Confucianism

By Confucianism is meant the complex system of moral, social,
political, and religious teaching built up by Confucius on the
ancient Chinese traditions, and perpetuated as the State religion
down to the present day. Confucianism aims at making not simply
the man of virtue, but the man of learning and of good manners.
The perfect man must combine the qualities of saint, scholar, and
gentleman. Confucianism is a religion without positive revelation,
with a minimum of dogmatic teaching, whose popular worship is
centered in offerings to the dead, in which the notion of duty is
extended beyond the sphere of morals proper so as to embrace
almost every detail of daily life.

I. THE TEACHER, CONFUCIUS

The chief exponent of this remarkable religion was K'ung-tze, or
K'ung-fu-tze, latinized by the early Jesuit missionaries into
Confucius. Confucius was born in 551 B.C., in what was then the
feudal state of Lu, now included in the modern province of Shan-
tung. His parents, while not wealthy, belonged to the superior
class. His father was a warrior, distinguished no less for his
deeds of valour than for his noble ancestry. Confucius was a mere
boy when his father died. From childhood he showed a great
aptitude for study, and though, in order to support himself and
his mother, he had to labour in his early years as a hired servant
in a noble family, he managed to find time to pursue his favourite
studies. He made such progress that at the age of twenty-two years
he opened a school to which many were attracted by the fame of his
learning. His ability and faithful service merited for him
promotion to the office of minister of justice. Under his wise
administration the State attained to a degree of prosperity and
moral order that it had never seen before. But through the
intrigues of rival states the Marquis of Lu was led to prefer
ignoble pleasures to the preservation of good government.
Confucius tried by sound advice to bring his liege lord back to
the path of duty, but in vain. He thereupon resigned his high
position at the cost of personal ease and comfort, and left the
state. For thirteen years, accompanied by faithful disciples, he
went about from one state to another, seeking a ruler who would
give heed to his counsels. Many were the privations he suffered.
More than once he ran imminent risk of being waylaid and killed by
his enemies, but his courage and confidence in the providential
character of his mission never deserted him. At last he returned
to Lu, where he spent the last five years of his long life
encouraging others to the study and practice of virtue, and
edifying all by his noble example. He died in the year 478 B.C.,
in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His lifetime almost exactly
coincided with that of Buddha, who died two years earlier at the
age of eighty.

That Confucius possessed a noble, commanding personality, there
can be little doubt. It is shown by his recorded traits of
character, by his lofty moral teachings, by the high-minded men
that he trained to continue his life-work. In their enthusiastic
love and admiration, they declared him the greatest of men, the
sage without flaw, the perfect man. That he himself did not make
any pretension to possess virtue and wisdom in their fullness is
shown by his own recorded sayings. He was conscious of his
shortcomings, and this consciousness he made no attempt to keep
concealed. But of his love of virtue and wisdom there can be no
question. He is described in "Analects", VII, 18, as one "who in
the eager pursuit of knowledge, forgot his food, and in the joy of
attaining to it forgot his sorrow". Whatever in the traditional
records of the past, whether history, lyric poems, or rites and
ceremonies, was edifying and conducive to virtue, he sought out
with untiring zeal and made known to his disciples. He was a man
of affectionate nature, sympathetic, and most considerate towards
others. He loved his worthy disciples dearly, and won in turn
their undying devotion. He was modest and unaffected in his
bearing, inclined to gravity, yet possessing a natural
cheerfulness that rarely deserted him. Schooled to adversity from
childhood, he learned to find contentment and serenity of mind
even where ordinary comforts were lacking. He was very fond of
vocal and instrumental music, and often sang, accompanying his
voice with the lute. His sense of humour is revealed in a
criticism he once made of some boisterous singing "Why use an ox-
knife", he said, "to kill a fowl?"

