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RELIGIONS
OF
CHINA:
ADDRESS
BEFORE THE
FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION,
Boston, May 27, 1870.
BY
REV. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING.
•fòrprintrìf front t&e “ ^tomiiings.”
BOSTON:
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.
1870.
��RELIGIONS OF CHINA.
Why was the nation and land, which we from tradition call
“ China,” named by its rulers, scholars, and people The Central
Empire, Chung-Kwoh ? Not merely because they believed their
sacred mountain to be the centre, whence blew the four great winds,
and flowed the four great rivers ; nor chiefly because they considered them
selves as being midmost among the nations. But they took this title of
Central because they claimed that their government, laws and social forms
were the product of the harmonious union of Heaven and Earth, — the
meeting point of all creative powers. Theirs was the Central Empire,
because it was organized from the Central Principle of Universal Order.
And where did they find the test, standard, and arbiter of this Central
and Universal principle ? They found it in the reason and yet more in
the heart of Man, — of each man, of all men. The Central, Universal
Principle of Chinese religion, ethics, laws, is found, in essence, in
Sincerity of Heart. This is a high claim. But here, beside me, are
the books, whence can be proved, at length, how earnestly these claims
have been asserted by the “Men of the Central Empire,” — as they
loftily name themselves, from the earliest ages to the present day.
All real scholars know this fact. And now briefly let me describe the
Religions of “ China,” which are Three in number.
I. The Tao-ists, or the followers of the “Eternal Reason” — the
“Tao,” — as the Way of life, shall here be mentioned first, — not
only because Lao-Tsze, their eminent teacher, born 604 before the Chris
tian era, preceded Confucius by some fifty years ; but because that pro
found sage perpetually refers to the “ skilful philosophers in olden time who
had mystic communication with the Abyss,” — the original principle of
“ Unity,” — to the “ ancient sages, deep, simple, circumspect, still,” who
were the “ associates of Heaven, which was the supreme aim of antiq
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uity.” It is through this wonderfully pure seer, indeed, as it appears
to me, that we ascend to the primitive revelation of truth given to this
ancient people. And how sublime in simplicity it is ! Hear his first
word : “ The reason which can be reasoned is not the Eternal Reason.
The name which can be named is not the Eternal Name.” And again:
“ Something existed before heaven and earth. It stood alone and was
not changed. It pervaded everywhere. It was still. It was void. In its
depth it seems the first Ancestor of all things. It appears to have been
before God. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I
know not its name, but give it the title of Reason. If I am forced to
make a name for it, I say it is Great. . . . Reason is great; Heaven is
great; Earth is great; a King is great. Man takes his law from the
Earth ; the Earth takes its law from Heaven ; Heaven takes its law from
Reason; Reason takes its law from what it is in itself.” Again:
“ Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following
Reason. Reason is indefinite, yet therein are forms; impalpable, yet
therein are things ; profound and dark, yet therein is essence. This
essence is most true; and from of old until now it has never lost its
name. It passes into all things that have a beginning. How know I
the manner of the beginning of all things ? I know it by this Reason.
. . . Would you go before it, you cannot see its face. Would you go
behind it, you cannot see its back. But to have such an apprehension of
the Reason which was of old as to regulate present things, and to know
their beginning in the past, this I call having the clew of Reason.”
Thus does this simple-hearted sage aspire “to go home to the origin,”
as he says. “ Great Reason is all pervading. It can be on the right
hand, and also at the same time on the left. All things wait upon it for
life, and it refuses none. When its meritorious work is done, it takes
not the name of merit. In love it nourishes all things, and it is ever
free from ambitious desires. It may be named with the smallest. All
things return home to it, but it does not lord it over them. It may be
named with the greatest. . . . Lay hold on the great form of Reason,
and the whole world will go to you. It will go to you and suffer no
injury ; and its rest and peace will be glorious. Reason in passing from
your mouth is tasteless. If you look at it, there is nothing to fill the
eye. If you listen to it, there is nothing to fill the ear. But if you use
it, it is inexhaustible.” — “ The Spirit, like the perennial spring of the
valley, never dies. This Spirit I call the Abyss-Mother.” — “ Going
home to the origin is said to be a reversion to destiny. This reversion
to destiny is called eternity. . . He who knows eternity is magnani
mous. Being magnanimous, he is catholic. Being catholic, he is a
king. Being a king, he is Heaven. Being Heaven, he is Reason.
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Being Reason, he is enduring. Though his body perish, he is in no
danger.”
Here, then, in oneness with Eternal Reason, Lao-Tsze found the Cen
tral Principle of Unity. Do we say that this doctrine is mystical ? But
it is no more mystical than the doctrine of Socrates and Plato, of Aris
totle and Zeno; of the Hebrew Psalms and Prophets; of the Ser
mon on the Mount, the Proem to the Gospel of John, and the Pauline
Epistles ; of the great Mediaeval Saints ; of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel; of
Henry More, Price, and Coleridge. And now let us see the practical
application of his principle ; and first to personal perfection. He says :
“ There is nothing like keeping the inner man. The Sage embraces
Unity, and so is a pattern for all the world. He puts himself last, and
yet is first; abandons himself, and yet is preserved. Is this not through
his having no selfishness ? Thereby he preserves self-interest intact.
He is not self-displaying, and therefore he shines. He is not self-approv
ing, and therefore he is distinguished. He is not self-praising, and there
fore he has merit. He is not self-exalting, and therefore he stands high ;
and inasmuch as he does not strive, no one in all the world strives with
him. That ancient saying, ‘He that humbles himself shjall be preserved
entire,’ — oh, it is no vain utterance ! Verily, he shall be returned home
entire to his origin.” And again : “ By undivided attention to the pas
sion nature and increasing tenderness, it is possible to be a little child.
By putting away impurity from the hidden eye of the heart, it is possible
to be without spot. By loving the people and so governing the nation, it
is possible to be unknown. There is a purity and quietude by which one
may rule the whole world.” Thus by tenderness and purity of heart
would the sage become like a little child. “To keep tenderness I pro
nounce strength,” he says. “Use the light to guide you home to its own
brightness. . . . This I call practising Eternal Reason.”
And thus seeking “ simple goodness like water,” the Sage should
strive in all social relations, to rule, not by force, but by influence. “ He
who knows the masculine nature, and at the same time keeps the feminine,
will be the whole world’s channel, the centre of universal attraction.
Being the whole world’s channel, eternal virtue will not depart from him ;
and he will return again to the state of an infant. He who knows the
light, and at the same time keeps the shade, will be the whole world’s
model. He who knows the glory, and at the same time keeps the
shame, will be the whole world’s valley. Being the whole world’s valley,
eternal virtue will fill him, and he will return home to simplicity.” — “Of
all the weak things in the world nothing exceeds water ; and yet of those
which attack hard and strong things I know not what is superior to it.
Don’t make light of this. The fact that the weak can conquer the
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strong, and the tender the hard, is known to all the world; yet none carry
it out in practice. Therefore the Sage says, ‘ He who bears the re
proach of his country shall be called the lord of the land. He who bears
the calamities of his country shall be called the king of the world.’”
And this spirit of self-sacrificing gentleness, blending masculine
strength with feminine sweetness, should flow abroad in abounding benevo
lence. “The Sage is ever the good saviour of men. He rejects none.
He is ever the good saviour of things. He rejects nothing. His I call
comprehensive intelligence. For the good men are the instructors of
other good men ; and the bad men are the material of the good men for
them to work upon.” — “ The Sage has no invariable mind of his own,
he makes the mind of the people his mind. The good I would meet
with goodness. The not-good I would meet with goodness also. Virtue
is good. The faithful I would meet with faith. The not-faithful I
would meet with faith also. Virtue is faithful. The Sage lives in the
world with a timid reserve ; but his mind blends in sympathy with all.
The people all turn their ears and eyes up to him; and the Sage thinks
of them all as his children.”
But thus living personally, and acting socially, according to the law of
Universal Reason, the “ Mother of the Universe,” the Sage would apply
the same principle to government. “ In governing men and in serving
Heaven there is nothing like moderation. This moderation is the first
thing to be obtained. When this is first attained, one may be said to
have laid in an abundant store of virtue. Such a one has the mother
of the kingdom and may endure long. This I call having the roots
deep and the fibres firm. This is the Reason by which one may live
long and see many "days.” — “ For what did the ancients so much prize
this Reason ? Was it not because it was found at once without search
ing ; and by it those who had sinned might escape ? Therefore it is the
most estimable thing in the world.” — “Recompense injury with kind
ness.”— “Begin to regulate before the disorder comes.” — “Reason, as
it is eternal, has no name. But though insignificant in its primordial
simplicity, the world dares not make a servant of it. If a prince or
king could keep this, every thing would spontaneously submit to him;
and the people without orders, would of themselves harmonize together.
. . . Would that I were possessed of sufficient knowledge to walk in the
great Way of Reason. The great Way is exceedingly plain, but the
people like the cross-paths. . . . The Sage, when he wishes to be above
the people so as to rule them, must keep below them. When he wishes
to be before the people, he must in person keep behind them. In this
way, while in position over the people, they do not feel his weight.
Therefore the world delights to exalt him, and no one is offended.” —
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“ The Reason of Heaven does not strive, yet conquers well; does not
call, yet things come of their own accord ; is slack, yet plans well. The
net of heaven is very wide in its meshes, yet misses nothing.” — “ When
the people do not fear death, to what purpose is the punishment of death
still used to overawe them ? There is always the Great Executioner.
Now, for any man to act the Executioner’s part, I say it is hewing out
the Great Architect’s work for him. And he who undertakes to hew
for the Great Architect rarely fails to cut his own hands.” — “I have
three precious things, which I hold fast and prize, — Compassion, Econo
my, Humility. Being compassionate, I can therefore be brave; Being
economical, I can therefore be liberal. Not daring to take precedence
of the world, I can therefore become chief among the perfect ones. But
in the present day men give up compassion, and cultivate only courage.
They give up economy, and aim only at liberality, They give up the last
place, and seek only the first. It is their death, Compassion is that
which is victorious in attack and secure in defence. When Heaven would
save a man it encircles him with compassion.”
And finally, although living in the midst of war and civil disturbance,
this great teacher of the Way of Reason was as earnest an apostle of
peace as any Christian Father, or modern Friend, or latest advocate of
Woman’s influence. Hear how broadly and magnanimously he preaches
the gospel of mercy and good-will. “ He who in the use of Reason renders
assistance to a human ruler does not use weapons to force the people.
His actions are such as he would wish rendered to himself again.
Where legions are quartered, briers and thorns grow. In the track of
great armies must follow bad years. The good soldier is brave only to
effect some good purpose. He ventures nothing for the sake of power.
He is brave in need, but never a bully. He is brave in need, but never
overbearing. He is brave in need, for he cannot be less, but not violent.”
And again : “ Ornamental weapons are not instruments of joy, but ob
jects of hatred to every creature. Therefore he who has Reason will
not stay where they are. The Superior Man in his home makes the
left hand — the weak side — the place of honor. But he who goes
forth to use weapons of war honors the right— the strong hand. Wea
pons are instruments of evil omen. They are not the tools of a Superior
Man. He uses them only when he cannot help it. Peace is his highest
aim. When he conquers he is not elated. To be elated is to rejoice at
the destruction of human life; and he who rejoices at the destruction of
human life is not fit to be intrusted with power in the world. He who
has been instrumental in killing many people should move on over them
with bitter tears. Therefore those who have been victorious in battle
are disposed after the order of a funeral.” And not only does the Sage
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thus hate war and love peace, but he teaches, with a profound and pene
trating wisdom never surpassed, that Pacific Policy is omnipotent. Hear
him. “ When a great kingdom takes a lowly position, it becomes the
place of concourse for the world: it is the wife of the world. The
wife by quietness invariably conquers the man ; and since quietness is
also lowliness, therefore a great kingdom, by lowliness toward a small
kingdom, may take that small kingdom ; and a small kingdom, by lowli
ness towards a great kingdom, may take that great kingdom. So that
either the one stoops to conquer, or the other is low and conquers. If
the great kingdom only desires to attach to itself and nourish — that is,
benefit — others, then the small kingdom will only wish to enter its ser
vice. But in order that both may have their wish, the great one should
be lowly.” — “ Those who of old were good practisers of Reason used
it not to make the people bright, but to make them simple. What makes
the people hard to govern is their having too much policy. He who en
courages this kind of policy in the government of a kingdom is the rob
ber of that kingdom; but he who governs a kingdom without it is a
blessing to that kingdom. To know these two things is the very ideal
of government; and a constant knowledge of this ideal I call sublime
virtue. Sublime virtue is profound, immense, and the reverse of every
thing else. It will bring about a state of Universal Freedom.”
The last words of Lao-Tsze in his truly sublime book of the “ TaoTeh-King,” or the “Book of Reason and Virtue,” “The Way of Truth
and Life,” are these : “ Faithful words are not fine. Fine words are not
faithful. The good do not debate. The debater is not good. The
knowing are not learned. The learned are not knowing.
“ The Sage does not lay up treasures. The more he does for others,
the more he has of his own. The more he gives to others, the more he
is increased. This is the Way of the Sage, who acts, but does not strive.
This is the Way of Heaven, which benefits, but does not injure.”
Such, in outline, is the Religion of Tao-ism as set forth by its chief
apostle. With the mere statement that under several dynasties this faith
has swayed for a season the Imperial Court; and regretting that time
will permit no reference to its later forms, as presented in the “ Book of
Recompenses and Penalties,” we will pass to the Second Religion, which
throughout the course of the Central Empire has been most widely prev
alent. This is the doctrine of the Scholar-Class, who among us are
popularly known as, —
II. The Confucians. This form of religion has been so amply ex
hibited by the Jesuit and Dominican Fathers, by Leibnitz and Du Halde,
and their German and French compeers, — and by many English writers,
from Collie and Morrison to the most trustworthy translator of all, Dr.
#
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James Legge, — that intelligent persons must be supposed to be more or
less acquainted with it. Leaving aside, therefore, what is familiar, let
me guide your thoughts to the central doctrine of the grand sage and
saint, K‘ung-Foo-Tsze, or Confucius, as the Jesuits first taught us to
call him.
This great philosopher and statesman is too often spoken of as a mere
expounder of ethical precepts and conventional proprieties; and would
that by a sketch of his life and his ideal aim, the injustice of this super
ficial estimate might be proved ! Yet even such brief extracts as time
will allow me to present, may serve to show, that although this admi
rable philanthropist was a teacher of morals, he was pre-eminently a
Religious and Social Reformer. His initial word is Reverence. And
Reverence for the Supreme Sovereign of Heaven is the corner and cap
stone of his temple of society, — underlying and crowning all modes of
Reverence.
K‘ung-FooJTsze never presented the form of religion that he incul
cated as his own, but always as an inheritance from the Ancestors of
the Empire, and especially from the poets, sages, and rulers of the
famous Chow dynasty, who lived fit>e hundred years before his time.
His first work was to republish the books of this Golden Age, — so
pure, high, large, so fitted to renovate all ages, appeared to him to be
the spirit, laws, and manners of that heroic generation. Let us listen to
a few passages from these books, that we may judge whether he revered
them too earnestly.
The most ancient of these books, to the study and explanation of
which K‘ung-Foo-Tsze devoted years of profound study, is the Yih-King,
or Book of Principles and Changes. But as the philosophy embodied in
this volume is too mystical for popular treatment, consisting, as it does,
of a system of analogies between the Natural and Spiritual worlds,
it will be better on this occasion to pass at once to the second of these
Sacred Books, the Shoo-King, or Book of History. Its tone may
be learned from two or three sentences, as follows : “ The Royal path is
right and straight, without perversity, without one-sidedness. Seeing
this Perfect Excellence, turn to it. This amplification of the Royal Per
fection contains the unchanging rule, and is the great lesson. Yea, it is
the lesson of Shang-Te ; ” that is, literally, of the “ Supreme Sovereign,”
or God. And it is well to pause here a moment to say, that throughout
the Shoo-King this Ruler over all, Shang-Te, — or the equivalent, Tien,
Heaven, — is everywhere declared to be the Supreme Being, whose justice,
mercy, and righteous providence direct the universe and govern human
ity, humbling the proud, exalting the lowly, comforting the sad, avenging
wrongs, loving and caring for people and rulers alike. The passage goes
2
�10
on : “ The multitudes instructed in this amplification of Perfect Excel
lence, and carrying it into practice, will approximate to the glory of the
Son of Heaven, and will say, ‘ The Son of Heaven is the parent of the
people, and so becomes the sovereign of the empire.’ ” Again : “ Your
management of the people will depend upon your reverently following
your father. Carry out his virtuous words, and clothe yourself with
them. . . . And seeking what is to be learned from the'wise kings of antiq
uity, employ it in the tranquillizing and protecting of the people.
Finally, enlarge your thoughts to the comprehension of all heavenly
principles, and virtue will be richly displayed in your person. . . . Heaven
in its awfulness yet helps the sincere. ... It is yours, O little one ! it is
your business to enlarge the regal influence, and harmoniously to protect
this people. Thus shall you assist the king, consolidating the appointment
of Heaven and renovating this people.” — “ Oh ! early and late, never be
but earnest. If you do not attend jealously to your small actions, the
result will be to affect your virtue in great matters, as when in raising a
mound the work is unfinished for want of one basket of earth. If you
follow this course, the people will preserve their possessions, and the
throne will descend from generation to generation.” Again: “The
king speaks .to this effect, ‘ Head of the princes, my younger brother,
my little one, it was your greatly distinguished father who was
able to illustrate his virtue and to be careful in the use of pun
ishments. He did not dare to show any contempt to the widower and
widows. He revered the reverend; he employed the employable ; he
was terrible to those who needed to be awed. It was thus he laid the
first beginnings of the sway of our small portion of the empire, and one
or two neighboring states were brought undei’ his improving influence;
until throughout our western regions all placed in him their reliance.
The fame of him ascended up to the High God, and God approved.
Heaven gave to him the great charge to exterminate the dynasty of Yin ”
(the ruling Emperor of which was a most atrociously cruel tyrant), “ and
to receive its great appointments, so that the various states and their
people were brought to the condition of order.’ ” After listening to such
extracts, how can any one deny that the fundamental principle of this
book is Religion ?
Yet more does this religious spirit of the early Central Empire appear
in the She-King, or Book of Hymns and Poems, some passages of which
astonish us by their close resemblance to the pure piety of the Hebrew
Psalms. Thus a young King prays: “ I know that one must watch
incessantly over himself, that Heaven has an intelligence which
nothing escapes, and that its decrees are without appeal. Let no one
say, then, c Heaven is so high and so far above us that it scarcely thinks
�11
of things below.’ I know that it regards all things ; that it enters into
all; that it is present incessantly to all. But, alas ! I ana so young, so
little enlightened, so inattentive to my duties I Nevertheless, with all
my energies I strive to lose no time, desiring with ardor this only, that I
may attain to perfection.” Again : “ He who alone is King and Supreme
Lord humbles his majesty even to take care of things here below.
Always attentive to the true happiness of the world, He extends his
regards over all the face of the earth. He sees people who have aban
doned his laws ; but the All-High does not abandon them. He watches
over them. He examines them. Everywhere He seeks for a man after
his own heart, and wills to extend his rule.” Again : “ The Supreme Sov
ereign regards the Sacred mountain. It is the home of peace. It is an
eternal kingdom, where are seen no trees whose leaves fade and fall. It
is the work of the Most High. There has he placed the youngest in room
of the eldest; for it is only Wan whose heart knows how to love his
brethren. He causes all their happiness, all their glory. The Lord has
heaped upon him all blessings, and given him the world for a recompense.
The Supreme Sovereign penetrates the heart of Wan, and there he finds a
secret and inexplicable virtue, whose sweetness diffuses itself abroad.
It is a marvellous combination of precious gifts, — intelligence to rule
all ; wisdom to enlighten all; counsel to govern all; reverence and gen
tleness to make itself beloved ; energy and majesty to make itself feared ;
a grace and charm which win all hearts; virtues always the same and
incapable of change. It is an inheritance which he has received from
the All-High ; a blessing which he has transmitted to posterity.” Once
more : il The Supreme Sovereign has said to Wan, ‘ When the heart is
not right, its desires are unregulated, and one is not fit to save the world.
But you are incapable of such defects. ... I love a virtue pure and
simple like yours ; it makes no noise ; it is without display ; it is never
extravagant; it is free from violence. It might be said that your sole
genius and wisdom are to obey my commandments.’” And finally:
a Heaven penetrates to the depth of all hearts, as daybreak illumines
tiie darkest room. We should strive to reflect its light, as two instru
ments in full accord respond to one another. We should unite ourselves
closely to it, as two tablets which seem to make but one. We should
receive what it gives in the very instant when it opens its hands to be
stow. Nothing is easier for Heaven than to enlighten us. But our
own unregulated passions close the entrance of our souls against its
influence.” Similar extracts might be multiplied without end; but
gurely these will suffice to prove the ignorance or unfairness of all
who scoff at the religion of the ancient Chinese. These sacred hymns
of the She-King breathe a devout Theism, — gratefully conscious of
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dependence on the All-Good; reverent in awe of the Holy Witness,
Judge, and King; earnestly aspiring after communion in life, thought,
deed, with the All-True.
Thus much for the Sacred Books, to the editing and expounding of
which K‘ung-Foo-Tsze consecrated the best years of his life. And
leaving aside the other Sacred Books, and the first and second of the
so-called Classics, “ The Discourses and Dialogues,” and “ The Great
Learning,” let us give a few moments to the third of these, for which
the world is indebted to the grandson of the Sage. This book deserves
patient study; for in it is embodied, as the best Chinese scholars de
clare, the very genius and spirit, not only of K‘ung-Foo-Tsze, but also of
their nation. Its name is “ Chung-Yung,” which literally means “ The
Central Immutable,” or “ Correct Fixed Principle.” The Catholic
Fathers called it “ Medium constans vel sempiternum.” Abel Kemusat
has named it “ L’invariable Milieu.” Morrison interprets it “ The
Constant Medium;” and Collie, “The Golden Medium;” while Dr.
Legge translates the title “ The Doctrine of the Mean.” But such
renderings do but partial justice to the profound and comprehensive
thought that inspires this book, which is this, “ How from a Central
Principle to evolve Universal Harmony, by a Method of Distribu
tive Order.” The first chapter, indeed, strikes the key-note of the
whole system, in a few all-significant sentences, thus : “ 1. What Heaven
has conferred is called the Nature ; an accordance with this nature is
called The Path of Duty ; the regulation of this path is called Instruc
tion. 2. The path may not be left an instant. If it could be left, it
would not be the path. On this account, the Superior Man does not
wait till he sees things, to be cautious ; nor till he hears things, to be
apprehensive. 3. There is nothing more visible than what is secret,
and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the Superior
Man is watchful over himself while he is alone. 4. While there are no
stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be
in the state of Equilibrium. When the feelings have been stirred, and
they act in their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state
of Harmony. This Equilibrium is the great root, from which grow all
human actings in the world; and this Harmony is the universal path, which
they all should pursue. 5. Let the states of Equilibrium and Harmony
exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and
earth.” Thus, Equilibrium is the root, Growth is the trunk, Harmony
is the tree full grown. In these words — Equilibrium of Nature, the
Way of Order, and Harmony in Act — is given the Central Universal
method of K‘ung-Foo-Tsze, and of his compeers. “The Master said:
Perfect is the virtue which is according to the constant, invariable prin
�13
ciple. Rare have they long been among the people, who could practise
it. . . . Alas ! how is the Path untrodden,” referring, for illustration, to
the ancient sages. And again : “ When one cultivates to the utmost the
Principles of his Nature, and exercises them on the method of Recipro
city, he is not far from the Path. What you do not like when done to
yourself, do not do to others.” Once more: “ Earnest in practising
the ordinary virtues, and careful in speaking about them, the Superior
Man dares not but exert himself, if in his practice there is any thing
defective ; and if in his words he has any excess, he dares not allow
himself such license. Thus his words have respect to his actions, and
his actions have respect to his words. Is it not just an entire Sincerity,
which marks the Superior Man ? ”
Here we reach (as was said in the outset) the very centre of the
Central Principle, in Sincerity. Sincerity means “ Fidelity to the
Heaven-given Nature.” “ Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attain
ment of sincerity is the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he
who without an effort hits what is right, and apprehends without an
exercise of thought; he is the Sage, who naturally and easily embodies
the right way. He who attains to sincerity is he who chooses what is
good, and firmly holds it fast. To this attainment there are requisite
the extensive study of what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful
reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice
of it. . . . When we have intelligence resulting from sincerity, this
condition is to be ascribed to nature. When we have sincerity resulting
from intelligence, this condition is to be ascribed to instruction. But
given the sincerity, and there shall be intelligence ; given the intelli
gence, and there shall be sincerity.” “ Sincerity is the end and the
beginning; without sincerity, there would be nothing. On this account,
the Superior Man regards the attainment of sincerity as the most excel
lent thing.”
And now having once attained — either by Nature, the way of Heaven,
or by Instruction, the way of Man — to Sincerity, from this centre we
may grow to the perfect life. “ Sincerity is that whereby self-com
pletion is effected, and its way is that whereby man must direct himself.
