Great Religions of the World (1901)

7/30/2019 Great Religions of the World (1901)

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GREAT RELIGIONSOF THEWORLD

BY HERBERT A. GILES, LL.D. ; T. W. RHYSDAVIDS, LL.D., Ph D. ; OSKAR MANN ; SIR

*

A. C. LYALL, K.C.B , G.CLE. ; D. MENANTSIR LEPEL GRIFFIN, K.CS.I. ; FREDERICHARRISON; E. DENISON ROSS; THE REV.M. GASTER, Ph.D ; THE REV. WASHINGTONGLADDEN, D.D., LL.D. ; CARDINAL GIBBONS

IVERSITY^ OF

NEW YORK AND LONDONHARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1902


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Copyright, 1900, 1901, by Thk North American Review Publishing CoAU rig^hts restrved.

' September, 1901.


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CONTENTSPAGECONFUCIANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.By Herbert A. Giles, LL.D., Professor of

Chinese in Cambridge University 3BUDDHISM. By T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D.,Professor of Pali and Buddhist Litera-ture IN University College. London ... 33MOHAMxMEDANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CEN-TURY. By Oskar Mann, Orientalist in theRoyal Library, Berlin 53BRAHMINISM. By Sir A. C. Lyall, K.C.B., G.C.I.E.,

MEiMber of Council of the Secretary ofState for India 81ZOROASTRIANISM AND THE P.YRSIS. By D. Me

NANT, Author of "History of the Parsis" . 109SIKHISM AND THE SIKHS. By Sir Lepel Griffin,

K.C.S.1 139POSITIVISM: ITS POSITION, AIMS, AND IDEALS.By Frederic Harrison 167BABISM. By E. Denison Ross, Professor of Per-

sian IN University College, London .... 189JEWS AND JUDAISM IN THE NINETEENTH CEN-TURY. By the Rev. M. Gaster, Ph.D., Chief

Rabbi of the Sephardi Communities of Eng-land 219THE OUTLOOK FOR CHRISTUVNITY. By the Rev. -Washington Gladden, D.D., LL.D 253CATHOLIC CHRISTIANITY. By his Eminence, Car-

dinal Gibbons 281iii


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CONFUCIANISM IN THE NINE-TEENTH CENTURY


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CONFUCIANISM IN THE NINE-TEENTH CENTURY

Between 1662 and 1796 two of China's great-est emperors occupied the throne, with a shortintervening reign, each of them for over sixty3^ears. These one hundred and twenty years maybe said to have been chiefly devoted to the exten-sion of learning and the glorification of Confu-cianism. A prodigious amount of literature wasproduced under the direct patronage of these twomonarchs. Besides dictionaries and encyclopae-dias of various kinds, a vast collection of com-mentaries upon the Confucian canon was publishedin 1675, filling noless than one hundred and twen-ty large volumes."! Everything, in fact, was donewhich, in the words of the Sacred Edict (1670),would tend to "get rid of heterodoxy and exaltthe orthodox doctrine." Yet, during a consider-able part of this period of Confucian revival,Roman Catholic missionaries were not only toler-ated, but even honored. Such treatment, accord-ing to the Paraphrase of the Sacred Edict, wasnot for any value attached to the religion they

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDtaught, which was stigmatized as unsound, butsolely because they understood astronomy andmathematics, and were usefully employed in re-forming the Chinese calendar.

In 1795 the great emperor Chien Lung, who hadreceived Lord Macartney, abdicated, and threeyears later he died. He was succeeded by hisfifteenth son, known to us as the Emperor GhiaChing, from whose accession may be dated theturning of the tide. The new ruler proved to bedissolute and worthless. In 1803 he was at-tacked while riding in a sedan-chair through thestreets of Peking, and had a narrow escape. Thiswas found to be the result of a family plot, andmany of the imperial clansmen suffered for theirreal or alleged share in it. Ten years later aband of assassins, belonging to a well-knownsecret society, very nearly succeeded in murder-ing him in his own palace. The effect of theseattempts was to develop the worst sides of hischaracter; he became a mere sensualist, and evengrave up the annual hunting expedition, whichhad always been associated with Manchu energy.Sucli ' man was not likely to do much for theadvancement of the great teaching which wasfounded upon such obligations as filial piety andduty towards one's neighbor. Some few valuableworks, aiding to elucidate, the Confucian canon,were published during his reign, but there wasno more the same imperial stimulus manifestingitself under a variety of forms, such as welcome

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CONFUCIANISMencouragement, pecuniary assistance, and, lastbut not least, the supply to deserving books ofprefaces written with the vermilion pencil.

Confucianism was not for the moment exposedto any attacks. Roman Catholicism had beenscotched by the formal expulsion of its mission-aries under the edicts of 1718 and 1724, and Prot-estants had, so far, not entered upon the field.It was only in icSo7 that the Rev. Dr. Morrison, ofdictionary fame, went out to Canton ; and withina 3^ear he retired for safety and the convenienceof his work to Macao.

In 1820 the em})eror known to us as Tao Kuang,second son of Chia Ching, succeeded to the throne.His courage had saved his father's life on theoccasion of the attack on the palace in 1813, andhe had been at once named heir ai)parent. Hemade a good beginning, and attempted to purifythe coiu"t; but war with England, and rebellionin various parts of the empire, darkened hisreign, and little progress was made. Graduallyhe learned to hate foreigners, and opjjosed theirclaims; and, borrowing a sashing some centuriesold, he declared that he was not going to allowanother man "to snore alongside of his bed."

There was, at an}' rate, one great Confucianistwho flourished during this period, and strove, bothby his own works and by the patronage he ex-tended to others, to keep alive the Confucian spirit.Under the friendly auspices of Yuan -Yuan (1764-1849) w. iS produced, in a uniform edition, a col-

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDlection of more than one hundred and eighty sep-arate treatises on the canon b}* scholars of thepresent dynasty. This work fills one hundredand two large volumes, and was intended to be acontinuation of the similar collection publishedin 1675. Of course, every one who is a follower ofConfucius ma3^ be called a Confucianist, but aman is specially so distinguished by the Chineseif he has contributed to the enormous mass ofliterature which helps in any way to explain, orsets forth in glowing color and attractive form,the holy teachings of the master.The active opposition of Commissioner Lin (1785-

1850) to the opium trade, which precipitated thewar, w^as a direct outcome of his careful trainingin the Confucian school. The question of moral-ity and the appeal to justice which he introducedinto his famous letter to the queen, asking her toput a stop to the opium trade, were both basedupon the ethics of Confucius. He not only professedhis firm adherence to Confucianism, but exhibitedin his every-day life a lofty conception of its ideals.He is the one representative of China, during thisreign, to whom all foreigners would ungrudginglyaccord the title of an honest man and a true patriot.Tao Kuang was succeeded in 185 1 by his fourth

son, known to us as the Emperor Hsien F^ng.The reign of the latter is particularly associatedwith the Tai-ping rebellion, which shook the em-pire to its foundations, and, but for the presenceof General Gordon, would probably have succeed-

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CONFUCIANISMed in putting an end to the Manchu-Tartar dynasty.In one of its aspects, it was a crusade against Con-fucianism, organized by a small band of men whohad adopted a morbid and spurious Christianity.The large following which these leaders gatheredaround their banner knew nothing whatever ofgenuine Christianity, and very little of the doc-trines offered them by the soi-disant Brother ofChrist, afterwards known as the Heavenly King.As matters turned out, the shock to Confucianismwas a mere nothing; for, although the HeaventyKing succeeded in capturing some six hundredcities in sixteen out of the eighteen provinces,so soon as the rebellion was crushed (1864) Con-fucianism at once and completely regained theground it can hardly be said to have lost. Itsuffered most, perhaps, through the destructionof many printing establishments containing theblocks of now priceless editions of valuable workson the classics. On the other hand, it can be shownthat Confucianism is sometimes extremely sensi-tive. It had been enacted that the Sacred Edict,mentioned above, should be publicly read to thepeople on the 1st and 15th of each month, at everyimportant centre all over the empire. This prac-tice had been allowed to fall very much into desue-tude at Canton. But about the yeax 1850 a num-ber of educated Chinese, taking alarm at the openactivity of Protestant missionaries, actually form-ed themselves into a society for reading and stud}^-ing the Sacred Edict among themselves.