Confucius is often held up as the type of the virtuous man without
religion. His teachings, it is alleged, were chiefly ethical, in
which one looks in vain for retribution in the next life as a
sanction of right conduct. Now an acquaintance with the ancient
religion of China and with Confucian texts reveals the emptiness
of the assertion that Confucius was devoid of religious thought
and feeling. He was religious after the manner of religious men of
his age and land. In not appealing to rewards and punishments in
the life to come, he was simply following the example of his
illustrious Chinese predecessors, whose religious belief did not
include this element of future retribution. The Chinese classics
that were ancient even in the time of Confucius have nothing to
say of hell, but have much to say of the rewards and punishments
meted out in the present life by the all-seeing Heaven. There are
numbers of texts that show plainly that he did not depart from the
traditional belief in the supreme Heaven-god and subordinate
spirits, in Divine providence and retribution, and in the
conscious existence of souls after death. These religious
convictions on his part found expression in many recorded acts of
piety and worship.

II. THE CONFUCIAN TEXTS

As Confucianism in its broad sense embraces not only the immediate
teaching of Confucius, but also the traditional records customs,
and rites to which he gave the sanction of his approval, and which
today rest largely upon his authority, there are reckoned among
the Confucian texts several that even in his day were venerated as
sacred heirlooms of the past. The texts are divided into two
categories, known as the "King" (Classics), and the "Shuh"
(Books). The texts of the "King", which stand first in importance,
are commonly reckoned as five, but sometimes as six.

The first of these is the "Shao-king" (Book of History), a
religious and moral work, tracing the hand of Providence in a
series of great events of past history, and inculcating the lesson
that the Heaven-god gives prosperity and length of days only to
the virtuous ruler who has the true welfare of the people at
heart. Its unity of composition may well bring its time of
publication down to the sixth century B.C., though the sources on
which the earlier chapters are based may be almost contemporaneous
with the events related.

The second "King" is the so-called "She-king" (Book of Songs),
often spoken of as the "Odes". Of its 305 short lyric poems some
belong to the time of the Shang dynasty (1766-1123 B.C.), the
remaining, and perhaps larger, part to the first five centuries of
the dynasty of Chow, that is, down to about 600 B.C.

The third "King" is the so-called "Y-king" (Book of Changes), an
enigmatic treatise on the art of divining with the stalks of a
native plant, which after being thrown give different indications
according as they conform to one or another of the sixty-four
hexagrams made up of three broken and three unbroken lines. The
short explanations which accompany them, in large measure
arbitrary and fantastic, are assigned to the time of Wan and his
illustrious son Wu, founders of the Chow dynasty (1122 B.C.).
Since the time of Confucius, the work has been more than doubled
by a series of appendixes, ten in number, of which eight are
attributed to Confucius. Only a small portion of these, however,
are probably authentic.

The fourth "King" is the "Li-ki" (Book of Rites). In its present
form it dates from the second century of our era, being a
compilation from a vast number of documents, most of which date
from the earlier part of the Chow dynasty. It gives rules of
conduct down to the minute details for religious acts of worship,
court functions, social and family relations, dress--in short, for
every sphere of human action. It remains today the authoritative
guide of correct conduct for every cultivated Chinese. In the "Li-
ki" are many of Confucius's reputed sayings and two long treatises
composed by disciples, which may be said to reflect with
substantial accuracy the sayings and teachings of the master. One
of these is the treatise known as the "Chung-yung" (Doctrine of
the Mean). It forms Book XXVIII of the "Li-ki", and is one of its
most valuable treatises. It consists of a collection of sayings of
Confucius characterizing the man of perfect virtue. The other
treatise, forming Book XXXIX of the "Li-ki", is the so-called "Ta-
hio" (Great Learning). It purports to be descriptions of the
virtuous ruler by the disciple Tsang-tze, based on the teachings
of the master. The fifth "King" is the short historical treatise
known as the "Ch'un-ts'ew" (Spring and Autumn), said to have been
written by the hand of Confucius himself. It consists of a
connected series of bare annals of the state of Lu for the years
722-484 B.C. To these five "Kings" belongs a sixth, the so-called
"Hiao-king" (Book of Filial Piety). The Chinese attribute its
composition to Confucius, but in the opinion of critical scholars,
it is the product of the school of his disciple, Tsang-tze.

