Children of China

by C. Campbell Brown

Great indeed are thou, O Confucius.”

Confucius told the Chinese people that the most precious teaching handed down to them from long ago was that which taught them to honour their parents and those older than themselves. But both before and after the time of this great man, the Chinese went too far, not only reverencing, but also worshipping the dead. Perhaps we can imagine how this mistake crept in. They were afraid that they might forget their loved ones. Since it was not the custom with them long ago to put names upon gravestones, they wrote them in books and on slips of wood. These slips of wood, or ancestral tablets, were kept most carefully, as we have already seen, in the chief room of the house and in temples. The Chinese believed that each person had three souls, one which went into the unseen world at death, one which stayed in the grave, and one which lived in the slip of wood. They also thought that the souls in tablets or in graves depended on dutiful sons to offer food and sacrifices to them. Girls might not make these offerings, because, when married, they belonged to their husbands’ families. When parents had no baby boys, they were much troubled, not having anyone to grow up and worship their spirits, for they fear more than anything else to become ‘hungry demons’ after death, with no one to care for their needs. Now you know why Chinese people are anxious to have sons rather than daughters.

Fear mixes with the worship of the dead at every turn. When people are sick or lose money or have some other trouble, they think that the spirits in the tablets are angry, and are bringing evil upon their home. They offer food, and burn paper clothes, houses, money, servants and horses to please them, thinking that when burnt, those things pass into the spirit-land, where their relatives enjoy them, and being pleased, give up troubling those on earth.

A man named Wang had sickness in his family and his business was not good. A priest told him that his father’s spirit, which lived in a red and green tablet, was angry with him, and he must offer paper money, incense and other things to pacify it. He offered these things, and fruit, chickens, cakes and pork besides; but all to no purpose, things went just as badly as ever. At last, after spending all his money in this way, he lost faith in the priest and in the tablet. “My father was not unkind to me when he was alive,” said he, “why should his spirit plague me so wickedly when he is dead?” About this time he first heard the Gospel, and in despair of finding comfort elsewhere, began to go to church. He heard that he had a Father in Heaven, and found peace and gladness in His service. This worship of the spirits of the dead is the real religion of China; all the rest of their beliefs are things added on. The fear of those who have gone into the unseen world hangs like a weight upon the people, who are said to spend millions of money every year in trying to please the spirits of their relatives.

Sad as this is, we ought to remember that there is something beautiful and right hidden beneath all that is wrong in this worship, and that is the desire of the Chinese people to reverence and obey those who have gone before them. When they have learned to serve God, what is wrong will pass away, and perhaps they will teach us all to understand the real meaning of the Fifth Commandment better than we have yet done.

In spite of the good in it, Confucianism has been a failure, because it has not taught men and women and children to know the one true God, who alone can help them to follow the teaching of Confucius and be just and kind and obedient.

Taoism, as it is called, is the second religion of China. Its founder is called Lao-tsze or ‘old boy.’ It is said that he was old and wise and had white hair when he was born. After serving his country for a time, he gave up his post and travelled towards the west. At the frontier pass of Han Kuh, the officer in charge of the gate stopped the traveller, and knowing that he was a wise man, persuaded him to write down some of his teaching in a book. Taoism takes its name from Tao, the truth, or the way, the first syllable in the name of the Tao-teh-king, the famous volume which Lao-tsze wrote; but what is now called Taoism does not follow the teaching of this book.

‘The Heavenly Master,’ or pope of the Taoists, lives in the Dragon-tiger mountain in Kiangsi. He has rows of jars, in which the people think he keeps evil spirits shut up, like the Djinn whom the fisherman of the Arabian Nights found sealed in a copper vessel. There are Taoist priests in every city of China, who sometimes may be seen in red and yellow robes with a curious topknot of yellow wood tied into their hair, going through strange rites, or cracking a whip with a long lash to frighten away demons. The Taoist god most feared by the people is the Kitchen God, who they think goes up to heaven once a year, and tells what each member of the family has been doing during the twelve months.

Buddhism, which is an Indian religion, entered China in 217 B.C., and was welcomed by the emperor of that time. It was afterwards persecuted, but later spread over the country. Now, practically all the people are Buddhists, as well as Confucianists and Taoists. The teaching of Confucius, as we have already seen, leaves men and women without a Saviour or strength to do the good they know. That is why, when Buddhism came into the land, the Chinese welcomed it, hoping that it might aid them. But though Buddhism tells men to be true, pure, humble, courageous, it does not lead them, any more than did Confucianism, to a personal God, who might help them to do what they were told was right. It leaves them to their own efforts and points to no one able to save from sin. It tells people that if they conquer their bodies and give up doing wrong things, not taking life or eating animal food, they will after death be born again in a new and higher life. If, when born again, they do still better, they will be born still higher, until at last they enter Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven, “as the dewdrops slip into the shining sea.”

If, on the other hand, people do wrong things, the Buddhists say they will be born again as lower animals, dogs, rats or creeping snakes.