of Africa. In its spread over the world it has finally invaded Asia. Siberia is in Russian hands. Hither India is British, and Further India is practically divided between the English and the French. The Aryan race is now coming into contact with China and we are for the first time aware that we are here confronted with an old, respectable, albeit stagnant civilisation which will not so easily be assimilated as others, and the inhabitants are both industrious and docile ; hence the yellow race might refuse to be swallowed up and might even in its turn exercise an influence upon the white man’s civilisation — a very un-
' 1 The private name of the Emperor, which however would be deemed im- proper to use, is Tsai T'ien.
i84
CHINESE THOUGHT.
pleasant prospect for all those who believe that their own souls alone have been anointed by the grace of God, — a prospect which has been called “the yellow peril.” If we were just we would grant that the white peril to the yellow race is much greater than the “yellow peril” to the white race.
A study of China is of practical importance. The laws that guide mankind are everywhere the same. All men are everywhere confronted with the same problems and they try to solve them by similar methods. We have the same instincts and even the successive phases of our mental growth are everywhere analogous, tending constantly upward and onward. The heart of man is at bottom the same everywhere. There are sages and heroes in every country. There are high-spirited teachers, and at the same time there are powers of evil at work that darken the light and impede the way of progress.
Though we may be the strongest race and be in possession of the most accurate methods of science and also be blessed with the most liberal institutions, religious as well as political, we ought to recognise that other and weaker nations are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. They are our brothers and their social, political and religious life has developed according to the same laws and is bringing forth similar blossoms and similar fruits, and in spite of our boasted superiority we may still learn from them in many details and if we want to teach them, we must not be too proud first to know them and appreciate the good qualities they have.
The yellow peril is not so much a fear of the Asiatic civili- sation as of the Asiatic race. Our pessimists see in the distant future the world colonised by Chinamen, and an excited imagination repre- sents them in the shape of coolies and haggard-looking laundrymen, who are expected to pour in to take the place of Western laborers. This fear is in so far justified, as Chinese workmen are more frugal, more trusty, more industrious, more intelligent than Western labor- ers ; and if that be so, the Western laborer will not be able to com- pete with the coolie.
But is not the truth here rather a warning and a lesson than a real danger to the interests of humanity? Our fear is based not
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
185
upon a recognition of any fearful quality of the yellow race but upon a recognition of their many virtues, and so we believe that the future will take care of itself. Perhaps we Western races will find it wise if the yellow races have learned from us, to learn in our turn also from them. Perhaps we may deem it best, instead of having a con- tempt for other races, to understand what gives them their strength, and by appreciating their good qualities we may be in a condition to prevent future defeats by adopting their virtues.
It is true that the destinies of mankind are not entrusted to any one family or to any one race of any one state or to the representatives of one special type of civilisation. We have seen how the lead of mankind has changed since the dawn of civilisation. There was a time when the black-heads of Akkad and Sumer in lower Mesopota- mia developed the foundation of civilised life. Of what race they were we know not ; we are only sure that they were neither Semites nor Aryans, and may have been Turanians or members of the great Mongolian family. These primitive people who had settled in the valley of the two rivers were not so numerous as the Semitic tribes, born of the Arabian desert, and they must have recognised the threatening danger when Babylonians crowded them out of their homes, when they supplanted their language by a Semitic dialect and finally inherited their country and civilisation. It may be that the Semitic Babylonians saw the threatening clouds of a yellow peril when the yellow-haired race of Aryans took possession first of Iran, then Elam, and finally acquired dominion over Mesopotamia. They became acclimatised in Babylonia and became soon like them in ap- pearance and habits of life. They again saw a yellow peril in the purely Aryan Greeks. The Greeks again were defeated by the Ro- mans upon whom they looked as barbarians, and Tacitus is very pessimistic when pointing out the yellow peril of the North, where the yellow-haired Teutons lived beyond the Rhine. However, when Rome was at the mercy of the barbarians of the North, they took hold of the Roman civilisation and carried it to a higher plane, de- veloping what is now called European civilisation.
American civilisation is considered as a purely European devel- opment, and yet Europe is afraid of “the American danger” that
CHINESE THOUGHT.
186
threatens their holy institutions and may in time Americanise their business and also their public and private life.
All these several fears are blind alarms, and whenever they were well founded, the change that came was for the better. The god of history gives the lead to those nations which in the general struggle for life prove to be the best, the most energetic, the ablest. If the leading nation ceases to be progressive, if she refuses to learn, he calls another one to take her place. There is no nation that ever fell from its dominant position but deserved its fate. Changes in history (at least when we consider all the conditions that lead to them) were always for the better in the general interest of mankind, and the evils of the transitional periods were small if compared to the progress that was finally attained.