Mention has just been made of the two treatises, the "Doctrine of
the Mean" and the "Great Learning", embodied in the "Li-ki". In
the eleventh century of our era, these two works were united with
other Confucian texts, constituting what is known as the "Sze-
shuh" (Four Books). First of these is the "Lun-yu" (Analects). It
is a work in twenty short chapters, showing what manner of man
Confucius was in his daily life, and recording many of his
striking sayings on moral and historical topics. It seems to
embody the authentic testimony of his disciples written by one of
the next generation.

The second place in the "Shuh" is given to the "Book of Mencius".
Mencius (Meng-tze), was not an immediate disciple of the master.
He lived a century later. He acquired great fame as an exponent of
Confucian teaching. His sayings, chiefly on moral topics, were
treasured up by disciples, and published in his name. Third and
fourth in order of the "Shuh" come the "Great Learning" and the
"Doctrine of the Mean".

For our earliest knowledge of the contents of these Confucian
texts, we are indebted to the painstaking researches of the Jesuit
missionaries in China during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, who, with an heroic zeal for the spread of Christ's
kingdom united a diligence and proficiency in the study of Chinese
customs, literature, and history that have laid succeeding
scholars under lasting obligation. Among these we may mention
Fathers Premare, Regis, Lacharme, Gaubil, No�l, Ignacio da Costa,
by whom most of the Confucian texts were translated and elucidated
with great erudition. It was but natural that their pioneer
studies in so difficult a field should be destined to give place
to the more accurate and complete monuments of modern scholarship.
But even here they have worthy representatives in such scholars as
Father Zottoli and Henri Cordier, whose Chinese studies give
evidence of vast erudition. The Confucian texts have been made
available to English readers by Professor Legge. Besides his
monumental work in seven volumes, entitled "The Chinese Classics"
and his version of the "Ch'un ts'ew", he has given the revised
translations of the "Shuh", "She", "Ta-hio", "Y", and "Li-Ki" in
Volumes III, XVI, XXVII, and XXVIII of "The Sacred Books of the
East".

III. THE DOCTRINE

A. Religious Groundwork

The religion of ancient China, to which Confucius gave his
reverent adhesion was a form of nature-worship very closely
approaching to monotheism. While numerous spirits associated with
natural phenomena were recognized--spirits of mountains and
rivers, of land and grain, of the four quarters of the heavens,
the sun, moon, and stars--they were all subordinated to the
supreme Heaven-god, T'ien (Heaven) also called Ti (Lord), or
Shang-ti (Supreme Lord). All other spirits were but his ministers,
acting in obedience to his will. T'ien was the upholder of the
moral law, exercising a benign providence over men. Nothing done
in secret could escape his all-seeing eye. His punishment for evil
deeds took the form either of calamities and early death, or of
misfortune laid up for the children of the evil-doer. In numerous
passages of the "Shao-" and "She-king", we find this belief
asserting itself as a motive to right conduct. That it was not
ignored by Confucius himself is shown by his recorded saying, that
"he who offends against Heaven has no one to whom he can pray".
Another quasi-religious motive to the practice of virtue was the
belief that the souls of the departed relatives were largely
dependent for their happiness on the conduct of their living
descendants. It was taught that children owed it as a duty to
their dead parents to contribute to their glory and happiness by
lives of virtue. To judge from the sayings of Confucius that have
been preserved, he did not disregard these motives to right
conduct, but he laid chief stress on the love of virtue for its
own sake. The principles of morality and their concrete
application to the varied relations of life were embodied in the
sacred texts, which in turn represented the teachings of the great
sages of the past raised up by Heaven to instruct mankind. These
teachings were not inspired, nor were they revealed, yet they were
infallible. The sages were born with wisdom meant by Heaven to
enlighten the children of men. It was thus a wisdom that was
providential, rather than supernatural. The notion of Divine
positive revelation is absent from the Chinese texts. To follow
the path of duty as laid down in the authoritative rules of
conduct was within the reach of all men, provided that their
nature, good at birth, was not hopelessly spoiled by vicious
influences. Confucius held the traditional view that all men are
born good. Of anything like original sin there is not a trace in
his teaching. He seems to have failed to recognize even the
existence of vicious hereditary tendencies. In his view, what
spoiled men was bad environment, evil example, an inexcusable
yielding to evil appetites that everyone by right use of his
natural powers could and ought to control. Moral downfall caused
by suggestions of evil spirits had no place in his system. Nor is
there any notion of Divine grace to strengthen the will and
enlighten the mind in the struggle with evil. There are one or two
allusions to prayer, but nothing to show that daily prayer was
recommended to the aspirant after perfection.