. . . It is only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that
can exist under heaven, who can give its full development to his nature.
Able to give its full development to his own nature, he can do the same
to the nature of other men. Able to give its full development to the
nature of other men, he can give their full development to the natures
of animals and things. Able to give their full development to the
natures of creatures and things, he can assist the transforming and
nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth. Able to assist the transform
�ing and nourishing powers of Heaven and Earth, he may become with
Heaven and Earth a Third.” Thus the perfectly Sincere Man grows to
be the Saint, and becomes endowed with transforming powers. “ It is
only he who is possessed of the most complete sincerity that can exist
under heaven, who can transform.” — “It is characteristic of the most
entire sincerity to be able to foreknow. . . . Therefore the individual
possessed of the most complete sincerity is like a Spirit.” — “ To entire
sincerity there belongs ceaselessness. Not ceasing, it continues long.
Continuing long, it evidences itself. Evidencing itself, it reaches far.
Reaching far, it becomes large and substantial. Large and substantial,
it becomes high and brilliant. Thus it contains, overspreads, perfects
all things. So large and substantial, the man possessing sincerity is
the co-equal of Earth. So high and brilliant, it makes him the co
equal of Heaven. So far-reaching and long-continuing, it makes him
Infinite. . . . The Way of Heaven and Earth may be completely de
clared in one sentence. They are without any Doubleness ; and so they
produce things in a manner that is unfathomable. It is said in the
She-King: ‘ The ordinances of Heaven, how profound are they and
unceasing ! ’ The meaning is, that it is thus that Heaven is Heaven.
And again it says : ‘ How illustrious was the Singleness of the virtue of
King Wan ! ’ indicating that it was thus that King Wan was what he
was. Singleness is likewise unceasing.” Thus Singleness — utter
freedom from Duplicity — is the essential life of the true Sage, or
Saint. “ It is only he possessed of all sagely qualities that can exist
under heaven, who shows himself quick in apprehension, clear in dis
cernment, of far-reaching intelligence and all-embracing knowledge, —
fitted to exercise rule ; magnanimous, generous, benign, and mild, —
fitted to exercise forbearance; impulsive, energetic, firm, and enduring,
— fitted to maintain a firm hold; self-adjusted, grave, never swerving
from the central invariable principle, — fitted to command reverence;
accomplished, distinctive, concentrative, and searching, — fitted to exer
cise discrimination. All-embracing and vast, he is like Heaven. Deep
and active as a fountain, he is like the Abyss. He is seen, and the
people all reverence him; he speaks, and the people all believe him ;
he acts, and the people are all pleased with him. . . . All who have
blood and breath unfeignedly honor and love him. Hence it is said:
‘ He is the equal of Heaven.’ . . . Call him Man in his Ideal, how
earnest is he ! Call him an Abyss, how deep is he ! Call him Heaven,
how vast is he ! ” — “ It is said in the She-King : £ Looked at in your
apartment, be there free from shame, where you are exposed to the
light of Heaven.’ Therefore the Superior Man, even when he is not
moving, has the feeling of Reverence; and while he speaks not, he has
�15
the feeling of Truthfulness. It is said in the She-King : ‘ In silence is
the offering presented and the Spirit approached to; there is not the
slightest contention.’ Therefore the Superior Man does not use rewards,
and the people are stimulated to virtue. He does not show anger, and
the people are awed more than by battle-axes. It is said in the SheKing : £ What needs no display is Virtue. All the princes imitate it.’
Therefore the Superior Man being sincere and reverential, the whole
world is conducted to a state of happy tranquillity.”
Such is the ideal of the Sage, developed from the centre of Singleness
or Sincerity, up to the- degree of the Saint. And in this beautiful
image K‘ung-Foo-Tsze was represented, as in life he had appeared to
his revering grandson. Is not, then, the assertion verified, that in char
acter and influence he was a Religious and Social Reformer ? Indeed,
was he not in himself the embodiment of Religion ?
That this conception of the Sage-Saint as the “ Ideal of Man ” was
not confined to K‘ung-Foo-Tsze and his immediate circle of disciples,
might be proved from the writings of his grand successor and expounder,
a century and a half later,—Mang-Tsze, or Mencius, whose sublime
doctrine of the essential goodness of human nature has never been sur
passed in any age or nation. But time will not allow even a passing
quotation. Let us close, then, this view of the Second Religion of the
Central Empire, by some final exhibitions of the Saint, as drawn from
later writings of this School. K‘ung-Foo-Tsze is reported as having
distributed men into Five Orders, briefly as follows : “1. The first and
most numerous order is made up of those who do to-day what they did
yesterday, for no other reason than because it has been done before ;
who never act spontaneously, but allow themselves to be passively led ;
who are incapable of embracing large views of human affairs ; and
whose understanding is governed by the organs of sense. They are
commonly called the People. 2. The second order includes those who
have been sufficiently trained in science, letters, and the liberal arts as to
propose to themselves ends and the means to attain them ; who, without
.having penetrated to the depth of things, can yet give a reason for what
they say or do, and can thus teach others. They may be called the
Lettered Class. 3. The third order consists of those who never depart
from the rules of right reason, and do good for its own sake; who
plunge into no excess, and are the same in prosperity and adversity;
who regard all mankind as equals, in having the seeds of the same
vices and virtues, not esteeming themselves above others ; who, not con
tent with ordinary science, pursue knowledge to its remote sources, so
as to obtain it in purity. They may be honored with the name of
Philosophers. 4. The fourth order consists of those who, under all
�16
circumstances, regard with reverence the central immutable principle,
and have fixed rules of moral action which they on no account trans
gress ; who fulfil their least obligations to the minutest detail with
scrupulous exactness and untiring perseverance; whose every deed is
intrinsically good and fitted for example ; who despise toil and anxiety,
when the object is to recall men to duty and to enlighten the ignorant;
who serve all without distinction of rank or fortune, and without regard
to interest, not even exacting the sentiment of gratitude. These are
the Sincere or Virtuous. 5. The fifth order, the highest to which
human merit can attain, is composed of the Superior Men, who combine
the rarest qualities of heart and mind with the habit of pleasurably
discharging all duties which nature or morality can impose upon a rea
sonable and social being; who do good to all, like the Heaven and
Earth, never intermitting their beneficence ; who are as imperturbable
in their mortal career as the sun and moon in their courses ; who see
without being seen, and act as it were insensibly, like spirits. The
very few who attain to this degree may be called the Perfect Men or
Saints.” This tradition certainly attests the perpetuity of the ideal of
the Saint. Again, in this School it is taught that “ the name of Saint
designates one who knows all, sees all, comprehends all. His thoughts
are all true, his acts all holy. All his words are lessons in wisdom ;
all his deeds are rules for conduct. He unites in himself the Three
Orders of Being. He possesses all good. He is altogether heavenly.”
Once more : “ The Saint is at once so elevated and so profound, that he
is incomprehensible. His wisdom is boundless. The future is unveiled
to his sight. His love embraces the Universe, and quickens all- around
him like the breath of spring. His words are inspiring and life-giving.
He is one with Heaven.” — “ The heart of Heaven is in the bosom of
the Saint, and its truth on his lips. The world .can know Heaven only
through the Saint.” — “ Heaven is invisible ; the Saint is Heaven be
come visible.” The Saint is named “ the Divine Man,” “ the Celestial
Man,” “ the Unique Man,” “ the most beautiful of men,” “ tHfe marvel
lous man,” &c. Finally, it is said : “ The Saints and Sages are called
the Sons of Heaven.” — “ The Saint has no father : he is conceived by
the operation of Heaven itself.”
Now critics may cavil at these sublime conceptions of the SageSaint— as the Third with Heaven and Earth, as able to transform
all things by the power of a good life, as inspired with heavenly wis
dom, as the image and incarnate form of Heaven, as the Heavenly
Man, as the Son of Heaven — for their mystic enthusiasm ; but cer
tainly no candid person will deny, that in these conceptions the disciples
of K‘ung-Foo-Tsze have exalted Ethics to the degree of Religion, and
�17
of a singularly pure and spiritual Religion. And before Christians per
mit themselves to condemn this Ideal as extravagant, it may be well to
compare it reverently and deliberately with the Saints of all communions
in the Christian Church, whether Apostolical, Catholic, or Reformed.
And now let us pass to a very rapid sketch of the Third Religion,
which has at various eras moulded the minds of Emperors, Ministers,
and People, and which still is received by multitudes in several states
of the Central Empire. This Religion is usually called,
III. Fo-ism, the “ Chinese ” rendering of Buddhism. And referring
all who wish to pursue the subject to the masterly works of Abel
Remusat, Klaproth, Stanislas Julien, &c., let me use the few moments
at command for an illustration of Fo-ism, by selecting from the rich
literature of this school one most remarkable book of worship. It
is called by its translator, the Rev. Samuel Beal, “The Confessional
Service of the Great, Compassionate Kwan-Yin.” This name has been
variously translated by Remusat, Klaproth, Julien, Sir John Davis,
and Chinese Scholars, as meaning “ the Being who contemplates with
love,” “the manifested Self-Existent One,” “the manifested Voice,”
“ She who hears the cries of men,” “ the Goddess of Mercy,” &c. But,
in view of a name frequently used in this Liturgy, and the spirit and
end of this form of worship, it might well be called “ The Confessional
Service of the Great, Compassionate Heart.” For its aim is an act of
consecration to the service of a beneficent and compassionate Being,
who is constantly manifested to all creatures throughout the universe
for their deliverance from the consequences of sin and error. Of this
Being, it is said: “ By her compassionate heart, she has pledged herself
by a great oath to enter into every one of the innumerable worlds, and
bring deliverance to all creatures which inhabit them. For this purpose
she has enunciated Divine Sentences, which, if properly recited, will
render all creatures exempt from the causes of sorrow ; and, by remov
ing these, will make them capable of attaining to Supreme Wisdom.”
After preliminary services, the worshippers offer this prayer of invoca
tion : “ Oh would that our teacher Sakya-Mouni, and our merciful
Father Amitabha, and the other Buddhas of all regions, — not passing
beyond their own limits of perfect Rest and Love, — would descend to
this sacred precinct, and be present with us, who now discharge these
religious duties ! Would that the great, perfect, illimitable, compas
sionate Heart, influenced by these invocations, would now attend ! ”
Next follow various prayers and chants, in order that “ the wor
shippers may be filled with holy joy and reverence, without confusion of
heart.” And then comes the central act of communion, which consists
of Vows and Confessions. It is thus opened: “Whatever worshipper
'
3
�18
desires to recite the Sentences of this Service, in order to excite in the
midst of all sentient creatures the operation of the Compassionate^
Merciful Heart, ought first to go through the following vows. . . .
Kwan-Yin, addressing Buddha, said: 4 World-honored one! whilst
the recitation of these Divine Sentences is ineffectual to deliver creatures
from the evil ways of birth, I vow never to arrive at the condition of
Buddha. So long as those who recite these Divine Sentences are not
born in the various lands of all the Buddhas, I vow never to arrive at
that condition myself. So long as those who recite these Divine Sen
tences are unable to attain to every degree of spiritual perception, I
vow never to arrive at the condition of Buddha. So long as those who
recite these Divine Sentences do not receive full answers to their
prayers, I vow to remain as I am.’ Then, in the midst of all the con
gregation, with closed palms, standing perfectly upright, her eyebrows
raised, a smile on her lips, exciting in all creatures the Great, Com
passionate Heart, Kwan-Yin began to deliver these comprehensive,
effectual, complete, Great-Compassionate-Heart, divine Sentences. . . .
Such then is the Vow : Never will I seek, nor receive, private, individual
salvation, — never enter into final peace alone ; but for ever and
everywhere will I live and strive for the universal redemption of every
creature, throughout all worlds. Until all are delivered, never will I
leave the world of sin, sorrow, and struggle, but will remain where I
am.” — In what church, of what age or nation, was ever offered a purer,
larger, gentler vow of utter consecration to Infinite Mercy ?
And next follows the Confession. The Liturgy continues thus : “The
worshippers, having finished the sentences, ought to consider that all the
obstacles which prevent spiritual progress spring from sins committed in
our condition as sentient creatures ; that from the first, till now, the sins
of all created beings have, been constantly going on, and that now the
web of guilt has become intricate and complicated. Every age has en
tertained its own peculiar crimes, which, descending from parent to child,
have caused the sorrows of our present state. Without repentance there
can be no remission. Our sins, therefore, ought to be well considered
and weighed, that so they may be forgiven and destroyed. Bowing low,
therefore, say thus : 4 We, and all men from the very first, by reason of
the grievous sins we have coinmitted in thought, word, and deed, have
lived in ignorance ... of every way of escape from the consequences of
our conduct. We have followed only the courses of this evil world ; nor
have we known aught of Supreme Wisdom. And even now, though
enlightened as to our duty, yet with others do we still commit heavy
sins, which prevent us from advancing in true knowledge. Therefore, in
the presence of Kwan-Yin and the Buddhas of the Ten Regions, we would
�humble ourselves and repent us of our sins. Oh that we may have
Strength to do so aright! and that may cause all obstacles to be removed.’ ”
Here with a loud voice add : “For the sake of all sentient creatures, in
whatever capacity they may be, — would that all obstacles might be re
moved 1 — we confess our sins and repent.” After a complete prostration,
the worshippers then continue: “We and all men from the first, from
too great love of outward things, and from inward affections towards
men, leading to sinful friendships, — having no wish to benefit others, or
to do. good in the least degree, — have only strengthened the power of the
three sources of sin, and added sin to sin; and even though our actual
©rimes have not been so great, yet a wicked heart has ruled us within.
. . . Now, therefore, believing from the bottom of our heart in the cer
tain result of sin, and filled with fear, shame, and great heart-chiding,
would we thus publicly repent us of our sins; . . . we would separate
ourselves from evil and pursue good; we would diligently recount all
our past offences and earnestly follow the path of virtue. . . . Hitherto
we have only gone astray ; but now we return. Oh would that the
Merciful would receive our vows of amendment! ” And then each one
giving the personal name, together the worshippers prostrate themselves
and say, “ With all our hearts do we repent; and here do we prostrate
ourselves before the Sacred Presence, and all the countless beings of the
infinite universe.” Then follow particular confessions.
But the service does not close here. Having thus by Vows and Con
fessions recognized the unity of the human race, and indeed of the whole
universe, spiritual and natural, in sin and sorrow, struggle and salvation,
and having thus consecrated themselves, individually and collectively,
to the service of the Great, Compassionate Heart, the worshippers then
unite in this act of Intercession. “ Having myself returned to my duty
to Buddha, I ought to pray for all men, that they may attain to perfec
tion of wisdom. Having myself returned to my duty to the Law, I ought
to pray that all men may be deeply versed in the wisdom of the Sacred
Books, and acquire perfect knowledge. Having myself returned to my
duty to the Assembly, would that all men may agree in the great prin
ciples of Reason, and maintain peace and worship in the Holy Assem
bly ! ” Thus from beginning to end this service is one of self-sacrificing
consecration to Infinite Mercy. And here must close, for this time, the
illustration of Fo-ism.
And now, after such an exposition of the Three Great Religions of
the Central Empire, it may well be asked, How has it come to pass that
a Nation inspired and illumined with such sublime ideals has been seem
ingly so false to its trusts and has fallen so short of its destiny ? The
answer to this question must be given in the briefest terms, although it
�20
would be instructive to tell the tragic story at length. To us citizens of
this Republic, just redeemed by an awful struggle from the death-in-life
of disunion, the terrible significance of the fact will come home, — that
from the earliest ages, China has been, century after century, the prey of
Civil Wars. The age of Lao-Tsze and K‘ung-Foo-Tsze and their com
peers was followed by that of an execrable usurper, who crushed the
nation down under a centralized despotism, from the transmitted forms
of which it never has been able to shake itself free. What would have
become of our Ideals, if the imperial Slave Oligarchy had triumphed in
our late war ? Again, we are strangely ignorant or forgetful of the fact
that China is a conquered nation. Twice has the Empire been swept
and subdued : first, by that resistless race, which all but overran Europe,
the Mongol-Tartars ; next, by that almost equally indomitable race, the
Mantchou-Tartars ; and twice has the immortal principle in the Religion
and Ethics of China manifested itself by spiritually conquering the con
querors. For first Kublai-Khan, the great emperor of the Mongols, and
afterward the still greater Kang-Hi, the establisher of the existing Mantchou Dynasty, reverently accepted the ancient Creeds, Customs, Laws,
and Books transmitted by the School of K‘ung-Foo.-Tsze. But notwith
standing the efforts of these two grand sovereigns to make the best
atonement in their power for the wrongs wrought by foreign invasion,
the free spirit of the people and their spontaneous genius were stifled by
oppressive formalism, of which their shorn heads and long queues are but
the outward type. The chief cause, however, of the apparent immo
bility of the Chinese Nation for many centuries, — and the one which it is
important for us and for all Christendom to study, — is the influence of
scientific scepticism over that very Scholar-Class which should have
kept clean and full the fountains of Religious Life. It is impossible
now to do more than barely to state the fact, that since the time of the
Sung Dynasty, — when the learned Choo-He, a greater Positivist than
Auguste Comte, indeed almost an Aristotle, first promulgated his vast
system of Universal Science, — speculative Atheism has choked and dried
up the streams of thought in the Central Empire. Choo-He himself,
indeed, was not an Atheist, but on the contrary asserted that Heaven had
a mind to perceive and a heart to sympathize with the efforts and strug
gles, the joys and woes, of humanity. But although the Sage admitted,
as he once said, that there was a “ Man up above,” yet he, on the whole,
discouraged the culture of devotional feelings and usages. And it cannot
be denied that the tendency of his system has been to substitute Phi
losophy for Religion. Among the Literati, for centuries, the glowingworship of “ Shang-Te” or the “ Supreme Sovereign,” and of “ Tien”
or “ Heaven,” has too often been eclipsed by the cold shadow of “ Tai-
/
rI
..
�21
Ke,” “ The Summit,” — the principle of Unity, — with its two manifes
tations, the Active element, “ Yang,” and the Passive element, “ Yin.”
In ethics, “ Le,” or Law, — an all-pervading Order, — has usurped the
■ throne of personal character and sovereign will. And as a natural con
sequence, external regularity and conventional propriety have been incul
cated, rather than the spontaneous and intuitive goodness that aspires
upwards to saintly perfection. While such has been the influence of sci
entific scepticism among the Scholar-Class, by a law of reaction, that,
under various modes, has operated in all ages and nations, the People,
meantime, have been impelled towards idolatrous ritualism, — exhibited
in the adoration of the Natural Elements ; in the worship of Ancestors
and Great Men; in necromancy, demonology, and communion with
k Spirits; in magic, incantations, and countless superstitious practices,
such as in all times and lands have invariably accompanied the decline
of spiritual religion. These frivolous and degrading rites may be found
described in many modern books, such as Williams’s “ Middle Kingdom,”
and the works of l’Abbe Hue, Davis, Meadows, Doolittle, &c. But it
would be about as fair to judge of the Christian Religion, by Catholics of
Naples crowding to watch the liquefaction of St. Januarius’ blood, and
circles of American spiritualists seeking ghostly counsel from- table-tip
pings and “ planchette,” as it is to judge of the Religions of China from
the childish antics of a mob in Shanghae and Canton. In estimating the
countrymen of Lao-Tsze, K‘ung-Foo-Tsze, and their grand compeers,
let us practise a little the Golden Rule we boast of, and take as our test
the Representative Men and Systems, and above all the Ideals of the
Central Empire.
This brings us to the point, which now forces itself upon us, as an im
mediate practical duty : “ How shall we do unto others as we would have
others do unto us,” in our treatment of the “ Chinese ? ” How shall we
“ love our neighbors as ourselves,” in our conduct towards those who are
already becoming at least our guests, and who soon are destined to become
our fellow-citizens ? Shall we try to put in force that policy of Exclusion
which Christendom has unanimously condemned for ages in the Central
Empire, and against which Great Britain and France have twice made
war ? Surely it would stultify all our past professions, and brand our
Republic with infamous inconsistency, to attempt to rear on the western
F coast of the Pacific those very walls, which the cannon of Christian
States have levelled with the dust upon its eastern shore. Never can
this mighty Nation be guilty of a deed so mean. Our doors are open.
Where is the ingrate miserly enough to bar them ? And if we admit the
“Men of the Central Empire” to free residence here, and if our own
citizens make homes foi' themselves in “ Chung-Kwoh,”—as assuredly
�22
will be done on both sides, in rapidly increasing ratio,—what shall be
the quality of our fellowship ? There can be but one reply. We must
meet one another in cordial and respectful friendliness. This passing
flurry on the “ labor question ” will be forgotten to-morrow. Let our
energetic and high-hearted working-men learn, that, centuries before this
continent was discovered, a system of “ Mutual Help” was taught and
practised in the communities of “ China,” which anticipated, and in
some respects, surpassed our modern plans of “ Co-operation.” Our land
and labor reformers might well take a page or two out of the famous
“ Chow-Le,” or Laws of the Chow Dynasty, and the noble chapters on
popular policy of “ Mencius.” Let our educators study the most ancient
system of “ Common Schools” ever instituted, and learn to imitate the
graduated method of training from Primary Schools to Academies, from
Academies to Colleges, from Colleges to Universities, — organized thou
sands of years ago in the “ Central Empire,” whereby the sons of
peasants might rise to the highest honors of the Imperial University, and
become the peers of princes. Let our moralists sit respectfully at the feet
of the most eloquent teachers whom our race has known, of Filial Rev
erence as the fountain-head of virtue, and of Urbanity, as the flowing
stream to keep the garden of social life freshly beautiful. Let our
statesmen also comprehend that from the earliest days, recorded in
“ Chinese ” history, it has been asserted that government rests as its
only sure foundation on the “ hearts of the People; ” that again and
again men have risen, and continually rise, from the lowest social condi
tions to highest offices of trust, and even to the Imperial Seat, by com
petitive examination, and by merit; that the principles of republicanism
really pervade the literature, laws, and institutions of “ China,” notwith
standing its usages of centralization; and that just what is needed to
revive, unfold, and perfect this wonderfully enduring people is the inspir
ing influence of our freedom and progressive energy. Finally let us, one
and all, with blended trust and hope, acknowledge that it was not chance
or destiny, but the Providence of the Living God, that clasped in union
the hands of the Oldest and the Youngest of the Great Nations of our
globe, across the Pacific, as a pledge that in the fulness of time Man
shall be One.
���
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Religions of China: address before the Free Religious Association, Boston, May 27 1870
Creator
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Channing, William Henry
Description
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Place of publication: Boston, Mass.
Collation: 22 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from the "Proceedings".
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John Wilson and Son
Date
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1870
Identifier
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G5290
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Religion
China
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Religions of China: address before the Free Religious Association, Boston, May 27 1870), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Religion-China
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THE RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT
OF
The Chinese Embassy,
BY THE
CITY OF BOSTON.
1868.
BOSTON:
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET.
1868.
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�THE RECEPTION.
The visit of an Embassy from the Chinese Empire to the
United States Government, for the purpose of promoting the
interests of the two countries by facilitating the intercourse be
tween them — an event of the highest significance in itself—
was regarded by the citizens of Boston with peculiar satisfaction,
from the fact that the chief personage in the Embassy from this
ancient empire had long been a resident in their immediate vi
cinity, and had, during several terms, represented a portion of
the city in the National Congress. It was in harmony, therefore,
with the unanimous wishes of the citizens, that the City Council,
on the twenty-ninth of May, 1868,— soon after the arrival of the
Embassy from the Pacific Coast, — passed an order for the ap
pointment of a joint committee to tender the hospitalities of this
city to the distinguished visitors.
The Committee, consisting of Aidermen Samuel C. Cobb and
Benjamin James; Councilmen Charles H. Allen, (the President,)
Henry W. Pickering, George P. Denny and S. T. Snow, pro
ceeded to New York on the thirtieth day of May, and invited
the Honorable Anson Burlingame, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, and his associates, Chih Ta-jin and
Sun Ta-jin to visit Boston, at an early day, with the members of
their suite, and partake of its hospitalities. In accepting the
invitation, Mr. Burlingame expressed his gratification at this
mark of confidence and esteem from his former fellow-citizens,
who, he said, were the first to extend an official welcome to
his mission.
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�RECEPTION OF THE
4
The delay growing out of the ratification of the supplementary
treaty between China and the United States, which the Embassy
were empowered to negotiate, prevented Mr.. Burlingame and his
(^associates from visiting Boston until the -twenty fipsfr of August.
/&' On the twentieth-the Embassy arrived at Worcester, where they
/
remained, under the care of the Committee of the City Council
of Boston, untj| the following morning. At nine o’clock a special
train was provided by the Superintendent of the Boston and
Albany Railroad, which conveyed the city’s guests and the
Committee to the Western Avenue Crossing, where they arrived
at half past ten o’clock a. m., and where preparations had been
made to receive them.
