Chapter IV (4)

The Embassador and the rest of the suite, with the soldiers, servants and musicians had, several hours before us, set out in a sort of procession, in which an officer of government on horseback took the lead, with the letter of the Emperor of China to the King of England slung across his shoulders, in a wooden case covered with yellow silk. At a late hour in the night, we joined the rest of the party in the suburbs of _Tong-tchoo-foo_, where we were once more lodged among the gods of the nation, in a temple that was consecrated to the patronizing deity of the city. There are no inns in any part of this vast empire; or, to speak more correctly (for there are resting-places), no inhabited and furnished houses where, in consideration of paying a certain sum of money, a traveller may purchase the refreshments of comfortable rest, and of allaying the calls of hunger. The state of society admits of no such accommodation, and much less such as, in many countries, proceeds from a spirit of disinterested hospitality; on the contrary, in this country, they invariably shut their doors against a stranger. What they call inns are mean hovels, consisting of bare walls where, perhaps, a traveller may procure his cup of tea for a piece of copper money, and permission to pass the night; but this is the extent of the comforts which such places hold out. The practice indeed of travelling by land is so rare, except occasionally in those parts of the country which admit not the convenience of inland navigations, or at such times when these are frozen up, that the profits which might arise from the entertainment of passengers could not support a house of decent accommodation. The officers of state invariably make life of the conveniences which the temples offer, as being superior to any other which the country affords; and the priests, well knowing how vain it would be to resist, or remonstrate, patiently submit, and resign the temporary use of their apartments without a murmur.

In most countries of the civilized world, the buildings appropriated for religious worship and the repositories of their gods, are generally held sacred. In the monasteries of those parts of Europe, where inns are not to be found, the apartments of the monks are sometimes resorted to by travellers, but in China the very _sanctum sanctorum_ is invaded. Every corner is indiscriminately occupied by men in power, if they should require it. Sometimes, also, the whole building is made a common place of resort for vagrants and idlers, where gamblers mix with gods, and priests with pick-pockets. In justice, however, it must be observed, that the priests of the two popular religions which predominate in the country shew no inclination to encourage, by joining in, the vicious practices of the rabble; but having no pay nor emolument from government, and being rather tolerated than supported, they are obliged to submit to and to overlook abuses of this nature, and even to allow the profane practices of the rabble in the very hours of their devotion. Yet there is a decency of behaviour, a sort of pride and dignity in the deportment of a Chinese priest, that readily distinguish him from the vulgar. The calumnies, which some of the Roman Catholic missionaries have so industriously circulated against them, seem to have no foundation in truth. The near resemblance of their dress and holy rites to those of their own faith was so mortifying a circumstance, that none of the missionaries I conversed with could speak with temper of the priests of China. I could not even prevail on our interpreter of the _propaganda fide_, who still manifested a predilection for the customs of his country in every other respect, to step into the temple where the altar was placed; nor could he be induced, by any persuasion, to give or to ask an explanation of their mysterious doctrines.

There is no subject, perhaps, on which a traveller ought to speak with less confidence, than on the religious opinions of the people he may chance to visit, in countries out of Europe, especially when those opinions are grounded on a very remote antiquity. The allegorical allusions in which they might originally have been involved, the various changes they may since have undergone, the ceremonies and types under which they are still exhibited, in their modern dress, render them so wholly unintelligible that, although they may have been founded in truth and reason, they now appear absurd and ridiculous; equally inexplicable by the people themselves who profess them, as by those who are utter strangers. The various modes, indeed, under which the Creator and Ruler of the Universe is recognised by various nations, all tending to one point, but setting out in very different directions, can only be understood and reconciled by a thorough knowledge of the language, the history, and the habits of the people; of their origin and connections with other nations; and, even after such knowledge has been obtained, it is no easy task to separate fable from metaphor, and truth from fiction. For these reasons, the religion of China appears to be fully as obscure and inexplicable as that of almost any other of the oriental nations. The language of the country, added to the jealousy of the government in admitting foreigners, have thrown almost insuperable obstacles in the way of clearing up this intricate subject; and those few, who only have had opportunities of overcoming these difficulties, were unfortunately men of that class, whose opinions were so warped by the prejudices imbibed with the tenets of their own religion, that the accounts given by them are not always to be depended upon. As I have already observed, they cannot bring themselves to speak or to write of the priests of China with any degree of temper or moderation.

