tain God in their knowledge." The high priests of China love power and adulation too well to share this worship with their subjects, and in engrossing it entirely, they have escaped the political evils of a state hierarchy, and the people the combined oppressions of a church and state.* The state religion of China is, therefore, a mere pageant, and can no more be called the religion of the Chinese, than the teachings of Socrates could be termed the faith of the Greeks. It is, however, intimately connected with the Ju kiau, or sect of the Learned, commonly called Confucianists, because all its members and priests are learned men, who venerate the classical writings. It is somewhat inappropriate to designate the Ju kiau a religious sect, or regard it otherwise than as a comprehensive term for those who adopt the writings of Confucius and Chu Hí, and their disciples. The word ju denotes one of the literati, and was first adopted A. D. 1150, as an appellation for those who followed the speculations of Chu Hí regarding the tai kih, or Great Extreme. This author's comments on the classics, and his metaphysical writings, have had greater influence on his countrymen than those of any other person, except Confucius and Mencius; whose works, indeed, are received according to his explanations. The Ju kiau have no temples, priests, or creed, in the common acceptation of the term, and they can consequently worship at Budhist shrines, or with the Rationalists, or even be come Romanists, without thereby losing their connexion with the learned class among their countrymen. The remarks of Confucius upon religious subjects were very few; he never taught the duty of man to any higher power than the head of the state or family, though he supposed himself commissioned by heaven to restore the doctrine and usages of the ancient kings. He admitted that he did not understand much about the gods, that they were beyond and above the comprehension of man, and that the obligations of man lay rather in doing his duty to his relatives and society than in worshipping spirits unknown. "Not knowing even life," said he, "how can we know death?"-and when his disciples asked him in his last illness, whom he should sacrifice to, he said he had already wor shipped. Chu Hí resolved the few and obscure references to Chinese Repository, Vol. III., page 49. THE JU KIAU, OR SECT OF THE LEARNED. 237 shangtí in the Shu King, into pure materialism; making nature to begin with the tai kih, called premier principe matériel by the French, which operating upon itself resolved itself into the dual powers, the yin and yang. Sir John Davis compares this production of the yin and yang, to the masculo-feminine principle in the development of the mundane egg in the Egyptian cosmogony, and quotes an extract showing that the idea was entertained among the Hindus, and that the androgyn of Plato was only another form of this myth. The Chinese have also the notion of an egg, and that the tai kih was evolved from it, or acted like the process of hatching going on in it, though it may be, that with them the introduction of the egg is more for the sake of illustration than as the form of the cause. Some of Chu Hi's philosophical notions have already been quoted in Chapter XII., p. 550. His system of materialism captivates his countrymen, for it allows great scope for the vagaries of every individual, who thinks he understands and can apply it to explain whatever phenomena come in his way. Heat and cold, light and darkness, fire and water, mind and matter, every agent, power, and substance, known and supposed, are endued with these principles, and their infinite reactions and varied consequences explained by them. With regard to the existence of gods and spirits, Chu Hi "affirmed that sufficient knowledge was not possessed to say positively that they existed, and he saw no dif ficulty in omitting the subject altogether. His system is also entirely silent respecting the immortality of the soul, as well as future rewards and punishments. Virtue is rewarded and vice is punished in the individual, or in his posterity on earth; but of a separate state of existence he or his disciples do not speak." In thus disposing of the existence of superior powers, the philosophers do not shut out all intelligent agencies, but have instituted a class of sages or pure-minded men of exalted intellects and simple hearts, who have been raised up from time to time by heaven, shangtí, or some other power, as instructors and examples to mankind, and who therefore deserve the reverence of their fellows. The office of these shing jin, "holy men" or saints, is to expound the will of heaven and earth, and form with them a trinity; they did not so much speak their own thoughts as illustrate and settle the principles on which the world should be governed; they were men, intuitively wise without instruction, while common people must learn to be wise. Of all the saints in the calendar of the Ju kiau, Confucius is the chief; with him are reckoned the early kings, as Yau and Shun, king Wan and lord Chau, but China has produced no one since the "most holy teacher of ancient times," whom his proud disciples are willing to regard his equal, Mencius being only a "number two saint." The deceased emperors of the reigning dynasty are canonized as saints, but a new line of monarchs would serve them as they did their predecessors, by reducing them to mere spirits. The demonolatry of the learned has gradually become so incorporated with popular superstitions that there is now little practical distinction; every one is willing to worship whatever can promise relief or afford assistance. Learning is followed chiefly as a means of attaining office, and a student of the classical works naturally adopts their views on these points, without supposing that they militate against worshipping his ancestors, joining the villagers in adoring the goddess of Mercy or any other Budhistic idol, or calling in a Rationalist to write a charm. He also, on coming into office, expects to perform all the ex-officio religious ceremonies required of him, and add the worship of the emperor to the rest. Form is the end of the whole; all alike fail in satisfying the desire of pardon for