CHAPTER XXX.

BELIEFS OF CONFUCIANISTS AND OTHER CHINESE RELIGIONISTS, AS TO A FUTURE LIFE.

The Two Indigenous Religions of China, Confucianism and Tâoism.-I. Confucianism. -Primeval Belief, in China, of a Future State, and of Mutual Influence of Embodied and of Departed Spirits.-Offerings to the Dead.-Power of the Dead over the Living.-Good Spirits abide in the Presence of God.-A Heaven but no Hell.Confucianists Know Nothing of Future Punishment.-II. Taoism.—Ancient Tâoist Parables as to the State of the Dead.-A Primeval Darwinism.-Transrotation of Births.-Modern Tâoism affected by Buddhism.-The Ten Courts of Purgatory.— Recent Tâoist Revelations concerning "the Everlasting Tortures of Hell." Whence Derived ?-An Incident of Mission Work.

By Rev. JAMES LEGGE, D.D., Professor of the Chinese Language and Literature in the University of Oxford, England, and for Thirty-four Years a Missionary among the Chinese.

IN proceeding to furnish a paper on the above subject, let me say, at the outset, that, in dealing with "other Chinese Religionists," I shall confine myself to an exhibition of the views of the Tâoists. Confucianism and Tâoism were both indigenous in China. The former is named from Confucius, the great sage of the country, who, in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C., did much to preserve the monuments of its ancient literature, and to develop and enforce the lessons of morality and religion in them; the latter is named from the subject of the speculations of Lî Erh or Lî Tan, better known to us as Lâo-tsze, a contemporary of Confucius, but of a somewhat earlier date. That subject he called the Tâo, and there remains to us his work, called Tao Teh King, or "The Classic about the Tâo and its Characteristics."

In our first Christian century, Buddhist missionaries went from India to China, and Buddhism began in our third century to have a very considerable following among the people. Since the Tang

dynasty (A. D. 608-906), if not from an earlier period, the government and people have always spoken of "The Three Religions," or systems of teaching,-those of "the Literati" (the followers of Confucius), of "Shih" (Shakyamuni or Buddha), and of "the Tâo." But I have no doubt that along with my paper there will appear one on the views of the Buddhists on future punishment by some scholar who has made them a special study, and therefore I will not touch on them save by an allusion, in passing, in what I say about the Tâoists; still less is it necessary that I should advert to the views of the Mohammedans and Christians among the Chinese.

I. THE VIEWS OF CONFUCIANISTS ABOUT FUTURE PUNISHMENT. The ancient Chinese believed in a future state, or in the continued existence of the souls or spirits of men, after their period of life on earth had come to a close; and not in their existence simply, but in their continued possession, somehow, of their higher faculties, so that they were conscious of service rendered to them by their descendants, and could exercise an influence on their condition in this world.

The practice of sacrificing to the dead is as old as the first traces that we have of the history of the Chinese people. It existed, I believe, from time immemorial, certainly from the twenty-third century B. C. And along with it there existed a higher service,—the worship of one Supreme Being, and of other spiritual beings. With these services there were associated also sacrifices to departed men of other times besides those of the worshipers, and to the more conspicuous objects of nature, such as heaven and earth, the sun and moon, the starry host, hills and streams, forests and valleys.

I will not pause to inquire which of these services had the precedence in time. Herbert Spencer, indeed, holds that "the rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors, who are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of working good or evil to their descendants" (On the Origin of Animal Worship, Essays, III., p. 102). But there was and is no idea of propitiation in

the Confucian sacrifices, offerings would be a better name for them than sacrifices. The highest service, that to God, is expressly said to be "the deepest expression of reverence," and "the greatest act of thanksgiving to heaven" (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvii., pp. 413, 427). The services to parents and ancestors were a tribute of filial piety, of which virtue we have the following account from Confucius: "The service which a filial son does to his parents is as follows: In his general conduct to them, he manifests the utmost reverence; in his nourishing of them, his endeavor is to give them the utmost pleasure; when they are ill, he feels the utmost anxiety; in mourning for them, he gives every demonstration of grief; and in sacrificing to them, he displays the utmost solemnity" (S. B., vol. iii., p. 480). The offerings to the departed of other times are a recognition of the services which they rendered to their own times, and for all future time. According to the institutes of the sage kings, sacrifice should be offered to him who had given laws to the people, to him who had labored to the death in the discharge of his duties, to him who had strengthened the state by his hard toil, to him who had boldly and successfully encountered great calamities, and to him who had warded off great evils" (S. B., vol. xxviii., pp. 207, 208). Confucius taught that "the offerings to heaven and earth were services to God" (Chung Yung, ch. xix.). "As to the sun and moon," it is said, "stars and constellations, the people look up to them; while mountains, forests, streams, and valleys supply them with the materials for use which they require. Only men and things of this kind were admitted into the sacrificial canon" (S. B., vol. xxviii., p. 209).

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It is necessary to consider here some sayings attributed to Confucius. Tsze-lû, the most forward and Peter-like of his disciples, once asked him about serving the spirits of the dead, and his reply was, "While you are not able to serve men (in life), how can you serve their spirits?" The disciple went on to ask about death, and the master said, "While you do not know life, how can you know about death?" (Analects, xi. : 11). The oldest comment on this