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDf No one, of course, could maintain that the merestudy of Confucian doctrines would suffice to turn/out men of high character, unless the seed were/sown in minds, as Confucius said, "fit for the4 reception of truth." As a counterpoise to Com-missioner Lin, we may cite the case of GovernorYeh, whose action in the Arrow affair led to thebombardment and capture of Canton in 1857. Whensent a prisoner to Calcutta, Yeh was asked why henever read, to pass the time. " All the books whichare worth reading," he replied, "I already knowby heart." He was alluding to the Confuciancanon, his intimate acquaintance with which hadplaced him high on the list of candidates for thecoveted third degree. Yet this man was, as anofficial, little more than a blood-thirsty tj^rant. Heis said to have put to death, first and last, no fewerthan seventy thousand Tai-ping rebels. He hadalso become so unwieldy from self-indulgence that,although disguised for flight, he was unable tomake the necessary effort to evade his pursuerSjJ

In 186 1 the emperor, who smoked opium toexcess, died at Jehol, whither he had fled to escapefrom the English and French forces, then at thegates of Peking, and his son, Tjjng Chih, reignedin his stead. Coming to the throne as a merechild, the latter remained during his thirteen yearsof rule entirely under the guidance of the empressdowager, so that almost the first that was heard ofhim as an emperor was that he had fallen a victimto small-pox. He could not have learned much


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C O N F U C I A N I wS iMgood about foreigners from his Confucian tutors,one of whom openly expressed his daily and night-ly longing "to sleep on their skins." Meanwhile,with the ratification of the treaty of Tientsin, ashadow fell across the path of Confucianism.Since the days of the opium war and the partialopening of China, the missionary question hadgradually entered upon the acute stage in whichit may be vSaid to have remained ever since, and ithad become needful to insert in the new treatya clause protecting not only the Christian religionand its exponents, but its converts. This was,and always has been, resented by Confucianistsas withdrawing the converts from their allegiance

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but it is difficult to say what other arrangementcould have been made. Neither can it be fairlyalleged that Protestant missionaries have everabuvSed their opportunities.

With the close of the Tai-ping rebellion, with asettled government, and with more prosperoustimes generally, the production of books showedmarked signs of increase. Clearly printed editionsof the classics and kindred works w^ere issued fromWu-chang, the capital of Hupeh ; on execrable paperit is true, but at a price which placed them easilywithin reach of the masses.

In 1872 Tseng Kuo-fan died, at the compara-tively early age of sixty-one. He had worn him-self out in the service of the state, first as a suc-cessful militar}' commander and afterwards as asuccessful administrator. He was, further, a suc-

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDcessful Confucianist, in the sense that his pureand incorrupt hfe was a happy exemphfication ofwhat Confucianism may lead to, if only its seed isdropped upon propitious soil. Though saturatedwith the principles and teachings of Confucian-ism, and undoubtedly hostile to foreigners, yet hismemor}^ is hardly more honored among his owncountrymen than by those whom he felt it hisduty to oppose. After the Tientsin massacre of1870 he advocated a policy of peace with foreignnations, thereby incurring the odium of the morefanatical of the literati. At his death it was re-ported to the throne that, "when his wardrobe wasexamined to find some suitable garments for thelast rites, nothing new could be discovered. Everyarticle of dress had been worn many times; andthis may be taken as an example of his rigideconomy for himself and in all the expenditureof his family."

In 1875 another child-emperor, known to us asKuang Hsu, was placed upon the throne by theempress dowager. This unfortunate youth hasbeen severely battered by the shocks of doom.The story of the reform movement, and of hisvirtual deposition in September, 1898, is fresh inthe minds of all. Since then we have heard rumorsof abdication, and again of restoration. Had

Ihe remained in power, Confucianism would have

\ been forced to reconsider its attitude to foreignI standards of thought and education. But upon

/ his suspension it was determined that the old ex-10


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CONFUCIANISManiination system, which had prevailed almostunaltered for nearly six centuries, with its rootsextending back to the Christian era, should be re-stored in its integrity. The introduction of " new,depraved, and erroneous subjects," by which wemust understand modern scientific teaching, wasto be stricth'' prohibited under various pains andpenalties. Thus, the occupation of the newly in-augurated Peking University was gone. For thetime being, Confucianism is triumphant; and ifthe tablets of women are ever admitted to theConfucian temple, that of the empress dowagershould be the first. Actuated, probably, by selfishmotives, her anti-reform zeal has been invaluableto those who would maintain the paramountcy ofConfucian education, with all its immediate influ-ences upon the governing classes of the country.A glance at a few questions actually set somefew years ago at these public examinations willafford a good idea of the educational level to whichConfucianism has raised the Chinese. The fol-lowing were subjects for essays

" (i.) To hold a middle course, without deviation, is asbad as holding an extreme.

" (2.) Of suspended bodies, none can exceed in brightnessthe sun and the moon.

" (3.) In the time of the Hsia dynasty (B. C. 2205-1766),the imperial drum was placed on feet; during the Shangdynasty (B. C. 1766-1122), it was supported on pillars;under the Chou dynasty (B. C. 1122-255), it was hung bj^a cord."

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDFor a poem, the following theme was presented" The azure precipice was half concealed in a mass of

rolling clouds."

In addition to essays and poems, several gen-eral papers of questions are set to the candidates.These comprise classical exegesis, history of an-cient and mediaeval China, ancient geograplty,etc., and are almost identical, mutatis mutandis,with papers on the languages and literatures ofGreece and Rome, such as are set, for instance,at the annual examination of candidates for theIndian civil service. Here is a specimen of aclassical question

" Mao Chang in his edition of the Odes interprets ' TheGuests at the Feast ' to mean that Duke \Vu was upbraidingPrince Yu. Han Ying in his edition says that Duke Wuis here repenting of his fault of drunkenness. Wliich editoris to be followed?"

Here is a question on the competitive system"During the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618-907), personal

appearance, fluency of speech, handwriting, lear.iing, anddecision were all taken into account at the examinations.How were the various merits of the candidates tested?"

It is the fashion to deride the Chinese curriculum,and to cry out for the introduction of "science."which would, no doubt, be very advantageousin many wa3^s. At the same time, it must beconfessed that the Chinese classics have had pre-

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C O N I'^ U C I A N I S Mciscly the effect attributed by Professor Jebb, inhis lecture on "Humanism in Education," to theclasvsics of Greece and Rome. Discarding thepast tense for the present, his actual words applywith surprising force to the China of to-day

" At the close of this century, the classics still hold a virtualmonopoly, so far as literary studies are concerned, in thepublic schools and universities. And they have no causeto be ashamed of their record. The culture which theysupply, while limited in the sphere of its operation, has longbeen an efficient and vital influence, not only in formingmen of letters and learning, but in training men who after-wards gain distinction in public life and in various activecareers."

Several noble specimens of Confucianists havedisappeared during the present reign. Shen Pao-cheng (1819-79), who first distinguished him-self against the Tai-ping rebels, was a stern Con-fucianist and, withal, a capable man of business.In 1867 he became director of the Foochow Ar-senal, which he started with the aid of M. ProsperGiquel, in the face of much opposition, launchinghis first gunboat in 1869. Successful as an ad-ministrator, he gained a lasting name for probity,courage, and frugality, leaving behind him in ma-terial wealth literally no more than he broughtwith him into the world.Another official of the same class was Ting

Jih-chang (1823-82). He was connected with thearsenals at Soochow and Foochow. He was acommissioner for the settlement o^cases arising

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDout of the Tientsin massacre. He became govern-or of Fuhkien, and in 1878 was sent to Foochovv toarrange a very serious missionary difficult3^ inconnection with some building operations. AConfucianist to the backbone, he earned the fullrespect of all foreigners, and when he withdrew,,into private life he carried with him a spotlessreputation.With such a father as Tseng Kuo-fan, whose dy-

ing injunctions to his children compare favorablywith Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son, it is hard-ly a matter for wonder that the Marquis Tseng(1837-90), once ambassador to the Co.urt of St.James, should have continued the best traditionsof Confucianism, He promoted to his utmost theestablishment of peaceful relations between Chinaand foreign nations, and his death was a severeloss to Great Britain in particular.

Probitt^, like its opposite, seems to run in families.In the same year with the Marquis Tseng died hisuncle, Tseng Kuo-chuan, younger brother of TsengKuo-fan. He had risen to be Viceroy of the TwoKiang, and had consequently held the lives andfortunes of myriads of his countrymen in the palmof his hand. It is only necessary to add that athis death the people of Nanking went into publicmourning, from which it may be inferred that, giventlie right material, Confucianism need be no hin-derance to an upright and unblemished career.One eminent Confucianist is still working for his

cause, in a j|aanner which compels the admira-


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CONFUCIANISMtion of his opponents. Chang Chih-tung, Vicero\^of the Two Hii, devotes much of the time whichhe can snatch from a busy hfe to the encourage-ment of Confucian learning. He has founded acollege and a library for the benefit of poor stu-dents. He is a poor man himself, in spite ofthe high posts he has filled. He is master of atrenchant style, and has written against the opiumhabit and against the practice of cramping wom-en's feet. He is hostile to foreigners and to Chris-tianity, from the very natural desire to see hisown countrymen and Confucianism paramount.Yet he is known to the general public as the oneincorruptible viceroy.