Now the Western world looks with fear upon the yellow peril that might threaten the world from East Asia. The West need not he alarmed, for China is too conservative to be transformed so suddenly, and then one other thing is sure, that there is danger only if the yellow nations possess sufficient virtues to make themselves formidable, and if they should in the future really become the pre- dominant race, they can take the lead only by excelling and sur- passing the representative nations of the West. We believe that this assumption lies at such a distance that the cry of alarm seems unwar- ranted, but even if there were an actual danger, a possible change in the present balance of power, there is no need of fear, since the sole condition for the yellow race to rise into prominence would consist in the great task (which is by no means an easy one) of outdoing all other nations, not only in military accomplishments, but also, and mainly, in the industrial pursuits of peace.
CONCLUSION.
HE Chinese way of thinking, especially where it still clings to
occultism and mysticism, has serious faults, yet it is based upon a world conception which is not only rational but even in close agree- ment with some leading principles of Western science; and there is scarcely a superstition in Cathay which has not at one time or another prevailed in European countries, if not in the same, at least in an analogous form. We, too, had the measles in our childhood ; so we have no reason to ridicule the Chinese because they (or at least large classes of the population) have them still.
The history of the relations between Europe and China exhibits a series of blunders both on the side of the Chinese and the Euro- pean governments ; and the root of the evil on either side is haughti- ness.
It is reported that Emperor Charles V in his old days used to
say :
How true that is! If the men that fill the leading positions of the world would only use a little discretion, if it were merely the common sense of a pious farmer or peasant who has religion enough to be afraid to do wrong, how much better would the world fare than now when diplomats claim that nations are not bound by the moral maxims which individuals are obliged to respect. Think what wrongdoing might have been avoided bv a little dose of prudence in modern history! Think only of the War of Secession in our own country ; the money it cost would have sufficed to buy off all the slaves several times over. But the real trouble is that both parties
“Quantula sapientia mundus regitur!”
[With what little wisdom the world is governed!!
1 88
CHINESE THOUGHT.
as a rule are impervious to reason, and their conflict becomes in evitable, each side having the advantage to declare that though they themselves be wrong in many respects, their adversaries are not less blameworthy. So far, the best argument of a belligerent party has commonly been the street-boy’s answer to his antagonist: “You are another !”
The Chinese are in possession of a very ancient civilisation ; they know it and are proud of it. But Chinese pride is outdone bv European insolence, and thus resulted a lamentable state of affairs which led to many misunderstandings, disturbances and wars. The distrust, hatred, and contempt which are mutual are not a recent affair but the product of centuries.
Some blame the missionaries as being the cause of all trouble, others the greediness of the powers, still others would condemn the Chinese for their haughtiness and stupidity. Perhaps there is some fault all around. Neither the Chinese nor the Western people are angels, the latter especially can not easily be whitewashed, as, for instance, no one would dare to defend or even find an excuse for the Opium War. Yet, if we claim to be the superior race let us prove it by superiority of behavior — not merely by a superiority of our guns but first of all by a superiority of conduct. It is certain that had our diplomats taken the trouble to study the Chinese char- acter, many severe clashes and the spilling of innocent blood as well as the expenditure of enormous sums of money in several bitter wars that far from redressing wrongs only served to make matters worse, might have been avoided.
It will be easier to conquer China than to subdue it, and should a foreign power succeed in taking it (which is by no means an easy task), the conquerors will find out that the easiest way of holding the country would be by becoming Chinese themselves.
From the standpoint of comparative ethnology and especially ethnic psychology, a knowledge of the Chinese mode of thinking is of great importance ; for the Chinese are so different from all other existing nations in their world conception, and in their ways of arguing, as well as living, that they seem to have developed a type of humanity of their own. Yet the differences are only in ex-
CONCLUSION.
l8g
ternals and their main logical as well as moral notions are practic- ally the same as those which prevail among the nations of Europe. Those traits, however, which are different are deeply rooted in the aboriginal character of the Chinese nation and pervade their entire history. These strange people have developed on different lines, and though they started with great promise, having made rapid strides at the very beginning of their civilisation, they exhibited a most devout reverence toward the past which resulted in an un- paralleled conservatism in their national institutions that worked as a brake upon progress, and rendered their further evolution almost stagnant. Because of this they have been easily overtaken by the younger nations of the West who were still barbarians, nay, savages, when China had attained a high grade of civilisation. We should not forget that we owe to China all the inventions which in their entirety produced the latest phase of our civilisation, viz., the invention of printing, the manufacture of paper, the use of the mariner’s compass, and last but not least, the invention of gun- powder. Reports of these inventions, not to mention others of less significance, such as the manufacture of porcelain, silk culture, etc., had reached Europe through travelers who at first were scarcely believed, but the result was a rediscovery of these ancient Chinese inventions and their more systematic application in practical life. While the Chinese, almost since the days of Confucius, have made little advance in the arts and sciences, Europe grew rapidly in knowledge, wealth, and power, having now reached a stage which might be called “the age of science.”
