The historical facts to establish the existence of the Persian religion long prior to that of the Jews are numerous, cogent, and unanswerable. They have calculations in astronomy which, scientists admit, must have been made four hundred years anterior to the time of Moses. According to Berosus, fragments of their history have been found which extend it back fifteen thousand years; and he tells us it is computed with great care.
CHAPTER VIII.—CHINESE BIBLES.
KINGS AND SHOO.
The Chinese have varions sacred books, the principal of which are the Five Kings. They have also four Holy Books, known as Shoo, and one called Tao-te, though the word King is a term applied to all their sacred books. Some of these Holy Bibles are attributed to Confucius, one of them (Ta-heo, the Great Learning) to his grandson, and others to his disciples. Some of the sects recognize thirteen Kings, or sacred books, others only seven, and the principal sect but five. Some of these Holy Books bear a resemblance to the Christian Gospels, others to the Epistles; and one of them bears a considerable resemblance to Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews. They are believed to be divinely inspired; and all are regarded as authority in matters of faith, doctrine, and practice. All of them inculcate virtue, and condemn vice and immorality. I will present merely a brief exposition of a few of the leading books.
I. TA-HEO; OR, GREAT LEARNING.
This book forms the basis of the religious sect known as the Tao-ists. It treats principally of doctrines, but enjoins many important duties,—such as family government, the cultivation of the natural faculties, the acquisition of knowledge, the duty of being honest and sincere and rectifying the heart, and the moral obligation of having good rulers and a righteous government as means of making all peaceful and happy.
II. THE CHUNG YUNG; OR, THE DOCTRINE OF THE MEAN.
This book contains the Golden Rule: "What you do not like others to do to you, do not so to them." It recommends a state of harmony in the mental faculties as the path of duty and the road to happiness and to heaven. It teaches that people should follow the dictates of their own consciences, and cultivate and fully develop their natures. On the whole, it admonishes a system of moral perfection. It declares that spiritual beings are constantly around us, and we do nothing without them, though we do not see nor hear them. Pretty good spiritualism!