Mr. Cobb, the Chairman of the Committee, then presented
Mr. Burlingame and his associates to the Honorable Nathaniel
B. Shurtleff, Mayor of Boston. The Mayor welcomed the Em
bassy in the following words:
Mr. Ambassador,—The City Council of Boston has
already, through a committee, formally tendered to you
the civilities that are your due, both as the accredited
representative of the illustrious sovereign of the Chi
nese empire, and also, as one, who, in times past, emi
nently enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the citizens
of this community. My duties on this occasion are,
therefore, so far simplified as to afford me only the
pleasure of expressing, in a few words, the welcome of
this municipality to you, and to your distinguished
associates, upon your entering the capital of the com
monwealth, which in former days you yourself have
personally represented in the high councils of the
nation.
To us it is a cause of much regret that your coming
hither has been deferred until the time of our general
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
5
vacation, when the authorities and many of the citizens
with their families are absent from their homes, and our
halls of counsel and legislation, our schools and institu
tions of science, learning and the arts, are temporarily
closed, and our family hearthstones almost deserted:
For it is the earnest desire of our citizens to give you a
reception fully commensurate with their respect for the
ancient empire of China, and with their own ability to
bestow. Nevertheless, you and the personages com
prising your suite are heartily welcome to the freedom
and hospitalities of this our city; and I trust that your
sojourn with us, though of short duration, may be
agreeable to you, and that the strangers who, for the
first time, visit our peaceful abodes may find somewhat
in our peculiar institutions, of sufficient excellence and
interest to be deemed worthy of notice now, and of
remembrance hereafter on their return to their far dis
tant home.
In the name of my fellow-citizens, I extend to you all
a sincere and most cordial welcome to Boston.
In reply Mr. Burlingame said:
Mr. Mayor., — On behalf of myself and my associates
I thank you for this tender of the hospitalities of the
renowned city of Boston. Hitherto we have avoided
all public demonstrations, not because we desired to
repulse that good will which has followed us from our
first arrival in this country down to the present hour,
but because we felt it to be our duty to postpone our
personal gratifications to the demands of our diplomatic
��RECEPTION OF THE
6
affairs. We have made this single exception for the
reason that Boston was the first to establish relations
with China, — because it was my old home, — because,
sir, it has presented its public schools, and its institu
tions of learning as its highest points of interest. Edu
cation is the foundation of all preferment in China, and
is the basis of those institutions which have outlasted
all others. It was natural, therefore, that my associates
should have desired to make themselves acquainted
with the systems of learning in the West. They will
feel profound grief that it will be impossible for them
to see your public schools in all their perfection. But I
have no doubt that they will see much to admire when
here, and much to remember when far away. Thank
ing you for this welcome, deeply grateful ’to you for
your personal acquaintance, we now present ourselves
to your hospitality with confidence and pleasure.
The company then entered the carriages assigned to them,
and a procession was formed by Colonel John Kurtz, Chief
Marshal, in the following order:—
The Chief Marshal.
Aids — Police Captains R. H. Wilkins and S. G. Adams.
Mounted Police Officers, under the command of Capt. Paul J.
Vinal.
Cavalry Band.
Major Lucius Slade and Staff.
Company B, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Capt. Albert
Freeman.
Company A, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Capt. Barney Hull.
His Honor the Mayor and the Honorable Anson Burlingame, in
a barouche drawn by four horses.
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
7
The Chairman of the Committee, Chih Ta-jin and Mr. Brown
(First Secretary), in a barouche drawn by four horses.
Aiderman Benjamin James, Sun Ta-jin and M. Dechamps (Second
Secretary), in a barouche.
The President of the Common Council, Councilman Pickering,
Fung Laou-Yeh and Tah Laou-Yeh, interpreters, in a barouche.
Councilmen Denny and Snow, Teh Laou-Yeh and Kway LaouYeh, interpreters, in a barouche.
Mandarin Ting, Mandarin Lien, and two scribes, in a barouche.
Carriages containing reporters for the daily, papers
and the servants of the Embassy.
Company C, First Battalion Light Dragoons, Captain Freeman
C. Gilman.
Company D, First Battalion of Light Dragoons, Captain George
Curtis.
•
The route of the procession was as follows: Through Western
Avenue, Heath, Centre, Marcella and Highland streets, Eliot
Square, Dudley, Warren and Washington streets, Chester Square,
Tremont and Worcester streets, Harrison Avenue, Newton and
Washington streets, Union Square, Tremont, Boylston and Ar
lington streets, Commonwealth Avenue, Berkeley, Beacon, Park,
Tremont, Winter, Summer, .Devonshire and Franklin streets,
counter-marching around the flag-staff, through Devonshire, Milk,
India, State, Washington and School streets, to the Parker
House, where the guests were given up.
The customary salutes in honor of a Foreign Minister were
fired from Washington Square, at the Highlands, and from
Boston Common, by a detachment of the Second Light Bat
tery, M. V. M.
In the evening, Mr. Burlingame and his associates gave a re
ception to the members of the City Government in the large
dining-hall on the second floor of the Parker House.
On Friday, at 12 o’clock, a public reception was given by the
��RECEPTION OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY.
8
Embassy in Faneuil Hall, which was handsomely decorated.
The galleries were occupied by ladies; and the body of the hall
was filled by gentlemen, who received Mr. Burlingame and his
associates, on their entrance, with great enthusiasm. The recep
tion continued until one o’clock, when the guests, who were
much fatigued, withdrew from the hall and returned to the
Parker House.
sf
��THE BANQUET.
��THE BANQUET.
t
On Friday, the twenty-first of August, the City Council enter
tained the Embassy with a banquet at the St. James Hotel.
About two hundred and twenty-five gentlemen, including the
members of the City Government, were present.
The company entered the dining hall at seven o’clock.
The Honorable Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Mayor, presided. On
his right were seated the Honorable Anson Burlingame, Chief of
the Embassy; His Excellency Alexander H. Bullock, Governor
of the Commonwealth; Teh Laou-ych, English Interpreter at
tached to the Embassy; the Honorable Charles Sumner, Chair
man of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States
Senate; the Honorable Caleb Cushing; Major General Irwin
McDowell, United States Army; Commodore John Rodgers,
United States Navy; Charles G. Nazro, Esquire, President of
the Board of Trade. On the left of the Mayor were seated
Chih Ta-jin, associate minister; Mr. McLeary Brown, Secretary
to the Embassy; Sun Ta-jin, associate minister; M. Emile De
champs, Secretary to the Embassy; Fung Laou-yeh, English
Interpreter; Ralph Waldo Emerson, LL.D.; Reverend George
Putnam, D. D.; Mr. Edwin P. Whipple.
Among the other distinguished guests present were Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes; the Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, the Hon
orable George S. Boutwell, and the Honorable Ginery Twichell,
members of Congress; the Reverend Thomas Hill, D. D., Presi
dent of Harvard College; the Honorable George S. Hillard,
United States District Attorney; the Honorable George 0. Bras*
�---------------
-----
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A_____ 1
�RECEPTION OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY.
11
tow, President of the Senate; the Honorable Harvey Jewell,
Speaker of the House of Representatives; Brevet Major General
H. W. Benham, and Brevet Major General J. G. Foster, U. S.
Engineer Corps; Major General James H. Carleton, U. S. A.;
Brevet Brigadier General Henry H. Prince, Paymaster U. S. A.;
Major General James A. Cunningham, Adjutant General; the
Honorable Henry J. Gardner, Ex-Governor of the Common
wealth, the Honorable Josiah Quincy; the Honorable Frederic
W. Lincoln, Jr.; Dr. Peter Parker, formerly Commissioner to
China; the Honorable Isaac Livermore; Sr. Frederico Granados,
Spanish Consul; Mr. G. M. Finotti, Italian Consul; Mr. Joseph
Iasigi, Turkish Consul; the Honorable Marshall P. Wilder,
President of the Board of Agriculture; N. G. Clark, D. D.,
Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions; and many of the
leading merchants and professional men of Boston.
When the guests had taken the places assigned to them, the
Mayor said:
Gentlemen of the City Council, — At your bidding I
most heartily welcome to the pleasures of the present
occasion all who are here to participate in the hospital
ities of the city, in honor of the distinguished visitors
from the oldest and most populous empire of the world.
In accordance with our custom, we will now give atten
tion while an invocation for the Divine blessing is pro
nounced by the Reverend Dr. Putnam.
A blessing was then asked by the Rev. Dr. Putnam.
When the company had dined, the Mayor requested their
attention, and made the following remarks:
THE mayor’s REMARKS.
: —We are met this evening to testify
our respect to the illustrious embassy which is now
Gentlemen
��RECEPTION OF THE
12
honoring our city with its presence. One of our per
sonal friends, who has been absent for a time for the
accomplishment of much good for all nations and all
people, has returned to the scenes of bygone days to meet
his old associates, and to take hand by hand the friends
of his early manhood. * lie has returned more weightily
laden with official honors than his own country, and
those with which it has heretofore held close alliance,
could bestow upon him; and with him he has many
personages of a remote land, equally distinguished for
their important official rank, and for the intellectual,
moral, and social positions which they hold among their
countrymen. We all welcome him and them most cor
dially to our municipality, deeming this honorable and
much desired visitation to our country as a harbinger of
the glorious future, when the' greatest, the most popu
lous, and the most ancient of all the nations of the
world shall open most widely and most freely her
hitherto closed portals to all people of all lands and of
all complexions and tongues.
Especially pleased are we, Mr. Ambassador, that
you, the chief personage of this illustrious embassy, are
flesh of our flesh, and blood of our blood — that your lan
guage is our language, your sentiments and feelings the
same as ours — that our home has once been your home
—and that you have equally the personal respect and high
regards of those who are now your fellow-countrymen, as
of us who have also enjoyed that privilege. Your pres
ence, sir, with us this evening, in your present capacity,
and with these surroundings, gives us, I assure you,
great pleasure and satisfaction, and will be remembered
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
13
most agreeably when you shall have successfully com
pleted your important missions, and when friendly
breezes shall have wafted your trusty vessels with their
precious burden, over the wide expanded ocean, and
returned you in safety and in health to your far distant
homes, to the affections of your friends, the plaudits of
your countrymen, and the approbation of your govern
ment. It is not an empty compliment that you have paid
to our country, in that the first negotiation on your very
remarkable errand should have been made with the United
States: Nor are we of Boston in the least degree insensi
ble to the distinction which you have accorded to our
city, in having made to us the first, and perhaps the only,
formal visit of your embassy to any of the large munici
palities of the land. The strong tie that once so firmly
bound you in friendship to our community has not been
broken; and we are joyfully permitted to hail your indi
vidual presence once more among us, as one of the
felicities of the advent of the friendly mission to our
shores. Time may wear on, events of the greatest
portent may transpire; but ancient friendships should
never cease, nor the pleasant memories of the past be
forgotten. We greet you, sir, most warmly as an old
friend, and we re‘cognize these your associates as new
friends. May these relations never have an end! But
may the bonds which you and our beloved country have
now made, prove of adamantine hardness, and of eternal
duration! May the results of your labors be of mutual
benefit to all countries ! In the days that are to come,
when the doings of the present time shall be regarded
as of the ancient of days, may the grand treaties of this
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�RECEPTION THE OF
14
your embassy be remembered as the Maximae Chartae of
international union for the promotion and security of
political and religious liberty, of learning and intelligence,
of law and harmony, and of perpetual mutual respect
and amity.
It may not be out of place for me to mention in this
presence, that representatives of the oldest constituted
government on the globe, dating back through more dy
nasties of potentates than any other nations can of rulers,
have broken through the reserve of power, wealth, dignity
and pride of ancient rank to tender to the whole civilized
world an interchange of all that can be of any benefit
or profit to individuals or collections of people; while
we, so young in national age, and differing so much
from them in all our customs, manners, laws and
government, are the first to open our arms to wel
come the offer, and to ratify treaties of the most
incalculable good for their country and for ours. The
Chinese Empire may date back to the fabulous era
of Puankoo, and its history may be traced through the
mythological times of Fohy, Shin-noong and their suc
cessors, and down in historical annals more centuries
before the Christian era than have transpired since
the advent of the Messiah; and yet no period of the
existence of that great empire, not even the days of the
great Confucius, can compare in importance with the
present era of her history, which will ever be noted as
the greatest for giving and receiving that the world has
ever known, either from recorded pages or even from
the traditions of the past. The embassy has done wise
ly : For although the institutions of the Chinese, as we 1
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
15
as their habits and customs, may differ from ours, a great
similarity nevertheless exists in the peculiar situation of
our several territories. Their empire and our republic,
although in different hemispheres, and the inhabitants
antipodes, have somewhat similar positions in what have
been known as the old and the new worlds. Both
countries are north of the northern tropic, and centrally
in the same temperate zone. The national capitals of
both are, as near as chance could place them, on the
same parallel of latitude ; and the United States and
China proper cover about the same amount of territory,
enjoy very nearly the same climate, and are bounded
largely by the great navigable seas and oceans. The
states and territories of the one correspond very closely
with the provinces of the other. But what a vast differ
ence in population! Where we have one inhabitant the
Chinese have ten. They count more living souls than
do all the nations of Europe and both Americas. Indeed
were the Emperor of China, in our republican way of
doing things, to submit to the hard duty of shaking hands
with his subjects, it would take more years to accomplish
the civility, on the eight hour system, than were accorded
to the venerable Parr—who, as you all have heard, lived to
the remarkable age of one hundred and fifty-two years
— and this too without keeping up with the births that
would occur during the time. Indeed, were he gifted
with eternal life he never would complete this intermi
nable undertaking.
Perhaps I may be pardoned, gentlemen, in saying,
that before the discovery of America by Columbus, the
earth was seemingly flat, and contained little else than
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Europe and Asia and a small part of Africa—at least all
descriptions of it would lead to such a supposition — and
that the only route to the ancient dominions of the Great
Kahn of Cathay (now, China) was by tedious overland
travel, for the passage by sea around the Cape of Good
Hope had not been discovered. The grand object of the
voyage of Columbus, who had just come to the idea of
the sphericity of the earth, was to find a new route to
Cathay ^and Cipango by a westerly course; and it is
a remarkable fact that the Genoese adventurer, before
starting on his grand voyage, actually provided him
self with letters to the great powers of those almost
unknown places from the fortunate Ferdinand and
Isabella, then the sovereigns of • Spain.
Sailing
with a belief that where the ocean terminated land
would have a beginning, the great discoverer of this
western hemisphere, on the twenty-first day of October,
1492, first-of Europeans, set foot on ground, which in
his belief was the desired land of his search: But in
stead he had found another continent; and the passage
so much needed, was subsequently, and but five years
later, discovered in another direction, and the route, by
doubling the Cape of Good Hope, was established, and
the laborious journeys to the east through inhospitable
wildernesses and dreary deserts ceased forever.
But, gentlemen, if I say much more about ancient
China, I shall leave no room for the present of that great
empire : And I need not now tell you of the great mechanrcal effort of more than twenty centuries ago — the
building of the great Chinese Wall, surpassing those of
Babylon; nor of the great canal, the longest in the
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
17
world, and completed before the birth of Columbus; nor
of block-printing, practised by the Chinese five hundred
years before Faust, or Guttemberg, or Schoefler ever
dreamed of the art; nor of the invention of gunpowder,
known centuries before the days of Roger Bacon; nor
of the power of the loadstone, which helped direct the
Chinese navigator long before the passage to Cathay
was sought by Europeans, or our own country discovered
through its instrumentality. Each of these themes would
exhaust all the time, and more too, that is allotted to
me. But all these have their significance, and all have
had, and will continue to have, their influence for good.
I may, however, without fear of complaint, say to
our stranger friends, that we whom they are now visit
ing are a peculiar people; that we all love liberty,
and desire that others shall enjoy it with us; that
our small band of forefathers, about the time that
the present dynasty commenced in China, peaceably
sought these shores, driven from their' transatlantic
homes by vexations and persecutions, and here planted
themselves and their principles; and that we have
grown up from such beginnings to what they now find
us. From the first we opened our doors freely to all men;
no wayfarer, of any clime or tongue, was ever denied a
welcome here. We had room for ourselves, and we
had spare room for others. With the great Chinese
sage, we have ever practised the Golden Rule of our own
ancestors, but better expressed by him, “ Do not unto
othemwhat you would not have others do unto you;”
and I verily believe that in the wise sayings of some
learned aphorist of the Orientals, we may be able to
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�RECEPTION OF THE
18
find another of our good sayings, “ Be virtuous and you
will be happy,” also much improved by reversal, “ Be
happy and you will be virtuous.”
It may ‘be interesting for our visitors to know,
that from this community first commenced the China
trade of this country ; that from this and a neighbor
ing port sailed, till recently, all the merchant vessels
that traversed the oceans between America and China;
and that much of the wealth of the old families of Bos
ton was obtained in the China and East India trade.
But hereafter all trade with China will be attended with
less difficulty than it was heretofore, — thanks to the
present peaceable mission. * The dawn has already ap
peared. China and the United States will hereafter
exchange productions without let or hindrance, and
the arts of peace and civilization will equally and
reciprocally flourish in both.
Religion — the boon
most dearly esteemed by all men — will be liberally
enjoyed in both nations, and by all people. The day
will soon come when we shall be the east and China
the west; when all travel between these mighty nations
shall be over the justly-named Pacific Ocean, (for dis
tance from our east to our west will soon * be annihila
ted,) and the western passage — the long-lost hope and
desire of the ancient navigators — shall be accom
plished.
Gentlemen, let us rejoice in the event that has
brought us together this evening; and while we give
welcome to those who visit us for the first time, may we
be sufficiently grateful for the benefits which must in
course result from their benevolent and wise mission!
�'.'/YisM
e?s«r(Ksi'-C- \d-3*&ij*F’ id?LA
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*
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
19
After music by Gilmore’s Band, the Mayor announced as the
first regular toast:
“ The President of the United States.”
The Band performed the American national air.
The Mayor then announced as the second regular toast :
“The Emperor of China.”
The Band performed the Chinese national air.
The third regular toast,
“ The Chinese Embassy,”
was received with much enthusiasm. When the Mayor intro
duced Mr. Burlingame to respond, the company rose and gave
nine cheers.
SPEECH OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME.
Mr. Mayor: In rising to respond to what you have
said, and to this cordial greeting, I feel how utterly
inadequate are any words of mine to meet the require
ments of this occasion. Events are more eloquent than
words. The presence here ofcTny associates, with the
sunshine of the Orient upon their faces, and the
warmth of its fires in their hearts, arouses more emo
tions than the most eloquent tongue can express. The
land of Washington has greeted the land of Confucius.
The great thoughts of the one have been wedded to
the great deeds of the other. Nothing can be more
impressive than the facts themselves. The Imperial
and the Republican seals have been placed side by
side upon a great bond of friendship forever. In the
�'off TO wmscwi
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4arjq oliso^m -sidi lb
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ffivrnoX
otolis’oili enodi ^nnfeaifi .o^rig adi ni
Mros oi (.dbsl'q Isrft odi ni cofn ihnrog fwoIIs ion
■adt tsdi p*a nop biodw eMwino^- pi boaaoiqro
hoA'apiq o.di oto 6MiJ ar asMO io wffib.ao’>
b
�RECEPTION OF THE
20
♦
presence of this majestic past, the members of this
mission would be glad to rest and be silent; but silence
you will not have. And there is no rest for mortals save
in the grave. Breaking, then, the silence which you will
not allow, permit me, in the first place, to seize a
thought expressed by yourself, where you say that the
physical condition of China is like unto the physical
condition of the United States. That is true. China
lies along the Pacific, as the United States lie along
the Atlantic. It has, as you say, the same area; it has
the same isothermal lines ; it has a like system of rivers
and mountains. The great river Yangtse Kiang empties
to a bucket-ful the same volume of water as the Missis
sippi; the distant plains of Mongolia answer to the
great prairies of the northwest.
But they are not only like to each other in their
physical aspects, they have relations to each other in
other respects. They have moral and political relations
of a similar character with ours. China is divided into
provinces as this country is divided into States. The
Chinese hold to the great doctrine that the people are
the source of power. You vote by ballot; in China
they vote by competitive examination. You shout
when your fellow-citizen is elected; they shout when
their scholar has received his degree They are scorn
ful of caste, and so are you. You tolerate every faith,
and so do they. You proceed to make a law by peti
tion; they proceed by memorial. This memorial is
recorded; it is passed to the Great Council; it is
approved by the Government; it is handed over to the
Great Secretariat; and if it shall be found to be accord-
�infki c8$tJ oxli fes wiiHx&st odi
J
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sv/rtW fciH $ aiJi-*^ c«wra^38*.) io Irud js’j^o: 4
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•;«.■.>t
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
21
tug to the tradition and the laws, that Secretariat is
charged with its publication to the world. So that
China is not a land of caprices, -—it is a land of laws.
So, also, they are like unto us somewhat in their
school system. It is voluntary. They pay great atten
tion to their schools. They hold the office of teacher
to be the highest in the world. The great man in the
Tsungle Yamen to-day, one of the greatest, perhaps the
greatest scholar there, Tung Ta-jin, who presided over
the translation of Wheaton’s International Law, took
from Mr. Wade, the British Secretary of Legation, a
translation which he made of our own Longfellow’s
Psalm of Life, the first secular poem ever trans
lated into the Chinese language, and placed it
upon a fan, which he sent by my hand to our great
poet, that gift leading to a correspondence between
these illustrious men. I say Tung Ta-jin makes it ever
his boast, in the Tsungle Yamen, that he was once a
poor school-teacher.
But, however great may be the physical resemblances,
however many resemblances may be found in other
respects between them and the nations of the West,
it is certain that we have much to learn from them, and
they have much‘to learn from us. We have to learn
from them to respect old age; we have to learn from
them sobriety; we have to learn from them good
manners; we have to learn from them habits of schol
arship ; we have to learn from them how to cultivate
fish; we have to learn from them much in relation to
agriculture, much of the effect of heat and cold, and
light and shade upon plants; how to irrigate, how to
�s '9cf I4pow M
; .Barf s^^^nxifs
.’>wW. ^s >weq ^uiv'^id'O lo xv.on ohios w
'lgxg vdj ■ Lioirn
xu/LlU w og ck»
oftkUi'Jos
aiote vaxa. aaagffi) oxfT
u43 ■(JiLs -{..hvf io ?;«oiLhv a.bb ob ^oxft ^4w tftoaawt giD
,-.
;lhU ■ d^oii? JajiB bpH throw ad Jud ^vd.Lj
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�RECEPTION OF THE
22
manure the land. Indeed, it would be a most profitable
employment for some man of observing powers, some
scientific man, to go to China and record the facts he
finds there. The Chinese may not be able to give him
the reasons why they do this thing, or why they do that
thing, but he would find that, through long ages of
experience, they had at last ascertained the right way.
I do not know of so wide an unreaped field for a scientific
man, and I trust that the greatest living naturalist, Prof.
Agassiz, will next year make an expedition to the Chi
nese Empire.
But not* to follow your suggestion too far, I say, we
have much to learn from them. We have many wise
maxims to acquire from them. They have much, also,
to learn from us. They have all the modern sciences,—
they have all those things to learn from us, which are
the result of our necessities. We lived far apart, and
we invented the steamboat, the railroad, the telegraph,
to bring us nearer and nearer together.
But without pursuing this line of thought further,
permit me to give you something more nearly relating
to the present. I leave everything that may be said
about the ancient sages of China who lived before Soc
rates, to the distinguished gentleman on my left, [Mr.
Ralph Waldo Emerson,] who knows much more of
them than I do ; and I come now to consider, for a mo
ment, the treaty which has just been concluded between
the United States and China. And I shall not, I assure
you, trespass upon your time to enter into any elaborate
exposition of that treaty. No, sir, I leave the exposi
tion of that treaty to the distinguished Senator on my
�.yasAffws aaasciH#
oilvr I>rb cstMw8r sib rd nohpmda a?i sbw odw ,'hip.E'
eV58 ofconr aimt/I .o^oy auoftrijisair b ii iol bouroor^
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JbjO stedt
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6cw Wifi jioif dr ©jfet blmw ifohfw ihiqa ©yiaabrggB
vp/-:.;tn obrn oadoj bsm -teozoifai lo o&hcpis -adi oJ M ©y.qd
.'< >s.j.ij.j'-jBX'uJiii.} "ioQud dzO id ivEghc* gj; JmmI O ' .©l'iuI lie
iw/id .:: mjst 1»1 Oftb.’.’JvM
’ILn bi-djidd'- jfet.d
Q-
♦
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
23
right, who was its champion in the Senate, and who
procured for it a unanimous vote. Permit me to say,
briefly, that that treaty had its origin in the desire to
give the control of China to herself, in opposition to
that aggressive spirit which would take it from her and
give it to the caprice of interest and to the rude energy
of force. It had its origin in the belief that institutions
which had withstood all the mutations of time, have
something in them worthy of consideration ; in the be
lief that institutions, cherished unanimously by one-third
of the human race, may possibly be the best institutions
for the people of China, and that at least they are enti
tled to hold on to them until they shall be changed by
fair argument. That treaty had its origin in, and in fact
is the outgrowth of, that co-operative policy which was
agreed to by the representatives of the Western pow
ers recently assembled at Peking; that policy substituted
for the old doctrine of violence one of fair diplomatic
action; so that if a Consul and the Taoutai could not
agree, before war should ensue, the question at issue
should be referred to Peking, and thence to the home
governments. That policy was in brief an agreement,
upon the part of the representatives of the treaty
powers, that they would not interfere in the internal
aifairs of China; that they would give to the treaties
a fair and Christian construction; that they would
abandon the so-called concession doctrine, and that
they never would menace the territorial integrity of
China. On these principles rests the security of China.