It is difficult for us to-day to understand how the Chinese can be so impervious to progress, how they can be so proud of their own civilisation, the imperfections of which appear obvious to us. We find an answer to these problems when we become acquainted with the Chinese mode of speaking, writing, and thinking. If we want to comprehend their errors we must know that these are but the reverse aspect of their proficiencies, and their faults are fre- quently misapplied virtues. We shall be better able to deal with the Chinese when we study their character as a whole by contem- plating the dark aspects of the picture as the shades that are pro-
190
CHINESE THOUGHT.
duced by the light that falls upon things. In this sense and for the purpose of furnishing the necessary material for a psychological appreciation of the Chinese, we have sketched the main characteristic features of the ideas which dominate Chinese thought and inspire Chinese morality. We hope that we have helped thereby to contribute a little toward the realisation of the great ideal of peace on earth and good will among men.
INDEX.
Agrippa of Nettesheim, 64.
Ahura Mazda and Asur, 95, 98.
Ai, Duke of Lu, 119.
Albertus Magnus, 64.
All Souls’ Day, 45.
Ambrose, St., 107.
Analects, (. Lun Yu), 115, 116, 118. Ancestral Hail, 172.
Ancient forms of Chinese writing,
5-8.
Aquila, The star, 77.
Arabian zodiac, 103-104.
Assyrian standard, 96.
Astrology, and astronomy, 89, 112; Babylonian, 88.
Asur, and Ahura Mazda, 95, 98; and Sagittarius, 96, 97.
Attributes, Five, 15.
Babylon, 67, 90.
Babylonian zodiac, 94.
Bamboo sticks, notched, 2.
Bats, Five, 16, 17.
Beauty, (“great sheep”), 9. “Blessing,” The character, 16; Orna- mental use of, 21, 22.
Blessings, The Five, 14, 17.
Boll, Franz, 91 ff.
Bonham, Sir George, 181 ; on the Tai Ping, 179-180.
Breastplate of high priest, 39. Brightness, 9.
Brush, Invention of, 4, 5, 151. Buddha, 166.
Buddhist monastery, Gateway to, 44. Buddhists, Elements of, 42.
Bushel, The. See Ursa Major.
Calendar comes from Babylon, 90;
reform, 52, 53.
Callery and Yvan, 171.
Cancer and the scarab, 107.
Candlin, Geo. T., 160 n.
Canopus, 19.
Capricorn, emblem of Ea, 105.
Chang Fei, 155, 158.
Charles V, Emperor, 187.
Cheng Tsai, Mother of Confucius,
115. 1 16.
Chieh sheng, 1, 2.
Chili Nit, 131 ; daughter of sun-god,
77-
Children, The twelve, 53.
Chinese pocket compass, 64, 66. Chinese zodiac, 108-109.
Ch'iu, (“hill”), 1 15.
Chou, Duke of, 116, 149.
Chou dynasty, 149.
Chou Hsin, the tyrant, 30, 149.
Chou Kung, (the Duke of Chou), 149.
Chou-Sin, See Chou Hsin.
Chou T‘ze, philosopher, 154.
Chou, The Yih of, 28.
Christ, “the Scarab,” 107.
Chu Hsi, Biographer of Confucius, 113 n., 154.
Clui Ko Liang, 158.
Chuang Tze, 117.
Chung Yung, 120.
Colors, Five, 15.
Commission of Examinations, 165. Compass, 63, 64 ff.
Confucius, 1, 35, 1 13 ff., 168; Plomage to, 120, 121 ; Temple of, at Peking,
1 92
CHINESE THOUGHT.
1 14; a transmitter, 115; Travels of, 1 18.
Constellations, Three, 13; Twenty- eight, 62.
Councilor spirits, The three, 73- Court scene, 176.
Cowherd, 77.
Crab, Taurus and the, 98.
Cuniform writings, 81 ; Zodiac in, 94.
Daressy, J., 101 n.
Darius, 2.
David, 38.
Decimal system of numbers, 85.
De Groot. See Groot, F. J. de. Dendera, Egyptian zodiac of, 98, 99, 103-
Destiny, Tablet of, 33-34.
Dipper, The. See Ursa Major. Disk-norm, 58.
Divination, 34 ff., Outfit for, 35. Diviners, Professional, 55.
Doketism, 85.
DuBose, Rev. Hampden C., 172. Duodenary cycle, 50, 51.
Ea, Symbol of, 105.
Eight kwa, 20.
Elamites, The, 100.
Elements, Five, 15, 41 ff. ; of the Bud- dhists, 42 ; of Chinese script, 12. Enmeduranki, 33, 34.
Ephod, 37, 38, 39.
Epiphanius, St., 107.
“Eternal,” typical word, 12.
European compass, 63, 65, 66. Examinations, Court of, 153. Exchange of thought in prehistoric days, 2.
Fa, 149.
Family relations in the trigrams, 30, 31-
Father of Confucius, K'ung Shu, 115. Feng-Shui, 55 ff.
