Sin Tuomas Wave, in his article on China written for the P. & O. pocketbook, devotes a page or two to what are called the three religions of China,! Confucianism, 'l'aoism, and Buddhism, and the remarks of one so thoroughly conversant with the subject are well worth consideration, The period of lettered ease which Sir Thomas has spent since he gave up the uncongenial practice of diplomacy, has no doubt enabled him to correct and mature his views, and we may take what he has just written as the final expression of his opinions, The China hand who is asked at home whether the Chinese are a religious people, and likely to be susceptible to Christianisation, generally replies that as far as his observation goes, the! Chinese have no religion in their nature, and do not feel the want of it; and in this he is confirmed by Sir Thomas} Wade, who says:—"If religion is held tomeanmore thanmereethics, I deny that the Chinese have a religion, 'They have indeed a cult, or rather a mixture of cults; but no creed; innumerable varied ties of puerile idolatry, at which they are ready enough to laugh, but. which they dare not dist This is the "stony soil' in which the missionaries are endeavouring to implant the seeds of the Gospel; and their small measure of success is not due to their want of energy, otto any defect in the seed, but to the impracticable nature of the soil. If the Chinese mind were capable of a religion, it would have had one long before thi "But in ethics," says Sir Them "they had entrusted to them by their patriarchs, wherever these may have received it, a most respectable set of principles. I will not say that they have been always consistently adhered to, but there has been a continuity of reverence for them. Again and again, throughout those long ages, we have an evidence of an effort, after lapses, to return to virtue, of a persistent inclining; to the right path; and hence, again an again, a restoration of the empire to health after disastrous intervals of disorder." Although the student knows better, the China hand is accustomed to think of Confucius as the founder and first teacher of the present ethical system of China, whereas he was only the restorer. The patriarchs to whom Sir Thomas Wade alludes date from at east four thousand years ago, and even then, somewhere near the bend of the Yellow River, they ruled a country, "with a full blown polity, a ritual, a literature, and other attributions of settled state." The accounts of these patriarchs, which are not contemporary, but some ten or twelve centuries later, are, we are told, generally truthful they do not claim to be inspired, and markedly opposed to the dreamy gropthey relate little if anything miraculous. ing after an intangible First Cause, which But they mark the existence at that is salse as the bse hot the mind early date of what was a religion, in so in the writings ascribed to Laotze." far as it imculeated the duties of man, Where Confucius was practical, Laote not only to his fellow-man, but to a was auetaphysieal "His teachings," Supreme Ruler. To this Supreme Ruler, says Sir Thomas Wade, " point to the "between whom and High Heaven a/ attainment of good, and consequently distinction is scarcely to be established," happiness, by abstinence from contact sacrifices were made, to him prayers and with the things of this life, and it is praise were addressed, and he was not surprising that his doctrine quent of the world, as fully as the Christian's fw Indian metaphysics, or at any rate recognised as the creator and director have been thought to have been derive
God of revelation. He rewarded the, to have prepared the Chinese for the good and punished the bad; success importation of Buddhism." All that and good harvests were the sign of; Taoism and Buddhism have done for his satisfaction with the conduct of the China could well have been spared. To earthly ruler, as natural calamities were them is due whatever idolatry, if there the proof of his anger; and though is any in the strict sense of the word, gony of various degrees," its personal and become abominable the former Heaven comprised "an immense theo: there is in China; "corrupt se, they, Supremacy was never quceooel. This has degenerated most; and the latter, belief certainly seems little less than though it has never supplanted the what we understand by a religion. ' system of Confucius, has, in some de-Though the patriarchs were overthrown gree, emasculated its energy." about the time of Abraham, their suc- fact, what religion there was once in cessors whose dynasty endured to the Confucianism has been diluted by being creed, if we may so call it, and to this and Buddhism, and we come back to time of the siege of Troy retained their mixed up with the puerilities of cian day through successive dynasties, the ''the original proposition, that China has Emperor has always fortified himself by a mixture of cults, but no creed. the assertion that as Son of Heaven, he holds a divine commission.
It is to the teachings of Confucius MR. DENNY'S RETIREMENT, that the want of religion among the Tur Japan Mail of the 25th of March Chinese is commonly attributed, and contains the following translation from yet he was an eminently devout charac- the Nichi Nichi shinies bat we ter. Nowhere does he pretend that not reproduce it yesterday because the the morality which he worked so hard Japanese vernacular apers are not al= to restore was evolved entirely from ways careful to make certain of the the consciousness of man, "His own ' accuracy of their information, and in this
on whom, as on all men at their birth, runs:—" A telegram from Seoul dat meet were She patriarchs of China, "case nothing is said ws to ie sats i
of the pre-eminence of tive essentials: has decided to leave for home, having Heaven had bestowed an appreciation the 22ud March aes ce Mr. Dany—disinterestedness, whether as shown requested the Corean Goverment to in self-denial or in active philanthropy; release him from service. He has re= the principle which makes men just and ' ceived the swum of yen 30,000 from HE. public-spirited; correctness in forms of Li Hung-clang.'—We should not notice devotion or politeness; education; and it now, but that it has been made the good faith." When we find correctness ' ground for a savage attack on Mr, Denny in forms of devotion inculcated as one {on the part of the Japan Gazette, an of the essentials of conduct, we must attack which is the more unjustifiable, allow that if this is not a. religious as i is impossible for Mr; Denny, while system, it is a very good substitute for in his present position, to defend himself, it. Itis quite true that Contcienisas Lil aes ecca remarks that the nee as is marked by an eminently practical to Mr. Denny's retirement "is the ex-character, that he told his pupils that pected, and about the best thing that until they had acquired all possible ' could happen to corea even if it is secured knowledge of the natural, it was a waste at such a price as yer 30,000." The of time to study the supernatural. But Gazette asserts that ever since Mr. it is tov much to inter from this that Denny entered the service of the King he did hi t ise th f Con th has b thing but. supernatural. He found society cor- intrigue and trouble. Sent as the Chi-he did not choose to recognise the of Corea "there has been nothing rupt owing, as it seemed to him, to nese nominee he devoted himself wholly neglect of the teachings of the patriarchs, ' to opposing anything Chinese, and did and it was probably in his time as it his utmost to foster a spirit of rebellion generally has been, that the forms of against Chinese suzerainty over Corea. religion. ge Koei ole ponnliy H in fact ce wun Soot and nail seinsl languishes fe set himself therefore those who sent him. He went to Corea to revive the amorality of the past, and as the ally of China but shifted his his bent was too practical to allow him affections and poms a most implacable to trouble about a creed until he had hater. And, forsooth, he would have purified practice. It is not for those us believe that he did this to free an who want to oe He ore made bapa] unhappy coulay from a a A to depreciate him if the "energy and instead of improving matters palpability" of his teachings "are made them a thouwsaud times worse but
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.