TH1- CANON
OF
REASON AND VIRTUE
(LAO-TZE'S TAO TEH KING)
TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE
DR. PAUL CARUS
>d Edition
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON AGENTS
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., LTD.
1909
COPYRIGHT, 1903
BY
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO
FOREWORD.
booklet, The Canon of Reason and Virtife, is an extract
JL from the author's larger work, Lao-Tze's Tao i eh King + "* * /
and has been published for the purpose of making our reading
public more familiar with that grand and imposing figure Li Er,1
who was honored with the posthumous title Poh- Yang, i. e., Prince
of the Strong Principle ; but whom his countrymen simply call
Lao-Tze, the Old Philosopher.
Sze-Ma Ch'ien, the Herodotus of China, who lived about 136-
85 B. C., has left a short sketch of Lao-Tze's life in his Shi Ki
(Historical Records) which is here prefixed as the most ancient
and only well attested account to be had of the Old Philosopher.
Being bornln 604 B. C., Lao-Tze was by about half a century
the senior of Confucius. He must during his life have attained
great fame, for Confucius is reported as having sought an interview
with him. But the two greatest sages of China did not understand
each other, and they parted mutually disappointed.
If Confucius's visit to Lao-Tze were not historical, we should
have to regard it as ben trovato, for the contrast between these
two leaders of Chinese thought remains to the present day. The
disciples of Confucius, the so-called "Literati," are tinged with
their master's agnosticism and insist on the rules of propriety as
the best methods of education, while the Tao Sze, the believers
in the Tao, or divine Reason, are given to philosophical specula-
tion and religious mysticism. The two schools are still divided,
and have never effected a conciliation of their differences that
might be attained on a common higher ground.
At an advanced age Lao-Tze wrote a short book on Reason and
Virtue, Tao Teh, in all outward appearances a mere collection of
aphoristic utterances, but full of noble morals and deep meditation.
It met the reward which it fully deserved, having by imperial decree
lAlso spelled 'Rh.
20O509S
IV FOREWORD.
been raised to the dignity of canonical authority ; hence the name
King or "canon," completing the title Tao Teh King, as now
commonly used.
Lao- Tze's Tao Teh King contains so many surprising anal-
ogies with Christian thought and sentiment, that were its authen-
ticity and pre-Christian origin not established beyond the shadow
of a doubt, one would be inclined to discover in it traces of Chris-
tian influence. Not only does the term Tao (word, reason) corre-
spond quite closely to the Greek term Logos, but Lao-Tze preaches
the ethics of requiting hatred with goodness. He insists on the
necessity of becoming like unto a little child, of returning to prim-
itive simplicity and purity, of non-assertion and non-resistance,
and promises that the deficient will be made entire, the crooked
will be straightened, the empty will be filled, the worn will be re-
newed, those who have too little will receive, while those who have
too much will be bewildered. The Tao Teh King is brief, but it
is filled to the brim with suggestive thoughts.
In the present edition of the " Canon of Reason and Virtue"
the translator has incorporated all the changes and emendations
which he proposes in the preface to the second issue of his more
complete work on the same subject, entitled Lao-Tze" 's Tao Teh
King. The latter contains an historical introduction, the Chinese
text, a transliteration, explanatory notes and an index, including
the Chinese terms.1 The present extract is limited to that portion
which to English speaking people is of universal interest, the Eng-
lish translation. For the convenience of the reader and to prevent
confusion in quotations, the paging of this larger book has been
retained in this extract.
May this little book fulfil its mission and be a witness to the
religious spirit and philosophical depth of a foreign nation whose
habits, speech, and dress are strange to us. We are not alone in
the world ; there are others who search for the truth and are grop-
ing after it. Let us become better acquainted with them, let us
greet them as brothers, let us understand them and appreciate
their ideals !
PAUL CARUS.
1 For further information the reader is referred to the articles "Chinese
Philosophy" (Religion of Science Library. No. 30) and "The Authenticity of
the Tao Teh King" (The Monist, Vol. XI., pp. 574-601).
THE OLD PHILOSOPHER'S CANON
ON REASON AND VIRTUE
SZE-MA-CH'IEN ON LAO-TZE.
T AO-TZE was born in the hamlet Ch'ii-Jhren
\^ (Good Man's Bend), Li-Hsiang (Grinding
County), K'u-Hien (Thistle District), of Ch'u (Bram-
ble land). His family was the Li gentry (Li meaning
Plum). His proper name was Er (Ear), his post-
humous title Po-Yang (Prince Positive), his appella-
tion Tan (Long-lobed). In Cho he was in charge of
the secret archives as state historian.
Confucius went to Cho in order to consult Lao-
Tze on the rules of propriety.
[When Confucius, speaking of propriety, praised
reverence for the sages of antiquity], Lao-Tze said :
"The men of whom you speak, Sir, have, if you
please, together with their bones mouldered. Their
words alone are still extant. If a noble man finds his
time he rises, but if he does not find his time he drifts
like a roving-plant and wanders about. I observe
that the wise merchant hides his treasures deeply as
if he were poor. The noble man of perfect virtue as-
sumes an attitude as though he were stupid. Let go,
Sir, your proud airs, your many wishes, your affecta-
tion and exaggerated plans. All this is of no use to
96 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
you, Sir. That is what I have to communicate to
you, and that is all."
Confucius left. [Unable to understand the basic
idea of Lao-Tze's ethics], he addressed his disciples,
saying : "I know that the birds can fly, I know that
the fishes can swim, I know that the wild animals
can run. For the running, one could make nooses ;
for the swimming, one could make nets ; for the flying,
one could make arrows. As to the dragon I cannot
know how he can bestride wind and clouds when he
heavenwards rises. To-day I saw Lao-Tze. Is he
perhaps like the dragon?"
Lao-Tze practised reason and virtue. His doc-
trine aims in self-concealment and namelessness.
Lao-Tze resided in Cho most of his life. When he
foresaw the decay of Cho, he departed and came to
the frontier. The custom house officer Yin-Hi said :
"Sir, since it pleases you to retire, I request you for
my sake to write a book."
Thereupon Lao-Tze wrote a book of two parts
consisting of five thousand and odd words, in which
he discussed the concepts of reason and virtue. Then
he departed.
No one knows where he died.
THE OLD PHILOSOPHER'S CANON ON
REASON AND VIRTUE.
I.
i. REASON'S REALISATION.
0<^H&,,
'T^HE REASON that can be reasoned is not the
-1- eternal Reason. The name that can be named is
not the eternal name. The Unnameable is of heaven
and earth the beginning. The Nameable becomes
of the ten thousand things the mother. Therefore it
is said :
"He who desireless is found
The spiritual of the world will sound.
But he who by desire is bound
Sees the mere shell of things around."
These two things are the same in source but dif-
ferent in name. Their sameness is called a mystery.
Indeed, it is the mystery of mysteries. Of all spirit-
uality it is the door.
2. SELF-CULTURE.
When in the world all understand beauty to be
beauty, then only ugliness appears. When all un-
98 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
derstand goodness to be goodness, then only badness
appears. For
"To be and not to be are mutually conditioned.
The difficult, the easy, are mutually definitioned.
The long, the short, are mutually exhibitioned.
Above, below, are mutually cognitioned.
The sound, the voice, are mutually coalitioned.
Before and after are mutually positioned."
Therefore the holy man abides by non-assertion
in his affairs and conveys by silence his instruction.
When the ten thousand things arise, verily, he refuses
them not. He quickens but owns not. He works
but claims not. Merit he accomplishes, but he does
not dwell on it.
"Since he does not dwell on it
It will never leave him."
3. KEEPING THE PEOPLE QUIET.
.Not exalting worth keeps people from rivalry.
Not prizing what is difficult to obtain keeps people
from committing theft. Not contemplating what
kindles desire keeps the heart unconfused. There-
fore the holy man when He governs empties the peo-
ples hearts but fills their souls. He weakens their
ambitions but strengthens their backbones. Always
he keeps the people unsophisticated and without de-
sire. He causes that the crafty do not dare to act.
When he acts with non-assertion there is nothing un-
governed.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 99
4. SOURCELESS.
Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In
its profundity, verily, it resembleth the father of the
ten thousand things.
"It will blunt its own sharpness,
Will its tangles adjust;
It will dim its own radiance
And be one with its dust."
Oh, how calm it seems to remain ! I know not
whose son it is. Before the Lord, Reason takes pre-
cedence.
5. THE FUNCTION OF EMPTINESS.
Heaven and earth exhibit no benevolence ; to them
the ten thousand things are like straw dogs. The
holy man exhibits no benevolence ; to him the hun-
dred families are like straw dogs.
Is not the space between heaven and earth like
unto a bellows ? It is empty; yet it collapses not. It
moves, and more and more comes forth. [But]
"How soon exhausted is
A gossip's fulsome talk !
And should we not prefer
On the middle path to walk?"
6. THE COMPLETION OF FORM.
"The valley spirit not expires,
Mysterious mother 'tis called by the sires
ioo LAO-TZE'.S TAO-TEH-KING.
The mysterious mother's door, to boot,
Is called of Heaven and earth the root.
Forever and aye it seems to endure
And its use is without effort sure."
7. DIMMING RADIANCE.
Heaven endures and earth is lasting. And why
can heaven and earth endure and be lasting? Because
they do not live for themselves. On that account can
they endure.
Therefore the holy man puts his person behind and
his person comes to the front. He surrenders his per-
son and his person is preserved. Is it not because he
seeks not his own? For that reason he can accom-
plish his own.
8. EASY BY NATURE.
Superior goodness resembleth water. Water in
goodness benefiteth the ten thousand things, yet it
quarreleth not. Because it dwells in [lowliness] the
place which the multitude of men shun, therefore it is
near unto the eternal Reason.
For a dwelling goodness chooses the level. For a
heart goodness chooses commotion. When giving,
goodness chooses benevolence. In words, goodness
chooses faith. In government goodness chooses or-
der. In business goodness chooses ability. In its
motion goodness chooses timeliness. It quarreleth
not. Therefore, it is not rebuked.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. IOI
g. PRACTISING PLACIDITY.
Holding and keeping full, had that not better be
left alone? Handling and keeping sharp, can that
wear long? If gold and jewels fill the hall no one can
protect it.
Rich and high but proud, brings about its own
misfortune. To accomplish merit and acquire fame,
then to withdraw oneself, that is Heaven's Way.
10. WHAT CAN BE DONE.
>' *-J
He who sustains and disciplines his soul and em-
braces unity cannot be deranged. Through attention
to his vitality and inducing tenderness he can become
like a little child. By purifying, by cleansing and
profound intuition he can be free from faults.
In loving the people and administering the country
he can practise non-assertion. Opening and closing
the gates of heaven he can be like a mother-bird :
bright, and white, and penetrating the four quarters,
he can be unsophisticated. He quickens them and
feeds them. He quickens but owns not. He acts but
claims not. He excels but rules not. This is called
profound virtue.
ii. THE FUNCTION OF THE NON-EXISTENT.
Thirty spokes unite in one nave and on that which
is non-existent [on the hole in the nave] depends the
wheel's utility. Clay is moulded into a vessel and on
that which is non-existent [on its hollowness] depends
IDS LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
the vessel's utility. By cutting out doors and win-
dows we build a house and on that which is non-ex-
istent [on the empty space] depends the house's
utility.
Therefore, when the existence of things is profit-
able, it is the non-existent in them which renders
them useful.
12. ABSTAINING FROM DESIRE.
"The five colors the human eye will blind,
The five notes the human ear will rend.
The five tastes the human mouth offend."
" Racing and hunting will human hearts turn mad,
Objects of prize make human conduct bad."
Therefore the holy man attends to the inner and
not to the outer. He abandons the latter and chooses
the former.
13. LOATHING SHAME.
"Favor and disgrace bode awe.
Esteeming the body bodes great trouble."
What is meant by "favor and digrace bode awe?"
Favor humiliates. Its gain bodes awe; its loss
bodes awe. This is meant by "favor and disgrace
bode awe."
What is meant by "Esteeming the body bodes
great trouble " ?
I have trouble because I have a body. When I
have no body, what trouble remains ?
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. IO3
Therefore, if one administers the empire as he
cares for his body, he can be entrusted with the em-
pire.
14. PRAISING THE MYSTERIOUS.
We look at Reason and do not see it ; its name is
Colorless. We listen to Reason and do not hear it ;
its name is Soundless. We grope for Reason and do
not grasp it ; its name is Incorporeal.
These three things cannot further be analysed.
Thus they are combined and conceived as a unity
which on its surface is not clear but in its depth not
obscure.
Forever and aye Reason remains unnamable, and
again and again it returns home to non-existence.
This is called the form of the formless, the image of
the imageless. This is called transcendentally ab-
struse.
In front its beginning is not seen. In the rear its
end is not seen.
By holding fast to the Reason of the ancients, the
present is mastered and the origin of the past under-
stood. This is called Reason's clue.
15. THE REVEALERS OF VIRTUE.
Those of yore who have succeeded in becoming
masters are subtile, spiritual, profound, and penetrat-
ing. On account of their profundity they cannot be
understood. Because they cannot be understood,
therefore I endeavor to make them intelligible.
104 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
How they are cautious! Like men in winter cros-
sing a river. How reluctant! Like men fearing in
the four quarters their neighbors. How reserved!
They behave like guests. How elusive! They re-
semble ice when melting. How simple! They re-
semble unseasoned wood. How empty! They resem-
ble the valley. How obscure! They resemble troubled
waters.
Who by quieting can gradually render muddy
waters clear? Who by stirring can gradually quicken
the still?
He who keeps this Reason is not anxious to be
filled. Since he is not filled, therefore he can grow
old ; and without reform he is perfect.
16. RETURNING TO THE ROOT.
By attaining vacuity's completion we guard our
tranquillity truthfully.
All the ten thousand things arise, and I see them
return. Now they -bloom in bloom, but each one
homeward returneth to its root.
€ Returning to the root means rest. It signifies the
return according to destiny. Return according to des-
tiny means the eternal. Knowing the eternal means
enlightenment. Not knowing the eternal causes pas-
sions to rise ; and that is evil.
Knowing the eternal renders comprehensive. Com-
prehensive means broad. Broad means royal. Royal
means heavenly. Heavenly means Reason. Reason
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 105
means lasting. Thus the decay of the body implies
no danger.
17. SIMPLICITY IN HABITS.
Where great sages are [in power], the subjects do
not notice their existence. Where there are lesser
sages, the people are attached to them ; they praise
them. Where still lesser ones are, the people fear
them ; and where still lesser ones are, the people des-
pise them. For it is said :
"If your faith be insufficient, verily, you will re-
ceive no faith."
How reluctantly sages consider their words! Merit
they accomplish ; deeds they perform ; and the hun-
dred families think: "We are independent; we are
free."
18. THE PALLIATION OF VULGARITY.
When the great Reason is obliterated, we have
benevolence and justice. Prudence and circumspec-
tion appear, and we have much hypocrisy. When
family relations no longer harmonise, we have filial
piety and paternal love. When the country and the
clans decay through disorder, we have loyalty and
allegiance.
19. RETURNING TO SIMPLICITY.
Abandon your saintliness; put away your prudence;
and the people will gain a hundred-fold!
Abandon your benevolence; put away your justice;
106 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
and the people will return to filial devotion and pa-
ternal love!
fckrj.c*^"-' -
Abandon your scheming; put away your gains;
and thieves and robbers will no longer exist.
These are the three things for which we deem cul-
ture insufficient. Therefore it is said :
"Hold fast to that which will endure,
Show thyself simple, preserve thee pure,
Thy own keep small, thy desires poor. "
20. DIFFERENT FROM THE VULGAR.
Abandon learnedness, and you have no vexation.
The "yes" compared with the "yea," how little do
they differ! But the good compared with the bad,
how much do they differ!
If what the people dread cannot be made dread-
less, there will be desolation, alas ! and verily, there
will be no end of it.
The multitude of men are happy, so happy, as
though celebrating a great feast. They are as though
in springtime ascending a tower. I alone remain
quiet, alas! like one that has not yet received an en-
couraging omen. I am like unto a babe that does
not yet smile.
Forlorn am I, O, so forlorn ! It appears that I
have no place whither I may return home.
The multitude of men all have plenty and I alone
appear empty. Alas ! I am a man whose heart is
foolish.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 107
Ignorant am I, O, so ignorant ! Common people
are bright, so bright, I alone am dull.
Common people are smart, so smart, I alone am
confused, so confused.
Desolate am I, alas ! like the sea. Adrift, alas !
like one who has no place where to stay.
The multitude of men all possess usefulness. I
alone am awkward and a rustic too. I alone differ
from others, but I prize seeking sustenance from our
mother.
21. EMPTYING THE HEART.
"Vast virtue's form
Follows Reason's norm.
And Reason's nature
Is vague and eluding.
How eluding and vague
All types including.
How vague and eluding !
All beings including.
How deep, and how obscure.
It harbors the spirit pure,
Whose truth is ever sure,
Whose faith abides for aye
From of yore until to-day.
Its name does not depart.
Thence lo ! all things take start."
Whereby do I know that all things start from it,
thus indeed? By [Reason] itself!
io8 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
22. HUMILITY'S INCREASE.
"The deficient will recuperate.
And the crooked shall be straight.
The empty find their fill.
The worn with strength will thrill.
Who have little shall receive.
Who have much will have to grieve."
Therefore the holy man embraces unity and be-
comes for all the world a model. He is not self-dis
playing, and thus he shines. He is not self-approving,
and thus he is distinguished. He is not self-praising,
and thus he acquires merit. He is not self-glorifying
and thus he excels. Since he does not quarrel, there-
fore no one in the world can quarrel with him.
The saying of the ancients: "The deficient will
recuperate," is it in any way vainly spoken? Verily,
they will recuperate and return home.
23. EMPTINESS AND NON-EXISTENCE.
To be taciturn is the natural way.
A hurricane does not outlast the morning. A cloud-
burst does not outlast the day. Who causes these
events but heaven and earth? If even heaven and
earth cannot be unremitting, will not man be much
less so?
Those who pursue their business in Reason, men
of Reason, associate in Reason. Those who pursue
their business in virtue associate in virtue. Those
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. IOQ
who pursue their business in ill luck associate in ill
luck. When men associate in Reason, Reason makes
them glad to find companions. When men associate
in virtue, virtue makes them glad to find companions.
When men associate in ill luck, ill luck makes them
glad to find companipns.
" He whose faith is insufficient shall not find faith."
24. TROUBLES IN [THE EAGERNESS TO ACQUIRE]
MERIT.
A man on tiptoe cannot stand. A man astride can-
not walk. A self-displaying man cannot shine. A
self-approving man cannot be distinguished. A self-
praising man cannot acquire merit. A self-glorying
man cannot excel. Before the tribunal of Reason he
is like offal of food and like an excrescence in the sys-
tem which all people are likely to detest. Therefore,
one who has Reason does not rely on him.
25. IMAGING THE MYSTERIOUS.
There is a Being wondrous and complete. Ere
heaven and earth, it grew. How calm it is ! How
spiritual! Alone it standeth, and it changeth not;
around it moveth, and it suffereth not ; yet therefore
can it be the mother of the world.
Its name I know not, but its nature I call Rea-
son.
Constrained to give a name, I call it Great. The
Great I call Departing, and the Departing I call far
away. The Far-away I call the Coming Home.
no LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
The saying goes: "Reason is great, Heaven is
great, Earth is great, and Royalty also is great. [There
are four things in the world that are great, and Roy-
alty is one of them.]"
Man's standard is the Earth. The earth's standard
is Heaven. Heaven's standard is Reason. Reason's
standard is intrinsic.
26. THE VIRTUE OF DIGNITY.
The heavy is of the light the root, and rest is mo-
tion's master.
Therefore the holy man in his daily walk does not
depart from dignity. Although he may have mag-
nificent sights, he calmly sits with liberated mind.
But how is it when the master of the ten thousand
chariots in his personal conduct is too light for the
empire? If he is too light he will lose his vassals. If
he is too passionate he will lose the throne.
27. THE FUNCTION OF SKILL.
"Good travellers leave not trace nor track,
Good speakers, in logic show no lack,
Good counters need no counting rack.
"Good lockers bolting bars need not,
Yet none their locks can loose.
Good binders need not string nor knot,
Yet none unties their noose."
Therefore the holy man is always a good saviour
of men, for there are no outcast people. He is always
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. Ill
a good saviour of things, for there are no outcast
things. This is called concealed enlightenment.
Therefore the good man is the bad man's instruc-
tor, while the bad man is the good man's capital. He
who does not esteem his instructor, and he who does
not love his capital, although he may be prudent, is
greatly disconcerted. This I call significant spiritu-
ality.
28. RETURNING TO SIMPLICITY.
"Who his manhood shows
And his womanhood knows
Becomes the empire's river.
Is he the empire's river,
He will from virtue never deviate,
And home he turneth to a child's estate.
"Who his brightness shows
And his blackness knows
Becomes the empire's model.
Is he the empire's model,
Of virtue never he'll be destitute, •
And home he turneth to the absolute.
"Who knows his fame
And guards his shame
Becomes the empire's valley.
Is he the empire's valley,
For e'er his virtue will sufficient be,
And home he turneth to simplicity."
ii2 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
Simplicity, when scattered, becomes a vessel of
usefulness. The holy man, by using it, becomes the
chief leader; and truly, a great principle will never
do harm.
29. NON-ASSERTION.
When one desires to take in hand the empire and
make it, I see him not succeed. The empire is a di-
vine vessel which cannot be made. One who makes
it, mars it. One who takes it, loses it. And it is
said of beings :
"Some are obsequious, others move boldly,
Some breathe warmly, others coldly,
Some are strong and others weak,
Some rise proudly, others sneak. "
Therefore the holy man abandons pleasure, he
abandons extravagance, he abandons indulgence.
30. BE CHARY OF WAR.
He who with Reason assists the master of man-
kind will not with arms strengthen the empire. His
methods [are such as] invite requital.
Where armies are quartered briars and thorns
grow. Great wars unfailingly are followed by famines.
A good man acts resolutely and then stops. He ven-
tures not to take by force.
Be resolute but not boastful; resolute but not
haughty; resolute but not arrogant ; resolute because
you cannot avoid it ; resolute but not violent.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 113
Things thrive and then grow old. This is called
un-Reason. Un-Reason soon ceases.
31. QUELLING WAR.
Even when successful, arms are unblest among
tools, and people had better shun them. Therefore
he who has Reason does not rely on them.
The superior man when residing at home honors
the left. When using arms, he honors the right.
Arms are unblest among tools and not the superior
man's tools. Only when it is unavoidable he uses
them. Peace and quietude he holds high. He con-
quers but rejoices not. Rejoicing at a conquest means
to enjoy the slaughter of men. He who enjoys the
slaughter of men will most assuredly not obtain his
will in the empire.
32. THE VIRTUE OF HOLINESS.
Reason, in its eternal aspect, is unnamable.
Although its simplicity seems insignificant, the
whole world does not dare to suppress it. If princes
and kings could keep it, the ten thousand things would
of themselves pay homage. Heaven and earth would
unite in dripping sweet dew, and the people with no
one to command them would of themselves be right-
eous.
But as soon as Reason creates order, it becomes
nameable. Whenever the nameable in its turn ac-
quires existence, one learns to know when to stop.
By knowing when to stop, one avoids danger.
114 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KINO.
To illustrate Reason's relation to the world we
compare it to streamlets and creeks in their course to-
wards great rivers and the ocean.
33. THE VIRTUE OF DISCRIMINATION.
One who knows others is clever, but one who
knows himself is enlightened.
One who conquers others is powerful, but one who
conquers himself is mighty.
One who knows sufficiency is rich.
One who pushes with vigor has will, one who loses
not his place endures. One who may die but will not
perish, has life everlasting.
34. TRUST IN ITS PERFECTION.
How all-pervading is the great Reason ! It can be
on the left and it can be on the right. The ten thou-
sand things depend upon it for their life, and it refuses
them not. When its merit is accomplished it assumes
not the name. Lovingly it nourishes the ten thousand
things and plays not the lord. Ever desireless it can
be classed with the small. The ten thousand things
return home to it. It plays not the lord. It can be
classed with the great.
Therefore, the holy man unto death does not make
himself great and can thus accomplish his greatness.
35. THE VIRTUE OF BENEVOLENCE.
"Who holdeth fast to the great Form,
Of him the world will come in quest :
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 115
For there they never meet with harm,
But find contentment, comfort, rest."
Music with dainties makes the passing stranger
stop. But Reason, when coming from the mouth,
how tasteless is it ! It has no flavor. When looked
at, there is not enough to be seen ; when listened to,
there is not enough to be heard. However, its use is
inexhaustible.
36. THE SECRET'S EXPLANATION.
That which is about to contract has surely been
[first] expanded. That which is about to weaken has
surely been [first] strengthened. That which is about
to fall has surely been [first] raised. That which is
about to be despoiled has surely been [first] endowed.
This is an explanation of the secret that the tender
and the weak conquer the hard and the strong.
[Therefore beware of hardness and strength :] As
the fish should not escape from the deep, so with the
country's sharp tools the people should not become
acquainted.
37. ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT.
Reason always practises non-assertion, and there
is nothing that remains undone.
If princes and kings could keep Reason, the ten
thousand things would of themselves be reformed.
While being reformed they would yet be anxious to
stir ; but I would restrain them by the simplicity of
the Ineffable.
n6 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
"The simplicity of the unexpressed
Will purify the heart of lust.
Where there's no lust there will be rest,
And all the world will thus be blest."
II.
38. DISCOURSING ON VIRTUE.
Superior virtue is un-virtue. Therefore it has
virtue. Inferior virtue never loses sight of virtue.
Therefore it has no virtue. Superior virtue is non-
assertion and without pretension. Inferior virtue as-
serts and makes pretensions.
Superior benevolence acts but makes no preten-
sions.
Superior justice acts and makes pretensions. The
superior propriety acts and when no one responds to
it, it stretches its arm and enforces its rules. Thus
one loses Reason and then virtue appears. One loses
virtue and then benevolence appears. One loses be-
nevolence and then justice appears. One loses jus-
tice and then propriety appears. The rules of pro-
priety are the semblance of loyalty and faith, and the
beginning of disorder.
Traditionalism is the [mere] flower of Reason, but
of ignorance the beginning.
Therefore a great organiser abides by the solid
and dwells not in the external. He abides in the
fruit and dwells not in the flower. Therefore he dis-
cards the latter and chooses the former.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 117
39. THE ROOT OF ORDER.
From of old these things have obtained oneness :
" Heaven through oneness has become pure.
Earth through oneness can endure.
Minds through oneness their souls procure.
Valleys through oneness repletion secure.
" All creatures through oneness to life have been
called.
And kings were through oneness as models in-
stalled."
Such is the result of oneness.
" Were heaven not pure it might be rent
Were earth not stable it might be bent.
Were minds not ensouled they'd be impotent.
Were valleys not filled they'd soon be spent.
" When creatures are lifeless who can their death
prevent ?
Are kings not models, but on highness bent,
Their fall, forsooth, is imminent."
Thus, the noble come from the commoners as their
root, and the high rest upon the lowly as their foun-
dation. Therefore, princes and kings call themselves
orphaned, lonely, and unworthy. Is this not because
they [representing the unity of the commoners] take
lowliness as their root ?
The several parts of a carriage are not a carriage.
Il8 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
Those who have become a unity are neither anx-
ious to be praised with praise like a gem, nor dis-
dained with disdain like a stone.
40. AVOIDING ACTIVITY.
"Homeward is Reason's course,
Weakness is Reason's force."
Heaven and earth and the ten thousand things
come from existence, but existence comes from non-^
existence.
41. SAMENESS IN DIFFERENCE.
When a superior scholar hears of Reason he en-
deavors to practise it. When an average scholar hears
of Reason he will sometimes keep it and sometimes
lose it. When an inferior scholar hears of Reason he
will greatly ridicule it. Were it not thus ridiculed, it
would as Reason be insufficient. Therefore the poet
says :
" The reason-enlightened seem dark and black,
The reason-advanced seem going back,
The reason-straight-levelled seem rugged and slack.
" The high in virtue resemble a vale,
The purely white in shame must quail,
The staunchest virtue seems to fail.
" The solidest virtue seems not alert,
The purest chastity seems pervert,
The greatest square will Tightness desert.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE.
" The largest vessel is not yet complete,
The loudest sound is not speech replete,
The greatest form has no shape concrete."
Reason so long as it remains hidden is unname-
able. Yet Reason alone is good for imparting and
completing.
42. REASON'S MODIFICATIONS.
Reason begets unity; unity begets duality; duality
begets trinity ; and trinity begets the ten thousand
things. The ten thousand things are sustained by
YIN [the negative principle]; they are encompassed
by YANG [the positive principle], and the immaterial
CH'I [the breath of life] renders them harmonious.
That which the people find odious, to be orphaned,
lonely, and unworthy, kings and princes select as their
titles. Thus, on the one hand, loss implies gain, and
on the other hand, gain implies loss.