I Manners and customs, convenient or incon-venient, if founded, as many of them are, uponthe authority of the Confucian canon, remainfixed in the national life even more- deepty thanis found to be the case among Western peoples.The practice of emplojang a go-between in mar-riage, the illegality of marriages between personsof the same surname, the unwritten regulationthat the axle-trees of all carts in the same districtshall be of uniform length these and manysimilar customs, fully in force at the present da3%are based upon well-known passages to be foundin different parts of the canon. Especially hasthe patriarchal system taken deep root, so deep, infact, that, vshort of an entire upheaval, it is noteasy to see how it can ever bJfcliminated fromthe social life of China, over which j^lgjomination

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDis complete. Since the days of Confucius, withfihal piety as its foundation-stone, patriarchaUsmhas prevailed over the empire, the unit of civiliza-tion being not the individual, but the family. Thefather, and after his death the mother, has ab-solute power over all the children, until the sonsenter upon an official career, when they can bereached only with the consent of the emperor,and imtil the daughters pass by marriage underthe patria potestas of another family. At eighteenor nineteen the sons marrj?^, and bring their wivesunder the paternal roof. The eldest brother suc-ceeds to the headship and responsibilities of thefamily, and the subordination of his youngerbrothers to him is only less marked than that ofhis children.Altogether the patriarchal system has manyadvantages. It knits close the family ties. Allearnings or income go to a common fiuid; andindividuals, in days of failure and distress, arenot left to their own resources. Labor is therebyprovided with a defence against capital, and astead}^ equilibrium is maintained. It is, no doubt,a check to individual enterprise, and a direct en-couragement to clannishness and its evils. On

. J the other hand, it is equally an encouragement toJ [ morality and thrift. One thing is quite certain

either it is admirably adapted to the temper ofthe Chinese people or a long communion hasadapted them *dl^J[The Coi^M^an temple, mentioned above, de-* ''


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CONFUCIANISMserves particular notice, playing as it does an im-portant part in what may be called, for the wantof a better term, the state religion of China. Al-most since the death of Confucius himself, certain-ly since the second century B. C, there appearsto have been some sort of shrine commemorative ofhis name and teachings. At the present momentthere must be what is called a Confucian temple,distinguishable by its red walls, in all cities abovea certain rank throughout the em|)ire. In thosetemples are ranged, in a particular order, a largenimiber of tablets iuvScribed with the names ofConfucius and of his disciples, of Mencius, and ofvarious great men whose personal efforts have inpast times contributed to keep alight the torchof Confucianism. Many tablets have, doubtless,slipped in which ought not to be there, and somenames with indisputable claims have been ex-cluded ; but, altogether, the collection is fairly rep-resentative of the class intended, and may be re-garded as the literar3' Valhalla of China. Twicea 3^ear, in spring and in autumn, offerings of foodand wine are set out before these tablets. Earlyin the morning the local officials, in full dress,assemble at the temples; musicians play, theofficials burn incense and prostrate themselvesbefore the tablet of Confucius, and a troupe oftrained performers go through certain set move-ments, after the style of the tragedy dances ofancient Greece. The whole ceremony is com-memorative, not intercessory or propitiatory in

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDaii3" sense, no form of pra^'er being used. Yet ithas been scouted by man37^ missionaries as wor-ship, in the same way as the ceremonies com-memorative of ancestors have been scouted, withmore justification, as ancestral worship.Every Chinese family possesses a shrine, be it

only a shelf, where stand the wooden tablets ofancestors. Before these, incense is burned dail3^,with ceremonial prostrations. Twice a month,bowls of food are offered in addition. Once everyyear, at a certain date in spring, all respectableChinamen make an effort to visit their ancestralburying-grounds. The spirit-path leading to thegrave is swept ; the tomb itself is carefully dusted ;food and wine are offered up; and pieces of papersupposed to represent money are burned in largequantities. The food and wine are intended, inthe opinion of the masses, for the spirits to eat anddrink; and the fact that neither one nor the otheris ever, to all appearances, touched, is explainedby saying that the spirits consume only the fla-vor, leaving the grosser parts as they were. Themoney is supposed to pass through the agency offire into the possession of the spirits for whomit is intended, and to be of actual use to them intheir spiritual condition; but, to show that suchsuperstitions have simply overlaid the earlier andpurer element in the custom, it may be men-tioned that coined money was not known untilnearly three centuries after the death of Con-fucius. The same test ma^^ be applied equally

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CONFUCIANISMwith regard to geomanc}', without the aid of whichHO site for a grave ivS ever finally chosen.What Confucius thought about even a simplecommemorative ceremonial is difficult to gather

from his shadowy utterances, such subjects beinguncongenial to him. It is recorded of him that" he made his oblations as though the dead werepresent," which need not be pressed to mean morethan that his observance of the ceremonial wasearnest rather than perfunctor3^. The generalpublic, however, are inclined to interpret the wordsliterally, and it is now customary to add a shortprayer asking for the blessing of the departedupon all family undertakings. From the generalspirit, however, of the teachings of Confucius,it seems clear that he would not have sanctionedsuperstitious rites. Offerings of food and wine,as may be seen from the Odes, were, presented todeparted spirits long before his time; and, at theutmost, he would be merely approving an alreadyestablished system. The offerings themselveswere probabl}^ regarded by him much as we re-gard offerings of wreaths and floAvers at the tombsof departed relatives or heroes, scarcely as an ap-peal to the phj'sical senses of the dead.The learned Jesuits of the seventeenth century,

headed by Ricci, declared the ancestral worshipof the Chinese to be nothing more than a civil rite,and in no way incompatible with the profession ofthe Christian faith; and had this declaration beenallowed to stand, the probability is that the Catholic

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDreligion would now be the religion of China. TheJesuits were oppovsed, however, by the ignorantDominicans; and, the question being referred tothe pope, it was decided in favor of the latter. Agreat opportunity was thus missed. Some Prot-estant missionaries have been inclined to extenda degree of toleration to ancestral worship. Othershave gone so far as to make it a rule to refuse bap-tism to responsible adults unless the ancestraltablets have been previously handed over. Theimportance of this cult at the present day maybe gauged by an imperial edict, in which Li HungChang is instructed to desecrate and destroy theancestral tombs of the fugitive reformer, KangYu-wei.Many learned Chinese have labored to showthat the Three Teachingsmeaning Buddhism,

Taoism, and Confucianismare in realit^^ at one.Confucianism is now completely tolerant of theother two. Without public temples, and withouta priesthood, it exists by virtue of its influencealone, while the teachings of the Buddhist andTaoist are amply supported by all the instrumentaldetails which so much commend a religion to themasses. An important compromise has beenaffected, to which this happ}^ tolerance is due.On every Buddhist and Taoist altar there stands,practically out of sight, hidden among candle-sticks, vases of flowers, and incense -burners, asmall tablet, recording more by its presence thanby its inscription, which is about the equivalent

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C O N F U C I A X I S Mof "God save the Queen," as something indepen-dent of all relij^ious bias, political allegiance tohis Majesty the Emperor. Confucianism asksfor no more; it will not even permit any effigy orlikeness of Confucius to be set uj) in an3^ suchplace of worship. The exhibition of this tabletoffers a fair comparison with the exhibition ofthe royal arms once so frequently seen on thetower arches of churches, but not now regarded asa necessary item in church decoration. Christianmissionaries have not seen their way to the samecompromise. They have usually shown them-selves unduly sanguine as to some imaginar^^canker eating out the heart of Confucianism. In1861 Dr. Legge wrote of Confucius as follows:"His influence has been wonderful, but it willhenceforth wane. My opinion is, that the faithof the nation in him will speedily and extensivelypass away." Fort3^ years have passed since thesewT^rds were penned, 3'et the hold of his wonderfulinfluence seems to-day as strong as ever. Andthis in spite of the fact that, as has been shownabove, little or nothing has been done by the em-perors of the nineteenth century to stimulate zealin the cause.Those missionaries have done well who have

recognized the depth and strength of this influence.At the missionary conference in 1877, Dr. Edkinsused these words

" Confucianism is the citadel of the enemy, raising itsbattlements high into the clouds and manned by multitudes

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDwho are animated by a belief in their superiority and theirinvincible strength. The taking of this fortress is the con-clusion of the war."The late Dr. CarstairvS Douglas, a high author-

ity, also said that he thought" Confucianism a far greater enemy to Christianity thanBuddhism or Taoism, just as Mohammedanism in India andAfrica is a greater enemj- than heathenism; in each casefor the same reason, because of the large amount of truth itcontained. Missionaries ovight to study Confucianism care-fully, and thankfully use all that is good in it, pointing outits great deficiencies and wisely correcting its errors."The late Dr. Faber reduced the chief of these

errors to twenty-four in number, exception to someof which might possibly be taken by differentlyconstituted minds e. g., "the assertion that cer-tain musical melodies influence the morals of thepeople is absurd.''

In 1877 Dr. Legge stated that the impressionleft on him b}^ Confucianism was as follows

" With very much that is good in it, it still is rather hum-drum and inadequate to the requirements of our humanity,a bed shorter than that upon which a man can stretch him-self, and a covering narrower than that in which he canwrap himself."The Rev. A. Smith, author of Chinese Charac-

teristics, says:" It is acknowledged that there is in Confucianism much

that is excellent concerning the relations of man, and many{)oints in which the doctrines of Christian revelation arealmost echoed."

