Ten Great Religions by James Freeman Clarke

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The Chinese citizen enjoys a degree of order, peace, and comfort unknown
elsewhere in Asia. "He can hold and sell landed property with a facility,
certainty, and security which is absolute perfection compared with the
nature of English dealings of the same kind."[22] He can traverse the
country for two thousand miles unquestioned by any official. He can
follow what occupation he pleases. He can quit his country and re-enter it
without a passport. The law of primogeniture does not exist. The emperor
appoints his heir, but a younger son quite as often as an elder one. The
principle that no man is entitled by birth to rule over them is better
known to the three hundred and sixty millions of China than to the
twenty-seven millions of Great Britain that they have a right to a trial
by their peers.[23] The principle of Chinese government is to persuade
rather than to compel, to use moral means rather than physical. This rests
on the fundamental belief in human goodness. For, as Mr. Meadows justly
observes: "The theory that man's nature is radically vicious is the true
psychical basis of despotic or physical-force government; while the theory
that man's nature is radically good is the basis of free or moral-force
government." The Chinese government endeavors to be paternal. It has
refused to lay a tax on opium, because that would countenance the sale of
it, though it might derive a large income from such a tax. The sacred
literature of the Chinese is perfectly free from everything impure or
offensive. There is not a line but might be read aloud in any family
circle in England. All immoral ceremonies in idol worship are forbidden.
M. Hue says that the birth of a daughter is counted a disaster in China;
but well-informed travellers tell us that fathers go about with little
daughters on their arms, as proud and pleased as a European father could
be. Slavery and concubinage exist in China, and the husband has absolute
power over his wife, even of life and death. These customs tend to
demoralize the Chinese, and are a source of great evil. Woman is the slave
of man. The exception to this is in the case of a mother. She is absolute
in her household, and mothers, in China, command universal reverence. If
an officer asks leave of absence to visit his mother it must be granted
him. A mother may order an official to take her son to prison, and she
must be obeyed. As a wife without children woman is a slave, but as a
mother with grownup sons she is a monarch.

Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection.

Two extraordinary events have occurred in our day in China, the results of
which may be of the utmost importance to the nation and to mankind. The
one is the Tae-ping insurrection, the other the diplomatic mission of Mr.
Burlingame to the Western world. Whatever may be the immediate issue of
the great insurrection of our day against the Tartar dynasty, it will
remain a phenomenon of the utmost significance. There is no doubt,
notwithstanding the general opinion to the contrary, that it has been a
religious movement, proceeding from a single mind deeply moved by the
reading of the Bible. The hostility of the Chinese to the present Mantchoo
Tartar monarchs no doubt aided it; but there has been in it an element of
power from the beginning, derived, like that of the Puritans, from its
religious enthusiasm. Its leader, the Heavenly Prince, Hung-sew-tseuen,
son of a poor peasant living thirty miles northeast of Canton, received a
tract, containing extracts from the Chinese Bible of Dr. Morison, from a
Chinese tract distributor in the streets of Canton. This was in 1833, when
he was about twenty years of age. He took the book home, looked over it
carelessly, and threw it aside. Disappointed of his degree at two
competitive examinations, he fell sick, and saw a vision of an old man,
saying: "I am the Creator of all things. Go and do my work." After this
vision six years passed by, when the English war broke out, and the
English fleet took the Chinese forts in the river of Canton. Such a great
national calamity indicated, according to Chinese ideas, something rotten
in the government; and such success on the part of the English showed
that, in some way, they were fulfilling the will of Heaven. This led
Hung-sew-tseuen to peruse again his Christian books; and alone, with no
guide, he became a sincere believer in Christ, after a fashion of his own.
God was the Creator of all things, and the Supreme Father. Jesus was the
Elder Brother and heavenly Teacher of mankind. Idolatry was to be
overthrown, virtue to be practised. Hung-sew-tseuen believed that the
Bible confirmed his former visions. He accepted his mission and began to
make converts All his converts renounced idolatry, and gave up the worship
of Confucius. They travelled to and fro teaching, and formed a society of
"God-worshippers." The first convert, Fung-yun-san, became its most ardent
missionary and its disinterested preacher. Hung-sew-tseuen returned home,
went to Canton, and there met Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, who was
induced by false charges to refuse him Christian baptism. But he, without
being offended with Mr. Roberts, went home and taught his converts how to
baptize themselves. The society of "God-worshippers" increased in number.
Some of them were arrested for destroying idols, and among them
Fung-yun-san, who, however, on his way to prison, converted the policemen
by his side. These new converts set him at liberty and went away with him
as his disciples. Various striking phenomena occurred in this society. Men
fell into a state of ecstasy and delivered exhortations. Sick persons were
cured by the power of prayer. The teachings of these ecstatics were tested
by Scripture; if found to agree therewith, they were accepted; if not,
rejected.