B. Helps to Virtue

In Confucianism the helps to the cultivation of virtue are natural
and providential, nothing more. But in this development of moral
perfection Confucius sought to enkindle in others the enthusiastic
love of virtue that he felt himself. To make oneself as good as
possible, this was with him the main business of life. Everything
that was conducive to the practice of goodness was to be eagerly
sought and made use of. To this end right knowledge was to be held
indispensable. Like Socrates, Confucius taught that vice sprang
from ignorance and that knowledge led unfailingly to virtue. The
knowledge on which he insisted was not purely scientific learning,
but an edifying acquaintance with the sacred texts and the rules
of virtue and propriety. Another factor on which he laid great
stress was the influence of good example. He loved to hold up to
the admiration of his disciples the heroes and sages of the past,
an acquaintance with whose noble deeds and sayings he sought to
promote by insisting on the study of the ancient classics. Many of
his recorded sayings are eulogies of these valiant men of virtue.
Nor did he fail to recognize the value of good, high-minded
companions. His motto was, to associate with the truly great and
to make friends of the most virtuous. Besides association with the
good, Confucius urged on his disciples the importance of always
welcoming the fraternal correction of one's faults. Then, too, the
daily examination of conscience was inculcated. As a further aid
to the formation of a virtuous character, he valued highly a
certain amount of self-discipline. He recognized the danger,
especially in the young, of falling into habits of softness and
love of ease. Hence he insisted on a virile indifference to
effeminate comforts. In the art of music he also recognized a
powerful aid to enkindle enthusiasm for the practice of virtue. He
taught his pupils the "Odes" and other edifying songs, which they
sang together to the accompaniment of lutes and harps. This
together with the magnetism of his personal influence lent a
strong emotional quality to his teaching.