Figures, The four, 27.
Filial piety, 24; hsiao, 122 ff.
Filials, Twenty-four, 124 ff.
Fishborn, Captain, 18.
Five, elements, 41 ff. ; The number, 14 ff. ; rulers, 149.
Foreign embassies at Peking, 177. "Four,” The number, 14 ; quarters, 1 10.
Fuh-Hi, 28 n., 29, 31, 33, 36, 48, 59, 149.
Geoghegan, Richard H., 86 f. Geomancer's compass, 58.
Giles, Herbert A., 17 n., 163.
God, shih, 4.
Goldziher, 41 n.
Gordon, General, 18.
Great Plan, 46.
Great Wall, The 153.
Groot, F. J. M. de, 1911., 2411., 25 m, 57-
Grube, Wilhelm, 154.
Gutzlaff, 169, 171.
Hairdress of the Manchu, 153.
Han dynasty, 119, 152, 154- Heaven and earth, Mystery of, 33-34. Herodotus, 2, 45.
Hexagram, 36.
Hindu zodiac, 75.
Hirth, Friedrich, 66.
Hoary characters, The ten, 53. Hokusai, 129.
Homage to Confucius, 120, 121. Hommel, 98.
Hsia dynasty, 149.
Hsiao, Character, 122 f.
Hsiian Teh, I55. 156.
Hsiian T'sung, Emperor, 120.
Hua T‘o, the famous surgeon, 160, 161.
Huang Ti, the “Yellow Emperor,” 28, 53- 149-
Hwang Ti. See Huang Ti.
Ideals, Five eternal, 14 f., 17. Interconnection, 84.
Interrelation of elements, 47. Invention of brush and paper, 4.
“It is finished.” 119.
Japan, 168.
Jesuit fathers, 79, 81.
Justice, (“my sheep”), 9.
INDEX.
193
Kan Ying P‘ien, 73.
Kang Hi, 79, 81.
Kao Tsou, the first Han emperor, 119. Keng Niu, the herdsman, 77.
Kepler, 88; on astrology, 89. Knotted cords, 1, 2.
Ko Chow King, astronomer royal, 81. Krause, Ernst (Caras Sterne), 9011. Kudurru, Cap of a, 93; of Nazi Ma- radah, 92.
K'ung Shu, father of Confucius, 115. K‘ung-tze, 1 13 ff.
Kwa, 26; The eight, 20, 28.
K'wan, 46.
Kwan Yiin Ch‘ang, 153, 156.
Kwang Hsu, Present emperor, 183. Kwei Ts‘ang, 28.
Lao Tze, 1, 117, 168.
Lacouperie, Terrien de, 2, 3, 4. Lcgge, 11311., 120.
Leibnitz, 32.
Li, son of Confucius, 115.
Liang i, 25, 26.
Lien shan, 28.
Li Ki, Book of Ritual, 119.
Lin, marvelous animal, 1 15, 1 19 Liu An, 47.
Liu Pang, 132.
Loll, River, 2.
Lo-king, 58.
Lo Kwan Chung, the author of the “Three Kingdoms,” 162 ,163. Lo-pan, 58 ff.
Longevity, Star of, 19; symbol in different styles, 19; symbol, Orna- mental use of, 21, 22, 24; tablet, 18. Louis XIV, 81.
Lu, The state, 113.
Lun Yu, (“Analects”), 113, 1 16, 118.
Magic Square, 49.
Mallery, Garrick, 3.
“Man,” The character, 9 f.
Mancliu, The, 153.
Mandarin’s banquet, 164; estate, En- trance to 163; household, 163. Marco Polo, 66.
Mariner’s Compass, 64.
Mason, Otis T., 66 n.
Maspero, 100.
Mayan calendar, 86, 90.
Mayers, W. F., 45, 46, 62, no, 127. Maynard, George C., 66 n.
Meng T'ien, inventor of the brush, 5- I5i.
Mexican calendar wheel, 89.
Middle Ages, Pseudo-sciences of the, 35-
Milfoil plant, 35.
Missionary Problem, 174.
Missions, 169.
Mitlira, 22 ; slaying the bull, 97, 98. Mithraic monument, 85.
Moor, Edward, 75.
Morrison, Rev. R., 138 ff.
Mother of Confucius, Cheng Tsai,
115. n6.
Mothers, The ten, 53.
Mystic tablet, 48.
Nao the Great, 53.
National Museum at Washington, 66. Net-tablet, 58 ff.
Net-standard, 58.
Nine, the number, 20 f.
Notched bamboo sticks, 2.
Notes, Five, 15.
Novel, China’s national, 154 ff.
Obedience, Three forms of, 13. Occultism, Chinese, 25 ff.
Occultism, The truth of, 112.
Oceania, 1.
Outfit for divination, 33.
Pagoda at Peking, 137 ; of palace, 140. Pailoo gate, 142.