It was in October, 1850, that this religious movement assumed a political
form. A large body of persons, in a state of chronic rebellion against the
Chinese authorities, had fled into the district, and joined the
"God-worshippers." Pursued by the imperial soldiers, they were protected
against them. Hence war began. The leaders of the religious movement found
themselves compelled to choose between submission and resistance. They
resisted, and the great insurrection began. But in China an insurrection
against the dynasty is in the natural order of things. Indeed, it may be
said to be a part of the constitution. By the Sacred Books, taught in all
the schools and made a part of the examination papers, it is the duty of
the people to overthrow any bad government. The Chinese have no power to
legislate, do not tax themselves, and the government is a pure autocracy.
But it is not a despotism; for old usages make a constitution, which the
government must respect or be overthrown. "The right to rebel," says Mr.
Meadows, "is in China a chief element of national stability." The
Tae-ping (or Universal-Peace) Insurrection has shown its religious
character throughout. It has not been cruel, except in retaliation. At the
taking of Nan-king orders were given to put all the women together and
protect them, and any one doing them an injury was punished with death.
Before the attack on Nan-king a large body of the insurgents knelt down
and prayed, and then rose and fought, like the soldiers of Cromwell. The
aid of a large body of rebels was refused, because they did not renounce
idolatry, and continued to allow the use of opium. Hymns of praise to the
Heavenly Father and Elder Brother were chanted in the camp. And the head
of the insurrection distinctly announced that, in case it succeeded, the
Bible would be substituted in all public examinations for office in the
place of Confucius. This would cause the Bible to be at once studied by
all candidates for office among three hundred and sixty millions of
people. It would constitute the greatest event in the history of
Christianity since the days of Constantino, or at least since the
conversion of the Teutonic races. The rebellion has probably failed; but
great results must follow this immense interest in Christianity in the
heart of China,--an interest awakened by no Christian mission, whether
Catholic or Protestant, but coming down into this great nation like the
rain from heaven.

In the "History of the Ti-Ping Revolution" (published in London in 1866),
written by an Englishman who held a command among the Ti-Piugs, there is
given a full, interesting, and apparently candid account of the religious
and moral character of this great movement, from which I take the
following particulars:--

"I have probably," says this writer,[24] "had a much greater experience
of the Ti-Ping religious practices than any other European, and as a
Protestant Christian I have never yet found occasion to condemn their form
of worship. The most important part of their faith is the Holy Bible,--Old
and New Testaments, entire. These have been printed and circulated
gratuitously by the government through the whole population of the Ti-Ping
jurisdiction." Abstracts of the Bible, put into verse, were circulated and
committed to memory. Their form of worship was assimilated to
Protestantism. The Sabbath was kept religiously on the seventh day. Three
cups of tea were put on the altar on that day as an offering to the
Trinity. They celebrated the communion once a month by partaking of a cup
of grape wine. Every one admitted to their fellowship was baptized, after
an examination and confession of sins. The following was the form
prescribed in the "Book of Religious Precepts of the Ti-Ping
Dynasty":--[25]

_Forms to be observed when Men wish to forsake their Sins_--"They must
kneel down in God's presence, and ask him to forgive their sins. They may
then take either a basin of water and wash themselves, or go to the river
and bathe themselves; after which they must continue daily to supplicate
Divine favor, and the Holy Spirit's assistance to renew their hearts,
saying grace at every meal, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and obeying all
God's commandments, especially avoiding idolatry. They may then be
accounted the children of God, and their souls will go to Heaven when they
die."