What others have taught I teach also. The strong
and aggressive do not die a natural death ; but I shall
expound the doctrine's foundation.
43. ITS UNIVERSAL APPLICATION.
The world's weakest overcomes the world's hard-
est. Non-existence enters into the impenetrable.
Thereby I comprehend of non-assertion the advan-
tage. Of silence the lesson, of non-assertion the ad-
vantage, there are few in the world who obtain them.
i2o LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
44. SETTING UP PRECEPTS.
"Name or person, which is more near?
Person or fortune, which is more dear?
Gain or loss, which is more sear ?
"Extreme dotage leadeth to squandering,
Hoarded wealth inviteth plundering.
"Who is content incurs no humiliation,
Who knows when to stop risks no vitiation.
Forever lasteth his duration. "
45. GREATEST VIRTUE.
"The greatest perfection seems imperfect,
But its work undecaying remaineth.
The greatest fulness is emptiness checked,
But its work 's not exhausted nor waneth."
"The straightest line resembleth a curve;
The greatest sage as apprentice will serve ;
Most eloquent speakers will stammer and swerve.'
Motion conquers cold. Quietude conquers heat
Purity and clearness are the world's standard.
46. MODERATION OF DESIRE.
When the world possesses Reason, race horses are
reserved for hauling dung. When the world is with-
out Reason, war horses are bred in the common.
No greater sin than yielding to desire. No greater
misery than discontent. No greater calamity than
acquisitiveness.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 121
Therefore, he who knows contentment's content-
ment is always content.
47. VIEWING THE DISTANT.
"Without passing out of the gate
The world's course I prognosticate.
Without peeping through the window
The heavenly Reason I contemplate.
The further one goes,
The less one knows."
Therefore the holy man does not travel, and yet
he has knowledge. He does not see the things, and
yet he defines them. He does not labor, and yet he
completes.
48. FORGETTING KNOWLEDGE.
He who seeks learnedness will daily increase. He
who seeks Reason will daily diminish. He will dimin-
ish and continue to diminish until he arrives at non-
assertion. With non-assertion there is nothing that
he cannot achieve. When he takes the empire, it is
always because he uses no diplomacy. He who uses
diplomacy is not fit to take the empire.
49 TRUST IN VIRTUE.
The holy man possesses not a fixed heart. The
hundred families' hearts he makes his heart.
The good I meet with goodness ; the bad I also
meet with goodness ; for virtue is good [throughout].
122 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
The faithful I meet with faith; the faithless I also
meet with faith; for virtue is faithful [throughout].
The holy man dwells in the world anxious, very
anxious in his dealings with the world. He universal-
ises his heart, and the hundred families fix upon him
their ears and eyes. The holy man treats them all as
children.
50. THE ESTIMATION OF LIFE.
He who starts in life will end in death.
Three in ten are pursuers of life ; three in ten are
pursuers of death ; three in ten of the men that live
pass into the realm of death.
Now, what is the reason ? It is because they live
life's intensity.
Indeed, I understand that one who takes good care
of his life, when travelling on land will not fall in with
the rhinoceros or the tiger. When coming among sol-
diers, he need not fear arms and weapons. The rhi-
noceros finds no place where to insert its horn. The
tiger finds no place where to lay his claws. Weapons
find no place where to thrust their blades. The reason
is that he does not belong to the realm of death.
51. NURSING VIRTUE.
Reason quickens all creatures. Virtue feeds them.
Reality shapes them. The forces complete them.
Therefore among the ten thousand things there is
none that does not esteem Reason and honor virtue.
Since the esteem of Reason and the honoring of
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 123
virtue is by no one commanded, it is forever sponta-
neous. Therefore it is said that Reason quickens all
creatures, while virtue feeds them, raises them, nur-
tures them, completes them, matures them, rears
them, and protects them.
To quicken but not to own, to make but not to
claim, to raise but not to rule, this is called profound
virtue.
52. RETURNING TO THE ORIGIN.
When the world takes its beginning, Reason be-
comes the world's mother.
When he who knows his mother, knows in turn
that he is her child, and when he who is quickened
as a child, in turn keeps to his mother, to the end of
life, he is not in danger. When he closes his mouth,
and shuts his sense-gates, in the end of life, he will
encounter no trouble ; but when he opens his mouth
and meddles with affairs, in the end of life he cannot
be saved.
Who beholds his smallness is called enlightened.
Who preserves his tenderness is called strong. Who
uses Reason's light and returns home to its enlighten-
ment does not surrender his person to perdition. This
is called practising the eternal.
53. GAINING INSIGHT.
If I have ever so little knowledge, I shall walk
in the great Reason. It is but assertion that I must
fear.
124 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
The great Reason is very plain, but people are
fond of by-paths.
When the palace is very splendid, the fields are
very weedy and granaries very empty.
To wear ornaments and gay clothes, to carry sharp
swords, to be excessive in drinking and eating, to
have a redundance of costly articles, this is the pride
of robbers. Surely, this is un-Reason!
54. THE CULTIVATION OF INTUITION.
"What is well planted is not uprooted;
What's well preserved cannot be looted!'
By sons and grandsons the sacrificial celebrations
shall not cease.
Who cultivates Reason in his person, his virtue is
genuine. Who cultivates it in his house, his virtue is
overflowing. Who cultivates it in his township, his
virtue is lasting. Who cultivates it in his country,
his virtue is abundant. Who cultivates it in the world,
his virtue is universal.
Therefore, by one's person one tests persons. By
one's house one tests houses. By one's township one
tests townships. By one's country one tests coun-
tries. By one's world one tests worlds.
How do I know that the world is such? Through
Reason.
55. THE SIGNET OF THE MYSTERIOUS.
He who possesses virtue in all its solidity is like
unto a little child. Venomous reptiles do not sting
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 125
him, fierce beasts do not seize him. Birds of prey do
not strike him. His bones are weak, his sinews ten-
der, but his grasp is firm. He does not yet know the
relation between male and female, but his virility is
strong. Thus his metal grows to perfection. A whole
day he might cry and sob without growing hoarse.
This shows the perfection of his harmony.
To know the harmonious is called the eternal. To
know the eternal is called enlightenment.
To increase life is called a blessing, and heart-
directed vitality is called strength, but things vigor-
ous are about to grow old and I call this un-Reason.
Un-Reason soon ceases !
56. THE VIRTUE OF THE MYSTERIOUS.
One who knows does not talk. One who talks
does not know. Therefore the sage keeps his mouth
shut and his sense-gates closed.
" He will blunt his own sharpness,
His own tangles adjust ;
He will dim his own radiance,
And be one with his dust."
This is called profound identification.
Thus he is inaccessible to love and also inacces-
sible to enmity. He is inaccessible to profit and in-
accessible to loss. He is also inaccessible to favor
and inaccessible to disgrace. Thus he becomes world-
honored.
126 LAO-TZE;S TAO-TEH-KING.
57. SIMPLICITY IN HABITS.
With rectitude one governs the state ; with crafti-
ness one leads the army ; with non-diplomacy one
takes the empire. How do I know that it is so ?
Through Reason.
The more restrictions and prohibitions are in the
empire, the poorer grow the people. The more weap.-.
ons the people have, the more troubled is the state.
The more there is cunning and skill, the more start-
ling events will happen. The more mandates and
laws are enacted, the more there will be thieves and
robbers.
Therefore the holy man says : I practise non-asser-
tion, and the people of themselves reform. I love
quietude, and the people of themselves become right-
eous. I use no diplomacy, and the people of them-
selves become rich. I have no desire, and the people
of themselves remain simple.
58. ADAPTATION TO CHANGE.
Whose government is unostentatious, quite unos-
tentatious, his people will be prosperous, quite pros-
perous. Whose government is prying, quite prying,
his people will be needy, quite needy.
Misery, alas ! rests upon happiness. Happiness,
alas ! underlies misery. But who foresees the catas-
trophe ? It will not be prevented !
What is ordinary becomes again extraordinary.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 127
What is good becomes again unpropitions. This be-
wilders people, which happens constantly since times
immemorial.
Therefore the holy man is square but not sharp,
strict but not obnoxious, upright but not restraining,
bright but not dazzling.
59. HOLD FAST TO REASON.
In governing the people and in attending to heaven
there is nothing like moderation. As to moderation,
it is said that it must be an early habit. If it is an
early habit, it will be richly accumulated virtue. If
one has richly accumulated virtue, then there is noth-
ing that cannot be overcome. If there is nothing that
cannot be overcome, then no one knows his limits. If
no one knows his limits, one can possess the country.
If one possesses the mother of the country [viz., mod-
eration], one can thereby last long. This is called
having deep roots and a firm stem. To long life and
lasting comprehension this is the Way.
60. HOW TO MAINTAIN ONE'S PLACE.
Govern a great country as you would fry small
fish : [neither gut nor scale them].
If with Reason the empire is managed, its ghosts
will not spook. Not only will its ghosts not spook,
but its gods will not harm the people. Not only will
its gods not harm the people, but its holy men will
also not harm the people. Since neither will do harm,
therefore their virtues will be combined.
128 LAO TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
61. THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY.
A great state, one that lowly flows, becomes the
empire's union, and the empire's wife. The wife al-
ways through quietude conquers her husband, and by
quietude renders herself lowly. Thus a great state
through lowliness toward small states will conquer
the small states, and small states through lowliness
toward great states will conquer great states.
Therefore some render themselves lowly for the
purpose of conquering ; others are lowly and therefore
conquer.
A great state desires no more than to unite and
feed the people ; a small state desires no more than
to devote itself to the service of the people ; but that
both may obtain their wishes, the greater one must
stoop.
62. PRACTISE REASON.
It is Reason that is the ten thousand things' asy-
lum, the good man's wealth, the bad man's stay.
With beautiful words one can sell. With honest
conduct one can do still more with the people.
If a man be bad, why should he be thrown away?
Therefore, an emperor was elected and three ministers
appointed ; but better than holding before one's face
the jade table [of the ministry] and riding with four
horses, is sitting still and propounding the eternal
Reason.
Why do the ancients prize this Reason ? Is it not,
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. I2g
say, because when sought it is obtained and the sin-
ner thereby can be saved? Therefore it is world-
honored.
63. CONSIDER BEGINNINGS.
Assert non-assertion. Practise non-practice. Taste
non-taste. Make great the small. Make much the
little.
Requite hatred with goodness.
Contemplate a difficulty when it is easy. Manage
a great thing when it is small.
The world's most difficult undertakings necessarily
originate while easy, and the world's greatest under-
takings necessarily originate while small.
Therefore the holy man to the end does not ven-
ture to play the great, and thus he can accomplish his
greatness. As one who lightly promises rarely keeps
his word, so he to whom many things are easy will
necessarily encounter many difficulties. Therefore, the
holy man regards everything as difficult, and thus to
the end encounters no difficulties.
64. MIND THE INSIGNIFICANT.
What is still at rest is easily kept quiet. What
has not as yet appeared is easily prevented. What is
still feeble is easily broken. What is still scant is
easily dispersed.
Treat things before they exist. Regulate things
before disorder begins. The stout tree has originated
from a tiny rootlet. A tower of nine stories is raised
130 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
by heaping up [bricks of] clay. A thousand miles'
journey begins with a foot.
He that makes mars. He that grasps loses.
The holy man does not make ; therefore he mars
not. He does not grasp ; therefore he loses not. The
people when undertaking an enterprise are always
near completion, and yet they fail. Remain careful
to the end as in the beginning and you will not fail in
your enterprise.
Therefore the holy man desires to be desireless,
and does not prize articles difficult to obtain. He
learns, not to be learned, and seeks a home where
multitudes of the people pass by. He assists the ten
thousand things in their natural development, but he
does not venture to interfere.
65. THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY.
The ancients who were well versed in Reason did
not thereby enlighten the people ; they intended
thereby to make them simple-hearted.
If people are difficult to govern, it is because they
are too smart. To govern the country with smartness
is the country's curse. To govern the country without
smartness is the country's blessing. He who knows
these two things is also a model [like the ancients].
Always to know the model is called profound virtue
Profound virtue, verily, is deep. Verily, it is far-
reaching. Verily, it is to everything reverse. But then
it will procure great recognition.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 131
66. PUTTING ONESELF BEHIND.
That rivers and oceans can of the hundred valleys
be kings is due to their excelling in lowliness. Thus
they can of the hundred valleys be the kings.
Therefore the holy man, when anxious to be above
the people, must in his words keep underneath them.
When anxious to lead the people, he must with his
person keep behind them.
Therefore the holy man dwells above, but the peo-
ple are not burdened. He is ahead, but the people
suffer no harm. Therefore the world rejoices in ex-
alting him without tiring. Because he strives not, no
one in the world will strive with him.
67. THE THREE TREASURES.
All in the world call me great ; but I resemble the
unlikely. Now a man is great only because he resem-
bles the unlikely. Did he resemble the likely, how
lasting, indeed, would his mediocrity be !
I have three treasures which I preserve and treas-
ure. The first is called compassion. The second is
called economy. The third is called not daring to
come in the world to the front. The compassionate
can be brave ; the economical can be generous ; those
who dare not come to the front in the world can be-
come perfect as chief vessels.
Now, if people discard compassion and are brave ;
132 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
if they discard economy and are generous ; if they dis-
card modesty and are ambitious, they will surely die
Now, the compassionate will in the attack be vic-
torious, and in the defence firm. Heaven when about
to save one will with compassion protect him.
68. COMPLYING WITH HEAVEN.
He who excels as a warrior is not warlike. He
who excels as a fighter is not wrathful. He who ex-
cels in conquering the enemy does not strive. He who
excels in employing men is lowly.
This is called the virtue of not-striving. This is
called utilising men's ability. This is called comply-
ing with heaven — since olden times the highest.
69. THE FUNCTION OF THE MYSTERIOUS.
A military expert used to say: "I dare not act as
host [who takes the initiative] but act as guest [with
reserve]. I dare not advance an inch, but I withdraw
afoot."
This is called marching without marching, threat-
ening without arms, charging without hostility, seiz-
ing without weapons.
No greater misfortune than making light of the
enemy! When we make light of the enemy, it is
almost as though we had lost our treasure — [compas-
sion].
Thus, if matched armies encounter one another,
the one who does so in sorrow is sure to conquer.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 133
70. DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND.
My words are very easy to understand and very
easy to practise, but in the world no one can under-
stand, no one can practise them.
Words have an ancestor; Deeds have a master
[viz., Reason]. Since he is not understood, therefore
I am not understood. Those who understand me are
few, and thus I am distinguished.
Therefore the holy man wears wool, and hides in
his bosom his jewels.
71. THE DISEASE OF KNOWLEDGE.
To know the unknowable that is elevating. Not
to know the knowable that is sickness.
Only by becoming sick of sickness we can be with-
out sickness.
The holy man is not sick. Because he is sick of
sickness, therefore he is not sick.
72. HOLDING ONESELF DEAR.
If the people do not fear the dreadful, the great
dreadful will come, surely.
Let them not deem their lives narrow. Let them
not deem their lot wearisome. When it is not deemed
wearisome, then it will not be wearisome.
Therefore, the holy man knows himself but does
not display himself. He holds himself dear but does
not honor himself. Thus he discards the latter and
chooses the former.
134 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
73. DARING TO ACT.
Courage, if carried to daring, leads to death ; cour-
age, if not carried to daring, leads to life. Either of
these two things is sometimes beneficial, sometimes
harmful.
"Why 't is by heaven rejected,
Who has the reason detected ? "
Therefore the holy man also regards it as difficult.
The Heavenly Reason strives not, but it is sure to
conquer. It speaks not, but it is sure to respond. It
summons not, but it comes of itself. It works pa-
tiently but is sure in its designs.
Heaven's net is vast, so vast. It is wide-meshed,
but it loses nothing.
74. OVERCOME DELUSION.
If the people do not fear death, how can they be
frightened by death?
If we make people fear death, and supposing some
would [still] venture to rebel, if we seize them for
capital punishment, who will dare?
There is always an executioner who kills. Now to
take the place of the executioner who kills is taking
the place of the great carpenter who hews. If a man
takes the place of the great carpenter who hews, he
will rarely, indeed, fail to injure his hand.
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 135
7$. HARMED THROUGH GREED.
The people hunger because their superiors con-
sume too many taxes ; therefore they hunger. The
people are difficult to govern because their -superiors
are too meddlesome ; therefore it is difficult to govern.
The people make light of death on account of the in-
tensity of their clinging to life ; therefore they make
light of death.
He who is not bent on life is worthier than he who
esteems life.
76. BEWARE OF STRENGTH.
Man during life is tender and delicate. When he
dies he is stiff and stark.
The ten thousand things, the grass as well as the
trees, are while they live tender and supple. When
they die they are rigid and dry. Thus the hard and
the strong are the companions of death. The tender
and the delicate are the companions of life.
Therefore, he who in arms is strong will not con-
quer. When a tree has grown strong it is doomed.
The strong and the great stay below. The tender
and the delicate stay above.
77. HEAVEN'S REASON.
Is not Heaven's Reason truly like stretching a
bow? The high it brings down, the lowly it lifts up.
Those who have abundance it depleteth ; those who
are deficient it augmenteth.
136 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
Such is Heaven's Reason. It depleteth those who
have abundance but completeth the deficient.
Man's Reason is not so. He depletes the deficient
in order to serve those who have abundance. Where is
he who would have abundance for serving the world?
It is the man of Reason.
Therefore the holy man acts but claims not ; merit
he accomplishes but he does not linger upon it, and
does he ever show any anxiety to display his excel-
lence?
78. TRUST IN FAITH.
In the world nothing is tenderer and more delicate
than water. In attacking the hard and the strong
nothing will surpass it. There is nothing that herein
takes its place. The weak conquer the strong, the
tender conquer the rigid. In the world there is no one
who does not know it, but no one will practise it.
Therefore the holy man says :
"Him who the country's sin makes his,
We hail as priest at the great sacrifice.
Him who the curse bears of the country's failing
As king of the empire we are hailing. "
True words seem paradoxical.
79. KEEP YOUR OBLIGATIONS.
When a great hatred is reconciled, naturally some
hatred will remain. How can this be made good?
CANON ON REASON AND VIRTUE. 137
Therefore the sage keeps the obligations of his
contract and exacts not from others. Those who have
virtue attend to their obligations ; those who have no
virtue attend to their claims.
Heaven's Reason shows no preference but always
assists the good man.
80. REMAINING IN ISOLATION.
In a small country with few people let there be
aldermen and mayors who are possessed of power
over men but would not use it. Induce people to
grieve at death but do not cause them to move to a
distance. Although they had ships and carriages,
they should find no occasion to ride in them. Although
they had armours and weapons, they should find no
»-*<^
occasion to don them.
Induce people to return to [the old custom of]
knotted cords and to use them [in the place of writ-
ing], to delight in their food, to be proud of their
clothes, to be content with their homes, and to rejoice
in their customs : then in a neighboring state within
sight, the voices of the cocks and dogs would be
within hearing, yet the people might grow old and
die before they visited one another.
81. PROPOUNDING THE ESSENTIAL.
True words are not pleasant ; pleasant words are
not true. The good are not contentious ; the conten-
138 LAO-TZE'S TAO-TEH-KING.
tious are not good. The wise are not learned ; the
learned are not wise.
The holy man hoards not. The more he does for
others, the more he owns himself. The more he gives
to others, the more he acquires himself.
Heaven's Reason is to benefit but not to injure;
the holy man's Reason is to act but not to strive.
PUBLICATIONS ON CHINESE
THOUGHT AND LIFE, AND
ORIENTAL TOPICS IN GENERAL
£
CHICAGO: THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.
1903
LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRBNCH, TRUBNER & co., LIMITED
Lao-Tze s Tao Tek King
Chinese- English. With Introduction, Transliteration,
and Notes.
By DR. PAUL CAR US.
With a photogravure Frontispiece of the traditional picture of
Lao-Tze, specially drawn for the work by Mishima Shoso, an emi-
nent Japanese artist. Appropriately bound in yellow and blue,
with gilt top. 345 pages. Newly bound set with 29 additional
pages of Emendations and Comments. Price, $3.00 (153.)
Contains: (i) A philosophical, biographical, and historical in-
troduction discussing Lao-Tze's system of metaphysics, its evolu-
tion, its relation to the philosophy of the world, Lao-Tze's life, and
the literary history of his work ; (2) Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King in
the original Chinese ; (3) an English translation ; (4) the trans-
literation of the text, where every Chinese word with its English
equivalent is given, with references in each case to a Chinese dic-
tionary ; (5) Notes and Comments ; (6) Index.
THE EXTRAORDINARY SIGNIFICANCE OF LAO-TZE.
The translator says, in the Introduction to his
Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King, that "No one who is inter-
ested in religion can afford to leave it unread." He
undertook the labor of editing and translating this
wonderful little book for the purpose of helping the
English-speaking public "to appreciate the philo-
sophical genius and the profound religious spirit of
one of the greatest men that ever trod the earth."
Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King contains so many surpris-
ing analogies with Christian thought and sentiment
in it that we should deem it written under Christian
influence were its authenticity and pre-Christian ori-
iv Publications on Oriental Topics.
gin not established beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Not only does the term Tao (word, reason) correspond
quite closely to the Greek term Logos, but Lao-Tze
also preaches the ethics of requiting hatred with good-
ness. He insists on the necessity of becoming like unto
a little child, of returning to primitive simplicity and
purity, of non-assertion and non-resistance, and prom-
ises that the deficient will be made whole, the crooked
will be straightened, the empty will be filled, the worn
will be renewed, those who have too little will receive,
while those who have too much will be disconcerted.
The Tao Teh King is small in size and aphoristic in
form, but it is filled to the brim with deep wisdom
and sound morality.
Dr. Carus's text edition has additional advantages ;
it is so arranged that every reader has it in his power
to verify the translation, and if he so desires, to study
the Chinese language practically in connection with
this celebrated classic. Every Chinese word and its
English equivalent is given in the transliteration,
which thus forms a complete explanation of the Chi-
nese text, and for every word references are given to
the exact page of Williams 's Dictionary, which is the
most accessible, and, in some cases where Williams
is insufficient, to the K'anghi, which is the most au-
thoritative. There are also notes on pronunciation
and methods of transcription, made by the Rev. Geo.
T. Candlin of Tientsin and Dr. Robert Lilley of Mt.
Vernon, N. Y. The roots and whole philological his-
tory of the words can thus be traced by any reader.
OPINIONS OF CHINESE SCHOLARS.
THE REV. C. SPURGEON MEDHURST, a missionary
well known as a Chinese scholar of high repute, says
Publications on Oriental Topics. v
in an article on the Tao Teh King, published in The
Chinese Recorder of November 18, 1899:
"For the student missionary perhaps the most
useful work is Dr. Paul Carus's edition of the Tao
Teh King, published last year (1898) by The Open
Court Publishing Co., Chicago. Tastefully gotten up,
it contains, in addition to the full text, a translitera-
tion of the whole, with full grammatical and explana-
tory notes. The scholarly introductions, with the
other special features I have mentioned, and a com-
plete index, make this edition of Lao's work the best
that has yet seen the light. The translation is spirited
and in many places reproduces better than any other
the rhythm of the original.
"The average Chinese missionary ought to be more
familiar than he is with the thoughts of Lao-Tze. He
may supply a lesser number of quotable phrases than
the Four Books and the Five Classics, but he is the
least racial and most universal writer China has ever
produced. A study of him, even in English, will mate-
rially add to any man's equipment, though no trans-
lation can convey a true conception of the original."
REV. ARTHUR H. SMITH, American Board of Mis-
sions, Tientsin, China, writes to Dr. Carus :
"I send you by this mail a few slips of a review
of your Lao-Tze. They were published in the N. C.
Daily News, the leading journal in China. 1 also
wrote a brief notice for the Biblical World whence the
copy came indirectly. Allow me to congratulate you
on your capacity for seeing into mill-stones."
One of the enclosed review-slips contains the fol-
lowing passage :
"It goes without saying that the task of obtaining
vi Publications on Oriental Topics.
sufficient acquaintance with the Chinese language to
translate, under the conditions named, a book like
that of Lao-Tze is a gigantic one. Dr. Carus's suc-
cess is little short of marvellous. He frequently cites
the versions of others, none of which happens to be
at hand for comparison, but in the extracts given it
seems clear that Dr. Carus has succeeded better than
Dr. Legge or Dr. Chalmers in the passages where we
are able to compare them, — a very remarkable fact,
indeed." — North China Daily News.
TAN TEK SOON, a native Chinese scholar of the
Straits Settlement, Singapore, writes :
"I have read the introductory portion with great
interest, and must heartily congratulate you upon the
accuracy and lucidity of your rendering of a rather
obscure work, even to Chinese scholars. In my opin-
ion it is a marvel of literary assiduity and application
on a par with Stanislas Julien's Life of Hiuen Tsang,
and I am sure it will be as greatly appreciated by
scholars."
PROF. S. WATAS£, a native Japanese scientist,
formerly of the University of Chicago, writes :
"I thank you heartily for your kindness in sending
me a copy of your fine translation and critical exposi-
tion of Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King. It was years ago
that I read it. Your publication of the Chinese text
will be highly appreciated by all who want to make
a study of the philosopher. As I read the text and
then the translation, I am astonished how well you
kept the original terseness and severe brevity in Eng-
lish. It gives me a certain fascination to read the
old philosopher through two such divergent media as
Chinese and English."
Publications on Oriental Topics. vii
THE LATE MONSIGNORE C. DE HARLEZ, one of the
most prominent Sinologues of these latter days and
himself a translator of Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King, writes
as follows in a book review concerning Dr. Carus's
translation :
"Nous donnons volontiers nos eloges, en g6n£ral,
aux connaissances du Dr. Carus et a la maniere dont
il a execute" son reuvre."
In the same article, M. de Harlez explains that
Tao should be as little translated by "path," or
"word," or "reason," as the verbum of the Gospel
should be translated by "word." In justifying his
own interpretation of Lao Tze's terms, he claims that
Tao means "le principe producteur et rdgulateur,"
while the negative wuh should not be translated by
"non-existence," or "the void," but by "the imma-
terial, the imperceptible."
A REVIEWER IN THE NORTH CHINA HERALD says:
"There are a good many of us who have worried
along in China for a term of years and yet have not
come to a realising sense of the wisdom contained in
the Tao Teh King. . . .The text of the classic contains
only 5320 characters, but its terseness is so extreme
that it is in many places susceptible of widely-differ-
ent interpretation. Unlike some other translators,
Dr. Carus has endeavored to preserve in his English
rendering something like the rhyme and rhythm of
the original .... Dr. Carus's book is a truly remarkable
achievement."
PROF. ISAAC T. HEADLAND, of the Peking Univer-
sity, writes :
" I congratulate you most heartily on your interest
viii Publications on Oriental Topics.
in and your efforts to open up such a wise old phi-
losopher to the American reading public. "
DR. FRIEDRICH HIRTH, Professor of Chinese Lan-
guage and Literature at Columbia University, New
York City, expresses his views in a letter to the author
as follows :
"I have not found the necessary leisure to ex-
amine your Too Teh King in detail, but from what I
have seen so far, your publication embodies the re-
sults arrived at by previous investigators and transla-
tors and adds improvements in many respects. I am
glad to observe you published the Chinese text and
the analysis of it in connection with your English
translation, thus giving the critical reader every possi-
bility to check your work. This more than anything
else will encourage students to take up this line of
research, which claims the highest efforts from the
philologist's point of view as well as the philoso-
pher's. Your idea of popularising works of Chinese
thought will greatly contribute towards the interest
taken in Chinese literature, and the method you have
adopted in your representation of the Too Teh King
will serve as an excellent model for similar works of
the kind."
MISCELLANEOUS PRESS NOTICES.
"It is a convenient volume through which to make
such acquaintance with the Chinese language and
Chinese thought as an American scholar must con-
sider desirable in view of the present increased inter-
course with the Oriental world." — Reformed Church
Review.
"All that one could do to make the immortal
Publications on Oriental Topics. ix
'canon on reason and virtue' alluring to American
readers has certainly been done by the author. The
translation is faithful, preserving especially the char-
acteristic terseness and ruggedness of style of the
original, the type work is superb, the comments judi-
cious."— The Cumberland Presbyterian.
"Dr. Carus's work as editor, translator, annotator
is most excellent in every feature." — Western Christian
Advocate, Cincinnati, O.
" An indispensable book, and no one who is inter-
ested in religion can afford to leave it unread." — New
York Herald.
' ' The book is well gotten up, with striking exterior;
while of great importance to the serious student, it is
usable and interesting to any one who cares at all for
the thought and religions of the Orient." — Professor
Frederick Starr, in The New Unity, Chicago.
"Extraordinarily interesting. Of great moment."
-The Outlook, N. Y.
" Much labor has been put into this book. It will
be a great addition to the knowledge which English
readers have of one of the greatest of religious books
and religious leaders." — The Church Union, N. Y.
