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arrange them systematically as we do after Linnæus, they use the above phraseology in regard to them; nor do they confine it to the vegetable and animal creation only, but extend the same to every part of nature.* Numbers themselves have their genders: a unit and every odd number is male; two and every even number female.

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The above might, with no great impropriety, be styled "a sexual system of the universe." They maintain that, when from the union of the Yang and Yin all existences, both animate and inanimate, had been produced, the sexual principle was conveyed to, and became inherent in, all of them. Thus heaven, the sun, day, &c., are considered of the male gender; earth, the moon, night, &c., of the female. This notion pervades every department of knowledge in China. It exists in their theories of anatomy and medicine, and is constantly referred to on every subject. The chief divinities worshipped by the emperor, as high-priest of the state religion, are Heaven and Earth, which in this sense appear to answer in some degree to oupavos and yn in the cosmogony of the Greeks.

Of Tien, or Heaven, they sometimes speak as of the Supreme Being, pervading the universe, and awarding moral retribution: and it is in the same sense that the emperor is styled "the Son of Heaven." At other times they apply the term to the visible sky only. Heaven stands at the head of their moral as well as physical system, and most of the attributes of the Deity are referred to it. The common people colloquially apply to it a term of respect, equivalent to venerable father, or Lord; and Choo-tsze himself says on one occasion, that "Heaven means God." Ty, the earth, is called by the Chinese * Chinese Gleaner, vol. ii. p. 144.

mother, in the same way that Tien, heaven, is styled father; and between these two all sublunary things are said to have been produced.

The combinations of double and single lines contained in the Ye-king, and denominated Kua, may be seen depicted on the circles of the Chinese mariner's compass. Of these Dr. Morrison observed that they are called the signs, forms, or species of all things in nature, and seem somewhat like the intelligible numbers of Pythagoras, as the monad, duad, and so forth, of which nothing either certain or important is now known. Some have spoken of these numbers as "the archetype of the world;" others, in language much more like that of the Chinese, call them "the symbolical representations of the first principles and forms in nature." But what is meant in

either case it is not easy to determine. Whatever use Pythagoras made of his "intelligible numbers," the only intelligible use that is made of them in China is for the purposes of imposture in fortune-telling or divina

tion.

The same writer remarked that, with the Confucians of China, the gods appeared to hold by no means an undivided supremacy, the saints or sages (shing-jin) seeming to be of at least equal importance. Confucius admitted that he did not understand much respecting the gods, and therefore he preferred being silent on the subject and Choo-foo-tsze (or Choo-tsze) affirmed that sufficient knowledge was not possessed to say positively that they existed; but he saw no difficulty in omitting the subject altogether. Though the sages in China did not claim for themselves an equality with heaven, they yet talk of each other in a way that sounds like blasphemy, Heaven and earth (they say) produced man, but the work was incomplete; men were to be taught the

principles of reason, which heaven and earth could not do; the work of the sages was equally great, and therefore heaven, earth, and the sages form a triad of powers equal among themselves. The Chinese division of human knowledge (it may be remarked) is into Heaven, Earth, and Man. "The Joo-keaou, or sect of the learned (adds Dr. Morrison), which is so miserably deficient respecting the Deity, is almost entirely silent respecting the immortality of the soul, as well as future rewards and punishments. Virtue is rewarded, and vice punished, in the individuals, or in their posterity, on earth; but of a separate state of existence they do not speak." †

On

Among the sages of China, none perhaps holds a much higher rank in general estimation than the celebrated commentator Choo-foo-tsze. In the embassy of 1816 we visited the spot which had been consecrated by the abode of this person, and which, from the natural beauties of the situation, possesses attractions of no ordinary kind. the west of the Poyang lake, near the city Nan-kangfoo, is a range of mountains, consisting principally of mica-slate, in which are embedded great quantities of garnets, the whole in a state of rapid disintegration. The mica existed in such abundance, that our entire pathway, as the sun shone upon it, was in a blaze of light. At no great distance the Chinese were working large quarries of fine granite. Near the bottom of a beautiful cascade,

* "Then," says Confucius, "the sage is united with heaven and earth, so as to form a triad. To be united with heaven and earth means to stand equal with heaven and earth. These are the actions of the man who is by nature perfect, and who needs not to acquire perfection by study." It may be observed that the emperors of China are principally included in this list.

Their philosophy makes man consist of a hing, figure, or visible body, and ky, spirit, or animating principle. While the union continues, the body remains sensible, and their separation is death.

which fell in a crystal column from a great height, was the commencement of a most romantic valley, in which, at a little distance from the foot of the mountains, was the spot formerly inhabited by the philosopher: it was called "the Vale of the White Deer," from a circumstance in his history. The most remarkable object, in the Temple there erected, was a figure of Confucius, of whom the complexion was represented as quite black. On the tablet below his feet was inscribed, "The altar of the deified Confucius, the most holy teacher of ancient times." In one of the halls, at present used as a school-room for young students, were five large tablets, inscribed with the most noted precepts of the sage. There were also the two following inscriptions on either side of the entrance :— "Since the time of Choo-tsze, learning has flowed as from an authentic fount." "By studying in the retirement of the mountains and waterfalls, man returns to the primitive goodness of his nature."

That the Chinese believe in the existence of an innate moral sense, seems implied in this passage from Mencius:

"If you remark the natural dispositions, you may see that they are towards virtue; hence I say that man's nature is virtuous. All men have (originally) compassionate hearts; all men have hearts that feel ashamed of vice; all have hearts disposed to show reverence and respect; and all men have hearts that can discriminate between right and wrong. A compassionate heart implies benevolence; one ashamed of vice, rectitude; one which respects and reveres, a sense of propriety; and one that clearly distinguishes right from wrong, wisdom. Now the principles of benevolence, rectitude, propriety, and wisdom are not infused into us from without; we certainly possess them of ourselves." It will be remarked that these

*

*Ly, the word applied to their ceremonies.

notions are quite opposed to our own doctrine of original sin and human depravity.

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This notice of the state religion of China may be concluded by the following sketch of the principal objects of worship, and other points connected with it, abstracted from the detailed account contained in the Chinese Repository,' a work printed at Canton.* The state-worship is divided into three classes :-first, the Ta-sze, or great sacrifices; secondly, the Choong-sze, or medium sacrifices, and lastly, the Seaou-sze, or lesser sacrifices. Under the first head are worshipped the Heaven and the Earth. In this manner they would seem to adore the material and visible heaven, as contrasted with the earth; but they at the same time appear to consider that there exists an animating intelligence which presides over the world, rewarding virtue and punishing vice. Tien and Shang-ty, "the supreme ruler," appear always to be synonymous in the Shoo-king. Equal with the above, and like them restricted to the, worship of the emperor and his court, is the great Temple of Imperial Ancestors. If the Chinese sovereigns are thus deified, we may recollect similar examples of madness and folly in the Roman emperors, one of whom, still farther to outrage the common sense of mankind, made his horse a consul; and even the "conquering son of Ammon" himself was not exempt from those disorders of the brain which infest the giddy heights of human prosperity. In China, however, this extravagance is rather the part of a system, calculated by design to work upon the feelings and opinions of the multitude, than the mere result of individual caprice and vanity.

The objects of worship entitled to the "medium sacrifices" are (among others) the gods of the land and grain. The former are generally represented by a rude stone,

* Vol. iii. p. 49.

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