its order. 3.—The ethical nature of the good man and the principle of its action."
On the practical side the path of Laotzv lies before him plain and straight. It leads back from the complex to the simple; from the disorders and vices of corrupt society to primitive conditions. Our philosopher would have all things as they were at the beginning, when men could live their lives on the highest plane of virtue, and the "onward march" of the race had not carried it from its proper goal. To attain this, the one means is self-abnegation, a sacrifice on the part of the individual that "puts away" losing, that it may gain; denying, that it may acquire … itself.
The student of Chinese religions will inquire what the teaching of Laotzv has to do with the magic arts of the present day priests of Tao, their charms and spells and senseless incantations; and he will seek to know, further, how the "Canon of Reason and Virtue" is related to the pantheon of gods and godesses in Taoistic worship.
To such inquiries the answer, covering long stretches of history, is that Taoism, as interpreted by the disciples of Laotzv, has gathered to itself during the centuries all manner of superstitious beliefs. The "elixir of life," "pills of immortality," and "the philosopher's stone," became, in the course of time, articles of its creed. She Wang Ti, that great emperor who founded a united China on the ruins of the old feudal system (B.C. 259–210), was an ardent patron of this already debased and degenerate religion.
The affinities which Taoism, as it exists to-day, has for the mind of man in dark ages is shown by its multitude of willing followers.
The dawn of enlightenment, through the new civilisation and education, must needs have far-reaching results on the future of Taoism. Like all grosser forms of error, it is destined to fall as the forces of truth win their widening way through the land.
Thus far attention has been occupied with the more striking and permanent features of Chinese religion, illustrated by three gigantic growths that overshadow lesser forms of life. It remains to be added that certain of these latter were in existence in the soil before they became what we have seen fit to call undergrowths. Most ancient among these lowlier religious plants is
Fetishism.
No one can point with assurance to a time when China was free from fetish worship. Mountains, stones, plants, and trees are among the objects that have for the present generation of Chinese an awesome potency. In its most intense form this power is centred in the holy mountain, Tai Shan.
Animals are tokens. Among tokenistic animals the dragon holds the first place. The dragon of the sky is indissolubly linked in the minds of the masses with the emperor who sits on the dragon throne, and who, after death, ascends upon the dragon "to be a guest on high."
The right relation of celestial influences, over which the dragon presides, with terrestrial influences that work for good or ill in human life is a vital principle of geomancy—a pseudo-science, and at the same time a most flourishing and widely extended religious undergrowth in the soil of China.
Last, but far from least, is the
Worship of Ancestors.
There is a true sense in which ancestral worship may be said to be both the root and the flower of Chinese religion. It is above and it runs through other forms of faith and worship which derive much of their efficacy from the ancestor-worship with which they are interpenetrated.
The Chinese believe that man has three souls, for which after death the tomb, Hades, and the ancestral tablet are the appointed abodes. As are the needs of men in this life, so are the needs of their disembodied spirits in the after-world. There, however, the spirits of the dead are clothed with a fearsome power to inflict calamities on their living posterity. From this view it follows that sacrifices to the dead are propitiatory; and, also, that they are the outcome of a faith unfeigned, an ardent hope, and a fervent desire, on the part of the worshipper. Its connection with the family and social life of the nation gives to ancestral worship in China a position which is probably unique in the history of non-Christian religions.
The worship of departed heroes who have been deified by imperial decree may here be mentioned as an extension of the worship of ancestors.
Finally, it should be stated that the worship at the Altar of Heaven in Peking, which the Emperor, as the high-priest of his people offers, periodically, with solemn sacrifices, in other words, the
State Religion of China,
is also to be regarded as in closest association with ancestral worship. We are not here concerned with the degree of personality attaching to the name "Heaven" and "God." It is, at least, strongly probable that the Supreme Ruler, often called "Heaven," was regarded by the early fathers of the Chinese race as a personal Supreme Being.
This survey of "impressions" may fitly conclude by quoting the first reference to religious worship found in Chinese history, where it is said of the Emperor Shun (2736 B.C.); "He sacrificed specially, but with the ordinary forms, to Shang Ti; sacrificed with purity to the Six Honoured Ones; offered appropriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers, and extended his worship to the host of spirits."
Here, in the first ages of the world, are the plants of Chinese religion. These helped to enrich the soil and to prepare it for the seeds and roots sown and planted in after times.
The whole as we see it to-day is tangled and intermixed in such a way that clearing must mean uprooting over large spaces. This is a work of time to be brought to pass by forces irresistible in their silent, ceaseless energy. The action of such forces in China to-day may well recall the lines of a poem already quoted in these impressions of Chinese religion:—
"We fall by Nature's law
… On our heels a fresh perfection treads,
A power more strong in beauty
…… fated to excel us …
We are such forest trees."