The prayer offered by the recipient of Baptism was as follows:--

"I (A. B.), kneeling down with a true heart, repent of my sins, and pray
the Heavenly Father, the great God, of his abundant mercy, to forgive my
former sins of ignorance in repeatedly breaking the Divine commands,
earnestly beseeching him also to grant me repentance and newness of life,
that my soul may go to Heaven, while I henceforth truly forsake my former
ways, abandoning idolatry and all corrupt practices, in obedience to
God's commands. I also pray that God would give me his Holy Spirit to
change my wicked heart, deliver me from all temptation, and grant me his
favor and protection, bestowing on me food and raiment, and exemption from
calamity, peace in this world and glory in the next, through the mercies
of our Saviour and Elder Brother, Jesus, who redeemed us from sin."

In every household throughout the Ti-Ping territory the following
translation of the Lord's Prayer was hung up for the use of the children,
printed in large black characters on a white board:--

"Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, forgive all our sins that we have
committed in ignorance, rebelling against thee. Bless us, brethren and
sisters, thy little children. Give us our daily food and raiment; keep
from us all calamities and afflictions; that in this world we may have
peace and finally ascend to heaven to enjoy everlasting happiness. We pray
thee to bless our brethren and sisters of all nations. We ask these things
for the redeeming merits of our Lord and Saviour, our heavenly brother,
Jesus. We also pray, Heavenly Father, that thy will may be done on earth
as in heaven: for thine are all the kingdoms, glory, and power. Amen."

The writer says he has frequently watched the Ti-Ping women teaching the
children this prayer; "and often, on entering a house, the children ran up
to me, and pulling me toward the board, began to read the prayer."

The seventh day was kept very strictly. As soon as midnight sounded on
Friday, all the people throughout; Ti-Pingdom were summoned to worship.
Two other services were held during the day. Each opened with a doxology
to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Then was sung this hymn:--

"The true doctrine is different from the doctrine of this world;
It saves men's souls and gives eternal bliss.
The wise receive it instantly with joy;
The foolish, wakened by it, find the way to Heaven.
Our Heavenly Father, of his great mercy,
Did not spare his own Son, but sent him down
To give his life to redeem sinners.
When men know this, and repent, they may go to Heaven."

The rest of the services consisted in a chapter of the Bible read by the
minister; a creed, repeated by the congregation standing; a prayer, read
by the minister and repeated by the whole congregation kneeling. Then the
prayer was burned, the minister read a sermon, an anthem was chanted to
the long life of the king; then followed the Ten Commandments, music, and
the burning of incense and fire-crackers. No business was allowed on the
Sabbath, and the shops were closed. There was a clergy, chosen by
competitive examination, subject to the approval of the Tien-Wong, or
supreme religious head of the movement. There was a minister placed over
every twenty-five families, and a church, or Heavenly Hall, assigned to
him in some public building. Over every twenty, five parishes there was a
superior, who visited them in turn every Sabbath. Once every month the
whole people were addressed by the chief Wong.

The writer of this work describes his attendance on morning prayers at
Nan-king, in the Heavenly Hall of the Chung-Wang's household. This took
place at sunrise every morning, the men and women sitting on opposite
sides of the hall. "Oftentimes," says he, "while kneeling in the midst of
an apparently devout congregation, and gazing on the upturned countenances
lightened by the early morning sun, have I wondered why no British
missionary occupied my place, and why Europeans generally preferred
slaughtering the Ti-Pings to accepting them as brothers in Christ. When I
look back," he adds, "on the unchangeable and universal kindness I always
met with among the Ti-Pings, even when their dearest relatives were being
slaughtered by my countrymen, or delivered over to the Manchoos to be
tortured to death, their magnanimous forbearance seems like a dream. Their
kind and friendly feelings were often annoying. To those who have
experienced the ordinary dislike of foreigners by the Chinese, the
surprising friendliness of the Ti-Pings was most remarkable." They
welcomed Europeans as "brethren from across the sea," and claimed them as
fellow-worshippers of "Yesu."