C. Fundamental Virtues

As a foundation for the life of perfect goodness, Confucius
insisted chiefly on the four virtues of sincerity, benevolence,
filial piety, and propriety. Sincerity was with him a cardinal
virtue. As used by him it meant more than a mere social relation.
To be truthful and straightforward in speech, faithful to one's
promises, conscientious in the discharge of one's duties to
others--this was included in sincerity and something more. The
sincere man in Confucius's eyes was the man whose conduct was
always based on the love of virtue, and who in consequence sought
to observe the rules of right conduct in his heart as well as in
outward actions, when alone as well as in the presence of others.
Benevolence, showing itself in a kindly regard for the welfare of
others and in a readiness to help them in times of need, was also
a fundamental element in Confucius's teaching. It was viewed as
the characteristic trait of the good man. Mencius, the illustrious
exponent of Confucianism, has the remarkable statement:
"Benevolence is man" (VII, 16). In the sayings of Confucius we
find the Golden Rule in its negative form enunciated several
times. In "Analects", XV, 13, we read that when a disciple asked
him for a guiding principle for all conduct, the master answered:
"Is not mutual goodwill such a principle? What you do not want
done to yourself, do not do to others". This is strikingly like
the form of the Golden Rule found in the first chapter of the
"Teaching of the Apostles"--"All things soever that you would not
have done to yourself, do not do to another"; also in Tobias, iv,
16, where it appears for the first time in Sacred Scripture. He
did not approve the principle held by Lao-tze that injury should
be repaid with kindness. His motto was "Requite injury with
justice, and kindness with kindness" (Analects, XIV, 36). He seems
to have viewed the question from the practical and legal
standpoint of social order. "To repay kindness with kindness", he
says elsewhere, "acts as an encouragement to the people. To
requite injury with injury acts as a warning" (Li-ki, XXIX, 11).
The third fundamental virtue in the Confucian system is filial
piety. In the "Hiao-king", Confucius is recorded as saying:
"Filial piety is the root of all virtue."--"Of all the actions of
man there are none greater than those of filial piety." To the
Chinese then as now, filial piety prompted the son to love and
respect his parents, contribute to their comfort, bring happiness
and honour to their name, by honourable success in life. But at
the same time it carried that devotion to a degree that was
excessive and faulty. In consequence of the patriarchal system
there prevailing, filial piety included the obligation of sons to
live after marriage under the same roof with the father and to
give him a childlike obedience as long as he lived. The will of
the parents was declared to be supreme even to the extent that if
the son's wife failed to please them he was obliged to divorce
her, though it cut him to the heart. If a dutiful son found
himself compelled to admonish a wayward father he was taught to
give the correction with the utmost meekness; though the parent
might beat him till the blood flowed he was not to show any
resentment. The father did not forfeit his right to filial
respect, no matter how great his wickedness. Another virtue of
primary importance in the Confucian system is "propriety". It
embraces the whole sphere of human conduct, prompting the superior
man always to do the right thing in the right place. It finds
expression in the so-called rules of ceremony, which are not
confined to religious rites and rules of moral conduct, but extend
to the bewildering mass of conventional customs and usages by
which Chinese etiquette is regulated. They were distinguished even
in Confucius's day by the three hundred greater, and the three
thousand lesser, rules of ceremony, all of which had to be
carefully learned as a guide to right conduct. The conventional
usages as well as the rules of moral conduct brought with them the
sense of obligation resting primarily on the authority of the
sage-kings and in the last analysis on the will of Heaven. To
neglect or deviate from them was equivalent to an act of impiety.

D. Rites

In the "Li-ki", the chief ceremonial observances are declared to
be six: capping, marriage mourning rites, sacrifices, feasts, and
interviews. It will be enough to treat briefly of the first four.
They have persisted with little change down to the present day.
Capping was a joyous ceremony, wherein the son was honoured on
reaching his twentieth year. In the presence of relatives and
invited guests, the father conferred on his son a special name and
a square cornered cap as distinguishing marks of his mature
manhood. It was accompanied with a feast. The marriage ceremony
was of great importance. To marry with the view of having male
children was a grave duty on the part of every son. This was
necessary to keep up the patriarchal system and to provide for
ancestral worship in after years. The rule as laid down in the
"Li-ki" was, that a young man should marry at the age of thirty
and a young woman at twenty. The proposal and acceptance pertained
not to the young parties directly interested, but to their
parents. The preliminary arrangements were made by a go between
after it was ascertained by divination that the signs of the
proposed union were auspicious. The parties could not be of the
same surname, nor related within the fifth degree of kindred. On
the day of the wedding the young groom in his best attire came to
the house of the bride and led her out to his carriage, in which
she rode to his father's home. There he received her, surrounded
by the joyous guests. Cups improvised by cutting a melon in halves
were filled with sweet spirits and handed to the bride and groom.
By taking a sip from each, they signified that they were united in
wedlock. The bride thus became a member of the family of her
parents-in-law, subject, like her husband, to their authority.
Monogamy was encouraged as the ideal condition, but the
maintenance of secondary wives known as concubines was not
forbidden. It was recommended when the true wife failed to bear
male children and was too much loved to be divorced. There were
seven causes justifying the repudiation of a wife besides
infidelity, and one of these was the absence of male offspring.
The mourning rites were likewise of supreme importance. Their
exposition takes up the greater part of the "Li-ki". They were
most elaborate, varying greatly in details and length of
observance, according to the rank and relationship of the
deceased. The mourning rites for the father were the most
impressive of all. For the first three days, the son, clad in
sackcloth of coarse white hemp, fasted, and leaped, and wailed.
After the burial, for which there were minute prescriptions, the
son had to wear the mourning sackcloth for twenty-seven months,
emaciating his body with scanty food, and living in a rude hut
erected for the purpose near the grave. In the "Analects",
Confucius is said to have condemned with indignation the
suggestion of a disciple that the period of the mourning rites
might well be shortened to one year. Another class of rites of
supreme importance were the sacrifices. They are repeatedly
mentioned in the Confucian texts, where instructions are given for
their proper celebration. From the Chinese notion of sacrifice the
idea of propitiation through blood is entirely absent. It is
nothing more than a food-offering expressing the reverent homage
of the worshippers, a solemn feast to do honour to the spirit
guests, who are invited and are thought to enjoy the
entertainment. Meat and drink of great variety are provided. There
is also vocal and instrumental music, and pantomimic dancing. The
officiating ministers are not priests, but heads of families, the
feudal lords, and above all, the king. There is no priesthood in
Confucianism.