It would be presumptuous in me to suppose, for a moment, that I am qualified to remove the veil of darkness that covers the popular religion of China. But as, in the practice of this religion, it is impossible not to discover a common origin with the systems of other nations in ancient times, it may not be improper to introduce a few remarks on the subject, and to enquire if history will enable us to point out, in what manner they might have received or communicated the superstitions and metaphysical ideas that seem to prevail among them. The obvious coincidence between some parts of the mythological doctrines of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, with those of China, induced the learned Monsieur de Guignes and many of the Jesuits to infer, that a colony from Egypt, at some remote period, had passed into China. This however does not appear probable. The Chinese are not a mixed but a distinct race of men; and their countenance has nothing of the ancient Egyptian in it. Nor indeed is it necessary to suppose any such connection, in order to explain the vestiges of Egyptian mythology that may appear in their temples. We are informed by history that when Alexander marched into India, about three centuries before the birth of Christ, many learned Greeks accompanied him on this memorable expedition; and we are further informed that, two centuries after this period when the persecutions and cruelties of Ptolemy Physcon expelled great numbers of learned and pious Greeks and Egyptians from the city of Alexandria, they travelled eastward in search of an asylum among the Persians and the Indians; so that there is nothing extraordinary in meeting with Greek and Egyptian superstitions among nations of the East; even where no vestige of their language remains. For it may be observed that, whenever colonies emigrate from their own country and settle among strangers, they are much more apt to lose their native language, than their religious dogmas and superstitious notions. Necessity indeed may compel them to adopt the language of the new country into which they have emigrated, but any compulsive measures to draw them to another religion serve only to strengthen them in their own. The French refugees at the Cape of Good Hope totally lost their language in less than seventy years; and, singular as it may appear, I met with a deserter from one of the Scotch regiments, on the borders of the Kaffer country, who had so far forgot his language, in the course of about three years, that he was not able to make himself intelligible by it. Many languages, we know, have totally been lost, and others so changed as scarcely to preserve any traces of their original form[35].

[35] This consideration on the transient nature of languages, and
especially of those whose fleeting sounds have never been fixed by any
graphic invention, makes it the more surprizing how Lord Kames, in his
sketch on the origin and progress of American nations, after observing
that no passage by land had been discovered between America and the old
world, should have given it as his opinion, that an enquiry, much more
decisive at to the former being peopled by the latter, might be pursued,
by ascertaining whether the same language be spoken by the inhabitants
on the two sides of the strait that divides the northern regions of
America from Kamskatka. And that, after finding this not to be the case,
he should conclude that the former could not have been peopled by the
latter. Had not Lord Kames written upon a system of a separate and local
creation, pre-established in his own mind, he would unquestionably have
laid more stress upon a resemblance in their physical characters, in
their superstitions and religious notions, than on similarity of
language; which, among the many acquirements of the human species, or of
human institution, is not the least liable to change by a change of
situation, especially where no written character has been employed to
fix it. His Lordship's conclusion is the more extraordinary, as he had
already observed that the resemblance between them was perfect in every
other respect.

Mr. Bailly, with some other learned and ingenious men, was of opinion, that many fragments of the old and absurd fables of China are discoverable in the ancient history of the Hindus, from the birth of _Fo-shee_, the founder of the empire (_Fo-hi_, as the French write the word,) until the introduction of Budha, or Fo. Like the Hindus, it is true, they have always shewn a remarkable predilection for the number _nine_. Confucius calls it the most perfect of numbers. But the Scythians, or Tartars, have also considered this as a sacred number. It is true, likewise, they resemble some of the Indian nations, in the observance of solstitial and equinoxial sacrifices; in making offerings to the manes of their ancestors; in the dread of leaving no offspring behind them, to pay the customary obsequies to their memory; in observing eight cardinal or principal points of the world; in the division of the Zodiac, and in a variety of other coincidences, which the learned Mr. Bryant accounts for by supposing the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Indians, to be derived from one common stock, and that some of these people carried their religion and their learning into China. No proof however is adduced, either by him or others, of such a communication; and an assertion directly the contrary might have been made with equal plausibility.

That the Chinese do not owe their origin to the same stock, their physical character is of itself a sufficient proof. The small eye, rounded at the extremity next the nose, instead of being angular, as is the case in that of Europeans, its oblique instead of horizontal position, and the flat and broad root of the nose, are features or characters entirely distinct from the Hindu, the Greek, or the Roman; and belong more properly to the natives of that vast extent of country, which was known to the ancients by the name of Scythia, and, in modern times, by that of Tartary. There is scarcely in nature two of the human species that differ more widely than a Chinese and a Hindu, setting aside the difference of colour, which however modern enquiries have determined to have little or no relation to climate, but rather to some original formation of the different species. The Mantchoo, and indeed all the other Tartar tribes bordering upon China, are scarcely distinguishable from the Chinese. The same colour, except in a few instances as I have elsewhere observed, the same eyes, and general turn of the countenance prevail, on the continent of Asia, from the tropic of Cancer to the Frozen Ocean[36]. The peninsula of Malacca, and the vast multitude of islands spread over the eastern seas, and inhabited by the Malays, as well as those of Japan and Lieou-kieou, have clearly been peopled from the same common stock. The first race of people to the northward of Hindostan, that possess the Tartar countenance, so different from that of the Hindus, are the inhabitants of Bootan. "The _Booteeas_," says Captain Turner, "have invariably black hair, which it is their fashion to cut short to the head. The eye is a very remarkable feature of the face; small, black, with long pointed corners[37], as though stretched and extended by artificial means. Their eye-lashes are so thin as to be scarcely perceptible, and the eye-brow is but slightly shaded. Below the eyes is the broadest part of the face, which is rather flat, and narrows from the cheek-bones to the chin; a character of countenance appearing first to take its rise among the Tartar tribes, but is by far more strongly marked in the Chinese."