"Nothing like this book exists in Chinese litera-
ture; so lofty, so vital, so restful.. ..We have com-
pared this translation with three others — two English,
one German — and have no hesitation in saying it is
the most satisfactory and serviceable as well as least
expensive now accessible to the public. The bright
cover of yellow and blue is very appropriate and sug-
gestive of the Celestial Kingdom." — The Hartford
Post.
x Publications on Oriental Topics.
"In der vorliegenden Arbeit giebt Dr. Paul Carus
eine neue, sich an das Original treu anschliessende
und doch recht lesbare Uebertragung in's Englische,
ein schatzbarer Beitrag zur vergleichenden Religions-
kunde. " — Blatter fur literarische Unterhaltung, Leip-
zig, Brockhaus (No. 34, Feuilleton).
"Kann den Religionsforschern empfohlen wer-
den." — PROF. C. P. TIELE, of Leyden, in Theologischer
Jahresbericht, XVIII., p. 447.
"Readers will find much to arouse their thought
and admiration in its pages." — Jewish Comment, Balti-
more, Md.
"Dr. Carus took a considerable onus on himself
when he threw aside all previous renderings of the
great thinker Lao-Tze, and embarked on the task that
was recently placed before the public. He has trod-
den boldly over the labors of Legge and Chalmers,
not to mention other and lesser lights who have es-
sayed to enter the lists. If his conception is bold,
however, his reward seems to have been gained. We
have, as a result, what is an excellent translation,
open possibly to criticism — but then Sinologues never
will lie down together — but withal satisfying." — Lon-
don and China Telegraph, July, 1899.
There are in addition a number of Japanese peri-
odicals which give careful and detailed reviews of Dr.
Carus's translation of the Tao Teh King. We mention
among them the Tetsugaku Zasshi (Journal of Philoso-
phy), Tokyo; the Mujinto (Eternal Light), Kyoto;
\he£ukkyo (i. e., Buddhism), Tokyo, and the Shi do
Kwai Kwai Shi (Reports of the Association of Seekers
after Truth), Omi.
PHILOSOPHY AS A SCIENCE
A Synopsis of the Writings of
DR. PA UL CA RUS
A N epitome of the philosophy with which Dr. Carus
has identified his life work. It contains an intro-
duction written by himself, summaries of his books (48) ,
and editorial articles (956) published in The Monist and
The Open Court; and a subject index of 25 pp., making
the volume a complete reference to date, of the writings
of this author.
Bds. , Clo. Back, 50c. Paper 25c.
PRESS OPINIONS.
Prof. E. B. McGilvary, of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, says (see
Philosophy as a Science, Dr. Paul
Carus) :
"Your short epitome seems
to me a masterpiece of clearness
and directness. If all philoso-
phers pould only succeed in
making themselves understood
as you do, there would be much
less discussion among us."
Prof. Edward F. Btichner, of Johns
Hopkins University, says (see
Philosophy as a Science, by Dr.
Paul Carus):
"We all have been many a
time indebted to you for special
services in the history of philo-
sophy and in breaking new
ground for present and future
construction work. And, now
comes this Wegweiser which en-
ables us to appreciate to the
leadership, and at the same time
to sum up our total indebted-
ness to the stimulating work
you have achieved."
The Dial, Chicago, says:
"This Volume, (Philosophy as a
Science) after an introduction,
in which the author sets forth
the leading ideas of the monistic
doctrine which he represents,
gives us brief summaries of all
his published writings, which
amount to no less than 48 books
and 959 editorial articles. All
of these writings are carefully
indexed, which makes it pos-
sible to find out readily just
what Dr. Carus thinks about
any given subject, and his ideas
are apt to be both well-consid-
ered and weighty. The intro-
ductory essay is to be particu-
full your industry, and i your A& larly commended."
Chinese Philosophy
Being an Exposition of the Main Characteristic Features
of Chinese Thought.
By DR. PAUL CARUS.
Illustrated with numerous diagrams, tables, and other sym-
bols. This essay, which appeared first in The Monist, Vol. VI.,
No. 2, is an exposition of the main characteristic features of Chi-
nese thought : it is a sketch, not an exhaustive treatise, and still
less a history of Chinese philosophy. It purports to serve as an
introduction to the intricacies of typically Chinese notions, ex-
plaining their symbols and revealing their mysteries in terse and
intelligible language. The brevity is intentional, for the essay is
meant to give a bird's-eye view of the Chinese world-conception.
While appreciating the remarkable genius exhibited by the
founders of the Chinese civilisation, the author points out the
foibles of the Chinese and traces them to their source. It is note-
worthy that in spite of its candid and unreserved criticism, the
essay was well received by the Chinese authorities and was granted
the rare honor of being recommended by the Tsungli Yamen of
Peking, the Imperial Foreign Office.
In reply to a copy of this article forwarded through the Amer-
ican representative to H. M. the Emperor of China, the Tsungli
Yamen, returned the following informal communication :
THE TSUNGLI YAMEN TO THE HON. MR. DENBY.
Informal. PEKIN, May 6th, 1897.
YOUR EXCELLENCY :
We have had the honor to receive Your Excel-
lency's note, wherein you state that by particular re-
quest you send the Yamen a copy of The Monist — an
American Magazine. Your Excellency further states
Publications on Oriental Topics. xiii
that it contains an article on "Chinese Philosophy"
and the author asks that it be delivered to H. M. the
Emperor.
In reply we beg to state, that the article in ques-
tion has been translated into Chinese by order of the
Yamen and has been duly perused by the members
thereof.
The article shows that the writer is a scholar well
versed in Chinese literature, and has brought together
matters which indicate that he fully understood the
subject he has treated.
The book will be placed on file in the archives of
the Yamen.
OPINION OF A CHINESE SCHOLAR.
A Chinese scholar writes with reference to the
communication of the Chinese government as follows :
"When the Tsungli Yamen voluntarily certifies
that a Western scholar fully understands Chinese phi-
losophy, and the Book of Changes as an incidental sec-
tion of the same, it would be well for those who hap-
pen to be interested in either of these topics to inquire
what he has to say. . . . Suffice it to say that the
author made a profound, if not an absolutely incom-
prehensible, topic to a certain extent luminous, and to
an even great degree interesting."
PRESS NOTICES.
"The author gives in his introduction terse and
discriminating characterisations of the 'rare mixture
of deep thought and idle speculations ' which make
up the Chinese philosophy, and in his conclusion ex-
presses equally just opinions of China's present un-
xiv Publications on . Oriental, Topics.
happy helplessness." — ].• M. Foster > Swatow, China,
in The American Journal of Theology.
"Valuable and of unquestioned reliability. The
delineation of the philosophy that-underlies the Chi-
nese civilisation is so ably done in these pages that
the reader cannot fail to appreciate the causes which
produce Chinese conservatism." — Toledo Blade.
"Will enable Western readers to appreciate more
clearly the causes which produce Chinese conserva-
tism, thus explaining many apparent irreconcilable
phases of Chinese character and thought. . . . All stu-
dents of Oriental religion and philosophy will find
this study of Dr. Cams a suggestive and valuable
contribution to the literature of their subject." — Hart-
ford Post, Hartford, Ct.
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
378 Wabash Avenue, Chicago
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LIMITED
London, England
EX ORIENTE:
STUDIES OF ORIENTAL LIFE AND THOUGHT.
EDWARD P. THWING, M.D., PH.D.,
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, VICTORIA INSTITUTE, SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, LET
AND ART, LONDON ; BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, N. Y. ACADEMY OF ANTHROPOLOGY,
MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY, AUTHOR OF "OUTDOOR LIFE IN THE ORIENT,"
"OUTDOOR LIFE IN EUROPE," "THE PERSIAN QUEEN," "THE KING
IH HIS BEAUTY," "WINDOWS OF CHARACTER," ETC.
S. W. PARTRIDGE & Co.,
LONDON.
library.
CONTENTS.
I — Asiatic Thought, a Historic Evolution . 7
II. — Anatomy of National Life ... 12
III.— Oriental Characteristics . . . .19
IV.- ... 31
Y. — Religion in the East 37
VI. — Language, Literature and Art . . 49
VII.— " . . .57
VIII.- — Rejuvenescence of the East ... 70
IX.— Supernatural Factors . . . .79
X. — Practical Problems . . 94
EX ORIENTE LUX.
During a recent tour in India, China and Japan, the
study of Asiatic Thought as reflected in language,
monumental art and social life has occupied much of
my attention. Acquaintance with the work of Oriental
scholars in the Far East has revealed the opulence of
resources now available. There is an imperative need
of a more general knowledge of the East in its relation
to the religious, scientific and commercial enterprise of
the West. We are rapidly extending the material
domination of the Anglo-Saxon race. Its moral su-
premacy should keep pace with its material conquests.
The teachers, preachers and physicians whom we
are sending to the Orient as pioneers of a Christian
civilization, will welcome any brief, comprehensive
plan of study which will prepare them for their work.
If this volume proves to be, in any degree, suggestive
and helpful the aim of the author will be attained.
CHAPTEB I.
ASIATIC THOUGHT AS A HISTORIC EVO-
LUTION.
AN ALLUKING THEME.
The first sight of the shores of Asia awakens in a
scholar profound emotion. Sir William Jones has re-
corded the thoughts that thrilled him when he beheld
for the first time this " nurse of sciences, the inven-
tress of delightful and useful arts, the scenes of glori-
ous actions, fertile in the productions of human genius,
and infinitely diversified in the forms of religion and
government, in the laws, manners, customs and lan-
guages, as well as in the features and complexions of
men." The breezes of Arabia were blowing astern as
this historic dreamer, at the close of a long, weary
voyage around the Cape, saw the continent of Asia
rise on the horizon. He says it gave him " inexpres-
sible pleasure " to gaze for the first time on shores so
illustrious in the histoi'y of human thought. But more
than a century has passed since the vision of that
August morning, 1783. It has been a most enriching
portion of history. It has seen an awakening of the
East under the extending influence of commercial in-
tercourse and scientific inquiry. Never had the Latin
phrase Ex Oriente Lux the plenary significance it now
has. Light, indeed, is streaming from Sunrise Lands.
8 ASIATIC THOUGHT AS A HISTORIC EVOLUTION.
Long closed doors are now open, and entombed treas-
ures are revealed. The records and ruins of the past
and the social life of to-day are accessible. The stag-
nation of centuries is stirred, the petrifaction of na-
tional life is breaking up, and historic processes are
receiving a mighty acceleration.
There is a prescient fear that heathenism is doomed,
and that from the West a conquering power will come.
" Intelligent Mussulmeu themselves admit that the
proper symbol of the present prospects of their faith
is a waning crescent."
" The moon of Mahomet
Arose, and it shall set;
While, blazoned as on Heaven's immortal noon,
The CROSS leads generations on! "
Said Daniel Webster, "Whoever would see the
Eastern World before it turns into a Western World
must make his visit soon." " There is nothing left of
Japan but its scenery," says an educated Japanese
now in this country.
AWAKENED ATTENTION.
The last hundred years have not only seen the dawn-
ing of a new day in Asia, but witnessed an awakening
of interest on our part in Oriental Studies.
The first meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society was
held in London, March 15th, 1823. Its aim was dis-
tinctly declared to be the investigation of subjects re-
lating to Asia. The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of
Aberdeen and three hundred others were enrolled
from among the nobility, army officers and others
whose wealth and culture and opportunity were de-
voted to this end. Four guineas admission fee and
AWAKENED ATTENTION. 9
three guineas annual subscription, in addition to other
income, enabled them, through their Translation Com-
mittee, organized under King Leopold's patronage in
1828, to offer four gold medals of fifteen guineas each,
and prizes as high as <£100, to stimulate Oriental
scholars to make available Chinese, Indian, Persian
and Arabic manuscripts through carefully edited trans-
lations. A museum was also founded and branches
formed, each declared to be " an integral part " of the
London Society, and its members considered non-
resident members of the parent society.
English and Continental universities and other bodies
have also contributed to the awakening of popular in-
terest in the study of Asiatic Life. Private wealth has
been put at the service of exploring enterprises. Pro-
fessor Max Muller, in his monograph, "What can
India teach us ? " appeals to young men who are go-
ing there to occupy civil and military posts to pre-
pare themselves by the study of the people and their
national characteristics. With much more empha-
sis does this appeal come home to those who go to
the East for educational and religious purposes, to
mould the moral and religious life of the Eastern races.
Materials for study abound. Every year witnesses an
increase. An English publisher has said that the
literary world is divided into two classes : those who
have written books on Egypt and those who have not !
This pleasantry indicates the opulent stores open to
those who wish to study the development of Eastern
thought.
This process is, as Professor Max Muller observes,
a historic development from the first beginnings of
intellectual life up to the highest stages, through
various combinations and differentiations. The very
10 ASIATIC THOUGHT AS A HISTORIC EVOLUTION.
essence of history, is the history of the human mind.
The true historian is not a mere chronicler, but a
philosopher.
THE GENESIS OF THOUGHT.
We come, therefore, at the outset, to study the gene-
sis and characteristics' of Oriental Thought. There
are two ever present factors in the evolution of human
thought. Their unity is constant. Their mutual in-
teraction is inevitable. They form, therefore, a ground
of differentiation. These structural forces, these or-
ganizing elements are physical and psychic. They are
best studied by historic methods. The metaphysician
says, for example, that thought is " cognitive energy,"
and analyzes it into concepts, precepts and other facts
of consciousness. He assumes, as did Adam Smith,
certain ineradicable principles like human selfishness,
and then by deductive processes from cause to effect,
comes down to facts and opinions about men, instead
of ascending from facts to laws, from aspects to es-
sence. So Cullen in pathology, and Hunter and Bell
in physiology, have reasoned from the abstract to the
concrete. This a priori reasoning Sir James Mackin-
tosh made" to be a distinguishing feature of the Scotch
of his day. John Stuart Mill thinks it is the true path
in political economy, which he regards as an abstract
science.
The two poles of philosophy are thought and ex-
istence. From Aristotle till now, thinkers divide in
their study of thought and nature, of the subjective
and the objective. Into the conflict of nominalism
and realism it is useless for us to enter. It is enough
to assume that the genesis of Oriental Thought is its
ethnic history. If ethnology, as Mill affirms, is the
THE GENESIS OF THOUGHT. 11
science of character, character is embodied thought.
Its lexical meaning suggests a combination of inscrip-
tions, a record of physical, mental and moral develop-
ment. By a careful collection and analysis of facts
the basis of a true synthesis, and so of a rational sci-
ence of civilization, is laid.
The thorough interweaving "of its roots with the his-
tory of the race on which it has sprung, is the source
of the power of Christianity, according to James Mar-
tineau. So we are to study the life of the East as a
concrete symbol, revealed to observation ; not in arid
and recondite speculations, but in actual visibilities
under recognized laws and historic periods of growth.
This historic method of study is followed by the
wisest teachers in other lines. Taine teaches the
growth and decline of art by presenting Titian and
Angelo, and then the features of a degenerate age that
followed. In literature he exhibits the same chang-
ing epochs in their salient features, disengaging from
their complexity the fundamental principles on which
they work. He, preeminently, had the instincts of
a historian, and his literary culture rested on the
solid basis of the natural sciences, mathematics and
medicine.
Enough has been said to indicate the purpose and
method of our research, and now we turn to the study
of this fruitful and inviting theme, the nativity of
thought in the Orient.
CHAPTER II.
THE ANATOMY OF NATIONAL LIFE.
This felicitous phrase is used by Buckle in his His-
tory of Civilization to express some of the material
factors which go to form the articulated skeleton of a
nation in its physical existence. These are the funda-
mental conditions of material and moral progress, the
modifying influences that mould its life and growth.
Some of these are location, geographical boundaries,
soil and climate. To illustrate, it is claimed that " the
civilization of Asia has always been confined to thv,
vast tract where a rich alluvial soil has secured to man
that wealth, without some portion of which no in-
tellectual progress can begin." As the gulf stream has
given Europe its civilization, so the occlusion of Arctic
seas from the Pacific, by the peculiar conformation of
its northern boundary, and the juxtaposition of Ameri-
can and Asiatic shores, have made Polynesian life
what it is.
SCOTLAND AND SPAIN.
The paradoxes of Scotch history, the contradictions
and discrepancies of its national life are phenomena
which find at least a partial solution in the facts of its
physical geography and its relations to adjoining
countries. The causes which hindered the accumula-
tion of wealth, which discouraged the municipal spirit,
SCOTLAND AND SPAIN. IJj
tind so changed the life and temper of the people
through several generations, are ingeniously traced out
by Buckle, and his conclusions are fortified by copious
citations from contemporary writers.
The civilization of a semi-tropical country like Spain
is also another illustration of the modifying influence
of physical factors in the evolution of national life.
As the temperament of man is his fate, so the climate
of a country is justly called its fate. The slant of in-
tellectual light and of solar rays change the destiny of
men and races. The Iberian peninsular is exposed to
peculiar vicissitudes of climate. The infrequency of
rain and difficulty of irrigation combine with the heat
to produce drought, famine and pestilence. During
two centuries there have been more .earthquakes in
Spain than in all Europe combined, Italy excepted.
" No other part of Europe is so clealy designated by
nature as the seat and refuge of superstition. Aspects
of nature, by inflaming the imagination, encouraged
superstition and prevented men from daring to analyze
such threatening physical phenomena, in other words,
prevented the creation of the physical sciences. We
may form some idea of the insecurity of life and of the
ease with which an artful and ambitious priesthood
could turn such insecurity into an engine for their own
power." " So," says Buckle, " Spain sleeps on, a
huge and torpid mass of medievalism, the most back-
ward country in Europe, impassive amid the stir of
intellectual life about her, and bound by a superstition
that centuries have graven on the minds and eaten
into the hearts of her people."
Moreover, in Spain and in isothermal zones of the
* History of Civilization, vol. ii., p. 5.
14 THE ANATOMY OF NATIONAL LIFE,
East, the intense heat of a part of the year interrupts
ordinary outdoor vocations. Work, of necessity, is
suspended. There is a loss of impulse, momentum,
continuity; and so there is, in time, engendered an
instability of character, more or less marked, as a re-
sult of enforced idleness, where there are no equalizing
moral forces. Alike under the skies of India and amid
the August heats of Central Spain and Italy I have
seen abundant evidence of this impairment of charac-
ter and resolution through the deteriorating influence
of physical environment.
Pritchard, Rey and Bitter have collected materials
on this point and on the influence on character of a
wandering, pastoral life. Barbaric tribes which have
left regions of sterility and emigrated to a more genial
and uniform climate have developed a comparatively
high civilization.
ASPECTS OF NATURE.
Lyell, in his Geology, has referred to the influence
of volcanic disturbances on the imagination ; so also
Darwin, Word, Beale and Tschudi. They state the
curious fact that, instead of becoming indifferent to
them through their repetition, people become more
troubled by each recurrence of seismic phenomena.
Nor are these apprehensions confined to the credulous
and ignorant. The educated clergyman and the phy-
sician in the East have told me that they grew more
nervously apprehensive with each new earthquake.
In Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, there is
a striking instance of theological fiction given which
was founded on such occurrences. Among primitive,
unphilosophic peoples the portents of the heavens,
visual phenomena, such as are caused in paludal dis-
THANATOPHIDIA OF THE EAST. 15
tricts by emission of gases, by mirage, fog*, or by elec-
tric disturbances, startling apparitions and auditory
impressions, explicable to us, but baffling to their
thought, contribute to develope the imagination wholly
out of proportion to the reasoning faculties. The
journals of the Eoyal Asiatic Society are rich in data
bearing upon this point. Sir Thomas Brown's In-
quiries into Vulgar Errors, 1646, William's Expedi-
tion on the Niger, and Forry's Influence of Climate,
also illuminate the subject. *
THANATOPHIDIA OF THE EAST.
The presence of deadly reptiles and wild beasts, and
the terror awaked by them, as related to demonology,
is another branch of the subject which can only be
alluded to here. Bruce, in his travels through Abys-
sinia, found that hyenas were regarded as enchanters,
and the skin of the dead beast, even, was not touched
till a priest's incantations had exorcised the demon.
Marsden in Sumatra found the people unwilling to
take the life of a tiger, although the number of lives
destroyed was frightful. The same fact is observed
in India. So of snakes. A deadly cobra was caught
on the grounds of a friend with whom I afterwards
tarried several days. The charmer who had caught
it refused to kill it, for " a god is in it," he said.
The worship of the serpent and other reptiles, and
the charms used as prophylaxis are referred to by
Coleman in his Hindu Mythology and in Mather's
History of Gnosticism. A tiger's nose, for example,
Beausobre Histoire Critique tie Manichee, vol. i., p. 243 ; Bombay
Society Translations, vol. iii., pp, 98-105; Journal Asiatic Society,
vol. ii., p. 337 ; Nineteenth Century, Dec. 1889.
1C THE AX ATOM 1" OF NATIONAL LIFE.
is generally supposed to bring good luck if bung about
the neck of a woman in childbirth.
Buriie, in his Bohara, records the curious super-
stitions prevalent among the Seiks respecting wounds
inflicted by tigers. In the Japan Mail, June 13th
and 14th, 1890, I have considered this matter at some
length, under the head of " Snakes in India."
INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE.
Climate determines the food of the people. Whether
it is abundant or scant}', spontaneously produced or
with great labor ; whether it is favorable to the de-
velopment of vigorous life, or the contrary, are facts
related to the question of population, employment,
wages, distribution of wealth, and thus of inteDigeuce.
and character. Here is a wide field of research in
social economics, as well as physiological science.
Vegetable food, according to some, increases the fe-
cundity of people. High living retards and poor living
seems to increase population. There is, however, a
compensative element found in the fact that, though
the birth rate of poverty is large, its mortality rate is
larger than it is among the higher classes.
Food affects disposition. " Knock him down ! He
is only tea and rice," said one foreigner to another in
the streets of Canton, referring to a troublesome China-
man. When roused, "the Chinese fight like tigers
and elephants," but ordinarily they are very patient,
yielding and self-contained. Some animal food is used
by the poor, but, as a nation, the Chinese do not eat
it as we do. No one can doubt that a large amount
of animal food strengthens animal passions. " Jeshu-
run waxed fat and kicked," while Squeers' boys, of
Dotheboys Hall, fed on milk and water, grew both
INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 17
lean and' tame. " Conquer your passions, and don't
be eager after vittles," was the master's advice.
Sir William Hunter says that there are forty millions
underfed in India, and that the struggle for life is
harder throughout a large portion of the land than it
was when it passed uncjer British rule. He does not
wonder that writers have spoken of it as " bleeding to
death." Ninety per cent, of the rural population are
tillers of the earth. The heat is intense. Drought is
common. Irrigation is inadequate. The sweeping off
of vast jungles has dried up countless reservoirs of
moisture. Cattle degenerate from deficiency of pasture,
and pasture lands die from lack of moisture and man-
ure. Its waters have been nearly exhausted of fish,
practically the only form . of animal food allowed by
the caste rules of eighty per cent, of the people.
Famines have been accepted as inevitable concomi-
tants of the climate. " It is not surprising that from
the earliest period to which our knowledge of India
extends, an immense majority of the people, pinched
by the most galling poverty, and just living from hand
to mouth, should always have remained in a state of
stupid debasement broken by incessant misfortune,
crouching before their superiors in abject submission,
and only fit either to be slaves themselves or to be led
to battle to make slaves of others." *
The relation of climate to the clothing, dwellings
and the health of a people invites study. Dr. Coan,
of the Hawaiian Islands, has referred to the incidental
evils introduced by a Christian civilization. Natives
who had lived out doors all their lift1, and wearing
little if any clothing, subsisting on simple food, and
* Buckle, vol. i. p. 53.
18 THE ANATOMY OF NATIONAL LIFE.
knowing little of mental activity, found their health
suffered as they adopted the methods of life, dress,
in-door activities and daily study, introduced by for-
eign missionaries. Dr. Clarence Thwing, in charge of
a hospital at Sitka, connected with a large Training
School of young Alaskan Indians, has noticed the
same impairment of health in the case of not a 'few
whose whole mode of living is revolutionized by be-
coming students. It is obvious that the physical
geography of a continent to a great degree determines
its civilization through the operation of meteorological
laws. An insular climate has increased moisture. A
tropical country has heat. It has also a third factor,
the trade winds, with those modifications noticed by
Humboldt and others, called monsoons.
The striking contrast which Eg}rptian civilization
presents to that of Arabia, and of other similarly con-
ditioned countries, illustrates the influence of phy-
sical factors on the growth, wealth and character of
a people. From the days of Herodotus till now this
thought has attracted the attention of all geographers
of the East. But Buckle himself, who presses this
point, also admits that, although priority in the march
of civilization belongs to the fertile zones of the East,
a better, more permanent progress was made in the
West. This came, not from the bounty of nature, but
from the energy of man. The former is limited and
stationary ; the latter almost boundless. As the re-
sources of mind increase, there is a dominion estab-
lished over external nature by man himself, who was,
in a sense, the product of its material forces. There
are other influences, natural and supernatural, to
which we may now turn.
CHAPTEE III.
ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Potential increments of a still higher type remain to
be examined. Important as is the accumulation of
data in physical geography, vital statistics and similar
material conditions, there are modifying influences to
be studied, which are represented in lineage, language,
literature, legislation, religion and social usages. It
has been said that the progress of humanity is not an
advance in natural capacity, but simply in opportun-
ity ; not of internal growth, but of external advantage ;
that one born in a civilized community is not likely to
be, as such, superior to one born among barbarians,
but that the character of each is solely the product of
the mental atmosphere about him. Such a theory is
contradicted by the facts of anthropological science.
Heredity is one. We are a part of all that has pre-
ceded us. An umbilical cord binds us to generations
gone, hence it is hardly a hyperbole to say that a
child's education should begin a hundred years before
his birth. Heredity is understood by all who have to
do with penology, and it no more needs defence than
the system of modern astronomy. Without going to
the extreme of Ferri, Lombroso and other physiolo-
gists in circumscribing human freedom, we must trace
alike the perfection or defacement of cerebral stric-
ture largely to atavistic influences. *
* Study of Brains, Charles K. Mills, M. D., 188G, Moritz Bene-
clikt, 1881.
20 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
The Oriental and Occidental races present to-day
salient points of divergence which reflect the growth
of centuries. There is a solidarity which we cannot
ignore, a homogenesis in mind as in matter. As phy-
sical forces have carved the mountains and channeled
the rivers of a continent, spread out field, forest, des-
ert and ice plain, so in the historic evolution of a
nation's life we trace the recurrent and progressive
mental influences which mould it generation after gen-
eration into an individuality all its own.
NATIONAL INDIVIDUALITY.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes utters a profound truth
when he says : " There is no use of trying to graft the
tropic palm upon the northern pine. The same divine
forces underlie the growth of both, but leaf, and flower
and fruit must follow the law of race, of soil, of cli-
mate."
Dr. John W. Draper reasons on this subject clearly
in the interests of naturalism along physiological lines.
In his Philosophy of Civilization he draws a parallel
between the infancy, childhood, youth, maturity and
age of individual life and the corresponding stages of
credulity, inquiry, faith, reason and decrepitude in
national growth. From legend and miracle the mind
passes on to investigation and science, as society ad-
vances from rudeness to culture, from poverty to
wealth. The same inexorable laws, he believes, will
end in national decay and ruin, as Gibbon has shown
in his Decline and Fall of the Koman Empire. On
the other hand, Mr. Herbert Spencer founds his spec-
ulations in Evolution, and postulates an inevitable ad-
vance in culture and refinement. Altruistic considera-
tions will come to be a natural and spontaneous fruit,
NATIONAL INDIVIDUALITY. 21
by a necessity of our being. These theories are in
collision. The tendency to advancement, and also the
fact of recession must be admitted. Only in the super-
natural, however, can we find adequate forces to resist
and overcome the gravitating tendency revealed in
human history. Christianity alone gives dignity to
man, value to life and permanency to civilization. As
the late Professor B. N. Martin has remarked : " It
alone can supply the force which can raise man so
above himself as to curb these mighty tendencies to
evil, and secure the steady progress of society toward
its destined end of blessedness and glory. These anti-
nomies of the scientific reason find their harmony,
these insoluble problems shall reach their solution
in the predicted days of love and purity when 'they
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,
saith the Lord.' Under all the simply natural condi-
tions observed hitherto, the tendency to social im-
provement has been by far too weak to contend suc-
cessfully with the accumulating tendencies in a wealthy
society to corruption and decay. This is incontest-
ably the verdict of history, and as an absolute fact,
philosophy must accept it as the basis of her reason-
ing."*
The East has an individuality. Thought and life
have strongly marked characteristics. Whatever may
be our theory of the genetic influences that shaped
them, they present distinct features as a historic study.
There is a mental as well as a physical anatomy clearty
revealed. " As far as the East is from the West " has
more than a geographical meaning. Sir Edwin Ar-
nold, in his Light of the World, says that in East-
journal of Christian Philosophy, April, 1883.
22 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
eni lands, "light and life are larger" than with us,
passions are stronger and heart-storms are like their
earthquakes and floods.