P'an-Ku, 40 f., 47, 48.
Pan-shih, 58.
Paper, Invention of, 4.
Paracelsus, 64.
Parallelism, 84.
Pavilion at Peking, 139.
Peh Tao, 72.
Peking observatory, 76-82 ; Pagoda at, 137; Pavilion at, 139; Street scene in, 146; Temple of Confu- cius at, 1 14; Tombs near, 143. Pendants, 122, 125.
194
CHINESE THOUGHT.
Persian reverence of the elements, 45. Philo, 39.
P'ing Ti, Emperor, 120.
Planets, Five, 15.
Plunket, E. M. 97 n., 98. Population, poor, 165.
Porcelain tower of Nanking, 180. Powers, Three, 14.
Prehistoric days, The Exchange of thought in, 2.
Primary forms, The two, 25. Prometheus, 41, 83.
Pseudo-sciences in the Middle Ages, 35-
Pure ones, Three, 13.
Quippu, 1.
Rationalism of Chinese occultism, 25. Recensions of Yih King, 28. Relations, Five Cardinal, 15.
Reliable, The Chinese are, 175. Religions of China, 166 ff. Resurrection, Scarab symbol of, 107. Roman, calendar stone, 91 ; -Egyp- tian zodiac, 101 ; globe of ecliptic, 102.
Sages, The seven, 20.
Sagittarius, and Asur, 96, 97; and Scorpio, 105, 106.
Sapta Ratna, 20.
Saur, Julius, 18.
Scarab, symbol of resurrection, 107. Scorpio and Sagittarius, 105, 106. Scorpion-man and scorpion, 106. Script, Ancient forms of, 5-8; Ele- ments of, 12; Styles of, 10-11. Seasons, The four, 61.
Septuagint, 37.
Seven, Enumerations of, 20. Sexagenary cycle, 59, 60, 81. Shantung, 1 13.
Shi Huang Ti. See Shih Hwang Ti. Shih (God), 4.
Shih Hwang Ti, hater of literature, 5. 150 f- Shintoism, 168.
Shu King, 46.
Shun, 1 16.
Shun Shih, 153.
Si Peh, "Chief of the West,” 149. Six, Enumerations of, 20. South-pointing needle, 66.
Spinning damself, 7.
Spring and Autumn, 118.
Sse Ma T‘sien. See Ssu Ma Hsien. Ssu Ma Hsien, 59, 11311., 117.
Ssu Shiang, 27.
Stalks, 35.
Stars, Personification of, 66 ff. Steinthal, H., 41 n.
Sterne, Carus, pseud. See Krause, Ernst.
Street scene in Peking, 146.
String alphabet, 1 11.
Sui-Jen, 41.
Sun Chien, 159.
Sunday, 22.
Sung dynasty, 154.
Sze-Ma Ch'ien. See Ssu Ma Hsien.
Tablet of destiny, 33-34.
Tablet, Mystic, 48.
Ta Hsiao, 120.
T'ai chih ("grand limit”), 33, 36, 59. T'ai Ping, 18, 171; rebellion, 178 ff. T'ang dynasty, 154.
Taoism, 168.
Tartar tunic, The, 153.
Taurus and the crab, 98.
Temple of Confucius, 1 14 ; of Heaven, 145-
Ten, canonical books, 21 ; stems, The, 52, 59-,
“Three,” in enumerations, 12-14;
kingdoms, The Story of the, 154 ff. Throneless king, 1 1 3 ff. ; 120-121. Tiamat, 40, 83.
Tiao Ch‘an, the slave girl, 161-162. Tien Teh, of the Tai Ping, 179.
Tiger Mountains, Palace in the, 138. Ting, Duke of Lu, 117.
Tombs near Peking, 143. Transmitter, Confucius a, 115. Traveling cart, 148.
Travels of Confucius, 118.
Treasures, Four, 14.
Trigrams, Arrangements of, 31, 32; Family relations in the, 30, 31.
INDEX.
195
Ts'ang Hieh, inventor of writing, 2.
Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, 159.
Ts'eng, 59.
Ts‘in dynasty, 150.
Tsou-Yen, 45.
Tsung Ching, the last Ming, 153.
Twenty-eight constellations, 62.
Two-faced centaur on kudurru, 104.
Two primary forms, 12.
Twelve animals, 22, 49, 50, 51, no; branches, 50, 51, 59, no; hours, Table of, in; mansions, in Chi- nese characters, no ; The number, 22.
Tze Kung, most devoted admirer of Confucius, 119.
Urim and Thummim, 25, 36 ff., 83.
Ursa Major, 20, 60, "off.
Vega, The star, 77.
Waddell, 4811.
Wallenstein’s horoscope, 88.
Wan, King, 116. See also Wu Wang. Wen Ch'ang, 16 n.
Wen Wang, 32, 48, 50, 149. Williams, S. Wells, 153 n.