[36] It is sufficiently remarkable, that the Emperor _Kaung-shee_, in
giving, by public edict, some account to his subjects of the different
nations of Asia and Europe, should make the following observation. "To
the southward of the _Cossack_ country a horde of _Hoo-tse_ (Turks) is
established, who are descended from the same stock with _Yuen-tay-tse_,
formerly Emperors of China."

[37] The _exterior_ angles are here meant which, in the Chinese also,
are extended in the same or a greater proportion than the _interior_
ones are rounded off.

The heights of Tartary, bulging out beyond the general surface of the globe, have been considered, indeed, by many as the cradle of the human species, or still more emphatically, and perhaps more properly, as _the foundery of the human race_. This opinion did not arise solely from the vast multitudes of people corresponding with the Tartar character, that are spread over every part of the eastern world, and who in countless swarms once overran all Europe, but was grounded on a supposition, that the whole surface of the globe, or the greater part of it, has at one time been submerged in water, and that Tartary was the last to be covered, and the first that was uncovered; and the place from whence, of course, a new set of creatures were forged as in a workshop, from some remnant of the old stock, to be the germs of future nations.

Almost every part of the earth, indeed, affords the most unequivocal indications that such has actually been the case, not only in the several marine productions that have been discovered in high mountains, at a distance from any sea, and equally deep under the surface of the earth; but more especially in the formation of the mountains themselves, the very highest of which, except those of granite, consisting frequently of tabular masses piled on each other in such regular and horizontal strata, that their shape and appearance cannot be otherwise accounted for, or explained by any known principle in nature, except by supposing them at one time to have existed in a state of fluidity, by the agency of fire or of water, a point which seems to be not quite decided between the Volcanists and the Neptunists. The heights of Tartary are unquestionably the highest land in the _old_ world. In America they may, perhaps, be exceeded. _Gerbillon_, who was a tolerable good mathematician and furnished with instruments, assures us, that the mountain _Pe-tcha_, very inferior to many in Tartary, is nine Chinese _lees_, or about fifteen thousand feet, above the level of the plains of China. This mountain, as well as all the others in the same country, is composed of sand stone, and rests upon plains of sand, mixed with rock salt and saltpetre. The _Sha-moo_, or immense desert of sand, which stretches along the north-west frontier of China and divides it from western Tartary, is not less elevated than the _Pe-tcha_, and is said to resemble the bed of the ocean. Some of the mountains starting out of this _sea of sand_, which its name implies, cannot be less than twenty thousand feet above the level of the eastern ocean.

The formation of the earth affords a wide field for speculation; and, accordingly, many ingenious theories have been conceived to explain the various appearances which its surface exhibits. The best modern naturalists seem, however, to agree, that water has been one of the principal agents to produce these effects. The great Linnæus, whose penetrating mind pervaded the whole empire of nature, after many and laborious enquiries, acquiesced in the truth of the sacred writings, that the whole globe of the earth was, at some period of time, submerged in water, and covered with the vast ocean, until in the lapse of time one little island appeared in this immense sea, which island must have been of course the highest mountain upon the surface of the earth. In support of his hypothesis, he adduces a number of facts, many of which have fallen within his own observation, of the progressive retreat of the sea, the diminution of springs and rivers, and the necessary increment of land. Among the most remarkable of these are the observations made by the inhabitants of Northern Bothnia upon the rocks on the sea coast, from whence it appeared that, in the course of a century, the sea had subsided more than four feet; so that six thousand years ago, supposing the rate of retiring to have been the same, the sea was higher than at present by two hundred and forty feet. Such great and sensible depression of the water of the sea must, however, have been only local, otherwise, as I have elsewhere observed, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean would have joined within the period of history. The sea, it is true, in some parts of the world, gains upon the land, and in others the land upon the sea, but these effects arise from a different cause to that which is supposed to produce a general retreat. It is true, also, that in the neighbourhood of mountains and great rivers, very material changes have taken place in the course of a few ages. The fragments of the former, worn away by the alternate action of the sun and rains, are borne down by the torrents of the latter, and deposited in the eddies formed by the two banks of the rivers where they join the sea, producing thus alluvious land as, for example, the Delta of Egypt, which has gradually been deposited out of the soil of Abyssinia and Upper Egypt; the plains of the northern parts of China, which have been formed out of the mountains of Tartary; and those of India from the Thebetian mountains, and the other high lands to the northward and westward of the peninsula. As, however, a much greater proportion of the fragments borne down by rivers must be deposited in the bosom of the deep than on its shores, the sea by this constant and effective operation ought rather to advance than to retreat. We may therefore, perhaps, conclude that, whatever the changes may have been which the surface of the earth has undergone, with regard to the proportion and the portion of land and water, the appearances we now behold in various parts of the globe can only be explained by supposing some temporary and preternatural cause, or else by assuming an incalculable period of time for their production.