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CONFUCIANISMIf such be the case, it would seem that the sooner

missionaries devote themselves to a close study ofConfucian doctrines, the better. This view pre-vails now much more widely than a x^, earsago. In the preface to his Les Quatre Avres,1895, Pere Couvreur, S. J., declares that:

" L'etude de la litt&rature est particulikrement recommandeeaux missionaires, pour attirer les infiddes et les preparer arecevoir les enseignements chr4tiens."

Mr. Teitaro Suzuki has recently given similartestimon}^, without reference to Christianity

" In Confucius and his doctrine are solidly crystallized theessence and the ideal of the Chinese people. When we un-derstand Confucius, we understand the Chinese."

It is difficult, however, to see what real fusioncan be brought about of Christianity with Con-fucianism. We are confronted, on the thresholdof the latter, by the dogma that man is born good,and that his lapse into evil is wholly due to hisenvironment. Here Christianity would find a com-promise impossible. It has {scarcely the accom-modating breadth of Buddhism, which establisheditself in Japan in the sixth century A. D., not bydenouncing the false gods of the Japanese, but bypromptly canonizing all the Shinto ancestor-godsas Bodhisatvas, second onty to Buddha him-self. But it might be possible to take a hint fromPope Gregorj^ who in A. D. 601 addressed aletter to the i\bbot Mellitus, then starting for

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDEngland, pointing out that the temples of theEnghsh ought not to be destroyed, but rather"converted from the worship of devils to the ser-vice of the true God, that the nation . . . maythe more familiarly resort to the places to whichthey have been accustomed/' The old sacrificeswere also to be retained in form, " to the end that,while some gratifications are outwardly permit-ted them, they may the more easily consent tothe inward consolations of the grace of God."

Dr. Legge wrote, in 1877" Christianity cannot be tacked on to any heathen re-

ligion as its complement, nor can it absorb any into itselfwithout great changes in it and additions to it. Missionarieshave not merely to reform, though it will be well for themto reform where and what they can ; they have to revolution-ize ; and, as no revolution of a political kind can be effectedwithout disturbance of existing conditions, so neither can arevolution of a people's religion be brought about withoutheat and excitement. Confucianism is not antagonistic toClxristianity, as Buddhism and Brahmanism are. It is notatheistic like the former, nor pantheistic Hke the latter. It is,however, a .system whose issues are bounded by earth and bytime ; and, though missionaries try to acknowledge what isgood in it, and to use it as not abusing it, they cannot avoidsometimes seeming to pull down Confucius from his eleva-tion. They cannot set forth the gospel as the wi.sdom ofGod and the power of God unto salvation, and exhort to thesupreme love of God and of Chri.st, without deploring thewant of any deep sense of sin, and of any glow of piety in thefollowers of the Chinese sage. Let them seek to go abouttheir work everywhereand I believe they can do so moreeasily in China than in other mission fieldsin the spirit

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C O N F U C I A N I S Mof Christ, without striving or crying, with meekness andlowliness of heart. Let no one think any labor too great tomake himself familiar with the Confucian books. So shallmissionaries in China come fully to understand the workthey have to do ; and the more they avoid driving their car-riages rudely over the master's grave, the more likely cirethey soon to see Jesus enthroned in his room in the hearts ofthe people."

The Rev. A. Smith would carry the crusade toextremes. Summing up his fascinating, thoughone-sided, volume above quoted, he says

" The manifold needs of China we find, then, to be a .singleimperative need. It will be met permanently, completely,only by Christian civilization."

Forty years ago the "manifold needs" of Japanwere prett}^ much what those of China are at thepresent day. All those needs, save one, havebeen supplied; and Japan now takes an impor-tant rank among the nations of the world. Shehas little or no religion, and does not seem to wishto have any more. Her ethical code, upon whichthe morals of her people are based, is a legacyfrom the days when every educated Japanese wasa Confucianist. It is a practical, workaday code,setting forth a not unattainable ideal. It teachesvirtue for virtue's own sake, and can no more beheld responsible f(^r the evils which flourish inChina than Christianity can be held responsiblefor the evils which flourish in England. Yet this

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDis overlooked to a wide extent. Dr. Legge tracedthe lying habits of the Chinese directly to theexample of Confucius himself, on the strength ofthree passages, one of which occurs in an admit-tedly spurious work. In the first, Confucius ap-plauds the modesty of an officer, who, after boldl}^bringing up the rear on the occasion of a retreat,refused all praise for his gallant behavior, at-tributing his position rather to the slowness ofhis horse. In the second, an unwelcome visitorcalling on Confucius, the master sent out to say hewas sick, at the same time seizing his harpsichordand singing to it, "in order that Pei might hearhim." Dr. Legge lays no stress on the last halfof this story, though it is impossible to believethat its meaning can have escaped his notice al-together. Lastly, when Confucius was once takenprisoner by the rebels, he was released on con-dition of not proceeding to Wei. "Thither, not-withstanding, he continued his route," and whenasked b3' a disciple whether it was right to violatehis oath, he replied : " It was a forced oath. Thespirits do not hear such."

It seems almost to be now recognized that thetime has come for giving up frontal attacks uponConfucianism. Apart from ancestral worship andthe dogma that man is born in righteousness,there is really very little to attack, and the onsetwould be better diverted in the direction of Bud-dhism and Taoism. The cardinal virtues whichare most admired b}^ Christians are fully inculcated

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CONFUCIANISMin the Confucian canon, and the general practiceof these is certainly up to the average standardexhibited by foreign nations. When the firstChinese ambassador to England, Kuo Sung-tao,was leaving England for home, he said plain-ly that wliile in material civilization we were farahead of China, our national morality was nothingless than shocking. It must, indeed, seem strangeto a Confucianist that, with all our boasted influ-ences of Christianity, it should still be neces-sary, for instance, to organize a Society for thePrevention of Cruelty to Children, the ill-treat-ment of children being quite unknown in China.Female infanticide has, indeed, been charged uponConfucianism, but the glaring absurdity of sucha charge can be made manifest in a few words. Itis possible actually to prove a negative, and showthat extensive infanticide cannot be practised inChina. Ever}^ Chinaman throughout the empire,with the verv rarest exceptions, marries young.If his wife dies, he marries again; it is notthought proper for widows to remarr}^ thoughsome do so. Many well-to-do Chinamen take con-cubines; some two, three, and even four. There-fore, unless there is an enormous disparity in thenumbers of boys and girls born, infanticide mustbe reduced to very narrow limits. Yet, as lateas May, 1897, Mrs. Isabella Bishop said, at ameeting of the Zenana Missionarj^ Societj^ that"of eleven Bible-women whom she had seen at ameeting in China, there was not one that had not

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDput an end to at least five girl-babies." It is awork of supererogation to add that few China-women bear five children.Buddhism, which may once have been a religion

of pure and lofty conceptions, is now, as seen inChina, nothing more than a collection of degrad-ing superstitions, entireW beneath the notice of aneducated Confucianist. Its tonsured priests aredesi)ised and ridiculed by the people, who openlyspeak of them as "bald-headed asvses." Taoism,once a subtle system of philosophy, has been de-based in like manner. It has borrowed some ofthe worst features of Buddhism, which has inturn appropriated several of the absurdities ofTaoism. The two, after centuries of rivalry, havelong since flourished peacefully side by side.With all its merits, Confucianism is seriouslywanting in attractiveness to the masses, who reallyknow very little about it. It is a sj^stem for thephilosopher in his study, not for the peasant at theplough-tail. It offers no consolations of any kind,save those to be derived from a consciousness ofhaving done one's duty. The masses, who respectlearning and authority above all things, acceptConfucianism as the criterion of a perfect life.They daily perform the ceremonies of ancestralworship in all loyalty of heart, and then go offand satisfy other cravings by the practice of therites and ceremonies of Buddhism and Taoism,which have so much more to offer by way of re-ward. Still, wherever Chinamen go they carry

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CON ! LCI AxNISMwith Ihciii in their hearts the two leading featuresof Confucianism, the patriarchal S3'stem and an-cestral worship.During the past century, the sphere of Con-fucian influence has been enormoush^ widened.Not to mention increase of population within theboundaries of China proper, there has been ex-tension and consolidation in Turkestan, or theNew Dominion, won by the victorious arms ofTso Tsung-tang in his campaigns of 1871-1878.Emigration, which was almost unknown in 1800,is in 1900 an everj^-day detail at the ports of south-ern^China.

I According to the favorite Chinese theory of"fulness and decay," it would only be expectedthat, after such a period of prosperit}^ as was wit-nessed in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-turies, the doctrine should sufTer a temporaryeclipse. Still, if this century has not been actualh^propitious to the peaceful development of Con-fucianism, opposition to Christianity has cer-tainly proved a great stimulus, calling forth itsworst features instead of its bestmilitant feat-ures of bigotry and fanaticism, of which Con-fucius, whose daih^ texts were reciprocity andforbearance, would have been the last to approve.Of this school, Chou Han, the fiend who excitesvillagers to nuirder peaceable missionaries, theirwives and children, is the great living exemplar.Yet he, like the arch - fiend, should get his due.His own creed has often been attacked in a manner

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDthe reverse of tactful, well calculated to goad eventhe mildest-mannered Confucianist to fury.