Writing, Ancient forms of Chinese, 5-8; Invention of, 2; of Loh, 49; Six forms of, 20.
Wu Wang, 149..
Yahveh, 38.
Yang and Yin, 12, 26 ff., 34, 37, 40. Yangtze River, Island in the, 136. Yao, Emperor, 116, 127, 130.
Yellow peril, 181 ff.
Yih, The, 25 ff., 34, 48.
Yih King, Book of Changes, 26, 31, 32, 36, 37- 55- 1 16, 1 17- 149; Recen- sions of, 28.
Yin. See Yang.
Ymir, 40.
Zimmern, 33 n.
Zodiac, 50; Names of the, 95.
Zodiacs of different Nations, 84 ff.
P 1 o fii K I* |> t> tfl I fl |T Comments on the experiments of M lain UI ccumy BURBANK & NILSSON. By
Hugo DeVries, Professor of Botany in the University of Amsterdam. Pages, XIII + 351 . 114 Illustrations. Printed on fine enamel paper. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net; $1.70 postpaid. (7s. 6d. net.) i
Under the influence of the work of Nilsson, Burbank, and others, the principle of selection has, of late, changed its meaning in practice in the same sense in which it is changing its significance in science by the adoption of the theory of an origin of species by means of sudden mutations. The method of slow improvement of agricultural varie- ties by repeated selection is losing its reliability and is being supplanted by the discovery of the high practical value of the elementary species, which may be isolated by a single choice. The appreciation of this principle will, no doubt, soon change the whole aspect of agricultural plant breeding.
Hybridization is the scientific and arbitrary combination of definite characters. It does not produce new unit-characters; it is only the combination of such that are new. From this point of view the results of Burbank and others wholly agree with the theory of mutation, which is founded on the principle of the unit-characters.
This far-reaching agreement between science and practice is to become a basis for the further development of practical breeding as well as of the doctrine of evolution. To give proof of this assertion is the main aim of these Essays.
The results of Nilsson have been published only in the Swedish language; those of Burbank have not been described by himself. Prof. DeVries’s arguments for the theory of mutation have been embodied in a German book, “Die Mutationstheorie” (2 vols. Leipsic, Vat & Co.), and in lectures given at the University of California in the summer of 1904, published under the title of “Species and Varieties; their Origin by Mutation.’’ A short review of them will be found in the first chapter of these Essays.
Some of them have been made use of in the delivering of lectures at the Universities of California and of Chicago during the summer of 1906 and of addresses before various audiences during my visit to the United States on that occasion. In one of them(II. D.), the main contents have been incorporated of a paper read before the American Philo- sophical Society at their meeting in honor of the bicentennary of the birth of their founder, Benjamin Franklin, April, 1906.
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Space and Geometry in the Light of Physiolog- ical, Psychological and Physical Inquiry. By
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In these essays Professor Mach dis- cusses the questions of the nature, origin, and development of our concepts of space from the three points of view of the physiology and psychology of the senses, history, and physics, in all which departments his pro- found researches have gained for him an authoritative and commanding position. While in most works on the foundations of geometry one point of view only is empha- sized— be it that of logic, epistemology, psy- chology, history, or the formal technology of the science — here light is shed upon the subject from all points of view combined, and the different sources from which the many divergent forms that the science of space has historically assumed, are thus shown forth with a distinctness and precision that in suggestiveness at least leave little to be desired.
Any reader who possesses a slight knowledge of mathematics may derive from these essays a very adequate idea of the abstruse yet important researches of meta- geometry.
TllC Vocation of Man. By Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Translated by William Smith, LL. D. Reprint Edition. With biographical intro- duction by E. Ritchie, Ph. D. 1906. Pp. 185. Cloth, 75c net. Paper, 25c; mailed, 31c. (Is. 6d.)
Everyone familiar with the history of German Philosophy recognizes the im- portance of Fichte’s position in its development. His idealism was the best exposition of the logical outcome of Kant's system in one of its principal aspects, while it was also the natural precurs r of Hegel’s philosophy. But the intrinsic value of Fichte’s writings have too often been overlooked. His lofty ethical tone, the keenness of his men- tal vision and the purity of his style render his works a stimulus and a source of satisfac- tion to every intelligent reader. Of all his many books, that best adapted to excite an interest in his philosophic thought is the Vocation of Man, which contains many of his most fruitful ideas and is an excellent example of the spirit and method of his teaching.
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will prove fascinating to those who are interested in the comparative study of religion as well as in the development of Eastern Asia. Here we have a Buddhist Abbot holding a high position in one of the most orthodox sects of Japan, discoursing on problems of ethics and philosophy with an intelligence and grasp of the subject which would be rare even in a Christian prelate.
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“The Praise of Hypocrisy” is an essay based on the public confessions of hypocrisy that many champions of religion have made in these days, and on the defenses they have put forth in support of the practice of deceit. Not that the sects now accuse each other of insincerity, nor that the scoffer vents his disgust for all religion, but that good men (as all must regard them) in high standing as church members have accused them- selves.
