THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA by Rev. A. P. Happer, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 17.

THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA.

By Rev. A. P. Happer, D.D.

BY REV. A. P. HAPPER, D.D.

It is commonly stated in books on China that there are three religious systems among the Chinese, and they are designated Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Buddhism was brought into China from India in the first century of the Christian era. It has many adherents in China, having found entrance by accepting many of the idolatries of the native worship into the system of Buddha. Taoism is the modification of the native idolatries which was introduced by the Chinese sage, Laoutsze, who lived at the same time as Confucius.

Confucianism, as a religion, comprises the early native idolatries as they have come down from the earliest period of the nation, and as they were received and transmitted by Confucius. It is established by imperial statute as the State religion of China, with a liturgy and an official enrollment of all the objects and things and persons that must be worshiped. It is the recognized worship of the government, and the other two are spoken of and regarded as heretical. Heaven, earth, and man are spoken of as the three original divinities. All the objects of worship are classified as belonging to one of these three powers. Heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, wind, clouds, lightning, rain, seas, mountains, rivers, hills, etc., are enrolled in the list of gods.

Of men, the persons to whom worship is to be paid, as directed in the imperial statutes, are the imperial ancestors, the emperors of former dynasties, the great teacher, Confucius, the patron of agriculture, the patron of the manufacture of silk, the first physician, deceased philanthropists, statesmen, scholars, martyrs, etc.

There are three grades of worship—the highest, the middle, and the lower. In the imperial ritual the highest worship is to be paid to heaven, earth, the imperial ancestors, and the gods of the land and of the grains. The several parts of heaven and earth, Confucius, and the patrons of agriculture, silk manufacture, and the healing art, all receive the medium worship, and all other persons and things receive the lesser worship. The emperor himself is the high priest of the people, and he only can perform the annual worship at the imperial altars to heaven, earth, imperial ancestors, and the gods of the land and of the grains.

It thus appears that the native worship of China is a worship of created objects—of the creature and not the Creator. The material universe as a whole and in detail is worshiped.

Each family has its own household gods. The special Confucian household gods are these: Heaven, ruler, parent, and teacher. But that part of this idolatry which has the strongest hold upon the Chinese is the worship of ancestors. The tablets of deceased parents are in every family. Incense is burned to them every morning and evening, and more formally upon the 1st and 15th of every month, and on all feast days. Every family connection has an ancestral temple, in which the tablets of the successive generation of ancestors, from the foundation of the family, are preserved. Some families have tablets of successive generations, the oldest dating for one thousand years before the era A.D. The ancestral temple serves as a school-room for the children of the connection.—Gospel in All Lands.