If Buddhism and Taoism could be displacedb^' Christianit}^ and Confucianism be recognizedin its true sense as a pure cult of virtue, with com-memorative ceremonies in honor of its founderand of family ancestors who have gone before,one great barrier between ourselves and the Chinesewould be broken down forever.

Herbert Allen Giles.


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BUDDHISMThe contrast between the rapidity with which

Buddhism, in the earl}^ centuries of its history,spread over all adjoining lands, and its apparentinertness in these later centuries is very striking.We are onlj^ just beginning to gather the facts asto its original progress. And modern Buddhistsare not in the habit of making any parade of theirintentions, or even of their hopes. Any attempt,therefore, to explain this contrast, or to form ajudgment as to whether it is likely, .or not, to bepermanent is beset with difficulty, and must besubject to revision.

It will not be without interest, however, to stateshortly what is at present known on the matter,and to refer to some of those points which will beimportant, or at least suggestive, in any ultimatedecision.There are, of course, no statistics available as to

the number of the adherents of the reformingmovement in the early days of Buddhism. Butthe ground had been well prepared. Gotama, theBuddha, was careful in all his discourses to buildon foundations already laid. He not onh^ claimed


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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDto be, Ijiit in fact was, for the most part, a teacherwho took up and emphasized the best teachingof the past. On certain points only were his doc-trines new. The most important and far-reach-ing of these points was his ignoring the then uni-versally accepted theory of a soul; that is, of avague and subtle, but real and material, entitysupposed to reside during life within the body,and to fly out, at death, usually through a hole atthe top of the head, to continue its existence, as aseparate and conscious individual, elsewhere. WeknoW' for certain that this position, the refusal touse this hypothesis, was, among Indian thinkers,peculiar to Buddhism.On other points we must still be content to re-

serve our judgment. The Buddha, for instance,is sometimes said to have abolished caste. Butwe are entirely unwarranted in supposing thesystem w^e now call the caste system to have exist-ed in its present form when Buddha arose, in thesixth century before Christ, in the valley of theGanges. On the contrary, the key-stone of the archof the peculiarly Indian caste organizationtheabsolute supremacy of the Brahminshad notyet been put in position, had not, in fact, beenmade ready. And in many other details .thecaste system did not yet exist. It was only inprocess of evolution. In face of these conditions,the Buddha's doctrine was necessarily twofold.Within his own order, over which alone he hadcomplete control, he ignored completely and ab-

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B U D D n I wS Mvsolutely all advantages or disadvantages arisingiroiii birth, occupation, or social status, and sweptawa}' all barriers and disabilities arising from thearbitrary rules of mere ceremonial or social im-l)urit3\ Now, we know there had existed ordersbefore Gotama founded his. But their recordsare at present available only in so fragmentarya state that we do not 3'et know whether any ofthem had taken a similar step before.On the other hand, outside his own order, theBuddha adopted, as regards what we now fairlj^call "questions of caste," the only course thenopen to any man of sensethat is to say, he stroveto influence public opinion (on which such ob-servances depend) by a constant inculcation ofreasonable views. Thus, in the Amagandha Sut-ta it is laid down, in eloquent words, that defile-ment does not come from eating this or that, pre-pared or given by this or that person, but fromfolly in deed or word or thought. And here thever3' document itself, in giving the doctrine, givesit as the word of an Awakened One (a Buddha)of old. In other words, the Buddhist records putforward this view as having been enunciatedlong before, with the intended implication that itwas common ground to the wise.

This is only one example out of many. TheBuddhist doctrines that salvation from suffering,from mere quantitative existence indefinitely pro-longed, depended on the choice of a right ideal;that goodness was a function of intelligence; that

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CxREAT RELIGIONS OF THE AVORLDthe sacrifice of the heart was better than a sacrificeof bullocks ; that the ideal of man was to be sought,not in birth or wealth or rank, but in wisdom andgoodness; that the habitual practice of the rapt-ure of deep reverie was a useful means of ethicaltraining, of acquiring that intellectual insighton which self-culture depends ; a great part of thetheory of the origin of evil; a great part of thetheory of Karma ; the fundamental doctrine of theimpermanency of all phenomena; the spirit ofunquestioning toleration in all matters of religionand speculationall these, and others besides, werepre-Buddhistic, and were widely held when Bud-dhism arose. Even the doctrine that salvationcan be obtained in this life was pre-Buddhistic.The Buddha merely added that it could only beenjoyed in this life, that there was no salvationat all beyond the grave.There was no organized church to attack. It

was taken as granted, indeed, that the knowledgeof the magic, the m3\stery, of sacrifice was confinedto Brahmins, but the majority of the Brahmins,then as now, followed other pursuits. The}?^ wereland-owners, officials, even traders. Many of themopenly adopted, more of them were in favor of, thenew school. And the new school itself was no or-ganized bodj^ No one, unless he actually becamea member of Gotama's order, as a considerable num-ber of Brahmins actually did, had to make any breakin his life, had to lose any social consideration, byfollowing, in whole or in part, the partv of reform.

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BUDDHISMThe economic conditions were peculiarly favor-

able. And there was present a factor almost in-dispensable to an}' new movement of religionsreformthe existence side b\^ side of widely dif-fering views of life. Just as our Reformationin Europe was largely due to the influence onChristian minds of the newly discovered paganliterature of Greece, so in India, in the sixth cen-tury- before Christ, the Arj^ans were in contactwith views of life fundamentally difTerent fromtheir own. It is a great mistake to imagine thatthe invading Aryans found only savages in theland. The Dravidian civilization was not in-ferior to, though it was, no doubt, in man\" re-spects, different from, that of the Aryans them-selves. There was probably never a time in thehistory' of the v\orld, either before or since, whenso large a proportion of all classes of the peopleover so extensive a country were possessed byso earnest a spirit of inquir}", of speculation, ofinterest in religious questions, by so impartialand deep a respect for all who posed as teachersof the truth. And there is no doubt about theenthusiasm of the new converts, though it wasan enthusiasm of a peculiar kind. Almost allwere filled with an overpowering reverence andlove for their great teacher. IVIany had experi-enced, and would never forget, the bliss, the rapt-ure of the moments of insight, of emancipation, ofelevation when thej^ realized, in their systematicpractice of the reveries of Jhana, the imperma-

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDnence of all phenomena. The related episodes reveala calm confidence arising from the sense of self-mastery won, a keen intellectual pleasure in whatseemed to them to be a final solution of the deepestproblems of life, a longing sympathy with thoseblinded by folly and error. And the last of thesefeelings they were wont to cultivate especially byone of their systematic meditations.Such are some of the considerations that help

us to understand the original spread of Buddhism.Those who have found it difficult to reconcile theundoubted fact of that spread with their view ofBuddhism as the apotheosis of annihilation, mean-ing thereby the annihilation of the soul, are wrongonly in the latter half of their contention. As isnow well known, Nirvana does not mean the an-nihilation of the soulthe Buddhists did not ac-cept the hypothesis of a soulbut the dying out,in the heart, of the three fell fires of lust, ill-will,and delusion. A doctrine of salvation to be gain-ed, and gained now, by self-mastery, b}^ a gradualinward perfection, may have been very differentfrom modern Western ideas, but was quite com-patible with the necessary enthusiasm, and ap-pealed strongly to the aspirations of the day.What we know is that the success of the new

doctrine was, in the first centuries, sufficientlymarked. Its extent may be gauged b3" the ac-count of the formal sending forth of missionariesat the close of Asoka's Council, held at Patna inthe third century before Christ. They were sent

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BUDDHISMto Sind, to Afghanistan, to Kashmir, to Tibet andNepal, to the coasts of Burma, to the Dekkan,to Ceylon. In other words, missionaries were nolonger needed in the vast extent of territorj^ fromthe Indus to the Gulf of Bengal, from the Hima-layas to the Godavari River. And in the follow-ing centuries Buddhism had spread west to theOxus, north to Mongolia, east to China, Korea, andJapan, and south to Siam and to Java and to oth-er islands of the far Southeastern Archipelago.Then came the decline. Outside India, no fur-

ther progress was made. In India itself the forceof the new movement graduallj' fell awa}^ untilBuddhism, like Christianity, became almost un-known, even in the very land of its birth.What were the reavSons for this? Chiefl^^ nodoubt, of two kindsinternal weakness and a

notable increase in the power of opposing con-ditions. The verjT- event which, in the eyes of theworld, seemed to be the most striking proof of thesuccess of the reforming party, the conversion andstrenuous support of Asoka, the most powerfulruler India had hadindeed, the first real over-lord over practicall}' the whole of India properwas only the beginning of the end. The adhesionof large numbers of only nominal converts pro-duced weakness rather than strength. The da^'of compromise had come. Every relaxation ofthe old thorough - going position was heartih'welcomed and widely supported by converts onlyhalf converted. The margin of difference between

