And this relation and piety he conceived ought to prevail all through the State. The Emperor ought to act as the father of his people, and the people ought to be obedient to him, like his sons. But he naïvely qualified this, in a way calculated to prevent the Emperor's acting as a tyrannical parent, by saying that he forfeited his claim on this obedience if he governed wrongly.
Confucius never claimed, as did Mahomet, for instance, to be divinely inspired. He came as a mere man, preaching unselfishness and filial piety and the duty of obedience and the beauty of goodness. Those to whom he preached accepted his words, and certainly in some large measure formed their conduct accordingly. It was a sermon advocating peace in a country distracted by disturbances; and its ultimate effect is that the Chinese even to-day are a peace-loving nation. For all that, the great empire has been the scene of very frequent war, both by invaders from without and rebels within; but unhappily that is the state which has been usual throughout man's history everywhere.
Confucius put the highest value on education. In the second century B.C. competitive examinations began to be held for selecting ministers to posts in the Government—a curiously democratic measure, and perhaps possible in no other country than China. Some of the scientific inventions, which have made much difference in the story of the West, were known in China far earlier than elsewhere—the power and use of gunpowder, for instance, and the art and craft of printing. China discovered them early; but after their first discovery she did not develop them at all, as did the Western nations when they relearned them or took them from her.
It was in the third century B.C. that one of the world's wonders, the Great Wall of China, was built—running west from the sea to a length of a thousand and four hundred miles, and going over mountain and valley without deviation. Its purpose was to act as a barrier, easy of defence, against the wild tribes that pressed in from the north. The Emperor under whom this mighty, though not wholly effective, obstacle was raised, was powerful enough to put down most of the feudal dukes, and, much as the feudal dukes and lords in Europe were replaced by the king's official tax collectors, so in China, Viceroys of provinces, appointed by the Emperor, took the place of the dukes. The Viceroys also were not always obedient to the central power, but on the whole the change made for peace within the empire.
Confucianism then, as the doctrine of that great teacher was called, was not a religion, but merely a system for the ordinance of man's life on earth, without reference to a God; but about the same time as Confucius, Buddha lived and founded the religion of Buddhism in India; and in the first century A.D. Buddhist missionaries came to China. It is to this influence that the pagoda-shaped temples are due which are a prominent feature in Chinese scenery, for it was in this form that the Buddhist temples were roofed. The new religion gained numerous converts, and its monasteries are many in China to this day; but it really seems to have made but little difference in the lives of the people—for two reasons. First because the Chinese are least ready to change their way of life of any people in the world, and secondly because the unselfishness, which is the leading principle in the religion of Buddha, had been already preached as a leading principle in the maxims of Confucius and of wise men of China before him.
The general story of China nevertheless continues to be the story of dissensions within the empire and of uncivilised tribes threatening its borders on the north and west. Among these we may notice that there were Huns, akin to those who threatened, and from time to time overran, parts of Europe also.
The Nestorians
Christianity was brought into the country probably in the sixth century, by members of a Christian sect called Nestorians, after a certain bishop Nestorius, their founder. His doctrine respecting the divine and human natures of Christ was condemned as unorthodox both by the Church of Rome and also by the head of the Eastern Church, at Constantinople. The sect had its headquarters in Syria, and was dispersed by order of the Eastern Emperor. The result was that its members travelled and settled in Central and Eastern Asia. They were Asiatics and found themselves among peoples well disposed towards them. By this violent dispersal of them the Emperor helped their doctrines to prevail as he never could have helped their prevalence by his greatest favours. Incidentally, one of the results of his action was that silkworms, as we are told, were first carried to the West by some of the Nestorians returning from the far East—the ancient land whence silk had been brought for many centuries.
Mahommedanism was introduced not very long after, and the most interesting point to note about these successively introduced religions is that all seem to have been permitted and even encouraged with equal favour, or with equal indifference, by the Chinese rulers. This was in strict accord with the counsel of the sage Confucius, whose expressed opinion was that the ruler should interfere as little as might be with the life of his people. And that life was still principally influenced by the doctrines of Confucius, no matter what religions were brought in.
Thus went the story of China through century after century, with violent dissensions, yet never dissensions deep enough or wide enough to create a real change in an empire so vast and in a people so unwilling to change. We have to picture them living chiefly along the river banks, cultivating the rice which was their principal food, and with unwearied patience and industry making their silk, from the cocoons spun by the caterpillars, their beautiful porcelain, their lacquered furniture and vessels, their ivory carvings, and so on.