But to return from this digression to the more immediate subject of the present section. It is sufficiently remarkable, and no inconsiderable proof of the truth of the Sacred Writings, that almost every nation has some traditionary account of a deluge, some making it universal, and others local: presuming, however, the former to be correct, which is not only justified by the testimony of the author of the Pentateuch, but by natural appearances, it might perhaps be shewn, with no great deviation from the generally received opinion, that, instead of Persia being the hive in which was preserved a remnant of the ancient world for the continuation of the species, those who have supposed Tartary to be the cradle, from whence the present race of men issued, have adopted the more plausible conjecture. If it be borne in mind that, in every part of the Bible history, the expressions are accommodated to the understandings of those for whom they were intended, rather than strictly conformable to facts, and more consonant to appearances than realities, it may be supposed, without any offence to the most rigid believer, that by the mount Ararat was not strictly meant the identical mountain of that name, which has been recognised in Armenia, but rather the highest mountain on the face of the globe; for, if this were not the case, the Mosaic account would be contradictory in itself, as we are told that, "all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered." This concession being allowed, we may suppose that the ark, instead of resting in Armenia, first struck ground in that part of Tartary which is now inhabited by the Eleuths, as being the most elevated tract of country in the old world. From these heights large rivers flow towards every quarter of the horizon. It is here that the sources of the Selenga are found, descending to the northward into the lake Baikal, and from thence by the Enesei and the Lena into the Frozen Ocean: of the Amour, which empties its waters to the eastward into the gulph of Tartary: of the two great rivers of China flowing to the southward, and of numberless lakes and rivers discharging their waters to the westward, some burying themselves in deserts of sand, and others working their way to the great lake of Aral and the Caspian sea.

From such a situation, admitting the earth to have been peopled in succession, the two great rivers which took the southerly direction and crossed the fertile and extensive plains of China, were fully as likely to direct the few survivors of the deluge to this country, as that they should follow any of the other streams; and probably more so, as these led to a warmer and more comfortable climate, where fewer wants were felt and those few more easily supplied. Considered in this point of view, the opinion of the Jesuits will not appear so ill founded, which supposes that Noah, separating from his rebellious family, travelled with a part of his offspring into the east, and founded the Chinese monarchy; and that he is the same person as the _Foo-shee_[38] of their history. The words of scripture _from the east_, an ingenious commentator has observed, ought more properly to be translated, _at the beginning_. At all events, the fact I conclude to be irresistible, that the Tartars and the Chinese have one common origin, and the question then is simply this, whether the fertile plains of China were abandoned for the bleak and barren heights of Tartary, or that the wandering and half-famished Scythians descended into regions whose temperature and productions were more congenial to the nature of man.

[38] As a corroborating proof of the Chinese being of Scythic origin, it
may be observed, that the adjunct character _Shee_ (to the family name
_Foo_) is composed of a _sheep_, _rice_, an _arrow_, and the conjunctive
character _also_, from whence may be inferred that he united the
occupations of _shepherd_, _agriculturist_, and _warrior_.

If, however, we allow China to have been among the first nations formed after the flood, it does not appear to have kept pace in learning and in arts with the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, or the Egyptians. Before the time of Confucius, its progress in civilization seems to have been very slow. He was the first person who digested any thing like a history of the kings of Loo; for, in his time, the country was divided among a number of petty princes, who lived at the head of their families, much in the same manner as formerly the chiefs of the clans in the Highlands of Scotland; or, perhaps, more properly speaking, like the German princes, whose petty states are so many parts of one great empire. It is now about two thousand years since the several monarchies were consolidated in one undivided and absolute empire. There are several reasons for supposing that, before this period, China made no great figure among the polished nations of the world, although it produced a Confucius, some of whose works demonstrate a vigorous and an enlightened mind. From the commentaries of this philosopher on one of their classical books[39], it would appear that a regular succession of Emperors could be traced near two thousand years back from his time, or more than four thousand years from the present period. The duration of the dynasties, with their several Emperors, which he enumerates, and the detail of occurrences in each reign, make the truth of the history sufficiently plausible, though the chronology, from their total ignorance of astronomy, must necessarily be defective. It is still an extraordinary circumstance, that none of the ancient classical authors should have had the least knowledge of such a nation. Homer neither mentions them nor makes any allusion to such a people; and Herodotus seems to have been equally ignorant of their existence; and yet, according to the best chronologists, Herodotus and Confucius must have been contemporaries. It may fairly be concluded then, that the early Greeks had no knowledge of the Chinese. Even more than a century after the father of history flourished, when the Persian empire was overthrown by Alexander, it does not appear that the Chinese were known to this nation; which in all probability would have been the case, notwithstanding their aversion to any intercourse with foreigners, had they constituted, at that time, a large and powerful empire; perhaps, indeed, the ignorance of the Persians might arise from the intervention of the civilized nations of India, whose numbers might have made it prudent in the former to direct their arms constantly towards the west rather than to the east.

[39] The _Shoo-king_.