The worship of the people at large is practically confined to the
so-called ancestor-worship. Some think it is hardly proper to call
it worship, consisting as it does of feasts in honour of dead
relatives. In the days of Confucius, as at present, there was in
every family home, from the palace of the king himself down to the
humble cabin of the peasant, a chamber or closet called the
ancestral shrine, where wooden tablets were reverently kept,
inscribed with the names of deceased parents, grandparents, and
more remote ancestors. At stated intervals offerings of fruit,
wine, and cooked meats were set before these tablets, which the
ancestral spirits were fancied to make their temporary resting-
place. There was, besides, a public honouring by each local clan
of the common ancestors twice a year, in spring and autumn. This
was an elaborate banquet with music and solemn dances, to which
the dead ancestors were summoned, and in which they were believed
to participate along with the living members of the clan. More
elaborate and magnificent still were the great triennial and
quinquennial feasts given by the king to his ghostly ancestors.
This feasting of the dead by families and clans was restricted to
such as were united with the living by ties of relationship. There
were, however, a few public benefactors whose memory was revered
by all the people and to whom offerings of food were made.
Confucius himself came be to honoured after death, being regarded
as the greatest of public benefactors. Even today in China this
religious veneration of the master is faithfully maintained. In
the Imperial College in Peking there is a shrine where the tablets
of Confucius and his principal disciples are preserved. Twice a
year, in spring and autumn, the emperor goes there in state and
solemnly presents food-offerings with a prayerful address
expressing his gratitude and devotion.

In the fourth book of the "Li-ki" reference is made to the
sacrifices which the people were accustomed to offer to the
"spirits of the ground", that is to the spirits presiding over the
local fields. In the worship of spirits of higher rank, however,
the people seem to have taken no active part. This was the concern
of their highest representatives, the feudal lords and the king.
Each feudal lord offered sacrifice for himself and his subjects to
the subordinate spirits supposed to have especial care of his
territory. It was the prerogative of the king alone to sacrifice
to the spirits, both great and small, of the whole realm,
particularly to Heaven and Earth. Several sacrifices of this kind
were offered every year. The most important were those at the
winter and summer solstice in which Heaven and Earth were
respectively worshipped. To account for this anomaly we must bear
in mind that sacrifice, as viewed by the Chinese, is a feast to
the spirit guests, and that according to their notion of propriety
the highest deities should be feted only by the highest
representatives of the living. They saw a fitness in the custom
that only the king, the Son of Heaven, should, in his own behalf
and in behalf of his people, make solemn offering to Heaven. And
so it is today. The sacrificial worship of Heaven and Earth is
celebrated only by the emperor, with the assistance, indeed, of a
small army of attendants, and with a magnificence of ceremonial
that is astonishing to behold. To pray privately to Heaven and
burn incense to him was a legitimate way for the individual to
show his piety to the highest deity, and this is still practised,
generally at the full moon.

