CURRENT LITERATURE.
TWO BOOKS ON CHINA.
John Chinaman at Home. By the Rev. E. J. Hardy. (T. Fisher Unwin. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Hardy tells us that he went to China with the ambition to gain the distinction of not writing a book on that country, but he found it so interesting a land that he could not refrain from this enterprise. His book is just the sort of work that was to be expected from the genial author of "How to be Happy though Married,"—not at all distinguished, not always in the best of taste, but readable throughout, and well adapted to the needs of the middle-class bookbuyer. It is intended for unlearned visitors to China, and for those who want to have a general idea of the things that such a visitor would be most likely to see and wonder at. It gives a very fair general notion of the outer aspects of Chinese life, as a stranger may see it. Mr. Hardy is at his best when be gets a good story to tell, such as that of the lady who bought a silver belt which had a Chinese inscription on the buckle. She noticed that an educated Chinaman was reading the inscription with interest, and begged him to tell her the literal meaning of the characters, which the seller of the belt had declared to stand for happiness. With shy hesitation the Chinese scholar answered : "They may mean that indirectly, but the literal translation of what is on the clasp of your belt is, Distended with food.'" Moral,—beware of wearing inscriptions in languages which you do not understand, unless you are sure that nobody you are likely to meet under- stands them either.--China and Religion. By E. H. Parker. (J. Murray. 12s. net.)—Mr. Parker's book is a work of very different calibre from that of Mr. Hardy. It is "an attempt to present to the general reader, in comparatively simple sketch form, the whole history of the religious question as it has affected the Chinese mind." It is surely worth while to study the religious attitude and conceptions of a country which is unique in possessing an unbroken religious record of at least three thousand years, and Mr. Parker—who is Professor of Chinese in the Manchester University—is an excellent guide through the rather perplexing labyrinth of Chinese thought. He points out that the essence of Chinese official religion, after all necessary allowances have been made for the differeneaof longitude, is not very dissimilar from the essence of Christianity. "Emperors of each important dynasty have from time to time, whilst carefully refraining from enslaving the mind with compulsory dogmas, issued paternal homilies to their childreu,. inculcating the virtues of filial piety, respect for elders and superiors, neighbourliness in villages, severity (with kindness) to children, contentment with one's lot, and abstention from causing pain or evil. If our Western missionaries would conforin to these simple principles, which, after all, are Christian in spirit, we should hear little of persecution ; and it is back to these simple principles that the Japanese seem to be going with their Shinto, perhaps carrying the Chinese with them." Mr. Parker gives a full and interesting account of the various forms which religion has assumed in the vast Empire of China, from the earliest recorded attempts to frame a conception of the universe and the moral nature of man, through Taoism, Confucianism, and
Buddhism, to the modern revival of Shinto. He describes the work of Christian missionaries, since the journey of St. Francis Xavier, in two chapters dealing respectively with Roman Catholics and Protestants. His excellent book should be regarded as the best and simplest English authority on this important subject.
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