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at the main features of the religion of the earliest Chinese. There seems to have been a primitive matrix of animism out of which ancestor worship had arisen. This, at least, is the conclusion of a number of recent scholars. When, however, shortly before the time of Confucius, we first find ourselves on fairly solid ground, Chinese religious conceptions and practices were much more complex and were the result of an evolution over a much longer period than has since elapsed.

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The outstanding characteristics of Chinese religion as the oldest books portray it can be briefly summarized. In the first place, in its objects of worship it was a mixture, showing evidences of various stages of religious development and perhaps of accretions from without. It was certainly in part animistic, probably polytheistic, and, although this is still open to debate, it was possibly in part approaching theism. Worship was paid to ancestors and to a great variety of spirits, among others those of mountains and rivers. The worship of the spirits of ancestors was particularly prominent. Some special gods were honored, as, for example, that of the hearth." There was, as well, a belief in an overruling Power which was usually called T'ien, or "Heaven," but sometimes Shang Ti, or the "Emperor Above." * A clear distinction had probably once been made between these terms. It seems to have been largely obscured, however, by the time our oldest records were compiled in their present form, for in them the characteristics of the two were not carefully differentiated." Over the significance of these words Occidental scholars have had prolonged and sometimes acrimonious discussion, but the debate appears to have proved only that there was originally a difference. T'ien was the term most frequently employed. T'ien was intelligent, loved righteousness, and had Couvreur, Chou King (Shu Ching), p. 114; Couvreur, Cheu King (Shih Ching), p. 424.

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This is best seen by a cursory examination of the Shu Ching and the Shih Ching.

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Analects, 3:13 (Legge, Life and Teachings of Confucius, p. 130).

See, for example, Couvreur, Chou King (Shu Ching), pp. 101-113.

There are many passages to illustrate this. See, for example, Couvreur, op. cit., pp. 264, 283, 284.

See, however, Schindler, The Development of the Chinese Conceptions of Supreme Beings, in Hirth Anniversary Volume. He claims that Shang Ti, T'ien, and Tao were originally local deities of separate royal houses, or T'ien may have been originally the material heavens, although it may have been anthropomorphic, and Shang Ti may have originated from ancestor worship as the father of the royal line. Harvey, Chinese Daimonism (MS.), has worked out the same ethnological grounds..

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regard for the welfare of the people. From T'ien the Emperor derived his authority, and when through injustice he had forfeited his right to continue on the throne T'ien removed its decree." Men's lives were long or short as T'ien determined. T'ien was compassionate and heard and saw as the people heard and saw.” This overruling Power had the characteristics of personality, for it was moral, intelligent, and could and did act. However, little or no attempt appears to have been made to think of it as having human form, and no evidence exists of any sense of mystical fellowship with it or of love for it. There was trust in T'ien's justice, compassion, and power, and there was reverence, but a sense of personal devotion was lacking.

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The worship of this older China was largely ceremonial. There were sacrifices, music, and dancing, and on occasion announcements and petitions were made to the spirits and the superhuman powers. The sacrifices were apparently not the bloody holocausts known in some nations, although offerings of animals were made, as well as of wine, grains, and other products of the earth.1 It was a repast that was offered. In worship, correctness of form rather than purity of life was deemed of primary importance, but the ethical element was not entirely lacking." A sense of joyous companionship with the objects of worship seems not to have existed, unless in a rudimentary form in ceremonies in honor of ancestors. Worship played a large part in the life of the people, for the unseen powers were believed to have an intimate concern with the affairs of man. The welfare of the social and political units—the family, the principality, and the Empire quite as much as that of the individual, was held to be conditioned by the favor of the spirits and T'ien, so that worship was a social as well as an individual matter. The Emperor, surrounded by his court, performed ceremonies to T'ien, to Shang Ti, who was quite possibly regarded as his most remote ancestor, to his direct

7 Couvreur, op. cit.. pp. 258-268, 283, 284.

Man was not entirely without free will, however, for his life is shortened or prolonged according to his righteousness.-Couvreur, op. cit., p. 162.

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Couvreur, op. cit., p. 48.

10 This is to be found repeatedly in the Shih Ching, Shu Ching, and Li Chi. See, for example, Couvreur, Chou King (Shu Ching), pp. 187-189; Couvreur, Cheu King (Shih Ching), p. 430.

11 Couvreur, Chou King (Shu Ching), pp. 191, 192; Couvreur, Chen King (Shih King), pp. 276, 277, 425.

12 This is to be seen repeatedly in the Shu Ching and the Shih Ching. See, for example, Couvreur, Chen King (Shih Ching), pp. 459, 460.

