Part 6 (1/2)
”The framers of this wonderful scheme for the spirits of the dead, having no higher standard, transferred to the authorities of that world the etiquette, tastes, and venality of their correlate officials in the Chinese Government, thus making it necessary to use similar means to appease the one which are found necessary to move the other. All the State G.o.ds have their a.s.sistants, attendants, door-keepers, runners, horses, hors.e.m.e.n, detectives, and executioners, corresponding in every particular to those of Chinese officials of the same rank.” (Pp. 358-359.)
This likeness explains also why the hierarchy of beings in the Otherworld concerns itself not only with the affairs of the Otherworld, but with those of this world as well. So faithful is the likeness that we find the G.o.ds (the term is used in this chapter to include G.o.ddesses, who are, however, relatively few) subjected to many of the rules and conditions existing on this earth. Not only do they, as already shown, differ in rank, but they hold _levees_ and audiences and may be promoted for distinguished services, just as the Chinese officials are. They ”may rise from an humble position to one near the Pearly Emperor, who gives them the reward of merit for ruling well the affairs of men. The correlative deities of the mandarins are only of equal rank, yet the fact that they have been apotheosized makes them their superiors and fit objects of wors.h.i.+p. Chinese mandarins rotate in office, generally every three years, and then there is a corresponding change in Hades. The image in the temple remains the same, but the spirit which dwells in the clay tabernacle changes, so the idol has a different name, birthday, and tenant. The priests are informed by the Great Wizard of the Dragon Tiger Mountain, but how can the people know G.o.ds which are not the same to-day as yesterday?” (Pp. 360-361.)
The G.o.ds also indulge in amus.e.m.e.nts, marry, sin, are punished, die, are resurrected, or die and are transformed, or die finally. [12]
The Three Religions
We have in China the universal wors.h.i.+p of ancestors, which const.i.tutes (or did until A.D. 1912) the State religion, usually known as Confucianism, and in addition we have the G.o.ds of the specific religions (which also originally took their rise in ancestor-wors.h.i.+p), namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated, are not recognized as Chinese religions.) It is with a brief account of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we will now concern ourselves.
Besides the ordinary ancestor-wors.h.i.+p (as distinct from the State wors.h.i.+p) the people took to Buddhism and Taoism, which became the popular religions, and the _literati_ also honoured the G.o.ds of these two sects. Buddhist deities gradually became installed in Taoist temples, and the Taoist immortals were given seats beside the Buddhas in their sanctuaries. Every one patronized the G.o.d who seemed to him the most popular and the most lucrative. There even came to be united in the same temple and wors.h.i.+pped at the same altar the three religious founders or figure-heads, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tzu. The three religions were even regarded as forming one whole, or at least, though different, as having one and the same object: _san erh i yeh_, or _han san wei i_, ”the three are one,” or ”the three unite to form one” (a quotation from the phrase _T'ai chi han san wei i_ of Fang Yu-lu: ”When they reach the extreme the three are seen to be one”). In the popular pictorial representations of the pantheon this impartiality is clearly shown.
The Super-triad
The toleration, fraternity, or co-mixture of the three religions--ancestor-wors.h.i.+p or Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Taoism--explains the compound nature of the triune head of the Chinese pantheon. The numerous deities of Buddhism and Taoism culminate each in a triad of G.o.ds (the Three Precious Ones and the Three Pure Ones respectively), but the three religions jointly have also a triad compounded of one representative member of each. This general or super-triad is, of course, composed of Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Buddha. This is the officially decreed order, though it is varied occasionally by Buddha being placed in the centre (the place of honour) as an act of ceremonial deference shown to a 'stranger' or 'guest'
from another country.
Wors.h.i.+p of the Living
Before proceeding to consider the G.o.ds of China in detail, it is necessary to note that ancestor-wors.h.i.+p, which, as before stated, is wors.h.i.+p of the ghosts of deceased persons, who are usually but not invariably relatives of the wors.h.i.+pper, has at times a sort of preliminary stage in this world consisting of the wors.h.i.+p of living beings. Emperors, viceroys, popular officials, or people beloved for their good deeds have had altars, temples, and images erected to them, where they are wors.h.i.+pped in the same way as those who have already ”shuffled off this mortal coil.” The most usual cases are perhaps those of the wors.h.i.+p of living emperors and those in which some high official who has gained the grat.i.tude of the people is transferred to another post. The explanation is simple. The second self which exists after death is identical with the second self inhabiting the body during life. Therefore it may be propitiated or gratified by sacrifices of food, drink, etc., or theatricals performed in its honour, and continue its protection and good offices even though now far away.