It has been an opinion pretty generally adopted, that the people known to the ancients by the name of _Seres_ were the same as the Chinese, partly on account of their eastern situation, and partly because the principal silk manufactures were supposed to be brought from thence, which gave the Romans occasion name the country _Sericum_. The Romans, however, received the trifling quantity of silk made use of by them from Persia, and not from China, nor from the country of the Seres. Nor is it probable, that the latter should be the Chinese, who are said to have sent an embassy to Augustus, in order to court the friendship of the Romans, it being so very contrary to their fundamental laws, which not only prohibit any intercourse with strangers, but allow not any of the natives to leave the country. The fact, indeed, of this embassy rests solely upon the authority of Lucius A. Florus, who wrote his history, if it may so be called, nearly a century after the death of Augustus: and, as none of the historians contemporary with that Emperor, take any notice of such an event, it is more than probable that no such embassy was sent to Rome[40].

[40] Ptolemy, the Geographer, places Serica adjoining to Scythia, _extra
Imaum_, corresponding with Cashgar, Tangut, and Kitai, countries famous
for the cultivation of the cotton plant. It would seem, indeed, from all
the passages which occur in ancient authors concerning the Seres, that
cotton was the substance alluded to, rather than silk, and that these
people were not the present Chinese, but the Tartars of Kitai.

_Quid nemora Æthiopum molli canentia lana?
Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres?_
Virg. Georg. ii. v. 120.

_----Primique nova Phaethonte retecti
Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis._
Sil. Ital. 1. 6. v. 3.

_----Quod molli tondent de stipite Seres
Frondea lanigeræ carpentes vellera Silvæ._
Claudian.

_Seres lanificio Sylvarum nobiles perfusam aquá depectentes frondium
canitiem._
Plin. 1. 6. 17.

Horace makes the Seres expert in drawing the bow, a weapon in the use of
which the Scythians were always famous.

_Doctus Sagittas tendere Sericas
Arcu paterno?_
Hor. lib. i. Od. 29. v. 9.

It certainly cannot be inferred that by the _Seres_, in any of the above
quotations, was meant the same people as the present Chinese; on the
contrary, the probability is that it did not allude to this nation, and
that the ancients had not the least knowledge of its existence. It
appears from another passage in Pliny, that the best iron in the world
was in _Sericum_, and that the Seres exported it with their cloths and
skins. The iron of the Chinese, as I have had occasion to observe, is
remarkably bad, and all their articles of peltry are imported.

The first people that we know to have travelled into China was a colony of Jews who, according to the records kept by their descendants, and which I understood from some of the missionaries are corroborated as to the time by Chinese history, first settled there shortly after the expedition of Alexander had opened a communication with India. Nor is it at all improbable that this adventurous and industrious people were the first to carry with them, into their new country, the silk worm and the mode of rearing it, either from Persia, or some of the neighbouring countries. The Emperor _Kaung-shee_, in his observations on natural history, takes notice that the Chinese are greatly mistaken when they say that silk was an exclusive product of China, for that the upper regions of India have a native worm of a larger growth, and which spins a stronger silk than any in China. Although indeed ancient authors are silent as to the article of silk, there are grounds for supposing it was not unknown in Tangut and Kitai. Several expressions in the Bible warrant the opinion that silk was used in the time of Solomon, and the _vestes perlucidæ ac fluidæ Medis_ of Justin seem to convey a description of silken robes. This mode of the first introduction of silk into China is offered as mere conjecture, for which I have no other authority in support of, than what is here mentioned, with the circumstance of the Jews being settled chiefly in the silk provinces, and of their being at this time in considerable numbers near _Hang-tchoo-foo_, where they carry on the principal trade in this article, and have acquired the reputation of fabricating the best stuffs of this material that are made in China; nor do I know in what other way they could recommend themselves to the Chinese, so far as to have obtained the protection of this jealous government, and to be allowed to intermarry with the women of the country. It is true they have practised no underhand attempts to seduce the natives from their paternal religion, and to persuade them to embrace their own; and although they are not very famous for the cultivation of the sciences, yet they might have rendered themselves extremely useful in suggesting improvements in many of the arts and manufactures. Many of them, indeed, forsake the religion of their forefathers, and arrive at high employments in the state. Few among them, I understand, except the Rabbis, have any knowledge of the Hebrew language, and they have long been so intermixed with the Chinese, that the priests at the present day are said to find some difficulty in keeping up their congregations. So different are the effects produced by suffering, instead of persecuting, religious opinions.

One of the missionaries has given an account of his visit to a synagogue of Jews in China. He found the priests most rigorously attached to their old law: nor had they the least knowledge of any other Jesus having appeared in the world, except the son of Sirach, of whom, he says, their history makes mention. If this be really the fact, their ancestors could not have been any part of the ten tribes that were carried into captivity, but may rather be supposed to have been among the followers of Alexander's army, which agrees with their own account of the time they first settled in China. They possessed a copy of the Pentateuch and some other fragments of the Sacred Writings, which they had brought along with them from the westward, but the missionary's information is very imperfect, as he was ignorant of the Hebrew language[41].