They were warmly approved by the Government of
China which naturally desired that they should find
�M'
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* O'.^siac^-oa 8H& io oojttdhivo oHT .orcd) fcoaoiq o.cB
oJj m (.anorhG^.oI
lo aovidoxs odJ xd Bfdaji ^oiloq
>9ii .n Loxfe odvf €03h*iS ^aiiaboiU xi81o sorfoteqa.jb hsoTg’
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barrisyfo ef9lqjanoq oaodi io o^teavb® eifi
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vd W b%i§s an /A;nd vodJ v5v
�RECEPTION OF THE
24
expression in a more solemn form than they were in at
the present time. The evidence of this co-djierative ♦
policy rested in the archives of distant legations, in the
great despatches of Sir Frederick Bruce, who shed a new
lustre upon diplomacy in the East. I say that China,
feeling the advantage of these principles, desired that
they should be carried forward into more solemn forms.
Accordingly they have, as agreed to by the great treaty
powers of the West, passed into the unbending text of
the treaty recently made at Washington.
Now, in a word, what is that treaty? In the first
place, it declares the neutrality of the Chinese waters
in opposition to the pretensions of the ex-territoriality
doctrine, that inasmuch as the persons and the property
of the people of the foreign powers were under the ju
risdiction of those powers, therefore it was the right of
parties contending with each other to attack each other
in the Chinese waters, thus making those waters the
place of their conflict. This treaty traverses all such
absurd pretensions. It strikes down the so-called con
cession doctrines, under which the citizens of different
countries, located upon spots of land in the treaty ports,
had come to believe that they could take jurisdiction
there, not only of their own citizens, not only of the
persons and property of ,their own people, but of the
Chinese and the people of other countries. When this
question was brought under discussion and referred to
the home governments, not by the Chinese, originally,
but by those foreign nations who felt that their treaty
rights were being abridged by these concession doctrines,
the distant foreign countries could not stand the discus-
�/TagASMH 38SPHE0
-woq.
’pavo Jniii toys I bnA Jitomom i? 10I noio
onioa xl^noxli ?8onrU3ob xtoiagoonco adi Bonobnsds and to
ods-hoLim sriiilO iii oinH inoaoiq odd is elsjfoifto xiodi lo
.oi jOaoniiO odd doqxa oi odsdiobnij - — di xol Lnaiuoo oi
d^rodi as oaonidC). odd ioojoxq oi eoaoiddO odd dosdis
.imr:nnavo^ oaonidO odd oi ^dedod ic-xr bib ^’xoiraoi nd?
- ftuintob toniim iu4 boaobnsdfe tovoh L3J - snb.f *
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dnnd ao
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’’; f ‘do v
xbff, -11’iW
:* ws Wxt r bn o.;
Q
:
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
*
25
sion for a moment. And I aver that every treaty pow
er has abandoned the concession doctrines, though some
of their officials at the present time in China undertake
to contend for it —- undertake to expel the Chinese, to
attack the Chinese, to protect the Chinese as though
the territory did not belong to the Chinese government.
China has never abandoned her eminent domain —
never abandoned on that territory her jurisdiction doc
trine ; and I trust she never will. This treaty strikes
down all the pretensions about concessions of terri
tory.
Again, this treaty recognizes China as an equal among
the nations, in opposition to the old doctrine that be
cause she was not a Christian nation she could not be
placed in the roll of nations. But I will not discuss
that question. There is the greatest living authority
upon Eastern questions here to-night. He has stated
that position more fully than anybody else, while his
heart has leaned ever to the side of the Chinese. I say
China has been put on terms of equality. Her subjects
have been put upon a footing with those of the most
favored nations, so that now the Chinaman stands with
the Briton or the Frenchman, the Russian, the Prussian,
or the subjects of any of the great powers. And not
only so, but by a Consular clause in that treaty they
are given a diplomatic status by which those privileges
can be defended. That treaty also strikes down all dis
abilities on account of religious faith. It recalls the
great doctrine of the constitution which gives to a man
the right to hold any faith which his conscience may
dictate to him. Under that treaty the Chinese may
�•tut
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>
Moimpaa
olrfwa wib I^oiqs
J.;ir:>Vkd sllawb xfaiidv? JrxKja Oifi
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�RECEPTION OF THE
26
spread their marble altars to the blue vault of heaven,
and may worship the spirit which dwells beyond. That
treaty opens the gleaming gates of our public institu
tions to the students of China. That treaty strikes down
or reprobates — that is the word — the infamous Coolie
trade. It sustains the great law of 1862, drafted by
Mr. Eliot of Massachusetts, and pledges the nation for
ever to hold that trade criminal. While it does this, it
recognizes the great doctrine that a man may change
his home and his allegiance. While it strikes at the
root of the Coolie trade, it invites free immigration
into the country of those sober and industrious
people by whose quiet labor we have been enabled
to push the Pacific Bailroad over the summit of the
Sierra Nevada. Woolen mills have been enabled to
run on account of this labor with profit. And the great
crops of California, more valuable than all her gold,
have been gathered by them. I am glad the United
States had the courage to apply their great principles of
equality. I am glad that while they apply their doc
trines to the swarming millions of Europe, they are not
afraid to apply them to the tawny race of Tamerlane
and of Genghis Khan.
There is, also, another article which is important to
China. It has been the habit of the foreigners in China
to lecture the Chinese and to say what they should do and
what they should not do ; to dictate, and say when they
should build railroads, .when they should build tele
graphs ; and, in fact, there has been an attempt to take
entire possession of their affairs. This treaty denounces
all such pretensions. It says, particularly, that it is for
�•
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aovlw'ffadj .omcd^O .£kL
&Hfi BJr • - d lih?' -(si!J 4wi^«—esfeg;^ox Mnteii
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1
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
27
the Chinese themselves to fix the time when they will
initiate reforms,— when they will build and when they
will refuse to build,— that they are the masters of their
own affairs; that it is for them to make commercial
regulations, and to do whatever they will, which is not
in violation of existing treaties and the laws of nations,
within their own territory. I am glad that that is in
the treaty; and while the treaty expresses the opinion
of the United States in favor of giving to China the
control of her own affairs, it assumes that China is to
progress, and it offers to her all the resources of
Western science, and asks other nations to do the
same.
The United States have asked nothing for themselves.
I am proud of it. I am proud that this country has
made a treaty which is, every line of it, in the present
interests of China, though in the resulting interests of
all mankind. I am glad that the country has risen up
to a level with the great occasion. I am glad that she
has not asked any mean advantages, such as weaken
one people and do not exalt another. By leaving China
free in all these respects, she feels secure, or will feel
secure when these principles are adopted. When she
feels that the railroad and the telegraph are not to be
instruments by which she is to be disrupted or destroyed
then she will come out of her seclusion and enter upon
a course of trade, the importance of which, and the
amount of which, no man can compute. The first thing
for her to have is security; and this treaty gives her
security. It places her broadly under international law.
I know this treaty will be attacked. You will wonder
�sht
ic
bio oxD lo Jhiqa JodJ ^d fxnfac&B od Iliw jJ 4i fa
; osoxl$ strndln ilehMI bsaoqqo tfoidw esilkrl nt eiotaJA]
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am•” cd Lotoftd at Ji fwxsood .bhow odtlo ircJ ofd
f
7
�RECEPTION OF THE
28
at it. It will be attacked by that spirit of the old indigo
planters in India, which opposed British reforms there;
and by such as opposed Emancipation in the West
Indies; it will be resisted by the spirit of the old opium
smuggler in China. But notwithstanding all this, I be
lieve that treaty, or the principles of that treaty, will
make the tour of the world, because it is founded in jus
tice. This mission, feeling confidence in the rectitude of
their intentions, confidence in the merits of the policy
which they propose, do not ask what reception they
shall have in the countries to which they shall go, but
trust themselves fairly and fully to the spirit of West
ern civilization.
And now, having detained you too long, permit me to
thank you all for the kind manner in which you have
listened to what I have had to say. I thank you, Sir,
for your personal allusions. I thank dear old Boston
for her grand demonstrations of good will. I thank the
American Government that it has placed a great ques
tion beyond the reach of individual misfortune. And
now, having said this, the mission will press along the
line of its diplomatic duty to other fields of effort.
The Mayor then announced as the fourth regular toast, —
“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
He called upon His Excellency, Alexander H. Bullock, to
respond.
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR BULLOCK.
Mr. Mayor: The impressive ceremony and the cor
dial reception of the evening have been conducted so
far and so well that no duty remains for me save offi-
�■ ’3 A3 Mil
-gji RL1SG
LltwJ f lu'lt siojg lodanr^cB^Lb wg oinaau
j AJ/roGO/? aicnuii M# flu xfl felicpO Ml flliw Mar
■■■£,-r': k < ni Mt gw aoilmjiiliwg Ml iwi cLisA .aroJI
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
29
cially to assure our distinguished guests that I heartily
unite with the Capital in all the honors accorded to
them. Aside from the gratification we feel in extending
this welcome to our own fellow-citizen, now returned
to us as the head of an august mission, I surely may be
permitted to express your sentiments as well as my
own in recalling, with some satisfaction, the part which
our Commonwealth has borne on the large field of
American diplomacy in the recent historical period.
With Mr. Adams at the British Court, Mr. Motley on
the Continent, Mr. Burlingame in the great empire of
the East, our senior Senator, (Mr. Sumner,) at the head
of foreign affairs in the Senate, — the fortress of our
diplomatic security, — and Governor Banks in a like
position in the House of Representatives, — the people
of Massachusetts have had reason to be satisfied with
the share committed to them in the civic responsibilities
of our time. It is not to the present point that I shotdd
say that each of these gentlemen has performed his duty ■
so well that we cannot readily see how it could have
been done better; for the world knows that already.
But it is permissible that I should say, in view of those
broad relations which these citizens of our own have
sustained* on the three continents of civilization, that
the future historian of the Commonwealth must record
that her fame never shone brighter, more conspicuous,
or more beneficent than during this period. I may,
therefore, be permitted, both as magistrate and as citi
zen, to allow my local pride to culminate this evening,
as it blends with your patriotic pleasure, in paying
honors to those who have proved such good masters of
international rights and courtesies.
�<
.: J.iiM 1U
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7£& am*;
*
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�RECEPTION OF THE
•
30
As an American I rejoice in the recent events which
have developed into something almost like an alliance
for the welfare of the world, the imperial powers of the
East and the West. After all that has occurred in the
last seven years, what patriotic citizen of the United
States does not welcome the friendly hand reached out
to us from Russia and China; — co-terminous countries,
covering one-fifth part of the habitable globe, having
institutions in many respects altogether unlike our own,
but in some particulars quite in sympathy with ours,
eager to join their histories and destinies with ours in a
spirit of conciliation and unity which may hereafter
become the protectorate of the peace of all the nations.
From the former of these two, at a time when we failed
to receive from countries nearer to us that encouragement of our nationality which we had a right to ex
pect, there came for us no voice or wish, expressed or
suppressed, that did not give aid and comfort to every
heart which was in allegiance to our government. In
my remembrance of this, all political names of govern
ments have lost their power. There is a chord of
sympathy that sounds the name of Russia pleasantest of
them all in my ears. The purchase of Alaska becomes
doubly agreeable. I thank Mr. Seward and Congress
for making the trade.
And now, after the war, just when we are to spread
sail on a fresh career of prosperity at home and consid
eration abroad, let us be happy to receive, in advance
of all the governments of Europe, His Excellency Mr.
* Burlingame and his Associate Envoys from China. The
specific provisions of their recent treaty with us may or
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
31
may not comprise any striking innovations on the past.
As to that I do not much profess to know. I have
been trying to get some information from my friend
Teh, who sits by my side, who, I will say, speaks the
English language with a compass and flexibility and
force which our own countrymen can seldom surpass,
and some of them can hardly equal, after this hour in
the evening. I introduced him to my late comrade in
the legislative halls, Mr. Cushing, who was the pioneer
in American diplomacy towards China, and who went
out as Commissioner to China (if that was the title of
his office) in 1842 or ’43, and, to my surprise, I found,
when I sought to make some comparisons between that
time and the present, that my young friend Teh was
born three years after Mr. Cushing returned, and that
Mr. Cushing and I were much older than my Chinese
friend. But, however that may be, the tone, the tem
per, the spirit in which this Embassy comes to us —
that is a great deal — that inaugurates a new era in the
relations of two powerful peoples. It is enough for
me to know that it is in the interest of justice to the
individual man of both nations; that it is in recognition
of the obligations of all the reciprocities of humanity;
that it is in aid and promotion of international com
merce, which is the handmaid of Equity and Christi
anity. So that, henceforth, the pledged honor of Ameri
cans and Chinamen shall be more potent for all the
purposes of travel and trade and religion and civiliza
tion, than a thousand British cannon bellowing against
the gates of the Celestial Empire, — gates which shall
open in all time to come more easily to the force of fra-
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�RECEPTION OF THE
32
temity than to the force of arms. Why should not
China be respected for that she has resisted with plucki
ness, according to her traditions and with her hearts
and arms, every attempt to blow open her portals ; —
for that she sends her Envoys to-day to make public
tender at the doors of our Capitol of her desire to
establish, as the law of nations, the Golden Rule,
whether it comes to her from Confucius, or to us from
authority infinitely higher.
Let us respect the authority of existing and ancient
nations. One is especially before us now that has
lengthened and enduring annals. As the oldest civi
lized community of the United States, we of Massachu
setts trace our record backward over only two centuries
and a half. And that, we are apt to think, furnishes
ample and dignified work of research for several histori
cal, antiquarian and genealogical societies, in examin
ing ancient mounds, exhuming corroded tomahawks,
and bringing to the light of our day the virtues and the
frailties of some eight or nine generations of men. How,
then, can we not respect a people of a record of five
thousand years'? You may call them rude; but you
have sought their commerce, and have scattered among
all your homes the products of their luxury, their art,
and their labor. You may call them barbarians; but
with their own sense of right they can call you the
same. You may doubt their elemental principles of
government; but they have existed having a govern
ment ages before you were known, and more recently
when you were not sure that you could maintain and
transmit a government. You may question the claim
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
33
of their literature to common respect; but it ante-dates
all that is known by us of the thought and record which
we call sacred. You may ask, if you will, why China
comes here with an American citizen for her Ambassa
dor, to demand a high place of dignity among the
countries; and she answers, with the eloquence of a
long and masterly history, that she comes offering only
terms of international equality as one of the peoples and
governments of the world of to-day; compacted and
ribbed by the vicissitudes of fifty centuries; self-subsist
ing against all efforts to assail or invade her; but willing,
anxious now, to welcome the sails of your commerce
into her ports, the voices of your missionaries into her
interior, and the rights of your citizens within her juris
diction. In that spirit, and in that cause, I welcome
Mr. Burlingame and his associates, and bid them God
speed on their way to the other countries.
The Mayor then announced as the fifth regular toast,—
“The Supplementary Treaty with China;” —
and called upon the Honorable Charles Sumner, Chairman of
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States •
Senate, to respond.
HON. CHARLES SUMNER’S SPEECH.
Mr. Mayor: I cannot speak on this interesting oc
casion without first declaring the happiness I enjoy at
meeting my friend of many years in the exalted posi
tion which he now holds. Besides being my personal
friend, he was also an honored associate in representing
the good people of this community, and in advancing a
��RECEPTION OF THE
34
great cause, which he championed with memorable elo
quence and fidelity. Such are no common ties. Permit
me to say that this splendid welcome, now offered by the
municipal authorities of Boston, is only a natural ex
pression of the sentiments which must prevail in this
community. Here his labors and triumphs began.
Here, in your early applause and approving voices, he
first tasted of that honor which is now his in such am
ple measure. He is one of us, who, going forth into a
strange country, has come back with its highest trusts
and dignities. Once the representative of a single Con
gressional district, he now represents the most populous
nation of the globe. Once the representative of little
more than a third part of Boston, he is now the repre
sentative of more than a third part of the human race.
The population of the globe is estimated at twelve hund
red millions ; that of China at more than four hundred
millions, and sometimes even at five hundred millions.
If, in this position, there be much to excite wonder,
there is still more for gratitude in the unparalleled op
portunity which it affords. What we all ask is oppor
tunity. Here is opportunity on a surpassing scale — to
be employed, I am sure, so as to advance the best inter
ests of the Human Family; and, if these are ad
vanced, no nation can suffer. Each is contained in all.
With justice and generosity as the reciprocal rule, and
nothing else can be the aim of this great Embassy, there
can be no limits to the immeasurable consequences.
For myself, I am less solicitous with regard to con
cessions or privileges, than with regard to that spirit
of friendship and good neighborhood, which embraces
�r
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�CHINESE EMBASSY.
35
alike the distant and the near, and, when once estab
lished, renders all else easy.
The necessary result of the present experiment in
diplomacy will be to make the countries which it visits
better known to the Chinese, and also to make the
Chinese better known to them. Each will know the
other better and will better comprehend that condition
of mutual dependence which is the law of humanity.
*In the relations among nations, as in common life, this
is of infinite value. Thus far, I fear that the Chinese
are poorly informed with regard to usi I am sure that
we are poorly informed with regard to them. We know
them through the porcelain on our tables with its law
less perspective, and the tea chest with its unintelligible
hieroglyphics. There are two pictures of them in the
literature of our language, which cannot fail to leave an
impression. The first is in Paradise Lost, where Milton,
always learned eveif in his poetry, represents Satan as
descending in his flight,
------ on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive,
With sails and wind their cany wagons light.
The other is that admirable address on the study of the
law of nature and nations, where Sir James Mackintosh,
in words of singular felicity, alludes to iC the tame but
ancient and immovable civilization of China.” It will
be for us now to enlarge these pictures and to fill the
canvas with life.
I do not know if it has occurred to our honored guest,
that he is not the first stranger who, after sojourning in
��RECEPTION OF THE
36
this distant unknown land, has come back loaded with
its honors, and with messages to the Christian powers.
He is not without a predecessor in his mission. There is
another career as marvellous as his own. I refer to the
Venetian Marco Polo, whose reports, once discredited as
the fables of a traveller, are now recognized among the
sources of history, and especially of geographical knowl
edge. Nobody can read them without feeling their
verity. It was in the latter part of the far away 13th
century, that this enterprising Venetian, in company
with his father and uncle, all of them merchants, jour
neyed from Venice, by the way of Constantinople,
Trebizond on the Black Sea and Central Asia, until they
reached first the land of Prester John, and then that
golden country, known as Cathay, where the great ruler,
Kublai Khan, treated them with gracious consideration,
and employed young Polo as his ambassador. This
was none other than China, and the great ruler, called
the Grand Khan, was none other than the first of its
Mongolian dynasty having his imperial residence in the
immense city of Kambalu, or Peking. After many years
of illustrious service, the Venetian, with his compan
ions, was dismissed with splendor and riches, charged
with letters for European sovereigns, as our Bostonian
is charged with similar letters now. There were let
ters for the Pope, the King of France, the King of
Spain, and other Christian princes. It does not appear
that England was expressly designated. Her name, so
great now, was not at that time on the visiting list of
the distant Emperor. Such are the contrasts in national
life. Marco Polo with his companions, reached Venice
�U7
*
41
_______________________ ____ _
taMMh
I
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
37
on his return in 1295, at the very time when Dante in
Florence was meditating his divine poem, and when
Roger Bacon, in England, was astonishing the age with
his knowledge. These were two of his greatest con
temporaries.
The return of the Venetian to his native city was
attended by incidents which have not occurred among
us. Bronzed by long residence under the sun of the
East, — wearing the dress of a Tartar, — and speaking
his native language with difficulty, it was some time be
fore he could persuade his friends of his identity. Hap
pily there is no question on the identity of our returned
fellow-citizen; and surely it cannot be said that he
speaks his native language with difficulty. There was
a dinner given at Venice as now at Boston, and the
Venetian dinner, after the lapse of nearly five hundred
years, still lives in glowing description. On this occa
sion Marco Polo, with his companions, appeared first in
long robes of crimson satin reaching to the floor, which,
after the guests had washed their hands, were changed
for other robes of crimson damask, and then again,
after the first course of the dinner, for other robes of
crimson velvet, and at the conclusion of the banquet, for
the ordinary dress worn by the rest of the company.
Meanwhile the other costly garments were distributed
in succession among the attendants at the table. In all
your magnificence to-night, Mr. Mayor, I have seen no
such largess. Then was brought forward the coarse
threadbare clothes in which they had travelled, when,
on ripping the lining and patches with a knife, costly
jewels, in sparkling showers, leaped forth before the
��RECEPTION OF THE
38
eyes of the company, who for a time were motionless
with wonder. Then at last, says the Italian chronicler,
every doubt was banished, and all were satisfied that
these were the valiant and honorable gentlemen of the
house of Polo. I do not relate this history in order to
suggest any such operation on the dress of our returned
fellow-citizen. No such evidence is needed to assure us
of his identity.
The success of Marco Polo is amply attested. From
his habit of speaking of millions of people and millions
of money, he was known as millioni, or the millionaire,
being the earliest instance in history of a designation
so common in our prosperous age. But better than
“ millions ” was the knowledge he imparted, and the
impulse that he gave to that science, which teaches the
configuration of the globe, and the place of nations on
' its face. His travels, as dictated by him, were repro
duced in various languages, and, after the invention of
printing, the book was multiplied in more than fifty
editions. Unquestionably it prepared the way for the
two greatest geographical discoveries of modern times,
that of the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco de Gama,
and the New World, by Christopher Columbus. One
of his admirers, a learned German, does not hesitate to
say that, when, in the long series of ages, we seek the
three men, who, by the influence of their discoveries,
have most contributed to the progress of geography and
the knowledge of the globe, the modest name of the
Venetian finds a place in the same line with Alexander
the Great and Christopher Columbus. It is well known
that the imagination of the Genoese navigator was fired
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
39
by the revelations of the Venetian, and that, in his
mind, all the countries embraced by his transcendent
discovery were none other than the famed Cathay, with
its various dependencies. In his report to the Spanish
Sovereigns, Cuba was nothing else than Zimpangu, or
Japan, as described by the Venetian, and he thought
himself near a grand Khan, meaning, as he says, a king
of kings. Columbus was mistaken. He had not
reached Cathay or the grand Khan; but he had discov
ered a new world, destined in the history of civilization
to be more than Cathay, and, in the lapse of time, to
welcome the Ambassador of the grand Khan.
The Venetian, on his return home, journeyed out of
the East, westward. Our Marco Polo on his return
home, journeyed out of the West, eastward; and yet
they both came from the same region. Their com
mon starting-point was Peking. This change is typical
of that transcendent revolution under whose influence
the Orient will become the Occident. Journeying
westward, the first welcome is from the nations of
Europe. Journeying eastward, the first welcome is
from our Republic. It only remains that this wel
come should be extended until it opens a pathway
for the mightiest commerce of the world, and embraces
within the sphere of American activity that ancient
ancestral empire, where population, industry and edu
cation, on an unprecedented scale, create resources
and necessities on an unprecedented scale also. See
to it, merchants of the United' States, and you, mer
chants of Boston, that this opportunity is not lost.
And this brings me, Mr. Mayor, to the Treaty, which
�f.
�RECEPTION OF THE
40
you invited me to discuss. But I will not now enter
upon this topic. If you did not call me to order for
speaking too long, I fear I should be called to order in
another place for undertaking to speaking of a Treaty
which has not yet been proclaimed by the President.
One remark I will make and take the consequences.
The treaty does not propose much; but it is an excel
lent beginning, and, I trust, through the good offices of
our fellow-citizen, the honored plenipotentiary, will un
lock those great Chinese gates which have been bolted
and barred for long centuries. The Embassy is more
than the treaty, because it will prepare the way for
further intercourse and will help that new order of
things which is among the promises of the Future.
The Mayor then introduced Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who
recited the following poem:
POEM BY OLIVER, WENDELL HOLMES.
Brothers, whom we may not reach
Through the veil of alien speech,
Welcome I welcome I eyes can tell
What the lips in vain would spell;
Words that hearts can understand,
Brothers from the Flowery Land 1
We, the evening’s latest born,
Hail the children of the mornI
__
*
•
We, the new creation’s birth,
Greet the lords of ancient earth
From their storied walls and towers
Wandering to these tents of ours I
Land of wonders, fair Cathay,
Who long hast shunned the staring day,
�i
__________
_______ .
d
._
A.
_
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
Hid in mists of poets’ dreams
By thy blue and yellow streams;
Let us thy shadowed form behold;
Teach us as thou didst of old.