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Imagination is not the possession only of the inspired few, but is a func- tion of the mind common to all men in some degree; and mankind has displayed as much imagination in practical life as in its more emotional phases — in mech- anical, military, industrial, and commer- cial inventions, in religious, and political institutions as well as in the sculpture, painting, poetry and song. This is the central thought in the new book of Th. Ribot, the well-known psychologist, modestly entitled An Essay on the Creative Imagination.
It is a classical exposition of a branch of psychology which has often been dis- cussed, but perhaps never before in a thoroughly scientific manner. Although the purely reproductive imagination has been studied with considerable enthusiasm from time to time, the creative or constructive variety has been generally neglected and is popularly supposed to be confined within the limits of esthetic creation.
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X 3iaaStl«Hl{J Kan-YIng P icn, Treatise of the Exalted One on Re- sponse and Retribution. Translated from the Chinese by Teitaro Suzuki and Dr. Paul Cams. Containing Chinese Text, Verbatim Translation, Explanatory Notes and Moral Tales. Edited by Dr. Paul Carus. 16 plates. Pp. 135. 1906. Boards, 75c net.
The book contains a critical and descriptive introduction, and the entire Chinese text in large and distinct characters with the verbatim translation of each page ar- ranged on the opposite page in corresponding vertical columns. This feature makes the book a valuable addition to the number of Chinese-English text-books already avail- able. The text is a facsimile reproduction from a collection of Chinese texts made in Japan by Chinese scribes.
After the Chinese text follows the English translation giving references to the corresponding characters in the Chinese original, as well as to the explanatory notes immediately following the English version. These are very full and explain the sig- nificance of allusions in the Treatise and compare different translations of disputed passages. This is the first translation into English directly from the Chinese original, though it was rendered into French by Stanislas Julien, and from his French edition into English by Douglas.
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SpiIlOZa and Religion* a Stud}' of Spinoza’s Metaphysics and of his particular utterances in regard to religion, with a view to determining the significance of his thought for religion and incidentally his personal
attitude toward it. By Elmer Ellsworth Powell, A. M., Ph. D., Professor of Philosophy in Miami University. 1906. Pp. xi, 344. $1.50 net. (7s. 6d.)
Spinoza has been regarded for centuries as the most radical philosopher, yet he had a reverential attitude toward religion and prom- inent thinkers such as Goethe looked up to him as their teacher in both metaphysics and religion. Professor E. E. Powell, of Miami University, feels that there has been great need to have Spinoza’s philosophy and attitude toward re- ligion set forth by a competent hand, and, ac- cordingly, he has undertaken the task with a real love of his subject, and has indeed ac- complished it with success.
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Aristotle on His Prede- cessors* Being the first book of his metaphysics. Translated from the text of Christ, with intro- duction and notes. By A. E. Taylor, M. A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Frothingham Professor of Philosophy in Mc- Gill University, Montreal. Pp. 160. Cloth, 75c net. Paper, 35c postpaid.
This book will be welcome to all teachers of philosophy, for it is a transla- tion made by a competent hand of the most important essay on the history of Greek thought down to Aristotle, written by Aristotle himself. The original served this great master with his unprecedented encyclopedic knowledge as an introduc- tion to his Metaphysics; but it is quite apart from the rest of that work, forming an independent essay in itself, and will re- main forever the main source ofourinfor- mation on the predecessors of Aristotle. Considering the importance of the book, it is strange that no translation of it appears to have been made since the publication of that by Bekker in 1831.
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Not the least advantage of the present translation is the incorporation of the trans- lator’s own work and thought. He has done his best, within the limited space he has allowed himself for explanations, to provide the student with ample means of judging for himself in the light of the most recent researches in Greek philosophical literature, the value of Aristotle’s account of previous thought as a piece of historical criticism.
Zarathushtra, Philo, the Achaemenids and Israel.
A Treatise Upon the Antiquity and Influence of the Avesta. By Dr. Lawrence H. Mills, Professor of Zend Philology in the University of Oxford. 1906. Pp. 460. Cloth, gilt top. $4.00 net.
Professor Lawrence H. Mills, the great Zendavesta scholar of Oxford, England, has devoted his special attention to an investigation and comparison of the relations that obtain between our own religion, Christianity — including its sources in the Old Testa- ment scriptures — and the Zendavesta, offering the results of his labors in a new book that is now being published by The Open Court Publishing Company, under the title, “Zarathushtra, Philo, the Achaemenids and Israel, a Treatise upon the Antiquity and Influence of the Avesta.” We need scarcely add that this subject is of vital importance in theology, for the influence of Persia on Israel and also on the foundation of the Christian faith has been paramount, and a proper knowledge of its significance is in- dispensable for a comprehension of the origin of our faith.