" Withering simoons and winds that tear the seas
To milky madness, find their counterparts
In those own children of the Light, who live
And love and hate with pulse at quicker beat. "
TBe aim of this manual is simply to give suggestions
of practical points of study, rather than to elaborate
them. So, perhaps, by naming a few features in which
race, language and religion have stamped themselves
on Asiatic Thought we may be better able to detect
the higher organizing elements.
SELF-ABASEMENT.
Oriental manhood is said to rest in self-abasement,
as Occidental manhood is founded in self-respect.
The American is audacious, assertive ; the Briton is
brave and bold ; both showing it in facial signs, in
vocal tones, in the contour and movement of the body,
hand, foot, eye, every way. The Asiatic is ordinarily
supple, servile, often timid. Some one has said that
the Bengali is born with an essay in his hand and a
speech in his mouth ; a good writer and speaker, but
physically a poltroon, "particularly averse to physical
contests. Bishop Thorburn, of Calcutta, speaks of the
sternness with which he has been obliged to rebuke
personal worship and kissing of his feet.
In a Japanese restaurant you are welcomed by the
lady in charge, who not only falls on her knees before
you, but brings her forehead and lips to the floor.
The physician in China and elsewhere is viewed with
special reverence, and his photograph is sometimes
secured and worshipped with the respect paid to the
SELF-ABASEMENT. 23
ancestral tablet. The Japanese who was wont to call
me to breakfast bowed low before tlie closed door as
obsequiously as if it were open and lie were person-
ally saluting me. Standing before cages filled with
crazy creatures, I have noticed the supremest form of
reverence paid, the kowtow, a knocking of the head
on the floor with repeated blows. The navigator,
Cook, suffered himself to be taken into a Hawaiian
temple and worshipped as the god Lono, wearing a
scarlet necklace. Prayers, incantations and offerings
were made before him. Infatuated like Herod, he
" died by visitation of God " in a quarrel with the
natives soon after. *
Dutch envoys in 1655 stooped to the most servile
humiliation at Peking to secure pecuniary advantage,
making the kowtow to the throne and to the mere
name of the emperor. Williams tells us, however, that
the mercantile speculation they represented proved
nearly a total loss. The audience question has always
been a crucial point. It was not enough to say, as
did Kweiliang, thirty years ago, " I will willingly burn
incense before the President of the United States if
asked to do so." The point was, how far shall Occi-
dental manhood bend to degrading forms of Oriental
self-abasement. The details of the triumph of the
West in this matter, 1873, and those of the audience
with foreigners had by the Emperor March 5th, 1891,
form very instructive data on the point in hand.
Physiological facts doubtless lie at 4he bottom, and
partly account for these mental characteristics. Peo-
ple of tropical climes cannot be expected to possess
the push, pluck and power of those in colder zones.
* Sandwich Islands (Hirain Biiigham), p. 35.
24 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Passions are hot, but there is not that uniform reso-
luteness and resiliency of spirit which forms so large
a segment of our mental sphere. * The influence of a
rice diet has already been alluded to. Famine, pov-
erty, over-breeding, incontinence and social oppres-
sion, particularly caste, also combine to narrow, dwarf
and degrade manhood. Says a Hindu pundit : " Caste
has suppressed the development of individuality and
independence of character. It has made the country
fit for foreign slavery by previously enslaving the peo-
ple in the most abject spiritual tyranny. It has
brought on physical degeneracy by confining marriage
within narrow circles, and developing other injurious
customs like early marriage." The latter " is the
greatest evil of our country," says an educated native
physician ; " among the principal causes of our phy-
sical degeneration as a race," says another. Half the
mothers of India die prematurely or are invalids in
consequence, and the vast majority of the other half
suffer in health from it, says Dr. Lai Sircar, after
thirty years observation among his people. Aristotle
in his day spoke of the weak and puny offspring pro-
duced by premature wedlock. That this physical de-
terioration is related to the condition of abject mental
subserviency cannot be questioned.
A government inspector of schools in India says
that many of these boy-husbands " are exhausted and
spent by the time they reach seventeen, their for-
mer energy and brightness all gone." " The masses
multiply without any more thought of the future than
rabbits," says Sir Henry Maine. Ten has been the age
for marriage to be consummated. Dr. Mansell, a lady
* Windows of Character (Dr. E. P. Th \ving), pp. 109-128.
SELF-ABASEMENT. 25
physician, reports four cases of fearful, hopeless muti-
lation which she had tried to treat. One of these little
girl-wives appeared to be no more than seven years of
age. The man who had summoned the surgeon, " said
in plain English, without the. slightest appearance of
shame or pity, that this was his last wife ! " Well
does pundit Vidyasagara exclaim, " In such a coun-
try, where men are void of compassion, would that
women never were born ! "
Professor Chamberlain, of the Imperial University
of Japan, remarks : " we may sometimes regret the
substitution of common-place European ways for the
glitter and glamor of picturesque Orientalism ; but
can it be doubtful which of the two civilizations is the
higher, both materially and intellectually ? Does not
the experience of the last three hundred years go to
prove that no Oriental state which retains distinctive
Oriental institutions can hope to keep its territory free
from Western aggression ? " He points to India. He
also says of Japan that it was a question of life or
death with her. She must cease to be Oriental or
cease to be her own mistress. Hence " history has
never witnessed a more sudden volte-face" The Occi-
dental is full of virile energy and self-assertion. Be-
cause-of this audacity and independence he aims to
extend his dominion from sea to sea and from the
river to the ends of the earth. He is doing it, too.
•But the repressive influence of Buddhism is another
factor not to be overlooked. The pitiful self-abase-
ment and annihilation of individuality, this extinction
of all the hopes and aspirations of a true manhood is
enough to belittle and abase, apart from all these other
considerations. Nobility of character is impossible.
St. Hilaire says that this ancient system has never
26 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
been able to found a single government, nor a toler-
able social state. How could it ? Among ethnic re-
ligions this is conspicuously sterilizing, for it teaches
men, as Professor Mpnier Williams observes, to "be-
ware of action and aim. at inaction, indifference and
apathy,* as the highest of all states."
OEIENTAL IMMOBILITY.
As a sequence we find, as a second feature, quies-
cence, stagnation, petrifaction of life, in sharp and
striking contrast to the eager, alert and progressive
temper of the West. To illustrate : China is fitly com-
pared to Lot's wife, a stony column, a stiffened figure,
with its rigid face looking backward on the past. The
dominant thought of Confiicianisna is man's duty to
conserve, not to create. To create implies improve-
ment, advance, discovery and, therefore, a leaving of
the things which are behind. This would be treason
to Confucian formalism, which doctrine is rather a
body of ceremonies than a religious system. It merges
individuality into the rank and file of uniformity, while
it deadens the sensibilities of the heart. Its watch-
word is Return ! Its perfect manhood is found in the
long gone past. Antiquity is its changeless theme.
This is China's lamp and guide ; this her pattern and
her goal. Confucius disclaimed all originality. He
was not, ho said, an author, but ah editor. His aim
was simply to transmit. He was anchored, and an-
chylosis seems to some the empire's beauty and de-
fence.*
Corea, the Land of the Morning Calm, just twenty
years ago warned off from her coast the American
* Dragon, Image and Demon (Dr. DuBose), pp. 102-107.
ORIENTAL IMPERTURBABILITY. 27
Admiral Eogers with the proud taunt, " Corea boasts
four thousand years of history. She is satisfied with
it and wants no other ! " She had been for ages a
Hermit Nation, not only passively but actively. It
was death to any Corean to cross the river Tumen,
which for two hundred miles forms its northern bound-
ary. Three centuries ago a belt of desolation, seventy
miles wide, was made by destroying towns and vil-
lages. Pickets guarded the frontier.
At about the same time an imperial edict of the
Mikado made it a crime, punishable with death, for a
Japanese to leave the country or to return to Japan
again. Christians were to be seized and imprisoned
as felons. Thus has the East isolated herself, de-
clared her unwillingness to change, and proved the
immobility of her civilization. No Hindu can cross
the black water without losing caste. If he returns,
he must humble himself and eat penitential pills made
of bovine excrements.
ORIENTAL IMPERTURBABILITY.
Causes already signalized combine to make Asiatics
imperturbable, stoical, and apathetic. Nervousness is
called the barometer of civilization. It marks the tu-
multuous vitality of the West, which is fitly compared
to an Atlantic that knows no repose. " We buy, we
sell, we tear down, we build up. We put girdles round
the globe as if time were but an hour, and eternal des-
tiny hung on these material issues. Every day of the
year somebody's brain reels. Insanity is a part of the
price we pay for our Western civilization." As Dr.
Talmage says, " We are born in a hurry, we live in a
* Dr. J. O. Putnam, Buffalo State Asylum.
28 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
hurry, we die in a hurry, and are driven to Greenwood
on a trot ! "
The magnetic intensities of our latitudes and the
feverish rush of life develop an abnormal nerve sensi-
bility in vivid contrast to the dull unconcern of the
average Asiatic. In no particular does race reveal
itself more clearly. The medical man sees it in the
comparative indifference to pain in surgical operations.
An old woman at Canton, from whose eye Dr. Parker
was about to remove a cataract, declined to take chlo-
roform. He expressed doubt as to her ability to bear
the knife, when she declared that he might take both
eyes out and put them back again if he chose, which
showed her confidence in him and in her own stoical
fortitude. A cancerous breast was removed from a
woman at Tokyo, sixty years of age. No anaesthetic
was used, and not a groan or movement made.* In
that same city, a foreigner who spent a night with a
native, noticed about midnight a slight movement and
a few words spoken in the adjoining room,' separated
by a thin paper partition. He soon dropped asleep
again. His host in the morning told the visitor that a
son had been born. The next day the guest saw the
mother, and expressed his surprise at the stillness
which attended the event. She replied, " O, we call a
woman stupid who ciies out at such a time ! "
Men can be found at a criminal court ready, for
money, to bear the beating and torture. Even if de-
capitation is the penalty, heads are sometimes offered
as substitutes, so 'that the doomed man, unless his
crime be specially heinous, may buy his life and liberty.
But for this lessened nerve sensitiveness deaths under
British Medical Journal, 1888, p. 1465.
ORIENTAL IMPERTURBABILITY. 29
terrific Chinese torture would be more common. Un-
til one lias seen and liandled-tlie instruments by which
the body is sometimes crushed and mutilated, no con-
ception can be had of the brutality suffered. As a
remedy for sickness in a parent, a Chinaman some-
times slices off flesh from his own body. Dr. Dudgeon
has had cases to treat where serious results followed
self-mutilation.
The austerities of mendicants in the East illustrate
the same dulled nature. Shanghai once had four men
who played the part of Simon Stylites. One crawled
into a cage about three feet square, and was hoisted
forty feet into the air, where he remained with neither
food nor drink for seven days. He hoped to get money
for a temple. Some lie on spikes. The gift of a cer-
tain sum will pull out one spike. A man at Allahabad
endured fifty years of this self-crucifixion. Filial self-
sacrifice illustrates the same stoicism. At Ningpo the
spirit of a dead daughter is still worshipped. She saw
her father baffled as to the working of a boiler furnace.
Inspired with the idea of sacrifice indigenous in the
Asiatic mind, she leaped into the fiery depths and was
consumed. The iron moukler ever afterward had great
success and wealth. A moral and physical insensi-
bility unite even in young children. Miss Cumming
saw some Ningpo boys greatly enjoying one day the
torture of rats, which they had dipped in oil and set
on fire. The boys I met while examining the crosses
and severed heads on the Execution Ground, Canton,
showed the same brutal instincts. These are a physi-
cal inheritance. A miniature city was once built at
the Summer Palace, Peking, a mile square, where the
Emperor might see on a small scale what his seclusion
from the real world did not allow him to see. Trades
30 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
were carried 011 by imperial attendants, goods hawked
about, arrests made and real floggings inflicted, to the
anguish of the innocent actors, but to the amusement
of the Son of Heaven. The readiness with which an
Asiatic commits suicide is still another illustration of
moral obtuseness. So, too, the indifference shown in
taking another's life. The passengers on the East
Bengal Railway are warned by the police against tak-
ing anything from unknown persons, to eat or drink.
AVater is poisoned as it is drawn from the well, and
sweetmeats as they are brought from the bazar. AA^heii
unconscious the victim is robbed. The history of
the Thugs may be read in this connection.
The use of opium is related to Oriental impassi-
bility. The habit is an expression of inborn tastes..
It also contributes to the perpetuation of deadened
sensibilities quite in harmony with the features of
self-abasement and immobility already noticed.
CHAPTEE IV.
ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
ORIENTAL MYSTICISM.
Western minds are analytic, philosophical, disputa-
tious, while Eastern thought is intuitive, nebulous and
transcendental. We make but little of inward voices,
vigils and self-illuminations, but the East is full of
dreamers, " ten thousand Emersons," idealists who
leave, as Carlyle says, the anchorage of an actual uni-
verse and soar away into the perilous altitudes of be-
liefs and revelations. Averse to logical reasoning and
mathematical consistency, they trust to impressions
and yield to the touch of a god within them. When
Mr. Joseph Cook asked one of the coadjutors of
Keshub Chunder Sen how the Brahmo Somaj dis-
tinguished between what it calls inspiration from above
and one's own individual thought, the evasive reply
was given, " That's one of the secrets of religious
genius." Reason is to be silenced as well as sense.
Personality is lost in an introspective vision. A di-
vine union is accomplished in a celestial ecstacy and
divine afflatus. Helpful to this process certain ob-
jects are used, with which occult meanings are asso-
ciated. These are made known, step by step, to the
initiated. Mr. Sen used various theistic symbols, bor-
rowed from heathenism, in the worship of his church ;
for example, lighting a basin of oil and burning sandal
sticks, one by one, saying, " Thus perish our lust and
pride." He also had Hindu dances and spectacular
32 ORIENTAL CHARACTEKISTICS.
performances, which remind an Orientalist of the rites
of Egyptian and Hellenic mystics. The criticism qf
discerning men then was that "this composite set of
ceremonies and religious doctrines has in it so many
appeals to ancient Hindu prejudices, that it can never
lead the mass of the Hindu populations out of their
attachments and hereditary misbeliefs.'* So it has
proved since his death in 1884.
Emerson himself admits the superiority of Western
over Eastern thought when he says that the former is
active and creative ; its philosophy is a discipline, and
it promotes art, commerce and freedom ; while " Asia
is the country of immovable institutions, the seat of a
philosophy delighting in abstractions, of men faithful
in doctrine and in practice to the idea of a deaf, un-
implorable, immense fate." As Dr. Holmes has said,
" The Oriental side of Emerson's nature delighted it-
self in these narcotic dreams, born in the land of the
poppy and of hashish," and that his poem, Brahma,
was " a vacuum of intelligibility." " The geography
of an undiscovered country, and the soundings of an
ocean that has never been sailed over, may belong to
the realm of knowledge." t
There is no lack of literature on the subject, and he
who would understand the Oriental of to-day must
know the mystic of the past. Not that his knowledge
is transmissible, for " it begins and ends with the soli-
tary dreamer. The next who follows him has to build
his own cloud-castle, as if it were the first aerial edifice
that a human soul had e.ver constructed." But the
causes that gave rise to mysticism, the methods by
Orient (Joseph Cook, 1886), p. 121.
Life of Emerson, (Holmes) p. 391,
THE OltlENTAL HOME. 33
which it has so long been fostered, and the practical
influence it still has on Asiatic thought, demand pa-
tient and thorough investigation. It is not an unrea-
sonable demand made by Eastern Christians that some-
thing of the color and flavor of Oriental life should
mark the nascent thought of to-day. Each land has
its own mental atmosphere and perspective. New
comers must adapt themselves to it. Wisdom was not
born in the West. It will not die there. Light still
streams from the East.
THE ORIENTAL HOME.
Aii important ground of differentiation, not yet no-
ticed, is that which is furnished by the domestic life of
the Oriental. Mr. Seward once exclaimed, " There
are no homes in Asia ! " Only where Christianity pre-
vails is the conception of HOME realized. Professor
M oilier Williams finds in no Indian tongue " any equiv-
alent to that grand old Saxon monosyllable, Ifo/>/<-,
that little word which is the key to our national great-
ness and prosperity." The word Zenana simply means
the place of women, a designation of apartments, where
females are kept as toys or drudges. "Home," he
says, " is the hallowed place of rest and of trustful in-
tercourse, where husbands and wives, brothers and
sisters, male and female relatives and friends, gather
together round the same hearth, in loving confidence
and mutual dependence, each and all working together
like the differently formed limbs of one body, for the
general good and for the glory of the great Creator."
According to Mr. Gladstone, the position of woman is
the one. effective test of civilization. Her position in
India, he says, is midway between the extremes of
barbarism and Christianity. Japan is in advance of
34 ORIENTAL CHARACTERISTICS.
all Asiatic people in the education of woman. In 1886
about one female out of eighteen in Japan was at
school, while in India there was hardly one in sixty
under instruction. There is a Brahininic saying, " To
ediicate a woman is to put a knife in the hand of a
monkey." The Indian wife of ancient times, it is true,
was spoken of in the Mahabharata as " half of man,
his truest friend ; " but wre also read in Mauu's code
that " she should be kept in a state of dependence, and
should be beaten with a bamboo cane if she commit
faults" (ix., 2, 3; viii., 299). Professor Wilson quotes
from Hindu tales which dwell on the depravity of wo-
men, making "their appetites two fold, their intellect
four, their lust eight fold." Pundit Sastri writes, "the
mean jealousies of our women have ruined the peaee
of many a household, and caused the disruption in
many cases of once united, happy families." He at-
tributes this to their ignorance and seclusion. The
Indian Mirror, when edited by Keshub Chunder Sen,
remarked that a home in Bengal was " a whited sepul-
chre ! There may be exceptions, but this is the rule.
The horrors of the Zenana are multiplied tenfold by
the misery of the joint family, and the degradation
which domestic ill-will produces."
THE JOINT FAMILY SYSTEM.
Western life makes the man a unit ; Eastern life
makes the family the social unit. We believe that
personal responsibility is quickened, industry fostered,
wealth, public spirit and patriotism developed by dis-
tinct, individual family life, in place of the patriarchal
and joint household system. In the beginning of
society, when life and property were insecure, and food
difficult to obtain, this clannish feeling served a good
THE JOINT FAMILY SYSTEM. 35
purpose. Self-preservation, cheap living and brother-
ly feeling Avere secured. But as society advances from
the archaic stage, this copartnership breeds evils. 'In
an economic view, indolence is one result of having all
things in common. There is little to encourage self-
exertion. One of the Hindu judges says that the idle
fatten on the industrious, seniors defraud the juniors,
and unpleasant friction is unavoidable. Fresh groups
of subordinate families, with separate interests and
affections, make the partnership burdensome. Litiga-
tion is common where there is property, and this is
most demoralizing. The joint system in India, accord-
ing to Judge Mullick of Calcutta, " is destined to die a
sure death, and nothing on earth can save it." Re-
strictive legislation is needless.
In China the joint family system is a vital factor.
The economical support of households, the claims of
kinship, the proper cultivation of the soil and, above
all, the ancestral dignity of the family name, make it a
necessity, in their view. After the death of a father,
the eldest son is the representative head. He acts as
high priest of the families of the male children, when
sacrifices are offered to the ancestral manes. He is
the chief at bridal and burial. At his death his eldest
son, though an infant, succeeds to the rights of primo-
geniture. If there be no heir, a nephew or cousin is
adopted, so that some one in a direct line may burn
incense to the spirits of the dead. There may be dif-
ferent heads of families, but only one head of the clan.
In Japan the idea of clan is feudal, and does not in-
volve the use of the same surname, as in China or in
Scotland.
There is a nearer approach to our home life among
tli<> Japanese than among other Asiatics, but the status
30 ORIENTAL CHAItA< TI.KISTICS.
of woman is low. Professor Chamberlain remarks :
" The greatest duchess in the land is still her husband's
drudge. She fetches and carries for him, bows down
humbly in the hall, waits upon him at meals, and may
be divorced at his good pleasure. In 1888, one mar-
riage in three ended in a divorce." ' The seven
grounds for separation are disobedience, dishonesty,
jealousy, loquacity, sterility, leprosy and lewdness.
The great moralist, Kaibara, writing on the Whole
Duty of Woman, Onna Diagaku, says that seven-
tenths of his countrywomen are afflicted with " the five
worst maladies : indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy
and silliness. From these arises her inferiority to men.
Such is the stupidity of her character, that it is incum-
bent on her, in every particular, to distrust herself and
obey her husband." Miss Bacon says : " She must
bear all things from him with a smiling face, even to
the receiving with open arms into the household some
other woman whom she knows to bear the relation of
concubine to her own husband. As long as the wife
has no rights which the husband is bound to respect,
no great advance can be made. European practice
cannot be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the
change in the home must be a radical one to secure
permanent good results." t If this be true in en-
lightened Japan, it is a more imperative need in other
parts of the Eastern world.
* Things Japanese (Kelly & Walsh, Yokohama), pp. 92-366.
f Japanese Girls and Women (Boston, 1891), pp. 85-116.
CHAPTEE V.
RELIGION IN THE EAST.
We are studying Asiatic Thought as a historic devel-
opment. The organizing forces have been found to be
physical, at the start, such as climate, soil, food and
material environments. These fundamental conditions
of civilization form the anatomy of national life. The
location of a continent, the configuration of its surface
and boundaries, its atmospheric vicissitudes, its scenic
aspects, its physical disturbances, the presence of wild
beasts and reptiles, with other physical factors, deter-
mine the character of its primitive population. These
genetic influences steadily mould its aboriginal life.
Not in saltatory or zigzag steps, but by a natural, pro-
gressive growth there is developed a national indi-
viduality. We have glanced at a few of the features
of Asiatic character, results of this historic evolution.
Repressive influences have tended to dwarf manhood
and quench self-respect. There is petrifaction and
immobility of life. Asiatics generally are imperturba-
ble and apathetic. Though passionate at times, they
ordinarily show languor and indifference. The aver-
age Oriental thinker is mystical, introspective, tran-
scendental. The domestic life of the East has fur-
nished still further data, and we now naturally come to
the more vital elements of Eastern Thought, expressed
in its religious life. Hero are concrete results of forces
already studied. They are also causes. Historically
38 UELIGIOX IN THE EAST.
they appear both as antecedents aud products. Their
corelatiou aud interaction are apparent.
It is well to consider the generic idea of religion
in the East. All men worship. We may traverse the
world, as Plutarch has remarked, and find cities with-
out walls and without wealth, without kings and with-
out coins, but never without prayer and worship. The
Ashautee rain-maker and the Arcadian shepherd, the
Parsee and Moslem alike feel " the breedings of some
Over-soul." Professor Tyndall truly says, " No athe-
istic reasoning can dislodge religion from the heart of
man. As an experience of the consciousness it is per-
fectly beyond the assaults of logic." Of newly-dis-
covered tribes in the heart of the Dark Continent, Dr.
Livingstone says, " They have clear ideas of the Su-
preme God."
The Eastern races specially show how universal and
ineradicable is this religious conviction. Primitive,
unphilosophical people seem to ba more responsive in
spiritual instincts than wre, whose visional grasp of the
unseen is hampered by our education. Their languages
are freighted with figures which show how warm and
luxuriant their imagination is. Nature to them is vital,
vivid, inspiring. Fancy,- though rude, is creative and
picturesque. The transition to Jhe supernatural is easy
where the imagination is alert, clairvoyant and un-
fettered by reason.
PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM.
The learned Schlegel remarked that his studies of
ancient religion convinced him that men started with
the worship of the Supreme Being, but that the power
of nature over the imagination introduced polytheism
and obscured the more spiritual ideas, which were pre-
PRIMITIVE MONOTHEISM. 39
served a secret by the wise alone. Popular thought
flowed in this channel, while the few thinkers saw a
unity in natural phenomena, and recognized a center
and source of all things. Semitic races held to the
one invisible God, while the Aryan deified second
causes,* and the Turanian trembled before the Un-
known. " The watersheds of language have been the
great watersheds of thought. In the search for the
ideal these great races have taken different directions.
The Turanian, impressed with a vague and childish
sense of the mysterious, has not yet advanced into the
idealizing stage. To the nomads of Northern Asia
God is awful, undented. The ideal of the Chinese is
a perfectly organized government." * A panoramic
view of ethnic religions, like that which Humboldt's
Cosmos gives of men's conceptions of nature in suc-
cessive historic epochs, would here be inviting, but
delay us from the more practical ends in view.
The monotheism of the Jew became the deism of
the Moslem. It is declared in the Zendavesta that
Abraham taught the religion it records. Leading
Arabian writers claim this to be true of Brahminism,
equally with Persian Magianism, as shown by Hyde
in his elaborate work a century ago. t It -is said that
to-day the Brahmins of the Coroinandel Coast hold to
the idea of one, independent, perfect, Supreme Being ;
and when a young Brahmin receives his sacred cord,
his father says to him privately, " Kemember, my son,
there is but one God, and every Brahmin is bound to
worship Him in secret." £ This is, however, a theoretic
* Origin and Development of Religious Belief (S. Baring Gould),
vol. i., p. GO.
f Historia Religionis Veterum Parsarum.
J Mmurs des Indes (Du Bose), tome i., 225.
40 RELIGION IN THE EAST.
and not a practical principle. Nature is made tlie
inactive, inferior part of the great Invisible. This
Being has no interest in human affairs. Orientals re-
gard any form of labor on the part of their sovereign
as derogatory to imperial dignity. Furthermore, evil
is regarded as inherent in matter. But the idea of
God will focus itself on single objects as centers of a
spiritual essence. However ludicrous the expression
of this natural impulse, the principle is legitimate.
We are wont to make one place, one person, one ob-
ject more significant than another in our worship, in
our social, commercial and political life. A cheque is
but a bit of paper and ink, yet it* is more. A national
banner is but a bit of bunting, yet it is more. So corn,
wine and oil, the dog and cow have played a part in
worship for ages. Cointe traces the domestication of
animals and plants, the basis of agriculture and indus-
try, to this universal adoration in primitive religion.
To the natural expression of ideas in symbols we owe
the arts of writing, painting and sculpture. But when
the spiritual significance is lost and the worship of the
symbol remains, idolatry is the result.
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
The immortality of the soul has been another article
in ethnic religion. The deification of dead ancestors
proves it. The methods of interment and monumental
inscriptions shoAV it. The Book of the Dead records
the belief of the ancient Egyptians in future felicity
and woe, rewards and punishments. The mysteries of
Isis, Mithras, Cybele and Eleusis appealed to the im-
agination of the initiated by scenic representations
which contrasted the states of the good and the bad in
the other world.
IMMORTALITY OP THE SOUL. 41
Keferring to this belief, the Greek poet Pindar
says :
" The righteous pass a tearless age,
The wicked are in frightful pain."
The Tartarus and Elysium pictured by Virgil, Bishop
Warburton believes to be an implicit copy of what
these esoteric teachings exhibited. Dodona's oracle,
the Babylonian, Hellespontic and Erythrean shrines
were centers of illumination, in some sense divine.
Here men, like Balaam fourteen centuries before
Christ, sought God, if haply they might feel after Him
and find Him, who has promised to every nation that
he who feareth God and worketh righteousness is ac-
cepted of Him.
Turn to India. Her monumental records are said to
make the pyramids seem young. Bailly makes their
astronomy five thousand years old. Vernon Harcourt
finds their ancient traditions supported by strongest
linguistic proofs, and in their mythologic characters
and historic remains, the solution of problems involved
in the history of Indo-Germanic nations in general.
The Upanishads, or mystic portion of the Vedas, re-
veal a heavenly city, palace, throne, river and gardens.
The city of Indra is forty miles high. Buildings of
gold and precious stones are there ; fruits and flowers,
perfume and beauty by the banks of the ageless stream
and the tree of Hya, where the crown of eternal youth
is given. But this is but a beginning. Another city,
Vishnu's home, is a hundred times larger than Indra.
Ascending and descending souls may spend uncounted
years in their migrations. One theory makes a man
pass throiigh eight million births. Ample accommo-
dations for shiners of high and low degree are found
42 RELIGION IN THE EAST.
in twenty-one hells. Not only books, but plastic aud
pictorial art present terrific conceptions of physical
torment in the endless life beyond.
HEATHEN SACRIFICES.
Human sacrifices prevailed in India for more than
two thousand years. The suttee was abolished in
1830, after not a little debate, for England had prom-
ised not to interfere with Hindu religion. While the
discussion went on, for a long time there were from
three hundred to eight hundred widows burned alive
each year.* In the temple of Heliopolis three men
were daily .lain, until King Amasis ordered the burn-
ing of tapers instead. Standing at the shrine of Ivarli
at Calcutta, looking at the bloody floor where a goat
had been offered to a god, I recalled the fact of human
sacrifices, and saw in this substitution one proof of the
dominance of English civilization.
Voluntary as well as compulsory offerings — not of
life only, but what the giver esteems dearer than life,
virginity — is another revolting feature of ethnic re-
ligion. Arabian maidens once were wedded to a god
by a death in the flames; but in the worship of My-
litta candidates for defloration crowded the avenue to
the temple so closely that it was difficult for one to
select in turn his partner. Home waited for years, t I
saw a Hindu at Jeypore, now an elder in a Christian
church, who once was a participant in heathen orgies.