Knowledge dwells with length of days;
Wisdom walks in ancient ways;
Thine the compass that could guide
A nation o’er the stormy tide
Scourged by passions, doubts and fears,
Safe through thrice a thousand years!
Looking from thy turrets gray
Thou hast seen the world’s decay;
Egypt drowning in her sands;
Athens rent by robbers’ hands;
Rome, the wild barbarian’s prey,
Like a storm-cloud swept away:
Looking from thy turrets gray
Still we see thee. Where are they?
And lo! a new-born nation waits,
Sitting at the golden gates
That glitter by the sunset sea —
Waits with outspread arms for theeI
*
'
Open wide, ye gates of gold,
To the Dragon’s banner-fold!
Builders of the mighty wall,
Bid your mountain barriers fall!
So may the girdle of the sun
Bind the East and West in one,
Till Nevada’s breezes fan
The snowy peaks of Ta-Sieue-Shan
Till Erie blends its waters blue
With the waves of Tung-Ting-Hu —
Till deep Missouri lends its flow
To swell the rushing Hoang-Ho I
6
41
��RECEPTION OF THE
42
Dr. Holmes’s poem was heartily applauded. At the con
clusion the Mayor announced, as the sixth regular toast —
“ Diplomacy,”
and called upon the Honorable Caleb Cushing, formerly United
States Commissioner to China, to respond.
Mr. Pickering, a member of the Committee of Arrangements,
said: “I propose nine cheers for the only minister to China
who bears a Chinese name—‘ Coo-Shing.' ”
The cheers were given with much enthusiasm.
HON. CALEB CUSHING’S SPEECH.
I rise to discharge the duty assigned me on this
occasion, with sincere satisfaction, as affording an op
portunity to express my respect for yourself, and the
city over whose administration you preside, as well as
for your eminent guests. I rejoice to see that they re
ceive peculiar attention here. It especially becomes
this State, so many of whose merchant princes have
been, and are, the merchant princes of China also, to
welcome the ambassadors of China. It is fitting that
the representatives of a country where education,
science, literature, the cultivation of the spiritual as
distinguished from the material man, are held in the
highest estimation, should meet with sympathetic ac
claim in the State of Massachusetts. And here, above
all, should welcome, acclaim and applause be awarded
to an embassy, which, while representing the power
and the wisdom of the Ta Tsing Empire in the person
of these, the native subjects of the great Yellow Khan,
has at its head a statesman who attained distinction in
�■
�CHINESE EMBASSY.
43
the first instance as a representative of Massachusetts
in the Congress of the United States.
To him (Mr. Burlingame), therefore, at the outset, be
all honor rendered. I, as the humble pioneer in that
new region of diplomacy which he has explored to
such great results, can well judge of the magnitude of
the events he personifies, and presume to say that
no imagination of oriental romance could conceive
for its hero a career of usefulness and glory more mar
vellous than that which is exhibited by the Minister of
the United States in China becoming its Minister to thePowers of Europe and America.
And yet, on reflecting on this incident, it ceases to as
tonish me. I take pleasure in saying here, in the hear
ing of all the members of the Embassy, and especially
of the two eminent Ta-jins and their countrymen, what
I have never failed to say on other proper occasions, that
the Manchu and Chinese statesmen, with whom it was
my fortune to come in official contact in China, were men
of the highest cultivation and accomplishment, versed
in the direction of the largest public affairs, possessed of
thorough comprehension of political and international
questions, and worthy in all respects to be ranked with
the most accomplished statesmen and diplomatists of
Christendom. Such men were capable of rising to the
height of any exigency which the progress of time and
events might require the Chinese Empire to adopt,
Thus it happened that my embassy to China was
rather a brief pleasure trip than a diplomatic labor:
For the intelligence and the frankness of Commis
sioner Keying soon removed all difficulties out of my
��RECEPTION OF THE
44
path. And we see ample attestation in the commission
entrusted to Mr. Burlingame of the high character of
the men now at the head of affairs in China.
My name, susceptible as it is of adoption in Chinese
writing and speech, — to which a gentleman just now
kindly alluded, — had its inconveniences as well as
conveniences ; for the sound represents that expression
which, in China, is applied to personages who, in the
ordinary transactions of the missionaries, are called
“ venerable sages ” or “ venerable saints.” In a word,
to those persons in the history of China, of whom Con
fucius is the representative man> and when made
aware of this fact, I was compelled to enter into a most
confidential conference with my own conscience as to
.what name I ought to bear. I did feel somewhat “ ven
erable ” then, I confess,—much more so than I do now:
For now I have become disillusioned and disabused of
many things; and there is but little left for me which
seems entitled to respect. Hardly more than two things
have ceased to be subjects of illusion, — woman’s vir
tue and man’s honor. The changes of time have left
little else upon which the presumptions of the press,
of the bar, and of the senate, [turning to Mr. Sumner,
amid the laughter of the company] have not placed
their profaning hands. And so, also, upon the ques
tion of sanctity. I really did not feel justified in pre
suming to attribute to myself any such qualities ; and,
with the aid of skilful friends, I was enabled to discover
that it was easy to change the sign from “ venerable ”
to “ venerator,” and thus I became' a very respectable
personage, as Coo-Shing — the venerator of the sages
and saints. Beyond that I did not aspire.
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
45
My embassy to China was but the humble beginning
of what we now behold, — of this great change in the
relations of China to Europe and America.
We have listened with admiration this evening to the
clear and instructive exposition given by Mr. Burlin
game of the treaty which he and the American Secre
tary of State (Mr. Seward), have just completed, and
the prompt dispatch of which has been equally hon
orable to our Executive and our Senate. Of that initia
tory treaty it is impossible to exaggerate -the probable
consequences. In order in the least degree to appre
ciate the fact, we must recollect the history and remem
ber the cbndition of China.
The distinguished Senator of Massachusetts on my
left (Mr. Sumner), has referred to the fact that Marco
Polo, after his return from China, was called “ Messer
Million!.” I think that title was applied to him in
derision. I think his countrymen distrusted his tales of
the millions of the population of China, — the millions of
its revenue, and the millions of its cultivated scholars ; for
we may remember that long after his day, and even so
late as the time of the Stuarts, Congreve said, in exhib
iting a personation of mendacity, “ Ferdinand Mendez
Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first mag
nitude.” Why did Pinto become the symbol of mendac
ity 1 We know now that every word he uttered was
true ; that he was one of those many brilliant voyagers
of Spain and Portugal of whom Vasco de Gama and
Christopher Columbus, as mentioned this evening, were
but higher examples; many of whom left interesting
narrations of their voyages, and that Pinto’s truthful
�---- —---------
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•-* •'-■ *■■!*
�RECEPTION OF THE
46
■Felations of the grandeur of China, of its population, of
its wealth, of its advancement in civilization, of its
agriculture, of its manufactures, seemed so portentous,
so incredible, that no man believed what he uttered,
and attributed it all to the invention of a fertile but
unscrupulous imagination. I say, we now know it was
all true; and that neither Polo nor Pinto unfolded to
us a tithe of the wonders of China.
We know that there is in farther Asia an Empire
which has subsisted for thousands of years, with an un
changed identity of civilization; with a people, at a
period anterior to all our records of history, sacred or
profane, highly cultivated, intellectual, literary, scienti
fic ; with arts of agriculture and manufacture, and with
a commerce, such as we now see.
We know that as they are now, such they were when
our forefathers were but. half naked savages in the wilds
of Britain or Germany. Their astronomical records
carry us far beyond all the science of the Chaldees and
the Brahmans. Whether in the arts of immortality, like
printing, or those of mortality, like gunpowder, they
are our masters. They are the only people of ancient
or modern times, with whom moral and intellectual cul
ture outrank all other things, and constitute the sole
avenue to civil station and power, and they are a people
without parallel in the durability and the vastness of
the adaptability of their institutions. What living
language can count with the Chinese its thousands of
ages of life ? What nation but China showed itself in
the times of Homer the same as at this day ? 'Where,
save in China, has the world ever seen a homogeneous
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
47
people, equal in numbers to the whole of Europe,
constituting a single self-sustaining nation ?
While the magnificent empire of the Assyrians has
passed away like a troubled vision, and left no trace but
a few mounds of earth on the banks of the Euphrates
or the Tigris; while, also, the populous and powerful
kingdom of Egypt is now manifest only by its massive
tombs, temples and pyramids half buried in the sands of
the desert; while Greece and Rome have also all but dis
appeared, and are no longer potential except in the
traditions they have transmitted to us, — at an epoch
anterior to the rise of all these nations, the Chinese
Empire was great, powerful, populous, — civilized in
every possible conception of the word civilized. There
is no definition of civilization, as applied to Athens
or to Rome, there is no definition as applied to Mem
phis or to Babylon, which does not apply with equal
verity to China long before either Babylon or Mem
phis existed.
And possessing a marvellous tenacity of existence,
there China stands, sublime in the greatness alike and
the unity of her civilization, unchanged by the tempests
of five thousand years. Foreign war has in vain
assailed her. Domestic insurrection has torn her asun
der, and the wounds have been healed with a recuper
ative vitality which seems to presage an immortality
of empire. I say, there China stands, with her four
hundred millions of human beings, exhibiting the only
spectacle the human race ever did exhibit of such an
immense mass of people, holding to the faith of their
fathers, holding to their peculiar science, literature and
��RECEPTION OF THE
48
art, holding, also, to their government, — maintaining
what no European nation has ever had the statemanship
or art to do, supreme power over a region of earth larger
than Europe, and over a population larger than the
population of Europe.
Contrast that with our own petty states of christen
dom. My friend (Mr. Burlingame), will warrant me in
saying, that there are more provinces of the Chinese
Empire, each one of them equalling in population, in
wealth, in power, in the results of civilization, in agri
cultural commodities, in manufactures, in the mechanic
arts, — each one of them, I say, equalling in every
one of these incidents of civilization the proudest
of the kingdoms of Europe. How is it to-day with
Europe ? There we see England, France, Prussia,
Austria, Russia, each engaged in destroying itself by the
vast armies they maintain, exhausting the resources of
their people, wasting labor, wasting life, wasting all the
means of usefulness which this divine creation of govern
ment rightly used can give to man; wasting them by
their intestine wars or by their perpetual apprehension
of wars ; while in China, a larger mass of human beings
is ruled by the sceptre of one sovereign, presiding over
his millions of subjects in his palace at Peking.
I repeat, there is no parallel for it in the history of
the human race; and therefore it is, that this occasion
seems to me to possess claims upon our sympathy, upon
our respect, upon our confidence, beyond any other cor
responding event in our lives. Who among us here
present will ever forget this scene ? Who can fail to
remember that one of our own fellow-citiaens comes
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
49
back from that vast Empire, the representative of its
power and of its millions of human beings, invested
with the sacred, the sublime, the divine mission, to
place them in harmonious correspondence, diplomatic,
political and commercial, with the nations of Christen
dom ?
No longer is China to be a sealed book to the world.
No longer is her policy to be that of exclusion and non
intercourse. No longer is she to look with jealousy
upon foreign powers. She has weighed and measured
these foreign powers. She has statesmen enough of her
own to know and to judge. Wildly is he deceived who
imagines that these men are ignorant men, and unin
formed of the affairs of the world. I would that our
own statesmen presented the same average of intelli
gence and accomplishment that I know is possessed by
the statesmen of China. I say, they have weighed
the statesmen of Christendom. They now appre
ciate their relation to one another, and their rela
tion to her; and they feel that isolation has not only
ceased to be for her interest, but that isolation does not
become her. Is it for her, the inheritor of five thous
and years of civilization, and with her immense popu
lation and resources, to shrink from contact with
these relatively petty states of Christendom ? By no
means. She knows that she has but to advance, as
she now does advance, to take her appropriate place
in the great Republic of States — a place in which she
is to exercise prodigious influence over the commercial
as well as the intellectual condition of the human race.
Her advance is the more noble in that it is peaceful.
�■
I
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�RECEPTION OF THE
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What if the successor of Genghis Khan, from his throne
of Cathay, should again send forth his millions of armed
men like a deluge over Asia and Europe ? I shudder
at the thought.
We cannot over-estimate, we can scarcely compre
hend, all the beneficent effects of that treaty of which
we have heard so interesting an account this evening
from Mr. Burlingame. It is the initiation of measures,
by a treaty between China and that one of the Christian
powers in whose relative neutrality, so to speak, she
may and does impose implicit confidence, that one
of the Christian powers which she feels that she may
and can make the agent, the intermediary, as it were,
between herself and the other powers of the world,—
it is, I say, the initiation of a series of measures which
are to place her on a footing of amicable relationship to
the other great Powers. We have sounded the key
note; we have initiated — unchecked by jealousies,
unaffected by any minor considerations, with the sole
thought how a great and grand thing shall be done
greatly and grandly — that series of negotiations which,
I venture to say, must and will pass the circuit of the
globe as resistless, as triumphant, as the march of the
sun in heaven.
I conclude, therefore, by expressing, in common
with the gentlemen who have preceded me, the
thought which I am sure is welling up in every
bosom here present, and which stands half expressed
upon every lip, — I say, I conclude by expressing my
sense of pride, of gratification, of satisfied patriotism,
in seeing that to the lot of one of our own fellow-citi-
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
51
zens has fallen that most holy and sublime mission of
unsurpassed honor now, and of imperishable glory
among all the nations, as well of Europe as of Amer
ica. And to us it should be the subject of special gratulation that this high duty has devolved not only upon
one of our own fellow-citizens, but upon our own
beloved country, and that in honoring him we do honor
to the United States,
The Mayor announced as the seventh regular toast:
“The union of the farthest East and the farthest West.”
He introduced Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson to respond.
s
mr. emerson’s
speech.
Mr. Mayor : I suppose we are all of one opinion on
this remarkable occasion of meeting the Embassy sent
from the oldest Empire in the world to the youngest
Republic. All share the surprise and pleasure when
the venerable oriental dynasty,—hitherto a romantic
legend to most of us,—suddenly steps into the fellow
ship of nations. This auspicious event, considered in
connection with the late innovations in Japan, marks a
new era, and is an irresistible result of the science which
has given us the power of steam and the electric tele
graph. It is the more welcome for the surprise. We
had said of China, as the old prophet said of Egypt,
“ Her strength is to sit still.” Her people had such
elemental conservatism, that by some wonderful force of
race and national manners, the wars and revolutions
that occur in her annals have proved but momentary
swells or surges on the Pacific ocean of her history,
��RECEPTION OF THE
52
leaving no trace. But in its immovability this race has
claims. China is old not in time only, but in wisdom,
which is gray hair to a nation, — or rather, truly seen,
is eternal youth. As we know, China had the magnet
centuries before Europe; and block-printing or stereo
type, and lithography, and gunpowder, and vaccination,
and canals ; had anticipated Linnaeus’s nomenclature of
plants ; had codes, journals, clubs, hackney coaches,
and, thirty centuries before New York, had the custom
of New-Year’s calls of comity and reconciliation. I
need not mention its useful arts, — its pottery indispen
sable to the world, the luxury of silks, and its tea, the
cordial of nations. But I must remember that she has
respectable remains of astronomic science, and his
toric records of forgotten time, that have supplied
important gaps in the ancient history of the western
nations. Then she has philosophers who cannot be
spared. Confucius has not yet gathered all his fame.
When Socrates heard that the oracle declared that he
was the wisest of men, he said, it must mean that other
men held that they were wise, but that he knew that he
knew nothing. Confucius had already affirmed this of
himself: and what we call the Golden Rule of Jesus,
Confucius had uttered in the same terms, five hundred
years before. His morals, though addressed to a state
of society utterly unlike ours, we read with profit to-day.
His rare perception appears in his Golden Mean, his
doctrine of Reciprocity, his unerring insight, — putting
always the blame of our misfortunes on ourselves ; as
when to the governor who complained of thieves, he
said, “ If you, sir, were not covetous, though you should
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
53
reward them for it, they would not steal.” His ideal of
greatness predicts Marcus Antoninus. At the same
time, he abstained from paradox, and met the ingrained
prudence of his nation by saying always, “ Bend one
cubit to straighten eight.”
China interests us at this moment in a point of poli
tics. I am sure that gentlemen around me bear in
mind the bill which Hon. Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island,
has twice attempted to carry through Congress, requir
ing that candidates for public offices shall first pass
examination on their literary qualifications for the same.
Well, China has preceded us, as well as England and
France, in this essential correction of a reckless usage ;
and the like high esteem of education appears in China
in social life, to whose distinctions it is made an indis
pensable passport.
It is gratifying to know that the advantages of the
new intercourse between the two countries are daily
manifest on the Pacific coast. The immigrants from
Asia come in crowds. Their power of continuous labor,
their versatility in adapting themselves to new condi
tions, their stoical economy, are unlooked-for virtues.
They send back to their friends, in China, money, new
products of art, new tools, machinery, new foods, etc.,
and are thus establishing a commerce without limit. I
cannot help adding, after what I have heard to-night,
that I have read in the journals a statement from an
English source, that Sir Frederic Bruce attributed to
Mr. Burlingame the merit of the happy reform in the
relations of foreign governments to China. I am quite
sure that I heard from Mr. Burlingame in New York,
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�RECEPTION OF THE
54
in his last visit to America, that the whole merit of it
belonged to Sir Frederic Bruce. It appears that the
ambassadors were emulous in their magnanimity. It is
certainly the best guaranty for the interests of China
and of humanity.
The Mayor then introduced the Honorable Nathaniel P.
Banks, as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of
the House of Representatives.
SPEECH OF HON. N. P. BANKS.
w
Mr. Mayor: I am sure it is not my fault that I am
led to trespass upon the attention of gentlemen at this
late hour of the evening. I have learned a little wisdom
from a short acquaintance with our Chinese friends. I
have learned that there is medicine for sickness, but not
for fate; and that When a man comes to a banquet in
Boston he ought to be ready for the destiny that awaits
him.
It gives me, sir, great pleasure to participate in this
most wise and just celebration of the passage of the
treaty to which reference has been made, and the advent
of the distinguished Embassy from China. After what
has been said by other gentlemen, I can do little more
than return to you, Mr. Mayor, and your associates, my
thanks for the honor conferred upon me by your invita
tion, and to the gentlemen present for the kind recep
tion they have given to the mention of my name by you.
I am happy to confirm what has been said by so many
gentlemen in regard to the great advantages which the
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
55
connection, consummated by this treaty is likely to bring
to the United States of America. But I go a little
further than any yet have gone; and I claim for the
distinguished head of this Embassy, whom we have
known so long and so well, more of the gratitude that
is due for the successful initiation and completion of
this great movement than has yet been accorded to him.
It is my belief, sir, — and I speak from long and inti
mate personal knowledge of him — that it is not only to
his sagacity and his experience, but especially by the
profound kindness of heart and generosity of nature,
that he has won the confidence of the Chinese nation;
and that out of this kindness of heart and this generosity
of nature he returns to us with the high commission
which he bears, and shows to us in the future the great
advantages which the two nations are to win from the
consummation of the closer connection which has been
initiated.
There are one or two points of resemblance between
the Chinese nation and the people of the United States
which ought not to pass without observation on such an
occasion as this. The distinguished gentleman on my
right <(Mr. Emerson), has alluded, as other gentlemen
have done, to the fact, that one is the oldest nation of
history and the other the newest republic of the world.
But there are other important resemblances. The
Chinese nation is a government without force. The
United States is a government with no power except
the consent of the people who are governed, All other
nations differ in this respect. Every government, in
every age and in every clime, has sustained, and now
��RECEPTION OF THE
56
sustains, its authority by physical force, while the gov
ernments of China and of the United States alone
trust for their authority to the recognition and the con
sent of the people whom they govern.
Much has been said of the civilization which that
great and ancient nation has attained, and much more
might be said, resting upon human authority, to confirm
the statement; but, in my judgment, there is one proof*
greater, stronger and clearer than any that has yet been
offered, and it exists in this fact — that a nation of four
hundred millions, which has maintained itself for five
thousand years, and, as has been already said, is likely
to perpetuate its power to the end of time, and which
governs its people without other force than their con
sent, must have greater qualities than any other nation
that has yet existed. There is a lesson for Americans
and for Europeans, for civilized nations or for barba
rians. In any government that has this moral power to
control these hundreds of millions of citizens for these
thousands of years, there must be a degree of wisdom
on the part of the people, and a capacity on the part of
the rulers, for which human history elsewhere and at
other times has made no note or record ; and I welcome
the association and connection which they offer us as an
opportunity of attaining information in the science of
government, which we have not yet been able to derive
from any other family or any other example among the
nations of the earth.
There is a single other resemblance to which I will
call your attention, and then relieve you from further
trespass upon your time. The Chinese nation asks the
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
57
maintenance of the integrity of its empire. The Chi
nese nation asserts by its Ambassadors, if not by its
philosophy, the great doctrine of non-intervention,
upon the assertion of which the Government of the
United States was founded. They come now, as has
been said, not merely to ask admission upon the rolf of
civilized States, but to assert a doctrine grander than
any that has yet been proclaimed by men or by nations;
a higher than any of American civilization, or than Eu
ropean civilization has ever been able to announce. We
claim great merit to ourselves, Mr. Mayor and gentle
men, because, in the establishment of our theories of
government, we recognized the doctrine of the frater
nity and equality of man.
The liberties of all men is the great lesson that we
have taught the world, and in our day and our time, it
is, perhaps, as much as might have been expected of us.
We are only two hundred years old. That is all that
we have learned, and that is all that we have taught the
nations of the earth. But there is a grander doctrine
than this, never yet announced in authoritative form to
the nations of the earth, and never yet read upon the
pages of human history. The State is the creation of
God. The individual man is necessary to a state of po
litical society. The creation of the State is necessary to
the progress of man and the civilization of the human
race. The State, therefore, is the grander creation of
the two, and though man be the immediate creation of
Divine Providence, the State is not less the creation of
that power, and its eminence and its power are not less
necessary to work out the destiny and purposes of Prov8
�i
II
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�RECEPTION OF THE
58
idence. The State, sir, hitherto, has been regarded as
the work of man. Governments have claimed the right
to make and to destroy, and the strongest in the course
of human history, has been ready and willing, and
claimed the right, to destroy those who were not less
able to defend themselves.
*
But here come the representatives of this ancient na
tion, that we have been accustomed to class among bar
barian States, with the great doctrine, not merely of the
brotherhood of man, but the higher and nobler result
of civilization, which is the fraternity of nations ; and
if in their mission, whether it springs from necessity or
from wisdom, it shall be their destiny to accomplish the
recognition of this principle of the fraternity of nations,
as the American people have consummated the doctrine
of the fraternity of men, there is little more left for man
to do in the way of perfecting the human race in mat
ters of government, or of extending the beneficient ad
vantages of human civilization. That they will do this,
sir, I can have no doubt whatever. Although in differ
ent parts of the world their theories may be resisted, and
the States of Europe may insist, now and hereafter, as
heretofore, upon the right of intervention, we must re
member that they resisted also our doctrine which has
been consummated, of the equality and fraternity of man;
and so much clearer and stronger is the recognition of
the grander doctrine of the fraternity of nations, that
the reason and justice of the philosophy alone will
carry it onward, as has been said by the distinguished
Senator who has preceded me, as triumphant as the
march of the sun in heaven.
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
59
I read this morning, in one of the city journals, the
letter of a Massachusetts man from the southern part of
Europe, where, in speaking of many important matters
that had fallen under his observation, he alludes to one
which cannot be mentioned without touching the heart
of an American, especially of a Massachasetts man,
particularly .the heart of a citizen of Boston — that the
commercial flag of the United States had been swept
from the seas of the world. Here, sir, where we re
member that, within our own times, within the time of
the youngest among us, the Grays, the Lymans, the
Sturgis’s, and many others of the merchant princes of
Boston, who were the fathers and founders of American
commerce — who gave this city its prestige, its prosper
ity, its power, its wealth ; where we saw that infant com
merce, founded by the fathers of our own neighborhood,
grow to such a power, equalling, if not surpassing, that
of the most successful nations of the earth — we can but
grieve, ay, sir, deeply grieve, that any one travelling
over any portion of the earth should be compelled to
say that the commercial flag of the United States had
been swept from the seas and was to be seen no more.
But, sir, I see in the mission of my friend, Mr. Burlin
game, and his associate ministers, the recovery of that
commercial prestige and power which we have lost. I
need not allude to the sad events which have led to
this change in the commercial power of the United
States. They are too well known, too deeply engraved
upon the hearts of all present, to need any reference
whatever. It was upon the Atlantic, sir, that we had
achieved our power, and where our commerce had sway,
��RECEPTION OF THE
60
and when the maritime nations of the old world, either
out of distrust of our own purposes, or jealous of our
power, seized a fitting opportunity for them, and an
unfortunate one for us, to sweep the American flag from
the seas, it seemed as if it were impossible for us ever
to recover our power. I don’t know that it is to be
expected, or that we shall ever regain our power there.