[41] All our enquiries, in passing the city of Hang-tchoo-foo, were
fruitless with regard to these Israelites. We had hitherto entertained a
hope of being able to procure, in the course of our journey, a copy of
this ancient monument of the Jewish history, which the late Doctor
Geddes considered as very desirable to compare with those already in
Europe; but the hasty manner in which we travelled, and the repugnance
shewn by our conducting officers, _Chou_ and _Van_ excepted, who had
little power or influence in the provinces, to enter into any of our
views that might appear to occasion delay, prevented the fulfilment of
those hopes. It were much to be wished, that the reverend missionaries
would so far lay aside their antipathy against opinions, not exactly
coinciding with their own, and enter into such a correspondence with the
Jews, as would obtain from them, which they are no doubt possessed of,
an account of the progress made by the Chinese in civilization and arts,
since their first settling in that country, and of other particulars
noted down by them. The circumstance of their carrying with them their
code of laws, and the history of their tribes, is a sufficient proof
that they understood a written language which there can be no doubt,
they would use the utmost caution not to lose. Such an account would be
more authentic than the Chinese annals, the best of which abound in
hyperbole, and contain facts so disguised in metaphor, that it is no
easy matter to extract from them the simple truth. At all events, the
comparison of the two histories would serve to verify each other.

Although a very great similarity is observable between many of the ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies and those in use among the Chinese, yet there seems to be no reason for supposing that the latter received any part of their religion from the ancestors of those Jews that are still in the country. This, however, is not the case with regard to the priests of Budha, who, according to the Chinese records, came by the invitation of one of their Emperors from some part of India, near Thibet, about the sixtieth year of the Christian era. These priests succeeded so well in introducing the worship of Budha, that it continues to this day to be one of the popular religions of the country; and that no traces of the original name should remain is the less surprising, as they could not possibly pronounce either the B or the D; beside, they make it an invariable rule, as I have already observed, not to adopt any foreign names.

In some part of the seventh century, a few Christians of the Nestorian sect passed from India into China where, for a time, they were tolerated by the government. But, having most probably presumed upon its indulgence, and endeavoured to seduce the people from the established religions of the country, they were exposed to dreadful persecutions, and were at length entirely extirpated, after numberless instances of their suffering martyrdom for the opinions they had undertaken to propagate to the "utmost corners of the earth." When Gengis-Khan invaded China, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, a number of Christians of the Greek church followed his army into this country; and they met with such great encouragement from the Tartars, that when Kublai-Khan succeeded to the government and built the city of Pekin, he gave them a grant of ground within the walls of the city for the purpose of building a church, in order to retain in the empire men of so much learning and of abilities so much superior to those of the Chinese; who, however, on their part, have affected, in their history, to consider the Monguls as the greatest barbarians, for turning their horses into the apartments of the palaces, while they themselves were contented to pitch their tents in the courts or quadrangular spaces surrounded by the buildings. Father Le Compte, in his memoirs of China, says, but I know not on what authority, that at the taking of the city of Nankin the Tartars put all the Chinese women in sacks, without regard to age or rank, and sold them to the highest bidder; and that such as, in thus "buying the pig in the poke," happened to purchase an old, ugly, or deformed bargain, made no ceremony in throwing it into the river. If Father Le Compte was not the inventor of this, among many other of his pleasant stories, it certainly tells as little in favour of the Chinese, who must have been the purchasers, as of the Tartars; but we will charitably suppose the thing never happened. It seems, however, that the overthrow of the Chinese empire by the Mongul Tartars, was an event not to be regretted by the nation at large. By means of the learned and scientific men, who accompanied the expedition from Balk and Samarcand, astronomy was improved, their calendar was corrected, instruments for making celestial observations were introduced, and the direct communication between the two extremities of the empire was opened, by converting the streams of rivers into an artificial bed, forming an inland navigation, not to be paralleled in any other part of the world.

It was about this period when the celebrated Venetian traveller Marco Polo visited the Tartar Khan, then sitting on the throne of China; and who, on his return, gave the first accounts of this extraordinary empire; which appeared indeed so wonderful that they were generally considered as his own inventions. His relations of the magnificent and splendid palaces of the Emperor, of his immense wealth, of the extent of his empire, and the vast multitudes of people, were held to be so many fabrications; and as, in speaking of these subjects, he seldom made use of a lower term than millions, his countrymen bestowed upon him the epithet of _Signor Marco Millione_--Mr. Mark Million. They had no hesitation, however, in giving credit to the only incredible part of his narrative, where he relates a few miracles that were performed, in the course of his journey through Persia, by some Nestorean Christians. Young Marco is said to have accompanied three missionaries of the Dominican order, sent from Venice to the capital of China, at the express desire of Kublai-Khan; but, whether they met with little encouragement in the object of their mission, on account of being preceded by the Christians of the Greek church, or their zeal at that time was less ardent than in later days, is not stated; but it seems they did not remain long in the East, returning very soon to their native country much enriched by their travels.