E. Politics

Confucius knew but one form of government, the traditional
monarchy of his native land. It was the extension of the
patriarchal system to the entire nation. The king exercised an
absolute authority over his subjects, as the father over his
children. He ruled by right Divine. He was providentially set up
by Heaven to enlighten the people by wise laws and to lead them to
goodness by his example and authority. Hence his title, the "Son
of Heaven". To merit this title he should reflect the virtue of
Heaven. It was only the high-minded king that won Heaven's favour
and was rewarded with prosperity. The unworthy king lost Divine
assistance and came to naught. The Confucian texts abound in
lessons and warnings on this subject of right government. The
value of good example in the ruler is emphasized most strongly.
The principle is asserted again and again, that the people cannot
fail to practise virtue and to prosper when the ruler sets the
high example of right conduct. On the other hand the implication
is conveyed in more than one place that when crime and misery
abound, the cause is to be sought in the unworthy king and his
unprincipled ministers.

IV. HISTORY OF CONFUCIANISM

It is doubtless this uncompromising attitude of Confucianism
towards vicious self-seeking rulers of the people that all but
caused its extinction towards the end of the third century B.C. In
the year 213 B.C., the subverter of the Chow dynasty, Shi Hwang-
ti, promulgated the decree that all Confucian books, excepting the
"Y-king", should be destroyed. The penalty of death was threatened
against all scholars who should be found possessing the proscribed
books or teaching them to others. Hundreds of Confucian scholars
would not comply with the edict, and were buried alive. When the
repeal came under the Han dynasty, in 191 B.C., the work of
extermination was wellnigh complete. Gradually, however, copies
more or less damaged were brought to light, and the Confucian
texts were restored to their place of honour. Generations of
scholars have devoted their best years to the elucidation of the
"King" and "Shuh", with the result that an enormous literature has
clustered around them. As the State religion of China,
Confucianism has exercised a profound influence on the life of the
nation. This influence has been little affected by the lower
classes of Taoism and Buddhism, both of which, as popular cults,
began to flourish in China towards the end of the first century of
our era. In the gross idolatry of these cults the ignorant found a
satisfaction for their religious cravings that was not afforded by
the religion of the State. But in thus embracing Taoism and
Buddhism they did not cease to be Confucianists. These cults were
and are nothing more than accretions on the Confucian beliefs and
customs of the lower classes, forms of popular devotion clinging
like parasites to the ancestral religion. The educated Chinese
despises both Buddhist and Taoist superstitions. But while
nominally professing Confucianism pure and simple, not a few hold
rationalistic views regarding the spirit world. In number the
Confucianists amount to about three hundred millions.

V. CONFUCIANISM VERSUS CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION

In Confucianism there is much to admire. It has taught a noble
conception of the supreme Heaven-god. It has inculcated a
remarkably high standard of morality. It has prompted, as far as
it knew how, the refining influence of literary education and of
polite conduct. But it stands today encumbered with the serious
defects that characterize the imperfect civilization of its early
development. The association of T'ien with innumerable nature-
spirits, spirits of sun, moon, and stars, of hills and fields and
rivers, the superstitious use of divination by means of stalks and
tortoise shells, and the crude notion that the higher spirits,
together with the souls of the dead, are regaled by splendid
banquets and food-offerings, cannot stand the test of intelligent
modern criticism. Nor can a religion answer fully to the religious
needs of the heart which withdraws from the active participation
of the people the solemn worship of the deity, which has little
use of prayer, which recognizes no such thing as grace, which has
no definite teaching in regard to the future life. As a social
system it has lifted the Chinese to an intermediate grade of
culture, but has blocked for ages all further progress. In its
rigid insistence on rites and customs that tend to perpetuate the
patriarchal system with its attendant evils of polygamy and
divorce, of excessive seclusion and repression of women, of an
undue hampering of individual freedom, Confucianism stands in
painful contrast with progressive Christian civilization.

CHARLES F. AIKEN
Transcribed by Rick McCarty


http://www.knight.org/advent

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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