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.
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.
The primitive religion of China or, at least, those opinions, rites, and ceremonies that prevailed in the time of Confucius, (and before that period all seems to be fable and uncertainty) may be pretty nearly ascertained from the writings that are ascribed to that philosopher. He maintains in his physics, that "out of nothing there cannot possibly be produced any thing;—that material bodies must have existed from all eternity;—that the cause (lee, reason) or principle of things, must have had a co-existence with the things themselves;—that, therefore, this cause is also eternal, infinite, indestructible, without limits, omnipotent and omnipresent;—that the central point of influence (strength) from whence this cause principally acts, is the blue firmament (tien) from whence its emanations spread over the whole universe;—that it is, therefore, the supreme duty of the prince, in the name of his subjects, to present offerings to tien, and particularly at the equinoxes, the one for obtaining a propitious seed-time, and the other a plentiful harvest."
These offerings to the Deity, it may be observed, were always placed on a large stone, or heap of stones, erected on the summit of a high mountain, on the supposition, probably, that their influence would be so much the greater, in proportion as they should approach the seat and fountain of creative power; like the ancient Persians who, according to Herodotus, considered the whole circle of the Heavens to be the great ruling power of the universe, to which they also sacrificed on high mountains. Thus Tacitus, in speaking of the practice of worshipping the gods on high mountains, observes, that the nearer mortals can approach the heavens, the more distinctly will their prayers be heard; and on the same principle, Seneca says, that the people always strove for the seat next to the image of the deity in the temples, that their prayers might be the better heard. Thus also Noah, after quitting the ark, built an altar on the mountain where it rested, and made a burnt-offering, whose smoke ascending to heaven was pleasing to the Lord. And Abraham was commanded to offer his only son Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moria; and Balak carried Balaam to the top of Mount Pisgah to offer a sacrifice there, and to curse Israel. Thus, indeed, all nations in their infancy adopted the natural idea of paying adoration to Heaven from high places.
The large stones, or the heaps of stones, that have been appropriated for religious uses at different times, in almost every part of the world, might have been introduced, as Lord Kames supposes, from the custom among savage nations to mark with a great stone the place where their worthies were interred: that such worthies being at length deified, in the superstitious notions of their votaries, the stones that were dedicated to their memory became essential in every act of religious worship performed in honour of their new deities. The very particular homage, that for time immemorial has been paid to the memory of the dead by the Chinese, renders the above explanation extremely probable as to the origin of their altar of four stones which in their language are called Tan, and which in former times were erected on most of their high mountains; and it is singular enough that, at the present day, the tan should be represented, upon many of the altars erected in their temples, by four loose stones placed on the four corners of the altar, as the horns were in the corners of the Jewish altars. When population increased, and the people were spread wide over the empire, the inconvenience of ascending any particular mountain must necessarily be felt, and the tan was then transferred to places that were better suited for general accommodation. The same idea indeed is still retained in our churches, the altar and high place being synonimous words. In the city of Pekin, which stands on a sandy plain, the tien-tan, or altar of Heaven; the tee-tan or altar of earth; and the sien-nong-tan or altar of ancient agriculturists, are erected upon artificial mounts within the walls of the palace; and here the Emperor continues, to this day, to sacrifice at appointed times, exclusively, as the son of Heaven, and the only being on earth worthy to intercede for his people. The same doctrine prevailed in the time of Confucius, who observes, that the distance between the all-creative power, or cause of all things, and the people is so immeasurably great, that the king or ruler, as high priest, can alone offer such a sacrifice; and that this power is best satisfied when man performs the moral duties of life; the principal of which he makes to consist in filial piety, and unlimited obedience to the will of the prince.
His religious notions and morals do him great credit, but his metaphysics are so obscure as not to be intelligible which, however, may partly be owing to the nature of the language. In his writings appears a strong predilection for a kind of fortune-telling, or predicting events by the mystical lines of Fo-shee. By the help of these lines, and the prevailing element at the commencement of the reign of a prince, he pretended to foretel the events that would take place and the length of its continuance; but, at the same time, he was cautious enough to wrap them up in such ambiguous and mysterious expressions that, like most prophecies of the kind, they might admit of a variety of interpretations. This manner of expounding the lines of Fo-shee by Confucius, the supposed system of binary arithmetic by Leibnitz, laid the foundation of consulting future destiny, at this day universally sought after by the Chinese[43].
Predestination in all ages, and in all nations, has formed one of the leading features of religion; and, in consideration perhaps of popular opinion, has been foisted into the articles of the Christian faith, though unwarranted by any passage in the holy scriptures. It is a doctrine little calculated for the promotion of good morals, and still less so for conveying spiritual consolation. The Chinese, however, confine the influence of lots to the events of this life. It would perhaps be doing injustice to the understanding of Confucius to suppose, that he really believed in the doctrine of fatality. Being prime minister of one of the kings of China, it was necessary for him to act the politician as well as the philosopher; and he could not fail to know, that the superstitions of the people were among the best supports of the government. He might have been aware of the folly and absurdity of such a doctrine, and yet found it prudent to enforce the observance of it; just as the Greeks thought proper to continue their Lots. These, instead of sticks, as used by the Chinese, were three stones that, according to some, were first discovered and presented to Pallas by the nymphs, the daughters of Jupiter, who rejected an offering that rather belonged to Apollo, and threw them away;—an excellent moral, observes Doctor Tytler, the learned translator of the hymns and epigrams of Callimachus, shewing that those persons who are guided by Pallas, or Wisdom, will improve the present time, without being too anxious to pry into futurity. The Greek poet, however, like the Chinese philosopher, ascribed to the possessor of the Lots, the talent of reading future destiny.