But the Atlantic Ocean is only a tenth part of the
surface of the globe, land and water. On the other
side of our continent, which we reach in a few days by
our railroads, we stand in view of the Pacific Ocean,
that covers one-third of the surface of the globe, land
and water ; that is controlled on the east by six or seven
or eight hundred millions of people, with a sufficient
number on this side, I think, to keep up our end of the
matter in our little portion, and with the friendly na
tions of Russia, China, Japan, and ultimately, perhaps,
of the Indies, we shall reinstate the commercial flag of
the United States and raise our power, prestige and
prosperity in that line of human enterprise to an ele
vation which the mind of man has never yet been able
to conceive. We may, sir, return the compliment which
has been paid to us by the European nations. And when
our fleets are fixed, and our flag planted upon the Pa
cific Ocean, sharing in the industry and the commerce
of these hundreds of millions of people, we may return
the compliment paid to us by our European friends, and,
as Grant did in Virginia, as Sherman did at Atlanta,
flank the enemy, and take possession of the field. And
this, sir, we do with the aid of this Embassy and that of
the great, intelligent and just people that it represents.
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
61
I remember, sir, reading in that most delicate, beau
tiful, and too short biography of Mr. Sheil, the Irish
barrister, an account of his tutor, of the Jesuit profes
sion, who, by the goodness of his nature, and ^the wis
dom of his intellect, had won the affections of this youth
ful student in the monasteries of Ireland. He says, (and
there is significance in the remark he makes,) that his
tutor was taken away from him without an instant’s pre
paration or notice. This Jesuit was ordered to Siberia,
with instructions to work his way into China by any
means in his power, for the purpose of giving to the
governments he represented the benefit of his discover
ies in that far-distant and little known land. This
shows what effort, what care, what pains have been
taken by the European nations to make themselves ac
quainted with the Chinese people. We, sir, have been
careless of these things; and that Providence which has
taken care of us in so many great trials has opened the
way to us for a greater advantage than the European
nations have ever yet acquired. These men, the Chi
nese — the representatives of four hundred millions of
people—come to us and offer to us their interest, their in
dustry and the profits of their commerce. They ask
nothing from us but the kindness and friendship which
we are ready to show to every nation. And I trust, sir,
that the American people and the American Govern
ment will not be unwilling to do whatever is necessary
to sustain the proffer of friendship which they have
made; that we shall be willing to say to the Chinese,
that, so far as moral influence goes, the integrity of their
nation shall be maintained, as we say to ourselves that
��RECEPTION OF THE
62
the integrity of our nation shall be maintained. Whether
it be against domestic or foreign foes, we will maintain
our power till this continent shall be all American and
our flag known, as heretofore, upon every sea.
Mr. Mayor and fellow citizens, not to trespass upon
your attention any farther, I will close with a sentiment,
which I could wish to have embodied in my speech, a
sentiment that reflects my own feelings, I trust may also
reflect your own judgment.
The Ministers and Associate Officers of the Chinese
Embassy of 1868. The representatives of the political
society of widely different periods of history, and politi
cal powers of opposite parts of the globe ; the agents of
a civilization whose mission it is to prevent the isola
tion and intervention of States, and establish the frater
nity of nations.t May God give them health, strength
and wisdom, and success commensurate with the masrnitude and justice of the great cause they represent.
The eighth regular toast.
“The Commercial Relations between China and the United States”
was responded to by Charles G. Nazro, Esq., President
of the Boston Board of Trade.
SPEECH OF CHARLES G. NAZRO, ESQUIRE.
Mr. Mayor: The topic upon which you have called
me to speak, is one which not only commends itself to
every merchant and every business man, but also finds a
response in the heart of every citizen of our land. We
have arrived, sir, at a new epoch in the affairs of the
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
63
world. Old prejudices are being overcome, and en
lightened minds are beginning to have control, where
heretofore, darkness has prevailed. The discoveries,
through modern science, of the forces of nature, have
rendered achievements practicable at the present day,
which, in times past, have been considered utterly im
possible. The power of steam and of electricity; the
improvement in machinery, and the increased facilities
and speed of transportation and of locomotion, .have
brought the distant countries of the world in close prox
imity ; and nations which before were separated by an
impassible wall of partition, are now brought together
as friends and neighbors. And this is only the first act
in the great drama, and we, who are upon the stage at
the present time, are only a small portion of the actors
who are to take a part in it.
Sir, there is more in this than appears upon the sur
face ; there is a depth of meaning which it is well for
us to ponder and understand. Who, sir, is competent
to foretell the future, who has imagination sufficiently
vivid to depict the effect of these new movements upon
the human race even for the next fifty years ? Already
do we see the great Empire of China, abounding as she
does in wealth, and containing one-third of the popula
tion of the globe, emerging from that state of isolation
in which she has been kept, and reciprocating with us,
and the other nations of the western world, overtures of
kind and friendly relations ; — and to-night we have as
guests her honored representatives; and soon will all
the nations of the earth be bound in the indissoluble
ties of friendship, Christian sympathy and love.
��RECEPTION OF THE
64
What then, sir, are the lessons we are to draw from
these events'? First, and naturally as a commercial
nation, we see enlargement of our commerce ; more ex
tended commercial relations with those distant empires ;
greater profit in trade and large pecuniary gain. And
I think, sir, at the present moment we can hardly esti
mate the great importance of this aspect of the subject.
But while all the world will be benefited, it“appears to
me that our own country will derive peculiar advan
tage. If we are true to ourselves, we shall take our
place in the front r^nk of nations. From our geograph
ical position, our Continent forms, as it were, a direct
highway between the nations of the east and those of
the west. We have youth, energy, natural advantages,
a virgin soil, mineral wealth, inland seas and rivers for
transportation, and every thing that goes to make up a
great country. But we must be true to ourselves. The
flag which we so much venerate and beneath whose folds
we feel so entirely secure from the assaults of foes from
abroad or traitsrs at home, must float without a spot or
blemish. Its azure field must be as pure as the etherial
heavens, of which it is the emblem ; its stars must be
as bright as the celestial luminaries which they repre
sent, and not a foul spot be allowed upon our escutcheon.
If our government in time of peril pledges its word in
good faith for the payment of money, that pledge must
be redeemed when the danger is passed — not in the
letter only, but in the spirit. Better, sir, pay the na
tional debt twice over, than by any mean subterfuge seek
to filch a single dollar from any one who has trusted to
the national honor; nor let us sanction in our govern-
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
65
ment acts, which, if performed by individuals, would
# expose them to the contempt of all honorable men.
If, then, we thus perform our duty to ourselves and
to the world, we may expect great advantages from
these commercial alliances. But, Mr. Mayor, important
as is this view of the subject — and we can hardly over
estimate it — there is a higher and nobler plane from
which to view it. We learn by it, that an unseen hand
is molding and guiding our destiny — and that we are
merely instruments in working out the great problem in
the divine government. We see that the nations of the
earth, drawn and directed by that Providence, are
seeking a closer and more friendly alliance with each
other, and that soon the sword will cease to be the
arbiter through which the national questions will be
« determined, but that mutual forbearance and Christian
courtesy will take its place; we see in it civilization
with all its ennobling and elevating influences spreading
further and wider; and we see that, following in the
track of our commerce, the Christian religion will flow in
copious streams; and that while we send our ships to
those shores laden with the rich products of our land,
they will also be freighted with the glorious gospel of
our blessed Redeemer; and notwithstanding unchristian
and wicked acts may have been done to the people of
those countries (although, so far as my knowledge
extends, our own country has not been guilty in this
particular), we may thus atone for the wrong, and be
instrumental in guiding them into the way of eternal
life.
Then, Mr. Mayor, if these views be correct, and if
9**
��RECEPTION OF THE
66
these results are to follow the present movement, should
we not thank God for it, not only as merchants, but as
philanthropists and Christians, and do all in our power
to promote it? I think, it is a matter of no small
significance that the present representative of the great
Empire of China is not a foreigner, who does not
understand our institutions, but one of own esteemed
fellow citizens ; and that while we receive him most
cordially in his official capacity, we also receive him as
a friend and neighbor, and bid him a warm welcome to
his home; and although the gentlemen associated with
him in the Embassy cannot be expected so fully to
appreciate- us as one of our own citizens, yet their
intelligence will compensate the want of experience;
and we trust, that when they return to their home, they
will bear with them kind remembrances of us, -and we
wish them God speed in their important mission.
Mr. Mayor, permit me, in closing, to offer as a
sentiment:
“ The friendly intercourse of nations. The aid to in
dustry, the promoter of civilization, and the handmaid
of religion.”
The Mayor then introduced Mr. Edwin P. Whipple to
respond to the ninth regular toast,—
“The Press.”
mr. whipple’s speech.
One cannot attempt, Mr. Mayor, to resp d here for
the press, without being reminded that the press and
��I
CHINESE EMBASSY.
67
the Chinese Embassy have been on singularly good
terms from the start. To record the progress, applaud
the object, extend the influence, and cordially eulogize
the members of that Embassy, have been for months no
inconsiderable part of the business of all newspapers ;
and if China anticipated us, by some five hundred
years, in the invention of printing, our Chinese guests
will still admit that, in the minute account we have
given both of what they have, and of what* they
have not, said and done, since they arrived in the coun
try, we have carried the invention to a perfection of
♦which they never dreamed — having not only invented
printing, but invented a great deal of what we print.
But, apart from the rich material they have furnished
the press in the way of news, there is something
strangely alluring and inspiring to the editorial imagi
nation in the comprehensive purpose which has prompt
ed their mission to the civilized nations of the West.
That purpose is doubly peaceful,^for it includes a two
fold commerce of material products and of immaterial
ideas. Probably the vastest conception which ever en
tered into the mind of a conqueror was that which was
profoundly meditated, and, in its initial steps, practical
ly carried out, by Alexander the Great. He was en
gaged in a clearly-defined project of assimilating the pop
ulations of Europe and Asia, when, at the early age of
thirty-three, he was killed — I tremble to state it here —
by a too eager indulgence in an altogether too munifi
cent public dinner ! Alexander’s weapon was force,
but it was at least the force of genius, and it was ex
erted in the service of a magnificent idea. His sue-
��RECEPTION OF THE
68
cessors in modern times have but too often availed
themselves of force divested of all ideas, except the
idea of bullying or outwitting the Asiatics in a trade.
As to China, this conduct roused an insurrection of
Chinese conceit against European conceit. The Chi
nese were guilty of the offence of calling the represent
atives of the proudest and most supercilious of all civil
izations, “ outside barbarians ” —illustrating in this that
too common conservative weakness of human nature,
of holding fixedly to an opinion long after the facts
which justified it have changed or passed away- It
certainly cannot be questioned that at a period which,
when compared with the long date of Chinese annals,
may be called recent, we were outside barbarians as con
trasted with that highly civilized and ingenious people.
At the time when our European ancestors were squalid,
swinish, wolfish savages, digging with their hands into
the earth for roots to allay the pangs of hunger, with
out arts, letters, or written speech., China rejoiced in an
old, refined, complicated civilization — was rich, popu
lous, enlightened, cultivated, humane — was fertile in
savans, poets, moralists, metaphysicians, saints — had in
vented printing, gunpowder, the mariner’s compass, the
sage’s rule of life — had, in one of her. three State re
ligions, that of Confucius, presented a code of morals
which, being as immortal as the human conscience, can
never become obsolete — and had, in another of her
State religions, that of Buddha, solemnly professed her
allegiance to that doctrine of the equality of men,
which Buddha taught twenty-four hundred years before
our Jefferson was born, and had at the same time vig-
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
69
orously grappled with that problem of existence which
our Emerson finds as insolvable now as it was then.
Well, sir, after all this had relatively changed, after
the . Western nations had made their marvellous ad
vances in civilization, they were too apt to exhibit to
China only their barbaric side — that is, their ravenous
cupidity backed by their insolent strength. We judge
for example, of England by the poetry of Shakespeare,
the science of Newton, the ethics of Butler, the religion
of Taylor, the philanthropy of Wilberforce; but wThat
poetry, science, ethics, religion or philanthropy wras she
accustomed to show in her intercourse with China?
Did not John Bull, in his rough methods with the Ce
lestial Empire, sometimes literally act “ like a bull in a
China shop ? ” You remember, sir, that “ intelligent
contraband ” who, .when asked his opinion of an
offending white brother, delicately hinted his distrust
by replying: “ Sar, if I was a chicken, and that man
was about, I should take care to roost high.” Well, all
that we can say of China is, that for a long time she
“ roosted high ” —withdrew suspiciously into her own
civilization to escape the rough contact with the harsh
er side of ours.
But, by a sudden inspiration of almost miraculous
confidence, springing from a faith in the nobler qualities
of our Caucasian civilization, she has changed her pol
icy. She has learned that in the language, and on the
lips, and in the hearts of most members of the English
race, there is such a word as equity, and at the magic
of that word she has eagerly emerged from her isolation.
And, sir, what we see here to-day reminds me that, some
��RECEPTION OF THE
70
thirty years ago, Boston confined one of her citizens in
a lunatic asylum, for the offence of being possessed by a
too intensified Boston “ notion.” He had discovered a
new and expeditious way of getting to China. “ All
agree,” he said, “ that the earth revolves daily on its own
axis. If you desire,” he therefore contended, “to go to
China, all you have to do is to go up in a balloon, wait
till China comes round, then let off the gas, and drop
softly down.” Now I will put it to you, Mr. Mayoi, if
you are not bound to release that philosopher from con
finement, for has not his conception been: realized ? —
has not China, to-day, unmistakably come round to us ?
And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gen
tleman at the head of the Embassy — a gentleman spec
ially dear to the press. Judging from the eagerness
with which the position is sought, I am lead to believe
that the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a hu
man being is, that he has once represented Boston in
the national House of Representatives. After such a
distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great,
must still show a sensible decline from political grace.
But I trust that you will all admit, that next to the hon
or of representing Boston in the House of Representa
tives comes the honor of representing the vast Empire
of China in “ The Parliament of man, the Federation of
the World.” Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr.
Burlingame may be better qualified than we are to dis
criminate between the exultant feelings which each
is caculated to excite in the human breast. But we
must remember that the population, all brought up on a
system of universal education, of the empire he repre-
��CHINESE EMBASSY.
71
scnts, is greater than the combined population of all the
nations to which he is accredited. Most Bostonians have,
or think they have, a “ mission but certainly no other
Bostonian ever had such a“ mission ” as he ; for it extends
all round the planet; makes him the most universal Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever
saw; is, in fact, a “ mission” from everybody to every
body, and one by which it is proposed that everybody
shall be benefited. To doubt its success would be to
doubt themoral soundness of Christian civilization. It
implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents
provided that Christian nations set a decent example of
Christian. Its virtue heralds the peaceful triumph of
reason over prejudice of justice over force, of humanity,
over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of all
over the selfish blindness of each, of the “ fraternity ”
of the great Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent
“ liberty ” of any one of them to despise, oppress, and
rob the rest.
Letters were received from a number of distinguished gentle
men whose engagements prevented their attendance at the ban
quet. Among others, from the Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
late Minister to the Court of St. James; the Hon. J. Lothrop
Motley, late Minister to the Court of Vienna; Prof. Louis
Agassiz, the Hon. Hugh McCulloch, the Hon. Wm. M. Evarts,
Bishop Eastburn, Bishop Williams, the Hon. Richard H. Dana,
Jr., the Hon. Henry Wilson, and the Hon. Wm. Claflin.
��OTHER ENTERTAINMENTS.
On Saturday, the twenty-second of August, the City Council
entertained the Embassy with an excursion in Boston Harbor,
in the United States Revenue Cutter “McCulloch.” At Fort
Warren the guests were received with a salute, and were con
ducted through the Fortress by Major A. A. Gibson, 3d U. S.
Artillery, commanding the post. The company afterwards vis
ited Deer Island, and inspected the City Institutions. After
partaking of a collation at that place they returned to the city.
On Monday following, Mr. Burlingame and his associates
were formally received and entertained by the Municipal au
thorities of Cambridge.
On Tuesday, the Embassy visited Lawrence, with the Boston
Committee of Arrangements, for the purpose of inspecting the
great manufacturing establishments in that city. A special train
was furnished by the President of the Boston & Maine Rail
road Corporation, which started at 10 o’clock, A. M. The
guests were shown through the Washington Woollen Mills and
the Pacific Cotton Mills. After partaking of a collation at the
Pacific Mills they returned to Boston.
On Wednesday, the Embassy were formally received by His
Excellency, the Governor, at the State House. The Indepen
dent Corps of Cadets, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel
John Jeffries, Jr., were drawn up in front of the building, and
saluted the distinguished visitors as they entered.
The Sergeant-at-Arms escorted them to the Council Chamber,
•
��RECEPTION OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY.
73
where the Governor welcomed the Embassy in the following
words: •
Your Excellencies : I welcome you to Massachusetts.
The objects of the mission which brings you hither find
a ready response in this Commonwealth, whose com
mercial relations with the country you represent have
been constant and friendly. Cushing, Parker and Bur
lingame went from our schools to their high and peace
ful work in ChinaI am glad that, coming from one of the ancient em
pires of the East, you are tarrying among us long
enough to observe something of the spirit and mode of
the civilization of the West. The traditions and cus
toms of the old world can take no harm from contact
with the active and aggressive life of the new. Your
nationality and ours ought to become assimilated in
fraternal feeling for the part they may bear in the future
of history.
Your chief, Mr. Burlingame, is no stranger in this
capital where his public life and distinction began. I
offer to him a special and personal greeting among the
friends of former days, of which die memory is stdl
fresh and pleasant to us alL
Mr. E-Lrizgase
as follows:
F^tr Ex'fMexqj: Permit me to thank you for dm
warm wekome, to thank you for the bes utiful language
m whxh it is expressed, to thank you for the high
in winch it m
This good-will we
ukt to be the driivn of the highest
k die
it
*
��li
RECEPTION OE THE CHINESE EMBASSY.
world in behalf of the mission on which we are here.
Massachusetts was the first to send out messengers of
peace, and to establish relations with China. May the
spirit in which she first established those relations con
tinue to the end! and I invoke the aid of all here to unite
in the effort we are making to realize the unification of
all the people. Thanking you, feeling deeply touched
by your personal allusions, I will bring my remarks to
a close, trusting that you may have all prosperity, and
that the Commonwealth over which you preside may be
prosperous also.
Mr. Burlingame then advanced, and taking the Governor’s
hand, said:
✓
I now grasp your hand in friendship, and I trust that
to you and to the people who are here, this grasp of
friendship will be continued to all ages.
*
The Embassy remained in Boston until the 2d of September,
and were entertained in an informal way by the Committee of
Arrangements, and by private individuals. They visited the
City Hall, the Institute of Technology, the Public Library, the
City Hospital and the Waltham Watch Factory. They were
also entertained by the Municipality of Chelsea.
On Wednesday morning, at 8| o’clock, they left Boston for
New York, in a special car attached to the regular train on the
Boston and Albany Railroad.
��
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The reception and entertainment of the Chinese Embassy by the City of Boston
Creator
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Boston (Mass.) City Council
Description
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Place of publication: Boston
Collation: 74 leaves ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Alfred Mudge & Sons
Date
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1868
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G5242
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International relations
China
USA
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China-Foreign Relations-United States
Conway Tracts
United States-Foreign Relations-China
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Text
We hold in our hand a volume printed on thin yellow-brown paper,
almost exactly the same size and thickness as a monthly number of the
CornliiU Magazine. Though equal in bulk, its weight is hardly one-half
that of the magazine ; and so thin is the paper, that the foreign book,
although printed only on one side of the sheet, contains about seventy pages
more than the English one. The writing runs from top to bottom of the
page, as is shown by the dividing lines between the columns. Neither the
arrow-headed inscriptions of Ninevite marbles, nor the hieroglyphics of
Egyptian papyri, present such an intricate puzzling appearance to the un
initiated eye as do these complicated characters j and yet they are more
familiar to our English vision than any other oriental writing ; indeed, we
may venture to say, than any other foreign language whatever. For there
can hardly be man, woman, or child in the British isles, certainly there can
be none among the four millions of London, who have not frequently gazed
at this strange character where it stares them in the face in every
grocer s window upon the sides of tea chests. Owing to its extreme dis
similarity to all other forms of writing, possibly the majority of these
gazers never imagine that what they see is intelligible written language,
but take it to be grotesque ornamentation, congruous to the willow-pattern
piate style of beauty.' Yet these queer-looking pages, with their endlessly
diversified combinations of crosses and squares, straight lines and
flourishes, curves and dots, picture forth to the instructed eye the
thoughts and feelings of a heart that ceased to beat thousands of years
ago, and a brain long since decomposed to join the dust of a land ten
thousand miles away, and that with no less precision than the columns of
the morning s Times, still damp from the press, reflect the ideas which
passed through the editor’s mind last night. If thought be but a mode
of matter in motion, our brain has been just now agitated by vibrations
first set in movement about two thousand three hundred years ago within
the skull of a black-haired, yellow-skinned Mongolian, who pondered the
mysteries of existence while he cultivated his rice-field, somewhere not far
from where the impetuous Hoang-ho turns its turbid rush from a southerly
direction eastward. It is curious to review the strange and various media,
along which the vibrations must have passed from his brain to ours. In
his age pen, ink, and paper were yet unknown. Either he himself, or
more probably his disciples after him, painfully scratched with a knife’«
point rude figures on the smooth surface of slips of split bamboo, to
record the memories of thoughts they would not willingly let die. As the
�LEIH-TSZE.
45
centuries rolled on, woven silk was substituted for the wood, and a brush
of hair took the place of the graving-tool. Later still this costly material
yielded to coarse paper made from the inner bark of trees, ends of hemp,
©r old fishing nets, and by and bye of the fibre of the very bamboo plant
which had afforded the earliest writing-tablets. Centuries before Guthenberg, Faust, and Caxton, this book of tea-chest symbols was once more
graven on wood, but now cut in relief on a block of pear-tree wood, from
which copies were printed off with ink made of lamp-black and gum.
Multiplied by the press, the book held a more secure tenure of existence,
though in a country where book-tvorms and white ants rapidly devour
neglected libraries, new editions must have been frequently issued to pre
serve the work for posterity. Originally the outcome of a human mind,
thinking and teaching amid poverty and obscurity, its author could hardly
have expected it to be remembered beyond the third or fourth generation,
yet here it is, after more than two millenniums, a standard book among
millions of reading men in Eastern Asia ; and at present it is putting in
motion the brain- cells of a red-haired stranger on the banks of the Thames,
and perhaps, by means of these pages, may awaken some interesting and
not altogether valueless trains of thought in the minds of English readers.
The catalogue of the imperial library of China, commenced by the eru
dite Lew Heang, and completed by his son Lew Hin about the commence
ment of the Christian era, enumerated and described upwards of eleven
thousand sections by more than six hundred authors. Three thousand
*
of these contained the classics and their commentators. The remainder
were classified under the heads of philosophy, poetry, the military art,
mathematical science, and medicine. Of this respectable amount of lite
rature by far the larger portion perished ages ago; the imperial library
itself, with nearly its whole contents, being reduced to ashes during an
insurrection in the generation succeeding the completion of the catalogue.
But this library of the two Lew was only a collection of the scattered and
charred fragments of a much larger antecedent literature ; a restoration by
means of new copies of half-legible tablets disinterred from their hidingplaces in gardens, or dug out of old walls, in dilapidated houses. Midway
between Leih-tsze’s time and the labours of the Lew family, occurred the
infamous attempt of that Chinese Vandal, Shih Hwang Te, the first Em
peror of China, to annihilate all literature, with slight exceptions, that
existed in his dominions, that is, throughout what was to him and his
people the whole civilized world. Leih-tsze lived in the feudal age of
China, when the area drained by the Yellow River, was divided into a
hundred petty kingdoms, dukedoms, and baronies, nominally owning
allegiance to one Suzerain, but practically independent. Two centuries
after his death, a Chinese Alexander the Great issued from the extreme
* The meaning of peen, translated “ section,” is uncertain. Originally a slip of
bamboo, it came to mean a chapter of a book, or a book. Probably it stands for sec
tion, or chapter, in the catalogue above referred to, as the authors hardly could have
written eighteen or nineteen works apiece.
�46
LEIH-TSZE.
west of that Eastern orbis terrarum, and welded all these states into one
great despotic empire. Inflated by an insane pride which could not brook
comparison with the mythic glories of the semi-fabulous hero-kings of an
tiquity, and irritated by the conservatism of the literati, who were to him
what the French Legitimists were to Napoleon the First, he resolved to com
mit to the flames every memorial of the past, in order that the history of hu
manity might begin with his reign. The attempt failed. Literature was too
widely spread, and the love of literature too deeply ingrained in the hearts
of the people, for the efforts of a tyrant to exterminate it, even though the
monster went to the length of burying alive four hundred and sixty learned
men who resisted his decrees. But only those books which possessed the
largest amount of inherent vitality could sustain so severe an assault.