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ancestors, and to a great variety of spirits." The local princes and dignitaries of various ranks had their particular forms of worship, and the common man his." There appears to have been no priesthood, although there were those who were experts in ritual and in the divination that was so common." No clear convictions were held about the state of the dead. The departed were regarded as continuing to be interested in and to influence human affairs, and to be able to enjoy the sacrifices paid them, but no attempt was made at a complete description of what they were doing and no happy expectation of immortality was cherished.1°

Out of this early faith there arose in the Chou dynasty (B.C. 1122-B.C. 249) several distinct schools of thought and practice. Two of these were to develop into cults" which were to have a permanent place in the life of the nation. The Chou dynasty was one of the major formative periods in the life of China. During the centuries that its representatives held the throne the race was expanding into fresh territories and culture was undergoing momentous changes. By the sixth century before the Christian era the power of the imperial house had perceptibly declined. The weak Chou Emperors were unable successfully to assert their authority over all the territory into which their nominal subjects had spread, and the many local principalities were all but independent; it seemed, in fact, that in the area at present Occupied by China several nations with distinct cultures might arise. Between these incipient states warfare was frequent, and misrule and injustice were rife. Among the awakening minds of the more thoughtful Chinese the dominant interest became, then, the welfare of the race. How, they inquired, can we so reform the state that the prosperity of the people can be assured? They were not primarily concerned with nature or with metaphysics, but with human society. This interest in political and social welfare was to color their teaching and was to persist in much of future philosophy.

The most influential of the cults that trace their origin to the Chou period is what is known to the Occident as Confucianism

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Couvreur, Chen King (Shih Ching), pp. 419 et seq.

Couvreur, Chen King (Shih Ching), pp. 419-469; Analects, 2:5; 2:24; 10:8; 10:13; 10:14 (Soothill, Analects, pp. 152, 177, 485, 495, 497).

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Couvreur, Chen King (Shih Ching), pp. 224-226.

Ibid., pp. 419-469.

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Confucianism and Taoism

and to the Chinese as Ju Chiao, or The Teaching of the Learned. Its dominant mind, as its foreign name indicates, has been Confucius. Confucius was born ca. B.C. 551 and died ca. B.C. 479. His life was spent partly in official service and partly in study, teaching, and writing. His outlook was always that of one who is primarily interested in social welfare and government, and he believed that the salvation of society depended upon a return to the principles and the practices of the best of the ancients. He was, therefore, a diligent student of all that had come down from antiquity, especially as disclosed in books and rituals. He felt that his function was that of a transmitter and not a creator, and rejoiced in being able to study, to edit, and to teach the earlier writings." He emphasized ceremonies and ethics. The former he regarded as not confined to worship and court functions, although he gave these much attention, but as including all contacts between men. In ethics he set high store by principles which are rather crudely and inadequately translated as altruism or good-will (jên), filial piety (hsiao), righteousness (i), sincerity (hsin), loyalty (chung), reverence (ching), virtue (tê) and propriety (li). He talked much of the chün tzũ, or gentleman, who was distinguished by the cultivation of these virtues. He was greatly interested in religious observances and insisted that these be maintained and carried out decorously, but he appears to have been concerned with religion chiefly as an aid to good government. He declined to discuss the supernatural,' but he seems to have accepted without serious question the beliefs about it that had come down from the past and he had a profound, even though rarely mentioned, confidence in the power, goodness, and protection of T'ien." This faith had, indeed, an important part in giving stability to his whole life. He was very reticent about his inward religious experiences, however, and on the whole the effect of his teachings upon succeeding generations has been to encourage not theism but agnosticism.

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In the centuries following his death, Confucius became more and more the dominant figure in the nation's past. Mencius (fourth and third centuries, B.C.) reverenced him and varied his teaching with an insistence upon the original goodness of human nature and its corollary, confidence in the voice of the people. 18 Analects, 7:1 (Soothill, The Analects of Confucius, p. 325).

19 Analects, 7:20 (Soothill, Analects, p. 353).

20 Analects, 3:13; 6:26; 7:22 (Soothill, Analects, pp. 199, 317, 355).

Under the Han dynasties (B.C. 206-A.D. 214) official scholarship became thoroughly committed to Confucius and spent much time in studying and editing his works. From that time on, indeed, Confucianism and the state for the most part were inextricably joined, the prevailing political and social theories being those of the Confucian school. In the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) a succession of philosophers culminating in Chu Hsi (1130-1200) gave to Confucianism a much more ordered and philosophical form than it had yet achieved. The philosophy of this school tended further to depersonalize T'ien, to make it even less an object of man's affectionate devotion, and so gave to Confucianism a further leaning toward religious agnosticism. The school emphasized ethics, however, and had a profound confidence that the dominant force in nature was moral and benevolent. The brilliant writings of Chu Hsi became the orthodox interpretation of Confucius and the ancient classics and remained so until the twentieth century.

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Since Confucianism was the orthodox philosophy of men of letters and since it usually enjoyed preferential treatment from the Emperors, it had a profound effect upon the entire life and thought of the nation. In the main it tended to encourage the persistence of primitive religious beliefs and practices (including not only reverence for T'ien and Shang Ti, but animism and ancestor worship), to conserve and strengthen the family, to emphasize a high standard of ethics, to perpetuate religious ritual, and to discourage asceticism, mysticism, and theological speculation. It helped to make the Chinese conservative, practical-minded, amenable to reason, appreciative of virtue, confident in the moral integrity of the universe, and interested in this present world rather than in the life to come. It produced no Paul, no Francis of Assisi, no Augustine, no John Wesley, but it bred many high-minded administrators and scholars and it helped immeasurably to purify and stabilize society and to inculcate high ideals of loyalty, reverence, and righteousness. While Confucius had little to say about women, in his example and teaching the mother shared in the respect paid to parents and in practice had a much higher position than in many other countries. Confucianism, while intensely conservative, was so interested in social well-being that out of the ranks of scholars there arose from time to time See especially J. P. Bruce, Chu Hsi and His Masters.

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