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDthe Buddhists and their most formidable opponentsfaded gradually, almost entirely, away. The soul-theory, step by step, regained the upper hand.Caste distinctions were, little by little, built up intoa completely organized system. The social suprem-acy of the Brahmins by birth became acceptedeverywhere as an incontrovertible fact. But theflood of popular superstition which overwhelmedthe Buddhist movement overwhelmed also thewhole pantheon of the Vedic gods. Buddhism andBrahminism practically gave place to modernHinduism.We ought not, in fact, to be surprised that a theorywhich placed the ideal in self-conquest ; regarded finalsalvation as obtainable in this world onl}^ and onlyby self-culture ; a view of life that ignored the " soul,"and brought the very gods under the domain of lawa religion which aimed its keenest shafts againstjust those forms of belief in the supernatural that

I appeal most strongly alike to the hopes and the fears"^ of the people; a philosophy based on experience,confining itself to going back, step by step, fromeffect to cause,> and pouring scorn on speculationsas to the ultimate origin, or end of thingswe oughtnot to be surprised that such a system stumbled andfell. It might gain, by the powerful personalitj^/of its founders, by the first enthusiasm, the zeal andI the intelligence of his followers, a certain measureof temporary success. But it fought against toomany vested interests at once, it raised up too manj^enemies, it tried, in "pouring new wine into old

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B U D D 11 1 S Mbottles," to retain too much of the ancient phrase-ology for lasting success. It was before its time. Theend was inevitable. xVnd the end was brought about,not by persecution, but by the gradual weakeningof tlie theory itself, the gradual creeping back undernew forms and new names of the more popular be-liefs.

hi almost the words the present writer venturedto use, nearly twent}' years ago, " It would be, f)er-haps, hard to find, in the whole history of the world,a greater tragedy than that typified by the feast ofJuggernauth. The number of deaths at the fes-tival has doubtless been sometimes exaggerated, andI am quite aware that reasons can be given for thecharacter of the carvings on the triumphal car ofVishnu. But it is acknowledged that the templeat Puri had once been Buddhist, that caste is ignoredduring the festival, and that the very name of theidol is really' nothing but a misimderstood ancientepithetthe Pali word ' Jagan-natha ' (Lord of theWorld)of the great thinker and reformer of India.We know that deaths did, in fact, and up to very re-cent times, take place, and were supposed to securea happy entrance of the ' soul ' into realms of de-light in heaven. When we call to mind how thefrenzied multitudes, drunk with the luscious poisonof delusions, from which the reformation the3" had re-jected might have saved them, dragged on that sacredcar, heavy and hideous with carvings of obscenit}-and crueltydragged it on in the ver3^ name ofJagan-natha, the forgotten teacher of self-control, of

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDenlightenment, and of universal love, while it creakedand crushed over the bodies of miserable suicides,the victims of once-exploded superstitionsit willhelp us to realize how heavy is the hand of the im-measurable past ; how much more powerful than thevoice of the prophets is the influence of congenial fan-cies and of inherited beliefs."And now? Is there any probability of the re-

vival of Buddhism? Has it force enough, has itany force to stand up against the altered condi-tions of the world? Beaten back by the fire andsword of a fierce Mohammedanism from Khiva andBokhara, from Afghanistan and Baluchistan, fromSind and from the Panjab, will it regain there thelost territory, and restore the beautiful monumentsso ruthlessly destroyed? It was the same gentlehands that gave the coup de grace to Buddhism inthe valley of the Ganges. The great university ofNaland^ still existed, as the chief if not the onlycentre of unsectarian religious life in India, whenthe Moslems came.They murdered the teachers and burned the books,

and, without any military necessity that is nowperceptible, destroyed the buildings. Can Buddhismrecover there the ground it had previously lost byits own failings, and rebuild the great universitynow buried in heaps of ruin and covered with jungle?Can it recover its lost influence in China and Japan,where it was for a short time the dominant faith, andis now despised, again through its own weakness,by the official and ruling classes who once professed

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B U D D 1 1 I wS Mit? Is there any probability of its once af^ain send-ing out its missionaries into distant lands, and gain-ing over new regions to its strong gospel of self-vic-torj^ by self-abnegation?The answer, so far as it can be given at all, can

only be given in the light of the history of the past.In so far as it shall be able to purify itself by an in-telligent approximation, indeed, by a practical re-turn, to the teaching of the master, there is hopefor it. Its most powerful weapon, now as then,must always be the Four Truths, the Noble Path inwhich the3' culminate, the doctrine of Arahatshipto which that path leads up. It is by no means surethat Buddhists throughout the world have as yetfully and consciously reached this position. Butsome approach, at least, to it is being brought aboutb}'^ two causes especiallj^ And these are both due,oddly enough, to European and American agencythey are the influence of Christian propagandistsand of European and American scholars.One result of the first has been, and especially in

those countries where it has been most vigorouslycarried on, to compel the Buddhists to examine theirgroimds of belief, and, with that object, to studymore carefully their ancient literature. We see,therefore, throughout the Buddhist world an en-thusiasm reawakening for education, both primaryand secondar}^ to be conducted on their own lines.Books in manuscript, on the time -honored palm-leaves, had been deemed enough when their positionwas not attacked. Now the3^ are printing and cir-

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDculating their books, as the Christians do; they arefounding schools for both sexes; they are estabhsh-ing boards of education, even high schools and col-leges; and their sacred books, no longer left onlyin the hands of student recluses, are printed andcirculated at large. Fas est et ah hoste doceri.On the other hand, the labors of European and

American scholars are making accessible, also onthis side, the ancient texts, and are even beginningto translate them into European languages, and toanalyze and summarize their contents. Thoughthe Buddhists do not in the least agree with us,whose aim is not controversial at all, but onlj^ his-torical, they are beginning not only to make suchuse as suits them of our results, but to imitate ourmethods.

It may be desirable to specify, with regard to eachcountryfor Buddhism is still an influence overwidely separated portions of the globe, and thepresent position is different in eachhow far suchmovements have gone. In Japan, split up as Bud-dhism is into many sects, of which Mr. Fujish Mahas given us so interesting an account,* the verydifference of opinion has led to one sect vying v'iththe other in propagandist education. Several ofthem have even sent students over to Europe forthe express purpose of learning Pali and Sanscrit a most striking phenomenon of the time. Andone or two of these students, thus trained in European

* Le Bouddhisnie japonais ; doctrines et histoire des douze grandesaectes du Bouddhisnie du Japon. Paris, 1889

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B U D D H I S Mknowledge, notabl}- the genllcinan already referredto, and Mr. Bunyii Nanjio, and, last (not leavsl), Mr.Takakusu, have, by their published works, addednot only to native, bnt to European knowledge. Avery excellently conducted periodical, now calledTJie Orient, gives also able expression, in English,to the general Buddhist view of things, and publishesEnglish versions of the texts held in most repute.In the face of the increased importance which recentevents have given to the military caste in Japan, acaste devoted almost exclusively to the ancientpaganism, the Shinto faith of their ancestors, thisactivity and zeal of the Buddhists is noteworthy.

In China, in this as in other respects, all is silent;or, if there be any movement, we know nothing of it.Buddhism there has alwa3'S, in spite of a few in-tervals of royal favor, had a hard fight againstConfucianism; and it lies at present, mostly frominternal causes, under a cloud. But it still has alarge following among the masses, and even, thoughthey often prefer to conceal the fact, among thewealthier classes; and any revival of Chinese na-tional feeling will have its effect also on the Bud-dhist communities.

In Siam, on the other hand, the Buddhist ad-vance has the able and efficient support of theruling family. In emulation, no doubt, and insome respects in imitation, of the Pali Text Society,the work of European scholars, the Buddhistscholars of Siamfor scholarship has never diedout therehave brought out, at the expense and

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDunder the patronage of their present enhghtenedmonarch, and under the superintendence of hisbrotlier, the distinguished scholar and member ofthe Buddhist Order, Prince Vajira-nana, a most ad-mirable and now nearly complete edition of thewhole of their ancient sacred books, and are be-ginning, under the same auspices, an edition ofthe numerous commentariesall in Pali, of course,but printed, not in the Pali, but in the ordinarySiamese, characters.

In Ceylon, the Buddhists not without help,be it noted, from American sympathizers havestarted new schools, both for boys and girls. Theyhave also inaugurated colleges for the highereducation of the Buddhist clergy. And more thanone of these colleges, notably in Colombo, underthe able superintendence of the distinguishedscholar Sumangala Maha Nayaka, who is anHonorary Member of the Royal Asiatic Societyof England, have produced scholars and organizerswho are fully awake to all the necessities of thetimes. There is a paper there, too. The Buddhist,which does for Ceylon what The Orient does forJapan; and a native paper, written in Singalese,the Sava Sanda Rasa, which is even more impor-tant, and has a large and influential circulation.

In India, an organization has been set on footin Calcutta for the propagation of Buddhist opinion.This owed its commencement to the agency ofCeylon Buddhists, and is at present very ablypresided over by a Ceylonese well known in Europe

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BU DDIIISMand America, ]\b\ Dharniapala. But il has re-ceived the adhesion and support of influential na-tives of India. Some of them contribute arti-cles to its journal, the Journal of the Maha BodhiSociety, and others have gone to Ceylon to studyBuddhism there. A principal object of the as-sociation, to obtain possession of the ancient MahaBodhi temple, erected on the site of the spot wherethe Buddha obtained Nirvana, has not at presentbeen successful. But the organization is full oflife and aspiration, and it seems by no means im-probable that it will succeed in spreading to a con-siderable extent once more in India the faith of thegreatest teacher and thinker that India has yetproduced.