Though the Ti-Pings did not at once lay aside all heathen customs, and
could not be expected to do so, they took some remarkable steps in the
right direction. Their women were in a much higher position than among the
other Chinese; they abolished the custom of cramping their feet; a married
woman had rights, and could not be divorced at will, or sold, as under the
Manchoos. Large institutions were established for unmarried women. Slavery
was totally abolished, and to sell a human being was made a capital
offence. They utterly prohibited the use of opium; and this was probably
their chief offence in the eyes of the English. Prostitution was punished
by death, and was unknown in their cities. Idolatry was also utterly
abolished. Their treatment of the people under them was merciful; they
protected their prisoners, whom the Imperialists always massacred. The
British troops, instead of preserving neutrality, aided the Imperialists
in putting down the insurrection in such ways as this. The British
cruisers _assumed_ that the Ti-Ping junks were pirates, because they
captured Chinese vessels. The British ship Bittern and another steamer
sank every vessel but two in a rebel fleet, and gave up the crew of one
which they captured to be put to death. This is the description of another
transaction of the same kind, in the harbor of Shi-poo: "The junks were
destroyed, and their crews shot, drowned, and hunted down, until about a
thousand were killed; the Bittern's men aiding the Chinese on shore to
complete the wholesale massacre."[26]

It is the deliberate opinion of this well-informed English writer that the
Ti-Ping insurrection would have succeeded but for British intervention;
that the Tartar dynasty would have been expelled, the Chinese regained
their autonomy, and Christianity have been established throughout the
Empire. At the end of his book he gives a table of _forty-three_ battles
and massacres in which the British soldiers and navy took part, in which
about four hundred thousand of the Ti-Pings were killed, and he estimates
that more than two millions more died of starvation in 1863 and 1864, in
the famine occasioned by the operations of the allied English, French, and
Chinese troop's, when the Ti-Pings were driven from their territories. In
view of such facts, well may an English writer say: "It is not once or
twice that the policy of the British government has been ruinous to the
best interests of the world. Disregard of international law and of treaty
law in Europe, deeds of piracy and spoliation in Asia, one vast system of
wrong and violence, have everywhere for years marked the dealings of the
British government with the weaker races of the globe."[27]

Other Englishmen, beside "Lin-Le" and Mr. Meadows, give the same testimony
to the Christian character of this great movement in China. Captain
Fishbourne, describing his visit in H.M.S. Hermes to Nan-king, says: "It
was obvious to the commonest observer that they were practically a
different race." They had the Scriptures, many seemed to him to be
practical Christians, serious and religious, believing in a special
Providence, thinking that their trials were sent to purify them. "They
accuse us of magic," said one. "The only magic we employ is prayer to
God." The man who said this, says Captain Fishbourne, "was a little
shrivelled-up person, but he uttered words of courageous confidence in
God, and could utter the words of a hero. He and others like him have
impressed the minds of their followers with their own courage and
morality."

The English Bishop of Victoria has constantly given the same testimony. Of
one of the Ti-Ping books Dr. Medhurst says: "There is not a word in it
which a Christian missionary might not adopt and circulate as a tract for
the benefit of the Chinese."

Dr. Medhurst also describes a scene which took place in Shanghae, where he
was preaching in the chapel of the London Missionary Society, on the folly
of idolatry and the duty of worshipping the one true God. A man arose in
the middle of the congregation and said: "That is true! that is true! the
idols must perish. I am a Ti-Ping; we all worship one God and believe in
Jesus, and we everywhere destroy the idols. Two years ago when we began we
were only three thousand; now we have marched across the Empire, because
God was on our side." He then exhorted the people to abandon idolatry and
to believe in Jesus, and said: "We are happy in our religion, and look on
the day of our death as the happiest moment of life. When any of our
number dies, we do not weep, but congratulate each other because he has
gone to the joy of the heavenly world."