His testimony is such that it cannot be put into print.
It justifies the language of Bishop Heber as to India :
' ' Where every prospect pleases,
And only man is VILE."
* Hindu Literature (E. A. Reed, 1891, S. C. Griggs & Co.), p. 66.
t Herodotus, i., 193. De Syria Dca (Lucian) chap. vi.
RELIGION A BEGNANT POWEH. 43
Quoting these words in an address in New York, a
theosophist .once exclaimed, "What"a$d/" His im-
pudence was only equalled by his ignorance. People
who have never been in a heathen community, and
have never known the "depths of Satan," by per-
sonal inspection, as medical men may, can sneer at
facts, but the sad truth remains, for all that.
KELIGION A KEGNANT POWEE.
Religion enters into everything. The Hindus, for
example, eat, drink, toil, sin, religiously. Their gods
are vile. The book which two-thirds of the Hindus
call their bible is untrauslateable in its vileness. The
word priest is used as a climax, when other words of
abuse have been exhausted. With such gods and
guides what can be expected of the people ? Religion
controls all their activities. It is not, as with many of
us, a Sunday matter, but an all-pervasive, ubiquitous
and imperious power. It is a mighty historic force,
the growth of centuries, gigantic yet flexible, and ac-
commodating itself to varying conditions. It has been
compared to an immense glacier, slowly moving down
from a mountain, gathering up stones and debris, yet
adapting itself to the configuration of the mountain.
This flexibility characterizes the religious system of
China, and so unites the ethical, physical and rneta-.
physical ; morality, idolatry and superstition in one
mighty controlling powrr. Strict Confucianism op-
poses idolatry and inculcates a splendid morality. So
the pure, exalted Vedic teachings deserve all praise.
But neither are a practical, redeeming force. The
Chinaman recognizes a triple compound of idolatry.
He makes a friendly alliance of various systems, to
suit his social or political surroundings.
44 RELIGION IN THE EAST.
He dovetails, as Dr. Du Bose expresses it, Confucian-
ism, Buddhism and Taoism, using temple, image and
ritual, priest, shrine and song, as convenience or policy
may suggest. Theoretically, the first is the State re-
ligion, and its temples are maintained by imperial
revenues. But Buddhist monasteries are also endowed
by government, and deceased dignitaries of state be-
come gods in Taoist temples. A hundred priests of
one class and a hundred of the other, with the man-
darins between them, have been seen at one time and
in one temple engaged in worship, just as in Rome
worshipping senators surrounded Elagabalus as he
celebrated the Syrian worship of the sun, side by side,
perhaps, with the devotees of the Babylonian Mylitta,
or those of Isaic and Serapic worship from the Nile.
Gibbon was not mistaken in his conception of the
policy of paganism. It was not aggressive and pre-
scriptive, but it utilized superstition as a power more
serviceable than armies. The gods and worship of
every nation had a place in the Pantheon. " All were
considered by the people as equally true ; by the phil-
osophers as equally false, and by the magistrate as
equally useful."
Look at Japan. Is its heathenism prescriptive ?
No ; it is tolerant and inclusive, as in China. Ancient
Shinto, without sacred books, dogmas and moral code,
a worship of deified rulers of heroes, was a political
ceremonial. In the sixth century after Christ its de-
crepitude began, as Buddhism introduced its ritualistic
attractions and ethical features. Shinto temples then
came to be served by the priests of Buddha, who add-
ed the forms of their own worship. Recently a tem-
porary revival of Shinto took place, but " It had no
root in itself, being too empty and jejune to influence
RELIGION A REGNANT POWER. 4o
the heart of men. Buddhism soon rallied. Though
Shinto is still the official cult — in so far that certain
temples are maintained out of public moneys, and at-
tendance of certain officials is required from time to
time at ceremonies of a. half religious, half courtly
nature — the whole thing is now a mere shadow."
The literary classes are largely indifferent or agnostic,
but the common people remain practically idolaters.
Social life, business and pleasure are all tinctured with
heathenism. The Japanese drama, for instance, is
traced to the religious dances of antiquity, attended
with recitations, comic and historic, and choric songs.
Japanese literature, rich in romances in which court-
esans play their part — not all debased by sinful pas-
sion, but in many cases in obedience to the strange
demands of filial piety — the prevalence of concubinage
throughout the Empire, the worship of the seven gods
of luck, visits to the graves of the dead, and a multi-
tude of other customs show how thoroughly idolatrous
the Japanese are to-day. So simple an act as tea-
drinking has a heathen history. Seven centuries ago
a Buddhist abbot wrote a tract on the subject, intro-
duced a sacred ceremonial, told how to make and
drink the infusion amid the smoke of incense and beat
of drum in honor of the dead. Ever since, it is said,
a flavor of this superstition has clung to tea-drinking,
particularly in the Zen sect. Action and gesture, the
washing of hands, the ringing of a bell, the touching of
the canister, handling flower and scroll, with other
formalities, have been fixed by priestly ritualism.
I remember how pathetic an appeal to their gods
was made by some sailors at Canton, who were trying
* Things Japanese (Professor B. H. Chamberlain), p. 311.
46 RELIGION IN THE EAST.
to raise from the deck a new must into position. There
were a dozen of them. They had raised it by means
of spiked poles to a perilous angle. It halted and
hung in air, as did the red monolith at Home, three
hundred years ago, when Bresca shouted, " Wet the
ropes ! " but for which it would have fallen. At this
juncture one of the men took a bunch of fire-crackers,
apparently at hand for the occasion, and exploded
them. It was an invocation, or recognition of a power
beyond their own. The mast slowly rose to its place.
So I have seen my boatwoman, or her child, light the
incense before the miniature shrine as we started on a
river trip, and have felt again how all-pervasive is the
religious element in Eastern life.
One who comes within the sphere of Asian thought
will soon learn to appreciate this feeling in dealing,
not only with idolaters, but with native converts.
Social usages, business relations, political life, lan-
guage itself, nay, the very air, earth and sky are vehi-
cles of this sentiment. Nothing is too high or too low
to be reached by it. The imaginative faculty, as we
have, seen, is very active from earliest infancy. Hel-
lenic children at their sports cried out when the sun-
shine was obscured by a passing cloud, " Come forth,
beloved Sun ! " as if it were a playmate hidden.* So
the Oriental to-day lives his out-door life in closer
contact with nature than we. Over land and sea, field
and forest, grove and garden, uncounted deities are
brooding. The movements of the wind and water, of
bird, insect or reptile are .auguries or omens. The
drought that withers, the flood that overwhelms, the
mildew and murrain that destroy, are expressions of a
* Hellenes (St. John), vol. i., p. 149.
UELIGION A 11EGNANT POWER. 4:7
power that must be propitiated. In every hamlet in
China, during the first moon, the god of agriculture is
worshipped with offerings or food, fruit and flowers.
Processions are formed and theatrical exhibitions are
ordered in his honor. The building of a house, the
forming of a business partnership, the date of a mar-
riage, bridal and burial, the location of a tomb, feasts,
games, the handicrafts of men, domestic employments
and affairs of state are all governed by some reference
to the Unseen. What Ingraham Kip said of the speech
of primitive Christians, in his Early Conflicts of Chris-
tianity, is substantially true now : " The phrases of
common life were rilled with allusions to their popular
religion ; words of affection and worship were so en-
twined that it seemed impossible to banish the one and
retain the other. Good wishes became chilled and un-
meaning, when they dropped the customary allusions
to the gods of their faith. The adoption of Christian-
ity, therefore, alienated them and severed the dearest
bonds of life." As then, s« now, language in the East
is everywhere so saturated with pagan thought, it has
to be remodelled. It is a cheering fact that in India
and elsewhere the English tongue has ennobled, where
it has not wholly superseded, the vernacular of hea-
thenism.
This brief survey points to a practical suggestion.
We are not to approach the Oriental in an intolerant
or disputatious temper, as too many have done, in-
sensitive to influences which for ages have moulded
his thought and life. We ye not to be so impressed
with the authority of our belief as to show disdain for
his. Paul, at Athens, brg:in with a compliment rather
than a taunt : " I perceive that in all things you are
very devout," We may recognize this worshipful
•18 RELIGION IN THE EAST.
spirit without at all compromising the truth. We can
adapt our thought to his mental horizon, awaken his
interest, equalize his sensibilities, and so disarm his
opposition, when we may not secure his acquiescence.
An educated Japanese who has spent several years in
America, whom I met at Tokyo, looking at the matter
from the position of an influential gentleman, writes :
" Japan is already tired of soothsayers, theorists, ser-
mon-makers. I believe that I am speaking the senti-
ments of my nation when I tell you that we care at
present more for earnestness and conviction than for
views. We would see men who love iis and give them-
selves for our sakes, as the Saviour of mankind did ;
those wiio have had spiritual experiences as practical
realities, and who can treat of the things of the Spirit
just as definitely as that which they have seen, touched
and felt. Let each be thoroughly convinced of what
he believes, else the sharp-witted heathen will not
hearken to him. We need here only men of moral
earnestness, who can give fruits of their own experi-
ence, taught through discipline and mental struggles
of many years."
CHAPTER VI.
LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
" The Past shall always wear
A glory from being far."
Tennyson is right. There is no lens like distance.
It magnifies and gives enchantment to the view. The
antiquity of Eastern lore invites attention. But the
opulence of these treasures is more than their age.
Let us glance at a few items of this wealth. The
author of What can India teach us? has well said
that no "Western thinker can there be an intellectual
exile, for in India the human mind has busied itself
with life's greatest problems, and found solutions that
deserve our consideration. There, an intellectual world
can be studied from the beginning of national thought,
along its historic development up to the highest stages.
There, the most subtle philosophies, the most elaborate
laws and the most primitive religions have had their
home for ages. The study of ancient Yedic verse has
laifl the basis of a science of mythology. It has cleared
up questions of philology, such as the growth and de-
cay of dialects and the mixture of languages. It has
shown us legends older than the time of Solomon.
THE SANSCRIT.
Through the whole history of this part of the Ori-
ent, says Max Muller, there runs a highway of litera-
ture for thous-uxls of years, in which are found the
50 THE SANSCRIT.
true representatives of the people from age to age.
The record of their noble thought is instructive, so are
their puerilities and monstrosities. The ten thousand
MSS. of the Sanscrit now in existence have a human
interest. Though for more than twenty centuries it
has been what we call a dead language, it has given
life and soul to all the living tongues of that wide em-
pire, both Aryan and Dravidiau. " Such is the mar-
velous continuity of the past and present, Sanscrit
may be said to be still the only language that is
spoken over the whole extent of that vast country ;
more widely understood in India than Latin was in
Europe at the time of Dante. Whenever I receive a
letter from a learned man in India, it is written in
Sanscrit. Whenever there is a controversy on ques-
tions of law and religion, the pamphlets in India are
written in Sanscrit." Thousands of Brahmins, adds
Max Muller, can repeat from memory the entire Rig-
veda and other books. Recitations of these ancient
epic poems are given to crowds in village temples,
continuing weeks or even months. Journals are pub-
lished in this tongue, commentaries and treatises on
philosophy.
Moreover, ease, purity and elegance in the use of
the dialects in common use come from acquaintance
with this parent tongue. This is the most perfect efer
known, according to Bosworth, and very nearly a
primitive language, inasmuch as all its words are com-
posed of its own elements, free from exotic terms. It
is the polished tongue, as the name indicates. It em-
balms not only epic, lyric, didactic and dramatic poe-
try, but philosophic criticism, the germs of jurispru-
dence, of dramatical science, linguistic analysis, lexi-
cography, rhetoric, music, mathematics, astronomy
LANGUAGE, LITERATURE A!sTD ART. 51
and medicine. It has been called the mediator and
interpreter of the differences which divided Greek,
Latin, Slavonic and Teutonic tongues. As soon as
" the eldest sister of them all stepped in, there came
light, warmth and mutual recognition. They all ceased
to be strangers, and each fell of its own accord into its
right place."
Oriental literature, read in the Orient, has a plenary
significance and beauty in keeping with the brilliancy
and tropical luxuriance about you. Last year I sailed
from Hong Kong to Bombay and back, day after day,
for six thousand miles, floating over Indian seas that
seemed charmed into stillness, where the waves slept
and the heavens were bright, surrounded by luxurious
comfort, with ample opportunity for reading and study.
I remember how impressively the fact came home to
me one day that seventeen centuries before Christ and
seventeen centuries after Christ, the god of thunder
was invoked by the same name, by Hindus of the In-
dus and peasants on the borders of Prussia. This bit
of linguistic unity taught me the continuity of life and
language through all time. It acted like a mystic word
to introduce me into the hidden past and to show
prostrate worshippers on the plains of India before
Moses was born, recognizing the same deity that men
in modern times have ignorantly adored. It is " as if
we saw the blood suddenly beginning to flow again
through the veins of old mummies, or as if Egyptian
statues were to speak again. All that is old becomes
new, all that is new becomes old, and that one word,
Parganya, seems, like a charm, to open before our eyes
the cave or cottage in which the fathers of the Aryan
race — our own fathers, whether we live on the Baltic
or the Indian ocean — are seen gathered together tak-
52 THE SEMITIC TONGUES.
ing refuge from the buckets of Pargauya." But we
are only on the threshold of this department. Other
landmarks of study may be rapidly noted.
THE SEMITIC TONGUES.
Professor Noldeke of Strasburg sees a closer kinship
between these than exists between Indo-European
languages. The Hebrew, Phoenician, Assyrian, Ara-
maic, Arabic and Ethiopic show common characteris-
tics in the order and form of sentences, in vowel
changes, consonant roots and verbal stems. The first
two are dialects of one language. The Aramaic, as a
cultivated language, became dominant before Christ,
and was used by Arabs before theirs had been reduced
to writing ; but after ten centuries it was supplanted
by the Arabic. Islam raised this to the dignity of a
sacred tongue when Bedouins brought half the Avorld
under their sway. It became the vehicle of poetry,
law, religion, business and science, while Assyrian — of
close kin to Hebrew — survived the destruction of Nin-
eveh as a sacerdotal speech, the vernacular of the
official and scholar.
Continuous immigration into Africa by various Se-
mitic people with diverse dialects, introduced heter-
ogeneous elements and linguistic corruptions into the
languages of that region. The roots of the Coptic in
Egypt, and its grammatic structure, bear the impress
of the Semitic, while comparative philologists, pointing
out its monosyllabism, see a similarity to the Syriac.
Stuart Poole of the British Museum says that Egyp-
tian literature is disappointing. " So unsystematic is
it that it has not given to us the connected history of
a single reign, or a really intelligible account of a
single campaign. The religious documents are still
LANGUAGE, LlTEltAlDKE AND AKT. 53
less orderly than the historical. It is only by the
severe work of some of the ablest critics during the
last fifty years, that from these disjointed materials a
consistent whole has been constructed. The Book of
the Dead must remain a marvel of confusion and pov-
erty of thought. The temple inscriptions are singu-
larly stilted and wanting in variety, but the papyri
contain some hymns which are of a finer style."
EGYPTIAN ART.
The country and climate afforded the best means of
symbolizing the leading idea of Egyptian religion in
material forms of life. Life after death \vas that idea,
and it found expression in the construction of tombs
as lasting as the rocks on which they rested. He
sees the double origin of the race in the contradic-
tions of their character, the bright elements of Ni-
gritian temperament shadowed by Semitic solemnity,
and the generous qualities of Semites perverted by the
lower impulses of Nigritians. Plain in dress and sim-
ple in food, they were luxurious in ornaments and
given to excess in wine ; scrupulous as to family ties,
careless as to morals. While making the construction
of a tomb the chief object in life, and the funeral the
most costly personal event, the Egyptians delighted in
music, dancing and caricature, even in the scenes of
a burial. Their art is not florid and glaring, but in
keeping with its serious aim, which is religious and
historic. The stately shaft may be reeded, fluted or
embellished with grouped clusters of the lotus, but its
massive grandeur remains. While Arabic art did not
allow animal figures, Egyptian lions of Gebel Barkal,
now in the British Museum, are regarded the finest
idealization of animal forms that any age has pro-
54 EGYPTIAN ART.
duced. Professor Hayter Lewis of London University
admires the early Assyrian art, and notes the delicacy
and truthfulness of treatment, especially in the ani-
mals. He differs from that hater, Ruskin, who says
" mud-bred onion-eating creatures built Nineveh after
a monarch's design." But then, he thought the orna-
mentation of the Alhambra was detestable. Tastes
differ.
Oriental languages and art are chiefly instructive as
records of history and mirrors of thought, apart from
intrinsic excellencies or defects. The civil, mortuary
and domestic architecture of the East reflect the life of
the people, indicate climatic influences and mark so-
cial, religious and political epochs. As Buddhism
modified Indian art, epitomizing in metal, wood and
stone the degrading conceptions of its cult, so Ionian
art left its refining influence on sculpture long after
the Greek invasion, 327 B. C. Hellenic ideas of beauty
are embodied in the statuary of the Punjab and the
sun temple of the Orissa shore. Then the invasions of
Mahornetanism, from A. D. 664 onward, have left their
mark on Hindu art, down to the end of the Mogul
dynasty. As I looked on the Pearl Mosque and the
Taj at Agra, or the superb beauty of buildings at Del-
hi, studying each fanciful foliation, curious wreath,
scroll and fret, with spandrils inlaid with jasper,
sapphire, amethyst and other precious stones, I was
reading human history more than merely analyzing
architecture.
We of the West are restless and capricious, governed
by mercantile considerations and by fashion plates in
our aesthetic temper. We lack the finer instincts of
less cultivated people. Jarves says that " A Polyne-
sian, Hindu or native of Japan sucks in with his
LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART. 55
mother's milk a sense so keen and clairvoyant in re-
spect to ornament, that he appears as if endowed with
a special faculty for it of an almost spiritual apprehen-
sion. Textile fabrics made by Oriental fingers and
toes surpass those of Europe made with the best scien-
tific machinery. The subtlest laws of design and col-
oring are shown in their construction, as also in the
enamels, porcelains and lacquer work, which as far
surpass the dainty prettiiiess of Sevres and Dresden as
their porcelain is finer than ordinary crockery. Their
fancy in design and color is based on a closer insight
into nature than Europeans display in their decorative
art. It seems equally founded in realism and mysti-
cism. While nothing can be more accurate than their
observation and comprehension of the forms of life,
they baptize facts in the waters of an imagination that
has no counterpart in the European mind for versatil-
ity of invention and strangeness of types."
THE VALUE OF MUSEUMS.
The suggestion of Jarves as to the value of ethno-
logical museums as moral teachers is timely. The
museum is a vivid, tangible revelation, a truthful ex-
position of the character of a people, and so an inter-
preter of enigmas of history. It levels vanity and
supplants pride ; shows the good and evil without dis-
guise, and dispels misconceptions. India itself has
been called a living ethnological museum. So is
Egypt and Asia Minor, as well as the Far East. The
gift of Mr. Schiff of New York, a large-hearted Semite
and promoter of Semitic study, lays the foundation of
a Semitic Museum at Harvard University. The recent
opening of such a treasure-house of Oriental literature
and art is an evidence of the awakened interest in
56 THE VALUE OF MUSEUMS.
Eastern Life already referred to. Here are rare He-
brew, Arabic and Syriac MSS., probably the best col-
lection of photographs, finely inscribed Babylonish
cylinders of clay, Assyrian tablets recording the story
of creation and the flood, books of Nebuchadnezzar
and the stone monument of Shalmaneser II., with the
pictured effigies of the captive Israelites bringing him
tribute.
Wealth expended in creating and endowing such an
institution is a princely offering to sound learning, and
directly promotive of the highest culture of a Christian
community. Professor Bawlinson has noted the health-
ful reaction in sentiment since 1863, when one of the
oldest English reviews expressed a scornful indiffer-
ence to Oriental studies, and attempted to belittle the
work of Champollion and Sir Henry Rawlinson. He
would have these studies a part of the university
course, and especially urges the English-speaking peo-
ple, who pride themselves upon an open bible, to be-
come more thoroughly acquainted with the Land that
gave us the Book.
CHAPTER VII.
LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
It was at MACAO, .tliat picturesque city by the sea—
the Gem of the Orient, as this delightful sanitarium is
called by Sir John Bowriiig — that some of the choicest
works of modern sinalogues first came in my way.
For half a century this quaint, drowsy old Portuguese
town has been the retreat of scholars and missionary
workers from time to time, driven by summer heat or
political disturbances in Canton and elsewhere to seek
a refuge in its quiet and salubrious quarters. I well
remember with what pleasure I found in one of the
rooms of the large, lordly house which was my abode —
built and once occupied by a foreign nobleman — a
library of volumes illustrative of Chinese life and liter-
ature. This was an attraction that rivalled the gar-
dens of Camoens. The brilliant Praya and the pano-
rama from the lofty fort and lighthouse were not so
enticing as these well-worn books whose contents cov-
ered centuries of Oriental life.
The language and literature of China have been so
fully treated by those early pioneers, Gutzlaff, Morri-
son, Marshman, Medhurst, Milne, Bridgeman and
Williams, not to speak of Edkins, Faber and others
still living, and other Oriental scholars here and in Eu-
rope, that the student of Eastern life will not lack for
materials. Only a few suggestions will be offered. The
antiquity, the fecundity and the unique features of
58 LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
Chinese thought and expression arrest attention. Here
is the most archaic form of language ; first hiero-
glyphic, but now ideophonetic, every word a root and
each root a word. It is monosyllabic, without an
alphabet, devoid of inflexion or even agglutination,
having nouns without gender or declension, and verbs
without conjugation. The thirty or forty thousand
characters are represented to the ear by about five
hundred syllabic sounds. To meet this exigency, six,
eight or ten tones are used. Thus confusion grows
confounded. The bewildered student is ready to adopt
the belief of some that this language is the work of the
devil. It certainly is not wanting in diabolical feat-
ures. Some saintliness of temper is needed for its
study and a great deal of heroism for its mastery.
THE GREAT CHINESE WALL.
This perplexing tongue is the real barrier which
encircles the whole empire, in comparison with which
the massive masonry built B. C. 204, by the Napoleon
of China, for fifteen hundred miles along its northern
boundary, is but a trivial affair. " Its history has al-
ways been so completely isolated from the rest of the
world it did not enter into the study of those civiliza-
tions which have entered into our own." So wrote
LeNormant to justify his omission of China in his
Historic Ancienne de V Orient.
The vertical position of the characters is one sign of
the great antiquity of the tongiie. Like the Chaldean,
the Chinese used some long leaf, like the papyrus, or
stalks, for writing purposes. This was befors clay tab-
lets came into use, and more enduring materials for
cuneiform inscriptions. A knowledge of the antique
style of writing is needed to understand ancient clas-
BURNING OF BOOKS. 59
sics. Between that and the colloquial is the academic,
which is less concise than the former and less diffuse
than the latter. The training of youth in the study
of arbitrary characters and memorizing unmeaning
sounds has a dwarfing and sterilizing influence, fitly
compared to the trees wrhich are stunted and put into
jars. Their deformity of appearance is in keeping
with the insipidity of their fruit. Still, we must ad-
mire the patient industry that produced a mass of
literature amazing in extent. Think, for example, of a
single treatise on therapeutics in forty volumes, with
references to over seven hundred other medical works !
In the Imperial palace there is a manuscript encyclo-
pedia in 22,937 volumes, the result of eight thousand
years' toil. Two thousand men wTote on it for four
years. Three centuries later, in 1726, The Cream of
Chinese Literature, so called, was published in five
thousand volumes. It can be seen in the British Mu-
seum.
BURNING OF BOOKS.
But for the memorizing power of native scholars
much of China's literature would not now be in ex-
istence, for the same emperor who made himself fam-
ous by building the Great Wall made himself infamous
by a wholesale burning of books throughout the em-
pire. Science, art, history and records of early ages
were destroyed. Four hundred and sixty scholars
were detected in trying to secrete and save their liter-
ary treasures. They were put to death by burial
alive. Yet there were others who knew the Confucian
classics so thoroughly that " the whole were soon
faultlessly reproduced." The successor of this vandal
was a friend of learning, and did much to repair the
60 LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
mischief of the Son of H — (not Heaven) who caUed
himself the first emperor of united China. A revival
of letters foUowed. From hollow trees, caverns of the
earth and beds of rivers, even, and from the lips of
aged men and women came contributions, verbal, in-
scribed and printed. One blind man knew by heart
a good portion of the Book of History. Tablets of
wood, engraved bamboo sticks and priceless books,
concealed at risk of life, were brought forth. After
two centuries, eleven thousand volumes were repro-
duced.
" All China is an immense library," said the great
traveler, Hue. Maxims and sentences are inscribed
on shops, houses, pagodas, tribunals and monuments.
Not only in the homes of the rich, in corridor and
apartment, on teacup, plate, vase and fan do you see
quotations from various classics, but in the hovels of
the poor you find the cheap scroll of red paper on the
wall, with large characters to catch the eye and im-
press the mind. There is a great bronze bell at Pe-
king, forty -five feet in circumference, cast five hundred
years ago. There is inscribed on the surface, inside
and out, an entire classic, containing eighty-four thou-
sand characters. The eye is everywhere appealed to.
He who runs may read. The directions given to the
Jews seem to have been, in substance, given to the
Chinese by their early sages, to teach their precepts
sitting in the house, walking by the way, lying down,
rising up ; by inscribing them on their door-posts and
gates, and binding as a sign upon the hand and front-
lets between the eyes.
Any analysis of the Nine Classics or of poetic and
dramatic literature in China is not expected in this
brief manual, the simple aim of which is to point out
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 61
lines of study. But it may be said, in passing, that
the seed thoughts of all that is revered by Chinese in
their religion, history and government will be found
in the Shoo king or Book of History. It is also the
foundation of their tactics, music and astronomy. It
covers a period from about 2350 B. C. to 721 B. C.
In its restoration after the Burning of the Books,
twenty-eight of the one hundred sections were taken
from the lips of a blind man. Fortunately a complete
copy was found secreted in the wall of Confucius'
house when it was demolished, 140 B. C.*
It was during the revival of learning, 200 B. C. to
200 A. D. that changes in writing were introduced.
Silk was used for valuable records, and paper, made
from bark and hemp, also manufactured. Ink was in-
vented to take the place of brick dust and water. The
bamboo tablet and stylus gave place to the hair pencil
and paper page. In 593 A. D. Wanti decreed the en-
graving on wood and printing of certain documents.
Moveable types were made by Pe Ching about five
hundred years later. He engraved each character in
fine clay, made in plates, the thickness of money.
These were hardened by fire and cemented to an iron
frame when used for printing.
CHINESE AKCHITECTURE.
There is little to be said on this point. China, Fer-
gusson suggests, has no hereditary nobility and no
dominant priesthood, such as in Italy and elsewhere
Death is threatened any family who takes the patronymic? "Koong."
(Koong Futze, master Koong). So the name Confucius is sacred in
its isolation, not noininis umlira, during twenty-two centuries. It is
the oldest family on the globe. Some of the sixty-third generation
were recently baptized by Presbyterian missionaries.
62 LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
have given inspiration to artistic creations. Power
she has, ability as well. Massive walls, bridges and
engineering works are seen everywhere. With her re-
dundant population China might have reared many
monumental works like those of Egypt, which she so
much resembles in age, in history, customs and re-
ligious ideas, such as reverence for the dead. Senti-
ment and imagination are wanting, however, which lie
at the source of this art. The materials of the Great
Wall would build a wall twice round the globe, six feet
high and two feet thick. Williams says that this mon-
ument of human toil and unproductiveness, with its
cloud-capped towers standing in solemn stillness where
they were stationed two thousand years ago, as if or-
dered to await the return of their builders, and its dike
below, leaping gorges and scaling cliffs in exuberance
of power till it vanishes at the horizon, cannot but in-
spire respect for a people who could build it.
Gwilt thinks that the tent gave them, as all Tartar
tribes, the original idea of their pyramidal roof, which
is high-pitched, timber-framed, with concave slopes
and projecting eaves. But it is objected that the
Chinese are the furthest removed from nomadic, tent
life than any race on the earth. The great rain fall at
times, and the glare of the sun at other times, will ex-
plain the features of the roof without the above hy-
pothesis. The arch was known and used in bridges,
it is believed, even- before Pelasgian builders made
their rude attempts in the same direction.
The pagoda is sometimes a family memorial, and
sometimes a pillar of victory, commemorating a his-
toric event. It may be reared for the use of the geo-
mancer. I spent some months not far from one which
was built by Moslems. It is about as high as Bunker
COBEA AND JAPAN. 63
Hill Monument. Twice a year worship at dawn was
had with loud invocations. There are about two
thousand pagodas in the Empire, from five to thirteen
stories in height. The oldest was put up seventeen
centuries ago. Most of them are in a ruined condition.
The promises of the diviner that these towers draw
luck do not draw funds for their repair.