In Burma Buddhism is at present quieter. Per-haps it is that the Buddhists there feel less thanelsewhere the pressure of opposing forces. AsMr. Fielding has shown in that enchanting vol-ume, The Soul of a People, Buddhism is in Bur-ma a power, and a power on the whole for good,influencing the lives of the people from the cradleto the grave. And though quiet, it is not quiescent.The press issues an increasing number of Bud-dhist texts, old and new. And though the Bud-dhist peasantry have not yet, from financial causes,succeeded in publishing the whole of the authori-tative texts of their religion, the texts they do pub-lish have a wide circulation and are held in highhonor by the people.

There is yet another point which it would be47


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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDblindness to oniil in an}^ estimate of the positionof Buddhism as a living forceit is not at all im-probable that it may tnrn out, eventuall}', to be themost important point of allthe quiet but irresist-ible way in which Buddhism is making jts in-fluence felt, quite apart from any religious prop-aganda, in the thoughi of the West. WhatSchopenhauer said has often been quoted, butwill bear quoting again : " If I am to take theresults of my own philosophy" as the standard oftruth, I should be obliged to concede to Buddhismthe pre-eminence over the rest. In any case, it mustbe a satisfaction to me to find my teaching in suchagreement with a religion professed by the ma-jority of men." This would be neither the placenor the time to undertake any discussion of thisutterance. It is enough to point out that Scho-penhauer is, in all probabilit3^ the most influentialphilosopher among those now followed in Ger-many; and that the influence of Germany, at allevents in intellectual matters, is at present, if notindeed in the ascendant, at least exceedingly power-ful. It is not probable that anj^ considerablenumber of people, either in Europe or America,will ever range themselves openly on the side ofBuddhism as a profession of faith. But it cannotbe denied that there are certain points in the Bud-dhist view of life that are likely to influence, and toinfluence widely, with increasing intensity, theviews of life, of philosophy, of ethics, as held nowin the West. And not onlj^ the view of life, the

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BUDDHISMmethod also, tlie system of self-train iiijj^ in ethi-cal culture, has certain points which the practicalWestern mind is not likel3% when it comes to knowit, to ignore. The present results have beenbrought about by the knowledge of Buddhism pro-fessed by a few isolated students. It is only whenthe texts have been properlj^ edited, fully translated,so studied and summarized that they have beenmade accessible to every one interested in questionsof philosoph^^ and ethics, that the full^_po\ver ofsuch truth as there is in the Buddhist theory willbe felt. ^

It cannot be considered as at all improbable thatthe twentieth century will see a movement of ideasnot unlike in importance to that resulting fromthe discovery of Greek thought at the time of theRenaissance, and due, like it, to the meeting to-gether in men's minds of two fundamentall}^ dif-ferent interpretations of the deepest problems manhas to face.

T. W. Rhys Davids.D


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MOHAMMEDANISM IN THENINETEENTH CENTURY


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MOHAMMEDANISM IN THENINETEENTH CENTURYOn the day of intercession for missions in tlie

3'ear 1873 Professor Max Miiller advanced the the-ory that the six great rehgions of the world aredivisible into missionary and non - missionary re-ligions. Under the first head he places Bud-dhism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism ; whileBrahminism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism belongto the latter class. He adds that the characteristicfeature of missionary religions is that in these"the spreading of the truth^ and the conversionof unbelievers are raised to the rank of a sacredduty by the founder. . . . It is the spirit oftruth in the hearts of believers which cannot restunless it manifests itself in thought, word, anddeed, which is not satisfied till it has carried itsmessage to every human soul, till what it believesto be the truth is accepted as the truth by all mem-bers of the human family.''

It is from the zeal for propagation in a religionthat we are able to judge of its vitality. If, forexample, we wish to gain a clear idea of the vitality

5:^


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GREAT REI. IGIONS OF THE WORLDof Christianity, we must not direct our attentiontowards the intellectual centres of Christian coun-tries, where materialism and hypercriticism oftenobscure the image of eternal religion, where indif-ference and skepticism seem to threaten the veryexistence of the faith, but we must look at themissionary work, in which, with youthful enthusi-asm and sacred zeal, not the least valuable elementsof the nations are active in the propagation of thefaith, often at the sacrifice of their own lives.The same is true also of Mohammedanism, in

connection with which a striking activity in thespreading of its teaching is displaj^ed. This factis not sufficiently recognized, and it may, there-fore, be of general interest to give some informationas to the present condition of Mohammedanism,the number of its adherents, and the manner of itspropagation. From the facts and figures adducedbelow we shall be enabled, at the same time, toform an opinion as to whether Pan-Islamism con--stitutes a danger to Oriental civilization, as isasserted by some authorities on Eastern matters.Furthermore, the approaching close of the centurypresents a fitting occasion for a retrospective glanceat the religious and intellectual movements of thepast hundred years. In the nineteenth ccnturj^especially, technical knowledge has made vastprogress, and the ever-increasing energies at workin the life of civilized races naturally sought beforelong to bring other spheres under their influence.It was in the nineteenth century that modern civil-

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MOHAMMEDANISMization first came actually face to face with Moham-medanism, which forms, as it were, a barrier be-tween Western culture and non-civilized peoples.Step by step, the influences of the West encroachupon the borders of the Mohammedan world, not,of course, without producing certain reactions. Soit is that, in the nineteenth century, after a longinterval, Mohammedanism again manifests ex-pansive activity, .and in a manner, indeed, whichevokes our admiration.

I will begin by giving, by means of figures, anidea of the present condition of Mohammedanismin the different continents, compared with its pro-portions about one hundred years ago.*The status of Islam in America may be dis-

missed very briefly. On the whole continent ofNorth and South America there live only about49,500 Mohammedans, there being 20,500 in Northand Central America, inclusive of the West Indiesthe other 29,000 are in South America, where theBritish colony of Guiana alone contains 21,000 Mo-hammedans. These are exclusively workmen, thecoolies imported from India and China. There ishere as little question of the progress of Moham-medanism as of its retrogression; conversions to

* For the years 1890-1897 especially good and critically soundmaterials are afforded by the excellent work of Dr. Jansen, ThePropagation of Mohatnmedanism {Die Verbreitiing des Istatus),1S97. ^^^ ii 'S' *^f course, difficult, if not impossible, to obtainreliable figures for earlier periods. Here their want must be sup-plied by a survey of the spread of Mohammedanism from a geo-graphical point of view, as, for example, in the case of Africa.

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDIslamism do not take place at all, as the coolieslive apart, and scarcely come into contact withAmericans. They, moreover, generally returnhome when they have effected an improvement intheir material position, and are replaced by otherimmigrants, who form hopes of large earningsin the foreign land. That the majority of theseMohammedans live in British Guiana is natural-ly accounted for b^^ the relative facilities for thetransport of coolies thither from British India.Mohammedanism has as 3'et penetrated verylittle into Australia, although the insular con-nection of that continent with the Malay Archi-pelago, where Mohammedans predominate, willdoubtless soon produce a more active propagandaof Mohanmiedanism there. We have to recordin Australia, inclusive of Oceania, about 19,500adherents of Islam, who chiefly consist, as" inAmerica, of Indian and Chinese merchants andcoolies.

In the Middle Ages, Mohammedanism, as is wellknown, had overrun a large portion of southernEurope Spain, Sicily, southern Italy, and thewhole Balkan peninsula, speaking in the widestsense of the term; at the beginning of modernlimes, it was geographically confined to that pen-insula, exclusive of the Tartar tribes inhabitingRussia, in number rather more than six millions,who remained behind after the great Mongolianinvasions. At the present day the Balkan pen-insula contains about 15,700,000 inhabitants, of56^


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MOHAMMEDANISMwhom 3,350,000 are Mohammedans, most of themhving in Turkish territory.But in Turkey itself a constant retrogression of

Mohammedanism is to be observed. Here the re-hgion of the Prophet encounters Christianity, andfrequently succumbs, since the latter is usually-accompanied by the superiorit}^ of Western culture.That this was not always the case is shown bj' theverj'- interesting history of Mohammedan propa-ganda among the Christians of the Balkan {pen-insula, in Albania, Servia, and Bosnia, where,especially in the seventeenth centur^^ in conse-quence of the negligence and apathy of the Chris-tian clergy, Mohammedanism made surprisingprogress. Information on this matter may befound in the capital work bj" T. W. Arnold, ThePreaching of Islam.The Society of English Mohammedans, founded

in Liverpool bj' Mr. Quilliam, a description ofwhich is given by John J. Pool {Studies in Mo-hammedanism), has attained the large numberof two hundred members in the fifteen years of itsexistence. This absolutely isolated phenomenoncannot be seriously counted among the successesof Mohammedanism.On the other hand, great progress has been

made by Mohammedanism in this century in Asiaand Africa, its ancient homes ; less through thepower of the sword than by means of untiringmissionary work. It is a fact that, especially inAfrica, this kind of peaceful progress is more often

