CHAPTER XIX.

THE RELIGIONS OF CONFUCIUS, ZOROASTER, AND BUDDHA.

All the Higher Ideals of Christian Morality Firmly Established Principles throughout the World Ages Before our Era-The Resemblance between

Christian Worship and The Worship of Earlier Faiths.

THE Chinese Empire is twice as large as the United States, and contains a third of the population of the globe. Its antiquity, by comparison, makes ancient Greece a modern state, and the first centuries of our era familiar times. For thirty centuries its oral language has remained the same, and its writing dates from a far earlier period.

In China we have the only nation which has a purely literary aristocracy, where office is obtained solely through competitive examinations, and where there is no rank or nobility apart from office. The Emperor has theoretically absolute power, but is in turn rigorously governed by an unwritten law of usage which defines his duties to his people as those of a father to his family. So strong is this ideal of government with the people that its open neglect is inevitably followed by revolution, so that, as a means of retaining their power, rulers have found it necessary to simulate the higher virtues.

In the language of China we have a singularly truthful portrayal of the national mind and character. It is monosyllabic, and therefore inflexible,-incapable of that syntactical motion which gives power and grace to expression. The literature is unimaginative, and were it not for its pure moral tone and philosophic spirit it might be called commonplace.

The Chinese nation has far excelled the West, until quite

recently, in the extent of its public works,' in mechanical skill, in the refinement of the industrial arts, and in popular education. With regard to some phases of social morality and civil government, China is unapproached by any modern nation. Religion with this nation is more ethical than theological; philosophy more practical than metaphysical.

The classics of China are the sacred books and writings upon law and history. All education consists in memorizing the classics, and the whole national mind, as a consequence, has fallen into a servile literary imitation. In exalted conservatism, in veneration for custom, China is without a peer; but in the competition of human genius,-the struggle for those new combinations of thought and feeling which constitute progress, in short, in imagination,—she is far behind many of the younger nations. The civilization of China, like that of Egypt, has a significance of which her people are apparently unconscious. The design of her social and political life constitutes a beautiful system of ethics, and yet abuses and inconsistencies are admitted, which, when compared with this design, appear grotesque. In a word, the individual has become so highly disciplined that he is but a silent factor in the spirit of his race; he has become bewildered by the proportions of his own civilization.

The religion of China centres around the life and teachings of Confucius, one of the greatest moral teachers the world has known. What is most admirable in the Chinese faith is the absence of fable and superstition concerning this man, who, judged by accepted standards, was holy and inspired, and fully as worthy of being canonized or deified as any of the great prophets. It is instructive to see, after all, how little moral influence, or power for doing good, depends upon belief in the supernatural. All that appeals

'China was intersected with canals long before there were any in Europe. The great wall was built for defence against the fierce tribes of the North, two hundred years before Christ; it crosses mountains, descends into valleys, and is carried over rivers on arches; it is twelve hundred and forty miles long, twenty feet high, and has towers every hundred yards. In this country beautiful books were printed five hundred years before the invention of Gutenberg.

to the hearts and consciences of mankind, however expressed, must be human. Hence the extravagances of faith are unnatural, inartistic, irreligious.

Confucius was born, 551 B.C., in the province or state of Loo, now called Shan-tung, during the reign of Ling-wang, 23d emperor of the Teheou. His parents were of high dignity, but were poor, and the untimely death of the father early subjected the son to the discipline of toil. He was passionately attached to his mother; and when she died, he gave up a state office which he held, to mourn her. This, however, was not without precedent in the customs of his country. His character early attracted the attention of the Prince of his State, who offered him the revenues of an office without the duties, which he declined from a sense of honor.

Confucius was at length given the charge of a city, and immediately applied himself to the institution of reforms. "He punished false dealing, suppressed licentiousness, and reduced brigandage and baronial ambition." Troops of dancing-girls and fine horses were sent as bribes to the Prince by those who were inconvenienced by these reforms of the minister, which at last had the effect of securing his dismissal. For thirteen years he was an exile, and wandered from court to court teaching his principles of peace, national unity, and self-improvement. Some of the friends whom his principles had attracted followed him in these wanderings and were known as his disciples. Among them was Mencius, himself a very able and profound teacher, although entirely devoted to Confucius.

The incessant theme of Confucius, says Johnson, is the balance of character, the danger of one-sidedness, the mutual dependence of study and original thought, of sound sense and fine taste; that due observance of limits in which the virtue of any quality consists. Being asked by one of his disciples what constituted the perfect man, he drew no impossible picture of virtue, but simply responded: “Seeking to be established, the true man establishes others; wishing enlargement, he enlarges others."

Confucius was renowned for his reverence and sympathy. While receiving in high office he would rise when approached by a person in trouble. Even at his time, which seems so early to us, there were annals of a vast antiquity belonging to his nation, filled with the lives of pure men. These annals he assiduously studied, and constantly referred to them as the source of his principles and knowledge. He disclaimed all originality; and it is probably due to this marked honesty and unselfishness that he is regarded by his nation as a man,—not as a god.

Those who study the social history of China cannot fail to be impressed with the immeasurable advantage which this simple and unassuming method of teaching morality has over the more highly colored and imaginative systems of other countries. The beauty of moral truth is more effectual when unadorned by superstition. In morality as in all else the best teacher is example; hence the sublimity of human nature is in no wise enhanced by the fanciful and grotesque impersonations of it which we find in the mythologies and theologies of the world.

Confucius affirms that knowledge and belief should be the same thing: "When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it; this is knowledge." To this he adds: "To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage." Nor was Confucius unacquainted with the quali ties of the heart, for he says: "It is only the truly virtuous man who can love or who can hate others. ✶✶✶ Virtue is not left to stand alone; he who practises it will have neighbors." Again he says: "It is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to be good."

In his ethics we find the golden rule: "What I do not wish men to do to me, I also wish not to do to men." The Brahmans, says Müller, expressed the same truth in the Hitopadesa "Good people show mercy unto all beings, considering how like they are to themselves."

Confucius also seems to have been conscious of the limits.

of language. "Ke Loo asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The Master said: 'While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?' Ke Loo added: 'I venture to ask about death.' He was answered: 'While you do not know life, how can you know about death?'" And again, concerning the same question, "The Master said: 'I would prefer not speaking.' Tsze-Kung said: If you, Master, do not speak, what shall we, your disciples, have to record?' The Master said: 'Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue their courses, all things are continually being produced; but does Heaven say any thing?""

Do not the ideas of virtue which Confucius promulgated compare favorably with our best ethical conceptions? "Virtue is inquiring with earnestness and inwardly making appli cation." "Is virtue from a man's own force or from another's? How can a man conceal his character? The superior man sees the heart of the mean one. Of what use is disguise? Therefore the wise will be watchful when alone. *** Distinction is not in being heard of far and wide, but in being solid, straightforward, and loving the right. *** Filial piety is supposed to mean the support of one's parents; but brutes can do that: without reverence, what difference between these kinds? ✶ ✶ ✶ Learning is fulfilment of the great relations of life (a luminous definition of culture). Manners consist in behaving to each other as if receiving a guest, in causing no murmurings, and in not treating others as you would not be treated by them. ✶ ✶ ✶ Propriety is that rule by which tendencies are saved from excess. If one be without virtue, what has he to do with the rights of propriety, or with music?" A quaint way of arguing that morality is the expression of the highest harmonies of life. "Language is not mere utterance, but keeping words to the meaning of things." Hence the virtue of a wise reticence with regard to what we do not know.

To one who said: "I believe in your doctrine, but am not equal to it," Confucius said: "That would be a case of