THE SACRED BOOKS AND EARLY LITERATURE OF THE EAST
WITH HISTORICAL SURVEYS OF THE CHIEF WRITINGS OF EACH NATION
VOLUME XII
M E D I E V A L C H I N A
In Translations by
MAJOR-GENERAL G. G. ALEXANDER, C.B.; HERBERT A. GILES,
LL.D., Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University; JAMES LEGGE,
LL.D., former Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University; SIR
JOHN F. DAVIS, former British Plenipotentiary in China; REV. A.
WYLIE of the London Mission at Shanghai; and other noted Chinese scholars.
With a Brief Bibliography by
FRIEDRICH HIRTH, LL.D.,.
Professor of Chinese at Columbia University
With an Historical Survey and Descriptions by
PROF. CHARLES F. HORNE, PH.D.
PARKE, AUSTIN, AND LIPSCOMB, INC.
NEW YORK LONDON
M E D I E V A L C H I N A
In Translations by
MAJOR-GENERAL G. G. ALEXANDER, C.B.; HERBERT A. GILES,
LL.D., Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University; JAMES LEGGE,
LL.D., former Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University; SIR
JOHN F. DAVIS, former British Plenipotentiary in China; REV. A.
WYLIE of the London Mission at Shanghai; and other noted Chinese scholars.
With a Brief Bibliography by
FRIEDRICH HIRTH, LL.D.,.
Professor of Chinese at Columbia University
With an Historical Survey and Descriptions by
PROF. CHARLES F. HORNE, PH.D.
PARKE, AUSTIN, AND LIPSCOMB, INC.
NEW YORK LONDON
The Temple of Five Hundred Gods Frontispiece
The Shrine of the Dead Emperors 78
The Sages of China 226
A Chinese Priest 382
Introduction
TAOISM, THE MOST POPULAR AMONG A THOUSAND
RELIGIONS
CHINA, being the most tolerant of all lands, has sheltered
so many different faiths that it has been called
the land of a thousand religions. Among these thousand
ways of worship, three are far more prominent than others,
both in the number of their adherents and in the honor
done them by the Government. Two of them, Confucianism
and Buddhism, have been already depicted in our previous
volumes. There remains for the present volume Taoism,
the wide-spread "popular" religion of China to-day. To
this our volume adds a brief glance at the later development
of Confucianism and other faiths. In Chinese literature,
as we have already seen, Confucianism is synonymous with
the ancient classics. The works which Confucius wrote about
500 B.C., combined with the still older books which he honored
and preserved, form the " ancient treasure " of Chinese scholarship.
Yet when we turn to Taoism, we find that this too has
a literature of its own a most remarkable literature, and
a most remarkable history. As the faith of the common
people, Taoism has developed along lines of profoundly
human interest. In Confucianism we found everything
carefully recorded, mathematically arranged ; for it was from
the first a religion of "ceremonies." What Confucianism
chiefly insisted upon was decorum, conservatism, a doing of
everything in accordance with carefully established formulas.
This should be kept in mind in reading the present volume ;
for Taoism finds itself at every point in protest against the
logical, organizing spirit of the Confucians.
There is difficulty even in saying precisely what Taoism is.
1 It has no desire to formulate itself or to explain its
doctrines. It has even been called by modern critics the
"religion of anarchy" ; and certainly its central, or at least
its earliest, teachings somewhat justify the title. Its most
ancient books are already in revolt against civilization.
They declare that all the organization of society is mistaken,
that mankind primevally were simply and naturally good,
and that civilization has made them selfish and grasping,
and therewith has taught them subtlety and sin. If, however,
the philosopher begins to build up from this idea any
of its logical consequences, as voiced in modern anarchism
or kindred doctrines, Taoism will scornfully set those theories
aside. It has no use for philosophers, nor for their deductions.
Even the question of the age and origin of Taoism is as
tantalizingly vague as everything else about it. Apparently
the faith is far older than Confucianism. Indeed it claims
to be the original religion of China and of mankind. To
be sure, it bases itself to-day on the book which opens this
volume, the Tao-Teh King of the " Old Philosopher,"
Lao-Tze. But Lao-Tze is like Confucius at one point; he
declares himself a mere transmitter of earlier knowledge.