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDthe result of a " jihad," or rehgious war; but, inspite of this, it must not be forgotten that the realinstrument of Mohammedan propaganda is nolonger the sword, as in the first centuries of Islam-ism, but the teaching of the priests who succeedthe soldiers, and who impart the faith to the massesof the people.Almost the whole of the modern progressive move-

ment of Mohammedanism in this century may betraced, directly or indirectly, to a puritanical sect,the so-called Wahhabis, whose founder, Abd-al-Wahhab, appeared in the first half of the eigh-teenth century in the province of Nejd, in the in-terior of Arabia, as the reformer of a then verycorrupt Mohammedanism. Before long he and hissuccessors had such a powerful following amongthe nomad tribes of Arabia that in the year 1803they even gained possession of the two sacredcities, Mecca and Medina, and only about tenyears ago was the Turkish government able toput an end to their political power. Like the Ref-ormation of Luther in Germany, this movementwas originally directed only against the abuse ofthe veneration of saints, against religious super-stition and increasing luxury in worship, andtherefore it aimed merely at a spiritual revival;it has, however, particularly since the destructionof its political importance, assisted a great dealin the exterior propagation of Mohammedanism.As little now could be effected by means of thesword for the renewal of the faith, so much the

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M O H A M M E D A N I S Mmore fervently did its adherents labor as religiousteachers within the sacred mosque itself.On the occasion of the pilgrimage to Mecca,

obligatory on all believers in the Koran, a certainSaij^id Ahmad, formerly a freebooter and banditin India, became acquainted with the teachingof the Wahhabis; and, on his return home toIndia about 1820, with true Mohammedan fanati-cism, he made it his life-work to spread the newdoctrinethat is to say, pure Islamism.In the year 1826 he preached a jihad againstthe Sikhs. In spite of great successes at firstover the Sikhs and the Afghans, who also opposedhim, he was finally defeated and put to death.The continuous progress of Mohammedanism inHindostan is chiefly to be ascribed to his follow-ers, who for a long time made the Indian city ofPatna their headquarters. By careful calculations,based on the absolutely reliable publications ofthe Indian government on the Census of India, thefollowing increase in Mohammedanism is to berecorded in different parts of the empire, in theperiod 1881-91 : In the Madras Presidency, an in-crease from 1,933,571 to 2,250,386 persons; in theBombay Presidency, an advance of nearly fourteenper cent, of the population ; in Assam, an increaseof nearly thirteen per cent. ; in the Punjab, of tenper cent. ; in Bengal and the Northwest Provinces,of from seven to eight per cent. The whole ofBritish India, inclusive of the tributar}^ states, con-tained, in the 3'ear 1881, 250,150,050 inhabitants,

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GREAT RELIGIONS OF TPIE WORLDof whom 49,952,704 were Mohammedans; and inthe 3^ear 189 1, 280,062,080 inhabitants, of whom57,061,796 were Mohammedans.The striking increase among the Mohammedans

beyond the natural growth of population repre.sents,according to Dr. Jansen's calculations, 0.406 percent, for this period of ten years. From this itmay further be calculated (as has been done byC. Y. O'Donnell, one of the English census of-ficials) that, in about five hundred years, the wholeof India will be an entirely Mohammedan country.This tremendous progress, in which, besides theabove-mentioned Wahhabis, some other sects takean active part, notably the Faraizis ("followersof the divine precepts "), closely resembling theWahhabis from a dogmatic point of view, is en-tirely the work of a peaceful proselytization. Howmuch may be accomplished by these means isalso shown by three million conversions to Moham-medanism, mentioned by the French writer DeLanessan for a period of ten years (about 1870-80).

It is easy to explain the fact that India, the landof strict caste, should be a fruitful soil for the in-tensely democratic religion of Islam. The mostnumerous are naturally the conversions of peopleof the lower castes. On this subject let us con-sult one of the best judges of the religious con-dition of India, T. W. Arnold, who says" The insults and contempts heaped upon the lower castes

of Hindus by their co-religioni.sts, and the impassable ob-stacles placed in the way of any member of these castes desir-

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M O II A M M E D A N I S Minjj^ to belter his condition, show up in strikint^ contrast thebenefits of a religious system which has no outcasts, andgives free scope for the indulgence of any ambition. . . .The tyranny of caste tolerance is very oppressive. To givebut one instance. In Travancore (west coast of India),certain of the lower castes may not come nearer than .seventy-four paces to a Brahmin, and have to make a grunting noi.seas they pass along the road, in order to give warning of theirapproach." *We shall speak of these points again in another

connection.Proportionately great has been the increase of

Mohammedanism in Burma, where, from 1881 to1891, the number of Mohammedans increased from168,881 to 210,049, representing nearly twenty-fiveper cent, of the population.

In the Mala}' Archipelago, also, the movementstarted b}^ the Wahhabis in this century producedboth an inward revival and an outward increaseof Mohammedanism. The progress of the faithis there all the greater because the natives regardit as an opposition to the encroaching Occiden-tal influences. The number of Mohammedans inthe entire Mala}' Archipelago is reckoned at31,042,000 out of 44,627,000 inhabitants. In theChinese Empire, again, Islamism has made steadyprogress in this centurj^ The number of residentMohammedans (according to the estimate givenin The Statesman's Year -Book) was computedat 30,000,000 in 1882, while in 1897 the figures are

* Arnold, Tlie Preaching of Islam, p. 220.61


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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDput at 32,()()(),ooo, which is considerably morethan the proportional increase. One of the bestjudg;es of China, M. Vassilief, depicts the con-stant progress of Mohammedanism in the year1866 in the following words: "Having enteredthe Celestial Empire by the same paths as Bud-dhism, Islamism will gradually succeed, as isnot doubted by Chinese Mussulmans, in takingthe place of the doctrine of Sakya-Muni."

In other JMohammedan parts of Asia, such asAsia Minor, S3Tia, Persia, etc., no progress ofiMohammedanism is to be observed other thanthe natural increase in population, and this isquite natural in a country', like Persia for exam-I)le, in which there are only a very small nimi-ber of non-Mohammedans. In Russian Turkestanalone a slight decrease of Mohammedanism is tobe noticed, which may chiefly be ascribed to thesystematic Russification of those districts.Mohammedanism is, however, making a trium-

phal progress at the present day through the"Dark Continent." It will be interesting to notesome of the chief movements of Islamism, espe-ciall}^ in west Africa. Almost all these move-ments may be traced to Wahhabite influence,whether it be that their moving spirit has comeinto contact with the teaching of these Puritans,or that newly foimded orders have embracedWahhabite doctrines in a new form, and preachthese fanatically to the heathen.

In the first half of our century was foimded the62


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M O H A M M E U A N I wS MMohanimedan Fulah kinjj^doiii, in the neighbor-hood of the Gambia River, by Danfodio, whichled to a great spread of Mohammedanism. Dan-fodio, himself a Fulah negro, had learned the Wah-habite doctrines on a pilgrimage to Mecca, andhe preached the "pure faith" in his native landon his return. He succeeded, by means of his per-sonal influence, first in converting the scatteredFulah tribes to his teaching, and next in unitingthem in a powerful kingdom under his dominion.Above all, he understood how to rouse the religiouszeal of his subjects, so that the Fulahs hence-forth belonged to the most active among the Mo-hammedan missionaries. So, also, the founding ofthe city of Sokoto, now the centre of a flourishingMohammedan kingdom, in a district still almostentirel}^ heathen at the beginning of the century,was the work of Danfodio. So, again, in 1837,Adamana was founded by the Fulahs on the ruinsof several heathen kingdoms. The Fulahs borethe victorious banner of Islam westward as far asthe ocean; and, at the present daj^ four powerfulMohammedan kingdoms in Senegambia and theSoudan still bear witness to the missionary zeal ofDanfodio. What the warlike Danfodio had out-wardly subjugated was inwardly established bythe priests, merchants, and teachers ; they taughtthe newly w^on heathen to love and reverence theKlohammedan faith as a higher state of well-being.Even in districts \\ here Christian missions seem

to have gained a firm footing, Mohammedanism63


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GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLDobtains an increasing number of followers. Thus,in the beginning of the 3'ear 1870, Islamism wasentirely unknown in Sierra Leone and Lagos, thetwo chief English settlements, while now about athird of the entire population profess the religionof Mohammedanism.The chief share ih these almost unexampled

missionary successes is due to individual religiousassociations, or brotherhoods, which aim in theirrules at the propagation of Mohammedanism aswell as at the inward purification of the relig-ious life of the faithful. In the western part ofnorth Africa, especial activitj^ is shown by theKadri3^ah, who had established themselves asearly^ as the beginning of the sixteenth centuryin Timbuctoo, but who were first stirred to thezealous propagation of Mohammedanism by themovement which originated with the Wahhabis andwas supported by Danfodio. Their missionarywork bears an entirely peaceful character; it i

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Great Religions of the World (1901)