The pavilion, with its pillared veranda, and the
gateway are suggestive of Chinese thought. Form,
color and ornamentation show rude tastes. Some de-
tails are meritorious, but as works of art, these, as well
as domestic and temple decorations, are inferior in
style. Proportion, perspective, naturalness and Ele-
gance are disregarded. The natives themselves admit
a decline in painting and sculpture the last fifteen cen-
turies. Their devotion to material concerns has made
them increasingly indifferent to higher interests.
In this connection it is worthy of note to compare
the opposite influence of Confucianism and Buddhism
on industrial life in the East. The former has fos-
tered feudalism, caste and ancestor worship ; the latter
has moulded the working classes, softening their man-
ners, as Rein suggests, training up quiet, patient toil-
ers in field and workshop. Both now feel the new
breath of a Christian civilization, which fact recalls
the lines of Schiller :
" Das Alte stiirzt es andert sich die Zeit,
Und neues Leben bluht aus den ruinen."
COREA AND JAPAN.
Twenty years ago the Hermit Nation warned out of
her waters the American admiral with these words :
" Corea boasts four thousand years of history and is
satisfied with it, wishing no other." To-day an Ameri-
64 LANGUAGE, LITEHATU11E AND ART.
can, Colonel Greathouse, is summoned to her court as
an adviser of government. On her soil may be settled
the problem of supremacy between the triple powers
of Japan, China and Kussia. The Dragon and the
Bear especially have their eye on Corea. It is a
pleasant land, the Italy of the Far East, the north-
eastern monsoon region and the kingdom of the mag-
nolia and camellia. The straits are but fourteen fath-
oms deep which separate it from the Sunrise Laud,
and Japan looks upon the twelve or fifteen millions of
Corea as naturally related to her own forty millions.
The glimpse I had of these shores, and some facts of
her liistory are referred to elsewhere.* The Land of
the Morning Calm has already begun to feel the throb
of the outer world.
Philologists assumeVi kinship between the Japanese
language and the Ural-Altaic tongues. They have not
proved their postulate. The agglutinative structure of
the Japanese links it with the Corean, but it has no
clear relationship with any Asiatic tongue. As English
embodies a vast number of Greek and Latin words, so
the Japanese has adopted uncounted Chinese words.
Chinese classics have been studied there for seven-
teen centuries, so historians of Jap.an affirm, and they
still have a prominence in academic studies. There is
no such marked difference in provincial dialects as in
China. One with the Tokyo tongue will have little
difficulty anywhere. The gutteral patois of the Aino
tribes is, however, intelligible to themselves alone.
The story of these fifteen thousand hairy aborigines is
well told by Miss Bird in her Unbeaten Tracks in
Japan. Japanese honorifics are of prime importance
Out-door Life in the Orient. Dr, E. P. Thwing. Hurst & Co.
LITERATURE IN JAPAN. 65
if one would stand well in the people's esteem. Your
verbal and grammatical attitude is a matter of equal
concern with your bodily bearing, voico and gesture.
Your style of speech is three-fold, suited to your su-
periors, inferiors and equals. The use of the personal
pronoun and the .verb varies according to the rank of
the person addressed. The honorific San is used even
by children at play. The military, as well as the liter-
ary class, employ not a few verbal embellishments.
Eecent acquaintance with Western languages has had,
of course, its influence on Japanese. Many new words
are coined.
LITERATURE IX JAPAN.
Heathen legends and cosmogonies make up the
earliest works extant. The date of the oldest history
is 711 A. D. The Lord of Mito (1622-1700) was a
patron of learning, and directed the preparation of the
History of Japan, a work published in two and forty
Volumes. The place of women in the literature of this
land is a significant fact. " A very large proportion of
the best writings of the best age of Japanese literature
was the work of women ; and the names of numerous
female poets and authors are quoted with admiration
even at the present time," says M'Clatchie. 13 ut under
the new regime the higher Western education docs not
fit a young woman for her position as wife and mother
in a Japanese home. It only makes her r< stless and
unhappy. Legislation as to marring;' and divorce
needs revision. Methods of self-support are to be
found. Christianity must reconstruct the home. The
number of female teachers who pr< fer a'i ind •}> ••ndent
Single life to the servitude of m.»r iii'.-ivasing.
There were, two years ago, in Hi > eleme1 t.-i y s
66 LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ART.
alone, eight hundred and fifty lady teachers. Miss
Bacon has found among this class some of the most
respected of Japanese women. In the growth of this
body of teachers she sees the surest sign that the law
will eventually emancipate woman from her present
fetters, and make marriage a less repugnant restraint
to those whose sense of self-respect has been quick-
ened by Christian culture. Educational statistics and
incidents of student life as seen in different parts of
the empire are given in detail in my Out-door Life in
the Orient.
Japanese verse is freer from Chinese flavor than
prose, and is more attractive, For centuries it was
the custom of Japanese gentlemen to write poetry,
generally lyric, and sometimes humorous. Suicides
were often preceded by an afflatus in this line. Inten-
tion and motive were stated. Paragrams and other
pleasant forms of ainbiloquy, acrostics and palin-
dromes were popular. Poetic contests were in vogue
a thousand years ago. The odes were brief, and con-
sisted of alternate lines of five and seven syllables.
The love of nature led the poet to choose his theme
from the natural world about him. Japan still has
also her fairy tales, borrowed from India and China,
illustrated with odd designs in wood engravings. His-
torical plays are common, for the people are fond of
theatrical amusements, although players were ostra-
cised until 1868. The Kabuki actors were despised ;
indeed, the very theatres in which they appeared, says
Professor Chamberlain, were looked down on as places
too vile for any gentleman to enter. Such outcasts
were actors at the time, that, when a census was taken,
they wciv sjioken of with the numerals used in count-
ing animals. Those to whom Japanese is familiar will
LITEIiATURE IN JAPAN. 67
appreciate the sting of the insult." The attempt to
reform the theatre is not a success, though in some
centers certain nameless appendages may have been
suppressed.*
Journalistic literature, scientific and linguistic learn-
ing are of modern growth, and will be referred to later
on when we look at the rejuvenescence of the East.
INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Industrial arts, coarse and fine, architecture and kin-
dred themes are treated fully by Professor Rein of the
University of Bonn, by Mr. Swatow and other con-
tributors to the Asiatic Society. The latter tells us
that the primeval palace was a wooden hut. The
frame was tied together with fibrous tendrils of, climb-
ing vines. Mats were laid on the mud floor, where
venomous snakes were not strangers to prince or ple-
beian. The Shinto temple took its stylo from the
same original. The roof, first thatched, then shingled,
was afterward covered with tile or copper. The pro-
jecting rafters were lengthened and elaborately carved.
The inner shrine was raised from the floor, and a bal-
cony and steps added. So domestic architecture grew
from the simple shelter of trees, whose branches were
bent and bound with rush, then covered with grass.
Such extemporaneous abodes needed no tools in their
construction. The people early got used to the drafts
of air which to Europeans, domiciled in a native
house, are so uncomfortable. As a foreign diplomat,
" When you can make an oak out of a mushroom, then, and not till
then, you may hope to make a living tree out of that poisonous toad-
stool, the theatre. Even among heathen nations it was considered a
disgrace to be connected with one. Down through all the thousands
of years which it has lived since then, it has come with perpetual dis-
honor on its head." — HENRY WARD BEECHEH.
68 LANGUAGE, LITERATI' UK AND ART.
between his sneezes, used to say, " Les Japonais
(«forent les courants (Pair ! " His greatest fear, evi-
dently, was the atmosphere !
The Kunst Leben or art life of Japan has so large a
literature, we need not dwell on it longer than to note
a few general facts. Indian taste is declining, we are
told, on account of the importation of coarse, cheap,
foreign wares.* "Wood carving, the preparation of
textile fabrics, fine pith work and damascening with
gold have all suffered. The introduction of piece goods
free of duty has driven the weavers into other em-
ployments. Copper and brass vessels supplant the
pottery which was the product of Saracenic taste, and
the finest in the world. A tinsel style of jewelry,
foreign designs in carpets, with poor colors in place of
the vivid blue and red of Persia, and other substitu-
tions show the detrusion of artistic taste through the
mercantile and mercenary spirit of the age.
Japan and other parts of the East feel the same de-
pressing influences. The inspiration of the old regime
is gone forever in the Sunrise Land. " Nothing is left
but the scenery," says one of her sons, now in Ameri-
ca. The conditions no longer exist under which were
developed and perfected those ideals that once made
decorative art what it was. Towards mere handicraft
the Japanese have little leaning. They despise trade
\\\\(\ barter. Excepting, perhaps, the vocation of ar-
morer, they look down on manual labor. Business
contracts clash with their inherited ideas. They are
unpractical, and have less ten.-ieity of purpose than
\ve. They have more ability than stability. Toil is
not regarded the end of life. As was said by Mr.
* Nineteenth Century, February, 1891.
INDUSTRIAL AETS. (39
Dening, addressing the Asiatic Society at Tokyo, No-
vember 12, 1890 : " The lack of interest in industry,
agriculture and commerce, so apparent among Japan-
ese young men, is the outcome of the training which
they have received. The books held in high esteem
«/
treat of subjects far removed from the every-day life
of men of business. The life of bread-earning seems
to be a gloomy existence. Occidentals, in their opin-
ion, are nothing the better for their big machines and
appliances ; on the contrary, they render themselves,
by perpetual toil and worry, unfit to enjoy the pleas-
ures which nature places within their reach." An
educated native, speaking before the same learned
body, affirmed that it would take generations to eradi-
cate from Japanese thought the evil effects of that
grinding despotism which in earlier days repressed
individuality and independence. Everything of origi-
nal thought was suppressed by the Shoguns as sedi-
tious. The lack of enterprise shown by the farmer
and mechanic, the fatalistic manner in which they
cling to their environment, as though it were unalter-
able, are fruits of feudalism. These are also shown in
the thoughts of the learned classes. " Learning is no
more than a pastime, with the majority. It is pursued
with no practical end in view. It is valued more as a
polite accomplishment than as an organ of enlightening
and ameliorating the condition of suffering humanity."
Tims briefly, but broadly, have we reviewed some
features of Oriental thought and life in the past, with
the conditions out of which they grew. Naturally wo
now turn to examine the present, and to forecast the
future.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE REJUVENESCENCE OF THE EAST.
" There sits drear Egypt, mid beleaguering sands, . . .
The burnt-out torch within her mouldering hands
That once lit all the East."
PKOEESSOK J. R. LOWELL.
Percival Lowell says that race-life in Japan is com-
pleted, and the vital force of Corea and China was
spent a thousand years ago. The Jordan that was fed
from far-off mountains has reached its Dead Sea. The
Nirvana is now being realized in the Far East. It
is already wrapped in its winding sheet and destined
to disappear before the advancing nations of the West.
The apparent life is but superficial — that of sprouts on
a stunted tree. Civilization has been a mechanical
compound without affinity of elements and without the
coherence that comes from thorough fusion.
VARIOUS OUTLOOKS.
It is amusing to note the positiveness of some views
formed after brief acquaintance and narrow generali-
zations. One recently deceased author, Gifibrd Pal-
grave, fixed eight weeks as the proper period to qual-
ify an intelligent visitor to write about Japan. A
shorter time he fancied would produce superficial
ideas, while a longer stay would bring about a wroug
mental focus. He governed himself accordingly. Henry
Finck spent eight weeks in the Iberian peninsular,
and presents in his new volume, Spain and Morocco,
DECREPITUDE DENIED. 71
charming samples of local color, for the transfer of
which he claims, perhaps justly, that he is " better
qualified after a visit of two months, than after a
sojourn of two years ; for what is most novel, charac-
teristic and romantic in a foreign country strikes us
most vividly at the beginning. It gradually loses its
fascination as daily repetition makes it seem normal."
Something more, however, is needed than residence
in a country. Something more, even, than acute pow-
ers of observation. Max Muller writes understand-
ingly about India without having seen its shores. To
be a wise traveler one must have been a wide reader.
A year abroad is but a brief period to gain just meas-
urements of life and thought, unless one has a well-
stored niind to begin with. Then, with philosophical
instincts to guide research, a short sojourn serves to
fertilize the studies of previous years, to illuminate
early impressions, anil to correct false ones. Much
which is latent comes to view, and a wonderful stimu-
lus to fresh investigation is received.
Is the rejuvenation of the East possible ? Is it need-
ed ? If so, on what, conditions, and by whom, will
the resuscitation be accomplished ? It is a profound
problem. The writor feels like addressing the reader
in the words of the governor of Formosa, not long ago
addressed to the "Emperor — a Chinese meiosis, thor-
oughly Oriental — " On my narrow views and meager
opinions, I beg your sacred glance ! "
DECREPITUDE DENIED.
The English rac'j is apt to look on Asian life as
doomed. Western life alone has promise of eternal
youth. Manifest 'iestiny has given us the earth and
the fullness the^xofr Fourth of July orators put the
72 THE KK.TrYKNKsn.NCE OF THE EAST.
poles as the proper limits of American power north-
ward and southward, and the day of judgment the oiilj
limit westward ! The same imperious spirit of pro-
prietorship led Beaconsfield uniformly to speak of
England as essentially an Asiatic power. The assump-
tion is that Eastern life, as a whole, is senile, if not
moribund ; that its physical forces are degenerating,
and its mental activity feeble. AVhat are the facts ?
Since beginning this chapter, a letter from my friend
Dr. Ashmore of Swatow informs me of the amazing
vitality of the oldest -race now Living on the earth.
He says : " We dwell on the growth of our own popu-
lation at home, but China is advancing nearly three
times as fast — forty millions in ten years ! Enough to
start and stock a new nation." This, it must be re-
membered, is not by immigration, as here, but by
natural increase. Japan, too, has steadily increased
to upwards of forty millions. Indeed, the vernacular
press has been discussing the inadequate food supply
for the rapid growth of population. Malthusian ap-
prehensions trouble them, and various plans are sug-
gested.* In five years fourteen thousand thrifty
Japanese in Hawaii sent home two million dollars.
This is but one hint of the expanding material pros-
perity of that part of the East. The fifteen millions
increase in India since its last census is another proof
that Oriental races are not dying out. They seem to
be, some of them, at least, " as full-blooded, as virile
in their physical make, and as likely to endure for
thirty generations as they did a thousand years ago.
They seem to be waiting in grand reserve as the beds
of anthracite have waited with latent fires for future
* Japan Mail, August 9th and 30th, 1890.
DECREPITUDE DENIED. 73
use. That ancient development of man which began
on the plains of Shinar, bids fair to live by the side of
its Occidental rival, even if it does not outlive this by
reason of its calmer flow of life. If it does thus live,
all analogy would lead us to believe that there is some-
thing in it which deserves to live, which Providence
has a use for in the future, something or other, which,
under divine regeneration, will be a cause of growth,
if inf usiul into the life-blood of the Western races.
The circle of Occidental development may be en-
larged by it. The channel in -which our civilization is
moving may be widened and deepened." *
Are there signs of mental decrepitude ? Certainly
not in Japan, China and India, which represent half
the human race. I found a vigorous intellectual fer-
ment iii all these empires. Decomposition and re-
composition are going on. The thousands of new
books by Indian scholars issued yearly, and the pub-
lished proceedings of the National Congress — two
portly folios sent to me by the presidents of the Bom-
bay and Allahabad bodies — are significant signs of a
fruitful and aggressive mental activity. So, also, are
their schools and universities. The great arsenals of
China, like Foochow and Kiangnan, with their schools
for interpreters, translating departments, libraries and
printing establishments, are unique and commanding
witnesses to a nascent intellectual life, which must
bring about great changes in the ruling classes of the
Empire. In eight years 83,454 scientific volumes were
translated from the English and other foreign tongues,
and sold to eager and appreciative readers. The first
four volumes were on geometry, algebra, military
Men and Books (Prtfessor Phelps), p. '2'M.
74 THT REJUVENESCENCE OF THE EAST.
engineering and differential calculus. Books on the
physical sciences, law, medicine, philosophy and re-
ligion have followed. Some have been adopted as
text-books of mission schools and in the Peking Uni-
versity. Professor Fryer and his staff have overcome
the difficulty of nomenclature and other obstacles
which confront pioneers of modern sciences. The
Emperor can, indeed, decide the exact manner in
which characters shall be written. He has forbidden
certain forms, but he cannot check the growth of
ideas, or of the expression of those ideas in the ver-
nacular.
The venerable Oriental scholar, Dr. Edkins of Shan-
gai, says that the temper of the literati is not as in-
tolerant as formerly, and so the acceptance of the
gospel by 'the younger generation is not as hopeless as
it once was. China may become like Japan in this
respect. He quotes one scholar who urges govern-
ment to use foreign methods in cultivating laud, and
boldly proclaims the folly of Feng-Slmi, the wind and
water delusion. " No one engaged in public affairs
should give it any attention. It is dreamy talk with-
out a basis." Another high Confucian scholar, land-
holder and owner of European machinery asked Dr.
Edkins if Christian converts could be secured on his
estates as settlers. He would gladly put in their hands
modern appliances, and would aid in erecting a Chris-
tian chapel for their use. From time to time the liter-
ati have borrowed from the West. The Manchu alpha-
bet is the result of Christian missions in Central Asia
in the middle ages. Fung Yee, late Secretary of the
Legation at London, recently replied to the remark
that the news were too good to be true that China was
now really in favor of the immediate construction of
DECREPITUDE DENIED. 75
railways, by saying that government has been ready,
ever since treaty ports were opened, to adopt all for-
eign ideas " that were unmistakably calculated to en-
rich and strengthen her." China has adapted her
policy to the exigencies of the time and circumstances
of the people. There had been no real retrogression.
The ill-advised and abortive Woosung railway was no
Exception.
Sir Frederic Brace's remark to Charles Sumner may
be repeated here, in support of the fact that there is
no mental decrepitude to be found in the statesmanship
of the Far East. He said to Sumner that the officials
he had met were " unequalled for character and abili-
ty." Being pressed, he repeated the remark, and said
that he would not except even Palmerston in making
his comparison. These astute diplomats of the Flow-
ery Kingdom very soon take the measure of their
Western peers, and also know how to handle their in-
feriors. A recent author, speaking of the disgraceful
and cruel treatment of Chinese by America, warns us
that these statesmen have quietly made note of it and
patiently bide their time. " Their memories are long.
Some day they wiU collect their bill, and it will be
made up with compound interest." *
What has been said of the mental awakening in
India and China can be said witli special emphasis of
Japan. Nothing, perhaps, in history equals it. To-day
Japan is spending proportiouably more for schools
than the United States. Its ratio of attendance is
larger than here. Does this look as if the Land of
the Morning were " wrapped in its winding sheet,"
destined to disappear in its own Nirvana V Not much.
A. A. Hayes in Atlantic Monthly. M.iv, is:*7.
76 THE HE.TUYEXESCTATE OF THE EAST.
Mr. Lowell " reads his own ideas into facts and draws
out undreamed inferences," remarks a keen Japanese
critic, wlio advises liim to drop liis evolutionary the-
ories and make " a more impartial and thorough ex-
amination of Oriental life." *
No, Nippon is not " a clock run down." This state-
ment of Mr. Lowell is as far from the truth as his
other, that Christianity is a failure in the Orient. The
wish is sometimes father to the thought. One proof
of national life is the patriotism of the people. The
Yamato DamashU — the Spirit of Unconquerable
Japan — is vigorous still. Nations that show this tem-
per are not lapsing into senility. Personal and family
pride in Japan are inseparable from a chivalric love of
countiy. It has always been the chief object of edu-
cation, observes Nakashima, to intensify and develop
this sense of honor. All actions are tested by it.
A MOKAL REJUVENATION.
Circumstances threw me into somewhat intimate re-
lations for several days during the summer of 1890,
with a gentleman now in the House of Peers. An in-
tense patriotism seemed to be the guiding impulse of
his life. He appreciated what he had seen in America
and Europe, and earnestly desired, he told me, to
have all the best elements of Western thought incor-
porated into the nascent civilization of his native land.
He would not admit a physical or mental decay in the
Far -East ; but he did see the need of a moral reju-
venation. Though not a convert to Christianity, he
declared himself favorably inclined to it from what he
had read and heard, also from his relations to a Chris-
* Rikizo Nakashinin, New Englander, February, 1889.
A M01IAL REJUVENATION. 77
tian teacher in his University course. This is a typical
case.
Intelligent men in the East feel that moral ele-
ments are indispensible to lift the Oriental mind to
its truest altitude. The recent deliverance of the
Mikado declares this, in substance, in reference to
education. It follows a similar utterance of the Yice-
roj of India. The material forces of commerce, sci-
ence, arts and philosophy cannot generate the new
life needed, valuable though they are. Professor
Phelps says it is useless to " look for a rejuvenes-
cence of Asia in coming ages from any internal
forces now acting there, independently of the Scrip-
tures. The East is the land of pyramids and sphinxes.
Whatever that immense territory has to contribute to
the civilization of the future must come from the ger-
mination of biblical thought. It must be the working
of biblical inspiration in the spiritual renewal of Ori-
ental character, which nothing but the religion of the
Scriptures can produce. Why should it be deemed
visionary to look for this as one of the results of the
infusion of European mind now going on in Western
and Central Asia ? Already the germs of Christian
universities and libraries exist there, which may one
day allure literary travel from the West, as those of
England and Germany do to-day. Inspired prophecy
aside, it is no more visionary to predict the recreation
of the Oriental mind in forms of new literature su-
perior to any the world has yet known, through the
plastic influences of the Scriptures, than it was to ;m-
anticipate the birth of the three great literatures of
Europe, as the fruit of the modern revival of the liter-
tures of Greece and Home. The minds of nations
move in just such immense waves of revolution. Rea-
78 THE IlEJUVENESCENCE OF THE EAST.
soiling a posteriori they are only the natural effect of ;i
great force generating great forces. The Asiatic races,
indeed, have a fairer intellectual prospect than Europe
had at. the time of the revival of letters, for they are to
receive their higher education in Christian instead of
Pagan forms. Conceive what difference would have
been created in the destinies of Europe, what centuries
of conflict with barbarism would, to human view, have
been saved, if the Greek and Roman literatures could
have come into the possession of the modern European
mind, .freighted with Christian, instead of Pagan
thought, and if, thus Christianized, they could have
been wrought into European culture ! " "::~
Thii acute thinker saw a providence in the fact that
the divine Word was forever stereotyped in an Ori-
ental mould, as if the Oriental type of the race was yet
to be not only a power in the world's history, but the
vital bond between its future and its past. Napoleon
called Europe provincial and contracted. The East
was the only fit theater for great exploits, where are
great races and ancient seats of empire. " There may
be more of truth in this than he meant to utter. The
grandest intellectual and moral conquests of the world
may yet follow the track of Alexander."
This rapid review of the need and possibility of a
moral resuscitation of the East has brought us to the
consideration of matters of practical concern to those
who desire, in one way or another, to aid in so great
and grand a work. By what methods may the vivify-
ing influence of Protestant Christianity be brought to
bear upon Asiatic thought? How may we best im-
prove this pivotal period and hasten the occupancy of
the Oriental world for Christ ?
* Men and Books, p. 234.
CHAPTER IX.
SUPERNATURAL FACTORS.
" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; THEKEFORE
go ye and teach all nations." — JESUS.
Will tlie moon of Mahomet wane, and the cry of the
muezzin be heard no more ? Will Brahminic wisdom
and Confucian scholarship ever be humbled before the
Crucified, and the wealth of the Orient be laid at His
feet ? A wild dream indeed it is to those who ignore
the supernatural in human affairs ; but to those who
see God's hand in history it is a sober verity. Christ
has a kingdom. The uttermost parts of the earth are
His possession. " This gospel of the kingdom shall
be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all
nations, and then shall the end coine." Matt, xxiv : 14.
Because God our Saviour has all power, because there
is "given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom,
that all people, nations and languages should serve
Him," we go forth with His truth, which is the power
of God and therefore omnipotent.
The success of missions during the past" century can
only be interpreted by conceding this superhuman ele-
ment. Their final triumph can be hoped for on no
other ground. Material factors are not forgotten.
War has played its part, commerce, politics, science,
human skill and learning ; these all are allies in pre-
paring the way of the Lord, but with nothing more, we
should be impotent to contend with the great historic
forces of heathenism.
80 SUI'KKXATUKAL FACTORS.
Sydney Smith and other English reviewers eighty
odd years ago ignored the supernatural factors of the
missionary work, and therefore sneered at it. Carey
and his associates were called " didactic artisans,
whose proper talk is of bullocks and not the gospel ;
delirious mechanics ; the lowest of the people ; detach-
ments of lunatics." The profound ignorance of these
clerical railers was shown by their estimate of the hea-
then to whom the missionaries went. They extolled
the pagan at the expense of the Christian, saying,
" We believe a Hindu is more mild and sober than
most Europeans, and as honest and chaste." There
are scholarly men to-day who show as little knowledge
of the field and the work.
IGNOKANT CEITICS.
A public man in England, an Oxford graduate and
doctor of laws, was conversing with a lady. She ex-
cused herself, saying that she had an engagement at
the Zenana mission. He innocently replied that he had
heard of that place, Zenana, but where in the world it
was located he did not know ! In Ferguson's History
of Ceylon, reference is made to a member of the Brit-
ish Parliament who protested against stationing troops
in " this deadly climate of West Africa," Ceylon, evi-
dently, being in his thought a shortened form of Sierra
Leone.
An English sportsman, W. S. Percival, admits that
there have been a few great missionaries, but he jeers
at the bulk of them as " poor enthusiasts . . . with
the average education of the class to which they be-
long." He is particularly bitter against unmarried
ladies, and says, " Respectable Chinese do not admit
missionary visitors ; what can they think of these girl
THREE AGENCIES. 81
wanderers ? " The author of A Girdle Round the
Earth adds falsehood to scorn, saying, " Missionaries
in China live in luxury. No foreign class do so little
work. There are more pagans born here every minute
than are converted in a century." Thus are the Mas-
ter's words fulfilled. He was called Beelzebub by
those whose lives were reproved by His presence.
" Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world
hateth you." Sir Richard Temple indignantly met
similar calumnies aimed at the self-denying and hard
worked missionaries among the Hindus, by saying, " I
assure you, as a man who has himself actually gov-
erned one hundred and five millions of these natives of
India, that nothing can be a greater caricature and
travesty."
Those who look upon missions as a human enter-
prise, and ignore the supernatural factors concerned in
it, apply simply mercantile and mercenary tests. Men
and methods, aims and results, are viewed from a low
and narrow outlook. The means employed are likely
to be of a secular and worldly character. The temper
in which they would carry on the work is also worldly,
and they demand immediate and palpable results. We
cannot wonder so much at the shallow criticisms which ,
are passed upon it when the supernatural element that
inspires and directs it is lost sight of. Those who
come to the missionary field must expect to encounter
them continually.
THREE AGENCIES.
First and foremost is the
piocl, . • ., , • .? i .s the power of the
gospel has I) m demonstrated!!! the triumphs it has
won among A\ esteni nations, the past nineteen cen-
82 SUPERNATURAL FACTO I ;s.
turies, wo are sure that it has an equally glorious mis-
sion to accomplish for the Orient. Said Jonathan Ed-
wards : " America has received- the true religion of the
old continent. The church of ancient times has been
there, and Christ is from thence. But that there may
be an equality — and inasmuch as that continent has
crucified Christ — they shall not have the honor of com-
municating religion in its most glorious state to us, but
we, to them." He believed that the heathen needed
the gospel, and that they needed it this side of the
grave. This Pauline idea was not then regarded " an
exploded theory," nor was Christianity to him a spent
force. Yet he died, in 1758, before the first modern
missionary society was formed. William Carey at Ket-
tering, in 1795, organized this pioneer of the two hun-
dred and fifty formed since. It is estimated that these
Boards have sent twenty-five thousand laborers into
the foreign field. If President Edwards has in heaven,
seen the " Miracles of Missions " on earth of the past
half century — and why should we doubt the fact of his
knowledge and continued sympathy ? — his reminis-
cences must be full of joy. Because it was God's
planting, the fir-tree has displaced the thorn, and the
myrtle, the brier. Because God gave the increase, the
earth has brought forth in a day, and a nation has
been born at once. Because the Lord gave the word,
great was the company of men and women that wil-
lingly proclaimed it. "Nations have been transformed,
Christianity has become the law of the land, and idols,
once in every house, have not been found, even as
curios and relics ! The adamantine wall of caste, the
iron wheel of transmigration, the brazen fetters of
Moslem bigotry, the hopeless thraldom of • fetichism
have alike proved powerless to oppose the simple gos-
EDUCATIONAL METHODS. 83
pel of Christ." * Methods of evangelistic labor vary
with country and clime, but they all involve the train-
ing up of a native force of preachers and teachers,
hence a second agency, the Educational.
EDUCATIONAL METHODS.
The discipling of all nations is done by the school
as truly as by the sermon, by the printed page as well
as by the living voice. There should be no friction.
Yet in some fields, a disproportionate attention has
been given to teaching and to branches of purely secu-
lar learning. It is easy to yield to the eager demand
in Eastern communities for instruction in secular sci-
ence, made by those who are moved by mercenary
motives alone, and who care nothing for Christianity.