He asserts that all his teachings are really those of Hwang-Ti,
the legendary civilizer of China, who is supposed to have
ruled the land in 2697 B.C. Other Taoists would take us
yet further back, telling us that Hwang-Ti was instructed
in his faith by an ancient sage, Kwang Chang-Tze, who by
applying the teachings of Taoism to his own existence had
lived twelve hundred years. There even exists among the
Taoists a curious little book, the Yin Fu King, which they
declare is the actual book of the Emperor Hwang-Ti, his
record of the teaching of the long-lived Kwang. They thus
claim for the Yin Fu an antiquity of almost five thousand
years, offering it as a voice from the very cradle of Chinese
civilization. This tiny book is given in our volume ; but as
Western criticism has been a unit in regarding it as a work
of very much later date, it is here classed with the more modern Taoist texts.
THE TAOTEH KING
On the Tao-Teh King, therefore, Taoism rests for its
literary foundation; yet even around the Tao-Teh there has
arisen so much of doubt and controversy that Western
scholars are still in widest disagreement as to its meaning,
its value, its age, and even its authorship. Lao-Tze was a
scholar and philosopher of the generation immediately preceding
Confucius. Of that there is no doubt whatever ; and
some of our leading scholars have asserted that his authorship
of the Tao-Teh is as fully established as is the authorship
of any ancient book in the world. When, however, we
turn to consider the meaning and value of this foundationstone
of Taoism we are on more puzzling ground.
As to its meaning, on which its value must depend, we have
already in our previous volume pointed out the difficulty of
turning the vagueness of Chinese literature into the definiteness
of English thought. Language at its best can never be
more than a very imperfect method of transmitting to the
brains of others the imperfect visions of our own loosely
working minds. But the Chinese written language, and
especially in its ancient books, seems the loosest of all civilized
word-forms. Not only does each character stand for
several differing things, but each may do duty as a noun, a
verb, or a modifying adjectival form. Hence several meanings
can be read from any ancient Chinese sentence.
Chinese scholars tell us that we must approach the author
with sympathy, must get into touch with his spirit and purpose,
and that then we will easily discriminate as to which
idea he is expressing. But this method of interpreting the
Tao-Teh has led to such widely differing versions of its
meaning and its worth, that we have felt it necessary to
invite the reader into the vortex for himself, by offering him
two translations of the opening chapters of the unquestionably
remarkable book.
The chief controversy rages about the word " Tao "
itself. Who or what is the " Tao " ? Some of our scholars would translate
" Tao " as meaning Nature or the course of Nature,
that is the great sweeping onward from eternity to
eternity, which Carlyle has visioned for us. And in this
view-point the commonest translation of
" Tao " is " the Way "
or path, the road along which all men are traveling,
and along which all the universe is traveling with us. Yet
the Tao is not simply the trodden path ; it is rather the impelling
force which sweeps us on, the rushing wind of existence,
the creative force ; and in this sense the Tao comes
very near to meaning what we mean by God. Only if we
conceive the Tao thus, it must be as a wholly impersonal
God, standing apart not only from human form but from
every quality of humanity which we are prone to attribute to His infinity.
The Tao, then, is the unknown Power which the great
Lao-Tze makes no pretense of understanding. He only
humbly interprets such of its movings and its meanings as
creation shadows forth for men. He knows neither its limits
nor its purposes ; he sees only that it is right and is omnipotent,
and that it moves forever onward. It is the Tao, the
Way of the universe. The reader may, if he will, reject
even this interpretation as too definite, after he has read
the Tao-Teh; but he will at least appreciate the meaning
of the endless controversy about the book. He will also turn
with interest to the following section of our volume, the
writings of Chuang-Tze.
THE " DIVINE CLASSIC " OF CHUANG-TZE
Chuang-Tze is the most celebrated follower of Lao-Tze.
Indeed, he has been sometimes suspected of inventing the
entire religion himself, and then attributing it to Lao-Tze
and to the earlier ages. In brief, Chuang-Tze was one of
the greatest romancers who ever lived, always ready with
tales invented at the moment, to illustrate whatever point he
wished; and while there seems quite sufficient proof that
Taoism existed before his time, we can not doubt that, if it
had not, he both could and would have been ready to invent
it, complete. The possessor of this lively fantasy was a
definite historical figure. lie lived and wrote about a
century and a half after Confucius. In those days the teachings
of Confucius were not yet established as a State religion.