Among these was this work of Leih-tsze. This suggests to us a remark of
some importance. Shih Hwang Te’s very objectionable form of biblio
mania was happily as exceptional in Chinese history as Khalif Omar’s
consignment of the library of the Ptolemies to heat the bath fires of Alex
andria was in Western history. But apart from any special and extraordi
nary attacks upon literature, every generation saw multitudes of books
perish in China, either through neglect, or in the catastrophes of fire, war,
or civil commotion. That this particular book should have survived from
the fourth century b.c. to the age of printing, of itself marks it out as
worthy of attention. The preface of the earliest extant commentator,
Chang Sham, who edited Leih-tsze in the fourth century a.d., gives an
interesting glimpse at the process of natural selection which was always
going on, preserving a few favoured volumes from the oblivion into which
numbers of other works continually lapsed. Chang Sham tells us, “I
have heard my father say that his father married a Miss Wong, one of
three sisters. Mr. Wong belonged to an old literary family which had a
passion for book-collecting, and had become possessed of a vast library.
The other Misses Wong also married scholars, and the three young men
vied with each other in transcribing rare books. When there ensued a
time of confusion in the reign of the Emperor Wai (a.d. 310), he and one
of his brothers-in-law fled southward, each one putting as many books as
he could into his baggage-waggons. The road, however, was long, and
frequent attacks of robbers diminished their load greatly; so he said to
the other, ‘We cannot save all the books, let us select the rarer ones to
preserve them from extinction.’ Among those which he himself chose for
preservation were the writings of Leih-tsze.”
The continued existence of an author through two thousand years o
literary vicissitudes, the earlier millennium of which was especially fatal to
literature, may not, perhaps, prove its superior fitness to survive, accord
ing to our estimate of fitness. But it indicates that the book was con
genial to the tastes, and interested the minds, of its preservers. We have
met with the complaint on the part of English readers of Chinese transla
tions, that “ they contain nothing new.” It would be strange, indeed, if
Chinese poetry, philosophy, or religion, should contain any ideas abso
�LEIH-TSZE.
47
lutely new to those who have inherited the wealth of Sanscrit and
Semitic, of Greek and Roman literatures, with all their offspring of later
date. The value of a work like this is not in the novelty of its contents,
but in the light it throws upon the development of the human mind
among a people entirely uninfluenced by our Western progress. We
should find great light would be thrown upon many interesting but difficult
questions in psychology if we could discriminate always between original
and imitative thought. Much which seems to us the purely spontaneous
operation of our minds is, no doubt, unconscious reproduction of what
has been first put into them from outside. If, however, we could enter
into communication with the inhabitants, supposing there to be such, of
Venus, Jupiter, and other planets, and upon comparison of the respective
conditions and developments of mind in each we should find that the
same dominant ideas and principles had manifested and established them
selves in other planets as in our own, our conviction that these ideas and
principles are not the artificial product of restless, baseless speculation,
but the natural and necessary effect of the interaction between mind and
the universe in which it works, would be greatly strengthened. The
mutual comparison which is impossible for us with those star-dwelling
neighbours of ours, we can obtain upon the surface of our own globe,
whenever impassable mountain-ranges, and vast breadths of stormy ocean,
have isolated any portion of mankind for a time sufficiently long to
permit the independent evolution of thought, and its being recorded in
literature. Whenever the time comes that science marks out our globe
into distinct areas of independent mental evolution, China will occupy a
prominent place, making one great division by itself, and affording in its
ancient, vast, unbroken stream of literature the richest materials for
comparison with the rest of the world. In this article we aim at nothing
more than to give the reader a glimpse into the thoughts of an ancient
thinker, some might say, dreamer rather, belonging to a long obsolete
school of Chinese philosophy.
Conclusive proof of the mental isolation, and, therefore, independence
of those old Chinese thinkers is derived from the extant literature itself.
This does not militate against the theory that the black-haired race,
which has almost obliterated the traces of earlier peoples in Eastern Asia,
originally immigrated into the country, probably in successive waves
separated by hundreds of years, from some part of Western Asia, taking
its long pilgrimage across the sterile plateau of Thibet, and following the
course of the Yellow River, until it founded its first permanent settlements
on its banks about seven hundred miles from the sea. These immigrants
may have brought with them the rudiments of writing, as they doubtless did
bring many oral traditions, and habits of thought already formed, or in
formation, before they bade a long farewell to the streams of humanity
which tended south and west. Something, therefore, we must allow them
as their original stock of mental furniture when they came into the land,
at an unknown distant date, two, three, or more thousands of years
�48
LEIH-TSZE.
That which was strongest and most durable of this primitive floating
stock of thought was crystallised in their most ancient books, called the
Classics. We can see in these earliest national records that already, when
they were first inscribed on the bamboo tablets, all memory of derivation
from the West had died out of the minds of the people ; and if a portion of
their contents came into China from beyond the Western mountains, the
earliest scribes had not the faintest sense of the fact. All Chinese litera
ture after this, for about a thousand years, is beyond suspicion purely
Chinese. Take our author for example ; the whole known world to him
extended only about three hundred miles east and west, and about half
that distance north and south. All beyond this region was wrapt in
Cimmerian darkness. On every hand a fringe of savage tribes surrounded
the very limited area of civilisation, through which not the faintest
rumour of what existed to the north and south had penetrated, while the
ocean to the east was but dimly known by vague report, and the great
mountain region to the west was the chosen abode of genii, deified men,
and celestial spirits. Confucius, Laou-tsze, Leih-tsze, Yang-Choo, and
all other leaders of thought in China for some centuries were either
original thinkers, or were indebted to their own national literature only,
not a trace of outside influence being discernible in their writings.
Leih-tsze is for us the name of a book rather than of a man. Unlike
the great national hero Confucius, whose disciples Boswellized before
Boswell, Leih-tsze’s personality has left so faint an impression on his
literary remains, that he has been taken by some Chinese critics for an
imaginary personage. This incredulity we may comfortably waive aside
on the high authority of the imperial catalogue of the reigning dynasty,
which discusses the question temperately and fairly, and decides that
there are no good grounds for doubting that there did live a man by name
Leih Yu-kow, [or, as literature quotes him, Leih-tsze, the philosopher
Leih, whose teachings were compiled into a book by his disciples, in the
form in which we now have it, barring some errors and interpolations
which have crept into the text. Beyond the bare fact of his existence in
the kingdom of Ch’ing, nearly central among the feudal states, about four
hundred years before the Christian era, we have only the most meagre in
formation about him. Though a light of the age, a pupil of distinguished
rabbis, and himself the revered master of a band of attached disciples, he
was neglected by Government, and lived in obscurity and poverty. Once,
indeed, he came into contact with the ruling powers, as the following
anecdote shows :—“ So poor was Leih-tsze, that he bore the traces of
hunger in his emaciated frame. A travelling scholar drew the attention
of the Prince of Ch’ing to this, saying, ‘ In your territory one of the
leading teachers of the age lives in extreme poverty; is it because you,
0 prince, do not love learned men ? ’ The prince immediately sent an
officer to carry relief to Leih-tsze. Leih-tsze came out to receive the
messenger, and with a double obeisance declined the gift. When he
went inside again, his wife taunted him with the reproach, ‘ I was told
b.c.
�LEIH-TSZE.
49
that a philosopher’s wife and children were sure to be well off. Here we
are all starving, and when the ruler sends us relief, you refuse it. This, no
cToubt, is an instance of the fate you are always preaching ! ’ (Leih-tsze
taught necessity and pooh-poohed free will. So his angry spouse seemed
to have him on the hip.) But he quietly rejoined, ‘ The prince only sent
his help in consequence of another man’s report; he has no personal
knowledge of me. Another day he will be listening to some one else’s
report, and finding me a criminal, that is why I declined the gift.’ ” These
philosophers were a proud, at least self-respecting, set, counting it shame
to be pensioners on royal bounty, unless royalty respectfully received
their admonitions. The narrative intimates that, in this case, Leih-tsze’s
independence of spirit saved his life during a revolution which succeeded.
We have a peep at the man inside the philosopher’s cloak in this next
incident. “ Leih-tsze started for Tsai, went half-way, and returned. A
friend asked, ‘ Why have you come back ? ’ ‘I was afraid,’ he replied.
‘What made you afraid ? ’ ‘On the road I stopped to get a meal at the
sign of “ The Ten Syrups,” and they presented me with a grand dinner.’
‘ What was there in this to frighten you ? ’ ‘ Truly it made me very un
comfortable. I thought that if my personal appearance won me such
reverence from a poor innkeeper, how much more would it make an
impression upon a monarch of ten thousand chariots, who would surely
employ me in Government, and ascribe merit to me. On this account I
was afraid.’ ‘Excellent,’ replied his mentor, ‘ I see you know how to
conduct yourself. You will come to honour.’ ” The popularity from
which the philosopher shrank, nevertheless, found him out and besieged
him in the form of a numerous band of disciples, who showed their
respect by taking off their shoes before entering his door. This, again,
we are told, is an illustration of destiny. Leih-tsze was to be famous,
and he became so, even against his will.
Though a few passing allusions give us all that we can glean of the
personal individuality of Leih-tsze, this book, supplemented by other con
temporary records, affords a very vivid picture of the state of society in
which he moved. We are apt to think that times so far anterior to our
own must still have retained lingering traces of primeval arcadian sim
plicity of thought and manners. But we are introduced by these pages
to a highly artificial state of civilization, which felt itself removed by
immense spaces of time from the youth of the world. Kings and nobles
feasted in their halls, rode out in four-horse chariots to the chase or the
battle; minstrels, jugglers, mechanicians crowded to their courts for
employment and reward. Ladies sighed in the harems, or plotted with
eunuchs to secure the advancement of their own children in place of the
legitimate heir. Travelling statesmen and philosophers wandered from
court to court with the latest recipe for establishing universal peace, and
bringing mankind under one sway. Below them all was the great mass
of the people engaged in trade, handicrafts, and the cultivation of the
soil, but liable to be called upon for military service, and frequently
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LEIH-TSZE.
suffering the calamities of war. In this highly complex condition of
society there were a few men who, instead of taking existence as they
found it, laboured to discover its secret, or to amend its conditions.
Some of these, by the fame of their learning or their wisdom, attracted
disciples around them, and thus established informal schools, where the
instruction was chiefly oral and by example, and in which keen debate
upon the principles of philosophy and ethics was frequent. Among such
self-constituted teachers Leih-tsze held a distinguished place, and to the
admiration of his disciples we owe this record of his doctrines from which
we will now present some specimens.
Mr. G. H. Lewes, after reviewing the history of philosophy from
Thales to Kant and Hegel, considers that he has abundantly proved the
barrenness of all metaphysics and the impossibility of ontology. These
conclusions we do not venture to dispute. His numerous examples from
Ancient Greece and Modern Europe might be paralleled by a third depart
ment in which the metaphysics of China should be exhibited, and India,
of course, would add a crowded fourth. This agreement in prosecuting
inquiries so inevitably barren seems to indicate an innate tendency in the
human mind to ask these questions, unanswerable though they be.
Granted that it is utterly impossible for man ever to extricate himself
from the great stream of phenomena of which he is himself part, and to
survey from the lofty altitude of absolute perception the realities of being,
which here he knows only in its relations, will he ever learn to be con-.
tented in his necessary ignorance ? A few thousands of generations more
may perhaps evolve a human race which shall be incapable of curiosity
about these profoundest speculations ; and the man of the future, having
thoroughly acquiesced in the hereditary conviction that truth is but the
order of ideas corresponding to the order of phenomena, may have ceased
even to scorn metaphysics as equivalent to inquiring about lunar politics,
because the very memory that once such contemplations possessed
irresistible fascination for the human mind shall have been long lost. If
so, the future will be very unlike the past and the present, and for our
selves we acknowledge that the vista of human progress thus opening out
before us does not seem attractive. Leih-tsze, however, lived in a meta
physical age, and in the very foreground of his philosophy we find
abstruse speculations upon the nature of being in itself. A bare transla
tion into English without explanatory notes would hardly be intelligible,
but we may select a few sentences to show the style. “That which
brings forth all things is not born; that which changes things is itself
changeless.
Spontaneously it lives, changes, takes form and colour,
knows, is strong, decays and dies. Yet if you say that it lives and
changes, has shape and hue, possesses knowledge and strength, is subject
to decay and death, you err.” Again : “ There are living things and a
cause of life; there is form, and a cause of form; there is sound
and a cause of sound; there is colour and a cause of colour;
there is flavour and a cause of flavour. That which life produces
�LEIH-TSZE.
51
is death, but the cause of life never comes to an end.
That which
form produces is substance, but the cause of form is immaterial.
That which sound produces is hearing, but the cause of sound is ever
inaudible. That which colour produces is beauty, but the cause of
colour is ever invisible. All these are functions of the Absolute.
*
It can
be male and female, yielding and rigid, short and long, square and
round, living and dead, hot and cold, sweet and bitter, stinking and
fragrant. It is without knowledge and without power, and it is omnis
cient and omnipotent.” All this seems the childish babbling of a
philosophy which has not grown up to manhood, and entered into
possession of a polysyllabic terminology for its ideas ; yet its meaning is
equivalent to Herbert Spencer’s fundamental proposition “ the origin of
all things is inscrutable.” It recognises the existence of that “ some
thing ” which is above, and behind, and in, all phenomena; which no
acuteness of observation can reach, no profundity of meditation can
fathom, but which we know is there. In this direction the latest
researches of modern science and the crude reflections of our Chinese
philosopher both come to a dead stop at exactly the same point.
How crude and fanciful the metaphysical speculations of Leih-tsze
were is apparent in the following imaginary dialogue :—“ King T‘ang asked
Hea-Kih, ‘Was there originally a time when nothing material existed?’
Hea-Kih replied, ‘ If originally there was nothing, whence have existing
things come from ? Will it be reasonable if some day posterity should
ask whether anything existed at this time ? ’ The King continued, ‘ Then is
there really no succession of events ? ’ Hea-Kih said, ‘ The succession of
things is infinite. Beginnings may be endings, and endings may be
beginnings. Who can discriminate them ? But as to that which exists
beyond all phenomena, and before all events, I am ignorant.’ ‘Then is the
universe without limit ?’ asked the monarch. ‘I know not,’ Hea-Kih
replied ; but when pressed for an answer, added : ‘ The non-existent is
infinite. Existence is finite. How do I know this ? It is involved in the
idea of the infinite. The infinite cannot have a greater infinite to bound it.
But as to what limits the finite, I confess my ignorance.’ T‘ang asked,
‘ What is the nature of being beyond the limits of our world ? ’ ‘ Just
like it is in the middle kingdom,’ was the answer. ‘ How know you that ?’
‘ Because,’ he replied, ‘ I have travelled east and west to the limits of civi
lisation, and everywhere I found things the same. At the extreme points
of my wanderings I inquired of the people, and they assured me that
they knew of nothing different beyond them. Thus I conclude that the
whole universe is alike.’ ”
If disposed to smile at the superficiality of these reasonings, yet one
must remember that whether we sound a bottomless ocean with a deepsea line or a pole, the result is the same ; in each case we fail to reach
* We must make apology to the sinologue for the audacity of this translation of
moo wei by the Absolute. Yet does it not approach nearer to the idea of the Chinese
than any other English expression ?
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LEIH-TSZE.
the bottom. Our Chinese used the longest line he had, and could do no
more, nor can we.
Leih-tsze’s philosophy of life was fatalism, yet fatalism of a peculiar
shade. He belonged to the school originated by the famous contemporary
of Confucius, Laou-tsze, the watchword of which was taou, “ the path/’
Confucius, too, believed in “ the path,” but his path was the path of duty,
the way of righteousness, following the higher instincts of our moral nature.
“ What Heaven has conferred is called the 'nature; an accordance
with this nature is called the path; the regulation of this path is called
instruction." It is much more difficult to grasp Laou-tsze’s and Leih-tsze’s
meaning when they speak of “ the path ” ; but this difference between
the rival schools is clear. Confucius fixed his mind exclusively on the
ethical side of human nature, while his opponents included in their idea
of “ the path ” not only the totality of human nature, but the totality of
the universe. One student of Taouism explains taou as the “ultimate
ideal unity of the universe.” [It is simpler to take “ the path” for what we
express by “ the course of nature,” only extending nature beyond physical
things to embrace gods and men, mind and matter, heaven and earth, and
all theii’ contents in one universal stream of being, all pervaded by one
uniting principle it is true, but that principle inscrutable to us, and
inseparable from the stream of existence itself. This infinite march of
events moves on of itself in its own irresistible current; it is folly to
struggle against it, wisdom to resign ourselves to be borne along by the
stream whithersoever it tends. “ The Emperor Shun asked Ching : ‘ Can
I attain to the possession of ‘1 the path ” ? ’ ” (Tuott here stands for the inner
secret of being, the reality behind appearances, and perhaps might be
rendered by “ the truth.”) “ Ching replies to him : ‘ Your body is not your
own, how can you acquire and possess taou ? ’ Shun said, ‘ If my body
is not my own, whose is it ? ’
‘ It is a form entrustedto you by Heaven
and Earth,’ was the answer.
‘ Life is not yours. It is a harmony
entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth. Your nature is not yours, it is
a concord entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth. Your children and
grandchildren are not yours. They are new forms entrusted to you by
Heaven and Earth. When you move, you do not know whither you are
going; when you are at rest, you know not what you are grasping. The
very food you eat is made by Heaven and Earth to nourish you, you
know not how. Why should you talk of attaining to the possession of
anything ? ’ ”
In the sixth chapter we have an amusing discussion between fate and
free-will personified. What we call free-will is represented by Mr. Effort,
who challenged Mr. Fate thus : “ How can you compare your merits with
mine ? ” Fate retorted : “ What are these merits of yours which you wish
to compare with me ? ” Effort replied : “ Long life and early death,
failure and success, honour and obscurity, riches and poverty, all depend
upon me.” Fate said : “ Pang-tso .was not wiser than the sages Yau
and Shun, yet he lived to be eight hundred years old. Ngan Uen’s
�LEIH-TSZE.
53
talents were not mediocre, yet he died at thirty-two. Confucius virtue
was not inferior to that of the princes of his day, yet he wandered about
in poverty. The tyrant Chow’s morality was not better than that of the
three sages, yet he enjoyed the royal seat. If these things are your work,
Mr. Effort, why do you confer long life, riches, and honours upon the bad,
and accumulate misfortune on the good ?
Effort replied : ‘ Accoiding
to what you say, I have no merits at all. But that things happen so con
trary is your arrangement, not mine.” Fate answered : “ Since you say
Fate does these things, why talk about their being arranged so ? Crooked
and straight are all the same to me. All things are what they are of
themselves. How can I know anything about it ? ”
The sentimentalism of Xerxes weeping at his grand review would
have met with small sympathy from a Taouist, as the following anecdote,
told by Leih-tsze, shows
“ The King of Tsai, returning from a journey,
came in sight of his capital from the northern hills and burst into tears,
saying, ‘ Beautiful, beautiful, is my royal city ! So stately and spacious,
yet I must leave it and die ! If I were to live for ever, I should never
wish to quit this place and go elsewhere.’ His courtiers wept with him,
saying, ‘ Our food and clothing, our chariots and horses, are poor com
pared with yours. Yet we, too, are unwilling to die, how much more
reason have you to dislike the prospect 1 ’ One among them, however, only
sniiW. The king, observing this, ceased to weep, and demanded of him
why he alone smiled when all the others sympathised with their master’s
grief? The philosopher replied: ‘If virtuous rulers never left their
thrones, T’ae Kung and Hwan Kung would be always reigning. If valiant
Tn An never died, Chong Kung and Ling Kung would constantly occupy
the royal seat. If these monarchs had not vacated the throne, you, my
prince, would to-day be clad in mats and tilling the ground. You owe
your occupancy of the throne to the mutations of life and death.
This same doctrine of fatalism rudely jostles against an Englishman’s
conceptions of providence in our next illustration. Listen to this.
“ Mr. Tien made a great feast in his hall, and sat down among a
thousand guests to the banquet. While the waiters were bringing in fish
and wild geese, Mr. Tien heaved a sigh and said, How generous is
Heaven to man I For our use the corn grows ; for us the waters yield fish,
and birds fly in the air.’ The guests re-echoed these sentiments; until
a boy of twelve years old stepped forth and said, ‘ Not so, my lord. All
things in heaven and earth live by the same right as ourselves. The
large prey upon the small; the strong and intelligent eat the stupid and
weak. It is not that they are made for each other. Man takes what is
eatable and eats it. Why should you think that Heaven produced things
for man’s sake ? Mosquitoes bite man’s skin, and tigers devour his flesh.
Did Heaven produce men for the mosquitoes and tigers ? ’ ”
Fate rules all ; or, since there can be no such conscious intelligence
in fate as the word “ rules ” suggests, all things are by fate. But this
conviction does not interfere with human activity, A considerable part of
�54
LEIH-TSZE.
Leih-tsze’s teaching is devoted to illustrate the power of mind over
matter. Laying hold of such facts as the immense superiority in feats of
skill, driving four-in-hand, swimming, rowing, archery, and music, and
handicrafts, which is attained by unremitting practice, concentrated atten
tion, utter fearlessness, and freedom from self-consciousness, our author
seems to push them to the extreme of believing that man may possibly
attain, by a still higher degree of abstraction, to an omnipotent command
over material forces. Many of his tales, which have the appearance of
extravagant credulity, may perhaps be intended to convey an allegorical
meaning. We read of men who could ride upon the wind, walk through
fire, over water, and even through solid rocks as through empty space.
These marvellous stories, perhaps, only clothe in fables the philosopher’s
conviction of the power of wisdom and virtue to render the soul independ
ent of the shocks and changes of external circumstances. These mystical
utterances, however, lack the clue needed for their interpretation, and we
are never sure whether Leih-tsze is credulous himself, or playing upon human
credulity, or veiling some subtle meaning under his marvellous narratives.
A few of these tales occupy a border-land between fact and fiction. Here
is one which embodies a notion common enough among ourselves, that
there is a wonderful power in faith, apart altogether from the reality of
what is believed. “ Tsze Wa was a favourite with the Prince of Tsun.
Those whom he patronised were ennobled ; those whom he spoke against
were degraded. Two guests of his on a journey passed the night at a
farm-house. The old farmer, by name Yau Hoi, overheard them con
versing about the power of life and death, riches and poverty, possessed
by Tsze Wa. The farmer, who was grievously poor, drank in all their
words, and on the morrow went into the city and found his way to Tsze
Wa’s door. Tsze Wa’s disciples were all men of good birth, used to dress
in silk and ride in carriages, to walk with a stately step, and look about
them with a lofty air. When they saw Yau Hoi, a weak old man with a
dirty face and untidy clothes, come into the school, they despised him,
and amused themselves by making game of him and pushing him about.
Yau Hoi exhibited no sign of anger. Presently Tsze Wa led them up to
the top of a lofty tower, and cried out, ‘ I’ll give a hundred pieces of silver
to any one who will throw himself down.’ All of them eagerly responded,
and Yau Hoi thinking they were sincere, determined to be first, and threw
himself over. He clave the air like a bird, and alighted upon the ground
without a broken bone. Tsze Wa thought he had escaped by chance. So
he again pointed to a deep pool in the river and said, 1 Down there is a
precious pearl: dive and you will get it.’ Yau Hoi again complied;
dived into the flood, and when he came up, he had really got a pearl.
The spectators then began to suspect something extraordinary ; and Tsze
Wa ordered that food and clothing should be prepared to present to him.
Suddenly a great fire was discovered in Tsze Wa’s treasury. Tsze Wa
exclaimed, ‘ If any one dare venture in, he shall have whatever treasure
he rescues as his reward.’ Yau Hoi entered calmly, and came out again
�LEIH-TSZE.
55
unsoiled and unhurt. Then every one thought he possessed a magic
charm. They crowded round to do him reverence, apologising for their
former rudeness, and begging for his secret. Yau Hoi said, ‘ I have no
secret. I myself do not know how it was done ; but I will try to recount
it to you. Last night Tsze Wa’s guests lodged at my house, and I over
heard them praising Tsze Wa’s power of life and death, riches and poverty,
nnd I perfectly believed it. When I came here, I took all your words to
be true, and only feared lest I should not perfectly trust them and act
them out. I was unconscious of my bodily frame, and knew no fear.
Now that I know you have deceived me, I tremble, and wonder at what I
have gone through. I consider myself lucky that I was not burnt or
drowned. Now I shake with fear, and I shall never dare to approach fire
or water again.’ From this time forward, if Tsze Wa’s pupils met a
beggar or a horse-dealer on the road, they did not dare to be rude to him,
but stopped and bowed.” This represents the power of faith as inherent
in itself. There is another view of faith which regards its efficacy as not
in itself, but in its appeal to a higher Power. Leih-tsze was no theist,
and he was so careless of the national objects of worship that they are
hardly alluded to in his pages. Yet he gives us a story which will convey
to many minds a meaning far beyond his own. “A stupid countryman,
ninety years of age, had his dwelling on the northern slope of a lofty
mountain-range, two hundred miles long and ten thousand cubits high.