The mission of Mr. Burlingame indicated a sincere desire on the part of
the sagacious men who then governed China, especially of Prince Kung, to
enter into relations with modern civilization and modern thought. From the
official papers of this mission,[28] it appears that Mr. Burlingame was
authorized "to transact all business with the Treaty Powers in which those
countries and China had a common interest," (communication of Prince Kung,
December 31, 1867). The Chinese government expressly states that this step
is intended as adopting the customs of diplomatic intercourse peculiar to
the West, and that in so doing the Chinese Empire means to conform to the
law of nations, as understood among the European states. It therefore
adopted "Wheaton's International Law" as the text-book and authority to be
used in its Foreign Office, and had it carefully translated into Chinese
for the use of its mandarins. This movement was the result, says Mr.
Burlingame, of the "co-operative policy" adopted by the representatives in
China of the Treaty Powers, in which they agreed to act together on all
important questions, to take no cession of territory, and never to menace
the autonomy of the Empire. They agreed "to leave her perfectly free to
develop herself according to her own form of civilization, not to
interfere with her interior affairs, to make her waters neutral, and her
land safe" (Burlingame's speech at San Francisco). There is no doubt that
if the states known as the "Treaty Powers," namely, the United States,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, North Germany,
Russia, Spain, and Sweden, will loyally abstain from aggression and
interference in China and respect her independence, that this great
Empire will step forth from her seclusion of fifty centuries, and enter
the commonwealth of nations.

The treaty between the United States and China of July 28, 1868, includes
provisions for the neutrality of the Chinese waters; for freedom of
worship for United States citizens in China, and for the Chinese in the
United States; for allowing voluntary emigration, and prohibiting the
compulsory coolie trade; for freedom to travel in China and the United
States by the citizens of either country; and for freedom to establish and
attend schools in both countries.

We add to this chapter a Note, containing an interesting account, from
Hue's "Christianity in China," of an inscribed stone, proving that
Christian churches existed in China in the seventh century. These churches
were the result of the efforts of Nestorian missionaries, who were the
Protestant Christians of their age. Their success in China is another
proof that the Christianity which is to be welcomed there must be
presented in an intelligible and rational form.

* * * * *

NOTE.

The Nestorian Inscription in China.[29]

In 1625 some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a
house, outside the walls of the city of Si-ngau-Fou, the capital of the
province of Chen-si, found buried in the earth a large monumental stone
resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to
preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and
illustrious men. It was a dark-colored marble tablet, ten feet high and
five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese,
and also some other characters quite unknown in China.

* * * * *

Several exact tracings from the stone were sent to Europe by the
Jesuits who saw it. The library of their house at Rome had one of the
first, and it attracted numerous visitors; subsequently, another
authentic copy of the dimensions of the tablet was sent to Paris, and
deposited at the library in the Rue Richelieu, where it may still be
seen in the gallery of manuscripts.

This monument, discovered by chance amidst rubbish in the environs of
an ancient capital of the Chinese Empire, excited a great sensation;
for on examining the stone, and endeavoring to interpret the
inscription, it was with surprise discovered that the Christian
religion had had numerous apostles in China at the beginning of the
seventh century, and that it had for a long time flourished there. The
strange characters proved to be those called _estrangelhos_, which were
in use among the ancient inhabitants of Syria, and will be found in
some Syriac manuscripts of earlier date than the eighth century.

* * * * *

_Monument of the great Propagation of the Luminous Doctrine in the
Central Empire, composed by Khing-Tsing, a devout Man of the Temple of
Ta-Thsin._

1. There has always been only one true Cause, essentially the first,
and without beginning, supremely intelligent and immaterial;
essentially the last, and uniting all perfections. He placed the poles
of the heavens and created all beings; marvellously holy, he is the
source of all perfection. This admirable being, is he not the _Triune_,
the true Lord without beginning, _Oloho_?

He divided the world by a cross into four parts. After having
decomposed the primordial air, he gave birth to the two elements.

Chaos was transformed, and then the sun and the moon appeared. He made
the sun and the moon move to produce day and night. He elaborated and
perfected the ten thousand things; but in creating the first man, he
endowed him with perfect interior harmony. He enjoined him to watch
over the sea of his desires. His nature was without vice and without
error; his heart, pure and simple, was originally without disorderly
appetites.