Again, when governmental patronage and aid are
promised to schools whose pupils reach a certain per-
centage in studies required by government, a strong
pressure is brought to bear on the missionary. A
laudable desire to conciliate local prejudices also
tempts him to keep the distinctive religious character
of education out of sight, when surrounded by un-
friendly influences. A desire to stand well before
those at home, who watch with admiring interest the
numerical growth of school as well as church, and a
desire to compare favorably with competing societies
in the field, also affect educational methods.
Rev. Charles R. Hager, in a recent article on Suc-
cess in Missionary Life, gives a timely caution on this
point, drawn from his experience in China. " Seem-
ing success is based chiefly on outward appearance.
One exhibits quantity, the other quality, irrespective
* Missionary Keview of the World, vol. iii., p. 660.
84 SUPERNATURAL FACTORS.
of numbers. Missions are ill the same danger as home
churches of becoming outwardly prosperous, while the
real spiritual life remains dormant." He shows, more-
over, that districts differ in fruitfulness to as marked a
degree as the soil of farms ; that local characteristics,
political history and social conditions combine to make
the people of one district responsive to preacher and
teacher, while with people under opposite conditions,
effort seems utterly hopeless; and, finally, that the
supernatural element must be a constant factor, pre-
paring alike the one to teach and the other to learn.
The Word of God as a divine instrument must be
made central in education, and never made to take a
subordinate place. This gives dignity and power to
all the instruction. " Without it the school is useless ;
therefore no pains should be spared to secure this pre-
dominant religioiis influence, and no conditions should
be imposed or allowed, which will interfere with it."
So said one at the Shanghai Conference, speaking
from twenty -five years experience in the school at
Tungchow, Rev. C. AV. Mateer, D.D., LL.D., a man
second to none in ability in that large and memorable
assembly.
Heathen classics are studied in mission schools, for
they represent more to native students than Greek or
Latin to ours. Pupils would be illiterate who knew
not the books of their sages. These in China are not
antagonistic to Christianity, and are as clean as those
we teach in our colleges. A wise, adroit teacher need
not be embarrassed. The regnant power of the AVord
of God will be felt as a constant corrective.
This matter will be referred to again in connection
with certain practical problems related to the work
of the preacher, teacher and physician.
MEDICAL MISSIONS. 85
In no branch of the work has God's blessing been
more conspicuously shown than in this. No method
of labor brings us into closer contact with Eastern life.
No service so sharply contrasts Western science and
Oriental superstition, the unselfishness of Christianity
with the cruelty and ignorance of heathenism. Nothing
is so directly antidotal to the dislike of foreigners
which has been often awakened by unscrupulous deal-
ings with the people of the East. In no part of the
work has the romance of modern missions been more
graphically exhibited. Again and again surgical skill
has succeeded in removing obstacles where diplomacy
and military force have failed. Dr. Parker is said to
have opened China with a lancet. So Dr. Allen opened
Corea with his forceps. A nephew of the king was
among the wounded, at the time of a civil outbreak.
Native physicians were about to pour melted wax on
severed arteries. Dr. Allen took charge of the royal
patient, picked up the bleeding vessels with his for-
ceps, tied them and treated the wound with antiseptic
appliances. Excellent results followed, and the grate-
ful King founded the Royal "Hospital and put Dr.
Allen in charge. The preacher followed in the steps
of the physician. Dr. Peck of China has in nine years
treated seventy thousand cases, through which forty-
five thousand different persons have been brought
under his Christian influence. Dr. Kerr has treated a
half a million patients, educated a hundred medical
students, and prepared thirty medical works. Daring
the Shanghai Conference, when called upon to bear
witness as to what I had seen in the East of Medical
Missions, I spoke as follows :
It is a privilege for one whose work, to somo ex-
tent, lies in the medical as well as clerical profession,
#) SUPERNATURAL FACTORS.
and whose opportunities for observation are not limited
to one continent, to pay his tribute to the toilful ser-
vice of missionary physicians in the East. This service
is threefold.
1. In maintaining the moral tone and professional
ability of this sacred vocation. There are influences at
work which tend to lower the standard, not only of
scientific attainment, but of personal character. It
is hard at home to withstand the debasing influences
of the venal, sordid, increasingly sensuous civilization
of the age, but harder still when the tonic impulses
of a strong Christian sentiment, such as dominate
England and America, are wanting. If they have
done nothing else, medical missionaries of the East
have done this — all praise to them for their grit and
grace — they have kept their Hippocratean oath, taken
at graduation, and maintained the purity, probity and
honor of a profession which is regarded at home as
second to none in the lustre of its fame, in the honor
of its name.
2. They have broadened the field of investigation
and enriched the accumulations of science. The eti-
ology and natural history of diseases peculiar to the
East have competent observers and careful statisticians
among our medical missionaries. The eulogiums of
Carl Bitter and Agassiz as to the services of mission-
aries, though emphatic, are deserved. The reports of
resident physicians connected with the Customs, made
to the Inspector-General, are hints as to what may be
done in future years in the enrichment of medical
literature, by men whose opportunities are rare for the
study of disease in its endemic seat, as leprosy, for
example, or mental diseases in tropical climes.
3. Their direct ministry to the body and soul. I
THE ACCELERATION OF GOD'S MOVEMENTS. 87
could speak for hours upon tliis point, for several
months' residence in Canton Hospital has taught me,
what nothing else could so vividly and pathetically
illustrate, the urgency and promise of medical mis-
sions. Here, as in India and Japan, the successful
work of female physicians has been conspicuously
shown. Here, too, the disinterested nature of the
medical service has been daily observed. Here^also,
the mighty power it wields as an evangelizing agency.
On each of these points and others I might enlarge,
but only respond to the call you have made on me to
accentuate the three points named, the noble influence
your physicians exert in preserving untainted that
social purity which dominates the Christian homes
and countries we represent, which has made marriage
honorable, womanhood sacred and continence iudis-
pensible ; their services as contributors to professional
and scientific research, and their crowning work as
priests and priestesses of Him who came to seek and
to save the lost, and whose benediction is their choicest
recompense : " Inasmuch as ye did it unto them ye did
it unto Me ! "
At the same convention, which continued about two
weeks, the following address was given by the writer.
It is copied from the Volume of Transactions recently
published by the Presbyterian Press, Shanghai.
THE ACCELERATION OF GOD'S MOVEMENTS.
The altitude and proportions of an edifice may be
sometimes better estimated by one who stands a little
removed from it, rather than within its walls. The
magnitude, significance and promise of modern mis-
sions may bo better appreciated by one who inspects
SITEKNATUIIAL FACTolJS.
them in both hemispheres, not as a missionary, not as
a hurrying tourist, but as a patient, candid, serious
student of God's movements in human history.
Returning home from this eighth foreign tour, which
represents nearly a year's absence and thirty thousand
miles' travel, an unexpected summons meets me to ad-
dress this Conference on the first day of its delibera-
tions. No theme has been assigned ; but a few thoughts
occur to me on a subject on which I have often re-
flected, but never before spoken, The inherent mo-
mentum of ideas and the special acceleration of that
momentum which God is to give in these latter days.
Von Herder, when dying said, " Give me a great
thought that I may be refreshed." "We want great
thoughts to live by, to refresh us in the strenuous ac-
tivities of a service in which the most devoted are
sometimes weary and depressed. Have we not here
an exhilarating truth, the mighty vigor, velocity and
vitality of ideas, when once started on their endless
career ?
When railways were first opened in Spain we are
told that the simple-minded peasants, supposing that
the trains could stop any where, any time, as easily as
a mule or ox team, stood on the track and were fre-
quently run over. They had no conception of speed
and momentum. Herbert Spencer uses the incident
to characterize the mental incapacity of those who
cannot comprehend the ever-increasing momentum of
ideas in the world. "An idea is mightier than a
million men," said Dr. Edward Beecher, the pastor of
my boyhood. It is true. Men are circumscribed by
physical limitations to which spiritual forces are
strangers. A man can be in but one place at a time ;
he comes and he goes; h<- lives and dies; but these
THE ACCELERATION OP GOD*S MOVEMENTS. Si)
unseen increments which we call ideas, travel as the
light by which we see, abide with us as the air by
which we breathe, brood over us as do these star-lit
heavens to-night, all-encompassing, pervasive, eternal !
Embodied, they become laws, literatures, civilizations.
Institutions are called the lengthened shadows of sin-
gle lives. Luther gave the world Lutheranism, and
Calvin, Calvinism ; so all history is but the biography
of a few sturdy souls, as Emerson has said, and these
souls are the incarnation of ideas, the onward march of
which nothing can obstruct. It is a perilous thing to
antagonize ideas which express essential truth. It is
to commit the folly of those who have put out a foot to
stop what was thought to be a spent cannon ball, and
have thereby lost a leg. There is nothing so revolu-
tionary and convulsive to society, Dr. Thomas Arnold
has said, " as the strain to keep things fixed, when all
the world, by the law of its being, is in eternal pro-
gress."
Confucius attempted this when he taught that China's
work was not to create, but to conserve and transmit.
Hence the usages of centuries crystalize into unvary-
ing forms. Her people have been content to follow
ancestral traditions ; to think, live and act as those
before them, indifferent to new conditions, possibili-
ties and responsibilities. The nation is fitly com-
pared tp Lot's wife, looking backward, wedded to the
past, vainly hoping to resist the influences which im-
pel the human race onward.
It was observed at one of the Northtield meetings
that " the Lord himself cannot switch a motionless
engine." There can be no guidance of stationary ob-
jects. To go right we must move. God said to Moses,
" Speak to the children of Israel that they go for-
00 SUPERNATURAL FACTORS.
ward ! " Jesus said to his disciples, " Launch forth
into the deep ! " "\Vheu the germinal impulse of an
idea is divine, its mission is world-wide and its power
deific. Inspired of God and guided by Him, it is not
a transient, purposeless thing, but a gigantic moral
force, a strange, intrusive, resistless energy, ubiquitous
and immortal ! It will not die with the life first in-
spired by it, but live in other lives, and so wields a
power richer in quality, vaster in limit and more com-
manding in influence as the years go on. This is
spiritual momentum.
The possessor and herald of such eternal verities is
not to timidly stand, as did the propounder of a new
law in olden time in England, who placed himself
meekly in the market-place with a halter about his
neck, with which the populace might hang him if
displeased with the innovation ; but he is to enunciate
them with the imperative emphasis of authority.
Nothing in the world is so intolerant as truth. It
brooks no rival and stoops to no compromise. Truth
is the reality of things, and therefore is unchangeable
in every age and every clime ; therefore is mandatory,
unconquerable and eternal. There is unspeakable com-
fort in this thought for the weary worker, oppressed
by the burden, depressed by the obstacles in his work.
But there is another quickening thought.
In latter days we may expect an acceleration of
God's movements in human history. He is not slack
concerning His promises, though their fulfillment may
seem to us very slow. The martyred saints above are
crying, " How long, O Lord ? " and the tired earth
below, with its old headache and heartache, repeats
the same appealing prayer, "How long?" This
Gibraltar of heathenism before us here stands firm in
THE ACCELERATION Otf GOD*S MOVEMENTS. 91
its stony strength, hoary with age, apparently invul-
nerable. Sixty generations of missionaries, resolute,
robust, consecrated men and women, have passed by,
each smiting heavy blows. Fragments have fallen,
but the mountain stands. Scoffers sneer. It is not
easy to answer the scorn of the godless, " who find
the salt of their wit in the brine of our tears." It is not
easy to hush our own doubts and fears. But we do know
that " God's chronometer never loses time." Ideas
are imperishable. The mind is a palimpsest. What
appears to have been lost will surely reappear. The
on-going of truth is irresistable. Now, to its intrinsic
momentum we believe that God's outstretched arm will
give, as it were, an added push, to make what He caUs
" a short work " of it as the end of all things hastens.
Has He not promised that the plowman shall overtake
the reaper, the treader of grapes the sower of seed,
and that a nation shall be born at once ? This con-
ception rebukes the pessimistic philosophy of those
who see the world going to the bad, and fancy that
their duty is but to save here and there a few from the
wreck. Macaulay says that in his day he saw nothing
but progress, yet he heard only of decay ; the birds of
ill omen chanting their saddest notes when the future
was brightest. No, no ! we are in no sinking ship ;
we are following no failing cause ! God's word returns
not void. His truth is omnipotent, and its onward
velocity increases every decade. We may expect a
more rapid evangelization of the world as a result.
The branch of the Lord grows more beautiful and
comely, the fruit of the earth more excellent. The
light of the moon is to change to the splendor of the
sun, and the light of the sun is to be sevenfold, as the
light of seven days.
92 SUPERNATURAL FACTORS.
The splendid leaps of science in the discovery and
application of physical forces are a type and promise of
the augmentation of personal power and holiness in
the Church of Christ. There is coming a manlier life,
more healthful and aggressive. The feeble knees are
to be strengthened, the lame man is to leap as the
hart, the tongue of the dumb is to sing. One will
chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
Those who have been weak in the church are to be-
come as David, and the house of David as God.
Years of preparation seem slow and fruitless ; but
enterprises move with increased celerity when the pre-
paratory work is done. Standing in St. Isaac's Church,
St. Petersburg, I thought of the many millions spent
in its erection, largely on the foundations. A Russian
forest wras sunk in the form of piles. After this long,
tedious work was done, the massive monoliths, the
marble and malachite, the jasper and the gold, went
readily to their places. Fitly framed together, the
building stood complete, " frozen music, an anthem in
stone." So men and millions were sacrificed in exca-
vations at Hell Gate, in East River, New York. The
years went on and we saw no fruits. But the tiny
finger of Mary Newton on an electric button exploded
the powder and dynamite, and in an instant removed
a formidable barrier to navigation. One day a hea-
then in India ran after a missionary and bade him not
be discouraged, for there is, he said, a silent, secret
work going on among his people. The whole fabric
of heathenism is honeycombed, and some day will
suddenly disintegrate. Prophetic signs multiply. When
Neesima of Japan was buried, Buddhist priests sent
memorial banners as a tribute of respect to the herald
uf a gospel they did not accept, but the conquering
THE ACCELERATION OF GOD'S MOVEMENTS. 93
power of which they acknowledged. No arithmetic of
ours can calculate the movements of Iinmanuel, but we
do know that " His going forth is as the morning,"
brighter and swifter, till the noontide splendor of His
reign is reached.
Coming out of St. Peter's one day, wearied with the
caricatures of Christian worship, my delighted eyes
read on the Egyptian obelisk that graces the square,
CHRISTUS REGNAT ! Not " Christ will reign," a prom-
ise and a hope ; not has reigned, a memory and re-
gret; a Troja fait, something that was and is no more;
but CHRIST REIGNS ! in Rome, in China, in all the
world ! The government is on His shoulders. The
scepter is in His hands. He is the center of truth, the
summit of history, the goal of human hope ! Halle-
lujah ! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly !
There are two audiences T behold before me. Be-
yond and above this eager, listening congregation I
see a larger throng, I hear a sweeter choir. There is
an innumerable assembly of redeemed ones gathered
from every land and language ; apostles, saints and
martyrs ; a white-robed company. There are converts
from every clime. There are faces that are familiar ;
feet that will soon fly to meet us ; lips that wait to
greet us ; but best of all, there is Jesus, the Captain of
our salvation, under whose illustrious leadership we
are marching, and at whose pierced feet it will soon be
our joy to cast our crowns ! Let us ever walk under
the shadow of these august realities, feeling the in-
spiration of His presence, the thrilling impulse of His
truth, day by day, till we are summoned one by one to
meet Him face to face, when our joy shall be supernal
and eternal, in the presence of the KING !
CHAPTEE X.
PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
First, What should be our attitude towards the peo-
ple of the Orient ? How shall the Anglo-Saxon ap-
proach the Asiatic in the intercourse which modern
civilization has established throughout the earth ?
Can we of the West come to an agreement as to the
true temper in which we are to meet them ? As a
whole, Asiatic people are not friendly to foreign ideas.
They have looked upon those of other nations among
them as intruders ; their aim as either mercenary or
political ; their ideas revolutionary, and their presence
a menace to their civilization. Can we wonder at this
distrust, when we see the prejudice here towards the
very people of the East whom we once invited to our
shores ? Can pagans be blamed for expressing their
antipathy by as active measures of expulsion as we
ourselves have adopted towards them ?
In general, it may be said that Christian nations
must divest themselves of the pride and prejudice of
race if they would hope, under God, to secure the
moral conquest of the earth. The teacher, preacher
or the merchant, going to the East, must carry broad
sympathies, founded not only on moral considerations,
but on an intellectual appreciation of what these na-
tions are to-day as historic factors in the world's de-
velopment. We have brieHy indicated the gem-sis and
growth of Asiatic thought, the outlines of character,
art, industry, literature and social life. Enough has
MUTUAL ACQUAINTANCE. 'Jo
•
been adduced as evidence to validate the statement of
Sir William Jones with which we began. Yet there
are few who really appreciate what the East is, and
what it has done for the West. The lack of informa-
tion on the part of intelligent people is amazing, when
the literature of the subject is so opulent, attractive
and cheap.*
MUTUAL ACQUAINTANCE.
The scorn of the Oriental for the European comes
from ignorance. He looks down from his position as
inheritor of ancient religious, philosophies and social
customs upon the new comer as a mere upstart, a
parvenu, if not a barbarian or demon. Coming to In-
dia full of conceit, the Englishman has shown similar
scorn, and has been heard to say of the Hindu, " He
is only a nigger ! " For the proud-spirited Japanese,
strangers have sometimes shown no more regard.
" Natives may apply for admission at the back door,"
was the notice posted by one family at their front en-
trance. Another case I heard of, where a man who
taught a school of three hundred boys, in ignorance or
in defiance of the old samurai spirit that still survives
there, gave one of them a caning, as he would had he
had a Yorkshire school and Smike for a pupil. For-
tunately, there was no Nicholas Nickleby to return
blow for blow, and the foreigner escaped from the
place unharmed, but more than three-quarters of the
* Dr. Pierson says that but one out of forty, of the 72U,(KH» com-
municants of his branch of the church, takes the only missionary
magazine of the denomination. He says that ignorance is the great
obstacle, and information the foremost need. He cites incidents of
astounding ignorance of missions on the part of Christians, and also
in the case of journalists and public men. Missionary Review, July,
1890.
'•)() 1'K.UTICAL PROBLEMS.
•
students at once left. The injury to the school proved
irreparable.
A meeting of women in Washington recently ex-
pressed their approval of the exclusion of Chinese in
a resolution which stigmatized that imperial race as
" hordes of leprous Mongolians." There are lepers in
the East, and there are thousands of imbeciles here.
Is it any more fair to call one people leprous, than to
call the other idiotic ? A little more knowledge and
candor will wonderfully help in the solution of some
of these international problems. •• What is needed, is
not " a race sentiment," as a NCAV York daily urges,
a recrudescence of Know-nothing-ism, or any such
spirit of exclusiveness and hate, but, rather, a revival
of magnanimity, of Christian brotherhood and unself-
ish interest in all men as our kin, whatever be their
color or their clime. A wealthy, powerful nation can
afford to be both just and generous. Noblesse oblige.
ETHNIC EELIGIONS.
A second problem concerns our attitude towards
Oriental religions and the customs which they make
obligatory upon the people. We may take the ex-
treme of those who are disputatious, antagonistic,
belligerent; cut down, root and branch, everything
distinctly heathen. Or we may be temporizing, sub-
servient, concurrent. The former demand the aban-
* Royse in his Study of Genius says, " If we catechize human his-
tory, we shall find that all the great achievements of the past, whether
material or intellectual, social or political, have proceeded from but
two of the five generally recognized races- the Caucasian and the
Mongolian. All the extraordinary individuals, the geniuses, known to
us have emerged from one or the other of the branches of these most
iulluontial races." Mongols ("brave") form nearly one-half the
human family, according to Professor Dieterici.
ETHNIC RELIGIONS. 97
doument of all social usages tinctured with super-
stition. They are stringent, coercive, uncompromising.
Others come, as did a recent embassy from Boston to
Japan, " to confer " with Confucianist, Buddhist and
Shinto as to some common ground of humanitarian
work, ignoring as dead issues the beliefs on which
idolaters and Christians differ, and making personal
sympathy the simple bond between them. This em-
bassy had much in common with Japanese, they said,
and sought to supplement, not to overthrow, existing
religions.
Between these antipodal positions stands the intelli-
gent missionary. He has made himself acquainted
with the fact that religion in the East is a regnant
power, ubiquitous and authoritative, entering into the
personal and social life, into history, art, law and
language. He appreciates what is really excellent in
Asian thought, as the wisdom of Vedic verse and all
that is beautiful and dutiful in Confucian morality.
He realizes the vitality of hereditary instincts, and he
respects the rights of conscience everywhere. He aims
to Christianize, but not to Anglicize. Confident in the
power of the gospel to reconstruct society, observant
of the changes in Eastern life already accomplished by
contact with Western thought — partly compulsory
through military force or international treaty, and
partly spontaneous, through conviction — he waits with
patience and courage for providential developments in
the near future still greater than those in the past.
He is loyal to the truth as it is in Jesus. Toleration of
idolatry is treason to Christianity. But a precipitate
assault on time-honored customs, such as the seclusion
of women, the betrothal of infants, the adoration of the
departed, foot binding, clan tax, burning of lettered
98 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
paper, or decoration of graves, he sees may at once
create such a revulsion of feeling as will be likely
to prevent any further intercourse with those whom
he would benefit.
The true philosophy of reform is that of substitution
and exchange, of transfer and recompense. Light dis-
places darkness, and the love of Christ secures the ex-
pulsion of all His foes. It is better to draw than
drive ; to gain by gentle indirection what we cannot
get by abrupt assault.
NATIVE CUSTOMS.
Ancestor worship is universal in the East. It is
" The keystone of China's social fabric," and for more
than four thousand years has been the most august
ceremonial of their ancient faith. The adoption of an
heir to the throne, or the succession of a son, in order,
is signalized by this solemn homage. The ancestral
temple is the rallying point for each family clan, and
the humblest home has its little shrine, its lettered
tablets and its daily incense burning before the spirits
of the dead. It is claimed that filial piety is its es-
sence, and that its observance has consolidated and
perpetuated the empire for ages ; that to oppose it is
to do violence to the best feelings of the heart and
needlessly to engender among the common people, as
well as among the learned or ruling class, hatred to-
wards Christianity.
It was my privilege to hear the long and animated
discussion of the subject at the Shanghai Conference.
In no debate was there more warmth of feeling shown.
Learned scholars gave us a history of the cult, and our
oldest missionaries rehearsed their experience ; but
the most effective reply to the appeal for toleration,
NATIVE CUSTOMS. 99
•
or the laisser faire method, was by a highly educated
native pastor. He was specially qualified as a con-
verted heathen to reflect the real feelings of his peo-
ple, both pagan and Christian. Mr. Yen affirms that,
with rare exceptions, the divine honor and human rev-
erence are inseparable in ancestor worship. " If they
do the one, the other is involved in it. The associa-
tion has become so hereditary among the Chinese,
that to prostrate and to make offerings, bring up in
their minds the feeling that the spirits are present,
hear their prayers, accept their gifts, and in return
will care for them ; in short, will do for them what
Christians believe that God can do." He approves
the method adopted by his Christian countrymen of
rearing over a grave a monumental cross, inscribed
with verses from the Scriptures, and the planting of
flowers ; also, in place of the domestic tablet, hanging
up a framed photograph, with the phrase appended,
" In Paradise." This will illustrate the way in which
a wise man will avoid needless collisions, while main-
taining his fealty to truth.
At another time the objector was silenced by this
reply : " It is you, not we, who dishonor the dead,
for you assume that their hungry ghosts will come and
plague you unless you appease them with offerings.
They treated you kindly here, and you degrade them
and do their character injustice by attributing to them
such a disposition now. Confucius has said that you
should treat them as you did on earth." A foreigner
on entering a Chinese town was assailed by a shower
of missiles. He calmly faced tin; crowd jind quoted
the memorable precept of Confucius, " Not to do to
another what we should not wish him to do to us."
At once opposition ceased, and the ringleaders, im-
100 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
•
pressed with his adroitness, caine forward and apolo-
gized to the stranger.
The Oriental carries a heavy pecuniary burden in
maintaining ancestral worship. Dr. Yates estimates
the annual expense to China, alone, of this adoration
of the dead to be £151,752,000 — more than ten tim; s
the expense of Buddhism and Confucianism combined.
In Tndia the Shradda is a service to provide the de-
parted spirit with a body. A man without a son to
make offerings falls into hell. Enormous sums arc
paid to get a soul out of this purgatorial disquiet.
High families, as well as low, impoverish themselves
for the remainder of their lives by burial, as in bridal,
expenses. One funeral and Shradda cost $600,000,
" the greater part of that amount being squandered on
worthless Brahmins, indolent, pundits, hypocritical
devotees and vagabond religious mendicants." In
both China and India infanticide and suicide have
often been connected with the idolatrous customs re-
ferred to. The attitude of the missionary should be,
of course, that of uncompromising opposition.
The barbarous mutilation of the female foot began
A. D. 600, introduced by Mauchu Tartars. It prevails
among the poor. No small footed women are allowed
in the palace or grounds of the Emperor. At first,
missionaries tolerated the inhuman practice, though
one of them writes, " I have heard cries of anguish
that might have moved the very rocks to pity." In
1875, the Fooehow M. E. Mission resolved to forbid it
among their churches. Other bodies have taken simi-
lar action. To avoid the suspicion of being a lewd
character, " a Christian shoe, similar to that of the
Empress, a Tartar, was made and worn." T/ie Chinese
Recorder, June, 1878, mentions a number of cases
ASCETICISM IN MISSIONS. 101
where unbound feet liave recovered so much of their
former motion, that girls not only walked and carried
burdens, but ran once more. Miss Noyes last year
had but five out of nine-two girls in her school in
Canton, with deformed feet, and thinks that the cruel
custom will, in time, be abandoned.
ASCETICISM IN MISSIONS.
Speaking in reference to celibacy, Mr. Yen remarked
that " There is no rule. In some places married
people are better ; in others, single people. So in
dress, each man must j udge for himself, in the place
where he moves. There is no cast iron rule to
suit all cases. Where foreigners are better known,
and where they would look strange if wearing Chinese
dress, let them wear the foreign ; but in places
Avhere Chinese dress is more convenient, and the
foreign would be novel to the Chinese, let them wear
the Chinese."
Every plant has its habitat. Monastic brotherhoods
and sisterhoods are exotics on Protestant soil. I called
on one community of celibates in India and, from what
was seen and learned, the work impressed me favor-
ably. Still, the query put by the Indian Witness
comes to mind : " Why should the absence of the
family, God's unit of human society, be so highly es-
teemed ? " To begin by presenting the heathen with
a false ideal of Christianity is to prejudice the work
from the start. " One might suppose," says Dr. Ellin-
wood, " that asceticism had been tried long enough in
India and throughout the East. The moral and re-
ligious life has gone to corruption and decay in spite
of hordes of beggars and fakirs. What have the mon-
asteries of Sinai and Lebanon done for the regeuera-
102 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
tion of the Holy Land ? What did a celibate and
cloistered priesthood accomplish for Mexico through
three hundred years of undisputed sway ? The Greek
and Latin churches of the Levant, lacking the domestic
element, have scarcely held their ground ; they have
received from Islam a deeper impress than they have
given. Why, then, should Protestant Christendom
yield to the cry of those who, in the very midst of in-
creasing success, would turn to the effete agencies of
the past ? " Why should our exiled missionaries and
their wives, he says, be asked to add to the dreary
and depressing influence of a life among idolaters the
misery of a beggar's bowl, while Christians at home
are surfeited in their self-indulgence ? * Is this the
time to turn the last screw of impoverishment on their
kindred and brethren abroad ? Is this the way to im-
press heathen with the divinity of our religion and the
honesty of our purpose ? The suggestion is simply
monstrous ! The system of asceticism, Dr. Cyrus
Hamlin justly observes, " Protestantism has rejected
with overwhelming abhorence and scorn."
Dr. Ellinwood once visited a missionary whose field
of labor was amid equatorial heats, and whose miser-
able abode was directly under the tiled roof of a ware-
house. His income was near the starvation point.
The scant dress of wife and child revealed numerous
boils, of which they had had ninety, the result, in part,
of defective nutrition and poverty of blood. He notes
the incident " for the benefit of those well-to-do Chris-
tians who think that self-immolation is the duty of
* Dr. Gracey says, "After Protestant Christianity has used all it
needed, given all it would, and wasted most wantonly, it yet has a
reserve of UNSPENT fortune, reaching the enormous sum of FIVE HUN-
DRED MILLION DOLLARS annually ! "
QUALIFICATIONS.
the foreign missionary." If asceticism be tried, let it
begin at liome.t
Having surveyed some of the unique features of the
field, we are ready to consider a third problem, the
selection of the missionary force.
QUALIFICATIONS.
