The old faith kept but not pursued.

customary rites with devout reverence.

137

'He

'sacrificed to the dead, as if they were present. 'He sacrificed to the spirits as if they were 'present' (Analects iii. 12). with the order of the world

But life in harmony seemed to him to be

the highest worship. The Master being very 'sick, Tsze-loo asked leave to pray for him...The 'Master said "My praying has been for a long 'time" (Analects vii. 34). So it naturally followed that the observances of worship under Confucianism came to be official and representative, a part of the life of the state and not the satisfaction of personal wants. There was no appointed ministry the head of each section of society performed the services by an inherent right. The old was left, but Confucius when pressed by his disciples to deal with spiritual subjects, justified his silence by the silence above. 'Tsze-kung said: If you, Master, do not speak, what shall we 'your disciples have to record? The Master said: 'Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue 'their courses, and all things are being continually 'produced, but does Heaven say anything? (Analects xvii. 19; contrast Ps. xix.). But in the older books there is a recognition of providential government. The course of the seasons is supposed to shew God (Yih King, App. v. 8, 9: S. B. E. xvi.). And though the 'Heaven' of the primitive

138

Retribution on earth.

belief became in the teaching of Confucius the symbol of a stern, inexorable law, an order not made by man but recognised by him, yet in one passage of the Analects there is a pathetic appeal to 'Heaven' as having feeling with men. The 'Master said: Alas, there is no one that knows 'me...I do not murmur against Heaven. I do 'not grumble against men. My studies lie low, 'and my penetration rises high. But there is 'Heaven :—that knows me' (Analects xiv. 37).

It follows from what has been said that Confucianism offered no definite teaching on a future life. The opinions on this subject which have found currency in China have been due either to the original faith or to Buddhism. There was from early times a vague belief in the separation of two 'souls' at death: the animal soul descended to the earth and perished, while the 'spirit' was 'displayed on high in a condition ' of glorious brightness' (Lî Kî, xxi. 2). The great and the noble were supposed to enjoy heavenly felicity, and an early king is represented as speaking of his ancestors as 'spiritual sovereigns' (Shú King, vii. 2). But there is no evidence that this hope of happiness was for all. On the other hand there is no doctrine of punishment after death. It was held that retribution was exacted

Strength and weakness of Confucianism. 139

in the life of earth either from the offender himself, or from his descendants afterwards. The family that accumulates goodness is sure to 'have superabundant happiness; and the family 'that accumulates evil is sure to have super'abundant misery. The murder of a ruler by his minister, or of a father by his son, is not the 'result of the events of one morning, or one 'evening' (Yih King, App. iv. ii. § 5: S. B. E. xvi. pp. 419 f.).

The history of China is the best comment on the strength and on the weakness of this most wonderful system of secularism leavened by the remains of a patriarchal faith. The Empire has been at once the most lasting in the world, and the most unprogressive. It has been lasting because it was the resolute expression of faith in a supreme and beneficent order, as against the pessimism of Hinduism and Buddhism which sees in the world of sense illusion and evil, and the endless conflict of popular Zoroastrianism. It has been unprogressive because Confucianism obscured the fact of sin, and substituted a morality for a theology, rules for a divine fellowship, obedience to a code for devotion to a living Lord, teaching for a Teacher-as many at the present day seem to believe that the Sermon on the Mount can take the place of the Risen Christ

and adopted a type of order which was earthly and human, of the world and not above it. In China we see realised the effects of an absolute law, obeyed apart from reference to an absolute Lawgiver, of a personal moral discipline ruled by the motive of self-regarding culture and not of self-sacrifice. China has been able to conquer its conquerors but not to inspire them; to make them like itself but not to call out the fulness of their life. The Chinese became what we may suppose the Jews would have become if the covenant with Abraham had not underlain the Law.

Man's own nature was held to be the one revelation of heaven (Menc. vii. (1), i.). This had been perfectly embodied in a kingdom of earth in the past, and the past became at once the rule and the type for all time. There was therefore no infinite ideal offered for the inspiration of men, growing with their growth: no living connexion with GOD making Himself known according to the development of human powers. All that could be had already been, so that hope was limited to the expectation of a limited cycle of change.

But, not to close with the sad side of the picture, we may remember, as has been already

indigenous faith of China.

141

pointed out, that Confucius acknowledged the relation of Fatherhood as the basis of human life. So far he was on the way to hear the fulness of the Divine message to humanity. He saw that the father was the living lord of the family : that the Emperor was the father of the nation. His facts carried him no farther, and he shrank from adventurous if splendid guesses. Yet we can see that the revelation of a true Divine Father in the Mission of Christ completes what he began, and that his view of society illustrates the doctrine of the Fatherhood of GOD, and the brotherhood of men.

Under this aspect the indigenous faiths of China deserve far more careful study than they have received. They express to us with a voice clear independent and impressive some of the earliest beliefs of men. We can see in them as a power still living that which can be recognised in other religions in a distorted and exaggerated shape. Above all they present with unique force thoughts which at the present time seem to be essential for the interpretation of the Gospel to our own age, the solidarity of peoples and, in the end, of mankind, and the continuity of personal life in the family. These thoughts, as we have already seen, are embodied in the Im