sin, and answering the question, How shall a man be just with his God? No one of them reaches the heart or conscience, none can convince the soul of its accountability, or show it the way to true happiness. Every magistrate is officially required to perform various idolatrous ceremonies at the temples. The objects of worship are numerous, including many others besides those forming the "herd of inferior sacrifices," and new deities are frequently made by the emperor, on the same principle that new saints are canonized by the pope. The worship of certain hills and rivers, and of spirits supposed to preside over particular cities and districts, has prevailed among the Chinese from ancient times, long before the rise of Rationalism or introduction of Budhism, and is no doubt the origin of this official worship. In every city, the Chinghwang miau, i. e. City and Moat temple, contains the tutelar divinity of the city called Ching-hwang, with other gods, and here on the solstices, equinoxes, new and full moons, &c., officers repair to sacrifice to it and the gods of the land and grain. Over the door of the one in Canton, is written, " Right and wrong, truth RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAGISTRATES. 239 and falsehood are blended on earth, but all are most clearly distinguished in heaven." Capt. Loch describes the Ching-hwang miau at Shanghai as a fine building: "In the centre of a serpentine sheet of water, there is a rocky island, and on it a large temple of two stories, fitted up for the accommodation of the wealthy public. Pillars of carved wood support the roof, fretted groups of uncouth figures fill up the narrow spaces, while movable lattices screen the occupants from the warmth of the noonday sun. Nothing can surpass the beauty and truth to nature of the most minutely carved flowers and insects prodigally scattered over every screen and cornice. This is the central and largest temple. A number of other light aerial looking structures of the same form are perched upon the corners of artificial rocky precipices and upon odd little islands. Light and fanciful wooden bridges connect most of these islands, and are thrown across the arms of the serpentine water, so that each sequestered spot can be visited in turn. At a certain passage of the sun, the main temple is shaded in front by a rocky eminence, the large masses of which are connected with great art and propriety of taste, but in shape and adjustment most studiously grotesque. Trees and flowers and tufts of grass are planted where art must have been taxed to the utmost to procure them a lodgment. In another part of the garden there is a miniature wood of dwarf trees, with a dell and waterfall; the leaves, fruit, and blossoms of the trees are proportionate to their size. Tortuous pathways lead to the top of the artificial mountain, each turn formed with studied art to surprise and charm by offering at every point fresh views and objects. Flowers and creepers sprout out from crevices, trees hang over the jutting crags, small pavilions are seen from almost every vista, while grottoes and rocky recesses, shady bowers and labyrinths, are placed to entrap the unwary, each with an appropriate motto, one inviting the wanderer to repose, another offering a secluded retreat to the philosopher."-Loch's Events in China, p. 47. According to the Repository there are 1560 temples dedicated to Confucius, attached to the examination halls, and the offerings presented in them are all eaten or used by the worshippers; there are, it is said, 62,606 pigs, rabbits, sheep, and deer, and 27,000 pieces of silk, annually presented upon their altars. The municipal temple is not the only one where the officers worship, but like the common people, they bow before whatever they think can aid them in their duties or estates. It has already been stated that the duty of Chinese officers extends to the securing of genial seasons by their good administration, and consequently if bad harvests ensue or epidemics rage, the fault and removal of the calamity belong to them. The expedients they resort to are both ludicrous and melancholy. In 1835, the prefect of Canton, on occasion of a distressing drought of eight months, issued the following invitation, which would have better befitted a chieftain of the Sechuanas. "Pwan, acting prefect of Kwangchau, issues this inviting summons. Since for a long time there has been no rain, and the prospects of drought continue, and supplications are unanswered, my heart is scorched with grief. In the whole province of Kwangtung, are there no extraordinary persons who can force the dragon to send rain? Be it known to you, all ye soldiers and people, that if there be any one, whether of this or any other province, priest or such like, who can by any craft or arts bring down abundance of rain, I respectfully request him to ascend the altar [of the dragon], and sincerely and reverently pray. And after the rain has fallen, I will liberally reward him with money and tablets to make known his merits." This invitation called forth a Budhist priest as a “rain maker,” and the prefect erected an altar for him before his own office, upon which the man armed with cymbal and wand, for three days vainly repeated his incantations from morning to night, exposed bareheaded to the hot sun, the butt of the jeering crowd. The prefect himself was lampooned by the people for his folly, the following quatrain being pasted under a copy of his invitation: "Kwangchau's great protector, the magnate Pwan, Always acting without regard to reason; Forthwith seeks for aid to force the dragon." The unsuccessful efforts of the priest did not render the calamity less grievous, and their urgent necessities led the people to resort to every expedient to force their gods to send rain. The authorities forbade the slaughter of animals, or in other words a fast was proclaimed, to keep the hot winds out of the city, the southern gate was shut, and all classes flocked to the temples. It was estimated that on one day 20,000 persons went to a celebrated shrine of the goddess of Mercy, among whom were the governor and prefect and their suites, who all left their sedans and walked with the multitude. The governor, as a last expe |