You simple people know not how to discriminate; for even according to what the books of Buddha say, he was the first-born son of the king Fan; but, retiring from the world, he fled away alone to the top of the Snowy Mountains, in order to cultivate virtue. If he regarded not his own father, mother, wife, and children, are you such fools as to suppose that he regards the multitude of the living, or would deliver his laws and doctrines to you? The imperial residence, the queen’s palace, the dragon’s chamber, and halls of state—if he rejected these, is it not marvellous to suppose that he should delight in the nunneries, monasteries, temples, and religious houses which you can build for him? As to the Gemmeous Emperor, the most honorable in heaven, if there be indeed such a god, it is strange to think he should not enjoy himself at his own ease in the high heavens, but must have you to give him a body of molten gold, and build him a house to dwell in!
All these nonsensical tales about keeping fasts, collecting assemblies, building temples, and fashioning images, are feigned by those sauntering, worthless priests and monks to deceive you. Still you believe them, and not only go yourselves to worship and burn incense in the temples, but also suffer your wives and daughters to go. With their hair oiled and faces painted, dressed in scarlet and trimmed with green, they go to burn incense in the temples, associating with the priests of Buddha, doctors of Reason and bare-stick attorneys, touching shoulders, rubbing arms, and pressed in the moving crowd. I see not where the good they talk of doing is; on the contrary, they do many shameful things that create vexation, and give people occasion for laughter and ridicule.
Further, there are some persons who, fearing that their good boys and girls may not attain to maturity, take and give them to the temples to become priests and priestesses of Buddha and Reason, supposing that after having removed them from their own houses and placed them at the foot of grandfather Fuh (Buddha), they are then sure of prolonging life! Now, I would ask you if those who in this age are priests of these sects, all reach the age of seventy or eighty, and if there is not a short-lived person among them?
Again, there is another very stupid class of persons who, because their parents are sick, pledge their own persons by a vow before the gods that if their parents be restored to health, they will worship and burn incense on the hills, prostrating themselves at every step till they arrive at the summit, whence they will dash themselves down! If they do not lose their lives, they are sure to break a leg or an arm. They say to themselves, “To give up our own lives to save our parents is the highest display of filial duty.” Bystanders also praise them as dutiful children, but they do not consider that to slight the bodies received from their parents in this manner discovers an extreme want of filial duty.
Moreover, you say that serving Fuh is a profitable service; that if you burn paper money, present offerings, and keep fasts before the face of your god Fuh, he will dissipate calamities, blot out your sins, increase your happiness, and prolong your age! Now reflect: from of old it has been said, “The gods are intelligent and just.” Were Buddha a god of this description, how could he avariciously desire your gilt paper, and your offerings to engage him to afford you protection? If you do not burn gilt paper to him, and spread offerings on his altar, the god Fuh will be displeased with you, and send down judgments on you! Then your god Fuh is a scoundrel! Take, for example, the district magistrate. Should you never go to compliment and flatter him, yet, if you are good people and attend to your duty, he will pay marked attention to you. But transgress the law, commit violence, or usurp the rights of others, and though you should use a thousand ways and means to flatter him, he will still be displeased with you, and will, without fail, remove such pests from society.
You say that worshipping Fuh atones for your sins. Suppose you have violated the law, and are hauled to the judgment-seat to be punished; if you should bawl out several thousand times, “O your excellency! O your excellency!” do you think the magistrate would spare you? You will, however, at all risks, invite several Buddhist and Rationalist priests to your houses to recite their canonical books and make confession, supposing that to chant their mummery drives away misery, secures peace, and prolongs happiness and life. But suppose you rest satisfied with merely reading over the sections of these Sacred Commands several thousands or myriads of times without acting conformably thereto; would it not be vain to suppose that his Imperial Majesty should delight in you, reward you with money, and promote you to office?[336]
This ridicule of the popular superstitions has, no doubt, had some effect, repeated as it is in all parts of the country; but since the literati merely tear down and build up nothing, giving the people no substitute for what they take away, but rather, in their times of trouble, doing the things they decry, such homilies do not destroy the general respect for such ceremonies. The Shing Yu has also been versified for the benefit of children, and colloquial explanations added, which has further tended to enforce and inculcate its admonitions. The praise bestowed on this work by Johnson, in his Oriental Religions, has a good degree of actual usefulness among the people to confirm his observations; yet they are quite used to hearing the highest moral platitudes from their rulers, to whom they would not lend a dollar on their word.
In the fifth section, on medical writings, separate works are mentioned on the treatment of all domestic animals; among them is one on veterinary surgery, whose writers have versified most of their observations and prescriptions. The Herbal of Lí Shí-chin, noticed on p. [370], and monographs on special diseases, all show the industry of Chinese physicians to much better advantage than their science. Works on medicine and surgery are numerous, in which the surface of the body is minutely represented in pictures, together with drawings of the mode of performing various operations. Works on judicial astrology, chiromancy, and other modes of divination, on the rules for finding lucky spots for houses, graves, and temples, are exceedingly numerous, a large number of them written by Rationalists.
The eighth section, on art, contains writings on painting, music, engraving, writing, posturing, and archery, and they will doubtless furnish many new points to western artists on the principles and attainments of the Chinese in these branches when the works have been made better known.
The ninth section, entitled ‘Collections’ or ‘Repertories,’ is divided into memoirs on antiques, swords, coins, and bronzes, and presents a field of interesting research to a foreign archæologist likely to reward him. Another division, containing the monographs on tea, bamboo, floriculture, etc., is not so promising.