Chapter II (2)

It were easy to find defects in the doctrine of Confucius. It has little to teach of God or immortality. But if the law of Moses, which taught nothing of a future life, was a preparation for Christianity; if, as the early Christian Fathers asserted, Greek philosophy was also schoolmaster to bring men to Christ; who can doubt that the truth and purity in the teachings of Confucius were providentially intended to lead this great nation in the right direction? Confucius is a Star in the East, to lead his people to Christ. One of the most authentic of his sayings is this, that "in the West the true Saint must be looked for and found." He has a perception, such as truly great men have often had, of some one higher than himself, who was to come after him. We cannot doubt, therefore, that God, who forgets none of his children, has given this teacher to the swarming millions of China to lead them on till they are ready for a higher light. And certainly the temporal prosperity and external virtues of this nation, and their long-continued stability amid the universal changes of the world, are owing in no small decree to the lessons of reverence for the past, of respect for knowledge, of peace and order, and especially of filial piety, which he inculcated. In their case, if in no other, has been fulfilled the promise of the divine commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

In comparing the system of Confucius with Christianity, it appears at once that Christianity differs from this system, as from most others, in its greater completeness. Jesus says to the Chinese philosopher, as he said to the Jewish law, "I have not come to destroy, but to fulfil." He fulfils the Confucian reverence for the past by adding hope for the future; he fulfils its stability by progress, its faith in man with faith in God, its interest in this world with the expectation of another, its sense of time with that of eternity. Confucius aims at peace, order, outward prosperity, virtue, and good morals. All this belongs also to Christianity, but Christianity adds a moral enthusiasm, a faith in the spiritual world, a hope of immortal life, a sense of the Fatherly presence of God. So that here, as before, we find that Christianity does not exclude other religions, but includes them, and is distinguished by being deeper, higher, broader, and more far-reaching than they.

A people with such institutions and such a social life as we have described cannot be despised, and to call them uncivilized is as absurd in us as it is in them to call Europeans barbarians. They are a good, intelligent, and happy people. Lieutenant Forbes, who spent five years in China,--from 1842 to 1847,--says: "I found myself in the midst of as amiable, kind, and hospitable a population as any on the face of the earth, as far ahead of us in some things as behind us in others." As to the charge of dishonesty brought against them by those who judge the whole nation by the degraded population of the suburbs of Canton, Forbes says, "My own property suffered more in landing in England and passing the British frontier than in my whole sojourn in China."

"There is no nation," says the Jesuit Du Halde, "more laborious and temperate than this. They are inured to hardships from their infancy, which greatly contributes to preserve the innocence of their manners.... They are of a mild, tractable, and humane disposition." He thinks them exceedingly modest, and regards the love of gain as their chief vice. "Interest," says he, "is the spring of all their actions; for, when the least profit offers, they despise all difficulties and undertake the most painful journeys to procure it" This may be true; but if a Chinese traveller in America should give the same account of us, would it not be quite as true? One of the latest writers--the author of "The Middle Kingdom"--accuses the Chinese of gross sensuality, mendacity, and dishonesty. No doubt these are besetting sins with them, as with all nations who are educated under a system which makes submission to authority the chief virtue. But then this writer lived only at Canton and Macao, and saw personally only the refuse of the people. He admits that "they have attained, by the observance of peace and good order, to a high security of life and property; that the various classes are linked together in a remarkably homogeneous manner by the diffusion of education; and that property and industry receive their just reward of food, raiment, and shelter." He also reminds us that the religion of China differs from all Pagan religions in this, that it encourages neither cruelty nor sensuality. No human victims have ever been offered on its altars, and those licentious rites which have appeared in so many religions have never disgraced its pure worship.

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.

§ 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 _estrangélhos_, 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.

2. But Sa-Thang propagated lies, and stained by his malice that which
had been pure and holy. He proclaimed, as a truth, the equality of
greatness, and upset all ideas. This is why three hundred and
sixty-five sects, lending each other a mutual support, formed a long
chain, and wove, so to speak, a net of law. Some put the creature in
the place of the Eternal, others denied the existence of beings, and
destroyed the two principles. Others instituted prayers and sacrifices
to obtain good fortune; others proclaimed their own sanctity to deceive
mankind. The minds of men labored, and were filled with anxiety;
aspirations after the supreme good were trampled down; thus perpetually
floating about they attained to nothing, and all went from bad to
worse. The darkness thickened, men lost their sight, and for a long
time they wandered without being able to find it again.