One day he was struck with the thought that a road to the south was emi
nently desirable, so he called his family together and proposed to level
the precipices, and make a road through to the southern waters. His
wife remonstrated, hinting that the old man’s strength would not suffice to
demolish a hillock, let alone those great mountains. But the old man
was not daunted, and leading on his son and grandson, the three of them
began to pick and dig, and to carry away the stones and earth in baskets,
and an old widow sent her child of seven years old to help them. Winter
and summer they toiled away, and after a whole year seemed to be where
they began. A shrewd old grey-beard mocked their slow progress ; but
the stupid countryman replied with a sigh, ‘ Your heart is not so intelli
gent as that of this widow’s feeble child. Although I am old, and shall
die, I have a son, and he has a son; these will have children and grand
children. My posterity will go on multiplying without end, and the
mountain will not grow bigger. 'What is to prevent our levelling it ?/
The old man had nothing to say, but the spirit which presides over
snakes heard what was said, and fearing that the work would not stop,
reported the matter to God.
God was affected by their sincerity, and
commanded two genii to remove the mountains, shifting one to the east,
and another to the south, so as to open a pass to the river Han.”
In that last reference to God, Leih-tsze does but for a moment borrow
the language of the ancient creed which he usually lost sight of in his
speculations. On the subject of immortality he seems to have speculated
much, and at times to have indulged some faint hope of existence beyond
�56
LEItl-TSZE.
the range of present vision. “ Once on a journey he sat down with a
group of his disciples to take a meal by the road-side. One of the
company saw a skull, bleached with age, half hidden by the grass; he
pulled the long grass aside and pointed to it. Leih-tsze said to his disciple
Pak-fung, ‘ Only he and I know, and are independent of life and death.’ ”
But his utterances on this are indistinct, and rather point to an absorption
into an infinite substance than continued conscious individuality. “ The
living, according to nature, must end. The pure spirit-essence is
Heaven’s part, the bodily framework is Earth’s part. When the spirit
essence leaves the form, both return to their true state. From birth to
death man has four great changes, childhood, youth, old age, and death.
In childhood his physical nature is simple, and his will is not divided,
which is the perfection of harmony. External things cannot injure him,
and his virtue is complete. In manhood his passions change like the
wind and overflow like a flood. His desires and anxieties arise in abund
ance. External things fight against him, therefore his virtue declines.
In old age his desires and anxieties become feeble, and his body is near
its rest. External things do not occupy the first place. Although it does
not reach the completeness of childhood, it is superior to middle age. In
death he attains to rest, and returns to its extreme limit.” The Taouist
philosophers are never tired of aiming a blow at Confucianism, and thus
the great sage is made to figure sometimes in ridiculous situations. In
the next extracts there is probably a covert attack on the melancholy
which overshadowed the life of Confucius, and wrapt his end in gloom.
“ Confucius roaming about the Tai mountain, saw Wing K’ai Ki walking
in the fields, dressed in a deer-hide, with a bit of rope for his girdle,
striking his guitar and singing. He asked him, ‘ Sir, what makes you so
joyful ? ’ K’ai Ki replied, ‘ I have many reasons for joy. Of all things
Heaven has made, human beings are most noble, and I have been made a
human being; that is one reason for joy. Men are more honourable
than women, and I was made a man ; this is a second cause for joy.
Some men are born and die before they are out of the nurse’s arms, but I
have gone along for ninety years ; that is a third cause for joy. Scholars
are always poor, and death is the end of man. Why should I regret
being as others and coming to my end ? ’ Confucius exclaimed, ‘ Capital 1
you know how to be magnanimous.’ ” Another of these refreshingly
contented spirits meets us in the following :—“ LamLu, when a hundred
years old, was gleaning in his patrimonial fields, clad only in a sheep
skin, and he sang as he went along. Confucius saw him from a distance,
and said to his disciples, ‘ That old man is worth speaking to, go and
question him.’ Tsze Kung requested leave to go. Encountering him on
a hillock, he looked him m the face, sighed, and said, ‘ Sir, have you not
yet any regrets that you go on singing as you glean ? ’ Lam Lil neither
stopped walking nor singing. Tsze Kung kept on asking, until he looked
up, and replied, ‘ What should I regret ? ’ Tsze Kung said, ‘ In youth you
failed in diligence, in manhood you did not struggle with the times,
�57
LEIH-TSZE.
now you are old you have neither wife nor child; death’s appointed
day is near; what occasions for joy can you have that you should
sing as you glean ? ’ Lam Lu smiled and said, ‘ All men share in
my causes for joy; but they, on the contrary, take them for sorrows ;
because when I was young I did not work hard, and in my manhood
I did not struggle with the times, therefore I have attained to this green
old age. Now I am old, because I have neither wife nor child, and
death’s appointed day is near, therefore I rejoice like this.’ Tsze Kung
replied, ‘ It is natural to man to love long life and to dislike death;
how is it that you take death to be a cause for joy ? ’ Lam Lil said,
‘ Death and life are but a going forth and a returning, therefore when I
die here, how do I know that I shall not live there ? And how do I know
that planning and craving for life is not a mistake ? Also, how know I
that for me to die now is not better than all my previous life ? ’ Tsze
Kung heard, but did not understand what he meant; so he went back and
told the Master. The Master said, ‘ I knew he was worth speaking to,
and so it has proved. But though he has got hold of the thing, he has
not got to the bottom of it.’ ”
Live without care, die without fear; such was our author’s philosophy
of life. When we compare his ethical teaching with that of his great
predecessor Laou-tsze, five or six generations before, we are struck with
the marked degeneracy of his moral tone. In his Taou Teh King, the
founder of the Taouist sect, despite his sphinx-like style, impresses us
with a sense of his profound moral earnestness. Though Laou-tsze dis
sented altogether from the Confucian system, nevertheless we see in him
an eager yearning for perfection, a pensive sadness in the contemplation
of human follies and crimes, a positive inculcation of personal virtue,
which draw out our hearts towards “ the old philosopher.” Confucius
was the stern practical reformer like Calvin, whom we rather admire than
love ; while Laou-tsze possesses the attractive power of the mystic Tauler.
It would be utterly unjust to attribute to the founder of Taouism the
moral aberrations of his successors, even though we can detect in his
teachings the germ of the subsequent evil development. For if we can
detect it, he could not, and we cannot doubt that his devotion to virtue
was as sincere as his conception of it was beautiful. If called upon to
express the guiding principle of his moral teachings by one word, we
shall not be exalting it above its intrinsic merits by choosing that noblest
of words, self-abnegation. Not that he in the dim light of heathenism
could see all that that word now implies to us in the clear light of our
Christianity. The passive side of self-abnegation was more evident to
him than the active. But amid the confused noises of a distracted world,
the shock of battles, the intrigues of courts, the restless contentions for
honour and advancement of the officials and scholars, the fierce pursuit of
wealth by the merchants and artizans, Laou-tsze distinctly heard a still
small voice, summoning him, and through him mankind, to the calm serenity
of a life freed from selfish desires, devoid of covetousness, envy, and ambiVOL. XXX.—NO. 175.
4.
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LEIH-TSZE.
tion, strong in acknowledged weakness, and victorious over pride and
violence by the might of meekness and humility. To him the type of
perfect goodness was water; “ water which is good to benefit all things,
while it does not strive, but runs to the place which all men disdain.”
The defects of his conception are manifest to us, though while yet untested
by experience he may well have failed to perceive them. He disliked
political reformers, because in them self-exaltation mingled with their
desire to reform the world. He disliked preachers of morality, because
their labours were an indication of, in a sense, the result of, the loss of
morality. He disliked an artificial state of society, because it abounded
in temptations to pride, covetousness, and deceit. This antagonism to
effort, led him into the extreme of depreciating even effort for self-improve
ment. He appeared to entertain a vague hope that if men would only let
themselves alone, strive for nothing, not even for goodness, the great Taou,
that ineffable, inexplicable something, too mysterious to have even a name,
would itself flow through the channels of the human heart, and bear the
life along in the right direction. With all this exaggeration of his favourite
precept “ do nothing,” his own personal attachment to virtue was sincere
and supreme ; and doubtless, while he continued to influence his own
philosophy, this loyalty to virtue endured among his followers.
Leih-tsze lived near two centuries later, and in his teachings the
earnest moral purpose of Taouism has given place to a licentious indifferentism. Here and there, indeed, we come across some lingering echoes
of the traditional admiration for meekness and humility, but for the most
part the philosopher is so lost in contemplation of the mystery of existence
that he has not a spare thought left for these particular phenomena, virtue
and vice. He is much more interested in the question whether man may
not, by the power of abstract contemplation, penetrate into the secret of
existence, and gain a superhuman control over natural forces. He still
holds theoretically that the riches, power, and fame of the world are all
delusive appearances, and that to be free from appetites, and passions,
and self-assertion, is “the path;” but he -has ceased to entertain the
slightest hope that out of this doctrine will ever come a moral renovation
of the world. Indeed, he suspects now that the distinctions of virtue and
vice are themselves but delusive imaginations, as much as the pomps and
vanities of life which his leader eschewed. One can hardly read the
following specimens of his teaching without a shudder of disgust:—
“ Tsze Ch‘an * became Prime Minister of Ch'ing, and had sole authority
in the Government. Within three years he brought the whole kingdom
into a state of order. The good gladly submitted to his sway, and the
bad obeyed his laws from fear. But his own brothers, Ch‘iu and Muk,
were addicted to vicious pleasures ; Ch‘iu loved wine, and Muk loved
women. A thousand jars of wine stood in Ch‘iu’s cellar, and heaps of
grain in his barns. When one passed his door at the distance of a
hundred paces, the smell of distillation filled the nostrils. In his drink
* A disciple of Confucius, and one of his personal attendants.
�LEIH-TSZE.
59
ing bouts Ch'iu forgot politics and morals, riches and poverty, friends
and relatives, care of life and fear of death. Although the house were on
fire, or swords clashing in his very face, he would know nothing about it.
In Muk’s harem were scores of concubines, selected for their youth and
beauty; and at times he would shut himself in the inner apartments for
three months together, not at home to his nearest relative or dearest
friend. His emissaries haunted the whole country-side in search for
lovely maidens, whom gold might tempt to enter his harem. Tsze Ch‘an
grieved over his brothers’ ill-conduct night and day, and at last secretly
consulted Tang Sik about it. ‘ I have heard,’ said he, ‘ that a man
must first of all regulate himself, next his family, and then the kingdom,
proceeding from the near to the distant. Now I have brought the
kingdom under government, but my own family is disorderly; this is
contrary to “ the path.” Tell me, I pray you, how I may save my brothers.’
Tang Sik replied, ‘ I have been wondering at it for a long time, but was
afraid to speak about it. Why, sir, do you not find some opportunity of
instructing them in the importance of following one’s (moral) nature, and
according with (Heaven’s) decree, and also of alluring them by setting
before them the high esteem which attends upon the practice of propriety
and righteousness ? ’
“ Tsze Ch'an took Tang Sik’s advice, and went to visit his brothers;
and began his instructions by saying, ‘ Man’s superiority to the brutes con
sists in intelligence and forethought. Intelligence and forethought produce
the rules of propriety and righteousness. Propriety and righteousness
lead to fame and office. If you act upon the incentives of your passions,
and abandon yourselves to wine and lust, you imperil your own lives.
Listen to a brother’s words, and if you repent in the morning, before
night you shall receive a government appointment.’ Ch‘iu and Muk
replied, ‘ Long ago we attained to knowledge, and made our choice; do
you suppose we waited for you to come and teach us before we could un
derstand ? Life is not easy to get, but death comes of itself. Who
would think of wasting a life so hard to get, by spending it in watching for
a death which comes so easily ? And as to caring for proprieties and
righteousness, in order that we may brag over others, and doing violence
to our own natures, in order to win an empty name, in our view this
would be worse than death itself. All we wish is to exhaust the joys of
life, and seize the pleasure of the present moment. Our only grief is that
our physical capacity for pleasure is so small, we have no leisure to sorrow
over loss of reputation or danger to life. If you are so puffed up by your
political success, as to think of leading our minds astray by the seductions
of glory and official salary, we think it mean of you and pitiable. Now
we will tell you the difference. External government, however clever, is
not certain of success, and inflicts suffering upon people. Internal go
vernment never leads to disorder, and men joyfully conform to nature.
Your external government barely gets a temporary success in one small
kingdom, and after all does not accord with the hearts of the people. Our
4—2
�60
LEIH-TSZE.
internal government may be applied to the whole world, and then kings
and statesmen will have no more to do. We have long been wishing to
teach you our doctrine, and do you on the contrary bring your doctrine to
teach us ! ’ Tsze Ch'an was dumfoundered, and departed without a word.
Next day he reported the interview to Tang Sik. Tang Sik said, ‘ You,
sir, have been living with perfect sages, and you did not know it. Who
will say that you are wise ? The good order of the kingdom is an
accidental circumstance, not to be imputed as merit to you.’ ”
This licentious creed was the deliberate choice of Taouism ; though of
course Taouists used to the full our grand human liberty of inconsistency,
and by no means carried out their principle either to its full logical or
practical consequences. Still it remains a fact, that for a space, if only a
brief space, philosophy in China rejected morality, and exalted licentious
ness to the dignity of a religion. As a natural result Taouism rapidly de
generated, and at the same time lost its hold upon the people. If in their
lifetime Laou-tsze held his banner of spontaneity bravely aloft, and Confu
cius waged a desperate but hardly equal strife under the standard of rigid
self-discipline, the two teachers were in their hearts fighting on the same
side, to reclaim a lost world to truth and virtue. But while the Confucianists remained staunch to this double object of pursuit, truth and
virtue, the Taouists thought they perceived an inconsistency between
them, and chose truth rather than virtue. The complete victory of Con
fucianism along the whole line is a fact worthy of our consideration.
Confucius was the prophet of conscience, not only grasping tenaciously
the truth of the moral supremacy of conscience, but believing most
devoutly in its divine origin, and his own divine mission to defend its
rights, and also that there could not be salvation for humanity except in
obedience to its behests. In his lifetime he fought an Ishpaaelitish con
flict, a guerilla warfare for his sacred faith. Every man’s hand seemed
against him, apd it was as much as he could do to live with his principles,
though the life of a wanderer from one city to another, from one kingdom
to another people. After his death his disciples fought for his truth like
soldiers combating desperately over the corpse of their dead leader, and
still for generations the battle seemed to hang in the balance. But at last
the victory was achieved, and it was final and glorious. Conscience
proved its own supremacy, by putting these doctrines of natural licence to
disgraceful rout. Now, and for these thousand years and more, that be
wildering attempt of Leih-tsze’s to confuse the distinctions between right
and wrong has seemed as strange and unnatural to the Chinese mind as
it seems to our own. The sect continued, but as a small minority of the
nation, a minority given over to idolatry, superstitious arts, magic,
alchemy, the philosopher’s stone, and the elixir of life. But the name of
Taou has never lost its potency in China, and for centuries it has been
united with Confucianism and Buddhism as a member of the trinity of
philosophies. At the parting of the ways, whei’e the doctrine of nature
and spontaneous life diverged from the doctrine of virtue and stern self
�LEIH-TSZE.
61
discipline, the nation bade farewell to the dreamy mysticism of Laou-tsze,
to follow the banner of Confuciu's and conscience. Yet a memory of the
sweetness and serenity of those earlier musings lingered long in the
national mind, preserving the ancient doctors of Taou from oblivion and
their writings from contempt. They appealed to our nature on one side,
and they had glimpses of one side of truth also, and although we rejoice
in the clear victory of the teacher of righteousness and benevolence, as a
notable instance of the survival of the fittest in the mutual struggle for
life of the philosophies, we acknowledge that the far-off echoes of ancient
Taou sound a note, an under-tone of which can be detected in many
quarters, even in our modern Christian England.
There is a vein of humour in Leih-tsze which enlivens with a genial
light some of his shrewd observations of human nature ; and though he
fails to smite at vice with the trenchant blade of moral faith, he manifests
a visionary longing for a happier state in which vice is not. With a few
extracts illustrative of these traits, we will close this notice of him.
‘ ‘ In the state of Ki there was a man who was anxious lest heaven and
earth should fall to pieces and he have no place to lodge his body in. He
could neither eat nor sleep from anxiety. And there was another who
was anxious about his distress and went to enlighten him. ‘ The heaven
gathers air,’ he said, ‘ and there is no place which is not full of air: sun,
moon, and stars are only collected air which contains light; even if they
could fall they would do no harm.’ His pupil said, ‘ Suppose the earth
should break, what then ? ’ ‘ The Earth,’ replied his mentor, ‘ is an ac
cumulation of clods, packed close together on all sides. You may go
about the whole day treading and trampling on the earth without any fear
of its breaking.’ His hearer rejoiced like a released prisoner, and the
teacher rejoiced in sympathy with him. But Chang Lo heard it and said
with a smile : ‘ Rainbows and clouds, wind and rain, sky and mountains,
seas and rivers, metals and stones, fire and wood, are all but forms of
matter in combination. Who says they will not be destroyed ? A little
thing like man in the midst of the vast universe may think it
indestructible, and to trouble ourselves about such a remote contingency
is needless. But heaven and earth will inevitably be destroyed, and if
you encountered that time, how could you help being anxious ? ’ Leih-tsze
heard and smiled, saying : ‘ It is equally erroneous to say that the universe
will be destroyed, and to say that it will not be destroyed. We are
unable to determine it either way. Life does not know death, and death
does not know life. Why should I trouble my mind about the permanency
of the universe ? ’ ”
“ Yang Choo was travelling through Sung, and came to an inn. The
inn-keeper had two wives, one of whom was pretty and the other was
ugly. He esteemed the ugly one and slighted the pretty one. Yang Choo
asked the reason. The inn-keeper replied : ‘ That pretty one thinks herself
pretty, but I do not perceive her beauty. The ugly one thinks herself
ugly, but I do not perceive her lack of comeliness.’ Yang Choo said to
�62
LEIH-TSZE.
his disciples : ‘ Remember this; if you act virtuously without attributing
the merit of it to yourself, where will you go without being loved ? ’ ”
“ When the great Yu was regulating the waters, one day he lost his
way, and wandered into a country on the northern shore of the North
Sea, he knew not how many times ten thousand miles from China. In *
that land was neither wind nor rain, frost nor dew, nor did he meet with
any kinds of animal or vegetable life. On all sides the ground was per
fectly smooth, only gently rising in elevation in the centre. A vase-shaped
mountain rose in the middle of that country, with a circular orifice on
the summit, from which a fountain issued, called the spiritual fountain.
Its fragrance was sweeter than rose-gardens or cinnamon groves, and its
taste was more exquisite than that of the finest wine. From one source it
divided into four channels and flowed down the mountain, meandering
through the whole land and watering every corner of it. The climate was
serene, perfectly free from malaria. The people who lived there were of a
gentle disposition and in harmony with their external circumstances. No
strife nor violence marred their peace. Their hearts were tender and their
frames were soft. They were innocent of pride and envy. Old and
young dwelt together, and they had neither prince nor official among
them. Men and women wandered about in company, and they employed
no match-makers, sent no marriage presents. They dwelt on the banks of
the stream, and needed not to plough and sow. The climate was so
genial that they did not weave nor wear clothes. They lived to be a
hundred years old; premature death and disease being unknown among
them. The population was always increasing, till it was innumerable ;
and enjoyed perpetual felicity, ignorant of decay, old age, grief and
hardship. Delighting in music, the voices joining harmoniously in song,,
ceased not throughout the day. If hungry or weary they drank of the
spiritual fountain and their strength and spirits were restored to their
normal condition. Too deep a draught intoxicated, and then they slept
for a week without waking. When they bathed in the spiritual fountain
their skin became glossy and the fragrance exhaled for a week. When
King Muh of Chau entered that kingdom he tarried there for three years
without a thought of home. On his return to his royal palace he was
plunged in profound melancholy, refused food and wine, and all the
delights of his harem, and several months passed before he recovered.”
“ A man in the East, while on a journey, was reduced by starvation,
and lay dying by the road-side. A celebrated highwayman passed that
way, and, pitying him, dismounted, and put a bottle to his lips. After
three sucks the dying man revived, and opened his eyes. Seeing his
deliverer bending over him, he inquired his name, and being told, ex
claimed, ‘ Are not you the famous robber ? What induced you to give
me drink ? I am an honest man, and cannot receive food from you.’
Thereupon he beat the ground with his arms and tried to vomit, gasped
and gurgled in his throat, fell back, and expired. But if the man was a
robber, his drink had not committed theft. How strangely men confuse
�LEIH-TSZE.
63
**
things.
This is a satire upon certain well-known anecdotes of Confucian
worthies, whose unbending scrupulousness appeared ridiculous to our
Taouist believer in non-resistance to the universal life-stream of nature.
“ A neighbour of Yang Choo lost a sheep, and calling upon the
villagers to go in search of it, he asked the assistance of Yang Choo’s
servant also. Yang Choo inquired why so many persons were needed to
seek for a single sheep. His neighbour said, ‘ Because the roads and by
paths are many.’ When they returned, he asked if the sheep had been
found. ‘ No, it is lost,’ they answered. ‘ How lost ? ’ he demanded.
‘ The bypaths branch out into other bypaths, and we could not pos
sibly tell which way it had gone, so we returned.’ A shade of sadness
fell upon Yang Choo’s countenance ; for a long time he did not speak,
and he did not smile again that day. His disciples marvelled, and
requested an explanation. 1 The sheep was not a valuable animal, and it
did not belong to you; why should it cloud over your happiness like
this ? ’ Yang Choo returned no answer. Discussing it among them
selves, one of them said, ‘ The great path divides into many by
paths, and many sheep are lost therein.. How is it that you sit in the
master’s school, and have not yet learned to interpret the master’s
meaning ? ’ ”
“ Yang Choo’s younger brother went out for a walk in a suit of
white silk, but rain coming on, he borrowed a black cloak to return in.
When he reached the door, his dog came out and barked at him. The
young man was provoked, and raised his hand to strike the dog. Yang
Choo said, ‘ Do not beat him; you are no better yourself. Suppose
your dog went out white, and came back black, would it not startle
you ? ’ ”
“ One new year’s day, the people of Ham Tan presented a number of
pigeons to their lord. He was very pleased, and liberally rewarded them.
A guest of his inquired the reason. ‘ This is new year’s day,’ he said,
‘ and I shall set them all at liberty to fly back to the woods, and
so express the good-will of my heart to all living things.’ His guest
replied, ‘ The people are aware of your intention to release the birds, and
therefore they entrap and catch them, and many are killed in their
attempts. If you wish to keep them alive, the better way would be to
prohibit catching them.’ ”
“A man who had lost his axe, suspected his neighbour’s son. He
watched him, and said to himself, ‘ He is the thief; he has the gait of a
thief, the face of a thief, the voice of a thief; everything in his appearance
and behaviour says as plainly as possible that he has stolen the axe.’
But happening one day to find the axe in his own garden, when he next
met his neighbour’s son, there was nothing whatever in his looks or
behaviour which could lead one to suspect him to be a thief.”
“ Confucius, on a journey, saw two children disputing, and asked the
reason. One of the lads said, ‘1 say that the rising sun is near us, and
at noon it is far off.’ The other said, ‘ No, the sun is far off at dawn, but
�64
LEIH-TSZE.
near at mid-day.’ The first said, 1 Why, when the sun rises it is as large
as a chariot-wheel, but in the middle of the day it is no larger than
a plate ; is it not small when at a distance, and large when it is near ? ’
The other said, ‘ When the sun first rises, its rays are mild and genial;
but at noon it is blazing hot. Surely it is hotter when near, and cooler
when afar.
Confucius could not decide the point. The two children
smiled and said, ‘ Who will say that you know much ? ’ ”
The English reader may be disposed to think that in this respect there
is not much to choose between Confucius and Leih-tsze and all the rest
of China s boasted sages. They lived before the Baconian philosophy;
and a clever boy from one of our primary schools could instruct them in
the exact sciences. But unless, in the progress of human evolution,
man develops into a being very different from what he always has been,
the subject-matter of Taouistic speculation will continue to possess
intensest interest and unrivalled practical importance for mankind. Our
meditations upon the whence and the whither may fail to lead to those
definite and clear conclusions which science craves, but they exert a
momentous influence upon the formation of a practical rule of life. One
does not need to go far in modern literature in order to detect an order of
thought which is strictly parallel to that naturalistic philosophy of which
Leih-tsze is a representative. Those old Chinese thinkers were but
following a tendency in human nature, which exists in us still; and
it can do us no harm to learn whither it led them, and what it ended in.
Happily we have a sure confidence that, as nobler instincts and loftier
aspirations prevailed in the far East, leaving this indolent epicurean
philosophy to lose itself in the ignominious quagmire of absurd and
degrading superstition, so the philosophy of conscience and duty, of effort
and conflict, will prevail, and must prevail in the long run, however for a
time men may seem to lose heart and long for the land of the lotos
eaters.
F. S. T.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Leih-tsze
Creator
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Storrs-Turner, Frederick
Description
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Place of publication: [London]
Collation: [44]-64 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Article signed F.S.T. The Reverend Frederick Storrs-Turner was a British clergyman and campaigner against the opium trade. From the Cornhill Magazine 30 (July 1874). Full name of author, magazine title and issue number from Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900.
Publisher
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[Smith, Elder & Co.]
Date
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[1874]
Identifier
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G5346
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China
Opium
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Leih-tsze), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
China
Conway Tracts
Leih-Tsze