RELIGION IN CHINA. * Tim Sketches of the past and present
state of religion in China which Mr. Edkins contributed, to the Beacon newspaper, have been republished by him in a small volume with many additions and alterations. They are the fruits of a careful study of the sub- ject during ten years' residence among the sons of Han. Mr. Ed- kins looks hopefully on the prospects of Christian missions in China, and thinks that "if the opening of Japan is highly promising to Western enterprise, because of the intelligence and civilisation of its inhabitants, that of China ought to be considered much more so because the civilisation of Japan is based upon that of China." The main proposition in this sentence may be true— we are not in a condition to affirm or dispute it—but the argu- ment adduced in support of it does not seem to us conclusive. It is true that the Japanese have nothing to match against the an- cient Chinese inventions of printing, paper-making, the mariner's compass, and gunpowder, and that they derived their politics, religion, and educational system from the countrymen of Con- fucius, whose great authors they reverence as we do those of Greece and Rome ; but there is this cardinal difference between the two empires, that in China civilization and the arts have for ages been stationary, whereas in Japan both are strikingly pro- gressive. The latter fact is proved by the advance which the Japanese are making in the knowledge and practical appliance of mathematics and mechanics ; for the former we have the strong testimony of Gutzlaff and all subsequent observers.
Rightly considering that nothing is more helpful towards a true view of a nation than an acquaintance with its religious opinions, Mr. Edkin's reviews the three principal groups of those which prevail in China, namely, Confucianism, Taouism, and Buddhism. Confucius was a true sage, one who reasoned soberly and practically on human duty ; the religion he taught was wholly secular—there was nothing ascetic, nothing spiritual in it. This element was supplied by his contemporary Laou-tsoo, in a way which Confncius, the prophet of the practical, could not well comprehend. The followers of Laou-tsoo, who were called Ta- mists, were left free to apply his principles in whatever form of religious life each might think best ; ultimately they adopted from the Buddhists the monastic system and idol worship.
It was five centuries after Confucius, and in the first of the Christian era, that Buddhism was introduced from India into China, upon the invitation of the Emperor Ming-te. Succeeding Emperors, for several centuries, alternately patronized and perse- cuted the new religion ; but its pompons ritual, and the splendid pictorial scenes of far-away worlds with which it fascinated the imagination, finally secured for it the favour of the people. Con- fucianism, which condemns idolatry, is the orthodox religion of China, the religion of the Government and the literary class, be- tween whom and the multitude, the adherents of Buddha and Taou, there has always been a want of cohesion. The former feel no little pride in asserting that they never worship 'images. The latter defend them as a useful symbolism. The difference, how- ever, has for some centuries ceased to be a cause of persecution, the dominant party contenting itself with condemnatory protests on public occasions.
" The difference between Buddhism and Brahmanism consists very mach in this. The Buddhists place the popular Hindoo divinities in a very hum- ble position. They allow them to exist, but they give them very little
• The Belipious Condition of the Chinese : with Observations on the Prospects of Christian Conversion amongst that People. By the Reverend Joseph Edkins, B.A., Author of "A Grammar of the Shanghai Dialect, and of the Chinese Colloquial Language, commonly called Mandarin, Eze." Published byRoutledge, Warnes, and Routledge. power; they are made to act as keepers of the door to Buddha and his dis- ciples. The common Hindoos suppose these same divinities, Brahma, peeve, Shalum,• fic., to have very great influence and to be constantly exercising a control over human affairs. They erect influence, specially to them, depre- cating their anger, and earnestly desiring their protection. The Buddhista pay them no such honours. There is no terror to them in the name of a god. They believe that higher power belongs to Buddha, the self-elevated man. In this there is one essential difference between the two religions. "There is a remarkable, though a less distinction between the Buddhism of China and of Tibet. In regard to philosophy, there is little or no differ- cues; but in Tibet there ia a hierarchy which exercises political power. In China, this could not be. The Lama of Tibet assumes the title of 'Living Buddha.' In him, Buddha is incarnate, as the people are taught to think. He never dies. When the body in which Buddha is for the time incarnate ceases to perform its functions, some infant is chosen by the priests who are intrusted with the duty of selecting, to become the residence of Buddha, till, in turn, it grows up. to manhood, and dies. No Buddhist priest in China pretends to be a Buddha,' or to have a right to the exercise of poli- tical power. In Tibet, on the other hand, the Grand Lama or livingBud- dha,' not only holds the place of the historical Buddha, 'long since dead, acting as a sort of high priest, he also exercises sovereignty over the country of Tibet, ruling the laity as well as the clergy', and being only subordinate to the lord paramount, the Emperor of China.'
The harmonious coexistence of three religious systems, three modes of worship, and three philosophies underlying them, is an unparalleled phenomenon; but what is still more extraordinary is that the bulk of the people believe in all three and in the dis- tinct sets of gods severally belonging to them. This singular fact is explained by the mutually supplementary character of the three systems and by the convenience which the superstitious but not conscientious Chinese find in accepting legends as true without examining the evidence for them and thus providing themselves with abundance of divinities of all sorts, and good for use on all possible occasions It is easy to imagine what peculiar difficulties this excessively tolerant and compliant disposition must occasion to missionaries. How can you make a proselyte of a man whose system of belief is so elastic that it has room for any quantity of additional matter, and so loosely organised that like a polypus it will endure any amount of amputation without danger to its vitality ? Possibly that which is now said to be the chief obsta- cle to the diffusion of Christianity in China, the prohibition, namely, of the worship of ancestors, will ultimately be found to be a help instead of a hindrance, since it will afford a definite battle ground between the old opinions and the new.
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