There were many other philosophers whose followers
sometimes rivaled in numbers the following of
Confucius. Chuang-Tze attacked them all. He was a
clever satirist, a vigorous arguer, a brilliant optimist. He
adopted the views of the long dead Lao-Tze and maintained
them against all others. He wrote some thirty-three books
to uphold his views ; and by these and by his teachings spread
Taoism over all China. If Hwang-Ti really invented Taoism,
and if Lao-Tze formulated and preserved it, yet to
Chuang-Tze belongs the fame of having established it as the
popular religion of his countrymen. The most important
of his books, and especially the Nei, or Inner Circle, of seven
books, which are regarded as the core of his teaching, are
given here. Their popularity in China has never waned.
LATER TAOIST TEXTS
The Taoism of later ages we may dismiss more briefly.
Since Lao-Tze opposed the social organization of men in
governed bodies, and advocated doing nothing, it followed
that Taoism itself had no priesthood, no established leaders,
to preserve the form of its doctrines. It rapidly degenerated
into a mass of superstitions. It came to include
alchemy and astrology, magic and divination. Men might
seek to know the Tao by what means they would. Later
ages even made Lao-Tze a god. Many of the doctrines of
Buddhism crept into the faith; and at length Lao-Tze became
a sort of Taoist Buddha who had been reincarnated
again and again, as Hwang-Ti, as himself, and as others, to
preserve for men the knowledge of the " Way." Taoist
shrines and orders of monks sprang up like those of the
Buddhists, and in Taoist temples also a trinity of godhood
was worshiped. The trinity became Lao-Tze, the Tao, and
a third even vaguer figure, perhaps the Ti or God of Heaven
of Confucianism, perhaps primeval Chaos itself. At a still
later date (A.D. 1116) a new deity entered the Taoist pantheon.
This was Yu Hwang Ti, a head-priest of the faith,
who had become renowned as a miracle-worker and who was
declared to have been appointed the judge in heaven to weigh
the deeds of men. Because of this direct control of human
fate, Yu Hwang Ti has become the most worshiped of the Taoist gods.
It was as this hodge-podge of many faiths, with childish
rites and superstitions, with charms against evil spirits and
prayers to many idols, that Taoism was first known and
despised by Europeans. Only by slow degrees have we penetrated
to its original writings and its more consistent central
form. These are still partly preserved for modern times,
not only by the books of Lao-Tze and Chuang-Tze, but also
by many later works. The most noted of these our volume
gives, including the already mentioned little book of the Yin
Fu King, and also a poetic inscription preserved in the birthtemple
of Lao-Tze, the formula of the ceremonial which made
him a god. We also give the Thai-Shang, which is the
"popular gospel" of Taoism as read by the Chinese of to-day.
Chinamen who find the great Taoist doctrines of old are too
abstruse can at least grasp the simple Taoism of the Thai-Shang.
THE WOBKS OF MENCIUS
After this brief tracing of the development of Taoism and
its literature, we must survey the growth of other religions
in China. Confucianism, as we have just seen, was not
immediately adopted in the days of its great teacher Confucius
or Kung. It remained but one among many philosophies,
until it was taken up by Mencius. The real name of
this celebrated sage was Mang, but we have Latinized it
into Mencius, just as we Latinized Kung Fu-tze into Confucius.
Mang was a younger contemporary of our great
Taoist teacher Chuang-Tze. There is, in fact, a striking
parallel between the Taoist masters Lao-Tze and Chuang-Tze,
and the Confucians Kung and Mang. Mang added much
to the faith he had learned from the writings of Confucius.
While humbly attributing all his doctrines to his master, he
really revised and popularized them and then brought his
country to accept this revised faith as its chief religion. The
Confucianism taught to-day in China is the specific form developed
by Mencius. His seven books therefore occupy a
section of our volume.