Babel and Bible. Three Lectures on the Significance of Assyrio- logical Research for Religion, Embodying the most important Criticisms and the Author’s Replies. By Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, Professor of Assyr- iology in the University of Berlin. Translated from the German. Pro- fusely illustrated. 1906. Pp. xv, 240. $1.00 net.
A new edition of “Babel and Bible,” comprising the first, second and third lectures by Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, complete with discussions and the author’s replies, has been published by The Open Court Publishing Company, making a stately volume of 255 pages.
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The Story of Samson
By Paul Carus. 80 illustrations. Boards, $1.00 net. (4s. 6d. net.)
And Its Place in the Relig- ious Development of Mankind. Pp. 183. Comprehensive index.
Dr. Carus contends that Samson’s prototype is to be found in those traditions of all prim- itive historical peoples which relate to a solar deity. He believes that genuine tradition, no matter how mythological, is more conservative than is at first apparent. Though the bibli- cal account of Samson's deeds, like the twelve labors of Heracles, is the echo of an ancient solar epic which glorifies the deeds of Shamash in his migration through the twelve signs of the zodiac, there may have been a Hebrew hero whose deeds reminded the Israelites of Sha- mash, and so his adventures were told with modifications which naturally made the solar legends cluster about his personality.
References are fully given, authorities quoted and comparisons are carefully drawn be- tween Samson on the one hand, and Heracles, Shamash, Melkarth and Siegfried on the other. The appendix contains a controversy between Mr. Geo. W. Shaw and the author in which is discussed at some length the relation between myth and history.
An Exposition of the Main Character- istic Features of the Chinese World- Conception. By Paul Carus. Being a continuation of the author’s essay, Chinese Philosophy. Illustrated. Index. Pp. 195. $1.00 net. (4s. 6d.)
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Our Children
Hints from Practical Experience for Parents and Teachers. By Paul Cams
Pp. 207. $1.00 net. (4s. 6d. net)
In the little book Our Children, Paul Carus offers a unique contribution to peda- gogical literature. Without any theoretical pretensions it is a strong defense for the rights of the child, dealing with the responsibilities of parenthood, and with the first inculcation of fundamental ethics in the child inindand thetrue principles of correction and guidance. Each detail is forcefully illustrated by informal incidents from the author's experience with his own children, and his suggestions will prove of the greatest possible value to young mothers and kindergartners. Hints as to the first acquaintance with all branches of knowledge are touched upon — mathematics, natural sciences, foreign languages, etc. — and practical wisdom in regard to the treatment of money, hygiene and similar problems.
PRESS NOTICES
"Brightly written, broad-minded, instructive, this book deserves serious perusal and praise.”
—CHICAGO RECORD-HERALD.
“ ‘Our Children’ has a value which it is difficult to exaggerate. The strong common sense of the book as a whole can better be judged from an extract than from any praise of it, however particularized.
“It is difficult to conceive of anything coming up in relation of parent or teacher to a child which does not find discussion or suggestion in this compact and helpful little book. It will be an aid to parents and teachers everywhere — an education for them no less than for the child.”
—THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS.
"From my own personal point of view I can only welcome this volume in our pedagogical literature and express the hope that it may become a household book in the library of every parent and teacher.” M. P. E. GROSZMANN, Pd. D.,
Director Groszmann School for Nervous Children
“Mr. Carus writes in a most practical manner upon his subject, setting before the reader the various problems common to all parents in dealing with their offspring. This book is admirable throughout in the author’s treatment of his subjects, as the book is built from the experiences of parents and teachers and, therefore, cannot fail to be practicable.”
-THE BOSTON HERALD.
“For the training of children I know of no book in which there is so much value in a small compass as in this.” -THE TYLER PUBLISHING CO.
“Little things are recommended that will appeal to the child’s understanding and add ,o his interest in his work.” — CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER.
“Its author has given to the world a careful, loving, thoughtful set of rules which may be used with profit in the bringing up of the young.”
—THE MANTLE. TILE AND GRATE MONTHLY.
“We feel certain that any parent who thoughtfully reads and studies this book will be richly paid; and if the readers be parents with growing children they will keep the book by them for frequent consultation; not for iron rules but for sympathetic suggestion.”
—THE COMMERCIAL NEWS (Danville, 111.)
“At once the reader knows that he is in touch with a mind that is accustomed to sincere and deep thinking. The whole book is a plea for a serious notion of parenthood. The author touches one topic after another with a fine sense of feeling for the ‘warm spot’ in it.
“The use of money, square dealing, worldly prudence, sympathy with animals, treatment of a naughty child, self criticism, and punishment, are some of the more important themes of the book.” -THE SUBURBAN.
The Open Court Publishing Co., 1322 Wabash Ave. , Chicago
Date Due
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QC 31 ’5T
FACULTY

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B126 .C322
Chinese thought; an exposition of the
Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library
1 1012 00007 4064