During the continuance of the Tartar government, which was not quite a century, great numbers of Mahomedans likewise found their way from Arabia to China. These people had long, indeed, been in the habit of carrying on a commercial intercourse with the Chinese; which, however, as at the present day, extended no further than the sea-ports on the southern coast. They now found no difficulty in getting access to the capital, where they rendered themselves particularly useful in adjusting the chronology of the nation, and making the necessary calculations for the yearly calendar. Having acquired the language and adopted the dress and manners of the people, by degrees they turned their thoughts to the extending of their religious principles, and bringing the whole country to embrace the doctrine of their great prophet. For this end, they bought and educated at their own expence such children of poor people as were likely to be exposed in times of famine; and they employed persons to pick up, in the streets of the capital, any infants that should be thrown out in the course of the night, and who were not too much weakened or otherwise injured to be recovered.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, several Roman Catholic missionaries, of the order of Jesus, penetrated into the East; and the indefatigable zeal of one of these, Francis Xavier, carried him as far as _San-Shian_, a small island on the coast of China, where he died in the year 1552, in consequence of the uncommon fatigues he had undergone. His brother missionaries have calculated that he travelled, on foot, not less than one hundred thousand English miles, a great part of which was over mountains and desarts and forests and burning sands. Since a more easy communication with India and China has been effected by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, numbers of missionaries of the Catholic religion have volunteered their services into those countries; and although the sole object of their mission is the propagation of the Christian faith, they find it necessary, in order to forward that object, to make themselves useful to the government. In China, they are occasionally employed as astronomers, mathematicians, mechanics, and interpreters. "It must have appeared a singular spectacle," observes Sir George Staunton, "to every class of beholders, to see men actuated by motives different from those of most human actions, quitting for ever their country and their connexions, to devote themselves for life to the purposes of changing the tenets of a people they had never seen; and in pursuing that object to run every risk, suffer every persecution, and sacrifice every comfort; insinuating themselves, by address, by talent, by perseverance, by humility, by application to studies foreign from their original education, or by the cultivation of arts to which they had not been bred, into notice and protection; overcoming the prejudices of being strangers in a country where most strangers were prohibited, and where it was a crime to have _abandoned the tombs of their ancestors_, and gaining, at length, establishments necessary for the propagation of their faith, without turning their influence to any personal advantage."

Most of those, however, who were established in Pekin, to the spiritual consolation of having laboured in the vineyard of the gospel not altogether in vain (for they do sometimes gain a proselyte) add the substantial satisfaction of not having neglected their worldly concerns. Besides the emoluments arising from their several communities, they have shops and houses in the capital, which they rent to Chinese. They have also their country villas and estates, where they cultivate the vine and other fruits, and make their own wine. The revenues of the two Portuguese seminaries are stated to amount to twelve thousand ounces of silver, or four thousand pounds a year. The mission _de propaganda fide_ is poor. The French Jesuits were once rich; but their property was dissipated on the dissolution of their society. The French _missions étrangères_ drew on their superiors at Paris before the revolution, but since that event are reduced to a most deplorable situation. And it seemed to me, from what I could perceive at _Yuen-min-yuen_, that they were not much disposed to assist one another. Each nation had its separate interest, and they were not willing to lose any opportunity of calumniating their fellow-labourers. The French and Italians were the most moderate and liberal; the Portuguese the most inveterate. The missionaries of this nation appeared to be inspired with a jealousy and hatred, more than theological, against the rest. It is said indeed that their rich possessions, and the high situations they unworthily hold in the board of mathematics, render them jealous of all other Europeans; and they use every means of excluding them from the country.

From the frequent dissensions, indeed, among the different orders, and their perpetual broils, originated the persecutions which they and their proselytes suffered in China. The most violent of these disputes was carried on between the Jesuits and the Dominicans. The Jesuits endeavoured to assimilate their doctrines and their opinions to those of the Chinese, at least as far as they conscientiously could venture to do, in conformity to the nature of their mission; by which means, together with their apparently disinterested conduct, they soon collected a numerous set of followers, half Christians and half Pagans. Unluckily for the cause of Christianity, a different sect of the same religion, but with principles more austere and of course less tolerant of others that deviated from their own, speedily followed the Jesuits into the East. The Dominicans, meeting with some of the half-christianized converts, soon gave them to understand that nothing less than eternal damnation would be the lot of all such as did not forsake their ancient superstitious and idolatrous practices; and especially that of sacrificing to their deceased relations in the Hall of Ancestors. The Franciscans having joined the Dominicans they represented to the Pope the abominable practices of the Jesuits, who had persuaded the Chinese they were come among them for the sole purpose of restoring their ancient religion to its original purity, as delivered by their Great Philosopher Confucius. The Pope, upon this, sent over a bull, interdicting all the missionaries in China from admitting any extraneous ceremonies or idolatrous worship, to be blended with those of Holy Catholic Church.