THE NESTOBIAN TABLET
Christianity found also an early welcome in China. We
know now that somewhere along in the seventh century of our
Christian era monks of the Nestorian sect journeyed as missionaries
over most of Asia. When they reached China they
were listened to as thoughtfully, as respectfully, as were the
Buddhist teachers from India. Christianity was given equal
chance with Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism to be
ranked among the "State religions" of the Empire. For a
while it prospered. At one time there must have been many
thousands of Nestorian Christians in China. Then, for some
cause that we may never learn, the faith dwindled and finally
died out. It left behind just one remarkable monument.
In the days of its success a tablet had been erected telling of
its history. In the days after its disappearance this tablet
was preserved with honor in a temple among tablets erected
to other lost religions. And there more recent Europeans
have rediscovered it. It is called the Nestorian tablet, and
is given here, as the one surviving record of early Christianity in China.
THE LESSER LITEBATTJBE OF CHINA
Outside of religious works, the medieval literature of
China would have little interest to Western readers. There
is an enormous mass of it. In fact, even before our era a
Chinese emperor concluded that the vast number of books
was become a burden to his people and ordered all books destroyed,
except for a few selected forms, such as philosophic
works. The result was an enormous burning of books, which
is still regretfully referred to by Chinamen as
"the GreatBurning" (213 B.C.). Many scholars sacrificed their lives
in the effort to preserve their literary treasures; and there
has always been some doubt as to just how much of the actual
writings even of Confucius and Lao-Tze were then preserved,
and how much was afterward rewritten from the memory of their disciples.
Even the " Great Burning," however, could not permanently
check Chinese literature. The massing up of books
immediately began again, chiefly in commentary and explanation
of the religious works, but also in other forms.
The oldest Chinese history now known is that of Sze-ma
Chien, which was written about 100 B.C. Some stories from
it are quoted in the present volume, those being selected
which describe the Taoist teachers. Sze-me Chien's work is
really a mere collection of not wholly reliable anecdotes;
yet it has served as the model history for all later generations.
Confucian conservatism has in similar fashion checked Chinese
development in every line. Poetry is still modeled on
the ancient classic poetry preserved by Confucius in the
Shih King. As for the drama, since there was no such art
preserved among the Confucian classics, Medieval China
never developed drama very far. A single well-known example
of a Chinese play is, however, presented here to complete
our survey of the literature.
Fiction too, though its existence is inevitably interwoven
with that of humanity, was regarded by Chinese scholars as
undignified and was only tolerated when, as with Chuang-
Tze, it enforced philosophy. Yet there is one work of Chinese
fiction so artistically written that even Chinese philosophers
admire it. They tolerate its theme for the sake of its
masterly style, which they hold up as the perfection of their
language. This is the Liao Chai, or "Strange Stories of Pu Sung-ling."
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CONTENTS OF VOLUME XII
Medieval China
INTRODUCTION
Taoism, the Most Popular among a Thousand Religions 1
TAOISM
I. TAO-TEH KING, or Book of the Virtues of the Tao (520 B.C.?) 11
Lao-Tze's Profound and Puzzling Gospel
II. THE "DIVINE CLASSIC" OF CHUANG-TZE,
the popularize! of Taoism (330 B.C.) 75
The Nei or Inner Circle of Teaching ... 79
The Floods of Autumn 148
Knowledge Rambling in the North .... 162
The History of Taoism 175
Anecdotes 189
The Disputed Books of Chuang-Tze ... 197
LATER TAOIST TEXTS
III. YIN Pu KING (A.D. 800?) 227
Reputed the First Book of the Primeval Chinese
IV. THE IMPERIAL MANDATE RAISING LAO-TZE TO GODHOOD (A.D. 666) 231
V. THAI-SHANG (A.D. 1000) 235
The most popular Taoist Book
PAGE
OTHER RELIGIONS
VI. THE WORKS OF MENCIUS (300 B.C.) .... 243
The founder of Confucianism as the State Religion
VII. THE NESTORIAN TABLET (A.D. 781) .... 379
The sole relic of Chinese Christianity
HISTORY AND DRAMA
VIII. SZE-MA CHIEN, the first historian (100 B.C.) . 396
IX. AUTUMN OF THE PALACE OF HAN, an historical drama 399
BIBLIOGRAPHY 415
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