3. Then our Triune God communicated his substance to the very venerable
Mi-chi-ho (Messiah), who, veiling his true majesty, appeared in the
world in the likeness of a man. The celestial spirits manifested their
joy, and a virgin brought forth the saint in Ta-Thsin. The most
splendid constellations announced this happy event; the Persians saw
the splendor, and ran to pay tribute. He fulfilled what was said of old
by the twenty-four saints; he organized, by his precepts, both families
and kingdoms; he instituted the new religion according to the true
notion of the Trinity in Unity; he regulated conscience by the true
faith; he signified to the world the eight commandments, and purged
humanity from its pollutions by opening the door to the three virtues.
He diffused life and extinguished death; he suspended the luminous sun
to destroy the dwelling of darkness, and then the lies of demons passed
away. He directed the bark of mercy towards the palace of light, and
all creatures endowed with intelligence have been succored. After
having consummated this act of power, he rose at midday towards the
Truth. Twenty-seven books have been left. He has enlarged the springs
of mercy, that men might be converted. The baptism by water and by the
Spirit is a law that purifies the soul and beautifies the exterior. The
sign of the cross unites the four quarters of the world, and restores
the harmony that had been destroyed. By striking upon a piece of wood,
we make the voice of charity and mercy resound; by sacrificing towards
the east we indicate the way of life and glory.

Our ministers allow their beards to grow, to show that they are devoted
to their neighbors. The tonsure that they wear at the top of their
heads indicates that they have renounced worldly desires. In giving
liberty to slaves we become a link between the powerful and weak. We do
not accumulate riches, and we share with the poor that which we
possess. Fasting strengthens the intellectual powers, abstinence and
moderation preserve health. We worship seven times a day, and by our
prayers we aid the living and the dead. On the seventh day we offer
sacrifice, after having purified our hearts and received absolution for
our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to
name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts. It is
called the Luminous Religion.

5. Learning alone without sanctity has no grandeur, sanctity without
learning makes no progress. When learning and sanctity proceed
harmoniously, the universe is adorned and resplendent.

The Emperor Tai-Tsoung illustrated the Empire. He opened the
revolution, and governed men in holiness. In his time there was a man
of high virtue named Olopen, who came from the kingdom of Ta-Thsin.
Directed by the blue clouds, he bore the Scriptures of the true
doctrine; he observed the rules of the winds, and traversed difficult
and perilous countries

In the ninth year of Tching-Kouan (636) he arrived at Tehang-ngan. The
Emperor ordered Fang-hi-wen-Ling, first minister of the Empire, to go
with a great train of attendants to the western suburb, to meet the
stranger and bring him to the palace. He had the Holy Scriptures
translated in the Imperial library. The court listened to the doctrine,
meditated on it profoundly, and understood the great unity of truth. A
special edict was promulgated for its publication and diffusion.

In the twelfth year of Tching-Kouan, in the seventh moon, during the
autumn, the new edict was promulgated in these terms:--

The doctrine has no fixed name, the holy has no determinate substance;
it institutes religions suitable to various countries, and carries men
in crowds in its tracks. Olopen, a man of Ta-Thsin, and of a lofty
virtue, bearing Scriptures and images, has come to offer them in the
Supreme Court. After a minute examination of the spirit of this
religion, it has been found to be excellent, mysterious, and pacific.
The contemplation of its radical principle gives birth to perfection
and fixes the will. It is exempt from verbosity; it considers only good
results. It is useful to men, and consequently ought to be published
under the whole extent of the heavens. I, therefore, command the
magistrates to have a Ta-Thsin temple constructed in the quarter named
T-ning of the Imperial city, and twenty-one religious men shall be
installed therein.

* * * * *

10. Sou-Tsoung, the illustrious and brilliant emperor, erected at
Ling-on and other towns, five in all, _luminous_ temples. The primitive
good was thus strengthened, and felicity flourished. Joyous solemnities
were inaugurated, and the Empire entered on a wide course of
prosperity.

11. Tai-Tsoung (764), a lettered and a warlike emperor, propagated the
holy revolution. He sought for peace and tranquillity. Every year, at
the hour of the Nativity (Christmas), he burnt celestial perfumes in
remembrance of the divine benefit; he prepared imperial feasts, to
honor the _luminous_ (Christian) multitude.

* * * * *

21. This stone was raised in the second year of Kien-Tchoung of the
great dynasty of Thang (A.D. 781), on the seventh day of the moon of
the great increase. At this time the devout Ning-Chou, lord of the
doctrine, governed the luminous multitude in the Eastern country.

Such is the translation of the famous inscription found at Si-ngau-Fou,
in 1625. On the left of the monument are to be read the following words
in the Syriac language: "In the days of the Father of Fathers,
Anan-Yeschouah, Patriarch _Catholicos_." To the right can be traced,
"Adam, Priest, and Chor-Episcopus"; and at the base of the inscription:
"In the year of the Greeks one thousand nine hundred and two (A.D.
781), Mar Yezd-bouzid, Priest and Chor-Episcopus of the Imperial city
of Komdam, son of Millesins, priest of happy memory, of Balkh, a town
of Tokharistan (Turkistan), raised this tablet of stone, on which are
described the benefits of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers
in the kingdom of the Chinese. Adam, Deacon, son of Yezd-bouzid,
Chor-Episcopus; Sabar-Jesu, Priest; Gabriel, Priest, Archdeacon, and
Ecclesiarch of Komdam and Sarage."