The Jesuits, however, by their superior talents, having made themselves useful at court, and obtained the notice and protection of _Caung-shee_ the ruling monarch, and the greatest perhaps that ever filled the throne of China, treated this bull with contempt, and continued to make converts in their own way. They even obtained from the Emperor a sum of money and a grant of land, towards building a church in Pekin. And they further managed their affairs so well as to procure, from the succeeding Pope, a dispensation in favour of their mode of proceeding to convert the Chinese to Christianity. The Dominicans and Franciscans, piqued beyond measure at the success of the Jesuits, represented them to the Pope, in the strongest terms, as the greatest enemies to the Christian faith. The Jesuits, in their turn, transmitted to Rome a manifesto, signed by the Emperor himself, attesting that the ceremonies of homage to the dead, retained by the Chinese Christians, were not of a religious but a civil nature, agreeable to the long established laws of the empire, which could not, on any consideration, be dispensed with. In short, their disputes and quarrels ran so high, and proceeded to such lengths; and Bulls and Embassadors were sent from Rome, with such imperious and threatening commands for the Chinese Christians to desist from all ceremonies that were not warranted by the Catholic church, that the Emperor began to think it was high time to interpose his authority, and to interdict the Christian religion from being preached at all in his dominions. And his son and successor _Yung-chin_ commenced his reign with violent persecutions against the missionaries. He ordered many of them immediately out of the empire; others were thrown into prison[42], where they lingered out a miserable life; and some were put to death by the bow-string. Those few, who were found necessary to assist in the astronomical part of the calendar, he allowed to remain in the capital.

[42] In the year 1785, Kien Long liberated, by a public edict, twelve
missionaries out of prison, who, being detected in privately seducing
the Chinese from the religion and customs of the country, had been
condemned to perpetual imprisonment. This edict, of which I procured a
copy in Pekin, does great honour to the humane and benevolent mind of
the Emperor. After stating their crime, apprehension, and trial, he
observes, "Had they made known their arrival to the officers of
government, they might have proceeded to the capital and found
protection. But as transgressors of the law, which forbids the entrance
of strangers, they have stolen into the country, and secretly
endeavoured to multiply converts to their way of thinking, it became my
duty to oppose a conduct so deceitful, and to put a stop to the progress
of seduction. Justly as they were found to deserve the punishment to
which they have been condemned, touched, nevertheless, with compassion
for their imprudence, it was not without injury to my feelings that I
ratified the sentence. But recollecting afterwards that they were
strangers--strangers perhaps ignorant of the laws of my empire, my
compassion increased for them, and humanity suffers on account of their
long confinement. I will, therefore, and command that these twelve
strangers be set at liberty."

Notwithstanding the persecutions that, in every reign, have been violently carried on against them by the officers of government in the several provinces, numbers of new missionaries have continued, from time to time, to steal into the country. At Macao we found two young missionaries, who had been waiting there a long time, in vain, for an opportunity of getting privately into the country. They accused the Portuguese of throwing every obstacle in their way, while pretending to afford them assistance; but, on application to the British Embassador, he found no difficulty in procuring them leave to proceed to the capital; and as one of these gentlemen had been a pupil of the celebrated La Lande, his services may probably supersede those of the right reverend bishop who at present directs the astronomical part of the important national almanack.

From the short view that has here been taken of the different people who, at various times, have gained admission into China, and some of them for no other purpose than that of disseminating their religious tenets, it may be concluded, that the primitive worship of the country has experienced many changes and innovations, especially since the mass of the people, from the nature of the language, the maxims of the government, and other circumstances, have always been kept in a state of profound ignorance. Jews, Christians, Indians, and Mahomedans, have severally met with encouragement. The Jesuits had but one obstacle to overcome, the law that directed offerings to be made to deceased relations, and by giving way to this, which they were inclined to do had they not been thwarted by the more rigorous Dominicans, they might have converted the whole nation and Christianity would have become, in all probability, the prevailing religion, instead of that introduced from India. The paraphernalia and almost all the mummeries of the Romish church, the bells, the beads, the altars, the images, the candles, the dress, and the sanctimonious deportment of the priests in the hours of devotion, their chaunting and their incense, were already made familiar to the people in every temple of _Fo_. But, as Lord Macartney has observed, "the prohibition or restriction of sensual gratifications in a despotic country, where there are so few others, is difficult to be relished. Confession is repugnant to the close and suspicious character of the nation, and penance would but aggravate the misery of him whose inheritance is his labour, and poverty his punishment. Against it also is the state of society in China, which excludes women from their proper share of influence and importance. A religion which requires that women should at stated times communicate to priests, in private, their thoughts and actions, must be particularly disgusting to a Chinese husband, who had not himself been suffered to see his wife till the day of his marriage; and who but seldom allows her afterwards to see even her near relations of another sex. A religion like that of Mahomet can only be extended by violence and terror; for the natural stubbornness of men does not readily give way to novel impressions; but the mild spirit of the gospel is alone to be infused through the means of gentleness, persuasion, and imperceptible perseverance. These are the proper instruments of conversion, and peculiarly belong to the fair sex, whose eloquence, on such occasions, gives charms to devotion and ornaments to truth. The earliest stages of Christianity received no small support from female agency and example; and for what shew of religion still appears in _our_ churches, we are surely not a little indebted to the piety and attendance of women." Nothing, in fact, more tended to alarm the Chinese than the imprudent practice of the Romish missionaries of seducing the Chinese women to their churches whom, as they avow in their correspondence, they sometimes coaxed out of their jewels and money; adding, by way of justification, that it was to promote the service of God.