Confucianism
Confucianism (_Ju Chiao_) is said to be the religion of the learned, and the learned were the officials and the _literati_ or lettered cla.s.s, which includes scholars waiting for posts, those who have failed to get posts (or, though qualified, prefer to live in retirement), and those who have retired from posts. Of this 'religion' it has been said:
”The name embraces education, letters, ethics, and political philosophy. Its head was not a religious man, practised few religious rites, and taught nothing about religion. In its usual acceptation the term Confucianist means 'a gentleman and a scholar'; he may wors.h.i.+p only once a year, yet he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters, it has no priesthood, and fundamentally is not a religion at all; yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it becomes a religion, and the one most difficult to deal with. Considered as a Church, the cla.s.sics are its scriptures, the schools its churches, the teachers its priests, ethics its theology, and the written character, so sacred, its symbol.” [13]
Confucius not a G.o.d
It should be noted that Confucius himself is not a G.o.d, though he has been and is wors.h.i.+pped (66,000 animals used to be offered to him every year; probably the number is about the same now). Suggestions have been made to make him the G.o.d of China and Confucianism the religion of China, so that he and his religion would hold the same relative positions that Christ and Christianity do in the West. I was present at the lengthy debate which took place on this subject in the Chinese Parliament in February 1917, but in spite of many long, learned, and eloquent speeches, chiefly by scholars of the old school, the motion was not carried. Nevertheless, the wors.h.i.+p accorded to Confucius was and is (except by 'new' or 'young' China) of so extreme a nature that he may almost be described as the great unapotheosized G.o.d of China. [14] Some of his portraits even ascribe to him superhuman attributes. But in spite of all this the fact remains that Confucius has not been appointed a G.o.d and holds no _exequatur_ ent.i.tling him to that rank.
If we inquire into the reason of this we find that, astonis.h.i.+ng though it may seem, Confucius is cla.s.sed by the Chinese not as a G.o.d (_shen_), but as a demon (_kuei_). A short historical statement will make the matter clear.
In the cla.s.sical _Li chi, Book of Ceremonial_, we find the categorical a.s.signment of the wors.h.i.+p of certain objects to certain subjective beings: the emperor wors.h.i.+pped Heaven and earth, the feudal princes the mountains and rivers, the officials the hearth, and the _literati_ their ancestors. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and hearth were called _shen_ (G.o.ds), and ancestors _kuei_ (demons). This distinction is due to Heaven being regarded as the G.o.d and the people as demons--the upper is the G.o.d, the lower the evil spirit or demon. Though _kuei_ were usually bad, the term in Chinese includes both good and evil spirits. In ancient times those who had by their meritorious virtue while in the world averted calamities from the people were posthumously wors.h.i.+pped and called G.o.ds, but those who were wors.h.i.+pped by their descendants only were called spirits or demons.
In the wors.h.i.+p of Confucius by emperors of various dynasties (details of which need not be given here) the highest t.i.tles conferred on him were _Hsien Sheng_, 'Former or Ancestral Saint,' and even _Win Hsuan w.a.n.g_, 'Accomplished and Ill.u.s.trious Prince,' and others containing like epithets. When for his image or idol there was (in the eleventh year--A.D. 1307--of the reign-period Ta Te of the Emperor Ch'eng Tsung of the Yuan dynasty) subst.i.tuted the tablet now seen in the Confucian temples, these were the inscriptions engraved on it. In the inscriptions authoritatively placed on the tablets the word _shen_ does not occur; in those cases where it does occur it has been placed there (as by the Taoists) illegally and without authority by too ardent devotees. Confucius may not be called a _shen_, since there is no record showing that the great ethical teacher was ever apotheosized, or that any order was given that the character _shen_ was to be applied to him.
The G.o.d of Literature
In addition to the ancestors of whose wors.h.i.+p it really consists, Confucianism has in its pantheon the specialized G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped by the _literati_. Naturally the chief of these is Wen Ch'ang, the G.o.d of Literature. The account of him (which varies in several particulars in different Chinese works) relates that he was a man of the name of Chang Ya, who was born during the T'ang dynasty in the kingdom of Yueh (modern Chekiang), and went to live at Tzu T'ung in Ssuch'uan, where his intelligence raised him to the position of President of the Board of Ceremonies. Another account refers to him as Chang Ya Tzu, the Soul or Spirit of Tzu T'ung, and states that he held office in the Chin dynasty (A.D. 265-316), and was killed in a fight. Another again states that under the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), in the third year (A.D. 1000) of the reign-period Hsien P'ing of the Emperor Chen Tsung, he repressed the revolt of w.a.n.g Chun at Ch'eng Tu in Ssuch'uan. General Lei Yu-chung caused to be shot into the besieged town arrows to which notices were attached inviting the inhabitants to surrender. Suddenly a man mounted a ladder, and pointing to the rebels cried in a loud voice: ”The Spirit of Tzu T'ung has sent me to inform you that the town will fall into the hands of the enemy on the twentieth day of the ninth moon, and not a single person will escape death.” Attempts to strike down this prophet of evil were in vain, for he had already disappeared. The town was captured on the day indicated. The general, as a reward, caused the temple of Tzu T'ung's Spirit to be repaired, and sacrifices offered to it.
The object of wors.h.i.+p nowadays in the temples dedicated to Wen Ch'ang is Tzu T'ung Ti Chun, the G.o.d of Tzu T'ung. The convenient elasticity of dualism enabled Chang to have as many as seventeen reincarnations, which ranged over a period of some three thousand years.
Various emperors at various times bestowed upon Wen Ch'ang honorific t.i.tles, until ultimately, in the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty, in the reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, the t.i.tle was conferred on him of Supporter of the Yuan Dynasty, Diffuser of Renovating Influences, Ssu-lu of Wen Ch'ang, G.o.d and Lord. He was thus apotheosized, and took his place among the G.o.ds of China. By steps few or many a man in China has often become a G.o.d.