* * * * *

The abridgment of Christian doctrine given in the Syro-Chinese
inscription of Si-ngau-Fou shows us, also, that the propagators of the
faith in Upper Asia in the seventh century professed the Nestorian
errors.

Through the vague and obscure verbiage which characterizes the Chinese
style, we recognize the mode in which that heresiarch admitted the
union of the Word with man, by indwelling plenitude of grace superior
to that of all the saints. One of the persons of the Trinity
communicated himself to the very illustrious and venerable Messiah,
"veiling his majesty." That is certainly the doctrine of Nestorius;
upon that point the authority of the critics is unanimous.

History, as we have elsewhere remarked, records the rapid progress of
the Nestorian sects in the interior of Asia, and their being able to
hold their ground, even under the sway of the Mussulmans, by means of
compromises and concessions of every kind.

Setting out from the banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, these ardent
and courageous propagators of the Gospel probably proceeded to
Khorassan, and then crossing the Oxus, directed their course toward the
Lake of Lop, and entered the Chinese Empire by the province of Chen-si.
Olopen, and his successors in the Christian mission, whether Syrians or
Persians by birth, certainly belonged to the Nestorian church.

Voltaire, who did not like to trouble himself with scientific
arguments, and who was much stronger in sarcasm than in erudition,
roundly accuses the missionaries of having fabricated the inscription
on the monument of Si-ngau-Fou, from motives of "pious fraud." "As if,"
says Remusat, "such a fabrication could have been practicable in the
midst of a distrustful and suspicious nation, in a country in which
magistrates and private people are equally ill-disposed towards
foreigners, and especially missionaries, where all eyes are open to
their most trivial proceedings, and where the authorities watch with
the most jealous care over everything relating to the historical
traditions and monuments of antiquity. It would be very difficult to
explain how the missionaries could have been bold enough to have
printed and published in China, and in Chinese, an inscription that had
never existed, and how they could have imitated the Chinese style,
counterfeited the manner of the writers of the dynasty of Thang,
alluded to customs little known, to local circumstances, to dates
calculated from the mysterious figures of Chinese astrology, and the
whole without betraying themselves for a moment; and with such
perfection as to impose on the most skilful men of letters, induced, of
course, by the singularity of the discovery to dispute its
authenticity. It could only have been done by one of the most erudite
of Chinese scholars, joining with the missionaries to impose on his own
countrymen."

"Even that would not be all, for the borders of the inscription are
covered with Syrian names in fine _estranghélo_ characters. The forgers
must, then, have been not only acquainted with these characters, but
have been able to get engraved with perfect exactness ninety lines of
them, and in the ancient writing, known at present to very few."

"This argument of Remusat's," says another learned Orientalist, M.
Felix Neve, "is of irresistible force, and we have formerly heard a
similar one maintained with the greatest confidence by M. Quatremère,
of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and we allow
ourselves to quote the opinion of so highly qualified a judge upon this
point. Before the last century it would have been absolutely impossible
to forge in Europe a series of names and titles belonging to a
Christian nation of Western Asia; it is only since the fruits of
Assemam's labors have been made public by his family at Rome, that
there existed a sufficient knowledge of the Syriac for such a purpose;
and it is only by the publication of the manuscripts of the Vatican,
that the extent to which Nestorianism spread in the centre of Asia, and
the influence of its hierarchy in the Persian provinces could have been
estimated. There is no reason to suppose that missionaries who left
Europe in the very beginning of the seventeenth century could have
acquired a knowledge which could only be obtained from reading the
originals and not vague accounts of them."

The sagacity of M. Saint Martin, who was for a long time the colleague
of M. Quatremère, has pointed out in a note worthy of his erudition,
another special proof, which is by no means to be neglected.

"Amongst the various arguments," he says, "that might be urged in favor
of the legitimacy of the monument, but of which, as yet, no use has
been made, must not be forgotten the name of the priest by whom it is
said to have been erected. The name _Yezd-bouzid_ is Persian, and at
the epoch when the monument was discovered it would have been
impossible to invent it, as there existed no work where it could have
been found. Indeed, I do not think that, even since then, there has
ever been any one published in which it could have been met with.

"It is a very celebrated name among the Armenians, and comes to them
from a martyr, a Persian by birth, and of the royal race, who perished
towards the middle of the seventh century, and rendered his name
illustrious amongst the Christian nations of the East." Saint Martin
adds in the same place, that the famous monument of Si-ngau-Fou, whose
authenticity has for a long time been called in question from the
hatred entertained against the Jesuit missionaries who discovered it,
rather than from a candid examination of its contents, is now regarded
as above all suspicion.