Mr. Meredith Townsend, in The Contemporary
Keview, has lately discussed the proposition of send-
ing out " Cheap Missionaries," whatever that phrase
may mean. He would, however, substitute this plan :
Let each ordained minister from these shores till his
place abroad as a true bishop, taking that word, he
says, in its accurate sense. Each bishop is to train
and use native evangelists, thousands of whom there
are on the ground already. They are fully acclimat-
ized ; they have no languages to learn, and no preju-
dices to unlearn. They understand the thought of
their countrymen, and can rouse that enthusiasm
which the European sighs for in vain. A hundred of
them might be had in India for seventy-five dollars
each per annum. Put under the seven hundred Prot-
estant missionaries there, they would form a force of
seventy thousand native preachers, who would " do
the work infinitely better than that which is sought to
bo done through cheap missionaries."
That Orientals are to be brought to Christ by Ori-
entals is a truism, but it needs repetition. How far
the native church is to be relieved of the responsibil-
ity of supporting its own evangelists is a delicate ques-
tion. Some missionaries say, with Mr. Cardwell of
Shanghai, " No native helper should be paid out of
f Missionary Review of the World, Sep. 188'.), pp. 685, 698 ; Jau.
1890, Dec., p. 947; Feb. 18'Jl, p. 1U5, April, p. 251.
104 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
mission funds, but by the native church. If paid
agency had never been adopted, we should have had
a far more spiritual and earnest Chinese church than
we have to-day." On the other hand, Dr. Corbett of
Chefoo says that the laborer is worthy of his hire, an J
foreign money should be used when the native church
is not self-supporting, on the same ground that aid is
furnished to destitute communities at home. It was
said at the Shanghai Conference that five hundred
native evangelists would be a far greater power than
five thousand foreigners, and that this number would
soon be spread over China, if her forty thousand con-
verts realized the privilege they now have of evan-
gelizing their own country.
Dr. Edkins urged that Christian laymen come to
the East and introduce Western arts and industries.
Those who are skilled in trade and manufactures will
aid in developing the commercial products of the" coun-
try. They will be allies to the missions, and also make
themselves valuable to the government.
Who can estimate the value of the services of such a
man as Hon. S. Welles Williams, who acted as inter-
preter and Secretary of the U. S. Legation in the
negotiation of treaties and in other diplomatic rela-
tions ? Our Consuls and Ministers abroad occupy
posts of high influence and broad observation. They
may, and some of them do, render efficient aid to mis-
sions. Addressing the merchants of Philadelphia on
his return from the Orient, U. S. Minister Heed re-
marked, " I went to the East with no enthusiasm as
to missionary enterprise. I come back with the fixed
conviction that it is, under Providence, the great agent
of civilization. I feel it my duty to add, that every-
where in Asia and Africa, among the Kaffirs in Natal,
QUALIFICATIONS. 105
on the continent of India, among the forests of Cey-
lon, and over the vast expanse of China, the testimony
to the success and zeal of our countrymen, as mission-
aries of truth, is earnest and concurrent. I heard it
everywhere and from high authority."
As to health qualifications, it should be said that
the climate of the East, is specially trying to those of
weak nerves and prone to extremes of excitabilty and
depression. The process of acclimatization brings a
mental and physical strain. If this and the added
burden of acquiring the language be successfully un-
dergone by ladies before marriage, it will be a great
gain. So says Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, after many
years' residence in China.
Personal presence is a factor of influence, even more
noticeable than at home. The leading journal of Cal-
cutta ascribes much of the success of Dr. Pentecost to
" his striking personality and manner." It would be
easy to name others whose capacity, natural leader-
ship, manliness and self-control make them masters in
every emergency ; whose eye, voice, hand and step
create a magnetic sphere, into which to enter is to
capitulate to a psychic force which is as hard to de-
scribe, as it is to resist. I once was led about an
ancient Chinese city by such a Greatheart. His genial
smile disarmed the opposition which his audacity
would have otherwise created. The fluency of his
speech and his wit charmed those who were attracted
by his fine physique ; then, above all, his moral ear-
nestness gave him a ready mastery of men. We went
into two great opium dens, where a thousand natives
in each congregate to smoke •' foreign dirt " daily.
He boldly reproved the men and their female com-
panions for their immoralities, but in such a way that
106 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
he commanded their respect. During the recent riots
he saved valuable property by his fearless and heroic
conduct, at one time holding a murderous crowd at
bay with his revolver, for half an hour, until the
magistrate arrived. In Japan and India I met others
of this knightly, chivalric spirit, which has, to a great
extent, a physical basis, but which is ennobled by
culture and grace.
Versatility, tact, common sense, are all-important.
There was a medical student- who always stood first in
college examinations. At graduation, his book knowl-
edge amazed his examiners, who tried in vain to cor-
ner him. But in actual practice he was so lacking in
judgment, that he could not be trusted with the sim-
plest case of childhood's ailments.
Dr. Cyrus Harnlin knew a scholarly young mis-
sionary, who was a good sermonizer, but did not
know how to drive a board nail. This veteran mis-
sionary pleads for men who have a concern for the
earthly life; who can not only feel for die ignorant
and thriftless, but can instruct and stimulate them ;
who can show them the use of tools and how to mas-
ter the forces of nature. His own splendid career at
Constantinople illustrates the versatility of a man who
made a steam engine and built a college, who taught
in five languages and ran a bakery.
One of the oldest and most gifted missionaries in
China has done incalculable service in teaching natives
of his district the culture of small fruits. The Zulu
missionary, Dr. Wilder, who introduced the sorghum
or sugar plant, opened a yearly revenue to us of
millions of money. Missionaries should be many-
sided men. Our seminaries should provide a definite
niissionarv curriculum. How to secure it is another of
SPECIAL TRAINING. 107
those practical problems pressing upon us. Could not
the Latin thesis, medieval scholasticism and other an-
tiquated lore give way to something better ?
SPECIAL TKAINING.
All- round men are in demand everywhere, but
abroad particularly. When Dr. Pentecost says that it
is useless to send to India any but " first-class men,"
he means more than men of piety and education. To
natural abilities special training should be added, just
as with candidates for the army or navy. This is an
age of specialists in every branch of science. The
work of missions needs men who, as Professor Hul-
bert of Corea says, are selected for definite fields, and
have made the topography, history, literature and
-social customs of the country they go to, the theme of
special study, just as each student of the science of
war is drilled in the technics of his chosen branch
of the service. AVest Point educates the soldier, but
Annapolis, the sailor and naval officer. There is much
in common, but there is much that is distinctive and
peculiar to each. So in theological education. The
same gospel is needed in the East that is preached in
the West ; but there is an Oriental perspective to truth
which cannot be ignored. No one can appreciate its
importance till he himself has secured it. Some of
these peculiarities of Asiatic life and thought have
been alluded to, but it would take a volume to go into
details. What the author of Things Japanese has
said of one Oriental nation, under the title of Topsy-
turveydom, illustrates the contrarieties of life every-
where met with in the East. One meets with physical
oppositefl that arc suggestive of moral contrasts. Our
ideas appear as absurd to Asiatics as theirs do io us.
108 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
It is well to be reminded of these social antitheses be-
fore one goes abroad. It will soften the shock which
his sensibilities are likely to receive, teach him con-
sideration for other people's views, and save him some
mortifying experiences which otherwise his awkward-
ness and ignorance will be likely to bring to him.
This part of special training is important to all who
woiild appear well in the eyes of those whom they
seek to benefit. Our most successful diplomats, teach-
ers and preachers have been those who have mastered
the details of Oriental etiquette, and have made them-
selves at home amid circumstances strangely unlike
those in which they have been educated. A few
amusing illustrations will suffice out of hundreds that
might be cited.
AMUSING ANTITHESES.
In the Far East, a book is begun where we end, the
line running to the left of each page, and the finis is
found where we should expect the title page. Foot-
notes are placed at the top. We put the name on the
back of the book and set it up on end ; but there the
volumes lie flat, with edges stamped. We use small,
stiff, printed visiting cards ; the Chinaman uses sheets
of thin, folded, verniilliou paper, inscribed with brush.
The Japanese reverse our method in directing a letter
and places the general before the particular, thus :
New York, Brooklyn, St. Mark's Avenue 156, E. P.
Thwiug. He beaches his boat stern first, instead of
prow on ; he pulls the saw and plane towards him,
instead of pushing them from him ; turns a lock in an
opposite direction to what we should expect, and in
needlework reverses the stich. A foreign lady has
sometimes found her cuffs and frills sewed on inside
AMUSING ANTITHESES. 109
out and upside down, as she thought. A horse is
mounted on his right side, which is the wrong side to
us ; his harness, also, is fastened on that side, while
his mane is made to hang the wrong way — we are
"tempted to say — to the left hand rather than to the
right. In the stall his head is put where his tail
ought to be !
The figures of an item are written down first and
the designation follows. The roof of a house is the
first thing made by the builders ; then, numbering the
pieces, they take them apart and wait till the building
is ready for the reunited roof. The wearing of rings,
bangles, brooches and other baubles is scorned as
barbarous by Japanese ladies, whose glory is in their
hair and oM ; but the Chinese women look with won-
der on a sensible European lady whose ear has never
been mutilated for ornaments, and ask her as to her
sex, for to them the earring is a distinguishing sign of
a female, the other articles of whose attire are much
•
like those of men. Cold weather is indicated by two,
three or more " coats cold," instead of degrees Fahren-
heit. Perfect health and complete success are called
" ten parts," from which the scale is graduated down-
ward. The compass needle points to the South, in-
stead of North. The rower is wont to face the prow
of his boat and push with his oars, instead of pull.
The scull-post is on the side, instead of the center of
the stern. I have seen the tow-line fastened to the
top of a foremast instead of being kept at the level of
the deck. The Chinaman shakes his own hand instead
of yours. He takes off his foot-gear, perhaps, but
keeps his head covered. We wear our hair and shavo
ourselves. A Chinaman would feel belittled to do his
own shaving, and still more degraded without his
110 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
queue. Like the ancient Greeks, we regard the walk-
ing-stick as a sign of ease and social comfort, but he,
of infirmity. A thousand years ago, the laws pro-
hibited this luxury to all under fifty years of age. At
that time of life one could use the staff in his ow»
compound, the next decade in his own village, and at
eighty, anywhere.
Instead of a dog, a singing bird is taken for a com-
panion. We play battledoor with the hands, but boys
in the East use their feet, and sometimes catch the
shuttlecock on the forehead. Instead of the punish-
ment of stocks, there is a huge wooden collar, called
the cangue, which encloses the neck, and sometimes
the wrists. Somebody has said that the Chinamen
every other day put clean clothes on unwashed bodies,
while the Japanese put unwashed clothes on a clean
skin. Professor Dixon says that, with many, "Summer
clothes are mostly made of fresh air."
• OKIENTAL MODESTY.
Miss Bacon, long intimate with Japanese women,
defends them from the charge of immodesty, and
shows how delicate their instincts really are, even in
matters where their actions shock our ideas of de-
cency. She says, " Any exposure of the person that
is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, or conveni-
ence in doing necessary work, is perfectly modest and
allowable ; but an exposure, no matter how slight,
that is simply for show, is in the highest degree in-
delicate." She goes on to note the horror they feel at
the indecency of our ball room attire, or a street dress
made so tight as to purposely display outlines that
clothing professes to conceal. It would cause " an
agony of shame " thus to appear in public, though
O1UENTAL MODESTY. Ill
they would not hesitate to bathe, unclad, at the beach
or bath house, in company with men and women,
without thought of evil. So, too, in regard to the
sacrifice which a loving daughter makes to support an
aged father or mother, or meet a husband's pecuniary
misfortune, we are told that " Conscience seems as
active, though often in a different manner, as the
old-fashioned New England conscience, transmitted
through the bluest of Puritan blood. And when a
duty has once been recognized as such, no timidity or
mortification will prevent the performance of it."
Miss B. does not, of course, justify the sacrifice of
chastity, but simply explains the act from the Japan-
ese point of view. With them the philosophy of virtue
is inherently opposed to ours. We make purity the
queen of virtues, but they put filial obedience above
it and say, " even if the body be defile^, there is no
defilement of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling her
highest duty in sacrificing all, even her dearest pos-
session. It is a climax of self-abnegation that brings
nothing but honor to the soul. Consider the moral
training of the Japanese maiden. From earliest youth
she is taught that obedience and loyalty are the su-
preme virtues ; for good of father or husband she
must be willing to meet any danger, endure any dis-
honor, perpetrate any crime. Place this thought of
self-abnegation in the foreground and your perspec-
tive is altered, the other virtues occupying places of
varying importance. Does it follow that all Japanese
women are unchaste? Let us rather seek the causes
that underlie the actions, than pass judgment upon the
actions themselves. From a close study of the char-
acters of many Japanese women and girls, I am quite
convinced that few women in any country do their
112 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
duty, as they see it, more uobly, more single-mindedly
and more satisfactorily to those about them, than the
women of Japan."
Illustrations of the opposite conceptions of life and
duty entertained by the Oriental might be multiplied.
These few, however, show the importance of a more
thorough and special instruction in these matters.
Oriental studies cover a larger field than many sup-
pose. They deserve more attention than they receive.
Special institutions for training medical and mission-
ary candidates for foreign work are multiplying. They
suggest a lack in the curriculum of our older and well
endowed professional schools.
Text-books, also, are needed. He would do help-
ful service who compiled a manual on the topics
briefly alluded to in these pages. A careful and co-
pious Index of Missionary Data, issued yearly, would
serve an excellent purpose in awakening general inter-
est, and in guiding the studies of students of the for-
eign field. It would furnish writers and speakers with
opulent materials, and — possibly — it might be of serv-
ice to certain journalists, naval officers and travelers
who are just now making themselves ridiculous by
their wild statements in reference to missionary work
abroad.
The reports to the Inspector-General of Customs,
China, on sanitary and medical topics, lunacy, leprosy,
climatic and endemic diseases, with numberless sug-
gestions as to food, domestic life, susceptibility to, or
exemption from, certain maladies, have grown richer
year by year in suggestiveness. They show what men
of scientific instincts on the ground may do towards
the solution of biological and sociological, forensic and
economic problems of Eastern life. International
CHRISTIAN UNITY. 113
Congresses in New York, London and continental
cities gladly avail themselves of such contributions.
No class of observers are more competent than our
resident missionaries. Said the late Louis Agassiz :
" Fsw are aware how much we owe to the missionaries
for their intelligent observation of facts. . . . We
must look to them not a little for aid in our effort to
advance future science." That prince of geographers,
Carl Hitter, confesses that, but for what they had ac-
complished, he would not have been able to write his
Erdkunde and similar works. He says : " Their com-
munications have become a part of the world's knowl-
edge." The Eoyal Commission under Lord Amherst
regarded Morrison and Gutslaff as indispensible to
their plan of international amity, for they understood
the language and the people, their modes of thought
and social customs. So Judge Goddard, late Consul-
General at Constantinople, said: " The missionaries in
Turkey have added to the respect with which our
nation is regarded in that country. Without them it
would not have been so easy for our Government to
manage its affairs in that Empire as it now is."
There are many practical methods by which the
accumulated data, now in the hands of educated for-
eigners abroad, might be utilized in the illumination of
international questions of the highest importance, per-
taining alike to the material and moral interests of the
race. Leaving this line of thought, however, there is
a final problem of deeper moment.
CHRISTIAN UNITY.
How shall a more vital and visible unity among
Christians be secured ? The need is imperative at
home, but more so abroad in the presence of pagan-
114 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS.
ism. Professor Drummond may have spoken too
hastily about the " guerilla warfare, and rival sects,"-
forty of them in China, it is said — for the grand work
done at the recent Conference in regard to versions of
the Scriptures is a monumental evidence of practical
cooperation ; but still there is too much of self-will,
dogmatism and indocility shown in denomination alism
on both sides of the sea. In his essay at Shanghai,
on Cooperation, Rev. John McCarthy made a strong
point when he said that it seemed out of place to dis-
cuss such a theme, in face of the foe, when the battle
is on 1 But," he added, "as a matter of fact, if all
the missionaries in China were fully convinced of the
value and importance of united action, their connec-
tion with home churches, for the most part, altogether
prevent any practical step towards closer union. One
fails to see how it can be otherwise, while missionaries
represent denominational and even political differ-
ences to the Chinese, instead of only representing the .
Christ of God." These geographical as well as sec-
tarian issues cannot be denied, though each tries to
defend his own.
" If they would let us alone at home, we should
have united here in Japan," said a veteran Methodist
leader to me. So said the oldest and most experi-
enced of other communions. They feel that their
efficiency as working boards is weakened by division,
and that they are ill prepared to meet the soul-hunger
of many in the East, coming out of the darkness of
idolatry, or out of the apathy of agnosticism, who cry
out, as did the Japanese noticed already on page
48, for the moral earnestness of conviction rather
than for theories and forms. " O for men of God ! "
writes a burning soul at Nanking, " students from the
CHRISTIAN UNITY. 115
university of experience, able to teach the Bible, not
as a theology, but as a regenerative power in the con-
version of souls and the upbuilding of the Kiugdom of
Christ ! Send us men who will preach the essence
of Christianity, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living
God."
The question, then, is one which the home churches
are to decide, both as to the fact and methods of a
closer visible union of working forces. When the tide
is low, says Dr. James Hamilton, then every tiny
shrimp thinks its little pool to be the ocean. When
the great sea comes surging in, it finds a larger ocean
with which its little pool mingles. So when spiritual
life is low, one sect or another assumes to be THE
Church, and rears its barriers about itself. " But
when the flood of God's reviving grace flows in, and
brings its members into fellowship with others of the
Lord's people, they find that there is a church, worthy
of God, far more extensive than their own sect. Let
the Spirit of God work mightily, as of old, and there
will never be any difficulty about true cooperation."
Things are tending to this end. The unity of the
church, the parity of her clergy, the privilege of her
sacraments, the glory of her unbroken fellowship, the
dignity of her mission, and the power of her diversi-
fied, but concurrent, life are coming to be more heart-
ily accepted as the years go on.
STAR OF THE EAST.
Ex ORIENTE Lux. The Light of the WTorld came
from the East. For nineteen centuries its glory has
brightened the West, while the Orient has again grown
dark, where degenerate Christianity, or absolute pa-
ganism has prevailed. The STAR OF THE EAST in its
116 EX ORIENTAL LUX.
westward way has not only marked the course of em-
pire, but the triumphs of Immanuel's Kingdom.
Ethnic migrations have their limits ; but not so with
Messiah's march. " The great westward movements
of history," says Professor Dennis of Beirut, " have
reached at least a geographical limit on our Pacific
shores; but the star of the world's destiny, which
first arose in the East, has held to its westward pro-
gress until it shapes its course once more to the Ori-
ent. It only remains that fully developed and per-
fected republican institutions should bring in the
Golden Age of political and civil empire, to give its
brightest radiance to this westward-moving Star."
We cannot doubt that the Oriental is yet to be a
power in the world's history, and the East is to be a
theatre of some of the sublimest scenes of the future.
Who is there that does not desire to contribute to the
consummation of events so vast and momentous ?
INDEX.
Ability of Missionaries, 86, 104,
113. Abraham, 39. Acceleration
of events, 87. Actors despised,
66. Agassiz, 86, 113. Alaskan
youth, 18. Alexander, 78. Allen,
85. American brag, 71. Amherst,
Lord, 113. Anatomy of national
life, 12. Ancestor worship, 98.
Angelo, 11. Animal food, 16. An-
titheses of life, 108. Arabic, 52.
Aramaic, 52. Architecture of Chi-
na, 61. Aristotle, 10. Armorer
esteemed, 68. Arnold, 21, 89. Art
of Egypt, 53 ; of India, 54 ; of
Greece, 54. Aryan, 50, 51. As-
ceticism in missions, 101. Ash-
more, 72. Asia, first sight, 7 ; its
thought, 78. Aspects of nature,
13, 14. Assyria, 52. Atavism, 19.
Atlantic Monthly, 75.
Bacon, Miss, 36, 66, 110. Bail-
ly, 41. Balaam, 41. Baths, pro-
miscuous, 31. Battledoor, 110.
Beaconsfield, 72. Beale, 14. Bean-
sobre, 15. Bedouin, 52. Beecher,
67, 88. Bell, 10. Benedikt, 19.
Bengalese, 22. Bible to be cen-
tral, 84. Bird, Miss, 64. Birds in-
stead of dogs, 110. Book of the
dead, 40, 53 ; burning of, 59; of
history, 61. Bosworth, 50. Bow-
ring, 57. Brahma Somaj, 31.
Bridgeman, 57. British Medical
Journal, 28. Brown, 15. Bruce
15, 75. Buckle, 12, 13, 17, 18.
Buddhism, 25. Burne, 16.
Calvin, 89. Camoens, 57. Can-
ton, 57, 87. Cardwell, 103. Caste,
24, 82. Cataract of eye, 28. Cey-
lon, 80, 105. Chamberlain, 25, 36,
66. Champollion, 56. China, a
library, (10 ; language, 58 ; archi-
tecture, 61; arsenals, 73; fecundi-
ty, 72; statesmen, 75; wall, 58, 62.
Chefoo, 104. Christianize, not
Anglicize, 97. Church, unity, 113.
Clergy, parity, 115; each a bish-
op, 103. Climate, 13, 16, 105.
Clothing, 17, 110. Coan, 17. Coats
cold, 109. Cobra, 15. Coleman,
14, 15. Conceit, European, 95.
Conferring with heathen, 97. Con-
ference at Shanghai, 85, 98, 104.
Confucianism, 26, 43, 61, 63, 89,
97, 99. Congress, Indian, 73; In-
ternational, 113. Continence need-
ful, 87. Cook, Captain, 23 ; Jo-
seph, 31. Copper vessels, 68. Cor-
bett, 104. Corea, 63, 70, 85. Cul-
len, 10. Customs, report, 86, 112.
Customs, strange, 108.
Dante, 50. Darwin, 14. De-
crepitude denied, 71. Degeneracy
by caste, 24. Dening, 69. Den-
nis, 116. Despotism and art, 69.
Dieterici, 96. Dixon, 110. Domes-
tication of animals, 40. Drama in
Japan, 45. Draper, 20. Dress,
immodest, 110. Drummond, 114.
DuBose, 26, 39, 44.
Earthquakes, 13, 14, 22. Ed-
kins, 57, 74, 104. Edwards, 82.
Egypt, many books on, 9; people,
53; art, 53. Eight weeks enough,
70. Ellinwood, 101, 102. Emer-
son, 31, 32, 89. Emperor's recep-
tion, 23. Encyclopedia, Chinese,
59. Ethiopia, 52. Ethnology de-
fined, 10.
Faber, 57. Fairy tales, 66. Fam-
ily, joint, 34. Famine, causes, 17.
Fear of heathen, 8, 92. Ferguson,
80. Ferri, 19. Feudalism, fruits
INDEX.
of, 69. Finck, 70. Floggings, 30.
Foochow, 100. Food, 16. Foot-
binding, 100. Forry, 15. Fryer 74.
Genesis of thought, 10. Gib-
bon, 20, 24. Gladstone, 33. God-
dard, 113. Gospel, needed now,
82; will reconstruct, 97. Gould,
39. Gracey, 102. Greathouse, 64.
Gutzlaff, 57, 113. Gwilt, 62.
Hager,82. Hamilton, 115. Ham-
lin, 102, 106, Harcourt,41. Hayes,
75. Heat, 14. Heathen classics,
84. Heaven, Hindu, 41. Heredity,
19. Hilaire, St., 25. Historic evo-
lution, 9. Hoarded wealth, 102.
Holmes, 20, 32. Home, Oriental,
33. Honorifics. 65, 71. Hulbert,
107. Humboldt, 18, 39. Hunter,
10, 17.
Ideas, mighty, 90. Idolatry, a
compound, 43. Ignorance of the
East, 80, 95, 108, 112. Imagina-
tion developed, 13, 46. Immobil-
ity, 26. Immortality of the soul,
40. Imperturbability, 27. India,
a study, 49 ; a museum, 55. In-
dian Congresses, 73. Individual-
ity, national, 21. Industrial Arts,
67. Tnfe made, 61. Insanity of
the West, 27. Insensibility to
pain, 28.
Japaneee schools, 75; language,
64; not unchaste, 111; at Hawaii,
72. Jarves, 54, 55. Jeypore, 42.
Jones, 7, 95.
Kaffirs, 104. Kerr, 85. Keshub
Chunder Sen, 31, 34. Kip, 47.
Kissing feet, 22. Kiangnan ar-
senal, 73.
Labor despised, 68. Learning a
pastime, 69. Le Normant, 58.
Lewis, 54. Literature of China,
57; Egypt, 52; Japan, 65; Hindu,
42. Lions, Egyptian, 53. Lom-
broso, 19. Lowell, J. R., 70. Low-
ell, Percival, 70, 76. Luther, 89.
Lyell, 14.
Macao, 57. Macnuley, 91. Mack-
intosh, 10. Maine, Sir H., 24.
M'Clatchie, 65. McCarthy, 114.
Magnetism, personal, 105. Man-
sel, 24. Manuals needed, 112.
Marriage, premature, 24. Mars-
den, 15. Marshman, 57. Marvin,
21. Martineau, 11. Mateer, 84.
Medhurst, 57. Mendicants, 29.
Mill, J. S., 10. Mills, 19. Milne,
57. Mirage, 15. Missionaries, de-
spised, 80, 114; fettered, 114; suc-
cessful, 79, 82 ; praised, 86, 104,
113; medic.ol, 85; self-supporting,
104; asceticism, 101 ; lay helpers,
104; qualifications, 48. Mobs con-
trolled, 99, 106. Modesty, Japan-
ese, 110. Mohametanism, 54.
Mongolians, 96. Morrison, 57,
113. Muller, Max, 9, 49, 50, 71.
Museums, 55. Mutilated child-
wives, 25. Mysticism, 31.
Nakashima, 76. Napoleon, 78.
Nature worship, 38, 46, Neesima,
92. Nineveh, 52, 54. Noyes, 101.
Noldeke, 52.
Occidental worry, 27, 69. Orien-
tal characteristics, 19, 107 ; taste,
55 ; studies, 8 ; broad, 112 ; atti-
tude towards, 94, 96 ; Out-door
life in Europe, 24.
Pagodas, 62. Palgrave, 70. Pa-
pyrus, 58. Parganya, 51. Par-
ker, 85. Passions in Asiatics, 22,
24. Patriotism in Japan, 76. Paul,
47. Peck, 85. Penitential pills,
27. Pentecost, 105, 107. Perci-
val, 80. Phelps, 73, 77. Physical
factors, 10, Pierson, 95. Poetry
in Japan, 66. Poole, 52. Poly-
nesia, 12. Printing invented, 61.
Pritchard, 14. Problems, practi-
cal, 94. Putnam, 27.
Race hatred, 95. Railways in
China, 74. Rawlinson, 56. Re-
form, its philosophy, 98. Reed,
42, 104. Rein, G3, 67. Rejuve-
nation of the East, 70. Religion
in the East, 37. Rey, 14. Rice
INDEX.
diet, 1G, 24. Bitter, 14, 86, 113.
Royal Asiatic Society, 8, 15.
Royse, 96. Kuskin, 54. Roof, 62.
Sacrifices, 42. Sailors and fire-
crackers, 46. Sanscrit, 49. Scen-
ery, alone left, 8, 68. Schiff 55.
Scotland and Spain, 12. Sectari-
anism, 114. Self-abasement, 22;
immolation, 29, 42. Seminary
studies, 107. Semitic tongues, 52.
Seward, 33. Shanghai, 85, 98.
Shinar, 73. Shintoism, 44. Simon
Stylites, 29. Sircar, 24. Smith,
A., 10. Smith, S., 80. Sorghum,
106. Special training, 107. Spen-
cer, 20. Stagnation stirred, 8.
Substitutes, 28. Sumner, 75. Su-
pernaturalisni, 79. Swatow, Mr.,
67. Sympathy craved, 48,
Taj, 54. Talmage, 27. Taine,
11. Taylor, 105. Tea drinking,
45. Temple, Sir R., 81. Tenny-
son, 49. Textile fabrics, 55. Than-
atophidia, 15. Theaters, 66. The-
osophy, 43. Thwing, 18, 24.
Thorburn, 22. Tiger's nose a
charm, 15. Titian, 11. Topsy-
turvydom, 109. Tortures, 28.
Trade despised, 68. Translation
of books, 73. Trinkets despised,
109. Truth ever intolerant, 90.
Tschudi, 14. Tyndall, 38.
Underfed in India, 17. Unity,
Christian, 113. Upanishads, 41.
Vedas, 41, 43, 49, 97. Vidyas-
agara, 25. Virgil, 41. Virginity
sacrificed, 42. Vishnu, 41. Von
Herder, 88.
Washing of body, 110. Water-
sheds of thought, 39. Webster,
8. Wilder, 106. Williams, 15,
26, 33, 57, 104. Woman in Japan,
36, 65.
Yates, 100. Yenn, Rev. Y. K.,
99, 101.
Zenana, 34, 80.
A 000 022 960 9